Benn and Lani at Agent Genius are leading the effort to help the victims of the terrible tornados that swept across the South the other day.

Here's what you can do.

Give whatever money you can, here is a link to Jay Thompson's Phoenix Real Estate Guy's website where you can donate through PayPal.

Post about the tragedy on your personal blog. Unfortunately, the P2 blog sidebar will not allow you to copy the html and create a link to Jay's PayPal account so link to Jay's site instead where your readers will be able to donate.

Put a link at the top of your home page of your website so all visitors will be able to help.

Please just [help] in any way you can. 

Note: this discussion has moved to the Point2 Agent Message Board (link).

I noticed some interesting commentary regarding representing sellers vs. buyers lately. I’ve been a little busy (thankfully) trying to top off the year getting one more contract to closing but thought I’d chime in with a few thoughts.

 

My broker suggested at our meeting today that we should not take an overpriced listing, should not write a listing agreement for longer than 90 days and would be better off being the third or fourth agent selected to list a property. It’s all about the high cost of time and money.

 

I’ve sold most of my listings but not by selling the property a buyer but by marketing. The most recent listing that I took is well priced, has had showings, has been a finalist, but it just hasn’t gotten a contract as yet. I’m comfortable with that considering the market, it’s realistically priced and the condition is excellent.  Another agent competing for the listing basically promised to personally bring the buyer. The agent likely over promised an outrageously high price as well but thankfully, my clients didn’t feel comfortable and chose me. Very old school, I’m sorry but this is a new era in real estate.

 

We’re witnessing a mass exodus from the industry as those who joined during the good times find hard times to be too difficult to earn a living. Those who can adapt to the new paradigm will be the beneficiaries of the good times that once again will ultimately occur.

 

The Internet has allowed buyer agents to attract quality buyers to help them very early in the buying stage. These consumers are not interested in calling yard signs (virtual or otherwise) but prefer superior representation in the buying process. They are more interested in learning about the area, schools, neighborhoods and lifestyle. They want information, they want expertise and they want buyer representation.

 

I’ll vote with my friend and colleague, Mike Farmer. What do you say.

I recently received an email from a prospect: "Thank you for the fast reply. Originally I contacted three realty agents and you have been the only one to contact me. I have made it my point to be loyal to you."

Considering the current real estate market conditions, you can only wonder what agents are too busy doing that they can't or don't bother to follow up.

Are you following up when you are contacted.

There is certainly a lot of commotion going on regarding improving the quality of our little but fast growing community and I received an interesting email from a new member I thought I would share with you to illustrate the point I would like to make.

 

By the way, this has nothing to do with handshake and everything to do with constructive criticism and improving the quality of our community.

 

I rejected a new handshake listing because the agent included contact information in the description. He sent back an email, “error has been corrected, my apologies, thank you.”

 

I revisited the listing and of course, the contact info was deleted but I took a more careful look at the listing description and wrote back, “Sorry I had to block you for contact info, now, take a look at your listings and please realize this is a public site, you still have agent notes type stuff in your descriptions, it is copy and paste from the MLS and really shouldn't be in this medium. Do me and others a favor and delete stuff like call agent or CSS for showings, agent bonuses offered and that kind of thing. I'll take a look at your listings in a day or two and approve at that time. Sorry I'm playing hardball but I've been with p2 since the very beginning and I am very particular about what shows up on my website.”

 

And a final email back from him, “I thank you for your honesty. I will make the necessary changes to the descriptions. I am obviously new to p2. Your information has been very helpful. Thanks again”.

 

Once again, I tell this story to set the background for the real story I want to tell. A member of our community has sought help from the moderators for our members to be “nice” to him or shut them down. The most interesting comment I noticed was from our esteemed colleague from Jacksonville who commented, “Note, only one person has a problem getting along in this community.”

 

The issue I bring forth to you is this. How should you and how do you handle constructive criticism. Most of us can, some of us can not. Are we to all change to accommodate one who cannot or should the one who can not listen to the many who have very kindly asked, suggested and cajoled him to modify his behavior for the past many months?

and does it matter. It might.

There is a lot of chatter in the real estate blogosphere about how the National Association of Realtors views the blogosphere. It is said that the real estate blogosphere resembles the anything goes days of the "Wild West". There is plagiarism, there is negative commentary such as making fun of other real estate agent's listings which goes against the code of ethics, a lack of comment moderation, etc., etc.

Move.com which runs everyone's favorite website, Realtor.com for the NAR apparently made an offer to buy Active Rain and ultimately backed out of the deal. Of course a lawsuit is pending from the bride who was left at the altar. But why was Move interested in blogging, Active Rain and what does this all have to do with your broker.

Quite a bit actually. It is rumored that the NAR wants total control over its members blogging. They are setting up a website (I believe it will be free at first but just think about how much they want to renew your realtor dot com account this year) and will mandate that all Realtors (R) must blog on that site so that anything you might want to say will meet their standards of conduct.

How's that for a scary thought.

Our own Jay Thompson has started a website/blog, NAR Wisdom with links to many of the articles in the real estate blogosphere discussing this subject. There are links to writing by Brian Brady, BloodhoundBlog, Rain City Guide, Seattle PI and others on the subject. I believe Jay was quoted as saying something along the lines of Charlton Heston of the NRA, "They will take my blog away from me when they pry it from my cold, dead hands. Or when I hand in my NAR card." If you only have time for one post, please read the Brian Brady post on the BloodhoundBlog. Most importantly, read the comments.

There are several issues at play. Will your broker allow you to write as you see fit. Will you have to become a broker so you can continue to blog. If you are with one of the larger players in the industry, what will they be doing if the NAR mandates control. Even if you are with an independent, what will your broker say about your blogging. Will you be able to leave the NAR and still be able to perform as a real estate agent with access to the MLS.

Serious subject, lots of possibilities, what do you think. 

... not you or I by posting here. Reliberation owns and hosts this site and if you post on a community site such as this, Active Rain, Seeking Alpha, or the many other community blogs and forums on the Internet, it does not give you ownership. You only own your content when you are the registered owner of your site. 

I've been amused by the antics here recently and sadly, it is one of the many reasons I haven't been here in a while. I would like to add that I do miss the many friends that I have met here.  

I noticed this video with Seth Grodin, certainly the leading marketer anywhere, discussing Web 2.0 and wanted to share this with everyone. Click here for 6 1/2 minutes of genius.

As professional real estate agents, we need to have many skills in order to be successful. As an example, we take a different perspective or wear a different hat when working with a buyer or a seller so one size doesn't fit all occasions.

I'm curious as to what my colleagues at Reliberation feel is the most important skill that each of you possesses that makes you successful. I've listed a sampling in no particular order of some of the many skills that you may consider important but please add the skill that you think best fits you and share the reason why you think it is the most important ingredient for your success in real estate.

• Market knowledge
• Negotiation
• Presentation
• Marketing
• Reputation / relationships with other Realtors
• Networking / building a sphere of influence
• Sales skills
• Listening
• Organization
• Construction expertise

While watching the exciting golf tournament yesterday afternoon (of course, that may be an oxymoron to some) and attempting to get a listing agent to beat up his seller so that my buyer can “steal” their home at a lowball price, I was thinking about how many of us will deal with the immediate future facing us in the real estate profession.

 

Yes, homes will still sell and yes, buyers will still be able to obtain a mortgage, just in less numbers than during the heyday of a few short years ago. Many real estate agents who rushed into the market in the past few years to earn big, fast money will soon be rushing out to get paying jobs. The Post and Courier, Charleston’s daily newspaper highlighted this trend in Sunday’s paper.

 

In the days before homogenization, the milk bottle delivered to homes appeared to contain 2 different liquids, a thick yellow liquid (cream, the butterfat of milk) at the top and a thin white liquid (skimmed milk, the nearly fat free portion of milk) at the bottom. Even after shaking the bottle, the 2 layers would eventually separate and the cream would once again rise to the top.

 

I noticed that many of the finest players in the world were in contention during the golf tournament because it was the first event of the new FedEx Cup with lots of money at stake. They are the cream of the crop, the crème de la crème as the French might say and the best always wins or comes out on top. While Tiger didn’t play the first of four tournaments, does anyone really think he won’t win the inaugural event?

 

There has always been a business cycle and the world of business is truly based on British economist, Herbert Spencer’s phrase “survival of the fittest” based on Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”. During good economic times, even average companies turn a profit and grow but when the economy turns down, many flounder, lose money and go out of business. The best run businesses gain market share and grow even more profitable as the economy turns up once again.

 

As professional real estate agents, it is up to each of us to rise to the occasion, put our game faces on and survive and thrive during these difficult times and rise to the top. 

 

The cream always rises, see you at the top!

Is the mortgage problem as bad as the media seems to make it out to be? While delinquencies on mortgages have increased and foreclosures are rising, the fact is that not every homeowner is late with their mortgage payment and not every house will soon be foreclosed upon.

 

And not every loan is a subprime loan.

 

I noticed a very illustrative and informative chart from Jerry Bowyer writing on National Review Online regarding the size of the subprime mortgage market. It's much smaller than you might think.

 

 

 

Some highlights:

 

"Currently there are about 44 million mortgages in the U.S., and less than 14 percent of them are sub-prime. And only about 13 percent of those are late on payments, with the majority of late payers working through their problems with the banks.

So, all in all, when you work through the details and get down to the number that really matters, only about 0.6 percent of U.S. mortgages are currently in foreclosure. That’s up a hair from roughly 0.5 percent last year. That’s it."

 

Please read the entire article with a very cute Rain Man analogy.

Do you remember the Kevin Costner film “Field of Dreams” when the Iowa farmer was told, “if you build it, he will come”. To paraphrase, if you build it, they will come. You might be asking yourself what you are supposed to be building. Well, don’t build a ball field but instead build a simple 7 letter word called content to your website.

 

So called experts have posted on reliberation offering simple seo optimization or offering website design services, discussions have been held about the pros and cons of requiring registration for MLS search, the best ways to capture leads and then follow up and numerous other subjects to increase personal business.  

 

I would like to suggest that you strongly consider the power of your blog to add content to your website. Not the reliberation blog, but the blog included with your website. Are you using it and are you using it to its fullest. Are you writing a message most every day to tell your prospective clients about your market, neighborhoods, what is happening in the mortgage market, market trends and statistics, advice for buyers and sellers, community events or even yourself. By the way, I do not post listings on my blog. I market listings in other ways.

 

And can you do all that without appearing to be selling.

 

I want to share a few positive results with you and certainly not to brag but rather to demonstrate my point. You see, I hate theory. I don’t sit in an ivory tower and tell people how to do things I haven’t done myself.

 

We all get phone calls every day promising instant first page on Google. I thank them for calling and tell them to call someone else. It’s not that easy and it doesn’t work. You have to do the hard work of adding content.

 

I am very fortunate to have high page rankings on Google for very desirable search terms. Before I started writing my blog, they didn’t recognize my existence in the first 100 pages for anything other than my own name.

 

Of course I get leads from buyer registrations but take a look at these emails I have received in the past month from potential clients directly attributable to my blog.

 

“Hi Howard, Thank you for the insight. It seems like you have a good grasp on the numbers, which is exactly what my wife and I are looking for in a future realtor. We're hoping to relocate to the Charleston area early next year. We'd like to begin getting an idea of the market and neighborhoods now, and be somewhat familiar by the time we get there.”

 

“Being a first time home buyer, I'm interested in finding a trustworthy buyer's agent. I've spent some time reading your blog and would like to discuss your services in more detail.”

 

Start writing, add content and you’ll be glad you did.

This might be fun. What are FOUR things we don’t know about you? I’ll get it started.

 

A) FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE:

Coke vendor at Wrigley Field

Pizza Delivery

Owner of Mailbox and Shipping store

Director of Sales for a Gift and Home Décor company

 

B) FOUR MOVIES I COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER: 

Meet the Parents

When Harry met Sally

Terminator 2

Forrest Gump

 

C) FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED: 

Chicago IL

Bellevue WA (Seattle)

Scottsdale AZ

Charlotte NC

 

D) 4 TV SHOWS I LOVE TO WATCH: 

Weather Channel

any HGTV/Food Network

PGA golf majors

any of the Law and Orders 

 

E) FOUR PLACES I HAVE BEEN ON VACATION: 

Napa Valley

San Francisco

New Orleans

Longboat Key, Sarasota

 

F) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS: 

Pizza

Cheeseburger and Fries

Cheesecake

Buffalo chicken sandwich and Fries (I’ll need an appointment with a good cardiologist too!)

G) FOUR PLACES I WOULD LIKE TO BE RIGHT NOW 

on the beach at Hilton Head

any day at the Masters

4 day weekend in New York City 

showing a nice home to a nice client

Unfortunately you still see a lot of agents using the egocentric I’m # 1 "it's all about me" approach. From a consumer's point of view... who really cares about you?

 

I think the I'm #1 approach may have worked for a while but thanks to the Internet, today’s real estate consumer is more educated. "Top Producer" or "Multi-Million dollar producer" sounds so arrogant. Some agents love to promote this way but it seems so out of touch with the client. And to say you are the #1 agent is unlikely to be credible especially when at least a half dozen real estate agents are simultaneously making the same claim and is likely to raise a red flag in the mind of the consumer.

 

The real estate consumer of today wants someone that will listen to them and find the solution to their problem rather than hear about your awards, statistics or how great you are. If the client understands what the value is for them, they will select you. They want to know that their needs are going to be met. Listen to what the client wants and make it happen.

 

If you are good at what you do, it shows. Like the old saying, “Money is like sex, if you have it, you don't have to talk about it, and it shows.”

 

I found a wonderful and elegant article on humility and thought I might share a few highlights.

 

“Humility is all about maintaining our pride about who we are, about our achievements, about our worth – but without arrogance … It’s about a quiet confidence without the need for a meretricious selling of our wares. It’s about being content to let others discover the layers of our talents without having to boast about them … Those who achieve the most brag the least, and the more secure they are in themselves, the more humble they are”

 

Please read this inspiration article by Bruna Martinuzzi, Humility – The Most Beautiful Word in the English Language

There's a new button to add friends (amigo must be Canadian for friends, ay). When you read a post, you can add the author as your amigo and then the amigos tab will populate with those you have selected.

Will anyone be my friend?