Disruptive RE Broker

I cannot say I am a frequent reader of his blogazine, but Greg from the Bloodhoundblog.com is a pretty funny guy. He rags on everything. His personality seems somewhat twisted and I like that cause many people think my way of thinking is twisted.

However, as twisted as he may seem, he must be a good guy because he has 13 adopted pets. Impressive.

I thought having a website for my dog was crazy but this guy has an email address for one of his.

To understand what I’m saying give the BloodHoundBlog a read. Its not like you have anything to do anyways. How do I know? Your reading this crap!

As a broker when a call comes in you have to craft your answers so you can convert that person into a lead and then into a client. It is not easy but this may help.

Here’s a tip.

When someone calls about a property answer their questions and then open up the conversation. Ask them what attacted them to this property? Ask them what they are looking for? and tell them you can make their lives easier by setting them up on MLS rather than having them search from site to site. Most consumers go from site to site thinking that each site doesn’t have all the listings. Tell them that you will hook them up on the system that feeds the sites they often search. They will appreciate this.

I get buyers like this all the time. Don’t sell a service during this call - build repour to open the door. This may not work well for everyone but if you are good on the phone it should work to your advantage.

Good Luck.

Anytime you do something passion should be the reason. I started out in real estate by helping buyers exclusively when very few agents were doing this or even knew about it. I was passionate and wanted to help.

Then 6 years later I decided to work on a few different real estate related projects. One was to help sellers by providing a flat fee listing service. This has been a great experience and I have helped and changed many lives.

Now, I am almost ready to launch my latest project. This time, I am going to help the industry professionals and homeowners/consumers. I think this will be the most interesting experience and I hope to change the world with my new social networking tool.

I am hoping to open up the platform really soon. This is where my passion is right now. I see a huge problem and I am going to do my best to address the problem.

Stay tuned.

Once of the biggest concerns with condos is the monthly fees associated with each unit. Fees rarely, if ever, go down. Problems always push fees up and values down. If you see a condo for a great price, think again and look more closely and you will most likely see that the condo fees are nearly a mortgage payment in itself. I am talking about condos that are in the $400,000-$600,000 range. When the price is in this range the fee should still be somewhat reasonable. So if a place has a fee of $550 per month, but is on the market for $400,000, it doesn’t seem to make this a good deal. I see this all the time. There is a reason why the asking price seems low for the area.

HOA’s are usually not run well. Assessments are usually how problems are handled rather than thinking about other soluations to save money. For example, a HOA board would rather assess each unit or raise the monthly condo fee if the common electricity bill is increasing. This is a mindless method - a method that all boards use. What they should do is bring in a licensed Electrician and put the lighting on timers and sensors to cut the bill down. Running hallway lights 24/7 is big deal. This will help in long term. There are so many ways to save money but you need to think outside the box.

Now, back to the above issue. When condo fees hurt values you need to create a smoke screen so the high condo fee isn’t just a high number. What does this mean? Again, think outside the box. If we have a condo fee for $550 and the fee takes care of common heat, gas electric, landscaping and trash it doesn’t really make sense but if your Condominium Building adds a building-wide Internet Access or Wi-Fi I think people would see the value a bit more.

Internet Access is pricey. Lets say, $50 per month per unit when you pay for it on your own. If a condo building of 20 units sets up a Wireless System for the building it will cut that $50 fee per unit to less than $5 per month per unit. Prospective buyers will like that they don’t need to pay for Internet Access and it will also create somewhat of a smoke screen.

Banker Tradesman is reporting that RM Bradley is closing shop. This is a small brokerage that should have sold out a few years ago when they had the opportunity to do so. I am sure they were approached by one of the bigger co’s. In fact, I am almost certain the principals could have sold out but refused.

I used to focus on the back bay and I dealt with them often. They had a lot of nice listings but didn’t want to change with the times. They could have grown behind the RM Bradley name, but didn’t because they rejected technology. Old school real estate can bring you down.

I’d take those listings and use technology to embrace them!

Seth Godin has extended Squidoo by creating a spin off for real estate professionals. Its called: squidoo zippers.

I like the tagline “Mayor of your zip code.”

We are pathetic. Check out Shnorkus.com. What the hell is a shnorkus?

If you had a dog with a smushed noise you’d know.

I have been a reader for the longest time. Mike, I was the one who asked you who you were and suggested that you put up an About page. You did, thanks. I have a new beef with your site and I am annoyed. You have all this great info but the sites search sucks big donkey balls. I know you guys wrote about a real estate service last year and now I cannot find it. Your Swicki Search is shit. I am sorry but the results are so off. Buildings Manager

I searched for Real Estate but the results were coming from every site but yours. I came to your site to search your site not other shit sites. If I want a mixture of shit I will go to Google, Yahoo or MSN.

Why can’t you create or implement a search tool that will allow me to find what I am looking for.

Please fix your search.

If you enjoy business startups inc Magazine is a must read. They have great articles and I enjoy reading it cover to cover each month. If you want to learn something each month pick one up and open any page and you will find something interesting. I promise. This mag loves to explore tech startups.

My favorite service of all time MBL was just redeveloped. The service and widget is starting to evolve. Check out my right sidebar.

So much better now. Please join my small community.

Gotta love when a service is built by a Masshole.

I have said it a million times. MLSPIN is by far the most advanced MLS in the US. The UI is uncomparable to any other MLS system. Of course MLSPIN is a private company and not run by a Realtor Association, however, they work very closely with the Boards. Most realtor boards run MLS - sucks for agents. You have no idea what you are missing. Trust me, I know because I belong to a few MLS systems and the others are so behind MLSPIN.

MLSPIN Partners. One click gets your listings on these third party sites. I might have missed a few.

I was uploading some older images off my camera and this was just one of the interesting images that I found. Oh well, at least we have our holiday card for next year picked earily.

Check out the Magic Jack

Plug it in and see if it works. Interesting!

Ooma is probably better. I have one but have not set it up yet!

This ball is said to be over 8000 lbs. The owner is 26 years old and he looking to get it over to 20,000lbs. The rubber bands he uses are the same ones they package automobiles with. From the image it seems to be almost as tall as his house and its 100% rubber band.

Check it out.