The Altos Research Real Estate Marketing Blog

Check your Blog Post URLs - Are they Search Engine Optimized?

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:24:48 -0500

A quick search engine optimization (SEO) tip to share today...

Check out this excellent blog post by Greg Fleischaker in Louisville, KY - "Homes For Sale Louisville: Home Prices Drop Back Down To April Levels." Here's why the post is really good:

It's succinct - very easy for the reader to grab and read the info that Greg is sharing
He's talking about relevant market information - answering the "How's the market?" question that EVERYONE has.
There's an image included - in this case, he's using an AltosChart to show the reader the trends that he's discussing.
Greg's included his own analysis to show his readers his local market expertise.

As I was reading Greg's blog, there was one place that I noticed he could improve - and it's not even in the blog post itself - it's in the URL of the blog post.

Here's the blog post URL:

http://www.louisvillekyrealestateblog.com/?p=526

The p=526 is the way that his blogging software indexes the article - it automatically assigns a number to the blog post. However, one of Google's SEO variables is key words in the URL. When Google sends out it's search engine crawlers to see what is on a web page (or a blog post in this case), one of the biggest variables is the URL. If the URL contains key words, that will dramatically help with page ranking in Google.

For example, from a recent post on the Altos Research blog:

http://blog.altosresearch.com/us-housing-reports-releases-september-2009/

Notice how the title of the post is in the URL? This will help on Google when people search on Google for "US Housing Reports," Google sees that search term in the blog post URL and then says - "Here's a webpage that has what the searcher is looking for" and thus helps page ranking for individual posts.

Most blogging software programs such as WordPress should have a tool that allows you to change the "p=526" to match the title of your post.

That's my quick tip of the week. (And don't worry - I asked Greg if it was okay to feature his blog in this post. He does excellent work blogging and on Twitter!)

Internet Marketing Tip: Books worth reading

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:11:01 -0500

Just a couple of books I've come across that I recommend reading, and then IMPLEMENTING the ideas they are presenting:

"Landing Page Optimization" by Tim Ash - Goes through the ins and outs of web page conversation. Lots of great examples from successful and unsuccessful websites including screen shots of what to do and what not to do. Discuss ROI for your landing pages as well. Excellent read and a very clear "how-to" guide.

Here's a video with Tim Ash explaining some of his concepts.

"Always Be Testing" by Brian Eisenberg - Introduces you to Google's Website Optimizer (it's free) and how to use it.

Why is this important? Have you ever really thought about how your website visitors see (or not see) the content on your website. For example, did you know about some of the visual tests that have been run on website reading patterns? Or about the concept of "Landing Page Eye Tracking"? You'll notice that these publications are a couple of years old, yet nearly every real estate agent website that I visit eschews these basic concepts.

Check them out or you might as well spend your time walking neighborhoods every Tuesday or sending recipe cards in the mail. You'll get the same result.

After REBarcamp-Seattle...

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:41:56 -0500

Just a couple of quick follow-ups to this week's REBarcamp-Seattle. Thank you to Zillow for putting together the event. With the number of attendees well over 300, there was lots of enthusiasm and sharing to go around.

If you missed it, I hosted two sessions:

"How to REALLY Grab 'em" - We discussed specific strategies for internet and web marketing, reviewing agent and broker websites from across the country that have done a particularly nice job of successfully marketing on the web.
"Beat the Headlines. Be the Local Market Expert." - This session was all about how to reach your buyers and sellers with local market stats to educate and inform. Lots of times we hear the headlines to the real estate story, but those headlines don't apply your client. Additionally, there are numerous market stats that you can use - it's more than just price to communicate effectively. Some examples include looking at inventory trends, days-on-market by price zone, the price of new listings coming into the market, and more.

If you'd like to see the slides for our presentations, you can check them out here. This link will redirect you to a custom page on AltosResearch.com to access and download the presentation:

If you're not in the Seattle area, be sure to find a REBarcamp close to you. Yes, they are worth taking a day from your business even if you have to drive a couple of hours! We've been huge supporters of the movement, attending as many as possible. It's a great concept that the real estate industry has needed.

And finally, if you're not familiar with us here at Altos Research, well, you should be! We help agents answer that question you get every day - "How's the market?" Our subscriptions and solutions for real estate agents are designed to help you keep your prospects, leads, and clients up-to-date with the latest market data with:

Real-time, automated data on your website
Automatic lead generation and lead capture tools for your website
Personally-branded market reports for your meetings and drip marketing

We're also bloggers - discussing the real estate market on our company blog, appropriately titled - "How's the market?"

(Yes, it's cool stuff!)

Altos Research on RETomato's Blog Talk Radio Today, 3:00 PM Pacific

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:54:19 -0500

Just a quick note to let you know that our fearless leader and CEO here at Altos Research has the distinct honor of serving as this week's guest on the RETomato's Blog Talk Radio.

The Details:

Topic: Mike's 3 Question Philosophy

When the consumer shows up on your website and blog, they only have 3 questions:

What's for sale?
How much is the house worth?
How's the market?

…and therefore your site needs to answer those three questions immediately. How does clear market data help accomplish this?

They'll also be discussing:

What makes a good blog post?
What do real estate consumers need to know?
How do people respond to and understand data?
How do you use data for lead conversion?
How effective are the PDF data reports?

___________________________

If you're not familiar with the RETomato's Blog Talk Radio, here's some background:

Jim Cronin and Jason Benesch of the well loved Real Estate Tomato, team up to discuss anything and everything to do with Real Estate Marketing Online. Together they have helped thousands of Realtors develop a superior internet presence. The RET focus is on personal training, the embrace of social media, and the development of beautiful and powerful blogsites.

This Week's Carnival of Real Estate

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:44:00 -0500

We owned the distinct honor of hosting this week's Carnival of Real Estate on our Altos Research blog. This was personally my first effort, so I hope you find my take educational and entertaining.

Check out this week's posts here.

Upcoming O'Reilly Webcast - "Creating Your Social Media Policy"

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:15:08 -0500

Just fresh in my inbox and straight to Active Rain! I'm a big fan of O'Reilly Media, and while some of there webcasts and sessions can get super-techie, others are excellent at stretching the brain and thinking outside of just "real estate."

Here's an upcoming webcast that I just learned about that you might think about attending. While this is intended with organizations in mind, not individuals, I'm sure there will be some excellent takeaways for those running a team, brokerage, or just like to think of their business practice and themselves in different ways:

Creating Your Social Media Policy (click here to sign up)
Presented by Joshua-Michéle Ross of O'Reilly Radar

Social media such as blogs, microblogs (e.g. Twitter) and social networks blur the boundaries between company roles (who speaks for the company on a blog, Twitter or Facebook?) and the border between the company and the outside world.

The Social Web is about communities, collaboration, peer production and user-generated content. It is a place where business reputations are defined by customer opinions and ratings, where press is delivered by independent bloggers, and product development and insight is driven by customers. As digital natives—those who have grown up with the Internet—flood the workplace, your employees will expect to be part of the Social Web and they'll have a lot to contribute.

Big corporations are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to harness the benefits of increased employee participation and customer engagement while mitigating the risks.

This webcast will review guidelines for corporations considering how to responsibly integrate social media in the workplace. After delivering the framework, Joshua will open the webcast to a Q&A discussion.

Who should attend: Any professional or executive thinking of using social media in the workplace.

If you have any specific questions you would like answered during the webcast—please send email to webcast@oreilly.com.

What does Google see on YOUR website? Maybe nothing.

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:51:51 -0500

An important component of your Internet marketing strategy is "search engine optimization" (a.k.a. "SEO"). This is a fancy term that just means - "What do search engines like Google see when they look at your website."

Among the factors that Google uses to rank you website and it's webpages are keyword terms and how those search terms are structured. If you want to "see" what Google sees when they visit a page on your website, check out this free online tool:

This is one of the simplest tools that you'll find to help you with your website and webpage development. On this site, you just enter the webpage that you would like to analyze, and click "Parse URL." Immediately, you'll be able to see how Google views your page when it sends out it's little robots to find key words across the Internet.

As an illustration, here's an image of a page from BlogbytheBay.com (Ginger Wilcox in Marin, CA):

Now, when I run this page on seo-browser.com, here's what Google sees:

Notice how Google only sees the text, not the images? If the key words on your website are embedded in images or in Flash animations, Google can't see them! Also, your key words should be in the headings - the bold print in the output that seo-browser.com provides. (This webpage I'm using to illustrate on Ginger's website was built using the Altos Research "MyWebpage Builder" tool on her account. These pages are pre-built and already "SEO-optimized" for some of the key terms for each area such as "Kentfield Real Estate Market.")

You can use seo-browser.com for any individual webpage on your website, or even for specific blog posts. It's a great way to see if your blog post is hitting the "long tail" key words that you're hoping to focus on. (And if you don't know what "long tail" means, check out this article on Wired Magazine from a few years ago.)

Play around with a few of your webpages throughout your website to see how each page varies. This will give you a set of "to-dos" that you can quickly fix to help with SEO. Keep in mind that optimizing your website for search engine key terms is not the only factor that Google examines, but this certainly will help you incrementally.

Give me a call or email if you want to discuss strategy!

Keeping the Momentum & Spirit of REBarcamps (especially if you didn't attend!)

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:17:59 -0500

I've been fortunate enough to attend a number of the REBarcamps over the past year - (San Francisco, New York City, Houston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City). At EVERY event, attendees and organizers ask a fundamental question -

How do we keep the momentum that we've built at the REBarcamp? - exchanging ideas, learning new technologies, staying motivated. Well, Richardo Bueno, organizer of the REBarcamp-Los Angeles has figured it out:

Hey Gang,

I'm happy to say that we're having a Realtor/Blogger Meetup & Tweetup this Thursday at Aroma Coffee & Tea from 11:00am - 1:00pm. if you're a blogger, techie, and social media wannabe, then this is the place to be!

Most of the group is the same crowd that you saw at REBarCamp Los Angeles so there should be some great energy in the room and a lot of great discussions circulating around. Also, we'll be talking about a little mastermind group that we've been thinking of hosting...

(More details on that can be found at www.lamastermind.com). For now, here are the details on the meetup: Thursday Meetup @ Aroma Coffe & Tea If you can make it, be sure to RSVP via the event page so we can call ahead an reserve enough table space.

See ya there!

Ricardo Bueno

The lesson here - REBarcamp is not a one-time event. It's a movement that you have to ride every week, every month in your local area. Take advantage of your new network and contacts. Create a group on MeetUp.com - continue the positive energy by getting together with your new friends and colleagues.

(And Ricardo - you are the man! Nice work!)

T2 Partners Presentation on the Mortgage Crisis

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:43:22 -0500

I usually like to focus on marketing ideas and events here on Active Rain, but seeing that I work with a real-time real estate data company (Altos Research if you didn't know...), an occasional post with lots of data beckons from time to time.

Mike Simonsen passed along a link to this presentation that I'd thought I share here. If you like numbers, this is your kind of presentation.

T2 Partners is a financial investment company that posted this presentation and accumulated research about the current mortgage market. Enjoy!

Salt Lake City - This is your chance! #rebcslc

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:39:32 -0500

REBarcamp-Salt Lake City is TOMORROW! (Friday, June 5), so this is my last push to reach out to the Real Estate Professionals in the Salt Lake City area...

Be there! Or be just another real estate agent!

Here's the email sent by Rob Aubrey, one of the event's main organizers - all of the reasons that you should schedule time on Friday to build your knowledge, your practice, and most importantly, your service to your clients. Make sure you register TODAY ---

RE BarCamp is a fabulous FREE day of sharing and learning.

What makes a BarCamp the best event you’ll attend this year? YOU set the agenda. YOU come to learn and to share only the things YOU are interested in!

The main focus of the Salt Lake BarCamp on June 5th is Social Media & Technology.

Topics Include:

Blogging
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook
Search Engine Optimization
Podcasting
Web Marketing
Google
and MORE!

Come learn about the tools and technologies successful agents are using in this economy. Have YOU found a tool or strategy that has helped your business? Come share it with a group of people EAGER to listen!

BarCamp is:

fun
interactive
fulfilling
exciting
refreshing
eye-opening
motivating
inspiring
powerful
FREE

You can’t afford NOT to come to this FREE event if you want your business to thrive like never before, even in this economy!

There will be a wide variety of topics and no hard selling of products or services. This is about SHARING information so that we can all take our businesses to the next level. Recent BarCamps in Phoenix, LA, New York and many other major markets have had as many as 50 or more sessions, all within 1 amazing day of opportunity.

RE Bar Camps are FREE for attendees. There are prizes and giveaways. Lunch will be provided for AT LEAST the first 100 who register, so don’t delay!

To register a friend go to Register A Friend

DATE: Friday, June 5th, 2009

TIME: 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

PLACE: Salt Lake Board of Realtors Campus
230 W. Towne Ridge Parkway, #200
Sandy, UT 8407

Anyone who has ANYTHING to do with a Real Estate Transaction is invited to attend. Again, this is FREE. All we ask is that you register.

What to tell your clients when you're at REBarcamp

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:47:36 -0500

Another week means another REBarcamp! On Friday, it's the Salt Lake City version of this wonderful event. If you're new to the REBarcamp events, learn more about it here. Thank you to Rob Aubrey and eveyone else that's been organizing.

Yes, I know what you're thinking - "But it's on a Friday, and I have soooooo much to do to prepare for the weekend. Buyers ready to take a second look at the house their considering, meetings with sellers, getting ready for the final Spring-time push as schools start to close and parents are preparing to move this Summer."

And that's EXACTLY why you should take time for your day to attend REBarcamp-SLC on Friday. Huh?

Check out what these attendees from the REBarcamp-Phoenix had to say:

http://rebarcamp.com/phoenix

Need more convincing, well, as Dale Chumbley put it -

It's the middle of the Spring and you're busy (woohoo!). But, like every good business owner, you have to continue to develop your own knowledge and business with fresh ideas. What do you do when the phone rings on Thursday evening or Friday morning while you're on the way to the day's event and someone needs your help?

Here's what Dale suggests you tell your clients:

Thank you for the call, I’m happy to help you. Unfortunately, I’m already scheduled full on Thursday (every other professional in the world does it, why don’t we?). However, I’m available this weekend of Monday. Which works better for you?

Beautiful!

You owe it to your business, your clients, and yourself to make this the "boulder" in your time schedule.

Need more convincing? Check out the real-time conversations on Twitter from agents and the topics that have been covered in other recent REBarcamps, including links to more about the presentations and learning sessions:

Portland, OR

Philadelphia, PA

Denver, CO

If you're serious about learning and building your real estate practice, then this is a MUST! This is a free event - you just need to register and the rest is up to you. I'll see you in Salt Lake City.

-----

Follow the the REBarcamp-Salt Lake City events on Twitter:

REBarcamp-Portland: #rebcslc

"How I use social media sites in 140 characters or less."

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:38:41 -0500

Jami Mullikin is a friend from college that started his own marketing firm - Hill Mullikan. His web bio is simply - "My right brain is cursed by my left."

I'm a "fan" of his on Facebook and came across his blog post today - "How I use social media in 140 characters or less" From his post. Using the Twitter 140-character rule, he describes how to use many of the common social media tools:

It is hard to have a personal or professional conversation these days without facebook or twitter coming up. In an effort to keep my message short and sweet, or twitter-style, I thought this would be an easy way to share how these sites have become part of my daily grind and why.

Facebook.com - Connect with 37 years of friends and family, remember how many things we all have in common and hope they remember me as a marketer.

LinkedIn.com - Connect with professional peers, share network...

Read the rest of the post here....

Enjoy!

Carrying the Torch: REBarcamp Lives On After the Event!

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:09:24 -0500

Received this Facebook update from Ricardo Bueno in Los Angeles:

Hey Gang,

We're kicking off our very first REBCLA monthly meetup this upcoming weekend at Barney's Beanery in Pasadena. More information is located on our event page here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=83976001057

The date is set for Saturday, May 9th from ~6:00 - 10:00pm. It'll be an evening of dinner, drinks and pool.

Get out of your feedreader, step away from the computer and head out to Pasadena for an evening of IRL socializing! We'll have some great giveaways for you there. Stop by the event page and check 'em out: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=83976001057

See you there...

Ricardo Bueno

Why is this som important? Because it's the first (that I know of) where the local real estate professionals are continuning the great start from REBarcamp. You wouldn't go to a gym for a workout and say to yourself - "Great, now I'm in shape!" You have to continue to go regularly to exercise. Barcamp isn't a one-time event - it's a movement and a way to conduct your business practice.

I hope other cities that have hosted Barcamps will learn from Ricardo and do the same.

Webinar Recording: Using Facebook and Salesforce for Viral Marketing

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:36:10 -0500

This webinar was hosted by Appirio, who does all kinds of Web 2.0 software and business applications. I did not attend the webinar so I can't vouch for the content, but Appirio has some outstanding products so I would guess that the info presented would certainly match their standards.

Click here for a link to the recorded webinar.

(There is a registration form to view the webinar, but they're not spammers so not to worry.)

What to tell your clients when you're at REBarcamp

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:58:43 -0500

(Thank you to Dale Chumbley for this nugget of knowledge...)

It's the middle of the Spring and you're busy (woohoo!). But, like every good business owner, you have to continue to develop your own knowledge and business with fresh ideas. You've decided to attend either REBarcamp-Portland or REBarcamp-Phoenix. What do you do when the phone rings on Thursday morning (that's tomorrow!) while you're on the way to the day's event and someone needs your help?

Here's what Dale suggest:

Beautiful!

You owe it to your business, your clients, and yourself to make this the "boulder" in your time schedule.

I'll see you in Portland and Mike Simonsen will be representing Altos Research in Phoenix. We'll see you there!

-----

Follow the events on Twitter:

REBarcamp-Portland: #rebcpdx

REBarcamp-Phoenix: #rebcphx

REBarcamp - Phoenix next week! (April 23)

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:23:54 -0500

I'm sorry to say that I'm missing the Phoenix REBarcamp next week - Mike Simonsen will be haeding south while I head north for the Portland REBarcamp on the same day - Thursday next week!

What: RE BarCamp Phoenix

Who: Realtors, lenders, title, escrow, appraisers, inspectors, virtual assistants, home stagers and anyone else in the real estate world who wants to improve their social media game.

When: April 23, 2009. Time 8:30 - 5:30

Where: Scottsdale Stadium

7408 E. Osborn Road (Northeast of Osborn and Drinkwater) Scottsdale, AZ 85251

-----

Mike will present our "Why Market Data Matters Now More Than Ever" workshop, which he wrote about on Agent Genuis recently.

REBarcamp - Portland next week! (April 23)

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:19:45 -0500

Getting geared up for Portland's REBarcamp on Thursday next week!

What: RE BarCamp Portland

Who: Realtors, lenders, title, escrow, appraisers, inspectors, virtual assistants, home stagers and anyone else in the real estate world who wants to improve their social media game.

When: 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Where: CubeSpace 622 SE Grand Avenue, Portland, OR 97214

-----

I'll be there to present our "Why Market Data Matters Now More Than Ever" workshop. Mike Simonsen, our CEO, wrote about this topic on Agent Genuis recently. I've also participated in other sessions on using Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. Such a wonderful opportunity to MINDSHARE!

If you can't make it, send me an email and I'll send along the presentation.

Hope to see you there!

REBarcamp Los Angeles this week! (in Pasadena)

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:37:25 -0500

All the details that you need are right here on the REBarcamp-Los Angeles website.

Location: Pasadena Hilton
168 South Los Robles Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101
Time: 9:00am to 5:00pm
Cost: FREE! But you have to RSVP here.

Follow the event on Twitter: @REBarcampLA

If you're in the Los Angeles area and have yet to attend a "barcamp" - this is a MUST DO event! For those of us that have attended barcamps across the country, it's easy to get used to them. But, those of us that have attended are traveling country - it's easy to forget that the Barcamps in each area are always brand new to that market.

If you've never heard of a "barcamp," here's the quick skinny:

Real Estate Barcamp Los Angeles is essentially a one-day social media marketing conference for the Real Estate industry. Attendees are expected to learn the direct business application of social media for their business.

Learning topics will include all areas of social media such as:

    * Blogging for Business in Real Estate
    * Best Blogging Platforms to Use
    * Building A Web 2.0 Brokerage
    * Twitter Tips
    * Facebook Marketing
    * LinkedIn Business & Referral Strategies
    * Video Blogging (vlogging)
    * Leveraging Social Networks such as Active Rain
    * Marketing on Networks like Trulia & Zillow
    * SEO Tips & Tricks
    * Managing Web Leads
    * Podcasting
    * Building Your Database
      ...and much, much more!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

REBarcamp Chicago announced for June 15

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:48:25 -0500

Another REBarcamp coming to a city near you! Just learned that REBarcamp-Chicago will be announced for June 15. Time and place will be posted very soon on the REBarcamp website.

Following the planning and the event on Twitter: #rebcchi

People to contact about the event:

Tony Lazzari (@TonyLazz)

Todd Carpenter (@tcar)

Mike Simonsen, our CEO here at Altos Research, is from Chicago. Chances that we'll be there = 100%!

Webinar next month - "Using Facebook and Salesforce for Viral Marketing"

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:47:20 -0500

Using Facebook and Salesforce for Viral Marketing

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PDT

From the announcement I received via email:

"Join Clara Shih (author of The Facebook Era) and Ryan Nichols (VP, Products at Appirio) as we explore how enterprises are are turning to Facebook and Salesforce.com to help drive word of mouth referrals and track them through to new leads, pipeline and revenue."

To attend, just click here to register.

Hosted by Appirio. I like this company - they have a bunch of very cool "cloud computing" applications (technical definition here from TechTarget, layman's definition here from InfoWorld, including an application that links your Google calendar to your Salesforce.com CRM.

"Why Market Data Matters Now More Than Ever" Presentation Slides

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:56:12 -0500

In case you missed it from REtechSouth, here's a link to our presentations slides from our session "Why Market Data Matters Now More Than Ever" session on Slideshare (just click on the link to access).

To follow Mike Simonsen, Altos Research (or me!) on Twitter:

@mikesimonsen

@altosresearch

@scottsambucci

REtechSouth - Twitter Updates

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:15:21 -0500

If you're not one of the fortunate 400+ people here in Atlanta today for the REtechSouth conference, you can follow the action with Twitter hash tag = #rets

"The Rising Power Of Social Media As A Traffic Driver"

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:12:41 -0500

Fred Wilson is a leading voice in the venture capital industry. His blog - "A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC" generally focuses on technology and perspectives in the software application industry.

I came across this recent blog post - "The Rising Power Of Social Media As A Traffic Driver" - showing how using Facebook and Twitter can increase web traffic dramatically.

Worth a read.

The Straight Scoop on Economics

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:06:56 -0600

I normally blog about real estate marketing ideas, but the data geek in me was compelled to share a couple of great resources that I read to provide some clarity on "policomics" (= "politics + economics" of the Beltway and the media...).

Grasping Reality with Both Hands - This is a J. Bradford DeLong's blog. DeLong is a Cal-Berkeley Political Economist (big picture stuff like monetary policy, inflation, and economic growth). I first came into reading DeLong's papers while working on my Economics degree and found his approach to readable and sensible.

Greg Mankiw's Blog - Mankiw writes as if he's talking with students (and we're all students, right?). He's written a number of textbooks which are market leaders in undergraduate economics. I've reference his "Macroeconomics" textbook on a number of occasions when prepping my own teaching.

Anyway, given the gravity of today's market and economic conditions, I thought changing speeds and sharing these "good reads" would be a helpful contribution for all of us to find clarity in the day-to-day morass of policonomics spinning out of Washington...

REBarcamp Virginia - Technology in Real Estate

Scott Sambucci (Altos Research) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:10:53 -0600

If you weren't able to attend the REBarcamp Virginia today, check out the video of attendees sharing their best "takeaways" from the day:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-real-estate-zebra-show

Following the event throughout the day on Twitter, it was pretty clear that the Barcamps are consistently "one-upping" each other. For the Twitterers out there, the hash tag for the event is #REBCVA.

Mike Simonsen from Altos Research presented our "Marketing with Statistics" session live today - must have been a hit because we picked up about 10-12 new followers on Twitter from the Virginia area today!