BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Month: April 2007 (page 5 of 8)

April 15, 2007

Better, faster and cheaper in time and effort: Software for managing the weblogging workflow

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Robbie Paplin has a new weblog and he writes there and at Rain City Guide about the Deep Geek thinking underlying his decision-making process in selecting his new blogging platform. Very interesting reading.

I spent my junk time yesterday doing fussy CSS tweaks on Teri Lussier’s weblog, TheBrickRanch.com. This is a hugely frustrating iterative process: Make one minor edit, FTP it to the file server, refresh the page, discover that the change was a mistake, undo, redo, repeat, express frustration in a way that does not exacerbate male pattern baldness.

HTML is hugely forgiving, which is not really a good thing. Web developers have worked for years with multiple computing platforms, each one home to multiple versions of multiple web browsers, all so they could see how their code would be interpreted in an array of hardware and software environments. Not cool.

But: CSS is hugely unforgiving, as crotchety and irascible as a compiled computer language — without the error messages. I was starting with a style sheet created by someone else and trying to torque it into doing what I wanted done. The worst part about making a change in CSS is not seeing that the change you made is wrong, but that the change you made changed nothing. If the original CSS was improperly formatted, the results you’re seeing on the screen are actually inherited from somewhere else. Nice.

I don’t do this for a living, not alone because there are laws against homicide. But I do have good tools, and it’s worthwhile to talk about what good tools can do to make work like this work easier if not actually easy. I live in the Mac world, so, if you’re stuck with Windows, you’ll have to translate. We’re talking about categories of tools, so this stuff exists on both platforms.

For editing, I use TextWrangler, a free programmer’s editor from BareBones Software. I use this for everything, writing, editing, coding — everything. I’ve been using BareBones editors since 1991 or so. Someday I’ll pop for the for-pay product. There is so little HTML in a weblog post, you might as well learn to Read more

April 13, 2007

Arizona Board of Appraisal to Zillow.com: In your Zestimation, does this posturing make us look stupid?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From the Arizona Republic (tipped by Adam Tarr and Sharon Kotula):

An Arizona regulatory board has ordered Zillow.com to stop offering its online estimates of home values.

The Arizona Board of Appraisal has issued two cease and desist letters to the popular real estate Web site, claiming Zillow needs an appraiser license to offer its “zestimates” in Arizona.

“It is the board’s feeling that (Zillow) is providing an appraisal,” said Deborah Pearson, Board of Appraisal executive director.

This would be in contra-distinction to all the other Automated Valuation Methods operating in the state, some of which are actually used by lenders to underwrite home loans.

All last year, I wondered when the appraisers were going to rise up and rail about consumer-level AVMs. Today was that day, it seems.

This is Rotarian Socialism in action. The so-called regulatory body serves at the beck and call of the putatively-regulated industry. They have no hope of doing anything but making themselves look ridiculous in public, but they have to answer to their allegedly regulated masters no matter what.

If this kind of corruption is just now making you sick — you haven’t been paying attention…

Further notice: Official Zillow.com response from David Gibbons:

Lloyd Frink, Zillow’s President asked me to convey this official response to you, Greg:

“We strongly believe that providing Zestimates in Arizona is completely legal (and in fact an important public service), given that Zestimates are the result of our ‘automated valuation model’ and are not a formal appraisal. The Arizona Board of Appraisals relies on USPAP, the national professional standards for appraisers, and USPAP Advisory Opinion to determine propriety of activities. Here is the relevant opinion on this matter (Advisory Opinion 18): http://commerce.appraisalfoundation.org/html/2006%20USPAP/ao18.htm As you can see, it reads: ‘The output of an AVM is not, by itself, an appraisal.'”

< ?php include("Zapraisails.php"); ?>

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April 13, 2007

Customizing your weblog with CSS and PHP: Navigating from post to post

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

If you click on an individual post in BloodhoundBlog, you’ll see something like this above the headline:

The code for doing this is built into some themes, but not in the theme we’re using. The PHP code for making it happen is actually pretty simple, you just have to plug it in in the right place. And all of this presumes you are working on a WordPress.org weblog on a host you can access by FTP. I know nothing about WordPress.com-hosted weblogs or other weblogging systems.

Where is the right place to insert the code? In the folder for the theme you are using (inside the wp-content/themes folder), you may find a file named “single.php”. If so, that’s the file you want to edit. If “single.php” is not there, you want to edit “index.php”.

Before you change anything, save a back-up copy of the file you are going to edit. That way, you can back out and try again if things don’t work out.

You are looking for this line of code:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

Immediately after that line, paste in this code:

<div class="navigation">
<div align="center"><?php previous_post_link('&laquo; %link') ?></div>
<div align="center"><?php next_post_link('%link &raquo;') ?></div><br>
</div>

Once you have edited the file, FTP it back up to the host and see what happens. If it worked, you should be able to navigate your weblog post-by-post. If it didn’t, go back and try to figure out what went wrong.

I’m going to do some more of this stuff over the weekend, but not too much. The truth is, if your mind runs this way, you’re probably better at it than I am. And if not, your eyes are already glazed over. If you’re somewhere in the middle, a little bit of simple PHP can give you a whole lot of custom control over your weblog’s behavior. To that extent, it’s worth talking about.

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April 13, 2007

Prioritize home-buying negotiation

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is me in today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link) — kindasorta, anyway. The space I get in the paper is around 350 words, which was really not enough for this topic. What you’re seeing here is my original text, about 200 words longer than the version that ran in the paper.

Prioritize home-buying negotiation

Real estate transactions are all about negotiation. Long before a house goes on the market, the seller and the listing agent will negotiate fees and terms. My take is that buyers should effect the same type of negotiation with their agents before looking at houses, but this rarely happens.

Once the buyer finds the ideal home, the Realtors negotiate price, closing dates and costs, repairs, etc. The Purchase Contract can be looked at as an agreement to agree — subject to further negotiations.

So how should you negotiate? Your Realtor is going to effect the direct negotiations with the other Realtor, but both of them are agents of their principals. They are bound by the law to obey your lawful instructions to the letter. The style of the dickering may be your Realtor’s, but the substance will be all yours.

Some people have the idea that negotiation is about hurting or taking advantage of the other party. They will ruthlessly go for the jugular at every opportunity, regarding a parley as a failure if they don’t see the other party as the clear loser in the deal. This seems to me to invite future rancor and recalcitrance, should we need a favor at the last minute in order to close the deal.

At the other extreme are those pushovers who are so afraid to stand up for themselves that they give away the store — and throw in the parking lot, too. In our current buyer’s market, sellers can be very reluctant to brook confrontation, and this may not be a bad idea. Too often, buyers are so in love with a house that they are afraid that they’ll lose it if they issue the smallest peep in protest.

So how should you negotiate? Gently but firmly, calmly and rationally, naming your reasons Read more

April 13, 2007

Exploding Heads

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Our homework was to write. I did my homework here, and I wrote a few posts on Active Rain (only because I think it would be fab if we could do the best job and win!) and I wrote on my home blog. I’ve written more this week than I thought possible. Confession: I figured I’d have about one week’s worth of posts in me, then my brain cells would dry up and I’d be done (and if you were wondering how new I am- that’s how new I am). I did not completely fully truly madly deeply understand that ideas spark ideas. Now I wake up at 5:00 a.m. without the alarm clock, regardless of how much sleep I got that night, with several ideas bouncing around my brain.

I’m also beginning to understand about the care and feeding of a blog. I’m putting thoughts in a notebook I’ve started to schlep around, or I park them in draft mode because either they are not fully incubated, or they are ideas I can quickly whip into shape if I’m short on time. My biggest concern now is that I should probably write a complete post and sit on it for awhile. I’m usually writing first thing in the morning, often in a pre-caffeinated state and after I post I look back and see the spelling and grammar and other errors of my ways. I need to learn patience.

And here’s something else I have learned this week: when I post on the BHB I’m essentially talking to strangers. Nothing personal, but we’ve only just met. When I post on AR I’m talking to colleagues. But when I write at the home blog, I’m home. I’m talking to my family and my friends, and until Greg pointed it out I didn’t realize that I do in fact visualize them sitting around the kitchen table with me. Kinda cool.

Now the insanely great idea has been revealed. More ideas sparking ideas (Stand clear- my head is going to explode!). I was thrilled to hear about this. It’s something I was vaguely working towards, but Read more

April 13, 2007

Real Estate Weblogging 101: Our story so far

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Here’s a true fact of weblogging: Sometimes you decide you want to do something that requires you to go back and edit 30 or 40 posts. As an example, imagine that you decided you wanted to add a new category. You would have to go back and re-categorize all the posts that should be shoved into that mental drawer.

I did something like this when I created the Weblogging 101 category. I went back and added that category designation where it was appropriate.

Tonight I decided to go that one better, by highlighting the more important posts in that category in such a way that I could reference them repeatedly from other posts. You’ll see me do this from time to time, where we have multiple posts on one important topic. I’ll link back to all the others from each post so that no one misses anything.

There are two ways of doing this. One is manual coding, pasted in to the affected posts again and again. The other is to use PHP, the web-based programming language WordPress itself is written in. I can write my links into a separate file, then include that file when I want to reference the links. The advantage is that I have one canonical version of the links. Moreover, the list of links is dynamic; every time I edit the list, all the posts referencing that file of links are changed accordingly.

WordPress will run PHP unaided in many places on a weblog, and BloodhoundBlog runs on a lot of PHP. But within what WordPress calls “The Loop,” the software that displays weblog entries, running PHP requires a plug-in. I use the runPHP WordPress plug-in by James Van Lommel.

So, what happens? At the end of a post like this one, I append this code inside angle brackets:

?php include ("REWL101.php"); ?

The file named REWL101.php, my file full of links, is opened and inserted at that point. When I make a change in that file, the change is instantly reflected in every post that “includes” it. I can add my set of links to dozens of posts — even making them Read more

April 12, 2007

Ask the Audience: What does the CMPS designation mean to you?

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I’ve been wondering about this Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist ( CMPS ) designation some of us loan hacks are displaying now. I remember hearing Barry Habib discuss “strategic equity management” back in 2002. I thought , “It’s about time! ” when he discussed that strategy. I had a securities brokerage background so the concept of a mortgage as a financial planning tool wasn’t alien to me.

Then they created this designation, the CMPS. I often chuckled at the litany of letters that followed a Realtor’s name on a business card. I used to think that they were somewhat narcissistic but now realize that they do represent a commitment to lifelong education. I considered the CMPS designation as one more racket.

Papa Joe (my father) used to tell me that you should wear your education like a watch; for use and not for show. I was taught that the mark of an educated man was his comportment not his resume. I still believe that but have realized that many originators whom I respect display the CMPS designation.

The CMPS designation marks membership in the Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist Institute. It means you’ve completed 18 hours of education in the areas of taxation, financial markets, cash flow and debt analysis, and most importantly, equity management. It means you’ve subscribed to a Code of Ethics that exceeds the state requirements and commit to using mortgage products as part of, what Jeff Brown would call, a purposeful plan. It means that you’ll carefully scrutinize the suitability of the mortgage recommendation to a borrower’s financial situation.

I’d like to think I practice those principles now.

I’m starting to think this is a step in the right direction for our industry. Perhaps the designation is somewhat obscure right now but it might be quite popular if ethical originators committed to such practice. The designation may be the first step to taking back our industry from the boiler rooms and point mongers. Responsible originators should build the “brand”. That’s what I’m thinking today.

So, I ask the audience? Is this designation useful? Would you prefer dealing with a CMPS? Is it worth the $1,400 Read more

April 12, 2007

Want to see Seth Godin in Phoenix? Assert yourself . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Tom Royce of The Real Estate Bloggers pointed me to The Dip, Seth Godin’s forthcoming book about the barriers that arise between the euphoria of a great idea and its realization — and why it’s sometimes wise to quit when you’re behind.

Here’s the part that is of immediate, local interest. Matt LaPrairie came up with the novel idea of mounting a pledge campaign to get Seth to speak about the book in Phoenix. The commitment:

“I will pay $50 to hear Seth Godin speak in Phoenix and receive 5 copies of his new book, The Dip, but only if 499 other people in the Phoenix area will do the same.”

So far, only 68 people have made the pledge. Unless they are joined by 431 more, Seth will go elsewhere.

This is a remarkable opportunity (and a true Purple Cow book marketing strategy for Seth), so, if you’re in the Phoenix area, sign up. And if you’re blogging in Phoenix, speak up.

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April 12, 2007

An insanely great hyper-local real estate weblogging strategy: Be the community

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

In January, I told y’all that I have an insanely great idea for making a local real estate weblog successful. I actually had the idea last Summer, and I worked out all the details and software then. But we have been busy with other things, so I’ve just been sitting on this tactic for nine months.

Just lately I promised to reveal three ideas, one good, one great, one insanely great. If I were more of a showman — or an extractor of torment — I would disclose my stratagems in that order. But: I’m not going to do that. I want to talk about the big idea today, not alone because it’s time for us to implement this on Teri’s weblog.

But I do want for you to take a moment to reflect upon what a natural Teri Lussier is as a real estate weblogger. I think the post I linked to betrays a pitch-perfect understanding of the kind of writing I was talking about the other night: Here is something we share, and here is how I am involved with this shared value. Here are some of our neighbors, and here is why I feel honored to know them. The post isn’t about real estate or radio, it’s about “us.” Us? What us? Teri’s writing creates an us, creates a tiny community of two who each see themselves in the context of the larger community.

People do business with people they like. Experience? Great. Expertise? Bring it on. Integrity? I believe it. Obnoxious? Abrasive? Condescending? Overbearing? Get the hell out of my house! By design or by accident, I think Teri has landed on the intersection between cat blogs and viral blogs, and I think this is the perfect place for a hyper-local real estate weblogger to be: Personable but professional, eliciting affection while earning trust.

She delivers one hell of an introduction to everyone she meets through her weblog. The big job is to attract more people for her to meet. We’ll be talking about simpler, more mechanical means of achieving that goal as we go along. For now we’re going to Read more

April 11, 2007

What We Can All Learn from the Union Square Caf&233;

by

Mortgage Banker

Author website

Have you ever heard of the Union Square Caf&233;? How about Blue Smoke, Tabla, Gramercy Tavern, or The Modern? If you’re not a foodie or from Back East you’re granted a temporary reprieve; but it will pay huge dividends for all of us in the RE/mortgage industry if we get to know them real fast. They are all New York restaurants owned by one of the country’s finest restaurant entrepreneurs Danny Meyer. What in the world can restaurants teach us about real estate and mortgage? In one word: hospitality.

In his new book “Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business” Meyer outlines the business philosophies that he has used to grow his organization in to a collection of the finest, highest-rated restaurants in the country. This book is worth buying by any sales or customer service professional, and in particular those in the RE/mortgage industry.

While he has many excellent philosophies and business practices the one I want to highlight here is “The Art of Hospitality.” From the book:

Understanding the distinction between service and hospitality has been at the foundation of our success. Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes its recipient feel. Service is a monologue — we decide how we want to do things and set our own standards for service. Hospitality on the other hand, is a dialogue. To be on a guest’s side requires listening to that person with every sense, and following up with a thoughtful, gracious appropriate response.

Mr. Meyer makes a point here that is so often missed in our attempt at providing excellent customer service. If we’re fanatical about customer service, and we should be, we’ve done a lot of legwork in developing a customer experience that utilizes best practice customer service elements. Having a real human answer the phone, returning phone calls, providing expert insight and opinion, are all necessary parts of the execution of excellent customer service. The top agents are able to consistently, predictably deliver excellent customer service. They are technically excellent, and that separates them from the rest Read more

April 11, 2007

Birth of a Zillow.bot: A faster way to pee on the tree

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I have a little prototype of a Zillow.bot. Here is all it does for now:

  • It takes as input a download of listings from the ARMLS system
  • It isolates the street address, the price, and the listing brokerage, throwing away all the other fields
  • It sorts these newly concatenated fields by street name and house number, pumping the results to the screen for printing or post-processing in an Excel spreadsheet

The gross idea is that a human input operator can work street by street in Zillow, which is more convenient and less error-prone than working in price order, which is how the MLS system sorts listings. (Plus which, there is no Excel-sortable ARMLS report that includes the name of the listing brokerage.)

Ahem #1: I can convert the output to an XML file in four minutes, tops.

Ahem #2: If I get bored enough with doing this work manually, I’ll figure out a way to do it in JavaScript.

Actually, the real grief is going to be hot-sheeting every search.bot I build for my little Zillow.bot. If I pee on the tree when the house is listed for sale, I have an obligation to hose it off when it sells. This is a challenge for automation…

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April 11, 2007

A year at the beach: It’s The San Diego Home Blog’s birthday

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Time flies when you don’t get any sleep. The San Diego Home Blog, brainchild of Kris and Steve Berg, turns one year old today.

If you’re reading Kris here, you are seeing some of the best writing in the RE.net. If you’re not reading the Bergs at their home weblog, you’re missing out on a lot of fun and serious and seriously funny writing.

But wait. There’s more. Steve Berg weighs in with his own anniversary post.

As it happens, all three of our San Diego webloggers — Kris Berg, Brian Brady and Jeff Brown — were completely neglected in a San Diego Business Journal feature on real estate weblogging. An egregious omission, I know, but at least we know better.

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April 11, 2007

It’s FEWER, stupid! Why buyers should interview their agents.

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

Do you know what the most common name in America, or perhaps the world, is? Undisclosed Recipient.

From another inductee into the Realtor&174; Hall of Shame, yesterday I received a most exciting offer. “Mr. Realtor”, as he calls himself, had this to say:

When I was in the trenches, I always tried VERY hard to spend at the MOST 3 hours with a buyer AND sell them a home. It didn’t work EVERY time, but it did work MOST of the time.

Now, this just impressed the socks off of me and made me proud as punch to call myself a Real Estate Professional. After all, my goal when assisting buyers is to sell them something in record time so that I can move on to my next victim sucker easy mark client.

I understood one fact…

I am suddenly riveted to my computer screen, as I sense the voice of authority coming my way.

The more houses a buyer sees, the more confused they get – and you along with them. Let’s be honest. After you show 10 homes, no one remembers much.

Amen, brother! I just get all those silly houses confused. I saw eight homes during the Broker Open House yesterday, and I’ll be darned if I can remember one from the next. Yet, I know all the words to the Green Acres theme song, and I managed to put my socks on the right feet this morning. Go figure.

Mr. Real Estate is shopping his book “Secrets of Selling a Home in 3 Hours or Less”. Wind-up, pitch:

You’ll discover how you can “program” the buyer in your office first. In the book you’ll see how they buyers were “pre-sold” in the office.

I have to wonder if “they buyers” knew they were being programmed. I also have to wonder how one sleeps nights promoting the showing of “less” houses in the name of making a fast buck.

The message from Mr. Real Estate got progressively more painful. It involved a P.S. (suggesting that you “sell” the buyer anything even if he can’t afford it, or someone else will), a P.P.S. (announcing the must-attend upcoming seminar), and a Read more

April 10, 2007

Zadvertising on Zillow.com

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I’m pleased with the first week’s run of my EZ Ads on Zillow; my hypotheses were mostly correct and I received a $500 loan commission from the ads. I’m making ten times the investment so that works for me.

From Zillow:

Loans For Long Beach  
04/05/2007
04/12/2007 774 2
Downtown Condo Loans
04/05/2007 04/12/2007 781 5 Running
Verrado’s Lender
04/04/2007 05/04/2007 157 3 Running
FQ Story’s Lender
04/04/2007 04/11/2007 816 8 Running
Del Mar’s #1 Lender
04/04/2007 04/11/2007 888 8 Running

Let me walk you through my initial analysis:

1-I picked Long Beach, CA (first two ads) because I do business there. There aren’t a lot of posted listings and the price point isn’t that high. The OC Register suggested that higher price point neighborhoods attract higher users on Zillow . Long Beach has an active historical district so I need to ask Laurie Manny about the right zip codes.

2-Verrado is an upscale neighborhood in the suburban Phoenix city of Buckeye. I picked it because Tony Marriott lives and works there. It is not fully developed which accounts for the low impressions. I did receive an e-mail from a seller discussing lease options so one of the three was a real inquiry. There aren’t many posted listings there so this success is an anomoly to me. This neighborhood has promise because most professionals will forget it and it has a high price point.

3-F.Q. Story is an historical neighborhood in Central Phoenix where Greg and Cathleen market. I originally picked this zip code as a juvenile prank so my mug would show up next to Cathy’s listing; I wanted to needle Greg. What I didn’t count on is that the homeowners there are maniacal about real estate. FQ Story homeowners pour so much of their heart and money into their restored homes. They are well educated and tech savvy. FQ Story is the perfect target market for Zillow. I’m going to stay in this neighborhood and amend my ad to say “No Cost Historical Renovation Loans”. The homeowners have good credit, plenty of equity, and a need for a home equity line of credit for remodeling. It helps that Greg uploaded some 30-40 listings.

4-The final advertisement is targeted at zip codes near where I live. I uploaded 60-70 listings to Read more

April 10, 2007

Russell Shaw at the StarPower Summit: “What the hell are you thinking?”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

As promised, appended below is an audio podcast of Russell Shaw’s performance two weeks ago at the StarPower Summit in Phoenix.

Russell is talking about pricing homes in a buyer’s market, and it might be worthwhile to share this podcast with your listing clients to help them understand the marketplace.

He gives a strong endorsement to this summer’s StarPower Annual Conference, to be held July 25-28 here in Phoenix. Russell will be speaking, and Cathy and I will be there, along with who knows who else from the Phoenix-area RE.net.

Russell insists that you can “catch success” by making contact with the StarPower stars. I understand what he’s talking about, but I’m a hard-headed guy. I see tremendous value in the marriage of like minds, spending your time with people who share your values and help you to uphold them. And I can see the benefit of modeling admirable behavior, a strong chord in Cathy’s response to the StarPower Summit. My own take: Mu&233;streme el dinero. Show me the money. I want practical ideas that I can adapt, implement and profit from.

I think you’ll find all three of these at the StarPower Conference, but there is one thing you can learn for sure: Russell Shaw is a rare treasure, but he is not unprecedented. There are dozens of Realtors in the U.S. working at his level, and hundreds more approaching his stratospheric level of production. If you come to Phoenix, you can meet them, model them and, one hopes, learn how to duplicate their systems.

As a reminder, the second Russell Shaw Sale Success Seminar is a week form today, Tuesday, April 17th. Chances are, Russell will talk about the StarPower experience there, as well.

To the podcast. We’re clipped at little tighter at the leading and trailing ends than I might have done, and we lose a lot by not seeing what Russell is doing. But this is a very powerful presentation on how to list wisely and what to expect if you don’t. Does that sound dull? You’re in for a treat…

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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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