Stephan Swanepoel spoke this morning in Tampa on 7 Strategies to Succeed in Today's Real Estate Market at an event sponsored by Engel & Voelkers. Swanepoel is known for spotting trends early on - when you read his books, be sure to read the paragraph-long trends as well as the chapter-long trends so you can be looking for what's coming.

He publishes an annual trends report and for the next issue, he'll be breaking that into two books - one with information to make your business profitable and the other to cover social media, which has grown so fast it fills an entire book.

Topics covered by Swanepoel included information overload on the internet, foreign companies now expanding abroad, MLS consolidation, the remaking of NAR, huge consolidations caused by the economy, the need to master short sales and foreclosures, and of course, navigating the social media.

And, yes, he mentioned Active Rain!