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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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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NAR on Health Care

The vast majority of Realtors are independent contractors. As such, they typically have to foot the (ridiculous) cost of health insurance on their own.

Ever priced health insurance?

Many (myself included) have wondered why the NAR doesn’t throw its political weight and 1.4ish million member strong organization into helping Realtors get affordable health care.

Well, apparently they are working on it. Sort of.

From the NAR’s “Speaking of Real Estate” blog comes this article — Taking Another Stab at Health Care.

These concerns are why I’ve always intently followed NAR’s efforts to get a small-business health plan bill through Congress. I hadn’t heard much about the initiative lately — at least not until I sat in on the Business Issues Committee meeting today at the NAR Midyear Meetings.

That’s where I heard that NAR has been keeping up the fight and has now played a key role in shaping the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, a bill introduced in Senate last month. (my emphasis)

A key role? What key role? What exactly is the NAR doing in this arena? This article tells us basically nothing — no specifics, nothing about what we the membership can do to help.

Maybe the NARs activities on health care are described somewhere else. But darned if I can find it.

Do we just sit back and wait for the NAR’s “key role” to produce something?

If I’ve missed the details, I’d love for someone to point them out. Working to secure affordable health care for its memberships should be a primary point of focus for the NAR. In my humble opinion….

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Center for Realtor Technology Rolls Out “Realtor Confidential”

Those propeller heads (and I use that term with the utmost respect) at the Center for Realtor Technology have rolled out Realtor Confidential - a nifty video heavy website that promises to be chocked full of interesting real estate technology stuff.

From the “About” page:

About REALTOR® Confidential:

This new online video series, created by CRT, in conjunction with NAR’s Information Central and Public Affairs divisions, is designed to educate our membership about technology-related topics and investigate how NAR can best use Web-based technology to communicate with members.

In the first season, we follow 2007 NAR President Pat V. Combs, as she and her staff implement new technologies. The viewing audience will see what works for Pat and her staff, what doesn’t, and why — and apply many of those insights to their own businesses.

Throughout the season, the series also will include supplemental episodes that explore specific technology topics of interest to REALTORS®. Following the CRT mission, we will share the knowledge we gain in the production process with members and the real estate community.

New episodes will debut once each month, and we’ll be posting other great content along the way, so stay tuned!

Go ahead, give it a whirl!

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The Zebra Teaches History On Realtor Mag Blog

Daniel Rothamel, a man I consider a friend and one who is commonly referred to simply as “The Zebra” is penning a series of posts on Realtor Magazines blog, Speaking of Real Estate.

Daniel’s first post there is “Shouldn’t We All Know More REALTOR® History?” And of course in usual Zebra fashion, it is very well done.

Daniel tells the story of how this gig came about on his own blog, RealEstateZebra.com.

Nice work Daniel! (now that said, if you read NARWisdom, you would have known about the existence of the Realtor Magazine blog!  )

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The NAR Claims to be Listening…

In a post on the NAR’s “President’s Report” blog, NAR president Dick Gaylord says they are listening.

I commented on that post on May 13. So did Jim Duncan.

Now I understand why they can’t respond to every comment. Really I do.

But can they respond to any comment?

There was a brief moment in time where it appeared that some of the NAR leadership was “getting it”. I was encouraged, as were others.

Let’s just say that encouragement is dwindling….

In his post, Mr. Gaylord says:

To all of the REALTORS® who are driving discussion in the blogosphere, I just want to say: “Keep up the great work and please participate in the discussion on this blog.” (my emphasis)

To have a “discussion” requires a minimum of two people. One can only talk to their self for so long before they move on to where someone will actually engage in the discussion.

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Why Join NAR?

Jay Thompson asks in the comments at AG:

Other than MLS access, give me a compelling reason to join the NAR.

Well?
RPAC? Other lobbying efforts? Networking? Education?

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The NAR Credit Union?

From this article on Realtor.org, comes this:

In a controlled and phased manner, the REALTORS® Federal Credit Union plans to offer a full range of fairly priced products and services, with fewer fees, including:

Deposit and Financial Services

Loans

Other Amenities

Brochure here (that I don’t think I ever received).

I dunno. Seems like most Realtors out there already have a bank account. Maybe the focus could be on something a significant portion of Realtors don’t have. Say….. health care?

Hat tip to Roy McKenzie at PMZ Buzz.
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OOPS! One of the “30 Under 30″ Indicted for Mortgage Fraud

And in one of the biggest “Oops…” in recent memory, one of NAR’s profiled “30 under 30″ appears to be in very serious trouble…

From the June 2007 Realtor Magazine, “30 Under 30 Class of 2007″ article:

Markets may be churning, but if these dynamic practitioners are any indication, opportunity is still knocking. Although they’re under 30, they already demonstrate grit, resilience, and sheer love of the game. These bright young professionals, chosen from more than 600 applicants, showed they have what it takes to open doors in any market.

In the article they profiled one Eve Mazzarella from Las Vegas.

Now this little nugget comes out on Friday from CNBC:

LAS VEGAS - A Las Vegas real estate broker and her husband are facing federal charges they made millions of dollars orchestrating a mortgage fraud scheme.

U.S. Attorney for Nevada Gregory Brower says Eve Mazzarella, 30, and her husband, Steven Grimm, 45, were indicted Wednesday on bank fraud, money laundering and aiding and abetting charges.

Grimm was arrested Thursday in Las Vegas and is due to appear Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. Brower says Mazzarella is being sought.

If convicted, each could face decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines.

The government alleges Mazzarella and Grimm bought more than 200 properties at inflated values using limited liability companies and more than 400 straw buyers to make purchase offers.

The couple allegedly controlled transactions worth more than $100 million.

They allegedly defaulted on mortgage payments on many of the loans, causing at least 118 properties to be sold in foreclosure.

Oops….

Hat tip to Twist at HousingDoom, and “Tyrone” in the comments.

 

 

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