What YOU Need to KNOW Right NOW Before GOING to an Open HOUSE (You Won’t Believe #4!)

What YOU Need to KNOW Right NOW Before GOING to an Open HOUSE (You Won’t Believe #4!)

If you really stop to dwell on it, there's something quite strange about open houses. You leave your home- with all your memories and your toys and that open Gatorade bottle in the back of the fridge- in the care of a real estate agent that you may not have ever met or seen or whose name you know, so strangers can walk through your house for a few hours and judge how you live. If you're fortunate enough to not…
What the F*** is a “Zestimate,” Anyway?

What the F*** is a “Zestimate,” Anyway?

(Update: this whole post is now moot, glad I took the time) Folks in my business tend to see Zillow and other techy real estate companies as anywhere from benign presence to the Anti-Christ. I land somewhere in the middle, as I have a healthy distrust of any giant company but can see how when they offer real value, it's best to figure out how to work with them or they'll eat your lunch. I have seen firsthand what kind of…
What the Hell Are You Talking About

What the Hell Are You Talking About

There's an old saying in marketing that half of all marketing works, but nobody knows which half. That's likely an outdated metric, what with the new army of data scientists and algorithms that didn't used to exist, but there are still plenty of places where art is called for more than science. Take for example movie advertising, my old bailiwick. When deciding what tagline to put on a poster, or which review quotes to include in an ad, it's mostly hunch.…