I write a lot.
Ironically, the worst grades I ever received were in 10th grade English (a ‘D’) and my freshman year computer programming class (another ‘D’) –– and now I build websites and write blogs.
Go figure.
Below is a series we created for fellow agents. It talks about the business of real estate and tackles a lot of the issues we face as agents.
Yesterday’s Model. Today’s Market.
We Did a Thing By now, the word is on the street –– and yes, it’s true, we did a thing. A month (or so) ago, we decided we were going to do what we always try to do –– make moves that cut against convention –– and it seems to have caught the Richmond brokerage […]
Management by Cliche
The large majority of my formative years were spent playing sports. I was fortunate in that I got to play with and against some really good players –– and they were the primary reason that I am now in sales, but I digress … Over that time, I encountered a lot of coaches, too. Some […]
Click Here for Fear
No news program, blogger, or Twitterer ever got rich by issuing the following statement, ‘Everything is perfectly normal and you don’t need to really worry about anything.’ And with the housing market going from great to insane during COVID, it is only natural that any move in the opposite direction will garner a great deal […]
Stop Trying to Time the Market
(A quick note – This piece was originally written in response to an individual who kept telling me only idiots were buying houses at these prices, and that the market was about to crash. When I finally asked them what bets they had made to profit from the market’s pending collapse, they couldn’t provide any. […]
This Wasn’t on the Exam
I got my real estate license in 1993 –– well before online MLS, cell phones, ShowingTime, and laser printers. I’m old. The real estate exam (which I took on a DOS based computer without a mouse, btw) tested my ability to regurgitate the real estate facts, regulations, and definitions that were crammed in my head during […]
2022 HOUSING MARKET FORECAST IN RICHMOND VA
At the beginning of each year, we do a report for not just our agents, but our clients and the general public about what we are seeing on the horizon for the coming year. And thus, we just completed our slide deck and video capture for 2022. The goal with any of our presentations is […]
It’s Still a Train Wreck
In February, we published a piece called, ‘The Train Wreck that is Housing’ –– it was one of our most widely read and shared articles ever. The gist of the article is that the housing crisis we are experiencing was not caused by COVID as much as it was exacerbated by it –– and it seemed […]
How to Win a Bidding War
The feeling is familiar enough by now –– the perfect listing comes out and your clients want to buy it. They know the market is hot, but they really don’t have a sense of how extreme the conditions are right now. They hear the stories, but they (like most) don’t fully grasp how difficult their journey […]
Thoughts on Scaling a Business
I’m not sure why, but for whatever reason, I have been in a lot of conversations about ‘scaling’ lately. Scaling, in the business context, is generally another word for growth. In a purist’s eyes, scaling is a specific form of growth where the revenues grow faster than the expenses required to support the growth by […]
The Train Wreck That is Housing
In case you hadn’t heard, we have an inventory problem. Right now, in a region of 1.3M people, we have +/- 500 homes for sale. I know what you are thinking –– ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know, low inventory. We get it. Not a lot of houses. Thanks. Can you maybe talk about something else […]
Problems, and Why We Suck at Solving Them
Lately, we have been spending a lot of time at One South thinking about thinking. More specifically, we have been spending a lot of time studying thinking and trying to get better at it. Practicing thinking is no different than say, practicing golf –– when you break down thinking into its component parts and practice […]
Imperfect Information and Decision Making
The score was 1-0. It was the top of the 6th inning and Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays was working on a 2 hit, 9 strikeout performance in Game 6 of the World Series. For the non-baseball inclined, Snell was having a heckuva game. *** Sports Disclaimer *** I fully recognize that […]
The Overconfidence Bias
The year was 2008. The CEO on stage was the epitome of confidence –– wearing his favorite custom-tailored suit, starched shirt with sparkling cufflinks, a full Windsor knot on the silk tie, and sporting a matching shiny leather belt with recently buffed Italian shoes. Flanked by an interactive slideshow projected on the oversized screen, he made […]
The Lure of Two Commas
Take your pick this evening when you are channel surfing –– would you rather binge-watch ‘Million Dollar Beach House’ or ‘Million Dollar Agent’? Or if you are a fan of Bravo’s ‘Million Dollar Listing,’ do you prefer the series filmed in New York, Miami, San Francisco, or LA? You have a lot of choices because, […]
The Smallest Viable Audience
For those of you who do not follow Seth Godin, you should. Several years ago, I attended a conference where he was a keynote speaker, and I remember leaving the conference thinking, ‘I need to read some of that guy’s stuff!’ After several books, many podcasts, and a ton of blogs later, I consider myself […]
Routine or System?
We all have routines. We set our wallet and glasses in the same place when we get home. We drink coffee when we wake up, we read our emails in a certain order, we go for a run at a certain time, we pack our bags the same way when we travel, we charge our […]
Houston, We Have a Problem
‘Houston, we have a problem.’ Who can forget the memorable line uttered by Jim Lovell, played so ably by Tom Hanks in Apollo 13, the movie based on NASA’s ill-fated mission to the moon in 1970. (Ok, so the actual line is –– ‘Uh, Houston, we’ve had a problem here,’ but popular lore has shortened […]
Change
A few weeks ago, we pushed out the blog ‘Why are We Selling so Many Houses Right Now?’ that explored housing market resilience in the face of COVID. Per our analytics, it was well received and well shared. We were all set to send out the follow-up this week, ‘The Corona Hangover’ that talked about […]
The Corona Hangover
‘Hey Boss, I don’t think I can make it in to work today?’ ‘Really? I’m sorry to hear that. Not feeling well?’ ‘Uh, ya. Too much Corona.’ ‘Wow. That’s a pretty bad hangover for Corona. How many did you have?’ ‘Uh, 19…’ The Hangover Sorry for the corny joke, but I think you understand what […]
Why Are We Selling So Many Houses Right Now?!?
COVID has wiped out so many industries: Our restaurants are decimated. Air travel has essentially ceased. Public transportation is basically empty. The hotels are all but vacant. Stadiums sit idle. Unemployment is at 15% and jobless claims are still rising. The world as we knew it in February 2020 looks nothing like the world in […]
Subscribe to Tribe
When you hear the word ‘tribe,’ what comes to mind? If you’re like most of us, you think of a group of people from long ago, who banded together in the first social groups –– generally for the purpose of survival. “A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a […]
Quantifying Overpricing
I love MLS. Say what you want to about the somewhat clunky interface and the occasional fine for a nit-picky rule violation, but MLS is an absolute treasure trove of information. Our MLS (CVRMLS) not only operates in real-time, it contains curated data that dates back over a decade. When combined with the public tax […]
When Disruptors are Disrupted
In case you haven’t heard the news: OpenDoor quit buying houses and laid off 30% of its staff OfferPad also shut down iBuying, as did Zillow and Realogy Redfin just laid off half its people Compass downsized as well Realtor.com lays off staff Air B&B is getting crushed Not a great time to be a […]
COVID Doesn’t Care About Your Schedule
The mortgage is due on the first of each month –– and so is the rent, the car payment, and the AMEX bill. Sales quotas are typically measured by quarter, and so are corporate profits. And what about our good friends at the IRS? I think they would like to hear from you at least […]
A Brand is Not a Company
Register the URL at GoDaddy — $10 A really groovy WordPress theme — maybe $29 Get someone on Fiverr to design you a pretty cool logo — $5ish? Register for a business license — $20? Congratulations, you now own a business for less than $100. And that is a problem. Starting a Business is Too […]
0% Mortgage Sounds Awesome!
In light of the Fed’s recent move to drop the Federal Funds rate to 0%, a lot of questions have arisen from both agents and their clients about mortgage rates and the connection to The Fed’s move. In other words, why aren’t mortgage rates 0%, too? Well, it is a long and subtle argument, but […]
Why do you get paid?
Seriously, why? Do you think about it? Do you get paid because you have access to MLS? Do you get paid because you have a lockbox key? Do you get paid because you drive clients around? Do you get paid because you spent a bunch of money on Zillow? Or… Do you get paid because […]
Thinking, Clearly or Not at All
One of the most transformative books I have ever read is the instant classic, Thinking –– Fast and Slow. The masterpiece, by cognitive psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, covers their 40+ years of work on how humans think. The book discusses how our brains work (poorly, mostly) and how we spend the large majority […]
RealtorBall
My Obsession with Moneyball If there were ever a book written for me, Moneyball is that book. I grew up not only a fan of baseball, but a student of the game. I was lucky enough to play both in college and (extremely) briefly in the minor leagues. In the 8th grade, I distinctly remember […]
Facebook, Ideas, and Growth
Did you hear that a college dropout gave Harvard’s commencement speech this year? Mark Zuckerberg, who dropped out of Harvard after his sophomore year to run his then “startup”, Facebook, became the youngest person to ever deliver Harvard’s commencement speech at the age of 33. Pretty impressive. His speech covered many topics — finding a […]
Steak Knives and MLS
Question: What would you offer someone trying to eat a porterhouse steak with his/her bare hands? Another steak A sharp knife and fork Obviously, the logical answer is: 2. a sharp knife and fork. Helping the porterhouse eater by offering sharper instruments with which to cut the steak into bite-sized pieces seems pretty obvious, doesn’t […]
The Art of Niche
Ok, so you say you do have a niche — please explain. What is your niche? Is it a neighborhood? Or a type of home? Or a style? Or a prince range? Or maybe it is a technique like 1031 exchanges or short sales? Or, do you sound like far too many agents who say […]
The Modular Agent
The class was Business and Technology and the year was 1994. The professor was rather arrogant, but behind his disinterested persona was a pretty smart person from whom I learned a great deal. One of the assignments was to read a book called the Modular Corporation. Its lessons have always stuck with me. Building a […]
How Are You Sized?
What is your bandwidth right now? How about your capacity? What is your current workload? All of these terms refer to our ability to handle a certain level of transactional volume. Each spring, we begin to test the limits of our bandwidth/capacity/workloads as activity spikes and the market starts to really heat up. Inventory’s Impact […]
What Band Are You?
Sounds like a BuzzFeed quiz, doesn’t it? The question was asked the other day in our office (this is what we do all day — no real estate sales stuff, we just talk about music) and it got a really interesting conversation started. We had answers that ranged from Bob Dylan to Neil Young to […]
Oh no, I’m Disrupted Again.
Disruption, Redistribution, or Reallocation? If you Google “disruptions to the real estate industry,” you’re presented with anywhere from 5 to 10 million search results depending on the day. First it was the Portals — Zillow, then Trulia, then Zillow PLUS Trulia. Then it was Realtor.com with Listhub. I am sure Facebook is up to something, […]
From “Practice” to “Business”
Are You a Business Owner? Many real estate agents think of themselves as business owners, but most are not. How so? In the same way that Steve Jobs didn’t run the Genius Bar, Jeff Bezos doesn’t pack and ship your Amazon packages, and Elon Musk will not be building your new Tesla Model 3. So […]
Our Random Musings About Team
On the whiteboard in our office right now is a bunch of scribbling about ‘Team.’ For most agents, the move from individual to ‘team’ is unnerving. Here are some things to think about if you are considering making the move. No Guarantee Remember, there is no guarantee that forming a team will actually work. Anyone […]
Now’s the time to make those calls! Up your lead gen by 10x, Use your scripts!
I have spent much of my newfound extra time on quite a few webinars toting lead generation tactics, offering “free” coaching, working to inspire salespeople in this time of uncertainty. While most (if not all of these webinars) are trying to be sensitive, the gist of all of these calls is the same: The deals […]
The Certainty Tax
I am extremely lucky. When I look back, I can see many places where fortune shined on me and provided me with a lucky break or a chance encounter that I was able to take advantage of. But of all of the nuggets of luck, probably the most fortunate break was what I didn’t get […]