BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Month: September 2006 (page 12 of 15)

September 11, 2006

Negotiating buyer representation: “Real estate is probably the only industry that doesn’t respect fully the person who pays . . .”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

On the general topic of buyer representation, Jim Duncan at Real Central VA has a post up about being very choosy about which clients he will take on.

Interestingly, Jim provides a link to a specimen copy of a Virgina Asscoation of Realtors Buyer Broker Exclusive Employment Agreement.

I think this is a fine idea. We make copies of all of the commonly-used Arizona buyer contract forms available on our web site. Here is a link to a specimen copy of an Arizona Asscoation of Realtors Buyer Broker Exclusive Employment Agreement.

We are talking about how we might prepare this document differently, but for now we amend it as follows: The compensation listed on line 17 is “$10.00 or any mutually-agreeable sum.” The retainer fee on line 25 is “$0.00.” And at line 48 we add our standard firing clause: “This agreement will be terminated without recourse upon written notice by either party.”

My essay on empowering the buyer to negotiate the fees for their own representation is included in this week’s Carnival of Business at My 1st Million at 33. Frugal accuses me of being unfocused, to which my sole retort is a diffused glare, but adds this:

It really angers me that the sellers and the agents just don’t know who comes up with the loan or cash to pay their bills. Real estate is probably the only industry that doesn’t respect fully the person who pays.

I think that is beyond brilliant…

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September 11, 2006

Information wants to be free — and browsers just want to shop without being hassled . . .

by

Realtor, Staging Consultant

Author website

On 360 Digest Gary Hodges asks Marlo Harris about the wisdom of letting people search from the IDX system on a Realtor’s web site without registering on the site:

Now, knowing that this service probably cost thousands of dollars to provide; shouldn’t there be some way to “enroll” them in this service, with the hopes that the “searcher” will make contact with that agent and/or mortgage broker?

Gary (and anyone else with this point of view), what you can do instead is make your site sticky, and then use that to build loyalty rather than trying to capture it.

Some people have the opinion that people won’t value anything that they get for free, and to a certain extent I agree. But, we’re not selling information. It’s already available for free. We’re building relationships. I think prospects can be frightened off by having to blow their anonymity on your site, just to get something another agent’s site will give them free access to.

As in Marlow’s case, someone who comes to our IDX page to search the full Phoenix/Scottsdale-area MLS system needs to submit an email address only if they want to have listings sent automatically when something new comes up with the features they identified. People can understand that if they want something to be sent to them they need to give us an address to send to. But I expect most people want to browse listings without having that ever-present worry that an agent is going to start bugging them, which of course is a concern anyone has as soon as personal information is requested… make that required.

Instead of quid pro quo — you get to see my information (homes listed on MLS) if I get to see yours (contact information) — we want for you to feel free to freely browse listings from our site. Curl up in your chair, sip a cup of tea, and browse on BloodhoundRealty.com all day… for months if you want. While you’re at it, take a look at other buyer tools BloodhoundRealty.com has to offer. And then browse on over to the BloodhoundBlog to get to Read more

September 11, 2006

More August housing numbers for the Phoenix area . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Dr. Jay Butler of ASU has his August numbers out, and his report is faithfully echoed by The Business Journal of Phoenix. The big news: 2006 is not 2005. Who knew? The real news? August was not great but not awful. You heard it here first, And second. Fifth place will go to the Arizona Republic, probably with a lot more spin…

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September 11, 2006

Nine 9/11 links . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Gaping void:

Douglas Heddings at True Gotham isn’t writing about real estate today, and I understand and respect his reasons. It’s business as usual here today, but also for a 9/11 reason. I didn’t show for 29 days in a row after the attacks. You could say it’s a testament to American fortitude that we able to swallow hard and get on with it in only a month — but at the time it didn’t seem quite that fast.

In that spirit, Jim Duncan discusses the costs and benefits of being a Realtor on call.

I missed this when it appeared last week, but Marlow Harris weighs in on a weighty and serendipitously titled topic: Real Estate Agent Jihad.

It doesn’t do to insist that the sky cannot fall. Five years ago today it did. But The Real Estate Bloggers have a nice take on bubble frenzy: “Will we see the huge housing increases again for a while on a national level, probably not. But will we see wholesale carnage on the horizon? I sincerely doubt it. A deep breath and a little logic will go a long way to understanding the market.” Amen.

On the subject of phlegmatic logic, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy publishes something I’ve been dying to see: A 35-year interest rate chart. I’m going to blow it up and stick on the wall in my office.

Also at The Real Estate Bloggers (blogrolled), a link to a slide-show of the Freedom Towers in New York.

Whether the topic is 9/11, real estate — enbubbled or not — interest rates or something else, today is a good day to try on your blogging shoes. Sellsius° is offering an open mike to people who have something to say but don’t have a weblog of their own.

Wired: 9/11: Birth of the Blog.

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September 10, 2006

My 9/11 prayer . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Cathy and I watched The Path to 9/11 on television tonight. I had forgotten that we were in Metro New York for the Turn of the Millennium. My father lives in Connecticut, and we went there that year for New Year’s Day. The photo you see is my son crawling all over a bronze statue of a stock broker in Liberty Park, directly across from what was then the Merrill Lynch Building — on December 30, 1999.

I lived in Manhattan for ten years, from 1976 to 1986. For quite a few of those years, I worked just across from Liberty Park, in the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway. At the other end of that little brick park was the southeast entrance to the World Trade Center complex.

I worked insane hours in those days, and, very often, when I got out of work, I would go sit at this tiny circular plaza plopped down between the Twin Towers. Not quite pre-dawn, still full dark, but completely deserted — and to be completely alone in New York City is an accomplishment. I would throw my head back and look up at the towers, the fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony running note-perfect through my head.

Everything I am describing was either destroyed or heavily damaged on September 11, 2001. Along with the lives of thousand of innocents. Along with the comfort and serenity of their families. Along with the peace of the entire world.

I don’t believe in any heaven except for this earth, this life — the heaven we make every day by pursuing the highest and best within us. The World Trade Center had its faults. I can detail every one. But it was a piece of the sublime, a proud testament to how high, how good our highest and best can be. I don’t believe in heaven, but when I think of what was done that day, I pray there is an everlasting torment for the men who did it…

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September 10, 2006

Caesar’s wife on the witness stand: The moral, the practical, the marketable and the defensible approach to forbidding dual agency . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I had a great letter today from Bob Hunter of the Muljat Group about our policy forbidding dual agency. I’ll quote the whole thing first:

Greg, my wife and I are agents in Bellingham, Wash and I have a question relating to your position on dual agency. Our brokerage is a 100% desk fee operation. The broker takes no cut from any commission. Why would a transaction between two agents from this office harm either of the parties? I have read your website (twice) and think I understand your philosophy (since your make it very prevalent marketing appears to be a pretty important motivator also). Still, in our situation I’m not sure how the clients are harmed.

We have tried different strategies, I represent one client, my wife the other, referring one client to another agent in our office, representing both clients. We have not yet referred to an agent out of our office. In all the years of doing this, we do more dual agency than the industry standard, I can think of only one instance where the buyer ‘felt’ his interests were not being represented fully. The transaction would have the same result with separate agents but any bad feelings are negative. In retrospect we should have contributed money to his cause which would have alleviated any feelings of misplaced loyalty.

If dual agency is outlawed and if the consumers rail against it, then it is a moot point, but I am still interested in your opinion of our office dynamics and why it is not equitable or ethical.

I read your blog regularly and hope to start my own.

thanks

Bob Hunter
The Muljat Group Realtors

Dual agency has a bad reputation for three reasons, only one of which is wholly deserved. That one is true double-dipping agents or brokers who are looking for the biggest payday regardless of who gets hurt. Second is the public’s perception of dual agency, which is colored to some degree by negative opinions about real estate agents generally. But third is the conviction, justified or not, on the part of buyers and sellers that dual agency resulted in unfair Read more

September 9, 2006

The FSBO and BUBBA variety hour: How to make the buyer’s agents dance . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Our friend, colleague and personal marketing god, Richard Riccelli is getting ready to FSBO his Boston townhouse. He’s spent a year planning this down to the last detail, including condo-izing his property into two apartments so that they can be sold separately — or together if someone wants a residence plus servant’s quarters.

Richard was all over the idea of being a risk-loving seller, offering “broker participation” in such a way that a buyer can choose what, if anything, to pay for representation. This is the language he’s using on his promotional materials:

Buyers or buyer-designated brokers receive 2.5% of sale price at closing.

Perfect! A 2.5% commission is normal in Boston, and agents are always looking for that “broker participation” rider on a FSBO sign before they’ll invest any effort. But if a buyer wants to come in as a BUBBA — a buyer unrepresented by a buyer’s agent — the money’s there for closing costs or whatever.

It’s not quite right out there that the buyer can decide how that money is to be divided, if the buyer hires an agent, but there is nothing to keep the buyer from figuring it out. Either way, Richard gets what he wants: Avid interest either from buyers or from their agents.

With three exceptions, the silence from the real estate community on the idea of paying the buyer to pay the agent, rather than paying the agent directly, has been deafening. But there is more to real estate than Realtors. Unrepresented and semi-unrepresented sellers aren’t going to be invited to the Association of Realtors golf tournaments anyway. Writing their “broker participation” language the way Richard did makes perfect sense for them.

And that’s why it makes sense for Realtors, too. Whether they are correct or not, many people believe they can buy a home by themselves. In states where one or more attorneys are going to be involved anyway, they just might be right. Even in Arizona, if you have identified the property, agreed with the seller on terms and have effected the due diligence amicably, a title company will do all the necessary paperwork in exchange Read more

September 9, 2006

Fanmail — or fanning the flames mail: “So maybe you should just sit back and keep your mouth shut . . . “

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Here’s an email I got regarding this week’s Arizona Republic column, detailing how the buyer actually pays the “seller paid closing costs”:

Hello Greg,

I was incensed at your first article about the buyer paying for everything but I didn’t feel the need to waste my time writing to you.

However, now you seem to just be digging yourself a deeper hole. You have now enraged BOTH the buyers and sellers. Good for you!

Obviously, if you had such a response to your article by agents and brokers, I would think that you would take time to pause to realize just what you did to our industry. But now you insist on pounding your ridiculous theory yet another week. You’re only making a fool of yourself. And buyers and sellers will realize this too.

It’s sad to see someone like you in the industry. Your article about dual agency was also way off base. Remember, we’re all in this together. So maybe you should just sit back and keep your mouth shut.

Regards,
Cindy Kingery

Cindy Kingery, Associate Broker, e-Pro
Windermere Real Estate/Surprise

Just as a matter of reference, the calls I get from ordinary people, not Realtors or brokers, are overwhelmingly supportive. But also as a matter of reference, the calls I get from Realtors and brokers are almost always line-blocked, and rarely do I get so much as a first name out of those callers. Cindy is to be commended for putting her name behind her words.

That said, I disagree that “we’re all in this together”. I think that attitude perfectly encapsulates what is wrong with real estate brokerage as it is currently practiced. I work for — and only for — my clients. If other Realtors make money as the result of my efforts, that’s a secondary consequence. My entire loyalty is owed to my clients. After that, I owe a duty of honesty to everyone. The buyer pays for everything in a real estate transaction. That’s the truth. To say anything else, or to “keep [my] mouth shut”, would be dishonest.

I have better surprises for you, Cindy. This week I plan to disclose how Read more

September 9, 2006

Riffing on poetry . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I wrote this as a speech many years ago. The little boy mentioned here towers over me by now…

Riffing on poetry…

My son Cameron is being confirmed this Easter. One of his jobs before then is to memorize the Nicene Creed, which is the shortest statement of Catholic doctrine. He was complaining to me how hard it is to memorize. I didn’t argue. Instead, I said:

The screen door slams. Mary’s dress sways.
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays.
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely.
Hey, that’s me, and I want you only.
Don’t turn me home again,
I just can’t face myself alone again.
Don’t run back inside, darling,
you know just what I’m here for.
So you’re scared and you’re thinking
that maybe we ain’t that young anymore.
Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night.
You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright.
Oh and that’s alright with me.
You can hide ‘neath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain
For a savior to rise from these streets
Well now I’m no hero, that’s understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood
With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey what else can we do now?

What is it? Thunder Road, by Bruce Springsteen. I gave Cameron every word, start to finish, more than 400 words.

He said, “But still, dad.” So I said:

Early one morning the sun was shining,
I was laying in bed
Wondering if she’d changed at all
If her hair was still red.
Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama’s homemade dress
Papa’s bankbook wasn’t big enough.
And I was standing on the side of the road
Rain falling on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I’ve paid some dues getting through,

What was I? Tangled Up In Blue, by Bob Dylan. I said every one of the almost 600 words in that song.

And it got me thinking about poetry. Poetry is about memorization first. It’s much older than discursive prose, and it was born not as some effete art form, but as an essential element Read more

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