We may at some point throw in a set of knives or a spatula for our preferred, premium, platinum agents.  At any rate we are happy to take your money and call you an expert even if you have never sold a home.  When I use the word ‘we’ I mean it in an omnipotent kind of way.

Agents who do not put their listings in my new real estate for sale  section will not be serving their sellers or in some cases the agents are dinosaurs and just stupid or maybe they are poo poo heads and their opinions about putting listings on third party sites are wrong.  A good real estate brokerage will have their listings displayed on all sites that have homes for sale on them no matter how spammy the sites are because we the third party sites ( and when I say we I mean the future me and still omnipotent) have decided that our sites are best for consumers and we took surveys right on our sites.  Home buyers need to find a home on at least 15 web sites before they really believe it is for sale.

We are going to use the real estate listings to market several products.  Basically everything from tampons to snowmobiles.   There is also a good chance that the homes you sell will be pictured next to hot dogs and hot dog related foods and merchandize.

Boomer reference

I maybe don’t even need to fill in this post.  Thinking is highly overrated. There are thought leaders that I have respect for but this is about thought leadership as it applies to the real estate industry.

Lets just say these people don’t have to work at selling real estate every day, they can think about what it must be like and come up with ideas for us.  Really bad ideas.  Personally I don’t have enough time  to think which is kind of sad because I could probably be a thought leader myself.  OK maybe not but I have deep intellectual thoughts and they are not all evil.

Being a doer has it’s advantages and so does being a leader instead of a follower. . . .now I will leave you with those deep, deep thoughts . . .

It is with defiance that I use  Pinterest and even Flickr because I am flaunting the fact that I am not about real estate 24 X 7.  On the other hand for most real estatey type folks it is too much of a leap to imagine using anything on the interent for anything other than real estate.

I am working on a book and a free webinar and some courses on how to use Pinterest just in case the experts decide that it really is just for real estate.

That is all, go away now I have stuff to pin.

This afternoon I went to the Mongolian BBQ place down the block from my house. As I perused the various vegetables and meats available, I couldn’t help but wonder about the impact my decisions were going to have on the real estate consumer.
For those who don’t know, I am a real estate professional and my every waking thought, my every action is for the benefit of the consumer.

So I had to think to myself … if I were to take a half-bowl of mushrooms or the last of the chicken, am I disadvantaging a real estate consumer who, in the midst of their home search, might walk into the same restaurant and want those mushrooms or that chicken? Could I be so selfish as to consider myself?

Because we are real estate professionals we are held to an incredibly high standard. Sure, the marketing ads from the National Association of REALTORS talk about our adherence to the voluminous Code of Ethics but it doesn’t stop there.

If you have the good misfortune of tripping over one of our constant debates on social media sites, you’ll see that everything we do in our lives must be done with the consumer at mind. Never are we permitted the lowly decision of making a business decision based solely on what is good for own business; all decisions must be for the greater good of the real estate consumer, whether it’s our use of IDX listing data, our decision to syndicate our real estate listing data or our choice of color schemes on our websites. The consumer may not like orange as much as we do and we have to take that into account.

It’s a remarkable standard, all in all. For instance, when the gas station down the block raised the price of unleaded by five cents in the morning only to lower it three cents in the afternoon, I couldn’t bring myself to believe the manager considered the ramifications on the public. Shocking!

When Michaels raised the price of the personal notes I use from $1.50 for 6 from $1 for 8, they clearly did not consider the impact doubling the cost per note would have on the public. Selfishly, they likely only considered their own business costs and sought to maximize profit. Stunning!

Though several fast-food restaurants have learned we need to satiate our obesity by having delicious breakfast products available all day, McDonald’s clearly does not care what the buying public wants because breakfast ends at 10:30 a.m. as it has since 1824. Absurd!

And don’t even get me started on those folks most insensitive to the needs of the consumers, the Girl Scouts and their damned limited-edition, cartel-distributed Thin Mints. Scandalous!

Thankfully, we real estate professionals are not permitted to think this way. We can’t run our business only as a business because we work directly with you, the public. The last thing on earth we want to do is give people to impression we chose this career in the hope of making money, providing for our families or other such trivial reasons.
We’re here solely for the public and whatever the consumer needs, no matter how counterintuitive it may be, we’re here to provide it for them.

This post was generated by Dashter.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
i call conference call foul: excessive use of the term “googlebot.” 5 minute mute penalty.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
i will never, ever, be ‘totally stoked.’

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
‘rainbow vomit’ isn’t the easiest phrase to work into a business email. yet somehow, i manage.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
if i were in a beauty pageant, my talent would be taking down high traffic sites at peak hours with the flip of a widget.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
Project management is a myth. Like unicorns. And flattering jeans.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
i am (i am) i am superman. and i can do anything.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
new photo apps don’t make you a good photographer. simple blog platforms don’t make you a good writer. calm down, people.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
I was just asked to submit a photo that summarizes my personality. Can I send in a shot of a slice of white bread on the counter?

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
it’s a frequent cookie clearing day. i hate frequent cookie clearing days.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
everytime i have to record my name for a conference call, i kinda just want to yell “HEEEEEEEEEERE’S KELLEY!” for announcement to the call.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
Burn everything and start over. Easier said than done.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
just shattered my coffee carafe. PANIC, YA’LL. PANIC!

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
ah yes. using instagram filters *does* make your widespread broadcast photos of food look so much more appealing! do that more.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
I think I pulled a kidney doing deadlifts. My squishy middle parts hurt.

Kelley Koehler – @housechick
Never trust the quiet ones. Trust me on that.

 

I am not sure listening is a strategy but I am sure that words can be art and we can only see the art if we listen.

You will never have a great real estate blog unless it is a real estate blog read by other Realtors because they decide which real estate blogs are great.  If consumers and potential clients read your real estate blog you may get business because of it but you will never have a great real estate blog.

This blog is for Realtors and it is famous.

Have a nice day

Stupid is as stupid does

I sent her a note asking for a market analysis, after congratulating her on her real estate license.   I think I will play with her for awhile.

Locally the big brokerages have people teaching agents social media.  From what I am seeing on the internet they are doing a crappy job but I am OK with that.  I Just want them all to know that I am on the internet too and I got here before the social media experts tried to take over.

Front of House

Happy 2012!  I have been off to a good start except that I have been too busy to write posts on my blog of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand.  Business was so dismal in 2011 that I did not expect to get so busy at the end of the year.

I do not spend much time thinking about the future  but if I did I would think about the future of real estate photography and I can see where it is headed.  The iPhone apps and Instagram are where it is at.  After all it isn’t about the photograph . .lets face it, it has never been about the photography  is it about using something new and if it is a mobile app then it is the app to use.

Living Room

I have not seen many photos like these on our MLS but I am watching for them.  I have also been patiently waiting for someone to announce that there is a class on how to take property photos with a phone and maybe even a certification program.

. . . sadly in 2012 those agents who do not use Instagram will not be able to sell real estate.  I will be having a free webinar on how to use Instagram as soon as I finish my “Everything there is to know about Instagram” book which will be at least two pages long and my course on how to become an instant Instagram success.  We here at the weenie are putting the finishing touches on an Instagram designation . . watch for it.

After reading that Jeff Turner was named one of this years top 100 most influential people in real estate I looked up influential and real estate and found the picture of Jeff that I have posted here.  There is no doubt that Jeff is influencial but what does it really mean?

I have been under Jeff’s influence for years and recently deleted my Klout account because of it.  I now know that Jeff encouraged his followers to delete their Klout accounts because he ran out of  kool-aid.

I am learning that in the near future prospective employers will use the Klout score to determine who they should hire and it is only a matter of time before home sellers use it to decide who they should list with.   If that were not bad enough Klout scores will also be used to determine credit worthiness in the same way the we use credit scores today.  Without a Klout score I have no future and at some point it may even become impossible to get a drivers license or a passport.

The whole Klout score thing is just one example of Jeff’s influence.   It is likely that his influence is partly reponsible for the crash of the housing market which puts him firmly in the top five most influencial people in real estate.

You may have seen this photo on news web sites.  The dang thing has gotten over 27,500 views and I am not making that up.   Jeff took it in early 2008 before the tsunami of foreclosures hit the country.  There are some experts that believe this photograph influenced banks to start foreclosure proceedings on borrowers who were behind on their mortgage payments because they liked the picture so much.

Jeff owns some real estate but his involvement with it does not go beyond living in it and paying property taxes.   Jeff openly admits that he is not an expert on the subject of real estate which is part of the reason why he is so influential.   A couple of days ago when I asked him about his interest in real estate he told me that he likes the people.  Jeff’s interest in people goes beyond real estate and into the realm of engagement and even listening, at least when he isn’t talking.

We at the weenie would like to congratulate Jeff for being so influential but we would like to remind all the people who go out there and actually sell real estate that being influenced by Jeff does not guarantee success especially for those of us who have deleted our Klout accounts.