Habitat For Hermanity
415.787.3450
  • Blog
  • Videos
  • About
  • Press
  • Testimonials
  • Speaking
    • Appearance / Speaking Fees
    • Better Homes & Garden Conference in Las Vegas
    • Mother Love Talk Show
    • NARdigras: National Association of Realtors Conference in New Orleans
    • California Association of Realtors Expo in Anaheim
    • Women's Council of Realtors
    • Talk Media Networks
    • theEGDE Las Vegas
    • South Hills Country Club
    • Asian Real Estate Association of America Sacramento
    • Lincoln Hills Golf Tournament
    • Rainstorm Conference for ActiveRain
    • Inman Real Estate Connect
  • Hocking Homes
  • Contact

Climb Ev'ry Mountain, Search High & Low...for a Great Real Estate Agent!

12/21/2011

11 Comments

 
Picture
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. 


Picture
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.

Picture
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.

Picture
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 ===>


Read More
11 Comments

Hermanity Interviews Luxury Hostel Owner in Los Angeles

12/7/2011

189 Comments

 
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.

Picture
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.

Picture
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".



Picture
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--->


Read More
189 Comments

Q&A: Is it housing discrimination if a str8 guy will not rent a gay man like me a room?

7/19/2011

2 Comments

 
Picture
Question: 
My bff & I share an apartment and the lease ends next month. She asked her boyfriend if we could stay at his house (we would pay rent). He said yes but last minute reneged when he found out her roomie was a gay man (me). Is this housing discrimination?
-Homeless Will & Grace

Answer:
Hey Will,
What a  creep! He was all gung-ho when he thought 2 hot gals would be parading around his house all day in see-through nighties. No wonder he was so quick to agree to this. He thought he was Jack & you two would be Janet & Chrissy…..but instead he got Janet & Chris. Oops!

Read why this is not housing discrimination in my weekly Q&A column for LOGO here.

Picture
Speaking of Three's Company (one of my all time favorites sitcoms!), did any of you see Justin Timberlake & Lady Gaga's song on SNL, It's Not Gay, If It's a Three-way, where they parodied Three's Company?! Hilarious! And catchy tune too.

Share
2 Comments
    Picture

    As Seen On

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    February 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All
    365gay
    365 Gay
    Advertising
    Advice
    Agent Genius
    Apartments
    Apppraisal
    Appraisal
    Apt2b
    Architecture
    Areaa
    Areas
    Asian
    Bad Realtor
    Banks
    Billy Winters
    Book
    Bullying
    Business Card
    Buyers
    Buying
    Cancer
    Cartoon
    Cash Offers
    Castings
    Celebrity
    China
    Closing Gifts
    Colors
    Commission
    Condo
    Contest
    Cookies
    Crime
    Curb Appeal
    Curbed
    Dating
    Debbie Gibson
    Decor
    Design
    Diet
    Disclosure
    Dot429
    Downelink
    Eco
    Ehow
    Ethics
    Events
    Fashion
    Fat
    Financing
    Food
    Foreclosure
    Foreclosures
    Foyer
    Friend
    Fsbo
    Funny
    Furniture
    Garages
    Gay Parent
    Ghetto
    Green
    Hgtv
    Hoa
    Hocking Homes
    Holiday
    Hostels
    Hosting
    Hotels
    House Hunters
    How To
    Huffington Post
    Huh
    Huhdafad37f6d
    Humor
    Humour
    Infographic
    Inspection
    Instinct
    Interview
    Interviews
    Investment
    Ipad
    Kara Swisher
    Klout
    Kodak
    Lighting
    Listing
    Listings
    Litigation
    Loans
    Logo
    Luxury
    Marketing
    Mcmansions
    Mls
    Money Magazine
    Mtv
    My House Is Worth What
    Nar
    Neighborhoods
    Newnownext
    News
    Nimby
    Open House
    Paint
    Pets
    Photographer
    Photos
    Porn
    Prefab
    Press
    Press Celebrity
    Qa438751ea22
    Qacd92bcee57
    Radio
    Rant
    Rants
    Realtor Magazine
    Remodel
    Remodeling
    Renting
    Re Sale Value
    Resale Value1f569878c8
    Safety
    Saks 5th Ave
    San Francisco
    Say It 2 My Face
    Selling
    Sf
    Sf Bay
    Sf Chronicle
    Shortsales
    Shout Out
    Show
    Showings
    Small Living
    Small Living
    Small Space
    Small Space
    Social Media
    Sold Magazine
    Speaking
    Sports
    Staging
    Stalking
    Tech
    Tips
    Top Agent Magazine
    Trends
    Trulia
    Tv
    Unique Homes Magazine
    Upcycle
    Videoblogging
    Videos
    Wealth Magazine
    Weird
    Yahoo Finance
    Zillow

    Blogroll

    Real Estalker
    AG Beat
    Curbed
    SFist
    LAist
    Luxist
    Apartment Therapy
    HGTV
    Lovely Listing
    Houzz


    Find us on Google+
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.