Archive for December, 2007
Happy New Year!
December 31st, 2007 Categories: Mortgage News, Random, Real Estate News, Real Estate Technology, Social Networking
Happy New Year to all who take the time to read my (bitchy, thx Todd) rantings.
One of my resolutions is to reconfigure TheXBroker.com into a place that tears into the laws of unconventionality, enlightening, provoking, teaching, providing for and preparing real estate and mortgage professionals for business in 2008 and beyond…I’ve taken the Holidaze to ponder some ideas and formulate a grand plan, it should be interesting to say the least.
Look for a face lift in the coming weeks…
Sphere: Related ContentThe XBrokers Rehash of Real Estate, Mortgage and Technology Predictions for 2007
December 30th, 2007 Categories: Mortgage News, Real Estate News, Real Estate Technology, Social Networking
New Years is upon us already, my how time flies, so a reflection on 2007 seems an appropriate final post of the year.
Last January I made some predictions for 2007, so let’s review what I saw in the crystal ball…
Active Rain and other community based ‘Blogsites’ are going to be Big.
- AR more than doubled their membership.
- Zillow and Trulia, both born with ‘3rd party destination sitetis’, add social features tit for tat (you say Voices, I say Discussions) trying everything to foster consumer AND agent engagement. It wont be long before both look like Yahoo!’s home page…busy busy busy.
- Community based BloodHound Blog (The Premier RE.net community blog) has like 50 contributers, Swann becomes a recognized influencer by coining th term RE.net.
- The Network (or Uber) blog is born.
- Blogging has become recognized as a requirement rather than a novelty for a properly ‘Web 2.0′d real estate professionals business plan.
- FaceBook went from zero to $15,000,000,000.00 in, like, less than 5 seconds.
‘Social Networking’ is the new Buzz of the Net…supplanting Web 2.0 as the most overused term…*Yak*
Web 2.0 technologies, specifically the Mash-up, will accelerate the paradigm shift influencing the way real estate is bought sold and financed.
This was a pretty broad and safe statement, a no brainer. A blog-site is a ‘web 2.0′ technology, and a mapping UI is the mash-up of existence for Redfin, Zillow, Truila and Estately. What I should have said is that ‘Open Source’ info-shareable (and share inducing information) technologies will acclerate the paradigm shift.
Transparency in the mortgage industry will cause a substantial financial shift in how (much) service providers make money.
Well, this was to be a self-serving prophecy, but I digress for now. Anywhoo, the word Transparency is/was used ad Nauseum in 2007, and it’s definition is too subjective down to the user, IMHO. Translucency seems a better word to describe most professionals definition of being open and honest about their business and all related information. ‘100% transparent’ is almost an idealogical philosophy rather than a reality in realty.
As far as the mortgage industry is concerned, while overall consumer education as to how the mortgage industry colludes against the consumer has dramatically improved, translucency still dominates the terrain. Only after terms like ‘credit crunch’, ‘mortgage meltdown’, ‘Sub-Prime implosion’, etc etc etc and a bill proposed by legislators and lobbyists became fixtures on the stupid box (TV) did the proverbial light bulb flicker on.
One thing I’ll never forget are the legions of mortgage professionals who argued (some still do) their ignorance in the public arena, telling anyone who listened that ‘it’s no one’s business how I make my money’ and that ‘YSP is how I make my money, butt out!’. WTF..?
Trying to control and confine information in The Information Age is a futile business strategy. Repeat this to yourself real estate and mortgage professionals…you’ve seen the landscape change dramatically over the past 12 mos, imagine the next 12…
Open source Listings will supplant the ‘proprietary nature’ in which they are traditionally held. Someone will create a National Listing Service that is accepted by those inside and heavily utilized by those outside of the industry.
This looks to be going a couple of ways…
1) NAR announces plan to launch a ‘Gateway’ to property listings
2) A perpetual iteration down to a ‘1-2 degree of separation’ between a consumer and ultimate free listing data. Properly using social networks like Active Rain, LinkedIn, and Spock on large levels to find Network Blogs on local levels, dialing down to individual blog-sites could pretty quickly and simply spell the end to centralized data aggregators like MLS’ are. Googles Open Social platform should catalyze this dynamic once the geeks wrap their collective heads around how to do this.
Buyers Agents who refuse to negotiate their Fee will find themselves relegated to the ‘laggard’ 50+ consumer niche.
This pedictionis manifesting itself in a quicker fashion than any real estate professional may want to admit, again attributed to increased consumer education and similar awareness…thx to the bloggers 
Video Listings will quickly become the next standard for effectively marketing a property, especially the high-end inventory.
I was wrong here. Dead wrong. I’m not knocking video (when it’s done well) but there are multiple ways to effectively and remarkably advertise property using multi-media. Bill Leider makes this point far more eloquently than I (read the comment thread that follows Bill’s post too)…
Incidences of foreclosures, predatory lending, fraud, and other negative factors will sharply increase as $1,000,000,000,000 in Adjustable Rate Mortgages are due for adjustment.
This statement looks so “Duh!?!” today, yet on 1/15/07, many many many people were still high on the ether, ignoring what became the biggest story in real estate for 2007.
The NAR will spend a record amount of money 1) Continuing to trash alternative models as evil 2) Fighting their anti-trust suit against the DOJ 3) Increasing the potency of their Kool-Aid…
Some things never change, although the NAR’s Gateway project (see above) seems to indicate a serious acquiescence by the large yet antiquated fraternity/sorority, alas there is sure to be mountains of red-tape to cut through (see the continued scary language like: For Realtors, by Realtors). In the end, they’ll probably screw it up.
My Link Roll will contain some of 2007’s biggest success stories in real estate and mortgage.
I see alot of successful stories in my blogroll…and wish everyone continued luck and good fortune
Next…My 2008 predictions.
Sphere: Related ContentA Fake Steve Jobs, Now a Fake Greg Swann?
December 25th, 2007 Categories: Mortgage News
Received a friend and group invite on Facebook for the Fake Greg Swann . There’s also an individual blog paying homage to the same…
Apparently someone has decided to become mini-Greg or Greg himself has created another vehicle to communicate his bottomless barrel of thoughts to the world.
Either way, this might prove interesting…Until the Fake Greg is revealed/reveals him(her)self…Anonymity is the ultimate ether to induce the rawest of opinion.
Sphere: Related ContentI’m Speaking at Inman Real Estate Connect NYC 2008
December 23rd, 2007 Categories: Real Estate Connect NYC 2008
Just in case anyone forgot…
If you’re looking for some weighted (yet qualified) opinion, intellectual debate and/or just want to hang out and have a drink, hit me up…we can practice some of them new social networking skillz that are the rage nowadays. As a recent ‘Free Agent’, it’ll be a great time to tap my neurotic brain for ideas…I’m Xtra likely to be Xtra open with my opinion.
This will probably be my last post before the 25th, so I want to wish everyone a Merry X-Mas (of course).
Sphere: Related ContentVulture Crapitalists Suck
December 22nd, 2007 Categories: Random, Social Networking
During my recent travels through some of our nations airports, I happened upon an article in one of my favorite print magazines (Wired, I believe confirmed) about a blogsite called The Funded. The article and site, about the travails of entrepreneurs during their experiences with Venture Capitalists, resonated with me for a few reasons:
1) The blogauthor of the site (Ted) was anonymous (real name Adeo Ressi). The XBroker was anonymous for awhile, until the professional community outcry became too loud to ignore.
2) The site outs the often misunderstood underpinning of a little understood industry, Venture Capitalism. The XBroker sought (seeks) to do the same for the mortgage (and real estate) industries.
3) Mr. Ressi is using aspects of nouveau social media to create a forum that evens the playing field for aspiring (and/or seasoned) players in the respective market.
Both sets of ‘industry’s’ are reputed for their gross molestation of potential and current clients. You know it’s coming, at least you should, yet one resigns to dealing with these necessary evils due to lack of apparent alternatives.
Moral of the post: Don’t take shit from no one. Seek to understand and the truth will set you free.
Kudos to Adeo Ressi, the world needs more of his ilk…
Sphere: Related Content
