Disqus - Latest Comments for Max

Re: How Do I Find Information On The Internet?

Max — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:34:12 -0000

Most are well known sites, but last.fm and spoke are new to me. BTW, one of the medical sites I used and liked - webmd.com Check it out.

Re: Are All Lead Generating Companies Full Of It?

Max — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:09:08 -0000

Vlad, in fact, some affiliate programs do pay per lead. In addition to that, they also pay per sale. I don't know, may be not many companies practice this business model, but those that I use - do.

Vlad, as far as real estate leads, I think it's a good idea to pay upon conversion/sale. But on the other hand, majority of sales depend on the real estate agent who handles them. Also, if you were to implement this kind of lead distribution model, let's say on national level, how would you monitor which leads converted and which haven't?

Thanks!

Re: Give Me Your Blog

Max — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:20:56 -0000

Wow, that's a pretty cool idea. A plain list doesn't worth much, but the way you put it - it become much more valuable :)

Are you still open for blog submissions? We just started ours recently, but if you still accept - it's http://www.PhoenixHomes.com/news and http://www.ScottsdaleHomes.com/news/

Re: Are All Lead Generating Companies Full Of It?

Max — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:12:02 -0000

Thank you for the prompt reply and for adding our blogs!

Re: Does Your Attorney Speak Your Language?

Max — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:32:41 -0000

Glad to hear you got a good attorney. Good luck!

Sooo, which part of Ukraine you're from? Your Ukrainian name is pretty obvious, but I wasn't sure if you were born in Ukraine or you're 2nd or 3rd Ukrainian generation in the US.
Those double y's at the end of your last name kinda bothered me... since only in Ukraine they can spell my name as Maksym :)lol BTW, I'm from Lutsk, Volyn region in the Western Ukraine.

Re: Does Your Attorney Speak Your Language?

Max — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:36:08 -0000

Cool! We're pretty much neighbors :)

Re: Few Homebuyers Say the Internet Influenced their Purchase

Max — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:53:36 -0000

Great post Janet, thanks for the stats.
Working in real estate industry (marketing) for over 6 years, I never expected internet to influence a purchase of a property. At least not for an average Joe. Internet is a great informational source for potential home buyers and sellers. It helps to gather information and make and a decision to start the process of buying/selling a property. Real estate agents have an opportunity to show their knowledge and expertise via online medium. If correctly planned and implemented - Internet can be the least expensive and the best long term investment ever for generating prospective clients and looks like the numbers in your stats confirm that.

Max's last blog post..West Valley Market Report - May 2008

Re: Win Copies of Tim Ash’s Book “Landing Page Optimization”

Max — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:40:08 -0000

This is great! I'd love to win a copy :)

Re: Apple Threatens to Shut Down iTunes

Max — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:03:59 -0000

I think Apple knows what they're doing. It probably has a lot to do with consumer perspective on the price, where $0.99 is "less than a dollar". Even though right now a $15 card buys you 14 songs, after $0.15 raise it will buy only 13 songs. Plus if they raise the price - there might be a shake up in consumer confidence, expectation for future price increase + opens room for competition with iTunes. I don't know what kind of loss there would be for Apple to shut down the iTunes, but it seems like the music industry would feel it pretty hard since iTunes is expected to hover 85% of the market share. Turn it off for a week and see what music makers will say - that would be an interesting exercise :)

Max's last blog post..Paradise Valley Sales Report - August 2008

Re: Has the Internet made you smarter or just more ADD?

Max — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:18:59 -0000

I think you're right Derek. I'm spending probably 90% of my time working on the computer. I can't afford keeping track of all the blogging, twittering etc, but I noticed I learned how to tune out everything that surrounds me - all the noise, co-workers etc. I think I even mastered it, but now I'm finding it not always helping me especially home with the family... just because I have something on my mind I don't hear people asking me things 3 times in a row... they think I ignore them, but I don't just hear it... When I tuned out into my work, sometimes I'm trying to get back really quickly just to confirm that I heard someone and I usually say something like - "Ok. I'll do it in a minute." But then I never do it and I catch myself that I even don't know what I was supposed to do... I can drive in a car and never remember the rout that I chose to get to the office... what I've seen while driving etc.... I can drive with my wife and never say a word just because a thought about work can tune me completely out of a real world... this is crazy, it's pisses me off and a lot of people around me. I never had an ADD or anything like this in my life, but this line of work really made me comfortable as far as isolating myself from the real world and sometimes it's pretty hard to get back.

Re: Upcoming Real Estate Web / Blogging Conferences

Max — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:20:47 -0000

Congratulations on making it to the panel of the Inman Real Estate Connect! And by the way - Happy Birthday!

I've been a lurker on your blog for awhile. Good job, I enjoy it. Matt and I are not gonna make it to NY (we're not much of bloggers yet), but we'll sure be at the PubCon in Las Vegas this December.

Again Happy Birthday and thanks for your musings :)

Re: As a fellow Realtor I am disappointed that you post such negative news

Max — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:17:09 -0000

Of course with no name and an email address of email@email.com, I'm not in much of a position to clarify what has Anonymous so dismayed.

Jay, just run his/her IP address against all the comments you've got in your database - I'm sure his/her name will come up ;)

P.S. on the other hand there are a lot of agents frustrated right now because their clients do not have the confidence to buy... and media, in many cases makes things even worst than they are. I don't wont to be the devil's advocate - I'm not even a realtor...

Re: Caffeine with Free Wifi in the (real) Valley

Max — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:39:55 -0000

I'm new to the Valley (only 1 year here), but really would like to find some good coffee shops with free wifi in North Phoenix or North Scottsdale. I really haven't researched this subject, but those shops that I've been too, you have to pay for the internet... Desert Ridge free wifi sucks... can't even get on.

Re: Caffeine with Free Wifi in the (real) Valley

Max — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:01:33 -0000

Thanks Jay! I'll take a look at those reviews. I liked a coffee shop in the Biltmore mall by the Apple store... I didn't have a chance to use my laptop, but 90% of people there were with laptops, so I guess it's a good spot. I wonder if it's free though.

Re: Need an Optometrist in the East Valley? Don’t Go to Nationwide Vision!

Max — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:36:17 -0000

Sorry for your experience Jay, but I really enjoyed the reading - it's almost like a comic book, just lacking pictures... I'm looking forward to Friday's issue and if it wasn't a real life story, I'd wish to see the order cancellation and of course details on the fight :) But since it's not a comic book - good luck on getting your glasses ;)

Re: Channel 5 Investigates - What does it take to sell your house?

Max — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:19:49 -0000

Jay, I just watched your interview on channel 5 about 5 minutes ago... yeh, I expected it to be a little longer... they sure gave some time to Russell Shaw. It's a pity they cut you off basically in the middle of the sentence. I think it was a good point about doing an inspection before putting a property on the market... you have to have that competitive edge, so buyers would have a feeling of confidence and satisfaction especially in this market. I wish I could hear the rest of your interview :)

Re: Channel 5 Investigates - What does it take to sell your house?

Max — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:37:02 -0000

One thing I definitely didn't like, when they showed a comparison chart of 2005/2007 and emphasized on the fact that today it takes 3 times longer to sell a property than in 2005. Well, DUH! - 2005 was the craziest year in the history of real estate market (at least that's what local economists say). They should be more realistic and compare "apples to apples".

As for the 400 homes a year... we are almost there - only 399 homes to go ;)

Re: Channel 5 Investigates - What does it take to sell your house?

Max — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:17:29 -0000

No Glenn, for some unknown to me reason they only compared 2005 and 2007.

Re: #2 on Google for Phoenix Real Estate?!?

Max — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:11:38 -0000

I got surprised there for a moment, not that because we stepped down (been there, done that), but because your blog suddenly jumped like on fire :) Only today I noticed you actually made a post about it. BTW, I saw you #9 today and Yahoo Phoenix Real Estate section was at #2. 20 minutes later you're at #2 again.

Re: #2 on Google for Phoenix Real Estate?!?

Max — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:16:14 -0000

This one is my favorite - result.
Not sure if anyone can see, but we're #1 on this DC and Jay's blog is #2 :)

Re: From the Inbox: Is Now a Good Time to Buy a Home In Phoenix?

Max — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:18:40 -0000

Great post! I agree that, in general, in today's local market everything indicates that (if you're in a good standing - personally and financially) this can be a good time to buy. On the other hand - same size doesn't fit all - never did and never will.

We also keep hearing - "when the market will hit bottom? I want to buy at the lowest price possible." Well, statistics, analytics and professionals can only suggest, but no one can know exactly when and what it will be. There are too many variables that affect current market. People are forgetting that purchase of a real estate is a "long term investment", and in a long term real estate is always appreciating.

Re: Birth of a Brokerage: Thompson’s Realty

Max — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:44:34 -0000

Congratulations Jay! Best wishes and good luck!

P.S. have you received my email from this morning?

Re: Anecdotal Evidence the Phoenix Real Estate Market is Improving

Max — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:50:20 -0000

The same is here. We've been showing hoses every day for the last couple of weeks including weekends. More and more people taking trips to the city and asking us to show them properties. I noticed that there are quite a few people moving with a job, and those that retire within a few years but would like to make and investment right now. Certainly the light is getting brighter at the end of the tunnel :)

Re: Offer to Purchase Phoenix Real Estate Guy!

Max — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:08:38 -0000

The value of the site is what it will (if ever) get sold for and not what it is/was/will being offered for. I think that another real estate agent/broker in the same are would value it more, especially if he/she understands online marketing and how to convert online leads into real business. For a person that is not even in the industry and makes money only by placing Google ads and affiliate links on the bought sites... 2K is a fair price if they're not going to develop it further... it will be just enough to make their money back and a little more before it dies. (of course you don't sell the content for this price) As far as all those links... I've seen this kind of transaction done - the bought site was dead and not ranking in a few months and the new site (which was also bought but for much cheaper) is back in business and #1 for its most competitive kw. Links can be asked to be changed.. and I think, if Jay really wanted, the majority of links could be changed very quickly to his new site/blog.

As far as fair price... I think 500K and even 200K is a little bit too much of dreaming. Even if you're a realtor in the Phoenix area... and bought this site... you have to be too good to start making profit in 3 years.

Re: Offer to Purchase Phoenix Real Estate Guy!

Max — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:10:44 -0000

Jay, you have too many followers, so most of them would pick up your message right away. I know what you mean by changing blogroll links... what about all those comment and post links, right? Majority of blogs would have only a few links pointing to your site, so changing them wouldn't be too hard for the owners (assuming that people got your message just by following you), those that have a lot of links can do a direct database query to their blog to automatically replace all the instances of the "sold" domain name with the new one (assuming you keep your content with the same URLs). I would think, contacting the most important people personally, and then posting a blog post with a few follow ups after that would switch the majority of your links in a fairly short time. Plus, keeping up the good job as you always do, would bump you back up as well ;)

Re: Offer to Purchase Phoenix Real Estate Guy!

Max — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:13:55 -0000

Among all of us, Caleb, probably, would have very close idea of a "fair price", and since he's out :) it "kinda" confirms my first post.

Re: Real Estate Video Listings: Two Different Approaches

Max — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:59:18 -0000

I guess I'm no different in this case - didn't like the second video. I care less about the amateur video (if I'm interested in a property I wanna see whatever they've got ;)), but 8 minutes of classical music and that voice on the background is killing every desire to keep watching it.

I like videos where they have a list/table of contents and you can jump at any time within the video while it's playing to any section. This way you can structure your presentation the way you want it and people will be able to jump to the outside views at the end and watch 8.5 minutes of it and listen to the classical music if they feel like it. The coolest thing about such feature - it's all within the same video - it's not like you have to play different videos if you wanna see a kitchen and then the living room - it's all in the same movie.

Re: World’s First Billion Dollar Home

Max — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:35:44 -0000

Not sure about $300/sq.ft, but it seems to me, it's more like $5K/sq.ft.
The wife had a design request... "no 2 rooms should be look alike"... well, I guess.. what's 2billion out of 43 uh? Not that much :) Good story Jay. Ok, I won't laugh at Lenovo and Dell customer support any more ;)

Re: Cool Website of the Week

Max — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:59:32 -0000

Nice find Jay.

As far as email goes - I have over half of a dozen email accounts that I check on daily bases. For the last 3 years it's been my daily "job" to weed through over 1000 emails every single day. Sometimes I would go 2-3 days without checking just because I hated it so much.

At some point I read an article on email work flow at problogger where Darren shared the same headache, and how he is the happiest guy since he forwarded all his mail to Gmail.

So, about a month ago I switched. I created filters (message rules) and from now on I spent only minutes a day to actually check my emails and write back - the "job position" of an "email weeder" got dissolved by Gmail. I'm happy to unemployed this way :)

Sorry to be so much off the topic, but I thought this may be of help to you.

Re: Changes in the Comments - Editing and Sharing the Love

Max — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:45:25 -0000

Pretty cool plugin - I like it. I wonder if there is anything similar for Drupal.

@Kim Stoegbauer - your RSS seem to be already auto detectable, but you did misspelled your domain name in the second comment.

P.S. Thanks to Jay's plugin collection, I now registered at Gravatar :) (but still don't see my mugshot here)

Re: Changes in the Comments - Editing and Sharing the Love

Max — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:26:15 -0000

It's weird, when I first posted my comment, a link to the most recent post on PhoenixHomes.com got published. But then, I edited my comment and it disappeared. Is that a bug in the plugin?

<abbr>Maxs last blog post..Plans OK'd for land near Desert Ridge</abbr>

Re: Real Estate Listing Photos. Or not. From the “I don’t get it” files.

Max — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:14:58 -0000

I absolutely agree with you Jay! I personally think that there should be a grace period of 7 days for an agent to put more than 1 photo up and after that they should be charged $50 a week fine by the local MLS. The MLS will make some good money and the database will eventually be full of photos. I think it's a win-win for everyone.

BTW, some time ago I made a post in my personal blog about obvious things that missing from agents web sites, I think it is relevant to your current post.

<abbr></abbr><abbr>Max´s last blog post..Sky Harbor is America's Healthiest Airport</abbr>

Re: Real Estate’s Biggest Loser Update

Max — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:39:15 -0000

Jay, the last sentence of your post is "the reason" I actually wanted to join the challenge in the first place - to change my lifestyle and, hopefully, get workouts and healthy eating habits into my daily routine.

Since the beginning of the challenge my weight dropped from 184lb to 174 - it floats now from 173 to 175 and I fill like I hit a dead end... it just doesn't go any further. But I think I need to change my workout program now and bring in some weight lifting. I know it will probably add some muscle weight to my total, but it's all for a good cause :) Hey, my wife complained yesterday that I start look wimpy - too skinny :)haha

<abbr></abbr><abbr>Max´s last blog post..Tempe Celebrates First Arizona Light Rail Opening</abbr>

Re: Real Estate’s Biggest Loser Challenge Comes to a Close

Max — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:48:28 -0000

Congrats Jay! I agree that the first month was the most motivational and weight was coming off quite quickly. It seems to me that the less you weight the more harder it gets to drop more weight. I'm happy thought that in only 2 months I went down from 184lb to 173lb and my belt is 2 holes tighter :) My goal is to make visits to gym a weekly routine, just like coffee in the morning, and thanks to this challenge the foundation has been set! Thanks to all the participants!

<abbr></abbr><abbr>Max - the PhoenixHomes.com guy :)´s last blog post..West Valley Market Conditions, January 2009</abbr>

Re: An Open Letter to Hugh Jackman: Please support Mothers Fighting for Others

Max — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:15:46 -0000

What an awesome letter! As usually, great writing Jay, and certainly great cause to support. It would be amazing if Mr Jackman saw it and considered the charity. BTW, I think he is coming to Tempe in 2 weeks for the premier of his new movie.

<abbr></abbr><abbr>Max with PhoenixHomes.com´s last blog post..West Valley Market Conditions, March 2009</abbr>

Re: The Phoenix Real Estate Guy Forum Experiment #FAIL

Max — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:34:18 -0000

Yes, spam in forums is horrible... I think that most of it is automatic though. If you feel like you could really have a great forum, I would suggest to look into commercial s0ftware like vBulletin. With software like that you have to pay for an annual license, but at least they update it all the time and try their best to fight spam. It's a financial commitment, so if there is a growing trend of new users and developing conversations in your forum - it may be worth to pay to support and protect it.

<abbr></abbr><abbr>Max´s last blog post..Arizona Ranks Third in Rising Home Sales</abbr>

Re: Google Patches Internet Explorer Because Microsoft Won't

Max — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:05:52 -0000

I wonder how successful this will be. I think Google should user their Analytics JS to detect browser and if web developer inserted the meta tag, then it should give a message or prompt IE user to install Chrome Frame plugin. I think this would dramatically expedite the process of updated IE browsers. Otherwise it will be useless... there are still over 20% of users using IE6... if they can't upgrade to newer version, how do you make them to install the plugin? I think Google should take advantage of their analytics js as I mentioned above, and be a little bit more persuasive.

Re: Dude, your brand name sucks.

Max — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:39:50 -0000

Great write up, Jay!

It's been proven numerous times that anything could be branded - some nonsense words being added to our daily vocabulary as verbs, as we speak, which only a few years ago they didn't mean squat. If being asked, I always tell people that there should be a sense, a point, an idea and goal behind your brand. What are you trying to achieve, and what will it mean to you and to your clients. What expectations will people have from this brand. There is a lot of questions to ask, and depending on their answers you will see what your brand should resonate with, what kind of message it should deliver - whether it will resonate with you, your team, company's spirit or idea etc. Some people's qualities/character/personality may just fit the brand - they are the brand. Others, may be going after an idea or special quality and they want the brand to reflect that.

The problem that I see the most with brands named after their owners is that people don't give their brand a thought. They do it mechanically like putting a stamp on an envelope. If qualities of services do not make your name a "brand", and the brand name by itself doesn't carry a meaning - there is nothing else to contribute to it. That's why, I think, there is a perception in marketing circles of brand names like this as a weak strategy.