Tag Archives: real-estate

"Flip This House" is looking for YOU

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I received an email today from the casting firm of A&E’s “Flip This House” requesting my assistance in locating persons who have flipped at least ten properties in a year. I know a few people who might be qualified and interested.

I haven’t seen the show. I expect that each week there may be a different host from a different area.

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I doubt that it is a “Seattle Area” only request, so if anyone knows of anyone who has done at least 10 flips in 2005, or 10 a year for a few years, shoot me an email.

Thanks. Have no clue what “tag” to put on this one!

Closing Today

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There are a thousand stories in the Naked City….this is just one of them.

I was working on my computer one day when I saw some emails coming from Realtor.com

I stopped what I was doing and opened the emails. The emails were from clients of mine whose son purchased a condo from me several months ago. The emails had no messages, just property. Vacant lots out on the coast in Washington that were really cheap $25,000 to $90,000.

I called the clients and arranged for an agent on the coast to take them out to look at those lots and others. They returned here having found a fabulous lot that backed to a canal, one house from the ocean, with an easement access to the ocean directly across the street. It already had septic, water and electric hooked up.

The owners were a couple who owned it for many years and enjoyed it and needed to sell it because the wife was dying of cancer. To make a long story short, the woman left her hospital bed and her husband drove her two hours and the listing agent drove two hours and they met at midnight under the bridge to sign the offer. The woman felt a huge weight lifitng knowing that her husband would have this money toward her hospital bills. She died before it closed with that peace of mind.

It is closing today and I received this message from the listing agent “Mr (XXX) says he hopes they find as much happiness there as he and his wife had throughout the years…”

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This area was never on the mls, and so not on the internet, until they joined NWMLS this summer. Had the area not joined the mls, my clients would never have seen the lots on Realtor.com and emailed me. A chain of events started and ends today when it closes.

We are in a business of people. Buyer people and Seller people. We do not sell property, we help people buy and sell property. The people are important. Let’s not forget that.

Revolutionize Your Business in Only 3 Days with Blogging!

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Maybe I’m becoming a blog snob, but I’m seeing more and more BAD marketing advice about blogs as they relate to real estate agents. A lot of people simply don’t understand the marketing potential of blogs and rather than giving useful advice, a lot of marketing “gurus” are stepping up to deliver advice designed to keep them in business. A good real estate blog is extremely cheap and costs much more in time than money. If someone is trying to sell you a blogging service that replaces time with money, they are likely trying to sell you a website with blog-like features. If your goal is to increase your presence on the web, then a website with blog-like features will get you about the same benefits of a typical website except you’ll end up with all the formatting restrictions inherent in a blog.

What got me started thinking about bad marketing (at least today) was when I read a comment on my 8 Mistakes article from an internet marketing expert who completely misses the marketing potential of blogs:

Some of the things this blogger wrote about were insightful and probably very appropriate guidelines for creating a typical blog. But on the other hand, there were a couple points that I just couldn’t look past:

* Don’t put your real estate listings on your blog
* Don’t “spam” your own blog with self promotion

Now, I’ve experienced a good deal of success in the real estate marketing business by executing a blog strategy that is not focused on being a “typical blog”. I’m not terribly concerned with creating a forum for discussion about Chicago real estate, nor am I terribly concerned with generating a loyal readership who will return to my site over and over.

If you keep reading his post, you’ll notice that the writer goes on to say that many people want to see homes when they search the internet for real estate information. He is right on that point, which would help explain the current bubble in new home search tools. However, even if people do want to look for homes on the internet, designing a blog around this is missing out on a large slice of potential home buyers who are looking to learn about neighborhoods, find appropriate real estate professionals, and research home-purchase advice.

However, the real kicker is that while there are some great ways to display a home listing on the internet, a blog entry is not one of them. Compared with the stuff you can do with a simple website creation tool like Microsoft Frontpage, let alone more advanced website creation tools, a blog post is down-right ugly. Blog posts are really geared toward text and they simply have limited graphic capabilities (while my blog software is top-notch, I have to dive into HTML code just to change the color or size of the font within the post!)

The author mentions the great success he’s had blogging about home listings. But does this typical listing on his blog come anywhere close to comparing to this beautiful listing that Joe put together? If your aim is to advertise a listing, then a webpage (or an entire website for that matter) is a much better way to accomplish this task than a blog entry!

However, I suspect that the author (who consults as an internet marketing expert) is under the assumption that because the home listing is in a “blog”, there is some type of search engine optimization benefit over a standard website. Not only that, but I’ve heard this logic said enough that I suspect this notion is prevalent in the real estate community (i.e. blogs show up better than websites in search results!). But this is a myth. Search engines do not even try to tell the difference between a blog and a typical website (after all, they both just appear to be a collection of HTML code to a search engine).

The REASON blogs tend to perform better in search engine results than typical webpages is a direct result of the community that has created them. When done right, a community of bloggers share links with each other and not just any links, but deep links associated with quality content. To create a blog without the intention of creating community (or loyal readers for that matter) is to completely misunderstand the marketing potential of blogs.

I also believe the authenticity of the author when he says that he has had success marketing homes through his blog. However, I think the success has a lot more to do with the fact that the author has created a community around providing interesting advice for buyers despite his lack of care for these readers. When I said it was a mistake to put listing information on a blog, this is because there are better ways to display listings than in a blog post and too much self-promotion inhibits creating a community.

I actually remember noticing, and then unsubscribing, to the author’s blog a long time ago because of all the self-promotional stuff. Interestingly, I would never have even found out about his post or linked to him had he not linked to me! By linking to me and taking part in the larger real estate blogging community, he has earned some backlinks to his site that will help him score better in search engines! A blog without community is simply a website that is organized chronologically and will be treated as such by the search engines.

If you want to see this bad idea taken a step further, check Ubertor’s latest product where they sell a self-updating blog of featured listings. What could possibly be the benefit of a blog (with all it’s ugly formatting restrictions) if it is self-updating? If an agent doesn’t think it is worth their time to select a few featured listings for their blog, do they really think it will be worth anyone’s time to read it? Let alone comment and link to these posts? Sometimes understanding whether or not an idea is a good marketing strategy takes little more than common sense.

Talking about common sense marketing… In putting together this post, I came across this great video featuring Seth Godin where he discusses with Google employees how much of their amazing success is related to how they have marketed their products (Thank you Grow-a-Brain!). The 48 minute video is so darn instructive for understanding how marketing should be done (and I believe that real estate agents are either in marketing or broke) that I’m going to experiment with including the video below so you can watch it directly from this site:

What exactly IS a townhome?

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First, let’s all agree that a townhome usually has at least two stories, but you can have a “ranch style townhome” or “rambler style townhome”. Usually there is no one over or under you in a townhome, except sometimes, like in Sixty-01, they occasionally stuff a condo under the two story townhome. In the Seattle area a townhome usually has a garage on the first level, main living areas on the second level and bedrooms on the third level. When there is a view involved, especially a water view, it is better to but the main living areas at the top and the bedrooms on the lower levels.

But why is a townhome sometimes a condominium, and sometimes a single family dwelling? Why is it sometimes a single family dwelling when it is attached to other townhomes, and sometimes a condominium when it is not attached at all?

The phrase townhome was coined by the real estate industry to “upgrade” the term rowhome. Many major cities, like my Philadelphia, have had rowhomes for over a hundred years. As many as twenty five all attached together with no break until you get to the “end of row” or “breezeway”. When builders started building attached dwellings out in the suburbs, they didn’t want to call them “rowhomes” and so came up with the term “townhomes”. Very upscale areas started calling their rowhomes, townhomes, and so the term was created and expanded.

Very simply, if you own the land under the townhome all by yourself, meaning the lots are subdivided at every shared wall from the front of the lot to the back of the lot, then it is a single family townhome or “single family attached”, much like the original “rowhome”.

[photopress:townhomes.jpg,thumb,alignright]If the lot is not subdivided and you build two or more separately owned structures on one lot, whether they are attached or not, they are condominiums. As far as I know, condominiums are always built on land that is shared and not subdivided per each individual owner. So if you put two separate houses on one lot and sell them to two different people, they are condominium townhomes. If you attach 25 homes in a row, but subdivide the lots so that they own their front yard and back yard and the land under their house, they are single family dwellings.

I always say, when you are sitting in your house, if you own the land under your butt all by yourself, it is a single family dwelling. If the land under your butt is jointly owned with other people, then it is a condominium 🙂

Is Your Earnest Money Protected By The Finance Contingency?

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While the purpose of the Finance Contingency is to protect the buyer in the event they are not able to obtain a mortgage, more and more the buyer is not covered all the way to the day of closing.

In a perfect world, the buyer submits an offer with a Finance Contingency that runs through the day of closing.  If the buyer’s loan is rejected, the sale becomes null and void and the Earnest Money is returned to the buyer.  The seller puts his property back on the market and finds a different buyer.

Finance Contingency addendums are two pages long and much more complicated than the simple explanation above, and much more dangerous to the buyer than they often expect.  I have not met a buyer in 15 years who did not expect to get their Earnest Money returned if their loan is not approved.  I also have not had a buyer client in 15 years whose loan was not approved 🙂  

It is becoming common practice in the last few years for the seller to counter the offer by shortening the timeframe on the Finance Contingency.  Often this is deemed a minor date change, when in fact it is a major change for the buyer.  I have even seen buyer’s agents write offers with a 30 day escrow and a 15 day finance contingency because that is “common practice” :0 

If you have a 30 day escrow and a finance contingency that expires in 15 days, you are not likely covered if the loan is rejected on the 23rd day.  You are also not covered if you did not apply for your loan on time or if you did not submit the documents to the lender in a timely manner.

VERY IMPORTANT, you are also not covered if you do not have enough cash to close. 

I am hoping the attorneys here will have something to add, or will have something on their blog explaining this further.  In the meantime, suffice it to say that just because you have a Finance Contingency, that does not mean that you will automatically get your Earnest Money returned, if you can not close due to financing issues.

Forget tradition! The New World of Buying and Selling Real Estate

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I’ve been going to the MIT Forum’s dinner topics for years as a technology geek. Now that I’m in real estate, I’m still finding applicable topics. Let me put my plug in for the MIT Forum first — The Northwest Chapter of the MIT Forum hosts monthly dinner meetings with topics relating to business and technology. The topics cover the spectrum from computer technology, biotech, nano technology and yes…now real estate technology trends. Always interesting!!

Topic:

Transformation is afoot. Remember how Expedia revolutionized the travel industry? Now companies in our own backyard, including Redfin, HouseValues and Zillow, are offering online technologies that are transforming the real estate industry. From online valuations and lead generation to completing the legal transaction, these companies aim to exploit opportunities in the business of residential real estate. Home buyers, sellers and real estate agents are changing the way that they do business.

Panelists:

  • David Eraker, Founder, Redfin
  • Spencer Rascoff, CFO, Zillow, Inc.
  • Nikesh Parekh, VP of Corporate Development, HouseValues, Inc.
  • Gordon Stephenson, Co-Owner and Managing Broker, Real Property Associates, Inc., Director, Zillow, Inc

March 15, 5:30PM – Tickets are $50 at the door (less if you buy ahead of time). Visit http://www.mitwa.org for further details.

The 5:30 time is no-host cocktail with doors for dinner opening later. Come on by and join us.

8 Common Mistakes Made By Real Estate Bloggers

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In putting together Rain City Guide with Anna, I think we’ve made every blogging mistake that is possible… [photopress:lots_of_banners.jpg,full,alignright]In the spirit of learning from our mistakes, here are the top 8 mistakes that are made by real estate bloggers:

  • Mistake #1: Posting your listings. Treat your blog as a community resource and you will be rewarded. Treat it as an advertisement, and you will be unread.
  • Mistake #2: Too much stuff on the front page (See photo on the right!). In a previous iteration of Rain City Guide I noticed that the site was slow because I was asking users to load too much stuff when all they really wanted was the content! I’ve cleaned up the interface and I feel much better about the site.
  • Mistake #3: Create multiple blogs. Except for Jonathan Miller, I’ve never seen a good real estate blogger who could keep more than one blog interesting to read.
  • Mistake #4: Using a generic theme. Take the time to personalize the theme of your blog. Simple steps like adding your photo, editing the header graphic and changing around the colors can make a huge difference.
  • Mistake #5: Not reading other blogs. I built the original blog for Anna before I began reading other real estate blogs. No one ever linked to that site because I never linked to anyone else. Unless you were one of the originals, you won’t be able to get away with this and expect anyone to read your blog.
  • Mistake #6: Too much self-promotion. I stop reading blogs that include a paragraph about the author’s exceptional services at the bottom of every post (especially if this paragraph is filled with links!). Again, unless you were one of the originals, you can’t get away with this and expect anyone to read your blog.
  • Mistake #7: Expecting people to comment just because you asked a question. If you want a response out of your readers, you really have to make it interesting. Before asking a question, make sure you’re providing some content that is going to provoke them to respond!
  • Mistake #8: Writing a post inspired by another blogger without linking to them. The temptation to keep readers on your site is great, but the benefits of being a good linker are even greater!

As always, I’m interested in your feedback 😉 , and would be interested to hear if people could add two more so that we could come with a even ten.

Real estate blogs spark key industry debate

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Inman is running an interesting article on how blogs are changing the real estate industry (goes behind a subscription wall after today!). Once you get through a bit about Jonathan Miller of Matrix and Adam Koval of SocketSite, you might notice that they interviewed me as well. 😉

Probably the oddest part about a formal interview like that is that after 30 to 40 minutes of talking you know that they are only going to use a few quotes. Nonetheless, I was glad to see that Jessica picked up on the two most valuable aspects to Rain City Guide: (1) the great contributors and (2) the excellent home search tool developed by Robbie.

Coffee Shop
(photo credit: Mark Reibman)

UPDATE: Surprise, surprise…. The Property Grunt did a much better job summarizing the article: “Jessica Swesey does a kick ass job getting into the heart and soul of real estate blogging.“

Understanding STI

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In answer to Craig’s question, when you look for property “on market” at www.SearchingSeattle.com, you will see two types of property.

The ones on which you can make an offer, that is not a “backup” offer, will show “ACTIVE”.

The others, that I have asked you to pay more attention to in my previous entry entitled USING THE INTERNET TO BUY YOUR NEW HOME, will say “OFFER STI”.

Now Craig, being a lawyer, will be the first to understand that STI (Subject To Inspection), is not necessarily about an inspection at all. It is what we might call a very broad escape hatch or an “out” clause. This “out” clause can be used for many, many reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with an inspection at all.

If a buyer makes the offer contingent on an inspection, especially if it is a 35A inspection clause and not a 35B inspection clause, they have a huge timeframe to change their mind based on many things. In fact, in parts of this country, a buyer may tie up five properties all at the same time, and cancel four “based on the inspection” as he only tied them up to have the time to consider which one he really wants to buy.

That is why our mls system internally, calls these “ACTIVE STI” vs. the public sites that call them “OFFER STI”. Sometimes the very best property on market is the one that falls out of STI status and comes back on market.

It is very important to note that you, as a buyer, should ALWAYS have an inspection, even when you do not make that inspection a contingency. The Home Inspection Addendum makes the seller responsible in some way for the results of that inspection. Sometimes you make an offer without a home inspection contingency to get a better price. The property status then goes straight to PENDING and skips the STI phase, but that does not mean you do not do an inspection. It means you are willing to lose your Earnest Money if you are not happy with the inspection.

Sometimes you can save 5% or more off the price by being the one offer without an inspection contingency, and only lose $1,000 if you want to cancel based on the inspection. But, please do not think that not having an inspection contingency means that you do not do an inspection. You still need to close on that property with full knowledge of it’s total strengths and weaknesses.

The Lame List – Real Estate Web Sites that Suck

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evccliftIn a recent post, Galen said “And no, it’s not what Windermere or ZipRealty already do: their sites s-u-c-k compared to true consumer-oriented sites like Amazon.com and Google.”.

Now, comparing nearly any web site to Amazon or Google isn’t a fair comparission. Google & Amazon have 1) many of the best software engineers on the planet working for them and 2) they have thousands of them working on their web site. Microsoft (which is in the same league as Google & Amazon) is said to spend over $100 million/year on it’s corporate web site (I’m sure they spend even more on MSN)!

The only real estate company that I can think of that could afford that level of R&D is Cendant (they own Century 21, Coldwell Banker, and ERA). Ironically enough they also own Orbitz & CheapTickets.com (who are Expedia competitors). The vast majority of brokers are probably smallish companies that under-invest in technology (and Cendant is probably happy enough with the status quo that they aren’t going to rock the boat until the waves of change force it upon them).

Now, I do think ZipRealty’s site is medicore and Windermere’s site is average. But suck is way too strong a word. Could their sites be better? Yeah. But given they aren’t billion dollar internet/software companies with multi-million dollar R&D budgets, I think the sites are OK. I could do better, but don’t mistake a medicore site for one that sucks.

What I want you to do is tell me about the WORST agent & broker web sites out there. I only want to hear about the truly awful. Let me give you an example of how bad it can be.

Teri Herrera, is a very successful agent at John L. Scott with whom I purchased my first house with. However her web site makes me cringe in horror. Fortunately, she’s a much better agent than her web site would suggest, but her site is nothing but a flash link farm. Nothing of value other than links to other places and it’s wrapped up as an obnoxious flash app. At least ZipRealty & Windermere have branded MLS searches, instead of being just a link farm or framing somebody else content.

See, ZipRealty & Windermere look pretty good now, don’t they.

Robbie