Virtual Properties

Ben McConnell:

What the survey never asked: If I'd recommend the company, and what I'd say if I did (or how I would recommend against them). This national company, known for its transportation solutions, squandered a free opportunity to understand word of mouth.

Which leads us to what a good survey does to gather valuable customer feedback:

Its first question is: "Based on your recent experience with us, would you recommend us to your friends, family, colleagues, etc.?" Yes, no, or I don't know are the possible answers. (You could use the Net Promotoer methodology here, too.)

For example, based on the survey results, additional information can be sent to the customer (email, text or pdf/print) and internal followup campaigns can be launched at the agent/team, staff or manager level.

Finally, all of this information is stored in one place, your contacts (along with all of your other client activities).

Businesswire:

Realogy Corporation, a global provider of real estate and relocation services, today reported results for the first quarter 2008. Specifically, first quarter 2008 net revenue totaled $1.05 billion; EBITDA was $4 million, modestly above the Company’s earlier guidance; and net loss was $132 million, due mainly to interest expense of $164 million.

“The first quarter of any year is historically our slowest from an earnings perspective almost entirely due to the seasonality of the residential real estate market,” said Richard A. Smith, Realogy’s president and CEO. “We still have most of our annual EBITDA opportunity in front of us and, of course, that’s where our focus lies.”

Smith continued, “Realogy’s first quarter 2008 operating results reflected the continued industry-wide slowdown in U.S. existing home sales but were partially offset by management’s focus on overhead, productivity and growth. In April, we saw some early indications that the improving year-over-year unit change trends being forecasted by the National Association of Realtors and Fannie Mae in the back half of 2008 may be starting to develop. While we expect to see some mixed results in the coming months, we are encouraged by these positive signs of activity in April.”

Cyril Moulle-Berteaux:

The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.

How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won't happen for another 15 years. It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor.

Most people forget that the current housing bust is nearly three years old. Home sales peaked in July 2005. New home sales are down a staggering 63% from peak levels of 1.4 million. Housing starts have fallen more than 50% and, adjusted for population growth, are back to the trough levels of 1982.

Furthermore, residential construction is close to 15-year lows at 3.8% of GDP; by the fourth quarter of this year, it will probably hit the lowest level ever. So what's going to stop the housing decline? Very simply, the same thing that caused the bust: affordability.

Jennifer Forsyth:

"You are exceptional. Worldly. Refined. You live life according to your definition. Uncompromising. . . . Finally, a building that captures your spirit and sophistication . . . "

If you read the above advertisement, for a condominium in Atlanta called CityPlace Buckhead, and thought that no reasonably educated person could be persuaded by such flattery to sign over a small fortune for a place to live, think again. Jorge Pérez, the chief executive of the Related Group and one of the country's foremost housing developers, has appeared on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans for the past several years, thanks in part to just such blandishments.

Mr. Pérez's "Powerhouse Principles: The Billionaire Blueprint for Real Estate Success" reveals some of his other selling techniques. Mail invitations only to select buyers, for instance, so that they feel like part of an elite crowd. Tease them with information but refuse to let them buy a property until an appointed time. Make them wait outside a tent in the Florida sun for the opportunity to hear the sales pitch being offered inside.

Money.

Julie Freese:

You may not be able to beat the house in Sin City, but you just might be able to beat the housing market. At least that's how two real estate agents, Barbara and Marshall Zucker, are placing their bets.

As they watched the Las Vegas foreclosure rate skyrocket 169% from 2006 to 2007 - making Nevada the most afflicted state in the nation - they also noticed that 40% of all home sales were foreclosed properties. So in February the couple bought a 24-seat Ford (F, Fortune 500) bus for $40,000, named it the Vegas Foreclosure Express, and began offering locals and out-of-staters thrice-weekly tours of repossessed homes.

"As with any business, you have to change and adapt based on the market to succeed and survive," says Barbara, 48.

This CNBC video discussion with energy investment banker Matthew Simmons is a must watch.

Related: The gospel according to Matthew:

The Coronado Club, in downtown Houston, is an unlikely place to contemplate the end of life as we know it. Plush and hushed, with solemn black waiters in crisp black jackets, the private enclave practically exudes wealth and stability. Captains of local industry enter and exit purposefully, commanding their usual tables, wearing the best suits. Everybody knows everybody else. The light is flattering. The wine room is nicely stocked.

But here is Matthew R. Simmons, the head of one of the largest investment banking firms in the world, stabbing at his salad greens and heatedly discussing the chaos to come when, as he has long predicted, global oil production peaks and for the rest of our time on earth we struggle and suffer and barely endure under a diminishing supply of fuel until it disappears entirely. This idea is known as “peak oil,” and Simmons is its most fervent, and fearsome, apostle. As he puts it, “I don’t see why people are so worried about global warming destroying the planet—peak oil will take care of that.”

FTC:

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have submitted a joint letter to the Supreme Court of South Carolina regarding proposed guidelines related to the practice of law involving real estate transactions. The proposed guidelines would specify several tasks that must be performed by an attorney, including performing all title work, preparing deeds, overseeing the drafting of documents pertinent to the loan closing, supervising the closing, and disbursing all funds related to the transaction, as well as performing title work and preparing deeds for a home equity line of credit.