Rising -- and Falling -- Real Estate Bar

Want to Stand Out? Drop > 10%

Want some anecdotal evidence about housing market conditions these days in the Twin Cities?

Higher Bar. Edina Realty, the Twin Cities' largest broker, requires price reductions of 10% or more to qualify for intra-company email distribution (I believe the policy actually dates back to this Summer).

Previously, the requirement was 5%.

The logic?

Five percent drops are now run of the mill; to get Buyers' attention (and qualify for email distribution), the number's got to really be eye-catching (no such threshold exists for circulating price drops within a branch office).

Lower Bar. Meanwhile, the bar for hosting Exceptional Properties meetings in the Southwest Region (the geographic area including my office, City Lakes) continues to drop.

Three years ago, the floor was at least $1 million -- and most homes hosting the meeting were well above that.

Tomorrow's meeting is at a home listed for $589k.

P.S.: many Realtors, including yours truly, have custom email distribution lists to market their listings. The trick is knowing the difference between judicious use of such lists -- and spam.

Realtors & Technology

"First Adopters" --
or "First Ruiners?"

Nobody goes there anymore -- it's too crowded.

--Yogi Berra, about a Miami Beach restaurant near the Yankees' Spring training camp.

Are social networks like Facebook becoming like Yogi Berra's restaurant?

In other words, as latecomers and "tourists" fill up the place, is the original, "in" crowd decamping for less noisy environs?

The "Spam Factor"

Perhaps.

If so, Realtors will bear much of the blame (or credit, if you think that social networking is a gigantic time sink).

In technology circles, the joke is that Realtors aren't the "First Adopters" they fancy themselves to be, but instead are "First Ruiners."

That's because, whatever the technology, Realtors invariably seize upon it to do one thing: hawk their listings.

P.S.: Hat tip to Nobu Hata for the "First Ruiners" quote.

"Flattering" Spam Posts

Attracting -- and Deleting -- Spam

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Actually, when it comes to blogs and spam posts, it's the other way around: 'flattery is the sincerest form of imitation.'

By that, I mean that the usual m.o. of people posting b.s. responses on blogs to piggyback on their popularity -- and drive traffic to their own Web site and whatever they're hawking there -- is to open with an faux compliment.

So, I have now seen -- and deleted -- innumerable posts on this blog that start out, "loved your post on . . .," then close with the spammer's URL (http://www.buymycrap.com/ or some such).

I do try to delete these whenever I find them, but lately the pace seems to have picked up ("a high quality problem to have," as they say).

"Drip" Marketing? How about "Spray?"

Synonyms for "Drip":
'Spray,' 'Drizzle,' 'Bombard'

Thanks to technology, I can now automatically send everyone whose email address I know -- and my Rolodex has 1,900 names -- a weekly (or daily, or hourly!) real estate "update."

But I don't.

That's because they're annoying and impersonal.

Speaking (only?) for myself, I like to practice what I'll call the "Golden Rule" of marketing: if I don't want to receive something myself, I won't subject others to it.

Blithely Walking Through "Open Doors"

Spam and All Its Clones (Online and Off)

My door's always open, Jones . . . so be careful you don't walk in by mistake.

--Cartoon showing a CEO sitting at his desk, addressing the janitor in the hall

As someone who works in sales, it's always amazing to me how many people violate the first rule of prospecting: don't start out by annoying -- or antagonizing -- the prospect.

If you have a phone and a front door, you certainly know about all sorts of invasive, poorly-timed (is there a right time?) telemarketing and cold calls. (To me, at least, it certainly seems like "do not call" lists have become increasingly porous.)

However, as a Realtor (and blogger), you're an even bigger target.

Here's what I routinely encounter:

The unwelcome open house guest. Broker opens, at least in the Twin Cities, are held every Tuesday from 11 a.m to 1 p.m. Although the target audience is other Realtors, if a non-Realtor type sees my signs and wants to take a look, great (I am trying to sell the house).

What I'm not receptive to is sales pitches from "newbie" home inspectors and lenders, like the one who showed up at my Broker Open this Tuesday.

I do appreciate how tough it is out there -- but, hey, it's tough for Realtors, too!

When I'm hosting a Sunday or Broker open, I'm working for my client, trying to sell their home -- not your captive audience!

Now if only a great handyman or electrician showed up at my open houses . . .

Stealth blog posts. The artful kind actually start out commenting on your post. However, a couple sentences in, they drop the pretense and shamelessly start pitching their product or service, larding in multiple links and Web addresses for good measure.

Note to Readers: I try to catch and delete these, but as you've probably realized, a couple still sneak through.

Spam. No, spam targeting Realtors isn't qualitatively different than "regular" spam.

Rather, the difference is quantitative: maybe 10x as much, often with mailbox-busting attachments riding along.

So, here's my suggestion to all the folks out there trolling for new business:

If you really want my attention, do what I do: send a handwritten note. Seriously.

P.S.: One of the most effective put-down's of a heckler I've seen at a stand up comedy act is this one: 'Hey, do I jump up and down on the end of the bed and distract you when you're trying to work?!?"