real/diaBlog - because real estate needs to change

Carnival of Real Estate - January 5th, 2009 Edition

Welcome to the January 5, 2009 edition of the Carnival of Real Estate.  This is the holiday edition of CoRE and the first of 2009.  And here is to hoping 2009 is better than 2008 when it comes to real estate.

Thanks to everyone that submitted an article.  All 23 posts are listed below but I wanted to point out several that stood out as excellent posts either for their style, subject matter or the overall impression it made on me as I made my way through this weeks Carnival of Real Estate.

Most Outstanding Post - Overall

Jay Thompson's post regarding the foreclosure market in Phoenix on his blog The Phoenix Rea Estate Guy is, in my opinion, a great blog post.  Anyone who has been blogging or reading blogs about real estate has more than likely read Jay's excellent work and once again he doesn't disappoint.  His posts are engaging, informative, stylish and well written (not to mention grammatically correct and free of spelling errors).  His blog is one that other agents who are blogging or thinking about blogging would be wise to emulate.  Thanks for the post, Jay.

Best Post about a Blog Writing Tip

After several years of writing posts, I am always on the lookout for ideas to write posts that are different than the normal 300 word post with a couple of graphics.  And Jim Reppond writes an excellent post called Adding Google Earth Fly-throughs to your Real Estate videos on his blog The Seattle Specialist.  In his words it is "A comprehensive overview of why using Google Earth in your real estate videos can be worthwhile. Tips and tricks with examples show the potential of this cool software tool."

Most Uplifting Blog Post

With the economy the way it is and the real estate market several years into a downturn, it is sometimes hard to focus on the positive but Karen Goodman's post entitled 2009 Resolutions to Build a Better Community posted at Arch City Homes, gives us all something positive to shoot for.

Best Holiday Post

Being that it was the holidays, I felt it appropriate to point out the best holiday blog post written by Diane Tuman called Neighborhoods with Extreme Holiday Lights posted at Zillow Blog. It also a good example of how to incorporate video in a blog post.

Honorable Mentions

And here are some honorable mentions about some interesting topics:

Dan Melson presents The Hope (Dashed) For Homeowners Program posted at Searchlight Crusade.

JCL presents Househunting For Investment Properties posted at The Real Estate Investing Journey, saying, "First of a two part series on finding and acquiring investment houses. A good guide on how to look at multiple houses and avoid burnout."

Tommy Unger presents Can MLSs help Fannie Mae help the market? posted at GeekEstate Blog.

And here is a list of all the other post this week on the Carnival of Real Estate.  They are all worth reading if you get a chance.  I did and I am better for it.  Thanks again to everyone for participating.

nickel presents Checking Out Current Mortgage Refinance Rates posted at fivecentnickel.com.

David Israel presents Chattanooga Real Estate Debate - Paint vs. Wallpaper posted at Scenic City Scoop Real Estate Blog.

Investing

 

Kathy Torline presents 3 Things to know about foreclosure homes for sale posted at

Colorado Springs Vintage Homes Blog

Jim presents Researching A Refinance posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

Julie Broad presents Is Now a Good Time to Buy Real Estate posted at Rev N You with Real Estate, saying, "Thanks for hosting the first CoRE of 2009!"

real estate market

William Doom presents Why You Should Rent And Pay My Mortgage | Your Mortgage Planner 2.0 Blog posted at Your Mortgage Planner 2.0 Blog� Your Mortgage Planner 2.0 Blog, saying, "The numbers are staggering if you look at it this way. If you are paying $1,100 per month for an apartment, and you know your rent will increase 3% every year, then over the next five years you will pay your landlord $72,901. This does not included deposits and misc rental fees. Either way, you gain no equity by shelling out this monthly housing expense and you certainly won’t benefit when the property value goes up!"

Wenchypoo presents Santa, All I Want for Christmas is a Decent-Sized, Decent-Priced House posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket.

Joe Manausa presents REAL ESTATE TRENDS WORTH WATCHING | Tallahassee Real Estate Blog posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog, saying, "The MLS is the only source of information that directly ties supply to demand, so I find that it is important to keep an eye on this set of information on a daily basis. The most important information is new listings, new sales, new failures, and new pendings (homes put under contract), and track these as an “average” or trend over time."

Handy Saputra presents How to Get a Government Home Loan with Low Income posted at Home Loan and Mortgage Info, saying, "The federal government wants to help you buy a home. They see it as a way to improve the economy, provide a stable tax base, and help grow communities. To encourage homeownership, the federal government backs loans for those who might have trouble qualifying for a conventional loan."

Patrick Duffy presents New Year's Resolution #1: A Respect for the Truth posted at Housing Chronicles.

Lisa Collins presents Refinancing Your Mortgage posted at Toronto Real Estate-The T.O. Guide.

Raymond presents My Stock Market and Real Estate Predictions For Year 2009 posted at Money Blue Book.

Ben Roberts presents Train Wreck Real Estate: How are Kids Being Affected? posted at Exit Real Estate 540, saying, "Wanted to touch on a subject most people seem to ignore..."

tony presents How much equity do I have in my house posted at Bad Credit Advisor.

The Smarter Wallet presents Winterizing Your Home: Do's and Don'ts posted at The Smarter Wallet.

real estate professionals

Thea Agnew presents Is Your Client An “Orphan Client”? | Last Train To Clarksville posted at Last Train To Clarksville.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of real estate using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Realdiablog Hosts the First Carnival of Real Estate for 2009

It is a privilege and an honor to host the first Carnival of Real Estate for 2009.  Because of everything that is happening with the economy, the presidency, and the holidays, it should make for an interesting edition for the 123rd Edition of CORE. 

I look forward to reading your posts over the next two weeks and hopefully presenting a good summary on January 5th. 

The early bird award goes to Kathy Torline at Colorado Springs Vintage Homes who has already submitted her article.  Thanks Kathy.

Happy Holidays and Good Luck to everyone.

More Proof That Real Estate Blogs = Clients and Success; L.A. Times Reports On REALTOR® Blogs

The L.A. Times has the latest in a string of discussions and articles regarding how real estate blogs, when done correctly, actually produce ready, willing and able clients and help agents achieve their goals and increase success.

The article interviews several agents such as Teresa Boardman of St. Paul Real Estate Blog, Larry Cragun of Real Estate Undressed and Diane Cohn of Reno Realty Blog that have had great success with their real estate blogs.

Diane says that "about 75% of those clients came from the blog," and that "the other 25% were previous clients or referrals from them." And she deals primarily with families looking for principal homes, not investors or second-home seekers.

One great point that the article makes is that a blog can be a place for buyers and sellers to get to know an agent without having to step out from behind the curtain of anonymity. They can watch from afar and determine whether they "like" the agent and what he or she has to say. When they are comfortable and ready to make a move, they pick up the phone and generally don't need to be pushed into a transaction.

Secret Life of a Blog Post

Here is a link to a great visual of what happens with a blog post and how it travels through the blogosphere.  I found it in Wired and the infographic was designed by Build.  Very cool.  And I like the name infographic.

It gives you an idea of just how complex the process is and where you made be missing out on some increased publicity/distribution.

Virginia Association of REALTORS® Launches "VAR buzz"

The Virginia Association of REALTORS® (VAR), one of the more forward-thinking state level Associations around, recently launched "VAR buzz", their official blog. VAR buzz offers a wealth of resources and tools for REALTOR® members, consumers and the media. It also offers a way to look inside VAR that hasn't been available prior.

And what good timing! The topic of blogs has been at the heart of many discussions I've had with agents, brokers and Associations lately. One of the questions I get asked is "How can blogging be done effectively and safely?" Though I answer that question with facts, situations and ideas to back up my claims, only some believe it can actually be done. Well, VAR buzz serves as a testament to the fact that it can be done, effectively and safely.

Disclaimer: I am a guest author for "VAR buzz" and member of VAR.

D

To The Agents Who Still Think That Blogs Are "Mumbo Jumbo", We Say Thank You!

Although blogs, specifically real estate blogs, have increased in number and credibility, many still think that they're "mumbo jumbo". In speaking with other real estate agents, brokers and other industry professionals, we still hear things like:

• "blogs are a waste of time"
• "blogs take too long to write"
• "I don't believe that blogs are a source of marketing and exposure that will actually bring me deals"

To those folks, we say "thank you". Why? Because, by not being a part of the changing face of real estate, they are leaving the floodgates of opportunity and increased market share wide open to agents such as ourselves. The "disbeliever agents" are falling further and further behind in the movement that insightful and marketing-savvy agents are taking advantage of.

In case you think that we're making this all up, we'd like to share with you some facts, figures and real-life experiences using our other two blogs, Loudoun Stats and Loudoun Foreclosures, as examples. These two blogs are specifically geared towards consumers and the media in order to "pull" leads (more on this later) and increase credibility through a presence in local and national media.

Let's start with SEO/keyword searches via Google ("web" category, not "blog" category) relating to Loudoun Stats:

• number 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 on search of "Loudoun County real estate statistics"
• number 6 result on search of "Loudoun County real estate"
• number 6 on search of "Loudoun County real estate market"
• number 5, 6 and 7 on search of "Loudoun County real estate tax assessments"
• number 1 on search of "Loudoun County bank owned properties"
• number 1, 2 and 3 on search of "Loudoun County buyer resources"
• number 1, 2 and 4 on search of "Loudoun County seller resources"
• number 1 and 2 on search of "Loudoun County investor resources"
• number 5 on search of "Loudoun County real estate market conditions" (shared with this real/diaBlog at number 6)

Here are SEO/keyword searches via Google ("web" category, not "blog" category) relating to Loudoun Foreclosures:

• number 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 on search of "Loudoun County short sales"
• number 2, 6 and 7 on search of "Loudoun foreclosures" (and literally rising daily)
• number 1, 2, 5, 7 and 8 on search of "Loudoun County REO properties"
• number 1 and 2 on search of "Loudoun County spec homes" (shared by Loudoun Stats, which is number 1)
• number 7 on search of "Loudoun County real estate deals" (shared by our ActiveRain and other links/blogs, which are number 1, 4 and 8)

Please note that we just turned on the "publicize blog" feature for Loudoun Foreclosures less than 7 days ago so these results are after only 7 days of exposure to search engines. . Prior to that, the blog was not visible to any search engines or crawlers and neither Google nor any other search engine knew that the blog even existed.

Other local agents and brokers who pay thousands of dollars for their web sites and keywords come in way below Loudoun Stats and Loudoun Foreclosures. Since these are keyword searches that buyers and sellers regularly search for, they are getting passed by on a regular basis.

And since Google and other search engines favor active blogs over static web sites in their rankings, our blogs will continue to come in ahead of most web site regardless of how long they've been around. In fact, these static web sites will lose further ground as more agents start blogging.

More importantly, unlike static web sites, blogs are easily adaptable allowing us to focus our post topics on those subjects and keywords that attract the most amount of hits from our target audience. This means that we can adapt to the changing buyer and seller demographic and real estate market conditions as quickly as on a day-to-day basis.

In response to those who think that you can't attract buyers and sellers through a real estate blog, here's an actual email we recently received:

"Hi,

I read your post online.

We already own a SFH in Broadlands and are looking forward to buying another home in Ashburn and rent out the existing home and we are interested in a spec home. Which builder is offering the best deal in spec homes now? We are not in a hurry and would like to start looking and maybe buy in the spring.

Thank You,"

Here's another:

"I would be very interested in receiving any lists that you may have on short sale or foreclosed property in the Leesburg or Ashburn areas particularly single family homes. Also any builder inventory would be great as well. I thank you in advance for this information."

These are just two of the many examples of actual emails from serious buyers and sellers who ran across our blogs and contacted us directly without us soliciting them. This does not include all the phone calls we've received from serious buyers and sellers as well.

We also use our blogs as a value-add and to build credibility with buyers, sellers, investors, banks, asset managers, colleagues, the media and other industry professionals on a daily basis. Blogs are also excellent time-savers. When someone asks us a question pertaining to a topic we've already written about and answered, we simply refer them to that specific post(s). We've never actually timed it, but it's safe to say that we've saved hundreds of hours of our time using this method.

We won't go into numbers right now, but we can tell you that we have closed several deals and are currently working with several serious buyer and seller clients as a direct result of our blogs.

So what's the cost? The four blogs we author cost us a total of $15 per month. That's less than $4 per blog per month. As far as time spent writing the posts, it takes about 6 hours per week.

As you can see, real estate blogs can be an excellent marketing tool and can generate real business. Personally, we have yet to find another marketing tool that comes even close to blogging's ROI and effectiveness.

The non-believers are allowing us cater to the new demographic of buyers and sellers without much, if any resistance using "all this mumbo jumbo".  That is why we say "thank you".

Related Articles:

Blogs and Real Estate - "Mumbo Jumbo" or the Real Deal?

First Ever NAR BloggerCon In Vegas Next Month

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is following in the footsteps of Ben Martin and the Virginia Association of Realtors (VAR) BloggerCon by having their first ever Blogger Convention during the 2007 NAR Conference and Expo in Vegas next month. The 2007 NAR BloggerCon will be held Monday, November 12 at 5:30PM at the NAR Blogger's Lounge - Venetian Hotel, 4th floor, room 4605.

Thank you to Ben Martin for doing what no other association has done before and to Daniel Rothamel for helping convince NAR that they should do the same.

Further Reading:

2007 NAR Conference and Expo Blogger Conference Facebook Group

Frustrated With NAR? Come Voice Your Opinion

If you're one of the many consumers, real estate industry professionals or REALTORS frustrated with the NAR, you'll want to check out "NAR Wisdom - The RE.Net on the NAR", which was just launched last week. NAR Wisdom brings together bloggers and readers alike to discuss NAR because, as the blog explains, "they (NAR) seem almost completely out of touch with today's market, and the needs of real estate agents and real estate consumers alike."

The blog is open to comments and posts from anyone that is interested. For those who wish to contribute, but wish to remain anonymous, NAR Wisdom has you covered - you can do so using a pseudonym or "Anonymous".

Inman Blog Sells Out

Is it just me or has the Inman Blog sold out to so many online advertisers that you can't tell were the actual content is?  And once you find the content, all the flashing ads distract you to the point of irritation.

I just counted no less than six ads on one blog post.  There were two, I repeat, two headline banners.  Is that even possible?  They sold those to spaces to a company called Adbureau, I think.  Netbank bought a big ole slab of real estate near the top.  They also sold the right side to Doubleclick and Hypertracker.  And of course, there are three different "Ads by Google" boxes throughout the page that are selling.......Adsense by Google.  Is this multi-level online marketing?

I think I'm going to have to un-subscribe from this blog.  Wasn't "ridiculous over-commercialization and obvious greed" one of the top 10 reasons to unsubscribe to a blog?

Egos and the Group Real Estate Blog

The crew over at Sellsius had an excellent post entitled "The Lights Of Blogway: Deconstructing the Group Blog" regarding the seldom discussed topic of group blogs and their internal dynamics. (For a definition of a "group blog", please check out Sellsius.) They discuss the pros and cons of group blogs, but one issue that wasn't really touched upon was egos and how they may effect the group.

As with any team or group in business, there will always be one person who ends up being the "rain maker". The same is true of a group real estate blog. One person will get more hits or comments on their posts than others. That person will in turn receive more inquiries and "leads" and ultimately make more commissions than the others. Even if the "rain maker's" ego does not become inflated, the egos of others may become affected.

So what does the inflated ego of the rain maker and/or the bruised egos of the others do to the internal dynamics of a group blog? And how does that effect readers?

Here are some of our thoughts:

• the non-"rain makers" will start to become disheartened by their perceived "lower success"
• animosity will start to run rampant - the greater the ego of the rain maker and the more bruised the egos of others are, the worst it will be
• the quality and quantity of posts by the non-"rain makers" will decrease
• the benefits of having different points of view through a variety of bloggers will decrease
• the overall quality of the blog will start to diminish
• readers will notice the decrease in quantity and quality of posts and the number of readers will start to dwindle
• readers will look elsewhere for information and discussion and may question whether any good blogs can last
• hits, comments and search engine placement will decrease
• the number of inquires and "leads" that the blog produces will decrease
• due to the lower number of inquires and leads, production and income will decrease for everyone
• the rain maker may blame the others for the decrease in exposure, leads and ultimately, income
• the once team oriented and high spirited group of bloggers will grow apart
• if the bloggers are all on the same real estate team or work in the same office, the negativity will effect the entire company or office

With all these possible pitfalls, is a successful group blog sustainable? Is it such a detrimment to the team and office that it actually decreases overall production? Will the other agents/bloggers on the team become so negative that it shows through in their dealings with their clients?

With blogs on the rise, but time and energy remaining constant, group blogs may be the only viable option for some. But, if they're anything like us, they'll want to have at least a basic idea of what they're getting themselves into before they jump in. So let's hear from others on this topic, especially those who have experience with group blogs reagardless of which industry they may be in.