Posted on December 27, 2008 by Russell Shaw
Below are two emails I’ve received in the past week. One is from a successful veteran agent in Texas and the other is from a young man from Canada in the business just over a year. Their stories are a bit different but my response is going to be the same to both. __ From the veteran agent: I just wanted to say Hi and wondered how things are going in your market? Our market has seemed to turn into a foreclosure market and a significant chunk has come from that direction! 90% of listings are over-priced…but one story homes
Posted on December 18, 2008 by Russell Shaw
The seller has a problem. They have a house they want to sell and need to sell it at a certain price. They hire an agent who takes on the task of selling the home. "Maybe if you had more open houses?" "Have you thought about running an ad in the Wall Street Journal?" "There are a lot of people from California with money because the prices are so high there. Run an ad in the L.A. Times." "If you go to (large local employer) you can put a notice on their bulletin board about the house." This is just
Posted on December 16, 2008 by Russell Shaw
Okay, so they’re not really all "100%". Re/Max is now a maximum of a 95% split. Further, most of the 100% companies have various other more traditional splits (IE: 70 – 30) for those who can’t pay the standard monthly bill. But the overall trend for the industry is that most "mega agents" wind up at a 100% company and many of the major marque agents wind up eventually even leaving Re/Max to start their own company. Re/Max was, at one time, the most agent-centric company in the business. That has changed a bit. Now at their national conventions the
Posted on December 12, 2008 by Russell Shaw
Some fantastic viewpoints lately about the future of the residential real estate business. A few see our business becoming more "agent-centric". Others see it becoming almost exclusively "broker-centric": the big broker brands will dominate by being consumer-centric. Really? What big brand? Is there even ONE big brand that has a name (a brand?) that means anything to anybody? The only national "big brands" that the agent public or the general public even thinks of as representing much of anything is either a discount company or a "100% company". What one company is the most well known, most well thought of
Posted on December 2, 2008 by Russell Shaw
This is the book I am telling all of my friends in the real estate business to get and read. It is so well researched that those of you who like statistics will be impressed just with some of the stats. Those who may have hit a rough patch and found their business in a bit of a skid will find it to be just what the doctor ordered. Those who are already doing just fine will find a very put together write up of what they are already doing. I haven’t found anyone doing really well who didn’t find
Posted on November 24, 2008 by Russell Shaw
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
Posted on November 13, 2008 by Russell Shaw
"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
Posted on October 13, 2008 by Russell Shaw
It seems to me that if a REALTOR wants to "attack NAR" they might also think it was a good idea to take an axe to their own head if they had a headache. We are the NAR. When I hear statements to the effect that all NAR has ever really come up with is the MLS, I wonder why those same people don’t find it odd that jewelry stores only sell jewelry. Or grocery stores seem fixated on food. BMW just with the nice cars. I think that agents who don’t have a thankful attitude towards the (very) nice
