Jeff’s Journal

Ever notice that most car specs focus on acceleration, not braking? It’s more fun to focus on getting fast than it is on getting slow.

How would you manage or market differently if you knew that you had to hit the brakes, and hard? Slowing one thing and speeding up something else.

Prediction: there will be no significant newspapers printed on newsprint in the US by 2012. So, you’ve got two and a half years before the newspaper industry is going to be doing something else with the news and the ads, or not be there at all. Does that change what you do today if you work in this business?

Insight! The newspaper industry is in trouble, but news is not going to go away, just the paper part. Those who are working hard to preserve the paper part are asking the wrong questions and are doomed to fail.

Prediction: 90% of your sales will come from word of mouth or digital promotion by 2011. How do you change what you’re doing today to be ready for that?

Prediction: The effort required to outsource a task involving the manipulation of data of any kind will continue to decrease until it will be faster and cheaper to outsource just about anything than it will be to use in-house talent. What will you do today to ensure your prosperity when that happens?

Question: how come the Stanford Publishing Course special week on digital media isn’t sold out yet? It seems to me that if you know the old world is about to end, you’d run like crazy to master the new one.

Going fast, doing your best and then slamming into a cliff works best for Wile E. Coyote, not humans.

link to Seth Godin’s post here.

In real estate we have already seen the value of newspapers virtually disappear in terms their power to attract buyers.  The following chart is one that I am going to have on hand during listing appointments.  It clearly shows where buyers are finding the homes they buy, and it’s not the newspaper.   Surprised?

Still not a believer?  Maybe Seth Godin’s input will help influence you.

“Prediction: there will be no significant newspapers printed on newsprint in the US by 2012. So, you’ve got two and a half years before the newspaper industry is going to be doing something else with the news and the ads, or not be there at all. Does that change what you do today if you work in this business?

Insight! The newspaper industry is in trouble, but news is not going to go away, just the paper part. Those who are working hard to preserve the paper part are asking the wrong questions and are doomed to fail.

Prediction: 90% of your sales will come from word of mouth or digital promotion by 2011. How do you change what you’re doing today to be ready for that?”

An excerpt from Seth Godin's blog.

I just read an article that I really liked because of the good news about our market. It was a report by the National Association of Realtors. In summary:

The report’s housing affordability index rose 13.6 percentage points to 166.8, a new record high.

A value of 100 means that a family with the country’s median income has exactly enough income to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced existing single-family home. The higher the index, the better housing affordability is for buyers.

The reading shows the relationship between home prices, mortgage interest rates and family income is the most favorable since tracking began in 1970.

“History suggests that home sales can rise even in times of job losses when housing affordability rises,” said Yun, adding that he expects sales to turn around by the summer.

View the entire article here:  http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/03/news/economy/pending_home_sales/index.htm?postversion=2009030311