Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

My favorite Founding Father…

Happy Birthday America! Better days are ahead!!

In honor of this great day I thought I would put a post together about my favorite founding father.

As a successful printer and a prolific inventor you might say that Franklin was America’s first vendor! Here are a few of many great quotes from Franklin!

“Drive thy business or it will drive thee.”
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
“A good conscience is a continual Christmas.”
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

“Well done is better than well said.”

Departures at FNRES



Word on the street is that 2 people have left FNRES.

Scott Hoen, an EVP/Division Manager, and Marty Reed the VP of Product Management for the MLS division.

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's……Mr. Is????

I don’t know if this is clever, stupid or MRIS has simply jumped the shark.

You decide.

The Story of Mr. Is

Beware you evil interlopers!

Another great post from 1000Watt's Marc Davidson


I was catching up on my Google Reader and can’t believe I past this one up from earlier this month. I don’t care if it’s the second post in a row about 1000Watt. All I can say is I’m smelling what these guys are cooking.

It’s an interview Marc does with John Vatistas discussing the merger of Equitable Sotheby’s International of Phoenix and Russ Lyon Realty Company. John hits upon a point I’ve made before about the current real estate market.

Marc: A dead market can certainly have that effect.

Vatistas: A couple of thoughts on this: The market had no bearing on the deal for me. If it was an amazing market or a terrible market, the deal makes perfect sense on so many levels. However, it’s basic real estate sense. When the market is down, buy. Increase market share. Combine personnel and reduce costs. Upgrade everything and everyone you can. Be poised to be the leader. Our competition is looking at us. Meanwhile we are looking directly ahead with blinders on.

Me: It’s about striking when the iron is cold.

Vatistas: Yes. And being more ready than everyone else when it heats back up. We are already knee deep in the process as I say this. The synergies are simply staggering. We have many offices close to each other that are being merged. The cost structure drops dramatically as a result of combining back offices. The agent pool is head and shoulders above the competition. We combined our management teams and really use their specific talents. ”

Read the whole story here:

1000Watt Blog- Striking while the iron is cold: An interview

Great post from 1000Watt Blog

Everyone should check out 1000Watt’s Blog. I like Marc’s prose and his infusion of pop in to the world of real estate.

You’ll never guess what Marc’s post focuses on…the value of Vendors.

1000Watt Blog: Bedrock

Hey, that’s right up our alley!

Bravo!

eNeighborhoods gets its act together…

Dave Rifkin was promoted to Vice President of Agent Services for eNeighborhoods

Rick Sherwood was promoted to Director of Enterprises Service for eNeighborhoods

Michael Hayes was promoted to Director of Enterprise Services for eNeighborhoods

I wanted to say a few things. Dominion Enterprises showed a lot of smarts promoting these guys. Dave Rifkin has been in the real estate technology business since the mid 90s. He’s negotiated contracts with large MLS providers, help design product and more recently started an inside sales team from scratch at eNeighborhoods. He and Andy Woolley were the two biggest forces driving growth and my first company IRIS, LLC. IRIS would not have been a success without Dave.

Rick Sherwood, also an IRIS alum, is the whole package. Rick is very smart, has a great feel for the game, a good eye for product functionality design, and very tenacious. Rick lasted through (survived) all the bullshit at what began as Moore Data and is now FNRES MLS. You don’t go through that experience without being an A player and having a deep understanding of the MLS real estate technology industry.

Michael Hayes, a Wyldfyre alum, is another A player in the game. It’s a well known fact that Michael’s charisma can be tracked from space. People in the International Space Station see two things when look down at earth, the great wall of China and a bright white light coming from Los Gatos, California. When eNeighborhoods acquired WyldFyre Technologies from HomeStore (Move), we realized right away that the best thing we could do is give a smart and creative guy like Michael anything he needed. And what he has accomplished has been amazing.

Here’s the story from our friends at RIS Media.

eNeighborhoods Announces Promotions in Enterprise, Agent Services Divisions

RISMEDIA, May 19, 2008-eNeighborhoods, a division of Dominion Enterprises, announced the promotions of key staff members to further the company’s real estate technology and marketing initiatives. eNeighborhoods, says the company, delivers real estate technology to more than 400,000 desktops around the world.

Peter Ill, president of Dominion Enterprises real estate businesses, announced the promotion of David Rifkin to vice president of eNeighborhoods Agent Services. Rifkin’s new role includes agent sales and marketing as well as working with multiple listing services (MLS) organizations.

Joining Rifkin’s team as manager of Dominion Data Services is Wendy McDaniel. McDaniel will be responsible for the continued growth of the company’s Internet Data Exchange (IDX) program, and maintaining relationships with MLS organizations. eNeighborhoods operates the industry’s largest network of IDX websites, compiling more than 3.8 million IDX listings from over 450 MLS organizations on behalf of their broker and agent customers.

“The growth in our Agent Services division continues moving forward under Dave Rifkin’s leadership,” Ill said. “These actions will ensure that we continue to deliver relevant products and services for agents competing in today’s tough markets. Dave Rifkin is a real estate industry and eNeighborhoods veteran. We’re happy to welcome him to the senior management team, and to bring Wendy McDaniel aboard to manage Data Services.”

eNeighborhoods Vice President of Enterprise Services Andy Woolley also announced the promotions of Michael Hayes and Rick Sherwood. Both Hayes and Sherwood will become directors in eNeighborhoods’ Enterprise Services division.

“eNeighborhoods delivers marketing, lead generation, and data-sharing tools to leading MLS and broker organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia,” Woolley said. “Few people have the marketing, technology and real estate industry expertise that Michael and Rick bring to the team in supporting our large enterprise customers.”

NAR Mid-year fill in the blanks fun!

More fill in the blanks fun for your reading pleasure!

Are _____ and ______ freaking crazy for leaving their fat gigs at _________________?

Did you hear that _____ _________ is going to buy an NHL franchise?

Is it a requirement to be over 6ft tall to work for _______?

How does _____ get all these women to fetch him drinks and sit on his lap?

What’s up with _______ doesn’t he get enough _______ in Texas?

Was that Dave ______? I haven’t seen him at Mid-year in over 5 years.

________ thinks she’s so hot. If this was any other industry she’d be a “not”.

The Real Estate Channel? Archive? What kind of ______ is _______ smoking?

Holy data standards Batman, it looks like the RETS Geeks actually did something.

Amazing what you can acomplish in between “plugfests”

More Dopelganger fun

Here’s another submission from one of our readers….

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Brad Inman
Founder of Inman News

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Kelsey Grammer
Actor

Love

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“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Martin Luther King
1929 – 1968

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