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There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Project Blooodhound (page 1 of 3)

September 30, 2017

RE.net 2.0

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

Here’s a preview of what I have in my mind :

1- Facebook ads (as an agent)
2- Value-added services for real estate agents (as a lender)
3- Non-distressed auctions for real estate brokerages (as a vendor)

I have posted a few things since the content slow down on Bloodhound Blog but a lot has happened since 2012-ish.  The market has recovered nicely and most of the contributors are probably too busy listing, showing or financing property to write.  Bloodhound Blog was on the cutting edge of the RE.net:  provocative, hard-hitting, curious, and innovative.

Let’s start howling again

March 20, 2012

Today’s is Teri Lussier’s fifth blogiversary on BloodhoundBlog.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Here is Teri Lussier’s first post at BloodhoundBlog: Hi. I’m Teri…And I’m aghast.

Teri had to tell me that today is the first day of her sixth year writing with us. I’m not a birthdays and anniversaries kind of guy. But I am nothing but proud of the dawg she has turned out to be, and it’s fun to herald the event.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I met Teri just at the beginning of the end of the golden age of the RE.net. The Project Blogger contest was the first little bit of orchestrated hoke in the real estate weblogging world, and I had just told the mob of cliquey mediocrities the first of many truths they did not want to hear, inciting the first of many failed mass sneerspasms.

In each one of those mob actions, writers at BloodhoundBlog were assailed with entreaties to stop writing here. I think the theory was that depriving BloodhoundBlog of their voices would somehow silence my voice. These campaigns were initiated by Joe Ferrara; all of this mob-maniacal horse-shit originated with Joe Ferrara. It all came to nothing, of course, at least on my end. But a lot of agents and lenders screwed up their careers trying to recreate a kindergarten playground — Lord of the Flies with no points off for spelling errors.

This was evil, awful and wrong — not that I’ve ever made a secret of my opinion of social media and the mobs it engenders. But the whole phenomenon is interesting to me, because my thinking runs entirely the other way.

Teri Lussier has written great essays on BloodhoundBlog, and I’m very grateful for that. But I’m also very grateful to call her my friend. I don’t make friends quickly or easily, and I am very, very quick to push people away from me as soon as I realize they are not friends to me.

But I am a friend to Teri not out of loyalty to her, but out of my indivertible loyalty to principle. Teri lives up to values I admire, revere and worship, and that is the source of Read more

June 29, 2010

Real Estate Declaration of Independence

by

Realtor, Media Mogul

Author website

I’ve been a bit quiet on BHB due to some personal issues I’ve been working through.  But, I was very happy to see Greg’s latest post on challenging everything!  I had a little holiday brainstorm today and wrote a post on my local Lake Chelan blog on a Real Estate Declaration of Independence for the consumers of services from Real Estate Professionals.

I want to share it here on BHB and get your thoughts on what I missed, should add or could have said better!  So, without further ado here is my Independence Week start to the Real Estate Declaration of Independence:

Real Estate Declaration of Independence

We, the people who buy and sell real estate, hold these truths to be obvious:

  • We the people believe that information on real estate for sale should be readily accessible without surrendering our private information.  We reject having to register on a web site in order to view listings in an area.  We value our time and will contact a real estate professional when we are good and ready for their services.
  • We the people reject all policies of the National Association of Realtors that are not in the best interest of the real estate buying and selling public.  Limiting our access to information, restricting our ability to a free and open market through regulation and limiting our market choices are all examples of policies we reject that are designed to line Realtors pockets at the expense of the public.
  • We the people reject “Dual Agency,” where a real estate agent has an inherent conflict of interest with his agency and fiduciary duties by attempting to Read more
May 8, 2009

Multiple blog hosting and your files. A Project Bloodhound inquiry for DIY WordPress publishing.

by

Realtor, Urban Jedi

Author website

I’m in need of clarity. Being mostly clueless to the concept of file management and hosting in general has led me here by way of looking to publish more then one blog.  That, and after spending far too much time with “online and phone help” with what should be a simple domain name transfer for Yahoo to Godaddy, I’m at my wits end.   Word to the wise.  If someone offers you a domain name for $1.99, don’t bite.

Here’s the deal. I have a “deluxe hosting account” with Godaddy which runs me, I think, around $6.50 a month and gives me what I need. ( I know your bluehost mediatemple whatever is better and that’s not the fix here ).  Focus.

When I started another blog, I created a new database via my SQL database and now this blog lives in a folder under the main account as well (see below).

hosting-control-center-file-manager-1

So from what I gather, with 25 databases I can run 25 different sites under this one account, right?   The databases (sites) just become sub-files of the main account.  If I’m off, just let me know.

One other thing that puzzles me (utter ignorance) is the file placement in my directory.  I was going by the intructions given to me by the help desk at Godaddy, and what you see is what I ended up with.   Could you all give me a little insight to whether this looks OK or not?

Assuming that everything is set up right so far, my next question would be, what is the advantage of opening up a separate account for a new site?  With each and every domain I purchase, I am offered a free “Economy hosting account”, which of course will not allow you to host WordPress.   To do this, I would need to open another “Deluxe hosting account”.

Any insight here would be appreciated.  I plan on helping my wife with her own site and hosting and I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to get her set up separately or just run hers with mine.

Many thanks. If I get somewhere with this, Read more

April 20, 2009

“No Matter How Good You Get, You Can Always Get Better…

by

Database Marketing Expert

Author website

… and that’s the exciting part.”  End Quote.

That’s a peek into the mind of the man who arguably will go down as the most dominant athlete of all time – Tiger Woods.

For those of you who aren’t golf fans, let me rewind a few years.  Tiger Woods was firmly entrenched as the #1 player in golf.  And by firmly entrenched, let’s just say that the #2 player in the world couldn’t even carry Tiger’s bag.

Yet, at the height of his dominance, Woods shockingly fired his “swing coach” and re-engineered his entire mechanical approach to the game.  Virtually everyone in golf thought he was nuts.  And the results were far from immediate.  In fact, some players on the PGA Tour even began referring to Tiger as “beatable”.

We all know what happened next… he won last year’s US Open with what basically amounted to a broken leg.  Woods refers to this victory as his greatest ever.

Here’s the thing:  Tiger Woods doesn’t share his secrets of success with his peers.  Any golfer looking to supplant Tiger as the world’s greatest player is going to have to figure it out for himself.

But for some reason, the sharpest minds in the real estate industry are willing to share what makes them successful with the rest of us.  Here are some of the questions I asked myself before committing the time and money to attend Unchained:

  • Can you create your own website without any help from anyone?
  • If so, how long does it take you to publish something worth seeing?
  • Are you ranking for the keywords your prospects are Googling?
  • Are your systems outdated and archaic?
  • Is there someone in your market who’s about to catch and pass you because they know more than you do?

Here’s another Tiger Woods quote from early in his career:

“Second sucks.”

If you live within 500 miles of Phoenix and you’re not committed to attending Unchained, chances are good there’s someone down the street who will be nosing up alongside you very soon.

I’ll be honest with you – I get the feeling my competitors are crawling up in the fetal position right now… cutting costs and wondering where Read more

March 18, 2009

The Wannabe Cosmopolite

by

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

I choose to live in a big American city because frankly, I stick out like a sore sport in most rural settings and my accountant says we can’t afford London. One of my earliest pre-school memories was a Trenton to New York City train ride with my mother on a blustery Saturday morning.  How much of  that early 1960s day trip I accurately recall and how much is anecdotal family filler (pulled, kneaded and peppered over the redolent decades around my parents’ kitchen table) I’m not quite sure.  Still, certain sepia frames have been imprinted in my mind for life— gazing up at the sky scrapers whose dizzying heights give me vertigo to this day; creeping like a mouse through the bowels of  The Museum of Natural History, terrified of the mummies and the smell of all that marble; seeing  a man get his arm tore off by a taxi cab while standing at a busy Broadway corner…I’m pretty sure; sitting on a New York City phone book for a child’s eternity at  Mamma Leone’s, waiting for the dessert course to arrive.  Feeding the ducks in Central Park.  Observing  the landscape artists with easels and tams, their turpentined pigments slathered on thumb-holed palettes, probably all long dead by now but  full of  abstract perspective on that day.  Not peeing my pants for the entire afternoon.

A similar ferment churned in my gut when I first strolled the arrondissements of Paris; same thing along the canals of Rome; and Gaudi’s Barcelona.  And while I can easily inhale the woodsy fragrance of say, a Walden Pond (or even Dyer, Tennessee) without much complaint, I am clearly no Thoreau.  Once you think you see a guy get his arm torn off in Times Square, you can never really go back to the suburbs.  Not entirely.

As each year strikes like lightning, I find myself  being both drawn to, and repelled from, the urban twist of what once was Sandburg’s Chicago with its animal sense of outcome and yellow inner eye… ‘ hog butcher for the world.’  Liebling’s Second City.  On a calm evening the whispers can Read more

January 10, 2009

WordPress 2.7 – Or Maybe Older Too?

by

Realtor, Certified EcoBroker

Author website

On my recent blog post about Niche Marketing there was a lengthy discussion about how to make a WordPress Blog a little more user friendly and along with that, what it seems as though Consumers are looking for when they come to a site.  One of the things that was mentioned a few times is a Static Home Page.  This way it looks and feels a little more like a website.

The more I thought about it, I really liked the idea and did some Research.  Apparently within the New WordPress 2.7 you can make any page on your site a Home Page, Landing Page, whatever you want to call it.  I figured that maybe if I didn’t know about, others may not either.  So, thought I would spread the word.

All you have to do is from within your Dashboard go to Settings along the left- Go to Reading- and it will bring up a page that allows you to set any page as the static Home Page.  Easy!  No plugin, code or anything else required.  Hope that helps someone!

January 5, 2009

Niche Marketing- A Different Kind Of Blog?

by

Realtor, Certified EcoBroker

Author website

Well, I’m guilty of thinking again.   My mind wanders thinking of ways to do things differently-actually, a way to do things better, which brings questions, and then getting lost a little bit.

My blog, if you remember, is a pretty narrow niche in that I write about Green Real Estate. But, the other day I was thinking…What if there were a way to have multiple pages or categories with their own blog?  I know that makes absolutely no sense, but I’ll explain.

I have tried to spend some time looking at Niche Marketing Blogs over the past few months and each one proves that Niche Blogs are just…different.  If you get off topic, you lose readers.  If you don’t get out on a limb and break up the content sometimes, it bores people..and then you lose readers.

So back to my idea.  Personally, I think this is an amazing idea for the real estate industry.  In a way it would be multiple sites all in one.  For example, we have pages right?  Contact, Search for listings, yada..yada.  Then we have tags for our posts: Foreclosures, Mortgage, Marketing, New Listings…whatever.

What if within the separate pages we could have a different blog, or a way to filter a blog to a separate page?  Instead of having just one long page of posts on a blog page it would be nice for within the Dashboard to filter the Blog Post to a different page.

So, I’m writing a post on Foreclosures and I would like to filter it down to appear only on the Foreclosure page.

In my case, I would like to be able to write posts for say Builders and move it over to a Builders Going Green page.   Another idea would be a not so Real Estate page with General Green Information.

I would think that any one in Real Estate that focuses on a Niche of any kind would like the ability to do this.   Does anyone know plugin to do this?  Or are there any of my Genius friends out there that would happen to want to tackle it? :0)

Or is this just a dumb Read more

November 3, 2008

Prequel to Speaking in Tongues: Displaying Author Images in WordPress

by

Real Estate Broker, Investor

Author website

Several months ago, Greg described this process in Project Bloodhound speaking in tongues: To whom am I speaking?

At the time, I had no need to implement author images in a WordPress multi-author blog, (and I already knew the technique for TypePad), so I didn’t work with the process until just today.

As I set up what will become a company blog for our incoming agents, I realized that the average WordPress user might need a little more background information to put Greg’s code to use.

First of all, you need to find all your authors’ ID numbers.  Unfortunately current versions of WordPress do not show author ID numbers.  The easy solution for me was to download the Reveal IDs for WP Admin plugin.

Once the Reveal IDs plugin is activated, when you go to the Users page, you’ll see each author’s ID number displayed beside their username.  All ID numbers, that is, except your own.  The only way to see your own ID number is to create a new separate admin username and login, then login as that new identity, and find your old self on the list.

Next step:  Obtain images of each author.  Resize each image (I decided on 52 pixels in height, and 50 pixels in width as appropriate for the design I am using.)  Each image must be named simply by the author ID number.  For instance, my lovely image here on Bloodhound Blog is titled 34.jpg.

Upload all the newly resized and newly renamed images to your blog’s root directory.

Now you are ready to rock and roll.

Open your Main Index Template file (index.php)

I simplified Greg’s code for now to only display the author’s image and name

<img src=”http://www.bobtaylorproperties.com/blog/<?php the_author_ID(); ?>.jpg” height=”52″ width=”50″ align=”left” hspace=”10″>
Posted by <?php the_author() ?> <br>

And I placed it under the PHP code that inserts the post title.  Here’s the complete snippet:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<div class=”entry”>

<h1><a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?>” rel=”bookmark” title=”<?php the_title(); ?>”><?php the_title(); ?></a></h1>

<img src=”http://www.bobtaylorproperties.com/blog/<?php the_author_ID(); ?>.jpg” height=”52″ width=”50″ align=”left” Read more

October 25, 2008

Why Bloggers Fail To Become Top Producers

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I know your secret.  Honestly…I do.

You aren’t knocking the ball out of the park, regardless of your blogging effort.  You play around on Twitter, Facebook, Active Rain, and might even comment on Bloodhound Blog.  You’re probably REALLY smart and can’t believe that you’re having problems in business.  I know you are; I’ve read most of your blog posts, Tweets, and Facebook messages.  You fancy yourself ethical.  I believe that, too.

Why is a smart, ethical real estate agent like you failing then?

You got hoodwinked.  Tricked.  Sold a bill of goods.  That snake oil you bought?  Web 2.0- it was supposed to be the new way to do business; you just didn’t realize it was gonna take 3-5 years.  It’s taking longer than you imagined and you’re stuck.  Your spouse is riding your ass as she punches a clock while you play on Twitter.  Your kids wonder why you treat the occasional prospect who calls you to Ruth’s Chris while making them eat off the value menu at Mc Donald’s. You’re failing because you bought into the hype and you’re scared to admit that you blew it.

That’s okay- it’s not your fault.

You see, I got hoodwinked too.  I was all puffed up, speaking in San Francisco and New York like I was some kind of expert.  As I was hob-nobbing with the RE.net, I heard more than one of the “blogging elite” talk about their fear of personal foreclosure.  I heard the practitioners talk about losing their homes and the tech gurus talk about how rich they were getting…

…off the poor practitioners whom they appointed “experts”. THAT disgusted me.

I knew I had to make a VERY big change in my life.  I was following the “wrong crowd” and if I kept it up, I’d be face-down, lying in the gutter, with no customers at all.  I definitely didn’t want that…so I made some changes.  Those changes, combined with the things I learned from the folks who DO make money online, grew my business while my competitors were submitting employment applications at the mall.

Let me do my best Joe Biden…  It’s not your fault.

Greg Read more

September 25, 2008

Project Bloodhound: Online Reputation Management: “It’s in the Google”

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Incubating, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:
Etymology: Latin incubatus, past participle of incubare, from in- + cubare to lie
transitive verb
1 a: to sit on (eggs) so as to hatch by the warmth of the body b: to maintain (as an embryo or a chemically active system) under conditions favorable for hatching, development, or reaction
2: to cause or aid the development of intransitive verb

One of the sessions I went to at Blog World was “Taking Smart Risks with Your Online Personality”, with Alex Hillman and Jake McKee. Being on the Bloodhound Blog I figured it would come in handy, right?

The session went well, solidified some things I knew and clarified a few things I had an inkling about. I didn’t have any epiphanies during the session, but one phrase wormed it’s way into the deeper crevices of my brain and began to incubate: “It’s in the Google”.

Hillman, if I remember correctly, was quoting his father’s insights into the far reaches and lasting legacy of everything we do online. Everything we do online is “in the Google”. Everything. For better or worse, it’s all out there for someone to find. That’s obvious, you say. Perhaps, but “it’s in the Google” has been incubating in the warm gray matter ever since, and late last night I Googled myself. And then I Yahoo’d myself (no comments from the Peanut Gallery). And then, while I was sleeping, “it’s in the Google” bumped into Kelley Koehler’s advice to “Win the small battles. Go niche”, and then it shook hands with an unfortunate situation for a dear friend who is unable to comment on this blog because Akismet eats everything he writes, and when I woke up, those thoughts had joined forces.

What’s in the Google for me? Stuff, stuff, and more stuff- some good, some bad, some ugly. I’d like to do away with the bad and ugly, or at least bury it, but what if I made the good even better? I noticed that there are quite a few comments that are coughed up from the Google, and I’d like to do a better job of managing those. Read more

September 23, 2008

Project Bloodhound: Viva Las Vegas pays out in Black Pearls

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Blog World and companion conference, REBlog World, have ended. Kudos to Todd Carpenter and Jason Berman for putting REBlog World together, very nice to meet both of you. I completely agree with Eric Blackwell that the relationships matter. I agree with Inman Connect and NAR Convention goers that what happens in the halls is very important. I maintain my aversion to the vendor exhibits, bringing home zero sch-wag except for a crap pen from the hotel, the Palms, which has the Web 2.0 cluelessness to charge $2.00/page for printing. For that reason alone, I won’t be staying there again thanksverymuch, although the bathroom in our room was quite spectacular, and the bed was comfy enough to sleep in. No cockroaches, yet. Note to Palms staff- the room was a bit grungy under the window, and you shouldn’t neglect to clean the sides of the chairs. Ick.

Back to the conference. It was mostly geared toward starting a blog, but I did learn a thing or two, or three. Let me share some random notes.

If you are not paying attention to what the Housechick is doing, you are missing out on one of the sharpest minds in the RE.net. Her Vegas presentation on Pay Per Click marketing was, by all accounts, one of the best sessions of the entire weekend. Watch this space and learn how brilliant and unique marketing can create a kickass online presence. Some take aways that you can put to use whether or not you care to PPC “Win the small battles. Go niche.” Kelley’s focus for her ads is not for broad search terms like “Tucson real estate”, but in very well defined terms like “average sales price for homes in Tucson”, or even more narrow- down to neighborhoods. Then she writes posts to answer that question. She likes to focus on verbs “Buy a home in Tucson”, “Search for a Tucson home”. She’s using concise terms, with a clear benefit, and action words to create her ads. I think using those parameters as a basis for a post and post titles, is a wise idea. Write to Read more

September 17, 2008

Project Bloodhound – Advice Needed

by

Mortgage Officer

Author website

I figured we haven’t had a Project Bloodhound post in a while and I can use some advice, so I thought I’d throw it up for discussion. Here’s the scenario first and then, after that, I’ll throw out my questions:

I’ve been asked to give a presentation to the board of Directors for the local board of Realtors next week Tuesday on the state of the mortgage market. The person who asked me is one of the owners of a local real estate firm and he’s been reading my Mortgage Market Week in Review for a long time. Without sounding like I’m patting myself on the back, I would have no problem putting together a 20 to 30 minute presentation on what’s happening in the mortgage market. But Greg Swan has taught me that that’s not good enough.

Using Greg’s analogy, I want to set the bar so high that my competition can’t compete. I want to set the bar so high that all of the members of the board (or at least most of them) go back to their firms and tells their agents that they need to at least talk to that “Vanderwell guy” because he’s where it’s at.

So, here are my questions (for those of you who are real estate agents, especially):
1. If you were going to be at the presentation what would you like to hear?
2. Is there anything that a mortgage lender can say about today’s market that will help you do your job better?
3. What else should I do or attempt to do in the 30 minutes that I’ll have?
4. What should I avoid doing?  I’ve already learned (or relearned from Greg and the Gang) that I need to make something  like this about the industry and my knowledge of it, not about me or my bank.   So, if you were reading this and thinking that, we’re on the same page.

Thank you in advance for being willing to share the collective wisdom of the Bloodhound Gang. I’ll do another post and report back in afterwards as Read more

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Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

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