Archive for November, 2008

Do What You Are Doing While You Are Doing It.

Monday, November 24th, 2008

Multitasking

Have you ever had the remarkable pleasure of talking to someone who keeps checking their phone for new text messages while they are talking to you?  Naturally, nothing you are saying could matter quite as much as the next fabulous text message they are pretty sure they are going to receive.

The stupid idea of multitasking has spread throughout our society like a contagious disease.  It isn’t simply a "bad" idea (as in unsafe, rude, counterproductive), it also happens to be physically impossible.

One does not "multitask".  Oh sure, you can think you are multitasking but you are not.  What a "multitasking person" is doing is one of the most inefficient things possible (as far as real work output goes): they are stopping doing one thing and starting another, literally jumping from task to task and back again.  They aren’t really "there" with regard to the other tasks they are "sort of doing".

Almost all truly successful people in just about every profession and activity (sports, business, entertainment, construction – you name it) have ONE thing in common:  THEY DO WHAT THEY ARE DOING WHILE THEY ARE DOING IT.

A common problem for Realtors is they never quite "arrive at work" so can never really take time off either.  When they are "on vacation" they are still working on deals, sending faxes, taking calls – in other words, they simply changed their location but not what they were doing.  I see agents out to dinner and there – sometimes actually on the table – sits their cell phone.  Oh no, can’t take a chance on missing an important call!

If you are an on call medical doctor (or some profession where it really is a matter of life and death) perhaps being interrupted during dinner makes sense.  If you list and sell houses for a living, I don’t get it.

When working, work.  Really work.  When not working, don’t.  Not even a little bit.  BE. HERE. NOW.

Try it sometime.  You just might like it.

Hate REALTOR.com for Only the Right Reasons

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Realtor Mousetrap

"I hate REALTOR.com." That was pretty much the response in the comments from FSBOs on Realtor.com.   I’m so glad Jay found that and wrote about it.  Eric Blackwell over at  Bloodhoundblog wrote about it too.  I think Michael Wurzer’s response is spot on but that Michael was way too polite.

Let me go on record publicly as directly calling out ForSaleByOwner.com owners and executives as liars.  Blatant and knowing liars.  I understand that as a Realtor I am not supposed to utter an unkind word about a fellow Realtor (which they are).  So I encourage anyone who owns or works at FailuresByOwnerSales.com to file whatever complaint they can against me.  Just so there is no misunderstanding:  You are lying in your press release.  You know that and therefore you are a liar.  You do not have FSBO listings on Realtor.com.  All listings on Realtor.com come directly and only from MLS feeds.  Listings can not be "added" to Realtor.com any other way.  Again, they only get there from an MLS feed.

Please hate Realtor.com for the right reasons.  The stupid and misleading press release from Eric Mangan, of ForSaleByOwner.com isn’t one of them.  Realtor.com did nothing wrong here.  They aren’t "guilty" of anything in this instance.

It is not unusual to see venom spewed regarding Realtor.com.  Realtor.com in its present incarnation is a massive betrayal of all working Realtors.  What is ours has been given to an outside company so they can charge us as much as the traffic will bear.  They get to use our name (Realtor.com) to drive traffic to the site so we get to pay MOVE.com huge amounts to "enhance our own listings". 

Almost every agent who pays the outrageous prices does so for just one reason and one reason only: to be able to tell sellers their listings are "enhanced" on Realtor.com.  There is no other reason.  NAR has wound up setting up a situation where we are being taken advantage of when their original goal was to help us.  I just renewed for next year.  I can add virtual tours and unlimited photos, along with scrolling text to all of my listings (which would all be there anyway).  The cost?  $3,659.00 for the year.  What a deal.  Why did I do it?  It is easier to pay it than to play defense, telling my sellers why we are not there.  No other reason.  None.  None, really.

From The Notorious R.O. B., here is a very interesting idea of how NAR could take Realtor.com back.  Totally worth reading.  Here is the NAR takes back Realtor.com links page.  Please check it out.

Fox News – My 1st Time on a National Show

Saturday, November 1st, 2008