I am Jeff

Fellow REALTORS:

Incase you’ve been in a cave all day not paying attention to Twitter and Facebook, you might want to read this article at Inman News on how The Lones Group (a “sales and marketing coach/vendor” based in Bellingham, WA) is suing Virginia based REALTOR Daniel Rothamel for what they believe is trademark infringement and “unfair business practices”.

The gist of the complaint, which was filed a couple days ago, is that Daniel’s use of zebra imagery and the name of his Real Estate blog (The Real Estate Zebra) title and theme is an infringement upon The Lones Group’s “Trade Dress” which is also that of a zebra theme. The Lones Group also claims that this… and I quote “was and is calculated to cause injury to Plaintiff in the State of Washington” and therefore is seeking damages in excess of $75,000.

Give me a fucking break!

Besides the fact that (at least as far as I’m aware) you can’t trademark things that are naturally occurring in nature, such as “zebras”…  the thing that jumps out at me is the claim that Daniel is purposely causing injury to their business. He’s a REALTOR. In Virginia.  The Lones Group is a sales and marketing system vendor. In Washington. I don’t even see a close relation to how there could be ANY confusion between the services the two perform.  The Lones Group also claims to be a “preeminent source” for blog resources in the Real Estate industry.  Really?  I mean, I consider myself to be fairly tuned in to the “who’s who” of the Real Estate blogging vendors, and I had never heard of the Lones Group until today.

Now granted, The Lones Group does cater to Real Estate agents…  and Daniel does talk to other Real Estate agents across the country (via Inman’s Agent Reboot tour and related events) about topics that are related to Real Estate sales and marketing, although he has no “product” to sell any of us fellow Realtors.  So, that being said, the lawsuit seems like a pretty big stretch and reeks of desperation from a company that is probably already struggling, as some related vendors in the Real Estate space find themselves in this economy.

This really pisses me off!

I’ve known Daniel for about 5 years now. Even before we worked together at Inman News…  He’s seriously one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. So, incase it wasn’t already apparent, to hear that some lame ass company has decided to pick a bone with someone like Daniel for something as frivolous as this, really chaps my hide. So, I (and several others in the industry) let it be known today via Twitter, Facebook, and even direct email correspondence with The Lones Group.  Our message surely fell upon tens of thousands of eyeballs in the Real Estate industry.

Here’s the response received via email from Denise Lones (or more likely her legal counsel):

Fellow members of the real estate community,

You may have heard that The Lones Group has filed a lawsuit against Daniel Rothamel and Strong Team Realtors for trademark and trade dress infringement. I am writing to clear up a few misconceptions that some people apparently have about the lawsuit.

We started using zebra images in connection with our business many years ago. And for a long time, we’ve had a real estate blog called “The Zebra Report.” We’ve made a big effort to promote ourselves as the “zebra” people in real estate. And that’s how people see us. When they come across the word “zebra” or see images of zebras in connection with real estate, they think of us.

After we became known for our zebra connection, Rothamel and STR also began to use zebra images and started a blog called “Real Estate Zebra”. This confuses people. It makes them think there’s a connection between us and Rothamel, when there isn’t. Trademark laws were designed to prevent this sort of thing.

We asked our lawyers to request that Rothamel and STR stop using zebras and the term “Real Estate Zebra” to identify themselves. Unfortunately, Rothamel and STR refused. That left us with only one way to protect our identity – a lawsuit. We would have preferred not to file one, but Rothamel and STR left us with no other choice.

We know some people disagree with our position, and that’s to be expected. In any lawsuit, the parties’ friends and associates generally side with the people they know. But at this point, it’s in the court’s hands. We have faith in the American justice system, and we believe that at the end of the day, the court will decide in favor of The Lones Group.

Sincerely,
Denise Lones

I’d like to raise a few points of observation of my own:

There are thousands and thousands of businesses using zebra images. Will The Lones Group sue each of them too?

There are a several other institutions with a “zebra report“. Will the Lones Group sue them?

Looking at the two websites – there is no question in my mind that they are totally unrelated. The zebra theme is the only commonality.  Will the Lones Group sue National Geographic? They have zebra related images and themes sometimes.

The response raises no mention of how they feel Daniel is purposely hurting their business. Which makes sense… because HE ISN’T.

Speaking of hurting your business… I’d like Denise Lones to chew on this for a bit:

Like I mentioned above, this message was seen by thousands of Real Estate agents today.

I’ll always have a great story to tell when someone mentions the Lones Group to me in the future. Not that I expect that to happen much, seeing as how I’ve been in the R/E space for about 10 years and had never heard of your company.

Imagine how all this is going to look in about 24 hours when all these blog posts (The Lones Group: Brand Suicide, The Lones Group vs. Rothamel – A Case Study in Destroying Your Online Reputation), Tweets, and Facebook posts start showing up in the Google search results. That may not look very good. But as someone who offers brand and image consulting, you probably already knew that.

Long Live the REAL Real Estate Zebra!

Assuming this does actually progress through the court systems… it’s going to cost Daniel a little chunk of change to fight. Here’s where we can help.  Jay Thompson (better known as the Phoenix Real Estate Guy) has started a “Zebra Defense Fund” where we can all contribute money to help Daniel. I very rarely ask my followers for anything favor like. But, if you can spare anything, I (we) would all be grateful!

One last thing. A little disclosure I “borrowed” from Jay Thompson (I’ll watch for the C+D letter Jay) as it so eloquently sums up my situation as well:

I am not an attorney, in any way, shape or form. I consider Daniel Rothamel and his family (also parties to the lawsuit I discuss above) personal friends. And until today, I had never heard of The Lones Group. I have no idea if they are good at what they do, nor do I really care – that’s not the point. Finally, what I stated is simply my personal opinion, which I freely admit is biased and slanted due to my relationship with the Rothamel’s.

Now before anyone goes off and says “I thought you weren’t attending Real Estate conferences this year…” let me remind you that REBarCamp’s are not conferences. They are un-conferences.

Right. Call it whatever the hell you want. I had a great time at REBCSEA last year and I decided that I would go again this year. I know most the organizers, and trust they will do an awesome job at planning and structuring the day just as they did last year.

But even though I had a great time last year, I still felt like there was something missing. At the time, I couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was, but over the last few months, and in reaching my decision to stop attending Real Estate industry conferences, I think I have it figured out.

So, here’s my wish list for REBCSEA 2011:

I want some advanced topics. Lets take some deep dives into SEO, WordPress design, UI, Facebook Ad Targeting, conversion rates, etc.  These are the things I spend a good portion of my time on lately. These are the things that excite me. Think they’re not related to Real Estate? Think again…

I think we’re beyond the whole “you should be on Facebook/Twitter” phase. If people haven’t figured that stuff out by now, they probably don’t belong on those platforms anyway, and there’s no point in twisting their arms. Let them whither away.

I want the no bullshit rule in effect. The last couple conferences I attended had speakers that should never have been speaking on the topics they were speaking on. They were spewing some pretty ridiculous stuff, and nobody called them out on it. I expect more from our NW crew (attendees and organizers both).

That pretty much covers my wish list. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the REBCSEA crew has in store for us this year and hanging out with friends during my stay in Seattle.

Well, it’s only the 2nd of November and it’s already been a crazy month…

I finally got my Real Estate license, so I’ll be putting the finishing touches on my Roseway Real Estate site and building a new site around showcasing the various types of homes for sale in Portland.

I’ve added a new feature to the Roseway site that I’m calling the “Ask an Agent” feature, using the new VYou video platform which basically allows you to create an interactive Q+A section on your website. When someone types in a question, it will show them related/similar questions and my video response answers. If there isn’t a similar question/answer it allows them to send the question to me. I then get notified that someone has posted a question so that I can record a video response. Once I publish that response, the person who originally answered the question receives a notification (assuming they provided their email address) that I have answered their question.  It’s a pretty cool system, and I think it has great potential for use in these situations.

I’ve never been much of a video guy before, so this is a big step for me, but one that I see huge value in.  The videos allow you to show more personality, and express the message in the exact way you would as if you were face to face with a client asking the questions.

As if I don’t have enough to do, tomorrow I’ll be launching two more projects. One is still top secret for now, as it’s official launch is being done at the NAR convention in New Orleans. Here’s a hint though.

The other is a project we’re calling “Before You Die – Portland” which will basically be showcasing all the cool things you’d want to do in Portland before you… well… die.  Similar to the “365 Things To Do in…” that took the Nation by storm earlier this year but without the headache.  Plus, we’re going to be a little more focused on conversion instead of just blindly driving non-targeted traffic to our site in hopes that they magically end up on our Real Estate conversion pages.  I’ve learned a lot by sitting back and watching what others have been doing with this style of marketing. So, it’ll be interesting to see if what I’ve learned can translate into anything. Time will tell…

So, those are my projects that I’m going to be riding into next year on.  What’s keeping you busy these days?

Just a couple days ago I read an article by @DarinPersinger titled “Stop Your Email Drip Campaign To Recruit Real Estate Agents“.  If you’re in the business of trying to recruit new agents to your brokerage, it’s worth a read. Actually, Darin’s whole Socialcruiting site is one you may want to bookmark.  Guaranteed you’ll pick up some tips that can help you in the recruiting game.

So anyway…

I get an email this morning from a local brokerage (I’m going to call them “Hip Realty”) that I just had to share.  Hip Realty is inviting agents to come join them for a “no pressure info session where they’ll teach you how technology can help further your Real Estate career and get you closing multiple deals each month”. Hmm, sounds interesting so far…

If they have this all figured out and are willing to openly brag about it to attract agents, their agents must be doing pretty well. Right? Riiiiiight…

I’m no math major, but just doing some basic math I can see the following:

47 agents total – 177 transactions in the last 12 months
Only 1 agent closed more than 12 transactions (13 total)
78% of the agents closed less than 6
23% of the agents closed 0 transactions

Now understand this may not be the “full story”.  I’m going to give Hip Realty the benefit of the doubt…  They may have a bunch of brand new agents. They may have all taken a group vacation for the last 6 months.  I really don’t know…

But I do know this:

Their crappy recruiting emails are not fooling me.

It all started with this video:

Which led to this article on AOL Housingwatch – that quotes Shaun White, VP of Corporate Communications for Denver based Re/Max LLC as saying “The videos are meant to be entertaining, offbeat and funny and not taken too seriously.”

That article led to this conversation:

Which led to this conversation:

I personally know several “part time” agents that in my opinion are better agents than most of their full time counterparts. That’s beside the point of my argument here though. My point is that I’m sure there are thousands of Re/Max agents out there that have “side jobs” of some sort (even being a parent, or volunteering your time could count), who probably wouldn’t be too thrilled to see this video.

What are your thoughts?