Center for Realtor® Technology Survey

Those folks at the CRT do good work. Help them out by taking the annual technology survey. (Link repaired)

And while you’re in the survey mood. stop by the Virginia Association of Realtors® blog and take their survey too (if that is, you consider yourself a real estate blogger).

RealtorFix Plugin for Wordpress

No, the plugin won’t fix the NAR  ;)

But it does make it easy to put that pesky “®” after the word REALTOR® in all your Wordpress posts so you’re fully compliant with the law of the NAR trademark, “Realtor®”

Written by John Lockwood of Particlewave, you can download the plugin here.

More details can be found here. (link corrected)

FTP it to your plugin folder, activate it, and you are good to go.

It’s a pain to get that “®” in there.  This plugin work like a charm. Once activated, you can just type “the R word” and it will automatically insert the ®. John’s even coded it so it won’t wreck domain names with the R word in them (though we all know you can only use “Realtor®” in a domain in very limited instances, right?)

Very cool.

Now to be in full compliance YOU’VE GOT TO SHOUT OUT THE R WORD IN ALL CAPS.  But this is the year 2008, someone needs to realize that requiring REALTOR® to be in all caps is just silly.  What’s wrong with plain old Realtor®?

Do you see ANY OTHER PROFESSION that requires the USE OF ALL CAPS? Seriously, I’d like to know of just one more…
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From the “Are You Really That Out of Touch?” Files

You’ve got to be kidding me.

From the “Daily Real Estate NEWS” of Realtor Magazine:

Is it time to rethink the traditional open house?

Practitioner Craig Proctor, of RE/MAX Worldwide, advocates a new approach. Rather than do an open house, which take up lots of time and hundreds of dollars in advertising costs, he says it’s better to team up with other agents and do a “Tour of Homes.”

These marketing events feature approximately six homes in the same price range, and typically are scheduled for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. Each dwelling is open at a particular time, and buyers can speak with the agent in any property at the time listed.

Proctor says a Tour of Homes takes up less of the practitioners’ and sellers’ time, draws more motivated buyers, and generates “an auction-like atmosphere” that creates greater buyer urgency.

As a result, homes on the tour tend to sell quicker and for top dollar. Practitioners with a limited inventory should ask other agents in their office if their listings could be featured in the tour, which benefits both parties by attracting buyers and enhancing listing exposure, according to Proctor.

My emphasis on the “new approach”…

New???? Please, agents have been doing this for a long time.

I’ve never been a Proctorologist. Personally, I find his “SuccessWebsites” to be horribly cluttered and “old school”. And if this is his idea of something new, well. . .

There’s no arguing that the guy sells a ton of real estate (and web sites, and tapes, and seminars). He’s supposedly one of the top 10 RE/MAX agents in the world.

Which is why is so flipping hard to believe he thinks a Tour of Homes is a new approach.

And Realtor Magazine just reprints this drivel?

Hat Tip to @cwaterhouse

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Realtor.com Adds Home Valuation. Apparently Blows It.

Dustin Luther on 4Realz.net has an analysis of Realtor.com’s “Home Values” — the latest in Automated Valuations for home prices.

Looks like they pooched it.

Pooched: adj. (slang) made unusable; broken; buggered (British)

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New Poll on NAR Wisdom

See the top of the center sidebar. Over there —>

Please take a moment to vote in the poll, “Does the NAR Need a Social Media Director?”

Don’t know what a Social Media Director is? See this post.

Hey Lawrence Yun and NAR! Thanks for the $200!

Well, they haven’t actually given me the $200…. yet ;)

Yesterday’s post lamented the fact that the NAR sent an email asking people to take a survey. In said email, they promised you’d be entered for a drawing for $200. Alas, no such thing happened….

But this just came into the inbox:

Dear Survey Participant,

It has been brought to our attention that in the Market Assessment Survey sent on June 3, 2008 an error occurred and unfortunately survey participants were not given a link to be included in the prize drawing. We apologize for this unanticipated error. In order to give all participants the opportunity to be included in the drawing, we have provided a new link where you can enter your email address for the drawing.

Please click on the link below to input your email address only if you have participated in the survey.

Link redacted.

Huh. “It has been brought to our attention”. Wonder who brought it to their attention?

I also wonder how many people are going to click away and enter the drawing even if they didn’t take the survey….

Do the right thing people. You’re all sworn to uphold that Realtor Code of Ethics ya know… More importantly, you should be upholding the higher standard of the Human Code of Ethics.

Now if I had written this follow up email, I’d have re-included the link to the survey. That would make it much easier for people that didn’t take it yesterday to jump in there and complete the survey today. Doing such probably would have increased their response rate and decreased the probability of people blindly stuffing their name into the hat for the drawing. But since the NAR has apparently ignored my offer to be their social media director, I didn’t write the email.

Good on the NAR for making it right. Sort of.

And where is that job offer?
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Hey Lawrence Yun and NAR! Where’s my $200?

From the email inbox:

Dear Member,

In recent months there has been extensive coverage and discussion of foreclosures, auction sales, and short sales. Actual data on these subjects, however, is somewhat limited.

We need your feedback and observations on these topics. We are interested in your opinion regarding housing condition in your market. We would appreciate your taking about 10 minutes of your time to fill out the survey we have prepared. To access the survey click the following link or copy and paste the link into your browser;

Link Redacted

The survey will remain open until Friday June 6, 2008.

At the end of the survey you will be given the opportunity to enter a drawing for 3 prizes of $200 each.

Your participation in this survey is confidential. Results of this study are analyzed at the aggregate, not individual, level. We appreciate your time and thank you in advance for your input.

Lawrence Yun
Senior Vice President, Chief Economist, Research
The National Association of REALTORS®

My emphasis in the bold italics..

No, I didn’t take the survey just for a remote shot at winning $200.

But I’d like to at least have had the opportunity, as promised!

But nooooo…. I took the survey, and was promptly led to a Zoomerang splash screen thanking me and offering a free survey.

But no way to enter the drawing…

Don’t you guys test these things before hitting “send”?

You’ve got my address, feel free to mail the check. Or just apply it to my dues.

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