Real Estate Snippets

Here I Go Again

I'm trying a new blog platform and as usual the learning curve is huge.  I really should take a course at a technical college on HTML code.  In the mean time, I'm checking out TypePad because a couple blogs that I really like use that platform.  We'll see how it goes.  It's a good thing business is slow, because I wouldn't have the time to learn a new system. 

Blogoholic

Blogging is a tortured pleasure.  About 100 entries ago Sellsius posted an article on blogoholics.  My recollection is that one of the symptoms is having more than one blog.  At that time it was clear I was already a blogoholic despite the fact I had only one blog!   Blogging was fun in a twisted way.  It was hard work. 

Somehow this last week, two more blogs have crept into my sphere of responsibility.  My fairy blog mother invited me to join Active Rain, a community of real estate professionals who blog.  It's been an interesting experience as members of Active Rain can post "Members Only" posts asking for advice or opining to other professionals.  The public cannot view "Member Only" posts, but there are so many members and so many entries, one could read every night and not catch up on the public entries.  You can view my Active Rain blog by clicking here.

The second blog is a tool that has been fermenting in my brain for some time.  It is a completely private blog for my family only.  Each member has the ability to post an entry, photo, or anecdote.  It will be the place I record conversations with my dad about his war memories, dating my mom, his parents, and his life.  It's a vehicle to convey this information to my heirs.  When the entries reach 400, I've found a place to create a blog book at www.blurb.com.   

Blogoholics Anonymous beware.  The opiate of writing has definitely taken hold.  Three should be enough.  Yes, I think three is a perfect number!   

(c) Bonnie Erickson 2006

The Lowly REALTOR® and the "Tomato"

Once upon a time there was a lowly REALTOR® who knew enough to know she didn't know enough . . . about technology.  This lowly REALTOR® being of sound mind and steady nerves searched the world for someone, anyone, who would teach her about the web and its technology without calling her stupid or using jargon that she didn't understand to teach her what she didn't know.  Family members proclaimed, "I'll teach you," and proceeded to fly through the task for her while she watched in frustration.  She knew she was in Medieval times, the darkest of the Dark Ages for sure.  Where was her knight in shining armor to rescue her from this dilemma?

The answer came with a measly entrance fee which provided training and established a long term relationship with tech savvy and professional agents across the nation and world.  The "tres amigos", known in the world as the owners of Internet Crusade, offered a certification course called e-PRO®.  The lowly REALTOR® hoped almost hopelessly that this lengthy course would brighten the darkness which permeated her world of technology.  The entrance fee was paid and the course begun.

The content was overwhelming.  So much to learn, so little time.  So many questions.  A new language.  Her children learned all of these things through a lifetime of exposure and she had a few months to take it in, apply it, make it stick.  She made it stick and passed the course.  But this lowly REALTOR® did more than pass, she applied.  She expanded.  She learned more through a thing called "listserv".  She even started a new fandangled thing called a blog. 

Proudly she displayed her badge of accomplishment, her e-PRO® certification.  And then a brutal knight came along and started throwing tomatoes at her newfound competence.  The Tomato's skepticism proclaimed her badge was tarnished and nothing but tin.  It's useless, stupid, and full of empty promises.  The old REALTORS® cannot learn this new technology.  It's dumb for them to try.  The lowly REALTOR® took this in, considered it, compared it to her reality.  She then took her e-PRO® badge, spit shined it to a brighter sheen, put it back on, and decided to make juice from that tomato!

(c) Bonnie Erickson 2006

The Geek Bomb

It's no longer a surprise to talk with a customer service representative from India as many U.S. companies have outsourced their customer service divisions to India.  It is, however, a bit of a shock to find out info about Microsoft from an Indian online newspaper The Hindu. 

Microsoft held their annual Financial Analyst Meet last week at its headquarters in Redmond while Bill Gates  was vacationing in Africa.  It seems the meeting progressed normally until Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect and replacement for Bill Gates dropped a small Microsoft bomb.  Ozzie announced that even though Microsoft's focus had been on PCs the previous 30 years, the focus is going to change.  The new era will "start from a different vantage point . . . with Internet service."

Hmmmm.  There are about 850 million PCs and over 2 billion cell phones in the world.  Many of those cell phones have more "computing" ability than the PCs.  The Hindu states:  "The vision is getting clearer: 'Why buy a PC and put a lot of software on it? Why not use a device like your mobile phone — and the Web as your storehouse... of course paying us for every utility you download!'"   The recent switch of electronic lockboxes is a clear example of this shift.  The new "smart" cell phones can download the MLS, access the internet, unlock the boxes at showings, retrieve e-mail, store a database, access file info stored on-line, etc.  Who needs a computer anymore?

The article warns "it may not yet be time to throw away that PC — but Microsoft's message is clear: When it is time to replace it, think small. Very small."

Read the entire article here.

(c) Bonnie Erickson 2006

The New Writing

How many times have fatalists voiced concern about the next generation's writing ability?  Superficial examination of teens might support this worry.  The computer, however, may be impacting this new generation differently than expected.  IMs, blogs, chat rooms, on-line communities, etc., all require the written word.  Granted that written word has been slaughtered from the textbook English of my generation, but nevertheless, it is written and it is communication.

I just wonder if a completely new language is being created as words and phrases are shortened to code.  New terms are being created so rapidly a dictionary of terms would be obsolete at printing.  TIA (Thanks In Advance), ROTFLMAO (Roll On The Floor Laughing My A@# Off), IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) are all examples of today's communication style.

Using capital letters is considered shouting.  Spell check doesn't know how to spell and the grammar checker is even worse.  More information is available by "Googling It" than I could have accessed at the Library of Congress as a young woman.  My generation is being left behind, but the next generation is still learning writing skills, albeit skills of a different kind.

People Who Live in the Computer

The internet is an amazing tool.  Before today I was just a bit and byte to Teresa Boardman from Keller Williams.  I was one of the "people who live in her computer"!  That's her term for people she has met through the internet and its many helpful tools.  Teresa and I actually met on a list serve and she took the initiative to set up a coffee date so we could put flesh and blood to those bits and bytes of our being.

Is Teresa a competitor?  Yes.  Is competition good?  Usually.  Is there enough business to go around?  Yep!  Is it good to get to know other agents in your area and develop a strong support network?  You, betcha!  (For non-Minnesooootans, that's Minnesota code for a very strong yes!)  Is it good to challenge one another to excellence and professional standards?  Definitely!

Teresa writes a blog as well.  One that fits her style just as mine fits me.  She reads my blog and I read hers.  It's good to keep tabs on the competition, too!    It was also good to find encouragement in our common experience of how the market has impacted sales regardless of who the listing agent is or which company holds the listing.  We can't stand out in the street and shag down buyers and force them to buy our listings.  We gave each other hints and "talked up" our listings.  We promised not to return to being "people in the computer"!

This coffee break made me realize that regardless of how predators can use the computer to prey on innocents, the computer and internet have entirely changed how we do business and relationships.  Meeting someone on a list serve might be scary, but it's not a whole lot different from pen pals fifty years ago.  The generation before mine often courted one another through letters because distance separated the interested parties.  Many letters were exchanged before travel expense was invested to meet.  Occasionally the couples met first and then were separated, but developed their relationship through letters.  E-mail, list serves, community bulletin boards, etc., all are based on the same premise of honesty from the author of the written word.

Business has changed as a result of the computer as well.  Video conferences can be held with participants in several different countries.  Documents can be conveyed through e-mail.  Communication can be almost instantaneous with the right technology.  It makes me wonder how I survived before I owned a cell phone and when house listings were tiny print in a huge book the size of the old yellow pages with no sorting ability or color pictures.  Technology has definitely caused an evolution!  Or is it revolution?

Technology Turmoil

Our technology age has certainly changed the way we do business and communicate.  I'm absolutely lost without my computer and e-mail.  It's probably part of the McDonald's generation.  Instant gratification at work. 

More and more I'm depending on e-mail for communication with clients as well.  Imagine my dismay when real estate agents within my network, one from Columbus, Ohio, and one from Kentucky informed me that e-mails they sent to me were bouncing back to them!  I was appalled.  What if this is happening when clients are trying to contact me?    In the same time span several e-mails sent to my brother (same address auto-fills for him each time I write) bounced back to me.  An e-mail from a mortgage company to me also bounced.  What was going on?

Well, once again I found myself on the phone with my internet service provider:  Comcast.  Comcast has changed their e-mail policies.  E-mails that come from "dynamic IPs (internet service provider)" are no longer accepted by Comcast.  Huh?  Once again technology has slapped me up the side of the head.  What is a "dynamic IP"?  Never heard of it.  Not yet satisfied, I questioned on.  A dynamic IP is one that changes every so often.  The IP has a number assigned to it and when that number is programmed to change because of security reasons or to prevent tracking the origin of spam, it is called "dynamic".  Comcast is blocking dynamic IPs to prevent customers from receiving SPAM.  I lodge a complaint.  Please, let me choose which e-mail is spam!  Don't just randomly choose some IPs to block!  The mortgage company that was blocked is certainly not a spammer and neither are the two REALTORS that couldn't get through to me.  My protest fell on deaf ears.  The solution according to Comcast is to get the SENDERS of the e-mail to call their IPs and have them work a way around the dynamic IPs.  Yea, right. 

The mystery of the e-mail to my brother bouncing is even worse.  It goes through without my signature line!  Go figure.

Site Feeds (RSS)

If you've skidded by my site at 60 mph (see my billboard post) and just HAPPEN to stay long enough to read; and just HAPPEN to like what you read, you can add me to your RSS Feed.  Yup, you heard me.  RSS Feed.

If you don't know what RSS feed is, don't despair.  Feeling dumb is part of the initiation for the tech challenged.  Just one year ago I had never heard of blogs, had never tried to design my own website, and barely knew what E-Bay was, much less what an RSS feed was.  This last year has made "feeling dumb" about technology a way of life for me!  For the tech impaired, RSS stands for "Real Simple Syndication" and allows the RSS subscriber (that's me or you!) to be notified when a new post is submitted on a blog, website, news service, etc.,  of their choice.  As far as the "real simple" part of it, the creator of this torture device must have meant "real simple" AFTER you figure it out!  Struggling through installation of a free RSS reader with no step by step instructions is sheer madness.  Sleuthing out the addresses for sites that participate in RSS is definitely not "real simple".  BUT, once you get the sites set up on an RSS reader, they pop up on the side of your screen when a new post is added.  What a deal.  Some mastermind must have created this system to separate the "haves" and the "have nots"!  I'm determined to be a "have"!

Just a little footnote to the tech savvy who know what an RSS feed is . . . the orange chicklet for the RSS feed is at the bottom of the left side bar.  For the not so tech savvy, chicklet is a term for a small little picture (like the one in this post that's orange in this case).  If you have a "reader" you can click on the little picture and get this blog via RSS feed.