Witness my web performance. I’m doing pretty well right now, with top rankings on Google etc. I’ve done that largely because the competition is so miserable. But what I really want to do is lay waste to the competition: to succeed in ways that don’t depend on them being incompetent.

I also want to convert every single visitor into a client. I want to build all the important relationships as well as can be done on the web, and close the deal on the phone.

I feel the press of time for two reasons. I’m in my mid-30s, and have certain financial and personal goals that require me to figure this all out… soon! and then keep moving on and figuring other things out!

Second, I think the legal profession is going to be awash in smart, hungry lawyers who had planned to take a firm job, but now find that firms are imploding around them. These people are going to eat my lunch if I don’t catch it first.

Anyhow, onto the mundane. I sort of like the overall look of my Raleigh criminal lawyer website. But I suspect that just cause it looks slick, doesn’t mean it’s getting the selling job done.

With my Raleigh bankruptcy practice, I’m sort of am heading in a Thesis/Headway direction, with a more robust, less graphically designed theme, that, by all accounts, better for SEO and flexibility reasons.

In addition, I suspect that that flexibility will allow me to do a better job of pulling in visitors, 77 percent of them bounce on the first page.

Thoughts?

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“Got no money in my pockets…had a job and I lost it…but it won’t get to me…”
“…I’m alive and I’m free…who wouldn’t wanna be me.”

I’m not much for country/twangy stuff.  I’ve heard this song a million times, but this was the first time I’d listened to the words.

And another one–I am stunned everytime I watch it. I couldn’t find it on Youtube in an embeddable version–I found it on MySpace (oddly, first time I’ve found a use Myspace in the Obama administration:)

Gene Kelly-Singing In The Rain

The hilarious part was this:

The cop at the end.  Cops kill joy, glower at the jubilant for no reason.  This is not in dispute.

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Click to Enter!

In all its glory, we’ve brought back the Top of Mind NCAA Tournament Challenge.  It’s free to enter.

All you have to do is enter the challenge before the first games begin.  Bring your smack talk and let’s have some fun.  The winner gets a free 100 piece mailing to their database.

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I wrote those words seven weeks ago and haven’t been back since.  Although I’m not presumptuous enough to expect that anyone else noticed my absence, I do feel an obligation to tell you that I did.  I wanted very much to begin this dialog with Bloodhound readers right away, but frankly, I’ve been shooting and editing seven days most weeks, 12+ hours most days.  Our market, like many others I suspect, has become extremely active since the first of the year and the agents I work for are listing everything in sight.  Today, inclement weather caused a shoot to be rescheduled and left me with a few hours to return to the conversation I started.

I know I risk losing you at the question mark, but I’ll ask anyway.  What is the purpose of real estate photography?  What is your objective when you photograph a new listing?  What are you trying to accomplish?  When I ask this question of agents in my market I usually get the answer you’d expect (with a look that says they think I’m an idiot for asking):  “I’m trying to SELL THE HOME.  Duh.”  Excellent.  And the photos will be used to…?  Now looking at the exit, “ADVERTISE IT!”  Thank you.

Would you agree with this definition of the word advertise found at dictionary dot com?  “To announce or praise (a product, service, etc.) in some public medium of communication in order to induce people to buy or use it.” The fact is this:  many of us are excellent photographers but in the wrong genre.  We approach our listings with the keen eye of a documentary photographer, capturing every fixture and every square foot of space rather than one who understands that we are not, in fact, documenting the home.  We are advertising it.  When I was asked to be on the selection committee for a new MLS vendor last year I was elated at the thought of finally increasing our per listing photo limit from 10 to 25.  In retrospect that decision turned out to be a double-edged sword, though.  When I ask agents how many photos they feel they should use to advertise a listing the most common answer is 25 – the greatest number possible.  When I ask why, I’m almost always told we should use as many as possible because buyers want to see as many as possible.  Of course they do.  But we work for the seller, no?  Do you suppose the buyer would also like us to photograph (document) all the material defects in the home as well in an effort to make their home search more efficient?  The key is to provide the buyer with as many photos as possible that serve our seller well by advertising their home in a way that will induce a buyer to request an appointment.  No more, no less.

While I’m no expert, I think most would agree that a successful advertisement of any kind elicits an emotional response on the part of the target audience.  It makes them want to take action.  Does a photograph of a secondary bedroom, showing two walls meeting, part of a bed and a small window cause this kind of reaction?  How about a photo of a half bath with standard grade fixtures taken from the hallway so the prospective buyer sees the door frame, vanity and toilet – and that’s about it?   These kinds of photos do a terrific job of documenting that the two bedroom walls do indeed meet at the corner, or that the half-bath does have a door, but do they cause the buyer, surfing a surplus of listings at hyper-speed to pause…and linger.  Do they make the buyer want to see more?

For many years we’ve been told by marketers that buyers tend to make large purchase decisions based on emotion – and then justify them later based on logic.  If this is the case – and I think most of us who have helped buyers find the right home would agree that it typically is for all but the most analytical of clients – are houses that much different from cars, plasma televisions or other expensive products?  Can you imagine the art director of an ad campaign for Lexus telling the photographer to document the vehicle well so they’ll be able to use as many photos as possible in their ads?  No, in practically every other industry large-ticket products are advertised using images that have been very carefully created to elicit an emotional response and action on the part of a buyer with a lot of options to choose from.  In fact your new listing might have ten (or one hundred) times the number of competitors that Lexus has for any of it’s models.

Let’s explore another question of motive.  It’s long been said that sellers sell houses, but buyers buy homes.  Agree?  When a buyer buys a home, what are they really buying?  The answer to this question should have an impact on how you reach out to them visually.  Are they buying four walls, a roof and something to keep their feet from touching the dirt?  Are they buying something tangible or does it go deeper than that?  When I ask this question of agents attending my classes I tend to hear that buyers are buying something far bigger than the structure – something that speaks to a much deeper emotional need or desire – things like neighborhood or community, safety, financial security, pride, respect, family.  In short, they’re buying the dream!  Do our photos speak to the dream or simply document the structure?

When I photograph a home I try to ask myself one question about each space I consider.  Is there a photo here that will speak to the buyer – that will cause them to put the brakes on and linger – that will touch an emotion, and that will cause them to request a showing.  Are three images of a beautiful kitchen more valuable than one of a secondary bedroom painted in strong gender-specific colors and with no redeeming qualities like a cathedral ceiling or large, arched window?  If we live by the motto “First, do no harm.”, do we occasionally use photos that could actually turn off a subset of our buyer pool because they see work that will have to be done.  (“Two of the bedrooms are pink, and we have boys.  When will we find the time to paint before the moving van gets there?”)  Sometimes it can’t be avoided (wallpaper in the kitchen for instance), but sometimes it can.

One last question – this time for the veterans.  How did you use photographs o market homes in the 1990’s?  In my local market (Kansas City) it was typically one black and white image used in the newspaper classifieds and possibly a homes magazine.  Total viewership was probably in the hundreds at best.  Now how do you use photography today?  In most  areas you have the ability – and some would say the obligation – to show as many high resolution color images as you could possibly want (and that benefit the seller).  We’re talking screen-filling, interactive images with tremendous detail.  And best of all, through the magic of syndication, your images are made available to a massive international audience.  Your viewership is greater than that of many respected photographers!

So lesson one is that we are advertising photographers, not documentary photographers.  Sounds obvious, but as I look through listings in our MLS with the the definition of advertising in mind,  I’m sorry to say the concept is not universally understood.  As a real estate agent you probably don’t think of yourself as an advertising photographer, but if you take your own listing photos – you are.  Just ask any listing prospect who is even mildly web-savvy how important they think photos are to the process of marketing their home and you’ll know.  You’re an advertising photographer and you have to think like an advertising photographer – which is where I come in

I’m eager to get to the nuts and bolts of better real estate photography – to start sharing tips and techniques that will help you if you feel your images could use some improvement.  But before we go to the how I though it would be good to address the what and the why.

Thank you for sticking with me while I stood on my little soap box.  I’m sorry this post has been longer than “bite-sized” but moving forward we’ll be able to look at one image-improving idea per post that is presented in a way that is much more efficient with your time.

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One of the quiet unsung Bloodhound heroes of a broker is Cheryl Johnson. If you want to see someone who puts EFFORT into building the best systems for her agents as an independent broker, she has my vote for the best and the brightest. BOTH best and brightest.

One of the tools that she often uses for this purpose is WordPress mu (multi-user). And she graciously left an explanation of how to use it via GoDaddy here on her blog.

In our brokerage, we have quite a few buyer leads coming in. Our agents WANT to treat them to something special, but they needed the tools to accomplish it. So here’s a little (big actually) DIY project using Cheryl’s post that we are just putting the polish on to help our agents treat buyers the way Greg treats sellers and Cheryl treats agents.

We created an ONLINE WELCOME KIT that allows each agent to have a welcome kit **simply a WP blog with EVERYTHING we can think of that they might need** of their own. Here’s one that we did for Stephanie Mattingly in our office. Bear in mind that we are still making changes so you may see a glitch or two as it gets fine tuned. Contact information all goes to the agent directly. It is simply a great way to give potential buyer clients the information they need, including a “Get Hooked Up” Guide to help them connect the dots once they move and a Services Guide to connect newcomers with local services vendors (and connect our agents to them as well.).

If you do the hosting the way that Cheryl describes in her post, the cost is simply a deluxe shared hosting account at GoDaddy. (a few bucks a month across 110 agents…equals pennies for each one.).

How do the agents fire this marketing weapon? On agent websites, emails, blogs and facebook pages there are going to be links…”Check out our ‘Welcome to Louisville Kit’. If you know a friend coming into town, please forward this to them”.., etc. So, instead of a buyer waiting for our agents to mail them a box, the box comes instantly, electronically to them. If they lose it, it gets sent to them again. Instant gratification. And if they want a boxed hard copy as well, they can request it and one will be happily sent to them.

Giving them what they want. Faster. More efficiently. That’s what it is all about.

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Though they all agreed about the possible income teams offered, many eschewed that approach for a modified MO, still more or less using a team. They preferred the OldSchool blueprint which had the go-to guy at the top, with support staff doing all non-revenue producing labor.

I’m convinced that approach is more conducive to a real estate investment broker than the army of buyer agents approach used in houses. Here’s why.

Caveat: The investment niche about which I’m speaking is residential income, mostly smaller stuff, say 1-4 units, though it would be just as effective with larger properties, as I’ve done before myself. It assumes knowledge of pertinent tax codes, complete understanding of before/after tax cash flow analysis, and the judgment to apply those skill sets in the implementation of the proper strategies dictated by proper analysis. Furthermore, I assume lead generation isn’t an issue. That is, there are enough prospects for a pro to get sufficient at-bats.

Let’s say your market’s median duplex price is $250,000 or so. A 3% side is $7,500. Let’s also assume the average net equity of your ‘low hanging fruit’ is $115,000 give or take. If your analysis shows a tax deferred exchange would markedly improve your client’s position, here’s what might happen. You effect the sale of his duplex, then ID about twice that much in ‘upleg’ property — property into which he trades. (This example uses 20% down payments.) You make 3% per side on those too — another $15,000 or so. One client, essentially one transaction, $22,500.

Compare that to the house team template. Using the same price point, and assuming the buyer agents are generating the sales, (and paid 50% of the commission) the team must do six separate transactions with six different clients to net the team leader the same gross income.

If you’re using the Bloodhound way of selling your listings (to the extent possible with rentals), your time is now spent finding the client’s upleg props.

Meanwhile, your staff is movin’ all your paperwork, TC stuff, dealin’ with inspectors, appraisers, and all the other maddening minutia that monopolize your time to the point of insanity. You’re free to do all the real moneymaking tasks. I know, I know — this isn’t groundbreaking in any way, shape, or form. Then why is it so underutilized?

An aside — I knew a Prudential agent (I worked there too.) in San Diego who had a $12/hr assistant for 20-25 hours weekly. He was consistently in the top 10 agents in a 150 agent office — twice being top dog. He worked 40-45 hours a week, took three weeks of vacation, and rarely worked weekends. He was either prospecting, listing, or pickin’ up checks. His pre-tax income almost always surpassed the ‘team’ leaders in the office. Russell Shaw didn’t work there.

Now imagine yourself as an investment property agent with reasonable lead generation. Median price of a duplex is $250,000. Could you list two measly duplexes for exchange monthly? One? If so, congrats cuz you just made about $270-540,000 to be exact. If you’re in a 100% office, your expenses will be limited to $10-12/hr assistants, and office costs — though in the past I’ve paid flat fees per transaction.

The third assistant, if I choose to have one, is an agent wishing to be mentored. Their job description is simple, and I apologize in advance for this. They’re my bitch ’till they’re able to operate on their own. I’ve used this approach several times with outstanding success in all but one case. They’re trained to become superb problem solvers, dealing with glitches that arise during investment transactions. As time passes they’re able to handle all but the most pressing or sophisticated problems. The only downside, for me, not them, is that after sufficient time they’re ready to more or less fly solo, which they invariably do. But while they’re there, they can’t be beat, and they’re cheap, cheap, cheap. Their real pay is being mentored.

I continued using this MO when I transitioned to doing business outa state since the end of 2003. I had to abandon my local market as it made no sense to even semi-intelligent investors.

Bottom line — it’s my contention many solid agents out there can hugely increase their income by ending their stubborn insistence on doing everything themselves. It’s simply not necessary. Neither is developing a team if that’s not your cuppa tea.

Am I makin’ sense to you?

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What’s most exciting for me is that the project itself is being cooked up with some ingredients that are really conducive to it evolving into the Broker Market Domination System I talked about here a few months ago:

The Marketplace is a large Metro Area with lots of interesting geographic niche opportunities and a naturally progressive audience of prospective buyers and sellers.Bloodhound of a Broker/Owner who’s committed both philosophically and financially to providing ultimate value for new agent partners and has the patience to consider and actually execute tasks that may take months or even years to pay off.

Here below is a quick tour of AreaAtlantaHomes.Com in its relative infancy. I hope it’s entertaining and maybe a little clarifying for the folks that thought my little Broker Domination spiel was interesting…

Forgot to mention in the screencast… on that last part about the Agent Technology Package. The idea is to get prospective agents to consent to receive more info on the agent technology package, then drip them with emails designed to further sell the company. Seems that in most cases, brokers take a hit or miss approach to recruiting and few have a longer term, automatic relationship building system like this in place….

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The fees are being used for a variety of purposes.  In some cases, they have been used to satisfy demands from environmental groups.  Developers have also used them, by securitizing them up front, to help pay mitigation costs and up-front infrastructure costs on new developments.  Supposedly even private home owners might be able to add a 1% transfer fee to their homes with revenues serving as future household income.

The NAR, American Land Title Association and the NAHB are all looking at ways to prohibit or limit private transfer fees.  While that tends to make me like the idea of transfer fees on its own, I really don’t see issues with them.  Admittedly, I develop properties from time to time.  Yes, I am frustrated with impact fees, mitigation and infrastructure fees that have climbed to the stratosphere in my little part of the world.  This approach could really help to create some affordable homes that people might actually buy.

Freehold Capital Partners is active in the reconveyance fee financing arena working with developers to structure financing for infrastructure improvements.

Essentially, the concept is based on the premise that improvements which enhance real property are in the immediate and long-term public interest; and a system enabling present owners of private property to better and more fairly apportion present costs and profits amongst multiple future beneficial owners increases economic efficiency.

Traditionally, initial buyers shoulder 100% of the burden of amenities, infrastructure and other improvements, which creates a high barrier to entry into the development. By utilizing this funding tool, developers can now more fairly apportion expenses incurred for permanent improvements among successive owners of the property who will be enjoying the amenities and improvements for years to come. (A familiar example would be bonds issued to finance new schools, where the bonds are paid off over time by the same families whose properties continue to benefit from having a school in the community.) In fact, Transfer Fee financing has often been referred to as the creation of a “mini-bond”. However, unlike traditional bond financing, the transaction costs associated with creating Transfer Fees Rights are minimal.

Flowing from this premise, reconveyance fee financing enable institutional owners and developers to allocate costs amongst future willing buyers by requiring, in connection with each subsequent transfer of title, the payment of 1% of the gross sales price.. – Freehold Capital Partners

The NAR, ALTA and others cite concerns about disclosure.  However, a properly recorded covenant should show up in a title search so I think that cannot be the real concern.  They cite concerns that people never read covenants.  That floors me!  I can’t imaging buying a home without reading the covenants.

The National Association of Realtors and the American Land Title Association, for example, are asking their members to persuade legislators to prohibit or limit the use of investor-oriented private transfer-fee programs. Even the National Association of Home Builders, some of whose members reportedly have signed up to offer transfer fees, isn’t convinced the idea is sound.

“It’s a very creative concept,” said David Ledford, the builder association’s senior vice president for housing finance, “but it’s largely untested and controversial politically.” – Seattle Times

Homes that are subject to a reconveyance fee should sell at a lower price due to the reconveyance fee.  That lower price should be reflected in assessments and lower property taxes.  So, all those infrastructure improvements the developer had to put in wouldn’t show up completely in the taxed value of the property.  I like that the property owner may not end up paying property tax on improvements which are typically deeded to the local government which was simply double taxation before.

California has laws that require upfront disclosure of reconveyance fees.  Texas has some prohibitions on them.  Kansas, Oregon, Florida and Missouri do not allow them.

So, here’s a method that helps developers fund projects, lowers the price of housing and lowers the ongoing cost of property taxes for a home.  The instrument of this tool is recorded on the title of the property for all to see.  Tell me.  What’s not to like?

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Starting April 5th, hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers will be encouraged to sell their homes through this process.  Since the basic laws of economics still apply, that flood of inventory at fire sale prices will create heavy downward pressure on other homes in their markets.  Prices should fall.

That’s just one problem with this approach.  The Home Buyer’s Tax Credit was already a magnet for fraudulent filings. The government mandated short sale process could be even worse.

Short sales are “tailor-made for fraud,” said Mr. Lawler, a former executive at the mortgage finance company Fannie Mae.

Last year, short sales started to increase, although they remain relatively uncommon. Fannie Mae said preforeclosure deals on loans in its portfolio more than tripled in 2009, to 36,968. But real estate agents say many lenders still seem to disapprove of short sales.

Under the new federal program, a lender will use real estate agents to determine the value of a home and thus the minimum to accept. This figure will not be shared with the owner, but if an offer comes in that is equal to or higher than this amount, the lender must take it. – MSN

With the high regard that the public holds for real estate agents, they should be a pinnacle of integrity when it comes to setting values for lenders.  Or, could that be a problem?  I’ve found that real estate agents offer different values, at times in spite of the comparables, to suit their desired outcome to get a listing. Also, there is rarely enough information on comparable properties, particularly in a small market like Lake Chelan, to make a realtor’s Comparative Market Analysis statistically meaningful (for those the agents that understand statistics) making the estimate, at best, a hopefully educated guess.  How much of your tax money do you want to see spent this way?

For responsible home owners who might be looking to sell if this new program actually attracts sellers, you could be facing sales competition from subsidized homeowners in as little time as one month.

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