I've got a secret

“Within the first six months, these [doctors] wrote six million prescriptions for more than fifty million of these happy blue pills, ” noted Alex Wipperfurth in Brand Hijack. Of  course, the happy blue pill that he was referring to was Viagra, which came out in 1998.

Shouldn’t this country be happier?

I had lunch with an agent from another office the other day. We had a nice time talking, and the sandwiches at the Longhorn were good. She said something that I thought was interesting, something I had thought about often myself. She asked if we all shouldn’t help each other out (she was referring to real estate agents) regardless of office affiliation.

Suppose your office has a recipe for success- a “secret sauce,” I guess. Should you share that with others? Will that make the entire industry stronger, or make your own (and your office’s) position weaker?

Suppose your office had a recipe for the Viagra that would counteract a flat market.

This is what I think. I think that we all need to help one another- those of us that are left. I think that my friend Maya, by teaching social media to the members of her Delaware board, will not be affecting her market share. I think when @RealtyMan presented about Facebook at REBarCamp Boston that he wasn’t giving anyone the skill sets to take him down.

So, like everyone else in RE.net, I will share my general knowledge. Specific application of that knowledge set has been promised to Towne & Country- that is the promise that I have made to the company in regards to the Central MA area. But do I think you need a blog? YES! Where can you get one? You can set up a free one on WordPress.com or blogger, or you can get one of your very own using the WordPress platform (godaddy has an easy set-up).

Should you buy into every social media or new media thing that comes along? Gerry and I are kind of spread out everywhere but that is because we have to for Towne & Country. In fact, Gerry does a lot of beta testing for real estate platforms, helping to evaluate them for the developers. As an agent, though, I think you want get involved in a few things that you can really dig deeply into and extend your personality. And I am cheap as all get out- if it is going to cost me something, I don’t do it. The cost to me is time: sweat-equity, if you prefer.

Bottom line: I want you all to succeed. I want the exceptional agents to stay in the business- you may end up sitting across the table from me as a cobroke, or in the same position with one of  the Towne & Country team, or actually being a member of our team someday. Who knows?

And the agent I spoke with the other day is dead on- we all have to have each others’ backs. That makes the industry better for the consumer, and customer service is what it is all about.

Want to have lunch and bat ideas around? I promise not to mention Viagra. diane@realtyman.com

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Another one to add...

Well, I am happy to be heading home, but we had a great time in Delaware. Ignite was very cool! Met a lot of people and saw some old friends. Thanks to Bill Lublin for coming to see us- he had to leave early for BlogWorld the next day, but was there to show support.

Our classes at DAR convention at Dover Downs went well too. We realized after the feedback the first day that we needed to simplify the content, so we revamped our class prior to the second go-around, and made it more relevant.

You know what I wish, though? Online relationships are great, but I wish that I lived closer to Lesley and Maya. I would never have met them had it not been for twitter- Lesley is outside of my service area, and Maya is so far away from me. But they are both brilliant, and I love being with them. We are very comfortable with one another.

So your scope enlarges with a social media presence, but there are more “good-byes” to deal with. Trying to figure out where to plan another TQCamp- Chicago? Florida? The face-to-face meetings are energizing and we are ready to do anything.

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I got an unusual call today. It was from another Real Estate sales agent.

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When I first started in the business, I got calls several times a month, particularly after I picked up a large listing (which never did sell). I used to get recruited often, as did many of the agents in my office. Even with signs of a problem with home sales, I still heard the old saws, “People have to live somewhere,” and “real estate doesn’t lose value,” and brokerages hadn’t begun the triage process.

This calling-to-recruit activity is much less prevalent now. Everyone is more concerned with mere survival, and I know it is on everyone’s mind, the question: “What is going to happen after this new buyer incentive is gone?” Sales are up, but right now we aren’t measuring apples to apples, and foreclosure activity is showing no sign of abating.  Offices are cutting non-producing agents- or thinking about it, anyway.

So the call- I was surprised. The agent said on my VM that he wanted to ask me a couple of questions. Fair enough; I called him back.

No recruiting. What he wanted to was if a particular REO site had ever been productive for me, as far as me getting any listings there. He was very nervous. He was out of my territory, and he had done his homework (I had seen his website and he had obviously done some research), so I pointed him down a couple of paths that had worked for me for listings. We chatted a while, and he told me that he planned on going to an REO conference next month. I knew that was the Five Star Conference, and had heard good things about it and told him so.

I didn’t hand him any closely guarded secrets or magic bullets, because I don’t know of any. I was just friendly. And when I said goodbye I could hear the emotion in his voice. I was apparently the only one who had answered his questions. Ever.

You know, I have been asked by agents about bank-owned property, and really- it’s a different animal than resale. You really need some kind of set-up to deal with it. And at least one of the companies that I had been working with has gone under, leaving me to eat the electric bills and unpaid cost of snow removal. I see ads sometimes that make bank-owned look like the easiest money in the world- no weekend hours- but that’s balderdash. You have 10 properties and they need a monthly status report on the same day, and you get a call for 4 BPOs at the same time, you get it done. If the people asking me are unprepared and looking for an easy 9-5 job, they should find something else.

But otherwise, we all have to help each other. That’s what I like about twitter and some of the other social media sites- you shoot out a question, and someone will answer you.

So, for the people who have answered my questions since I hae been in the space- today was for you. I tried to pay it forward. And the agent that I spoke to today will too.

It’s the difference between surviving and living.

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Youtube disclaimers make me laugh. They always say things like, “This really sux, but I worked hard making it. No bad comments.”

So here is my first vlog. It really sux, but I worked hard making it. Say whatever you like about it. In the spirit of my last post, I am just doing it, and they will get better. Really.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PmHmrgAmMc]

One real estate agent, Judy Madonna Moriarty, said it very well. She felt that not using her photo didn’t dilute her branding. Photos, she pointed out, are often glamour shots or pictures that are hopelessly dated. If your license picture looks more like you than your business card photo does, think about a change. She also pointed out that nearly every other professional does not add a photo to their card- why should real estate agents?

There you go. There were as many ideas about how a card should look as there were people- and that’s great. A card, really, should be an extension of your personality- as much as is your blog, as much as are your facebook and twitter interactions. They are all the same little squares of stiff paper, but isn’t it better to make those cards work as a canvas for you? Think about it- the same canvas that supported Starry Night also gave us Nighthawks, and these paintings tell us less about the night than they tell us about the artist.

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I am looking out the window of the plane during my second flight ever. It is beautiful- the sky is a perfect blue above, and we are flying over a solid mass of clouds that reminds me something of the way the sheets look on my bed. There, alas, is no heavenly aura emanating from where I sleep as there is from these clouds, but they look solid and rumpled like my sheets.

And THAT started me thinking about computerized dating services- you don’t have to be a Rorschach scholar to see how I made that leap of thought. After we were separated, I signed up for a bunch of them- out of spite, mostly- but never hit “enter”. Just couldn’t bring myself to do it, and have never really had that first date. The thing is, by taking all of those tests, I really learned something about myself and the men I am attracted to. I cherish kindness, I find intelligence to be the sexiest attribute, I am annoyed with people who will only date people who recycle, and he has to live a long way away, like Philadelphia (oh, just kidding).

I also have a nearly uncontrollable urge to skew the results. I guess we all have an archetype in mind, and don’t want that to be shaken because of a quiz. Maybe this explains why the men who show up as my matches are the types that I would likely ditch at the restaurant after an emergency call from one of the “kids”. Hey, I never said I was low maintenance. You wouldn’t like me if I were.

A while ago, I had read that being a real estate agent was akin to acting as a matchmaker. I disagree. I think the buyer is actually going to online matchmaking sites by herself and viewing the pictures and the video. By the time she gets to me, she has a pretty good idea of the two or three dates she is ready to commit to. This consumer has spent hours online choosing properties, exploring these homes and their communities, emailing links to family and friends, and possibly visiting a mortgage officer to get preapproved.

This tells me a couple of things. Real estate agents had better get ready for their new roles. I have already touched base briefly on where I feel I contribute most in the process as far as buyers are concerned. But sellers: you want your home bringing all it can to the dating table. You need good photos, and lots of them. You need imaginative video. You need your home to work that online room and exhibit all the charm that it is capable of. You won’t even get that first date, let alone be left by yourself at the movies.

Diane Guercio is on twitter as HeyAmaretto and still has not had that dreaded first date.

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The full blog post for this is on Trulia, but before you read it, consider the above question. Write down the answers. Then read the contents of the post, and see if your answers are the same.

And please- comment!!!

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdrKK1LJggk&hl=en&fs=1]

Christina’s first vlogpost interviewing me. Should have gotten a little more sleep the night before!

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[wpvideo m0yHIFEP]

Jann Taber interviews Tamara Dorris.

You are in control of your belief system, and this video reiterates how important that is.  I love the reminder that we need to “Pray while moving our feet.”

from http://therebelwoman.wordpress.com/

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I have the greatest respect for people who choose not to be parents. There is incredible pressure all around them to conform to what is considered the norm, and for a variety of reasons they decide to be non-conformists. My daughter is one of these people, and I respect her decision. It’s intelligent to consider this prior to having the child.

And this made me think of something that I feel happens in real estate. Not everyone should be a homeowner, or not everyone is ready right now, regardless of interest rates and available inventory. I had three separate issues come up this week alone that reminded me of this.

The one which I will share was about a listing I have- a bank-owned property that had suffered from neglect and freeze damage. Some of the damage was repaired, but I wasn’t certain the extent of it. An interested buyer called me and requested placing an offer, and of course I disclosed this information. I had his mortgage person run me a preap, and it came back contingent on several items that I had told the buyer may be problems, among them being the heating system.

I told the mortgage officer this, and told him that this property was being sold as is. Apparently, this buyer had an issue with reserved funds. The mortgage officer asked me to “Please advice” (sic).

Fair enough. I have issues of my own with reserved funds from time to time. But selling this buyer the home would be plain irresponsible, to my way of thinking. Possibly everything would work out, but more likely I would get the listing back as another bank-owned property a year or two down the road.

My advice? Make sure you have enough money in the bank to cover a couple of months’ worth of mortgages. You don’t know what can happen, and at least you will have that roof over your head. Hard? Sure, but not as hard as trying to find that money if you are too sick to work, or get laid off, or need to take time off to care for a child.

Do a home inspection, even if it is for informational purposes only! I know you want the house, but if you start out over your head in unexpected repairs, you run the risk of becoming a statistic, and that’s a number I don’t want to see get any larger. Use the home inspection as a tool, even with an as-is property: highlight the big-ticket items and make sure you will be able to take care of them before they become bigger-ticket items.

Homeownership is similar, in my opinion, to being a parent. Most days it is great, and there is nothing like finally burning the mortgage paper when you pay it off, so they tell me- probably the same feeling you get watching a child graduate from college. But if you aren’t prepared- if you haven’t thought out who is going to watch the toddler when you have to go to work and she has croup, if you haven’t considered school vacations and broken arms and stomach bugs- you aren’t looking at the whole picture. Does this mean you shouldn’t be a parent, or a homeowner? Probably not, but education and a safety net can make things a hell of a lot easier.

In Massachusetts, education and information on lower-cost mortgage interest can be found at this site.

Federal First-Time Homebuyer Credit  click here (thanks to Patrick Harding)

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