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Category: Blogging (page 42 of 84)

August 8, 2007

Real Estate Bloggers — Why Are You Blogging? What Currency Does Your Banker Accept?

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Since BloodhoundBlog isn’t about blogging for its owner’s business — the following doesn’t apply. In fact, Greg seems to abhor even the suggestion this blog might be construed as financially beneficial to him. He wants Bloodhound to be the best place to go when you want real estate information or expertise. His mission is to inform and educate — period. I’m sure there are other blogs who also exist only to distribute valuable information to their readers. This isn’t aimed at them either.

11th commandment

Let’s begin with what everyone who knows me realizes pretty quickly — I’m not a tech guy, and surely not a blogging expert. However, after blogging for a year now, I’ve noticed a few things in the so called blogging world. Wanna be a blogging expert? Just call yourself one. No kiddin’, that’s just about all you need to do.

In my first few months these so-called experts would write blogging commandments as if they’d found them on the third tablet Moses lost on his way down the mountain. You would have thought the 11th commandment was for blogging experts only — hidden in a secret place known only to them. At first I took them seriously. My mistake. My audience started to ask me what was up. What was up? I was listening to the experts, that’s what.

Kris Berg’s post on this subject was spectacularly on point. She then followed it up with the perfect satirical application of what she learned from the experts in San Francisco.

small dinner

Since I’m not in the house side of the business my subjects are……..different. They’re like a full dinner. They involve, at least much of the time, some relatively complex principles and concepts. They can’t be half a small bowl of broth. Uh, usually it’s the principles adding up that make a concept. Duh. Yet, I was constantly feeling like I was being criticized by the experts because my posts were too long. They said I needed to be short and snappy. As Kris quoted the experts: “Readers are scanners…….five paragraphs……max.”

Here’s some exaggerated examples of what they wished I would adhere to. Read more

August 7, 2007

Greg plays PHP games with ZeeMaps: The story for July in the F.Q. Story Historic District of Phoenix

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Kris Berg and Jonathan Dalton have been making good use of ZeeMaps to show sales activity in their local market areas.

I’ve been digging this, but at StarPower, I discovered that I am smart and lazy — good at figuring out how to avoid hard work. So: I built a little bot that, in conjunction with our MLS system, will build ZeeMaps of ideas I want to illustrate visually. Here, for example, is MLS activity in the F.Q. Story Historic District of Phoenix for the month of July: Active, Pending, Expired and Cancelled. I have the bot set up to use different colors for Sold, Active With Contingencies and Temporarily Off Market, as well.

We’ll use this for DistinctivePhoenix.com, to show off the neighborhoods we farm, but we will be able to use it for any purpose we can imagine — listing appointments, price-adjustment meetings, etc. We can make a map out of any search we can run. It’s not a mapping search interface, but it’s something while we wait to get a mapping search interface.

August 6, 2007

In Search of Excellence

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

That, of course, was the name of a best-selling management book that came out in the early eighties. It not so much defined my market philosophy as confirmed what I’d already learned from Nordstrom: Concentrate on excellence and rewards will follow. Concentrate on rewards, and you’re pretty much assured of being consigned to mediocrity.

What’s been interesting to watch in the twenty five or so intervening years isn’t so much that nearly every business gives lip service to the tenet, but what’s happened to the definition of ‘excellence’. The education establishment meets failing test scores by dumbing down the tests. Grades are allocated not on merit, but on the perceived sensitivities of the students, just as soccer games are played without keeping score so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings. You can get an undergrad English Lit degree at the University of Washington without ever having studied Shakespeare. In the frenetic twenty-first “I want it now!” century reading has become a chore, replaced by vapid visual stimulation and fifteen minute podcasts. Writing skills have devolved to YouTube. Joseph Conrad need not apply.

So what? Here’s so what: Words matter. Reading builds vocabulary, writing exercises its use. But not only is someone who draws on 150,000 words able to communicate concepts better than one who’s limited to the normal 50,000, but he or she is infinitely better able to conceive them in the first place. I’ve said — often — that good writers invariably make good thinkers, largely because they do.

All of which was going through my mind as I read this weekend’s BHB posts.

Whew. Excellent.

Before I started my own RE blog I searched the internet to see how others were doing it. Lots of people giving advice, most of it in the genre of Kris’ exquisite satire: Keep it short, be witty, illustrate cleverly. Most blogs seemed to keep diligently to that formula, but two things were apparent: that A) Most were blogging just to be blogging, and not to be actually saying anything; and B) the “Keep it short” formula was necessary to mask an inability to string words Read more

August 6, 2007

Vale, carne vale: Recasting The Odysseus Medal as a carnival of real estate weblogging excellence

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’m pretty fed up with the Carnival of Real Estate. It is what it is, and there have been times over the past year when it has blown tender kisses toward the sublime. But much too often it has chosen to rut around in the mud, and, in any case, it is much too much of everything to be anything at all.

This is not good.

There is a Carnival of Real Estate Investing and a Consumer-Focused Real Estate Carnival, both of which seem to do a decent job of staying on-topic. The Carnival of Real Estate should be devoted to excellence in real estate weblogging, broadly defined. Instead it has become a Carnival of Solipsism, a space where the inherent subjectivity of judging has given way to an overarching, overreaching subjectivism: The universe is whatever that week’s judge says it is. An entry that would have been judged the best by any rational standard can get buried beneath the judge’s whim, the testy assertion of a right to supplant enduring standards of excellence with a momentary fit of pique.

In rebuttal, one word: Bah!

For a first thing, I am done with the Carnival of Real Estate. I have supported it since its birthing. BloodhoundBlog has entered a post for every new edition, winning, despite everything, more than any other weblog. No more. I will no longer submit posts from BloodhoundBlog to the CoRE. If individual contributors wish to enter their posts, that’s their business, but I will no longer make an official entry from BloodhoundBlog, nor will I enter any of my own posts.

Second, I have recast The Odysseus Medal as a new carnival of real estate weblogging. This is the description of the new carnival from its home page:

A weekly carnival for real estate, mortgage, real property investing and housing weblogs — very broadly defined. The Odysseus Medal is awarded to the highest quality writing in real estate weblogging.

The Odysseus Medal competition will be hosted at BloodhoundBlog every week, and it will be judged by me alone. That is arrogance personified, but by doing things this way webloggers will be assured of Read more

August 6, 2007

The Carnival of Real Estate . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

…is up at RealEstateUndressed. Host Larry Cragun got around our having broken the rules on entries by breaking all the rules. In consequence, this week there will be two consumer-focused real estate carnivals and no Carnival of Real Estate.

Even so, our friend John L. Wake took second place with Landscape staging your home.

Michael Cook came in fifth with Can I Still Get a Mortgage in Today’s Lending Markets? With Cold Hard Cash and Great Credit, Certainly; Otherwise?

I respect the right of each weekly judge to do what he or she wants about the Carnival — the lord knows we do. But much more than that, I respect, admire, revere and exalt actual excellence in real estate weblogging. We’re going to do something different from now on. News later…

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August 6, 2007

Wagging the dog at the Carnival of Real Estate

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Our policy is that Cathleen Collins chooses our nominees for real estate carnivals. I trust her to be objective, particularly about my posts. The contributors are polled for nominations on Saturday night, with their suggestions going to Cathy. Sometimes I overrule her, and sometimes she asks me to cover for her.

This week, Cathy got her short list down to four posts, one each by Morgan Brown, Kris Berg, Brian Brady and me, but she didn’t want to choose from there. She threw it over to me — heavy hangs the head.

I checked and saw that nine of our fifteen contributors had written in the past week. So I entered everything of moment from each of us. That’s a violation of the Carnival of Real Estate rules, but this is my attitude: If we’re going to lose anyway, let’s lose our own way.

These were the posts that I entered, starting with Cathy’s short list:

Morgan Brown:

Kris Berg:

Brian Brady:

Greg Swann:

Michael Cook:

August 4, 2007

“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel — it is, before all, to make you see. That — and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm — all you demand; and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is Joseph Conrad’s preface to The Nigger of the “Narcissus”:

A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line. And art itself may be defined as a single-minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth, manifold and one, underlying its every aspect. It is an attempt to find in its forms, in its colours, in its light, in its shadows, in the aspects of matter and in the facts of life, what of each is fundamental, what is enduring and essential — their one illuminating and convincing quality — the very truth of their existence. The artist, then, like the thinker or the scientist, seeks the truth and makes his appeal. Impressed by the aspect of the world the thinker plunges into ideas, the scientist into facts — whence, presently, emerging they make their appeal to those qualities of our being that fit us best for the hazardous enterprise of living. They speak authoritatively to our common-sense, to our intelligence, to our desire of peace or to our desire of unrest; not seldom to our prejudices, sometimes to our fears, often to our egoism — but always to our credulity. And their words are heard with reverence, for their concern is with weighty matters: with the cultivation of our minds and the proper care of our bodies; with the attainment of our ambitions; with the perfection of the means and the glorification of our precious aims.

It is otherwise with the artist.

Confronted by the same enigmatical spectacle the artist descends within himself, and in that lonely region of stress and strife, if he be deserving and fortunate, he finds the terms of his appeal. His appeal is made to our less obvious capacities: to that part of our nature which, because of the warlike conditions of existence, is necessarily kept out of sight within the more resisting and hard qualities — like the vulnerable body within the steel armour. His appeal is less loud, more profound, less distinct, more stirring — and Read more

August 3, 2007

Project Perfect Blogger – Applying What I’ve Learned.

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

Yesterday I shared the formula for the perfect Blog post. I acquired this wisdom at the Inman conference, and now it is time to test my new skills as I attempt to target the Scripps Ranch home buyer (and risk killing this bit once and for all). Note to feed reader clients: You may not get the photos, which is a big part of the schtick.

________________________________________________

HOW TO FIND A SCRIPPS RANCH REAL ESTATE AGENT FOR BUYING A SCRIPPS RANCH HOME KRIS BERG KRIS BERG KRIS BERG

If you are planning to relocate to Scripps Ranch from somewhere far from Scripps Ranch, you will probably fly to Scripps Ranch. When you arrive in Scripps Ranch, boy, will your arms be tired!

Many Scripps Ranch real estate agents, like myself, live in Scripps Ranch. Many unnamed others have won awards and recognition for their service to consumers wanting to buy homes in Scripps Ranch. Certainly, you have many choices when selecting a real estate agent, and you will likely want to align yourself with someone ranking above the 85% percentile, or one standard deviation above the mean, on your typical Bell Curve, but this Normal Curve is anything but normal in that the population is diverse, thereby resulting in a flatter graph.

You will be 172.9% more likely to find the perfect Scripps Ranch home, when compared to the 30-day Gross Domestic Product rolling average and taking into account the annualized per capita income of Celtic women, than other consumers if your agent is a Scripps Ranch neighborhood specialist.

If you have children, you are probably concerned with Scripps Ranch schools in Scripps Ranch. Hypothetically speaking, your agent might have two daughters currently attending Scripps Ranch High School and would therefore be the perfect Scripps Ranch Realtor to help you buy a home (in Scripps Ranch). This illustrative “type” of agent would also be infinitely (a figure of speech as, technically, it is not possible to divide a number by zero) more likely to speak to local sports opportunities, such as Volleyball Camps, and even Exchange Programs to, say, Cairo. That is, if you find Read more

August 3, 2007

The Perfect Blog – The Preamble (but it’s not really a Blog)

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

I can go home happy now. In just one short morning spent in the Palace Hotel Gold Room, I learned how to write the Perfect Blog. No one person has the answer, of course, but by aggregating the wisdom shared by the collective mind of the blogging greats who spoke to us this week, I have the fail safe recipe for blogging infamy and success. I won’t name names, but following are the essential ingredients according to the blogging Who’s Who:

  1. Blogs should be short. Readers are Scanners (they are busy, busy people), and five paragraphs in size is the ABSOLUTE MAX. Otherwise, you will… What was I saying? Oh, yeah. You’ll lose your… What do you call them? Readers. Do I smell pot roast?
  2. Avoid being self-congratulatory. No particularly reason given, but we can take the leap that nobody likes a braggart. As one who has never been recognized nor been the recipient of a prestiguous honor, ever, I totally agree.
  3. Focus on the consumers, not on the agents. The consumers should never see healthy discourse among agents. Where’s the fun in that? Much better to have a site where you receive, oh, zero comments on a lengthy (five paragraph MAX) position statement on the value of hiring a top-producing neighborhood specialist. If people enjoyed voyeurism and lurking, they would frequent porn sites.
  4. Make sure your title and your content are Keyword Rich. Whether you aspire to dominate San Diego real estate or the picnic catering industry in Maricopa County, you should pick words that work toward that end. An expert who does this stuff for a living said (and I am not making this up) that, within 6 months, my blog should be getting 2,000 unique visitors a day. After 15 months, I am just 1974 shy of that number. (Self derogatory comment alert! 5 Bonus Points awarded for achieving #2 above).
  5. Use tons and gobs and bizillions of pictures. See #1 above (Technorati Tag: Attention Deficit Disorder).
  6. Use Technorati Tags. See #3 above. The consumers are all searching on Technorati for the best real estate agent in (name your city). The guy who lives Read more
August 3, 2007

Glenn Kelman at Inman – He Hits a Home Run

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

I don’t know what in the hell is going on now. I just watched the video of Glenn Kelman speaking at the Inman Event and found myself liking Glenn Kelman. I know, I just wrote that. He was funny, remarkably candid and made a lot of good points. Have I changed any views I have regarding Redfin? No, and I really doubt that every time Greg Swann writes about him it is “good for business”, as he claimed. But setting aside any thoughts I have about the Redfin business model, I doubt I will ever view Glenn, the person, the same way again. In the past, I have tended to demonize him when talking about him or what he has done – and I really don’t like ad hominem attacks.

I wrote in the headline that he hit a home run. It wasn’t out of the park (I got that line from Jeff Brown) but still, a home run. As I have been so willing to say what I didn’t like, I thought it only fair to also say what I did.

August 2, 2007

My Pictoral Highlights From Inman Real Estate Connect

by

Mortgage Planner

Author website

It was an interesting three days in San Francisco for Real Estate Connect 2007. I’ll leave the commentary to people more funny than me.

Courtesy of Palm Burgandy, here’s my brief pictorial:

In SFO, it's better to spare a square

You know you’re in San Francisco when the airport tells you to only use one square.

The view from the podium at Bloggers Connect 2007

This is the view from the podium during my panel session. 12 minutes after this photo was taken, Joe from Sellsius tumbled from the stage and sprained his left wrist.

Bird poop on my shoulder

I met an old friend for drink in Haight-Ashbury. The cab dropped me off in the wrong place. I use Palm Burgandy’s Google Maps feature to get back on track and have to walk through Sketchville Golden Gate Park. As soon as I am in the clear, I walk under a tree and a bird decides to crap on my shoulder. Look at the size of that poop. In hindsight, I think it may have been a pterodactyl.

Trulia pranks Zillow

My favorite gag of the week. Thursday morning, I walk through the exhibit hall and see Zillow’s stand. As I walk past, I look at the computer screen out front. Now, that’s comedy. Meanwhile, it’s 9:30 A.M. and I frantically looking for somebody else to laugh at this with. There’s a woman about 8 steps behind me. For as much excitement there was in my voice, there was an equal disinterest in hers. Clearly, not everyone knows who Zillow and Trulia are in Real Estate.

Union Square Concert

Thursday night, I felt like adventuring so I walked to Union Square. There, I found a city-sponsored jazz concert. The area was packed with people and a lot of them had taken to dancing. Pretty cool stuff and a nice night to be outdoors.

August 1, 2007

Quick notes on Inman’s Bloggers Connect

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’m juggling eggs in negotiations on between $0 and $2.2 million in new listings, but I’ve been following Inman’s Bloggers Connect off and on by RSS feed and email.

Paul Chaney at the Blogging Systems Group Blog was going great guns this morning, but I think maybe his laptop battery died. His summaries of this morning’s events are very good, though.

Kris Berg emailed that Teri Lussier and I did not win the Project Blogger contest, but I would have been stunned if we had. If you’re going into a competition with the intention of doing everything your own damn way, your only chance of winning is if the judging is based on how well you do things your own damn way. In that regard, BloodhoundBlog should win the Inman Innovator award — but I won’t be stunned if we don’t. Doing things your own damn way is its own damn reward, after all.

Mail from Teri:

Well…
 
My apologies to Cathy and her indignant cats, and I hope I didn’t let you down. OTOH, I’m quite pleased with my blog.
 
I had an interesting comment on TBR last night that made me think that I must be doing something right with it. And this reader is a Daytonian, and not in real estate, and has little patience for Realtors.
 
I don’t know if I would have changed anything to do it again… Although. If I had put an idiot widget and a few goofy graphics in occasionally to bust up the dreaded “wall of text”, I suppose Cathy’s cats would be well fed tonight. But since I really hate those, I’d probably end up hating TBR as well.  ;)
 
I’ve enjoyed the journey enormously!

Indeed. Likewise. And that “Well…” is just too perfect. Eudora Welty lives on at The Brick Ranch.

Inman Blog reports that Redfin.com’s Glenn Kelman claims that I am sending them business:

“Greg has long been my antagonist, and of course he is our best friend,” Kelman said. “Everytime he writes about us, he brings us business.”

I find that difficult to believe, but Kelman also said, of 60 Minutes Reporter Lesley Stahl:

“She kept saying I was full of s__t.”

This I find Read more

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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.

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