BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Month: September 2006 (page 6 of 15)

September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #39: Work for passion, not money . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, March Choon advises us that if you work for passion, the money will come of its own:

Yes you need money to run your business but that should not be the driving force though. The issue is not to lose sight of your passion, the reason why you’re doing this instead of working for a monthly pay from someone else. Lose sight of that and your work will be tedious. What’s worse is that your customers can sense that you’re not doing it for the passion but rather for the money. That is greed. And greed is the path to the dark side…

This is a long article, and quite a bit of it strikes me as happy-babble.

I like the basic idea more than I like the execution, and I’m not 100% in love with the basic idea. I do believe in working for passion, but I think it’s important to focus your passion on things that pay well. An admirable poverty is only admired from the outside. From the inside, eventually, it can come to be a tailor-made hell.

So: Passion? You bet. Money? If you don’t make an effort to snatch it, someone else will…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #38: Strategy, timing is everything in making home offer . . .

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Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is one of my favorites from my Arizona Republic column, a strategy for making an offer on a home:

What is the absolute strategic best time to write a purchase offer? I think it’s early in the day on the first Tuesday of the month.

We want the first of the month because the seller just wrote another mortgage check and wants to know when the pain is going to stop. We want Tuesday morning because, by then, the seller will know that no offer is coming in from the weekend’s showings. We are catching the sellers at the exact moment their resistance is at its weakest.

Expressed this baldly, this may sound cold – but this is strategy, not passion. You can’t do this at all unless you can abide not getting the home.

But by making the right offer at the right time, you can save yourself thousands of dollars.

The fact is, people are almost always going to make their offer at the worst possible time — Friday or Saturday afternoon — but this is the right way of getting the job done.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #37: Weblog Review: Seth’s Blog . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Since I mentioned Seth’s Blog, why don’t we review it?

I think Seth Godin has very interesting, very useful ideas on marketing. But I think his weblog can be too much a Delphic Oracle at times.

Visually, it’s very clean. Even though he easily could, he doesn’t clutter up his message with advertising, other than promotion of his own products.

On the other hand, he sometimes doesn’t clutter up his message with message. There are times when his profundities are about as deep as a fortune cookie.

Commenting is normally turned off, but trackbacks — Typepad — are turned on, so you can communicate with Seth’s audience, if not with the man himself.

I love this weblog, but I wish it were as consistent about addressing issues as it can be about raising them…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #36: Ask the Broker: Why do people hate Realtors . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The question is Cathy’s, and it really plagues her:

Why do people hate Realtors?

It’s funny, truly, because almost nobody hates his own Realtor. Some people have real horror stories to tell, but most people don’t. To the contrary, most people have very happy, funny, charming stories to tell about the Realtor who helped them find their home.

Straight-commission sales people in general take a hit, not alone because we might seem to be more interested in the commission than in the work it takes to earn it. And, of course, there have been no end of unflattering portrayals of real estate agents in art — especially TV and movies.

Here’s my best answer, though:

Why do people hate Realtors…?

Because they think they’re supposed to…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #35: Real estate weblogging? Don’t be boring . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Seth Godin offers 56 tips on how to get traffic for your weblog. Here is tip number fifty-five:

Don’t be boring.

I actually dislike much of the advice Seth is giving, if only because you see those stunts so often. I like organic search results, and I like authentic weblog entries. If I feel too much like there is a strategy or a tactic behind a post — even if it’s only “What do I do now?” — I get creeped out.

A useful mantra: When you have nothing to say, say nothing.

That doesn’t blend well with the idea of frequently updating a weblog, but that simply means you have to dig deeper…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #34: Establish your business credibility . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Nextebizguy shoes us how to establish business credibility:

1. Showcase Your Expertise

2. Establish Your Trustworthiness

3. Increase Your Exposure

I think this is exceptionally good advice for real estate webloggers. The article offers practical tips on each of these points, but the overarching point is that pedigree means nothing. To communicate with people, you have to earn their respect first.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #33: The best time to list your house? Thursday mornings…

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is one of my special pets from my Arizona Republic column, a discussion of when to list your home for sale:

Strategically, what is the best time to list your home for sale?

My answer is as soon as possible after midnight on Thursday morning. Why? Because your house will be available to all the Realtors planning their weekend showings, but all day Thursday, the listing will show zero days on market. All day Friday, it will be one day on market. All day Saturday – the most important day of the real- estate week – your home will show only two days on market.

Obviously, the fewer days on market, the better chance the home will attract a full-price offer. But consider that even if your house does not sell until the following Saturday, it will still show only nine days on market, still benefiting from the psychological advantage of a single-digit number.

My absolute favorite question is “Why?” We have a detailed reason for everything we do, and this is a sweet example of that kind of thinking.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #32: Weblog Review: Socket Site . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The problem is surely mine, but I don’t get Socket Site. It’s beautifully executed and cogently written, but I can’t for the life of me figure out who it’s written for…

Socket Site is one of many real estate weblogs I categorize under the general heading of “listing blogs”. It seems to be — although I admit I could be wrong — a daily review of available condominiums. One could draw an analogy to restaurant reviews — except that you eat out rather more often than you buy a condominium.

So my question is: Who is the audience? A rotating population of condo buyers? A regular population of condo aficionados? Other Realtors? I just don’t get it. It’s so pretty I keep it in my feed, but I don’t understand how it’s supposed to work…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #31: Ask the Broker: What’s in a name . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is a question from me to me, one I’ve spent quite a bit of time on over the years:

What should I call my real estate brokerage?

I really hate personality marketing in real estate, so I’m much stronger on the subject of what not to do.

But here is the strategy we deployed in naming our brokerage.

First, we wanted an iconic idea — an idea that conveys a host of other ideas without explication. Odysseus the dog was an accident in our lives, but choosing the word Bloodhound was no accident. The word and the image of the dog, both in photographs and in our logo, sell a vast array of ideas about our business without our having to sell anything.

Second, we named our business “.com” to enhance our findability. We are not a realty.bot, and we will never be one, but using our web address as our business name means that our web address appears every time our business is mentioned.

An example: Every listing of ours produced by any IDX system, no matter whose, will list our web address.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #30: Real estate weblogging? Tell the world . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Online Marketing Blog’s “25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog”, here is tip number twenty-five:

Remember when web sites were a new concept and the sage advice to print your web address everywhere you print your phone number? The same advice applies for your blog.

There is no one on this earth who loves you like your mom does. Even your spouse’s love is conditioned on your continued good behavior. But your family, friends and former clients will have a warm spot in their heart for you long after you have done anything heart-warming.

As with everything in real estate marketing, you should be working your warm networks for weblog traffic.

Your weblog should be a part of all of your promotion, as well, as this tip advises.

All of this implies that you can’t have one-size-fits-all content. People will come to you with different interests. They won’t stay long if there’s nothing for them on your blog…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #29: How to increase your sales . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Problogger ‘How To…’ Group Writing Project, Larry Hendrick offers tips on how to increase your sales:

Would you like to earn more money next year? How about next month? Today I offer a method to increase your sales, and it’s not hard. It is represented with an easy-to-remember acronym: QUESTIONS. Questions that will give you the edge over your competition because they are too busy telling and not selling.
Here is the acronym with quick reminder words:

Q = qualify
U = understand
E = engage
S = state
T = timing
I = image
O = objections
N = notify
S = send

I am inordinately skeptical about sales tips ‘n’ tricks, because I think it is too easy to trip over into a rote, scripted kind of selling. But the ideas Hendrick discusses are not bad, assuming you keep your eye on the real prize: What your client truly needs — even if there is no sale involved…

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #28: Timid investor lost chance for large rental home gain . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from my Arizona Republic column, a sad story about an investor who let a small fear lead to a huge loss:

In July 2004 I was working with a potential investor. She was prosperous and well qualified, and she was buying at a time when a nice rental home in the Phoenix area could still throw off a positive cash flow.

We had settled on a newer three-bedroom home in Tolleson, a good rental area with great appreciation potential. We put the house under contract (for $135,000, if you can believe that) and began the inspections.

The sellers were in pre-foreclosure. They hadn’t done a perfect job of maintaining the home, nor had they understood their rights under the builder’s warranty. In all, the repair issues came to around $1,500.

Not tiny, but not huge. Big enough, though:

My buyer canceled the contract. I thought this was a huge mistake, so much so that I offered to pay for the repairs myself. But she was scared enough by the specter of costly repairs that she not only walked away from this house, she fled real-estate investment altogether.

That house is now worth $225,000. She has lost $90,000 — so far — over $1,500 that I would have paid.

There is no way of predicting appreciation, of course, but how long could it have take for that home to buy back $1,500 — even if I hadn’t offered to pay for the repairs myself?

The end of the story: “Fortune – and fortunes – favor the brave.”

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #27: Weblog Review: Behind the Curtain . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Jeff Brown’s Behind the Curtain is one of the most-amusing weblogs in my feed reader. Jeff writes in a folksy, avuncular style that just sweeps you up. The man is nobody’s grammarian, but you’ll forgive anything to get to the next killing joke.

Like this:

First, is it me, or does everyone everywhere think they know which way is north on the map with real estate investments? I swear, if one more person corners me at some social gathering just to tell me how they’ve ‘found the next Golden Goose’ I’m gonna scream. What makes it worse is that half of these Donald Trump types are agents and brokers who should know better than to spew their ignorance in public. I remember thinking last weekend that if this guy just spent a few minutes talking real estate while walking on my front lawn, I’d have the greenest lawn in the neighborhood.

It’s a hosted WordPress weblog, and it’s updated only infrequently. But the whole thing is so sweet and fine, like a warm pecan pie, that I’ll forgive anything.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #26: Ask the Broker: If the buyer has no agent, what does the listing agent get paid . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This question came in earlier today. It’s actually pretty simple, if you’re an insider, not so simple if not:

I am selling my house with one agent and the buyer does not have any agent. My agent brings the buyer and they put in an offer. How much commission will I owe to my agent? Is it 5% or 2.5%?

It depends on how the listing contract is written. If your agent used a boilerplate form and didn’t change it to reflect a sale with no cooperating agent, then he will take the full commission, whatever you negotiated.

That much is easy. Unfortunately for your agent, he may be entering into an undisclosed dual agency with you and the buyer, exposing him to considerable legal peril. In that circumstance, we would insist that the buyer find some sort of professional representation — to make sure the buyer is represented, to make sure that your interests are not compromised, and to cover our own behinds.

Either way, the commission you pay is going to be the same unless you made prior arrangements for a variable commission.

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September 26, 2006

Blogoff Post #25: Real estate weblogging? Who knew . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Online Marketing Blog’s “25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog”, here is tip number nineteen:

Post regularly. If it’s a news oriented blog, 3-5 times per day. If it’s an authoritative blog, 3-5 times per week, but each post must be unique and high value.

This is hard. Not what I’m doing now, but real estate weblogging in general.

Real estate is a demanding job, with very long hours, and a lot of intense but irregular activity. How are you supposed to keep up a regular blog-posting schedule as well?

I don’t know, but it’s something you’ll have to work out if you want to make real estate weblogging work for you. People have to know they can depend on you to make regular, creditable weblog entries. As hard as it is to get a reader, it’s very easy to lose one…

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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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