360Digest

“We’re sorry. As of Jan. 1, 2007, newspaper ads from The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer no longer appear online. To continue to see the newspaper ads, we suggest convenient home delivery of The Seattle Times or Seattle Post Intelligencer.”

And the King County Journal goes belly-up (A Daily’s Last Day).

How the Media Industry miscalculated the Internet by Pat Kitano on Transparent Real Estate

Circulation Plunges at Major Newspapers , New York TImes

Newspaper Circulation Continues Decline, Forcing Tough Decisions, Wall Street Journal

Photo Credit: Seattle Metropolitan Magazine

I’ve reviewed this past week’s posts and I note that each one is about, well, me.

So, as not to break a run, I’ll make this one about me too.

This Sunday, January 28th at 6pm, we will be appearing on HGTV’s “Offbeat America“, exhibiting our large paint-by-number collection. (And you thought I was just a silly dilletante!) If you have Comcast Cable, that’s Channel 68.

Also, more in the vein of me, take a look at Dustin Luthers interview of moi, on Rain City Guide.

Next week, real estate. I promise.

Andrei Codrescu, that is.

Mr. Codrescu is in town this week for a series of lectures and events and my husband and I hosted a party at our home for him last night.

Also in attendance was Anderew Miksys, photographer of exquisite photographs of a Lithuanian Gypsy community in BAXT, with text by Andrei Codrescu.

Tonight you can attend a lecture by Andrei Codescru speaking at Town Hall

And Friday night will be a fun evening of debauchery a la Codrescu at the Center on Contemporary Art, in the shadow of the Space Needle:

Writer, poet and bon vivant extraordinaire Andrei Codrescu brings his worldy wit and wisdom to Seattle as he talks on “States of Memoir, or How to Reconnect Old Brains to New Ones in Several Languages.”

Friday January 26, 7:30pm: THE BAXT PHOTOGRAPHS at CoCA
Acclaimed photographer Andrew Miksys, with the assistance of Andrei Codrescu, presents his intimate portraits of a Lithuanian Gypsy community. Book signing to follow. FREE and open to the public.

Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA)
410 Dexter Avenue N.

Friday January 26, 9pm: CODRESCU & FRIENDS at CoCA

Get ready for an evening of belly dancing, burlesque, poetry and debauchery at CoCA. Joining Andrei Codrescu will be the musical group Orchestra L’Pow, the belly dancing troupe Hipnotica, and burlesque dancer extraordinaire Babette La Fave. David Rauschenberg will provide all the DJ action, with Rick Klu as the evening’s emcee.

My good friend Cecilie Miller is putting on this shindig, and it should be a hoot. Gypsy wear encouraged, or at least a bangled bracelet or two.

From Zillow Carnival to Zillow Hoedown.

It’s a long story, so please don’t ask.

But here’s a photo of Zillow’s Vice President of Partner Relations, Jorrit Van der Meulen, me, and his lovely wife Angela, partying down, Baby.

Unfortunately, I think they misunderstood the party theme….. where most thought “Hoedown” to be a Country Western party, they thought it was a, uh… well, I’m sure you can guess what they thought.

I’m sure this is no reflection on Zillow managment, however…..

Well, no one really asked yet, but I’m sure it was just an oversight.
In case you missed it, here are some photos from last week’s “Elvis Invitationals”.

(Update: Guest Celebrity Judge Cienna Madrid reviews the Elvis Invitationals at The Stranger, “Judging the King“. Thanks Cienna!)

Clark Humphrey’s book “Vanishing Seattle” came out and in an interview he gave to Seattlest, was kind enough to mention me and my site Roadside Seattle as a good place to learn more about the spirit and history of Seattle.

Thanks Clark!

Vanishing Seattle (WA) (Images of America)

And yes, I AM contributing the occasional news story, blog post, gossip and innuendo to the Inman Blog. I’m sure you would have asked if you’d remembered.

Shack Prices announced an upgrade to their website the other day, offering home buyers the opportunity to search through a complete real estate listing using a simple text search box.

I’ve enjoyed the comments that are attached via 43Places, and a couple of times I’ve seen reference to a new shop or restaurant that I hadn’t noticed before, so I visit just to see what’s new there.

It’s my understanding that they’re still trying to decide how all this brilliance is going to make them any money. Sell ads? Sell leads? Or just collect a referral fee?

But some folks don’t just don’t like those referral fees. Ardell DellaLoggia had a post last week entitled “Is your agent spending your money without asking permission?” The point of the post was to show that some agents can/do collect a fee for placing an outgoing or incoming referral, without discussing this with the referred.

Often, an agent will pay a courtesy “referral fee” to another agent or agency who gives them a lead that results in a sale.

This is not against the law to pay another agent a referral fee. In Washington State, it’s against the law to pay anyone OTHER than an agent a referral fee!

Many companies use this concept as the basis for their entire business plan.

HomeGain, for instance, collects a 30% referral fee for a closed sale from any buyer or seller it refers to an agent. (I believe they also charge some agents a monthly subscription fee on top of that.)

Others, such as HouseValues, Number1Agent.com , AgentConnect and RealEstate.com charge a monthly subscription fee, with no guarantee of any closed sales. But they don’t take a percentage either.

These companies have a miserable track record and leave many unhappy agents in their wake. They make a hard sales pitch and lure many a desperate real estate agent in, but I doubt many find much success with these lead generating companies.

The post seems to take issue with the individual agent taking a fee for making a referral, without discussing the amount of the referral ahead of time. The subject of real estate lead companies and corporations taking a referral fee is not addressed.

On the surface, it does seem obvious. Why should an agent get a 20% referral fee for just making a phone call?

And why should a company like HomeGain get 20 or 30%? For an even more extreme example why should Cendant, a national relocation company get up to 45% for a referral?

If Shack Prices decides to collect referral fees of 20 or 30% or even 40% as their business model, would that be wrong? Galen Ward and his partner Doug Cole have spent months developing a plan, writing code and building the website, spent their own money getting it up and going, and spent their own time and money on search engine optimization and publicity. They’re doing this to weave an attractive web to lure in buyers. What should they do with these leads? Well, sell them, of course!

I think we can all agree that they would probably deserve a referral fee. But what about the individual agent who has worked hard on creating original content, working on SEO, done their best to make their website interesting and sticky? They’ve done the work, exchanged links, worked on SEO, they’ve taken the risks, why shouldn’t they receive a referral from the leads generated from their website? Or a lead generated from carefully nurturing social contacts and connections?

Dustin and Anna conceived and built Rain City Guide and have kept it going, hoping for leads that they can refer out to agents, in exchange for a referral fee. They built the website, they’ve built the content, they took the risk, why shouldn’t they reap the rewards? They have a tab at the top of their site “Seattle Agent Recommendations“. When you click on the tab, it offers a reader a referral. Says Anna, “Every agent I’ve worked with so far has been more than happy to pay me a referral fee that comes directly out of the commission they are paid for representing you during your purchase of a home.” No mention of an amount for “selling people’s names” and no mention that it’s “the Buyer’s money.”

Placing the phone call to make the referral only takes 5 minutes. But perhaps getting to that point where one is in a position to make that referral could have taken years.

If Shack Prices does decide to charge for referrals, I’m sure that Galen and Doug believe that they were entitled to receive a large referral fee, even if all they did was just make a phone call. And companies such as Homegain, who have large expenses and who advertise heavily using PPC, I’m sure they can also justify their fees. And even the individual agent who has worked years in the business building up their clientele, their reputation, their website, their name and their brand can also justify a referral fee. If someone thinks enough of the agent to accept their referral, then they must be doing something right.

As an analogy, I may pay $500 for a dress that consists of only $50 worth of cloth. But it’s what the designer does with the cloth that gives it value. I’m also paying for the seamstress to sew the dress, I’m paying for the upkeep of the sewing machines, for the warehouse where the machines are located, for the marketing of the finished product, the delivery to the store and the store’s overhead. It’s not necessary for me to know that the cloth is only worth $50. I’m not stupid, I know that. But I also know the value of a terrific-looking new dress that fits me just right ….. Does everything have to be spelled out and transparent? When I go to Safeway to buy a pound of cherries for $4.99 a pound, it doesn’t say on the label that the farmer got 75 cents a pound after paying for the water, farm equipment and labor, and that the farmworker who picked the cherries got 50 cents a pound and that the guy in the packing plant got his cut and that the truck driver who delivered it to the story got his cut too. Really, we already know that, we know that there is ‘value added’ by having the cherries delivered to the store so I don’t have to drive to Eastern Washington to pick them myself. This is trade, this is commerce, and this is Capitalism at its finest.

It’s not wrong not to put on the dress label that the Nordstrom’s sales clerk gets an extra bonus for selling me the dress. And it’s not dishonest not to disclose on the cherry box that the truck driver got a special cash incentive to deliver the cherries to the store on time.

It’s just business.

Step right up, Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s a Real Estate Freak Show, the Zillow Carnival of Real Estate! Only one thin dollar, 10 tiny dimes, cheap at twice the price! We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you!

As I had mentioned last week, I was hoping that someone would enter a post in honor of Elvis’ birthday. Several writers stepped up to the challenge, including John Harper and Pat Kitano.

John Harper writes “Elvis on Blogging” on The Harper Team. I haven’t seen your blog before, John, and I enjoyed it. Good job!

Patrick Kitano stepped up to the challenge and presented Elvis = Zillow posted at TRANSPARENT REAL ESTATE (www.TransparentRE.com). Excellent. Thank you. Thankyouverymuch.

This has nothing to do with Elvis, but it does include the topic of music. Clifford Jacobson presents “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Realtors”. The Songs Of Real Estate 2.0. posted at WebHomeUSABlog, asking the age-old question, “Should Mothers allow their children to go into Real Estate?”

Jim Cronin presents The Secret To Developing Real Estate Blog Content posted at Real Estate Tomato. It was a good topic, plus he sent me a cool T-Shirt. Thanks Jim! (State regulators note, I can be bribed.)

Jay Thompson presents Phoenix Bloggers Meet; Much Conversation Ensues, Including The Long Tail posted at The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, saying, “The Long Tail and local content blogging in action.” This had absolutely nothing to do with Elvis, but he DID remember to wish E. a Happy Birthday at the end of the post. (See, I really DID read all your submissions!)

This has nothing to do with Elvis either, but it’s interesting nevertheless. Toby Boyce presents What Did You Write? posted at Sadie’s Take on Delaware Ohio, saying, “Society is learning that words are more important than we ever thought — should it be any different in our advertising?” Our broker used to hand out a little sheet with useful words to assist agents in writing useful ad copy. The word “charming” was definitely the most overused word in the real estate ad.

I liked Nigel Swaby’s post entitled Real Estate Agent Tricks - How to Protect Yourself posted at Salt Lake Real Estate Blog. It’s aimed at Buyers, and may not be applicable to all areas, but it’s interesting. It discusses pulling a house off the market to make it look like a new listing. This is not possible to do in our market and would be a good thing to abolish everywhere, if possible. Though playing devil’s advocate, if someone finds a house they like at the price they like, how is “market time” relevant, all other things being equal? Anyway, I digress….

This also has nothing to do with Elvis, but does embrace TV and popular culture, which are two more of my favorite subjects: Tracy Coenen presents Flip This House lawsuit posted at FRAUDfiles. A month doesn’t go by where I’m not contacted by A&E, HGTV or the Fine Living Channel, looking for subject material for their 24-hour-a-day home & garden-themed television shows. They want to film folks but refuse to compensate them in any way, asking them to provide free content so they can continue to sell their on-air advertising. Needless to say, this is a very interesting subject.

In another reference to popular culture and television, Praveen presents Trump Mortgage Boss Inflated His Resume? posted at My Simple Trading System.

And who doesn’t love a weird house for sale? Silicon Valley Blogger presents This Unusual Property Is For Sale posted at The Digerati Life about a real-life fire station for sale.

I’ve often noticed that neighborhood transformation by gay and lesbian residents often has a postive economic impact on neglected areas, a topic addressed by Nina Smith in Ten Money Questions for Mark Brand posted at Queercents, saying, “Award-winning architect, Mark Brand, talks about houses and money in the Queercents series: Ten Money Questions”

So, I’m finishing up here, looking for Elvis, or other funny or unique posts and what do I see but Bryant Tutas’ incredible post entitled “Martin Luther King: Rest in Peace, My Brother“, a beautiful and haunting entry, particularly relevant today, on Martin Luther King’s birthday. Thank you Bryant, for that meaningful and eloquent post.

Always interested in modern art, especially in unusual places, I attended the grand opening of the “McLeod Residence” an art gallery/performance space located in an old apartment building in downtown Seattle. Like galleries in San Francisco and elsewhere, they’re offering “private membership” to augment their income to keep the place running. It feels like an old bordello with it’s velvet wallpaper and vintage chandeliers, and I look forward to more events there.

I was pleased to see Galen Ward in attendance, founder of Shack Prices. He and his cute girlfriend Eve were hobnobbing and chatting it up with other gallery attendees, and he was a good sport when I insisted that he bend his 6′+ frame down for a photo, so I wouldn’t look so short petite.

Galen had a piece in the show entitled “Ice Field - No Dumping” that was presented as a transparency in a light box. Very cool.

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I missed the big Inman debate of “High Touch V.S. High Tech” (you can view the videos from the debate on Sellsius blog) but I do remember seeing this NAR survey from a few months ago that that shows Buyers and Sellers use technology but they want personal service too. Of 7,500 respondents, 83% used full-service tradtional brokers, 9% limited service and 8 % used really limited service. 50% of those using limited-service brokers were unhappy with their experience.

NAR Survey

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Ryan Froerer, a property manager with Century 21 Gage Froerer & Associates had quite a surprise when he entered a Provo, Utah townhome and discovered 70,000 beer cans inside a townhouse he was managing. He and the owner thought they had a dream renter because the guy never complained and always paid his rent on time.

When discovered, the 70,000 beer cans fetched over $800 from a recycler.

At least he was a healthy tenant. He appeared to favor “Light” beer.

More “Beer Houses” on Unusual Life.

Ok, so this really doesn’t have anything to do with real estate, but as you can see from my tagline 360Digest is also “popular culture” and Elvis is about as popular as you can get.

Today would have been Elvis’ 72nd birthday. But, um, he didn’t make it. But we celebrate this day anyway and use this is an excuse to have a dance party and maybe a scavenger hunt and play Elvis Bingo.

In conjunction with this event is the 11th Annual Elvis Invitationals and I am honored to be a judge for the third year in a row. Amateur impersonators get one chance to perform a song, in costume, backed by the Memphis Mafia all-star band, while competing for over $1,000 worth of prizes, and I get to be in the center of it all. It’s a beautiful life.

Happy Elvis’ Birthday

Anyway, I hope to be recovered enough from that event by Monday, January 15th, to host the Carnival of Real Estate and anyone submitting an article that somehow combines the subjects of Real Estate and Elvis gets guaranteed publication in that weeks Carnival, no matter how much of a stretch or how many degrees of separation.

If you can’t do it, don’t worry. All other subjects accepted too!

Thank you. Thankyouverymuch!

Kevin Boer featured this lovely ad on his site the other day in this story “And Redfin wonders why some traditional real estate agents are, um, “hostile“?”

Why do they do this? The real estate industry relies on trust, cooperation and assurance that each party is acting in good faith. They are not Realtors and the implication of this ad is, um, well, there’s just no other word for it…..

Please join me this evening and again on Jan. 6th for “What You Get For The Money“, on the Fine Living Channel.

This show compares houses with a $300,000 price tag in six markets across the country. In Portland, Ore., $300,000 means a clean and simple floating home on the Pacific ocean, while the same amount translates to a vintage 1917 condo with original charm and 1950s décor in Chicago and a spacious place in Philadelphia.

In Seattle, the only thing I can find that isn’t a fixer is a condo development in the Central District. There were no single-family homes under $300,000 that were available for filming in the Metropolitan Seattle area the day they were here for filming, without going to White Center or to Lynnwood. I find that so sad! Anyway, have a laugh at one of my 15 minutes.

AIR TIMES:
• January 03, 2007 6:30 PM EST
• January 06, 2007 1:00 PM EST