|
|
Is there an agent here from Arlington, Va who would be interested in a referral?
Mike
|
Is there anyone here who provides buyer agency service in the Warner Robbins, Ga area?
I will check the referral function, also.
|
|
|
|
|
I am not selling anything, just announcing a real estate blog I set up so that I don't clutter Relib.
It's a small place in its infancy, to be mainly about real estate information. It's free, too.
My goal is to have at least eleven faithful readers.
Bonzai
|
Have you been unable to pay attention lately? Have you found yourself wandering around town with no clear purpose? Do worried friends ask you “Are you okay?” Do you find yourself yelling at your dog for no good reason?
You, dear agent, may be suffering from Slow Market Syndrome.
Here at Farmer & Johnson we understand the emotionally debilitating effects of Slow Market Syndrome. The dedicated scientists at our Hokeypoke, Mn laboratory have developed a medicine that will relieve hundreds of thousands of SMS sufferers, enabling them to return to full and productive lives in a matter of days.
It’s called RealaPill, and it works on faulty brain receptors that cause SMS in an estimated 40% of real estate agents. In 48 hours you will be your old self again: brash, arrogant and cheerfully charming. This neurochemical tweaker will work wonders on even the most severe cases – you’ll be pitching sales like a pro before buyers know what hit them.
There is no need to suffer any longer; ask your doctor today if Realapill is right for you.
Here is what Helen G. from Montgomery, Alabama had to say:
“I took Realapill and in a couple of days I was blogging, calling prospects and farming three of the biggest subdivisions in Montgomery. It was like a light came on – I felt like I can really do this, I really can! Thank you, Farmer & Johnson for Realapill, I feel like an agent again!”
Don’t delay, call your doctor today! Remember – the market may be down, but you can be up.
Try Realapill!
|
I hear a lot about this lately. It's a little scary how quickly your reputation can be sullied on the net. I recently started posting on a certain site only to find out they have been penalized for what looks like inappropriate link schemes. Whether it's legitimate or not, I read all kinds of negative "press" on this site.
I need to be more careful with my alliances. I don't want to inadvertently be smeared through associations. The web is getting more serious, and my business depends on web reputation.
I emailed them to remove my account. Whether this is fair to the site, or not, is beside the point. I don't want to take the chance. I'm writing this to warn others to be careful. Who we associate with online is important.
As Kevin Kelly wrote years ago -- "Feed the web", "Choose wisely".
Mike from Savannah
|
|
|
|
"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt"
M for M, Act i, Sc.5 - Shakespeare
I suppose there is good reason in many parts of the country to have fear regarding the housing market and financial tightening. Where prices are falling precipitiously and no one knows how far and for how long, it would take a tanked up gambler to fearlessly plunge forward and buy.
However, there are parts of the country where fear may be the main bottleneck, where fundmentals are sound and prices are reasonable and demand sans fear would be strong. Yet, fear caused by the national news, by uncertainty in the face of recession, by the sheer weight of doom, has stymied the market and fed on itself, and now seems to be buckling the stubbornness of sellers so that prices stagger, weaken and fall -- not because the market in these areas has any underlying fundamental cracks, but because fear has shackled the will to act.
Recent moves by the Fed and the adminstration's stimulus package might relieve some of the fear, but the psychological warfare being played between the political parties this election year will be maddening enough to make us all more likely to kill than to buy.
If the fear worsens and prices fall to the point there is no rational explanation except fear, and in the absence of fear all normal people would come to their senses, it may be time to execute the Tennis Ball Investment Strategy that some used here in Savannah during the eighties when downtown was at the nadir of its deterioration -- you stand where the buildings are the most crowded, take a tennis ball, throw it as hard as you can so that it makes a great arch, then whatever it hits, buy it. |
|
|
Mike From Savannah
|
Yes, the market and the economy are down. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last. The market goes up, the market goes down, and sometimes it goes sideways. There are economists who can explain it in eye-glazing terms, but even a tyro can see the signs in time to say – Hey, something’s changing.
The first tip of a down market is a far off high-pitched sound that you recognize the closer it gets and becomes almost deafening – whining! The second tip is that pundits wake up, put on their out-of-date suits, crawl out from musty caves to predict the end of America – no more apple pie. Then, of course, there is the blaming – the Republicans blame the Democrats, the Democrats blame the Republicans, liberals blame conservatives, conservatives blame liberals, free-marketers blame statists, statists blame free-marketers, the poor blame the rich, the rich blame…well, the rich hunker down with their money and go on world cruises.
Is there any value to down? Bears seem to like down; they have a strategy for it. I’ve never mastered the strategy because I’m afflicted with the terrible disease of optimism and hold out in hope until the carnage has been picked clean. This time, though, I did pick up a nice little deal while peeking at a few wounded prices.
But aside from the economics of it all, I’ve found some value in down. I’ve found lately, although I’m still busy with leads who are waiting for the last breath and no-pulse, that I have time to re-organize. As bad as 2007 was in many areas, I was busy last year and became very un-organized. My files are like a treasure hunt. There is something purifying about organizing, it makes me feel clean and well-dressed.
Down also gives me time to reflect. Am I a good person? Where am I going with my life? Do I spend enough time with my family? Is my haircut out of style? With reflection, I have the opportunity to get centered and re-energized for the next up. I also have time to see my mistakes from the previous year and make adjustments.
I AM NOT going to overspend on advertising this year. I got a call for the chance to be vain for 50% off in a sleek local magazine the other day and I said – NO! It felt liberating. After I hung up, I just sat there relishing the reverberations of – NO!
I also have time to read and catch up on the trends in real estate. I didn’t know so much was going on. I've been surfing RE blogs and it’s amazing all the great information out there. I even learned that buying low and selling high is still a good strategy. I think that one will be around for a long time. I've grown to love the internet, the useless and the useful.
I’m in the process of planning for 2008: cutting expenses to the bone, advertising in low cost ways, creating systems to help organize, strengthening conversion of leads to sales – this year everything that is not making money is going. So, down has its value. It gives time to breath, to plan, the reflect, to get a new hairstyle, and, most importantly, to appreciate (this type is controllable).
Mike from Savannah
|
Can someone explain this me? It's from Atlantic.com.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/primarysources/2
If I read this right, subjects were shown a single listing along with various prices and they thought the higher price was lower and lower price was higher? Who were these subjects? How can someone look at $391,534 and think it is lower than $390,000? Have these subjects never been to school? Did they flunk math? I can understand in a general way that people perceive numbers with zeros at the end as being higher than numbers that are not zero, but the report says they were shown the various prices of A listing. That means they were shown the prices like $391,534 and the price of $390,000 and picked the higher price as seeming lower. How is that possible? I’m missing something about the methods of the study.
To make it worse, Redfin claimed to have discovered this first - http://www.blog.redfin.com/ .
What makes it worse is that the guy at Redfin states this can help people. Who? The seller, I guess, who should add $1,534 to the asking price to fool the buyers who know nothing about math. What about the poor duped buyer; they don’t seem to be helped by this little trick. Shame on Redfin! And I thought they were the saviors of consumers being ripped off by greedy realtors. Shame! At least Atlantic.com was trying warn people that $391,534 is higher thsan $390,000.
|
Everyone says NAR doesn’t do enough to demand high standards and exemplary performance. Everyone complains about the incompetent, inexperienced, un-professional agents that are out there terrorizing the public. Complaining won’t improve the situation and NAR can’t/won’t mandate excellence. What will improve the performance of agents is free market incentives to improve and natural consequences for underperformance and incompetency.
Let’s say a super site creates high standards to become a local partner, and let’s say the super site becomes THE place to be for agents going into the new world of online real estate search and transactions.
It seems to me the new agent who has what it takes won’t whine about not being accepted as a partner, but will begin to gain the skills and knowledge and references to become a partner. The payoff to meet the standards will be recognition and leads, and something to use as a marketing tool locally.
Yes, there will be many who complain that the standards aren’t applied fairly, and there will be hoopla regarding unfairness, but people who want to be seen as the best will strive to become the best.
Google gets criticism all the time about its search results, but everyone still tries to rise to the standard Google has set to be a player in their game. If something is difficult to achieve it has more value.
If anyone with a license and a few bucks, or even a free forum, can become an expert, then it is worthless to be an expert.
Those who have worked hard and have learned and have earned the title of local expert ought to be utilized and recognized – to become models for the future of the industry online. It would give a super site muscle, improve the accuracy of their information, create value for their services; it would give consumers confidence, make their online search efficient and profitable; it would give agents exposure, increase their business, and it would ensure they are a part of the online game, players on the edge of this quickly changing industry.
Once we are past this economic downturn, baby boomers will be moving in huge numbers for years to come and they are going to be looking online. I don’t imagine they want to get bogged down in the morass of cyber-chaos that is now presented – they will want good, solid, reliable information, no spam, no sales pitch, no baloney, just good, reliable information, delivered sensibly and professionally and quickly.
A one-stop, reliable super site would capture these people and deliver a professional service that would put them in a very profitable, enviable position – maybe there will be two, three sites like this – competition will be good to ensure quality and lower advertising costs.
A super site would be a clearing house using this definition from Merriam:
2: a central agency for the collection, classification, and distribution especially of information; broadly : an informal channel for distributing information or assistance
Several sites have begun the process; it will be interesting to see which ones rise to the top. The partners can also be vendors who provide services related to real estate; lawyers, inspectors, interior design, remodelers, builders -- everything local and real estate related -- each meeting a certain set of criteria to ensure quality.
Some might cry "Elitism" but others will proclaim "Thank God, finally, a place I can trust and have confidence in!" The future is about quality service provided with ease, sans spam and pressure and nonsense.
I'm such an idealist.
|
There is a great, frustrated idea behind online, vertical-search, social networking real estate sites (or any site that focuses on a special interest) that I’m not sure the creators fully understand. So far, in my opinion (and, yes, it's a very, very humble opinion), the sites created have missed the mark – or they haven’t gone far enough.
The grand idea is a forum for learning and information-gathering in a cyber-public square much like the people of ancient Greece had where thinkers gathered to discuss the ideas of the time – to gather information and learn.
Except, now, instead of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, we have Funkydude22, DallasKitty and BobBobXX and various other cyber-monikers who hold forth and pontificate with no validity, or evidence, of their expertise or qualifications. It’s democratic and egalitarian. You have any one with half-baked knowledge of a subject projecting confidence in their intellectual grasp of a subject hiding comfortably behind the screen name DrKnowItAll, or some such. Greece in the olden days was big on “democracy” but it was still theoretical, and I doubt they were anticipating FunkyDude22 (these are made up names, and in no way am I criticizing any one individual who might own these snazzy names).
I have seen it written many times, and it’s by now implicit, that the web frees all of us small people to have a voice, and out of that amalgam of voices we will grow and learn and, as a result, democracy will truly be practiced rather than theorized. But anyone with a modicum of intelligence, who has spent much time participating in these cyber-public squares, realizes that not all voices are equal. It’s true that the internet has given a voice to many smart, soulful, knowledgable people who otherwise would not be heard, and this has been a beneficial result of cyber-public squares; however, it has given a voice to hatred, stupidity, misinformation, dishonesty and downright ignorance as well.
There is probably a place for this mish-mash, free-for-all, salmagundi of ideas and personalities and opinions, because it can be entertaining if you are into anarchy, mud wrestling, arguing and partial insanity – I have to admit, I find some places enjoyable to just let it fly – it’s cathartic in a way. But this can get old and out of hand, and it also can get away from purpose. I have found small online groups of people with common professions can better handle the freedom of free-for-all and actually create something of interest that is conducive to learning and bonding, but in bigger forums where there is a great mixture of backgrounds, professions, etc, and there is more participation from the general public who may only have a passing interest in the topic, it seems to get crazy and boring quickly, to no good purpose. Most people don’t have the time or patience to sift through gobs of craziness and misinformation to get to what they are looking for.
So what about purpose? Since we are concerned about real estate and it seems the goal of many online real estate sites is to give consumers a one-stop site to meet their real estate needs, it also seems that the purpose should be to provide reliable information that is easy to access and is useful in real estate transactions – a place to learn and come away from with valuable information. What would it take to build the perfect site, a national site that meets the needs of the harried consumer who wants good information and resources? How does a national site gather and maintain reliable information about local markets? How does it create a social network that doesn’t devolve into dumb and dumber? And, lastly, and most importantly, how are real estate agents to be usefully involved in this future mega-site? There are many sites that are doing a good job of advertising listings, and this may be the limit of their usefulness, but I don’t think so. What would the mega-site, that realizes there is much more to the universally important topic of RE than listings, look like, and how can agents help make it happen?
|
I don't know how many small broker/owners are out there, but I have recently done some math and I think I can net more and relieve a lot of headache if I release my 4 agents, close my office and operate out of coffee shops.
I call it the Three L model. I will reduce my business down to License, Lexus and Laptop.
I welcome input.
|
How many ways are there to say -- real estate agents are ignorant, dishonest and useless? Zillow has found many ways to say this through their discussion board. I hold Zillow accountable for the trash that is on their site. Not once have I seen a moderator intervene on the behalf of agents, so it leads me to believe they share the sentiments. Maybe they will come up with more creative ways to denigrate agents, but after spending a month there it bored me to a coma. I've left and I'm feeling much better, thank you.
Zillow has also, through their discussion board, founds ways to inform the public that housing prices will drop 70%, no one should buy a house for at least the next ten years and that we will all be in soup lines, straggly bum-citizens of a third-world nation, soon to be owned by China.
On top of this, there are a group of conspiracy theorists who insist 9-11 was caused by our government and the buildings went down in a controlled demolition. What does this have to do with real estate? Ask Zillow, they allowed this lunacy to be propagated on their board, yet they remove the most innocuous of threads that might be critical of their forum.
Plus, their Zestimates are all over the place. There is no way they can give accurate estimates of prices without first hand knowledge of the areas.
So far, Zillow seems to be a breeding ground for loonies, and not much more. Why it has been propped up by investor money is beyond me, unless it is the same phenomenon that make a Jerry Springer successful -- except Jerry Springer is actually successful -- Zillow hasn't proven any success.
And to imagine that agents were once worried about places like Zillow making us obsolete. After spending 15 minutes on Zillow, any sane buyer would be searching madly for a professional. Some of the people who screech the loudest inanities on their discussion board remind me of the crazy lady on the Simpsons who throws cats at passersby. My, what an image they are creating.
There is a great opportunity for social networks and vertical search to have a value-added impact on consumers searching for real estate online, but Zillow is missing that opportunity. If you're into something like a death-cage match between Jerry Springer and Geraldo Rivera, or wild guesstimates on your home's value, then Zillow's your place, but if you are looking for estimates of true value based on local knowledge and grownup discussion regarding nationwide trends in real estate, there is no need to bother -- Zillow doesn't have it.
Mike from Savannah
|
|
|
|