Ready to Connect?

 

Inman News will be holding it’s 12th annual Inman Connect convention  July 23rd-25th in San Francisco at the Palace hotel. For the last few years, Connect has been the best place to meet industry leaders and visionaries, see the newest in technology and real estate-related products, and share a drink with like-minded individuals. There is a heavy emphasis on social media and new trends.

The conference is all about the joining of technology and real estate and the conversation around how the industry is evolving. The most innovative companies and the most entrepreneurial people are all at Connect. There are great speakers, interesting discussions and panels, and always a fun social element that makes this the best real estate convention out there…

I’ll be speaking Thursday (July 25th) during the “Savvy Agent Technology” session. And then later that night I’ll be out drinking and may end up speaking in tongues, which could be interesting.

Haggard, old-timers and boring coffee-machine dwellers should not attend. You will be miserable with all the talk of “electric computer thingies” and “internet jigga-ma-whats-its”… but if you’re a ton of fun and enjoy cutting-edge technology and real estate, I hope to see you there.

You can either register or you can just send me your money and I’ll buy drinks with it while I’m there.

Trulia’s Integrity Called Into Question

Galen from Estately writeson Bloodhound about Trulia’s practice of running listing links through a temporary (302) redirect, which essentially stops Google from following the link and making Trulia the original source of the content (in Google’s eyes), which boosts Trulia’s search engine ranking for the addresses instead of the actual content provider (the listing partner who gave them the listing information to begin with).

Sneaky… but is it really so surprising that Trulia is bullying brokers out of top search positions? Trulia’s model is built around using broker information to position itself above brokers, hence becoming valuable enough that brokers want to use the site instead of relying on their own websites to get business. If a broker or agent is getting enough business branding themselves they will not need to pay these companies for their leads or advertise on them or give them their listings.

So Trulia (and other listing aggregation websites) need to make themselves better then the brokers and agents so those people will need them.

Hmmm, a company taking broker information and using it for it’s own gain, even when it hurts the broker AND even charging those same brokers who want to use that information to get business… but putting the brokers into a position where they are now so reliant on the company that they feel like they have no choice but to continue the relationship…?

Sounds a little familiar…. almost like… an MLS!

Real estate brokers and agents are hurting themselves by using third-party listing aggregation websites (like Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, Homegain, Craigslist, Frontdoor, and on and on and freakin’ on) but cannot stop because some are getting leads from them.

I’m not saying that nobody should use these services, but it’s important for agents and brokers to brand themselvesonline and not simply use these companies as their online business strategy. Brokers and agents are the ones with the data, the information, and most importantly, the knowledge, that is fueling these other companies. Make sure you fuel your own success, too.

 

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RE Bar Camp at Inman Connect

Anyone planning to attend the Inman Connect convention in San Francisco this July should also plan on coming a day early and attending the Re Bar Camp. What is the Bar Camp? No, it’s not a meet-up to discuss your favorite alcoholic drinks (Damn!), but rather;

“RE Bar Camp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.”

These Inman Connect events, for those who haven’t been, are not only a fantastic way to learn about new technology in real estate and what’s coming up, but they are a fantastic place to meet and socialize with leaders of organizations, innovative companies, and fun people in the real estate industry.

 

 

 

 

Redfin Becoming What They Hate… Traditional

Redfin today announced that they are taking yet another step toward becoming that one thing that they so desperately are trying to position themselves as NOT being… a traditional brokerage.

They began as an online-only brokerage, touting themselves as the first online brokerage and making a lot of noise about their unique value proposition. Buyers found the home they wanted to buy, made the offer on redfin’s website, and got a cut of the commission check.

Then…

Redfin began offering property tours for a fee.

Then…

They began offering more tours.

Now…

They’re offering tours through homes the way traditional agents do, with no set amount of homes or fees (other than they’ll only take you twice per week) and you get less of a cut of the commission.

They already ditched their industry-best map and search capability and replaced it with Microsoft’s api, replaced their logo with a worse one, and have given the metaphorical finger to traditional agents every chance they get, shouting how “different” they are, being an online broker. 

Making bad decisions, playing catch-up to others in the industry, spin-selling… sounds like they are more traditional than they think.

Next…

They will probably offer traditional agent services in a menu-driven model, where buyers can choose which level of service they want (full service, some service, no service). Just like everyone else, Redfin is adjusting to the industry, not the other way around. They are learning something I learned quite a while ago (I’m a faster learner), having a kick-ass website only gets you the introduction- you still gotta earn the business. And when people invest $700,000 on anything, they want an expert who knows their stuff and who can give the very best advice and share their knowledge, not just someone to fax your documents and schedule your inspection for you.

There is a difference between information and knowledge. Redfin is learning this, albeit very slowly…

 

Will Zillow Begin Competing with Itself?

 

Rich Barton, founder of Zillow, has raised a few $Million (along with however much of his own money) and is launching a new company called Glassdoor, which some are speculating could be a real estate-related venture. That does make sense, after all, “The name itself suggests transparency within real estate” and Glassdoor’s website points out right from the beginning that it’s founders “are a team led by ex-Expedia and Microsoft executives that have a history of using new technology to rewire old industries.”

If they are doing something within the real estate space, my guess is that it would be on the brokerage side, because anything not on the brokerage side would fall under Zillow. What is interesting is that Rich Barton, if the company is a real estate brokerage, would be the CEO of two competing companies, and would probably disenfranchise all the brokers who are currently using Zillow as an advertising model, bu now competing with them while at the same time asking them to fund his other company (Zillow).

Of course, it’s all speculation right now what they are launching because they are saying. Some suggest they are creating a social network and some think it’s a real estate brokerage. And neither a real estate brokerage or social network would fit into the description of what they claim is going to be something “pretty unique”.

It could be a glass door company for all we know. Barton obviously likes the idea of starting a new company and getting free publicity by not saying what it will be. If you hear anything about it, leave a comment and impress us with your keen investigatory skills.

(h/t 4realz)

Utah Liquor Laws- Oh, My My My…

 

The LDS fanatics state legislature has decided to “simplify” the incredibly ridiculous Utah state liquor laws again. Will this stupid and absurd “musical chairs” of liquor law rule-swapping ever stop?

Under the new rules, the limit to how much alcohol that can be poured into a drink has been increased from 1 once to 1.5 ounces. That’s the only sane part.

But, now you can no longer order a “sidecar”, or an additional shot of that alcohol that we locals have been forced to order so we can “spike” our drinks and give them a normal ratio of alcohol.

You can have a shot of liquor in front of you with a drink, but now you can not have a shot of the same type of alcohol that is in your drink. So, if you are drinking a Margarita you can have a shot of vodka or rum or bourbon, but not a shot of tequila.

Smart…

Now, I’ll just order two shots of Jack Daniels and a regular coke and pour both shots into my coke. These are the stupid things we adults need to do in Utah to have a normal drink.

Also, wine coolers and flavored malt beverages will only be sold in state liquor stores, so now that $6 six-pack of wine cooler (which are just as weak as beer) will cost you $9 with the state liquor store mark-up of over 40%.

The reasoning is that if kids see fruity drinks in the grocery store they will;

A) Steal the drinks (meaning kids here are all thief’s)

or they will

B) Simply want to drink because they see these tempting fruity drinks. Because that’s why kids drink alcolhol, right? For the fruity taste! I mean, they can’t get fruity drinks anywhere else, right?

So now, thanks to our intellectually-challenged state legislature, kids will not be drinking anymore in Utah because they won’t see fruity drinks at Albertsons…

And, of course, you still cannot ship wine into or out of the state and beer is 3.2% alcohol unlike every other state, where it’s 6%, because our lawmakers get a kick out of changing laws and rules about things they know nothing about (which is most everything).

Here is my solution;

Why not let adults drink whatever kind of alcohol they want, and let bars make the drinks the way they want, like in  other states, and then punish alcohol-related crimes much more severely? Isn’t that supposed to be the whole goal, to get rid of the bad things that can happen when people are drinking?

Here’s the ironic part of the whole thing- telling me I can’t have a shot of tequila on the table at the same time as my margarita does not make me drink less tequila, it makes me drink more. When the waitress gets to my table with my shot, I have to “chug” my margarita so I can then have my shot. And then I have to order another margarita because I just chugged mine. Most people don’t drink shots, they drink mixed drinks or beer and they order a round of shots that sit on the table until everyone takes the shot together.

In Utah, we have to do shots of our mixed drinks and beers so that we can do shots of liquor. Our legislature is so smart…

The Carnival of Real Estate

 

Welcome to the 81st Edition of the Carnival of Real Estate! Step right up and get ready for a wonderland of writing styles and topics. Reading through the entries I was reminded of the last time I hosted the Carnival back in September 2006, and how much blogging has grown, especially in the real estate industry, since then. Five years ago when I started blogging nobody read my blog and I didn’t read anybody else’s. Today blogging has become a legitimate, and important, means of communicating between large spectrums of people.

The Winner’s Circle for this Carnival includes four well-written posts that I think were both informative and interesting. Here are the four posts I am placing in the Winner’s Circle…

*Kevin and Monica Ray’s Real Estate Blog discusses radon and the risks associated with it. I think it’s great how they included information about fixing the problem and safe levels.

* Joe Manausa of Tallahassee Real Estate Blog gives us a comprehansive comparison of “Rent Versus Ownership” and details the investment potential of owning versus investing money in the stock market. Even without including the tax benefits, he makes a compelling case.

*Nigel Swaby of Salt Lake Real Estate Blog gives a report on “Ruthless Walk-Away’s” and some very good insight and opinion around the practice.

*Marcus McCray from Hook Me Up! explains “Why Professional Referrals Are Overrated!” There’s some great logic in this post and it’s written well.

Here are the rest of the posts, enjoy!

Christopher Smith at Real Estate Investing in the Real World writes the beginning of an article about investing in real estate long-term. I really enjoyed the article until it suddenly ended. It should have been a completed article. The beginning paragraphs were intriguing and well written. Too bad it was cut short.

DaltonsBriefs presents a post that references a Zillow post about activists doing damage to property to bring notice to their cause.

MyNewPlace discusses the Casulo, a bedroom set in a box. It’s not available yet, but might be a great idea for students or people traveling abroad.

Nathan Blair of Salt Lake City Utah Real Estate Blog thinks aloud about what is ”classic” in architecture.

International Listings presents an incomplete, and questionable (they forgot to mention the best real estate website) list of real estate websites that are 2.0.

Purva Brown, the Sacremento Real Estate Gal, brings up three mistakes first-time home buyers fall victim to.

Silveral of Celebrity News and Gossip talks about celebrity homes and the characteristics many of them share.

John Lockwood of Sacramento Real Estate Blog lists the “Seven Deadly Misktakes Buyers Make in This Market.”

Dee Copeland of Texas Realty Blog writes about the trend of “Boomerang Buyers” moving back to the Austin area.

Charles Woodall of Dotham Home Search suggests that “Days on Market are Irrelevant” and makes some good points. I have posted on this topic myself and think it’s a good topic of discussion with buyers, especially in areas that are in buyers market’s.

Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade suggests that “The Mortgage Loan Market Controls the Real Estate Market.” His thinking is that as loan products go away, so do buyers who need those products to buy, and when rates go up, the buyer pool of a price range gets smaller.

Lenore Wilkas of Hillsburough, Burlingame Luxury Home Sales says “Be Sure to Ask Your Agent How Long the House Has Been For Sale.” The post discusses the practice of re-listing property to manipulate the days-on-market for the listing.

Raymond at Money BlueBook gives his reviews of the house-flipping shows currently on television.

Joe also gives us a look at some of the Tallahassee market’s pricing and sales trends.

Silicon Valley Blogger at The Digerati Life asks “Who’s To Blame For The Subprime Mortgage Mess?” With responsibility distributed between many people involved in the real estate transaction, he wraps up with some good advice to the buyers who, I believe, are ultimately responsible for signing contracts on homes they can’t afford.

Steve Leung gives us the “Consumer’s Rights When Purchasing New Homes”. He talks about warranties, having your own representation and protecting yourself.

Steve Faber at DebtBlog wonders, “Property Foreclosures- Is It Really as Bad as They Say?” Steve goes over some of the statistics showing some states, including Nevada, Florida and California have high foreclosure rates, but also had some of the highest run-up’s in prices over the last few years.

Cynthis Holt from Real Life Real Estate shares her frustrations with buying a short sale property in “War Zone”.

Kathy Koops from The Cincy Blog explains how the “3 Key Words in Real Estate” may not be as important as price.

Geordie Romer of  Leavenworth Washington Real Estate Blog presents  his “Top 5 Ways to Shoot Your Leavenworth Condo Project in the Foot.” He actually goes the extra mile and gives six, including “Don’t dismiss the internet as a fad.” Good advice.

Brian Block of Virginia Real Estate News says, “I’ve Officially Run Out of Room on My Business Card” and shares his experience breezing through the broker’s exam and the designations he holds.

Craig Schiller at HOME STAGING, Rants & Ravings presents “OOPS Goes the Staging!” The post is written well. There a lot of bold words, but the post shows how video can help make your point. It would have been great to have some more specific tips and even some examples on good staging. Hopefully that will be in the next post.

Rebecca Levinson of Connect2Agent presents “Do consumers want rock stars or real estate agents to sell their home?” She tells the story of another agent’s attitude and the impression it left on her.

Cliff Jacobson at WebHome USABlog presents, “Realtor Dirty Tricks” where he discusses Glenn Kelman and the NAR.

Thank you to everyone for participating in this week’s Carnival of Real Estate. Next week look for it over at The Matrix.

Top State Governments

 

The PEW Center on the States has released it’s report grading all the states on how well their governments work and accomplish goals and objectives. They look at a lot of factors, including;

• Elected officials, the state budget office and agency personnel have appropriate data on the relationship between costs and performance and use these data when making resource-allocation decisions. • Agency managers have the appropriate information required to make program management decisions.• The governor and agency managers have appropriate data that enable them to assess the actual performance of policies and programs.• The public has appropriate access to information about the state, the performance of state programs and state services and is able to provide input to state policy makers.

People• The state regularly conducts and updates a thorough analysis of its human-capital needs.• The state acquires the employees it needs.• The state retains a skilled workforce.

• The state develops its workforce.

• The state manages its workforce-performance programs effectively.

Money• The state uses a long-term perspective to make budget decisions.• The state’s budget process is transparent, easy to follow and inclusive.• The state’s financial management activities support structural balance

between ongoing revenues and expenditures.

• The state’s procurement activities are conducted efficiently and supported

with effective internal controls.

• The state systematically assesses the effectiveness of its financial operations

and management.

Infrastructure• The state regularly conducts a thorough analysis of its infrastructure needs and has a transparent process for selecting infrastructure projects.• The state has an effective process for monitoring infrastructure projects throughout their design and construction.• The state maintains its infrastructure according to generally recognized engineering practices.

• The state comprehensively manages its infrastructure.

• The state creates effective intergovernmental and interstate infrastructure coordination networks.

That’s a lot of criteria and a lot of research. So, how did the state’s rank?

The top state governments in information (with A’s) were Utah, Washington, Missouri, Virginia, and Michigan.

For handling money the best government was Utah, which took the only A in the nation, follwed by Washington, Nebraska, Virginia, and Delaware, with A minuses.

Infastructure, again Utah was the top state, and the only state earning an A. With A minuses were Florida, Kentucky and Michigan.

The report says of Utah, “there’s a lot to cheer about. Utah manages itself with savvy business acumen. Financial decisions are made wisely, with an eye toward return on investment and long-term performance in all facets of state government.”

Of Virginia, the reports states, “Virginia proves that tracking data—and holding employees accountable for outcomes—can work wondrous efficiencies.”

And of Washington, the report says, “Washington has been a consistent leader in results-based governance. It was ahead of nearly all other states in controlling spending by keeping track of where investments were and were not paying off.”

New Hampshire had the worst grade in the country, with an overall D+. The study says, “The governor, who serves a two-year term, doesn’t necessarily appoint—and cannot remove—his own agency heads, who serve four-year terms. So the governor can spend lots of time banging heads with other members of his own cabinet. “The basic system of government is designed to make it difficult to transform anything,” explains one former state official.”

Carnival of Real Estate Comes Home to BlueRoof

 

The Carnival of Real Estate will be here, on BlueRoof, again, next Monday, March 10th. As some of you may remember, BlueRoof hosted Week 4 of the Carnival, way back in September, 2006. Now we’re on Week 81 and between then and now there have been some amazing posts, and from every good real estate blogger on the web. I’m excited to see posts from bloggers I have gotten to know, and maybe some I have yet to meet.

For those not familiar, the Carnival is where real estate bloggers submit their best blog posts, and the “winners” for the week are posted at the host blog (this Carnival it will be BlueRoof Blog), so everyone can see some great writing, and be directed to some great real estate blogs.

This week’s Carnival is up at The Real Estate Tomato, and Jim Cronin does not dissapoint, adding his personality and wit to the event. Jim’s been a great real estate blogger and coach for a while now, teaching agents how to have a successful blog and how to find their voice.

You have all week (until Sunday, March 9th) to submit your your posts so don’t be shy- build your blog traffic and contribute to the online real estate community through the Carnival and let us all see you shine…

Top Ten Cities to Buy a Home in 2008

Forbes released an article on Feb 7, 2008 naming the top cities for buying a home in 2008. These are “…markets where job growth is strong, foreclosures are relatively low and inventory is high. With these factors in place, buyers can still dictate terms of sale and negotiate prices, but aren’t as exposed to the economic and lending risk problems that have sunk many markets around the country.”

Salt Lake City tops the list, again, as being the #1 place to buy a home this year, saying, “Of the major metros in the U.S., Salt Lake City is adding jobs faster than anywhere. The economic boom in SLC has drawn residents from all over the country, and more than a few home builders trying to make a profit in these otherwise woeful times. Housing supply has gone up quickly, and there hasn’t been a high rate of foreclosure.”

But some of the other cities might surprise you.

For example, the article places Phoenix at #5, saying, “Phoenix has a very high foreclosure rate; there’s no way around that. Based on RealtyTrac’s estimates, there is one foreclosure for every 87 households in Phoenix. Still, our data suggest that strong job and economic growth in many non-housing sectors of the local economy is enough to offset it, and people are still moving to the Valley of the Sun at a quick rate.”

And Las Vegas at #7, saying”Las Vegas is a market hammered by foreclosures, due largely to extremely high speculation in both residential communities and the condo market. Though the housing slowdown has hurt jobs in the construction sector, Vegas continues to attract businesses and job seekers to its growing economy, making its excess inventory (and there’s a ton) less toxic than in other places. “

The complete top ten cities are

1 Salt Lake City, UT

2 Raleigh, NC

3 Orlando, FL

4 Charlotte, NC

5 Phoenix, AZ

6 Seattle, WA

7 Las Vegas, NV

8 Jacksonville, FL

9 Richmond, VA

10 Houston, TX

Top Ten States for Jobs

 

Yesterday MSN released a list of the Best and Worst states for jobs based on unemployment figures, and they offer the “mean” wage of each state. Mean wage is a term meaning that half the jobs pay more and half pay less.

Here are the top fifteen states;

1. South Dakota
Unemployment rate: 3 percent
Population: 796,214
Mean annual wage: $30,460
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (19.9 percent)

2. Idaho
Unemployment rate: 3 percent
Population: 1,499,402
Mean annual wage: $34,810
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (20.2 percent)

3. Wyoming
Unemployment rate: 3.1 percent
Population: 522,830
Mean annual wage: $34,290
Top industry: Government (23 percent)

4. Nebraska
Unemployment rate: 3.2 percent
Population: 1,774,571
Mean annual wage: $34,300
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (21.1 percent)

5. Utah
Unemployment rate: 3.2 percent
Population: 2,645,330
Mean annual wage: $35,540
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (19.7 percent)

6. Hawaii
Unemployment rate: 3.2 percent
Population: 1,283,388
Mean annual wage: $38,630
Top industry: Government (19.6 percent)

7. North Dakota
Unemployment rate: 3.3 percent
Population: 639,715
Mean annual wage: $32,440
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (21.4 percent)

8. Virginia
Unemployment rate: 3.5 percent
Population: 7,712,091
Mean annual wage: $41,450
Top industry: Government (18 percent)

9. Montana
Unemployment rate: 3.6 percent
Population: 957,861
Mean annual wage: $31,290
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (20.5 percent)

10. New Hampshire
Unemployment rate: 3.6 percent
Population: 1,315,828
Mean annual wage: $39,250
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (23.3 percent)

11. New Mexico
Unemployment rate: 3.7 percent
Population: 1,969,915
Mean annual wage: $33,980
Top industry: Government (23.2 percent)

12. Delaware
Unemployment rate: 3.8 percent
Population: 864,764
Mean annual wage: $41,680
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (18.7 percent)

13. Maryland
Unemployment rate: 3.8 percent
Population: 5,618,344
Mean annual wage: $44,030
Top industry: Government (18.2 percent)

14. Iowa
Unemployment rate: 4 percent
Population: 2,988,046
Mean annual wage: $33,250
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (20.4 percent)

15. Vermont
Unemployment rate: 4 percent
Population: 621,254
Mean annual wage: $36,350
Top industry: Trade, transportation and utilities (19.4 percent)

Michigan heads the list of “worst states”, followed by Mississippi, South Carolina, Alaska, California, D.C., Ohio, Arkansas, Nevada, and Kentucky.

Realtors Beware- Learning From Home Depot

 

Rob at The Notorious R.O.B. (Rob works at OnBoard, a data aggregation company) wrote an excellent post about the damage that can be done to brokers and agents by using Trulia, Realtor.com, Zillow, and other third-party listing aggregation websites.

From Rob’s post;

“[The] consumer then has a relationship (or at least an experience) with Trulia or whoever; it’s how they found the house, and found the real estate agent…

…But the brokerage?  Or the brand?  Just like I couldn’t remember the name of the contractor that did my windows, would any consumer remember RE/Max or Coldwell Banker or whatever?

Would said consumer, upon resurfacing seven years later (on average), remember the agent who took such good care of him the first time around?  Or would he remember the really useful website where he found a house and someone to “install” the house for him?”

Instead of building the brand of these companies, build your own brand.

It’s a great post and a good story, and it has a good message that every broker might want to think about.

Dustin Luther Gets 4Realz

 

Dustin Luther is the author of one of my favorite real estate blogs, some even call him the “Godfather” of real estate blogging because he put together Raincityguide, which was the first (that I know of) real estate blog with both a consumer focus and with many contributors. It’s also important to note that the contributors are not all real estate professionals.

He has worked with Move.com (which runs Realtor.com), and he’s a good all-around guy.

Now, Dustin (along with Jim Marks of Virtual Results) will be sharing his experience with Realtors who are interested in learning about technology. I’ve seen Dustin speak and he is high-energy and doesn’t waste time on nonsense. But the most important reason I like Dustin as a speaker is that he has the most important characteristc- he cares about helping people. And, if he’s anything like me, that’s just as important as the money.

I don’t know what sort of marketing or websites they will be encouraging people to use (Jim’s company does internet marketing), but good education about technology is important in our industry and having good people to tech it is rare, and welcome.

 

America’s Top Ten Lustful Cities

 

Forbes has come out with another social list- this time called America’s Most Lustful Cities. Salt Lake City ties with Boise for fifth place, yet the list is not actually a list of the most lustful, it’s a list of the cities with the highest per-capita condom sales. To say that condom sales indicates lustfulness is not only irresponsible, but really dumb.

Most condoms are sold to married couples or other monogamous people in relationships. And to think that Denver ranked #1  and Vegas isn’t even on the list makes the whole thing a bit difficult to believe. I’ve lived outside of Denver and I’ve been to Vegas a lot of times and, while Forbes puts out a lot of great social top ten lists, I just can’t seem to buy into this one.

(h/t Cityburb)

What Real Estate Consumers REALLY Want

 

Every week there is new set of charts and graphs that come out. They analyze every minutia of data and all the information imaginable. New killer-apps are being released at such a rapid pace it’s tough to keep up with them all. And why?

Well, according to the techno-listing sites, the third-party aggregation websites, like Redfin, Zillow and Trulia, apparently what people really want is…. yep, more data. That’s right- more and more data. Every conceivable number and metric they can think up.

It’s like a race now. Who can churn out the most data, and cram it onto their website, the fastest. Who cares if it’s relevant or if anybody will actually use it- it’s DATA! It’s cool color charts and graphs that can show you everything you never thought possible. Come and see how many times people in this neighborhood walk their dogs on Tuesday mornings or find out the ratio of homes that sold for 1/25th of their initial listing price, during the first 118 hours being on the market, after being sold 2-3 years earlier, that have a redwood deck, and were listed with a Realtor named Sally- all in a cool pie chart.

So, this is where all the investment capital is going with all these techno-listing sites- more data? Millions of dollars are being pumped into these companies by investors who are counting on profits from all this data, yet none of these companies have made any profit. Think about how ridiculous this is. Redfin gets $20Million and it’s whole model is based around the idea that if they give more data and info, people will just buy homes online. The whole Redfin company, with all of their PR, news coverage, and dozens of full time employees and agents, only sold about 1000 homes last year.  For a comparison, I sold 114 homes last year. And these investors keep pumping money into this sinking ship.

Zillow just got another $30Million and Trulia has now received almost $18Million. And the business models of these companies is to get advertising (more stuff to put on the websites). I guess they figure at a certain point people will just become so buried with all the data on their websites that they’ll just have to fall over and surrender to them. When these companies run out of money (like they all keep doing), they simply come up with some new graphs and heat maps and show the suckers investors how this new data will finally get them some of that “profit” they keep hearing so much about, but alas… it does not come.

I receive a lot of advice on what I should add to my website. I have had no less than twenty companies approach me to sell me some cool new data field or information feed.  And I like data, and using it to give people good information, but enough is enough.

 People don’t want more data- they want a great experience.

I don’t want to climb over piles of charts and graphs to find what I’m looking for. If I’m thirsty I don’t really care if the glass has twirling lights and does my taxes- I just want the water that’s in the glass. The next cool drinking glass that has dancing girls and live-streaming music might be hot for a little while (like these tech-sites), but in the long run I believe that people will always use simple, easy to use water glasses. Because when they are thirsty they want the water, not the glass.

My point is- don’t cram your website with as much stuff as you can find. Instead, use good data and information, and present it in a way that offers a good, fun experience for your consumers. Give them a presentation that is visually appealing, as well as powerful and technologically advanced. Don’t forget that people make decisions based on emotion, and we always will.

Give me a great experience and I will give you my business.

Companies That Need to Be Founded

 

I’m in the middle of launching my own new company, but if I had the time and the know-how here are some companies I would love to start. And maybe someone out there will someday…

A social network that is much better. A place that has more features than Linked-In (which has none), and is much easier to use than Facebook (Can they make it any more difficult to simply send a message?), but that is more grown-up than MySpace. I’m talking about a social network where I could go to and keep up with people, chat, share photos, etc. And it needs to be simple and easy to use and understand. Make it simple!!! And without all the stoopidness of MySpace, you know the blaring hip-hop and porn on people’s pages. Why not a calendar that I can share with my network that we can all share events and birthdays, an easy way to rate and recommend local bars and restaurants, and a clean, simple design that is intuitive and fun to use.

A Twitter that was much better. This wouldn’t be difficult to build, either and if I had time I would probably just do it myself. Take the basic idea of twitter, but make it so I don’t have to read all the responses to messages I can’t see and make it so I can choose channels or areas to be in. So maybe I can be in a business section where I’m not reading about people feeding their dog or whatever, but actual business ideas and messages. And why not let people drag-and-drop photos, videos, music and other stuff? Also 140 characters could easily be expanded to 500 so I could finish a thought… that would be nice.

A search engine that utilizes human judgement- at least for the top commercial website ranks. Keywords and meta-tags ruin the results on existing search engines. SEO kills good design, making website creators (and their clients) to choose between a good website design that they need to pay for all the traffic to, or a wordy manifest with keywords repeated ad nausea and no design appeal in order to rank high in organic search results. For the top commercial website results, at least, human judgement should be used to ensure relevance, but also, that the best websites rank the highest.

Just because something new comes along, doesn’t mean it’s been done right. Instead of just doing more of the same or only looking for the next, new big idea, we need to take existing ideas and make them better. Remember, when a company becomes big, it becomes slow and less willing to take chances and make improvements. There are a lot of opportunities out there for people who are willing to take the chance and put in the work. People don’t want to be sold anymore, they want to be inspired.

Trulia- Tech Guys in Realtor’s Clothing

The real estate industry has been in a major state of flux for two years now, with new technology and innovation entering the market constantly. It’s truly an exciting time to be in this industry. Some of the technology has really benefited the consumer and real estate agents alike. Many agents are becoming much more efficient and are offering much better service than ever before. Some technology (virtual tours, online fax) has become so common and accepted that many would not want to think of working without it.

One of the areas that has seen major growth is in the third-party, tech-guy’s turned real estate entrepreneur’s, listings.bot arena. First there was HouseValues, which was an innovator in that it saw how weak real estate agent’s were at attracting business from the internet so it capitalized on that weakness and got it’s own internet leads and sold them to real estate agents. Then, Lending Tree jumped in with it’s bid-for-mortgage business model becoming a bid-for-anything-real-estate-related model, and it now sells leads to agents as well.

And Realtor.com was actually doing this before any of them. By being the official website for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) it was given exclusive access to all the content from all of the MLS’s across the nation. So, did it take this MLS data and use it to further the industry and pursue noble Realtor causes? Of course not, it sold leads back to the agents, just like the other guys. Realtor.com used to charge $1000’s to be the “designated” Realtor for an area and get those area leads. Now it charges agents to place their listings at the top of the results and to have the agent contact info and property address shown.

Today we have Trulia, among many others, who have a new business model- Give it all away for free and be the agent’s best friend, grow really big until the agents depend on you, then charge them and make a bundle.

Trulia takes the listing info and sends the leads back to the agents with no charge. Everyone loves that. But when you have VC money you’ve got to make profit and giving stuff away doesn’t bring in any profit.

Trulia has always sold ads on their website, and at the beginning claimed they were only interested in making money from those ads. But, now that they have grown and are getting a lot more traffic (and have investors), Trulia is changing, as I thought they might. They are no longer just making money from advertising. Now Trulia sells placement of listings to the agents, just like the other guys. And it’s only a matter of time before they begin charging agents to be a “designated” or “premier” or “showcase” agent, and then only a matter of time before they charge for the leads.

Not that’s there’s anything wrong with that. They certainly have a right to have their business model, and their search function and information is superb. They offer a lot of info and have some really cool tools on their site. But it’s just data- they have no real estate knowledge or expertise because they are not real estate people. Trulia was founded, as most of the other listings.bot websites, by tech people. Just a couple of tech guys- not real estate guys, tech guys.

A better alternative for brokers and agents (and the consumer), would be to have their own destination website that is not only full of rich content and great search functionality, but offers the individual agent’s local knowledge and personality. Because, while real estate technology is expanding and becoming global, the transactions and business are still based on relationships and personality and trust between Realtors and their clients.

It is wonderful to have great data and technology, but a successful real estate business still needs to be founded in service and relationships. And no national website can offer people the personal touch of a local agent, with their intimate knowledge of an area and the excellent service they provide to their clients.

There is a difference between information and knowledge. These mega-websites can offer tons of data and graphs, charts, statistics, reports, and other information, but at the end of the day- none of them can advise a local buyer like I can.

Agents and brokers could, as an alternative to feeding the machine of these mega-sites, create their own online brand, their own online real estate destination, and offer the same cool data and technology, and fill it with their own personality and their own knowledge and experience. Instead of contributing to a mega-site knowledge base, they could offer their own, local knowledge bases. If I am buying a home in Salt Lake City I want to know about the Salt lake City area and local market conditions and get expert advise and guidance for that area and I really don’t care about who is the top agent in Grand Rapids or what ten agents say about the market in Boston.

My founding BlueRoof360, stemmed from the dozen or so monthly emails and phone calls I receive from agents and brokers asking me if I can help them build a website or help them convert online leads or help them with their online services. 

Agents can now have their own websites and blogs and have innovative technology and cutting-edge search tools and data, and keep their business for themselves and offer their own personality and knowledge, without spending $100,000 and twelve months designing a custom website. I’m not just trying to be noble- I want to make a profit, just like the next guy. But I’m doing it in a way that helps, not hurts, the agents and brokers in the long-run.

Unlike Trulia, or Zillow, or Redfin, or many of the other tech.bot real estate sites- I am not a tech-guy trying to make money in real estate. I am a Realtor using technology to offer better service for my clients.

And now I’m using technology to help other agents grab hold of their fair share of the internet business that so many of the tech-guys are trying to take from them. Using these mega-sites is not bad, but it shouldn’t be an agent’s only source of online business.

Real estate professional know real estate better than tech guys or anyone else, and with the right technology won’t need these outside mega-sites because they will be one of their own.

BlueRoof at Inman Connect NYC

One of the best parts of attending a convention is the networking that takes place. Getting your story out, building those connections and relationships, and learning from others- these are all intregal pieces of growing a brand and a successful career in an ever-changing industry.

From the convention comes this write-up from Marc Davison, head of 1000Watt Consulting, who is helping to guide real estate brokerages into the future with consulting services.

This interview from brokerIPTV.com, who captured many of the speakers from the convention for private interviews.

With the launch of BlueRoof360, we are hoping to help change the industry for the better through guiding agents and helping them craft their own online presence and value proposition for consumers. Having fine companies spread the message about us is an enormous help, and I’m grateful for the generous publicity both of these companies are giving us.

At Least it’s not a Meth House

Hey, no house is perfect, right?

BlueRoof360- Industry Best Realtor Websites, Lead and Client Management

In 2007 we closed 114 homes because of our website. While the majority of real estate agents were seeing their businesses slow down significantly and the overall market lose energy, our business has stayed very consistent. You may, or may not, want to be a top-producing agent, but I’m sure you wouldn’t mind an extra sale or two each month.  Technology does not take the place of personality and personal contact but, when utilized correctly, it can help us connect with our clients and also bring us business.

Understand, I am not a technology guy getting into real estate. I am a Realtor (over 14 years) who uses technology very well. As a real estate agent, if you want to get business from the internet and offer real value to your clients what are your current choices? You can use Point2, Advanced Access, Homes.com or myriad other template websites, you can (even worse) use a page on your broker’s website, or you can spend a lot of money building a custom website and hope the people building it know anything about real estate and design.

Now, finally, there will be another choice that brings the power and design of a custom website, innovative technology, simple and intuitive design and a price that makes sense.

Enter BlueRoof360

BlueRoof360 will cost $200/month and will be a complete online solution for real estate agents. Get business, offer better service for your clients, give value to the consumer, and grow your team and your bottom line.

I have been the managing broker for several large (100+ agent) real estate offices. I have become a student, learning what consumers like and want. By meeting them from my website and working with them I have been able to learn a lot about how to use the internet for real estate over the last five years. And because I am a real estate agent and I have managed, recruited, trained and hired hundreds of Realtors, I understand what real estate agents need and what they like and want.

It is fascinating to me how so many people think that spending nothing for nothing is a better bargain over investing something for an actual profit. If you spend $400/year and get one sale from it and $5000 commission (like most P2 or AA users do) that is good. But spending $60,000 and getting $800,000 in return (as I did last year) is better. One sale gets you some money and one person referring business to you. One hundred fourteen sales gets you much more money and 114 people referring business to you.

As Greg says, “If 10,000 people exhibit a casual interest in your product, you will have earned nothing, whereas if one person actually buys, you will have earned a huge pay-check.”

Consumers want a better overall experience including value, service, interaction and information. They want to feel as though they are being taken care of but that they have good information and still run the show. Agents want simple tools that enable them to focus on the relationship and they want business that comes to them without referral fees.

To offer real value to the consumer and get real business from the internet you need to have a few very important pieces that all work together. It all begins with a destination website. Not a form-filled, template website, but a website that is designed well, has cutting-edge technology, is fun and easy to use, and has great information for the consumer.

Next you need to know how to drive traffic to your website. How to make it seen and how to make it a place that people will want to come back to again and again, and tell other people about.

When someone asks for help or requests a showing on a property you need to respond very quickly- 15 minutes or less (under one minute is ideal). You need to have a near-immediate connection. People do not want to wait and they won’twait. They’ll usually work with the first agent to get back to them.

You need to be able to stay in touch with your leads, clients, past-clients, family, associates and friends. You need to give the consumer (your current and potential clients) excellent service. You need to WOW them.

And you need to continue to grow and learn from others who are doing it. But it has to be easy. It has to be simple to do. Real estate agents do not like complicated, difficult programs and hours of learning how to use stuff. We like fun, easy and simple.

BlueRoof360 will allow you to create your own custom website. Not a template website, but a custom website. A template gives you pre-defined spaces that you can change text and images in. We give you a very easy-to-use creation wizard to create your own layout, and then change it around to meet your personality. You’ll have some coaching on how to design it and what works well (colors, fonts, text, etc). You can use suggested themes or colors, or go off in your own direction.

We’ll show you how easy it is to use and what has worked well. And we’ll show you what people like. But you get to decide if your website has a bunch of text or if it has map-based search or games or an instant chat or video or your own blog or whatever you want.

You’ll also have a complete, but very simple to use, lead management and client management system. When someone requests to see a property you’ll be notified immediately by text message and email and that person’e information is instantly entered into your lead management system. To schedule the appointment, you simply drag and drop the person’s name on to your calendar. Assign an email keep-in-touch campaign with three clicks. You can use pre-designed campaigns or edit them or make your own. We have tried “Top Producer” client management system twice, but both times our team would not even use it because it was so complicated. We paid over $149/month and it just sat there. We’ve designed ours to be simple to use.

When you sell that person a home they are now a client. You click the button to move them to a client and their info is now entered as a client and you enter all the contract deadlines and information (as much or as little as you choose). If you only want to use three deadlines or you want to use twenty for each file- that’s up to you and very easy to do. You can choose to be alerted (via text message) before every appointment you have or not at all. Maybe you just want to be notified the day before the inspection deadline- no problem, it’s simple (two clicks and it’s done).

You can allow your clients to log in to their own account and see their file. A listing client can see everything you have done on their file and when. They can see when the magazine ad went out and when the sign was ordered and every showing. They can see all the feedback from their showings and your own personal notes. This doesn’t take the place of your personal communication, but it helps you to stay in touch with them even when you are busy and it helps them stay connected to the transaction in a new and interactive way.

When the file closes you can place that person as a past-client and set them up to receive monthly emails from you. Use pre-created ones, edit them, or make your own. Every time you take a new listing it’s sent to all of your past-clients, friends, family and associates. Or not- it’s up to you (one click makes it happen or not happen).

And you’ll have a community area where you can see everyone who is online and see their websites or send them a message. You can take part in the ongoing real-time chat discussion between everyone online. Throw out a question or just say hello. Read the internal blog, learn from the forums areas (and vote for the posts that helped you), read the community calendar or schedule an event in your area. It is important to have support from other agents who are succeeding and gain ideas from them and share your ideas. Networking can bring you referrals and can be a fun way to stay in touch with other agents around the country.

You’ll get coaching on how to convert leads, how to grow your team when you’re ready, how to drive traffic to your website, and how to create a great website. BlueRoof360 is a simple, powerful, well-designed online solution for real estate agents and brokers.

Keep doing what you are doing now and just use this to add some extra deals every month. Or go full-out and close hundreds of deals this year from your website. Either way, a long-term online presence will grow your business and give you tools to give better service and value to your clients.

As Jeff, TheXBroker, says…

“So where is the middle ground of killer technology and rePro listing penetration? I think BlueRoof is headed down the right path. Technology (Solvent) + rePro (Solute) = A Solution…one that both consumers and professionals can benefit from.”

The internet is a simple, powerful way to connect with people and grow your business and now BlueRoof360 will give you a simple and powerful way to do it.

Realtors are Just too Damn Old

Ever been out with friends at the local bar filled with 20 and 30-something’s having a drink and you notice the old horny dude in the back just sitting, watching? He’s probably a nice guy and has a lot of great stories about the “good old days” when he actually belonged at this college hangout, but he doesn’t quite fit in with the vibe and environment.

Many Realtors are that old dude. Experience is good. Knowledge is good. Stories wrapped in nostalgia can be good. Being  outdated and unwilling to evolve and offer effective service because you’re too (old, lazy, experienced, busy, set in your ways, dumb, etc) whatever -  that is bad.

I’m not a fan of the blogging movement that seems to be happening where agents simply bitch and whine about everything just to gain some sort of credibility with consumers, as if to say, “See I’m complaining- I’m on your side, so give me business!”

I am not complaining to get business- I am complaining so that hopefully 100 of the old agents who read this will leave the business immediately. And by old I don’t necessarily mean age, it’s more the attitude and approach. But it usually does correlate to age. The average age of Realtors today in America is like 87 or 104 or something. It’s just really old.

Let’s look at some of the reasons for this…

People enter into real estate at a much older age than other professions. They rarely gradute high school thinking they want a career in real estate and then immediately pursure that dream. There aren’t many kids running around dreaming about being a Realtor. Usually people enter real estate after years spent in some other career in some other field. They decide they want something easy different and give real estate a try. And then some make it, but most do not (90% of people who get a real estate license do not renew their license).

Older people know a lot of people. After ten years on the city bingo league and twelve years as soccer-mom and six years in the PTA and a lifetime going to church, some have a big sphere of friends and family and associates to beg network from. So some of these agents just hang around waiting for somebody to call them and don’t think about enhancing their service to attract new business.

Older people seem more trustworthy. Every generation seems to have this belief that people from past generations were better workers, more trustworthy, more wholesome, better dressers, better people, more dignified, more educated, more spiritual, and just plain better people. This is not true. Every generation is just as good as the last and just as bad as the last. Just because someone is older does not make them anything necessarily, except older.

Some older people have nothing better to do. There aren’t a lot of job opportunities for a 54 year old real estate agent who used to be the vice president of PaperDolls,inc. They don’t have anywhere else to go, so they stick around, passively. Without having a real drive, they don’t work to be the best or even be better. Many times they are content to just be there at all.

It’s tough to fire an older person. If 23 year-old Justin doesn’t cut it or learn the new stuff it’s easy to kick him out and tell him he needs to find another job. But good ole’ Betsy who’s got all the great stories and knits everyone sweaters and has no other job prospects, that’s tough. So noone kicks her out. She just hangs around doing nothing and not learning anything new and not giving her clients the best service and not making any money.

I’m not saying that everyone older than me should leave the business. I’m saying about 85% of the people older than me should leave the business. There are 9000 agents in Salt lake and 8000 of them are older than me. If 85% of them (6800) left the business there would still be 2200 agents in Salt Lake, which would still be 1000 too many, but it would be a good start. It’s been no secret that I think there are way too many agents and it’s too easy to enter the real estate field.

Competition=good.

People unwilling to learn new things=bad.

I know,  I should respect my elders. And being young doesn’t make someone more tech savvy or have more energy or better. That is why I’m not saying everyone older should leave- only 85% of them. There are 15% who continue to learn and evolve and understand new trends and have enough energy to work more than 2 hours a day and actually return phone calls. And I agree that just being young does not make someone more tech-savvy, but younger people can be slapped-around and molded more easily. And if they don’t cut it nobody really cares about kicking them out of the business so there’s less guilt when they leave.

Like it or not, admit it or not- real estate is in a state of flux right now. The industry is being forced to evolve and those who lead the charge and accept the new protocol of constant change will be those who lead. Others will follow, and others will be pushed out of the way. This is not only acceptable, this is healthy. Evolution is all about making way for newer, and more evolved breeds.

Technology does not take the place of a relationship and it shouldn’t. Technology, when used properly,  should enhance it. I remember when I first got into the business they were just switching the MLS onto a computer. Previously it was just a big book. And I remember how much resistance there was to the change. They kept the book around for a while to help with the transition and I remember how most agents thought they book would always be around because nobody would want to drive to the office to look on a computer to find homes when they could just look in the book that they carried with them everywhere. This was only fourteen or fifteen years ago.

Tomorrow’s successful breed of Realtor will be heavily equipped with technology, a forward-thinking attitude, and a willingness to grow as they work diligently toward adding value for their clients. 85% of agents today do not want to grow and adapt and diligently work toward anything. 85% of agents today want to take their past or their extensive list of friends or their 40 hours of real estate schooling and sell enough homes in 2 hours/day to be successful. There are a lot of good people in the real estate business and hopefully those good people will evolve and stay in the business as it changes.

Prudential  Utah just made it mandatory for every listing to have a virtual tour because 60% of the agents weren’t taking photos of their listings or having any sort of photo tour posted. When I search for homes on the MLS many listings don’t have any photos other than the drive-by snapshot the MLS takes.

Consumer expectations are changing. There is more dicussion taking place between consumers and between consumers and agents. People demand value, and value is not the commission rate. Value is what someone gets in return for the price. It’s the whole experience. Consumer’s are moving online more and more every day and older techniques for marketing are becoming less effective. Those who want to be successful in this industry in ten years need to begin growing toward that today. Or move out of the way and watch as some of us lead the evolution.

Inman Connect NYC, 2008

 

Most of the attendees to Inman Connect are owners, corporate people, or start-ups in the real estate industry- not many Realtors attend. It’s a fantastic way to teach, learn and network from those who are pushing the industry into the future.

And there are some great conversations floating around in the halls between sessions. With normal company or Board of Realtor Association conventions much of the conversation is, “How do you get your business?” or “What do you think of the market?” At the Connect event there are so many technology companies and owners of brokerages that the conversations have a bit more sophistication. Throw in a few beers and they get very interesting.

Some of the things I saw, realized, remembered, liked, and noticed from the convention;

There are a ton of start-ups launching in real estate right now

It is a blast meeting up with other bloggers at these conventions

Google offices have arcade games and a cool view

Dustin (dramatically) cut his hair

Joel always seemed to be on his way somewhere

NYC is a great place for a convention

Speaking at 9am has its advantages. I was a bit ambivalent about speaking in the first session of Connect. I didn’t know if kicking off the event was an honor or if it was like being the opening act for something better. Turns out, it was pretty great.

If you forget to pack your pants and have to wear jeans, just pretend you did it on purpose and noone will ever know the difference (until you blog about it)

Showing up at the very end of a party (because your flight was delayed) is still fun, but you’re left out of all the pictures and video

Craig never has much enthusiasm, but he’s always honest

I always forget my camera

Many large brokerages just don’t understand technology and how to utilize it efficiently. Even some who think they do- really don’t. Politics and corporate red tape make a company move too slow to keep up with technology.

Rudy and Joe are always cool to hang out with (and they always remember their cameras)

Brian Brady isn’t afraid to stay out all night.

Dustin has a list of things he learned as well.

MySpace Wants to be BlueRoof

 

Or at least they want to take my blog, slap their branding on it, and put it on their new “News” section of the site. There are many ways to break into the news business, but simply taking other people’s content and branding it as your own is not the best way to do it.

It’s always nice to be recognized, especially to be considered newsworthy by a well-known source, but this goes a bit far. Nobody contacted me to ask if they could use my content. I suspect they have a spider or program that goes through each category and finds the sites with a certain level of traffic and then copy the content from those sites. There’s not much flattering about that.

MySpace has mastered the whole get-kids-to-make-silly-websites-and-post-naughty-pictures thing, now they might want to learn good business practices.

Google Search Secrets by Sellsius

 

Sellsius gives us a fantastic list of Google Search Secrets that expose some really cool tools found inside our favorite search engine. A few of the secrets;

Find similar terms with the tilde (~): ~cheap homes. You get auctions, foreclosures, etc.

Use the wildcard star (*) if you don’t know the missing word: a man’s home is his *.

Get a list of definitions with “define:” define:foreclosure.

Use Google as a calculator (good for figuring a commission): 548,000 x 6%.

To search a term in a particular blog or website use “site:”. Useful if a website or blog doesn’t have a search box: site:blog.sellsiusrealestate.com zillow. (Dang, 960 Zillow posts. We must have a crush on Zillow.)

Type in the area code to find out the city: “646″.

Time & Weather. “Time Hong Kong” gives you the time in Hong Kong. “Weather Hong Kong” (or weather (zip code)) gives you the weather.

Local Movie times. Type the movie and your city or zip code: “I am Legend 10022″

Track FedEx, USPS & UPS packages: skip the log in and just type in the tracking number.

Flight information: “Delta flight 2446″

Comparisons: type in quotes: “better than___”, “worse than___”, or ” ___ sucks” (for bad reviews). “better than iPod”
Reverse lookup. Type in a phone number and Google gives you the address and/or identity of the owner.

Conversion tool for currency and weights and measures. “100 US dollars in British Punds”, “Square feet in an acre”, Ounces in 5 pounds” or even “days in 5 years”. 

Cry-Baby Board of Realtor Associations and MLS’s Continue Desperate Rule-Making

The Northwestern Wisconsin Multiple Listing Service, operated by the Realtors Association of Northwestern Wisconsin, is realizing that it is a lame monopoly that is going extinct, in fact, an MLS system. And they have decided to take the same ridiculous position that the Regional MLS of Minnesota and the Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois and Northwest MLS in Washington have taken…

They cry about it and demand that the term “MLS&#