Portable, easy to digest, morsels of tasty goodness is what they want. Give it to them.
(Photo taken from the @LilZebra Baby Shower set)
My new business cards are for you AND me!
November 2, 2009 By 38 Comments
I just received my new business cards over the weekend, and I’m wicked excited to show them off!
I hope y’all really like them. I also hope that you’ll keep taking awesome pictures so that I can keep making awesome business cards. 
A big THANK YOU to the Michigan Association of REALTORS (and a special thank you to Mark Lemon)
October 22, 2009 By 1 Comment
Two weeks ago, I was in Traverse City, MI at the Michigan Association of REALTORS Conference and Expo. I was given the opportunity to lead three presentations about social media. I had a blast! I really enjoyed my time and Michigan, and I just wanted to say “thank you” to everyone who made it possible, and so enjoyable:
I also wanted to say a special thank you to Mark Lemon (@markslemon).
Mark helped me out BIG TIME.
On my second day of presentations, I happened to be in the one room in the entire conference that couldn’t quite pick up a wi-fi signal. This wouldn’t have been such a big problem, except that I planned to do live demos of Facebook and Twitter. No internet connection was a problem.
So there I am, laptop at the ready, and no internet connection to be found. I told the audience that I was going to wing it as best I could. About 5 minutes into my presentation, Mark comes up to me and offers his own laptop, equipped with his wireless card.
Mark saved my bacon. For that, I am eternally greatful.
Michiganders ROCK!
I learned that Mark’s thoughtfulness is not uncommon among Michiganders. Everyone I met during my time there was exceedingly friendly. Even the folks that couldn’t be there, who were following me on twitter, were happy to offer suggestions as to where to eat and where to go during my stay.
All in all, it was a great experience. I hope that I get to do it again, soon!
Thank you.
Sean from BlogInstall.com fixed my blog! He ROCKS!
October 20, 2009 By 3 Comments
As noted in my previous post, I was having crazy WordPress problems earlier today. None of my themes worked, and the site was unable to find any of the .css files needed to make things display correctly. Basically, it was an effed up mess.
I put a tweet out there, asking for some help. Lots of folks stepped up, among them were Reggie Nicolay, Chris Larson, and Max Chirkov. They all deserve major kudos for trying to help me. However, try as they might, and patient as they were, all twitter’s men could not put the Zebra back together again.
Just when all seemed hopeless, I got a tweet from Sean. Sean said he was willing to take a look at all my stuff to see if he could figure out the problem. After about an hour with Sean, he was able to discover the problem– and fix it. It had to do with file permissions that I screwed up, but that is another story, entirely. Sure, I’ve got a few t’s that need crossing, and i’s that need dotting, but I’m back up and running, and that is what really matters, all thanks to Sean.
In the course of chatting with Sean while he was fixing my problems, I discovered that Sean is a developer in Florida who offers FREE blog installation. If his blog fixing skills are any indication of his blog installation skills, I would venture to guess that Sean is probably a good guy to turn to if you want your blog install to be quick and painless. I’m just glad that Sean was listening, and stepped forward to help.
Here’s to Sean!
Thanks for helping the Zebra get its stripes back.
An interesting Carnival of Real Estate experiment. . .
June 29, 2009 By 2 Comments
Welcome to the 148th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate. I wanted to conduct a little experiment this go around. . .
. . .you see, as I was receiving submissions for the CoRE, I got an email from the folks at Blog Carnival who said that they have a new tool called the InstaCarnival. Basically, you just click a button, and you get all the text necessary to host a Blog Carnival. Basically, you can outsource your entire Carnival of Real Estate hosting experience. I thought I would give it a whirl.
It works.
But, then I thought that it wasn’t a whole lot of fun. I mean, I like the CoRE, and I like reading the blog posts, so I thought I should still add my own flare to the hosting experience. So, I am going to share with you the two posts that I thought were head and shoulders above the rest, and then below, you can read the InstaCarnival version of the show.
The cream of the crop. . .
The first post that stood out to me was submitted by Ben Roberts of ExitRealEstate540.com. He wrote an excellent and timely post about explaining to his potential clients 3 Reasons a Social Media Agent is Way More Likely to Get Your Home Sold. The cool thing about the article is that not only is it very informative for real estate consumers, but there is a lot of things that real estate professionals could learn about marketing in the post, too.
The other post that I enjoyed very much was submitted by Dan Melson of Searchlight Crusade. Dan was one of the very first real estate industry bloggers that I ever came across when I began blogging. I have always enjoyed his writing, and his post, Why Sellers Should Counter All Reasonable Offers, was straightfoward, easy to undrstand, and very informative for consumers and real estate professionals alike. It is exactly the type of thing that Dan delivers to his readers post after post.
Congrats to Ben and Dan for rising to the head of the class this week.
Let’s see how the InstaCarnival turned out. . .
Like I said, I tried out the InstaCarnival, and it worked. The results are below. I had fun hosting the CoRE this week, and if you want to have fun with it next week, head on over to CoRE and submit an article of your very own!
So here is your InstaCarnival:
Welcome to the June 29, 2009 edition of carnival of real estate.
Handy Saputra presents The Big Foreclosure Bailout 80 LTV Plan… Is It Working? posted at Home Loan | Mortgage Resources, saying, “We have all heard President Obama’s plan for what he calls Americas economic come back. At best it is a roller coaster ride with multiple twist and turns. One of the many twist is the claim of solving the countries foreclosure crisis.”
Handy Saputra presents When is the right time to refinance your mortgage? posted at Home Loan | Mortgage Resources, saying, “You’ve heard that interest rates are down and you think it could be time to refinance your existing mortgage, but the entire loan application process was so exhausting during the initial loan that you aren’t sure it’s worth the hassle. You could very well be right, but there are some things you can do to help decide whether it’s time to refinance your mortgage.”
Jack Schmidt presents 10 Ways to Fuel Your Own Economy posted at SectorMatic Money Journal, saying, “SectorMatic Money Journal: Personal Finance – Everything for the Big Spender on a Budget. Now you can live like a fat cat, even if you’re on a money diet. Laugh all the way to the bank with Jack Schmidt and SectorMatic. It’s for you!”
Handy Saputra presents Is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) Right for you? posted at Home Loan | Mortgage Resources, saying, “Until just a few years ago, an Adjustable rate mortgage was the best way to buy a home. Say you do not have the money to buy your dream home, then you can opt for a mortgage with an adjustable rate over a fixed one. In case of an adjustable rate, the rate of interest changes every year depending on the market condition. On the other hand, in case of a fixed rate of mortgage the rate of interest is not dependant on the market scenario and remains fixed.”
Dan Melson presents Why Sellers Should Counter All Reasonable Offers posted at Searchlight Crusade.
Handy Saputra presents Is Mortgage Refinancing Market Good or Bad Right Now? posted at Home Loan | Mortgage Resources, saying, “With all of the home foreclosures taking place across the country, many people may feel that it is not a good time to refinance. This is actually not true. Lenders want to keep people in their homes because of the expenses they incur when they try to sell a foreclosed home. Most times, they will actually take a bit of a loss. If you are considering refinancing for a better rate or to clean up any outstanding debts, there are many reasons why this is a good time to refinance your mortgage.”
investing
Silver Investor presents Debt Doesn?t Always Mean Inflation: Remember Japan posted at Gold Investing Info, saying, “The mammoth amount of government debt about to be issued does not guarantee inflation is inevitable.”
nickel presents More Thoughts on Paying Off Your Mortgage Early posted at fivecentnickel.com.
real estate market
lifestyles presents Principles of Basic Property Negotiation – Lifestyles Unlimited posted at Lifestyles Unlimited Real Estate Investing and Mentoring, saying, “A thorough guide to negotiating for single-family investment real estate.”
Jacqulyn Richey presents Las Vegas Housing Market: Foreclosures Down, Sales Up posted at Las Vegas Real Estate News, saying, “Despite the media’s doom and gloom about the real estate market, the numbers for Las Vegas are painting a different picture. Could this be a sign of the start of a recovery?”
Crissie Cudd presents Chasing the Market posted at Crissie’s Comments, saying, “20 years in this business has given me plenty to talk about!”
Patrick Duffy presents Time to throw out the old rule books posted at Housing Chronicles.
Claudia Gonella presents The state of the real estate market in Nicaragua 2009 posted at Real estate investing in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Belize, saying, “Trying to plug the information gap for real estate price trends in Central America”
Ro Troia presents New Family Cabon Monoxide Saftey Act in Colorado posted at Blog the Rockies, saying, “My friend is always asking me to “check” my carbon monoxide detector in my house and I said “I do”! The simple answer is, I look over to see that the red light is still on and that no one is sick yet! Sounds a bit frivolous, but I don’t remember having a carbon monoxide detector in my house when I was little, more less when my kids were little.”
Dan Green presents The Untimely Timing Of The Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey posted at The Mortgage Reports, saying, “The most widely-cited mortgage rates in the press are outdated before they’re ever published.”
Dan Green presents In Another Good Sign For The Housing Market, Builders Are Clearing Out Their Inventory posted at Rita Kerins – Chicago Realtor, saying, “It’s a subtle signal of improvement, but an important one — builders are clearing out their inventories.”
real estate professionals
Ben Roberts presents 3 Reasons a Social Media Agent is Way More Likely to Get Your Home Sold posted at Exit Real Estate 540, saying, “This article is flirting with the 2 week cut-off but I forgot to submit it last week and I think it’s a relevant article anytime…”
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of real estate using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Technorati tags: carnival of real estate, blog carnival.
Carnival of Real Estate is hosted by the Zebra this Week!
June 26, 2009 By 6 Comments
It has been a long time since I hosted an edition of the Carnival of Real Estate. Too long, in fact. That is why when they asked if I would like to host for this Monday, I jumped at the chance!
So, you know what to do. . .
1) Write an awesome real estate related blog post.
2) Submit the link to your post by the end of the day on Sunday, June 28th.
3) Check back here on Monday, June 29th, to see who the winners are!
Who do YOU want to see at Blogger’s Connect SF ’09?
April 23, 2009 By 3 Comments
I just posted this over on the Inman Blog, but I wanted to put it up here, as well, since I know that there are some of you who probably don’t read the Inman Blog regularly. That kinda begs the question, why not?
I know, I know, duplicate content, yada, yada, yada. . . but I could really use your help here, and I just didn’t see the need to write a whole different blog post. 
In case you might have missed it, the schedule for Blogger’s Connect SF ’09 is up in our Events section. Whether you have attended previous Blogger’s Connects, or you are thinking of making this one your first, there is sure to be content you will find exciting and valuable. This year, there will be an opportunity to choose different sessions during Blogger’s Connect. So, whether you are new to social media and interested in getting started, or if you have emersed yourself in social media for years, we’ve got you covered.
Another exiciting feature is the “Live Lab.” During this time, we’ll break out the laptops and everyone can help eachother by answering questions, working through difficult problems, or just helping however they can. The best part is that it will all be hands-on and on the fly. You’ll walk out of the room in better shape than when you walked in. Pretty cool.
One thing you’ll notice about the schedule so far is that we haven’t slotted any speakers or presenters. This has been done intentionally. To be quite honest, we haven’t sent out a single speaker invite to Blogger’s Connect– yet. Before we start inviting folks, I want to hear from you. I want to know who YOU want to see at Blogger’s Connect. Take a look at the program, and let me know if you know of someone that would be perfect for leading the discussion on any of the topics. Heck, the person you have in mind could be YOU! That’s fine, too.
Then, just send me your suggestions: Daniel@Inman.com
I’ll put them all together, we’ll discuss them, and then we’ll begin inviting presenters. Is there someone you really want to see present a topic at Blogger’s Connect, or does one of these topics just jump off the page at you? LET ME KNOW!
The feedback that I heard as a result of my previous post about the Blogger’s Connect schedule was extremely helpful, and we were able to integrate some of it in oder to produce this dynamite program. I know you’ve still got some of that awesome feedback and insight left in the tank, so get to sharing!
Whuffie BLOWS MY MIND
January 12, 2009 By 2 Comments
Every once in a while, when I’m researching or just casually browsing, I come across an idea that really gets me excited. That happened today.
I was checking out all of the great blog posts out there about Inman Real Estate Connect NYC ’09, and many of them were about the awesome keynote presentation by Gary Vaynerchuk (more on that, later). As a result, I went to Gary’s website, where he had a video post about a recent interesting problem he encountered, and how he used social media to help solve it. His video is below, if you wanna check it out:
About 5 minutes into the video, Gary mentions Tara Hunt (@missrogue). She brings up the idea of “Whuffie.” What the heck is Whuffie? Well, Gary does a pretty good job of explaining it, and there is even a Wikipedia page about Whuffie.
Basically, Whuffie is social relationship currency. If social capital is something you can build and store, Whuffie is how you share it.
It seems to me that this is a concept that has a lot of potential for real estate professionals. Whuffie gives a name to something that I have seen and heard from more than one blogging, engaged real estate professional.
I want to write a lot more about Whuffie, but I wanted to share by initial thoughts first. There are a lot of ways I think this applies, but I’ve got to let it ruminate in the old thought box for a little longer.
Oh, Tara has even written a book about Whuffie, “The Whuffie Factor.” It comes out in April, but you can pre-order it on Amazon. I know I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
