Fraser Beach’s Toronto at Home blog has been another major inspiration for Rain City Guide. The unique and clean layout of his blog personifies professionalism and his content is always interesting and well written. Unlike most of us, I’m under the impression that Fraser doesn’t have bad blogging days!

When not covering real estate issues, locally-based news and general real estate advice for home buyers and sellers, Fraser runs a successful full-service discount brokerage in Toronto.

What inspired you to start blogging?

I guess you could say that playing on the internet became my hobby in ’95. I was an early member of MetaFilter, the grandfather of weblogs, and when Blogger made it easy, I started my own blog.

Are there any special topics or issues that you enjoy covering?

I try to constantly answer the question “hows the market?”, because that’s what most people want to know.

What have you done to personalize your blog?

The blog it fully integrated with my website — so I guess it’s just me. I like the “minimalist” style of web design.

Do you have any favorite posts?

Hopefully, my current one.

What are some of your favorite blogs (real estate or otherwise)?

Grow-a-brain, Curbed, and of course Rain City Guide :-). My favourite (Canadians spell funny) site, bar-none, is coudal.com.

What tools/websites do you find most helpful in putting together your blog?

TypePad (typepad.com) does it all. It can be totally customized and I really like playing with HTML and CSS.

How does blogging fit into the overall marketing of your business?

The website and blog + MLS, is our total marketing and communications effort — and I constantly have to decline business.

What plans do you have to improve your blog over this next year?

I just redesigned it last weekend, and will again when a new design concept strikes. Like Lexus – the constant pursuit of perfection 🙂

What is the one tool or feature that you wish your site had?

Thinking about podcasting.

What do you think real estate blogging will look like 3 years from now?

Probably there will be a lot of ghost-written, cookie-cutter services like there are now for websites.

(Read more interviews with some of real estate’s top bloggers under the Real Estate Q&A category)