REALTOR (R) Magazine’s March issue has as it’s cover story: “Welcome to Real Estate 2.0”.
The article gives an overview of Web 2.0 and how a few innovative people in the real estate world have been on the leading edge of applying the new technology in effective ways. A few of the many well regarded real estate bloggers are mentioned including ARDELL DellaLoggia and Dustin Luther, and Rain City Guide as being one of the sites for promoting Web 2.0. Congratulations Dustin and ARDELL!
More leaders in Web 2.0 are highlighted such as St Paul Blogger Teresa Boardman of StPaulRealEstateblog.com and Matt Heaton of the Real Estate Social Networking site ActiveRain in Bellevue. Some of the others also mentioned are Frances Flynn Thorsen (Realtygram Blogger) Jeff Turner (Turner’s Perspective ) and Daniel Rothamel (Real Estate Zebra blog)
A few large companies are joining in on the conversation, Coldwell Banker with Second Life, and is also joining with Scripps Networks (who owns HGTV) with their FrontDoor.com.
Definitely exciting times in real estate with so much going on, and the Web 2.0 conversation (party!) is only just beginning!
Thanks for the heads up – I look forward to reading it! The changes are pretty mind boggling and it definitely seems like we are at the tip of the iceberg with this!
Congratulations to you all.
I’m hoping that one of my blogs and / or websites will join the list nex year.
best,
Jodi Summers
Sotheby’s International Realty
jodis@verizon.net
http://www.SoCalInvestmentRealEstate.com
http://www.SoCalIndustrialRealEstateBlog.com
http://www.SoCalOfficeRealEstateBlog.com
http://www.SoCalGreenRealEstateBlog.com
http://www.SantaMonicaLandmarks.com
http://www.SantaMonicaPropertyBlog.com
**
Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
—Unknown
Hi Courtney,
I think your “iceberg” analogy is a good one…real estate agents who aren’t on the lookout for changes may end up “sunk”! There are some “Titanic” changes happening in both in the web 2.0 world and the real estate world! 🙂
Hmmm…think I may have to write a post about that POV.
I’ll repeat my web analogy here.
Back in my college days I worked for United Parcel Service, and I had a pet rat named Twelve. After work I’d often have some of my co-workers up. We were mainly under 30 males. Anyone one night one of my co-workers offered some Teamster philosophical insight when he asked: “Do you think Twelve fantasizes about a girl rat climbing up onto his table and into his cage?”
To me the the web is to real estate agents the way the imaginary female rat was to Twelve. There are thousands of local agents, and many if not most of them want a web presence. For most of them, the chance of Twelve having sex with a female rat was about the same as the chance that anything most agents do on the web being helpful to their business.
“…the way the imaginary female rat was to Twelve.”
Twelve wasn’t fantasizing about the female rat, the guys were. So the imaginary female rat was nothing to Twelve at all 🙂
So was Twelve fantasizing about female Teamsters? I’m confused! 🙂
To the best of my knowledge, Twelve was fantasizing about cheese.
didn’t redfin trademark “Real Estate 2.0”?
Hi Terry,
Hmmm, that’s an interesting question.
I went to check that out and found this on an old Sellsius post:
http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/hot-news/redfin-does-not-own-registered-trademark-real-estate-20/2006/09/19/
So it looks like they don’t.
Hi Jodi,
Thanks for stopping by to congratulate Dustin and ARDELL!
Hi Kary,
Okay not sure about the rat analogy, but I did have a very nice pet rat when I was a very little kid! 🙂
I do agree if your analogy is that: many people like to jump on the “next new thing” because of the hype, but that most will find it not to their liking….too much work! LOL!
Debrorah, the point on the web is that thousands of agents in the Seattle area are not going to get eyeballs on their website. And yes there are things you can do to get eyeballs on your website, but hundreds of agents (and firms and other companies) will be trying to do the same thing. To succeed at that would require either incredible talent or incredible luck. So to combine what Ardell has been saying with what I’ve been saying, an agent trying to attract eyeballs to their site would be like Twelve setting aside a chunk of cheese hoping that it would attract that female rat.
BTW, Twelve’s story is a little bit interesting. He was a lab rat that flunked out of testing at the UW, and my friend either rescued him or kidnapped him. Thus his name–rat Twelve. Anyway, I’d always enjoyed Twelve when I visted the friend, so when Twelve was discovered by the dorm authorities, I agreed to take him. I’d always wondered whether by flunking out he showed stupidity or intelligence. Maybe that depends on whether the testing would have involved female rats!
Hi Kary,
I agree with your point. As more agents (and businesses in general) become aware of WEB 2.0, there will be more competition for visitors. And just like other forms of connecting with potential clients some agents will be more sucessful at it than others. Those that don’t find it to be a good fit for them will return to the ways that work best for them.
I have talked to different people who are connected to the RE industry about blogging, and so far it has not clicked with any of them…it really isn’t for everyone. While it’s not for everyone, there will be a lot of people who do enjoy it, will do it, and so there will be increasing competition to be “heard” in the blogging clamor. That’s OK because people will have more choices!
BTW…my rat was also former lab rat! LOL! My Dad was a graduate student at the University of Arizona and a friend of his gave him (for us kids, I was 3) the rat. We even went camping with our rat…once all the way to the Worlds Fair here in Seattle! He was very dog-like and we had him for a few years until he died. I named the rat…Wappie!