LuxuryBlurb
Posts Tagged ‘facebook’
Saturday, July 14th, 2012
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on July 14th, 2012
I never thought I’d see the day when something more annoying than FACEBOOK would hit the market…..has that day come? Yes, FACEBOOK is wonderful in connecting people and it certainly has helped me find out what an old school friend is eating these days. In real estate land, the excessive use of Facebook has however become somewhat tiresome. Now along comes Lady Gaga’s LITTLEMONSTERS.com.
Maybe no-one could have come up with a more appropriate name for a social networking site suitable for New York real estate brokers: LITTLE MONSTERS? Perfect!
Monday, May 21st, 2012
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on May 21st, 2012
All the hoopla surrounding the IPO of Facebook and to-day’s swoon of almost 10% in its valuation leads me to believe one should be very careful about over-hyped product….including real estate. I do believe Facebook to be one of the most over-hyped companies on earth: is it really worth so much more than UPS?
The best advice I have ever been given in stocks is firstly to fully understand the company and secondly to do lots of homework, buying into valuations based on fact, rather than hype….Warren Buffet-style. The same is true when in a multiple bidding situation for real estate: should you pay X dollars over the asking price? Or should you pay what your (thorough + realistic) research tells you its worth? A solid and honest broker will be able to provide a good chunk of this factual material. Most times a property that everybody wants is under-valued…..but sometimes hype can cloud judgement. What exactly does the property deliver? What exactly does Facebook deliver?
There are lessons to be learned all around us, every day….
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on January 31st, 2012
In the period between 2004 and 2008 we witnessed the growth of a housing bubble. At the time we didn’t really see it happening although there were clear indicators. This was the new economy, where housing prices could double, triple, and it was all the ‘new normal’……
The first sign of a bubble to me is when everyone says its not a bubble…..when pricing escalates so dramatically, it seems unrealistic, yet you really want to believe its possible. Last year at this time word was that Facebook was worth about $ 50 billion. To-day a year later, just before the IPO, Facebook’s value is being touted to be around $ 100 billion….double! Sounds like Vegas housing prices to me. Now remember, just like the housing bubble of the 2000′s, most lost a lot of money, but some made an absolute fortune. With this IPO comes a bucket load of banker ‘fees’, hundreds of thousands of speculators (many of whom are bound to buy and sell and make some quick money….sound familiar?)…..but I fear the majority will lose. I hear of many de-Facebooking already as it has lost its cool. WIll it be replaced by the next best thing? What exactly is Facebook selling or making? Different questions to housing, yet eerily similar to me.
I believe FACEBOOK is a bubble in the making: I hope I am wrong, although I have to admit I really, really don’t like Facebook. There are elements about it that were fun for sure: at first it had its novelty appeal, connecting to school friends you probably didn’t want to re-connect with, but thought it fun to see if they had gotten bald and fat. Now I receive about 3 friend requests a day, often from people I don’t even know….or want to know. I have always resented friends who had dozens of friends. It diluted friendship for me. Now imagine your friends have HUNDREDS of friends. Surely friendship hasn’t become Kardashian too in its shallowness?
So only time will tell if I am wrong, but if you look at the fundamentals, just like the housing bubble, I really believe we all need to take a deep breath and stand back to see what this Facebook thing is really all about before diving in.
Monday, November 15th, 2010
 I just returned from a Real Estate Conference that addressed the future, existing technology, and new technology, and how all this will impact our lives as real estate brokers. About 500 people attended. So here I am blogging….
The most annoying aspect of this conference was the strong encouragement of that recent phenomenon called TWITTER. All of the (highly educated and successful) speakers proposed, encouraged, insisted that TWEETING was a critically important tool in becoming successful or remaining successful in the real estate industry.
My question, that I dared not ask: Who on earth would care about what I am TWEETING? Does anyone really care that I just ate breakfast, got stuck in traffic, saw a great penthouse, had a problem at a closing, noticed too much Botox and filler amongst my peers (have you noticed the Madonna-esque FAT-FACE growing in popularity?), etc, etc. Who cares? Who wants to know this useless information? How would any of this help or inform someone of something useful? And who would buy or sell very expensive real estate because of my observations and reportage?
I know I probably sound really, really old, but I don’t care. It’s official: I HATE Twitter. I HATE Facebook. They are the digital DIY versions of reality TV, and quite frankly, if I am not as interesting as Trash-tart Snooki, The Kardashian’s or Desperate Danielle Staub (and hope I never will be), I feel certain the world does not need to know the ‘real’ intimacies/tweet nothings of my New York real estate brokerage life 24/7!
And if you question my intentions as I blog this rant, at least reading this opinion is entirely voluntary. Leonard Steinberg
Monday, November 1st, 2010
 In this weekend’s New York Times, an interview with Frederick Peters, the head of Warburg Partnership, illustrates clearly how the world of real estate brokerage has changed forever.
“I remember a time many years ago when I started doing e-mail blasts to the brokerage community, announcing new properties I was listing,” says Leonard Steinberg, managing director of Prudential Douglas Elliman and publisher of Luxuryletter. “Frederick Peters called me, somewhat outraged that I was using the e-mail system to do this. At that time, even Warburg’s website was an annoying distraction. Now, Frederick Peters is on Facebook, Tweets and is as tech-savvy as any 18 year old tech start-up geek! Now with “Selling New York”, will he be the next Danielle Staub?”
One does have to admire a company leader that at one time may have remained stuck in the past, who now embraces the new world whether we like it or not. Whether we think Fred’s “Housewives-of-New Jersey-style-reality-TV” debut into “Selling New York” is something we think is great is a whole other story. There is no reality in REALITY TV, and unfortunately we think the distortions of reality are counter-productive. Then again, reality TV is the info-mercial of the 2000′s and can be food for brand recognition.
So while the old world of brokerage, the broker-to-broker chatter, the listing systems, the broker open houses, etc, will continue as from the past, now the web, blogs and all things electronic and cyber will be entrenched into the industry…..until the next great thing comes along.
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I agree on you, we can’t rely fully our business just by tweeting although it may contribute but conventional methods are still efficient.
Thanks for posting!
excessive botox on realtors? Shocking