Well, this week there were so many really great posts here in the rain by some of my fave bloggers as well as some newbie bloggers that I've recently come across. First and foremost, I just want to give a shout out to my fellow rainers for their gold star features that I was happy to "call the shot" on them.
The View From Both Sides - Seller or Buyer by Karen Crowson
Profile Picture No No's by Eleanor Thorne
You Don't Want To Bother Your Agent, So You're Bothering Me? by Lorrie Semler
These were excellent posts that had some really great comments, which is one of the best things I love about great posts. With some posts, the comments can actually be better than the post. Check them out. Then there were some other equally great posts that I suggested but that the AR Gods must have missed this week when they were bestowing those little gold stars.
First there was Sondra Meyer with her post, I'm confused...why have two blogs that say the same thing? Sondra asks a really great question and I'm sure one that many AR members are asking themselves lately, especially after some rather unsettling firings and resignations of AR senior management. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's thinking that there is definitely something precarious going on here and we're the last to know.
Anyway, I have known for quite sometime that having a WP blog that pretty much duplicates my AR blog is absolutely vital so that if the day comes (whether it be sooner or later) that AR is no longer a place I want to be a member of, I will not lose my blog that I have worked extremely hard to establish, build and promote. If that day comes, I will have a blog insurance policy or a back-up blog, so to speak. That Sondra is why you want to have two blogs, your AR blog and another blog completely independent of AR, even if they do have the same content.
Then there was The Baby Junk: What Do You Advise Your Clients? by newbie blogger, Alison Shuman. First and foremost, I want to preface this by saying I am neither a Realtor showing and listing property nor a parent. Secondly, I work with a lot of 20-something, first timers who are also not Realtors and many of them are not parents either. Now having said that, when it comes to baby/children junk, these types of buyers view that kind of stuff no differently than any other type of clutter. SERIOUSLY!!!
While prospective buyers understand that people still need to live in the home while they are selling it, having baby/children clutter scattered all over the property and in some cases, to the point of where the property is like a collision course, well lets just say this as nicely as possible - total turn-off!
Think about it another way. What if the dining room had been converted into a home office and there was so much crap junk stuff that you literally couldn't see what the room looked like, how do you think buyers are going to remember that property. Anyway, baby/children junk needs to be addressed no differently than any other clutter - clean it up!
Next was Donna Harris with her post, Mr and Mrs Seller - Buyers Don't Care that you Don't Want to Bring Money to the Table!! Donna brings up a really good topic - divorcing sellers insisting that buyers pay the sellers closing costs because they (the sellers) don't want to come to the table with any money. SERIOUSLY???
I'm not going to even go into all the reasons as to why this is absolutely ridiculous but check out Donna's post; I really like the way she addressed the issue. LOL Would love to say the same things to some of the sellers that some of my borrowers have had the misfortune of coming up against.
Then there was Cupcakes, Elections and Foreclosures....Oh My! by the blogging team of Bill & Liz Spear(aka BLiz). BLiz expertly illustrates the relationship between these three things by using their google juice as the connection. The thing that I liked about this post was the message - hyper-local posts rock!
Cupcakes, Elections & Foreclosures are all local posts that Bliz has done and these are their posts and searches that drive the most traffic to their website. I realized quite some time ago that my hyper-local posts are the ones that generate the most leads for me and I didn't need google analytics to tell me that - the people who call/email me tell me they found me on AR because of one of my blog posts. Check out BLiz's post and see what they're doing to drive traffic to their website.
Next was Ken Barker with his post, When is the right time to send off your blogs?. Ken asks a question that's been lobbied around for as long as I've been here. As a left coaster, I rarely post in the mornings except for my Sunday morning posts. I've discovered that when I post in the morning, I'm on the blog roll for all of a few seconds. However, by posting in the early afternoon (12-1) or early evening (5ish), I can actually be on the blog roll for a couple of minutes.
Anyway, depending on the kind of post, it probably doesn't really matter what time of day or night you post. For example, consumer-targeted posts don't get a lot of comments from the AR community anyway so it doesn't really matter when you post those just as long as you're posting them on a regular basis. If you have a theory about posting times or if you've discovered some success in this area, share it with Ken.
Lastly, there was Are You An Experienced Real Estate Agent? How Do You Know? by Pam Miller. Pam brings up a great topic: when do we stop being newbies in our fields and become "seasoned". This is something that I have thought a lot about in the past couple of years. In the last few years, it feels like the mortgage industry has been completely overhauled. Just when I think I've seen and heard everything, something else comes along to prove me wrong. Don't even get me started on all the new contracts, forms, disclosures, documentation blah blah blah.
Some days, it becomes a bit overwhelming even for a "seasoned"MLO. I'm sure that Realtors and agents and appraisers and a variety of other professionals in the transaction can certainly relate to what I'm saying. I'm sure that Pam and I are not the only ones feeling this way. Anyway, if you can relate let Pam know. We all need as much encouragement and support as we can get these days. It's a lot harder these days for all of us.
As always, I love "calling the shots". I'm pretty picky and selective about whom I suggest. I intentionally highlight my fave bloggers and then I look for new bloggers or bloggers that aren't on the feature board every other day. Anyone can suggest all the popular bloggers but finding the hidden treasures and gems is so much better. I hope you check them out and enjoy them as much as I did.
Comments(16)