Archive for the 'Wild & Whacky Real Estate' Category
Many of you reading this are buyers or sellers and some of you are agents. For those who are searching for or selling a single family home, this post may have a tad of mystery surrounding it. However – all you have to do is picture yourself at a condominum complex with an agent. The agent is facing a series of 10 seemingly identical lockboxes and needs to fish out three sets of keys in order to show you – the buyer – three units in the same building. The agent finds the keys – and then takes you on your tour. Now the rubber hits the road..the agent must return the keys to the proper lock box – does anyone else see the potential for confusion here? A few weeks ago I had a showing for a unit in a complex where the tangle of lockboxes was quite a challenge. Sure enough – an agent contacted me stating that an agent had called her stating that the keys had been accidently “switched” and I could hunt through all the lockboxes to find the right keys, but that she didn’t have “time” to deal with the situation. This is something that shouldn’t be allowed to happen and happily, I have vound I relatively simple solution…
Recently, I got a listing in a cooperative where there were nine lockboxes. This time I decided to think outside the box (no pun intended.) In the past, I’ve put little tags on the keys, ribbons on the box and on the keys. But all of these things can – and DO – fall off. So – I decided to spend a couple of extra $$ for “designer keys.” Now, if an agent puts the keys to my listing in the wrong box, I can easily find them and “fix” the problem. No tags or ribbons to fall off – and none of the other keys are going to look like mine. It’s a colorful and even “fun” solution to a dreary problem.
© 2010 Ruthmarie G. Hicks – http://thewestchesterview.com – All rights reserved.
A real estate colleague of mine from another geographic area recently wrote an article on private forum about a REALTOR all of us in the business are all too familiar with. He named her Ethyl Broomhandle and I would give this agent credit for his diatribe, but I have a feeling that he wanted his comments to remain anonymous.
We all know her.
The most obnoxious real estate agent that God ever created. Aggressive, nasty, mentions repeatedly that she has been in the business since the dawn of time. Agents cringe in horror when a buyer falls in love with one of her listings. I’ve written about her before on professional forums. In fact – a good chunk of my time with my real estate coach is spent talking about how to deal with the Ethyl Broomhandle’s of the real estate world without finding myself at the bottom of a bottle of Cabernet every night.
But through all of this, I never came clean. Well I have a confession to make… you see I created Ethyl…I did this 20 years ago when I was young and foolish. While the public was focused on the cloning of Dolly the cloned sheep – they didn’t know that a group of mad scientists – of which I was one – had created clones of thousands of “worst nightmare” real estate agents and deposited them in every brokerage across the continental US.
How did this happen?
You see – about 20 years ago when I was first starting out as a budding mad scientist – we were under a lot of stress. We decided that we deserved to have a “fun project” to lighten our burden. Then one night a couple of us got drunk while watching Star Trek reruns we got our inspiration from this episode: The clip gives you the conclusion…
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I know, I know, this sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry. it’s kind of like having fire insurance. The top BOOOORRRRRRING – until you have a fire and then its a topic of high interest.
Well….we have a fire!!
if you don’t find the topic interesting now – you will. Just as soon as the implications for your own web presence become apparent.
At this moment in time you can access anything on the internet with equal speed. All those big companies with their pockets stuffed full of VC can not do one thing: they can not control the speed with which your web site or theirs is accessed. In this way – we are all equal. My blog will load as fast as Trulia or Zillow.
BUT -what if that could change? What if the Trulia’s and Zillow’s and ALL of those wonderful indexed IDX companies could “buy” their way to the front of the line. Their sites snap up in the blink of an eye – while your site which has been carefully and lovingly nurtured can’t be opened or has been left in the slow lane because you couldn’t pay what they can.
What if your readers suddenly had trouble accessing your site?
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We often hear an agent or brokerage bragging about being on the first page of Google. Many sellers see being on the first page of Google and other major search engines such as Yahoo and Bing as a moot point. It is not – but it all depends on the nature of the search. Being first for long-tail searches for real estate rather than general terms is key. (For those who don’t know what a “long tail” search means – be patient – all we be revealed) A page one Google search for some general search criteria – is meaningless – and that is where the confusion arises. Most of us strive to be on page one of a Google search – but that begs the question: The first page of Google for what search?
I might be on the first page of Google for the search term “real estate in the United States of America.”
What does that do for my seller in New York?
The answer is nothing – absolutely nothing. The same could be said for being on page one for “New York real estate.” That might get me a lot of phone calls, but it does nothing for a seller in a village or town in lower Westchester. People who are searching an entire state may not even be contemplating a purchase. Why are they looking? Who knows? And if – perchance – they are looking to buy a home in that state – they are a looooong way from buying anything. They are cutting a wide swath because they don’t know what they want yet.
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This could also be entitled – “How to steal a house.”
First, the inspiration for this post belongs to C.Tann-Starr. She wrote a tremendously refreshing and honest post - Momentum After The Tax Credit Expires? Seriously? Suffering From Lookie-Lou-Itis?
Second, I don’t have a crystal ball. I can only use common sense to look ahead. The only thing I know is this: What goes up, must come down – and what goes down, eventually goes back up. We can also look to the past in order to better see the future.
How I stole a house in 1996:
The year was 1996 and willy nilly I found myself thrown into the housing market. There were no incentives out there, no $8000 tax credits, interest rates were hovering between 7-8%. The country was MIRED in a real estate recession that seemingly had no end. Few were buying – and those that were – were offering low ball after low ball. Homes languished on the market for months if not years.
But I needed to move. I moved back in with my mother when she became ill and now she had passed on. It was time to sell the big family home that had housed three generations of my family.
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Whenever I go on a listing appointment, I generally find that the seller already has a “number in their head” about what their home should sell for. This number can come from various sources. It is – unfortunately – almost always higher than the current market can command.
In truth, I can’t blame sellers for this…their minds have been levered to continued price increases to such an extent that the current market has left most sellers blind sided.
The first thing I often hear is that “I need to get X out in order to buy my next home which I can now get for Y because its gone down in price. The trouble if the property you want to buy has gone down so much in price, chances are the property that you want to sell has gone down by a similar percentage. Wishful thinking is often the culprit here. Markets are fluid – that was fine when prices were going up – but it also holds true when prices decline.
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My initial rant on this topic was posted both here – and on Active Rain where I have another blog. Active Rain attracts many from the industry itself – unlike this blog which is more consumer facing. So I thought I would paste a link over to that blog and I have put together a follow-up since that posting created such a stir.
Since there was such a debate over my blog on designations and their relative value, I thought it would be nice if I culled through the responses in order to get a consensus and also offer up some references for further reading.
There were 41 responders to the blog – excluding those who posted more than once and of course my responses. There were three distinct camps:
1. 49% Felt designations were of dubious value (I included myself in that group.)
2. 29% Felt that having one or two made sense.
3. 22% Felt that felt multiple designations were valuable.
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Ok – so by the criteria in my title I could declare more designations than most – since my name is relatively long. But recently I ran into an agent that had the following designations on her card ….”Sally Smith, ABR, GRI, CDPE, CRS, & EPro.” Ya gotta be kidding me! This person has more designation letters then letters in their name. It must be exhausting to write all that after your name!
Personally, I have a problem with designations simply because the testing required doesn’t have any teeth to show that the agent actually learned something. Much of the testing is open book – and sustaining the designation involves paying your way and has nothing to do with learning new skills.
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Ok, so one of the advantages of having a pet-friendly real estate practice is that my dogs can sometimes accompany me on my outings. They add something to the mix by actually calming my buyers during times of stress. Many like to pet them and play with them in between showings.
But Tundra has taken to wanting to be in the driver’s seat. I’ve told her that she needs to be at least 16 for a learners permit, but she just doesn’t want to listen. So when I get back to the car – it really looks like she’s driving the vehicle.
It reminds me of one of my favorite SNL skits from the late 80s. “Toonces the Driving Cat.” For those who are too young to remember – enjoy the clip. For those of us who were watching SNL in the late 80s and early 90s – this should bring back memories.
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This is a message to all the real esate agents that I know and love who haven’t changed the photo on their business card and other materials for 20 or more years!
Sure, I’d love to look the way I did 20 years ago. Well…not quite. I’d love to look as YOUNG as I did 20 years ago and still have an updated look that says 2010 – not 1990. One of the reasons I don’t have a photo on my business card or web site is because agent photos have gotten so ridiculous. I’m firmly convinced that if I put my 45-year-old mug on a card, people would automatically think I was 80 years of age. After all, having a photo that is dated to about half of our actual age seems to be the industry standard.
So here are 10 signs that the photo on your card and other publicity might be a tad — ahem— dated.
1. You have a child the same age you were when that photo was actually taken.
2. Your eyeglasses cover your entire face.
3. Your hair is bigger than the eyeglasses that cover your entire face.
4. The padded shoulders on your power suit make you look like a football player.
5. Your kids laugh hysterically when they see the photo and ask “did you really look like that once?”
6. Your hair, clothing, and makeup make you look like you are dressed for a costume party with a vintage theme.
7. NO ONE recognizes you from your photo.
8. You have a full head of hair and sideburns in the photo – even though you have been bald for years.
9. You lapels and tie are so wide they cover your entire chest.
10. Your new client runs away in fear because they think the strange older person approaching them is impersonating the young hot agent they contacted.
© 2010 Ruthmarie G. Hicks, http://thewestchesterview.com. All rights reserved.
