One Simple Answer Can Change the Home Buying Experience
Check out The “HOT LIST’S” cool new place…They all have their very own Blog, one for each county. ALL THE LINKS ARE BELOW THE VIDEO…Check it out!!!!!
The Coach
http://stanislauscountyrealestate.wordpress.com/
http://sanjoaquincountyrealestate.wordpress.com/
http://mercedcountyrealestate.wordpress.com/
Ok, so I am the first to admit, I am the neophyte, or “David” in this nebulous area know as the REnet Blogsphere. I have been at this for under a year and the “Goliath” as represented by Bloodhound Blog, has been at it far longer, has way more visitors/readers, and is a serious “Cash Cow” for it’s originators.
That being said, here goes…I apologize in advance for making you jump from post to post to follow along, but in an effort to keep this post from getting waaaaayyyy too long, I felt it flowed best…
It all began with this post….
http://sandiegohomeblog.com/2008/04/10/redfin-wants-you-to-feel-special/by Kris Berg, a well respected Realtor out of San Diego…
It prompted this response…
http://blog.redfin.com/sandiego/2008/04/barbie_takes_a_bite_again.html by Carol Hian, a contributing Blogger and reresentative of Redfin Real Estate. Note the retraction inserted after the fact by Redfin’s CEO, Glenn Kelman. He also commented on the blog post within minutes of it’s being posted, as you will see in the MANY comments at the end of the post.
It not only led to her dismissal…
But it ignited a firestorm of Blog responses, one from me!
Here are a couple of others….
http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/the-most-asinine-real-estate-blog-post-ever/913
http://realestatezebra.com/wanna-know-how-you-can-do-irrevocable-damage-to-your-brand-and-your-reputation, there were many more, but these are 2 examples from some pretty good Bloggers.
Ok, so Redfin, through Glenn Kelmen issues an apology, they write a retraction, and dismiss the Blogger, Ms. Hian. End of story, right??? wrong!
Along comes “Goliath”…
(Blood Hound Blog, affectionately called BHB in the Blogsphere) with this post by Barry Cunningham…http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=3011…ok, this guy is an excellent writer, articulate, and quite witty, there I said it! Now bring your attention to the end of Barry’s post where he “affectionately” refers to Kris Berg (remember, she started all this) as a “Google Pandering Ho”!!???
Now after talking to some others in the space, who have been around a while, I have come to understand that BHB and Barry have become the “Goliath” they have through the “Hearstonian” tradition of “yellow journalism/bloggalism”.
It does however, raise some questions…1) Is it ok to gain popularity and ultimately financial success through a practice of “Bashing” or “Trashing” in the tradition of The National Enquirer for instance? 2) What does it say of us in the Real Estate space, or us as a people in general when we casually accept the term “HO” as a playful expression of friendliness? 3) What are we really doing in the Blogsphere, or better yet at BHB, when we stop providing information as a service to Realtors, Consumers, and Vendors and become the National Enquirer of Real Estate Blogs?
Do I know what I am opening myself up for here? Yup! Just thought it needed to be discussed.
The word “HO” just didn’t sit well with me. I have a daughter, and no matter how cute and friendly someone thought they were being, if they called her that I would be angry! period!
Hope this stimulates some good discussions amongst you all.
The Coach
In what can only be described as an amazing commentary on the true power of Social Networking, one incredibly ignorant RedFin representative, Carol Hian, wrote a scathing Blog post on her RedFin Blog about a fellow “Twitterer” and Facebook friend, Kris Berg and her husband Steve. In which she not only referes to them as “Barbie & Ken”, but oversteps the bounds of Blogging and good taste, by utilizing her privilege to complete a personal agenda of bashing through jealousy.
Miss Hian certainly found out the power of social networking and the closeness of a Social Networking community in which the Berg’s and many others belong. Within hours, nary minutes, of the Blog post becoming known to the Twitter and Facebook families the Bergs belong to, the post had 25+ comments scolding Miss Hian for her miss-use of the medium. It was truly amazing to see, and warmed my heart that even a consumer, who had read the blog post because he was researching RedFin to possibly use their services, chimed in with this diddy…
Jon said:
If your are a reader of my post on GeekEstateBlog, Zillow’s Real Estate Technology Blog, you may have seen a post titled “Link Love”, Peace, and Real Estate 2.0!!! I wrote on Monday April, 14th. It had some good stuff in it, but none more important than a web 2.0 Agent tool called “Postlets” found at http://postlets.com
I make my living bringing new, innovated, and mostly cheap (FREE) tools to the Agents in my company, Prudential California Realty, and I am more than happy to share them with my readers as well. This one you must use. Postlets, after you complete the sign-up and some simple data entry about your Listing, they will then not only distribute it for you to some “Heavy Hitters” in on line Listing site; namely Trulia, Zillow, Google Base, et al, but they will also supply you with an HTML code (Just like Vflyer) that you can use to post to Craig’s List!!!
Also, have you tried MLBroadcast yet?? If not, WHY??? Are you not understanding the significance of what it can do for your Listing’s visibility and the potential traffic to your website, not to mention some unreal SEO for you on Search Engines like Google and Yahoo? They design a video for you, from the Listing photos you already have, not to mention do “Professional” voice over narration to magnify the impact to the viewer. then they upload it to dozens of Video sites like, Yahoo Video, YouTube, Meta Cafe and many many more!!!! All this for $29, you can’t get a Virtual Tour anywhere for that! and with these you will get a code that you can place on the MLS in the box where you load a Virtual Tour. What the heck!!!!????
Come on guys, absolute neccessities in your business…Postlets and MLBroadcast…get them now!!!!
See ya next time, “The Coach“
To all my friends, especially those who are Northern California Real Estate Agents, I have started a YouTube Group for all your Real Estate Videos/Virtual tours, please consider joining in!! 
http://www.youtube.com/group/realestatevideos
The Coach
The Coach was recently featured on a local Cable news program, called The Central Valley Report. After which, without doing anything, the clip hit the Internet (as far as we can tell it surfaced on Blip TV), and from there it was linked and embedded into Real Estate websites throughout our company, our area, and predictably the WORLD!! This is what’s known as going “Viral” (like a virus runs through your body). It is a real Estate Agent’s dream to go viral. With one click you can get anywhere.
Now imagine this was a video clip of your Sellers Listing?!?!?!? Hello, one click and it’s everywhere! Isn’t that the whole dang point??
What about a Blog? What good does that do me? Hello, once again “Viral” people, “Viral”! Try to stay with me here…You engage in web 2.0 practices like MLBroadcast, where you can have your video/virtual tour not only produced with professional voice over, but “BROADCAST” (aka - VIRAL) to dozens of the major video sites and made into a podcast for iTunes. Oh yeah, it’s only $29 bucks BTW, show me where you can have a virtual tour done for that and I will “eat a bug”!
Get on YouTube, get an MLBroadcast, Get a website, get your BUTT in gear, and GET VIRAL!!!
What this means is we, at Prudential, will have the “inside track” with an advertising campaign formally known as the Trulia “Triple Play”, which incorporated Featured Listings, Brand Identity, & Banner advertising (geographically). I love this play for you guys. It will be extremely effective. We are getting more hits from a basic agreement with Trulia right now, than the next 4 companies combined on our Corp. site.
Don’t let this tip from the Coach go into the trash. Budget for it now, so you will be ready when it rolls out in May 2008!
More on this to follow later this week…
The Coach
“Zillow’s new Dueling Digs game isn’t that much fun.
But I suspect I’m not the target market for this sort of game. On line real estate is strictly a utilitarian activity for me (wow, the presbyterian Scot in me really comes out with that sentence).
I use the tools of Real Estate 2.0 to evaluate the market and to help me find a new home to live in. I don’t really go for the whole real estate porn thing — I get my kicks in other ways…”
Far be it from to “bite the hand that feeds me”.so to speak. After all I do write for the Zillow GeekEstateBlog and don’t want to appear anti-Zillow, but opinions are only valuable when they are heart felt. Even when they are contrary. I just think the time and dollars of such a powerful and potentially informative consumer based website, could be better spent on a technology that would have a direct benefit on the search experience, or perhaps help them create a on line appraisal tool that better reflects actual pricing in each market!
Your comments are always welcome
“The Coach”
I am a Real Estate glass “Half Full” kinda guy! and I can honestly say that as it relates to the majority of my 300 Agents, it has been a real eye-opener! They are doing more with less, and it has begun to show in all of our on line statistics.
I would say to all Agents, stop for a second and really consider a paradigm shift. Start looking at spending more time and more Marketing dollars on line. Put the money where the clients are….THE INTERNET!
“Yes please Miss, I would like an “Qualified Buyer” Medium Rare & a side of “Sell-able Listings” please?
The Coach
It ain’t official, in fact the ink is probably not even dry on the contracts, but don’t doubt it, not for a moment.
For my 300 Agents, and our Brokerage/website http://prucalifornia.com this will be a terrific boost!
Thanks for listening in…The Coach
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I am not a real estate agent, as most commenters here appear to be. I’m just a soon to be homeowner interested in real estate in San Diego.
But I do find this post not only childish, but insulting.
“Everyone ends up with a bad taste, longing for a barf bag and mouthwash.”
You’re right. That describes me to a T after reading this drivel.
I am considering using Redfin as my agency, but I wouldn’t ever consider using Ms. Hian as my agent.
“Biting back” at Ms. Berg is one thing, but you bit back at everyone that contributed to that food drive. How is that appropriate?”
Every comment was of the same ilk, except one, from Glenn Kelman President & CEO of Redfin, he wrote…
Glenn Kelman said:
This post makes me physically ill. It is not consistent with how those of us at Redfin who have met Kris Berg feel about her or her charitable activity. Kris is a wonderful human being and a credit to our profession.
We have a clear policy that the contractors who contribute local posts about the real estate market should focus only on the real estate market, not on competitors. We are clear with everyone with whom we work that Redfin works as a partner with other real estate brokers, not as an antagonist.
Had we known that Ms. Hian felt this way about Realtors, we would not have commissioned her to write for Redfin at all.
As much as we would like to, we cannot take the post down because it would be sneaky to do so. But we will take steps to ensure something like this never happens again.
I apologize on behalf of Redfin for this post, both to Kris Berg and to the real estate profession.
Regards, Glenn”
Kudos to Glenn, not only for his quick response in defense of Kris & Steve, but also for his eloquently stated apology. I am now a Glenn Kelman fan!
Be careful with this medium Bloggers, we should all be proud of what we do, not embarrassed by it.
The Coach