realweenie

Help Spread the Word

I know that  several who attended the NAR convention heard me say this and it was put out on Twitter but I really want everyone to know that Twitter isn't just for Realtors.

There are people outside of our industry who use it too.  If you look around you can find these people.  They are a lot of fun and you can learn from them too.  Some of them buy houses, and others are small business owners that you might want to do business with. There are also local and national news organizations who use twitter making it a great way to  keep up with what is going on in the world outside of twitter.

Some of my friends who went to the recent unchained event in Orlando learned that twitter is for idiots. Proving again that twitter is not just for Realtors.

So again I will say . .

Twitter isn't just for Realtors

Please help spread the word!

A grave situation

Hard to imagine but there are people out there who do not understand how to properly use twitter at a funeral.  The deceased twitter ID should always be turned into a hash tag and 'RIP' is put on the end of it. Example: #mickeymouseRIP. 

Use twitter search, put in the hash tag and use the RSS feed to put it on a blog. It is all so simple yet people seem to be having trouble with it.  The last funeral I attended  people were using a couple of different hash tags and I had so much trouble following it all I almost left.

A classic

This video is from a post written more than a year ago. I was reminded of it when I met the Wagners in person last weekend at REBlogWorld. 

Most of us have noticed that many of the property photos that we find on the MLS these days are . . . just bad!  Really bad.  Now some Realtors have decided that video is where it's at and have added video to the spew stream.  Guess what?  The video is just as craptastic as the photos, except it moves.  I looked at one where I could hear heavy breathing from the agent as she walked up some stairs while she was recording.

Yah I get it. Video is drop dead cool but video taken with a really cheap camera by an armature mostly causes motion sickness for me. This one made me laugh, so enjoy.

Colorado Springs Real Estate , Derek Wagner demonstrates the drawbacks of video marketing for the amateur. See the entire post, "It is harder than it looks".

You can also find the Wagners on Active Rain

I love you and I want to help

I hope you feel the love here. I have decided that I need to help other people.  I want to do it becasue I am better than everyone else and I should be sharing my wisdom and experience so that others can benefit from it.  Russel Shaw, I know you don't read the weenie but you really should.  It is in your best interest to do so and I only want to help you.

Russel wrote a post, "Barry Cunningham is Full of Crap"  to help Barry Cunningham.  Barry may need help but that isn't the point.  Russel has helped Barry by publicly calling him a "turd".   I am sure Barry will appreciate the help and take Russel's wise advice.   I know that if someone called me a turd publicly I would be able to overlook it and understand the loving intentions behind it.

I have seen this type of behavior on the Bloodhound blog before. A few of the writers are on a mission to help and guide the clueless unwashed masses who hold real estate licenses issued by states all over the country. Bloodhound blog tried to save me last year by noticing the evil in my heart and trying to snuff it out. They did not understand at the time that I don't have a heart.

This post is meant to help.  I just want to say that you could learn a lot from me, and you should all pay attention.  Read the weenie every chance you get so that you can learn and grow. It doesn't matter how much you know now, there is always more to learn and you can learn from me becasue I know more than you do.

Russel you are not helping anyone by publicly trashing them.  Your posts can ruin reputations and ruin businesses.  If you do want to help others, which I know you do, consider sending them an email with your words of wisdom instead of calling them a "turd" and posting it on the Bloodhound blog. That is my advice to you.  Publicly discussing someone else's business in a negative way is not at all helpful but I recognize your greatness and understand your loving intentions.

I say it without getting personal, although I have mentioned your name a few times.   I am not attacking you, I am merely commenting on your actions and using them as an example to demonstrate to others what should not be written on a blog.  Thanks for giving me such an excellent example of a post the makes the writer look bad, and the blog look bad. 

I know that Mr. Shaw and the bloodhound blog will not be offended by this and it would be just wrong for anyone to get defensive.  I am just trying to help and I think this would be a great venue for a discussion on how we can all help each other. 

RE.net cool kids

By: Todd Carpenter
Film critic Pauline Kael is infamous in her reaction to Nixon's 49 State 1972 landslide re-election. "I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don't know. They're outside my ken. But sometimes when I'm in a theater I can feel them."

Pauline Kael's view of that election is a wonderful analogy for the group think that is infesting RE.net. Are we Sharing a Brain? IMO, this is Teresa's single best post on blogging. Unfortunately, I don't think many have taken it to heart.

Questioning the validity of Saul Klein's You Tube video, pondering who will subscribe, or unsubscribe, or racing to connect to the same 30 or so people on the latest social network are all worthy endeavors, and I'm guilty of all of them. But in doing so, I can't help thinking about Ms Kael.

I don't think it's productive to live in the "rather special world" called RE.net. By "live" I mean to let the ambition to be a RE.net cool kid consume you into thinking the way millions of other professionals earn a living is wrong because of the comparatively small success of a few hundred.

When it comes to Web 2.0, I agree with Teresa that it's a good idea to look at Web 2.0 perspectives from outside of the real estate vertical. I also think it's good to look at real estate perspectives from outside the Web 2.0 vertical. I don't think RE.net does enough of either. Lately it seams we do less and less.

Food For Thought

If NAR doesn't get you your broker will . . well when they get internet access and learn how to use it they will . . but only if they can find you . . maybe you don't have anything to worry about after all.

When I was in grade school some times my parents would help me with my homework.  My dad used to frustrate me at times but he was right.  I would ask a question and instead of giving me an answer he would have me look it up myself.  he used to tell me that if he gave me the answer I wouldn't really remember it, but if I looked it up myself I would.

So here we go.  Many of the real estate blogs that I encounter are not compliant with NAR regulations that apply to all types of Realtor marketing. 

In some cases the blogs are designed by vendors who just don't know any better.  it isn't their job to understand the rules, it is the job of the REALTOR with the blog or website.  As the big behemoth soulless money grubbing corporations that are real estate companies start to lose profitability and have some of their internet traffic swiped by micro entrepreneurs like myself, they will want to fight back. They have been making money for years selling our own leads back to us.  Now some of us are able to compete head-to-head with big companies through our blogs.

The day will come when someone will start slapping non-compliant bloggers around and ask them to either make their site compliant or take it down.  Worse yet maybe the big companies will make policies against REALTOR blogs becasue agents can not be trusted to follow the NAR rules and the local guidelines set at the state level that apply to real estate marketing materials including web sites.

What the hell am I talking about you ask?  I am not going to give you the answer.  Go to NAR, look up the rules and decide if your blog is complaint.  Naturally it is password protected becasue they don't want to make it easy to find.   For vendors selling blogs to REALTORS it would not hurt you to familiarize your selves with these rules.  It would be a great way to add value and to become a true expert on real estate blogging.

The St. Paul Real Estate Blog has been compliant since day one.  This blog is not compliant.  Weather or not it needs to be is debatable.