BloodhoundBlog

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Month: September 2006 (page 5 of 15)

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #54: How to be an unbearable co-worker . . . ?

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Aspiring Spirit defines the fine are of being an unbearable co-worker:

Always show up late for meetings. Make it clear that you were busy and had to “squeeze” a few minutes out of your precious time to attend this meeting. Do not forget to regularly interrupt your co-workers in mid-sentence and disrupt their train of thought. If they try to continue speaking, raise your voice and waive your hands. While sitting in the meeting, whip out your blackberry (or any other communication device that you are carrying; the more the better) and start fiddling with it. For bigger impact, do this while speaking or listening to someone while they’re trying to make a point.

Do not agree with any of your co-worker’s points. If you have to, just say “we will have to discuss this offline”. If you see that the meeting is too focused or running smoothly, run off on a tangent. Resist every attempt to re-focus the meeting by insisting on the importance of your tangent.

Schedule as many meetings as you can with total disregard for your co-workers’ time and workload. Make sure to pick the worst time for a meeting, like just before the end of the day. And always make sure that the meeting extends beyond the scheduled time.

This is why I’m an entrepreneur…

I might be an Insufferable Bastard, but I will never ever waste your time at work — if only because that would be a waste of mine, too.

Aspiring Spirit’s article rocks, though. Read the whole thing…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #53: Vacant property requires attention . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is a favorite from my Arizona Republic column:

I will walk into a vacant house and immediately the odor hits my nose. Worse than cat urine in the carpet or cigarette smoke in the walls.

“That’s just sewer gas,” I’ll say quickly, trying to take away the objection before it is raised. “This house is unoccupied, so the water in the J-pipes under the sinks has evaporated. All we have to do is run water in the sinks and the smell won’t be able to get into the house.”

All that is true, but there is more that I won’t say if I don’t have to: Those giant red cockroaches called sewer roaches can also invade a house through dried-out J-pipes. But if I don’t see any sewer roaches, I don’t want to talk about them.

This highlights just one of the special problems that go into selling your house when no one is living in it.

I much prefer vacant houses. Cathy likes things staged, but I like to be able to see the rooms. Plus, I can always work in an vacant house — provided the utilities are on:

The water must be on, and not just because of the J-pipes. People will use your bathrooms, and a toilet stores one or at most two flushes without replenishment.

The power must be on. Not only do buyers want to see that electrical fixtures and appliances work, we may be looking at the home after dark.

If the home is plumbed for natural gas, the gas must be on. This one will cause a problem during inspections, too, because, by contract, all major systems must be functional.

There’s more covered in the column, particularly the idea that a vacant home needs extra security attention: “An unoccupied house is a target for thieves and vandals, so enlist one or more neighbors to keep an eye on things.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #52: Weblog Review: 360 Digest . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Marlow Harris’ 360 Digest weblog is a must-read feed. I say she’s serious, but she insists that her love of all things Elvis belies that. I say she’s serious anyway.

As with most good weblogs run by working Realtors, her site covers a lot of ground, but she seems to be more than unusually well wired-in to what is going on in the delicate dance between traditional and dot.com real estate companies. Reading her can be much more informative than prowling news sites.

If I have a complaint, it’s that she doesn’t write enough. But the quality of what she does write is so high that this seems almost like caviling.

Witness:

Lots of interesting changes and business partnerships emerging lately. I wonder how many more opportunities are still available. I checked MSN and AOL, and they’re both already hooked up with Realtor.com. Prudential has a deal with Yahoo. Seattle’s Real Property Associates is running a feed directly to Trulia (I like watching what they’re doing, as co-owner Gordon Stephenson is on the Board of Directors at Zillow.) I don’t see any reason why our other two local players, John L. Scott and Coldwell Banker Bain couldn’t also run feeds to Google Base and Trulia, but they may have their own reasons not to…

WordPress. Very clean. Very tightly coded.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #51: Ask the Broker: Do you drive a big obnoxious car . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This came up in a comment from a bubble head a few weeks ago. In truth, it’s nobody’s damned business, but it is a matter of concern around here:

What kind of car do you drive?

I drive a Hyundai Elantra Wagon:

Her name is Beatrice, after the gorgeous Weimaraner in Best In Show. “BHND-01” is our brokerage code in the MLS, so “BHND ME” is me, the broker.

I have a problem with Realtors who drive big, obnoxious cars. This job pays very well, if you do it right, but I think it’s both a poor use of money and poor salesmanship to drive around in an Escalade or a Hummer. Each man to his own saints, but my Beatrice is the best girl for this job, in my opinion.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #50: Real estate weblogging? Write about blogging . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

More from Seth Godin offers 56 tips on how to get traffic for your weblog. Here is tip number thirty-eight:

Write about blogging.

This may well be the most self-referential medium in the history of media. That’s okay. Discursive prose is how we think orderly thoughts, and writing about weblogging is how we get better at weblogging.

The beautiful thing about this conversation is that sharing the purely introspective also amplifies it, while apprehending the amplified thoughts of others yields a better state of introspection. We become a forum, an agora — blog to blog, within a blog and within our own minds, solitarily engaged in the most blaringly public of debates. Very cool…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #49: How BloodhoundBlog breaks all the rules of punctuation . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, LearningNerd brings us “English Punctuation: Commas, Semicolons, and Colons”:

The colon introduces or restates something. Unlike the semicolon, the colon can connect an independent clause to a word or phrase.

There’s lots more, including links to other sources.

I have a certain love for punctuation. I read good writing as music, and punctuation marks are the rest notes. I have my own theories on how they ought to be used, and mastery in art consists of knowing which rules to break and how.

Like this: If a period is a full stop, I want for that colon to be a screeching slamming on the brakes. I want to hear a puff of breathe at that point, so much are you stopped short. I never know how any of this sounds in any mind but my own, but it works for me…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #48: Realtors keep process free of personal issues . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from my Arizona Republic column:

I may write more in the future about the benefits of working with a Realtor, but this is the one that is most important to me: Realtors keep personal issues out of the transaction.

A real-estate transaction is financial, not personal. I like to say that every real-estate problem has a financial solution.

Not so personal problems. If there is a personal enmity between buyer and seller – over price, repairs or just because they don’t like each other – there may be no resolution to the dispute.

But here’s an interesting fact: They will probably never see each other again. Buyer and seller may never even meet in person, and once the transfer of deeds and funds is effected, there is no need for them to have any further contact.

The buyer wants the seller’s house. The seller wants the buyer’s money. And it is the job of the Realtor to keep any possible personal issues away from the transaction.

That particular column details many other reasons for working with a Realtor, but this one seems paramount to me. I see buyers and sellers learn how to despise each other even when they never meet. How much worse might this be, if they had to interact directly…?

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #47: Weblog Review: Poor and Stupid . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

For a change of pace, let’s talk about Donald Luskin’s weblog, The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid. This is one of the few political blogs I am willing to read on any regular basis. Luskin’s is nobody’s demagogue, but he himself is very smart, as are the people who share information with him.

The site is kludgey, built who knows how. The permalinks are crap — as is the case with many older political blogs.

But: So what? Luskin has the inside track, especially on economics, and his writing, while sometimes very dense, is always engaging.

There are constantly-updated Tradesports lines, although Luskin has nothing good to say about Tradesports lately. The irregular “Joke of the Day” feature can be outrageously funny.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #46: Ask the Broker: What do you do when you’re not drowning in text . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The is from my email, just a few minutes ago:

It’s not a real estate question, it’s a blogging question. Just wondering how much your traffic is up today during this blog off with Ardell? I know Jon Ernest is doing a live play-by-play, but how many others are tuning in and keeping up with you?

One of my favorite films is Norman Jewison’s version of Jesus Christ Superstar, and one of my favorite scenes in that movie is the pantomime of TV news reporters interviewing the Nazarene as he is being taken to his trial before the Sanhedrin.

Not to be offensive, but this is the same kind of thing, I think. I am writing to avoid drowning by now. I am nearing the halfway point, debating whether I should sleep or press on for now. I hear pingbacks hitting my mail every minute or so, but I have no idea what is going on away from my keyboard. I only read this question because I want more “Ask the Broker” questions.

What’s going on? Probably a lot. What do I know about it? Nothing.

Sorry…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #45: Real estate weblogging? Yo, Shlomo! Cut back on the promo . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

More from Seth Godin offers 56 tips on how to get traffic for your weblog. Here is tip number forty-seven:

Don’t promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader’s attention.

This one goes miles for me. I have no objection to you telling me about your product — particularly how it solves some problem at hand — provided there is a real problem that is really at hand. But if you’re just going to give me a commercial, do it on your web-site — or on TV.

This is a hard row to how, a thin line to toe, given that most real estate webloggers are blogging, at least in part, to drum up business. The bottom line is, if you start to look like spam to me, I’ll start to treat you like spam. How is that to your advantage…?

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #44: Getting the most out of your brain . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, The Life Coaches Blog offers instruction in getting the most out of your brain:

Your Brain: it’s not just there to look good. Treat it well, feed it right, work it out, push it on, let go of the burden and give it some love, and instead of a beat-up old bicycle you’ll transform it into a rip-roaring Ferrari smokin’ down the tracks.

The article outlines a brain maximizing strategy, and also details how you can lose brain function — and not just by staying up all night writing blog posts!

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #43: The owner who blocks his own sale . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from my Arizona Republic column:

I love this one: Not only is the home I’m showing occupied, the seller is right there. Blocking the doorway. Hovering over the buyers. And smoking — inside the house.

It’s rare to find a seller this talented at obstructing the sale of his or her home. But many sellers manage to get in their own way despite themselves.

The most common way — and it probably seems harmless to you — is by making the house unavailable to show. I call at 10 a.m., seeking to show at 10:30. You entreat me to come at noon instead, which means you’re asking me to backtrack a long way for one house. If my buyers find something else they like, your home may lose by default.

Ideally, the home should be vacant. If you can’t afford to move, move everything you can. Buyers have to be able to mentally “place” their own furniture, and they can’t do that if the house is too crowded.

Go out when the home is being shown. Don’t hang around outside — take a walk. Absent yourself all day every Saturday and Sunday. Give the buyers the freedom to explore the house.

And don’t give the buyers’ Realtor the opportunity to probe you for your motivations and level of urgency — which will be used against you in negotiation.

The article goes on to detail things that should be addressed to make the home most presentable — and therefore most market-ready: Cleanliness, pets, smoking and other odors.

The bottom line: “If you want an easy, profitable sale, stay out of your own way.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #42: Weblog Review: Copyblogger . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Copyblogger is a marketing weblog with a huge following. I like the content, to a degree. But to an even greater degree, I approach it with a certain kind of dread.

I am very aware of how easy it is to manipulate people into doing things they ought not do. I’m not accusing blogger Brian Clark of anything untoward. And yet, the motive, goal and purpose of Copyblogger is teaching people how to write manipulative copy.

There is a thin line between copy that is good, effective and useful, and copy that pushes buttons people don’t even know they have. Maybe I’m worrying too much, but this is the stuff you gotta watch.

Here’s a simple way of judging things: If you don’t want to name the motive behind the copy you’re writing — that motive is probably manipulative. Everybody’s got their own to look out for, but they shouldn’t have to be on the look out for you…

The site itself is simply gorgeous, beautifully designed. WordPress, of course.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #41: Ask the Broker: What will it take to make Phoenix a true city . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The is another one of Cathy’s questions:

What will it take to make Phoenix a true city?

It’s actually pretty simple. All Phoenix really needs, to become a true city in the way that people think of New York City or Chicago, is…

Cooler weather.

What makes other cities look and feel like cities is mass outdoor ambulation: People walking around.

People don’t do that here. It’s amazingly more convenient to drive, anyway. But even allowing for that, there is something about $1,000 suits and 115 degree heat that just don’t work well together.

Phoenix could build something like a downtown in the form of an air-conditioned indoor plaza, but there will be no true downtown life here until something like that is built…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #40: Real estate weblogging? Post on weekends . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

More from Seth Godin offers 56 tips on how to get traffic for your weblog. Here are tips number forty-one and forty-three:

Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.

Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.

In real estate weblogging, there are a lot more readers on weekdays than on weekends. So why should you bother posting on weekends at all? Because that’s your chance to draw attention to your weblog when there is less competition.

If you can get people to read even one thing you’ve written when they have a little extra time, they may just go ahead and read everything…

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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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