Monthly Archives: November 2007

Blog Wars: It's everywhere.

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The last month has been educational for me in a lot of ways about our industry and confirmed a lot of my thoughts, both good and bad. There is a lot of passion out there in the blogosphere and out in the work place. The one nugget I always come away with is that the real estate industry is full of very independent people who are fierce in the way they do business and in the manner in which they convey their positions on issues. Both in the work place and blogging, some are professional, others make fools of themselves, intended or not.

One common denominator I see is that people genuinely want to improve our industry, its function and image. The problem is, how can that happen with such fragmented independent practitioners that all play a part in this industry? There are so many moving parts with industry specific (lending, title, escrow, Realtors, consumers) internal self-serving issues. Perhaps this fragmentation of independent real estate practitioners is a core reason why the industry and associated moving parts has suffered from image and credibility problems for so long. Just take a recent look at all the folks that were operating under the radar over the past two or three years with criminal records.

Recently, I don’t know how many times on local or national blogs and forums, I’ve seen the quote from agents and loan officers, “sure be glad to see (insert any practitioner here) get out of the business,” or “I’ll be happy if there are less (insert practitioner) here as this market shifts,” and so on. Again, the problem is, everyone is saying it. It’s like each team praying to God…..”and help us beat the other team.”

Passion and Blog Wars extend far outside our real estate industry. That’s what is so interesting to me as a small business owner involved in the real estate industry and blogging. I know this is foreign for many of my friends and colleagues in the real estate business, but here goes anyway: The world does not revolve around real estate. The Blog Wars extend into every crack and corner of our society: soccer mom’s, politics, economics, Church, professional sports and the “Holy Land of Blogging” known as the technology and software industry.

A Shopping Trip for Staging a Home

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For the past several Fridays I have been taking “Friday Fieldtrips” with agents from my office.  Mostly we have been staging their listings.  Just a little spruce up.  Adding a bit of color.  I thought I’d share some of our great finds.

The home we were staging is in Woodinville, so we shopped in Woodinville at TJ MAXX, Target and World Market.  The photo below are just the things we bought today.  I have a huge growing collection in this particular color family of reds, golds and greens which work well for homes built in the 1980s.

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The curtains are only $15 at World Market.  They come in that orange twisted coil in a little bag of the same fabric, to create the wrinkle effect.  We used the patterned ones behind the dining room table.  They are only about 24″ wide and tie on.  Best buy were the small wavy square plates at only $2.00 each at TJ Maxx on the clearance table.  I try to keep pillows at $10 each, these came in sets of 2 for $20 at Target.

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The big green goblets were $5.00 each at World Market.  I get plates of all shapes and colors at Target for $3.00 to $4.00 each all the time.  They have every color imaginable and I usually buy them in sets of 4 from $12.00 to $16.00.

The tall red oval vase on the right I just had to have and was about $12.00 and we spotted the red and white photo box below it for only $3.00 and it was a perfect color match.  Most of my big pictures are out at my two pending listings in Sammamish and Edmonds.  Often I can take them from one house to another, but this was Hilde Webber’s listing so we started her collection and I added a bit to my collection and lent the items to her.

We staged most of the first floor, but didn’t pre-set the kitchen area too much as a family of five still lives here.  It’s tough on a family getting the house ready and keeping it that way.  A little help goes a long way, and if you shop well you won’t spend too much money and you can use the items over and over again from one listing to the next.

This one is all ready for the Open House this Sunday and Hilde and I had a great Friday Fieldtrip.  I find it’s also a great way to get to know my agents really well.  Gives new meaning to TGIF! 

 

Photos are worth 1,000 words (and a lot of money too)

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We “dog food” our real estate search product at Estately (we use it like a consumer): I subscribe to a couple of daily email alerts, a constantly updating RSS feed showing properties as they come onto the market near my house, and I subscribe to a feed of my saved homes to see when they sell.

Today two properties came on the market (welcome to Seattle prices, out of towners!):

$720,000 3 Beds / 2.25 Baths / 15 photos / 1,412 sqft / $509 per sqft
$729,000 0 Beds / 0 Baths / 0 photos / 1,700 sqft / 2,400 sqft lot / $428 per sqft

I didn’t even look at the second property – really, what’s the point? Like most buyers, I’m driven by emotion. I click through photos pretty much as fast as they load until one catches my eye, I linger, something about the property gets past my reptilian complex and I actually consider the details. Good agents know this on both sides; they take fantastic, eye catching photos or hire a professional to do so. Some of our Agent Match clients have found that they overlooked a great property with bad photos until they were dragged there by their agent and at least one was pleased to find that bad photos and staging could cost a seller upwards of $25,000.

If you are a consumer selling your house, dog food it. Subscribe to a daily email of new homes for sale for a month or two before you list your house and see what catches your eye. It’ll make “decluttering” easier.

If you are a realtor who works with sellers, dog food it. Sign up for a daily email from your company’s website. If your listing doesn’t look good there, you’ve lost a lot of the buyers who are currently in the market. You missed your chance to catch their eye and they’ve moved on to Craigslist. Maybe you can have a second shot at impressing them there.

What will a market slow down do to discount brokers?

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One of the reasons I became a real estate broker and started a RE company was because I felt 3% across the board was not right. Using capitalism, over the past 100 years as a guide, real estate will move away from the % model to a more competitive flat fee for service model. Speaking of Seattle in general, a 750k house is not worth $7,500 more in commission than a 500k house. Of course there are special circumstances, but on average.

The mood is changing in real estate. Greg Swann talks about some changes in the industry as a whole in his post here. The real change will come as full service agents become more and more aggressive for business. The slow down in the housing market will surely result in a long over due change in the traditional real estate commission structure. Following the typical paradigm shift, prices decrease, while customer services increase. This means ‘No Touch’ discount brokers will have it rough down the road. As more agents offer their services at competitive prices, discount brokers will loose their appeal.

I do not want to pin point any specific discount brokerages, but in the past week I have noticed two well known discount brokers signs taken down and replaced by reputable full service firms. Discount brokers are stuck at a flat fee with zero customer support (AGAIN… on AVERAGE).

The big question is, “Would the average buyer/seller rather pay a bit extra for a live body than an 800 number to call? “ Time will only tell, but in a service industry, price is never the deciding factor!

UPDATE: I have received an unusual amount of personal emails about this post. I would like to reiterate my reason behind this post was to show the real estate paradigm is shifting. My purpose WAS NOT to challenge the value of an agent or was I trying to make agents defend their side of the story (I am a broker so I guess mine too). My purpose was sharing my view of the future and what will happen.

Famous Real Estate Agent Found Dead

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Linda Stein, a New York real estate known as “broker to the stars,” was found dead, apparently bludgeoned to death in her Manhattan apartment.

[photopress:Linda_Stein.jpg,thumb,alignright]Her body was found on Tuesday by her daughter but the cause of death was not confirmed until an autopsy Wednesday. Linda lived by herself. The building featured heavy security and there was no sign of forced entry or robbery. Reports say that all people entering the building use the elevator and there is an elevator operator. Officials have not announced any motives or suspects in the case.

Linda was the ex-wife of Seymour Stein, former president of Sire Records, which was the launching pad for the Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna.

Before real estate Stein was a pivotal figure in the early New York punk scene, co-managing the Ramones with Danny Fields, and was a friend to David Bowie, Talking Heads, The B-52s and Madonna as wife of Sire Records founder Seymour Stein.

Her career continued into the world of expensive real estate, as she brokered property deals for stars like Sting, Billy Joel, Harrison Ford, Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner, LaToya Jackson, Sylvester Stallone and Andrew Lloyd Webber, amongst others.

For many local Seattle-area agents this brings up painful memories of Windermere agent Michael Emert who was murdered in January 2001 in a Woodinville home listed for sale. Mr. Emert was showing the home or previewing it for a buyer at the time of his murder. Mr. Emert’s body was found by the seller, who is represented by another real estate firm and was a stranger to Mr. Emert. Police believe that Mr. Emert’s late-model Cadillac SUV was taken by the perpetrator and later abandoned in Kirkland. As far as I know this murder was never solved. But it caused a major change in many agents behavior when meeting prospective clients and help inspire SKAR‘s (Seattle-King County Association of Realtors) “Safety Week