BloodhoundBlog

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Month: August 2006 (page 2 of 8)

August 27, 2006

A bug’s eye view from the trenches . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Cathy had open houses today, but a couple she has been working with wanted to go out looking. She asked me to cover for her.

They are downsizing, technically, but they’re playing this market very wisely, in my opinion. They changed their focus this weekend from smaller resale homes to move-ups from new builders. The rationale is, if they can buy something at a deep discount now, they’ll be in that much stronger a position when the market turns. Even allowing for the worst, they can have a lot more house in a better neighborhood for the same money.

The interesting thing for me was how busy the model homes were — and how few inventory homes were available. We were in two subdivisions, so this portends nothing as a trend. But it was an eye-opener…

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August 26, 2006

Greg’s toothsome lease addendum . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I was out with investors today, and I mentioned this model lease addendum to them. I wrote this two summers ago. It is devised to permit out-of-state or arm’s-length landlords to get along without a property manager, if they choose. Take note that this a model, an example for education purposes. I don’t know the laws in any state but Arizona, and I don’t warrant that these clauses will withstand judicial scrutiny even here. Notably, there is a distinction in Arizona between a deposit (refundable) and a fee (non-refundable). If this distinction doesn’t exist where you live, then clauses using either of those terms may be moot. All those caveats aside, this is a good example of how you can use contract terms to transfer the day-to-day maintenance of a rental home to the tenant, so that the landlord’s major involvement with the property will tend to occur between tenants.

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August 26, 2006

When Realtors become as stupidly hyperbolic as the bubbleboys, that’s news…

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Apparently, about 200 Phoenix-area Realtors got together Thursday night for some group therapy:

About 200 agents gathered at the Southeast Valley Association of Realtors in Mesa to hear tips from top achievers on how to sell homes and handle clients in this transitional market.

We don’t belong to SEVRAR, so we weren’t invited, but that’s just as well. As far as I’m concerned, this is both collusion and an agency violation — a class on how to betray your clients’ interests. This was a bunch of Realtors getting together to figure out how to keep the commissions flowing, whether or not this is what is best for their clients.

The scare stories the boys and girls told each other make for interesting reading. For reference, right now, with four business days left in the month, Market Basket values are up slightly from July. A lot of houses will close in those four days, but quite a few of them will have to sell at fire sale prices to put a big dent in August. When Realtors become as stupidly hyperbolic as the bubbleboys, that’s news.

Alas, we don’t have any real estate news, just breathless reports from people who can’t see beyond the bugs on the windshield…

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August 25, 2006

Anything might happen tonight . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’m a sucker for simple things. Catullus is a workout in Latin, but in English he’s just Needles and Pins, or maybe Romeo and Juliet. Yes, I’m off-topic again, and it’s not just because I live my life with Cathy’s Clown running through my head. But something struck a chord with me when I played this game last Friday, so I’m back with another jukebox full of shitkicker brutality.

I want to talk about Bruce Robison because I think he is a master of the searingly simple song. Robison is a haunting Austin singer-songwriter who scored with a Tim McGraw cover of his Angry All The Time.

The lyrics to Robison’s songs are exquisite, so I’m going to show them, but they are nothing compared to the performances. Lyrical music simply must be heard. For all its hokey faults, Country music is the only contemporary popular music form that combines real musicianship, real writing and real relevance to real life. And Bruce Robison is a fine exemplar of all three qualities.

Witness:

Traveling Soldier

by Bruce Robison and Farrah Braniff

Two days past eighteen,
He was waitin’ for the bus in his army greens.
Sat down in a booth, in a cafe there,
Gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair.

He’s a little shy but she give him a smile,
So he said: “Would you mind sittin’ down for a while?
“And talkin’ to me. I’m feelin’ a little low.”
She said: “I’m off in an hour and I know where we can go.”

So they went down and they sat on the pier,
He said: “I bet you got a boyfriend but I don’t care,
“I got no one to send a letter to.
“Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?”

I cried: “Never gonna hold the hand of another guy.”
“Too young for him,” they told her.
Waitin’ for the love of the travellin’ soldier.
“Our love will never end.”
Waitin’ for the soldier to come back again
Never more to be alone when the letter says,
My soldier’s comin’ home.

The letters came from an army camp,
In California, then Vietnam.
He told her of his heart, it might be love,
And all of the things he Read more

August 25, 2006

Ten real estate weblogs that feed my hungry mind . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Not trying to scam my way onto anybody’s lists of ten phenomena or anything, but here are ten real estate weblogs that feed my hungry mind:

  • Rain City Guide. Duh. Meta-brokerage mega-blog, a very nice combination of very smart writers.
  • The Real Estate Tomato. Color and zest, a savory combination.
  • The Future of Real Estate Marketing. The new look rocks, but it seems to be an of-less marriage with technology.
  • 360Digest. Marlow Harris is a serious mind. Not dour or joyless, but never frivolous or shallow. A voice commanding attention.
  • Charlottesville Area Real Estate Blog. If Daniel Rothamel is the future of real estate, we’re in safe hands.
  • Sellsius° blog. I like these boys. It’s light opera, rarely grand opera, but it is deft and delightful. All this and linguam latinam, too.
  • Real Central VA. Jim Duncan walks a fine line between local and global interest, between real estate customers and real estate mavens.
  • Searchlight Crusade. Dan Melson ranks with me as one of the most informative people on the RE.net. I should link to him more often, except that when he’s done with a topic, there is nothing more to be said.
  • moco real estate news. Todd Tarson is another young Realtor who fills me with for hope for the future. Plus which, he has great insights into Arizona state-level real estate politics.
  • 4Realz. The best of the best, bar none. Requiescat in pacem. I’m left with my memories — and few dozen archived posts…

If your weblog isn’t here, it’s not because I don’t love it. There are dozens I read daily, and I could easily make another list of ten to rival this one. And maybe another after that one. Here’s the deal, though: This thing, our thing, is nothing compared to what it will be a year from now. We talk to each other a lot, and I’m not sure that’s going to change. But there are a lot of us ‘each others’ with a stake in this conversation, so it could be that the most important weblog in the RE.net, for now, is ActiveRain…

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August 25, 2006

The moral is the practical — in real estate and in life . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

What is the market value of integrity to a Realtor? In the first place, you sell your best advice to the people who want your best advice. And you aren’t stuck with the unhappy consequences of having sold your clients a bill of goods just to get their business.

Daniel Rothamel at the Charlottesville Area Real Estate Blog:

When I first started my career in real estate, I assumed that it worked much like most other service/consltative industries, i.e.– when someone called you about selling a home, they wanted your advice and expertise in the matter, especially with regard to pricing, staging, marketing, etc. I quickly discovered that this is not the case at all. Many potential sellers aren’t calling you to ask for your expertise and advice in pricing or marketing, they are calling merely to reinforce their own opinion. My standard comment on the matter is, “I don’t set the price of your home, the market does. I am merely telling you what price this home will bear on the open market, not what the intrinsic “value” of the home is.”

For example, there are homes out there that people have lived in for decades, and are therefore very important to their owners. These homes are filled with irreplaceable memories. This makes them very valuable in the minds of their sellers. Unfortunately, the free market is a cold thing. The market doesn’t care what your memories are, it doesn’t care how much sweat, blood or tears you have invested in a property. The owner may have his or her own opinion as to the value of a home, but the market is going to tell you the price. Sometimes, those two things don’t match. That is where the Realtor gets caught.

I deeply admire the serious cast of Daniel’s mind — and not just because he weaves this moral tapestry with threads spun here. Go read the whole thing…

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August 25, 2006

Make rooms make sense when selling your home

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I tip-toe dangerously close to home staging in today’s Arizona Republic column (here’s the permanent link):

Make rooms make sense when selling your home

You walk into the home and you know you’re walking into a living room. Except there is a pingpong table standing there in the middle of the room. There’s a dartboard on one wall. On the opposite wall is a dry bar with a beer tap.

You walk into what you know is a formal dining room, except there’s a grand piano sitting in the middle of the floor with the dining room chandelier hanging down below the sounding board.

Past the kitchen is a charming solarium, except it’s overstuffed with the dining room table and china cabinet.

The garage should be just beyond the laundry room, but all you can see is a vast warehouse stacked with junk.

By the time you get to a room you know is a bedroom, despite its giving every appearance of being an office, you’re ready to give up. The house might have promise, but you can’t see it. The sellers have unwittingly plotted to confuse you at every turn.

My best advice for sellers is this: Move out. Leave behind a few pieces of excellent furniture – even if you have to rent it – and a few tasteful decorator items. Get everything else out. Yourselves, the kids, the pets and their odors, and all that accumulated clutter.

Your response: “But we can’t afford to move until we sell!”

Fine. Then get rid of everything you can. Yard sale. St. Vincent de Paul. The dump. And finally, a rental warehouse.

“But that costs money, too!”

Sure does. But think of it this way: If your house spends an extra three months on the market waiting for the buyer who can see through all the clutter, you will spend perhaps $5,000 in mortgage payments and opportunity costs. Worse, you may have to drop the list price by $5,000, $10,000 or more. Simple arithmetic argues that storing your stuff off-site is a lot cheaper than challenging potential buyers with the puzzle you have made of your home.

If you want your home to Read more

August 24, 2006

Dood! Web 2.0 is Totally! Freakin! Awesome!

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

“So Cameron says you’re like totally into real estate?”

My geeky son had brought an even geekier friend home from school. Somehow he ended up in my office. “Is that a question?”

“Dood! It’s like an observation! But, like, I’ve been playing with some of those real estate web sites? And I think I could, like, build my own?”

He talked like that, every sentence a question or an exclamation. He orbited without periods. I said: “How interesting.” I think that sounds sufficiently like “go away” that a kid could take a hint. Didn’t happen.

“So like picture a site called pussywillow.us?” He held up his fingers in Dr. Evil scare quotes. “The fun and friendly way to find out how much your house is worth!”

I said nothing. That didn’t work, either.

“So you like type in your address? And then the software gives you a totally random value? And then, like, the web-cam is watching you? And if you scowl or frown or something, the value goes up? But then if you’re like smiling and happy it goes down? And it’s all totally random, it’s just like messing with your head! And then? When you get disgusted and quit? Then it takes the webcam video and posts it on youtube.com! Totally! Freakin’! Awesome!”

“Wouldn’t you need a model release?” I could have kicked myself for encouraging him.

“Dood! What are you talking about?”

“Wouldn’t you need permission to show the video?”

“Oh, man! You don’t know nuthin’ about Web Two! Dot! Oh!”

Okayfine. “You’re right. Go find Cameron.”

“No! No! Wait! I got another one, right? So, like, imagine a game? It’s built with like mapping software? And the game generates geocodes at random and takes you to those places? And your job is to destroy every house you see? But, like, what’s really going on is, for every house you destroy, the game is sending like a purchase offer for a random amount of money to that house! It’s like reply.com, but even stoooopider!”

Just then Cameron showed up, bless his heart. He said, “Leave my dad alone.”

“Dood! He was like totally buyin’ it!”

Like totally.

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August 24, 2006

A Zillified real estate brokerage: If you lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The other week I had a warm call off of our web site from a potential seller. I took his information over the phone, then talked a little about objectives and time-frames. I told him we would get back to him later in the day. I comped the house and read the listings history, including a cancelled listing earlier this year. My gut feeling was that the seller was way over on price, especially for this market, but I hadn’t seen the home to know for sure (ahem).

I had to show, so Cathy did a drive-by on the home, and on the basis of that, she decided that we could not do the listing: Non-homogenous use of the land, over-improved and over-priced.

She called the seller to tell him we were taking a pass, and he was shocked. He didn’t quite come out and say so, but it was clear to Cathy that he had been under the impression that a Realtor would take just about any listing. In brutal language — that all Realtors are whores.

We are not. We turn down more listings than we take, and absolutely everything has to make sense before we will take a listing. We spend a lot of time and money to make our homes sell, and we lose a lot in reputation if they don’t. This is marketing, not peddling — and not pandering.

That leads to this: Joel Burslem reports on Zillow.com’s latest conquest: Prudential California/Nevada Realty. Joel offers this:

Does this mean the real estate industry is prepared to accept Zillow as the final authority on home values? I’m sure Greg over at BloodhoundBlog will have something to say about all of this.

In answer to the question, of course that is not what they’re doing at all. As with the daily newspaper, a citadel of fact except for the horoscope column, what they’re doing is pandering to the masses — whom they regard as morons, which opinion is betrayed by the pandering.

The truth is, I have no problem with Zillow.com if it is properly understood as an Automated Valuation Model, to be used with Read more

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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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