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Category: Interview (page 3 of 3)

December 18, 2006

Five by four: Twenty things you didn’t know, with five more to come . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The four victims I tagged for the “Five things you didn’t know about me” have come forward with their deepest darkest secrets:

Kris Berg is a very smart person with a quick wit (who didn’t know this?) and a perilous driver.

Doug Quance has led a life of Steinbeck-like diversity in a vast host of locations.

Jeff Brown takes you on a grand tour of his life, from his grandfather to his wife. Along the way he explains the origins of the appellation “Bawldguy.”

And Dan Green is gracious enough to show us the everyday life of the hard-charging over-achiever. I say we enter the man in a pie-eating marathon!

My duty is discharged, and I am deeply honored to be working with such amazing people.

But there is a lingering detail…

Russell: Did you notice that Jeff called you out…?

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December 15, 2006

I’m it — and I don’t want to be . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I first heard of the idea of memes in 1986 or so. Analogized to a gene, a meme is a transmissible idea. We’re apt to think of things like “Dood!” or “Dyn-o-mite!” when we think of memes — linguistic fads — but the idea can run much deeper than that. For example, the principle that it is better to die for your principles than to renounce them did not originate with Socrates, but because Plato made the death of Socrates famous, he essentially transmitted the idea that defines Western Culture. That’s a big deal.

On the flip side of the coin, the analogy to genes is troublesome, insofar as it implies unavoidable transmission and relative immutability. The United States was founded on the meme “rights,” but there was no one among the founders who would have thought in terms of a “right” to subsidized food or to a subsidized crop. The meme persists, but the original meaning is vastly diluted.

That much is me, a sort of mild taste/distaste relationship with the idea of memes. I’ll get over it.

This much is the RE.net: I have been tagged by Jim Cronin of The Real Estate Tomato in what he says is a meme game. I don’t get why it is, but I don’t have to. I will play along because I like Jim, even though I detest party games, chain letters, etc.

My challenge: To tell you five things you did not know about me. My life is outrageously public, but — all appearances to the contrary — I don’t do very much to publicize it. If I tell you something about my life, it’s because I think it’s important to the point I’m making. Anything I don’t mention — I’d rather not mention.

So, here goes nothing. Five things you didn’t know about me:

  1. I’ve spent my entire adult life thinking about and writing about political philosophy at a very arcane level. The school I work in is called Agorism or Market Anarchism or Anarcho-Capitalism, depending on who you talk to. My own philosophy is called “Janioism” (a meme!) after a character in the book Read more
December 15, 2006

Almost famous: BusinessWeek on excessive buyer’s agent’s commissions . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Eagle-eyed Kevin Boer of Three Oceans Real Estate was the first to catch it: BusinessWeek.com quoted me in an article on “supersized commissions”:

There’s nothing wrong with incentives, even sizable ones, if they’re disclosed and buyers fully understand what’s motivating the agents who are showing them around. But in many states disclosure is poor or inconsistent. In Arizona, for example, brokers who show houses are encouraged to sign agreements specifying how they’re compensated. But the agreements aren’t required.

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

Also, they can be signed after someone has already fallen in love with a home and isn’t looking at the fine print. And the compensation can be explained as generally as, “3% and up,” meaning the sky’s the limit. Add it all up, and, “I don’t have to disclose to you how much I’m getting paid,” says Realtor Greg Swann, the designated broker of BloodhoundRealty.com in Phoenix, who says he voluntarily imposes stricter rules on his own agents. By offering extra-high commissions without informing customers, he says, “the builders are trying to bribe me to sell their houses.”

That whole section of the articles relies on BloodhoundBlog contributions: Contributor Doug Quance and frequent commenter Dave Barnes both kicked in examples that were used in the article, but, alas, they were not mentioned by name.

BusinessWeek Economics Editor Peter Coy first called me about last week’s Zillow.com news, and we talked in very broad terms about Realty.bots, disintermediation, the valued-added services a good Realtor brings to the table and commission structures in general. We’ve covered a lot of that here, so I sent him quite a few posts from our archives.

The implication of the article is that buyer’s agent’s incentives are the rule rather than the exception, but, even so, I don’t think it is a bad idea to caution buyers about the risks:

Advice to consumers: Start with the assumption that the nice person showing you around is not your ally. Ask up front how much the person would be compensated if you bought a place. If possible, sign a buyer-broker agreement before you start looking at houses. This guarantees that the agent is working Read more

December 7, 2006

You Think You Have A Handle On Russell Shaw? Bet You Don’t

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Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

You’ve maybe met a ‘mega-producer’ or two. I’ve met my share, and in their own ways they’re all pretty impressive. Russell breaks the mold — no, he smashes the mold.

There are two things you realize after talking with Russ longer than a few minutes. He knows who he is and in what he believes. And he sports a world class mind. The subjects of our conversation were all over the map — then off the map and into another universe. The man has lead a varied life.

His laugh is a reward — and he spends it wisely. Turns out he knows funny better than most. The guy was a stand-up comedian, really. Came ‘this’ close to choosing that for a profession. I’d pay an entire commission to have seen just once how he handled hecklers. Talk about coming to a gunfight with a rubber knife. 🙂

He was on Phoenix radio for a very long time, and you can hear it in his voice. The second you hear him speak you’re jealous. How he ever got rejected on the phone is a mystery. But I also saw what I think he’s about in real estate.

He’s about doing the job, and doing it better than anyone thought possible, and more times than you and I could be persuaded to imagine possible – even for a team. His ultimate production goals have caused me to revisit my own. And I thought mine weren’t exactly burnt toast. He’s not about the money. He’s a gladiator who’s in love with the battle. And ultimately that may prove to be his winning edge. I’ve always embraced that approach — but he’s truly a purist.

On some subjects we were farther apart than Donald Duck and Darth Vader. I’d still rather debate with Russ than agree with most people I know. How many folks can you say that about?

December 7, 2006

Who ARE These Guys?

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Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

As you may have already noticed, I took some time to visit with Greg Swann and his way cool lady, Cathleen Collins. As you can see in the picture Greg put in his earlier post on this visit, nobody will ever mistake me for Burt Reynolds. And to his credit, Greg described himself as a ‘Fred Flintstone’ type. Turns out Greg is an honest guy.

I probably had the RCA Dog look on my face most our time together. Seriously, you look at Greg, then at Cathleen, and regardless of his ‘the poet always gets the girl’ mantra, you wonder what happened. 🙂 If I were going to attach a movie title it would be Fred Flinstone Meets Cinderella. Of course, to be fair, folks who know my wife and I might say Bride Of Shrek.
I enjoyed our time together immensely. They’re brilliant, gracious, and humble. Regardless of the $100 words Greg uses when writing, he’s a regular guy who obviously found his princess. But seriously Cathleen, no poetry is that good.

I also had the pleasure of breaking bread with Russell Shaw. But that’s another story entirely.

December 6, 2006

And then there were ten . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Today we add a tenth member to our team of webloggers, Dan Green of The Mortgage Reports:

Dan Green is Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist working out of Chicago. In an industry too well known for its churn and burn methods, Dan and his team take a thoughtful, deliberative approach to mortgage lending.

We’re delighted to have Dan with us. If you’ve followed his weblog, you know that he writes in a way that makes arcane topics not just clear but fascinating. And he certainly plugs a gap in our line-up, bringing us an expertise in the lending side of the real estate transaction.

I was email-interviewed yesterday by Jim Cronin of The Real Estate Tomato. We went through the history of BloodhoundBlog and our goals for the future. The advent of Dan Green is hinted at, and it is by adding great webloggers like Dan that we will achieve those goals.

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October 17, 2006

Drinks with Todd Tarson . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Todd Tarson from MOCO Real Estate News stopped by the house last night for beer and chips before rushing off to a WARDEX dinner, this in advance of an AAR conference.

I’d like to tell you that we cut through every knotty problem facing the real estate industry, but that would be an exaggeration. However, we did sap all resistance from a twelve-pack of Corona…

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