Some of my clients, or the potential clients that I meet, may not quite understand what a blog is or “how they work”. Even my daughters don’t quite understand it, but they DO read some of Mom’s stuff.
A web site is like a library …
A web site, (like mine at elainereese.com), is like a library. The information contained there tends to be more static. It’s always there when a buyer or seller wants to use it as reference material. Like a Library, we know that when we go there, we’ll always find certain books, or certain reference books.
A blog is like a newspaper … with a “Letters to the Editor” section
A blog is like a newspaper, dynamic, ever changing with the most recent news, events or ideas. Additionally, it provides a means for interactive communication between the reader and the writer. To see an example of how this works, visit my page titled Subdivision Sales, where several people have asked for additional information.
To leave a comment on a blog, you’ll need to provide a name and an email. Most bloggers also have put a ‘hold‘ on having a comment display until they have a chance to review the comment for appropriateness. Spammers are as plentiful in dumping their garbage into blog comments as they are to dumping it into our email inboxes! With most real estate bloggers, you don’t have to worry about commenting, in fact most of us LOVE to hear your comments.
What’s a Category Tag Cloud?
When we write a blog post (an article), we assign it to one or more Categories. The Categories with the most articles show up with larger font size in the Tag Cloud, which is on my right sidebar. If you want to read all the articles on a given subject, use the Tag Cloud or the pull-down box. Then select your topic.
What’s a Blog Roll?
Many bloggers will include a list of other bloggers. For some blogs this list is quite long. They do this to try to boost their Google Juice. My list is much shorter because I prefer to only feature high-quality real estate bloggers. All the bloggers in my list are worth reading even though they may not be in your state. Just keep in mind that real estate laws vary by state, so something they write about, may not be appropriate for your state. The agents in my list are those that I trust to write very good articles about their local markets. And some of those in pretty parts of the country, post excellent photos. Kristal (Denver), Jeff (Carlsbad), Cyndee (Clearwater) or the McGillicuddies (NH) are particularly enjoyable to read for their photos. Carole (Cleveland) has a passion for light rail and local politics.
Why do those little photos of the commenters show up?
Agents, (or anyone really), who has joined MyBlogLog will have those tiny photos show when they visit a blog. A cookie on our computer tells the blog who we are, and adds the photo that we have submitted to MBL. If there’s no cookie, then a “shadow” person or a rotating design will show instead. MBL is one of the tools we use to help drive traffic to our blogs, plus it helps with our Google Juice.
Bloggers are changing the world!
Blogging is a fairly recent phenomenon, one that real estate agents have been slow to adopt. Most lack the computer knowledge that is required. Others simply can’t write, type or spell. Those agents that HAVE kept up with technology and embraced blogging, are finding that it is an extremely powerful tool to sell our listings and to sell ourselves. It gives you - our readers - an opportunity to get to know us personally, assuming the agent hasn’t hired someone to write for them. You can evaluate us in your jammies without ever having to talk to us. Isn’t that wonderful!
Copyright © 2008. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.
In another chapter titled “CLASH OF THE TITANS“, Real Living is recognized as “The Most Promising New National Brand“.
Most people will Google their name to see what comes up or to see how many others share the same name. Because Google Juice is critical to my business and to gaining visibility for my listings, I’ve worked very hard on my SEO to make sure Google lists my various sites when certain keywords are searched.
they possess and the learning curve is longer than they want to invest. 
Via my participation in a real estate online blogging network, I’ve “met” a terrific home stager named Craig Schiller from Chicago. Craig gives us (agents) a lot of helpful info on staging our listings to make them look their best. He’s also a whiz at photography which is also extremely important.
Elaine Reese
614-825-8860Real Living HER
A decade of selling homes in central Ohio
September 7, 2008 · 3 Comments
This month is a fairly important month for me. First of all, it marks a milestone birthday for me, but I’m not going to talk about that … it’s too depressing.
Secondarily, it means that I’ve now been in the real estate business for ten years. When I took the 120 hours of coursework in August 1998, the instructors told us that for every three of us in the room, only one would still be in the business after three years. So I guess I’m a survivor.
During the past ten years, the business of real estate has changed quite a bit. Few brokers even had a web site. I started my own web site in 1999. The MLS system was DOS-based and we could only load one photo which took 24 hours to show up on the listing. Many of us used 35mm cameras and had to have the film developed first before we could scan it to load it into the MLS. Within a year we had digital cameras that used the big floppy disks. We thought we were in heaven.
DOS-based MLS - oh, my!
We searched for homes, sometimes via the MLS DOS system, but big thick books were easier to use, however, they were quite expensive and out-of-date by the time they were printed. Because we couldn’t see photos of the interior of homes, we would often show 20-30 homes to find one that was acceptable. Now we may show only 5-10, because the unacceptable ones are eliminated online.
The paperwork required to complete a transaction was far simpler. Now it seems we have disclosures for the disclosures. The Purchase Offer is now up to 10 pages. We can thank lawyers for that.
9-5 … what’s that?
Ten years ago, agents went to the office daily and unless showing homes, the agent was there all day. Now when I go into the office (only a couple times a week), it’s like a ghost town. Most agents work from home because technology allows us to do that. Of course, it means we must buy all the equipment for our home.
Newspapers and pretty home magazines were the primary source of advertising our homes. Now per NAR surveys, only 7% of buyers found their home using this source. That survey was done a couple years ago, so it’s probably even fewer than that now. Now the Internet is the only game in town!
Aren’t computers supposed to SAVE time?
When we took a new listing, it used to take only an hour or two to enter the data into the MLS and prepare in-home brochures. Now it can take nearly 24 hours just to upload the info and all the photos to ALL the many Internet sites. It’s much more time consuming.
We had pagers not cell phones. People called during regular business hours. Now with our cells, we’re on call all waking hours. I’ve had people call as late as 11:30 pm to ask about a home because they were sitting in front of their computer.
I’m not a pop-tart!
It’s become a less safe business. Now few agents will pop-up to go show a home without first having the caller come into the office. Anymore it’s just too risky to meet a complete stranger in an empty home. Plus, with the complex mortgage programs of recent years, we need to have the buyer pre-qualified first before showing them homes.
The cost of being in the business has increased. Our fees to CBR, OAR, NAR and to our brokers has increased. Realtor.com charges us quite a bit more to have our listings be a Showcase listing. Newspaper ads have gone through the roof - too high for the lack of results. The fees for our web sites has increased. If an agent hasn’t bothered to learn basic web master knowledge, then they must pay a techie to do the work for them. And then there’s the price of gas …….
Clients are still the BEST!
The one thing that hasn’t changed are our clients. They’re still a great bunch of people to work with, to get to know, and to become an important part of their life for a few months.
Copyright © 2008. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.
Categories: Advertising · Commentary · Internet · Real Living HER · Realtors® · Realtors® · Safety · Technology