Which Job Would Be More Frustrating: Social Media Manager at NAR, or Clothing Manager at a Nudist Colony?

October 9, 2008

I’d say it’s a toss-up.  At least at the nudist colony there might be some, uh, ancillary job benefits, while the NAR position would require moving to Chicago.  And that’s just a start.

Alerted by several folks, including those at NAR Wisdom, about NAR’s new “Social Media Manager” position, I find myself puzzled.  NAR and its state and local brethren are, at heart, finely tuned political action machines — that’s what they’re built for, it’s what they do best, and it’s what you would expect from a trade union.  I remember a year or so ago a small local town — Atherton, I believe — thought a good new revenue source would be to tax Realtor (r) commissions at the point of sale.  Dozens and dozens of Realtors showed up for the town hall meeting — practically more Realtors than the town had citizens!  These Realtors came from far and wide, and very few of them had anything to do with Atherton.  They came to show their extreme displeasure at this move, afraid that if it passed, the idea would spread like a cancer to neighboring towns.  Needless to say, the measure got voted down.

NAR is also great at getting out its message — very consistently — that it’s a great time to buy to sell to buy and sell to buy, sell, skip, and jump!

What exactly would a social media manager do at NAR?  Send out Twitters about NAR’s latest rosy forecast?  Alert everybody that Lawrence Yun is about to send another update?  There is simply too much of a disconnect between NAR’s stifling corporate culture and the social media world.  I imagine all blog posts would need to be cleared by a hundred-person NAR subcommittee.

I know they’re well-intentioned, and I give them credit for trying, but give it a rest, guys!

If somebody does get this job, I’ve got $50 that says they don’t last any longer than Mr. Luther did at move.com  Any takers?

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Articles, Industry | 8 Comments 

The Tweet-Cops — Law Enforcement’s Use of Social Media

October 9, 2008

Despite being a late adopter of technology generally, the real estate industry has embraced social media better than most industries have, and arguably behind only politics and technology.  Here’s an interesting use of social media from a completely different industry:  law enforcement.

Joanne Fraser, who sells real estate in Los Altos CA, informs me that a local police department (Mountain View) is now on Twitter.  (See here.)  They don’t have a lot of followers or updates yet, but kudos to them for embracing social media as a way of staying better connected to the community.

Turns out the Scottsdale police department is also in on this.

Neither Scottsdale nor Mountain View, however, are still quite “there.”  They’re using Twitter right now only as a way of disseminating information:

14 year old takes seizure medication. It is unknown when she took it last. She has long brown hair and is wearing green shirt, blue jeans.

SPD in area of 28000 N. 59th Place in reference to a missing juvenile female. It is beleived she is on foot in the desert area to the east.

Here’s where they’re missing out:  they could also be using Twitter to receive information from the public about law enforcement issues.  The Scottsdale PD is only following some 18 Tweeters (mostly local news stations), and Mountain View isn’t following anybody.  Think of the increased power of the medium if they both followed all Tweeters in their area!

Twitter could become a supplemental 911 system:

Help!  My house at 123 Main is being broken into!

I’m in the parking lot on Main & 1st.  Lights are out.  Suspicious looking guys are walking around, flashing lights into the cars.

Twitter could also act as a neighborhood “early warning system”:

What’s with all the boarded-up houses over on the West side?

Traffic is backed up on Marsh all the way to 101!  Accident?

Of course, if a local police department were to follow 500 local residents, it’d be difficult for them to keep on top of all that content, especially with looming cutbacks in government services.  Solution?  Create searches in search.twitter.com for key words like:  Help … Accident … Break-in … Robbery … Broken window …

Twitter is rapidly growing up.  It’s no longer just an interesting way to spend time:  it’s now becoming a credible and powerful way for organizations to disseminate and receive valuable information.

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Are Digital Cameras And PDA’s Really The “Latest In Advanced Technology”? That’s What CAR Thinks!

October 8, 2008

From the “What decade are we in?” department, comes this choice gem of a promotional email from our good friends at the California Association of Realtors.  They’re running an Expo next week, and a promotional email just arrived in my inbox, from which I quote:

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn the latest advances in technology such as text messaging, picture messaging, camera phones, PDAs and many other technologies…

And in the next room, we’ll be talking about fax machines, rotary phones, and photocopiers!

The full promo:

Take home MAX’S TOP TIPS
A Technology Survival Guide
for PDA-Smartphones and Digital Cameras

Technology is evolving, and it is affecting our lives and our
profession. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn the latest
advances in technology such as text messaging, picture
messaging, camera phones, PDAs and many other
technologies that agents are using to maximize their
marketing and communication.

Sign up to attend the REALTOR.com® Workshop October 15
You must register separately to attend the
C.A.R. REALTOR® EXPO Oct. 14-16, 2008

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Articles, Industry | 1 Comment 

Let’s End The Housing Crisis Here And Now … A Modest Proposal For How To Spend The $700BN

October 7, 2008

Even us “glass half-full” types have to admit the news these days is bad.  Any day Congress passes a $700BN and has to tag on only another couple billion or so of Christmas ornaments to get it passed, well, on that day, you know things were urgent, and they had to act fast.  Wooden arrow manufacturers, Caribbean distillers, and certain other recipients of congressional largesse pork may be quite happy now, but hopefully the remaining $700BN will be spend actually trying to solve the problem.

And that’s where my modest proposal comes in.

Fundamentally, this crisis is about housing values, or more specifically about uncertainty around housing values.  Behind most of the bankrupties, the bailouts, the CDO-thing-a-majiggies … lies a portfolio of mortgage loans whose value is … 3 cents on the dollar? A dime?  A quarter?  47 cents?  Nobody knows, and therein lies the problems.

Our fearless leaders have proposed spending the $700BN largely on buying these “non-performing assets.”  By some financial wizardry, the exact same folks who could not determine the value of these assets in the private market, are about to get hired by Uncle Sam to determine these assets’ values on the taxpayer’s dime.

So here’s what we do instead:  Let’s spend that $700BN buying not the mortgages, but the underlying homes themselves.  Let’s say homes in the US have an average value of $200K.  [Pause for my west and east coast readers to chuckle.]  $700BN divided by $200K is … 3,500,000 (three million five hundred thousand.)

That’s right.  With $700BN we could buy a couple of million homes.  We’d start by buying, say, 75% of the inventory on the market right now.  That should restore confidence in the market pretty quickly.

Presto!  Problem solved.

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Articles, Consumer, Industry | 5 Comments 

And Another One Bites The Dust…

September 25, 2008

Apparently at least a handful of government financial regulatory employees were doing something today other than figuring out how much money Wall Street needs to keep from further imploding…

The New York Times reports that JP Morgan Chase has taken over troubled lender Wamu.

What next?

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Articles, Consumer, Industry | 1 Comment 

What’s Happening In This Market? A Liberal Dose Of Mixed Metaphors To Help Us Understand It

September 18, 2008

Movies.  Shoes.  Phases.  What do they have in common?  All have been recently used as metaphors describing the economy or predictions of where the economy is going.

On the day that the Fannie and Freddie s$#@ hit the fan, Sherry Chris of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate quoted Realogy CEO Alex Perriello, “I feel like I am in Imelda Marcos’ closet - the shoes just keep dropping.”  Indeed.

Fast forward a few days and we get the Bawld Guy, America’s foremost maxim-generating machine, reassures us that we ain’t all gonna die.  He’s seen this movie three times before, and the asteroid doesn’t hit earth.

Finally, Nikcolai Kolding, also of Better Homes and Gardens, brings out an interesting diagram explaining the phases of the real estate market:

["Sides", for the uninitiated, refers to each of the two "sides" of a transaction.]

The diagram suggests that transaction volume, not price, is the best leading indicator of a change in the market.  In a future article I’ll see how well our local data fit into this model.

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Articles, Consumer, Industry | 1 Comment 

Attention All You Crazy Drivers In The Fair Oaks Neighborhood: Those Traffic Circles Are There To Slow You Down

September 10, 2008

Having spent much of my life in former British colonies, I am well versed in various British-isms:  marmite (yuck), lifts (not elevators), sprinkling my words with extraneous u’s … and the correct use of roundabouts — or “traffic circles” as they’re commonly known on this side of the Atlantic.  Sadly, many of the folks here in Silicon Valley seem to have missed that part of driver’s ed.

To reduce the tempatation of using the streets of Fair Oaks (in Menlo Park) as a convenient shortcut to avoid delays on Marsh Road and on Middlefield Road, the local neighborhood installed roundabouts traffic circles a while ago.  Most drivers slow down as they navigate around these obstacles, but some of the more aggressive drivers see them as a handy and challenging obstacle course, careening around them at full tilt, seemingly on two wheels.  Both the fast and the considerate drivers, however, still don’t seem to understand the most basic rule of traffic circles:  if you’re in the circle, you have the right of way.  If you’re not in the circle, you don’t have the right of way.

Simple, really — or it should be.  Alas, nearly every day brings about a near collision as a rule-following driver makes a left turn around a circle, while a non-rule-following driver comes merrily towards him, with no obvious intention of yielding.

People!  Slow down!  Yield the right of way to cars in the traffic circle.

‘Nuff said.

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900 University Ave, Palo Alto: Attention, Madam Secretary Rice: We Have The Perfect Home For You After January 20, 2008

August 4, 2008

From the US State Dept Website: http://www.sta...Image via Wikipedia

Ms. Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State

Kevin Boer, 3 Oceans Real Estate
Chris Iverson, Ventoux Real Estate

Dear Madam Secretary,

We understand based on recent news events (include Mr. Obama’s pre-emptive European victory lap), and on the harsh constitutional reality that your present employer will soon no longer be needing your services, that you may soon be looking for a new residence, perhaps near to your past employer Stanford University.

It seems, in fact, that Mr. Bush has already begun his own search, so there may be some urgency to this matter.

Allow us to suggest a residence suitable for a person of your experience and discerning taste: the Squire House at 900 University Ave in Palo Alto. This property is currently on the market, listed by the local Alain Pinel triumvirate Carol, Rosemary, and Nicole, for only $12.5M.

First of all, this home is a leisurely 20 minute walk down University Ave straight into the heart of the Stanford Campus:

Secondly, the facade of the home may well remind you of a similar grand mansion on the East Coast, one in which you have spent a considerable amount of time in the last 8 years:

(Image courtesy of 900UniversityAvenue.com)

Thirdly, the home is over 6000 square feet, and has a lot size of nearly one acre. This will provide ample room for all your entertainment, parking, and security needs.

Should you wish to view this property, have your people call our people, and we’ll make it happen.

Best regards,

Mssrs. Boer & Iverson

P.S. Some of your colleagues may be in a similar situation. We are happy to provide them with good references for real estate professionals in their home towns.

Mr. Paulson, for instance, may return to Manhattan to work for Goldman Sachs. May I recommend Mr. Noah Rosenblatt as the ideal discrete broker to assist him.

Should Mr. Gates return to his former employer, I recommend he contact Ms. Lani Anglin, who, though based in Austin, not College Station, would be a stellar pick.

If Mr. Gutierrez finds the siren song of Miami irresistible, I highly recommend Mr. Kevin Tomlinson.

Perhaps you could also relay to Senator McCain that, should he decide to retire, the right person to contact is Mr. James Wexler, one of the best real estate brokers in the Phoenix area. We understand this move might happen this year, or in 2012 or even 2016; Mr. Wexler is patient and will be awaiting his call.

Update:

Curtis Van Carter, who sells real estate in Napa Valley, claims he’s trying to nab another high-profile soon-to-be-unemployed individual, none other than “W” himself. Apparently, said individual, while in Napa Valley on a fund-raising expedition, took a little side trip to see a certain castle. Alas, it’s not even for sale, and spouse Laura found it cold and uninviting.

At the other end of the spectrum, Los Altos Realtor Joanne Fraser suggests Condi may have to settle for a $1.6M Los Altos home because Stanford profs only make $175K per year. I completely disagree. First, she’d be the Provost, not a mere professor, which means her salary would easily be $250K. Secondly, I’ve heard she may be getting help for the down payment. Finally, there are rumors of a book deal in the works!

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Hate Speling Misstakes And Bad Pictures in the MLS? Support My Campaign For NAR President And Put an End to this Nonsense once and for all

July 28, 2008

Having a little too much post-Inman fun and excitement…

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Industry | 6 Comments 

Geeks Of The World Rejoice! Behold The First-Ever Twitter-MLS!

July 22, 2008

I’ve been accused — rightly, I might add — of being a geek. I also happen to be in real estate. You put the two together, plus a keen interest in using new social media tools like Twitter, and what do you get? The Twitter-MLS!

For a long time, MLS searches have been available via email. Recently, some real estate search providers — like our friends at Trulia and at Diverse Solutions — have enabled MLS searches via RSS feeds. (That’s actually the technology I use on the sidebar to provide the link searches.)

As the latest new big online thing, Twitter has attracted a massive cult following, and as a permission-based communication tool, it’s ideal for sending out news snippets such as new listings.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Sign up for an account at Twitter if you haven’t done so already.
  2. Head thither and “follow” my Twitter “Menlo Park MLS” account. Other towns in the Bay Area will follow shortly.
  3. Sit back and enjoy the “tweets” that will come your way by cell phone, email, Twhirl, online (depending on how you configure Twitter). These “tweets” will be little news snippets about new homes to hit the market. Want more details? Click on the link in the tweet and you’ll see pictures, details, and much much more.

If you’re more of a FriendFeed type, I have the same offering available in FriendFeed room format. Find your way yonder, select your favorite city, and click “Join This Room.” And, as our British cousins would say, “Bob’s your uncle!”

FriendFeed room example for Burlingame:

Twitter example for Menlo Park:

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Articles, Consumer, For sellers, Industry, Redfin | 4 Comments 

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