Alex Stenback of Behind the Mortgage has a way of making real estate writing entertaining. While all of his articles convey good nuggets of information, he often throws in articles like Your Lawn is a Legume to keep you on your toes. Additionally, his linklubes are among the best in real estate.

When not blogging, Alex is a Mortgage Banker at Prime Mortgage in the Twin Cities area.

What inspired you to start blogging?

I’d been an avid blog reader, as much for the entertainment value as anything else, while at the same time, looking for a better way to communicate with my clients, prospective customers, and professional partners – canned newsletters have never been my thing, and really how timely is a quarterly, or even monthly newsletter anymore. One day it just sort of dawned on me – why not a real estate and mortgage blog.

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

Because most of the mortgage industry is such a sales-pitch, huckster-come-on oriented marketplace, I enjoy educating readers on how it really works and exposing some of the more tawdry tactics and operators in the business – I really try to respect the intelligence of my readers, who are generally the opposite of those that fall for the “lowest rates on the planet” type of advertising.

What have you done to personalize your blog?

After I’d established the blog, maybe eight to ten months in, I had some professional design work done, but for newer bloggers, I always recommend against getting too caught up in the design and appearance of the blog – focus on the content first, develop your style and a readership, then worry about looks – some of the most widely read blogs around run a very basic template to this day.

Do you have any favorite posts?

One of my early posts about African Weather and Mortgage Rates remains one of my favorites, along with the times we’ve broken news stories, which then got picked up by local media.

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

Too many to list, but one of my all time favorites, and maybe my biggest influence was Hugh McLeod’s www.gapingvoid.com.

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

RSS feeds, delicious, and google alerts.

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

Readers who become clients accounted for 20% of my business this year, which is a number that stunned even me. Its been great PR as well – If done right a blog will get you more valuable PR (media mentions, interviews, expert status, search engine rankings, etc.) by accident than most PR firms could get you on purpose, and at a vanishingly small fraction of the cost of any paid web marketing effort. Also, some advice for those considering a blog – let sharing information, informing, and entertaining your readers be your focus. If you are blogging just for PR, Search engine rankings, and to have another advertising channel to pipe the same old canned real estate content onto the internet you are putting the cart before the horse, and the blog may very well fail – people’s radar for sincerity is highly tuned in the blog world.

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

We’ll be adding a couple of new features, a few of them still in development and top secret, but they will be complimentary to the blog, and dabble in other forms of media in one case – I am a big fan of keeping it simple, and good – there is such a thing as too feature rich – part of the reason blogs work so well is because they are very narrowly focused – many larger websites are sunk by their own ambitions to be all things to all visitors.

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

The marketplace is starting to get very crowded, with major media (NYT, ahem) starting to catch on to the form. I think we’ll see more “superlocal” blogs emerge – call them real estate microblogs, where rather than focusing on major metropolitan areas, they track real estate happenings in very specific areas, neighborhoods, etc.

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

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)

[photopress:inside_real_estate_screenshot.jpg,thumb,alignright]If you follow real estate issues on the web, then you’ve likely come across John Mudd. There is no one in real estate blogging that is quite like John. He’s a master at marketing giving him a nearly ubiqudous presence in real estate circles on the web!

My introduction to John was when I noticed this February 2005 press release where he was drumming up support for a blogging award. Not surprisingly, he went on to win the 2005 Business Blog Award for the best Real Estate blogger and I quickly learned that he was definitely a real estate blogger on top of his game. In addition to his highly successful blog, InsideRealEstateJournal.blogspot.com, he’s a regular contributor on the Inman blog and he runs a very successful real estate company in the St. Petersburg, Florida area where he sells luxury homes, waterfront homes and condos.

What inspired you to start blogging?

Adnan Arif. He and I went to the same college. I was in the student senate when I met him. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for student body president. What was born from that was a very nice student-run Web-magazine called MAXED. I wrote columns for it. Adnan published it. After college I wandered around for a little while, then settled into a public relations/publicity career. Then I went into real estate at my dad’s advice because it was a “money business.” Adnan sold me on my creating a real estate blog. I created one and have been getting sales from it ever since. He and I also created Hundred Acres ( www.hundredacres.com), which crashed when our host stopped service without telling us. He also has Wrist Fashion (www.wristfashion.com) and some other blogs (he should have them linked to on Wrist Fashion) that make for interesting reading from time to time.

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

I use my blog to generate leads that I convert into sales, so I usually like topics that inspire phone calls or direct contact using my Contact John form. I get a lot of those. Usually featured listings and recent solds get great responses, as do market reports and location reports ( i.e., downtown St. Petersburg).

What have you done to personalize your blog?

My name is on it. It’s everywhere on it. There are also news releases and plenty of news articles and blog posts about me on it. It’s my best self-promotion tool. I’m a big Web marketer.

Do you have any favorite posts?

I like the one about downtown St. Petersburg’s condo future a lot. I get a lot of calls on it.

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

Curbed (New York version; if they get a Tampa version up and running I hope they’ll let me contribute). Inman News Blog. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. Blog Herald. Gawker. Blogcritics. Luxist. The Diabetes Blog. Wonkette. I enjoy Steve Rubel’s blog and Jeremy Wright’s blog ( www.ensight.org) from time to time. Any blog that links to my blog or website. These are all on my blogroll or elsewhere on my blog.

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

Blogger. I’m a self-starter. I now have one Google AdSense ad on my blog, because they let me used targeted ads. That way real estate ads don’t appear there. I use Blogrolling for links, but I don’t really need to, I just did it that way since Blogrolling came out (it used to be hip to blogroll links, until Tucows bought them). I prefer hardcoding everything in. It’s not hard to do.

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

It is my business. My blog and my website are my business. I use mailings and ads to help brand my website. The blog drives traffic to both and helps with PageRank. All of my business comes from the Web, I would say. On a rare occasion it may come from a mailing or a sign call or meeting someone in person, but 98 percent of it comes from people I “meet” online first via e-mail or phone conversation as a result of what they read on my website or blog. I have a buyers list of around 5,000 buyers because of leads generated from my blog and website combined. I don’t know of any other Realtor or broker in the industry able to do that in two to three years on a $0 budget.

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

No plans, really. Same blogging strategy as always – post about interesting stuff that is worth posting about, get lots of leads. He/She who has the most contact information wins in a down market.

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

No wishes here, really. I would love it if I had artificial intelligence robot assistants to hep me with all this stuff, and it would be nice if I had a robot follow-up assistant. I have tried outsourcing it and no one has my technique for conversion, so it’s a waste of money and time. I convert the leads into sales, but I haven’t seen anyone else be able to. I figure I could program robots to have my style and tone. Never try to sell a prospect you get online or you will lose them.

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

Not much different, but we may see more transaction management systems integrated into websites. I wish we had seen those integrated into websites a year ago. Imagine, having your customers able to login on your website to view all of their transaction documents. That definitely adds value to your services. I think we’ll see more Google map integration, although that will depend on broker flexibility. Some IDX rules are far too static or too firm to allow for that, and some blogging software won’t allow for it, either. I see more real estate bloggers reviewing real estate products. I’m getting review requests by the ton as I write this. Realtor-bloggers are opinion leaders in their industry. When they talk people in the industry listen. Not everyone in the industry is comfortable with that, yet.

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

[photopress:Fran_photo2_Ed_Carreon.jpg,thumb,alignright]It is very appropriate that the first person who agreed to an interview was Fran of The Real Estate Blog. As I described in this post, The Real Estate Blog has been a major influence in the development Rain City Guide.

As a real estate agent, Fran will forever be linked with her teammate, Rowena. (I even find it hard to say “Fran” without saying “and Rowena”). They are one of the most successful real estate teams in Southern California, host a radio show , create some great caricatures, and write for one of the longest running real estate blog…

What inspired you to start blogging?

We started blogging (actually, it’s I … the Fran half … I do all the blogging) because it was the “new” thing on the internet back in 2003. I thought I’d give it a try!

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

Personally, I enjoy bringing back real estate-related stories from my travels. Real estate is a very popular topic anywhere you go.

What have you done to personalize your blog?

I’m not sure about this question. I know some people take their blog in a personal direction … that is, their blog is a reflection of their real estate business in that they use the blog to promote their business (perhaps put their listings on the blog, or post the latest information about themselves) but that’s not the focus of our blog. I’ve intentionally channeled our blog to be informational in a general sense, with what I hope is real estate-related snippets of info, usually with links to the bigger-picture online article.

If people want to learn more about US, there is a link from our blog to a short bio page.

Do you have any favorite posts?

One from my travels to North Carolina (July 13, 2005). . I thought that was interesting.

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

Actually, I don’t read blogs. I do not read other real estate blogs because I don’t want them to influence what I post on my blog.

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

I watch for online information about real estate, either through the MSN homepage, or from the California Association of Realtors (CAR) and the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Also, trade magazines, again from CAR and NAR. Plus, knowing that I have to blog (posting every-other-day), I keep my eyes and ears open for interesting information in the course of doing business.

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

We do not use the blog to market our business. It’s a separate venture. Our main website, www.franandrowena.com, is about our real estate business. Our blog is about real estate information in a general sense. Through www.franandrowena.com, however, there is a link to our blog. Hopefully people will be curious enough to visit our blog from there. Truly, it’s my opinion that the general public does not know what a blog is.

As far as marketing our business, I believe the “link” to our business is in terms of credibility. People who find our blog realize we are active, working realtors who try to keep on top of the latest information and share that information.

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

Good question! I’d like to bring a more personal touch to our blog, rather than just quote/reference information from other sources. More personal entries, insights and my opinions, for example.

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

I’ve got to figure out that trackback feature (a direct link to each entry).

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

Probably old news … people will be on to podcasting, or something new technology.

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

[photopress:coastal_tree.jpg,thumb,alignright]Inspired by Robert Scoble (and as part of my ongoing series on real estate blogging advice) I thought it would be a fun to interview some of my favorite real estate bloggers.

Along these lines, I emailed 10 questions to the dozen real estate bloggers who have most inspired me. I’ve already received some wonderful responses, so this endeavor should be a lot of fun. My plan is to release a new response each day, so keep coming back for some more Q&A fun!

The purpose of these questions is to better learn from the experience and get a vision of the future from each of these innovative bloggers. With real estate blogging (and business blogging) developing so quickly, I think this set of interviews will offer an interesting time-capsule into a genre that is sure to see new players and major changes in the near future.

Each of the interviews will be posted under the Real Estate Q&A category!