BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Author: Teri Lussier (page 5 of 6)

Rust Belt Realtor

May 22, 2008

What I unearthed at Unchained

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Rust Belt Realtor

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The big question: Did you learn anything? Why yes I did, thanks for asking. I learned that Bloodhound readers are kind, generous, caring, funny- I already knew they were smart.

I also learned that there are a whole crew of real estate professionals out there who are rowing the same boat as the Bloodhounds. We are dealing with a market that has experienced huge changes for many reasons.  We are hard working and absolutely professional. We love what we do, we are passionate about real estate, and we crave information to make us better. The biggest similarity I found is that we all yearn to conduct our business with as much freedom as possible.

Freedom- or living an unchained life- isn’t simply an idea to us, it’s the only way to exist, and that’s the unifying belief that everyone at this conference held. We might be going about finding our personal freedom differently, but that longing to be as free as possible is what brought people to the conference. I also think that it’s what repels some readers.

Freedom is a frightening thing to some people. I don’t know why, so don’t ask me to elaborate on that, I only know that some people seem uncomfortable with the idea that someone could choose to seek out as much freedom as possible. Or maybe they are uncomfortable with a different path to freedom than their own. Or perhaps they think that they should dictate what freedom should mean to everyone. Like I said I don’t know what motivates people to dislike the idea of Unchained, but I choose not to care.

Bloodhound readers are smart. The feedback that is being given to Greg and Brian will not be ignored. Unchained will be better next time because the folks who have dedicated themselves to giving all of us professional freedom are the same folks who also dedicate themselves to the pursuit of excellence and we can all benefit in the process, but only if you exercise your freedom to do so.

April 18, 2008

Spring fever renders me unfit to tackle big issues facing Web 2.0 and the real estate industry, so we get to play in the mud instead!

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Yeah. Well.

There are always heavy duty posts on Bloodhound and I do my best to keep up. Lately, I’ve been percolating my own brand of seriousness. Here’s what I’ve been thinking about: Web 2.0 is different for girls. I’ve been pondering this for quite awhile, and last week it dawned on me that I might not be the best person to address that issue as I don’t think like a girl. Want proof? I’m here, aren’t I? Bloodhound isn’t the most girly place to hang, but that’s fine. Here’s the thing: it’s Friday, and it is Spring in Dayton. We’ve had a long, grey, and gloomy Winter, but it’s been 70 for the last few days, and the sky is blue and the sun is shining, and the mere fact that I’m making note of that will tell you exactly how cloudy it’s been around here.

Still, I have been doing some research on my serious topic of gender differences and apparently, I’m not the only one who has been thinking about this.

How about a BlogHer Study that says women might trust blogs more that traditional media.

The survey, conducted with Compass Partners LLC, illustrates several surprising new trends in social media, specifically that 36.2 million women write and read blogs every week and approximately half consider blogs a “highly reliable” or “very reliable” source of information and advice about everything from products to presidential candidates. Fully 24 percent of women surveyed say they now watch less television because they are blogging instead.

The implications for marketing real estate in a blog format could fill a blog post or two- if only it was miserable outside.

Want proof that girls might looking at this whole Web 2.0 thing differently than boys? Men are from video games, women are from soc nets. h/t @BradCoy

For those under 30, women and men are just as likely to be members of social networks. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Flixster are extraordinarily popular. But we found that young women are much more active on these sites then young men. And for people above 30, men – especially married men – Read more

April 9, 2008

Working with engenu; a painless geek tool even an ‘I’ can love!

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

I am not a geek!

I like geeks. I get along with geeks, but I ain’t one. Let’s just get that out of the way up front and now you know where I coming from.

I’m a lucky girl; I’ve been playing with engenu. I’ve been on board with the idea of engenu since I first heard about it. It’s very exciting for a lot of reasons, some have been discussed here, but I’m sure there are other uses for engenu that we will discover the more we use it.

You really need to understand that I’m not a geek. On the DISC profile, I’m an ‘I’ with a healthy dose of ‘D’. ‘C’ barely registers. I cannot explain how engenu works so if that is something that is important to you then I shall direct you here. One other thing I want to make clear- Greg didn’t ask me to write about this. I’m writing this because I’m assuming that there is someone else sitting out there reading Bloodhound because you are hungry for something different, something that can differentiate you and the way you do business, and something that gives you control over your marketing. You might be looking at engenu saying to yourself, “easy for you to say Mr. Swann, but what about me?” Me too. All that php and html and whatever else is something I should learn, and should know, and some day I probably will- through osmosis if nothing else- but today I simply want to know what’s in it for me and my clients, and I want it to be easy to use or I’m going to bail.

Well, I’m happy to report that I have been using engenu to help some first time buyers relocating from Florida. They are not looking for suburban starters, they want to get their hands dirty and rehab a historic home. Not too much rehabbing, but they are looking for the charm, the character of older homes and they want to share that love with their neighbors. We talked about the pros and cons of several areas, and they’ve settled on South Park. No, not Read more

March 28, 2008

Want to join the cool kids at Bloodhound Blog Unchained? How about the freaks and geeks?

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

There have been some fantastic posts on BHB this week. Alas, this isn’t one of them.

I whined about conferences, but that doesn’t mean I’ve never been to one.  I’ve been to enough conferences and conventions to know that what happens outside the conference can make the difference between having a good experience and a great experience. For the record, I never have a bad experience- I simply don’t allow that to happen.

I’m not picky about hotels because I don’t spend time in them. My criteria is this: No roaches, no bed bugs, and no DNA left by previous guests. That covers any cleanliness issues and that’s my biggest concern in a hotel. On the other hand, I do like to be around the people I like, so a few weeks ago I sent out a tweet asking if anyone had started looking at hotels. I have enough experience with this to know that since my hotel needs are fairly spartan, if someone else wants to do the research, I should step aside and let them. So I did.

Brad Coy and Andy Kaufman were on it, and they have more narrow criteria: They wanted free wifi, and walking distance to the Heard Museum. They talked to Brian Brady who told them about a hotel with a lovely outdoor pool- if this is a family vacation, that might be worth looking for- but I’m from Ohio and have the tan to prove it. No pool for me.

I don’t mind staying alone, but I really fall into the more-the-merrier category with these things. Packing a lot of people comfortably into a hotel room makes things interesting, if not fun, so I was game when HouseChick, Kelley Koehler, and I decided to share a room. We both conceded hotel research to the cool kids, who just this week made an executive decision: Fairfield Inn. Free wifi, walking distance, breakfast, Fairfield Inns work for me- they are not notoriously dirty. I read the Trip Advisor comments, always with a grain of salt, and the reviews were mixed, which is typical. Noise issues mostly, but no one who booked a suite complained. Sweet- they have suites. Read more

March 20, 2008

All things are ready if our minds be so: Author 21 doesn’t hold her manhood cheap, and goes once more unto the breach

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

I know this post is a private party, completely self-indulgent on my part, but this is my little one year anniversary of becoming a Bloodhound. I don’t do much looking back so I’ll make this short and sweet, well, maybe not so sweet. Here’s the original post that brought me here:

The folks at ActiveRain are putting together a contest. It’s Pygmalion for webloggers, wherein experienced real estate webloggers take eager young blogging caterpillars into their tutelage, and, Henry Higgins-like, bring forth beautiful blogging butterflies in a few months’ time. The winning pair of bloggers will split $5,000 amongst their favorite charities.

(I predict my favorite charity will turn out to have something to do with stray animals.)

In any case, I’m looking for a patsy, er pigeon, er victim, er volunteer — I’m looking for a volunteer to learn the art and science of real estate weblogging with me as your tutor, er mentor, er insufferable bastard.

To disclaim is to disclose: I am not the gentlest teacher in the world. But I know a lot about weblogging, and I can teach you as much as can be taught about this art, this praxis, this obsession.

If you are at or very near the stage of being a total wannablogger with a will to make the leap to something that can blow kisses at true greatness, you’re my ideal candidate. I love you best in Phoenix, but if you’re not here, you’re just not here.

If you want to learn to do real estate weblogging wisely and well, with style, with grace, with humor and panache — I’m your volunteer.

To me, that looked like fun. Did I say that out loud? It isn’t supposed to be fun here, is it? It’s serious business on the Bloodhound Blog, right? Bloodhounds don’t have fun, nor do they have a sense of humor, do they? If that’s what you think, or if there is some part of “insufferable bastard” you don’t understand, please go away, this isn’t for you.

The end of Project Blogger would have been the perfect time for me to make a graceful exit, but they couldn’t Read more

March 16, 2008

Unraveled by Unchained, or: Why I put a leash on my Spring Break plans.

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

So I was chatting with Brad Coy the other day, (On the phone!? Get out of town) and he asked me why, after participating in the hoopla of the Project Blogger competition, did I not go to Inman Connect.

Me: “Well, uh, um, well, uh, you know, um…”

I must come clean: I really hate conferences. I have the patience of Job with a lot of things, BS ain’t one of them.

I simply can’t sit in a crowded room listening to someone drone on and on, particularly if they are droning about something they are selling. And with a conference I’m supposed to pay for that unique pleasure? Especially when there is a big beautiful city calling my name? No way, not me.

When I heard that Bloodhound was planning a conference, I cringed. Then I immediately made plans to go- not because I thought that this conference would be different- the truth is I didn’t think it would be different, oh me of little faith. I made plans to go because I love Arizona and haven’t been in years, and thought it would be fun to finally meet a bunch of Bloodhounds. That was it. My double secret plan was to show up, say Hello!, put in a minimal amount of face time, then quietly bug out and head for the desert. And let me add something I’m not entirely proud of, but it’s important to this story: That was still my plan up until yesterday.

Greg says: “We’re nobody’s fan boy, nobody’s water boy, nobody’s pony boy.” Amen, brother! I might be a contributor here, but the way I see it, BHB Unchained is going to have to prove to me that it’s worth something before I’m sticking around for the show. I love this from Kelley Koehler in a comment on Agent Genius

“Remember me? I bought a ticket. Me. My money bought me the right to demand your attention on me, the right to only care about what I can get out of you. Anyone wearing a vendor hat and doing anything other than helping me becomes merely an irritant with no value. Your focus is on me. Your goal is within me. Anything – Read more

March 8, 2008

Zillow creates the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Perhaps it’s cabin fever; Dayton is dealing with a late winter blizzard. The city is shut down giving me plenty of time to put on my own little version of a big-thinking cap and ponder away the what-ifs. Call me foolish but today, with a fresh cup of coffee at my side, I’m taking on the subject of repealing real estate licensing laws. Oh my. First things first: I’ve never read Ayn Rand and I don’t study the finer points of Capitalism. I truly love freedom, but I don’t philosophize about it. Now that we have that out of the way…

Let’s do a little time traveling. Step into the Way Back Machine and return to that point in time when you decided that real estate is what you wanted to do with your life. Do you remember that moment? You want to sell real estate. Forget what you know now and concentrate; remember then? You want to sell real estate. Consider what would have happened if there was no licensing. How would you have gone about breaking into the business? Don’t tell me you would have simply hung up a sign, c’mon, you know you wouldn’t get hired! Really think about this a moment- what would you have done?

Is it reasonable to think that you would have spoken to someone who was already in the business? Would you have picked just anyone in the business, or would you have carefully considered the reputations, the business models, the success rates of different brokerages? I know we wouldn’t have brokerages the way they exist today, but for our purposes, we’ll stick with that terminology. So. Would you have looked- really looked- at the other agents working at that brokerage? Would you have sought out past clients to get their opinions and comments?

Use your imagination and stay with me here. This is how you are going to feed your family. What are you going to do to make sure that you can put ramen noodles on the table? What if you want an occasional steak? You are working where you live, or in close Read more

March 5, 2008

Does the RE.net mean Real Estate or Resist Everything?

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

In a recent post, Brian Brady said he’s been talking to me and that’s kinda sorta true. What’s really going on is that he’s been doing the talking while I’ve been doing the whining, just like a lot of us in real estate. What he didn’t tell you is that he gave me a much needed swift kick in the arse. He gave me some great practical advice on networking, and he challenged me to create a bigger Twitter channel than he. I’m up for the challenge- how can I lose? So what if Brian gets more channels than I, what did I lose? I now have more connections and contacts than I did before. Tell me again what I lost?

From Brian to me, from me to you: Bad market? Okay fine. So what are you going to do about it? I’m still pretty new to all this, Dayton isn’t the easiest place to be selling homes right now- so what? I’ve still got a job to do, I need to do it.

How can you spend anytime reading in the real estate blogiverse and not be inspired? Jazzed? Excited? Twitterpated? Are you really that stubborn? I was going to say pig headed, but I don’t want to offend anyone.

Five great ideas: Brian, Greg, James, Teresa, Todd– within a week? Are you kidding me? Who am I missing? Who else has offered up inspiration the last few days or months? Where are you getting inspiration? Have you tried any of these ideas or are you simply showing up to whine about them? Are you waiting for someone else to make it work, then you will monkey-see, monkey-do, or are you engaging your brain- coming up with your own twist to ensure that something does work for you? 

I remember, back in the day, when Greg wrote about blogging about listings, but I sat on my ass hands and did little about it. I remember when Jeff wrote about hyperlocal blogging and getting out there and door knocking, again I sat on that information. Brian’s been using SMM for how long now? I did take that idea to Twitter– that’s beginning to pay Read more

February 15, 2008

The training of the shrewd

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Wearing an outrageous Cosby sweater and sitting at a space age desk. Hand gestures that would appear to be practiced from the Floyd Wickman How-to series. I cringed when I saw the video. Andy Kaufman blogged about it, looking for the RE.net responses, my first thought was “Are you kiddin’ me?” Is the information dated? Is it relevant? Does it have a place in real estate today?

I think the truth is not what I want it to be.

Like it or not, I think Saul’s basic message is still relevant for many in the real estate world. A basic, gentle message about basic marketing, given by someone in a sweater similar to one of TV’s most beloved dads, well, that’s a comfort to many. I think Saul may understand his market better than I first gave him credit for.

A top producing agent in my office has listings because of the little boxes of mints with her picture and contact info printed on the box. Really. A top producing agent in a neighboring county wears a Carhartt jacket, a John Deere cap, jeans, and steel toed work boots on listing appointments. He lists and sells farms.

Where are you spending your time and money? Is it reaching the people you want to reach? Spending time online without really understanding why you are there is as effective as showing up to list a pig farm in your Jimmy Choos. Honey, those shoes are real purty, now how you gonna slog through the pig slop?

I learned a lot by watching Saul’s video. I learned that there is still a place for it. I learned that whatever you do, you have be smart about it, think about it, consider who you are marketing to and what is the most effective way to reach them. Maybe Saul is doing just that. So who are you marketing to? Anyone who reads the message? Do you carefully select your market and tailor the message to them, or do they select you, and once you’ve been selected, do you adjust the message to whoever keeps showing up in your Google analytics? Are you looking to dominate one market, or to get a piece of any market Read more

January 17, 2008

Yesterday Twitter was a village; today it’s an exclusive gated community

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

“Hyper-local micro-blogging”. Ya heard it here first.

Let’s gather the pieces:

–Twitter might be a village, but real estate is local.
-To create an insanely great hyper-local weblog, “Be the community”.
-In order for Twitter to be useful, you have to tweet something useful.

Let’s put it all together:

-What if you created your own Twitter village?
-What if you created your own unique hyper-local community content?
-What if all the tweets were for the benefit of your readers, and they all pointed back to your blog, your website, or if you were a broker they could point to the brokerage website and your agent’s blogs?

What if?

January 13, 2008

Happy New Year? Don’t mind if I do.

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Happy New Year two weeks late? Not for me. I get a two week extension on the New Year since my birthday is tomorrow (my fave color is orange, I prefer dark chocolate, cash is always welcome)- that’s a New Year to me, regardless of what that once rockin’ Dick Clark says. It gives me a little wiggle room on getting those resolutions done; of which I have only one this year. 2007 was a great year, full of milestones of both the personal and professional type, but it sucked in many respects. My resolution for 2008 is simple: More great, less suckage.

Work is work and schnapps is schnapps, as an old German once told me. I like that idea: When you work, work. When you play, play- understand the difference between the two but appreciate them both. I can do that. At least I could do that. Social networking blurs the lines between the two, doesn’t it? Or does it?

My own personal conundrum: So many cool tools to connect to people and how do I use them to connect to people. I like people. I like connecting to people. That part is easy for me. It’s how to turn the connections into the work is work part that has me flummoxed.

Converging thoughts over the ether:

I received a gift through my inbox yesterday. Amazing timing. One of my own Bloodhound ninety and nine made himself known. I didn’t know I had a ninety and nine here, OTOH, it’s very possible that I only have a one and one. Nonetheless it was a pleasant surprise. He wrote asking for blogging advice and words of wisdom and to be honest, I had none to give him. I’m struggling with my own demons right now, so I told him as much. The power of blogging: This kind man whom I’ve never met, generously poured out a condensed 20 years of real estate business advice. A powerful gift unlike any I’ve received. I hope I can pay that forward someday.

This morning, catching up on my feeds, I see Bold Words has some excellent thoughts about what Read more

December 23, 2007

Spoiler alert: Yet another post about you-know-what

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Been ruminating my little arse off this week. How about you?

I’m a hyper-local blogger. I’m on the Bloodhound Blog because of a contest Greg and I teamed up to compete in- my being here is kind of a fluke, and frankly the only reason I’m still here is because this is such a great pack of dogs with which to run, at this point I can’t imagine giving up this gig. I have no desire for fame or fortune in the RE.net, best evidenced by the infrequency that I post here. My focus is to build a fantastic and profitable hyper-local weblog. Does hyper-local weblogging work? As someone once said: That’s another post for another day. 

What I do is blog to a very specific group of people. I don’t blog for the RE.net, and if you check your MyBlogLog widget you can confirm that I rarely visit your blog. In my limited time, I visit blogs in Dayton Ohio. Those are the blogs that matter most to me and my local blog. 

I do Twitter though, and from that I’ve met quite a few RE.net bloggers, and I have completely enjoyed making Twitterfriends with each and every one of them. One of my favorites (yeah I got favorites, don’t you?) is Daniel Rothamel. There are very few RE.net bloggers I respect more than Daniel. We’ve had several offline conversations, and that is a RE.net relationship that I value. Earlier last week when he tweeted that he just posted a video, I didn’t hesitate to take a look. I like Daniel’s video. I did then, and I do now. I thought it went well as a link to a post on my home blog, so I added it without hesitation. Then Jeff Brown posted about it and fast forward to all hell breaking loose.

As I said, I don’t spend much time in the RE.net. I had no idea how much hell could actually break loose. At first I simply sat back and watched, taking my place among the elusive ninety and nine. Daniel and I even shared a gentle joke over the fuss. But then, (apparently true to form) I did begin to ruminate and Read more

November 29, 2007

Confessions of a RE Twitterhead

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Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

There have been several interesting conversations going on in my small corner of the blogiverse lately. One was a comment to a Bloodhound post I wrote eons ago. Someone wanted to know if blogging really works for lead generation. Well sure it…Wait. What?

I forget how small the RE.net world is. It’s tiny. I thought everyone knew that blogging works, when in reality only bloggers know that blogging works and probably most people still don’t know what a blog is. It’s hard for me to keep that in mind, and frankly I find myself living in two seperate worlds- the Web 2.0 world and the other world. My conversations and connections in the 2.0 world move quickly, almost instantly. It’s as if, Shazam! You now have made a connection to someone you didn’t know ten minutes ago. Now that person is going to connect you to this person and Shazam! Another person and fifteen minutes have passed.

When was the last Inman Connect? Late July? Much of the discussion was how amazing it was that people could connect quickly through blogging. You all know this is true because you are here on the Bloodhound Blog, in the RE.net world. The truth is that in my nonRE.net world, people don’t know this and I can’t explain it to them, and I’m not sure they care, and that’s the tricky part for me. How do I gracefully move between the two worlds?

Another interesting conversation took place on Daniel Rothamel’s Agent Genius post about Social Media. The comment stream is from bloggers who are wondering if Twitter works in terms of usefulness. It’s so interesting to me because I’m having that same conversation here about blogging and my reaction is the same: Well, of course Twitter can…Wait. What? The fact is that no RE Twitterhead has yet to get a lead from Twitter, but why couldn’t it happen?

If like-minded people move toward each other, and find each other, which I know to be true- after all, we are all busy, we have to pick and choose who we spend time with, how much time do you make for people you don’t like? Wouldn’t it be nice to find like-minded people quickly? To Read more

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Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

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