It is important to note that the real estate industry did not "invent" barcamps. Just like twitter and facebook and blogging, real estate peeps and tweeps enter the existing scene, and modify it as needed to meet their objectives. There have been recent discussions about the word "bar" being in the name, so it is important to note that this stems from the word "fubar", which is and has been a common "placeholder name" for an unknown quantity in Computer Programming. Barcamps are a spinnoff of "Foo Camp" and there are "wordcamps" and "mindcamps" and the potential for future "camps" is endless. 

They are "camps" because technically you are supposed to "camp out" for longer periods of time until you exhaust the views on the topic at hand. Seattle Mind Camp will run for 24 hours straight, but most REBarcamps are all day events with an informal gathering afterward...often at a "bar"...but that is not where the "bar" in barcamp comes from.

A "bar" is a placeholder for new information to be inserted (by many).

The best analogy I can think of is in "Good Will Hunting" where the professors posted an equation that they had taken as far as they could, and posted it in the hallway. They then invited any and all to work with it further...and the janitor (Matt Damon) was the one who surprisingly completed the problem at hand.

THAT is "a barcamp". It is a place where you bring your passion, your unsolved mysteries, your questions and your "would be" answers, to test and share, and for all to leave with more than they came in with. Not a place to come and "get" from those "in the know".

My hope is that one day REBarcamps will expand to the point where there are as many people NOT in the real estate industry attending, as there are people IN it attending. Because THAT would be a barcamp that invites a bit of "hacking" and even "cracking" the information appropriately. Hackers take the information and move it forward to a new level...expansion. Crackers gather information and use it to break into and chip away at a "secure system". While this is generally viewed as "a bad thing", in the real estate industry we need to bring together both hackers and crackers.

I have attended a few REbarcamps, and often the attendees treat it as a place to come and "get" vs. a place to come and "give". They also view it as a place to come and learn about how to make more money. I'm not sure if there is a right ad wrong to that. But clearly we need to break barcamps into two groups or tribes. One for people who want to use the internet to make more money...and others who want to help the internet be a better place to get information on an everyday basis for people who are not in the industry.

One of my clients once said that most real estate agents use new technology to perpetuate old bullshit. Only a few agents use new technology to provide efficencies to consumers, and help them understand THEIR side of the equation.

1) Do you use facebook and twitter and blogging to give info...or to sell something?

2) Do you go to a barcamp to find out how to get more "leads" and make more "deals"?

3) Do you go to a barcamp to figure out how to take the same things you have been doing for years to a new audience...vs "a new level"?

We are talking about the internet becoming a place to get more and more info to make intelligent and well informed decisions. Now let's add "Who you mean "WE", kemosabe?" A kemosabe is a trusted scout who is often at the same time a "faithful friend". Barcamps...Wordcamps...Mindcamps, all, require a willingness for "the scouts" to share and guide freely and LEARN.  It is time to define "what works" in terms of what works best for buyers and sellers of homes, and not "what works" for industry insiders. (A side observatiion...those who come to figure out how to "sell"...usually get "sold" something.)

Lately REbarcamps have even become popularity contests. Who and how many came? I'd much rather have a barcamp of 30 people. 10 tech people, 10 REindustry people, and 10 consumers who help teach us where we are lacking, and possibly on the wrong track, vs 600 'how can we make more money using the internet" people.

So the REAL question is not "What IS an REbarcamp?"...but what SHOULD it be, looking out 5 years. They (or at least half of them) should not be about how WE can save more, make more and use the internet better...they should be about how consumers can save more, make more and use the internet better. Think about that...and leave the words "deal" and "lead" at the door the next time you "attend" an REbarcamp. Have a CONSUMER focused...how can we make everthing better for THEM barcamp.

So my challenge to you might be...be the person at an REbarcamp who may not be doing...what everyone else is doing.

 

Every Song the Beatles Gave Away

On a lighter note :) I'd like to share this cool compilation in Kim's collection. If I can find the actual songs on blip.fm as I go, I will link it through to the actual song.

All of these songs were written by Lennon & McCartney, except Sour Milk Sea and Badge both written by George Harrison.

1963

HELLO LITTLE GIRL  - Gerry and The Pacemakers

I'LL BE ON MY WAY - Billy J. Kramer

BAD TO ME - Billy J. Kramer

TIP OF MY TONGUE - Tommy Quickly

LOVE OF THE LOVED - Cilla Black

I'LL KEEP YOU SATISFIED - Billy J. Kramer

I'M IN LOVE - The Fourmost

1964

A WORLD WITHOUT LOVE - Peter and Gordon

ONE AND ONE IS TWO - Shannon

NOBODY I KNOW - Peter and Gordon

LIKE DREAMERS DO - The Applejacks

FROM A WINDOW - Billy J. Kramer

IT'S FOR YOU - Cila Black

I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN - Peter & Gordon

1965

THAT MEANS A LOT - P. J. Broby

1966

WOMAN - Peter & Gordon

1967

WE LOVE YOU - The Rolling Stones

LOVE IN THE OPEN AIR - George Martin Orchestra

CATCALL - Chris Barber Band

1968

SOUR MILK SEA - Jackie Lomax

STEP INSIDE LOVE - Cilla Black

THIMGUMYBOB - Black Dyke Mills Band

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - Mary Hopkin

1969

BADGE - Cream

COME AND GET IT - Badfinger

GOODBYE - Mary Hopkin

PENINA - Carlos Mendez

PENINA - Jotta Here

 

 

 

 

Greedy real estate agents

Like most of you, I received an email today highlighting the post "Give us your commission or else..."

1) Do not get involved with REO or Short Sale properties, if you do not understand the concept of "short".

2) If you are going to write a post about how everyone should give til it hurts [except YOU] have the good sense to make it a Members Only post.

3) To whomever chooses the posts that go into the highlighted list via newsletter...don't pretend you are a friend to the industry, and then highlight posts that pander to the negative realities of this industry.

Anytime an agent puts their own best interest ahead of their client's best interest...it is a very sad day in real estate. For everyone to suffer due to an agent's inability to "begin with the end in mind" is a travesty, and an injustice to all the parties who worked so hard up to this point only to have the agent scrap the whole transaction due to selfishness.

To then BRAG about how you stopped the transaction! God almighty...stop slapping that person on the back for "digging in their heels" and causing all parties to be damaged by the agent's greed. Give the transaction to another agent, before you take zero and take everyone down with you!

I cannot believe that any good person on earth would view taking everyone down the tube to failure as a good thing!

RE-DEFINE SUCCESS! THE ONLY MEANINGFUL SUCCESS IS THE SUCCESS OF YOUR CLIENT!

EVERYONE LOSES...IS NEVER A GOOD DAY...NEVER. EVERYONE LOSES BECAUSE EVERYONE GAVE TIL IT HURT...EXCEPT THE AGENT WHO BANISHED EVERYONE'S HOPES FOR A SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME? A VERY, VERY SAD DAY....

...and then they wonder why people hate Realtors...who don't have the good sense they were born with...

No feeling of regret to all the other parties damaged by this one agent's act of complete selfishness...not to mention that ANY real estate professional would have been able to see that outcome coming from day ONE!

I repeat...DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH "SHORT" SALES, IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF THE WORD "SHORT"!

 

My new laptop came with Picasa 3 as the photo editor. I've always used HP Image Zone, but decided it was time to try something new. But for some reason I can't find a photo resizing tool in Picasa 3, and I resize a lot!

I just tried DrPic.com as suggested on twitter...but I can only save the resized photo as a url. Funny, when all I could do was browse, everyone wanted a url. Now that I have a url...there's only a browse button on twitpic and facebook. So I'm posting the url here so I can hopefully grab the photo.

Worth a try...

Nope...If anyone knows how to resize a photo in Picasa 3...or if you know Picasa three isn't worth a crap and I should just stop using it :) - please let me know.

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

A Vlog :) In preparation for a series of vlogs on real estate, I'm trying to get video out of my flip video and into a blog post.

This is my grandaugher Xochitl and Mike.  Don't miss the big finish...that's assuming I am able to get the video up and playing. Crossing my fingers.

 

A vlog :)

Someday My Prince Will Come from Ardell DellaLoggia on Vimeo.

 

Most people buying real estate are either:

1) first time buyers who rented before they purchased

or

2) move up buyers who grew out of their first home.

Both types of homebuyers, should put much time into the process of buying and moving up.  In fact, they should plan for that event before they rent their first apartment, or buy their first home.

"Dont Spend Your House Money on Coffee" is a post designed to help people plan ahead, and spend the least amount on current housing expense, unless they are buying a home they can see themselves living in for their whole lives.

Setting your long term goals before you do something that hinders achieving them, is a very, very good idea.

 

Had a great meetup with Dustin Luther at Hennessey's in Hermosa Beach. He said he often is asked the question "Why doesn't ARDELL follow me on Twitter? Is it because I am not an interesting follow?"

There are so many people who blog on Active Rain that I would like to follow, but I find the redundancy so annoying.

Just posted on ActiveRain:

Just posted on ActiveRain:

Just posted on ActiveRain:

I expect that's an autofeed, but if you follow 100 people or more who blog on ActiveRain, the redundacy of "Just posted on ActiveRain" grows exponentially to the point where my whole screen is filled with "Just Posted on ActiveRain" tweets.

Sometimes "less is best" and posting your best stuff to Twitter, instead of every single post, and remembering to actually TALK to people on Twitter, will put the "social" back into Social Media.

Until then...I must admit...sometimes I hit "unfollow" the minute I see "Just Posted to ActiveRain".  Not because I don't like the people who blog here...but because the redundancy drives me up the wall and pushes me away.

Not that you should necessarily care what I think... but passing that on FWIW regarding others who may feel the same way.

 

I just returned from a trip to The Beach Cities in Los Angeles California. While I was there visiting my children. It was my youngest daughter Andrea's 21st birthday. Here she is with her boyfriend Ryan, she in "the birthday tiara".

Between turning 55 in June and my youngest turning 21, I started my quest of doing a few things I've been wanting to do, but just haven't gotten around to doing.

I'm a little young for a bucket list. I'm starting with the small stuff :)

I had my first mojito with Dustin Luther who popped a photo of it on to Twitter just as I was ready to take my first sip using his TwitPic application via his cell phone.

Didn't get around to my first "put cucumbers on your eyes".  I'll have to google how long I need to keep them on there for whatever good they may do.  If anyone does the cucumbers on the eyes thing, would apprecaite some tips on how to do that and if it is worthwhile.

I had my eyebrows waxed.  Something I've never done and always wanted to try.  The took took much off one and now they don't match one another :(

...and...I had my first ever Red Bull!

I'm seriously thinking of taking a morning walk to the 7-11 in beautiful Downtown Kirkland WA and drinking a Red Bull before starting my day today. I'm such a high energy person already, that I was afraid of going into "high gear".  I actually waited until I had some "supervision" in case I started spinning around in circles and my brain exploded.

Happy to report...had my first Red Bull...and I didn't self distruct :)

 

ARDELL DellaLoggia

I Blog about Seattle Real Estate and industry issues at Rain City Guide

I Blog about Seattle Area Real Estate including Eastside Real Estate on my blog.

I represent buyers and sellers of real estate in the Seattle Area

Front page news "above the fold" Seattle PI 2/10/09

One of the Top 10 Female Real Estate Bloggers in 2006

One of the Top 25 Most Influential Real Estate Industry Bloggers in 2007 per Inman News

Wrote one of the The Magnificent 7 Real Estate Blog Posts of 2008

From Anthony Carr - Realty Times"

"Broker and blogger Ardell DellaLoggia, reads the home sales statistics

 like a stock broker reads the daily Wall Street returns."

Quoted in:

Seattle Weekly

Business Week

Wall Street Journal

On the Dave Ross show 2/10/09 at 10:15

On the Tom Kelly Real Estate radio show, Seattle - twice

On Inman TV via YouTube "you're not the commercial; you're the show"

ARDELL on Zillow.com

ARDELL on Trulia Voices

You can follow me on Twitter @ARDELLd

Greg Swann at Bloodhoundblog has this to say: "ARDELL DellaLoggia, who writes on her own weblog and on Rain City Guide gets most, possibly all, of her new business from real estate weblogging. How does she do it? With an empathy that seems to me to be infinitely maternal. It's when she's talking about true justice for the consumer that she forges client relationships. It's not so much what she says, nor even the way she says it. What matters is that her readers believe that she believes in the high standard of customer service she upholds.

ARDELL is sui generis, non plus ultra, as fundamentally convinced of her internal rectitude as St. Jeanne d'Arc. If you regard what she is doing as schtick, a performance, you won't be able to pull it off. ARDELL glows from the inside out, and so must you to follow your own sword into Holy War. ARDELL connects, emotionally, even viscerally, and she can make clients out of her readers before they get to the second paragraph.

 

This is a Destiny Reading for one of my Twitter Friends.  I come from some gypsy lineage (tiny bit of Mongolian blood from my mother's side) with a knack for Tarot Reading, etc...  I didn't pay a lot of attention to it until my children were losing focus on the meaning of life in their pre-teen and teen years :).  I often had a house full of young girls who only worried about which boy liked them this week, so I started doing Destiny Readings.  It created a major transformation among the young women, my daughters and their friends, to think they had a personal real Destiny to fulfill.  Their self image was no longer about who liked them...how they acted...what they wore...what they looked like...

It's a combination of Chinese Astrology, Tarot, Birthday Analysis and Destiny Era charts...all rolled into one.  A bit of intuition/talent blends them together into one basic "Destiny" and primary purpose.  I do believe there is one big thing we come here to "complete". And if you don't look for it...you will leave this earth without having done it and will keep coming back until the job is done.  Of course I am also very grounded in the Catholic Faith and Judaeo/Christian teachings.  I don't view any one way as the ONLY way, and I roll everything into one until it blends into a world of great compassion and understanding. 

It's never a bad thing to FOCUS on something, so whether you believe that THIS is truly your Destiny...it really doesn't matter.  Improving focus on accomplishment is always a good thing.

The Destiny of this person is so very different from my own, that it has taken me a bit of time to blend into a primary purpose.  Your purpose is usually the OPPOSITE of what you do naturally and comfortably, day in and day out.  You may have heard the saying "What you RESIST...PERSISTS."  If you are an introvert, as example, your Destiny is likely about interaction outside of your personal world.  If you are an extrovert, then the reverse is likely true.

Sad to say that while generally speaking for this person, Spring and Summer are normally the best times to progress toward her ultimate destiny (vs. Fall and Winter), 2009 is the WORST year since 1997, and will not get a lot better until 2011 and 2012.  On  the bright side, that imposes less urgency to change in the near future :)

It is not surprising that her WORK has nothing at all to do with her destiny. Her work encompasses a wide territory and many people on a daily basis.  Her Destiny is VERY PERSONAL. She is here to work on herself.  She is not here to invent or create something for others, She is here to find contentment with her inner self.

In this Year of the Ox, that will be an exceptional struggle.  She will be pulled to areas that create self doubt and to some extent, even self loathing. For some that could create a year of great personal advancement IF they fight through it...but this person is not likely going to fight through it, so she needs to do a few things in 2009:

1) Surround yourself  with people who truly like you for Who You Are.

2) Avoid people who put you down in any way shape or form...just move away from them, hang up on them, refuse to engage with them, tune them out and nod if you must and get away from them as soon as humanly possible.

3) Declutter the area you spend most of your time in.  Remove anything that does not make you smile and add things that do make you smile, and keep them there and in the same place for a full year.  Don't keep changing your space.  Make it most comfortable and leave it alone until your birthday in 2010.

4) Expect the tendency to undervalue yourself to be the strongest this year...and fight it by ignoring it. Anytime you feel you didn't do "good enough", take a walk or better yet, indulge in an "escapist" activity like an uplifting movie that refocuses your thoughts. Don't try to reverse the feeling by "doing" (which is your natural tendency)...move away from it.

YOUR PRIMARY AND ULTIMATE DESTINY is to disassociate your feelings of self worth from your work. But that is difficult because you are work driven, and the more you stay in the driver's seat and refuse to be a passenger of life, the worse it gets.

YOUR PRIMARY TALENTS ARE NOT IN THE AREA OF FINANCE.  Understand that you are not meant to be good at that which you are not good at, and don't perceive those things as "your weaknesses".  Of the many things you can be good it...you are not meant to be good at all of them for a reason.

You feel a strong sense of needing to do something important for others...but the reality is, you are meant to be content with yourself. All the other things will COME to you, when you find yourself, contentment with yourself, maximum self esteem...all the things you seek you will actually drive away, until you come to a full understanding of your self and know that ultimately it is not what you DO, but Who You Are, that is most important.

To Thine Own Self Be True...the rest will fall into place once you ALWAYS honor only yourself.  Your sense of duty, ethics and fairness, which are very strong...will cause you to think this cannot be true...but it is also why it IS true.

Oddly, many on your Kharmic Path will try to fulfill their need to improve self-worth with "the need to be needed" by many, and at all times.  To make the most progress, make sure your non-work times of which there are few, are filled with non-work people and non-work activities.  On the bright side, becasue you don't indulge in pleasures enough...when you do...the pleasure from the activity is magnified.

If there was ever a year to balance work with relaxation...this is it!  If you don't...you will be much worse for the wear by the first new moon of 2010. 

 
 
Rainmaker_large

ARDELL DellaLoggia

Seattle, WA

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Sound Realty

Office Phone: (206) 696-3493

Cell Phone: (206) 910-1000

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