Archive for August, 2008
Whimsical Wednesday: The Bugs are Back
· CommentsIf you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might remember that I’ve talked about Southern bugs once before. And, I imagine this time I’ll start getting hits from the search engines when people look up cockroach or water bug. But, that’s OK.
For any of you who got here using that kind of a search, I apologize. This is just a Whimsical Wednesday post, not an information site about insects.
There are pesky cockroaches lurking about outside here all year around, I imagine. But, there are times when they seem more determined to join us in the house than others. I’m not really sure what triggers it, since I’m not really a cockroach expert, but the first sign is that you’ll see a couple belly-up in the garage. That’s the clue that the roaches are on the move indoors.
So, the other night, I was sitting quietly in the living room when in FLEW a cockroach, closely followed by my cat. Of course, we all know the little devils can fly, but generally by the time they get in the house, they’re too groggy from the bug spray to work up much energy for it.
The only thing I can assume is that Joey found the bug shortly after it slithered through whatever crack it found to get in the house, and the bug was still pretty perky.
An insect that size in flight is an awesome sight. Especially when it ends up landing on your living room furniture. So, this was no time for fooling around. I raced for the vacuum cleaner while Joey tried to find a way to leap high enough to grab the intruder.
Joey has not quite come to terms with the vacuum cleaner. I think it’s a bit loud and obnoxious for his taste. So, when I came tearing up, plugged in the machine and turned it on, Joey decided to retreat to a safe distance. I sucked the cockroach up in the long extension to the vacuum, let it run long enough to convince myself that the roach had not survived, then turned the vacuum off and collapsed on the couch to try to return my breathing to a normal pattern.
Joey is evidently not completely conversant in how vacuum cleaners deal with cockroaches. He first went back to the last place he’d seen the bug and did a bit of reconnoitering, but was rather puzzled by the fact that the bug was nowhere to be seen.
Then, he approached the vacuum cleaner and sniffed it over thoroughly, looked from the vacuum to the last known location of the bug and back, and walked away shaking his head.
At times like that, I wish I could have the same level of enthusiasm for playing with cockroaches as cats do. . . but it’ll never happen.
Answer #1
Guest Blogging!
Do you have a real estate marketing tip? Contact me about writing a guest post for this blog. Appropriate links to your website will be included. Impress your peers with your knowledge - you never know when a referral opportunity will arise!
Answer #2
Asking a Question!
Do you have a real estate marketing question? If you send me a thoughtful question, I’ll write a blog post to respond. Appropriate links to your website will be included. Impress your peers with your search for knowledge - you never know when a referral opportunity will arise!
Is There a Way to Sortof Sell a House?
· CommentsEvidently not, according to a Consumer Reports survey quoted on Inman News.
If you’re a discount broker or working in that type of a brokerage, from what I’ve seen, you’ve taken a step toward a Real Estate Consulting model. The objective is to provide a lower fee, but most of those brokerages I’ve seen have a “project description” that identifies what services will and will not be provided.
Full-Service Agents Just Seem to Provide Full-Service
I think it becomes a problem when full-service agents reduce their fee because the seller negotiated. Full-service agents often don’t have a list of services - they just do what’s necessary. And, according to the Consumer Reports survey, they perform the same services, regardless of the fee.
For example, the survey discovered that 46% of sellers attempted to negotiate a lower commission, and of those, about 71% were successful!
OK, so an agent decided to reduce their fee. But, did they reduce their service level? Evidently not. The overall conclusion Inman News came to from reviewing the survey was that the amount of the fee didn’t affect the quality of the service.
Don’t you think that’s a bit crazy?
Real Estate Consulting Rocks!
The typical arguments I’ve seen about not reducing fees use examples like lawyers. If a lawyer makes $350 an hour, do you think they’re going to lower that fee because you ask? I can understand that it might be a bad example to use. REALTORS® might not really identify with being on a par with lawyers. But, what about consultants?
The consulting industry has been writing project descriptions forever. A consultant’s knee-jerk reaction to a discussion of reducing fees is to find a way to meet the client’s objective while eliminating some of the steps in the process. It would never enter a consultant’s head to reduce the fee and provide the same level of service.
I think the issue gets back to how you value your skills. I know there are a lot of ditzy real estate agents in the world; I know that there are a lot of agents who just work part-time; there are agents who got their license because they were bored and wanted to get the commission when they sold their house.
But, there are also very talented, personable, knowledgeable, seasoned professional REALTORS® who really care about their clients, who work very hard, and who have saved more than one client’s behind on a deal. Why would that person want to lower their fees?
Start by Documenting The Effort Expended
Maybe a place to start is by figuring out how many hours you spend on various transactions. Do you have that information? Not just a guess, but an actual accumulation of hours spent? If so, bravo!
If not, start jotting down the hours you spend in all the various aspects of helping a client buy or sell a home. Once you start getting a feel for the effort involved, you’ll be able to appreciate the effort and expertise you bring to the table.
That might just start you on your way to moving toward a real estate consulting business model…
Thanks to Bill Gassett, who consults on Hopkinton MA real estate, I found some good ideas for increasing your exposure in your local market and getting quality incoming links to your blog.
Check out the site www.YourStreet.com. Once you join, you will be able to: “post articles, voice your opinion, join a discussion forum, and display your user profile” according to the website.
Bill has found the site helpful because he can send his blog posts to YourStreet and they are posted on the the site’s community page for his market area. I’m not sure how much juice the incoming links have because there are so many pages on the site, but I think it’s a great opportunity to check out.
YourStreet will also syndicate your blog if they think the content is appropriate. That will eliminate the need to manually add the post to the site. Just use one of the feedback forms to request syndiating your blog.
The other site Bill mentioned is www.Topix.com. Bill says that articles are cached pretty quickly on this site by Google, and Yahoo is showing some of Bill’s articles on Topix as incoming links.
Make the most of your blogging effort - get the word out electronically!
Whimsical Wednesday: Stupidity in the Court
· CommentsI hope you’ve never been a defendant or plaintiff in a courtroom because that would mean that there was some trouble in your life. But, if you have had that experience, you may know how stupidity in the court happens.
I’ve been on one jury - no stupidity, just a civil suit that only took a day. And, the verdict was very obvious to all. The scary thing was a couple of the jurors were older women, and they evidently sit on juries as a hobbie. They wanted everyone’s name because they kept a scrapbook on all their juries. Hmmm….
I saw this in a magazine (from JCR, the magazine of the National Court Reporters Association) the other day and it reminded me of courtroom silliness:
Lawyer: Do you know when that meeting occurred?
Witness: The March 9 meeting?
Lawyer: Yes
Witness: March 9
I think things like that happen when the attorney isn’t very prepared for a particular witness. I think it’s the same reason that people say “Ummm” before answering a question, because they’re giving themselves time to think.
And, evidently while they’re thinking of the next juicy question to ask, their ability to recognize what they’re currently saying is significantly reduced.
I was a witness in a trial once. It was a ridiculous civil suit that should never have gotten into a courtroom. But, it did, and after being warned by the defendant’s attorney that it would happen, I was served a subpoena - more than once, actually, because the trial date got moved around.
Unless you try to hide from process servers, you’ll find them rather nice and actually apologetic. Explaining that I was expecting the subpoena didn’t seem to make them feel any better.
Here was my stupid question. The attorney seemed to be very busy looking at some papers he was holding. I had just explained that I heard a fight, went outside to see what was happening, then went back inside to call the police. And, the lawyer asked:
“And, how long were you there?”
And, I said, “Ummm, well, I guess until I left”.
Then, the attorney asked, “Oh, so you didn’t go back outside?” Which I think would have been the appropriate question in the first place.
Don’t you?
