Jan. 31, 2008 - The State Of The Business

Nov. 20, 2007 - A New Form Of Poacher

Jun. 4, 2007 - The Return Of The Snake Oil Salesmen

I suppose this really doesn't have have a whole heck of a lot to do with real estate, but because of the way it unfolded I felt as though it may benefit others to know about this.

I was minding my own business last night when my cell phone rang.  I answered with my usual answer, "Hello, this is Gene".  The caller identified himself as Gene Stanford and said he knew my son, whose name also happens to be Gene.  That momentarily gave this stranger, who was talking to me like he was my long lost friend, enough credibility for me to ask what I could do for him.  From there it went on to him telling me he could do things for me.  He knew I was in real estate, and because his wife is also a real estate agent, he knows the market is a bit depressed.  How would I like to find out about something that could put me on the path to unlimited riches?

"Sure", says I, "what have you got"?  He told me that he had a system that pushed internet business to Fortune 500 companies.  "What's that?", I ask.  "I just told you", he said.  "I don't understand. You haven't told me anything", I said.  He repeated that he had a system that pushed internet business to Fortune 500 companies and asked me what's not to understand.  If I wanted the nuts and bolts I would have to come to New Lenox and meet with him.  To make a long story short I told him that he had not given me any information about what he had to offer and he certainly had not said anything that would make me want to drive 45 miles to meet with him.  I ended up telling him he sounded like some kind of flim flam man and hung up.

Since he had dropped my son's name, I figured it might be a good idea to give him a call.  I asked him if he knew this Gene Stanford guy and he said he did.  I asked him if he knew what his great business deal is.  He said he kind of did, but the guy was always kind of vague.  He thought it was some company called QuickStar.  Thank God I got to my son in time.  The old Amway scam is back.  It's not really QuickStar, although they don't mind if you think that's what they are saying, it's Quixtar.  Here is a link to The Corporate Narc Website where you can read all about the QuickStar scam and other shady business corporation.  If you have been reading too much already and you would rather watch a video report on the scam here is link to a Dateline NBC story about them. 

Once you have checked this out I am sure if you get a call from Gene Stanford, or anybody like him, you will just say no.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

May. 16, 2007 - You Knew This Was Coming

Ok, everybody that watched 60 Minutes last Sunday raise your hands.  That many of you, huh?  I'm astonished.

Personally, if it wasn't for the fact that I knew they were going to do a hit piece on the established real estate industry I would never have watched it.  Ever since the demise of Dan Rather which was brought about by the provably unfair and innaccurate story on The President's National Guard service, I have given up on 60 Minutes and CBS in general but this was going to hit pretty close to home and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.  The only reason it took so long for me to get around to this "rebutal" is that I was so damn angry that I could not have kept a civil tongue.  It's one thing to have a sharp, scathing tongue when one is pitching a good rant, but I couldn't get out of Southside, street fighting, trash talking, gutter mode and I did not want to offend anyone with profanity and name calling.

Right out of the starting gate Leslie Stahl, who by the way, really needs to comb her hair if she is going to continue misleading people on national television, makes a blanket statement that "traditional" real estate agents charge 6% commission and hold that number sacrosanct.  Since I personally never use the word sacrosanct I did not really know what it meant.  Don't get me wrong, I kind of knew what the "essence" of the word was, but I couldn't actually define it.  To make sure I was not misunderstanding things I looked it up.  It means "1. extremely sacred or inviolable. 2. regarded or treated as being above or beyond interference, criticism, etc".

Once I had an understanding of the true definition of the word I was outraged.  The folks at 60 Minutes are telling bold face lies on national television.  The Sherman Antitrust Act is a federal law that prohibits price fixing.  Since REALTORS® are not above the law they must adhere to the law and that is why commissions are negotiable.  Let me say it again, there is no such thing as a fixed or a standard commission rate.  There may be agents who will not work for less than 6% and there may be real estate brokers who will not allow the agents in his or her office to take a listing at anything less than 6% but that is their personal decision and they have a right to make personal desicions like that.  Here in my neck of the woods you mostly find people taking 5% commissions.  The truth is that commission rates are set by whatever the market is willing to bare.

Then the piece went on to give Redfin, a kind of an on line brokerage, some pretty good exposure.  I decided to look them up.  The headline on there website says "Find, Buy and Sell Homes Online".  Gee that sounds like fun.  Just like Amazom.com or something only for houses.  You know what, why don't I just give you a link to Redfin so you can see for yourselves.  When you get to their site look for the following cool stuff.  In their own words they are a flat fee lister, meaning that you are going to pay them $3000 up front to list your home in the MLS.  They will give you some good advise on how to get your house ready to sell, you know, the same kind of information you can get off of my website for free.  Right there on the front of their "sell" page they tout a "$3000 flat fee, 100% satisfaction guarantee: a typical customer saves over $12,000".

I sure am glad that they are not in Chicago yet, because they give you a 100% satisfaction guarantee on your $3000 which you pay up front.  Or do they?  Ah ha, no they really do not.  If you hadn't clicked this far you would have never seen the words " Please note that we do not offer refunds just because your listing hasn't sold, which may be due to market forces, but only if you are unhappy with our representation of your listing".  On second thought, maybe I should welcome them to Chicago.  What would you like better, especially in a sluggish market like we are in now, their 100% satisfaction guarantee that you have to gamble $3,000 on, or my 100% satisfaction guarantee that says if I don't sell your house you simple don't pay me a dime.  If you look around their site a little bit more you will see that I am actually going to do a lot more work for you as well, taking the burden off of your shoulders for marketing and showing and such, things which I probably have more experience at than you do anyway.

How about those buyers though.  Redfin will actually rebate 2/3 of the commission they make back to them.  That sounds like a dandy deal alright except for the fact that when the sellers begin to realize that the buyers of their homes are actually paying them 2% less than the purchase agreement states, thereby not really getting the price that they negotiated for, well I guess those sellers are not going to want to negotiate with Redfin buyers any more.  Not only that, but since this 2% rebate is going to have to show on the HUD-1 (RESPA), aren't the lenders going to look at this as an unreasonable inducement to do business?  That's against the law in some states.  I don't want to hear anybody trying to tell me that it's no different than a seller contributing the buyers closing costs either, because it certainly is.  The seller knows from the terms of the purchase agreement that they are contributing 2 or 3%, or whatever is agreed upon, back to the deal and it is coming from the sellers funds up front, not through the brokers back door.

Back to the 60 Minutes segment.  Good old Leslie Stahl, who is looking kind of long in the tooth by the way, goes on to interview a "traditional" agent Deborah Arends.  Now I have no way of knowing how much editing took place or how much Deborah knew about what was going to be asked, but I am going to send her a link to this post, and maybe if we are lucky she will post a comment on her side of the story.  I did try to call her and I did leave her a message but I am sure she has better things to do than to talk to an almost famous real estate broker like me (especially since she is now almost famous herself), so I will just have to tell you what I saw.  When asked what she tells people when they want here to work for less than 6% she replyes that maybe she is not the agent for them.  You go girl, a very honest answer.  I have been know to say the same thing and walk out of listing presentations for less.  When asked about the rebate that Redfin boasts about giving back to the buyer (they clain to have rebated over $3,000,000 back) she looked kind of stunned and said she didn't know how to answer that.  It looked to me like she didn't even know that that question was coming.  It would have stunned me as well, because of the reasons I have previously stated.  Most of us "traditional" (You know, I'm kind of beginning to wonder what exactly that means) REALTORS® would feel like we were betraying our sellers and confusing the lenders if we were giving kick backs.  Isn't a rebate just a prettier name for a kick back?  It's kind of like a dandolion being a prettier name for a weed.  Anyhow, Deborah did a splendid job, considering she was being set up as a sacraficial lamb.

Then they had a funeral of sorts, a mourning session if you will, for a flat fee lister who claimed to be the first of the internet flat fee listers.  Poor guy claims he was driven out of business by "traditional" real estate, who actually colludes to put nontraditionalists out of business.  I would rather believe, and I am sure you would too, that he was put out of business the same way Rambler, DeSoto, Plymouth, Hugo, etc. was put out of business, by not being able to lift their legs high enough to produce with the big dogs.  It's not even a David and Goliath story, look at me, I don't work for ERA, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Re/Max or any of the other corporate franchise giants and I do ok.  The fact is, if this guy had a listing somewhere that myself or my client could find, I would be glad to show it to a buyer client, even if he was only offering a 1% cooperative compensation.  My duty to the client is to show them what they want to see, not what I am going to make the most money on.  So as bad as I feel about this guy going belly up, I have to realistically think that it's because he had an inferior business plan and not because he was shunned by the real estate community.  The truth be told, if I thought that there was a business model that was better than the one I am working, I would probably be working it.  There just is no easier, softer way to do this job correctly.  The consumer needs to realize that you get what you pay.

If nothing else it looked as if 60 MInutes was trying to actually hurt the real estate industry as it exists today by presenting a biased, one sided piece, which was designed to make anything other than a flat fee lister look like a member of the evil empire.  If you saw the piece and you agree with my assessment, or if you have had a full service REALTOR® do a good job for you, please follow this link to CBS and give then a piece of your mind.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Apr. 26, 2007 - Unoriginal Sin

One of the basic truths of practicing real estate as a business is that you have to differentiate yourself from the pack.  There are plenty of people in this industry.  There are Brokers, sales agents, listing agents, buyers agents, franchise companies, independent companies, boutique companies, full service, flat fee, fee for service and whatever else is soon to be invented.  When it comes to the mortgage end of things you have mortgage brokers, mortgage bankers, credit unions, banks and loan sharks.  Then you have all kinds of inspectors, home inspectors, mold inspectors, plumbing inspectors, electrical inspectors, termite inspectors, structural engineers and Inspector Gadget.  Recent developements include home stagers, virtual tour photographers, virtual assistants, web designers, home warranty sellers and lets not forget the we know how to do it, but we would rather make our money teaching you how to do because it really is kind of hard to make a living doing it ourselves gurus of real estate.

As you can see there are a lot of people all trying to do the same thing and so originality counts.  Do you have any idea how many "Spouses Selling Houses" there are out there.  Go ahead and GOOGLE® that phrase.  There have got to be thousands of people in this land "Selling" it "One Yard At Time".  These are all cute tag lines and I guess they would be pretty relevent if we where doing cute circus tricks or something.

Then there are the folks who obviously must think that they are the only ones who get post card catalogs from Color For Real Estate.  "My Priorities Are Simple. They're Yours" and "You Don't Sort Of Want To Sell Your Home, And I'm Not About To Kind Of Market It" are both blatant rip offs that I see in peoples newspaper ads and on websites all of the time.  Come on people, have an original thought.

Did you ever notice how when one of the gurus goes on tour and comes to your area, very soon the area is flooded with a bunch of the same marketing material?  Yup, the names and the faces may be different but the gist of the pieces are identical.  

This is what I call The Unoriginal Sin.   

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Jan. 16, 2007 - The Gurus

Every single day of my life I am blitzed by the gurus. They are the guys who are out there trying to tell me that they have the keys to the kingdom of real estate nirvana. For a nominal fee they will share the secrets of real estate bliss with me. They will make me a better agent than the next guy, I will gain business beyond my wildest dreams, my listings will fly off the MLS, my marketing efforts will be so fruitful that I will know unimaginable riches, my web sites will become client magnets. All this for a nominal fee.

I get a couple hundred e-mails a week from these guys. Mostly they never get to my inbox any more. They go to a folder called Guru Spam if my spam filter doesn't catch them first. I go in and look them over every now and then. Some of them can be rather entertaining. If they happen to be having a free seminar on a day when I have nothing else to do I might just even go, especially if they are offering a free lunch or something. Some of what they will reveal in their free seminars is usable, but I rarely hear anything new any more. If you want to know what you don't know, you have to pay, pay, pay.

I guess if I took all of the gurus seriously I could spend about $40,000 to $50,000 a year or more trying to find out what they know that I don't. If I did that then I would have to try and make it up by shaking the last coins out my clients pockets. I would only get to work with the most gullible clients out there. My pre-guru track record of success would be rendered meaningless. I would have to charge an extra 1 or 2 percentage points more in commission so I could pay the gurus.

I have often wondered why the gurus are in the guru business instead of the real estate business. I mean, if they hold the secrets to success beyond imagination, why aren't they making their money serving the needs of all the real estate clients in the world? Why aren't they cutting out all the competition like they are offering to teach me to do? Could it be that they can't operate within the realm? Could it be that convincing real estate agents that they are lacking in some skill or another is an easier sell then giving a listing presentation? I believe so.

I do have formal training in the things that count, and my track record speaks for itself. Anyway, everything I need to know about foiling the competition I learned from the comedian Chevy Chase. "I'm Gene Molloy and your not".

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Oct. 19, 2006 - The Poachers

Ola Amigos. I know it's been awhile, but I have been diligently studying for my Brokers license test. I know you may find that amazing, being that I am one of the best almost famous Real Estate Agents in the Greater Metropolitan Chicagoland area, but I strongly feel that my clients deserve to have the services of a full blown Real Estate Broker at their disposal. Besides "Broker Associate" will look much nicer on my business cards. "Sales Representative" makes it look like I am trying to "sell" you something, when in reality I am being hired to help you achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

I personally don't want to be "sold" anything. When I want to buy something I will contact various people who possess knowledge about what it is I am trying to do. For example, if I need transportation I will visit different auto dealerships to gather information about their particular line of automobiles. If the person I am talking to starts to try and "close" on me, I gently explain that I have "sales" training myself and I am simply gathering the information necessary to make an intelligent decision as to what it is I am going to purchase. When I have found the vehicle that suits me and it comes time to negotiate, I will start the process. If they continue to try and close me, that particular dealership will not even have the opportunity to negotiate with me. I refuse to deal with sales vultures.

Now there is a breed of sales people out there which I refer to as poachers. These poachers are constantly trying to sell me, and the rest of the real estate industry for that matter, something. What do these poachers sell? Your contact information, that's what. They capture your contact information when you visit their websites. Then they package it as a "lead" and they try to sell it to REALTORS® like myself. I do not support these poachers. I don't have to, I know how to create relationships with prospective clients all by myself. And even better, I know how to tell the difference between a serious prospect and a person who is just curious for information.

Let's imagine for a moment that you are watching the news in the morning before you go to work. You see a commercial for HouseValues.Com. It makes you wonder "What do you suppose my house is worth?". You have no intention of selling your house at this time, but you would like to know what your house is worth and this seems like a safe anonymous way to find out so when you get to work with a few minutes to spare before you start your work day you go to the HouseValues website. You fill out their required fields and send your request. Does HouseValues send you a bona fide figure as to what your house is worth? No they do not. They sell your contact information to some unsuspecting real estate agents as a seller lead that needs a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis). The next thing you know, you are hearing from agents you have never heard of before wanting you to list your house with them.

I don't mean to single out HouseValues, that's just one of many poachers that are out there. If they hadn't just called me on my cell phone, offering me their services, they may have not been forefront in my mind. There is HomeGain, a section on LendingTree, House, buttons on most ISP (Internet Service Providers) home pages and places I'm sure I haven't heard about yet. New ones are popping up almost daily. I get e-mails constantly from these types of sites.

I guess what I am saying here is be careful. When you are thinking about buying or selling a piece of real estate why give your information to someone who has no inventory of homes to show you or can not do a bona fide market analysis? Look to a trusted real estate professional who's only business is dealing in real estate. Even if you are just curious about what your house is worth and not interested in selling at this time, you can call or e-mail me. I promise I won't be selling your contact information to strangers.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Jul. 18, 2006 - I'm Easy To Reach

I just don't understand it.  I hear it quiet often, "I've been trying to get a hold of you, but I can't seem to catch up with you".  Yeah, right.

Do you want to talk to me in person?  My phone number is plastered all over the place. It's (847) 440-7920. Don't worry about me not being there, my electronic receptionist will find me, wherever I am, even if I'm out of town. Yes, you will have to tell my electronic receptionist who you are and maybe I can't immediately take your call, but she will record your message.  Not only will she record your message, but she will notify me via phone AND she will put your message in wav file format and deliver it to my e-mail in box.  So you see, I don't even have to check my voice mail, it follows me around.

But maybe you are the shy type and don't want to speak to me live and in person just yet.  That's OK too.  I check my e-mail just about hourly.  If I was on the "check the e-mail once a day plan" I would be dealing with well over 500 e-mails each time I logged in. That's the price you pay when you e-mail address is all over your business cards, web sites, post cards, etc.  If you would like to go hunting for it you could go to http://GeneMolloy.Com or http://GeneMolloy.Info or http://GeneMolloy.Net and hit the e-mail me link. You can e-mail me from this blog.  Of course if you are a straight to the point kind of person that doesn't want to go looking for an alternative way of send me me an e-mail you could just put Gene@GeneMolloy.Net into your address book. How easy is that?

Say what?  You don't use e-mail?  The United States Postal Service delivers my snail mail to the following address:                                              Gene Molloy

                                                               Charles Rutenberg Realty

                                                                1349 E. Washington Street  #505

                                                                 Des Plaines, IL.  60016

You can send testimonials, Christmas cards, hate mail, etc. to that address.  Please just don't tell me can't seem to get a hold of me. 

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

May. 2, 2006 - Congratulations

Well, well, well............Congratulations Paul and Stephanie. See what can happen when you take my advise and adjust the price on your over priced listing. It took less than a week to sell and you get a mention on my blog.

Read on my faithful readers, this is not a private love letter to the aforementioned Paul and Stephanie. Oh no no. There is a lesson here somewhere.

Let me start at the beginning. Maybe you remember my rant entitled "They Just Don't Get It". This is a similar situation, so maybe I am the one who needs to learn the lesson here.

Armed with a meticulous market analysis I went to see the the nice young couple mentioned above. They of course wanted to test the market. Not a bad idea in a sellers market, but in a buyers market, give me a break. However, after making it clear that the price they wanted to list at was going to be detrimental to a quick sale at a fair price, I listed their property at THEIR price, with what I thought was an understanding that a price adjustment would be an option.

I went into marketing mode. Visual Tour, featured property on the front page of REALTOR.COM, featured property on all three of my web sites, 7,500 Hot Marketer e-mails, 3,000 just listed post cards, colored feature sheets on property, open house, all of the little things I do to get a house sold. I put close to $1,000 into the marketing effort. That doesn't really bother me though, because it usually gets made up when I represent the client on the buying side after they sell the property. I love to market, both me and the property.

Can you imagine my surprise when, a week and a half before the listing was due to expire and I talked to them about a price adjustment and an extension on the listing, they shut me down? They wouldn't even let me show it anymore. Instead of just asking to be let out of the listing agreement, I got stonewalled until the listing just expired.

I was not surprised when the property showed up as a new listing priced $11,000 less with a different agent though. I can tell when I am being lied to.

On the bright side is the fact that the price reduction worked. I gave good solid advise right from the start, as I always do. So here are to more pieces of advise I have for these guys: 1) Don't play poker because you give it away too soon, and 2) get your moral compass fixed, you have a child to raise.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Apr. 13, 2006 - Why Don't You Call Me?

One thing that really aggravates me as a REALTORŪ is other agents who won't return my phone calls. Sure enough you get a voice mail box that says "Your call is important to me". Is it really?

In the showing instructions it says "Call LA @ (xxx) xxx-xxxx". For those of you don't have to use realtorspeak on a daily basis, call LA means call the listing agent. And so I do. I have a buyer client who wants to see a listing that appears on paper (or screen) to be exactly what they are looking for. I get voice mail and leave a message that I am Gene Molloy from Charles Rutenberg Realty, agent ID XXXXXX, and I would like to show the property at 1234 Any Street tomorrow at a given time. My call back number is (847) 440-7920. After having not received a call back that day or evening, I follow up at 9:00 AM on the day I would like to show. Voice mail again. My schedule needs to be set and so this property is taken off the list. My clients are disappointed that they don't get to see the property, however, they understand that entering into a deal with a sellers agent who won't even return a call from the agent of a potential buyer might not go so smoothly. The sellers of the property would be pretty disappointed as well if they knew that there was at least one ready, willing and able potential buyer that didn't get to see their property because a phone call was not returned.

How about the agents who return phone calls when they are working on getting a contract (it doesn't matter which side of the deal they are on, buyers or sellers) but then go silent just as soon as the ink is dry. The jobs not finished, we have things to discuss right on up to the closing table and need to keep each other in the loop. If you are representing your client to the best of your ability then you really need to address any questions, comments or concerns that may arise in a timely manner, no matter who they come from, your client or the other agent.

Then there is feedback on a showing. Maybe the general public doesn't know it, but we rely on feedback from each other in order to make sure we are helping our clients to the best of our abilities. When an agent shows one of my listings I want to know two things: 1) What does your client think? and 2) What is your professional opinion? I care what you think. I value your opinion. I want to share feedback with my clients so we can make whatever adjustments we need to make to get the property sold. Why don't you call me? Are you treating your clients the same way you treat other agents?

YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO ME!

Now for the disclaimer......If you are on the mailing list of my blog it is because you asked to be there, I put something in my blog that pertains to you at one time or another, or I just think of you as a well rounded, intelligent individual who may be capable of contributing relevant, serious, funny, etc. commentary to it. If you are bothered about being on the mailing list a simple e-mail asking me to remove you will get a timely response.

Jan. 26, 2006 - Sold in 14 Days

What a great listing it was. Two Bedrooms, two full baths. A 1,570 square foot Condo. A corner unit with a northern view,  looking down on a quiet tree lined residential street. Two parking spots in the indoor heated garage. Walking distance to METRA,  PACE, the new Grocery store and all of the other amenities going into the revitalized Downtown district. Yes indeed, this one was destined to have a short market life, it was definitely not going to last long. Any agent working this market would have loved to have gotten this listing, including myself. It's the kind of listing that is a joy to market, a pleasure to attach your name to. It's the kind of listing that would sell itself with little or no effort on your part.

That's why I am so puzzled as to why the agent that listed it saw fit to just blatanly disregard the rules, even after his main infraction was pointed out to him. I can understand why he used the photograph of an address down the street, it was a much nicer angle, but it wasn't a photograph of the address he listed the unit in. I'm sure that every agent out there has gotten a listing where they wished they could have used the photograph of a different, nicer property in the MLS. The rules are in place to prevent that kind of fraudulent advertising though, and most of us agents believe in honest, fair dealing.

Just in case it may have been a mistake, I contacted the agent when the listing first hit the MLS and made him aware that the wrong address was pictured in the listing. He replied back telling me I had too much time on my hands. I personally sent him one of my photographs of the address his unit was listed in, telling him not to worry about my time and what I do with it, but worry about his own disregard for the rules of the MLSNI. Since he had a proper photograph and chose not to use it anyway I would have to believe that he is just one of those agents that could care less about the NAR Code of Ethics, Illinois license law, the rules of the MLSNI, etc., all the things a good upstanding agent lives by. He's a regular snake oil salesman, and the kind of agent that makes For Sale By Owner a popular choice.

I am not going to tell you this agent's name. I didn't even report the infraction to the MLSNI. That would make it look like I was sucking sour grapes over not getting the listing. I am not. I wasn't even interviewed for the listing so it's not like I lost out to this guy. I will just use him as fuel for one of my rants in this here blog. This little blog is being read by more people than I am even aware of. I have put a few stratigic people on the mailing list to get things started. A midwestern corporate representative of the company that ownes the brand that this guy operates under is on the mailing list. Just today I have even added a couple of honest upstanding agents, whose opinion I have always valued, to the mailing list. Perhaps they will comment, thereby showing the buyers and sellers who come to this blog that there are in fact, many honest agents out there, that do care about the rules, that all agents are not created equal. 

Last but not least, always remember and never forget, if you get this blog via e-mail it is because you have either asked to be put on the list, or I put you on the list because you inspired me and fueled this blog, or I look upon you as someone who's opinion I would value if you were to comment. If you would like to not be on the list just e-mail me and say so.

Jan. 10, 2006 - Hey....I Missed You Guys

Sorry I haven't been here for a couple of days. I had to put 1349 E. Washington Street, Unit 301 in Downtown Des Plaines on the market. It takes me a couple of days to do it right, because since I left "corporate real estate", I no longer have "office support" available. I have to make my own blunders when I put up a listing now. Besides, the "office support" would not input my listings into my websites (not this one, or this one), so I had a lot of my own work to do anyway.

"Office support" would, however, see to it that the listings I worked so hard to get were input into "The Corporate Website" (sorry, no link, they will remain anonymous, unless they post otherwise). It seems to me that I was paying the franchise 6% off the top for the right  to advertise one of their corporate brands. After that, "office support" would input my listings into my brokers company website. I was giving up 35% of the commission for the right to provide content to that site. Who's "office support" was I paying for, anyway?

Ah well, I digress. This is not what I wanted to blog about today. No. What I wanted to say was, back when I wrote "The Enemy Inside Your TV Set" an anonymous entity posted a reply. I knew who that person was, so I asked him if he wished to remain anonymous. Since he didn't care one way or the other, I will take the liberty of introducing you to Mr. Abdullah Amin (MailTo:Elegent1@aol.com) a loan officer at Money Tree Mortgage.

When I said I would try to have "experts in their fields" involved with, and tuned into my blog, this is what I meant. Call me crazy, but I am try to give my associates some free exposure. All they have to do is jump in and contribute. Even if I rant a little about "corporate real estate", the representatives of that entity will be able to debate the issues raised, should they so desire.

 I could tell the world what a super duper REALTORŪ I am because I do this, that and the other thing, but you know, and I know, that you will be much more comfortable working with me when you feel like you know me, like you know how my mind works. That's why I am not here telling you what todays interest rates are, and how to be a first time home buyer. You can go to my websites to find all that stuff, or you can wing off an e-mail to a loan officer you may come across here.

 You really should bookmark this place. It's going to be fun.