BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Blogging (page 35 of 84)

November 9, 2007

Birthing BloodhoundBlog.TV in time for the NAR Convention

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We’re going to do the first run of a BloodhoundBlog.TV taping this Sunday night. My own life is a blur, but events are ganging up on me. I expect to have video posted by Monday early morning, before I take off for Las Vegas.

Cathy won’t be with me, alas. Her pneumonia might or might not be better, but the doctor is forbidding her to fly in any case.

I can’t speak for the others here, but I’m stocking up on MREs and pea-shooters for the NAR Convention next week. If you’re going, take your webcam and let me know you have it with you. We’ll do some interviews once you drag your tired carcass back to your suite.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

November 8, 2007

Web 2.0 is dead, Web 3.0 is on its deathbed…

by

Real Estate Rainmaker

Author website

R.I.P. WEB 2.0- WE BARELY KNEW YOU

If you haven’t been following the rhetoric on tech sites such as Mashable, you should get started.  Many people are just grasping the concept of Web 2.0 but did you know it’s already dead?  So, we move on from shiny badges and transparent speech and move to Web 3.0 with network integration.  That’s the ticket (to steal a line from Jeff)!

But wait, that ship is already leaving the dock!  Just as you grasp Web 2.0, Web FOUR POINT OH is born!!!  Get ready tech nerds and noobs alike- the competition is cut throat to find the perfect mathematical equation to apply all of this new data. 

Who do you suspect is at the starting line while most people didn’t know a race was even on?  Let us know in the comments!

November 8, 2007

Table for twenty, please — it’s a big party

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We’re adding another hound-dog today, Eric Bramlett, a real estate broker from Austin. That makes nineteen in the list of frequent contributors, and, while I don’t have specific plans for a twentieth, I expect to see that slot filled shortly.

Here’s the scoop on Eric:

Eric Bramlett is the broker and co-owner of One Source Realty in Austin, TX. An active voice in the RE.net, he has also written for Broker Agent News. His interests include SEO/SEM, blogging and web design.

Eric has been howling at the gate for a few days, so I’m just going to turn loose of him and see where he runs.

There was a time when I wondered if we might someday all get together in one spot, all the BloodhoundBloggers at one table. Now all I can do is imagine the hell we’d make of some poor waitperson’s life…

Technorati Tags: , ,

November 5, 2007

The Odysseus Medal: “Becoming and remaining a ‘professional’ is not bestowed on someone by virtue of a degree or a certificate”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I am buried. I have five houses in play and Cathy is on compulsory bed rest — on pain of hospitalization. I have a zillion little jobs that need doing around here, and I keep coming up with new ideas. For instance, I think it would be cool to promote the long list of Odysseus Medal nominees as a feed, as they come in, so that people can see what others are nominating. I say “sufficient unto the day” all the time, but, for now, I have to really mean it, because I can’t afford to get sick.

Here’s a classic joke:

Q: How do you get a professional poker player off your porch?

A: Pay him for the pizza, cheapskate!

I’ve never been a big booster of the idea of real estate as a profession because I tend to associate the word “professional” with people who lie about what they do for a living and live in Uncle Bob’s basement. Real estate is a business, on its best days, and someday it might grow to be an industry — if it ever dares to wean itself from Big Mother’s teat.

Bill Leider from Real Estate Shows has a different take on the matter, and he deploys it to take this week’s Odysseus Medal with What Is A Professional?:

When we shift the focus of the term professional from what we do to how we are perceived and treated, the definition and the entire concept of the designation “professional” changes.

In that context of status and respect, what exactly is a professional? I believe that a “professional” is someone who takes what they do, whatever that happens to be, and transforms it into an art form. They make the mundane look magnificent. They make seemingly impossible things look drop-dead easy. They cover all the details, all the time. They master the subtleties. They silently acknowledge that they have a gift for what they do and they give that gift to the people in their world respectfully and compassionately. They know that they have never “arrived.”

They are never content with their present body of knowledge. They live with a Read more

November 5, 2007

One more for the hunt: Introducing Eric Blackwell

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The winner of The Black Pearl Award a few weeks ago is the newest contributor to BloodhoundBlog:

Eric Blackwell is Director of Technology for a RE/Max franchise in Louisville, KY. He is active in the real estate webmasters community and consults on Search Engine Optimization and Marketing for select clients.

Eric is a good soldier, so he’s pointing his BloodhoundBlog traffic to his day job, but he also operates the hugely informative Eric On Search weblog.

How many contributors do we intend to add to BloodhoundBlog? As many as it takes to make sure we don’t miss anything. And with that in mind, if you have something we need, we need to hear from you. There is plenty of room in the RE.net for many voices. But if you can command the attention of a national audience, we can provide the platform so that your voice will be heard.

Technorati Tags: , ,

November 4, 2007

The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

A dozen-and-a-half nominees, but seven of them are from BloodhoundBlog. We had a great week; there were five more that I had to wince hard and cut.

A lot from the news, as usual, plus tools, tips, tricks and techniques and the kind of deep thinking that makes this competition what it is.

Vote for the People’s Choice Award here. You can use the voting interface to see each nominated post, so comparison is easy.

Voting runs through to 12 Noon MST Monday. I’ll announce the winners of this week’s awards soon thereafter.

Here is this week’s short-list of Odysseus Medal nominees:

< ?PHP $AltEntries = array ( "Galen Ward -- Photos Photos are worth 1,000 words (and a lot of money too)”,
“Kris Berg — The green room The Green Room“,
“Jim Cronin — RE weblogging The 7 Reasons Why Your (Future) Clients Should Care That You Are a Real Estate Blogger“,
“Jim Duncan — Martyr yourself? Are you willing to martyr yourself to the industry?“,
“Dan Green — Investors in ARMs Falling Prices And Adjusting ARMs: Real Estate Investors Have A Way Out“,
“Jay Thompson — Prize money? A Commission is Prize Money (?!?)“,
“Richard Warren — Trickle down The Economic Trickle Down Effect“,
“Rhonda Porter — Mortgage witch hunt The Mortgage Witch Hunt“,
“Steve Belt — Trulia Voices Opting out of Trulia Voices“,
“Brian Brady — Hiring a Realtor Hire A Realtor Like You Would Sign a Top NFL Draft Pick“,
“Bill Leider — What is a professional? What Is A Professional?“,
“Geno Petro — La spinster? Mademoiselle? Oui. La Spinster?…ZUT!“,
“Kris Berg — Gas guzzler My Hybrid is a Gas Guzzler“,
“Michael Cook — Perfect storm Real Estate Perfect Storm Warning: Do Not Miss This Window of Opportunity“,
“Brian Brady — HR 3915 HR 3915 Is Dangerous“,
“Teri Lussier — Twittering Twittering on a wing and a prayer“,
“Geno Petro — Search or sell Search Or Sell, Young Man“,
“Kris Berg — Genoa Petrol You, ma’am, are no Genoa Petrol!”
);
shuffle($AltEntries);

$radioGroup = “”;
$num = count($AltEntries);
for ($i=0; $i< $num; $i++) { $pieces = explode("\t", $AltEntries[$i]); $radioGroup .= "

  • “;
    $radioGroup .= “$pieces[0], “;
    $radioGroup .= “$pieces[1]”;
    }

    echo (“

      $radioGroup

    “)
    ?>

    Deadline for next week’s competition is Sunday at 12 Noon MST. You can nominate your own weblog entry or any post you admire here.

    Technorati Tags: , ,

    • November 4, 2007

    The Odysseus Medal competition doesn’t change its clocks, but virtually everyone else does: Nomination deadline is 12 Noon MST

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    Cut-off is today at 12 Noon MST, which means that folks on the left coast, particularly, need to adjust their thinking. In any case, if you know of something that reeks of pith (does that sound right?), your own work or someone else’s, nominate it now before you have to wonder what time it is in Phoenix.

    Technorati Tags: , ,

    November 2, 2007

    The Jim Duncan Channel: Learning to surf the enblogged globe

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    We’re adding another new BloodhoundBlogger today — and I’m not done yet.

    Today’s addition? A well-known name in the RE.net, Jim Duncan:

    Jim Duncan is a third-generation Realtor, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and a long-time real estate weblogger. He is active within the NAR, and has made a name for himself as an ethical lodestone in real estate.

    Jim was one of the first webloggers to make contact with us when we started BloodhoundBlog. He is a very thoughtful man — a man full of thought — and he is never hard to find, since he’s always on the side of the angels.

    I think Jim is one of the most important voices on the RE.net, period, particularly on the subject of Realtor ethics. So why didn’t I invite him to join us a long time ago? Pure thoughtlessness on my part. For the most part we have added people by self-selection, and I have tried to avoid stepping on toes. (Honest, I have!)

    In any case, I finally caught a clue and thought to ask, and Jim was gracious enough to accept.

    Last night in email to me, Brian Brady pointed out that we had had 15 posts by nine contributors in the past two days. We’re not trying to overwhelm you, but we are trying to do what we came here to do. More and more, you will have to learn to treat the enblogged globe like television, tuning in to what works for you and switching away from what doesn’t. I know we are not for everyone. But for real estate professionals who care about the ideas that will drive our industry in the twenty-first century, we need to be a hot-button on your remote control.

    And if it all gets to be too much for you, you can tune out everything except the Jim Duncan Channel.

    Technorati Tags: , ,

    November 1, 2007

    Who is not whom in the world of “Real Estate Web 2.0”?

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    I caught this bit from the GeekEstate Blog in my feed reader.

    That’s the list of weblogs in the suitable-for-framing map of “Real Estate Web 2.0” produced by the 1000Watt Consulting group, a consortium of people who make money by not understanding the difference between wattage and luminosity.

    Notice anyone missing? It’s not just us. Curbed can’t find a parking space. Rain City Guide is left out in the rain. Even Bert and Ernie, who have been everywhere, can’t make it here.

    We get snubbed from dumbass beauty contests all the time, and I take a certain kind of delight in it. First, nobody has to be told what is going at BloodhoundBlog — or anywhere else that matters. And second — and this is especially rich — the essence of Web 2.0 is that no one can tell you what does or does not matter. The first middle-men to be disintermediated by Web 2.0 were the would-be arbiters of taste.

    Technorati Tags: , , ,

    November 1, 2007

    See Steven Groves and Greg Swann on “Real Estate and Social Media” at PodCamp AZ, Saturday from 3:30 to 4:30 pm

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    Okay. So Cathleen is wicked sick, coughing like a rented tractor. We’re busy, and I don’t mean just a little. Applications are up, originations are up, rates are down, demand is maybe just short of a frenzy, and the mechanics of doom today accidentally discovered that the implications of currency inflation are that their desperately-sought collapse in values may already have happened — and no one noticed.

    In any case, just to complicate my life, I agreed to present with Steven Groves this weekend at PodCamp AZ at The University of Advancing Technology.

    We’ll be doing the session on “Real Estate and Social Media.” It’s Steven’s show, and his passion as well, so it should be worth seeing. We’re on from 3:30 to 4:30 pm, and we may be accessible in video live on uStream.com as well. I would like to shoot digital video, too, if we can rope a volunteer to operate the camera.

    The links I’ve shown here will give you all the details. See you there!

    Technorati Tags: , ,

    November 1, 2007

    You, ma’am, are no Genoa Petrol!

    by

    Realtor, Associate Broker

    Author website

    Dear Mr Shaw,

    I am writing to inquiry about a position as Blogging Assistant. I am a fan of your work on the Bloodhound Blog; your piece on the bananas was pure genius. I believe I would add value to your blogging enterprise, and it would be an honor to work under your tutelage.

    By way of background, I too used to contribute to the Bloodhound Blog. My tenure was cut short when some “Geno Petro” guy showed up. My spell checker says his name is really Genoa Petrol, but I don’t think that’s right. Anway, he knows books, he knows pop culture, and he can certainly turn a phrase. He even uses colons!

    While I have no real writing training (I have admittedly never enjoyed formal instruction in the liberal arts beyond the requisite How to Write in Nearly Complete Sentences college course where, I am proud to say, I received a passing grade), I did take an English and American Literature class in high school. (Yes, my school combined the two; this allowed time in the schedule for Home Economics and Making Fire 101.) It was there that I was required to suffer through read Jane Eyre and the Grapes of Wrath. I finished both, although I found the latter unsettling and eerily biographical. Oh, and the Latin I know comes entirely from the back of a dollar bill.

    So, I am seeking a position with the potential for upward mobility, as I find I have none at my current position.  I believe that I can turn my “negatives” in to “positives”; unshackled as I am by the encumbrances of any real credentials or talent, I can quickly embrace new approaches. Since a truly original idea has never come within two quarks of my brain, I am adaptable. Finally, I have good problem solving skills.

    I do not come to you without references. As a blogger, I have received much praise on my own blog which boasts a current readership of three:

    “Since it doesn’t take much to be a Realtor, your pool is full of monkeys.” – – Eric Estrada

    “Most Realtors are lazy and uneducated. They will go away like other brokers Read more

    October 31, 2007

    Picking up the pace: Introducing Geno Petro

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    Today we’re adding another writer to our line-up, but we’re also revealing the secret subterranean agenda of The Odysseus Medal competition.

    Every time I turn around, there is someone accusing me of underhanded methods. I was seeking to get rich at $6.17 a month as an Amazon Affiliate. The Odysseus Medal is alleged to be a link-baiting scheme. And — the worst of my crimes — I hogged all the good grades in school!

    I live in a simple world. I figure things are pretty much what they seem to be. Certainly I am, as is anything I build. I don’t do double-talk. I don’t get it, and I don’t care to take the time to puzzle it out.

    So what is the real, super-secret, ultra-nefarious objective of The Odysseus Medal?

    To unearth and celebrate talent. Period. My secondary hope is that I might recruit talented writers whose work I haven’t seen before to come write with us. But I want to improve my own mind — as I assume you do, too — and a good way for us to achieve that objective is to tell each other about great writing and great ideas we find as we leap across these nets.

    Ooh… Crafty…

    Today’s introduction is a treat for me. I had never read him before Sunday morning. He was nominated for The Odysseus Medal, and I knew about a third of the way through his post that he had won it. By the time I had finished reading, I knew I wanted to recruit him for BloodhoundBlog.

    Enough. The man:

    Geno Petro is the voice of Chicago on the RE.net. A top-producing listing agent, he has done leasing and has worked in his own behalf as an investor. On top of all that, he is a stunningly original writer.

    Geno Petro is an incomparable writer. Like Kris Berg, he takes you right into his world, and, while you are there, you cannot even imagine any other, so completely is it realized.

    I love what we do here, but one of the things I love best is that it makes all of us stronger. We all have to run Read more

    October 31, 2007

    Telling Secrets

    by

    Realtor, Associate Broker

    Author website

    secret.jpg 

    Censorship has been on my mind. Not the definitive, prescribed and documented “heavy hand of authority” variety, and not the “thou shalt not be mean to NAR” Memorandum of Paranoia allegedly being unveiled in November, but the worst and most pervasive kind.

    What I find more concerning and most stifling is the triple-secret censorship. Unless you are a Broker Owner, with no one to answer to but your own inner voice of reason, you are being judged by what you write. Every word I click onto the page is subject to scrutiny, and I must choose each oh-so carefully while perched atop my podium of egg shells. Sometimes I fail and trash the whole dozen. Independent contractor? Not entirely independent, I’m afraid.

    Many topics are safe. Statistics and trend analyses are the poster children of the benign blog entry. Pictures of pretty buildings, diatribes on transactional intricacies, and advice on “how to pick an agent” are all fair game. It’s black or it’s white, and no one can make a compelling argument to the contrary. Fielding questions on contracts leads us closer to the mine field, but if we preface each thought that hits the page with “I am not an attorney,” we mitigate the risk of having to rephrase our post for His Honor.

    We can talk about technology. It either is or it isn’t, and my broker is probably not going to hunt me down like a dog for taking a bold stand challenging the site design of Terabitz, nor will he give much thought to my in-depth expose on the accuracy of the Zestimate. While I am cautiously treading water with my choice of topics, however, I am risking either offending the reader with the triviality of my content or boring him senseless.

    This blog scares me, because I think it scares my broker. The tone is sometimes caustic, mostly serious, and always challenging of the status quo. I enjoy satire, and I like to laugh. Many things make me laugh, and so many of those are related to common, every day life, the life unrelated to the job. I weave those stories into my writing, too often I suppose, Read more

    « Older posts Newer posts »

    Inventing Real Estate 2.0

    Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

    Media Contacts