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ChaseNation, a social network built on Ning
2008-04-22 01:54:00
I didn't exactly "get" Ning when I first experimented with it a year ago because I didn't see how scattered individuals could collectively develop Web 2.0 social networks. I watched others invite me to their Ning networks and noticed they were floundering in developing a network of essentially unrelated individuals. So my first impression was Ning allowed Facebook-like groups to create their own networks outside Facebook, but I questioned who in the group would actually set up the network on Ning and manage it when so many other social networks were vying for attention. I was reintroduced to Ning recently by a Fast Company article that explains Ning's successful exponential growth with the fact that each social network Ning creates attracts multiple members joining them: The company estimates that, at this rate, by New Year's Eve 2010 it will host some 4 million social networks, with tens of millions of members, serving up billions of page views daily. It took a visual exam...
More About: Social , Network , Social Network

Marketing message for buyer's agents
2008-04-21 19:46:00
SF Chronicle has an interesting twist on buyer's agents - for cars. I reproduce the article in its entirety because I thought the content was informative, and the messaging itself quite persuasive for this company's services. Some people like to haggle with car salesmen. Linda Lee Goldberg of San Rafael is one. She likes it so much you can hire her to do your haggling for you, at CarQ.com. "I went to work in car dealerships so I could learn sales management and financing. After I stepped out of the industry, that very day I became a buyer's agent and created a whole new concept in the way people could buy cars. A client contacts CarQ and creates the ideal profile for the vehicle they want. There is a process so we can obtain pricing information. That information is translated into a written preliminary pricing report. The client will then receive this report, which includes all the standard equipment, dealer costs and retail pricing on all the options, and a review of t...
More About: Marketing , Agents , Message

Simple poll about real estate sites
2008-04-17 23:46:00
Yes, it's unscientific, but possibly interesting...
More About: Technology , Estate , Real Estate , Sites , Poll

Repositioning the HomeGain image
2008-04-17 18:27:00
Before Web 2.0 took off less than two years ago, the only online products for real estate agents were lead generation plays - premium ad placement models like Realtor.com and lead buys from lead gen sources. Lead generation companies generally have tarnished reputations with real estate agents because the leads they sell have already been blanket labeled as "unworkable". From a marketing perspective, one needs to understand the psychological reasons why purchased leads have been damned: Lead generation is a tough product to sell. Many lead gen companies (not Homegain according to Louis) sold product under 6-12 month contract to lock in clients. The sales process generally uses a telemarketing force, which hints to a poorer sales experience. The lock in period irritates agents as ruthless. Purchased leads require cold calling to unsuspecting potential customers. It's not a task to look forward to... it's the last thing I'd want to do. Purchased leads' close rates are low (...
More About: Blogging , Image

A blogger broke Obama's "bitter voters" quote
2008-04-17 01:12:00
Who broke Barack Obama's now famous 'bitter voters clinging to guns and religion...' quote he made in San Francisco on March 11? 61-year old blogger Mayhill Fowler, who voluntarily blogs for the Huffington Post. The 61-year-old blogger tore the curtain from the front window of a longtime political refuge - the high-end fundraiser - and the ensuing tumult from her story about the closed-to-the-press event shows how coverage of campaigns continues to be rewritten in the digital age. "What Fowler did was commit an act of journalism," said Marc Cooper, her editor at the Huffington Post and a professor of journalism at the University of Southern California. She did it with a recorder. Blogging /news reporting/journalism morph into the massive media reporting system and we still only see a tiny glmmer of its potential.
More About: Blogger , Bitter , Voters , Quote

Strategic planning for real estate startups
2008-04-16 01:38:00
Nikolai Kolding at the new BH&G Real Estate blog inspired me to write more about the strategic planning process. Like Nicolai, I've always been hooked on how businesses work and why things happen, the essence of corporate strategy. Simply put, there are two types of strategic planning - corporate planning and startup planning. Nicolai describes the former by introducing the "scenario planning" methodology used by conglomerate Royal Dutch Shell: Shell uses scenarios to explore the future. Our scenarios are not mechanical forecasts.  They recognise that people hold beliefs and make choices that can lead down different paths.  They reveal different possible futures that are plausible and challenging. Our latest energy scenarios look at the world in the next half century, linking the uncertainties we hold about the future to the decisions we must make today. The next half century is long term planning (frankly, I think it is too long). This is the province of management...
More About: Real Estate , Planning , Strategic Planning

Poll: 60% of Americans won't buy homes in next two years, but 60% believe n
2008-04-14 11:16:00
60% of Americans won't buy homes in next two years, but 60% believe now is the time to buy. This contrary statistic simply states that Americans think the bottom is near, but they're certainly not willing to put their money where their mouth is. It indicates complete uncertainty in our economy.
More About: Economy , Poll , Homes , Years

The Alternative to Hard Selling
2008-04-14 10:58:00
On Real Estate Radio USA Friday, we discussed the hard sell ethos of the real estate professional. Like all sales people, everybody is generally trained to sell the same way. In the beginning, self promotion to gain exposure is natural... note the steps taken towards building a career:First, gain social recognition that one is a real estate professionalApprentice with a brokerage or teamContact friends and family for referralsParticipate in social activities - tours, open housesStart farming - email/mail drip marketing campaignAfter six months, now what?Get coaching from Ferry, Buffini, etalTeaches tactics to continually maintain contact with your contact databaseBuy leads - cold callI've outlined in red text the actions that have a "hard sell" edge or are aggressive. Here's an alternative method to developing a career, the blue text uses the "Law of Attraction" that seems to be a part of the lore of real estate practice. Hard selling at the beginning of a career makes little sens...
More About: Selling , Alternative , Blogging , The Alternative

Tricks of the Trade - Equity Indexed Annuities
2008-04-13 22:55:00
The TV remote passed by NBC Dateline on the way to ESPN this evening (arggh, Denver won, Warriors slim chance for playoffs...) and caught my attention with coverage on how sales people are trained to sell equity indexed annuities. I know mortgage brokers who have gotten insurance licenses to sell these products. The MO is to do a cashout refi and then invest the cash into these long term annuities. The mortgage brokers make money on the refi and the annuity commissions. Dateline's Chris Hansen investigates the questionable sales techniques. The most interesting marketing tricks are paying for credible celebrity status. For $2,500, a firm offers to place the deceptive agent's name as the author of a book called Alligator Proofing your Estate. Another service offered by Annuity University (now a defunct site) provides a faux radio interview that agents provide as CDs to their clients in order to establish credibility.
More About: Tricks , Trade , Transparency , Equity , Annuities

Housing Panic Awards list
2008-04-10 23:14:00
For a list of culprits related to the credit crunch - the f*ckd builders, lenders, i-banks, personalities - that made this 50%+ chance of recession all possible, Housing Panic compiled a list as a precursor to a survey. Also included are HP's picks for hated RE TV shows, politicians, bloggers, housing markets, and loved bubble blogs. It's a good reference list for surveying the downside of this economy. (h/t to Marlow, who wants to be on the list!)
More About: Economy , Awards , List

The value of the Mortgage Broker increases because banks no longer can sell
2008-04-08 16:26:00
We can kiss WAMU goodbye as it preps itself for an acquisition. Today's news gives all the indications... We've talked about how bricks and mortar will disappear as local centers of real estate commerce (or at least they should change their sterile function as meeting and signing places). WAMU, along with a $7 billion cash infusion (yes, another fire sale) that dilutes its shareholders about 48%, is closing 186 home loan centers. Frankly, more loan offices should be closed - rental expenses are too costly now that loans are becoming commoditized and the application processes don't require a visit to the loan officer. And WAMU also closed their wholesale lending division. That means mortgage brokers won't be able to sell WAMU loans to their borrowers. Borrowers must now deal directly with the bank... but what consumer wants to do that now at a time when credit tightening makes it more critical to efficiently source all their loan options. In one fell swoop, WAMU admits the obviou...
More About: Banks , Mortgage , Mortgages , Sell , Broker

Blog as Community Newspaper (literally)
2008-04-07 11:01:00
Perusing this list of the neighborhood newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area makes me wonder how they survive on the merchant advertising revenue model minus the printing and distribution costs. Now their online equivalents are called hyperlocal news, and Techcrunch of all places alerts me to a formula for a blog-to-print paper business model.A New Zealand based company called ZetaPrints has automated the "blogpaper" - they cite their case study Flying Pickle as a successful example of how to repurpose a blog for print distribution and attract local advertising as a commercial venture. Flying Pickle was set up as a non-profit community blog without editorial bias to reach a set of communities of 6,500 people. The content is simply a business directory, community events listing and blog posts.The case study promotes the idea that the print copy (literally a one page flyer) has been key to Flying Pickle gaining community recognition. The lessons and challenges are interesting:We id...
More About: Community , Blogging , Blog , Literally , Newspaper

Death by blogging
2008-04-05 22:59:00
Real estate blogging tends to be a low key part time endeavor. On the other hand, professional blogging has become an obsessive pursuit for media fame. Bloggers realize they can essentially replace traditional online media sources by demonstrating their first to press advantage, and by doing so can reap the rewards of building an online media property (or empire). The New York Times reports on this obsessiveness to 24-by-7 reporting today by citing the deaths of two well known tech bloggers and the heart attack of a third over the past four months. ?I haven?t died yet,? said Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog. The site has brought in millions in advertising revenue, but there has been a hefty cost. Mr. Arrington says he has gained 30 pounds in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees. ?At some point, I?ll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to th...
More About: Blogging , Death

Zillow Mortgages is essentially a free open marketplace
2008-04-03 01:40:00
Zillow unveils its long awaited mortgage service today - it's essentially an online marketplace connecting the consumer with lender. And more important, it redefines lead generation from being a pay-for-play transaction to a free quote response system. Traditional lead generation models gather consumer data and sell them as leads - the consumer loses because their confidential personal data is distributed to persons unknown, and they become the recipients of unwanted phone calls. With Zillow, the consumer makes a request for quote, receives quotes from lenders registered and qualified with Zillow, and makes the decision to initiate contact. Here are a few more revolutionary features about the model: No lead generation fees. Zillow's stance is to leverage higher CPM advertising directed to individuals purchasing homes or loans.Mortgage brokers are rated by consumers after contact is made and after transaction completed. In order to attract consumer and receive good ratings, it b...
More About: Open , Free , Zillow , Mortgages , Marketplace

The slow death of the mass media business model
2008-04-02 14:23:00
First, music, then motion pictures (did you realize there are sites popping up that stream movie videos illegally? ), now books. The Internet has unleashed intellectual property leakage that frankly, can't really be resolved because there will always be an unknown someone in the world (say, a theater employee in Shanghai), uploading copy, and untouchable by governments and regulatory institutions like MPAA. Book piracy on the internet will ultimately drive authors to stop writing unless radical methods are devised to compensate them for lost sales. This is the bleak forecast of the Society of Authors, which represents more than 8,500 professional writers in the UK and believes that the havoc caused to the music business by illegal downloading is beginning to envelop the book trade. Tracy Chevalier, the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring who also chairs the London-based organisation, said that her members were deeply concerned that the publishing industry was failin...
More About: Business , Media , Disintermediation , Model , The Future

No Reason not to use Google Apps
2008-04-01 00:53:00
How did Matt and Brad organize RETechSouth, the conference presented by non-conference organizers? They used Google Docs, and shared the spreadsheet with the ad hoc organizing committee. The speaker list, the sponsor list, discussions on topics and speakers... all in one place and simple to use. Previously, the landscape of collaborative software was just too confusing for laymen adoption due to the high learning curve of a completely new application. Google Apps slyly provided a suite of Microsoft Office-like applications for normal folks and got them used to working the apps individually. The collaborative functionality turns on easily, and suddenly collaboration becomes a no-brainer accessible to even the tech-challenged. The only problem with Google Docs is when one needs to work offline, say in a plane or a ski cabin without wifi connection. Well, the blogosphere has been going wild today with the announcement that Google Apps will finally be usable offline using Google Gears...
More About: Reason

Blogging collides with journalism
2008-03-31 01:59:00
The new real estate blogger initially doesn't see the convergence of blogging with journalism. After a few months experience, the realization that their blog is a journalistic endeavor dawns on them. After all, for hyperlocal bloggers, it's real time published coverage of their market and community. Here are the indications that blogging and journalism are colliding, as explained by Time Magazine writer turned TechCrunch co-author Erick Schonfeld: Blogs like TechCrunch are hiring writers and newspapers are forcing their writers to have blogsProfessional blogs and mainstream media share the top spots on the Techmeme leaderboard. Blogs compete with MSM, with a fraction of the staff.Professional blogs live or die by how fast articles post after a story breaks. Blogs break news faster than CNN... remember, newspapers used to sustain credibility this way long ago ("Extra, extra"). Here are the differences between a blog and a mass media article: Blogs are 24-by-7 endeavors... n...
More About: Journalism , Blogging

RETechSouth - Conference 2.0
2008-03-29 00:30:00
RETechSouth was, from inception to finale, a remarkable surprise... set up adhoc in a span of 21 days from the day Matt Fagioli and Brad Nix met (kudos). Invitations and marketing went out along with the new website the week of March 10, two weeks before the event. What made RETechSouth a more vibrant, loose conference than any I've attended was its spontaneous, collaborative effort. Here's the way to run Conference 2.0: Let the speakers determine what they want to talk about, don't slot them into categories or narrow subjects. Moderators, don't over-control the conversation... leave questions open-ended and don't be surprised if the conversation veers off. Use the big screen to show website examples on the fly (this requires a "big screen" handler or a peripatetic moderator). Demonstrate with web examples what the speakers are discussing. Show the websites, videos and blogs that an audience member has questions about. Don't use the big screen to show talking heads all t...
More About: Events , Thank You

25 most valuable blogs
2008-03-27 08:50:00
24/7 Wall Street publishes the first article I've seen that attempts to value blogs and blog network properties.  Their valuations were based on independent traffic analysis and estimated advertising revenues, and is essentially one author's opinion on blog valuation. The takeaway is the impact of blogs are creating as media properties. For real estate professionals, blogs now need to viewed as online assets that will grow in intrinsic value over the life of the blog. It hasn't happened yet, but it's quite conceivable to view a mature, well trafficked local real estate blog in year 2018 as a property that can be sold like a doctor's practice. 1) Gawker blog network - Gawker, Gizmodo, Valleywag, Wonkette, etc. - $150 million (TECH) 2) MacRumors - Analyzing Apple, a popular blog topic - $85 million (TECH) 3) Huffington Post - $70 million (POLITICS/GENERAL) 4) Perez Hilton - $48 million (CELEBRITY) 5) Techcrunch - $36 million (TECH) 6) ArsTechnica - $15 million (TECH) 7) Seek...
More About: Blogging , Blogs

Twitter for conferences
2008-03-26 00:59:00
Twitter as an application has reached critical mass to provide value as a real time ticker tape for Web 2.0 practitioners. It's effective when it mimics broadcast media... following my melange of real estate, tech and economy twitter feeds is akin to working with CNBC business news in the background.I think it appeals to the hardcore multitasker who enjoys constant stimulus, and it's certainly not for anyone who frazzles easily. There are a lot of ways to view the device agnostic twitter. Since I'm not the garrulous type by nature, I tend to watch the stream for interesting links that twitterers find. As a social application, it's been compared to a tech water cooler where all the home office habitues hang out. I think it works best within an enclosed social environment, like a college or corporate campus, where twitter participants need or enjoy that constant virtual camaraderie.  It also works for conferences, essentially enclosed temporary groups of participants. We're ...
More About: Conferences , Twitter

Changing the Real Estate Industry's Hard Sell Ethos
2008-03-23 20:35:00
Real estate professionals, like all local business providers serving a community constituency, are challenged by a massive, all-inclusive marketing effort to their potential client base. The inclination to shower any and all with a direct "call to action" sales pitch, like dogs peeing on hydrants, becomes fodder for ridicule: (h/t to Jeff Turner's Skitch site) Aggressive real estate agent tactics have become part of the unseemly folklore and perception for the profession. Here's a typical gripe about aggressive real estate brokers from Yelp: dakini c. says: Hi Everybody, I have a question regarding overly aggressive real estate brokers.  My lease terminates in September but since March I have been contacted by an infinite amount of real estate brokers who want to show my apartment.  At first I was very accommodating but the situation has now spiraled out of control.   I have a HUGE notice up on my door stating that I do not want people coming into my apar...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Blogging , Hard , Changing

Fed punishes the commodities speculators
2008-03-20 18:40:00
Although this post sounds like we're talking about lofty oil prices, it's really a corollary to understanding how the consumer ("Main Street") views intangible rallies - how can the price of oil double in one year is a similar question to how can home prices double in five years. In an economic vacuum, it defies logic.Following up on Tuesday's Fed rate cut of 75 points... the lower than expected rate cut served as a "warning to commodity speculators" and today gold and oil continue their plunge as funds unwind their positions. Main Street doesn't realize how powerful market speculation plays on seemingly tangible commodities like oil. They believe oil prices should follow the logic of supply and demand, and can't really fathom why oil prices have essentially doubled since last year.The logical part is the media and economists point to increasing oil demand from China and Asia as their economies grows and to the weakening dollar as the base currency for oil pricing. The unfathom...
More About: Economy , Commodities , Speculators

Bernanke and the Fed show their grasp of the situation
2008-03-19 10:59:00
Yesterday's collective sigh of relief accompanying the Fed's 75 point Fed Funds rate cut and more benign financial reporting from Goldman Sachs and Lehman Bros signaled Bernanke and the Fed's grasp of the market. The Fed likely informally surveyed the i-banks on Monday, realized that a reprise of Bear Stearns Act II was not in the offing, and determined that it didn't need the 100 point rate cut that all economists had been predicting. Instead, the Fed hedged against the inflationary momentum of elevated commodity prices and the drooping dollar with a less than expected rate cut, assuming rightly (at least yesterday) that their creative reactions to solving the credit crisis demonstrated their determination to pull no punches in righting the markets. (Today, the government loosened capital restrictions on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to get banks to make more home loans).Today, oil and gold prices (as of 12:30EDT) are lower 4-5% and the dollar is rebounding, temporarily alleviatin...
More About: Economy , Show , Situation

How Bear Stearns unraveled
2008-03-18 01:14:00
Last week's stars aligned to produce two Shakespearean tragedies: the crashes of Bear Stearns and Eliot Spitzer were parallel images of hubris.Last Monday's now famous Bear Stearns link becomes the financial equivalent of "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky":Alan Schwartz, President and CEO of The Bear Stearns Companies Inc., said, "Bear Stearns' balance sheet, liquidity and capital remain strong."The British tycoon Joe Lewis lost $1 billion in six months. The shorts, many were the hedge funds promoting the rumors of Bear's illiquidity, made a killing. The government and Fed were forced to unprecedented actions to ensure against a Monday (yesterday) meltdown, and caught flak for rescuing Wall Street, but not Main Street. (Umm, a Wall Street meltdown would slaughter Main Street).The Wall Street Journal chronicles Bear's last week in all its gory, mesmerizing details... and NYT's DealBook chimes in with a rumor mill insider's perspective. And yes, the Street...
More About: Economy

Blogger as Journalist
2008-03-18 00:00:00
Why discuss journalism on Transparent Real Estate? Because real estate bloggers are essentially journalists in their own markets and should understand how professional journalists are working to distribute their content. Blogger s can use the same syndication methods to expand their online presence. Online, mainstream media still rules SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle online) says consumers still go primarily to big brand name sites, but mainstream media can't support their operations on relatively measly online revenues. The top 10 online news sites in 2007 were either big-media operations - such as the New York Times or ABC News - or online aggregators such as Yahoo News or Google News, whose content is largely produced by traditional media outlets."The fact is that the audience still sees a lot of value in reporting about public life," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the initiative. "What (media companies) need to do is figure out how to make money doing that.(author note: a ...
More About: Blogging , Journalist

Sunday Rate Cut + Bear Stearns Bailout? Uhoh
2008-03-16 20:11:00
What a Sunday shocker to see the Fed announce a 1/4 discount rate count on a Sunday afternoon after feverishly prodding JP Morgan Chase's acquisition of Bear Stearns for announcement by the time Asian markets open on their Monday mornings. To do this on a Sunday seems to imply the critical nature of Bear's fall and its effect on the surviving financial institutions.To cut the rate a mere 1/4 point two days before the Fed's official March 18 rate cut announcement seems odd at first glance, but on second reading seems to portend an extra 3/4 point cut on March 18 (or even 17th) to stabilize the markets. Today's 1/4 point cut becomes, in effect, the warning shot - a mechanism to signal to the market that the Fed is ready to go full bore into righting the markets. We'll see how the markets react Monday morning...Here's one more shocker: one year ago, Bear Stearn's share price was $170... JP Morgan Chase's purchase price: $2/share... oh, and that $2/share represents a 93% discoun...
More About: Economy , Rate

Slumburbs
2008-03-15 07:13:00
The spectre of brand new and unsold housing developments in the exurbias of the Central Valley and Inland Empires of California, and other overbuilt areas, imply a new sociogeographic development: "new housing" slums. Carol Lloyd's Surreal Estate explores the idea in her Slumburbia article. Prices on these new homes will eventually bottom out to a nadir when they can attract investors, who will rent them out. Local economies, hampered by the recession that has already hit areas of high foreclosure, may not even support the rental markets. The relative pricing of California exurban housing seems to drop a few thousand dollars per mile away from the coast. Unfortunately, people have figured out that living in Sacramento is like living in a more expensive version of Texas: ?if [Austin] it wasn?t surrounded by Texas it?d be called Sacramento?, Chuck Thompson, travel writer
More About: San Francisco Bay Area

Top 50 blogs for startups
2008-03-13 22:12:00
Even Louis C. at lead generation company HomeGain admits blogging is a natural marketing media for real estate. It shouldn't come as any surprise that there are instructive blogs popping up for all niches of business. Evan Carmichael's 50 Blogs for Startups highlights blogs like: Restaurant startups: Diary of a Food Whore Pet care startups: Pawsible Marketing Retail startups: Retail Design Diva Concession startups: Concession Central Dance school startups: Toronto Dance Salsa Blog Franchise startups: Franchise King blog
More About: Blogging

WCRBlogs.com
2008-03-12 17:53:00
Press release:Members of California's Women's Council of Realtors have launched a statewide blog network highlighting their blogs at www.WCRblogs.com. The mission of WCRblogs is to provide consumers with real time housing information across California cities by leaders of the real estate industry. The participating WCR blogging members come from different brokerages and backgrounds, and together they provide the most detailed up to date commentary on the state of the California housing markets than any other real estate site. WCRblogs aggregates articles authored by its participating blogging real estate agents and displays them in a chronological list. Consumers searching WCRblogs will naturally gravitate towards reading the bloggers in their city or area of interest. By metaphor, WCRblogs.com acts as the "front page" for the headlines about the California real estate market, and the bloggers play the role of journalists who cover these markets on a timely basis. The blog netwo...

RETechSouth - the sudden conference
2008-03-11 09:21:00
retechsouth conference siteMatt Fagioli and I met at several Inman Connect conferences, and we both loved it. Matt wanted to promote real estate technology in his hometown Atlanta, and his conference project entered planning stages. But one comes to the realization that if you haven't done a conference before, planning one seems ethereally simple - find a venue, set a date and invite people. Introduce Brad Nix to the mix only last week, and the sudden RETechSouth conference happens. Matt and Brad are leveraging affiliate marketing databases, local Realtor associations and their networks to virally market RETechSouth to their Atlanta community. Their mission is admirable - it's being produced to educate and excite the community about the paradigm shifts happening in real estate - and that's an important theme to support. I give both Matt and Brad a lot of credit for producing their first annual RETechSouth because they just did it. And their commitment is tangible - within one w...
More About: Events , Blogging , Conference