Top 12 Real Estate Predictions for 2008

TOP 12 REAL ESTATE PREDICTIONS FOR 2008:

1.) Google corporate jets will feature scrolling AdSense banners on their sides, or tow signs behind them as they fly over beaches.

By the way, you won't need a crystal ball for your sellers

with

Obeo HomeSite and Obeo StyleDesigner.

(Available after January 21st)

2.) Redfin will give away Snoopy Catch-'Em kits to each lister, with free linkbait.

3.) ActiveRain will provide free umbrellas to each Realtor at its site to protect them from getting soaked by falling prices.

4.) Pat Kitano at Transparent RE will move into a new glass headquarters in Pomona, CA. To stimulate the local economy and discourage the proverbial rock throwing, Pat will hire displaced mortgage brokers to police the grounds for any other offending projectiles.

5.) RISMedia’s Annual Leadership Conference will undergo a format change, a cross between Big Brother and Survivor. Hosted by David Hasselhoff, it will only be available by satellite subscription service.

6.) Zillow will use street teams to meme their brand and have street team members carry bells and buckets to enhance cash flow.

7.) The crew at Sellsius, inspired by their successful '08 nationwide blogging tour, will form a Band of Bloggers - like Brian Setzer's, only bigger and more verbose-and go on tour to over 1,500 real estate brokerages, playing at lunchtime in the parking lot.

8.) Inman TV will host a reality series of the Sellsius tour, partnering with Teresa Boardman to vlog and blog the performances.

9.) Trulia Voices, not to be outdone, will go out on a choral tour featuring songs with lyrics based on answers to questions posted at the site. Performance MP3s will be posted free at their site and will also be available as ring tones.

10.) NAR CEO Dale Stinton will go on a consumer-based diet including non-fat technology commodities.

11.) Upstart on line real estate community Wannanetwork will be bought by Donald Trump and leased to AT&T, forming a worldwide network of networks.

12.) Obeo and Krispy-Kreme form a strategic alliance to enhance delivery of its donut-on-a-stick incentive to all eligible-and hungry-Realtors attending their sales presentations.

Obeoair is at NAR this week, so check us out or email me for details!

...what we got, you want!

Obeoman

steven.stearns@obeo.com

Break out , Stand out AND MAKE IT HAPPEN!...

(Photo borrowed from Ontario Archives)

In China, if you are one in a million, there are 1,300 of you.

Today, we are going to talk about why you milk the cow, get the cream and

how this keeps you moooovin' in the market.

Where to start?

Break out!

Of the old marketing habits. Remember, this market moves so fast, you have to ! Take a look at what you are doing and turn it upside down and shake it out!

Review your budget today and put your money where the consumer is: Better put most of it into your website, virtual tours and if you do use print, make sure you have your website featured prominently in your newspaper ad. Eight out of ten buyers are looking online for their home - realign you budget to reflect that reality! Use some of that money to make sure you can get and send email from where you are and capture client information for leads.

Standout!

Redo your biz card: so they are consistent and high quality. CD business cards with your listings on them? A great way to replace the old biz cards - and keep the Internet empowered consumer engaged.

Renew your information, news and industry education: Be an E PRO - run, do not walk to this Realtor designation! Remember, you have to be ready for the on line consumer and they are going to prefer the E Pro because that's basically where they learn, look and live with their information - on line! YOu should be reading Inman News and RISMedia every day - delivered to your email and for FREE!

And again-Get your BLOG on, and join an online community: Get started by reading blogs! Remember, a blog is a conversation you have with the readers. Respond to blogs-anyone who has one is dying for a comment! Join a community like activerain.com or wannanetwork.com - post in the forums, ask questions and learn from your peers. This is the leading edge of the future, and those who choose not to participate in social media do so at their own risk.

NOW, MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Watch this REMAX realtor Powerpoint - all the reasons and everything you need to know is right here!

Well, call me on my jaxtr at the top of the page if you have any questions, and I will get back to you!

Shake it up and have fun!

Obeoman

Want Cream? Milk the Cow !!!

(Free Cash Cow ! - found at istockphotodotcom)

Okay, ReMax North Central and all other Realtors: for the next couple of days, the blog here will offer a summary of great ways to get your marketing program moving - all crazy and most for FREE!

Start out knowing if you want the cream, ya gotta milk the cow:

-8 out of 10 buyers are on line;

-10-12 months-the amount of time people spend looking on line when they are getting ready to move;

-Right now - 2 hours from now-the amount of time the empowered Internet consumer will expect to hear from you, the Realtor when they find you on line.

-Realtors are Number One - with the Internet consumer - 80% of on line consumers will use the first real estate professional they talk to

Be ready for the empowered Internet consumer:

First, get your listings online at Obeo: 1 million visitors a month can't be beat - the first-class on line statistical reporting and photos you can keep using! -And don't forget to link your own website to Obeo for maximum traffic!

Second, distribute your tours on free sites using postlets : create a flyer with your great Obeo photos and spread the word about your listings at these other key sites for FREE:

backpage.com
craigslist
edgeio
Google Base
HotPads
LiveDeal
Oodle
Propsmart
Trulia
Vast

Third, start blogging and be the neighborhood expert: for free at blogger.com .

Blogging is how you tell your buyers about where you live, the fun you have there, who else lives there, where they can live around where you are and why they should buy a home there. Blogging is a conversation - so talk to these people in your blog like neighbors over the fence about what is going on where you live - after all, they will be your neighbors.

Fourth, get in an online community and get engaged : like activerain or wannanetwork. You'll find other Realtors at these sites, ideas for your blog and better yet, buyers and sellers looking for information from Realtors!

Get another bucket-this one is full - and check back tomorrow and the day after for more FREE marketing tools and ways to make the market happen for YOU!

Obeoman

steven.stearns@obeo.com

Free Speech for Realtors! - and other great ideas...

...after the last week, anyone who would not agree probably is crazy:

-Death Threats - Enough said. Kathy Sierra is a true victim of hate - as many others are on the world wild web. No one should live by fear. How do we and our colleagues stay safe?

-Blog Floggers - Another example of free-speech bloggers trying to speak and getting beaten down - by other free-speech bloggers. Teresa Boardmans' slightly delayed crusade to search out real estate weenies - people handing out bad real estate advice is not an example of debate, but an example of how speech can debilitate a great idea.

On the lighter, but still free speech side:

-Zillow talk is actually pillow talk - is it good for you too ? Watch out, it could lead to "Zlatulence", says Jessica Wynn Horton over at WannaNetwork - a damn funny rant on Zillow.

-Really Free Speech: or is it? A Clarification for Merrick at PR Leap on the previous post: PR Leap announces that www.athand24.com has free everything for free everybody-Realtors and private owners. Not a bad idea, but is this a free weenie lunch?

-Money finally talks - Ho Chi Minh City: The real estate fever spilled over from China : "HCM City is witnessing the most dramatic land price increase so far. Within one month, land prices in several areas have increased by 30-50%. " VietnamNet Bridge report-Got global?

-Mortgage Crazy : aside from the sub-prime market throwing stones and knives at us from the heavens, as Inman reports, we have something that appears slightly crazy since so many mortgage companies are closing : a mortgage search engine developed by the XBroker . WIll there be any mortgages left to look for when http://www.realespace.com/ is open?

Happy end of Q1! Look for my Free Saturday Special tomorrow.

I gotta go.

Steve
steven.stearns@obeo.com

Please throw up in the Blogvertisement...

(Graphic from www.behindthemortgage.com)

The last time we left our fearless blogger, he noticed there were minor rumbles in the bloggosphere between Inman News, WannaNetwork, and Mary McKnight .

Seems there is still a difference of opinion as to what is relevant blogging and what is not. Ms. McKnight replied to me and said Alexa told her traffic was flattening at ActiveRain and WannaNetwork. (Small-er) numbers do tell a story-which one does this point to? Maybe Inman, WannaNetwork and McKnight should all walk a mile-together-in each others' bloggin' shoes: Inman likes to report on the edge, McKnight really knows her stuff about blogging and WannaNetwork has the audience captive. It will be neat to see what happens here - sometimes any action is better that no action.

Anyway, Real Estate Tomato over at ActiveRain must have felt those rumbles (...okay, I got some emails, posts and a reply or two at MyBlogLog yesterday,-thanks, Sellsius!) because the Pomodoro saw it coming, too - the change in blogging, you know, the paradigm shift?

The one where expectation overtakes content?

Yup, Coldwell Banker must have seen it coming, too: Coldwell Banker Just Threw Up All Over the Real Estate Bloggosphere.

Yuck - did they get any on you? And when did all this nausea start? Are we all gonna get sick?
Is there gonna be enough cybervaccine to go around at 2nd Life ?

It's a pretty basic discussion: big real estate company tries to meet Web 2.0 expectations and gets slammed for having a canned product.

So if this is supposedly THE Big Year of Real Estate Blogging, where have all the Betas gone?
Doesn't anyone get to make a fumbling start and improve? Can I get a bucket, or a witness?

The nausea comes: just because you may have been at it longer, and have been working harder, and might be better at blogging than ALL the Realtors at Coldwell Banker -where is the love here? Okay, it can be said that these people may need some guidance and some coaching - or maybe, just maybe, Coldwell Banker is going to let them do whatever they want with these new consumer-facing blogs : post listings, send out CWB real estate tips or (shudder) blog about their dog.

Geez, if enough people do this - it just might become acceptable - and maybe under a different name, like blogvertisement.- (Thanks to Alex J. Stenback at his site behindthemortgage.com - he may have invented this term.)

I feel a sniffle coming on. I gotta go.

Thanks for stopping by,

Steve
steven.stearns@obeo.com

How does your blogging grow?

Disclosure: I am a member of the WannaNetwork Forum.

Inman News' recent three-part series on social media is sparking questions about what is advertising, the value of content-and who decides.
The rub comes in the second part of the series. Author(s) Jessica Swesey and Glenn Roberts Jr. mention all the usual big players: ActiveRain, Google, YouTube, RSS Pieces, Groundswell, Robin McKnight-and the not-so-big WannaNetwork, created by Tony Sena, a Las Vegas Realtor.
McKnight comments ActiveRain is getting bloggers noticed because of the relevant content on the site. By comparison, she said the agents using WannaNetwork "...were using it to advertise and Google never trusted it because of the quality of the content just isn't there."
Whoa - them could be fighting words. But here, the weary-fingered blogging expert McKnight appears right -relevancy and timeliness of content can push a blog up in a search engine. Content is still king. Credibility still is a keystone in what I call the "information is more important than influence" game.
But what if something different is going on at WannaNetwork - granted the blogging tools are a bit limited, but the forums are lively and anyone who looks there will see business is being done.
Hmm. Making money without SEO or blog content. Happened before the web, why not now in the web? This alone will probably not put Google out of business, but it does highlight the constantly changing realities of new emerging markets and web-resident consumers.
Roberts points out in the final Inman piece today that Web 2.0 and the way it works "...can lead some of these web sites and tools to jump from oblivion to immense popularity while others dim to virtual obscurity in viral fashion..."-Newer ways of doing new business may not be immediately obvious to those watching, reporting or blogging about it. And not getting the right information out could put a damper on a pretty good new thing – whatever it is at the moment.
Inman is giving a broad view of what is happening right now. Wright has a presence at WannaNetwork and has some great blogging tips posted there in the forums. Sena is developing a networking community. And Google is getting bigger, of course. Blogging? Perseus.com reports after randomly surveying eight leading blog sites: “...1.09 million blogs were one-day wonders, with no postings on subsequent days.”
Maybe information can be kind of like the Emperor laughing because he knows he has no clothes on.

If you can hear him laughing.

Thanks for stopping by,
Steve
steven.stearns@obeo.com