A year ago, there were four. Now there are at least eight, including one company blog (this is the subject of another story). Of these, only one has written anything new in the past month.
The national real estate blog network Active Rain, lists eight Charlottesville-area Realtors, none of whom (myself included) have posted a single entry. There is only one of the “newer” blogs that consistently posts and produces quality material. Why?
Our area is consistently noted to be a very blogalicious region, notably due to the success of cvilleblogs among other reasons. Why haven’t the local Realtors embraced this evolution? (not that I am personally complaining)
For better or worse, consistently writing and analyzing the market gives readers an opportunity to meet you and determine beforehand whether they want to contact you. For instance, I just received this kind note from a potential client I met through this blog:
“Jim Duncan was incredibly helpful during my relocation to Charlottesville. He has a unique combination of real estate expertise and political awareness within Charlottesville and Albemarle. His insight was instrumental to my understanding of how the city and county are set up, and helped me understand where I would be happiest within it. I would happily refer others to take advantage of his knowledge in looking for a house!”
The funny thing is, she ended up not working with me (another story coming) but now there is one more person who reads and tells people about me and this blog. Real estate is not a short-term business, nor are the relationships developed. Aim high and long.
Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, real estate, realtor
That Roy Wheeler blog is terrible. I stumbled across it a few weeks ago. Just about every blog entry concludes with “If you’re thinking of selling your home, call ROY WHEELER REALTY CO.” and a lot of blah-blah puffery along with it. The author is anonymous, which tells me that there’s no pride in the work (and understandably so).
Worst of all, I don’t trust what they’re telling me. The top headline now is “Now is the time to Buy!” in which they explain that this is the best possible time to buy a house. I call bullshit. I’ll bet that they’d have been saying the same thing three years ago. (I’m reminded of President Bush who, no matter what the state of the economy is, says that now is the best possible time for tax cuts. Economy ripping along? Tax cuts! Recession? Tax cuts! Peace time? Tax cuts! War? Tax cuts!) The result is that not only do I now not trust anything else that they write on the blog, but I don’t trust the entire company.
A bad blog is far worse than no blog.
Readers/consumers are far more perceptive than some people think.