Posted on January 27, 2009 by Russell Shaw
There is an unalterable reason that discount real estate companies are having a much tougher road to hoe these days than the traditional companies they were going to replace: the fact that they are discount companies. That’s correct, they can’t escape the fact that they positioned themselves as discount companies. Their problem isn’t that some other discount real estate company charges even less – their problem is they are stuck being a discount company in a buyer’s market. That is a recipe for failure. If getting a lower fee was what the public currently actually wanted right now it
Posted on January 25, 2009 by Russell Shaw
Like a beginner-level Carl Rove, there isn’t much of anything professional paid lobbyist, Bruce Hahn won’t say if it’s in harmonious alignment with the marching orders from his master. No statement or idea is too preposterous or outlandish to be said with a straight face. When Bruce Hahn submitted a paper to the FTC & DOJ regarding "Competition in the Real Estate Industry" in 2005 he claimed to represent 75,000,000 homeowners. When Blanche Evans of Realty Times interviewed Bruce and asked, "Would you call yourself a lobbyist?", Bruce Hahn responded, "I call myself a consumer advocate". Yes. Yes. A consumer
Posted on December 31, 2008 by Russell Shaw
When I saw what my friends, John Kalinowski and Derek & Mariana Wagner had done with this idea, like everyone else I thought, "Pretty nice. In fact, really nice". But I also saw that they were only using photos of the house the sign was in front of (a very 80’s and 90’s approach). I wanted to take it further, much further. As you can see above, my new design doesn’t even bother with pictures of the subject property – I simply use nice pictures that people will want to look at: high-end homes, Camelback Mountain, a pretty girl. Do
Posted on December 27, 2008 by Russell Shaw
One of the true pioneers of what is referred to in marketing as “positioning” is Al Ries. Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote the groundbreaking book, “Positioning, The Battle for Your Mind“. It is probably the most influential book on advertising ever written. That statement is on the cover of their 20th anniversary edition of their book. I really doubt anyone who knows much about marketing or advertising would dispute it. My favorite book by Ries and Trout is “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing“. I believe anyone who is going to spend any money advertising would benefit from reading
Posted on December 27, 2008 by Russell Shaw
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. – Henry Ford In an email, Adam wrote: Russell- I never got a chance to thank you for the Star Wars “Duel in the Desert.” I attended the event and very much appreciated your insight and humor. I have been doing Real Estate for over 6 years in CA and AZ. Although I have made over 100k one year, I have struggled through many others. I found this interesting in the sense that you mentioned doing this through the first part of your career (the
Posted on December 27, 2008 by Russell Shaw
Chris writes: I’m looking to get into real estate after i graduate in a couple of weeks but i have a couple of questions that i’m looking to get answered, appreciate your help. If all real estate brokers in an area generally charge the same fee for selling a house, how do real estate agents compete with one another if they cannot vary their fees? Also is the real estate profession overcrowded in your judgment? Yes, the industry is horribly overcrowded, there are way too many agents chasing too few deals for all of the agents to make a decent
Posted on December 27, 2008 by Russell Shaw
“My goal is to have a big team”. I actually had a Realtor say exactly that to me. Why? Is there some special reason someone, who wasn’t deranged, would have the goal of having a big overhead and loads of people to manage and be responsible for and to? Is it possible that a sane and rational person would ever have such a goal? The answer is, yes, if they are stupid enough. He was, too. One of the lowest responsibility, most intellectually lazy people I’ve ever known. He later, as part of his program to build a large team
Posted on December 27, 2008 by Russell Shaw
In late 2001 when I had cancer one of the most interesting things I learned was while I was talking to the other people in the chemo room. It was just a room in the doctor’s office where we were all sitting in comfortable chairs while our particular poison (mine were Gemzar and cisplatin) was going into our bodies via a tube into our arms. We would talk. One of the remarkable benefits I had, that they didn’t, I was was in Los Angeles, three days a week, receiving Scientology Spiritual Counseling to get rid of all of the grief,
Posted on December 27, 2008 by Russell Shaw
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. – Isaac Newton What follows in this post may seem to some like Earl Nightingale meets Buddha – and maybe it is – but I think you are going to like it. Last week Matt wrote: I might have missed something in the post, but to say that all listings for the discounter were $299 is probably not correct. “58 X 299 = $17,342.”I see a lot of “Discounters” using low selling price as a tool to get people in the door, or on phone. $299
Posted on December 27, 2008 by Russell Shaw
Today I received two emails from Dean Selvey. One of them was a forward of an email from one of my least favorite people, Mike Ferry. Clicking on the link for the free audio allows you hear a 15 minute commercial for the Action Workshop. I can’t say it isn’t well done. I can say that most everything Mike Ferry ever does is to get people there so they can sell them coaching. Do you need a coach? Does coaching “work”? I believe that coaching does work but not for the reasons most real estate “coaches” usually think it does.
