Creative marketing or over the top?

….in preparation for this:                      

Its kind of hard to see, but my email and phone number are on every listing detail page on Redfin.com this weekend. Say a prayer for my sanity.

On Monday Redfin laid off 20% of its employees. I watched friends walk out the front door of our office.

I was humbled.

I talked to 3 or 4 of the people who were laid off. There was no bitterness - no hatred - but grace. They helped their successor with their newly acquired transaction. They called clients to let them know that it was a pleasure to work with them, but they had to transfer their transaction to someone else. They acted with the utmost class….

Few people would have acted this way. On Monday I was devastated - but on Monday, it became clear to me the Redfin would succeed -not necessarily because of the people still at the company (who are amazing in their own right), but because of those who departed from the company.

To those who have left - tomorrow will be lonely without you.

—-

“When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters–one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.” ~ JFK

Inspiring.

As if this wasn’t enough. Countrywide has now found out that some schmuck employee of theirs has downloaded around 2,000,000 of their customer’s personal files containing financial info, SS #’s,  and addresses. They then sold it at below black market value.

Check out the letter I got in the mail from Countrywide (Click on Letter to Read):  

On a positive note, Lisa, a supervisor at Countrywide, told me that they would accept requests for payment for time spent cancelling accounts, monitoring credit, creating fraud alerts, etc. You can fax or mail your request for compensation to the hand written address and fax # I wrote at the bottom of the letter.

Bonus: I bought WaMu (WM) stock at $1.89 and Comstock Homebuilders (CHCI) stock at .44 this week. Stupid or Smart?

1.) Pit stains and sweat pants do not sell houses:

2.) Fashion does sell houses:

Ironically, Stuff White People Like has become white people’s favorite new blog (Stuff White People like is stuff white people like). You can count me as one of those white people. I read through the blog going, “Yep I like that, oh yeah, I like that too.” I like to do things like annunciate my words when I pretend to rap. You can sometimes hear me walking down the halls of Redfin flashing my “blog” gang sign, singing “This is why I am Hot, this is why I am hot (I am hot because I am fly, you are not because you are not).” I am also obsessive about grammar, worship Steve Jobs, and have a Haile Gebrselassie-like fixation on marathons. There is also Stuff Asian People Like, Stuff Christians Like (booty-god-booty), Stuff Educated Black People Like, and Stuff Jewish People Like. In other words, there is smorgasbord of multi-cultural “people like” blogs on the internet. Which means, you guessed it, I felt compelled to write a list of “Stuff Real Estate Agents Like.”

Stuff Real Estate Agents Like (including me…. well some of them…. well one or two of them):

• Real Estate Agents like using terms like “Sphere of Influence” and “Farming.” After heavily investigating this, I found out that there is actually no geometry or Agrarian work involved at all. It turns out that these are marketing tactics for soliciting clients. Sphere of Influence is a pleasant euphemism for handing out business cards at family barbeques, and farming is sending junk mail to everyone in your neighborhood.
• Real Estate Agents like giving people gift baskets. Yum. Wine and Cheese.
• Real Estate Agents like writing things like “by the way, I am never too busy for your referrals.” in a scripted 10 point font underneath their email signature. Which of course makes you wonder what they are too busy for.
• Real Estate Agents like stating the obvious when they tour homes. You’ll hear things like “Now, here’s the kitchen.” and “Notice the neutral colors.” I have been guilty of this on more than one occasion.
• Real Estate Agents like citing statistics from the NAR. Which apparently makes us in a 60 year perpetual state of “It’s a great time to buy.”
• Real Estate Agents like personalized license plates that say SOLD. I have yet to see one that says “BOUGHT” though.
• Real Estate Agents like taking pride in pronouncing the word REALTOR correctly. It’s “REAL – TORE” not “REAL-A-TUR.”
• Real Estate Agents like acronyms. “OK, lets talk about your GFE. What was the APR like? This looks a little off, but I’m sure we can clear it up on the HUD.
• Real Estate Agents like saying “Make it a Great Day” on their voicemail greeting. I think this originated at Keller Williams. Can any KW Agents confirm or deny?
• Real Estate Agents like e-fax. I take that back. Real Estate Agents love e-fax.
• Real Estate Agents like offering a lower buy-side commission when they list their own house, then when they list other people’s houses. Don’t try and deny it agents. You know it’s true.
• Finally, Real Estate Agents like saying that they are a Million Dollar Agent. Come on folks, that’s only 3 houses in Seattle, or 1 house in San Francisco, or 8 houses in Ohio. I guess it might still have some meaning in Detroit where people buy houses for $1.

I wish I could be this petty and still pocket $150,000 commissions…. oh the life….

Usually I like to rip on the real estate industry. After all, we are an easy target. With our ridiculous self portraits frozen in time from 1987 and our shady slogans like “I’ll sell your house in 30 days, or I’ll buy it!” the real estate industry might as well have a “kick me” sign on it’s back. But today will be different my friends. Today, Blue Collar Agents, a blog about consumer focused real estate, is going to rip on real estate consumers. So, if you are a real estate consumer, sit down, compose yourself, and get ready for some constructive criticism. It will be good for you, I promise.

My boss, on 60 Minutes, said that the real estate industry is the most screwed up industry in America. I actually think its probably the second most screwed up industry in America. I think the health insurance industry is actually the most screwed up. Think about it. You’re a health conscience person. You eat celery and drink cod liver oil and spin every morning. You don’t drink, you don’t chew, and you don’t go with girls that do. And yet, somehow, you are getting charged the same amount for your health insurance as the guy on supersize me or the person who drinks margaritas at open houses every weekend. This is screwed up. And this is why I need to take a moment to ream real estate consumers (in the spirit of love of course).

Dear Real Estate Consumer,

Part of the reason real estate commissions are as high as they are is your fault.

Lovingly,
Trevor Smith 

Just like health insurance rates are through the roof partially because of folks who choose not to take care of their body, real estate commissions are through the roof because of people who drain the time of real estate agents. Allow me to elaborate.

• Consumer A (CA) educates himself on the real estate process. He goes to his local lender to get pre-approved for a loan. He researches homes online. When he is ready to go looking at homes, he calls his local traditional agent (TA). Along with the homes that CA finds online, TA finds a few of her own, and they head out house hunting. This process goes on for about a month, and together CA and TA look at about 8 homes together. They settle on a cute little fixer upper on the west side, make an offer on it that is about 3-4% below list price (because the home was already fairly reasonably priced), do some negotiations, and win the home. The home closes 30 days later, and TA pockets a 3% commission.
• Consumer B contacts the same Traditional Agent to tell her she wants to buy a home. CB isn’t sure about her budget, and hasn’t been pre-approved.  TA happily recommends a few lenders, and after some “creative financing” CB gets pre-approved. CB also isn’t sure what part of town she wants to buy in, so CB and TA have a couple of appointments where they narrow down CB’s criteria for a home. After she decides she wants to live in the North End, CB and TA go out house-hunting. After 5 home tours, CB finds the house of her dreams. She asks TA to make an offer 17% below list price. TA trys to counsel her otherwise, but can’t convince CB to make a higher initial offer. They make their offer and the seller refuses to respond, or even reingage in negotiations. TA and CB begin their house hunt again. They tour 11 more homes over the next 2 months. Finally, she finds a home that she loves and is already reasonably priced. She makes an offer 4% below list price, and after negotiations settles at 3% below list price. “Woo hoo!” thinks TA, “We finally got under contract.” However, during the inspection period, CB gets cold feet and decides to use her inspection contingency to back out of the deal.  Once again, no house for CB and no commission for TA. TA and CB do this same scenario again on 2 other homes. Make an offer, CB backs out after getting cold feet. Eventually CB decides that she doesn’t want to purchase a home, and instead rents a place from her uncle. TA gets paid nothing. 

These scenarios happen all the time, and unfortunately, Consumer A, who thought out his home buying process, did his homework, and made reasoned offers, had to pay a higher commission than he ought to have because the traditional agent had to make up for her loss on Consumer B. It’s just like health insurance - the celery eaters pay for the Big Mac eaters.

But here is what really saddens me: Until real estate consumers are willing to pay upfront for the services of a real estate agent, this will never change. Responsible consumers will keep on paying for the real estate services of irresponsible consumers. I guess in the end, maybe we kind of like it that way. After all, we never know when we might want to act like Consumer B.