Letters to the Editor: June 2008

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Professional Execution. A Simple Message. Short-term Fix.

“Surprisingly Simple Strategies That Make Your Website Sell”
RISMedia’s Real Estate magazine, May 2008

Put the Tools to Use

Stuart Sutton is so on track with his analysis. I was licensed to sell real estate in 1976. I believe that our basic business has not changed one bit since then. This is a simple business based on three core processes: find someone who wants to buy and or sell real estate; convince them that you are the best person to help them; and service them through the sale in such a fashion that you build loyalty.

If agents and broker/owners cannot clearly define and evaluate how these processes are performed and are performing, then they are in trouble. It goes without saying that we have new rules-governmental and professional-but everything else is a new tool that can help real estate professionals perform these simple core processes.

We are overwhelmed, overrun and inundated with new tools and new suppliers. There are differences with tools and services and there are vast differences in how competently real estate professionals use them. This type of innovation and change will be a constant in all businesses. Professional execution is the ingredient that is in short supply.

Jim Towner
Regional Service Manager
Century 21
Blacksburg, Virginia

“Social Media Marketing: Ready to Grow Your Website?”
rismedia.com, April 23, 2008

Unnecessary Stuff

Unrelated junk doesn’t help your SEO (search engine optimization) and when you start stuffing a website to create size, people get lost and overwhelmed. It is not about size; it’s about content, quality, and real SEO. Sites of every size are found on the first pages of the search engines. Realtors don’t need to keep adding to their sites; they need to update them, keep content fresh, and keep relevant issues in the forefront.

If you keep adding to a site without regard to what the consumer wants (not what an expert wants), you’ll never sell anything with the site. I think the message is simple: Size of site has nothing to do with SEO success.

Mike Parker
The Blackwater Consulting Group, Inc.

“Mortgage Meltdown: Privatizing Profits, Socializing Losses”
rismedia.com, March 27, 2008

High Prices to Blame

The “housing problem”/ “economy problem,” in my view, stems from the fact that all housing prices are much too high, especially new home prices. The only long-term solution is to lower all housing prices. This will be very economically painful, but necessary.

In 1992, real estate prices surged higher and higher, led by new-home builders continuing to increase prices to what the market would bear. This was encouraged/assisted by readily available mortgages fanned by fraudulent appraisers, dishonest title companies and attorneys, dishonest real estate agents, dishonest lenders (approving fraudulent loans) and loan originators, dishonest buyers and sellers and over-building of houses. We were all party to this travesty. The “better” things got, the more risk was assumed, over and over again. It had to stop somewhere and it did.

The problem is artificial and fraudulent high home prices. Lowering interst rates (now) for anyone-new buyers or current homeowners-is a very short-term fix at best.

The federal government should stay out of this situation. They will only be forced out of it later. Before things get healthier, we are all going to have to bleed a lot.

Chip Myrtle
Key Real Estate Group
Englewood, Colorado

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Sunday, March 21, 2010