Meet Virginia....and Georgia

DotLoop is putting its Pepsi bottles away as we head down to Atlanta tomorrow for the 2010 REBarCamp Atlanta. We'll be sure to eat lots of peaches while showing lovers of technology how they can simplify their lives with online negotiations.

Speaking of lovers, DotLoop will keeping it real at the REAL Show: the Virginia Association of Realtor's Convention & Expo October 1-3. If you're in town, join us in booth #204; this weekend will be sweeter than maple syrup.

Take Me Out To The Cleaners...

Let's play a game.

Imagine you're rich. Super rich. Now, imagine you want to build yourself a clubhouse. Fun game so far, huh?

This clubhouse will be built in the middle of town, only you don't want to have to pay for it. So, you convince your neighbors to pony up their money to pay for your shiny new clubhouse. Well, not so much convince as blackmail. See, if they don't give you money to pay for the clubhouse, you will leave and take the town's prized tourist attraction because, well, you own that, too.

So, they agree to build your clubhouse. Once built, you charge your neighbors an exorbitant fee to enter the clubhouse.

Sounds like a rotten deal, huh?

Interestingly enough, that's exactly how most city stadiums are built. Sport teams are no doubt a huge part of a city's culture (indeed, the Cincinnati Reds, DotLoop's own hometown team, won their division last night and clinched the playoffs, causing all sorts of excitement in the city), but often, the city never really owns the team. Or the stadium that is built by public tax dollars.

But don't stadiums bring in revenue for the city? Yes and no. Yes, they bring in some new tax dollars, but no, not enough to offset the cost of building the stadium.

The bottom line: sports teams are great for a city or region's culture and helps them brand themselves, but when private teams reap most of the benefits, shouldn't they be the ones paying for the facilities?

Of course, the resale is where the real money is at. Just ask Detroit, who sold their Pontiac Silverdome last year for a whopping $583,000. That's a lot of money, until you realize it cost the city $55.7 million to build it in 1975.

You can buy an awful lot of Cracker Jacks with that kind of money.

Happy Little Trees

With fall upon us, many of you no doubt are starting to do some home fix-ups. It is, after all, the perfect weather for painting without panting (no humidity - whoo hoo!).

I painted this weekend myself, actually. As I was going over the old paint, I was careful to stay within the lines, until, at one point, I went outside the parameters just a bit.

At first, I freaked out. Being the perfectionist that I am, I wanted to make sure that the new coat of paint covered the old exactly.

But then it dawned on me: I don't have to follow the same old worn pattern. After all, I have a brand new bucket of paint and can make new lines and new boundaries with my paint brush. I have the power to create an entirely new design.

This is great news, especially since the old lines are faded. After all, it's been two whole years since the economy began to crumble. By now, the old paint has chipped off. The question then, is, are you still following the old path, or are you forging a new one?

I challenge you, then, with your new paint bucket, to go and create bold new brush strokes. Maybe you've decided to take on that challenging listing or make your office completely paperless. Maybe you've even decide to embark on an entirely new career path altogether.

It's completely up to you. With all the doom and gloom about the current economy and with everyone wanting to badly to return to the spreadsheets of 2006, we often forget that this crisis is as much an opportunity as anything else.

So, instead of lamenting that the old paint is peeling off, brush away those paint chips and go create a masterpiece.

Don't miss the forest for the "happy little trees".

Foreclosures, Forgeries, and Fraudulant Financing

It's been three days since official start of fall and two years since the official fall of Lehman Brothers.

Only now, though, it seems that the question of "how did this happen?" is finally being answered.

The heat is hammering down on the foreclosure and mortgage industries, as it was just revealed this week that thousands of mortgage approvals were shuffled through and never checked. Many more were forged.

As the paperwork piled up, no one bothered checking to make sure that "Bogus Assignee" was a real person (yes, this actually happened) before approving them for a $500,000.00 mortgage. Others simply signed off on forms using a title they did not hold.

Hopefully, it's a lesson learned. Financial dealings are too important to be bogged down by mounds of paper that can easily be manipulated, lost, or forged.

DotLoop finds all of this fascinating, if only because it speaks so loudly about the need for transparent and accurate documentation. With DotLoop, not only is every change documented and attached to a form's history, but changes have to first be approved by a client before a form can be signed.

Who knew verification and approval were such novel ideas?

Pump the Brakes

While we always have multiple projects going on at the same time here at DotLoop, this week seems especially busy.

But we can make it - we always do. I think the key for us each of us to focus on one thing at a time before moving onto the next project. By week's end, things always seem to fall in place.

No doubt as agents, you've had your fair share of full plates. If you're lucky enough (or skilled enough), you might even be overflowing with work right now.

How do you get through it? Do you focus on one thing at a time or multiple things at a time? How do you handle multi-tasking?

More than likely, you don't.

Scientists are seeing more and more evidence that multi-tasking is a myth, that what we call "multi-tasking" is really just rapid attention shifting. We basically are taking tiny bites of a cornucopia of meals at a time instead of fully digesting one plate at a time.

Between bites, however, we need to refocus, losing productivity despite our "multi-tasking" which, ironically enough, is designed to make us more productive.

But getting one thing done, then moving onto the next actually allows for a greater yield of activity at the end of the day.

I'm sure Jeffrey Stephan wish he had thought of that. The 41 year-old document processor for Ally Financial recently admitted that he signed off on thousands of bank foreclosures, without reading a single one, a requirement for the job. The main reason was the shear amount of documents that needed to be reviewed and hand-signed: up to 10,000 a month.

Now, those who had their homes foreclosed on have ammunition to fight back and call shenanigans on the very banks who tried to do more than one thing at a time. It's sending shock waves throughout the mortgage industry.

Not to say that having another document processor wouldn't have helped, but he did admit to "shortcuts", including taking a glance at the borrower's names and a few other number before signing off, and not even reading the rest of the files.

Sometimes, when your plate runneth-over, the best advice is: when you're in a hurry, slow down.

Reading, Writing, and Real Estate

Last month, the DotLoop Blog examined what not to do with your website. Among the suggestions were to not use Glamour Shot images of yourself or brag about how awesome you are.

Today, let's go a bit deeper and discuss probably the most important part of your site - the writing.

Great writing can make a ho-hum site shine and bad writing can make a gorgeous site bland. A site's writing is what truly separates it from the competition. Here are three tips to make sure your site is a shining example of crisp and clear composition:

Practice Good Grammar - If you don't know your its from it's or their from there, then there's a good chance you're not paying attention to the details. And in real estate, details matter. Good grammar isn't about looking like an elitist; it's about looking competent. This includes the ever-important apostrophe placement, too.

Say Something - Everyone likes flowery adverbs, but don't forget you're also a business person. Your words need to say something of value, not just empty fluff. Same thing with your listings. What does a "cute cottage" mean, anyway?

Be An Expert - Talk about the local area, not just the specific home. Is there a local jazz bar around the corner from your listing? Do you have working knowledge about short sales and can you lucidly explain the process to your clients? Maybe you have a great tip on how to clean out gutters on a second story home. The more knowledge you can share, the better your brand will be.

Take a look at your site and check to see if you need some editing. Remember - your site's copy is how it communicates to the outside world. Make sure it has something to say and that it says it good, er, I mean well.

Pirate Phonics - Do Your Clients Understand Your Real Estate Lingo?

As many of you probably know, Sunday is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, a day to celebrate swashbuckling and decry land lubbers.

It's a silly day, one that I never had heard of until a colleague here at DotLoop mentioned it earlier this week.

It got us thinking, though: every industry has its own "language" - real estate is no different. But how helpful is that to your clients?

Do your clients, for example, understand what a short sale is? Or what it means to be FHA certified? Do they know what escrow means or why they need to sign a certain document and only initial another?

A purchase contract, after all, like most legal documents, is not designed to make it easy to understand, but to legally protect certain parties by using obscure, sometimes archaic (sometimes Latin) language.

Your job, then, as an agent, is to translate the legalese and help them navigate the choppy waters and keep them from walking the plank.

After all, with a real estate transaction, your clients are looking to you to be the captain of the negotiation, to keep a watch out for them from the crow's nest, and to help them set sail on their new life in their new home.

Arrrrrrr you up to the challenge?