[photopress:Blog_Cola.gif,thumb,alignright] Searching for answers to your Real Estate Questions? Here are a few tips to make finding answers a little easier and more productive.
Try to read blogs that are written by real estate professionals who are licensed in your State, or at least in an area with similar agency laws. Instead of Googling all night to find a blog what just happens to go into detail about the topic you want to know more about, find Real Estate Blogs That Answer Questions. Ask a direct question in the comments section of several blogs, and remember to bookmark them to go back and retrieve the answers.
Of course here at Rain City Guide, rarely does a question go unanswered. We are very attentive to comments and try to answer questions best we can. Unfortunately, Real Estate is one of the few professional arenas that does not permit getting second opinions. If your doctor wants to cut something off or out of you, you get to go get a second opinion from another doctor. But Realtors, by their Code of Ethics, are not permitted to give advices if you are the client of another Realtor. So if you ask a question like: “My agent told me this, but I want your opinion”, there’s a strong possibility that the Blogger will not be able to contradict the advices of your agent.
That being said, let’s find some Real Estate Blogs, besides Rain City Guide, that answer real estate questions. If you are in New York City, it is very difficult for you to get info from blogs that are not written by agents who operate there, because NYC is unto itself regarding the rules of play in real estate. Mainly because the contracts and closings are attorney based, they have no MLS system AND they don’t have Buyer Agency. So for New Yorkers, Best Real Estate Blog that answers questions is: Noah Rosenblatt’s Urban Digs (he even has a live chat feature). Curbed is a popular NYC site, but it looks like your questions will be answered by other readers, for the most part. Christine Forgione’s NYHouses4Sale doesn’t seem to get many questions, but I’m pretty sure she’d answer them if she did. So give her a try.
Where are the California Blogs that talk back? You’ve got Kris and Steve Berg down in San Diego. You’ve got Kevin Boer in the Bay Area You would think with a State as big as California, you would have a slew of good blogs. I see a few people blogging away, but they are just blogging at you like a flashing billboard. Luring the search engines and not allowing comments, or just plain old selling and not providing real info. Oh well. Maybe someone out there has some suggestions that will show up in the comments.
Of course Arizona is just crawling with blog talent. You’ve got BloodhoundBlog where you can pick who you want advices from, but if it’s Arizona real estate you want to talk about, I’d be asking Cathleen. Todd Tarson is so up front and out there, he’d probably tell you what color underwear he has on if you asked him. If I had real questions about real estate in Mohave County, Arizona I’d be talking to Todd on his blog.
Charles Turner’s doing a decent job over in Portland. When he gets a comment, he answers honestly and openly. Teresa Boardman’s blog in St. Paul Minnesota is good, but the comments seem to be a bunch of agents talking to agents, and not much from consumers. If you are buying or selling real estate in St. Paul, try asking off topic questions on any of Teresa’s posts. I’m sure you’d get a good answer. Here’s a great blog of bloggers talking to other bloggers. Who is Tom? What does Tom do? I’m stretching a bit with Francis Flynn Thorsen’s Realty Gram, but throw some questions at her and I think the answers would come.
In fact, if you are in a state where there are real estate blogs that aren’t answering consumer issues and questions, I strongly encourage you to just start asking those questions. You can help develop more Real Estate Blogs That Answer Questions, simply by ASKING some questions on any blog that you can find. Maybe they will get the point that “Enquiring Minds Want to Know”.
I’m in Arizona, and I have no desire what-so-ever to know what color underwear Todd is wearing.
But he’ll definitely give you the brutal truth about anything you ask!
And what is the deal with the lack of excellent blogs in California? Oh,there’s several , but for the most populous state in the Union, I am surprised there aren’t more…
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I get a lot of questions from my non-real estate readers. I am finding that non-bloggers prefer to send me an email and often have little interest in asking questions for the general public to see. For every one consumer comment I get about ten consumer emails. The real estate pro’s that leave comments are blog writers in every case.
70% of my readers find me through search engines
Getting ready for the radio show today, I was trying to find blogs for the radio listeners where they could see an exhange with consumers in the comments section of the blog.
Jay: CA has some excellent blogs,but few that fit the bill for what I was looking for.
Teresa: I agree from the bloggers perspective, but I am thinking the show will focus on consumers and not bloggers.
We all know consumers have never ending excellent questions when we meet them in person. Wondering why more don’t ask real estate transaction related questions about buying and selling property on the blogs?
Who the heck is Lorelle VanFossen? Was that an April Fool’s Trackback?
I’m pretty sure that one is just spam…
Ardell,
two wonderful websites for consumers in real estate.
seattle: http://seattlebubble.blogspot.com/
California: http://patrick.net/housing/crash.html
Great List Ardell! I like Teresa get more questions via email than on my main blog. I have noticed that most consumers don’t want to “put it out there” until they feel comfortable and remaining anonymous is preferred, especially in NY. You are right though, I would answer each and every question!
The number of emails I get from readers is amazing – and gratifying.
Sometimes people can learn more from the online exchange of comments, than the blog post itself. That is why I am encouraging people to post their questions on the blog, when possible.
Hi Ardell,
I’m a WA real estate and business attorney. Although I have 2 law-related websites, http://www.ezlawcoach.com and http://www.lawformsemporium.com and I’ve written several blog articles on my EZLawCoach site, I’m still new to blogging, and trying to locate blog sites to which I can contribute as an author. I read RCG as much as possible, and have even commented from time-to-time when I could contribute something meaningful. I hope Dustin may soon invite me into RCG as a regular author; but in the mean time, are there any other real estate blog sites that you know of in WA? How about any in the South Puget Sound, Everett and Spokane areas? I’ve looked some; but haven’t had much luck finding blog sites looking for additional authors…any advice you can give me?
Thank You!!
~Joe Lawyer~
Hi Joe,
I fixed your links in the comment above. You can’t put a comma at the end, or it becomes part of the url. They work now.
And I LOVED your Suzy, Slick and Savvy story. Excellent presentation. That paragraph really sucks! I’ve never seen that clause not cancel out, if the property is relisted, in any other state I have worked in. Great way of driving the point home in that blog entry.
I’m wondering what happens if the buyer comes through Redfin instead of Savvy. Would slick be able to charge the seller the 2% that went directly to the buyer, given Redfin only took 1%? That’s scary, real scary.
Have you told Dustin you are interested? I like your style.
In terms of answering questions, I’ve been posting beginning blogger questions I get via email on the seminar blog under the category “from the inbox”. Ain’t no question too simple for that blog and all you have to do to get your question featured is to email me! 🙂
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