Random Musings Archives - Page 4 of 26 - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Maybe love means not ever having to say you’re sorry, but in business sometimes you should.

June 21, 2011 By Jay Thompson

Saying “I’m sorry” is not the easiest thing to do.

Let’s face it, having to say you are sorry means you’ve screwed something up. By their very nature, human beings don’t like to admit that they have goofed.

Okfine, I get that. Apologizing is tough, no question.

Sometimes though, it is necessary. A good thing even.

And apologizing is always, without fail, better than lying.

You see, I understand that people make mistakes. You have done it. I most certainly have done it. We all have. I would much rather hear an honest and sincere, “I’m sorry, I messed up” than be lied to.

When you email me on Saturday and say:

Check to Thompson’s Realty was dispatched to Vaughn Ave address for Monday delivery

then I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect delivery of said check as promised. It is just a wee bit annoying to be accused of not sending in the proper documentation (which incidentally was sent in two weeks prior), and for the escrow officer to have apparently forgotten the request to wire funds, not hand deliver a pain-in-the-ass-to-deal-with paper check, oh and not to mention sending the wrong amount.

More annoying than all that though is this”¦ Fast forward past the day of promised delivery to Tuesday. After inquiring about the missing delivery, thinking maybe the poor courier was lost and wandering the streets of Phoenix in some fugue state, we get this response:

The following wire has been sent:
Escrow No: xxxxxx
Amount: xxxxxx
Date: 06/21/2011 02:15 PM

So the ”˜check dispatched to Vaughn Ave address for Monday delivery’ was a line of crap. You don’t wire funds on Tuesday afternoon if you set up a dispatch on Saturday for Monday delivery. Rather you hunt down delivery boy and smack him around. You certainly don’t just blow off a multi-thousand dollar check thinking, “eh, it’ll turn up somewhere”. So said delivery was a ruse, or something equally moronic and damaging to your brand’s goodwill.

All this with no explanation, no apology, no nothing.

This bothers me.

It’s not the six day delay in getting paid. That I can deal with.

It’s not the constant, “I’m so busy” excuses. Those I can live with (though they are really annoying).

It’s not the “we never got this document,” accusation. (Followed by yet another, “Oh yes, you’re right. We’ve just been so busy we misplaced it.”)

It’s not sending the incorrect amount. Things happen.

It’s telling me you set up delivery for Monday when clearly you did not. My guess is you were trying to pacify us on Saturday, with the intention of setting up delivery Monday morning, which you forgot to do (probably because you were”¦ so busy). And then you forgot again until we said something on Tuesday.

It would have been far better to have said on Saturday, “I am so sorry. No excuses, I dropped the ball and will take care of it on Monday.” That I could respect.

Of course actually taking care of it on Monday would be a huge plus. But when presented with your transgressions the following day, and being presented with yet another opportunity to apologize, you punted to an administrative assistant that finally did what you should have done almost a week ago and got the funds wired.

Of course the poor overworked and underpaid assistant had no clue of the ineptitude that had been going along since Day 1, so she didn’t even know there was an opportunity — nay a need — for an apology.

What are the impacts of this? Let’s just say that this particular title company won’t be going on our lengthy list of “companies that do a great job”. Instead, they will be relegated to the (fortunately) shorter, yet far more income-limiting “avoid doing business with at all costs” list.

Which list would you prefer your business to be on?

Is it really that hard to say “I’m sorry”?

Photo Credit: Florian on Flickr. CC Licensed.

An Open Letter to Phoenix Realty Executives Agents

May 1, 2011 By Jay Thompson

As you are well aware, the local (and national) news this week has been filled with stories about some recent trouble at Realty Executives Phoenix. Lockouts at offices, a lawsuit by an office building owner, and Friday’s announcement that Realty Executives will be filing a Chapter 11 reorganization.

Many of the articles are filled with comments bashing Realty Executives and their agents (and real estate agents in general). This is not terribly surprising given much of the general public’s less-than-stellar opinion of our industry. Even less surprising is the vast majority of those negative comments are left by people who don’t have the fortitude to put their name on what they have to say. Shocking, I know. If anyone gets disheartened reading the drivel these anonymous commenters post, just consider the source. They aren’t worth the time it takes to read their expletive and poor grammar filled blather.

I can guarantee you that none of those naysayers have ever worked with the Realty Executive agents that I know. I am fortunate to call several Realty Executive agents my friend, and rest assured they are all outstanding real estate agents and more importantly, world-class people. In all the cross-transactions agents in our brokerage have done, not once, not one time, have there been issues when a Realty Execs agent was on the other side. I can only wish that was true for every brokerage we’ve dealt with.

The biggest travesty in the Realty Executives news though isn’t the asinine comments left behind in these articles. No, the biggest travesty is the real estate brokerages out there that are using this news in their recruiting efforts. I know of no less than four brokerages that have left comments and sent out recruiting material highlighting the problems at Realty Executives and groveling for agents to come work for them.

In my opinion, that’s reprehensible behavior. Those choosing this tactic might want to consider our friend Karma. Sometimes she’s a bitch and will come back to bite you. The real estate market in Phoenix hasn’t been all that great the past few years, and Realty Executives certainly isn’t the first brokerage to face difficulty, and they won’t be the last. Piling on and using this recent news to recruit more agents to your brokerage is a classless act. Try telling people what you have to offer, how your brokerage can help them, what you do for your agents and their clients – not kicking someone when they are down and taking advantage of their agent’s fears and concerns.

In short, grow up and play nice. We’re all in this together. Now isn’t the time to take advantage of a fellow brokers difficulty. What we should all be doing is offering to help, not adding to the river of crap already flowing at full force in the mainstream media.

If you are a Phoenix Realty Executives agent, hang in there. And don’t be dismayed by what you read online and in print. There are people out there pulling for you. Keep your chin up and continue to service your clients. They picked YOU to represent them, not your brokerage. You can still do that. And you will.

Peace.

The Lazy Song

April 23, 2011 By Jay Thompson

Right now, I should be penning some treatise on the state of the real estate market in Phoenix. You know, some words of wit and/or wisdom to help inform Phoenix home buyers and sellers so that they can make sound decisions on their real estate purchase or sale.

Or maybe I should write about something that may affect the daily lives of real estate professionals that stop by here. Perhaps opine on the upcoming debate at NAR’s Midyear Legislative meetings surrounding RPPSI ”“ the “Realtor Party Political Survival Initiative”. Or maybe the recent letter that Realty Alliance sent to the NAR asking the MLS Committee (of which I am a member) to repeal the rule allowing real estate brokerage franchisors to display IDX data.

Ah, I already wrote about RPPSI (twice), and Rob Hahn filled us in on Realty Alliance and franchisor IDX.

I should be writing an article for Tree.com too (here is last weeks article).

And I should build a page here outlining our property management services.

And I still can’t fix the damn sub-navigation menu problem I’ve been having since I “upgraded” WordPress and my theme.

And I should be polishing up ReveiwOurAgents.com

There’s a lot of stuff I should be doing.

Problem is, I’m all tapped out today. Normally I’m pretty driven, sometimes to a fault. But I can’t seem to get it together at the moment.

This song, which I posted to Facebook not too long ago, sums up my mood today. So I say, “forget all the crap that should get done. I’m headed to the back porch with some chilled adult beverages.”

Enjoy your weekend folks, we’ll return on Monday with something more compelling and engaging than this post”¦

Maybe! 😉

The Lones Group v. Rothamel: A case study in destroying your on-line reputation

February 25, 2011 By Jay Thompson

The Lones Group

Oh wait. For the sue-happy out there, let’s start with some disclosures:

I am not an attorney, in any way, shape or form. I consider Daniel Rothamel and his family (also parties to the lawsuit I’m about to discuss) personal friends. And until today, I had never heard of The Lones Group. I have no idea if they are good at what they do, nor do I really care – that’s not the point. Finally, what follows is simply my personal opinion, which I freely admit is biased and slanted due to my relationship with the Rothamel’s. You are also forewarned that this will be an interminably long post”

Lawyers, sheesh. (And no hard feelings to my good friends who are practicing attorneys or aren’t practicing but hold Juris Doctor degrees).

This morning, Inman News (a real estate news organization) posted an article, ‘Real Estate Zebra’ hit with trademark suit. (~~This article will slip behind Inman’s pay wall in the next 24 hours~~ Inman is keeping this article on the free side)

To summarize from the Inman article:

Real estate agent and blogger Daniel Rothamel — known for years to his readers as the “Real Estate Zebra” — has been hit with a trademark infringement lawsuit by a company that produces a “Zebra Report” and “Zebra Blog” to market its services to real estate agents.

Bellingham, Wash.-based The Lones Group Inc. claims its use of zebra-themed imagery and trademarks predates Rothamel’s, and that he is “unfairly diverting business” away from the company.

In a complaint filed Tuesday against Rothamel and his brokerage, Strong Team Realtors Inc., The Lones Group seeks an injunction restraining Rothamel and the brokerage from using “in any manner” the trademarks The Zebra Blog or The Zebra Report, “and any other term or terms likely to cause confusion,” including “Real Estate Zebra.”

The lawsuit also seeks compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $75,000, including an award for damages equal to three times the amount of actual damages. (Note: I removed the link to The Lones Group. Bad reporting. So sue me.)

My first thought was, “You’ve got to be freaking kidding me,” followed swiftly by, “Who the hell is The Lones Group?”

So I did a little research.

My first stop was the legal complaint filed by The Lones Group. It states:

Lones is a preeminent source of electronic publishing and weblog (“blog”) services in the field of real estate. Lones is well known for its distinctive trade dress used in connection with these services (the “Lones Trade Dress”), which features an image of a zebra and zebra stripes.

Lones is also well known for its family of trademarks, THE ZEBRA BLOG and THE ZEBRA REPORT (the “Lones Marks”) used in connection with its electronic publishing and blog services.

Now of course I am not personally familiar with every source of electronic publishing and blog services in the field of real estate. I am familiar with a LOT of them, and admit I was somewhat surprised that I had absolutely zero prior knowledge of such a “preeminent” and “well known source” of real estate blog services. Never even heard them mentioned before. But hey, I’ve only been a real estate blogger for almost six years, so I can’t know all the preeminent players in the space.

My first thought on reading the “about” section of the complaint was that Daniel Rothamel and the Strong Team Realtors aren’t even close to being competitors of The Lones Group. Daniel and his brokerage are not a source of electronic publishing and blog services in the field of real estate. They are real estate agents and brokers, who help people buy and sell real estate. The Lones Group sells things to real estate agents. Plus, Daniel and team are in Virginia, The Lones Group is in Belllingham, Washington. They are 2,869 miles apart (I looked it up).

This was not computing.

Next stop on the trail was The Lones Group web site. (I’m still not linking to it. It’s number 1 “for now” on Google for “The Lones Group”, “The Lones Group Inc”, “Lones Group” and similar terms if you really want to see it.)

According to their about page, “The Lones Group started the Real Estate marketing revolution… and we are darn proud of it!”. Wow. Honestly I didn’t even know there was a “Real Estate marketing revolution”. Silly me, I though real estate agents and brokerages had been marketing themselves since time immemorial. I suppose you could call the somewhat recent usage of real estate blogs and social media a “marketing revolution”. Whatever.

Denise Lones, the President of the Lones Group, has a background in real estate sales but is now apparently, “focused on training others how to provide top-notch customer service as well as restructuring their businesses to efficiently use their time and effectively market their services to potential clients.” Herein lies some remarkable irony. Not only does the Lones Group not compete with Strong Team Realtors, a real estate brokerage, they and their agents are potential clients of the Lones Group. Seems odd to me to sue a potential client. Particularly one as widely known and respected in the real estate social media space as Daniel Rothamel.

And surely, since they started the real estate marketing revolution, the Lones Group is well aware of the impact of social media on real estate.

Surely.

The Social Media Melt Down – The Lones Group Kills a brand/name in an afternoon

Since the Inman article was released, there has been a flurry of commentary on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. The vast majority of that activity involves incredulous reactions. Daniel Rothamel is a champion among men. He is one of the brightest, caring and most giving individuals I know. And I am not alone in this assessment. When you read things in the legal complaint like, “Defendants’ (Rothamel and Strong Team) conduct was and is calculated to cause injury to Plaintiff (The Lones Group) in the State of Washington” anyone that is even remotely familiar with Daniel and his family know that nothing could be further from the truth. “Was and is calculated to cause injury”?? I don’t give a shit if that’s “legal speak” or not, it’s insulting and so far from the truth it is ludicrous.

When this whole mess started, there was a crazy number of people saying, “Who is The Lones Group and what is their problem?” Here are some examples from a Twitter search:

“It is an excellent way for the Lones Group to establish themselves as a hated name in the RE industry though”

“the Lones group must be hurting for money and I’ve never heard if then either”

“Lones describes their client base after they are done with the lawsuit.”

“The Lones Group? There’s one company I will *never* use for marketing or anything else they claim to do.”

“It’s funny… I’ve never heard of The Lones Group. Until today.”

“Ridiculous what they are doing.”

“To the Lones Group. Really? I mean Really?”

“Google’s new “Social Search” isn’t looking too hot for the lones group…”

“Denise Lones is a good teacher, enjoyed her classes.” (the only “pro Lones” message I’ve found so far)

“wondering if lones group knows the power of ONE well written blogpost & 30 days of world class SEO…#lonesgroupsux”

And that’s just part of one search. It goes on and on, you get the idea.

The scary thing, or what should be the scary thing for the Lones Group is this is all coming from their potential client base. Sure, there are many many real estate agents that will never see Twitter or Facebook mentions. And in a few days the Twitter stream will die down. So what is the lasting damage to the Lones Groups good name and brand?

Time will tell. There is little doubt that posts like you are reading now will get indexed in Google forever. Even those agents who aren’t active in the social media space are likely to Google The Lones Group. They will be presented with glowing testimonials, along with opinions like this one. It will be up to each of those individuals to decide whether or not to use the Lones Groups services, or to buy the products the Lones Group sells on their web site.

Keep in mind too, the power of word of mouth. It is the most powerful marketing medium in existence. What social media does with word of mouth is vastly broaden its reach. Sure, not every potential client of The Lones Group is on Twitter and Facebook, and clearly not all their potential clients read this blog. But when people with thousands of Twitter followers and Facebook friends jump to defend someone they know and respect it does not bode well for the company on the other side. Word travels fast. The real estate community is pretty tight knit. This will move beyond the social media space and continue to progress through word of mouth and other traditional channels. Of that, I have no doubt.

The lawsuit the Lones Group has filed states that the U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington has jurisdiction in that case because, “the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.” It also states that, “As a result of Defendants’ conduct, Plaintiff has suffered harm to its reputation and goodwill, and unless Defendant is restrained and enjoined, Plaintiff will continue to suffer harm from Defendants’ conduct.”

Well here’s a message to The Lones Group – I think you’ve done far more than $75K in damage to yourself — THIS AFTERNOON — then Daniel putting a stylized image of a freaking zebra on his website could ever hope to do. The Real Estate Zebra caused you to suffer harm to your reputation and goodwill?

Mayhap you should sue YOURSELF Lones Group for the harm to your reputation and goodwill that you flung upon yourselves with this ridiculous lawsuit.

Whew. 1,814 words. Thanks for reading, I feel better now.

Legal Defense Fund for Daniel

A web site to collect funds for Daniel’s legal defense has been set up at ZebraDefenseFund.com. If there is anything you can contribute, please do so. Short of cash? How about a blog post? Help spread the word. Ask your friends if they can donate. If anyone would like the code to the donation button to put on a post, just let me know. I’ve *never*, not once, asked anyone to link to anything I’ve written. And I won’t do that now. Of course if you want to link to this post, I have no problem with that. If you write a post, let me know and ~~I’ll link to it here.~~ (please see update below).

Fight the good fight Daniel, don’t let The Lones Group bring you down. You ARE the Real Estate Zebra. And you always will be – no matter what happens.

Contribute to Daniel’s Defense Fund Here

Update 2/28:

Sorry folks, I’m not going to attempt to link to all the blog posts on this topic. They are not hard to find. I’ve been accused both publicly and privately of “piling on” (and worse) and it’s just not worth the battle. I’m tired of fighting it with the same people over and over. I’m sure some will feel that I’m giving in to these people, and I understand that sentiment. The bottom line is some of the accusers are right — in some ways. They’re also mistaken in other ways.

This post was written for two reasons — to try to help educate people on what can happen in the social networking space, and to try to help my friend Daniel in a very difficult time for him. I’m not taking that back. People need to understand just how easy it is to destroy your name in the social media space. And I will **never** step down from helping my friends.

You are completely free to disagree with my tactics, the way I’ve chosen to to try to help educate, or my writing style. That’s fine, no problem, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Differing opinions are good. But please don’t tell me or imply that I desire to “destroy” the Lones Group business. That is ludicrous. As I stated in my post, I have no idea if they are good at what they do. They may be brilliant. They may well produce the most visually stunning, compelling and effective marketing material in the country. And more power to them if they do. But they either: 1) do not understand how social media and networking can impact a brand’s perception; or 2) they know, they weighed it, and they chose to move ahead anyway. If #1 is correct, then I hope they and others can learn from this. If #2 is correct, then they took a calculated risk and only time will tell how that pans out for them.

Photo Credit: imjustcreative.com

Even the big boys get it wrong. Associated Press misquotes ARMLS. Shocking!

February 24, 2011 By Jay Thompson

If you’ve read Phoenix Real Estate Guy for any length of time, you will know I’m not exactly a “mainstream media” fanboy. The MSM’s tendency to write sensationalistic headlines and copy is annoying at best, and down right false and/or misleading at worst.

Yesterday was no different.

Two Associated Press writers, Derek Kravitz and Janna Herron, blew it in their article Home prices plummet in most big US cities (that particular link is to the Wall Street Journal copy of the AP article. You can also find it reprinted in the Washington Post, San Francisco Examiner, BusinessWeek, The Miami Herald and approximately 38,400 news sources according to Google).

In an email to their subscribers today (and in a blog post) the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) communicated that they had been misquoted in the AP article. The quote as published by the AP was:

In Phoenix, about 70 percent of all homes with a mortgage were at risk of foreclosure in January, according to the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service.

According to ARMLS, the 70 percent number was gleaned from their February issue of STAT ”“ the monthly Phoenix metro area statistics report that ARMLS publishes. In the February STAT, ARMLS said:

Of the 6,541 total sales in January, 70.2% (4,591) were distressed.

A “distressed sale” is a sale that involves either a short sale (the seller, with lender approval, selling the home for less than what they owe) or a lender-owned property (a home that has been foreclosed on and has reverted back to the lender).

Granted, that is a depressing statistic, but it is a FAR cry from “about 70 percent of all (Phoenix area) homes with a mortgage were at risk of foreclosure in January.” The number of closed distressed sales in a given month has nothing to do with the number of homes across the metro area that are at risk of foreclosure.

The AP blew it.

Maybe you’ll see a half-column inch retraction/correction buried 12 pages deep three days from now in some of the 38,000+ publications that printed the story.

Or maybe not.

What we have here is living evidence of several things:

Humans make mistakes. And reporters are human (at least as best we can tell).
Real estate statistics can be easy to goof up and misinterpret. Particularly if you are not used to reading, analyzing and interpreting them on a regular basis. Sometimes our odd vernacular is confusing ”“ to everyone.
You can’t believe everything you read in the mainstream media (or anywhere else for that matter).

Some folks tend to dismiss “blogs” and “citizen journalism” as being inaccurate, biased and not worth the phosphors on the monitor you are reading. Many people place blind faith and trust into publishers like the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the Associated Press. Their writers and editors are after all, trained professionals.

Both of these groups of people ”“ the blog haters and the undying believers of the mainstream press ”“ are on the far ends of the spectrum. The bottom line is, you shouldn’t place blind trust in any news medium. Read with a critical eye, question everything, and look at multiple sources when something seems suspect.

Oh, and cancel that subscription to the Wall Street Journal. You can get new Phoenix Real Estate guy posts by email, for free”¦

Maybe love means not ever having to say you’re sorry, but in business sometimes you should.

An Open Letter to Phoenix Realty Executives Agents

The Lazy Song

Even the big boys get it wrong. Associated Press misquotes ARMLS. Shocking!

Who is The Phoenix Real Estate Guy?

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