BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Supplanting the NAR (page 5 of 10)

May 18, 2009

Taking A Page Out of Realtor.Com’s Absurd Playbook, Craig’s List Offers FREE Showcase Listing Package!

by

Retechulous...

Author website

I generally don’t get involved in causes. I don’t vote. I try not to step on toes. I truly think doing something trippy drippy nuts absurd is a more productive use of time then taking a real side or a position on anything.

But this MIBOR/NAR deal really has me going. I can no longer summon up that blissful apathy. And I’ve been scheming ways to get involved, to somehow help this situation along, basically getting senselessly fired up over something I can’t control…then came Greg’s last post.

From Greg’s last post

 

If you despise the NAR because it is technologically inept, you’re hating it for the wrong reasons. The right reason to detest the NAR, and to seek its extinction, is because it makes war upon the free market in order to expropriate unearned wealth for brokers.

Yeah, I’ve been feeling superficially pissed that the retechulously inept are making decisions that require some bit of tech-tidude. But really, this is about my right to innovate; to hack up what the competition is doing; to market freely in any ways I see fit just so long as nobody gets hurt in the process. After all, what’s going on with situations like Paula Henry’s is that they’re messing with what many of us (arguably the best of us) consider to be the best part about being a real estate agent—The fact that we’re truly independent business people with the right to roll as we see fit just so long as we abide by the code of ethics, some local regulations, and general golden rule style decency.

 

So how the frak does displaying property listing data, no matter what the source, become an issue for anyone other than the owner of the gosh darn property and the person they hire to complete the task? Answer: It doesn’t. It shouldn’t. Way to waste those NAR dues on something productive…  This whole thing really is totally and completely absurd!

 

So, what’s a guy to do?

Well, if as Greg says, “we can obviate the NAR by supplanting it…”

Then…

I hereby pledge to replace Read more

May 17, 2009

Earth to NAR: Drop dead — and try not to stink up the place while you’re doing it

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I haven’t paid any attention to this MIBOR business, and I’m grateful to John Rowles for keeping us up to date. Anyone who is dismayed at the way things worked out should be sure to sit at my table when we have a BloodhoundBlog poker tournament: You’re my kind of sucker.

The fact that the NAR is composed of clueless morons should come as a surprise to no one. The fact that they think they can buy off their intellectual superiors by kissing their asses should astonish no one who reads here: I’ve been telling you for years that the dinosaurs pretend to take you seriously in the hopes of compromising you in their corruption. Of course, no one will learn a thing from this experience, which suggests that the dinosaur strategy might well be sound, even though it is absurd on its face. They reason that a grand pageant of being lied to and pandered to makes people feel important, and the evidence suggests they’ve got a good bead on their designated spokesmannequins.

But none of this has anything to do with anything. Whatever combination of cluelessness and collusion motivated this MIBOR clusterfrolick, it’s just a side effect. The NAR is a criminal cartel. Its purpose is to deploy legislation at the federal, state and local levels in behalf of real estate brokers and to the detriment of consumers (and, secondarily, real estate sales people). If you despise the NAR because it is technologically inept, you’re hating it for the wrong reasons. The right reason to detest the NAR, and to seek its extinction, is because it makes war upon the free market in order to expropriate unearned wealth for brokers.

Who pays for the tax deductibility of mortgages? The 70% or more of us who don’t qualify for the deduction. Who will pay for the $8,000 first-time home buyer’s tax credit? Your grandchildren — and it will cost them quite a bit more than $8,000 in interest costs. Thus do the vampires in the NAR make make vampires of us all.

If you want to grouse or joke about how stupid the NAR Read more

May 15, 2009

Skinning elephants: The lifelong salutary benefits of negotiating your compensation with your buyers

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Here’s how Mike Elsberry, my home inspector, charges for an inspection for one of my clients:

  • A sliding-scale price based on square footage
  • A sliding scale price based on the age of the home

Bigger homes take somewhat longer and entail somewhat more work to inspect than smaller homes. Older homes may have more wear and tear, also resulting in a longer, more arduous inspection. Mike has a little pricing grid, and taking those two numbers, square footage and age of the home, he can plot the precise price point on his matrix.

You could argue that he could come up with a more predictive pricing scheme, but the genius of his system is obvious: It’s reasonably objective, making it hard to argue with, and Mike can price a job from his cell phone, while driving, with his mouth half full of burrito. Lo-tech don’t mean no-tech.

Okayfine. Now let’s sell a couple of houses.

I’m about to do a Facebook deal with an old friend from high school. I will be representing her son in the purchase of the condominium he will live in while attending graduate school. Approximate purchase price: $80,000. Gross commission to me: $2,400.

I’m also about to help a very nice couple buy a small hacienda in Paradise Valley, one of the wealthiest towns, per head, in the United States. Approximate purchase price: $800,000. Gross commission to me: $24,000.

Obviously the differences between the two transactions are myriad, but here’s the one that matters most: The $80,000 condo will almost certainly take a lot more of my time than the $800,000 hacienda. I’ll get paid maybe $50 an hour for the condo, and possibly as much as $1,500 an hour for the hacienda.

How does that make sense?

Home inspector Mike Elsberry’s pricing scale makes sense, even if you could argue that something more complicated might make even more sense. The compensation buyer’s agents receive bears no relation to the time and effort expended. As the Freakonomics boys point out, the incentives are misaligned, as well: I get paid more if my buyers pay more, even though their best interest is to pay less. But even Read more

March 14, 2009

Independence, for Realtors, comes from having a broker’s license

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This came up in a private discussion, but this piece of the pizza is a matter of interest for all Realtors. Ready?

GET YOUR FROLICKING BROKER’S LICENSE!

I don’t think I’ve ever said this in public, but I promise you it’s an oversight that should have been obvious all along.

Everything Bloodhound is about being as independent as you can possibly be.

That doesn’t mean you don’t engage with other people. What it means is never being in a situation where you have to put up with other people, whether you like it, hate it — or you want to kill someone because of it.

GET YOUR FROLICKING BROKER’S LICENSE!

A favorite game of dipshits who flitter into BloodhoundBlog is to pretend that they don’t understand what I am talking about when I deride vendorsluts.

Here’s a definition that will do no good at all: A vendorslut is a sleazoid who takes your money and gives you next to nothing in exchange for it — usually while binding you to an outrageously unfair contract.

And by that definition a huge number of real estate brokers are vendorsluts. Their entire business model is based not on selling real estate but on milking wide-eyed real estate agents for every penny they have, then dumping them as soon as they’re all milked out.

I can hope that no one reading this is some venal broker’s sucker, but that con-game is baked in the cake.

For that reason alone, you should:

GET YOUR FROLICKING BROKER’S LICENSE!

Obviously, I believe that your best move is to up your own organization, to turn your practice or your team into your own brokerage instead.

But even if you choose to work as an associate broker, having your broker’s license gives you options.

Yes, your legal liability increases, but, as with all advanced education, having your broker’s license brings with it significant marketing advantages.

And if your own designated broker moves on or gets sick, you have the legal qualification necessary to move into the big boss’s chair.

Perhaps more importantly, with a broker’s license, you are a bigger threat, should the big boss get the idea he might want to sever you.

And, recalling that Read more

March 8, 2009

A few thoughts about freedom and real estate from the middle of an undisclosed cornfield

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

I am Bloodhound hear me howl! Or, something like that.

I went to a farm forum yesterday and learned about the state of farming in Ohio. I think Ohio is returning to it’s agricultural roots. We are becoming the Green Belt, and I welcome that change. You have my permission to snicker at corn fields and pig farmers. You have my permission to make jokes about farm folk. You may snort behind your hands at the thought of working with the land in order to create a world of your own. We should all be so lucky. I’m not here to romanticize cornfields, but I can think of few people who live a life of more independence and take more risks than Ohio’s entrepreneurial farmers.

It got me thinking about my own life among the cornfields of Ohio, and my own sense of independence and freedom, and I wonder why it might be different for you.

We are all here, online- the great equalizer, btw- reading this. Maybe from a farmhouse in the middle of corn-fed world that your own hands and hard work have created, but maybe from a loft in a world of concrete that you did nothing to create. Most likely you are reading this from a tract home on a piece of dirt that will never produce for you. Wherever you are reading this, Welcome to your future. Now what?

Freedom is the reason I became a Realtor- my freedom, but also my client’s freedom. Wasn’t that part of the attraction for you? The freedom to think your own thoughts, have your own life, decide for yourself how you choose to live. I decide how many hours I work, how much money I make, where to spend that money- it’s all in my hands, I get to live or die by my own sword, just like you. So here’s my question: Why shouldn’t I take offense to an organization that is created for the purpose of restricting freedom? Or, more to the point, why wouldn’t you?

Why would you willingly allow someone to curtail that freedom? Why would you choose to follow Read more

March 4, 2009

Brief links: Todd Carpenter at REBarCamp Virginia, Active Rain versus Move and why the Kindle iPhone app is too-little, too-late

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Daniel Rothamel made a UStream video of Todd Carpenter’s appearance yesterday at REBarCamp Virginia. Todd acquitted himself fairly well, only now and then sounding like an oily, evasive politician. His mien was perfect: Middle-management nerd, which is his newly-assigned role.

His boss, Hillary Marsh, also spoke, and she was a lot less encouraging. She clearly sees social media — essentially Twitter to her — as yet another spam channel for NAR agitprop blather. Here’s how it is: People don’t respond to the NAR’s ActionSpams, but it’s not because they hate the NAR and despise its continual abuse of the political process. No, it’s because they’re not being spammed enough. Yeesh!

There was a long discussion about NAR responsiveness, but it boils down to this: You will become one with The Borg. The NAR will be happy to listen to your complaints as long as you don’t have any. Nothing new…

Matt Carter has a killer two-parter on Move’s failed attempt to acquire ActiveRain and AR’s subsequent lawsuit against Move:

By the time the deal fell through in May 2007, the window of opportunity for ActiveRain’s founders to cash in on their site’s success had closed, attorneys for the company claimed. In an August 2007 lawsuit ActiveRain sought $33 million in damages, alleging breach of contract, unjust enrichment, unfair competition, fraud and deceit.

Last month, attorneys for Move and ActiveRain said a settlement had been reached in which each side would bear its own costs and attorneys’ fees. They asked U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson to dismiss the case “with prejudice” — meaning ActiveRain would be barred from filing another suit making the same claim.

This was interesting to me: While he was employed by Move, Inc., Dustin Luther was casting about for ways to pimp the RE.net to Move:

Move had hired a prominent real estate blogger, Dustin Luther, and developed a set of company blogs. A team under Samuelson was working to develop more sophisticated blogging and social networking capabilities for Move.

Realtors are “probably our largest untapped resource,” Luther said in a Nov. 1, 2006, e-mail to Move’s then-CEO Mike Long. “There are hundreds (if not thousands) Read more

February 26, 2009

We know sheep will follow a Judas goat to their slaughter, as will cattle. Now the NAR is testing the idea on lemmings…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Todd Carpenter becomes one with the Borg and the charming little lemmings elbow each other out of the way to dive off the cliff head first.

One of two things will happen: Todd will discover he’s made a terrible mistake and will quit this job with dispatch — I hope very loudly. Or: Todd will deliver us to our slaughter.

Anyone who expects anything other than evil from the National Association of Realtors has either not been paying attention, or, much worse, embraces that evil.

In any case, this is not something to be celebrated, not even to affect to be “nice” in chorus with the rest of the lemmings.

The NAR may want to infest our world in order to destroy it. More likely, they want to take it over.

What they certainly do not want is to approach the public as we do — openly, authentically, concealing nothing. The entire edifice of residential real estate is founded on secrets and lies, and, as long as it is, the NAR will be nothing but a cesspit of tyrannical motives and vendorslut con games.

And — more is the pity — Todd Carpenter cannot take their money without being their shill and their Judas goat — or worse.

I’m saddened by this, because of all the gutless big-name real estate webloggers, Todd has more guts than most. But nothing good for us will come of this, and the only good that can come of it for Todd is for him to escape with his scruples intact as quickly as he can.

February 24, 2009

Quietly going about our business

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

We go about our business, most of us, very quietly, with an attempt at dignity. One foot in front of the other, moving forward, striving, reaching, yearning to be the best we can be. We want to provide for our families, do right and do well for our clients. We want to put our heads down on our pillows at night, satisfied with the day’s work, and wake up the following morning excited to do it all again.

We don’t, most of us, want to be rock stars in the blogiverse. We want, most of us, to be appreciated for what we can offer, allowed to give freely without grief, and left to go quietly about our business.

I don’t agree with everything written on real estate blogs, and I don’t much like some of it, but the people who read these national blogs, the people I meet at Unchained, and the real estate professionals who email me to share their own triumphs- these people are inspiring. They are just like me, quietly going about our business, picking up information like sponges, moving forward, learning, striving, laughing, loving- just people, just real estate agents (without big hair).

I’m disturbed by the idea of a NAR Social Media Director, when I think about it. But the thing is, I don’t think about it. I don’t care. I don’t wish the new SMD any ill will, I don’t wish them anything at all because it really doesn’t matter to me. By the way, I’m going to call this position The SMeD, just because it makes me giggle.

So The SMeD will have a job to do, but none of it matters to me because I have my job to do, and as Greg points out, “All we have to do is keep doing what we’ve been doing — and keep getting better at it — and the Boojum under the bed will be gone forever.”

I’ve always believed this, and it’s always proved true. Anything that we have given power to, in our own minds, can easily be dethroned, defrocked, destroyed, by doing exactly what we do so Read more

February 24, 2009

The participatory internet is a singularity, not a trend

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Referring back to the Boojum under the bed, this is me in email to a Realtor Association executive:

Not to be flip, but I don’t want any group of any sort to do anything at all with social media. The first totally disintermediated business in the history of business is communication. Social media will not work for groups because there are no groups — only individuals. If you approach Web 2.0 as a new way of doing the same old things, you will miss out on everything that is amazing and wonderful and liberating about our world.

This is not a trend. This is a singularity. The old models no longer apply.

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February 22, 2009

As the NAR makes its first forays into the participatory internet, wired Realtors must get a handle on a very difficult question: How do you get rid of the Boojum under the bed?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Okay, so the National Association of Realtors has made a big deal out of its search for a “Social Media Director.” Apparently I’m the only person who finds the terms “social media” and “director” to be inherently self-contradictory, but that doesn’t matter anyway.

Why? Because the NAR is interested in social media for two reasons only, neither of which will resonate with anyone in our world.

Their two objectives are these:

First — and primarily — they want to clamp down on and control everything associated with real estate in the participatory internet. Dinosaur organizations are censorious by their nature, but the NAR is very much like the Mafia in its need to control its message, silencing dissenters and whistle-blowers.

Second, the NAR wants to turn the Web 2.0 world into yet another distribution channel for treacly, sleazy sales propaganda.

I never thought of Pinocchio as a wise-guy before, but it comes to the same thing. You can’t get too near The Boys without becoming one of them, and if you lend any part of your credibility — your reputation for moral probity — to the NAR, it will turn you into yet another insipid, perpetually-smiling marionette. Dance, puppet, dance!

I think this might be a three princes fable. If it is, the first prince may well be Todd Carpenter, who for some insane reason actually wants this job. At least he had better want it, because he gave me as a character reference and I gave him a glowing review. If the NAR actually understands its world and ours, my recommendation should have worked the other way for Todd. But my impression was that they ate it up.

Prince number two is NAR CEO Dale Stinton, who has announced that the new Social Media Director has already been chosen, but who won’t reveal who is the poor benighted soul who will get to be torn to shreds by both the lady and the tiger, never knowing for sure which is which.

I don’t actually know who the third prince is, but for the moment I’m betting on me. I abhor the whole idea of leadership, but serving as Read more

November 14, 2008

NAR Responds to FSBOGate

by

CEO, PA Association of Realtors

Author website

With a friend/partner you trust, but verify.  Since Realtor.com is not seen around here as a friend, many of you adopted a new slogan: Don’t trust and don’t verify.  I make it a rule to never believe anything that doesn’t seem to make sense. 

The NAR/R.com response…

NAR, REALTOR.com Set Record Straight on Erroneous FSBO Claims

A press release issued on Wed., Nov. 12, by ForSaleByOwner.com contained inaccuracies and misleading statements about its ability to place unlisted for-sale-by-owner information on REALTOR.com, the official Web site of the National Association of REALTORS® operated by Move Inc. NAR and REALTOR.com are setting the record straight with the following clarifications:

1) The settlement agreement between NAR and the U.S. Department of Justice made no provision to allow unlisted properties, such as “for-sale-by-owner,” to be posted on REALTOR.com.

2) ForSaleByOwner.com does not in any way enable home sellers to advertise their home on REALTOR.com without broker representation; every property on REALTOR.com must be listed by a licensed real estate broker.

3) REALTOR.com has not authorized ForSaleByOwner.com to resell REALTOR.com’s Showcase Listings Enhancement package.

4) There is no relationship between ForSaleByOwner.com and REALTOR.com.

5) There are no unrepresented homes on REALTOR.com. Every property on REALTOR.com must be listed by a licensed real estate broker, and unrepresented properties would not qualify to be submitted to a REALTOR®-owned and operated MLS.

REALTOR.com® has asked ForSaleByOwner.com to issue a retraction. ForSaleByOwner.com did not discuss in advance the statements in its press release with REALTOR.com® nor did it request or receive permission to use the REALTOR.com® name in its press release. For more information contact Lucien Salvant 202/383-1176.

November 13, 2008

By making war on private property rights, the National Association of Realtors is making war on everything we are as Americans

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’m responding here to a comment from Dave Phillips, who is to be commended in advance for bearing up to the strain.

I will invite President Gaylord to read and possibly respond if you promise to be a good doggy and engage in polite discussion (i.e., avoid inflamed rhetoric like “Rotarian Socialism” and “inane kleptomania”). It would serve no useful purpose to just piss him off. He is a reasonable man and would appreciate your sound reasoning.

Is he a reasonable man or a daffodil? Rotarian Socialism and kleptomania are exact and perfect descriptions of the way our country is run. If the man can’t bear to look at the world as it is, he needn’t bother talking to me.

“Everything the NAR does is anti-consumer.” I respectfully disagree. Defending mortgage interest deductibility (based on the current tax establishment) is very much in my favor as a consumer. Is it also self-serving? yes.

This is the seen and the unseen, classic Bastiat. You see a tax deduction and regard it as being to your immediate pecuniary advantage. You don’t see all the other taxes that are raised to make up for that deduction.

Worse, you don’t see that the NAR is not seeking your interests but its own: The deduction causes you to value housing above other investments, contrary to market forces, which results in your buying a home when you could and probably should be making more productive use of your surplus income. The goal? Commissions for NAR members, not your interests at all.

Still worse, you don’t see that the recession we are going into was caused, fundamentally, by overvaluing housing as a market good by means of tax deductions, credits, exclusions and deferrals. In five years you could be walking around shoeless, dining out of garbage dumpsters, but at least your mortgage interest will be tax-deductible.

In other words: You are a consumer in your every economic transaction, not just when you are paying your mortgage. Past lobbying by the NAR and CRA groups will result, at a minimum, in the pillaging of your retirement accounts. How is that “very much in [your] favor as Read more

November 12, 2008

NAR Promotes Housing Stimulus Plan

by

CEO, PA Association of Realtors

Author website

Here is a fresh bone for Bloodhounds to chew on.  This 4-point stimulus plan was approved by the NAR Board of Directors this past Monday and is being pushed heavily in Washington DC. 

The National Association of Realtors® will offer a four-point legislative plan to reinvigorate the housing market, calling on Congress to act during a lame-duck session. NAR believes the plan will give a boost to the economy and help to calm jittery potential homebuyers.

The plan features such consumer-driven provisions as eliminating the repayment of the first-time homebuyer tax credit and expanding it to all homebuyers, making higher mortgage loan limits permanent, pushing banks to extend credit to Main Street, and prohibiting banks from entering into real estate.

“Housing has always lifted the economy out of downturns, and it is imperative to get the housing market moving forward as quickly as possible,” said NAR President Richard F. Gaylord. “It is vital to the economy that Congress take specific actions to boost the confidence of potential homebuyers in the housing market and make it easier for qualified buyers to get safe and affordable mortgage loans. We are asking Congress to act right away.”

Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach, Calif., said NAR, as the leading advocate for homeownership and private property rights, believes it is important for Congress to address the concerns and fears of America’s families, much in the way it has addressed Wall Street turbulence. “Housing is and has always been a good, long-term investment and a family’s primary step towards accumulating wealth,” Gaylord said.

NAR recommends Congress pass new housing stimulus legislation that includes the following priorities:

1. Remove the requirement in the current law that first-time homebuyers repay the $7,500 tax credit, and expand the tax credit to apply not only to first-time buyers but also to all buyers of a primary residence.

2. Revise the FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 2008 stimulus loan limit increases to make them permanent. The Economic Stabilization Act, enacted in February, made loan limit increases temporary, and Read more

August 18, 2008

Bloodhounds Don’t Belong In Politics: But I’m here anyway..

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

Still needed is regulation of yield-spread premiums — cash rebates paid to third-party brokers as a kind of reward for funneling unsuspecting consumers into higher-rate loans

-Rich Cordray, Ohio Candidate For Attorney General, Demonstrating for the record his utter lack of understanding of how real estate financing works.

That is in my inbox.  Enough to make any broker mad.  And, while I’ve responded to the industry requisite “spam your congressman,” and occasional political action calls, I have never been as ready to fight as after I was reading that.  Cordray enjoys a congenial reputation, but I can’t stand willful ignorance. 

Rich Cordray is the anointed Democrat who is in line to succeed disgraced (also Democratic) Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann (the link is precious).  There is a Republican running, but he’s even referred to himself as the sacrificial lamb of the Republican party. 

This email was sent from my friend Jeremiah.  One of his small “l” libertarian buddies, Robert Owens got drafted by the Ohio Liberty Movement. Would I pitch in to stop the madness?  Would I give my time energy and effort to a longshot race?   Hell yes. 

I’ve regarded politics as an onastically futile pursuit, someone must do something.  And I’ve got the time, the interest, and hopefully, the acumen.  I’m responsible for creating a social media and blogging plan to raise enough money to compete.  We want our electorate to be especially cognizant of the anti business positions of our candidates.   Oh, and the candidate?  His biggest issues are following the constitution, and having transparency in government. 

So, I’ve got a few weeks (80 days, which is 11.4 weeks) to come up with a plan to get enough money to be viable, to get the funds to keep our professional campaign staff in the hunt, and to fight, fight, and fight some more.  Can I successfully apply the lessons I’ve learned over the last 9 months to this fight?   All eyes are on me as I’m the one 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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