photo courtesy of tboard

Your assignment?  Define "what is ActiveRain."

Seems simple enough, right?  ActiveRain is a community of real estate professionals that blog, talk, share, and refer.  Ok, I'm done.  There's my submission.  But, it doesn't seem right.  Seems like it's an incomplete answer.  Seems to simple for something so complex.  Might not really be a good representation of what it means.

Jonathan Washburn asked the question "What is ActiveRain?" about a month ago on his blog and I foolishly read it.  Of course, I say foolishly, because I knew I couldn't just drop a quick comment in there and be happy with my answer.  You know I have a hard time being short and to the point.  And when you try to really consider what ActiveRain is to you, well...you wind up with a ton of thoughts.  Here are just some of mine.

The world's largest real estate encyclodepia.

Have a question?  Need an answer?  Wonder how something works?  In your state or another?  Want to grasp the theory behind a clause in a contract or know what an abbreviation means?  Confused by the difference between conventional, FHA, and VA mortgages?  Need to know what an inspector is looking for?  Don't understand what the HVCC is?  Wonder if you're eligible for the First Time Home Buyer's Tax Credit?

...

You can keep asking questions until your fingers hurt from typing, but there will be an answer on ActiveRain.  Not just textbook answers either.  You'll get opinions, views, people looking at it from different angles, and people from different parts of the real estate industry answering it from their viewpoint.  No matter what you need to know, it's here.  Whether you're in the industry or a consumer, new to it all or experienced - it's right here.  Go ahead and search for something on ActiveRain.

A place to learn about blogging and hone your skills.

I started my blogging career long before real estate, but I never called it a blog.  I wrote daily journal entries for my band's website that chronicled the ins and outs of what we were doing on tour.  When I started my real estate career, I discovered AgentGenius and was lucky enough to be asked to write for them.  I soon started my own website and began building it slowly but surely.  One day I was Twittering with a friend, Kristin Moran and she invited me to join ActiveRain.  I did, but still didn't know what I was getting into.

Since I had a blog already on my site, I wasn't sure what use ActiveRain would be to me.  I knew I could read other blogs here, but didn't know if I would blog.  Obviously, I eventually did.  The decision was based on the fact that I thought the more I blogged, the better I could get at it.  So my idea was "cut my blogging teeth" over here.  I think my plan worked.

A community that you can count on.

There are tons of stories about the "community" of ActiveRain.  There are a million ways to look at it as well.  You can view it from a peer perspective.  You have a community who understands you, knows what you go through in a day or real estate, and "get you."  You can view it from a friend perspective.  You meet tons of people who have common interests and you become friends.  Friends you can count on.  Friends that you worry about when they're sick.  Friends you celebrate the joys of their lives with.  And then there's the love perspective.  There are several cases of ActiveRain love out there.  Like I said before - search ActiveRain and you'll find them.

Is there more?

Oh yeah, maybe I should have remembered to mention all the business that real estate professionals are generating thanks to ActiveRain.  I guess that's kind of important too.