There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Marketing (page 26 of 191)

Overnight News: Yesterday was peak 2020 – and the climax of the Biden clan.

Ya think it's easy?

“I like toast – especially peanut-butter toast.”

As I foresaw, yesterday was one for the record books – and let’s pray that record is not eclipsed. I had a bunch of Biden corruption links, but I ditched them all. If you want to know about it, you will. And Joe is toast, regardless.

CNBC: Redfin CEO expects ‘absolutely insane’ demand in housing market to last into 2021. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.

Forbes: Compass Founder & CEO Robert Reffkin Weighs In On Today’s Real Estate Market. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.

Housing Wire: Existing home sales surge 9.4% in September.

Forbes: Mortgage Rates Hit New Low.

CNBC: Hamptons real estate prices break records as New York City wealthy flee to the beach.

The Federalist: Amy Coney Barrett Will Be Confirmed Because Kavanaugh Battle Taught GOP To Stop Getting Played By Democrat Dirty Tricks. If there are going to be smears, they’ll start now, when she can’t answer them.

City Journal: The Last Presidential Debate, Please.

Rod Dreher: No Families, No Children, No Future.

City Journal: Confronting Covid: The American response has been far better than critics acknowledge.

Overnight News: Pucker up: Today just might be peak 2020.

Ya think it's easy?

“Is everyone who vouches for a creep also a creep?”

Looking for a great debate question? Try this: “Vice President Biden, a week from the day after tomorrow is what date?” But the debate is just the end of this day, and there promises to be tons of ugly news before then. Buckle up: It’s about to get 2020 on you…

Housing Wire: The housing market faced uncertainty in March, but now ‘it’s a circus’.

Housing Wire: MBA forecast for 2021: Prepare for rising mortgage interest rates.

Housing Wire: In a bid for stability, FHFA and FHA extend forbearance policies.

City Journal: Budgeting Through Rose-Colored Glasses: For states and municipalities, assuming endless economic and population growth can bring disaster.

Frontpage: The City is Killing America: America’s real problem are urban problems.

The Washington Free Beacon: The Media’s Futile Information Suppression Complex: Hunter Biden’s corruption sees the light of day despite their best efforts.

American Greatness: The Antifa Industry at Work.

And just to start the day off right:

New York Post: Ghislaine Maxwell’s deposition about sordid sex life unsealed.

Overnight News: Need novelty? 2020 delivers.

Ya think it's easy?

“The official Bloodhound term for Joe Biden’s current situation is: Treed.”

I’m leaving out the #LaptopFromHell news today. You either already know how to find unfiltered news or your don’t mind being lied to. I expect it won’t matter, either way, by the end of the day.

Housing Wire: September single-family housing starts reached highest level since 2007.

CNBC: Mortgage demand from homebuyers falls for the fourth straight week.

Forbes: A Comparison Between Artichoke Hearts And Residential Rental Real Estate.

Rob Hahn: In Which I Propose an Alternative to NAR’s New Speech Code.

New York Post: Cops leaving Seattle police department over ‘socialist’ city council, riots. Aren’t there some big real estate companies in Seattle who might have written about events there over the Summer? Never forget it: Like police departments all over the country, we are led by cowards and fools.

The Federalist: Trump Resistance Plans ‘Mass Mobilization’ After Election To Shut Down The Country If Biden Doesn’t Win.

The Federalist: Joe Biden’s Education Department Would Be A Radical Disaster.

The Federalist: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos: Families, Not Government, Are The Heart Of American Education.

City Journal: No More Debate Moderators: The collapse of trust in media makes a different format necessary.

NPR: Studies Point To Big Drop In COVID-19 Death Rates.

Vice: This 14-Year-Old’s Discovery Could Lead to a Cure for COVID-19.

Overnight News: If feminism were about women instead of Marxism, Amy Coney Barrett would be its god.

Ya think it's easy?

“The worst thing about a dog and pony show would be looking up from your TelePrompter and realizing that you’re the goat.”

What’s on your notepad?

Housing Wire: Luxury home sales rise 41.5%, making biggest jump since 2013.

CNBC: Mortgage rates set yet another record low, but applications fall.

MyMove.com: Coronavirus Moving Study: People Left Big Cities, Temporary Moves Spiked In First 6 Months of COVID-19 Pandemic. Temporary move or buy-and-bail? The coming months will tell.

CNBC: Dropbox is the latest San Francisco tech company to make remote work permanent.

The Washington Times: Seemingly spontaneous street violence is organized and pursuing a radical political agenda.

The American Spectator: Yelp Cannot Help Itself: It’s now in the denunciation business, as inspired by Black Lives Matter.

The Daily Mail: ‘I might never play again’: Renowned Japanese jazz pianist Tadataka Unno is robbed of his ability to play after being beaten up by teens at Harlem subway station. Faith and follow-through. What happens when kids grow up knowing that their follow-through will always come to nothing – or worse, lead to abuse?

The Daily Wire: NYT: Experts Confident Pandemic To Be Over ‘Far Sooner’ Than Expected, Trump Efforts ‘Working With Remarkable Efficiency.’

Tall Bachman: Remembering Eddie Van Halen: Three Weeks in ’86.

I am the applecart. How do you propose to motivate me?

Here today. Gone tomorrow?

I have a brand new business idea.

At first glance, you might call it lead-gen, except that I hate that kind of wheel-spinning. What nerds call leads, I call inquiries – and the difference between inquiries and crap is that nobody wastes that kind of time on crap.

Instead, as I have discussed, I am interested in in-real-life marketing strategies, this as a way of neutralizing the Realty.bots where they are worst – at Sociability.

So what I have is a way of creating a warm network of around 200 people interested in self-improvement, each deploying their varied talents to engender a self-amplifying mutual-improvement machine. Generates listings for me – from people already sold on me – but it generates opportunities for everyone involved.

Even better, it’s totally replicable: There’s room for a group like this every three miles on every freeway in every city in North America. We spend all our time looking for better people, when, instead, we should be cultivating better people – starting from the inside out. Eminently doable – and there’s work in it for everyone.

There’s a hitch, for now: What I am talking about is inescapably social in a world in quarantine. I had all this worked out when Coronavirus came to call. But this is temporary, and we all know it. When I’m ready to jump, the people I want to meet will be ready to jump, too.

The bigger question would be: Why should I?

I am the applecart. In my head are the means to create jobs in my own business while encouraging the creation of jobs in many other businesses.

Why should I bother?

So you know, for now I am not bothering. We haven’t marketed for new business in ten years, and I am not committing to anything new between now and the election. If Trump wins, I’ve got twenty years of growth to plan for. If Biden wins, my applecart will very quickly come to resemble an armadillo.

Yours, too, I should expect.

Profit is faith and follow-through – not faith in the magical but simply an unwavering belief that the follow-through Read more

Overnight News: Three ways to be counter-culture in today’s world: 1. Work for a living. 2. Work weekends. 3. Vote like Johnny Rotten.

Ya think it's easy?

“If you’re not committed 24/7, you might as well just take a nap.”

Typical weekend news drought. You’ve got time to read, they’ve got time to vay-cay.

Forbes: Housing Prices Aren’t Coming Down According To Realtor.com. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. The national news is so good, the local news cannot possibly be bad… right…?

Fox News: San Francisco tax revenue plunge points to resident exodus. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. How long will it take for rioter-friendly cities to realize what they have done?

New York Post: Stealing Soho: Luxury retailers terrorized by shoplifting mobs.

Tablet: Left Fascism.

Breitbart: Sex Pistols Front Man Johnny Rotten: ‘Of Course I’m Voting For Trump.’

Overnight News: You can tell Trump is going to lose because everyone hangs on his every word.

Ya think it's easy?

“Howling dogs tell you nothing. It’s what they’re howling about that matters.”

I desperately wanted for this election to be about Marxism: “You’re what’s for dinner!™” Biden wanted for this election to be about Trump. Biden won. The American people had already priced him out of the deal, and now they have seen that his designated-successor is inept in her own unique ways. We are down to a plebiscite on Trump.

Overnight on BloodhoundBlog:

Eric Blackwell: Rama and Sunil Mehra – The American Dream and teaching young lions to hunt. This is the first installment in Eric’s “Howling about the Positive” series of posts.

And from the great big world out there:

Housing Wire: Home prices rose by record numbers last week. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.

The Verge: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.

Housing Wire: For the first time since April, forbearances fall below 3 million.

The Close: Why Agents Make the Best Real Estate Investors—Even During the Pandemic.

The Federalist: A Riot In The Suburbs: Inside The Changing Face Of Wisconsin 2020.

The Hollywood Reporter: Patty Jenkins: “We Could Lose Movie Theater-Going Forever.”

City Journal: Lab Coat Tyranny: California is using “public health” as a rationale to push progressive political goals.

The Washington Free Beacon: Data Reveal How Yale Discriminates Based on Race.

City Journal: Don’t Defend Columbus—Celebrate Him.

And some pure real estate porn:

Forbes: San Francisco’s Billionaire Enclave Sees Rarely Available Cliffside Home List For $25 Million.

Overnight News: The RiotScore™ of Chiefs of Police: When are you safe? When should you flee?

Ya think it's easy?

“C’mon, look at me: Some of my closest friends are police dogs.”

There is no rioting! More importantly, there is no denial of the rioting that is not happening, anyway! How can you know that’s all true? Because there are no police chiefs quitting in disgust all over the country, that’s how! So there!

Urf… Meanwhile: Yesterday on BloodhoundBlog:

Brian Brady: October 2020 Mortgage Rates Report: Cheeseburgers can only get so cheap.

Greg Swann: Listing Clinic: How I list and sell for top dollar in under seven days-on-market.

And in the rest of the world:

Redfin: U.S. Home Prices Up 15%, Largest Growth Since at Least 2005. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. How could a brokerage based in Seattle be expected to know anything about the impact of rioting on real estate?

CNBC: Red-hot home prices have more consumers saying now is a bad time to buy. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. Are buyers waiting out the post-election riots?

Redfin: 6.5% More Americans Looked to Relocate to Red and Swing Counties than to Blue Counties in the Spring. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. Well, at least we know for sure it’s not because of the rioting Redfin never seems to discuss.

CNBC: Empty rental apartments in Manhattan triple, nearly hitting 16,000. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. What’s bleeding all the fun out of Fun City, do you suppose?

Housing Wire: Average U.S. mortgage rate drops to 2.87%.

CNBC: Coronavirus mortgage bailouts fall below 3 million in pandemic’s sharpest decline.

Forbes: Despite Option To Pause Payments, 400,000 Homeowners Fall Behind On Their Mortgage. Not sure if this is connected: Can we look forward to a wave of ‘buy and bail’ foreclosures in Ant-abandoned cities?

Yahoo Finance: Opendoor and other iBuyers’ sales stall despite hot housing market. Very fun article on the scaled cluelessness of buying for resale against the market. The bigger fun doesn’t start until they get to sell that way – for years on end.

Forbes: Alma Maters For Sale: America’s Small Colleges Were Already Hurting Pre-Covid. Things Are About To Get Worse.

Bloomberg: Inside a California Covid Revolt.

Fox Business: Cities are losing police chiefs and struggling to hire new ones. The RiotScore™ of Chiefs of Police: Read more

Listing Clinic: How I list and sell for top dollar in under seven days-on-market.

There is a better way to list – and I have the stats to prove it.

My listing stats are off-the-scale excellent, stipulating that I’m working for now from a very small sampling. Everybody’s stats are like mine, just now, in this buying frenzy, but my next closing should improve my numbers, anyway: Four days on market, $10,000 over list, all cash.

I happily tell the world what I do – and no one does any of it. Fine with me. I work for my clients, not yours.

Consumers: I work in the West Valley in Metro Phoenix, but if you live somewhere else, find a listing agent with stats like mine.

Overnight News: Grasshoppers discover new and better ways to make Ants move away.

Ya think it's easy?

“Snarling dogs don’t get treats? Who knew?”

This has been a year of amazingly poor choices. For example, the NBA has only just now discovered that spitting on its fans – again and again – is a poor fan-retention strategy. St. Louis has not scared away enough taxpayers in recent years, so now it is criminalizing self-defense. Who needs a RiotScore™ by now? The NRA can tell you which states still permit human thriving.

Yesterday on BloodhoundBlog: Brian Brady: The Real Estate Correction of 2021. Crystal Ball salesmen: Please phone today!

Redfin: 22% of Homebuyers and Sellers Say the Presidential Election Is Impacting Their Plans. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found. FWIW, getting things buttoned up before the election is wise – because of the riots.

Housing Wire: 400,000 mortgage borrowers are “needlessly delinquent.”

CNBC: Mortgage rates set another record low, sparking new strength in refinances.

Housing Wire: Mortgage applications rise 4.6%. “Purchase applications hit 20 straight weeks of year-over-year gains.”

Housing Wire: Opendoor discloses that it’s under federal investigation.

Fox News: McCloskeys indicted on gun charges stemming from standoff at St Louis mansion.

Aeon: The desire to fit in is the root of almost all wrongdoing.

Real Clear Politics: Who Wants to Blow Up Our Constitution? (It’s Not Trump.)

The American Mind: The Mount Rushmore Election.

American Greatness: Trump, Atlas: Time to Face Down Coronavirus Fear.

City Journal: In Defense of “Me-First Capitalism”. “Worse than the CEO who tends only to his company’s profits is the one who tends to your innermost thoughts.”

Overnight News: “Keep calm? Carry on? What kind of useless advice is that?!?”

Ya think it's easy?

“‘Run in circles, scream and shout?’ That’s just my game.”

President survives illness that kills almost no one. Grasshopper-influencers lose their minds – again.

Redfin: Home Prices Up 14%, But Price Growth May Wane Soon. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.

CNBC: Denver suddenly has one of the most competitive housing markets in America.

Housing Wire: Biden’s first-time homebuyer tax credit in the age of COVID-19.

Housing Wire: Mortgage delinquencies expected to remain above pre-pandemic levels until 2022.

PJ Media: Life on the Streets: A Cop Confesses What Policing Is Like in the Age of BLM/Antifa.

FEE.org: The Pope Just Called Private Property a ‘Secondary Right.’ He Couldn’t Be More Wrong.

City Journal: Against Fear: President Trump’s handling of his coronavirus diagnosis models positive masculinity — rational and unbowed.

Overnight News: Why is there no real estate news on weekends – you know, when real estate happens?

Ya think it's easy?

“Go ahead. Fool around with my food. Find out what happens.”

A beef I’ve had with the internet since there was an internet to have a beef with: Writers don’t write when readers have time to read. Is this classism or cluelessness: Why would the public library be closed on Sunday, the day when taxpayers have time to go there? If you spend too much time thinking about the incongruities of social existence, you could end up a weblogger.

Meanwhile, the only actual real estate news I have to offer this morning is my own scoop: Zillow and OpenDoor are chiseling Buyer’s Agents in their Phoenix listings. Totally not bleeding themselves out.

The Verge: Bond was the last straw: Regal and Cineworld will reportedly close all theaters in US and UK next week. The contractions we are seeing in commercial real estate categories were happening already, anyway. This year is simply accelerating in-motion efficiencies, with the result that 2020 could end up serving up the benefits of a full-on recession – in Trump time.

Science Alert: 35 Years of Research Into Coronavirus Infections Show Long-Term Immunity Is Unlikely.

The Post Millennial: Mathematics association declares math is racist. Not racist, anti-Grasshopper. Everything that makes Grasshoppers feel inadequate is trayf. Totally not a cult.

The City Journal: The Crypto State? How Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other technologies could point the way to new systems of governance.

A Sunday sermon for the Phoenix iBuyers: “Do not bind the mouths of the Buyer’s Agents.”

“I was going to pay you this whole pizza, but instead I’m keeping a quarter of it for myself. Why? Because you can’t spell sociopath without Ci, that’s why.”

I don’t list a lot, right now, but I have been working for years to list perfectly: Highest/safest/soonest offer in minimal Days on Market. I haven’t done my numbers in a while, but I’ve been under seven days, on average, for a long time, typically selling at or above Fair-Market Value. I sell bread-and-butter houses, and I sell them fast, for top-dollar, with no hassles and minimal showing-damage to the property.

Because I have a listing right now, I am aware of the competition. Interestingly, I ran across listings from both Zillow and OpenDoor that significantly underpay Buyer’s Agents.

Note well: Brokers are advised to avoid discussing commission rates amongst each other, since free speech and free assembly don’t count if you’re in business. Whatever. I certainly have the right to talk about commissions all alone.

So first: I hate it that the Listing Agent pays the Buyer’s Agent. We say the seller does, but the lenders would never allow that, just as they don’t allow buyers to pay for their own representation. Instead, the seller pays the Listing Agent a lot more than he will typically earn, with half or more of that commission income going to the Buyer’s Agent. You say the buyer is getting representation. I say I am paying a brokerage fee: The price of the introduction. If you don’t see the Agency problem here – I am buying your fiduciary’s loyalty, aligning his interests with mine and my seller’s and against yours – the NAR would love to have you testify on its side in the upcoming lawsuit over this idiotic compensation scheme.

But second: I Corinthians 9:7-10: “Do not bind the mouths of the grunts on the ground who are delivering your dinner!” Buyer’s Agents don’t work for their brokers, they work for Listing Agents. Freelance. On spec. They live on dreams and promises, too many of which don’t come true. They drive hundreds of miles a Read more

Overnight News: How much does six days matter to the world’s most stable asset class? How much are you willing to risk to find out?

Ya think it's easy?

“Impatience is one of the things I’m best at.”

I listed a house Friday morning, just after midnight. I had planned to list on October 8th. I rushed matter because, as I told the seller, “Six days is a long time in this market.” While I was posting the listing in the MLS, President Trump was announcing his and Melania’s affliction with Coronavirus. Could that screw everything up by Thursday? How much will you wager that it can’t?

Redfin.com: Condo Prices Climb 5.4% in August, Lagging 11.9% Growth for Single-Family Homes. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.

Forbes: The Growing Importance Of The Home For Young Consumers. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.

Housing Wire: U.S. unemployment drops to six-month low of 7.9%.

CNBC: Millions of Americans may not be able to pay their rent in October. What to do if you’re one of them.

City Journal: Triple America: A new book proposes that we rapidly expand the population in order to maintain our greatness.

Buzzfeed: Tiny Hand Will Be Your New Comic Sans. It’s a font that mimics Trump’s hand-writing. They think they are being clever, but this will end up benefitting the president more than it might hurt him – just like every other dumb stunt they try. You’d think they’d learn by now.

Overnight News: Welcome to October, y’all. Crisper weather, more and better turmoil.

Ya think it's easy?

“Life is off the lead. Everything else is just drowsing.”

So: What’s new?

CNBC: Homes sold two weeks faster in September due to unusual surge in demand. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.

CNBC: San Francisco rents plunge, showing strain from pandemic and wildfires. CTRL-F ‘riot’; not found.

Joel Kotkin: An “Ecotopian” Future: Can California’s Green Extremism Go National?

Reason: Lockdowns Intended To Preserve Our Health Are Making Us Poorer and Angrier.

Bloomberg: Inside a California Covid Revolt.

New York Times: The Truth About Today’s Anarchists.

Washington Examiner: Powder keg: 61% say United States ‘on verge of civil war,’ 52% already preparing.

HotAir.com: VP, Wife Test Negative For COVID-19; Update: Trump Physician Says President, FLOTUS “Both Well.”