Category Archives: General

Polarized Activity and the Real Estate Industry

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[photopress:Cavegirl.jpg,thumb,alignright]I started butting heads on industry changes long before I started “blogging”. Below are two “posts” I made to an internal agent real estate forum about a year ago. They have been “picked up” on the internet, and so are now “publicly available” on the internet. I thought I would take them out, dust them off, and look at them again and see if my views have changed at all in the last year.

From September 2005: The challenge of this industry is to find the correct resolution to “What’s wrong with this picture?”

From the DOJ and the consumer standpoint, what’s RIGHT with this picture is the opportunity for Joe Public to pay less than the rate Realtor’s dictate is correct and appropriate. What resolution resolves the issue for both Realtors and the public’s right to competition in the marketplace with regard to cost of service?Secondly, if you insert the EBA model into the above excerpt with all facts the same except “Why would you want to call the “Seller’s Broker” when you can have separate and full representation at the same price?” you have another question to answer. What “boycotts” the discounter also “boycotts” the EBA, as they both use other Broker’s listings to promote a model that urges you not to use the company who listed the property. Is there an answer that is fair to the listing company/agent, provides an open marketplace with regard to commissions charged consumers, and allows the Exclusive Buyer Agent to promote the benefits of separate representation?

Is your response part of the solution or simply an attempt to keep your finger in the hole in the dike for as long as you can.
Ardell DellaLoggia

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To date, the Realtor organization has considered it a courtesy or “by permission of” the listing company for one to advertise oneself by using another company’s listings. Those outside of the Realtor organization have not considered this internal courtesy arrangement, and so are confused by the Realtor argument against anyone using listing info as they choose without approval. Even within the industry there are discrepancies as listing “agents” give permission when, in fact, the Broker should be, and usually is not consulted.

The house of cards is toppling. We created a system that supported the traditional business model and frankly, “set” fees nationally. The DOJ is not incorrect in seeing a problem with the system from the consumers’ perspective. It is incumbent upon the movers and shakers of this industry to promote a solution that is fair to all.

To date, our systems have only supported the full service, traditional, full fee business model. I once suggested to Early (maybe twice 😉 that he not be a Realtor as his business model does not “fit” with the Realtor organization’s objectives. I put my money where my mouth is in that I have followed my own advice. I set my fees on a case by case basis and I am very cognizant of the consumers’ right to choose their form of representation among the various options available to them. I am not a “discounter” or “single agency shop” by definition, I simply allow the possibility for the consumer to choose from all options. That is really all the public wants and deserves.

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Back to the present, sometimes it takes a “Cavegirl” who has been around the block a few times, and carries a big club, to beat the issues into submission from both sides of the fence. I’m going a bit inward here and re-examining my own words and thoughts from a year ago. Are we any closer to the true solution? NAR is not. The DOJ is not. I’ll have to read over my own words a couple of times and see where we are…

How did the industry get broken and how do we fix it?

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[photopress:dentist_patient_chair.jpg,thumb,alignright]I’m actually writing this from the dentist chair. First time I’ve actually put my laptop on my lap. Kinda cool.

There is a very, very simple explanation as to how the real estate industry got broken. How we fix it is another story that will take more heads than mine to figure out.

While technology and the internet has helped consumers, it has actually been the downfall of the real estate industry with regard to agent competency. Agents never learned how to sell a house from the licensing classes. Agents never learned how to sell a house from the Broker. Agents never learned how to be competent Buyer Agents from either of these places.

Every good agent in this Country, learned how to do these things from their peers IN THE OFFICE. Not by asking questions, but by listening and watching them at every opportunity. Good God man, could I possibly name all the agents I learned everything I know from? Never. It takes a Village. Well guess what? The Village burned down…the people in the Village all went “home” to their “home offices”. New agents sit in offices like the blind leading the blind. The poor Broker just gives them pep talks and lead generating tips wondering how come it don’t seem to work the way it used to.

Brokers really never knew how we learned what we know. Their job was to keep the shelves lined with supplies and give us pep talks when we felt down and listen to our rants when we needed to vent. We did NOT learn how to sell a house from the Broker…we learned from the best of the best, the top agents. We “mirrored” them, we listened when they were on the phone, we peeked into their files to see a sample contract and how they dealt with oddball scenarios. And the very, very lucky ones like me were chosen by the top agents to help them and they tutored me in exchange. I did their Open House and they taught me how to do a successful Open House in exchange. I helped them with their flyers and CMAs and paperwork, and I learned real fast from the volume of transactions passing through my hands. Eileen Friedland, Peter and Gail Rubin, I’ll have to do a whole list sometime, but not now while I’m sitting here in the dentist chair, as I think the drill is about to come out and I’ll have to go…

The industry BROKE when the agents could work from HOME!! When mls services became internet based, no one had to go to the office to work! The busiest of agents, the available great mentors work from home in their robes (like me, LOL) in the early hours of the morning and the wee, small hours of the evening. We go from our homes to meet our clients. We are no longer available for new agents to watch and learn from…

Oh, oh…Here comes the dentist…

Thank you RUDY!!!

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[photopress:TOP_2010_20WOMEN.jpg,thumb,alignright]Look what Rudy gave me www.SearchingSeattleBlog.com

He put his “little badge of courage” on my sidebar for me.

Thank you so MUCH, Rudy. I’m still fairly technologically challenged. I appreciate all of your support out there, Dustin and Galen and Robbie and my Microsoft and Google clients. I’ll be transparent about real estate if you keep me keepin’ on by helping with my “technical difficulties”.

My cup runneth over every time one of you uses your techie talents on my behalf.

You know I’m not a gusher, so this thanks comes from the bottom of my Kalu ka thYA!

Cheap inbound links

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Normally paying for links to your website or blog is a quick way to lose money (and arguably Google ranking), but in this case, I think Google will oblige. Ruby Inside, a blog devoted to the Ruby on Rails web development framework, is offering $100 for the best Ruby on Rails how-tos and tutorials if you get your post in before Sunday. What a great way to encourage more documentation on the web!

Normally I wouldn’t link to such a brazen request for links, but

a) I use Ruby on Rails for web development and have been disappointed only by its lack of documentation and my lack of skill
b) They’re offering $15 just for linking to the contest

Just because users can post doesn’t mean they will

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In spite of all the hype for social websites, there have been a rash of noble attempts that come up short recently. No one has quite figured out the right way to start an open dialog about individual homes yet.

ShackYack, “the only real estate site where you can comment and rate the product, just like amazon, netflix, ebay etc.,” launched in late May. Apparently they have found that houses aren’t mass produced and sold by the millions like iPods and people really don’t have much to post about them. That said, part of the reluctance to comment on properties is probably the buggy interface and their newness on the market.

However! Propsmart’s interface isn’t buggy. In fact, it’s one of the best out there and they encourage comments too. But a random sampling of homes on the site shows no comments.

Why would you want to publicly comment on a house unless you’re the owner or an agent looking for leads? The house, along with your comments, is going to be off the market in a few weeks and, unless you’re an agent, you’re going to be out of the market in a short period of time too. And if you’re an agent, blogging seems like a more public and permanent way to go.

That said, Propsmart’s blogging service appears to be stillborn, with the last post being posted over 2 months ago. Even blogging systems aren’t always a hit.

I feel like I’m picking on PropSmart here, but I’m really not. Whenever you introduce new services, some will be hits and some won’t. Their search site and their interface in particular are great and they are definitely the most straight-talking real estate search company out there (possibly the only one?).

Zillow vs. “average” agent

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When I wrote my “Baby Takes a Bow” piece which took about 30 seconds, I knew I was opening Pandora’s Box, and would have to back up my one liners with some extensive writing on each topic outlined therein.

My definition of Pandora’s Box is the one one that attributes “the box” to a “woman’s womb” from which new life springs forth. While I do not necessarily agree with Inman’s new three part series on negating the mls offering started yesterday, or all of David Barry’s undertakings around the country, clearly I am not the only one trying to pry open Pandora’s Box. The box WILL be opened! Whether the DOJ or David Barry choose in the end to take the ultimate credit, truth is, it is just simply time for the box to be broken open by everyone at once.

If we all take out our respective crowbars, the box will open. Who takes credit for having opened it, and clearly David Eraker and those who came before him will deserve some of that credit as well, who takes the ultimate credit is irrelevant. In fact the DOJ is my best hope for getting the credit, so that the “new life that springs forth” will be on a national scale as only the DOJ can do best.

In this quote from my most recent beginnings of a very long explanation, you will quickly see just WHO Zillow can replace, which by current accounts and statistics may be up to 90% of the industry as it exists today.

“If you stand up from the computer with the value in your hand before you go to the house, and you stand by that value after you arrive at the house, because the computer “SET” the value…you are giving the seller the equivalent of a Zillow produced valuation…which is FREE. Any agent who thinks a computer spits out a home “value” via a CMA Program, is easily replaced by Zillow.”

To some extent, those who wrote those great CMA programs, like IRIS/Lightning and Top Producer and way back to Coldwell Banker’s very first CMA software which predated them all, are responsible for agents believing that a computer can value a home.

To a greater extent large brokers, and local mls classes, that mislead new agents into thinking they can “value a home” on day ONE after they receive their license, by using these programs, are even more responsible for this thinking.

When the Pareto Principal changes from an 80/20 rule to a 90/10 rule, as was told to me in Real Estate Broker Classes, with only 10% of agents being competent, then it is time. It is time for Pandora’s Box to be opened. It is time to stop that snowball from rolling down the hill, it is time to stop that train that doesn’t seem to have brakes. It is time to roll back the clock and begin again.

Contrary to Inman’s new series, we do not have to roll the clock back 35 years to the beginnings of the mls. We only have to back up to the day that buyers were supposed to become “1st class citizens”, and begin anew from that point. Because an agent who cannot value a home for a seller, cannot with any sense of credibility, value one for a buyer either.

leaving Redfin to pursue new opportunities…

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David’s dwindling influence at Redfin has met it’s happy PR end. Now it is Glenn full-time, all the time! 🙂

While we’ve had a few run-ins with David Eraker in the past, he always kept his chin up and I wish him the best. It will definitely be interesting to see if he sticks with real estate for his next venture.

(via bloodhound)

Marketing Messages

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A message different than any I’ve seen.

We see real estate ads everywhere: The huge Realtor or Real Estate Office centric billboards, shopping carts, sitting benches at bus stops or supermarkets, radio ads, at malls, various print media, internet, etc.

[photopress:T.Jones.JPG,full,alignleft]

And then this. Is the message effective?

Condo owners & hot water tanks – A call to arms!

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[photopress:water.jpg,thumb,alignright]A lot of people worry about George Bush and political issues. Many more worry about saving the trees and global warming. I worry about condo owners and their hot water tanks.

I am buying a new hot water tank for the seller and buyer of the condo I have in escrow. When I sold the condo to the current owner/seller, the hot water tank was 14 years old. I bought him a home warranty at the time and a new coil was put in, during the first year that he owned the condo, by the warranty company. Now that I’m selling it for him, I’ve decided to have the tank replaced for the new owner (who is not my client).

Hot water tanks are one of those things that often slips through the cracks in a normal transaction. A home inspector often cannot tell if a hot water tank is “ready to blow” simply by looking at it, unless it is already leaking and corroded. A warranty company comes in and “fixes” it, but often doesn’t replace it until “it blows”. The main reason to replace a hot water tank is due to its current age, which is “past it’s life expectancy”, and not wait until “it blows”. However, in the normal real estate transaction, if it ain’t broke, no one is obligated to fix it. “Past its life expectancy” alone, is not necessarily “a defect that the seller must repair”. Old is not necessarily defective.

When I became a Realtor many moons ago, it was our charge to “uphold the value of real estate” generally. The Realtor motto has changed since then, and I am not currently a Realtor, but that motto is still my “cause of action” and it calls me to replace hot water tanks. We all need a mission in life, and so I have made this one of mine. Why you say?

Because when a hot water tank blows in a condo, it affects everyone. When FORTY GALLONS of water lets loose, while the owner is off at work, it is a chaotic catastrophe! The owner comes home to wade in water that has turned his condo into an indoor swimming pool. The next door neighbor comes home to find water all over her condo, but can’t find the source of the problem. And if it is not a ground floor unit, the people below are getting rained on. If any one of these affected neighbors doesn’t respond appropriately, because “they only got a little water, so they just let it dry out on its own”, you can have the beginnings of mold growing behind the baseboards and under the carpet. If you have a 90 unit complex that is 14 years old, you can potentially have 90 hot water tanks all ready to blow in sequence, over a 2 to 4 year period! One blown tank after another! Water, water everywhere! So it is my mission to replace these tanks before they affect people’s lives adversely. Before there are so many “water intrusion” insurance claims that the HOA loses its condo insurance, or the insurance rates are so high, to keep their insurance, that the HOA dues skyrocket! The ramifications of blown hot water tanks, in succession in a condo complex, can raise everyone’s HOA dues and negatively impact the value of everyone’s condo. So to “uphold the value of real estate”, generally…I’ve got to tackle these old tanks at every given opportunity, one sale at a time. Out with the OLD and in with the NEW!

That being said, if anyone has recently replaced their hot water tank, and can give me a referral to a reasonable and reputable source of hot water tank replacement in the Seattle area…please speak up and join me in this cause to eradicate water intrusion claims. Many “forward thinking” HOA Boards are making a rule, that all hot water tanks be replaced based on age alone, and are monitoring that every owner replaces their tank before it blows on everyone. If you live in a condo complex, especially a “stacked unit” complex, please heed this warning, go to your condo board meeting, and urge them to take a stand against water intrusion caused by hot water tank failure. Being “forewarned is to be forearmed!”

Thank you.

Homeowner a Guerrilla Marketing machine

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After coming home this past weekend from a family trip to Lake Chelan and Ephrata in eastern Washington, I couldn’t help but notice (including thousands of others driving westbound into Seattle on I-90), the “For Sale” sign draped over a home that was located just over the westbound I-90 tunnel as you approach Seattle’s downtown. You can’t miss it.

The home also made the news in today’s business section of the Seattle PI. I wonder if the homeowner knew they would get the attention of the local papers and blogs. Talk about leveraging the location of your home when you have to sell your home! Guerrilla Marketing at it’s best.