Archives
November 2006
Nov. 30, 2006 - What I've Learned from the Bubbleheads |
Thanks to Jonathan Miller at the Matrix, I came across this post in Media Shift focusing on the public obsession with real estate. A large portion of the article dealt with the real estate bubble blogs and the motivations of those behind the sites. What struck me as amazingly ironic is that more than one bubble blog is generating revenue for its owner - yet these same blogs are held by their reading audiences as free of any sort of capitalist taint, like the taint that all real-estate agents must carry simply because we do this for a living.
One of the comments to the Media Shift post dealt with everything the reader has "learned" from the bubble blogs that presumably the reader never would have learned from us mere Realtors. And so I thought I'd briefly share what I have learned from the bubble set ...
- I've learned that attacking the messenger while you accuse the messenger of personal attacks apparently is treated as discourse.
- I've learned blanket generalizations are completely unacceptable when the bubble theorists are involved but are perfectly fine when the target is one of those evil real-estate agents.
- I've learned the mainstream media apparently is in NAR's hip pocket - quite surprising when you read the sheer volume of anti-Realtor "news" that passes through the daily papers.
- I've learned that statistics when presented by a real-estate agent have been twisted to fit an argument. But when out-of-context statistics are presented by a member of the bubble set, said statistics are as divine as the Holy Gospel.
- I've learned there is no end to the public's willingness to belief in mass paranoia prognostications.
- I've learned that many people don't know what they don't know - the public STILL believes the MLS is an all-powerful tool which will sell a home and demand access, yet they refuse to acknowledge the one piece - compensation to cooperating agents - that hold it all together.
- I've learned that I have no interest in wasting my time working with people who think I'd sell them out and talk them into buying a house for $10,000 more than they should ... especially when that extra $10,000 spent, after broker's fees and taxes works out to a $180 net gain for me.
- I've learned those bubble blogs actively seeking donations (another word for income) are no more clear of ulterior motive than those of us who spend far more of our time dealing with the real estate market.
- I've learned combinations of profanity I never even heard in a baseball clubhouse - again, when no logical argument exists, lash out and hope your target cowers.
There are some in the bubble community who actually are capable of presenting logical arguments and add to the general real estate arguments. I've enjoyed conversations with more than one as at least these are the folks who take the time to read the other side of the debate, even if they don't agree.
There are others so busy basking in their blog-generated fame that they forget their irrelevance to the industry as a whole and would rather blame real-estate agents for everything up to and including acid rain. They lack the sense to know the difference between a Realtor and a lender, for example, and rant rather than educate their disciples. And should they turn out to be wrong? What will happen to those who blindly followed them? Frankly, my dear, I doubt any of them will give a damn.
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes
|
• 2 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
View more entries tagged with: Bubble, Phoenix Arizona |
Nov. 30, 2006 - Arizona High School Football |
Today's Republic has a story on a decade-old semifinal battle between Chandler and Mesa Mountain View played at my alma mater, Dobson High School. Sadly, the reported missed out on discussing memories of the game with the stadium's then-public address announcer, yours truly.
An unbelievable game ... I remember Mountain View fans looking at me when the flags flew on the final play of the game, like I had any idea what had just happened. And the increasing roar from the Chandler stands as the punt return crossed into Mountain View territory ... and watching Todd Heap, pre-Arizona State and pre-Baltimore Ravens.
And in the finally safe to admit category ... I also remember the drum majors from Mountain View looking over their shoulder at the end of their halftime show, waiting for me to say "Now Toro fans, stand up and show your Toro pride for the Toro fight song" - or words to that effect.
Like such a phrase would ever cross the lips of a Dobson graduate.
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes |
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
View more entries tagged with: High School Football, Chandler Arizona |
Nov. 29, 2006 - An Addict's Confession |
While I wait for someone to form the support group, I must confess to my readership ... I have become addicted to real-estate blogs, both writing for them and reading them. I realized this last night around 11 p.m., my eyes bleary and my brain mushy and I'm still on my Google Reader going through the latest posts and trying to squeeze out one final post for the day and then and only then talking myself into shutting off the computer and going to sleep.
When your wife complains about your blogging on the computer (as opposed to the hundreds of other things I could be doing with the computer) you know there's an issue in the making. Yet that's where I am. And so the question becomes why? Am I obsessive? Possibly. But there's more to it than that. Because I have come to believe the blogs are my ticket to a more complete, more satisfactory real estate career.
There is an immense amount of information to be found on real estate blogs - facts, opinions, farce, fantasy - it all depends on the author and the day. And I read as many of these posts as I can from the authors I deem to be most respectable, knowledgeable, interesting or just plain annoying. (Case in point - I confess, I read the Bloodhound Blog daily. Greg and I either would have a great debate over a beer or smash the chilled mugs across each other's craniums, I'm not sure. But if nothing else, I read just to see what he said most recently.) And there are another dozen must reads, which I'll probably list on a separate post lest they get lost in the shuffle. Expect that post tomorrow.
The more information I read, the more completely I can form my own opinions. And the more completely I can answer my client's questions and counter their objections. No sense reinventing the wheel when the design plans are waiting for me online.
This isn't to say blogging has been a one-way experience for me. I'd like to think I've added to the richness of the debate on several topics, most notably my views on the non-existent bubble, the Open MLS initiatives and the like. I don't care whether I'm liked or hated (at least for my viewpoints here) ... as long as I can't easily be ignored.
It wasn't until early August or so that I got serious about the blog, roughly the same time many others caught the wave. In that time, I've brought this Phoenix Arizona Real Estate blog to a point where it's the third-most read blog on RealtownBlogs. And it's gaining a presence in the greater world of real estate blogs, though it's been a slow evolution as I learned small details such as Technorati, Pingoat, etc. Should I have a separate URL? Perhaps. Should I be using a different blogging solution, say TypePad or Wordpress? I haven't a clue. But I'm not going to surrender what we've done to date.
Yes, my friends, there is no question I have become an addict. But if what I do here gives me an edge over the other 60,000-odd agents we have here in the Phoenix area, please don't offer me a cure anytime soon.
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes |
• 5 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
View more entries tagged with: Blogging |
Nov. 29, 2006 - Our Two-Day Winter is Here ... |
 The adjacent photograph is not a live shot of the Phoenix area - sorry, no Seattle-like dramatics here in the low desert. But it's the best I can find on the net.
Today's forecast high temperature ... 58 degrees. Or, put another way, three degrees higher than the temperature at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday when I am writing this and post-dating the post.
Oops, just gave out a trick of the trade ....
In lieu of a snow photo, I'll see what I can do about getting pictures of my wife and son shivering ... of course, they do that in 82-degree weather so it's a fairly easy photo to get.
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes |
• 0 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
View more entries tagged with: Phoenix Arizona, Winter, Weather |
Nov. 28, 2006 - 20-400 Vision: Short-sightedness and real estate |
Pittsburgh Homes Daily is reporting that the Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania MLS has decided to limit IDX feeds only to the websites of principal brokers, meaning the only place to see a the listings is at the company-level site. IDX is one of a couple of methods many Multiple Listing Services use to distribute listings data to member brokers and agents; I rely on a souped-up version of the free local IDX feed on my website and have been successful in generating business off the feed.
 The Pittsburgh/West Penn MLS' decision is short-sighted in the extreme and seems to benefit no one except the brokers. It doesn't help buyers to have reduced access to the listings and it doesn't help the sellers to limit exposure of their properties only to the brokers' sites. And in the long run it doesn't help the listing brokers themselves as they are eliminating a potential source of buyers for their listings. At least in Phoenix, it's rare to see a company website rank higher on the search engines than multiple individual agent sites as we as individuals spend far more time working on the optimization than the brokers themselves.
Where most of us are advertising our listings electronically wherever possible, the brokers in the Steel City seem far more interested in protecting their double-dip potential.
Of course, another party severely hurt by the new policy is the agents. As I mentioned, I rely on my IDX listings feed to help drive business on my site. In Pittsburgh, however, agents will no longer be able to frame even their own companies' listings on their websites. For the time being they still can post their own listings, though it's not overly far-fetched to see a scenario where a broker decides against that practice. Listings, after all, are technically a contract between broker and seller, and should the broker decide they are to be the only Internet source for this information ...
Sigh ...
On a thoroughly unrelated note yet still falling into the category of short-sightedness, there was a debate on Active Rain about the value of advertising listings on your blog. The theory is the realm of the blog is a free leaning zone, where the public comes to be educated and should not be bothered by banal home listings.
Um, sorry. But I respectfully disagree.
As much fun as blogging has been, my primary job remains to buy and sell houses on behalf of my clients. And when I'm trying to sell a listing, I want it advertised everywhere possible. Even on my blogs. If someone doesn't want to see the listings, that's fine. Don't click under the Houses for Sale link and you won't be troubled by them.
This isn't to say I believe the blog should be a sales catalog first and foremost. But to not use the potential of a blog to your clients' ultimate benefit seems to defeat the ultimate purpose.
RELATED ARTICLE: Pittsburgh Real Estate Just Moved Into the Dark Ages or Forward Into Dark Times
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes
|
• 5 Comments • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link
View more entries tagged with: Blogging, Idx, Mls |
|
Phoenix Arizona Real Estate Blog presented by Jonathan Dalton, RE/MAX Desert Showcase
Other Links
• Home
• Dalton's Arizona Homes
• Arrowhead Ranch Living
• Westbrook Village Real Estate
• Arizona Buyers' Advisory
• View my profile
• Email Me
• Blog Manager
|
