Roots2RealEstate

As for the many agents out there who do not take advantage of every networking and or marketing opportunity this might be great - The MLS (Multiple Listing service) that centralizes all properties for sale and collects the sold data is at it again by now allowing not just one but two agents to post the properties that they sell to on their web sites.  In the past it has been only the listing agent (the agent representing the seller) and who holdsthe listing contract was allowed to promote this news to the world wide web.  In light of this new news, this is ammo for the newbie agents trying to establish themselves in this cut throat industry as well as great for those agents who handle more buyers transactions that doesn’t necessarily take “listings” but only wants to work with buyers only.  Given this opportunity these agents may now prove to other potential customers their real estate abilities through the MLS and the world wide web.  I’m a believer that past preformances may not be a guaentee on future success, but what else do we have to go on?  

Now what does the future hold for us?

If MLS is going to allow to agents to show their successes, then I think they should give an opportunity to the buyer and the seller of any particular transaction to rate both agents on their performance.  MLS and frankly Realtor.com should think about turning it over to the people - and let’s see who does the job better really - and who earns the mark of showing that property and claiming its closing success on any of their marketing materials.

Much to our liking, as the fall drifted from luke warm days to winter, our new home’s pool started to lose 3 feet of water a day!  The pool emptied so fast that the top of the third step inside the pool was exposed in a week and a half.  Panic set in and my first reaction to my husband (who turns to me in most crisis situations as to what to do), was we can’t be losing that much water next to our home’s foundation!  I thought the best idea would be to drain it - but I was so wrong.

Going to the internet, I learned that I had a particular pool bottom that was a fiberglass liner and when emptied the pressure from the water that fills this liner is released and the liner could possibly “pop-up” causing the liner to break from its mold and more than likely may never go back down in place properly again.  I learned that it was important to keep filling the pool with water, despite the large amount of water that was disappearing to who knows where.  This daunted me as I waited for more than three weeks to get a live person licensed and equipped to inspect our pool and who specialized in pool leaks (apparently this one guy covers all San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Monterey Counties hence the long wait time).  Mike with American Leak Detection was helpful and taught me a few new things that I want to pass on to my fellow pool owners.  Attached is a video clip of how to determine if your pool is leaking or not, before you are charged with a $500. inspection and repair bill. It’s known as the bucket test.

After his inspection was complete of our pol, he determined that the sealant around the light fixture inside the pool had deterated from more than likely the overuse of the product called Shock, which is supossed to clean the algae and turn the water clear again.  This along with the ash and cholorine ate away at the metal ring and sealant holding the light fixture in place.  I would have never guessed that it would drain the pool that fast!  I learned that in the future if our pool is losing water again, that the water will drain just to where the leak is present, and in my case to the light fixture.  It was really neat to watch Mike suit up in his scuba gear and oxygen tank and dive in to weld and epoxy the light back into place.  I realized the value in his services and now have more of an appreciation and understanding of why he gets paid the big bucks he does from just watching him do the diagnostic check and repair. 

It was a costly experience, one I hope not to repeat any time soon.  By the way, when they dug that giant hole where my pool now sits, I also learned that they line the shell of the hole with sand, pebbles, and other water absorbing material so the water does have a place to exit to in case of leaks, a huge relief to me to know that my foundation was not affected.

As my last box was packed, and the movers were on their way, I get a knock at my door from my downstairs neighborbor in my soon to be old condo complex.

“Amber, there’s water flooding down my shower wall from the ceiling!” 

Ironically, it took exactly 18 years for a thin hairline crack from when someone over tightened the plumbing pvc piping around the drain pipe that was installed in my building, to open up and crack under pressure.  Resulting in damage to my neighbors bathroom. 

Now I couldn’t pass this on to the new homeowner who was closing escrow for me on time.  Now what?!

As the repair bids came in, most contractors felt that it should be an home owners association issue and I could possibly get them to share some if not all the cost of the repair.  It was explained to me that because this break in pipe happened between both my neighbors and my sub-floor, and that there was no way for me to be aware of such an issue, let alone maintain that area.  As a self respecting agent I hit my C.C. and R’s and looked into the lengthy HOA doc’s that was just given to my buyer.  In it, it said something to the fact that the assocaition is responsible for interior plumbing from the main valve to the building, but not drain pipes inbedded between the two floors. 

Overall, I learned a valuable lesson a day before the place was no longer in my name.  Thank god, it happened then and not a week later - for I would have had one mad past client, and no one wants that!

With the drama rolling out about Facebook’s new money making strategy I find it to be a very interesting paradox to our society and its livelihood.  The Internet is two things to the people who use it; It’s a place to broadcast to the world your more interesting and complicated side of your persona and/or it is a way to make money.  No doubt the Internet is very cool in deed no matter what side you lean towards. As for the majority of those hip enough to be reading my blog, I’m sure you use it in both ways.

I’ll be the first to preach that I don’t want a society like the one fictionized in the popular book “1984″.  I also don’t dig on the fact that advertising is thrown at me in everything I do.  I purposely don’t buy into anything mainstream, even though ironically this in its self is a sub-group to market too…

As the controversy and the lawsuits take shape over Facebooks new financial venture, I’m left to think about how all venture capitalists who make huge profits from the Internet must view us WWW users.  For we must all have dollar signs attached to our foreheads, as we stand around in a huddle like sheep, clinging to the many facets of what the Internet gives to us in our daily lives, with such outlets used for social networking and the Internet’s original founded glory, being a global marketplace to sell almost anything.

Jason Calacanis puts it best in his latest post, ”there is massive power locked up in data and like a time-bomb it takes a deft hand to deal with it”.
http://www.calacanis.com/2007/11/25/the-wonderful-horrible-life-of-facebook-users-and-their-data-or/ 

His post makes me ponder the reality of our basic economics and how the Internet is really the finger on the pulse, or rather the nucleus to what everybody wants or needs.  How else can we catalog and benefit from our own marvel of ideas and inventions.   Even Jason can not deny demographics and target marketing are used to churn profits in all of his business ventures. Even bloggers like myself have a demographic or target group we cater and appeal to, right?

My perception is that the interent’s parent is none other than the off spring of the US government.  They have been using the world wide web a good 20 years before “we the people” did.  I’m sure some of those “good old boys” who particpated in raising the internet from infancy and watched it as it grew towards adulthood, knew before they turned their brain child onto the world, of the many ways they could make money off of it. 

My “conspiracy theorist” personality would simply put it theoretically, that all along the plan was to use the Internet as a way to gage many sectors of people at any given of time and determine what a specific demographic group would be influenced by with using our spending as leverage.   It could possibly be packaged in a way that society could use this “funneled profiling” of our interests in groups, social networking, or anything else we click on, to gain a better percpective to bringing on social changes for the greater good for the majority of earth’s population. In a way the Interent is commercialism stirred with (but not shaken) our unique political social viewpoints.  It is a way for us to make the changes we want to see in the world in the privacy of our own homes. 

I’m sure we can all agree that us humans are rather complex creatures.  Our uniqueness can not be bought with generic blanketed advertising anymore.  Consumers gravitate to products that call out to specific interests and we like to have plenty of choices with it too! A prime example is  San Jose Mercury News article “Advertisers pitch their wares with tattoos”  http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_7568772?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1

The Internet is our very own X & Y (and soon to be Z) generation’s pop culture which attribute to making it abundantly clear that neither pure capitalism nor pure socialism is acceptable, and that the lines could and should be blended.  Consumers purchasing power hugely influences the marketplace.  If this was not the case already, then the mega stores like Walmart would dominate the commercially zoned landscapes of every major city, selling white labeled products with the name ACME across it, and the REI’s, PetSmarts, Whole Foods, and the other countless specialty businesses as well as the Internet would fail. 

Our society and ecomomy keeps churning and trickling into every aspect of how we all earn a living.  As a business owner you must know thy consumer intimately and personally, in order to stay ahead of the curve it is the only way to have a fair advantage over your competition.

So how does this relate to the economics of Real Estate?

It’s best described in the book the Long Tail by Chris Anderson, which I was debriefed on.

You’ll make more money by narrowing your focus on the right consumer (or for Real Estate’s case, Home-Buyer).  To understand, relate, and connect to a more specific buyer, will earn you a sale.  If you are a property seller, you’ll want an agent who controls, markets to, and appeals to your property’s future potential buyer/homeowner.  A great agent will pinpoint, seek-out sources, create and implimate a unique marketing strategy to attract those future homeowners who are likely to pay top dollar for your specific property. Target marketing will earn more positive results than a typical mass blanket campaign like advertising in magazines, newspapers, and some sources of the Internet.  A property and its pricing will appeal to a specific demographic group.  You should hire the agent equipped with this knowledge who uses it to your advantage. 

Last thought about Facebook and othersa “funnel profiling” my information off of web sites I visit:  How far will we let big businesses and small businesses for that matter, gouge away at our every move?  It leaves me wondering what’s next to be assimilated, regurgitated, and sold back to me? Will the birth of social networking of Web 2.0 really be a way for businesses to know what I might buy into? Will the yahoo groups, the Meet-ups groups, the Tribers, and the My Spacers and every other social website we Internet savvy users are involved in, sell out to corporate American Global pressure of the next great thing?  Is nothing sacred anymore? 

I’d like to see my Y Generation take a swift and silent shift towards Voluntary Simplicity http://users.rcn.com/compassbrook/ecoshift/simple.htm - I will be laughing in the faces of corporations as they scramble to get a foothold on our hard earned money.  I’m intrigued by the counter culture backlash created in reaction to Facebook’s scheme from some of my conscience generation, as we become well aware that our money influences businesses into being more socially responsible. 

I’m sure as the Interent gurus get wind of how much profit they are not earning, they will be following suit to sell out every hobby and interest in the name of capital consumerism.  I just hope that they will  do what Jason C. suggested to the companies like Facebook - give us the option and choice by implementing an opt-out button right into the page. I’ll continue to use websites which gives me the choice, and knowing myself as I do, I’ll of course choose the ”Opt-Out”.