Cooperate With Those Who Have Both Know-How and Bail Money

“Cooperate with those who have both know-how and bail money.”

Those entertaining words of wisdom came from my Dad. Mind you, I hope he expected me to work well with the former, and I hope he didn’t really think I’d need the latter. Either way, I’m not totally sure, as he didn’t tell me directly. I found it scribbled on one of the hundreds of scraps of paper that contained poems, notes, editorials on life and other random musings he felt he needed to write down and that I have gone through over the past two months.

As most of you know, real estate is my full-time gig, but one I may have seemingly been working at part-time recently. Especially in the area of my activity in social networking. I understand that a large part of my chosen profession necessitates a connection to clients, prospects and industry peers via social networking. But to really do social networking right, well, you have to actually feel social. Sometimes, life, you know, “real life”, (not twitter or myspace or your blog), makes it where you just aren’t social. Interestingly enough, some of those non-social times are when you most may need to be social or to interact with others.

I haven’t posted in over three months, and I haven’t really been involved on twitter in almost four months. That “real” life thing kinda took over. So, if you are wondering if you could ever stop your twitter or facebook or friendfeed or other social media addiction Cold Turkey, it can be done. I just don’t recommend my way of doing so.

See, this year my wife and I celebrated the first Father’s Day of the rest of our lives. What I mean by that is that over the course of the past three months both of our fathers went into the hospital, succumbed to fatal illness and passed away. Within five weeks of each other. As one of the counselors said with a huge degree of understatement, “the world is a different place without your father.”

After some closure (it’s never really “closed”, is it…) of the services and Father’s Day, we are now picking up the pieces and getting back to work. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all those who helped get us through these very trying times. We are also indebted to the great clients (they are now friends, really) who have stuck with us during this time as we diligently tried (but, with painful candor, sometimes failed) to maintain the level of service we are committed to providing.

I am dusting off the blog (and boy was it dusty) and adding some long-awaited features. Same with the website. I am updating twhirl so I can get back to twitter. I am even going back into facebook and friendfeed to get my (on-line) social life back in order. Social networking has its place… but don’t forget to enjoy real life while you can.

And remember, always cooperate with those that have both know-how and bail money.

It’s Not a License to be Repulsive… When Agents Cross the Line

Those of you who know me remember the personal debate anguish I went through when I was evaluating the professional options in the real estate industry. Like lots of folks, I had an unfavorable perception of many in the industry. In fact, I am definitely not alone as the results of this Harris Interactive Poll of professions shows. (Hint: Agents don’t rank very well). But I really liked helping people with what was likely their largest personal investment. And there was a real, palpable sense of accomplishment in bringing buyers and sellers together to accomplish mutual goals. However, there was that pesky Washington Real Estate law that prohibits an individual from earning compensation without being duly licensed, which provided, shall we call them, challenges to doing things any other way.

Now mind you, I did have choices. I could a) do all the real estate activity I wanted, helping tons of folks along the way, for free, or b) get licensed, become a Realtor and actually keep my wife and three kids clothed and fed and all those other basic things that for some reason I felt an obligation. So, Realtor license it was.

Fast forward to the present. After seven years and helping hundreds of people (those are called transaction sides by some in the business), I understand that I made the right choice (the “work for free” part was really unappealing), BUT I still have to deal with that negative stereotype that unfortunately many licensees perpetuate.

Example “A” for the Prosecution is this unbelievable “marketing strategy” employed by one agent in Florida.

This from TMZ.com via the TheRealEstateBloggers:

TMZ got an unbelievable pitch from a big-time Florida Realtor, and here it is, verbatim – “I have a FABULOUS piece of property for sale DIRECTLY across from Tiger Woods new property on Jupiter Island (Being built) When a tabloid pays JLO $6mil for photos of her first born, I would think that $4mil for a fabulous piece of property for unlimited photo opts of Tiger would be quite valuable!”

Ugh. Now look, my sellers know that I will likely do more for them in my efforts than any other real estate broker in town… but I would simply call “no mas” on this one. I realize that it is a competitive world out there, both for sellers and for agents, but c’mon, a guys gotta be able to sleep at night.

Please know, I have come to find that there ARE – really – loads of great people out there in this profession, (if you don’t believe me, scroll through my Blogroll someday). But unfortunately it comes back to the old adage that one (or many) bad apples can spoil the bunch. All I can do is continue to pursue my goal of changing people’s perception one person at a time.

NAR-BASH 2007: An Upclose Look from Afar

Today at the 2007 National Association of Realty Brokers, Agents and SalesHelp (NAR-BASH) convention in Las Vegas, the association released it’s new state-of-the-art OS/Communication and Mapping bundle. (Seen below).

Dubbed Agent 0.94, and portrayed as the next Killer app for Re-la-ters, the association stated that this package of products and services could single-handedly pull the industry out of the ’80’s. Asked why they were going to such great expense on behalf of agents, one official simply stated “Membership has it’s privileges.” Although it is uncertain whether they had checked on the availability or trademark associated with that phrase prior to its use.

“We believe this product, in conjunction with the upgraded glossy-cover MLS book, will continue to allow the agent of tomorrow to be the gatekeeper of information associated with local real estate, and further allow them to be the judge, jury and executioner in the buying or selling process.”

(Ed. Note: For some reason, I was asked to strike that last part, but alas it was too late.)

As part of the Agent 0.94 Initiative, the association is also providing training on a wide-range of professional and technology tools, including:

• “How to Get the Most out of Your Polaroid”
• “Color Coding Index Cards: the Next Big Contact Management Tool” and
• “That New-Fangled Web-thing: Ten Reasons to Avoid it Like the Plague”

Word on the street is that there are additional plans and programs to come from the association. However, when asked, one official said it was too early to tell if they could recoup any of the “investments” the association had made at local establishments over the past couple of days.

(Ed. Note: At least we can be confident that our recent dues increases are being used wisely, as I was told that the association had recently handed over a huge amount of money “to the house”, which I can only assume is some classified housing down-payment assistance program which will assuredly benefit each of us in our local markets.)

Until next time, that’s the story from here, approximately 1,038 miles outside the convention center, and as close to a real understanding of the association as any other association member.

Methinks thou Doth Protest too Much…

Look, I am big fan of the glass-half-full, rose-colored-glasses concept. I appreciate folks at the NAR (National Association of Realtors) are doing spending my ever increasing dues. I applaud the efforts of the local builders and their association who scream (not so subtly) that NOW is the time to buy.

But really, to paraphrase Billy Shake, “methinks thou doth protest too much”.

Sorry, but to the average Jane homebuyer out there, the Association of Realtors and the Builders sitting on loads of inventory are not the greatest, most credible source for, shall we say, unbiased information. They want houses to sell, NOW. And don’t get me wrong, so do I (and Mrs. Broker would like me to sell a house or two, as would baby, who needs a new pair of shoes.)

But you can’t push a string. You can lead a horse to water, but… Well, you know the clichés. And I think you get it. Not sure I can say the same for those with the much deeper ad pockets than me.

Candidly, it may get worse before it gets better. I don’t know for sure. Anyone who tells you they know for sure that NOW IS THE TIME to buy… well, I’d say “run Forrest, run”, away, as fast as you can. I’m not going all negative here, but call me a realist.

I will say, the one thing we know we have little (any?) control over is the future. Are interest rates going up? Will that house you absolutely love still be on the market in six months? My point is, while I don’t think you can make a blanket statement that NOW is the time to buy, if you find the right home, at the right price and you can get the right financing (read: NO teaser rate, negative amortization deals) then sure, it would be the right time to buy. But NOT because someone else told you to.

So despite my words of caution, there are deals out there. But what I am finding is that only the very best deals are getting done. Priced really right, staged right, marketed right, managed right. No room for errors. But I’m all good with that, because that’s how we’ve always done things. We just find we’re now doing more work, for a longer period of time, than we were in the heat of that unhealthy frenzy of 2003-2005.

But fortunately, since we removed those rose colored glasses, we think we can better assist those folks who need straight answers, not just a well-tuned and deep-pocketed marketing message.