Club Chaos Agents - All Things Hollish, Wacked, and Jacked

Giving Back with 1 Hour of Your Time

On Monday I spent one-hour helping out a NYC real estate professional who needed marketing help.  People move around in their careers for many reasons and for most change is hard so I figured let me help Aldo out and see if there was a way for us to work together.  After all I am a marketer with years of experience and hands on knowledge that I can share.  In addition, my work experience has giving me the opportunity to work on many real estate marketing projects.  It was time to give back and share.

During the conversation it became clear he didn’t have an online presence and for the most part did not show up as an expert in his local area.  Well, we are now going to work on changing all of that.  While he has accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and even Zillow, Trulia and Active Rain (not linking now until he builds out his profile and starts getting active) he doesn’t use any of them!

He is/was posting his listings to Craig’s list and feeding the listings to a few other local sites but nothing that sets him apart as the “go to guy” for his local real estate market or why he was any different from any other real estate professional.  He does have a good understanding of what needs to happen.  He said he is meeting with all the local stores and business (probably more for networking) so I told him to start writing, taking pictures, videos etc and sharing his interesting finds and points of view on his market.  I have high hopes for Aldo so keep your fingers crossed that he follows through.

So in the spirit of the holidays and with the idea of what goes around comes around we spent a productive hour together and now Aldo has to get to work on building out his marketing program.

Best of luck Aldo and if anyone from the AR community has suggestions please leave them in the comments and I’ll point them out to Aldo.

Now what can you do to give back with an hour of your time?

Now This is a Shower (if I do say so myself...)

When working on our home we had no idea what we got ourselves into.  After all everything looks different on paper.  Well, as the walls, pipes and wires were going up we realized our new shower was “a bit” larger than we had realized.  There wasn’t much choice based on the configuration of our space but it still caught us off guard.  As the plumber was doing his work we were asked if we planned on installing anything in addition to a standard shower head? Again as first timers at this we had to make some quick decisions.  We realized one shower head in a 7 ft by 4 ft shower wasn’t going to feel right.  So back to the bathroom appliance store we went and ordered body sprays and a handheld to turn our “modest” shower into an industrial people washer.

Just take a look at all the handles now required to work this shower.  I might have to get a degree in water management and maintenance just to use everything.

We also thought we were smart to have the handheld installed toward the back of the shower so it can be easily used while sitting on the bench.  Not to mention that if you position everything just right you can probably get a shower done in 1-2 minutes.

I for one look forward to using our human car wash and hanging out in the new shower while getting a rocky foot massage.

Related Posts

What did we get ourselves into?
C & E Professional Painting – A lesson learned the hard way
Bathroom Renovations Can Be A Rocky Project

Bathroom Renovations Can Be A Rocky Project

As mentioned here and here we have done some work on our house. One of the more challenging but also fun parts was selecting our tile and shower floor.    

It took a few trips to the tile stores to find the one we wanted to work with and ultimately we worked with Fuda Tile (in Ramsey, NJ).  My wife did most of the work but like a good husband I provided my “2-cents” when they weren’t requested…When my wife brought home a pebble floor option I was sold.  As you can see the finished product is great and we can’t wait to use it (we are still waiting for the shower doors to be installed).  But the process to get to the finished product was definitely “rocky”.

• The flooring was a special order so it took a few extra days to arrive.  If I knew this at the time I would have gone another direction – good thing no one told me…
• Then the tile guy installed the floor but used 35lbs of grout and covered all the pebbles. 
• Thankfully the contractor agreed with us that the installation was incorrect and insisted that they remove the floor and a replace it at their expense with a new floor.  Which of course took extra time and meant reordering and waiting for delivery!

After all the extra work we love the way it looks and everyone who has seen it firsthand agrees.  We can’t wait to feel the massaging of our feet while using the shower.  Hopefully that is only a week or so away.  

One piece of advice, if you plan to install a pebble or rock floor in your shower make sure your tile installer has done similar work before.  

C & E Professional Painting – A lesson learned the hard way

A few months ago we started a home improvement project.  I was hoping to blog about the whole experience.  Boy was it an experience that I hope I don’t have to do again.  Well I didn’t get to post regularly between working and dealing with the daily “issues” there wasn’t much time left.  Well I hope to write a few posts on the various lessons learned, highlight some of the great contractors, some of the not so great and who knows what else…

Working backwards I realized I learned a few valuable lessons from, of all people, the painter we hired (and in hind sight we shouldn’t have hired) so here goes…

C & E  Professional Painting in NJ who use the tagline of “Wizard of Walls”

First  some background

1. When he asked for cash payments or a 7% premium for paying by check we should have turned and run.
2. When he showed up and repeatedly told us his plans but didn’t finish them we should have told him to go!
3. When he provided an extra invoice for “extras” that far exceeded our agreement we should have tossed him to the curb.
4. When we found out the reason for all his delays was due to him having a full time job and his “guys” knowing he wouldn’t be there (so naturally they took their time) we should have asked him to leave.
5. When we were too far in to start over and we noticed he doesn’t have an address on his estimates – we should have run
6. Since he was referred to us we didn’t bother to check his references or reputation online.  Turns out he doesn’t have a website or presence online. Go figure.
7. When he asked us for references and referrals before he was a quarter of the way through the work, we should have just sent him on his way.
8. When every touch up became an issue and an argument we were so frustrated that we wanted to kick his a.. out but just wanted the work done so we could move on.
9. He did what he claimed to do but I have to say there is nothing “Wizardry” about it.  Here is the latest conversation:

Chris – I put two coats on but you can see the old paint is still bleeding through
Josef – So what do you want to do?
Chris – I can do a third coat.  (Basically saying it is going to cost you)

10 – Over 4 months we had all sorts of contractors through our house and none of them were as messy or disruptive to our daily lives (even the demolition guys were cleaner) than C and E professional Painting

If you are a professional don’t you want to do whatever is necessary for your client within reason regardless of the black and white contract?

So what do I take away from this situation

1. Check references and web presence regardless of how you find a contractor
2. If the main “guy” is not going to be on the job every day I am not interested
3. If you want cash payments give me a discount.
4. Your friends may not always have the best recommendations
5. When dealing with extended project contractors add a clause to the contract the gives you a credit for principles not showing up or delays beyond agreed upon time frame.

By the time this was all done I was so ticked off that I didn’t even want to talk to this guy and just wanted him out of the house.  Yes I got taken and probably will need to hire someone else in a few months to fix all the stuff he didn’t do correctly but we got Chris and C & E painting out of our house!

The best part of this whole situation is he wanted a reference and referrals from us.  So Chris of C & E Professional Painting in Bergen County NJ here is our recommendation – Don’t use C & E professional Painters.  There is nothing professional about them and there is no wizardry about their painted walls.

Just another set of life lessons I learned the hard way. 

Now to try and enjoy our updated home…

It all started with our outdated kitchen needing an update and then the project grew and grew...

I have only great things to say about Bill our contractor.  He is always on time, takes the time to explain everything for us and most importantly does what he says he is going to do. After 2-3 months of going back and forth with plans and estimates we agreed to get the project started.  Which now includes:

• A new kitchen with extension
  
• New home office
• Moving a bathroom
• Siding
• Roof
• Central air
• Additional bedroom
• "minor" updating in the living room

Well, the next thing I know this dumpster was in my driveway... and my roof was being ripped off for the extension (yeah the kitchen is still part of the plans.)  It seems that every few hours something interesting is being delivered...

I told my wife we could save a lot of money while adding an extra bathroom by leaving this in our yard...  needless to say that didn't fly.

So now the project is in full swing.  People are coming and going, dust, wood, sawing, banging, plumbing etc going on all day but I am told when it is all said and done "your house is going to be great".

Oh and we are going to be living in the house the whole time.

Wish me luck! We are one week in and the fun is just getting started.

Now off to pick some cabinets, faucets, tile, siding, granite...

If I get time Ill keep you all updated on the various activities during this project.  It should be fun!!!

One of my 2011 New Year’s resolutions was all about saying yes.  Little did I know it was going to pay off so soon in the New Year.

My wife and I were recently asked to be the dinner honorees at our congregation's annual dinner.  So after much debate we said yes.  The committee made a compelling case and then we realized it was the 11th annual dinner and we have been members for 11 years after moving into the community so it seemed fitting. 

Being a marketing guy I was going to have some fun with this whole affair.  To start we provided a picture of ourselves that was a little nontraditional for an annual fundraising dinner. 

Hey they knew what they were getting with us…

Then I started my marketing effort to invite friends and family to attend the dinner or to show support by placing an ad in the journal.  Again we opted for a more modern approach to marketing.  Using Facebook, email marketing , more traditional direct mail (yes the formal invitation), and now with this blog post our efforts are in full swing. 

So with just under one week left we are seeing a great response rate (I don’t have exact numbers just yet but I will share them when the results are in).

While it is an honor to be honored and feels good to help the organization, it has been fun getting back in touch with some old friends and family we haven’t spoken to in a while to share our exciting news.

We even have a personal liaison who helps coordinate any special requests.  So of course I had to have some fun…I just keep requesting that the only food served is roasted salmon, steamed broccoli and brown rice (one of my favorite meals – yes I am a health nut).  Don’t worry they are humoring me with this one but there will be a full dinner for all the attendees.

So if someone asks you to accept an honor – go for it but have some fun!

All PR is Good PR and How to Get It

You know the old saying that "all PRis good PR”.  Whether this is true or not is a constant debate but what most business owners want to know is how do they create PR?  Or how can they find stories to be quoted in or positioned as an expert?  They want PR to help drive business.

You can create your own PR without the help of a high priced agency (of course they can help but lets focus on the small business.)

Enter HARO – Help A Reporter Out

The other day I was reading one of three emails I get every day from HARO and realized that ever member of Active Rain should be on this list.  This posting caught my attention:

Best Places to Take Kids In Houston (sorry I don't have the full listing but you get the general idea)

There must be someone here who has written something on this topic right?  Who knows the local markets better than real estate professionals?

I would say there are daily listings for “experts” on various real estate related topics and that most could be answered by someone from AR.

This is not the only resource like this on the market.  But this one is FREE and widely read.  I can personally source about 3 PR hits to HARO responses for StraighterLine (people looking for experts in education).

So before you read that next blog…go sign up for the alerts.  You never know when you might be able to respond and how it will help drive your business to the next level.

Related

Four Press Hits in One Week

Growing Your Real Estate Business with Social Media Marketing – Some insights

Last week I helped a friend out who is now running training programs for the Real Estate Education Center in New York.  I presented to a group of about 40 Manhattan real estate agents on how they can grow their real estate business with social media marketing.  We covered the basics.  However, before I started I took a quick poll of the room to see how involved (or not) the agents were with some of the major social media sites (forget marketing for the moment).

Here are the results (the counts are estimated by the number of hands in the air)

• Facebook – about half the room
• Twitter – 1 or 2
• LinkedIN – maybe 25% of the room (I might be generous with this one)
• Active Rain – only 1 hand and he had signed up a few days earlier.

The first thing I said was:

"I have a better “online real estate marketing” presence than everyone in the room and I don’t even work in real estate!"

That woke some people up!

The good news was that after the presentation we did some hands-on work setting up Facebook pages for business and tried to get everyone on LinkedIN. 

It amazed me that so few people were on LinkedIN.  I can understand why they weren’t on the other 3 sites but LinkedIN has been around a while and it is mostly about business networking.  Can someone help me understand how you can work in a sales position and not be on LinkedIN?  

After the meeting two of the agents did find me on Active Rain so please give some kudos to them for getting started.  However, one set his profile up as ‘Manhattan Apartments’, so he gets no love from me…But please say hi and help Aviv Golani see why Active Rain and Social Media Marketing will help his real estate business grow.  He is just getting started so feel free to share some of your insights and suggestions with him.

The one question/statement I heard more than once while working one-on-one with some of the agents was:

Why should I sign up for Active Rain if I can do LinkedIN and Facebook? Or Ill sign up for Active Rain after my business picks up.  HUH?!

Well as they say,” you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.”

We are down to the final 2011 New Year’s Resolutions. So without further delay the final resolution this year is....

#1) Go back to school

Let’s be honest – 2010 was not an easy year in the ‘ol job field. Still recovering from the recession, many people found themselves stuck in unemployment. But being unemployed doesn’t have to mean that you have no choices. Continuing your education can be the smartest decision you’ve ever made. The best way to find a job when times are tough is to set yourself apart from the crowd. How? Going back to school and getting the skills and the knowledge to succeed.

Education is vital to a rewarding future career. And, with the popularity of online education, people can get the skills they need at a time and a place that’s convenient for them – not to mention the affordability. Companies like StraighterLine (where I work) and its online college course offerings can help you earn your degree and get back on the road to a more fulfilling future.

If you don't need to go back to school maybe you can help someone who needs a hand finishing, starting or just sticking with the process of earning their degree.

Best wishes for everyone as we head into the first work week of the New Year.

Earlier Resolutions

2011 New Year’s Resolutions - Be a “Yes Man”
2011 New Year’s Resolutions - Break the Habit
2011 New Year’s Resolutions - Spend more time with loved ones
2011 New Year’s Resolutions - Get Into Shape

Happy New Year.  I hope you had a great time celebrating last night.

We are down to the final 2 - 2011 New Year’s Resolutions. Yesterday we resolved to spend more time with our friends and family. Now today we are going to resolve to...


#2) Get Into Shape
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 34% of adult Americans are considered overweight and another 34% are considered obese. Sixty-eight percent combined – and that’s just adults! Somewhere along the line in our society, laziness became a standard and unhealthy eating habits became the norm. If you’re content with that extra pudge around the belly, then consider this. Obesity and weight gain are leading factors in serious diseases like diabetes, heart failures, high cholesterol and several others. If you don’t feel like losing weight simply for helping ease the burden of the ‘ol belt buckle, then at least consider dieting and exercise to prevent future health complications.

Shedding pounds is like quitting smoking or drinking – overeating is just another addiction, only food and lack of will power are disguised as the culprits. This year, think about joining a gym, practicing yoga, picking up a hobby, eating less, etc. Losing weight doesn’t have to be difficult; in fact, you might even discover a passion for something you never knew you had, and on top of it all, you’ll feel tons better!

If you don't need to lose weight you can still get into shape by starting a regular exercise routine.  I am a huge fan of cycling and try to go as often as possible weather permitting.

Stay tuned for big reveal of the #1 2011 New Year’s Resolution.

Earlier Resolutions

2011 New Year’s Resolutions -Be a “Yes Man”
2011 New Year’s Resolution - Break the Habit

2011 New Year’s Resolutions - Spend more time with loved ones