Niman @TReXGlobal.com

Dear Nima,

I have been cursing you for hours...

That's what my email originally sounded like....

One Friday evening at 8:59PM, I suddenly remembered Facebook was giving away vanity URLs in one minute. I assumed the demand for facebook.com/Niman wouldn’t be very high, so I let my friend Katherine go first (she was lucky, she got facebook.com/Katherine).

Claiming facebook.com/Niman was pretty easy, since my only competition for claiming that name is Bill/Nicolette Niman (Niman Ranch), and Henry Niman (swine flu expert)

A few weeks later, I noticed a lot of folks had matching vanity URLs for Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. I had 2 out of 3 (facebook.com/niman and twitter.com/niman) so I decided I should also get my LinkedIn URL.

So then I go to LinkedIn to claim /Niman… AND I AM NOT ABLE TO…. The first thought I had to myself was “Darn it, some other Niman beat me,” and I just had to see who it was. When I found out who it was, I went nuts!

As it turned out, it was someone named Nima. I started thinking to myself “Why did Nima have to take /Niman when he could have taken /Nima,” and I decided Nima would just have to give up that URL!

Then I began writing to Nima. It started off as an angry letter, demanding that Nima change his URL to /Nima so I could claim /Niman. It ended up turning into a really nice and compelling email pleading for his humble graciousness. Then, right before I could send the email, I realized I couldn’t send it!

LinkedIn has a 5 character minimum. Nima doesn’t have /Nima, because he can’t. He took /NimaN, because his last name starts with “N”

NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I thought to myself….. Now I can’t tell him to change his URL, because I don’t have a reasonable suggestion for what he can change it to!

At this point, I am suddenly back to where I started, and angry at the world because by now this had consumed over an hour of my life.

Then I started to laugh about it. I started thinking to myself about how much this stupid URL was messing with my mind. I decided that this story was just too funny to remain untold, and that I had to share it with someone. Who do you think I chose? You guessed it!

And now, the pleasant surprise: He did it! My name is mine now! linkedin.com/in/niman

So what is the moral of the story?

Many things in life will not land in your lap, and you need to be proactive if you want something to go your way. As I reached out to a complete stranger, I was truthful, humble, and I had no problem with humiliating myself. In return, he did me a huge favor, and I’m sure it made him feel good to do so.

Can you do the same with your clients? How do you reach out to real estate investors? A lot of people seem to have forgotten what a real life conversation can still accomplish these days. Take this for example:

I challenge you to go knocking on doors, use this script, and prove to me that it doesn’t work!

My suggestion: Co-Brand our free real estate tools, send monthly newsletters to your prospects (click here for sample newsletter), and share your Property Management Software with them. Let me know how that works for you!

...and that's my story of Love, Deception, and Regret... I love the fact that I got my URL back, I was deceived by LinkedIn's 5 characted minimum, and I did not live with the regret of not sending that email :)

Bernice Ross wrote a great article on how old-school marketing tactics don’t work well in today’s Web 2.0 environment, and if you’re ready to implement some of the “new school” marketing strategies, here are six strategies to get you started. My favorite was “Pull, don’t push.”

The old-school approach “pushes” out information in the form of newspaper advertisements, magazine ads, and Just Listed and Just Sold cards. Agents “push” their services by door-knocking for expired listings and for-sale-by-owners. While “pushing” certainly still works, it is costly and time consuming.

Telling people to go to your website is pushing them. Giving them a reason to visit the useful content available on your website will pull them in.

I think a perfect example is Deb Agliano’s experience when she did a product review for Inman News:

“I put the widget on my website and wrote about the free tools on Twitter – within half an hour, an investor had signed up through my website to use the applications.”

If agents take the time to figure out what the consumers really want, then help them get there (without commitment or obligation), they’ll have a lot more success with their marketing.

What kind of niche marketing techniques are you using to pull in your audience?

Have you been to Inman.com today? Aren't you totally surprised? I sure was!

Actually, it wasn't completely a surprise from me. We got an email from Inman yesterday as I was leaving the office and they told us to look out for the news today. I wasn't expecting we would be the headline!

Overall Ratings: Ease 83, Value 87, Power 90

You can read below to see how the individual reviewers felt:
Deb Agliano - 90, 94, 92
Alicia S. Crum - 95, 90, 90
Janet Krauss - 65, 73, 88

Check out the overall review! If you are already using the Partner Program, please leave a comment to share your experience. THANKS!

Today’s lesson of the day: “If you are renting out a unit that has not been permitted for occupancy, don’t count on being able to collect a judgment against a tenant who defaults on the rent.” Read More

Maria Espinoza had rented a unit to two tenants, Gudelia Calva and Jorge Soqui, and after three months of not collecting the $750 monthly rent, Espinoza had them evicted. The eviction action was upheld and the landlord was awarded possession of the premises, but the tenants had raised various claims about the sub-standard conditions of the unit, including the fact that it had not been certified for occupancy.

The court ruled that the tenants had owed $3,350, but the amount was reduced by $1,000 because of the condition of the property.

For some reason, the case was appealed. The appellate court upheld the eviction, but disagreed with the first court with respect to the amount due from the tenants. The court referred to the fact that the Santa Ana municipal code prohibits the use or occupation of a building “until the building official has issued a certificate of occupancy,” and because no occupancy permit had been issued, the court held that “the occupancy was unlawful and the lease constitutes an illegal contract.” Therefore, they ruled it was incorrect for the first court to have given an award of any rent at all, and they ruled that no money was due.

Was this ruling a good thing or a bad thing? Some of the unintended consequences will include a reduction in the number of affordable rental units due to the fact that there are a significant number of unpermitted rental units. Many of those units could never be permitted because of various zoning and building ordinances. Many landlords of unpermitted units will take them off the market rather than run the risk of collecting nothing in an eviction action.

This is a huge win for tenants, and this court decision certainly diminishes the appeal of being a landlord - but is it really that bad? Should landlords have been renting out units if they were not certified to be occupied in the first place? What do you think?

Christian Moeller, a professor of design and media art at UCLA, is suing 21-year-old pop singer Rihanna and Stephen Yacobian, the owner of the house she rents in Los Angeles. Read More

Moeller claims vehicles routinely park or wait on his property, including some used by Rihanna. He also claims a security camera at the home is pointed onto his property. He is seeking unspecified damages for trespass, invasion of privacy, and some other claims.

Rihanna’s landlord says the lawsuit is without merit, but wouldn’t comment further until he had spoken to his attorney. According to the lawsuit, Moeller originally gave Yacobian permission to occasionally drive through his property, but claims that Rihanna has been over utilizing the right. The lawsuit claims that some of Rihanna’s guests have even been parking their cars on Moeller’s lawn.

If she’s driving her cars of his front garden and that’s ruining his grass - that’s definitely a problem. But is Rihanna really invading his privacy? Is that a bit much? What do you think?