Category Archives: Business

How much is too much?

By Spencer Barron | Published: December 21, 2007
“That’s too expensive.”  The words have the sound of an excuse to me.  I would respond better to, “That appears to be an inappropriate purchace considering current trends and the inability of the product to add real value to our enterprise within our time constraints.”  At least it would show me that they thought it [...]
Also posted in Denver Real Estate, Marketing | Comments closed

Who is reading your Blog? Other agents?

By Spencer Barron | Published: February 25, 2007
It’s quite tempting to want to write about everything that’s going on. I mean, isn’t that where the majority of good blog fodder comes from? But to be fair, I realized that if the agents that were on the other side of the table were anything like me, I would want to watch [...]
Also posted in Denver Real Estate, General Interest, Marketing, Personal, Real Estate Blogs | Comments closed

Most Brokerage's business models don't benefit the Agent

By Spencer Barron | Published: February 1, 2007
I’ve always been interested in sustainable business models and have noticed that there are very few in the real estate industry. Except for that of the brokerage. The business model of the brokerage is not the same as that of the agent. Brokerages make money from agents, agents make their money from [...]
Also posted in Denver, Denver Real Estate, Marketing, Realtor | Comments closed

Money Magazine – Buyer's agents co-ops and how to get a better deal buying or selling a home.

By Spencer Barron | Published: January 17, 2007
How about that. I actually got quoted in Money Magazine. Albeit my statement appears a bit truncated, it is not incorrect. I’m quoted as saying “People offer higher commissions because it works”. I’ll stand by that. Offering a higher commission to a buyer’s agent does help sell your home. It doesn’t necessarily help you get [...]
Also posted in Denver, Denver Real Estate, MLS, Marketing, Negotiations, Realtor, commissions, statistics | Comments closed

Timing the market – Real Estate Slow Stochastic

By Spencer Barron | Published: January 5, 2007
Just for fun, I wanted to take the pricing data stats from my previous post about market timing and apply a slow stochastic to the prices. Here’s essentially how they work with stocks. On the lower part of the image is an example of a slow stochastic. A buy signal is interpreted when the %k (green line) [...]
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Real Estate Goals for 2007 Group Writing Project

By Spencer Barron | Published: January 5, 2007
BiggerPockets is hosting a real estate goal writing project to kick off 2007. Oh, I know, by telling everyone my goals I’ll be motivated by the fear of failing in the sight of my peers. It’s all so Anthony Robbins. I’m terrible with goals. I’ll probably just pick the goals I [...]
Also posted in Denver Real Estate | Comments closed

Where to spend my marketing budget?

By Spencer Barron | Published: December 29, 2006
Internet advertising is such a waste of money. Definitely overpriced compared to the returns I get from other types of advertising. Not so much my own websites- they have their use, it’s the Internet lead sources that will no longer be receiving checks from me. Lead sources like Justlisted.com, Realestate.com, HomeGain, and the myriad of [...]
Also posted in Denver Real Estate, Internet, Marketing, Technology | Comments closed

Misinformation and Transparency – What's wrong with real estate

By Spencer Barron | Published: December 15, 2006
In an earilier post I had mentioned how I had emailed Stephen Gandel of Money magazine with some corrected information on the Denver market. In particular I had been displeased with some of the advice they handed out to buyers. The information for the article had partially been drawn from a local Realtor who suggested [...]
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Realtors are among least trusted

By Spencer Barron | Published: December 10, 2006
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of negative feelings toward real estate agents these days. Did you know that according to a nationwide survey by Harris Interactive, you are more likely to trust your mechanic than your real esate agent?  The study revealed that 20% of people wouldn’t trust a real estate agent at all.  [...]
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Zillow's Out – Will it Float?

By Spencer Barron | Published: December 8, 2006
  “I love Zillow.”  “I liked them before they were big.”    Saying that I was a big fan of Zillow.com from the start is kind of like saying, “I liked Dave Matthews before he got big” (My wife, a Virginia native, loves to say that).  For one, nobody believes you, and second, nobody cares.  Regardless of what people [...]
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