Disruptive RE Broker

I was checking out what keywords were triggering my site and apparently someone entered this into Google today:

‘ what can i do broker refuses to remove mls listing’

This seems shady and is a serious ethical offense.  Shame on this broker!

Activerain still does not allow users to export content and that you still cannot delete your account.  They said they were going to address this after everyone who pissed about the Move Inc. deal.  I also wonder what the true number of active users is.  They claim 55K users but I have never seen more than 1800 online at once.
I have also been looking around at real estate blogger blog rolls and none have any active rain blogs listed.  I don’t read tons of real estate blogs because most are boring but I still haven’t found any AR bloggers rising to occasion.

I have been reading this site called: RERevealed and I like it.  I showed one of my friends the site the other day and he said which one of these articles did you write? I said none, why?  He replied by saying they just sound like your witty bits and style.  Hmm. Perhaps this is why I enjoy this blog.

My favorite part of this blog is the Bubble Gum Interviews. They are fun, simple and full of wit.  The interview shows another perspective that-its more interesting than the actual blogger will posts for the day.

Who knows, maybe those who get interviewed will want to put up a blog badge that says they were RErevealed!

Maybe someday my day will come!

GO RED SOX!

So many brands, too many features, how can I figure this out.

Anyone. Anyone. Anyone.

I found this Nikon I hate wires and I want to be abe to upload my images right after I take them if near a hot spot.

Know of any others?   Please help me by leaving a comment.

These are the technologies I use every single day without fail.

Microsoft Mail (Used to be called Outlook)

Gmail

Google Reader

Wordpress

Del.icio.us

Mybloglog

These are all simple concepts that make my life a bit easier. What will be the nice simple technology that I start using everyday?

One of the biggest problems I face on a weekly basis is the lack of interoperability. Every person has their own situation. Different operating systems. Different browsers. Different software. Corrupt software (adobe). I hear it all the time. Nothing seems to work the same across the board.

Posting documents online for others to grab can be a major pain in the ass. I have sort of solved this problem with the help of a service called Scribd.com.

It’s a neat service that will host documents much like Youtube will host your videos. It works pretty well and I like the fact that I can embed documents for people to grab in various file versions.

Check this out…

Every real estate blogger wants readership.  If you have readers than you have a reason to post or else you are talking to yourself.

Here is a little list that will help you find new readers.

1) Do not blog to plug services every other posting.

2) Get random.  Just because your blog has a real estate theme, it doesn’t mean you need to blog about real estate all the time.

3) Stats are boring. Linking so others can discover is entertaining.

4) Talk about things to do around town.  It’s great when people email you to say that they had a great time and they wouldn’t have found it unless you told them about it.

5)  Lend tips and interesting tidbits.

I come from pretty big real estate family.  We we using Adwords in 1999 to promote our services.  I think we understand how the Internet has impacted real estate.  My mother is a really really successful Exclusive Buyer’s Agent.  She is a pioneer on the concept and will be going on her 17th year - I think.  She also did the selling side as well before the Buy Side.

Anyways, I have pointed to her to several real estate blog post and she said something really interesting to me. She said, why are all these blogs talking as if they are talking to other real estate professionals and not to consumers?  I said, because they engage readers and none have readers who are not practicing real estate.  She said, boy, these real estate bloggers must have lots a time on their hands.  I then said, why don’t you start a blog and address your customers. She said, we (me. her, sister) do but I don’t call it a blog.  I research the market conditions, local news and tell them about new activities around town and email my past and present clients every week so they are in touch with the market.

This is how you stay in front on your clients. My mother doesn’t advertise. She is 100% referral based. She just keeps in touch with everyone and it gets her more than enough listings each year. She spends about $25-30K on holiday gifts each year and she is loaded up with new clients by the 3rd week in January. Referrals!

My mother is ten steps ahead of everyone and I am proud to say that I learned almost everything I know from her.

She says, who has time to blog about real estate to other real estate professionals?  I said, true!

Thanks to my best bud, S**** (redacted name because I like to post inside info about Realtor.com and I don’t want it coming back to my source.) who works for Realtor.com (they are going through a major re-org cause showcase listings are way down.), I just got back from the game and we won! His season ticket seats are amazing. Much better than the free ALCS tickets (games 1+2) I received from my friend at Pepsi last week. We ate, drank and were very merry. It was cold, but it didn’t matter cause the Sox looked great.  A cup of hot clam chowda helps too.  Must be the only stadium that sells high-end chowda!  I don’t have the Boston accent, but I still say chowda! Anyone want to know how much a lobster roll is at Fenway?  $16. Ouch. I don’t know anyone who has touched one.

Can’t wait for game 3 on Sat. We are throwing a big Halloween/World Series party.  Very happy to have my 61 inch HDTV.

If anyone hates me because I am fortunate to live in a winning sports city, screw you!  Do you have any idea how many years of pain I went through to get to this point? We used to refer to this city as Looserville.  I went to Pats games when they were lucky to win one game per year, heart broken by Sox year after year, Celtics hurting since bird left and I refuse to discuss Bruins.

Yours will come around and mine will soon fade.  Enjoy while it last.

Everyone is speculating that Google is penalizing blogs for paid links. WRONG.

Google just lowered the page ranks to scare bloggers in hopes that they start using the no follow tags. For the most part page rank does not effect rankings anyways.

Focus on your site and it will not affect your bottom line.

To all you A-list bloggers. You don’t know shit about Google PR. It’s okay to admit when you don’t know shit.

Update: One more thing - some sites that lost PR were not showing paid links so this shows that most everyone is wrong about this new update. 

24 Yawkey Way, Boston, MA 02215

Year Built: 1950

Acres: 7.6 (331219 sqft.)

Total Area: 132911 sqft.

Total Value: Land/Building - $55,990,500

2007 Est Tax: $1,504,464.74

Who pays the bill? John W. Henry (Interesting that John Henry is on tax bill and not the Red Sox as a company.

*this info is for the stadium only. 2-6 Yawkey Way (offices) is not included.

The address is unzillowable 

My puppy is pumped for Halloween.  His photo is on Boston.com.  Check it out!

Going back to the World Series baby!  GO RED SOX.

What’s the first thing agents do when they get a new listing?  They say, oh shit another unrealistic seller.  Just kidding. Insert your own joke.  Seriously though, after listing the property on MLS, many agents will start posting the ad on various classified type sites.  I know because when I first wanted to learn about the web I built a site that is like craigslist with a different business model. As I stated, this was my first site that I built. I knew nothing about the Internet when I started this site.  I taught myself about the web by building this site.  I haven’t spent any time on it in a couple of years ( I think NY is popular.) because I wanted to take what I learned and build something amazing.  I learned a lot and my new stealth project is off the hook and I think it will change real estate forever.  I think it will be launched in a few months. Back to the point…

If you are someone that tends to post listings on classified sites you should check out vflyer.com. I have checked it out and I think they have done a good job and seem to be focused on making it better. They give you a template and a form to fill out. When you press submit your listing will be posted to various classified services. No more redundant posting. Hooray! Now with my new project, I am all for social networks or real estate platforms, but we cannot forget about classifieds because they always bring in the leads. Good or bad, for now, classifieds still bring in more action than anything else.

Vflyer, seems like a good partner. So help them, yourself and the person who hired you and give the service a whirl it’s free.