Photos that tell you something November 29, 2006
Further to Galen’s post on photos, I like shots that tell you something. We have a 15 photo max, so that usually leaves room for more than just the obvious. Photo number one MUST be an EXTERIOR shot, per mls rules. And NO PEOPLE allowed. They seem to be Ok with pets…until they get one of those Boing-Boing shots. That will make for a “New Rule”.
This one of Soze (So-zay) saved me from the many calls I usually get, asking if the condo association permitted dogs :-)
This photo brought 20 people the first day, and two offers. At least half of the people who came to the first Open House said the free standing archway photo grabbed their attention and prompted them to come.
Sphere: Related ContentYour photos are staid because you do not obey the peekaboo law
By and large, real estate photos are staid and boring. They don’t solve a problem and they don’t follow the “peekaboo law,” which states:
Evolution has seen to it that the very act of searching for the hidden object is enjoyable
i.e. they try to put it all out there. The first photo is usually the front of the house (that’s probably fine) and then we proceed to get a full view shot of each room. That’s not seductive! Usually the photographer (agent?) uses the same lens in each room and does nothing to focus the eye or the mind on what makes the property attractive or problem solving. Specifically: why show the kitchen, including the 6 burner stove from a distance? Why not take a very wide angle lens and show the rest of the kitchen from the perspective of the stove? Or show the view from from sitting at the counter?
One of my favorite real estate photos, which does none of the above, was found by BoingBoing a couple of years ago:accidental real estate pornography (safe for work).
(I’ve looked at a lot of real estate photos over the past couple of months preparing for the launch of ShackPrices.com. We’re coming down the final stretch - get your name on the list now if you want to hear about it when we launch!)
Sphere: Related ContentHave faith: St. Joseph November 28, 2006
Ardell posted about St. Joseph a few months back. This statistically insignificant test proves it works.
Advice from a successful real estate investor
Real estate discussion on a non-real estate blog (it’s rare).
My biggest complaint with the advice would be the lack of specifics: “get started now: is not meaningful advice. Better advice would be “Buy properties on the edges of gentrifying areas with a rent-to-cost ratio of X.”
Sphere: Related ContentSnowing in Seattle November 27, 2006
Yes, they are the Seahawks. Yes, they are playing here in Seattle and yes, that IS SNOW!
We don’t see a lot of snow around here. I went over to Redmond Town Center to pick up new cell phones for the whole family on one plan before my daughter returns to L.A. tomorrow. We got stuck in traffic on Redmond Way not far from Redmond Town Center for a whole hour of going absolutely no where, and the snow kept coming down.
We pulled over and got some dinner at Canyons where we got to watch the Seahawks game. By the time we left there were many, many cars stranded on the side of the road and people just walking away from their cars. I just saw some shots of Issaquah on the news, and it looks like it took a very long time for many to get home from work tonight. Many just called someone with a bigger vehicle and left their cars behind.
This is the most snow, and most trouble caused by snow, that I’ve seen in Seattle. Kim says it was probably the worst night he’s seen here since 1997.
Hope everyone made it home safe tonight!
Sphere: Related ContentWorst Commute: anywhere to Bellevue
I’ve had only unconventional communes: Seattle to Bainbridge Island (a 3 step bus/bike - ferry - bike/walk) and Capitol Hill to Belltown (walk or bike), but I’ve had early morning meetings on the East side and I can confirm that the commute stinks.
Last week the Seattle Times confirmed my suspicion: it’s worse to commute to and from Bellevue than anywhere else. Bellevue workers, would you support tolls to improve our region’s nasty traffic? I would.
Sphere: Related ContentDoes It Really Matter….?
Ardell’s recent post on FSBOs was courageous as you won’t see many agents talk about how one might sell a property without listing it. While it may be a bit counter intuitive to some agents, one reading the post should come away feeling that Ardell (and others like her) are not in the business of providing self-serving advice.
In her post, Ardell said, “[T]here are several companies that offer this service, and while it is true that some agents may boycott you and not show your house, if you have one of those houses that will “sell itself”, then that should not affect you much.” In response to a comment, she also said, “[I] had a very bad experience recently where an agent agreed to take about 1.5%, but then talked the buyer out of the house at time of inspection and sold him one where he made 3%…”
Switch gears for a moment. Greg at BloodhoundBlog conducted his dual agency smackdown discussion on the merits of single buyer agency vs. dual agency. A lot of effort and words but very little new perspective. Some folks supporting single agency and others supporting dual agency.
Does IT really matter? IT being A-G-E-N-C-Y. Whether an agent only represents the buyer or both buyer and seller, the whole concept of agency, at its core, has and will always be trust. Real estate professionals love to throw around the word “fiduciary” as one of the reasons that supports their commission structure. Look it up. Trust is integral to the role of a legal fiduciary in any context.
What Ardell describes is the antithesis of a trust relationship. And you can find comments like Ardell’s all over the Web. If they are purely anecdotal instances of the exception versus the rule, then they should be stated as such and the industry should be all over these types of comments (like bees on honey) as an outrage to the way business is really done. If, however, these stories truly reflect the state of the industry when it comes to putting money before relationships, then the industry needs to either remove these people from their ranks OR discontinue this idle chatter about agency.
The word “transparency” is an overused term these days in real estate and has generally been linked to Web2.0. Here is a suggestion. For a moment, forget about real estate transparency in the online world and move it offline. What do you see?
Sphere: Related ContentFor Sale By Owner November 25, 2006
Over the holiday, we were talking to a man in Shoreline getting his house ready for sale in the Spring of 2007. I promised to give my thoughts on his “selling it himself”. Clearly agents aren’t experts on how to sell your house all by yourself, in fact, we are quite the opposite. But I have helped people do this from time to time over the years, and am genuinely happy when they can achieve their stated goal, whatever that may be.
I found this article at the same place that I found the photo. It’s as good as any out there, I’d say. If anyone has others to recommend, please post them in the comments section.
I know some companies, like Microsoft, have internal online forums where they can post their For Sale By Owner Properties. If anyone can post results of that method, we’d like to hear from you.
Craig’s List, of course, is a good place to put an ad, but you pretty much have to stay on top of re-doing it when it expires.
I think any method is worth trying for 30-45 days IF you try it early in the year. The downside of For Sale By Owner, is if it doesn’t work, and you get on market late, you can lose the best months of the selling season.
If you are planning to “honor agents”, in other words allow for a Buyer Agent Fee as a FSBO, then you might as well pay the extra to be a “For Sale By Owner” in the mls. There are several companies that offer this service, and while it is true that some agents may boycott you and not show your house, if you have one of those houses that will “sell itself”, then that should not affect you much.
The main advantage of being in the mls, is that buyers who look on the internet at homes will not miss you, even if their agent does. They will see your house and ask their agent to see it. Agent’s might not show your home if the buyer doesn’t notice, but I doubt they will refuse to show it, if their buyer client asks to see it. “Bidding up” is one of the advantages of being in the mls. Getting a single buyer to pay what you ask is OK, but getting a couple who bid each other up is more likely to happen, IF it is going to happen, based on the higher exposure afforded you by being in the mls.
That said, my main advice is to be LISTED, really LISTED, by April 15 or May 1. So if you are going to try to sell it yourself, try not to miss the main selling season by doing it too late, or for too long. If it is going to work, you will probably know that within the first 10 days to two weeks.
If it were me, I’d try no fee at all for two weeks with a sign and Craig’s list. Then I’d tier up to a “FSBO in the mls”, and then full list, if needed, after 30 days. That gives you 45 days of trying without full fees. If it is going to work, I’d say 45 days to 60 at most oughta do it.
Try having some relative strangers look at it before any real buyers. I often ask people outside, neighbors mostly, to walk through and tell me anything negative that they see. After looking at the house while staging it for hours or days, I sometimes get blinded to small details. Every single time, they notice some obscure little thing that I can fix before real buyers see it. It’s very helpful and people are more than willing to help. Don’t ask them, what they think. They may feel obligated to say it looks great. Specifically ask them to find negatives.
Just my thoughts. As I said, we in the business are clearly not the experts on how to do it without us 
Empowering the Buyer Consumer - Redfin November 24, 2006
You’ve got to get MAD! You have to say, “I’m a human being, God Dammit, my life has value!
I wish I could take that stupid smile off of my face on my “permanent” photo on the right. Just for this post. Then I can go back to being the perenially smiling postage stamp. But not today, not for this article.
I realized when Noah of Urban Digs commented this morning, that when I said I don’t read NYC blogs, his and Curbed and Christine’s, it’s not because they are about NYC. I read many other blogs that are about their local environs. It’s because “I’m as mad as hell” at NYC for not having Buyer Agency.
Truth is I’ve been mad since August 20th, 2006, when Christine commented to this post, comment #28 “A month a go or so, there was a debate that went from this blog to just about every blog from here to kingdom come, regarding “Buyer Agency”. I am a broker here in NYC and we don’t act in buyer agency. We are all one in the same - we represent the seller. Period. … We make them aware that we (brokers and agents) work for the seller. There are many times that we become a “dual agents” (meaning we are still working FOR the seller but the buyer is working WITH us as well).”
My mind automatically when to Howard Beale’s speech and I said, “As if that’s the way it’s SUPPOSED to be!” and for the love of Pete, for crissakes Christine…”We MAKE THEM AWARE?!?!” as if disclosure that they have NO RIGHTS and are NOT CLIENTS is A-OK as long as it is “disclosed”?!? And BTW - Dual Agency does NOT mean you “are still working FOR the seller!!” Where’s the “dual” in THAT!?
I apologize to the consumers out there for this rant, but I don’t apologize to the agents around the Country who are “tired of agency talk”. You CAN’T be tired of agency talk…because agency is what we DO! It is what we are all ABOUT! and WE need to “get it” or we need to get mad as hell until someone makes us get it and get it RIGHT!
And then we have Greg, and his Smackdown with Jeff and Russ, saying that WE look like aliens to NYC, as if WE who treat buyers as clients, have six toes on each foot when we take off our socks. And Russell spouting garbage about Redfin like “since x company has a proven record and Redfin does not” AS IF a company trying to empower buyers could possibly have a track record in a Country that after 15 years can’t even AGREE that buyers PAY their own WAY and “have value”!
And Jeff who says “Principle - When the universe in which you operate disagrees with you - it’s possible you might be mistaken”…to whom I say there once was a “principle” that some people should only sit in the back of the bus! Were those who perceived this to be WRONG…mistaken?!? because “the universe in which they operated disagreed!” for crissake!
And Russell who says”…my sellers are thrilled as we charge them less commission if there is no co-broke fee being paid…if we can find the buyer.” I’m not going to waste my breath or emotions on someone who doesn’t get that we don’t “FIND” buyers for sellers anymore, who says “co-broke fee” instead of buyer agent fee, and who doesn’t get that IF a buyer CHOOSES NOT to have his own agent, the SELLER does NOT profit anymore…the AGENT does not profit anymore…nor should they EVER HAVE!
If a buyer chooses to represent himself, in whole or in part, that should mean that the BUYER profits from that decision. Agents and Sellers simply should NOT profit, IF a buyer is unrepresented! How can lack of representation of a buyer, turn into a profit for the seller and the seller’s agent?
Stop and think about that everyone, Please! Go outside and stick your head out of the window and say, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore”!
And don’t come around here to tell me real estate is local…because some things are just plain old right vs. wrong. And if the laws allow you to smoke and mirror a buyer to the point that the seller and/or the seller’s agent profits, as a result of a buyer being unrepresented, don’t bother coming around here to tell me you are “allowed” to do that by the laws of your state.
Go look up to what ever “higher power” you acknowledge, and ask How the Heck you were ever ALLOWED to do that and WHY!? “Oh goodie, we FOUND a buyer, and he didn’t scream like a pig when we told him he was being excluded from being represented…whoohoo…more money for us”. Just think about that…don’t point me to the law that allows you to do that…I know them. Don’t point me to the past, and show me where that comes from…I’ve been there done that. Don’t point to Redfin and say if they were right they would not be running at a loss…that’s BS.
Just treat buyer’s as clients, who pay their own way…just DO IT! Recognize that the Buyer Agent Fee is ALWAYS IN THE PRICE. Choose to recognize that the buyer IS the one paying for their representation, and they get to negotiate that amount, and they get to keep it if they choose NO representation, or at least reduce the price to exclude the buyer agent FEE, if there is NO buyer agent!
“I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about (it). All I know is first you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, “I’m a human being. God Dammit, my (say as a buyer of real estate) has value.” So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” I want you to get up right now. Get up. Go to your windows, open your windows, and stick your head out, and yell, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Things have got to change my friends. You’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Then we’ll figure out what to do (next). But first get up out of your chairs, open your window, stick your head out and yell, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
Sphere: Related ContentHappy Thanksgiving! November 23, 2006
We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! We thank you for your support this year. Those who read us, those who take the time to comment here, those who link to us, those who have nominated us and awarded us, and everyone who has helped us to grow, more this year than ever. 
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