compliments of The Harvard Business Review
1. Always study the competetive landscape.
2. Find a niche and create something new.
3. The Customer is always treated like royalty.
4. Hire Passionate People.
All of the above sound right, logical, and helpful for the beginning entrepreneur. Still, something feels incomplete.
Perhaps it is there in the "competetive landscape" suggestion. Perhaps it needs to be clarified.
Perhaps it benefits the customer most when we add, "Look for opportunities to collaborate on behalf of the customer", and "ask what is required of you and your business to be of service to the customer?". Someone recently asked me, "what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses, and what would you say your customers get from you that they may not get from other Brokers?" My answer to the last part was, "my customers become the smartest customers in the market place". That is my goal and my reason for perservering in a highly competetive business. I want to know, "what is required of me and my business in order to achieve smarter customers?" It is a worthy question, answered more each day I ask it.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Foreclosure is a sad experience
Last week, I showed a house to a prospective buyer. It was in North Berkeley on a great street. It is a large, 4 bedroom two bath house and is occupied by the owner of the house - or so I thought.
The house was dark inside - all the drapes, curtains and shades were drawn. It was pouring rain outside. A woman in her forties answered the door.
Once inside, a young boy - maybe six or seven years old was being his energetic self while his young father - perhaps early twenties - tried to get him to the front door so they could leave for their next destination. In the kitchen, a woman in her mid to late sixties was standing and staring straight ahead until we entered the room. I introduced myself and my clients. The woman in the kitchen attempted a smile, and I asked, "Where are you and your family going next?" - this is not an unusual question I ask of sellers. It is usually answered by a rather excited description of what they are moving on to - in this case, the woman said, "I don't know". She then said, "I was born in this house - my parents bought it when they were first married, and they raised four children here" and then she shook her head. They are losing the home she was born in, raised in, and raised her own family, and now grandchild. This is heartbreaking.
I have not been able to get them out of my mind since that day.
The house was dark inside - all the drapes, curtains and shades were drawn. It was pouring rain outside. A woman in her forties answered the door.
Once inside, a young boy - maybe six or seven years old was being his energetic self while his young father - perhaps early twenties - tried to get him to the front door so they could leave for their next destination. In the kitchen, a woman in her mid to late sixties was standing and staring straight ahead until we entered the room. I introduced myself and my clients. The woman in the kitchen attempted a smile, and I asked, "Where are you and your family going next?" - this is not an unusual question I ask of sellers. It is usually answered by a rather excited description of what they are moving on to - in this case, the woman said, "I don't know". She then said, "I was born in this house - my parents bought it when they were first married, and they raised four children here" and then she shook her head. They are losing the home she was born in, raised in, and raised her own family, and now grandchild. This is heartbreaking.
I have not been able to get them out of my mind since that day.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Friday, December 21, 2007
Seeing into 2008 - or Liz dons her Turban
December 21, 2007 - tonight is the longest night of the year.
Lack of light influences our emotions more than most people realize. I have a friend who bought a light table - a device that photographers used in years gone by to look at slides - photos on film that were projected onto larger screens. In days gone by, the best way to choose the best shots was to review the slides on a light table with a magnifying glass. Arther uses the light table to give his body some needed light in the dark winter days. It works for him and many others with Seasonal Adjustment Syndrome.
The Real Estate Market in the US is in the long dark winter of its cycle and may not see sustained light for 18 more months - 24 more months. What does this mean for buyers and sellers?
Savvy investors are watching to see a break in the credit squeeze (jumbo loans are scarce and expensive now), and once they see the loosening of jumbo loans, they will move into the softened market to buy properties they can add value to and sell in two years, or hold for longer term investment. Investors want to buy with "OPM" (other peoples' money - the banks) and leverage is their best friend. I am looking for good multiple units - rents are strong and tenants are plenty. I think we will see easier jumbo loans and better quality inventory of properties, maybe with needed price reductions come Spring. I am the eternal optimist.
Meanwhile, agents and brokers would do themselves a service to be questioning their value proposition for the coming three to five years as consumers show us what they want and expect from us. Time to re invent our business models.
Have a creative holiday, full of self inquiry and plenty of acknowledgement. Best to you all.
Liz
Lack of light influences our emotions more than most people realize. I have a friend who bought a light table - a device that photographers used in years gone by to look at slides - photos on film that were projected onto larger screens. In days gone by, the best way to choose the best shots was to review the slides on a light table with a magnifying glass. Arther uses the light table to give his body some needed light in the dark winter days. It works for him and many others with Seasonal Adjustment Syndrome.
The Real Estate Market in the US is in the long dark winter of its cycle and may not see sustained light for 18 more months - 24 more months. What does this mean for buyers and sellers?
Savvy investors are watching to see a break in the credit squeeze (jumbo loans are scarce and expensive now), and once they see the loosening of jumbo loans, they will move into the softened market to buy properties they can add value to and sell in two years, or hold for longer term investment. Investors want to buy with "OPM" (other peoples' money - the banks) and leverage is their best friend. I am looking for good multiple units - rents are strong and tenants are plenty. I think we will see easier jumbo loans and better quality inventory of properties, maybe with needed price reductions come Spring. I am the eternal optimist.
Meanwhile, agents and brokers would do themselves a service to be questioning their value proposition for the coming three to five years as consumers show us what they want and expect from us. Time to re invent our business models.
Have a creative holiday, full of self inquiry and plenty of acknowledgement. Best to you all.
Liz
Monday, October 8, 2007
I'm Green, You're Green, Everybody's Green, Or Not
Next week, an effort to address the urgency of saving our planet, as we peer over the edge of the precipice of destruction will bring together all those who care enough to do something new and different.
How we buy, use, and discard our things without paying much attention to what we need vs what we want is one way.
How we eat is another. I am a total foodie, but I shop, cook and digest more consciously now than I have every done - thanks to this "pay attention" movement created out of necessity - we call affectionately, "The Green Movement". You will find a stunning slide show of families all over the world posing with a weeks worth of food on this blog. Please consider it. Please act on it. You can eat healthfully, well, locally and cheaper with just a bit of attention. Do it for your Grandkids. Do it for your for your health. Do it for your survival.
How we buy, use, and discard our things without paying much attention to what we need vs what we want is one way.
How we eat is another. I am a total foodie, but I shop, cook and digest more consciously now than I have every done - thanks to this "pay attention" movement created out of necessity - we call affectionately, "The Green Movement". You will find a stunning slide show of families all over the world posing with a weeks worth of food on this blog. Please consider it. Please act on it. You can eat healthfully, well, locally and cheaper with just a bit of attention. Do it for your Grandkids. Do it for your for your health. Do it for your survival.
Friday, September 21, 2007
New models in real estate
In times of change and turbulence, new models are proposed, tried, and either adopted or discarded as unworkable. In the purchase and sale of property in the United States, we are seeing a progression of the growth of online real estate marketing and new models for customer satisfaction in the process of buying or selling. In the past few weeks, I have become aware of a couple of models that are interesting.
One model is the investing in future change. I am aware on one company, Rex Holdings, that is offering homeowners immediate cash for a percentage of the increased value of their homes over the next period of years. Rex Holdings takes no equity position, but is contractually binding a homeowner to paying a percentage of profits on the sale of the property. The homeowner decides on the percentage of profits they are willing to pay for the immediate cash. The website for RexHoldings has a calculator that provides the homeowner an estimate of what amount of cash they would get for a home of X value with the homeowner willing to offer X percentage of profit in the transaction. I am sure that the amount of homeowner equity must be a part of the offering as well. If the homeowner owns a small amount of equity, the proposition must calculate the value of the risk involved. Go to the Rex Holdings website and let me know what you think about this model of borrowing or selling investments in your investment.
Are you attracted to the Menu Based commission offering? I believe that this model will become more mainstream in residential real estate in the future. I think that offerings of customer services must be more specific and perhaps even tied to results. Do you think that Brokers and agents will take a smaller role in the marketing, searching and general identification of property in the future? Will Brokers and Agents be relegated to the transaction negotiation portion of the transaction? Changes will happen with more regularity now that the market is open for change. I welcome them.
One model is the investing in future change. I am aware on one company, Rex Holdings, that is offering homeowners immediate cash for a percentage of the increased value of their homes over the next period of years. Rex Holdings takes no equity position, but is contractually binding a homeowner to paying a percentage of profits on the sale of the property. The homeowner decides on the percentage of profits they are willing to pay for the immediate cash. The website for RexHoldings has a calculator that provides the homeowner an estimate of what amount of cash they would get for a home of X value with the homeowner willing to offer X percentage of profit in the transaction. I am sure that the amount of homeowner equity must be a part of the offering as well. If the homeowner owns a small amount of equity, the proposition must calculate the value of the risk involved. Go to the Rex Holdings website and let me know what you think about this model of borrowing or selling investments in your investment.
Are you attracted to the Menu Based commission offering? I believe that this model will become more mainstream in residential real estate in the future. I think that offerings of customer services must be more specific and perhaps even tied to results. Do you think that Brokers and agents will take a smaller role in the marketing, searching and general identification of property in the future? Will Brokers and Agents be relegated to the transaction negotiation portion of the transaction? Changes will happen with more regularity now that the market is open for change. I welcome them.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Green Business
Our company is in the process of becoming certified as a Green Business. The process is enlightening. While filling out the application, we must rate a variety of practices and how we are reducing pollution, increasing recycling, and reducing usage of things like paper and printer ink. We are also using less electricity in our lighting of the office.
The very process has allowed us to institute change with a minimum of discomfort. The most uncomfortable part of the changes are the changes to our attitudes. We are moving from being consumers of unlimited resources, to thoughtful consumers of limited resources whose desire is to lighten our footprint on the earth. That most difficult change is also the most exciting. Our agents seem to be "one-upping" each other in their ideas and practices on conserving and recycling. We installed a meter on our copy machines, measuring both print jobs sent from agents' computers as well as walk-up copy jobs. We intend to look closely at our usage of "ink to paper" usage and compare it to our efforts to create a paperless office. We now store our closed files on CD and on our server and provide our clients CD copies of their transaction file. We also send CD's to our counterparts in the the transaction - the other agent. We were concerned that our recycling efforts on paper were not really being recycled once they left our office, so we hired a shredding company to take all our documents that must be shredded for safety and our recycling paper stuff and shred it and turn it into recycled paper. We also buy recycled products, including paper and copy machine cartridges. We set our thermostats at 61 degrees before heat comes on and 78 degrees before air conditioning comes on. We are doing our best and doing it with a new attitude. We have new ideas about offering sellers an "energy audit" prior to listing their home so we can brag and puff about how energy efficient their home is in our marketing. What else, what else? We like feeling like we are trainable, changeable, and doing something that matters.
The very process has allowed us to institute change with a minimum of discomfort. The most uncomfortable part of the changes are the changes to our attitudes. We are moving from being consumers of unlimited resources, to thoughtful consumers of limited resources whose desire is to lighten our footprint on the earth. That most difficult change is also the most exciting. Our agents seem to be "one-upping" each other in their ideas and practices on conserving and recycling. We installed a meter on our copy machines, measuring both print jobs sent from agents' computers as well as walk-up copy jobs. We intend to look closely at our usage of "ink to paper" usage and compare it to our efforts to create a paperless office. We now store our closed files on CD and on our server and provide our clients CD copies of their transaction file. We also send CD's to our counterparts in the the transaction - the other agent. We were concerned that our recycling efforts on paper were not really being recycled once they left our office, so we hired a shredding company to take all our documents that must be shredded for safety and our recycling paper stuff and shred it and turn it into recycled paper. We also buy recycled products, including paper and copy machine cartridges. We set our thermostats at 61 degrees before heat comes on and 78 degrees before air conditioning comes on. We are doing our best and doing it with a new attitude. We have new ideas about offering sellers an "energy audit" prior to listing their home so we can brag and puff about how energy efficient their home is in our marketing. What else, what else? We like feeling like we are trainable, changeable, and doing something that matters.
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