"Honey, how come you're taking so long to read the real estate section today?"

Today’s top story here in Seattle is about scantily clad baristas serving your latte with more than just whip cream on top.  The ethics of using sex to sell are debatable but the results are not.  The NYTimes reported on this trend in the real estate industry last July. Here’s the link but the site will ask you to register for free with an email address.

You can look at this story from many perspectives which are keeping our local talk radio show hosts busy.  My perspective is as follows. First, to those who critique the business owners for using sex to sell, business owners have been doing this for decades. Why else do title and escrow companies continue to put hottie women in the field with no knowledge of title and escrow? Second, leave the lingerie dressed women there for at least a few more days, so I can drive through with my two daughters and show them the type of job they can look forward to if they decide to skip college. Third, I’m hoping another espresso business owner decides to go after the opposite market.  Staff it with Ashton or Brad Pitt look-a-like, shirtless, hotties and I will bet that you’ll triple your profits….from both women AND men customers.  If the final product is bad, coffee addicted folks here will not give these businesses more than a few weeks of fleeting fame.

In the spirit of satire, let’s see how this concept plays out in our industry. The following youtube videos are rated PG13. Enjoy. 

Kal’s Kittens

Is Your Arm Broken?

2000 Bloggers

I saw myself in a “puzzle” of faces here and there around the internet. Apparently you can add your blog, but I didn’t put mine there, so someone must have “entered me”.

Not sure where it originated. I’m still tracking it back.

It is an amazing display of blogs! and the photos are interactive so you just click on a face and you get to that person’s blog. Very cool.

If I can find the original source I’ll come back and edit this post. I recognize a few of the faces. It doesn’t look like 2000, but I guess it grows and grows until it reaches 2,000.

If anyone has any info on where this came from, and how my face got there :), please let us know.

http://www.trade-pals.com/2000-bloggers.asp this is the name on the link. I’ll go see what “trade-pals” is. Looks like it could be something like MyBlogLog.

Looks like it is Tino Buntic, just a whacky dude 🙂

Interview with Mary McKnight of RSS Pieces

[photopress:mary_mcknight.jpg,full,alignright]As the online face of RSS Pieces, Mary has quickly become an influential member of the real estate blogging community by freely giving her expertise on many technical areas of real estate blogging. She’s fun, interesting, opinionated and intelligent… What more could we ask for?

What inspired you to start blogging?

I actually started blogging years ago on a number of fitness sites because it was a passion of mine and blogging was a way of connecting with other aficionados and sharing my experience and knowledge. That’s where I developed my unique voice and my strategy for driving traffic and penning posts that keep readers coming back. believe me, I crashed and burned many times when I first started blogging. Back then, there wasn’t a manual for how to do it- it was all trial and error. But over time, I came up with a formula that worked. So, when we entered the real estate market with a blogging product, I applied the same successful
formula I used for my fitness articles.

Are there any special topics or issues that you enjoy covering?

I love anything about emerging technologies so topics covering web 3.0, the semantic web, FAOF and SIOC are what I’m interested in covering now. But my roots are definitely tutorial posts. I like writing them and I love knowing that in some way I have helped Realtors to build their knowledge base so they have the tools to grow their business. I’m a big believer in giving people the tools to build their business regardless of which blogging product they use.

[photopress:rss_pieces.jpg,full,alignright]What have you done to personalize your blog?

I always try to use a conversational tone and talk to my readers rather than type at them. I hate to be lectured or read dry technical manuals (which I read a lot of), so I like to keep my posts fun and often campy. I also like to share little bits of my life in posts so readers can connect with me directly. I find that when people feel that they know you and can connect with you they are more likely to contact you or share themselves with you. I receive the most comments and emails from posts where I share bits of my life. Here is an article I wrote about humanizing your blog for intimacy.

Do you have any favorite posts?

By far my favorite post was the meme- I loved watching that virus spread throughout the industry and beyond.

I also have a special place for each post that I penned as a guest host on other blogs because I can’t believe anyone would trust me with their blog!

My favorite tutorial posts are:

What are some of your favorite blogs (real estate or otherwise)?

Good question. A blog has to be stellar to make my feed reader and here
are the top 5 feeds in my reader from Real Estate and Other.

Real Estate:

Other:

What tools/websites do you find most helpful in putting together your blog?

The RSS Pieces system was built by the ground up by our own staff so all the tools we need for SEO and add-on functionality are already inside the system but here are some of my favorite development and free SEO tools:

Macromedia Homesite, Widexl, NUAH, iWebTool, Zen Studio, W3C, RSS Pieces SEO tools. We also are always looking at what the power bloggers are doing and what the industry thinks is on the horizon.

How does blogging fit into the overall marketing of your business?

Blogging is an essential component of our marketing strategy since we are a blogging company. I think as a blogging company you have to prove that your system works by making it work for your own company. I hope that our little blog does show clients and prospective bloggers that you can build success with blogging in a fairly short period of time through strategic content, a little bit of home grown marketing, quality SEO and a lot of attitude.

What plans do you have to improve your blog over this next year?

  • Implementation of the semantic web in our blogging platform so each of our blogs will web 3.0 enabled
  • Drag and drop template configuration so users can rearrange the way their sites look without having to call the developers to recode them.
  • Better online image editing and gallery management in our editor
  • Better support for people using cell pones and PDAs

What is the one tool or feature that you wish your site had?

Better support for people using cell pones and PDAs.

What do you think real estate blogging will look like 3 years from now?

I think the line between blogs and websites will be blurred so much that people won’t be able to tell the difference. Blogs will take on more traditional website features like listing searches and mortgage calculators. They will begin to replace their website counterparts. This is the direction in which RSS Pieces has been moving. Traditional blogs are pretty featureless by nature, more and more companies will begin to add features to their blogs so they can become their central on-line presence. Also, once FAOF and SIOC are in place, blogs, forums, aggregators and other social media sites will become more interconnected giving blogs a firmer foothold on the Internet as information resources.

I also think that natural selection will occur and as the blog population grows, weaker blogs will die off and the overall quality of the remaining blogs will increase.

Thanks, Mary, for taking the time to answer these questions!

Everyone else, feel free to leave a comment or peruse these other interviews with other influential real estate bloggers…

Too Close to Home

Ardell’s recent blog, Agent FIRED! Lender Fraud, reminded me of one of my first transactions almost seven years ago. I can’t remember how I came across this client or how he was referred to me because I have deleted him from my database. I don’t ever want to provide a mortgage for him or anyone he’s associated with.

This person had contacted me wanting a mortgage for a home just a few doors down from his current residence. He had told me it was for his family members and that it should not receive a non-owner occupied rate. I informed him that currently, there are no special rates and programs for family members (it would be great if…but there’s not) and therefore, the loan is considered a non-owner occupied. He, of course, really wanted the lower rate that an owner occupied home would feature. A week or so later into the transaction, he asked me “What if I move out of my home and into the new home. My family can move into my home.

Holy flying skylights! Why I take good care of my contractor buddies…

I’ve been trying to get around to writing this post for a week but have been distracted otherwise. Anyhow, I wanted to make sure and point out a little something that anyone who owns a home with skylights might want to check. When we had the oh so lovely windy weather last week (before the ice and snow) I had an eye opening experience with a skylight on my 3.5 story house. I’ll provide a photo so you can see the pitch of this roof and get what I’m talking about later.

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So, thankfully a neighbor was kind enough to run down to my house to inform me that one of the skylights off the top of my house was dangling off the roof a bit being held on to the roof by a gutter. I ran upstairs to see how much rain was pouring in the top of the house and saw that thankfully at that point it wasn’t much – but more clouds were headed our way from the west and south. Frantically I called one of my close contractor buddies – crap!!! – no answer!!! So, I called another local one but he was headed out of town. Thankfully he gave us the number of one his usual people that helps with his projects but when he showed up the ladder he brought wasn’t large enough. So, back to plan #1 with more frantic calls to the first contractor. I got lucky. He answered and was actually in the vicinity and he just so happened to have one of his longest ladders with him.

The 3 workers showed up and two of them ended roped up to the tie off on the top of my house while one stayed inside to help with screwing in screws that HAD APPARENTLY NEVER BEEN INSTALLED when they put the skylights on my house! We got lucky that no damage occurred to the skylight that came off – 1. it popped off like a bottle cap [photopress:bottle_cap.jpg,thumb,alignright] and landed on its back, and 2. it didn’t fall to the ground (concrete driveway) below. While they were up there they went ahead and secured all 3 skylights (yes, ALL of them had been left with little to no method of attachment). The contractors applied silicone to seal the windows and then they screwed them in properly. Little did I know that I was living on borrowed time with these things – and we got really lucky that they’d not blown off earlier. As you can see in the photo I live on a hill and my house gets buffeted by winds regularly.

So, note to homeowners and agents… If there are skylights on your home (or one you’re helping buy or sell) it’s worth it to check to see if they are secured. It doesn’t take much to do after seeing what these contractors did. Secondarily, I was also told that skylights are a common method of break-ins on homes because many of them aren’t installed very well. A good maintenance tip and addition for your annual gutter and roof check.

Buyer's remorse

We’ve all been there: we’ve signed up for a major purchase when we think, “Wait a sec — was that REALLY a good idea?”  Given the costs associated with the purchase of a home, this moment of doubt can be downright crippling when it occurs after you’ve signed a purchase and sale agreement (PSA).  Usually, we get over it and press ahead with the purchase.  But what if you don’t — what if you really want to back out of the deal?

Most people in this situation will turn to their agent for advice.  Before you do so, however, recognize two facts.  First, you’re hoping to avoid a legal obligation without incurring liability.  The analysis of your situation — i.e. a determination of whether and how you can avoid your legal obligation — constitutes the practice of law.  Your agent, though, is almost certainly not a lawyer.  Second, your agent has an interest in seeing you go through with the purchase, as your agent only gets paid for his or her efforts if the deal closes.  Many agents — and certainly those who contribute to RCG — recognize that the interests of the client are paramount, and they would not permit their own self interest to interfere with the service and guidance they provide to their clients.  There are, however, other agents who, whether consciously or subconsciously, will allow their own self interest to influence the advice they give.

On the other hand, legal counsel can be expensive.  In most instances, the PSA indicates that, upon buyer’s default, the seller’s sole remedy is to retain the earnest money.  If that’s not the case in your situation, and if your agent did not bring this option to your attention before you signed the offer, then you may have a claim against your agent for negligent representation.  However, assuming you have so limited your liability, you should compare the cost of hiring a lawyer to the amount you stand to lose under the PSA.  If you put up $1000 in earnest money, then you can walk away from the deal relatively pain-free, and there may be no need for legal advice.  If you put up something more significant, however, it is probably worth at least consulting an attorney so that you can identify your options.

Typically, every PSA contains one or more contingencies.  Common contingencies include financing, inspection, and title.  If one or more of these contingencies remain open (i.e. neither waived nor satisfied), then you may have an easy way out.  If some of these contingencies at least arguably were not satisfied (e.g. a letter from the lender indicating that you did not qualify for financing, but which does not satisfy the specific requirements as spelled out in the PSA), then you at least have a position from which you can negotiate. 

There may be other factors that give you some leverage over negotiations for the return of your earnest money.  For example, I helped clients who rescinded a PSA for a newly constructed home.  Their agent was the “designated buyer’s agent” for the development.  This agent provided remarkably poor representation.  Even though my clients had a weak argument, at best, that they were entitled to the earnest money, they had a fairly good claim against their agent.  So, in my demand letter, I pointed out that, if the matter went to court, my clients would assert claims against this agent and would explore the relationship between that agent and the developer.  Apparently, the developer decided that this was not a battle worth fighting, and it returned all of the earnest money, a substantial sum.

Ultimately, a call or letter from an attorney carries signficantly more weight than from the buyer or the buyer’s agent.  If you want out of a contract and you want to avoid liability for doing so, it’s probably worthwhile to consult an attorney.

This post does not constitute legal advice or counsel.  Consult an attorney about the particular facts of your situation.

Changing the World One Banana at a Time

It appears that Rain City Guide has gone to bananas

The following photo baffled me when I first saw it.

How to explain someone linking to Rain City Guide with this photo?

[photopress:rcg_banana.jpg,full,centered]

With my curiosity peeked, I noticed that Ed Kohler posted the photo from his Flickr account… Hmm… Who’s Ed Kohler?

Ed is the man behind the the WhereToLive site (which is a decent map-based home search) and the Colorado Home Stop site (which is one of the best map-based home search interfaces I’ve been fortunate to play with!).

Ed emailed me last week to let me know about his Denver-area home search tool and despite my interest, I never got around to talking about it. But on the theory it is never too late, here are some of the features I really like:

  • Lightning fast
  • Photo scroll bar (Mac-style) at the bottom of screen that is connected to the map and highlights listings on map on mouse-over
  • Micro icons get bigger with zoom
  • Like Windermere’s maps, they bring every thing on one page, and aesthetically, it is much cleaner than the Windermere maps
  • Clean Trulia-style filters
  • Pull-down neighborhood search
  • Right-click functionality for zooming
  • Ability to compare homes without leaving the map

The moral of the story is that if you really want to get my attention, simply post a photo of a banana with Rain City Guide written on it and then let me discover it! I’m assuming that Ed is one of the monkey’s behind the banana site, and if so, it looks like he may be willing to help others out with a personalized banana!

Interview with Kristal Kraft of the Denver Real Estate Blog

As some of you may already know Ardell and I have been playing on ActiveRain lately. My personal goal in taking part was to learn about the group dynamics and see how and why people are active on the site. [photopress:kristal_kraft.jpg,full,alignright]Interestingly, one of the things I decided to do was ask the group who was the most influential person on ActiveRain so that I could interview them on RCG.

The results were loud and clear in that Kristal Kraft is not only the point leader on ActiveRain, but the most influential person for many members of the site. I spent some time following Kristal’s posts and I found her to be consistently informative and interesting. Armed with that knowledge, I decided to ask Kristal a little bit about her blogging influences and experiences.

What inspired you to start blogging?

Blogging has been a natural progression for me; ten years ago I published my first real estate website. Then in the year 2000 I took a year off from work to travel around the world on a bike. That year I was biking and blogging (without a blog platform). At the time I thought of if as a travel/photo journal of my experience, the site Bike Tracks was written often times in a tent with a flashlight attached to my head. I would publish as soon as I could find a land line. OK, so it wasn’t really a blog, but I had a huge audience. In fact at one point in Africa I didn’t publish for a couple weeks. Everyone was in a panic worried I had been eaten by a lion or something awful! After that, they got used to my irregular postings. Funny how things work, I took my position seriously when I found out people were reading my site. Riding a bike 80 to 105 miles a day can get boring! There were times when the journey got very difficult, but my “responsibility to my audience

Beware No Trespassing (even if you do have a keybox)

Learn something new every day. Can an agent access a vacant home with a keybox, without an appointment? What if that agent represents a buyer under contract on that home?[photopress:no_trespassing.jpg,thumb,alignright]

I had to learn this answer the hard way a couple of years ago. Here’s what happened:

I sold a vacant home in Issaquah to clients subject to inspection. During the inspection, it was noted that the furnace had a very high level of CO (92%) and needed to be replaced. Seller (an attorney) would not replace the furnace. Buyers decided to replace it themselves before they move in and waived the inspection contingency.

Given that it takes a few weeks after ordering a furnace to get it installed, I, knowing that the house was vacant, met the furnace installer (call him Bob) at the home for measurements. No, I did not make an appointment. During the measuring, the furnace guy TAKES THE FURNACE OUT OF COMMISSION! Of course, it was in the dead of winter and the weather was below freezing. Furnace guy says that by state law, he is required to decommission a furnace if it is a safety issue and considering that the furnace was burning outside of the combustion chamber, it quite obviously was a safety issue.

Now we have a vacant house with no heat, with a seller who refused to pay for a new furnace with the inspection period waived and with me and my furnace guy Bob having entered the home without an appointment. Listing agent is furious with me and calls his broker who calls his attorney who calls my broker who calls me and says that, Guess what, technically it IS considered trespassing to re-enter a home that is pending even with the pending buyers or buyer’s agent.

The solution was simple enough. Seller had the furnace installed (immediate when in an emergency situation) and buyers paid for it at escrow. And I learned a new lesson. The hard way.