Random thoughts…

Three years ago I have started a real estate brokerage in Las Vegas. Our real estate company is completely web based in terms of how we get business. We get all the buyers and seller through our websites. People like them because of the amount of information we have available. We are also very open about our terms and they way we work. We are very small company (less than 10 agents and only about 3 of them are producing some amount of business). We are still able to manage substantial amount of business and company profit. That’s not very usual in today’s world, where brokers (owners of real estate companies) are making less and less, because of the ever increasing commission splits for agents. Many years ago agents were making about 50% from the total commission received. Today they are making very often 100% of the commission leaving broker with couple of hundreds of transaction fees.

Our company is based on having agents on 70-80% split, but we spend money for marketing and provide agents with enough business from our websites and marketing. Instead of cutting expenses and provide less and less services to agents we try to provide more leads, which means more closings and more money for agents to make. Even as it sounds very simple and advantegous for all parties I feel like fighting with a lot of obstacles just to make common sense survive. It seems to me that real estate industry is really screwed up.

It is like most of the agents and brokers don’t get it. There is so much potential for further grow and doing business much better way, but it is really like going against the wall. Just to convince agents in the office that it is better to use computer for generating forms instead of paper. It takes 15 minutes on computer, because you fill certain information once (buyer name, address, etc. ) and it fills it out on 10 forms and 20 places automatically. Filling out paper takes 3-4 times more time. When I first required agents to use computer, gave them training and free software many of them felt that I am really asking too much. I don’t think that there is similar attitude in any other industry. Things like that really frustrates me.

This morning I got email from my office regarding some transactions on our bank account. Sheilah, my in-house bookkeeper, wanted to know what did I pay several times through FirePay.com and Click2Pay.com. There are about 12 transactions from $50 to $500 a piece.

Someone is taking money from our bank account. How is that possible I have no idea. They got electronic check withdrawal activated and that’s the way how they take money. But how they got it set up is really mystery for me. I always thought you have to have access to both accounts. I thought you have to confirm the first minimum transaction before you can withdraw money.

The best saving rate you can get with 100% guarantee are currently I Bonds. If you have some money to save this is really the best option available.

BOND EARNINGS RATE 6.73%
The earnings rate for Series I Savings Bonds is a combination of a fixed rate, which will apply for the life of the bond, and the inflation rate. The 6.73 percent earnings rate for I bonds bought from November 2005 through April 2006 will apply for the first six months after their issue. The earnings rate combines the 1.00 percent fixed rate of return with the 5.70 percent annualized rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U). The CPI-U increased from 193.3 to 198.8 from March to September 2005, a six-month increase of 2.85 percent.

I Bonds are a low-risk, liquid savings product. While you own them they earn interest and protect you from inflation. You may purchase I Bonds via TreasuryDirect, at most local financial institutions or through payroll deduction. As a TreasuryDirect account holder, you can purchase, manage, and redeem I Bonds directly from your Web browser.

Last couple of days I am intensively looking for office building in Las Vegas. It looks like everything is always coming at the same time I got phone call from broker in Las Vegas. One of the Letter of Intent I wrote recently got accepted and contract is being prepared for 11,000 sq. feet office building in great location in Las Vegas. I love the building and location. It will definitively be headache to move the company again to new location (hopefully this time it will be last moving:-)). For those who don’t know we have started in 400 sq. feet office in April 2003, before that I worked mostly from home or from office in Czech Republic. We outgrow the 400 sq. feet office, got couple of more rooms, then got another 4 rooms to total 1,500 sq. feet. Last year we bought our own office (3,200 sq. feet) and it seems we are outgrowing that one too.

I hope this is the last real estate related deal for today!:-) It seems to me that everything is taking a lot of time and then suddenly all the deals are coming together in the same day. My head is spinning with considering decisions.

My partner with whom I own the biggest web based loyalty program in Czech Republic just send me email. Some of the real estate deals for land and nice old factory building in the downtown of Brno, Czech Republic might go through. These are some of the deals you can’t find advertised by real estate brokerages. Only if you know right people and timing is right then you can do such deal. Well, now I really have to decide what I should do…

My friend bought couple of month ago front beach property located in Redondo Beach, California in auction. The house (actually fourplex) is still in escrow and lender is asking for bigger downpayment than previously anticipated. There is actually need to put down substantial amount of cash. This might be good opportunity. Depending on due diligence I might jump in to the deal.

I know good agent (Jennifer) in South Bay. If I see that I can make $300k+ in couple of month than I definitively want to be partner in that deal… Jennifer called me before I went surfing this afternoon and I wait for another call to get some comps on this deal.

Google tests classifieds in the Chicago Sun-Times.

“In a quiet and small-scale experiment, Google is running classified-like ads in the pages of the Sun-Times, which so far is the only newspaper participating in the Web-search behemoth’s test.”

This is very interesting. It looks they are using unique 800 numbers to measure how many responses they got. That’s pretty easy and totally makes sense. I am not sure if advertisers have unique domain names for each ad? But there should be also some way how to measure what ad was effective to get visitors to the website.

I drove to Las Vegas on Tuesday with the goal to find good size office building to start new business (Executive Suites Program). Saw several buildings, but nothing too exciting. Some deals might be potentially good, so now I am trying to figure out the whole concept. Usually I want to do things differently then current competition and also want to create independent identity for this new business. That means finding good name with available domain name. I need some ideas this time! If you anyone knows about good name for Executive Suites business (small offices rented to people who like full service). I offer $1,000 for idea, which has available domain and can be used for this new business. info@eastbiz.com

I don’t know if I should be happy or said. Some agents from Century 21 Consolidated in Las Vegas registered domain name based on our company name. Is that a compliment? I have very small company and certainly not many people know the name MillionSaver, but Paul and Michelle Francis probably felt it will increase their business when using domain name MILLIONSAVERS.com for their website.

I had my office manager Ken give them call on Friday and they promised to take it down, but nothing happened as of this afternoon. This is really bad example how some agents think they will win the online marketing game. And this is one of the most stupid way how to do it. Register bunch of domain names similar as to other real estate companies and direct them to your website.

Even if you don’t get such companies going after you for trademark infringement, it will not help to have multiple domain names going to the same content.

I was really laughing when I found this…. Info how to get credit card companies stop send you junk mail with applications.

There are two types of junk mail that everyone gets: coupons for stupid bullshit that you don’t want, and credit card applications for credit to buy stupid bullshit that you don’t need. Here’s how to take care of all your junk mail in one fell swoop: use the postage-paid envelope that credit card companies send you with their applications to send them the OTHER junk mail you receive. It’s just that simple. Imagine the frustration of credit card companies when they have to spend millions of dollars every year on first-class postage just to open up an envelope and find Pizza Hut coupons inside. The envelopes are intended to be used for “BUSINESS REPLY MAIL,” and so use them for their intended purpose. You’re sending them valuable money-saving coupons which could mean big savings to credit card companies, and it makes good business sense to use them. Consider it a reply to their business proposition with a business proposition of your own: 35 cents off a large, one-topping pizza. In fact, they should be thanking you for giving them these money-saving opportunities. Or how about sending them credit card applications from other credit card companies? Be creative.

Read the whole article here.