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How To Videoblog & Build Your Online Brand...Like Hermanity (Better Homes & Garden Interview)9/6/2013 
KSJO 92.3 FM KLOK 1170 AM (Intro in Chinese: Tily) 今 天邀请到一位 很特别的 来宾。雖然他的 專業是 房產經濟人，但他在主流 媒體的曝光率 是 頻繁的 也是 多元化的。他的專業知識 除了在 灣區房產 經紀之外，還包括 室內 裝潢設計，美食推薦，與 專題 演講。 他的 專業 網站，“Habitat for Hermanity” 包含了 如何成為一位 成功的 房產經紀人的 視頻博客，以及 綜藝節目評論等。雖然如此，與他 在房地產上 合作過的 客戶，對他 評價 卻是 贊不絕口。現在就讓我們來 認識這位 擁有 獨特魅力的 百萬房產 經紀人，Mr. Herman Chan. 1. What does it take to make yourself stand out among other real estate brokers? 2. You seem to be interested and are knowledgeable in so many areas besides real estate, brokerage, including interior decoration, TV entertainment, restaurant recommendations, just to name a few. What are you most interested in and why? 3. Do you think home prices are over-priced in the Bay Area? 4. How long do you think this hot trend will last in the San Francisco Bay Area? 5. Since this is a seller’s market, do you recommend perhaps older people sell their homes, make some money, and buy a home elsewhere to live, or people whose job situation isn’t so secure to sell their home while the market is hot? 6. Besides high rental prices, lower mortgage rates, loosened credit history review, demand from some overseas investors, and perhaps a slight economic recovery in certain sectors, what’s driving such a craze all of a sudden? 7. If people would like to get in touch with you for advice on anything, how should they contact you? I reveal my successes & failures in an exclusive chat with RealEstate.com. In what is probably the most thorough interview I have given to the press, we cover a wide swath of topics from my not-so-glamorous career before real estate, why agents are insecure, how web/tech trends have shifted in the past 3 yrs, and most importantly what I would tell a younger Herman. Thank You to writer Shannon O'Brien (I now know who is writing my biography! Lol!).  Photo Credit: Will Taylor
 Click image above to listen! Kindred spirit Kelly Mitchell interviews me on her super duper popular show Agent Caffeine! Click here for the podcast!
"This episode of Agent Caffeine takes us to the land of Hermanity. High fashion, good humor and a funtastic diva rolled into one. We talk about going from blah to delish and being true to you. Herman Chan has built an incredible persona. He’s created opportunities from many different channels including, MTV, HGTV, Huffington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. Herman’s also a hot speaking commodity. You get the authentic nature of his spirit by the fun he has describing what he does as well as his self-deprecating nature. Chan is a superstar in his own right. Truly a refreshing spin out of the land of vanilla-mess and into the land of sparkling individuality. If you need inspiration on being yourself and embracing your true authentic brand, Herman has wise words of advice for you". - Kelly Mitchell Guess who graces the cover of Top Agent Magazine?! My tearsheets & interview are below but if you want to read the whole magazine issue, click here. Enjoy!
 photo: WTphoto.com (left) JaegerShots.com (right)  I'll be on the Monday Morning Radio Show 11/5/12 when Keith Robinson (VP of Better Homes & Gardens) will interview me about how the heck I brand myself, how you can too & more importantly why that matters in real estate! Should be fun (It's always fun talking about myself! giggle)
Title: “Cementing Your Brand in a Web 2.0 World” Date: Monday, November 5, 2012 Times: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST Reserve your seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/256281410  Business 2 Community sat down with me for their "Expert Interviews" series. They asked me 6 questions about social media & real estate, including what is the biggest challenge facing your industry, what is the method/inspiration to your blogging success, what do you think is the future of social media & more! Real estate has been slow to catch up on this but it is about time everyone embraced it. No one want to be the dinosaur agent faxing offers...am I right?! 
Pride & Equality Magazine sits down with me to chat about LGBTQ youth, being a "Real Estate Artist" and my eggs drying up! Also, I'm so flattered to be the special guest for their 4th Annual Vincent R. Johnson Models of Hope Dinner next month. They honor "individuals that not only the GLBT youth can look up to, but anyone the community can see as a ray of light." Great cause! Tickets just $35 or $350 for a table. Hope to see you there!
 Real estate agent review sites (Don't roll your eyes!). I know, I know. They are indeed a dime a dozen, but one site has been getting a lot of attention this year. Mountain of Agents has stood out from the crowd due to their clean design, video capability, iPhone app, and perhaps most of all because its founders are not real estate agents, but consumers who got scarred working with the wrong agent. Real estate guru & my gal pal Maya Paveza vouched, "Mountain Of Agents allows me to be present in a “for consumer, by consumer” environment that they are more likely to trust." Really? So I set out to see what all the fuss was about. (I'm nosy like that). I grill Mountain of Agent's creator Michael Becker about how he got burned, if there are any limitations to the site, and what he has to say to his critics.  Founder & Nice Guy Michael Becker Hermanity: Your site says, "Mountain of Agents was born out of the founders' frustration around the home buying/selling experience." What exactly happened to you that you don't want to happen to other buyers/sellers?! Inquiring minds want to know! Becker: Like most people, we used a real estate agent that was referred to us by a close friend. We made the mistake of not researching the agent first. From the start it was clear that we were not a priority. Ignoring our phone calls and dropping the ball on buyer inquiries quickly became a nasty habit. We watched the neighborhood prices plummet as the months passed, and missed out on being able to pull the trigger on a few properties we really loved. Six months later, we made the tough call and fired our agent. We then began our online research, and were shocked at how difficult it was to find any reputable, objective information on real estate agents in our area. Most of the resources were cluttered, unusable and completely biased. After lots of research, we did eventually find a stellar agent who knew the area well, was trustworthy and had our best interests at heart. He sold our old property and got us into a new one—dare I say—almost painlessly. We thought to ourselves, “Was this how it was supposed to be the first time around?” After the dust settled and we were in our new home, it still troubled me that there were no simple, un-biased resources out there for consumers. I asked myself, “What could have made this process easier for us?” I then set out to design, develop and launch the Mountain of Agents directory as an objective resource for consumers to find, research and rate local realestate agents.  Clients see Agent Maya Paveza's ratings! Hermanity: Consumers search for agents by zip code on the site. Right now the number of agents is manageable but one day when thousands and thousands of agents (knock on wood) are signed up on your site, how will a consumer filter out the possibly hundreds of realtors that pop up in their zip code? Can they search by language or speciality? Becker: Adding additional features and filters is a great idea and we’ll address those modifications as the need arises. In the meantime, real estate agents can future-proof their listing from getting lost in the—ahem—mountain of agents on the site by reserving the zip codes they market to. You’ll get a persistent featured listing in one of the top two spots in search results no matter how many agents are listed in your area.  Clients Connect via Facebook Hermanity: Your site directly addresses agents: "We know how you feel about real estate agent rating sites, so we keep it positive." What is your response to haters who say there is no way for a consumer to share a non-positive experience about an agent on your site?
Becker: The way I look at it, agents with a poor track record or shoddy history probably aren’t going to join a site where they can be openly rated. There are plenty of other forums for expressing your experiences in a written format, so I didn’t see a need to create another Internet bash fest. I know how agents feel about real estate rating sites, so I wanted to make sure that our ratings system would only allow positive, cumulative feedback. The more positive ratings you obtain in each of the six categories, the more likely it is that a consumer will contact you. This way, the only negative aspect of getting rated is not having as many positive ratings as your local competitors. For more Q&A with Mountain of Agents, click Read More ===> Herman in a hostel?! Clutch my pearls! You'd never guess a glamour puss like me would slum it in a hostel. But paying $200+/night at a hotel is getting rather unattractive, considering that I just need a place to store my stuff & sleep. So, while looking for alternate accommodations for a recent LA trip, I stumbled upon this great looking place online called Stay On Beverly. It was clean, modern, centrally located in LA, free wifi, and best of all it was only $50/night! What??!! I re-read the website and found out it was a hostel. You know, at that point, I was a bit hesitant because I was a hostel virgin, but, hey, I'll try anything once! ...especially if I can save $150/night! I booked a private room for 3 days. It really had all I needed. Free wifi, TV, many outlets in the wall to charge my gadgets, an electronic wall safe to store my ipad2, iPod dockable radio alarm, and communal wireless printer, and 3 pretty swank bathrooms! Don't believe me? Check out this virtual tour & video. Boy, am I glad I got over my snobbism and gave this a whirl! For a no non-sense traveler like me, who flies in and flies out of town on a whim for appointments and gigs, this set up was perfect! No snooty concierge, no nosy staff, no hoity toity amenities I would never use anyways. I just HAD to interview Bo Lorentzen who runs Stay On Beverly.  Hermanity: Hostels & luxury aren't usually used in the same sentence. How did you know there would be a market for a place like Stay On Beverly? Bo: We wanted to define the fact that we are offering a different product. Most customers with experience in hostels, consider Stay ON Beverly to be quite a treat. Hermanity: From the street, Stay On Beverly looks so unassuming. No sign. No advertising. One would never guess it's a hostel. Is that by design? As stated in your brochure, it is indeed the best kept secret in LA. Do you want to keep it that way? Bo: Part of the model is that we do not accept walk-in customers, and since we do not have on-site staff to "meet and greet" we really wanted to avoid the attention. And yes, surprisingly we are trying to stay the best kept secret, mostly because our market is tourist travelers, mostly in their twenties and in tech jobs, so called "flash packers", this group seem to be quite adept at finding us.  Hermanity: What is the biggest misconception about hostels? Bo: Ahh, this is actually not an easy question for me. Hostels are a very old type of hospitality business, going back generations, traditionally with dorm-rooms. In today's America, the hostel label was chosen because we have hall-way toilets, I wanted to make sure people lowered their expectations to the facilities. Hermanity: How do your customers differ from traditional hostels? Bo: Most of our customers are probably a little older, a surprising amount have traveled for months when they come to us. We label the facility as a "hostel for grown-ups".  Hermanity: What is the best part of running/owning a hostel? Whats the worst part?
Bo: The best part is meeting all the awesome guests from around the world. I am probably guilty of talking too long with some, and I always have to remind myself they are on the way out in Hollywood to be tourists. HA.. the worst.. not sure.. I thought it was the 2 star hotel on Main St. Los Angeles which just recently renamed themselves to use our name.. Sigh. But Friday after the storm in LA the power disappeared, and suddenly I had a black hostel with a bunch of guests.. YIKES. We issued flashlights and glowsticks to everybody. Thankfully most were out for fun on the town and by the time they came back there were lights again... at 3am in the morning. But that was a moment of stress and "what do I do now" for sure. For a lot more Q&A about Stay On Beverly, click Read More---> 
What a great interview with the Epoch Times!
Since their readership is primarily Chinese, they asked me about social media as it relates to real estate to the Asian market. I said that culturally Asian clients tend to be private low-key and it goes against their tendency to overly share...but sharing is the whole premise of social media. It is important for Asian agents and clients to remain open to receiving and dispersing information this way to stay on top of the ever changing market We also discussed the importance weighing all factors in buying and selling a property. A good neighborhood does not guarantee a sale. Nor does a perfect condition home. With buyers being so picky (and especially with all cash buyers and/investors from Asia), it's got to be a great area, turn key condition, and attractive price for them to pull the trigger. Otherwise, they'll pass & wait for another good buy to hit. Oh, can I just say this is my new favorite portrait! The lines, color, lighting and my hair are epic! 謝謝 to photographer Will Taylor for making me prettier than I really am. (It's no surprise he shot with world famous photographer David LaChapelle this summer!) If any of you deal with Asian clients, what has your experience been like? Let's compare notes! You're in for a treat! I'm pleased to bring you a chat with my friend Ross Farrell...straight from his fabulous living room. You may recognize Ross from his many TV appearances on Style Network's Area, Beautiful Homes & Great Estates, Landscaper's Challenge & Designer's Challenge on HGTV. Find out all the places that Ross has lived that inspire his home decor, whether you need to go to school to be a designer and what his next big project is! Check out his website for his paintings, home decor portfolio and his fashion line! This man does it all (well, except for one thing. But you'll have to watch our video to find out!)  Renowned Fashion Photographer Billy Winters gives Habitat For Hermanity an unprecendented yet candid chat about decorating his fabulous Russian Hill home! In this sweeping interview, my dear friend Billy reveals to us his tips on lighting a room, mixing & matching patterns & how the photography business has changed. He and I also take a walk down memory lane (Billy is responsible for my 1st magazine cover almost a decade ago!). Celebrities, models & politicians have hired Billy for his artistic eye. And now you get to hear first hand what this tastemaker has to say about home decor!  HERMAN: You've shot for countless fashion magazines around the globe in the most stunning locations with the most beautiful models. It's glamour 24/7. Yet, whenever I am over at your home, it feels surprisingly down-to-earth and homey. Why did you decide on this comfy vibe for your abode? BILLY: People say that for some reason my home reminds them of a North African Casbah or a Parisian atelier. I guess having Oriental throw rugs throughout (on top of the neutral carpeting that came with the apartment) adds to the "warmth" and feeling. The apartment has a lot of odd nooks and crannies too, making it (I guess) suprising to many. When I first saw this apartment, it was all white. They "sprayed" the entire place with flat white paint, even all the woodwork. I was not impressed. Without asking permission to paint (I never did) I started my journey. I had to paint all the trim, doors and windows in a semi-gloss off-white to cover a dull flat white throughout. The semi-gloss gives the rooms more dimension due to its shine, and makes the rooms look larger. Of course, it's also easier to clean! "When I first saw this apartment, it was all white... |
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