My son, who is just starting Middle School, is reading Huxley's Brave New World. He is peppering me with questions, so I pulled my copy down from the shelf to start rereading it. My edition includes the foreword written by the author for the second edition. Huxley argued for a decentralization in society (well, mainly government) as a solution to totalitarianism, but he did not forsee the ability of humanity to achieve such a goal. Maybe we have found it with this forum.
When reading another post about blogging and working, a study about the public's perception of Realtors and their use of the internet came to mind. Now, I am not a Realtor, but I am a real estate professional, and I think that the study applies to me as well. Trust in our abilities in the real estate transaction is declining. Not by much, but enough to be of concern. On the other side of the equation is the consumer's desire to be better informed. Those of you reading this post are in the minority when it comes to our industry. Few of us have a presence on the web, and fewer still put forth an image that could be said to meet the consumer's need. For example, out of one thousand professional real estate inspectors in the greater Houston area, four of us are publishing articles on our websites on any kind of consistent basis. A pretty poor percentage, which holds for other professionals in our industry. As the goal to seek better information through browsing becomes firmly fixed among our clients, we should not consider our time in producing material for blogs, e-zines, or our main sites as frivolous. With each well written random thought, we brand ourselves to the consumer base.
I favor blogging to social networking sites. In this past week, I have had various conversations in space about a host of topics. A slight argument occurred with a stucco contractor in Georgia. An educator in Vermont sought my advice on kitchen design. A real estate investor wanted to know about being eco-friendly with her properties. I discussed joint business plans with other professionals. I queried a Realtor in Virginia about contracts. I mulled over home staging ideas with a lady in Great Britain. Lastly, I regularly go over marketing strategies with a gentleman from Seattle. The interesting thing is that all of these conversations are overheard (or should I write over-read?) by others. This has actually led more people to my sight, who are in my market. I do not spend a great deal of time on this quest, but I do find it useful, so I guess this is my defense of spending some of my downtime blogging, instead of watching the lilies grow.
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