BradyLoan.com

Rainmaker or Dealmaker?

I think Realtors and Loan Originators will become highly specialized individuals in the next 5-10 years.  The business will split off into 2 distinct personalities:  Rainmakers and Dealmakers.   I'm going to share some thoughts about identifying what you are and then some proactive ideas you can take to exploit your strengths in 2007.

Rainmakers are "Connectors". They know how to find people interested in your service offering, build trust, establish relationships and find business.  I love rainmakers because I am one.  I have made the most money in my career when I focused on rainmaking.  This is not to say that I don't know the technical aspects of my business; I do but I've been able to hire people to manage that part of the process. I am a salesperson and I'm extremely proud to say that.   Rainmakers are hunters.  Rainmakers are trailblazers. They are the oddballs that know which rock to look under and which alley to turn down to find a ready and willing prospect. 

Dealmakers are the doers. They specialize in the technical aspects of our professions.  For Realtors, the dealmakers show property to buyers, price property for listings, promote the listings, negotiate contracts, manage escrows, and keep the transaction compliant with the appropriate state real estate law.  For originators, the dealmakers, take a loan application, find the lender, gather the documentation from the borrower, interface with the borrower, processor and underwriter during the loan process, and deliver a happy client to settlement.

Our businesses are changing.  Partnerships and teams are cropping up all over the country.  It is said that real estate is a local business driven by local markets and practiced by local people.  I think that paradigm will morph in the next few years. 

Rainmakers can practice real estate all over the country by using networks where they build credibility and trust.  Rainmakers will be able to start their own "real estate brokerage network" by "marketing" their expertise and trustworthiness to people throughout the world.  Web 2.0, e-mail marketing, the telephone, and the mail allow anybody to become a "trusted advisor".  It is conceivable that I could gain the trust of 1000 people by carefully positioning myself as an expert on real estate through the tools I've mentioned.  If 100 of those people move each year and I get 50 of those transactions to refer, I can generate a six figure income as a rainmaker.

Dealmakers can work extremely hard at knowing the local markets (or loan programs). Rainmakers can find many of the dealmakers right here. Dealmakers should constantly be marketing themselves to avowed rainmakers both locally and nationally.  Dealmakers should have 20-30 active rainmaking relationships and should be talking to them every two weeks.  They should position themselves as an expert in...selling Poinciana, FL homes, helping buyers find the right vacation home in Marco Island, FL, steering investors clear of "traps" in the Vegas market, finding vacation properties in the Carribean, getting a vacation home on Bainbridge Island or selling Coastal San Diego.  Rainmakers should embrace these dealmakers and treat them like they are members of their "Team". 

Our businesses are changing.  Their will be hunters and farmers in this marketplace.  Identify your natural talents, and run like hell to be the best at your natural talent.  The days of the "do everything" practitioner are ending .  Don't become a buggy whip salesperson or vinyl record manufacturer.

Licensing is Just Plain Selfish

I often chuckle at the comments and statements made across the internet calling for national licensing of originators and higher standards for real estate agents.  The arguments always have these three themes:

1- Consumer Protection:  Are you kidding me?  I have yet seen a state licensing board that seriously polices its licensees.  State licensing boards allegedly screen applicants for "moral character".  All they do is prohibit people with a felony from entering the business.  I wonder if denying a gal who dated the wrong guy 20 years ago from making a living is fair.  After all, she did "pay her debt to society".

Licensing boards do so little to monitor the behavior of their licensees post facto.  In fact, I've seen the broker cabal "outlaw" an agent who was successful in client advocacy but hopped shops.  The three brokers for whom he'd worked conspired to drum him out of the business because he had "burned them" and went to work for an upstart brokerage in town.

Occupational licensing "for" consumer protection is about neither.  It's about

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Dixitque Deus: "Fiat Lux" et Facta Lux Est

In Coastal San Diego, we suffer from the May Gray or the June Gloom.  Once in a while, The Creator reminds us that He is still omnipotent.

Cardiff-By-The-Sea, May 15, 2007 around 7PM PST

Zillow Invades Your Privacy? Nothing Like This!

Rhonda Porter of Mortgage Porter and Tony Gallegos of Mortgage Cicerone alerted me to a piece of disruptive technology; Mobile Phone GPS Tracking Technology.

It seems that the folks at SunSat Satellatite Communications Co. have adapted military GPS positioning technology to track the SIM card in your cellular telephone.  I'm not certain if the telephone needs to be on for this technology to work.

I say it's disruptive technology because you can find out some disturbing things about your boss, spouse, friends, etc.  What started as a neat way for parents to keep and eye on their teenagers may very well turn into lawsuits.  Sellsius Real Estate once wrote about the dangers technology can produce by invading your privacy.  I disagreed with them then but now, I'm not so certain they weren't correct.

Check it out for yourself.

CAUTION:  I was very disturbed by what I saw here.

San Diego Mortgage Broker Questions Transparency in Lending

Mortgage brokers have been under assault by the extreme transparency advocates these last few years. Very smart people have embraced technology as the catalyst of change. They proclaim that technology will change how the American public compensates mortgage brokers. I think their advocacy has some merit.

Most consumers just don’t care about extreme transparency in lending.

Oh, sure.  The engineers who read Milton Friedman and St. Augustine may actually adopt a moral position about the evil greed that permeates our industry. They might vent about the immoral nature of the “secret profits” earned by originators who do business the “traditional” way. These consumers, a very minor subset of the population, are predestined to mistrust anything that smacks of traditionalism. Last decade, full-service securities brokerage firms advised people that their high commissions were actually more effective to get investors to buy and hold rather than to trade incessantly. Still, the engineers distrusted the establishment while they day-traded their retirement accounts away on high-flying internet IPOs through ScottTrade.

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Del Mar Realtors Soiree

When:

Monday, June 4, 2007, 5:00 PM

 

 

Where:

   En Fuego Cantina
1342 Camino del Mar
Del Mar, Ca  92014

858-792-6551   

• Info/Map

 

Description:

The Real Estate Soiree is Back! We will have a fabulous social hour in Del Mar after a 20 minute presentation about online real estate marketing:

1- How will social networking affect the real estate business?

2- Learn how some agents are succeeding on Active Rain, Zillow, Trulia, and MySpace

3- Is blogging the new way to meet potential homebuyers?

We will meet at En Fuego Cantina on Camino del Mar in Del Mar

RSVP limit:

  Only 25 members (including guests) can RSVP 'Yes' or 'Maybe' for this event. There's still room for 21 more.

RSVP BY Clicking Here

Blown Mortgage Interviews Me

Morgan Brown is the COO of New Day Trust, an Irvine, CA-based mortgage banking firm.  Morgan is a co-author with me on the acclaimed Bloodhound Blog and a fresh voice in the mortgage industry.  His weblog, Blown Mortgage is a courageous stand against the poor behavior our industry has demonstrated.

The interview had two parts.  This part is more relevant for consumers. (Click the link to listen to the 10 minute podcast) I discuss the housing markets in Southern California and the challenges for consumers who are "stuck" in loans they can't afford.

This part is more relevant to loan originators who are looking to increase their business. 

Move Your ASS-ets America! Boomer Economics

Welcome back for the second installment of Move Your ASS-ets America.  In the opening chapter, we discussed Depression Economics which was a study of the investment habits of the "Greatest Generation".  Today we're going to talk about their kids, The Baby Boomers (those born in 1946-1964).

Baby Boomers have had a profound impact on America, as consumers. One economist described that impact like "watching a basketball pass through a python". Everything the Boomers touch goes up in price.  Look at all of the elementary schools built in the 50s and 60s.  The cost of a college education skyrocketed from 1975-1995 because of their impact.  Housing rose during the 80s as they bought their nests, stocks in the 90s as they invested their 401-k accounts, and real estate in the first half of this decade as they purchased their vacation/retirement homes. Health care has steadily increased in costs during the past 15 years as the Boomers have aged and acquired aches and pains.

Now, the Boomers are getting ready to retire and everyone is concerned that they'll drain the Social Security system.  I wouldn't

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Move Your ASS-ets America: A Series

Many  homeowners are suffering from an insidious disease called Grandpa Economics. 

Grandpa Economics or Depression Economics starts off with the theory that you go to school, study hard, get a good job, save up money, buy a home and pay it off, save more money, retire, and live debt-free on a pension and/or social security.  That was a great plan for our grandparents.  They are often referred to as "The Greatest Generation" and I don't wish to take away from their many accomplishments.  They lived through the Depression, fought the war, built the roads and ports in our state, and were the backbone of our country.  These children of the Depression put Long Beach on the national map!

So, why would I suggest that this thinking is wrong for the middle class of this generation?

READ THE ANSWER HERE

Trulia.com V. Zillow.com: The RE.net Cage Match

Trulia.com announces their new features today and most of you will yawn, roll over, and go back to sleep.  LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST WITH TRULIA'S HEATHER FERNANDEZ

That's a mistake.

If Zillow.com is that hot chick that only dates bikers and Redfin.com is that shallow girl that MUST always be seen with a sugardaddy , Trulia might just be that nice girl you marry.  Their only newsworthy event was when Trulia was dissed by Prudential California some 15 minutes before a tradeshow.  PruCal acted like a bunch of obnoxious Realtors and Trulia acted like a class act. 

Trulia is that quiet company that could be a Realtor's best friend.  They obtained 2 million listings from partnerships with regional and national real estate brokerages.  Trulia.com has over 1.5 million unique visitors to their site each month.  70% of those visitors plan to buy a home within 12 months.  50% of the total unique visitors plan to buy a home within six months.  60% of all users are unrepresented by a Realtor.  That's over 400,000 potential clients floating around for a Realtor to grasp.

Today, Trulia announces three new features on Trulia.com:

1- Trulia Voices is a Q & A  section where anybody can ask or answer questions on a national, regional, local, and hyper-local level.  The answers are rated by the community at-large so that a useful reputation of expertise can be gained by the real estate professional.  They categorize the questions so mortgage originators have an equal opportunity to gain a foothold on this site.  Trulia Voices has a special "alerts" feature by e-mail or RSS feed so the interested Realtor or Originator can find out if there is an important question in real time.  It reminded me a lot of LinkedIn Q&A.

2- Trulia Profiles allows a Realtor or originator to build a webpage with SEO capabilities.   Trulia carries a 6 or 7 Google rating so the ambitious online real estate marketer would be wise to build a robust profile on Trulia.com.  Zillow doesn't share their Google Juice with the Realtor or Originator.

3- HousingWidgets.com is a cute directory of all the "bling" for your blog.  It allows the community to upload, comment, and rank all the real estate related widgets out there.  Trulia Widgets offers four unique widgets that offer consumer-centric tools without redirecting them from your website.

I'll be posting some good ideas about how Realtors and Originators might benefit from Trulia.com's new features.  Trulia might have been a month behind the curve but their offering seems far more useful to the Realtor and Originator looking to build an online presence.

I love the opportunity Zillow offers but wonder if they are the biker chick who will take off to Mexico leaving us broken-hearted. I know Redfin will ride this sugardaddy until he's broke than move onto the next sucker.  Trulia might just be the gal you marry. Let's see how this plays out.

MORE NEWS:  Greg Swann at Bloodhound Blog covers Trulia's new features here:

Is Trulia.com the UnZillow?  Realty.bot emerges from beta with a new Q&A feature and robust, system-wide automated alerts