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Agents “Payback for Greedy Builders” is Bunk!

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Builder’s incentives to agents. I’ve blogged about it here. And yes, it irritates the crap out of me that builders slammed agents a year ago and now bend over backwards to kiss our chisled behinds.

BUT when I see a statement like this in an article, it pisses me off to no end:

“Some agents are avoiding new subdivisions unless clients ask to see homes there. They say it’s payback for greedy builders who raised prices with impunity and slashed commissions.”

The problem with this quote is it’s true. SOME agents do avoid new subdivisions. SOME agents even talk their clients out of looking in certain areas just because they hold a grudge against a builder.

This, oh avid reader, is a load of baloney. It’s hooey, it’s horsehocky, it’s bunk.

SOME agents apparently forget how to do their job. Not only do we have a legal fiduciary responsibility to our clients, we are supposed to help our buyer clients find a home that meets THEIR needs, not ours! We are not in any postion to exercise “payback for greedy builders”, especially not at our clients expense.

It’s the same thing as refusing to show buyers homes with lower co-brokes than “standard” (whatever the heck that means). That’s just plain wrong. And why do some sellers feel compelled to throw in a “buyer’s agent bonus” when they list their home? No buyer’s agent should be more motivated to sell a home with a bonus over one without.

But SOME agents do!

SOME agents should be ashamed of themselves. It’s bozos like this that give the entire lot of agents a bad name.

“Greedy builders”? What about greedy agents?

If you let your clients needs motivate you to help them find a home, the commission checks will follow. It’s called customer service.

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This article in today’s Arizona Republic is what inspired this blog entry:

Once spurned real estate agents now wooed by builders

Or read it here… [Read more…]

Home Staging Gone Bad

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Just when I thought I’d heard of everything…. this may be the single most rediculous idea I’ve heard yet….

Extreme Home Staging
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Home sellers long ago discovered that small touches could boost selling prices – fresh flowers, the smell of freshly baked cookies. Now a real estate developer, Centex of Dallas, is adding in beautiful people.

The experiment in what’s called “staging” is simple: Home buyers enter a home and see not just furniture but real people – actors – playing out the life they might lead there.

The Centex program, which its creators call HomeLife, has been used twice so far at Milestone, a 166-house development in Santa Clarita, about 25 miles north of Hollywood.

In one performance, the ‘model’ family spent about three hours pretending it was Mom’s birthday. They baked a cake, sang happy birthday and the children drew and framed a picture – of a Centex house. The original cast included a former Baywatch hunk, Jaason Simmons, in the role of Dad.

There’s more, if you can stand it…

Hat tip to Becky Troutt for finding this article. She commented on her blog:

……Ok, so picture this: You are walking through a model home and come across a “family” acting like they live there while they bake a cake, play cards or want to “show you around in their home.” How un-comfortable or weird would this be? It’s like having a seller at home during a showing. The purpose of viewing a home is in hopes that no one is there so you feel comfortable opening cabinets and looking in closets. If you have a “family” there, don’t you think more people are going to be watching what the family is doing or talking to them versus really looking at the house? GIVE ME A BREAK!

A note to builders: Spend your money on something useful like buyer incentives or paying their closing costs OR better yet how about cutting the price off the home instead of paying people to “pretend to be a family” in a model home???

I must say that I concur with Becky. Is it just us, or is this not the dumbest idea ever?

Blogs Will Grow as Tool for Real Estate

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Well avid reader’s, our little spot here in the blogosphere was mentioned (sort of…) in the Arizona Republic today. I spoke with the reporter, David van den Berg, at length last week about real estate and blogging. He was a nice guy, and asked a lot of great questions. I wish he’d had more space to print some of them. I also wish he would have printed the URL to this blog like he did with everyone else he quoted, but oh well, nothing I can do about that. Regardless of what the article says, I don’t maintain this blog with the sole purpose of driving traffic to our web site. That’s just one of many goals for this blog.

The main goals for this blog are to give me a place to opine and write, to provide information and yes, to help drive traffic to my main site (where if it’s information you are looking for, you will find a veritable treasure trove.)

And don’t worry, even though Mr. Ron LaMee, vice president of information services for the Arizona Association of Realtors, thinks “real estate agents, blogging about topics other than real estate isn’t a good idea”, I’ll continue to go off on a tangent occasionally… I don’t see anything wrong with injecting a little personality into the blog and I think that real estate blogs are here to stay.

Blogs will grow as tool for real estate

David van den Berg
The Arizona Republic
May. 17, 2006 12:00 AM
article link

The blogosphere, that online realm of information and opinion covering a massive range of people and issues, has snared at least three Southeast Valley real estate agents.

Shannon Hubbard of Mesa, an investor and real estate agent with Great American Realty in Ahwatukee Foothills, runs www.blogarizona.com. Hubbard has been blogging for about two years. Her husband, Scott, also blogs at www.homeinspection blog.com. She believes people and businesses will continue to find uses for blogs.

“I know when I first set up blogarizona, a lot of people looked at blogs as if they were a fad,” she said. “You can actually get into a discussion with someone as opposed to just reading a marketing message.”

”Jay Thompson of Gilbert, an agent with Century 21 Aware in Mesa, said he’s been blogging for little more than a year. The blog has achieved Thompson’s goal, driving traffic to his Web site, he said.

Most of the time, Thompson said he keeps his blog focused on real estate. “Occasionally, I’ll go off on a tangent,” Thompson said. “Do my opinions turn some people off? Probably.”

”David Thomas of Gilbert has been a real estate agent for 20 years and has been blogging with his wife, Paula, for less than a year. The Thomases, agents with West USA Realty in Mesa, have a blog at www.onlinearizonahomes.com and contribute to www.blogarizona.com.

David Thomas said he doesn’t think blogging is a “huge thing at this point” for local real estate agents, but it could grow in popularity.

“I wanted to do it and my wife decided to do it because there was a need to get some basic real estate information out to people,” Thomas said. “We’ve seen some interest. Insofar as acquiring clients I don’t believe that it’s been a huge benefit, but insofar as informing clients, there I believe it has been helpful and I believe it will continue to be helpful.”

Real estate agents will face ethical scrutiny for blogging if they post disparaging comments about competitors or inaccurate or fabricated information, said Ron LaMee, vice president of information services for the Arizona Association of Realtors. Still, for real estate agents, blogging about topics other than real estate isn’t a good idea, he said.

It’s not all about the money my a$$, rents are up and dumb agents fall for silly scam…

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Developers now eyeing big picture over the quick buck

Link to article

Apr. 23, 2006 12:00 AM

It’s not all about the money these days in metropolitan Phoenix’s real estate world, at least with some developers. Some builders are talking more about planning for the Valley’s future than what they can make on a deal.

[Jay’s opine: Trust me, it IS all about the money.]

Look at the Superstition Vistas deal in the far southeast Valley. That giant swath of desert owned by the Arizona State Land Department could easily turn into the next series of Valley subdivisions with congested roads and not enough jobs or retail to support the homes. But for what is likely the first time in Arizona, developers, utilities and a wide range of government agencies are brainstorming how to work together to grow better. [And “grow better” = “more money”. Duh.]

The groups even paid the Morrison Institute, a public-policy think tank, to come up with some ideas of how to better develop the 176,000-acre Superstition Vistas site.

Now look at Papago Park. A dozen prominent Valley real estate executives got together to brainstorm how to make it metro Phoenix’s version of New York’s Central Park.

And some in that group will likely never make money off the park’s facelift.

[Jay’s opine: If you don’t think a well devloped and high traffic Papago Park won’t make money for these folks, I can hook you up with an agent selling swampland in Florida. Check the real estate values around Central Park compared to other parts of Manhattan…]

Also, at recent real estate industry forecasts, the talk has been more focused on water shortages, transportation problems and housing affordability than how much a building sold for or how many housing permits a builder pulled in a subdivision.

Some market watchers, like Rob Melnick of the Morrison Institute, say the Valley’s real estate market is at a crossroads. Developers see growth coming and realize there’s more money to be made if it does. [Jay says, “Um, so much for it not being all about the money…”] But if the area’s problems aren’t tackled now, growth will slow.

Talking about the issues is a good start. But it’s time for action.

Pricier apartments

The average rent on a Valley apartment jumped 6.3 percent in the past year. That’s the biggest annual increase since the mid-1990s.

It now costs $772 a month to rent the typical apartment in metro Phoenix, reports RealFacts. Renters are bound to be shocked because the monthly payments on apartments had been basically flat since 2001.

[Jay’s opine: And when apartment rents rise, typically rental rates across all types of housing rise. Rents have been flat here for quite some time.]

Sweet home Arizona

Does the band Lynyrd Skynyrd have ties to the Valley’s real estate market?

According to the Arizona Department of Real Estate, a group of people claiming to have connections to the Southern rock band is contacting real estate agents across the state, claiming to have an investor who wants to buy houses or land. They try to rush the deal and ask for the agents to pay for their hotel rooms and meals. Then when the real estate agent finishes all the paperwork, the potential buyer disappears. And the deal never closes.

The Phoenix Police Department has received several complaints from real estate agents foiled by these Lynyrd Skynyrd groupies.

[Jay’s opine: The Arizona Department of Real Estate should receive several complaints about idiotic real estate agents. Any agent who falls for this scam ought to have their license revoked. Too bad there’s not a minimum IQ requirement for getting a real estate sales license…]

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The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...

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