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Growing Your Hispanic Market

Here’s an idea that should appeal to all REALTOR entrepreneurs: Rather than waiting for a pile of money to fall from the sky, why not grow your way out of these tough times? It’s decision time now - and I don’t mean the election: Are you going to just sit there and let your company go bust? You probably don’t have enough cash to keep waiting it out - so pull your head out of the sand, shake off the panic and go do what you do best: Sell homes. Help buyers. Grow your sales.

If you don’t know where all this growth is going to come from, maybe it’s time to look at the growing Hispanic market.

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The Bailout will Destroy the Housing Industry

Only in the United States Congress can a plan to destroy the housing industry and credit markets be called a “rescue” plan. It’s almost as farcical as calling  “card check” bill that effectively kills secret voting for unions a “secret ballot bill.” Far more troubling, however, is the fact that the elements of the plan are laid out - in plain sight - for everyone to see and think about.

Why, then, does the real estate industry and average homeowner, not see the danger?

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When Companies Should Fail

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America has become so obsessed with its financial crisis that people are forgetting the basic lessons of economics. You remember economics, don’t you? It’s the science of how markets work. Yet everyone is acting like it’s a “strange reason” why companies are losing money, people are losing their jobs, customers are fleeing their products and services. We all know that “customers are sitting on the sideline,” but nobody is willing to really ask why. We all just assume it’s because “credit is frozen,” whatever that means. And everywhere we turn, people are saying somebody must do something - fast, soon, now - because the market downturn is assumed to be “a fluke” - it’s “happening” to good companies and good people through no fault of their own. As if the laws of supply and demand - and the customer - didn’t apply to the “modern” economy.

Nobody is asking the basic question: Should these companies fail?

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Why do Brokers Hire Sellers?

Listen to this blog entry by clicking the play button above.
You can also click the podcast icon to listen in your default mp3 player.

Ask any broker today what his “number one” problem with the market conditions, and he’ll tell you either there’s too much inventory or it’s all overpriced. Granted, if sellers want to put their homes on the market, nothing can stop them, with so many “for sale by owner” options out there. But that still leaves the issue of the overpriced homes that are represented by brokers. And that begs the question:

Why are brokers hiring sellers to sell their own homes?

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International Lessons on Real Estate

If you think it’s hard to sell real estate in America today, take a lesson from the Continent. After spending four days with the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World in Rome, it’s become pretty clear that most American real estate agents have it “too easy.” Just try running your business when selling homes with “verbal commitments that are binding but broken without cause or recourse” and “you have six months to close” is the norm.

It’s about time American REALTORS figured out just how good they really have it.

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Where is Your Government Bailout?

Over the weekend, the United States government tried to correct one mistake with another: Under intense pressure from foreign governments - especially the Chinese government who are the single largest investor in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - Uncle Sam took out its checkbook. With a flourish of the pen, the Treasury nationalized these failing financial behemoths. In the process, it wiped out any remaining common shareholder value, eliminated stockholder control over the company’s operations and fired (but will still pay millions in golden parachutes) one of the most inept management teams in the history of any undertaking.

In yet another stunning example of crisis management, lack of planning, and most of all - lack of leadership control of an organization - a pillar of both the real estate industry and the global economy itself crumbled. If the situation sounds a little too familiar to you, perhaps you’re wondering: Where’s my government bailout?

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It’s the Housing Market, not the Stock Market

For some months, REALTORS have been fretting that buyers are “sitting on the sidelines” waiting for the market to “hit the bottom.” We constantly hear news reports with interviews of “savvy” sellers who are trying to “time the market just right” to get the most for their home’s sale while getting a “bargain” for their next home. Timing the market - to sell high, and buy cheap - is a strategy for buying and selling stocks or bonds.

But when it comes to housing, it’s the entirely wrong market model. It’s time REALTORS started saying so.

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Another Cool Outlook Tool from Xobni

Recently a friend in the business send me an email suggesting I try out Xobni, a ‘must have’ plug-in for Microsoft Outlook. I always get a little skeptical about Outlook plug-ins, usually because they always end up causing my Outlook to “go funny.” Maybe there some code Microsoft puts in the program that says, “If anyone tries to add on a piece of software that REALLY makes Outlook work well, then sabotage it!” But in this case, it looks like the only quirks come during shut down, and even then I can’t be sure it’s Xobni’s fault.

I can say this: Xobni is something every busy Outlook user needs to check out!

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What if Listings were Irrelevant?

Here’s a question that’s certain to be avoided by the real estate industry: What are you planning to do on the day that “taking a listing” becomes totally irrelevant? It’s coming, of course, and it’s not just because of a “housing recession” or any such calamity. Real estate based upon consumer needs, not actual “listings” will be the focus of the Next Generation of Real Estate.

And clearly nobody is prepared.

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