How challenging would real estate prospecting be if you were selling barren lots on the moon?!

Sure, the golden time for giving gag gifts is now over — anyone get stuck with anything insane from your family’s holiday Yankee Swap?

However, there’s really no bad time to amuse your Realtor friends or employees with some MLS listings for extraterrestrial house plots.

In the same spirit of buying and naming a star after someone, the Lunar Embassy will sell you a one-acre moon lot for the bargain price of $22.49 (plus a $1.51 “Lunar Tax” and $12.50 for shipping and handling of the deed).

Hey, if you look at NASA’s fact sheet on the moon, there’s now approximately 14,647,439.75 square miles of open space ready for developers! And thinking about New Year’s Resolutions, you weigh a lot less up there, too.

There are many reasons to be skeptical that your Lunar property deed might not ever be graced with that dream vacation home (with a great room and sauna) you have been planning in your imagination. The “real estate” company itself starts off its FAQ in defensive mode, giving you its assurance that you are not taking part in a fraudulent transaction.

The Lunar Embassy claims its rights to Expired and FSBO listings on the moon is based on international law and a loophole in the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty.

But here’s why I don’t trust the validity of their property claims: They don’t even bother to use spell check!

A quick example from their FAQs:

“Whilst we are on the subject, we would like to take this opportunity to give you some useful tips to avoid fraud on the Internet: Beware of pyramid shemes, sites that say you have won a prize but they want money up front before you can collect it, some business opportunity shemes, “get rich quick” shemes, work at home shemes and sometimes, even sales of computer equipment (you pay, and the computer equipment never arrives). These are the most common types of fraud to be found on the Internet according to recent statistics. Don’t give your bank account number or social security number to just anyone, unless you know the company that you are dealing with.”

C’mon, Lunar Embassy, are you not familiar with the word “scheme?” How can I buy into a scheme even for fun, if you call it a “sheme” four times?

Credibility is vital for all real estate prospecting, of course, especially the Earth-based homes you likely specialize in. When you are calling your Expired, FSBO, SOI and just listed/just sold leads, having the Mojo Triple Line Power Dialer will ensure that when an autodialed call is answered, you will hear the first “hello” and not the third, fourth or fifth.

Nothing is worse than representing yourself with the impression of a robo-call, an instant turnoff for most potential customers.

You may as well be doing cold calls for lunar real estate.

Which reminds me to leave you off with an invaluable piece of Realtor advice: Definitely avoid the Lunar Embassy’s Venus property, no matter how tempting the price. Surface temperatures on Venus can reach up to 860 degrees Fahrenheit. And in that climate, there won’t be cold calls of any kind!

Republicans and Democrats are pointing fingers as to who's to blame for the nation's foreclosure crisis.

We here at Mojo Selling Solutions don’t wear our politics on our sleeves. It’s not just because our office is a harmonious blend of folks across the ideological spectrum. It’s all about the fact that the telephone sales gods don’t care if the prospect is Democrat, Republican, or Independent.

Nevertheless, we can’t ignore what happens at the White House or Capitol Hill. With the housing market so critical to our economy, every minor burp from Washington matters.

President Barack Obama just announced new changes in the mortgage refinance laws aimed at helping struggling homeowners get more affordable interest rates even if they are underwater borrowers.

The President revealed his plans in a speech in Nevada, one of the most badly bruised states in the recession. An estimated one out of every 118 homes there filed for foreclosure in September. On a pure humanity level, foreclosures ruin lives and dreams. On a Machiavellian level, they ruin neighbors’ property levels.

And on a macroeconomic level, foreclosures hurt America because people without homes or jobs not only can’t buy things, they are also more likely to turn to desperate measures.

Federal changes to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) will now allow homeowners to borrow up to 125 percent of their property’s value at a lower interest rate — instantly saving them thousands each year. HARP was supposed to expire in mid-2012, but it will be extended until the last day of 2013.

What do you think of the changes to the HARP program?

The Los Angeles Times reports that the current momentum of foreclosures will be tough to slow down.

Consider:

“In the three months that ended Sept. 30, notices of default, the first formal step in the foreclosure process, jumped nearly 26% from the previous quarter, according to DataQuick, a San Diego real estate information service.

Additionally, a likely national settlement over complaints about banks filing faulty paperwork to take back homes should clear the way for an additional 400,000 foreclosures in coming months, according to Moody’s Analytics, an economics research firm.

Moody’s predicts that foreclosures will rise next year to a record 1.5 million, or a hefty 30% of all sales of previously owned homes.”

Meanwhile, President Obama’s critics charge that his sudden interest in Nevada stems from his election strategy for 2012. Glenn Cook, a conservative Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist, dismissed the new plan as “more taxpayer-backed swag.”

Nonsense, says the Philadelphia Inquirer, it’s better to do something than nothing and rescued homeowners would potentially save $2,500 a year — affecting up to 2 million American families. Those numbers translate to an increase of between $2.5 billion to $7.5 billion in consumer spending each year, the newspaper claims.

So who’s right?

You tell us. We’re not interested in hearing political rants of any persuasion.

Candidly tell us what really matters. How does the foreclosure rate impact the short-term and long-term real estate market in your community?

(Real estate, insurance and mortgage professionals depend on Mojo for productivity-boosting solutions. Mojo’s Triple Line Power Dialer allows you to contact up to 300 Expired, FSBO and Just Listed/Just Sold leads per hour.)

Remember those chee

Move aside mood rings, now your Twitter feed may be a more accurate indicator of minute-to-minute happiness!

Remember those cheesy mood rings from the 1970s?

The jewelry supposedly replaced the smile and frowny face and could more “accurately” telegraph how a person’s feelings would fluctuate by the moment.

Your Jewelry Doesn't Lie: The Full Range of Emotions Allegedly Revealed by Mood Rings. (Source: MoodRingsColorMeanings.com)

Mood rings change colors based on temperature-sensitive liquid crystals and have no real connection to human feelings — except that body temperature slightly rises when you are nervous and increase your heart rate. Based on the same novelty, there are also mood rocks, mood jars and LED mood lamps.

Kitsch aside, the next generation of the Mojo lead management system (coming soon) also pays close attention to color and temperature. We aren’t as flamboyant with the color spectrum, but you’ll be able to instinctively record the “temperature” of each customer call with a red flame (warm or hot lead) or blue ice (cold reception).

But wouldn’t it be great if you could predict beforehand how your sales prospects were feeling at any given moment and time your calls accordingly?

A two-year Cornell University study of 2.4 million Twitter users recently concluded that the early bird gets the happiest worms. According to the Los Angeles Times, sociology graduate student Scott Golder created a computer program to analyze the speaking patterns of more than a half billion Tweets. Using text sentiment analysis software, the study tabulated words with positive emotional connotations and compared them with the frequency of negative-sounding ones.

The researchers then sorted the positive and negative Twitter messages with their embedded timestamps.

How well do you use the power of social media to research your cold calls for prospective clients?

The Cornell study concluded that:

“Positive-mood tweets peaked twice a day throughout the world, early in the morning and again near midnight. The morning peak came later on weekends, presumably because people slept in. That the cycle was similar on weekdays (when pressures like work deadlines and school exams pile up) and weekends (when most people are more relaxed) showed that sleep schedules and circadian rhythms were important influencers of mood, regardless of day-to-day stresses, the authors reported.

They also found that, on average, moods improved as the days lengthened in the spring and worsened as days shortened in the fall.”

With the trend of many people abandoning landlines and using their cell phones as their primary form of communication, this kind of study raises some fascinating questions. Are there better times than others to bunch up your calls? Have you tended to have better rates of success with your Triple Line Power Dialer than others?

Regardless of what the Twitter study says, certainly it would be foolish to try to call at the other peak happiness time of just before midnight!

In any case, we soon will be enhancing your ability to cross-reference public social media posts with your real estate, insurance, mortgage, financial and general sales leads. The service, part of the upcoming Next Generation Mojo, will be especially helpful when making small talk with your Sphere of Influence (SOI) leads — helping to put major life cycle events on your radar.

Do stay tuned…

Real estate agent Phil Dunphy, aka actor Ty Burrell, won the 2011 Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy. We're still waiting for an episode to focus on the challenges of real estate prospecting!

A hearty Mojo congratulations to actor Ty Burrell, who beat out some steep competition from his “Modern Family” colleagues to win a comedy Emmy the other night.

Why do we care about this on a real estate prospecting and lead management software blog?

Because Burrell’s alter-ego is Phil Dunphy, the funniest real estate agent on television!

Several memorable episodes of the hit ABC sitcom have focused on the sales and marketing challenges of the industry, including:

• SLOW DOWN YOUR NEIGHBORS – Phil learns that his new client happens to be a thorn in the side for his wife Claire, who is angry how fast the woman drives in their neighborhood. Phil must weigh his need for a hefty sales commission with his desire to maintain peaceful household relations. He doesn’t welcome the stressful duplicity involved in keeping the women apart: “I wish I were one of those people who thrives on the danger of leading a double-life. You know… Bruce Wayne… Peter Parker… Hannah Montana.”

• THE MUSICAL MAN — Wanting to keep on the edge of modern real estate marketing, Phil shrinkwraps his minivan with a photo of himself with his family and the slogan: “I can’t be satisfied until you’re satisfied!” However, the layout of the wrap-around ad has a picture of his wife alone with the slogan along with a cell phone number. In a similarly unintended context, the picture of his oldest daughter Haley appears above the words “Let me make your dreams come true!” Phil soon starts to get a barrage of inappropriate phone calls with heavy breathing. He’s horrified, but in a bizarre way, his soccer mom wife is flattered that she still can evoke that kind of response from men.

• STRANGERS ON A TREADMILL — Will goofy dad humor play over well at a dinner of fellow real estate agents? Phil’s family is a little nervous that his jokes may bomb when he is the keynote speaker at the Southern California Realtors Banquet (the “SCARB”). To “save” him from embarrassment, his wife Claire hides his notecards so he has to play it straight. Turns out that Phil’s improvisational lines are a huge hit, making him the Jay Leno of the real estate world. (You can listen to Phil’s killer speech here!)

This part of Phil Dunphy's real estate wrapped vehicle ad seems innocent enough....

... until you look at the other side of the van! (Click pic to see video clip highlighting the greatest fictitious real estate snafu in recent memory.)

The Emmy-winning scriptwriters of Modern Family definitely have their thumb on the pulse of the real estate world and what it is like to be a sales agent. We’ve seen the politics of an Open House, the personality-centric marketing campaigns and the pressures of making a living off commissions.

Now we wish the producers would go one step further and base an episode on the ups and downs of prospecting. Show us Phil when he’s tapping into his Sphere of Influence for potential new leads. Show us Phil when he’s mining FSBO and Expired listings. Give us a plot line surrounding the Triple Line Power Dialer! How about some dialogue about Phil making cold calls from his car with Mobile Mojo!

Realistically, we recognize that the behind-the-scenes hard work of real estate sales isn’t that funny. But the results can make you very very happy. Check out all of Mojo’s real estate prospecting tools to find out how to become the Phil Dunphy of your local market — without embarrassing your family.