Monday, January 28, 2008

On your mark, get set- BLOG!










You might have made history!


...as far as I know, our little get-together was the

FIRST EVER REALTOR BLOGGING SEMINAR IN WISCONSIN



Thanks for coming-

Here are the links resources to get you going as promised.



Remember-Be yourself, take small steps, lurk and learn,

and get into the conversation where you are comfortable.
...and have FUN!
(...remember, sometimes blogs are NSFW -
but don't worry about this one!)


http://obeoman.blogspot.com
Real Estate Is Crazy – a crazy real estate blog. Laugh. Learn. Live.


www.activerain.com
On line community of real estate agents.


www.wannanetwork.com
On line community of real estate agents.


www.facebook.com
Social utility


www.myspace.com
Social network


www.friendster.com
Social network


www.blogger.com
Free blog by Google


www.googleanalytics.com
Free analytics to track your blog performance.






www.rsspieces.com
Learn how to blog for real estate-SEO, RSS tips


http://www.stpaulrealestateblog.com/
Teresa Boardmans' real estate blog, linked to her CWB website, her other blog and activerain



Common sense for the new market.


http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/
Edgy blogging collaborative, bucks the mainstream


http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/
The best blogging hub for Real Estate


www.inman.com
Hard news for Real Estate


www.rismedia.com
New trends for real estate

www.swanepoel.com
Opinion leaders for real estate

LINK TO BLOGGING PPT

Hard Knowledge for Soft Skills

...stop back and let me
know how you are doing!


Blog on,


Steve

Obeoman



Sunday, January 27, 2008

Philly Gal meets Midwestern Guy and moves HIM to Madison, Wisconsin: A Short Fable

(Madison, WI Skyline-seen from Lake Monona)

What a long, strange trip it's been...
and it ain't over yet:

Theresa, my wife, got a horrifically great job offer about nine years ago after looking around on the internet.
She was due.
The offer to become the design and operations manager
for a start-up furniture company in Madison, Wi.
This was her brass ring.
We were living in Quakertown, PA, then, about 30 miles from Philly, just far enough to be out of the worst of the traffic and still have easy access to the Eagles, tomato pie, cheesesteaks, Nockamixon state park and Yuengling ale.
We were married in a colonial church in Dublin, PA.
She was partnered up, had two antique stores and a thriving furniture restoration business. I was working in my other life, as a photojournalist, and doing well.
Then there were the friends she had made over a lifetime in Philly and Upper Bucks county, and her family who looked on me as one of their own.
We had finished rehabbing our 115 year old rowhome-no garage,
a back yard the size of, well, maybe two ping - pong tables. (Recently sold for 189k - but I will get to that.)

Her sons Ben and Alex were not as eager as she was, but came around when the realized the could always move back to PA later.
I could not have been prouder of her career efforts
-and happier that we were going.
And she knew it.
Because after nearly six years in PA, this Midwestern boy, a Minnesota native,
was looking west at the sunset more often that he cared to admit.
"I know you want to be closer to your family," she said.
Theresa had never lived more than a days' drive away from any of her immediate family.
Off to Madison, WI it was. And what a great place to be.
We took our money from the rowhome and
built a spanky new single home, on the east side of Madison in Reston Heights, with a yard for her gardens, -and a garage!
Go Figure.
The snow blower, fire pit, five gardens (one rose, one for veggies and the rest flowers), weed whacker and lawn mower all followed. So did Lake Monona cruises, Mallards baseball games, lotsa Leinies and brats, a little too much cheese,
Taste of Madison, the Farmers' Market, the Badgers,
riding our bikes to wherever we felt like and watching our neighbors homes go up, the families move in, becoming their friends drinking wine around the fire pit, Ben staying with us, Alex visiting from PA, and success at her new job.
...the greatest blessing of all-being with someone who loved where I had come from-almost as much as I loved her.
That was five years ago.
Theresa and I both miss Madison, and manage to get there often enough
and host our old friends for the past three years at our new,
100-year old, restored Arts & Crafts home along the Rock River in Ft. Atkinson.She put the company on the map, and went back to school.
She is on the honor roll.
She has one more year at UW-Madison.
She always manages to find a home with southern exposure, and doves.

Wherever I hold her hand, that will be home.

Steve

Obeoman

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Why me?-Why now?-Why not?

?


No email.



No internet.



Limited phone service.



For almost two days at the WRA Winter Convention in Lac du Flambeau, WI.



Diogenes got nothing on me.



After spending the past two days wandering around the conference with my laptop open, looking every bit the beggar I was, I made it to my email. I had been able to make a couple of phone calls during the interim, including one from the front desk at the hotel with Obeo president Glade Jones which disconnected for no reason, so everything was OK.



I was even able to hook up the WRA staff with signals on their laptops, but no signal for Steve.



Interesting what happens when you can't see what is going on. Or read. Or hear.



The bad winter weather goes to worse and your company president misses a connection from Utah on the way to a REMAX agency in Madison, WI event with one of your largest clients, the broker and 120 of his best agents. Glade sent me an email, of course. The weather was bad enough to send him home to Salt Lake City.



I also got an email from Jonathan Nicholas, Obeo sales VP, who was also on his way to Madison-to the same event. When he got there-I know he had planned to be-he wrote me an email that HIS email got stuck in a server in La-La land.



Well, you see, this is why Glade was going to Wisconsin because we hadn't heard from Jonathan, who was out there doing the national-travelling Obeo thing with our other clients.



So far, so good. I managed to get enough of a phone signal to call John Murray, our Madison photographer at the event who told me he had arrived at the event alone.



Okay.



Meanwhile, business continues as usual in the background. WAY-background. Of course , questions I could normally answer, things I would usually do remain undone. It is a darn good thing I set up an out-of-office auto reply. I wonder if it went anywhere, or if anyone read it.

Tours, photographers, later, rental cars , now, uploads, Ruth, when, refunds, Dennis, adjustments, Melynda, hotels, how, return receipts, flights, John, downloads, Kennedy, hot wings, -21 below, why.



Finally, two signal bars on the screen while I am kneeling in the lobby at a coffee table .



It's Bill Gates' world, we just work in it.


Amen.

Obeoman

steven.stearns@obeo.com

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Eating the Elephant 2.0 bites at a time

All I can say is WoW!
Who is THAT Hungry?
Most Realtors are - or should be, or are gonna be really fast, this year.
There are those meandering and grazing in the bloggosphere that are having a hard time stepping up to their new diet.

You might say to those people:

-you are crabby and just don't like that other Realtors got the hot stuff first;
-you might be getting crabbier because other Realtors got their first and are having seconds already;
-and fuming at the fact that you are stuck because you do not want to admit it is time to stop being late for dinner and do not know here to start.

(Boy, haven't we all been THERE...)

The simple fact is that this hard market requires soft skills: blogging, social networking and being in on line communities.

Being engaged, not on auto-pilot, auto-answer, I-can-get-a-program-bot-to-scribe-me-up-some-content kind of coasting mode.
The shakedown is still shaking: if Realtors-yes, Realtors- do not engage and get up to their earlobes in what is going on-well, who wants to eat?
Realtor Pros remain. Why? Likely because they ARE engaged, nimble and are not afraid to change their work mode as quickly at their day-old socks.

Getting started eating this elephant? EASY!:

Read, comment and learn in the forum of a on line community.
Then, set up a blog and make it real-about you , your neighborhood, what YOU know about real estate.
Expand your Rolodex network into a social network - ask around, you might even get a friend to invite you in!

Just don't sit there - grab a plate and get on line!
Dessert is gonna be really, really good!

Obeoman
steven.stearns@obeo.com

Monday, January 14, 2008

The New Marketplace: Hard Knowledge for Soft Skills


Free and Open to All Wisconsin Realtors:
The New Marketplace: Hard Knowledge for Soft Skills
Blogging, Social Networking and On Line Communities

January 29th, 2008
1:30-3:30 PM
Madison, WI 53711
Find out what they are, where they are and who is in them-(and why you should be, too!)
Learn about blogging: Be the local real estate expert on your community.
Tips on social networks: GenX, GenY and Millenials want you to be their friend.
How to live in an on line community: Sharing and giving away information,
idea farming and e-tiquette.
________________________________________________
Presented by Steven Stearns/Obeo Real Estate Marketing Consultant-Eastern WI
Blogger: “Real Estate is Crazy”
On line community senior member: www.wannanetwork.com
On line community active member: www.activerain.com www.facebook.com
Please call 262-325-8687 or email steven.stearns@obeo.com to RSVP
(Door prizes, refreshments, fun!)
Give me a call and I will see you there!
Steve

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Realtors wanna have FUN!

And Obeo...the experts in buyer behavior...invites them to play!

EXCLUSIVE TO REMAX FOR A LIMITED TIME-THROUGH JANUARY 21st!

Obeo StyleDesigner and Obeo HomeSite take virtual tours to next level.


Don’t like the exterior paint you’re viewing on line?



Obeo StyleDesigner changes it with just the pick of a color
-and a click of your mouse!


Interiors- change carpet, hardwood, linoleum to tile floors-or swap counter tops.


..and change paint color on walls and trim-just pick and click!


Obeo HomeSite has all the great features and tools of an Obeo virtual tour in a freshly designed, easy-to-use format.


The new tool bar lets you choose what you want do as you mouse over the icons:


View a full-screen tour, email the tour, print brochures or schedule a showing

-just a few of all the Obeo options.

and The Home Theater feature


...is a great way for buyers to dream their way into their new home!


Obeo HomeSite goes active January 21st nationally- with no price increase.

Add on the Obeo StyleDesigner - the first two scenes $39.95.

Each additional scene is $19.95.

LINKS:



Contact your Obeo Consultant:

Minnesota and Western Wisconsin


kiki.wanshura@obeo.com
612.599.5642

Eastern Wisconsin


steven.stearns@obeo.com
262-325-8687

Obeo Customer Service, Orders and Tech Support
800.729.6236


Thursday, January 3, 2008

HELP-Dian Hymer Needs Bone Marrow

Some of you may know Dian, an Inman News writer and Coldwell Banker Top Producer.
Bloggers are reaching out the help her-Please read on:
Inman News writer and Coldwell Banker top producer Dian Hymer is a friend of the industry who needs our help.
Suffering from cancer, she needs a bone marrow transplant.
An initial run of the National Marrow Donor Program registry showed no matches.
You may be a match and registering for the program is simple.
Joel Burslem from futureofrealestatemarketing.com is asking
this be posted at your blog, if you have one.
Thanks - and let's keep Dian and her family and friends in our thoughts and prayers.
Steve