these codes could be huge in our business, as more web content is viewed using mobile devices.  while less than 25% of cell service customers have smart phones and other mobile devices make up an even smaller percentage, the mobile web won’t stay in its nascent stage very long. in fact, current estimates place the number of web pages viewed on mobile devices higher than those viewed on desktops.

scratching my head

within days of posting that blurb i had the good fortune of meeting with the folks at toor.me, a company that generates qr codes as part of its virtual tour offering to real estate agents. their director of business development, nick smoot, shared with me a story of a presentation he had done for a mid-size brokerage.  nick had finished his presentation to the broker of the firm, showing the owner how consumers are using their smart phones to access information on listed properties.  at the end of the presentation, the broker told nick that he was impressed by the service. “but my agents don’t have smart phones” were the next words out of the owner’s mouth.

for the last time, it’s not about you

if i would’ve been there i would’ve sprayed coffee through my nose at that remark. nick was very diplomatic in his reply, but the fact that the broker even said it is evidence of how the vast majority of this industry still thinks – it’s about us.

newsflash. it’s never been about us. this provider-centric mentally has hung on far too long in our industry and needs to have a stake driven through its heart.  it’s about the consumer. the highest life form on the planet.  let’s get over ourselves and start focusing on what the consumer wants, how they buy and what they use in their decision making process.  cuz if we don’t, someone else is going to step in front of us and help the consumer.

but then, that’s my opinion. maybe i’m just nuts.

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is that a sustainable strategy?

i have to admit, when i first thought i was going to get back into sales, i had the same mindset.  i had lived that cycle in the early- to mid-90′s in northern california, and it wasn’t an area i relished getting back into.  but as luck would have it, i never even got to determine a track in residential sales again.  instead i went straight into the speaking/training/consulting arena fresh off the corporate gig.  but if i had decided to pursue sales again, it’s likely i wouldn’t have been able to avoid short sales.  at least not if i wanted to eat.

i commend those that can stay the course and avoid doing short sales at their choosing.  that demonstrates a strong referral and repeat book of business in my estimation.  and if you can make that work in this economy, then by all means keep on keepin’ on.

but i’d like to hear others’ perspectives on this “short sale avoidance.”  is this a syndrome? or a sustainable strategy?  or just crazy talk in this economic climate?

i’d appreciate your comments.

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i’m not one to be a pollyanna, nor am i mr. gloom and doom. i’m a glass half-empty, glass half-full kinda guy, depending on what day of the week you catch me. guess that makes me “fair and balanced.” well, maybe balanced. in an imbalanced sort of way.

but lately i’m driven to the point of madness with all the conflicting news reports and industry prognostications that are at odds with one another from one day to the next. purchase mortgage applications are up, pending home sales are down, showings are stagnant and closed transactions are off from a year ago. gdp estimates from earlier in the year are revised, showing economic growth much less than thought. new home sales are up.  oops, we meant down.  no wait. they’re flat.

latin anyone?

latin is a dead language. everyone knows that. but its reincarnation has come by way of statistical speak. very little of the statistics churned out make sense anymore, at least not to the average homeowner. and those statistics and revised statistics become mumbo jumbo to the real estate professional.  too much conflicting information. strike that. too much information. period. so what do we do? what can we rely on?

become a scout

native american scouts used to place an ear to the ground to feel the vibrations of riders often miles away. prior to the telegraph, railroad workers would touch the rails to see if a train was moving on the tracks.

it’s time we turned off the tv, folded up the newspaper, stopped listening to the radio and started listening to the street. placing an ear to the ground in our local markets and avoiding the macro malaise churned out by the media.   limit the input from the talking heads that are analyzing statistical reports that have very little to do with our markets.

real estate after all is local, not national. the national information helps to identify trends that affect the industry, but local conditions and events drive the local market.  how else can you explain areas of the country that defy the trends with price appreciation and single digit days-on-market statistics? guess they weren’t watching the news in that market…

put your head on the tracks

time to tune in to the local market, feel the vibrations and understand our individual market statistics intimately. and if it’s a train coming down those tracks, it might be best to step aside and let it go on through.

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1. ignore social media – there are still a large number of folks that don’t see the need to engage in social media in any form – facebook, linkedin, activerain, blogging, youtube or twitter.  they still don’t see the need, don’t understand it, or are afraid of it.  my advice?  get over your fear, learn about it, read the success stories.  but get on it.  not 6 months from now.  get on it now.
2. spend too much time on social media – i’ve seen a number of people get caught up in the new gadgetry, gizmos and whizbang tools that come along.  they spend so much time – figuring the new technology out, playing with it, tweaking it – that they forget what their core purpose is in business.  it’s something i succumbed to years ago when i was still selling.  i was working on creating the perfect contact management program for my business.  i spent so much time building the perfect mousetrap, i lost sight of the primary objective – catching mice.  don’t spend all day on facebook.  don’t tweet all night on twitter.  don’t spend 3 hours per day on your blog.  use these tools to engage consumers and prospects.  then go out and meet these people face to face.  do business.
3. use social media to sell – so many people see these tools as another method to advertise their wares.  they jump on facebook and start posting advertorials in their status updates about how great their service is or posting a new property listing.  and that’s all they post.  they spam their twitter followers with advertising messages.  you know what?  if you’re not going to provide me with some value or tell me something interesting that’s going on in your world, i don’t want to hear about your listing.  and if you continue to do so, i’m gonna kick you out of my network.  i love sioux falls, south dakota, but i’m not moving there.  so stop advertising your listings to me.

don’t let any of these mindsets kill your business.  you’d be crazy to.

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if you’re relatively new to social networking, let me offer one word of advice: don’t talk business all the time.  ok, that’s more like six words of advice, but it bears repeating: don’t talk business all the time.  there.  now you’ve got twelve words of advice.

what i’m talking about here is the status updates so prominently featured in all social networks – facebook, linkedin, plaxo, ecademy, twitter, etc.  you know them by various questions – “what are you doing?” or “what are you working on now?”  invitations prompting you to tell your network what’s going on in your life at that moment.  handy little snippets of information to help your connections keep up with you.

some take the status update literally, offering up every nuance of their day, such as “having pancakes with my 9 year old,” or “going for my 3rd cup of starbucks this morning.”  not that there’s anything wrong with that.  just as long as these types of updates are done in moderation and with a modicum of taste.  believe me, when you start telling me about your dog’s bm’s, i’m gonna have to pass and say tmi.

others take the status update opportunity as an open invitation to smother you with marketing messages.  in the real estate industry, i see this all the time, and especially on facebook.  realtors who throw every listing into their status updates, hoping to expose their property to a buyer lurking in their network.  these same realtors place every price reduction, open house, buyer tour and offer they’re presenting in the feed, thinking that their network wants to hear about it.  well, newsflash kids.  they don’t.

would you subscribe to comcast if they only showed commercials?

the reason i accepted your friend request on facebook or decided to follow you on twitter was that i wanted to get to know more about you, the person.  heck, even connecting with you on linkedin i had hoped to learn something more than the product or service you were selling.  i was looking for some value in our connection.  instead, you give me spam.

you see, i’ll take a promotional plug every once in awhile, but if you’re going to pollute my stream with advertising constantly, why would i want to stay connected / continue following / be your friend?  i mean, would you pay comcast a monthly subscription if their programming only offered commercials?  didn’t think so.

stop social network pollution

if you’re currently using your status updates, wall posts and tweets to talk business incessantly, stop it.  stop it now.  do it before i unfollow / unfriend / disconnect you from my network.  and if you run across someone within your networks that’s bombarding you with marketing, send them a nice note encouraging them to provide those messages a little less frequently. and if they continue spamming you after your friendly warning, nuke em.

if you don’t, they’ll make you crazy.

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oh yeah?

it all started with a comment from one well intentioned realtor to an agent that had been posting listings on facebook without using the state required information for real estate advertising (brokerage name, etc.). the well intentioned realtor pointed out, nicely, that the posting agent should consider adding that information so as not to run afoul of the authorities. the response back from the posting agent was less than polite, spurring other agents to jump in and respond in agreement with said well intentioned realtor. after some discussion (public, no less, on each party’s wall), the final response from the posting agent to one of the commenters amounted to a very public insult, likely a violation of a standard of practice from the realtor’s code of ethics.

if you can’t say something nice about someone…

my mother always told me, “if you can’t say something nice about someone, at least wait until they leave the room.” well, social networking sites like facebook are big rooms, and even though we may think we’re talking directly to someone there, we need to remember that other ears may be listening. conversations or posts placed on walls and through status updates are very public, and can be used against us if we’re not careful about what we say. to air a personal beef in such a public forum not only tarnishes the image of the person hurling epithets, but brings the rest of us down to that level, lumping us all into the back-biting, opportunist, i’d-step-over-your-body-to-close-a-sale image that many in the public have for our profession.

leave me outta this

i’d just as soon not be categorized into that group, thank you very much, so for those of you engaged in this type of “smackdown engagement,” please stop showing your lunacy and childish behaviour in public.  take your disagreements and petty arguments offline.  pick up the phone and yell at someone in private if you must, just don’t malign the rest of us with your antics.  we’ve already got enough of an uphill battle to convince the consumer we’re not crazy.

and sometimes that’s not an easy task.

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alphabet soup

but it would appear we’re headed overboard in our pursuit of designations in the real estate industry. some agents have taken to fold-out cards to accomodate all their designations, and there are new designations being marketed each month to an insatiable market of letter hungry real estate practitioners. when is enough enough?

‘splain please

i know.  sounds funny coming from a guy that’s got enough letters behind his name to ensure a win at scrabble, but seriously – do we really need all those designations?  sure, the education’s worthwhile, but after you’ve got 3 or 4 under your belt, is it necessary to promote the other 3 or 4?  who’s going to care?  or even know what they mean?

i’ve had my crs designation for 15 years now, and although the council of residential specialists does the best job at promoting their designation to the general public, i still find myself explaining to clients what those 3 letters behind my name mean.  now add abr, crb, gri and e-pro, and you can see how i’m spending even more time explaining what those letters mean.  still, i find value in the designations and the education i received in achieving them, but i’m not too wild about taking more courses just to get some more letters behind my name.  in fact, i’m currently working on other designation courses, but will likely choose not to promote those designations for fear of needing aforementioned fold-out card.

i don’t know. is it just me, or is this crazy?

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but when you’re closing transactions that require 6 pounds of paper to fulfill every party’s legal and business requirements in order to make the file “complete,” doesn’t it seem like we’re missing something?  the focus to this point in nar’s green programs has been primarily on green building, sustainable living, energy-saving appliances and reducing the carbon footprint of buyer, seller and realtor (don’t drive buyers all over town without qualifying properties).  it would seem to me that we should be highlighting the tremendous waste and inefficiency of our transactions first, reducing the number of trees we grind into pulp from three to less than one for the paperwork required for each closing.

how far does this go?

i used to teach classes to realtors in california on how to work with first time home buyers.  one of the early sections of the course dealt with the angst first time purchasers felt with the process and the paperwork.  to illustrate how daunting it seemed to the uninitiated, i taped, end-to-end, each of the required documents (only those required to write the purchase contract with the realtor, not the required documents from title, lender, etc.), and unrolled the result down the center of the classroom.  it unfurled about 25 feet.

it was a great learning tool to illustrate the number of documents required to initiate the purchase.  it didn’t take into account the fact that these forms were produced in triplicate (if not more!), and didn’t address how many of these documents would be faxed and copied for distribution to other parties, increasing the amount of paper needed to ensure a successful (closed) transaction.  looking back, i think if i would’ve added the lender’s docs and title company’s forms to that roll, i would’ve had a paper trail that would’ve encircled the building!  now that would’ve scared some first time buyers, and it likely would’ve caused some of those newly licensed realtors to reconsider their new vocation.

in a recent transaction, i had to print each document out in hard copy, fax it into the transaction management system provided by my office (does anyone else think this is wrong?), then forward it on to the listing agent.  she in turn emailed a copy to her client, who then had to print it out, sign it, scan it and return it to her agent.  the listing agent would then forward back to me, and both of us would print the document out and place it in a file folder.  if you lost count, that’s four documents reproduced from one.  multiply that by several necessary forms, many with multiple pages, and you can see how a transaction file can go from a thin folder to the size of the denver phone book in short order.

now, to be fair, shame on us for being enablers.  but when it’s acceptable practice, and the offices, agents, title companies and lenders are not equipped to perform in the digital age, the transaction will flow like water – taking the path of least resistance.  in this case, pulping three trees into paper.

a novel concept

why not implement some new ideas that might get us moving more quickly into a more environmentally friendly transaction?  borrowing a page from the compliance market, let’s implement a similar program to the carbon offset approach, in which companies (and now individuals in the voluntary market) can mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing offsets.  it’s kind of like, “i know i’m going to be bad, so let me pay for being bad.”  not that we’ll change our “bad” behavior, but we’ll have our penance.  and salvage our conscience.

an even easier plan would be to provide a disincentive for paper use to all parties involved in a transaction.  for every pound of paper produced, the closing company will assess each of the offending parties for their overindulgence in paper.  realtor – three pounds of paperwork will cost you $300.  title company – your hit is $600.  problem solved.

now we’ll have to get the state’s department of weights and measurements involved.  i smell a new tax.  crazy.

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while i was sitting in class, mind wandering to all the emails, phone calls and work that i needed to attend to, it struck me that in order to grow i needed to push myself.  and i was pushing myself: little sleep, added stress and less time to do my normal workload.  all for the opportunity to learn. but the realization came that if i wanted to better myself – to become a better broker, instructor, coach and mentor – i’d need to devote time and stretch my abilities.  if i wanted to become better, there was no magic pill, no short cut, no silver bullet, to get me to that level.

i’ve found in these challenging markets most of us face that there are a lot of people looking for that magic formula – the one gizmo, gadget or whirlygig that will bring us success.  maybe the key phrase that’ll turn lookers to buyers, or the prop that will get us every listing we set out after.  we’re looking for the quick fix, the magic elixir that we can drink with the promise it will deliver a deal tomorrow or next week.  but it ain’t out there. there ain’t no magic potion, and there ain’t no silver bullet.

in times like these, there’s only the realization that we have to expand our thinking and try new things.  ‘cuz the old things ain’t working.  as soon as we recognize that and stop chasing the quick fix for our business, we’ll be ready to move forward.

and if we’re not going to move forward, we’re gonna take a bullet.

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