This was the surprising message from my receptionist yesterday. With obvious excitement in her voice, she reiterated that a local newspaper reporter was asking for me by name.

After a moment of panic (could he have somehow found those old pictures?) I picked up the phone with curiousity...

I found out that he was indeed an employee of our local newpaper. He is writing an article on the new, elevated FHA Loan Limits in Kitsap County. He wanted to get my opinion of how this might affect the real estate market in the surrounding towns. He wanted to clarify some of the details concerning the FHA program. But, the biggest surprise came when I asked him how he managed to get my name. His answer; "I found you on a real estate network site. It said that you specialize in FHA and VA loans. Is that right?"

After he finished with his questions, I thought I would ask a few of my own. Mostly, I wanted to know how in the world my name came up in association with FHA Loans. Here's how he found me. Just like the rest of us, he turned to Google to begin his research. The intrepid, young reporter began with all the local towns with "FHA" appended to the search. In each case, he found the Olympic Northwest Mortgage site first and the ActiveRain profiles right behind it. The Olympic Northwest site made perfect sense to him, but ActiveRain was something new and he clicked on it. There he found the company profile. When he clicked over to the main page, he found my profile at the top of the page and decided that I must be the guy to call. He read my profile and was sure I was the guy to call. So, he called, asked for me by name and surprised the receptionist to no end.

ActiveRain is popping up in surprising places. I had another interesting and unexpected conversation this morning with a Lender Account Executive. This gentleman visits our office weekly and has for over 2 years. Today he closed my door and told me that I should check out a new website that he had discovered because it was not like anything else he had seen. I asked him the name and, you guessed it, ActiveRain. I had to laugh. After I thanked him I pulled up the Washington page and enjoyed his look of chagrin.

Whether you are new to this network or have been around for a while, you may have asked yourself if all the hype is really based on results. Well, sometime in the next couple of weeks, on one of those slow news days, I will find my name in the local paper. And the reason I was called was because of the profile on ActiveRain.

Update 01-25-2007 - As requested, here's the link to the Kitsap Sun Article (my 40 words of fame and glory)