Disqus - Latest Comments for Sean_Rafferty_CMPS

Re: A Post of Appeasement

Sean_Rafferty_CMPS — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:39:27 -0000

Ah, WHATEVER! ;-b

Just help fix my beta code & get it online so I get my friends to break, er, test it!

Knock it out of the park tomorrow w/the interview!

Re: Is Zillow Really Helping Your Sales?

Sean_Rafferty_CMPS — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:07:50 -0000

I'm not a Realtor, so take my op for the 2 cents it's worth, but I see nothing wrong with this model. Zillow goes out of biz unless they sell ads. David & Co learned from the .bomb 90's that VC only goes so far.

jf.sellsius - what? Dude, get real. Why would Zillow pay brokers for their "content"!? A Realtor's first and foremost job is to "market" the property. Zillow provides another platform for them to do so on (and for how much? Oh yeah, for free!) to an audience that might otherwise not have found the property.

David - Congrats. Suggestion: Post the study. 2nd Suggestion: On ZMM, add a mandatory borrower field: Are you just using ZMM to get quotes to leverage against your current lender? :o)

Re: Are You Marketing To Your Prospects Hearts or Their Minds?

Sean_Rafferty_CMPS — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:45:48 -0000

Mark, just like Seth Godin pointed out to us last week, marketers create unhappieness.

The emotional appeal to get people disenchanted with their own home is what starts the engine.

Consider this: Who are the world's best home marketers?

Easy: Home builders!

What is their primary method of engaging eye balls and luring people into their ads?

Beautiful people looking happy!

Many of the ads don't feature the homes but the "shiny, happy people"

Emotional appeal first.

Then, perhaps they'll add a logical appeal as a 2nd or 3rd punch ("reduced price" or "no closing fees")

Good stuff though Mark, I even cut/copied a part to text msg remind myself once a month to help me keep my marketing on the E-appeal (so hard for numbers minded guys like me!)

Re: Apparently Zillow Wants All The Cake

Sean_Rafferty_CMPS — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:33:49 -0000

As a ZMM participating "authorized" lender, I think having low balling retailers prominently displaying their cream of the crop rates next to my efforts sucks.

Believe it or not, the rate's actually good (assuming < $500K). ING's rates don't move much since they portfolio everything, market can be yo-yo'ing in a 50-75 bp channel & they're like 'whatever".

David's gotta do what he's gotta do to bring in ad rev... I just don't think Zillow has enough clout to stand up to it's advertisers and lay down rules for participation as they do for us minnows in the sea who only give up 25 bucks for the pain, er privilage, of churning out hundreds of quotes to serve borrowers who are primarily just leveraging ZMM to get their local broker or LO to reduce their rate.

Oh, also, Zillow "profile" sidebar widget... AS IF! Like I'm gonna direct prospects to low ball competition!?

ZMM is a great method for borrowers to leverage against their existing LO, but a poor use of time for originators. Believe me, I've wasted far too much time their.