Benny Moo

Transform your Business by Being Remarkable.

I'm going to share what one of my Creative Icon/Heroes Hugh MacLeod said today in a blog post to/about Seth Godin's Purple Cow:

It has occurred me many times recently, that one reason MANY, MANY people in the world are currently suffering during this current recession/crisis/whatever, is simply because they didn't follow the advice in Purple Cow.

That's a bit simplistic, I know, but it still has a ring of truth too it.

ALL your books are great, but Jeeze, Purple Cow is the one that really got under my skin, which is really what inspired the big drawing I did. To me the book, as a totem, as an icon, represents a huge shift in thinking that came along, almost uninvited, back in the early 2000's. The drawing represents [to me] my own ability to internalize it.

You and I both somehow managed to find a way to currently live in this Purple Cow/Hughtrain world now, that we wrote about 5+ years ago. But now I see that same world suddenly arriving for millions of people... and it's cold & scary for a great many of them.

Which is why I now think people now need to read Purple Cow more than ever...

I've been looking for a totem to place on the wall of my office for some time, and I've looked at both Seth and Hugh for something. Interestingly, they've now teamed up for the low-low price of $495 to create this:
I want to remain as financially well-off as a I can for my clients because I am a better person and agent when my financial conflicts of interest are few. Therefore, I will not be plunking down $495 for my own personal edgy business art original (that link BTW is @GapingVoid sharing my Twitter thoughts on his print series). I am making a tactical decision to instead claim marketshare in the only way I know how: personal relationships. I am giving first-hand witness to quality agents falling left and right due to the financial corners they have backed themselves into. The number of perilously financed personal residences of real estate professionals is the last foreclosure wave. I mourn for those that lived in unsustainable luxury. That's an easy thing to comment about, and maybe that's generically "remarkable", but I can't endorse it. Correspondingly, I'm buying more skill and more negotiating power. But it doesn't prevent me from riffing about the power of HughTrain and Purple Cow.

Businesses that fail to be remarkable are dying. Today, taps are droning for Pontiac and Saturn. The egalitarian aspect of "remarkable" says that something work talking about should readily spring to mind if that something is truly remarkable; neither of these brands generate in me anything particularly note-worthy. I guess Pontiac gave some cars away on Oprah a year or two ago. In my adult life I've never wanted to drive a Pontiac.

Is your business filled with participants that are plunging down similar black holes? Mine is. I have friends that work almost exclusively in the high-end of my business. One of the things that they unfortunately miss out on is this tsunami of traffic entering the marketplace for the first-time: The Famous First-Time Buyer. Many agents pull their hair out working with individuals that "don't know what they're doing." Baloney. Give me an opportunity to educate, and I have been just cloned that buyer three times over. First-Time Buyers are the salvation of the real estate market for three reasons: 1.) They are sustainable. 2.) They are abundant. Gen Y is the biggest Generation in US history. 3.) They are tangibly oriented. They may invest in the future, but they like to touch and hold that which they own.

• I love the new marketplace that is fueled by pragmatism and self-examination.
• I love the new marketplace that has "disloyal" buyers that use five to eight websites interchangeably.
• I love the new marketplace that has buyers looking at 15 to 30 homes and scrutinizing values based on how quickly homes are being absorbed, asking questions about appraisals, and in short, taking nothing for granted and defying conventional wisdom.
• I love a marketplace where my client and now friend, a Jamaican immigrant who received his citizenship due to valor in the field of combat service in the US Army, can be choked up at the news that his offer was accepted by a seller, and in 5 weeks he will be a homeowner.

I didn't invent this new marketplace. The marketplace has taken over. Real Estate now plays by the rules of The Marketplace, not the Rules of the Profession. Real Estate Professionals that are hording control of the data, that are trusting that their logo will compensate for their own shortcomings, that are focusing on working with anyone that wants to buy a house rather than being transparent and investing in a real relationship with someone... these individuals are going to waste away and wither. It is startling that the National Association of REALTORS has already seen 20% of it's membership leave since the peak of membership in August, 2007. The Colorado consumer might want to ask why only 10% have left the profession in this state, a state that was "in the vanguard" of the bursting bubble and is now entering year four of market correction.

In the insistence of transparency, I had the worst quarter of my career in the first quarter of 2009. My previous worst was 4th quarter 2007. Two of the last 6 were disasters. I didn't take on any additional debt in this last 90 day slog. I continued to stay in touch with those who knew me, liked me, and trusted me. I probably looked at more property than any agent in El Paso County (at least 30 a week every week for 12 weeks straight. That's 9% of the total inventory). I now have six scheduled closings in May and likely four to six more coming up in June, and can forecast at least four per month from July through September. That's a brag, and I can label it remarkable, but the reason business has flipped around so drastically has to do with persistent trust. I trust in relationships. I trust that clients that have been looking for almost two years now will find "it", and probably soon. I have never preached it's a good time to buy. Interestingly, my substantial pipeline of buyers have all come to that conclusion themselves (this is why I think we're starting a recovery: the consumer believes it. Who cares what sales people say? They are not the market. The consumer is the market). I have refused to sell, and instead, have chosen a longer path that makes it easy for the consumer to buy.... on their terms... when they're ready.

It is easy to want to buy what Seth and Hugh are selling. EASY. Because it's True. Their Totem to Truth is the most refreshing piece of art I've seen in a long, long time.

So you want to buy a foreclosure?

Really?

Do you really want to buy a house that has been abandoned?

A home that was someone else's shattered dream?

A home that has been through foreclosure three previous times in 11 years?

Well have I got a home for you!

Join Dave and Andrea on the ride through 10 Menary above the Broadmoor Hotel!

The video content is pretty horrible because yours truly uses old technology and there is no power on in the joint. But you should get the impression of what mold, misplaced ambition, and mystery appraisals can reek on the marketplace!

912 N Hancock Ave. The Cute Downtown Bungalow has arrived

1928 was a great year.

The stock market was booming.

Babe was blasting them out of the REAL Yankee Stadium

Spencer Penrose was taking over the Broadmoor.

912 N Hancock was built.

912 N. Hancock, C/S/C

This wonderfully charming little downtown bungalow is minutes to everything. Built-ins, hardwoods, big deck, great porch and a nice garage for storage. The fun begins at $234,900. 

Colorado Springs First Quarter 2009 Market Update

The numbers are cooked. View them here. 

Year to date unit sales are off an additional 20%.

Average sales price is down 11% from the same time last year. That was off close to 7% from the year before that. 

Appraisals are blowing up deals.

Buyers who are under contract are losing their jobs.

The Gazette is about 16 pages long and 14 of those are depressing tales. Every time The Denver Post Tweets about Colorado Springs it's something sensational. Today it's the front page saga of the USOC vs. Landco vs. The City of Colorado Springs. Shoot... schools are closed today because IT'S SUPPOSED TO SNOW, not because it has snowed, it's freakin' raining! So imagine how bloody awful the Stat Pack must be after the first quarter...

Well, it isn't great. But it isn't terrible. The market is presently going through the contortions and motions that preceded a recovery. These are partly due to government oversight, partly due to Fannie & Freddie growing a spine, partly due to pent-up marketplace demand and all leading in the direction of a turbulent spring and marginal recovery by year's end.

Government Oversight:

Locally, the FEAR OF GOD has been placed in the marketplace by Erin Toll, Real Estate Commission for the State of Colorado. Most of the real estate community finds this to be a great nuisance. I will say publicly here that it is a nuisance, and welcome one at that. Ms. Toll may be hyper-aggressive, she may be considering a statewide political office, she may be more powerful than constitutional permissible (I don't thing she should have access to the PPAR MLS system for instance), but she is doing a whale of a job in creating a safer, more consumer-friendly real estate system for future generations. Am I a suck up? Well intelligent consumer, you decide: She began policing appraisal practices aggressively in 2006 when loan fraud was booming. This lousy practice created the biggest problems in the market: appraisers and underwriters rubber-stamping values for buyers who had not gone through any sort of rigorous qualification system. A month ago, 9000 licensees were deactivated because they didn't order their errors and omissions insurance correctly. Add this sort of "your livelihood is inconsequential before the law" type of paranoia to a stressed out marketplace where the average agent did less 5 deals last year and an appraiser knows a single appraisal error could revoke their license and you can see how much fun this market is. The short-term effects of big government on a conservative-minded industry are pretty ugly. Yet... will these actions get the bum appraisers out of the business? Yep. Already succeeded for the most part. Will the Dept. of Regulatory Agency's increased spotlight on the real estate community lead to better business practices among actual career professionals rather than people who have brought the caliber of the industry down to ambulance-chasers? Will the consumer benefit from this? They already are.

Fannie/Freddie:

Your trillion dollar wards of the state are actually starting to function like they are supposed to. Underwriting rules border on the obscene, the legal disclaimers at closings are increasing, and for all of you who are boggled as to how "losers and idiots" got loans in 2006 and 2007... well Fannie and Freddie apparently have invoked loser and idiot clauses. They ain't getting loans. What they are doing is bogging down the market. In combination with PrivateMortgageInsurance and their increase in risk-assessed rates for borrowers with less than 20% equity, Fannie and Freddie and only allowing in the most credit-worthy of borrowers. Right now, that is not a lot of people. The credit-worthy are usually existing homeowners, and move-up buyers need first-time buyers to buy their home first (see DISCUSSION in the Stat Pack). So what are Fannie and Freddie doing? Kicking things over to HUD and FHA. FHA is flooded with business right now as 80% of the local market is buying for the first-time. The downpayment has increased to 3.5% (from 3%) but with many sellers willing to pay closing costs, the $8000 tax credit on a 2009 return essentially would cover the entire expense of a $223,000 purchase. Average selling price in the first quarter? Just under $210,000.

Pent-Up Demand:

The first-time buyer was rare in 2006 through mid-2008. Rates were good but not great, prices looked like they were going to fall (newsflash: they did), there was no timetable to act, and everyone knew a half dozen people who had been "Screwed" in the real estate bubble. So they sat. They're not sitting now. With the November 30th deadline to take purchase action, buyers that aren't acting yet are saving up to act by Thanksgiving. Where is there no pent up demand? The luxury market. They had their bacchanalia from 2003 to 2007 and Jumbo financing is still on the sidelines. Presently there is a five-year supply of housing over $500,000. The unit sales for MLS units over $500K are down 62% from two years ago. First-time buyer price-range activity (under $225,000) is off merely 15%. According to my sources within the power structure of the Nat'l Association of REALTORS (Michael Labout = The Mole), The Federal Reserve is actually inviting NAR input on Jumbo reform. That would unclog a lot of the market is a loan over $417,000 had a fixed 30 year rate less than 6% (it's still over 7%). 

Further turbulence ahead leads to optimum benefit:

Take your Rolaids, the rest of the year is going to be rocky. I personally look forward to the fall out within the profession as those that are not in the business to promote positive relationships and business practices get their karma kicked-in. Sorry for the latent aggression in that last statement, but the accidental REALTOR's reign is done. The social media pro's, and for that matter, the social pro's with cast-iron guts and cash will survive. The next nine months will weed out REALTORS who don't have sufficient technology skills; who don't make a practice of being in-flow and real-life with their clients (if you treat it like a transaction or paycheck, quit now); who don't have the resolve, the plan, the patience or the temperament to deal with the free-flowing blood in the streets of this economic meltdown where these is no such thing as an easy transaction; who don't have actual cash reserves. We are entering year four of the real estate correction. It began 36 months ago in April 2006 when supply went up, demand went down, on the market prices went up, average selling price went down, interest rates spiked, relocation slowed down and months of inventory skyrocketed... all in a single month. That one whacky bump sent our entire market tumbling. How does this history effect the consumer's present timeframe? 

Choose your representation wisely. How badly do they need this deal? A year or two ago, you could use their "need" to your advantage. Now... that need is probably at your peril.

Sellers who want to sell versus sellers that need to sell have figured out that their home is worth less than it was before. They've priced it as such and are still willing to talk. If you want a remarkable deal, don't bother with the "want to sell" sellers.

There were only 566 single family unit sales in March, 2009. There were 1040 in March, 2005. There were at least 350 new built sales that month that were not recorded in the MLS, so actual volume is down a staggering 60%+. BUT... there are almost 1600 pending and under contract properties right now. The wave of Fannie Mae repos at blow out prices that surfaced in December has already retreated. The troops are beginning to show up. The air force relos are starting to show. It's a six month sprint to November 30th. 

There are fewer months of market supply (8.7) now than the same time last year (10.1). 

If you can sense the clock ticking, well... it is. 

Visual Tour of 1680 Old Antlers Way, Monument, CO 80132

No one wants to buy an average buy anymore.

Even though the economy is barely puttering, no one looking today is interested in simple shelter.

No buyer wants a good buy. Every buyer wants a great buy.

What makes a great buy?

Something remarkable. Something worth talking about. Something worth bragging about in future years and decades, along the lines of "remember the Great Recession of 2009? That's when I picked this home up. No one else was buying, but I got... THIS. Look at me know."

Okay, that scenario might be a bit of a stretch. 

But with the perfect storm of 4.75% CV interest rates, depressed values and ample selection, buyers are often holding out for the extraordinary.

Here it is. The photo reel:

1680 Old Antlers Way, Monument, CO

Presently, there is nothing like this on the market.

In either TRI or NGT MLS areas, there are no +/- 3000 square feet ranch plans on a large lot under $375,000 (this is $365,000). None with 42" cabinets. None with a master walk out to rear deck. None with 9 foot basement ceilings. None that are custom construction (2x6). 

When you add to that:

• The quality of the floorplan that is made more visible by the staging and decor.
• The peace of mind that comes with having the entire property already inspected and repaired prior to sale. Home Warranty on top of that to cover all the inclusions.
• The fact that Air Force Relocation season does not begin until the end of April, and most USAFA personnel want a 1.) move-in condition property that is 2.) priced below it's present competition and will likely 3.) resell easily in two to four years
• This home is debuting at just the right time.

Consider:

• A Lennar /US HOME new built that was 250 square feet smaller two blocks east and exposed to I-25 traffic noise on the west-facing slope is under contract for $375,000.
• This is priced to compete with homes in Jackson Creek, a neighborhood tens of thousands less valuable than northern Woodmoor
• This is the least expensive home in a neighborhood of $375,000 to $600,000 homes
• That is it priced below the median sales price for the first quarter of 2009 in TRI

That's great value.

Showings and interest are already brisk, because in a market such as this one, the difference between average and remarkable... is significant. 

907 N Hancock Avenue: Magnificent 1940 home with 1000 square foot garage

When is a 3 bedroom home a remarkable three bedroom home? How to be a REMARKABLE THREE BEDROOM HOME:

1. Location in the downtown core
2. In excess of 2200 Square Feet
3. Three bedrooms, two MODERN (key word, MODERN) baths, the main level just remodeled
4. New Kitchen with Granite Slab counters, Butterscotch-Glazed Hickory Cabinets, Pendant Lighting and Stainless Appliances
5. Coved Ceilings, Covered Front Porch, a prime address like 907 N. Hancock.
6. Big Concrete Patio for outdoor barbecues and parties, grassy area, low impact landscaping.
7. 1000 square foot garage pad with three alley-access doors, the flanks at 8 feet tall and the center door at 10 feet tall.

In other words, if Rudolf von Flugel could park his blimp in the garage... and you still had an awesome, remodeled, downtown residence... That alone would be remarkable.

When you're the only game in town at $315,000, you're really remarkable.

Coming the week of April 6th: 907 N. Hancock. Enjoy!

907 N. Hancock, C/S/C

7277 Grand Prairie Drive: Just Listed at $280,000

The Keller Whitman is one of the more popular plans in Colorado Springs. The reasons are obvious: Colorado living is about bringing the outdoors in, about casual elegance over stuffy formality, and a quality builder whose products last is always going to out-perform a rival plan that has fading paint and leaky windows in three to four years. The Whitman has a traditional styling with a covered front porch, a spacious living and dining room and a large family room. But adding to the charm is the island kitchen, the two story great room, the turning staircase and the big master bedroom. For a home that is usually less than $300,000 it has the attributes of being well - proportioned (3031 total square feet) AND classy. Friends come by to visit and just nod their heads with a sort of knowing grin... it's just a nice house.

This home at 7277 Grand Prairie Drive in Wagon Trails has been just listed at $280,000. Built in 2002, it is one block from Villa Sport... and that's in addition to a location with the Wagon Trails HOA which offers it's own summer pool for a mere $250 annual HOA fee.

The "Wow" Factor on this one is the entire main level in hardwood floors... and it's the Corian counters in the kitchen, master bath and secondary bath... and it's the a professionally finished basement with a big recreation room, double vanity full bath in basement and a guest suite with giant closet... and it's the 20 x 10 master bedroom with vaulted ceilings, big walk-in and new 12" tile flooring in the 5 piece bath. It's not just one thing... it's many things. See it here.


7277 Grand Prairie Drive, C/S/C