For the past 2 years I have noticed that national services who operate at local levels have figured out how to game Google’s search engine rankings by building a local networks. This is how it works.

Type in the following into Google: MA Flat Fee MLS [results].

This leads to a Google Place Page… here it is.

Follow the url and the company is located in Texas not Massachusetts.

http://www.forsalebyownerhomes.com/contactus.html

How did they get this Place Page if not located in Massachusetts.

They cut a deal with a local attorney.  This is just one company who is reaching out to the locals so they can use their address to game Google’s search results.  It’s an easy way to get to the top.

My condo board is made up of dumb dumbs. They are clueless. I used to be on the board but I resigned when I was traveling a lot. I walked outside today and saw ten guys pushing snow off the roof. Sounds like a smart idea right? Fuck no! The building was built 14 months ago. We have two buildings, the newer one was being attending to. I think the roof can handle the snow. The cost of hiring a crew to get up on 4 stories is crazy. There is no way a new roof will crumble. Complete waste of money. If you live in an old 2/3 family or older building I suggest hiring people to shovel off the roof. It will run you a ton of money because it is dangerous but it will cost you a lot more if the roof caves in. Ice and snow sitting on an old roof can and will hurt the construction of a dwelling. Use your own judgment.

When they do laparoscopic surgery they make three small incisions to enter. The worst part about the process is that they pretty much carve out your belly button. Its the worst! I have a sensitive button. The healing process is nasty and I am not happy about it. Although nobody can tell… I can, and it feels terrible. I refuse to look at my wounds. I am probably over-reacting but I am self conscious. I am sitting in class today for 8 hours so I guess I will be blogging for a few hours when the instructor isn’t looking. Not the most comfortable place to be while recovering. I had no choice in the matter. The class needed to be taken today. I can’t want to get home clean up, relax, maybe take in dinner and a movie. I need to make the most of these weekend nights since I have class Saturday and Sunday as well.

This is a rant… For the past few days I have been mentally prepping myself so I would be ready to take a real estate related class that I need to get done. The course is 30 hours of intense course work.  It’s really boring stuff. Because most people have full time jobs or run their own companies they pack the hours into 4 days. It’s hell. I was ready, but I just found out the course is postponed until next month. I am pissed off because I rescheduled my whole week/end around this Thursday through Sunday course.  Now my week is really messed up and to make matters worse the other two classes I need to take are pushed out as well. I need to take two 30 hour courses and one 15 hour course, then study and take a state exam that has a 85% failure rate. Who cancels a course without notice? Bullshit…Annoyed.

Disclosure: Owned and operated by Hillman FT. Floor plans below…

34 Monk Street floor plan

We have been doing a major project with our office building and I am happy the new parking lot was put in today. Finally!

I just created a business page on Facebook. Apparently it’s a good idea to have a business or fan page. The goal of the page is to get as many “fans” as possible. Do whatever you can to get as many people “liking” your company or brand. Most pages are very few fans. In the real estate category Coldwell Banker has the most fans or likes. They have 9,502. This probably took them 2-3 years. Most of these “likes” are most likely from real estate agents. There is nothing compelling about the Coldwell Banker facebook page.

Why is it important to have a lot of “likes?” Simple, you get to advertise your services to these people regularly. My goal is to get 5,000 likes by December 31st 2010. Everyone says it’s impossible but I don’t care. I think I have an understanding on how to attract eyeballs (“likes”). It might really tough, but I am going for it. I have zero likes right now. You need 25 “likes” to get a vanity url. Let’s see if I can get this number up. My page is located here: Hillman. If you are a member of Facebook please support my page by clicking the “like” button below.

I love a laugh on a Monday. Another dumb agent. This Newton two family home is for sale. It is way over priced. The numbers don’t make sense. If you read the description is says “Condo docs in hand w/ approx. $1M+ sell out.” This means buy this property and sell the units separately. Why is the agent dumb? Well, they didn’t have the balls to tell the seller they are crazy if they think they will get close to asking. It’s funny because the seller had the condo docs prepared… yet he isn’t selling the units separately. This is because they will not bank much more by selling off as condos. Interesting… This is just obvious bullshit. The kicker is that the agent wrote …”approx $1M+ sell out.” Who cares about “sell out?” I love agents who think like, well, dumb agents. Seller’s don’t care about “sell out,” they care about what they will net from the deal. Duh! A sellout of $1,000,000 (screw that plus sign +) is really less than $950,000 after you pay out broker fees and other costs. Then you need to subtract the holding and closing costs. Not to mention this property has tenants until Summer of 2012, which means one of the two units cannot be sold for a long time. This increases the holding cost. I think you get the point. Deal makes no sense and I am not even going to bother explaining this further.

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So I was just browsing MLS to sweep through new investment properties for my clients. I know just every investment property on the market in the Boston/Brookline/Newton/Cambridge etc… markets, but I still liked to see if anything has changed. I do this every day. Tonight, I stumbled across a NEW 3 family in Brookline with a price tag of $975,000. HA! Obviously by looking at the price I know the location is shit and its way overpriced. I read through the listing remarks and I laughed. It said… “Great conversion opportunity.” Conversion projects are my specialty and this agent is dumb. I would say it to his/her face. I can spot a conversion opportunity in 30 seconds. This is not one and I will prove it with basic math. I am willing to bet that if the property is purchased at $900,000 the buyer will lose a minimum of $55,000. Lets break down this dumb agents claim and see if I am right. Check the end of this post to see if my guess is right.

The property is $975,000. Lets assume it sells for $900,000 to keep the math easy to follow. I have not checked for market value but I am being very very generous. There are 3 units that are all the same. Nothing special and most likely need work. Since this property has a strong rental history I am going to assume it’s beat up. All units will need fresh coat of paint, wall repairs, new kitchen and bathrooms.

The cost to get each unit updated and sell-able is going to be at minimum $31,000

• One mid grade granite/wood kitchen w/ new appliances -  $12,000
• One mid grade full bathroom marble/granite/cabinet/shower/tub/sink. $6,000
• Repair Walls, floors, ceilings and systems $8,000
• Electrical /Miscellaneous $5,000

This means the cost per unit has jumped from $330,000 to $361,000

Total cost of project so far is $183,000 + $900,000 = $1,083,000

Cost to condo the units and close  $10,000 = $1,093,000

The condos are now $364,000

Now how much are these units really worth to a buyer? I am sure they are NOT worth $365,000 but just to show my point we are going to say they sell for asking price of $364,000.

But we gotta first subtract the agents commission: $364,000 x 5% = $18,200

The seller nets $345,800 x 3 = $1,037,400 for all three condos.

Total Project Loss: $1,093,000- $1037,400 = 55,600

It would really be a much larger loss because the units would never sell for the amount stated above.

Get the point? Dumb agent indeed. The industry is full of them.

Oh remember my guess about the buyers loss of 55,000 before I broke down the numbers. I was off by $600.

I haven’t been interested in blogging lately. I have been spending my time creating my building database so this is where my time is going. It takes a while to find the properties, research the information, find images and put it all together. Right now I have almost 80 properties. I am trying to add one property per day but it is very time consuming. To make things easier I have created a form so people can help build the database. I put the link to the form at the bottom on the embeddable widget that will be displayed on sites. I hope this will encourage users to submit building information.