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October 26, 2008

Real estate and the ties that bind: “I have to warn you, my mom’s a bit crazy”

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Just because I write on Bloodhound, doesn’t mean I have a big mouth… Or does it? Either way, when I’m with clients I try to do more listening than talking. I can’t help them if I don’t know what they are thinking.

I enjoy working with young clients. I love the energy, the enthusiasm, the optimism. It doesn’t matter how experienced they are at buying property, it’s their youthfulness that is so fun to be around. We establish a rapport quickly, and my blog helps with that. I’m told by these clients that they read my blog, so they know they can trust me. Older clients don’t read my blog- they find me elsewhere- so the trust is slower in coming. The agent/client relationship is much more solid at a faster pace with blog readers.

Yesterday I spent a glorious fall day walking acreage with a young couple from out of town. We have been emailing and phone calling for about two months now. They were in town in September to look at property, but I was at BlogWorld. A colleague was kind enough to jump in and show them around, but the couple and I missed the chance to look each other in the eyes, shake hands, size each other up, all those physical things that happen in a face-to-face meeting.

They decided they wanted to look at acreage, farmland. They have some farming experience in Europe, and Mom farms and Mom will be spending time with them here. Mom wants a farm. They were coming to town this weekend and we found some properties that met their criteria, set up the appointments. Oh and by the way, Mom is here, so she’ll be coming.

This sometimes happens with young clients. Mom and Dad, my generation or older, have some experience with real estate, and real estate agents. They are in town, so either they are coming along to make sure their babies are not getting ripped off, or they are coming along to give real advice and a second opinion.

Always, I get prepped from the daughters: “My mom is coming along. I have Read more

October 25, 2008

Why Bloggers Fail To Become Top Producers

by

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

Author website

I know your secret.  Honestly…I do.

You aren’t knocking the ball out of the park, regardless of your blogging effort.  You play around on Twitter, Facebook, Active Rain, and might even comment on Bloodhound Blog.  You’re probably REALLY smart and can’t believe that you’re having problems in business.  I know you are; I’ve read most of your blog posts, Tweets, and Facebook messages.  You fancy yourself ethical.  I believe that, too.

Why is a smart, ethical real estate agent like you failing then?

You got hoodwinked.  Tricked.  Sold a bill of goods.  That snake oil you bought?  Web 2.0- it was supposed to be the new way to do business; you just didn’t realize it was gonna take 3-5 years.  It’s taking longer than you imagined and you’re stuck.  Your spouse is riding your ass as she punches a clock while you play on Twitter.  Your kids wonder why you treat the occasional prospect who calls you to Ruth’s Chris while making them eat off the value menu at Mc Donald’s. You’re failing because you bought into the hype and you’re scared to admit that you blew it.

That’s okay- it’s not your fault.

You see, I got hoodwinked too.  I was all puffed up, speaking in San Francisco and New York like I was some kind of expert.  As I was hob-nobbing with the RE.net, I heard more than one of the “blogging elite” talk about their fear of personal foreclosure.  I heard the practitioners talk about losing their homes and the tech gurus talk about how rich they were getting…

…off the poor practitioners whom they appointed “experts”. THAT disgusted me.

I knew I had to make a VERY big change in my life.  I was following the “wrong crowd” and if I kept it up, I’d be face-down, lying in the gutter, with no customers at all.  I definitely didn’t want that…so I made some changes.  Those changes, combined with the things I learned from the folks who DO make money online, grew my business while my competitors were submitting employment applications at the mall.

Let me do my best Joe Biden…  It’s not your fault.

Greg Read more

October 25, 2008

Foreclosure homes are sold “as-is” — but most need only minor restoration to bring them back to fully-livable condition

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link).

 
Foreclosure homes are sold “as-is” — but most need only minor restoration to bring them back to fully-livable condition

If we were to have a contest for the Valley’s most-gutted home, judging might take a while.

A significant number of homes for sale in the Phoenix area, especially at the low end of the price spectrum, are in the foreclosure process. Not all of these homes are in rough shape, but a lot of them are. At a minimum, buyers of short-sale or lender-owned homes should anticipate painting the walls and replacing the carpets.

But virtually all foreclosure homes will be sold “as-is.” This means, first, that any defects discovered in the inspection process will be the buyer’s responsibility to repair after close of escrow. But the “as-is” addendum also often implies that there may be serious deferred-maintenance issues.

Still worse, many lender-owned homes will have been looted, either by the former owners on their way out or by burglars. Missing ranges, microwave ovens and dishwashers are common. Air-conditioner compressors and hot-water heaters are also absent from many homes. It is not uncommon to see that all of the ceiling fans or all of the knobs on drawers and cabinets have been removed.

My pick for the most-gutted Valley home? The entire kitchen was gone — even the kitchen sink — and the air-handler had been removed from the attic.

I would not want to refurbish that last home, since there is no telling what else has been taken. But for most lender-owned properties, the cost of bringing the home back to livable condition is fairly low.

A new set of kitchen appliances is maybe $2,500. A brand new air-conditioner compressor is around $4,000. A decent water heater is perhaps $1,200 installed. Paint, carpet and tile in the high-traffic areas should run $5,000 for a typical suburban home, less if you do the work yourself.

There definitely are homes to avoid in this market, but there are many, many others that are selling for very low prices. These properties need only very minor restoration efforts to bring Read more

October 24, 2008

Media bias as seen from the inside: “Nothing I’ve seen has matched the media bias on display in the current Presidential campaign”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Reporter Michael Malone writing at Pajamas Media:

The traditional media is playing a very, very dangerous game. With its readers, with the Constitution, and with its own fate.

The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I’ve found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer.

But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I’ve begun — for the first time in my adult life — to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was “a writer”, because I couldn’t bring myself to admit to a stranger that I’m a journalist.

You need to understand how painful this is for me. I am one of those people who truly bleeds ink when I’m cut. I am a fourth generation newspaperman. As family history tells it, my great-grandfather was a newspaper editor in Abilene, Kansas during the last of the cowboy days, then moved to Oregon to help start the Oregon Journal (now the Oregonian). My hard-living – and when I knew her, scary – grandmother was one of the first women reporters for the Los Angeles Times. And my father, though profoundly dyslexic, followed a long career in intelligence to finish his life (thanks to word processors and spellcheckers) as a very successful freelance writer. I’ve spent thirty years in every part of journalism, from beat reporter to magazine editor. And my oldest son, following in the family business, so to speak, earned his first national by-line before he earned his drivers license.

So, when I say I’m deeply ashamed right now to be called a “journalist”, you can imagine just how deep that cuts into my soul.

Now, of course, there’s always been bias in the media. Human beings are biased, so the work they do, including reporting, is inevitably colored. Hell, I can show you ten different ways to Read more

October 24, 2008

Tiger the Caddie?

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

Last Monday Tiger Woods returned to Torrey Pines in beautiful San Diego, but not to golf.  Instead he caddied for John Abel, winner of the “Tee Off With Tiger” online sweepstakes sponsored by Buick.  This is such a great picture that I can’t help but fill in some dialogue.  Mine is below.  What do you hear them saying?

AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi

Abel: “This looks like a tough one Tiger.  What would you do here?”

Tiger: “Well, I would push this putt along a path eleven inches left of the true line, with just enough touch to clear the fringe but still allow the natural slope of the green to pull the ball back and down, dropping into the hole dead center… I have no idea what you are going to do.”

AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi

October 24, 2008

Mortgage Market Week in Review

by

Mortgage Officer

Author website

Here we are on Friday again.  That means that it’s time to try to summarize what’s going on in the mortgage and finance world.   I’m going to talk about a couple of main things:  the economic fundamentals, some earnings reports and the “margin calls” that are going on in the equity markets.

The economic fundamentals that have come out in the last week or two have all been, shall we say, poor.   Not just in the United States, but England, Asia and other places, the economic reports all show pretty solid evidence that we are either in or heading into (depending on where you are) a recession and that it’s most likely not going to be a short recession but more likely the opposite – a long and painful one.   I’m not going to go into the details of the different reports because it would be too depressing.

Earnings Reports (or shall we say, loss reports?)   I’m going to do something a little different this time.   I’m going to give you the numbers and then later in the e-mail, I’ll tell you who they matched with.   Here’s the numbers:

-$81,000,000
-$700,000,000
-$23,900,000,000
+$4,370,000,000

(oh and these are all just for the most recent 90 days).

Here’s the choices for the companies who made them:

National City Bank
Microsoft
Fifth Third Bank
Wachovia
I’ll tell you a bit further down which one did which……

Now for a few thoughts about what’s going on in the equity markets and how that has an impact on the mortgage and real estate markets.   Here’s an overview of it:

1. The mortgage backed securities market is a highly leveraged market.

2. As approximately 5 to 7% (that’s right, it’s only 5 to 7% of all mortgages that are causing this problem) go bad, the value of the mortgage backed securities (also known as Collateralized Debt Obligations or CDO’s) fall dramatically.   Since they are highly leveraged, the investors have to come up with additional cash, typically lots of it.

3. That is, in an oversimplified nutshell, what is causing the significant sell offs in the stock market and the bond market at the Read more

October 24, 2008

Two weeks to BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Orlando: Learn how low-cost prospecting techniques can help you dominate in 2009

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I gather through the grapevine that the NAR Convention is shaping up to be a somber if not quite funereal event. Travel budgets are much constrained. That’s understandable. I can’t see a cost-benefit payoff of going to yet another vendorfest.

But BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Orlando is another basket of oranges. We are about nothing but teachable tools, tips, tricks, tactics and techniques that you can use to start snagging new business right away. Even better, most of the things we talk about are highly-leveraged: Minimum expenditure, maximum results. If you’re a Realtor or lender running in survival mode, we’ll show you how to get more bang for fewer bucks — right now.

If you’re coming to Orlando anyway — or if you already live in the Southeastern United States — make time for us. We’ll show you how to make more money for yourself.

Click on the PayPal button shown below to get your $99 ticket for BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Orlando on Friday, November 7th, 2008


















When: Friday, November 7th, 2008, 8 am to 8 pm

Where: Crowne Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, Orlando Airport, 5555 Hazeltine National Dr, Orlando, FL 32812

See you in two weeks!

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October 23, 2008

The Last Vestige of Respect… Gone

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

With a little over a week to go in this election, we can finally all come together in agreement on one issue.  Whether you are voting for McCain: the logical vote, or voting for Obama: the emotional vote, or voting third party: the non-viable vote (unfortunately) – one thing has become clear.  The mainstream press has given up all pretense of being unbiased in their coverage.  They are blatantly shilling.  Whether we like the candidate they are whoring for or not, any respect we could have is gone.  The fourth estate has lost all legitimacy.

This final nail in the coffin was delivered by CNN earlier this week.  By all accounts, CNN has been as neutral as possible during the election.  They appear a little left of center by most accounts, yet they have been relatively even in their coverage.  What respect they deserved is now gone too.  On Tuesday night, Drew Griffin interviewed Governor Sarah Palin.  Watch the video at about 1:25 in and listen to the question Mr. Griffin asks of Governor Palin.  She is visibly shaken by it:

Now please read the actual paragraph that Mr. Griffin is quoting from the National Review.  It was written by Byron York (not a difficult fact to find out Mr. Griffin) :

Watching press coverage of the Republican candidate for vice president, it’s sometimes hard to decide whether Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt, backward, or — or, well, all of the above. Palin, the governor of Alaska, has faced more criticism than any vice-presidential candidate since 1988… (full article here)

The first and last lines change the meaning a little don’t you think?  To say Mr. Griffin quoted Mr. York to Governor Palin out of context would be an understatement. The National Review article now has an Editor’s Note that reads in part:

Editor’s note: Byron York’s recent article in National Review on Sarah Palin’s time as governor of Alaska became a campaign issue Tuesday when CNN’s Drew Griffin distorted its meaning in a high-profile interview with Palin.

You can, of course, Google all of this and you can read Read more

October 22, 2008

Praise the lord and pass the ammunition; I am Joe the Plumber and another perfectly good election year is ruined by politics.

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

My turn.

I feel compelled to try to make some sense of politics in public. Am I not a blogger? And this being a big bad ass blog on which I can write anything that tickles my fancy, and yes my fancy got tickled by this election, I’m going to give it a shot.

So okay then. Thanks for that.

I’m looking back at the year. I love a good political year, and in January I figured this would be a damn good one. The Republican nomination was up for grabs, I love it when that happens, and the Democrats had some history making candidates, but most importantly, my kids were paying attention, and for that I thank Barack Obama. He wasn’t a grumpy old man, he was young and energetic and hopeful and he knew how to give a rousing speech. I think hope is good. I think eloquence is good. I think both together are very good.

Then John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, and I thought it was interesting, if nothing else. History is being made and I’m living to see it. I was hopeful that Palin would bring something different to the table this time around. I had hope that this election, these candidates, this new media world, this go ’round, we might see an elevated campaign. A campaign that followed the high ground and brought the dignity and integrity that We the People deserve.

Alas, and alack, it’s not to be.

I’m uninspired by John McCain and anything I’ve heard him say. Palin is, ya know, Jane Six Pack. I worked with her, at least I think it was her, during elementary school PTO fundraisers, you betcha! She’s not without charm, and she’s a she, but mostly that ticket is kinda more of the same, only not, only yeah, it is the same.

Biden. Well I must admit that he’s not let me down because Joe’s been Joe since I was a sprout, and he’s definitely Joe now, only he’s not a Joe the Plumber kind of Joe. No, Biden is a Joe the Politician kind of Joe. Read more

October 22, 2008

How Alexander Hamilton, the father of American Rotarian Socialism, gave birth to the present economic crisis

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Dr. Thomas J. DiLorenzo writing at the Ludwig von Mises Institute:

Hamilton was the intellectual leader of the group of men at the time of the founding who wanted to import the system of British mercantilism and imperialistic government to America. As long as they were on the paying side of British mercantilism and imperialism, they opposed it and even fought a revolution against it. But being on the collecting side was altogether different. It’s good to be the king, as Mel Brooks might say.

It was Hamilton who coined the phrase “The American System” to describe his economic policy of corporate welfare, protectionist tariffs, central banking, and a large public debt, even though his political descendants, the Whig Party of Henry Clay, popularized the slogan. He was not well schooled in the economics of his day, as is argued by such writers as John Steele Gordon. Unlike Jefferson, who had read, understood, and supported the free-market economic ideas of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Baptiste Say (whom Jefferson invited to join the faculty of the University of Virginia), Richard Cantillon, and Turgot (a bust of whom still sits in the entrance to Monticello), Hamilton either ignored or was completely unaware of these ideas. Instead, he repeated the mercantilist myths and superstitions that had been concocted by apologists for the British mercantilist state, such as Sir James Steuart.

Hamilton championed the cause of a large public debt — which he called “a public blessing” — not to establish the credit of the US government or to finance any particular public works projects but for the Machiavellian idea of tying the interests of the more affluent to the state: being government bondholders, they would, he believed, then support all of his grandiose plans for heavy taxation and a government much larger than what was called for in the Constitution. He was right. They, along with Wall Street investment bankers who have marketed the government’s bonds, have always provided effective political support for bigger government and higher taxes. That is why Wall Street investment bankers were first in line for a bailout, administered by one of Read more

October 21, 2008

The Verdict Is In

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Last year on these pages I wrote posts extolling the benefits of EIUL’s. Back then I called them FIUL’s. The common usage for awhile has been the former, which we’ll stick to here. What’s an EIUL? It’s permanent insurance, designed, in essence, to deliver tax free retirement income. Some have called it investment grade insurance. It also has many other benefits, including the ability to pass the entire value of the policy tax free to heirs upon the insured’s death.

My point in the previous posts was that if folks would just be objective, they’d realize 401k’s are a trap, baited by government with paltry annual tax savings to lure us in. What folks don’t know, I wrote, is that upon retirement, a disciplined saver finds out that in 4-6 years they’ve already paid back 30 years of ‘tax savings’. Such a deal.

Why would anyone do that on purpose?

It created a barrage of comments, some seemingly personal, but most disbelieving the information imparted. What’s so ironic, is whenever we guide our clients into these vehicles, it’s at a loss to us. We make not a penny on anything done by the EIUL experts to which we refer our people.

Then why do we advise many of them to separate some of the real estate investment capital from their pile in order to acquire an EIUL? Simple — it’s the right thing to do. Yesterday I posted what happened to those who refused to believe me last year.

Those who manage their company’s qualified retirement plans? Please, pretty please, at least check into this? If you’d at least done your own objective research, you would’ve discovered I was simply tellin’ you the way it was, and was gonna be. And now, the way it is.

Those who saw the information for what it was, did not get hurt in the stock market crash of the last couple weeks. It’s been significantly hurtful to most, and absolutely devastating to a majority of American taxpayers heavily invested in mutual funds through their 401k’s.

Those who chose EIUL’s? They not only didn’t lose a penny, Read more

October 21, 2008

a Blog is a place to Connect (locally)…Part 2 of 3

by

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

In part 1, I left you a teaser about how our brokerage uses blogging to connect with OUR community. I am the technologist for a large brokerage of 110 agents that sell a LOT of real estate. I don’t apologize for that. We deliver VALUE to the agents that choose to work under our roof. Our market share is GROWING and our AGENTS are faring better in this tough market than our competitors. I am proud of that.

We DO have to communicate that success to our agents (just as you do to your clients) though, not in a “look at me” sort of way, but rather in a way that helps all of them feel a part of our large family–even if they are working out of home and are in the office infrequently. Oh yeah…we also wanted a way to connect with agents who might want to become a part of our office. Until lately, that was done via dead tree media.

One of the drawbacks was the high cost of printing quarterly newsletters. Many of our agents liked them, but some thought is was a waste of paper, and less than environmentally friendly. Our Director of Operations (there are 4 of us who kind of run the day to day here) came up with the idea of a blog as a brokerage online newsletter. Extreme Newsletter Makeover – online edition began and HotAirChronicles.com was born.

Why mention all of that? Well, there are a couple of neat plugins that we use as well as having multiple authors to keep the load light on all of us:

NextGen Photo Gallery – Ryan Ward showed me this one. Click here and on this category, you can see three posts with galleries of photos of our recent events. Here’s the thing about multiple photos with a single event: If you are doing a community blog and post about an art festival (for example) and have 20 photos. Then send a quick email out to the 30 business people in the 20 photos with a link to your blog, how many folks have you connected with Read more

October 21, 2008

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

I have been thinking alot lately about RE Web 2.0, particularly in light of the recent news regarding Redfin and Zillow’s current layoffs.  Greg also recently posted regarding the current state of the Realty.bots.

“Indeed. We have seen the future of real estate marketing — and it is us.*”

I am not entirely convinced it has to be all us.

I am a process guy.  Prior to delving into the real estate business, I developed sales and marketing strategies for technology firms – many of which targeted supply chain solutions.  When I approach a process, I try to focus on the inherent value a particular set of activities delivers.

Perhaps the double edged sword in the real estate industry is that we are all independent contractors – we approach our businesses in differing ways.  On one hand, we have the ability to run our businesses in a way that capitalizes on our strengths.  Some of us use a consistent process to bring a deal together, some of us don’t.  I suggest that many consumers approach the purchase and sale of real estate apprehensively.  Many simply don’t know what the correct process is for purchasing or selling a property and they look to a professional to provide the knowledge and expertise to consistently deliver a successful closing.  Unfortunately, not all agents are created equal, therefore mileage varies – alot.

I believe that the myth to the core of the business of buying and selling property lies within the MLS.  This process is not all about the data.  While the data is key, it certainly does not provide a consistent process for facilitating a transaction – there is a natural progression to a transaction.

Up to this point, if not the most successful, at the least the most recognized RE Web 2.0 search solutions have focused their solutions surrounding the myth of the real estate transaction – it is all about the data.  Again, the data is important, however, it is only part of the process.

My frustration with the current search solutions is that it does not address the natural progression of the real estate transaction.  While extremely powerful, Read more

October 21, 2008

Orson Scott Card on the Fannie/Freddie melt-down: “Would the last honest reporter please turn on the lights?”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Orson Scott Card is a Hugo-award-winning science fiction author, having written Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead among other best-selling works. In the intro to this article from Meridian magazine, he is presented as being a Democrat, but it would be more accurate, I think, to portray him as an anti-idiotarian, the post-9/11 movement of liberal, conservative and libertarian anti-islamist webloggers. Card is an insanely great writer. You can find him at his best at his Hatrack River site. As always, I don’t have any great use for Republicans, but I think this is a fine excoriation of the suicidal negligence of the mainstream media.

These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was … the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was … the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What? It’s not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?

Now let’s follow the money … right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.

And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate’s campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.

If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.

But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama’s people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn’t listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.

You would never tolerate Read more

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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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