I've noticed that alot of the realtors who are blogging always talk about their market. I think it's more of a "stick to what you know" kind of mentality out there. One of the things I have been reading about is a need for greater Transparency in Real Estate, and a National MLS. Being one of the "old dogs" out there makes me a bit resistant towards things like that (primarily due to the same fears and doubts that everyone else has). Fortunately for me, I have an assistant who specializes in, as he calls it, "Marketing in the Google Age".

One of his key points to supporting Transparency in Real Estate is that the information is out there, and someone else is already doing it. With the modern consumer, he's saying that you're actually hurting yourself by not being transparent. An example he gave me was a difference in 2 IDX searches. The first one required some form of contact information given prior to being able to search the MLS. The second IDX used what he called tier 2, or 3 (or something like that - I'm not very in the know about this technology thing), lead capture. Basically, the second IDX only asked you to leave information (and a means of contact) if you wanted to save or get more information about the property. He doesn't make any changes to my website without my say, but I'm actually considering letting him set me up in a more transparent manner.

If you have some experience in this, or have heard something similar, please feel free to let me know your thoughts.