Let’s stay away from the #RTB(tab) crowd as industry lifeguard comparison, shall we?
Have a safe and relaxing weekend.
h/t Phil Martin
Archives (page 76 of 372)
iOS 4 can go there, no doubt. And the lame-ass “web-enabled” HD-TVs shipping now are no competition for what Apple can do. The iPad may be the actual future of video content, but there will be room in the home for big screens for a long time. An Apple TV becomes the ideal blackboard, too, and the ideal game machine. Integrated with nearby iPhones and iPads, it can become everything we ever hoped to find in a package marked “entertainment center.” Really, truly, the television — the lowly, despised television — is the computer for the rest of us. This is a reinvention that Apple could do better than anyone…
To some in real estate brokerage, hearing the ‘R’ word — that would be results, causes them the same stress as my son’s mom felt the first time she read his lips on the mound, and didn’t like it one little bit. She didn’t buy my explanation that he was talkin’ about the umpire’s new truck. Go figure.
When agents are talkin’ about what they’re doin’ to generate business, helpin’ more clients to achieve their goals, things get quiet when some jackass wants to know how it’s workin’ out for them. In other words, has any of their prospecting or marketing, you know, produced empirical results? Are they helping more people?
I’ve been writin’ a lot lately on the changes in marketing, and strategy I’ve been implementing this year. It generally breaks down into two broad brush categories — my local market — the rest of the country.
I’ve now been back in my local market for three weeks. Cat skins are now adorning my special wall. It’s a new wall, specifically set aside exclusively for local cats. In the few weeks in which talkin’ has turned into walkin’, my firm has put $500K into escrow. Considering I’m not even outa second gear yet, $15,000 ain’t bad for the first month.
I’ve had to adapt to what I’ve described as the new normal, (don’t like sayin’ paradigm shift) in the real estate investment world. It’s gained traction big time with thinking investors who realize, in fact, we’re not in Kansas any more, and unlike Dorothy, it’s pretty unlikely we’ll return any time soon. Some of what I’ve been sayin’ the last year or so about the general real estate investment arena might be considered tough love. Still, the folks with whom I love doing business, believe what I’ve been saying is universally true.
The takeaway here is that I’ve had to adapt — many times, on many fronts in the last seven years. Not all of my changes have been successful, but the ones that failed pretty much showed me where the right path was.
I’m already thinkin’ my new office is too Read more
I wrote this in a comment a couple of weeks ago:
Everything we’re doing on-line emerges from the points of this star:
* engenu — rapid web site development
* encartus — elaborate custom Google maps
* Scenius — dynamic blogs-within-blogs
* ScentTrail — CRMishness with transaction management
* FlexMLS and the FlexMLS API — very robust MLS search
There is now a sixth point in our star: Praxis. I had an appointment cancel today, and I wrote the whole thing in just under five hours — while juggling all my usual eggs.
Although there is less editorial control than with engenu, now anyone we might add to our staff can create very professional looking web pages on the fly, with essentially no knowledge of how a web page goes together. Supplemented with other software (e.g., ScentTrail), I have the ability to create whatever I want with virtually no effort.
We hosted BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix twice, two years in a row. For both years, my local competitors made a big point of insisting that I have nothing to teach them. Perhaps they’re right. The only regular user of engenu I know of is Teri Lussier. Scenius has one fan, Cheryl Johnson. And only Cathleen and I are using encartus.
This seems a shame to me, but I’m the real estate business, not the software business. My belief is that the software I have written makes us much, much stronger as Realtors. We have tremendous marketing leverage for just two people.
But Praxis compounds that leverage a thousand-fold. I can do anything I want. I think I can take on anyone, including the Realty.bots. I’m convinced I can take whatever turf I want in Metropolitan Phoenix.
I don’t know when or where we’re going to do Unchained the next time. But I won’t be teaching Praxis, in any case. Even so, I have an idea that my local competitors may come to regret not having studied what I have to teach when they had the chance.
I’m an addict. I’m addicted to drama. To feeling necessary, to the hustle, and to the grind. I have heard 3 bloodhounds separately say “putting out fires,” recently.
And to that I say: why? And to myself I say, why.
Here’s the thing: even though we’re living through a paperwork-fight-to the death with the Government, we still have quite predictable businesses that lend themselves to systemization. I broke out of the pack as a mortgage lender when I tried to get every single file “clear to close” on the first pass. It was more work up front, but in 2007 (after the ‘crisis’s’ first act) I had a great year. Doubled my 06 volume.
Why? Because if an underwriter ever “stipped” me, I’d add meeting that stip to my checklist and solve the problem. I required title companies to send a HUD-1 on DAY-1, and if they were picked a fight, it was easy to get them to take the 10 minutes to estimate taxes, etc.
This process was the only way I survived, and the only way the carnage from my tax stuff wasn’t worse than it was.
Which is to say this: we can become anticipatory in our businesses. We can learn how to figure out what customers need, and how to serve them.
But, we have to give up our “superman” ethos. Most house problems were caused by the Realtor/Lender/Whomever having a terrible process. Most of them were caused by someone acting clueless. “We need a termite inspection? Really, man, the underwriter pulled THAT out of nowhere.”
We have more power than we realize. We can systematize a transaction so it goes like clockwork. So it’s “artisan” quality, in lieu of “call center” quality. When we pursue operational excellence, then what happens?
Our clients notice a difference.
We notice a difference and are more proud of our work.
There are no “fires” to put out.
So, in lieu of going after the drama we manufacture, we can make more drama by throwing ourselves at Jeff Brown Challenges, or Greg Seinfeld Chains.
“What do you learn” with every file.
“What caused a delay” with every file.
“What gave the customer pause” Read more
by Brian Brady
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
HUD announces it’s “First Look” program today:
The National First Look Program is a first-ever public-private partnership agreement between HUD and the National Community Stabilization Trust (Stabilization Trust). In collaboration with national servicers, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, the First Look program is intended to give communities participating in HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) a brief exclusive opportunity to purchase bank-owned properties in certain neighborhoods so these homes can either be rehabilitated, rented, resold or demolished.
On the surface, it sounds idealistic. Who would be against local stakeholders being afforded the opportunity to improve their communities? Don’t private investors do that, though? Maybe this program is targeted at those properties which even the scavengers avoid.
HUD’s NSP grantees, which include state and local governments and non-profit organizations, often find themselves competing with private investors for real estate-owned (REO) properties, which can hinder their efforts to stabilize neighborhoods with high foreclosure activity. With today’s announcement, HUD and the Stabilization Trust, working with national servicers, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, will standardize the acquisition process for NSP grantees, giving them an exclusive option to purchase foreclosed upon homes in certain targeted neighborhoods.
Huh? Competition is the engine which drives a functioning market. This means that a government agency will specifically eliminate competition and deliberately sock banks with a loss. How is THAT good?
HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program was created to address the housing crisis, create jobs, and grow local economies by providing communities with the resources to purchase and rehabilitate vacant homes. NSP grants are helping state and local governments, as well as non-profit developers, acquire land and property; demolish or rehabilitate abandoned properties; and/or offer downpayment and closing cost assistance to low- to middle-income homebuyers. Grantees can also stabilize neighborhoods by creating “land banks” to assemble, temporarily manage, and dispose of foreclosed homes. To date, HUD has allocated nearly $6 billion in funding to state and local governments and non-profit housing developments. In the coming weeks, HUD will allocate an additional $1 Read more
From the New York Times, economist Karl Case of Case-Shiller fame says: Buy!
This financial crisis has made us all too aware that we live in a Catch-22 world: the performance of the housing market drives the economy, and the performance of the economy drives the housing market. But housing has perhaps never been a better bargain, and sooner or later buyers will regain faith, inventories will shrink to reasonable levels, prices will rise and we’ll even start building again. The American dream is not dead — it’s just taking a well-deserved rest.
It’s hard not to love Jeff Brown’s prospecting challenge. But it’s kind of easy to note that most of us have not raised our hands to submit ourselves to its arduous benefits. It goes for me, too: If I have six hours to spare on any given day, I’m going to throw it at marketing — specifically software — not prospecting. Mainly, though, because our marketing is producing healthy results, I don’t have a lot of time to spare in any case.
Take note: I am not absolving you of anything. If you don’t have enough money work, and if you don’t have any money, prospecting will solve those two problems in very short order.
But whether or not you are running Jeff’s gauntlet, the kind of goal-achieving behavior we have been talking about is hugely beneficial — to your health, to your wealth and to your happiness.
So: Let’s set ourselves a challenge. Declare a worthwhile goal — prospecting, exercise, learning a new skill, etc. — and then jump in and actually do it for every day in September. You can use the don’t break the chain strategy I talked about yesterday. Here is a printer-ready September calendar.
Goal-setting is easy. It’s actually accomplishing your goals that is so hard. Between public declarations here, in the comments below, and that growing chain of red X’s, the month of September 2010 could mark a turning point in all of our lives.
I had a short sale get to approval this morning, which puts us one tiny deal away from a million-dollar September. We haven’t seen many million-dollar months since 2005, and it’s a harder target to hit than it was in those days. I’m loving where our business is going, and I feel like we might be just that close to the glide path. It’s been a hard road since the market turned, but it has been the dedicated — driven — dogged — pursuit of sales fundamentals that has put us back on the road to financial recovery.
Meanwhile, I’m loving the hardy souls who have taken up Jeff Brown’s prospecting challenge. Quoted below is a snip from a Lifehacker post we have talked about privately for a couple of years. The topic? If you want to master something, do it every day and don’t break the chain:
Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show, Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic. At the time, I was hanging around clubs doing open mic nights and trying to learn the ropes. One night I was in the club where Seinfeld was working, and before he went on stage, I saw my chance. I had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. What he told me was something that would benefit me a lifetime…
He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself—even when you don’t feel like it.
He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here’s how it works.
He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.
He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a Read more
Since my last post and a couple of comments happened, I’ll scribble my basic lead gen/followup methodology down. This changes all the time, and it’s the part of what I do that’s grinding/belly to belly/phone banging based. That part gets me 35-45% of my business. Another 35-45% comes from referrals/social media. Roughly 10% is “pure” PPC/internet marketing stuff.
There are fuzzy lines everywhere–how do you categorize someone that was referred in by Greg Swann? What of the person that opted in 16 months ago to a different product? Anyway.
The excuse to call: I am resuming my webinars that teach my bareknuckle brand of internet marketing/salesmanship. I invite people to these, for free. They are low key, soft selling events that have what I know. At the end, I simply offer to “do it for your business for X.” These have done well for me in the past, and will do well for me again. Twice a month is about as much as I can handle, and still be “on.” I generally invite people here, or offer up one of my other contacts as a way to connect. “I have 1500 people on my fb….feel free to ask for an introduction to anyone.”
GenuineChris Axiom: My efficiency at cold calling literally doubled when I stopped allowing anyone to try and buy on the first call. “Oh, you’re a lead? Great, gotta go, call ya later.” “Almost leads” talk your ear off on the initial call, but they never buy. People that buy do so quickly.
The Next Part of The Equation- Your Goal: Your goal is not to convince a singular person to do ANYTHING on the first call. I don’t set appointments. I don’t troubleshoot. I only wish to identify need. If they have a need for us, THEY WILL SAY SO. “Do you have anything broken about your $thing_you_sell?” You’re working the list. “Hey, we’ll see if I can help–mind if I call you back this afternoon?” Why are you doing this?
Because you want to work your list. Getting through your list is where the value is. Read more
Right now, there’s no real way to do business with me online. This is not an accident–and I’ll get to the Jeff Brown section of the equation momentarily. I’m redoing everything. We’ve not been marketing lately, because we’ve got to raise the standards of everything.
This won’t be interminable, we’ll be done with this at some point real soon. Like this week. I’ll be up on Tuesday or Wednesday (read Thursday or Friday) and this will certainly be the last ‘public iteration,’ that I ever go through. I’ve got to end the “stay up all night and then roll the site back to how it was” school of doing things for myself.
A detail to peep at before it gets built into the shopping cart: what happens after people buy. This is one of many things that we’re rolling out, and it simply takes time. Making a sales channel that is tight, that makes and keeps promises and that is reasonably indifferent to the volume it handles. I’m working back to front- from the customer experience in the first minute, day, 3 days 5 days.
Here’s the “thank you” page that most see the moment their credit card is processed.
http://flatratebiz.com/thank-you
There are a series of emails that go out in the first few days, and my illustrious customer service turk calls people within 2 business hours to restate the same stuff and welcome them to our team. While I was waiting to get this done, I tore out my old shopping cart. I am not sorry I did this because the project is moving faster.
Now: there is no way to do business with me but sales are not down. Projects are getting done and delegated, my books are more or less kept (the bane of a small business for many reasons). Revenue is coming in at the same clip it had been before.
Why? Because I know what the hell I’m doing all the time.
As part of a fun & semiprivate project, a few of us wanted to get good at what we do for a living . I wanted to Read more
Note: This post isn’t aimed at the (IMHO) 10-20% of the real estate agent population who, day in and day out, work hard, effectively, and with massive purpose.
Dad, ‘FDB’ to some of his friends and family, said those exact words to me a few months after I’d gone from part time agent/student, to real estate full time. He wasn’t one to sugarcoat his words. Silly me, I not only protested like a stuck pig, I gave examples of how hard I’d been workin’.
22 year olds can be exceptionally clueless at times. 🙂
Mind you, in 90 days of hard 40 hour weeks I’d produced exactly one damning goose egg on the listing/sales board. I now know what Dad was talkin’ about, cuz a 14 year old C- student could put something on the listing/sales board after 12 hard working 40 hour weeks. It’s seriously not possible to get shut out workin’ that many rigorous hours week in and week out for a full quarter.
The trick is to be honest about how you’re defining hard, effective, work.
It’s not what you tell everyone else either. Imagine your husband/wife is in the room with you. Now how hard are ya workin’?
I’ve never understood this, even though I was guilty of it myself. Dad busted me for constantly gettin’ ready to get ready, to do something really lame, that wouldn’t produce squat anyway. Why do people get licensed only to pretend to work, then complain about how bad the market is, or the rest of the litany we’ve all heard — or uttered ourselves.
Lord knows I’ve put in my share of overtime over the years. But I’m hear to tell ya, with rare exception, those who work at doing what gets them in front of serious buyers/sellers and/or doing what gets those buyers/sellers where they wanna go, don’t hafta work wicked long hours to make an exceptionally good living. If you like working longer hours for whatever reason, good for you — and your bank account. But you can earn six figures workin’ 40 hours.
It’s like diggin’ 4′ X 6′ Read more
I pride myself with being a fairly understanding person, yes, sometimes to a fault. But I just can’t understand how so many sellers are unwilling or unable to accept any responsibility for their current situation. Sure, facing a short sale is not a position in which any one would want to be in but at some point we all need to take responsibility for what we do (or don’t do).
Most recently I was on the listening end of a tete-a-tete in which the potential seller blamed EVERYONE but himself. “It’s the government’s fault!”. Yep, the government is an easy one to blame, whether it was Bush’s foreign policies or Obama’s socialism. “I didn’t know what I was signing.” Want to blame the mortgage broker who helped you get financed? Sure, every homeowner is a victim of unscrupulous lending practices. “I thought property values only go up!” Or was it the Realtor who didn’t have the Magic 8 Ball to tell you property values would decrease? Yes! How about NO! How about accepting life, successes and failures, as they come? When did accountability go out of fashion? Is it fear or embarrassment that keep people from saying ‘yes, it was my mistake’? Is it a learned skill or an inherent attribute? Oh well, I better get used to it.
by Brian Brady
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
Most real estate agents and mortgage loan originators don’t know how to find business. I fear that some of the social media strategies I’ve shared have morphed into a “build it and they will come” approach to business development. Greg Swann did a nice job of identifying this problem when he said that time spent on social media marketing is wasteful:
“Marketing” by social media is a huge waste of time. Selling is one-on-one, focused, time-consuming and goal-directed. Marketing, done properly, is broadcast, diffuse, time-efficient and passive and long-term in its goal-pursuit.
He’s absolutely correct. The time investment required, to keep your social media current, never pencils out if you want to make six figures annually. You will get some results but trust me when I tell you that you could have equaled or bested those results by handing out business cards at the swap mart (and yes, I’ve done that, too). Here’s where his opinion gets a bit murky, though:
Even if you are really doing your best to market your services on-line, if you are doing it by engaging people one-on-one in fleeting media like Twitter or Facebook, you are almost certainly wasting your time.
That, I can tell you from experience, is only partly true. Using social media to prospect can be exponentially more effective than cold-calling or handing out business cards at a swap mart because of the rich information users provide. People buy from people they trust and connections help to build trust more quickly. I’ll come back to this later but it helps to understand the difference between marketing and prospecting as lead generation tools.
Greg’s working definition of marketing (op. sit.) is a good one. The long-term benefit of marketing is that it is scalable. Online marketing, especially blogging, can be a workhorse, which generates inquiries from prospects for as long as the information is relevant. The hour investment in a well-written blog post can attract tons of inquiries over time (I have a few blog posts that perform that well). Likewise, a consistent display advertisement in the town’s weekly newspaper can trigger you to “top of Read more