Well, here it is only 2007 and I’m finally getting around to uploading some video to the Internets.
I’m so behind. I’m sure others have already abandoned video in favor of smell-o-vision and other more leading edge “new media”.
My ultimate goal in this is to have yet another place (or bunch of other places) for my clients listings to go, such as YouTube and Yahoo Video. I also want to do some real estate screencasts about topics buyers and sellers may find useful.
As an experimental first video created with Pinnacle Studio, here’s a slide show based on my walk around Cameron Park Lake. The YouTube version is below, or there’s a slightly larger MP4 Version available from my Cameron Park Real Estate page.
I sometimes find myself feeling badly about some of the information I publish here, especially the market updates, thinking that the information they contain might be somewhat boring or trivial. Given this message I read today from Amazon.com, however, I’m beginning to think my web site is the soul of profundity itself. Thank you, Amazon, for lowering the bar, and for giving me a good laugh.
I’ve become absolutely obsessed lately about playing chess on my computer and likening pretty much everything I come across to it. And I began to think - well, how different is investing in real estate from chess anyway?
Besides the fact that there’s no king to kill or threaten? Well…
Both chess and investing require you to think about your next move especially in an if-then circumstantial way. You could get into serious trouble in both if you don’t plan for contingencies. The more you do both, the better you get at them.
Oh, and by the way - no one else cares about it as much as you do.
I decided to write this post as a response to John’s comment (and disclaimer) - I was going to write something different, but I know our clients like to read about the other side of our business as well, so here goes!
Many brokerages have weekly meetings that are mandatory. I believe some meetings are important so that everyone in the real estate office knows the other agents and so that we may learn from one another what we’re doing right and what we could improve upon. Sometimes however these meetings - especially in larger offices - tend to get a bit tedious. What those get reduced to is advertising other businesses which we could use while conducting our business. They become shameless plugs for title companies, lenders, home warranty companies and so on. The worst part is that this is all done under the guise of “getting market updates” and “helping Realtors market themselves.”
Here’s the thing I absolutely believe - the people are successful at this are that way because they do something very authentic to themselves and very different. Even if you learned the obvious strategies, you have to personalize them to your own self. That’s what clients are attracted to. And meetings - especially training meetings - tend to leave out the individual aspect. Company meetings focus on standardizing the service, which works well for the company but not so well for the individual Realtor.
Which is what I love about being at Elite. We’re all very different and our clients appreciate our authenticity and differences. And that is my disclaimer.
Well, as ever, we’ve all been working hard, including me, except when I’m not. And we like it when I’m not best of all, because when I’m not I’m often using Stumbleupon to brew up this week’s batch of fun stuff. To wit:
- Ever had an anonymous commenter giving you grief? You know you have. Theoretician John Gabriel explains it.
- I’ll find a picture later.
- Elite Properties should do this. It’d give us an excuse to wear ties and sit around a meeting table without Purva getting upset about “too many meetings.” Disclaimer: she doesn’t really get mad, she’s quite agreeable.
- USB Necktie Cooler. Aside from the obvious fun in the concept, the real entertaining part of this is watching English as created by a computerized translator. Example? “There is ‘an issue column of the receipt book’ when ordering. In case of receipt book desire ‘the receipt book please select issue’.” Right. Just let me get my credit card…
- Never mind that. Will it blend?
- You think Realtors® have writer’s block? You should check out this Doctor prose.
- And finally: If you have a bunny, please make sure it stays current on its meds. Bunnies are known for their suicidal tendencies.
Still not convinced the air conditioned necktie is a good buy?
“The air conditioner being effective, because the ă‚‹ room, with consequence of the necktie, the air does not go in the shirt, this season which very does not become cool. If such a time, the USB necktie cooler is used, because mandatorily the air is sent facing toward the neck origin, also the body which becomes hot instantaneously cool down! ! As a present of the father, how probably will be?”
I did a home inspection yesterday with my first-time buyers in Colonial Village of Sacramento and had some pretty interesting things happen. The house is a short sale and during escrow the price has jumped about $7,300. (Net sheet blunder on the part of the listing agent and banks that don’t want to talk!)
Anyway, my clients love the home, see the potential and - eventually when they have built up enough equity - will rent it out and move to a bigger, better home. The house has two bedrooms and one bath and was someone’s failed flip. A rough wall has been placed between the kitchen and dining area in the hope of turning it into a third bedroom. (By the way, I see people do this all the time - bedrooms must have closets to be bedrooms!) So we went from room to room turning on switches and then waiting for some light or something to come on.
In the bathroom, as soon as the switch turned on, there was a “whirrrr!” sound. Except there was no exhaust fan. Well, there wasn’t one we could see anyway!
Any wonder the last few flippers failed?
Are we having fun yet?
I spent most of Saturday getting annoyed at what should have been some pretty simple code for the real estate listing project, so I thought I’d take a break and post some more fun stuff.
- For those of you who liked Mr. Science like I do, you’re sure to love Robert Krampf’s Science Videos. I especially enjoyed walking through an index card, which, if you’d asked me, I would have guessed was impossible.
- Feeling sarcastic, and wondering how you’re going to integrate that into your sense that you’re an advanced meditation practitioner? No worries! Zen Sarcasm has your answers. #1 is #1 in my book for a reason!
- My real estate listing project probably just needs some intelligent marketing support.
- Yes, it’s an oldie, but it’s still a goodie: The Cartoon Laws of Physics.
Over the weekend I spent some time surfing for the heck of it, and I think I have some fairly credible results, including:
