This is me from this morning’s Arizona Republic (permanent link). Sadly for the weblogs mentioned here, I did a much better job of linking than the newspaper did — even on-line.
Blogs can help Realtors connect with communities
The year just past may have been the Year of the Real Estate Blogger — or it may turn out that that title will belong to the year just begun.
We operate a site called BloodhoundBlog, and the Valley is considered by many to be the epicenter of real estate blogging.
What’s a blog? It’s a cross between a newspaper and an online journal, with entries exhibited in reverse chronological order. But more than that, a blog is a community, with posters and commenters creating a conversation within a blog, and, ultimately, a conversation among blogs.
About 20 Phoenix-area bloggers attended a real estate blogging forum hosted last Friday by BloodhoundBlog blogger Brian Brady at the downtown Phoenix public library.
The event was a sort of get-acquainted meeting, with the attending bloggers introducing themselves and talking about their blogging experiences. Brady anticipates coordinating events like this on a quarterly basis.
My wife and business partner Cathleen Collins and I were there, along with Jay Thompson of The Phoenix Real Estate Guy and Jonathan Dalton of The Phoenix Arizona Real Estate Blog. Many of the bloggers present wrote blog posts about the event.
I spoke at some length about the push toward local content and local interest for real estate blogs.
Until now, much of the focus of real estate blogging has been on national and industry-related issues. Bloggers are working hard to discover new ways to serve their local communities.
Afterward, Brian, Cathleen and I spoke about big-picture issues relating to real estate blogging. One thought we had was to emulate the “Bloginars” held in Seattle and other cities by Dustin Luther and Russ Cofano of Rain City Guide. The objective would be to help Realtors, lenders and other real estate professionals learn how to connect with the community through real estate blogs.
What’s the benefit for the consumer? Eliminating the risk of the unknown quantity. You can shop for your next Realtor or lender from home, getting to know who they really are from their writing on the Web.
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, blogging, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing
Jay Thompson says:
Thanks for the mention!
January 12, 2007 — 10:06 am
Brian Brady says:
Ditto, Greg.
January 12, 2007 — 10:12 am
Dave Barnes says:
Why newspapers are dying.
If I find my agent (especially on the buying side) online then I don’t to waste my time looking at real estate adverts in the paper.
I contact the agent and ask them to find me a house that meets my criteria. End of a lot of newspaper revenue.
January 12, 2007 — 11:14 am
Incredible Agent says:
Greg,
We’d love to help with your bloginars in some way. We specialize in this sort of thing and we’re located in PHX. Let’s talk some more about this.
– Damon Pace
January 12, 2007 — 12:35 pm
Jim Cosgrove says:
Interesting post. We’ve been up for about 6 months now and we’ve tried to stay away from what most real estate blogs do, which is show new listings and talk about the exstence or non existence of a real estate bubble (sort of the way some people talk about god). We try to give folks a feel for every day life in our community and also to give them a chance to get to know us. It’s really starting to catch on and we even get calls from local uo coming events asking us to mention them in the blog. We deal with people coming in from out of the area and they sometimes ask for a particular broker that they have read about.
I think the most important piece of advice I’d have for a new blogger is; don’t be dull!
January 13, 2007 — 10:34 am