Mouth 2 Mouth

A lot of the times you'll see an article online or a press release that catches your eye.  The temptation is to post it as is into your own blog.  However doing so adds little to a readers understanding of you and what you do, in as much it does little to help you, or your readers.

Darren Rowse has an interesting post to today on ProBlogger about adding value to the blog conversation. Darren describes blogging as sort of an "echo chamber." I like the analogy, but what I realy like is how he goes into is how to add to what you've seen written online. Please check out Darren's list describing ways to add to what you are reading.

When we see experience things be it through our lives or through the lives of other through blogs, sharing those experiences and thought is what blogs are about.

As a real estate professional it is important that your blogs are filled with interesting facts and thoughts.  That's not enough however.  Rehashing facts and figures, like news letters, might be interesting, but in my opinion only offer limited value to the poster.  I can get those facts and figures elsewhere.

What I cannot get, and what makes it interesting to me is when I learn about your view.  A blog is you in conversation.  Blogs are less formal than other formats for disseminating information, they should be conversational and express the bloggers personality.  When I have the opportunity to see your take on things, to view the world, an article, an experience as it is seen through your eyes.

It may seem to go against conventional sales wisdom.  In general it is always best to focus on the needs of the customer.  You can still do that with blogging, however your personality must show through. Share your thoughts, opinions, reflections etc.

As Localism grows and becomes a better source for client outreach, you may begin receiving inquiry's from prospects.  If you're blogging in the manner I describe here, then one thing you'll notice at this time is that these people will already know a lot about you.  If they can get a sense of who you are through reading our blog, they'll already be sold on you by the time they call.

And that my friends is in my opinion, one of the best kinds of prospecting. Or is it Raining?

There are a number of news reports out today that housing sales have declined across the US. Reports say that in a few states sales have declined by over 20% (a).  The NAR has come out with the most optimistic report. In the opinion of NAR Chief Economist David Lereah the market has bottomed out and that we can expect to see a "a discernible improvement in both sales and prices."(1)

My local Seattle Times plays on the upside as well. Fourth quarter prices around here were up over 11% from a year prior.  Those are some pretty good gains if you ask me.

Those of you with a strong sphere are inevitably going to be asked questions about this.  I know I get them.  I don't believe that anyone can definitively forecast the future.  How often is anybody able to correctly predict future markets?  Economist aren't able to make accurate predictions much of the time.

That being said, I believe a lot of clients are looking for input on these things.  I know for myself when I am asked by a client about the market and where things are going, I lay out the facts as I see them, and conclude by telling them, that is only my perspective, and we can only have general ideas about where things are going to be 10 years from now. Some of my responses have been positive, some have been negative depending upon what I knew at the time.  The truth is it's not always what the market is doing that is going encourage or discourage my clients. 

My last sale was a situation in which my client wanted a bigger more long term home to raise their kid in.  They asked me what the market was going to do I gave them my thoughts.  But really they were looking for a property that met certain specific needs, this wasn't about investment, and I reminded them of that.  In this situation  Investment was a bonus, but not the priority.

How are you going to answer the questions of your clients?

Here are some related thoughts.

Is there really a Crystal Ball in Real Estate?   By Colleen Kulikowski
Help- My Crystal Ball is Cloudy  By Colleen Kulikowski
What To Do With a Cloudy Crystal Ball-Buyers Demands Falling on Deaf Ears By Allison Stewart
Why Buy? By Me (see the comments posted there)

(1) NAR Chief Economist David Lereah as Quoted in "Fourth Quarter Metro Home Prices & State Sales Likely Have Hit Bottom" By Walt Molony February 15, 2007

Edits:

(a). The "decliing number is based upon comparissons of sales for the fourth quarters of 2005 and 2006 according to the NAR. (Thanks for correcting me Jim Lee)

Rhonda Porter on Seattle's Rain City Real Estate Guide points out a disturbing peice of marketing that's come accross my desk as well.

A company is offering access to consumers who've recently pulled their credit in an attempt to secure a mortgage.   The information originates from the credit bureaus and the credit bureaus.

I'd say it's one thing for creditors to sell access to "grouped lists" of people who can place their credit ratings within certain specific ranges, however to sell more than generalized information like this goes beyond the pale.

How can we check the power of the big three credit bureaus? When this "opportunity" was first pitched to me as a Mortgage broker my first thought was how scary is this for a loan originator.  Once you pulled your client's credit you've raised a red flag alerting your competitors to a new prospect.  But also what does this mean for the consumer? If they've signed a document indicating that they understand their loan originator is not going to be sharing their information with any one else outside of this loan process, how is it that the bureau is not similarly accountable?

Are they not accountable at all? I like Rhonda's take on the subject.  There's a discussion about it there, I'd go check it out.

A related phenomenon occur's in this area with lenders themselves.  I don't know how many of you have experienced this on a refinance.  You're working on a refinance for your client getting all your loan conditions together, you order your pay-off information and the customer is flagged, their lender calls them up an tries to sell them on a loan themselves.  This practice doesn't make sense to me when a large part of a lenders business depends upon the work of a loan originator.

Freakonomics Blog pointed me to an interesting story on affordable housing on Boston.com today.

Harvard Professor Edward Glaeser in Boston.com delves into problems with Massachusett's affordable housing law Chapter 40B. A number of builders have used somewhat less than legal means to get around the law's requirements while still reaping it's benefits.  Glaeser argues that builder incentives should be in the removing profit caps on such projects and instead instituting a flat fee per non "affordable" unit produced under Chapter 40B.  According to Glaeser,"A flat fee for each non affordable unit would give builders incentives to make their units more attractive, so that they rent or sell easier. A profit cap hampers builders' ability to earn more by improvements."

Adjusting incentives is something we often are doing here on ActiveRain (although it's likely a little easier for us).  This same type of idea might be applied in a lot of areas where affordable housing is needed.  Incentives instituted incorrectly can easily lead to less than optimal results.

For those of you who are curious about the going's on at Redfin I'd suggest you check out The Bloodhound blog today. Kris Berg interviewed The Company’s CEO Glen Kelman, in his "toughest interview ever."

Why is Redfin interesting to us? Greg Swann points out that "There are many discount brokerages that are much cheaper, much more obnoxious and much more intransigent than Redfin has ever been, yet they manage to persevere unmolested in the real estate marketplace."  Well they've really done a great job at garnering press attention. They get the attention because they're working so hard to be different.  They've floundered around looking for a model that works tuning and refining just as Zip Realty once did.  They also get attention because they've got investors behind it, and they're doing it with technology.  (It's interesting to note that those same investors did not use Redfin to list one of it's own development projects.  They went with John L Scott.)

I'd say the company has done well getting as far as it has.  I remember when this company first started out. While they were great a garnering press attention they did not seem to have any sense of how this industry works.  Founded by a biochemistry major and an electrical engineer their original claim to fame was that they provided a specialized mapping tool for listings in the city of Seattle.  The their mapping tool gained a lot of attention at a time when investors were looking for technology start ups in which they could invest.  At that time they weren't sure what they were going to do.  The first effort was to sell leads as HouseValues.com does.

Fast forward to today and they are expanding to Southern California, still without a strong understanding of how to play in this field.  Kris shares a similar sentiment regarding Kelman in her post "I don’t get the impression that he entirely understands the depth of our business or of our duties as agents and fiduciaries." 

For making it this long I'll have to give them kudos, and if they can keep it up they may start swimming, but in my opinion the business model is going to have to change significantly for that to happen.

Some may look at The Company's model as threatening to their livelihoods.  And perhaps it is.  But I would suggest that in order to stay competitive in the market place it simply requires continually learning and advancing our own productivity so that we can better service our clients.  The threat is in becoming stale ourselves, in my humble opinion I'd say for the most part the competition keeps us keen.

On ActiveRain we do a lot of talking regarding the value proposition of the sales person.  We also do some talk about the conditions of the market today in different areas.  But what are the value proportions from your changing local market?

It hasn't been long since home values were rising at statistically rapid rates.  In the heated market place it's demonstrating for our clients, the benefits of buying and buying now are more implicit.  The benefits don't need much explaining.  With low rates and ascending prices, not buying or refinancing seems almost irresponsible.

But how do you define the value of investing today?  In each market, there are differing opportunities.  There are differing reasons and methods to invest.

In the interest of our business, I'd say in some way it's up to sales people in the industry to help find and define the opportunities that are available to our clients.

The opportunities aren't always obvious, usually the lesser known ones are best.

The market has changed and with the reasons for buying being less obvious, I appears that helping our clients is now going to have to include an aspect we haven't had to touch on as much in recent years.

Isn't that a part of our value proposition?  I'd say that a real estate agent could get by without being cognizant of such things however how much more valuable and how much easier is your work when you can quickly asses your clients needs and determine where the value prospect is for them?

Through Pat Kitano via his blog at TransparentRE.com I've seen two significant signs of interest in the local blogging world.

Real Estate Discounter Redfin is launching Sweet Digs.  The company will be paying a staff to write about Bay Area listings.

Century 21 is getting into the mix too.  They are partnering with a blog in New York City, called uppereast.com.

There are a number of other companies entering into this space that's seen as untapped.   According to Pat "Brokerages should be stumbling over themselves" for the opportunities these types of blogs provide.

How often have you heard the statistic that 8/10 from the NAR that people are going on-line first when they look for real estate information?  What exactly is out there for them to find right now?  Could it be that there is a gap where local information from Real Estate Professionals is concerned? 

Local blogging is going to grow in a big way over the next few months. Right now it's somewhat unique but that won't last for long.  I liken it to adding IDX listings to your website, early on not many websites could provide listings information, those that did had an advantage.  Now they are ubiquitous.  It's going to become more and more clear, that a part of many of our marketing efforts will includes some form of regionally targeted blogging.

Localism is here for you, are you stumbling?

KUOW the local Seattle Public Radio Station today had a conversation about media deregulation and the reduction of media ownership with author Erick Klinenburg today.  They discussed the affects of media conglomerations on local radio news coverage.

Blogging came up briefly as a source for filling in some of the gaps where other local news sources have been declining.

The conversation about diversity and the different voices available in different areas really got me thinking about Localism.

Localism is very young now, and the material available is still somewhat limited, however the potential for diversity is amazing. 

With national media in some ways a country can be held together, by sharing common interests and common experiences a national "feel" is maintained.  When I turn off the media, no radio, no TV, no net news.  I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.  The connection can be so powerful that when you haven't been plugged in for a while you feel disconnected, at least I do.

I read about how Toby Barnet went out this weekend to take pictures of his local Marysville and found that even though he'd grown up there he was getting much closer to it through gathering pictures for his Localism input.

Localism is in the early stages but it is a great opportunity to recreate and connect us to that local feel as opposed to the national.

Localism has the potential to reinforce those things that give a particular location it's uniqueness.  In a time of ever homogenizing geography, Localism has the potential to become a place that reinforces and redefines those unique things that make each community unique.  And at the helm of that recreation of community is the Real Estate professional who's defining it with their own experience and branding themselves with their community. 

How does that play out in our businesses? 

I heard it on Donna Harris' Personal Commercial today, "When you think North Dallas, think Donna Harris."

* image from KUOW Seattle, www.kuow.org "The Conversation" Feb, 5, 2007

In an effort to help get real estate professionals marketing themselves better online. My new role here is to help spread The Rain.  I gave my first group presentation last Friday to a group of about 30 of real estate agents here in Bellevue.

I went into a brief overview of ActiveRain, and the importance of the bloggosphere in their marketing efforts.  I then went into a lengthy discussion on Localism.com and how they could use it to farm their communities.  I explained to them that ActiveRain has been very successful at connecting Real Estate Professionals to each other as a networking medium, and that Localism is going to help further promote member businesses and connect them to clients.  I went over how Localism is in it's early stages and those that seek to "Dominate" their market now will find it much easier to maintain such a campaign in the future.

I was very happy to see many wide eyes in the audience.  It looked to me as a collective lightbulb had gone off.  These people "got it."

I'm looking forward to doing much more of this.  Let me know if you've know a group that's interested.

In the early days of The Rain, everyday suggestions came to us, and when we got those suggestions Ben and Matt went in and coded in your them right away, so that the next morning what you asked for was there waiting for you.  Your input is extremely helpful in keeping things running here.

More recently our code base has matured and the details we are working on are less about features and more about deeper aspects of ActiveRain.

We are still listening, and we are still logging, reviewing and considering your suggestions, it's just going to take a little more time now.  Please keep sending in your input.

We want you to know that we are listening, we do care. This network is large and there's a lot going on here.  Some have members have opted to take the things into their own hands. And when it appears as if we don't care, I can understand why they would. But that's my job. We have asked and we are asking that no personal attacks are made.

I do care very much what goes on here, and I am listening.  Contrary to popular belief we don't see all blog posts or comments that come up.  We've always relied on your feedback to help us improve The ActiveRain Real Estate Network, and we still do.

Please inform me of what you see going on what can be change and improved and help me substantiate things.  We're looking for information now to help make changes and to improve things.  We can't do this without your help.  Give me a call (206-406-6849) or send me a message, I'm here.

Thank you.