A Real Estate Discussion Blog

These are my two favorite bits of humor on blogging.  I think I like them because not only are they funny, but there is that sliver of truth to them (that almost makes them not funny...)  Enjoy!  

This one is an oldie, but goodie.  Still brings tears to my eyes (because I think I have done this to my husband before- who doesn't get the blogging thing). 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=12yD8JyaVvY

I recently had an interesting conversation about posting listings on a blog, or anywhere that consumers have an opportunity to comment, with a Realtor that is very intelligent and web savvy.  Seriously, he really gets it - which is why our conversation is going over and over in mind.  But I can't bring myself to agree with him.

He does not believe in posting listings on blogs.  His reason was that anytime you opened up a listing to be commented on by the public, you are not representing your fiduciary responsibilities to the seller to always paint the listing in the most positive light.  If someone were to make a negative comment, he felt he would be violating these responsibilities. 

Since I am writing this on a blogging community website, I am going to assume we all the know the benefits of blogging and how this can help your SEO, so I am going to leave that alone.  He is obviously missing out on this, but didn't feel the benefits outweighed the potential downside.

So, what if someone said something negative?  Let's say someone posted the house reeked of dog odor.  I can only assume that as a good Realtor, this would be something you would have discussed upfront.  And since the house still smelled, the owner didn't listen to you or didn't think it was bad enough to take action.  Maybe seeing this comment from a third party will make the owner take some corrective measures.  And the beauty of letting people comment on your blog is that you can comment back.  So you can say- "this issue has been taken care of by...." or "owner will give a $5000 carpet credit".  Maybe the person that initially wrote or toured the home will see this and reconsider since a major obstacle has been removed from their selection process. 

And then thinking about the "fiduciary  responsibility" an Agent has to the seller, the Agent's duty is to sell the house as quickly as possible as the best price they can get.  Dog odor can be something serious that makes a house sit on the market for months, and the longer the house sits, the further off the asking price it is likely to come down.  By exposing issues that might be hampering the house's sale up front and having the opportunity to address them (either in writing or by taking action) it might make the house seller faster and at a better price.  Sure, the home owner's feelings might get hurt when they read such comments, but I am sure a check at closing will make those feelings melt away. 

Today consumer's expect transparency when research anything online, even a house.  In fact, when everything I read about something is all positives, I get suspicious that the comments have been planted by someone with a financial interest.  Conversations about pet odor or bad layouts in houses are happening every day in Realtor offices, and now these conversations are just migrating online.  At least there you have an opportunity to see what people are really saying and address it head on.  

Of course there is always the vindictive neighbor or ex-spouse that may abuse the post, but again, you have the opportunity to respond directly.  I think people can see what is going on with those situations and make decisions accordingly.  But as a good Agent you must be aware of the comments that are happening on your posts and address them.  To let them go would indeed be a violation of duty. 

A final note on comments on listing posts.  I have monitored a lot of comments on such posts, and it seems that most people's comments revolve around why they should or shouldn't go physically tour the house.  Not many people are going back and commenting once they have already actually seen the home.  I know when I go out with Realtors on home searches, we see so many homes and the last thing I want to do when I get home is go online and find blogs about them to comment on.  I either liked the house a lot (which I don't want to let people know because I don't want to create a larger market) or I didn't and I have already moved on.  However, I do a lot researching on the front end in my efforts to qualify or unqualify a home to most effectively manage my time, and thus may make comments.  

So, if I am missing something, let me know!  Otherwise I am going stick with my opinion that blogging about listings is a great marketing platform.

For all you who want to know more about Zillow but don't want to pour throw a bunch of posts to get all the information, I recently did an interview with Joe Zekas of YoChicago.com.  Joe broke the interview into a series of four short videos, so you can read the part that most interests you.

Marketing Tools on Zillow - Part 1 of 4 (6:42) http://youtube.com/watch?v=dIQtP9uA8Pw.  In this interview we discussed what a great marketing platform Zillow is for Agents.  Specific functionality on the site that we cover are: the launch of Zestimates, For Sale for free, Broker Listing Feeds, and the Make Me Move.  I said that 830,000 people had "claimed their home" on Zillow, this number has since increased to over 950,000 claimed homes.  Joe also asked me what percent of our audience is actually in the market to buy or sell.  I said 53% and we have since gotten updated data that says 66% of our audience is actively in the market. 

Smart Ways for Agents to use Zillow - Part 2 of 4 (2:54) http://youtube.com/watch?v=fSEqFMV9nrM Part 2 we discuss specific ways that Agents are specifically using Zillow to marketing themselves and listing online. 

Best Practices for Zillow EZ Ads - Part of 3 of 4 (3:44) http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q7iz-Wgqooc Here we discuss Zillow's Advertising product that allows Agents to Zip Code target their advertising where you only pay one penny each time your ad is displayed online.  Good for Agent branding or advertising a new listing or open houses!

Zillow Freebies for Real Estate Agents - Part 4 of 4 (4:29) http://youtube.com/watch?v=uFRCKXN7jXo Finally, we wrap up everything we covered.  We also briefly cover some of Zillow's most recent product launches such as a national discussion area and specific neighborhood forums.   

July 31 and August 1 Inman is hosting Blogger's Connect in San Francisco.  This is an opportunity for real estate professionals who are active in the blogosphere to get together and network- in person!  Active Rain is a platinum sponsor of the event.

To kick off the event, my company Zillow is sponsoring the opening celebration, "Beer With Bloggers" on Tuesday from 5:00-7:00pm.  I hope that I will finally get to meet many of the people that I regularly interact with here on Active Rain.  Let me know with a comment if you are attending, and I will keep an eye out for you.  I would love a chance to learn more about you by reading some of your blog posts beforehand. 

Hope to see some of you there!

I recently wrote a blog post on a real estate related topic.  One of the comments I got was "if you want more points, try commenting more on other people's posts".  My blog post had nothing to do with points or the Active Rain system in general.  The more I thought about this comment, the more it annoyed me. 

I am not a practicing real estate agent, as most of the people who's blogs I read are.  I work for a national real estate website, so marketing is more my expertise.  When I make comments, it is usually somehow related to this area, my company, or the Internet in general.  However, I personally enjoy reading about things like how to get buyers to sign an exclusive contract or how to best work with a home inspector- but because I am not an expert in these areas, I rarely have anything of substance to add to the conversation so I don't say anything at all.   

And isn't that what blogs should be?  Conversations about substance and that are interesting, not popularity contests where people post about off-topic subjects or leave frivolous comments in order to get points.  I don't think that is why Active Rain was created, to make each other feel good.  I think it was created to post on interesting real estate subjects or disseminate relevant information that helped you grow professionally, and then get interesting conversations going around these topics.  If you really want to make nice with someone, contact them directly, as so many interesting people have done through my profile.  This is a much more effective and direct way of networking than writing "nice post" on a post. 

I think the Active Rain community is very knowledgeable on so many levels and by keeping the conversations pointed, the meat of the subject stands out.  Okay, back to writing about real estate topics for me now!