Real Estate Blogging, Web 2.0, Technology, News & Opinion For Realtors

Real Estate BarCamp Houston Only 11 Days Away!

2008-10-10T18:15:00.004-05:00

Real Estate BarCamp Houston is now only 11 days away. Thanks to the generosity of our many sponsors it promises to be an awesome event. We are blessed to have many folks coming in from around the country to participate including representatives from Altos Research, Real Estate Shows, Active Rain, Trulia, Zillow, Agent Genius, BuyWaterfronts.Com and more. Paul Chaney, co-author of Realty Blogging and the President of the International Blogging and New Media Associaton will be our Keynote speaker as well. These thought leaders will be sharing knowledge that you can put into action the minute you leave the event. The price of admission? Your time, attention and participation. That's it.

If you haven't checked out what REBarcamp is all about yet, you can visit the official web site and wiki to find out more. Go here to submit your session topics and questions.

If you've already RSVP'd we need a little favor, please go to this form and give us your information one more time, we had some previous issues with the form on the blog. If you haven't RSVP'd yet, what are you waiting for? If you're a sponsor or guest of a sponsor, we still need to get your information into the system as well.

Keeping up on the web? If you're blogging please use the tag "rebarcamphouston08" in your posts. If you are twittering the event, please use the hashtag #rebch08. We hope to get some feeds set up for everyone to follow soon.

Podcast: Social Media and The Real Estate Pro, Bill and Hal Lublin talk about BuzzBuilderz.Com

2008-10-10T12:14:00.004-05:00

I met Bill Lublin in person last summer at Inman Connect. His first comment after shaking my hand was to ask why I had not hired his son Hal to work for MLBroadcast as a voice over talent. We added Hal to the rotation of talent the minute I got back home. Since that time I've had a chance to get to know Bill and his illustrious history in the Real Estate profession. I've also had to the chance to see that Hal's experience with marketing, pr and entertainment go much further than his exceptional ability to record the spoken word.

The father and son duo have joined forces to create a new social media consultancy they call BuzzBuilderz.Com. It's a service designed to help real estate professionals from the ground up with a strategy for crafting and maintaining a sphere of influence using hand picked social media platforms and tools.

Bill and Hal discuss why they built the practice, the services they will be providing and give us some of their insight into what the future holds for the networked real estate professional. Enjoy. If you have an idea for future podcasts, please leave a comment below. Let me know who you would like to hear from and what topics interest you the most.

Listen On The Web:

Listen and Subscribe in iTunes:

Click Here To Download .mp3 audio file

Links for 2008-10-09 [Digg]

2008-10-10T00:00:00-05:00

Podcast Interview: Guy Kawasaki
A funny interview with Guy Kawasaki. Topics covered include, Alltop, his new book, twitter and why the best SEO is to just write good shit!

Podcast Interview: Guy Kawasaki

2008-10-08T12:37:00.005-05:00

So how do you score an interview with a business Icon like Guy Kawasaki? It's simple - just ask. I ran into Guy at the BlogWorld expo recently. I was impressed that his persona online and in his writings is exactly who he is in person. He gives meaning to the term nice "Guy". He's just plain funny as hell too.

Most know Guy as an early Apple team member evangelizing software, as a founder of Garage Technology Ventures, a best selling author and recently as a co-founder of Truemors and AllTop.Com. What you may not know is that Guy's father spent some time as a real estate broker in Hawaii. What was more interesting was the claim that Guy made in the interview to be the first person ever to buy a House using the Internet. While there's no way to stake claim for sure, the fact he found a home on the web over 13 years ago is definitely noteworthy! Real Estate is a growing category on Alltop. I recently submitted this blog and it was accepted into the "rack". I encourage anyone with a good real estate blog to submit it today.

Guy and I also talked briefly about his new book being released on Oct. 30, Reality Check. Sounds like the perfect gift for the entrepreneur in your life!

Guy also stakes claim to the fact that he gets more out of Twitter than anyone else in the world. After hearing how he uses it as a "weapon", I think he may be right! The interview is 35 minutes of some of the most fun I've had all year. Thanks Guy!

Listen On The Web:

Listen and Subscribe in iTunes

Podcast: Interview with Paul Chaney, President of International Blogging and New Media Association

2008-09-27T14:22:00.006-05:00

Do bloggers and podcasters need a trade association? Paul Chaney thinks so. I like the idea too, with one caveat. I think it has to be an organization with a deliberate purpose. I've had a great deal of involvement with trade groups and associations in the past and I've seen first hand how quickly they can lose sight of their orignal charter.

The International Blogging and New Media Association was formed about year ago. The concept is to provide a platform and voice to those involved with any aspect of blogging, podcasting, web media and social media. When I heard Paul had been tapped to take over the leadership as the new President, I didn't think twice about joining. Paul is the kind of "go to" guy that works hard to get things done and goes about it with the realization that you have to surround yourself with great people to get it done. With a long list of blogging luminaries at the helm of the executive and advisory boards, the opportunity for IBNMA to become a tremendous resource for training, certification, standards and much more. I had the opportunity to participate in a general membership meeting during BlogWorld last week and I was very impressed with the leadership's candor and passion.

In our interview Paul goes into great detail about the history of the association, plans for the future and his vision for getting things done. If you're involved with blogging or new media in any way, you really should consider becoming a member and adding your voice to the development of IBNMA, at $25 per year, it's kind of a no-brainer. Click here to get started.

Click To Listen On The Web:

Click Here To Listen & Subscribe in iTunes

Updates: Hurricanes, BlogWorld & Real Estate Barcamp Houston

2008-09-23T13:13:00.010-05:00

Ike Update: Oak Ridge North Gets Smacked Around
The past 12 days or so have been about as action packed as they can get. Hurricane Ike decided to treat my little town of Oak Ridge North and southern Montgomery county Texas harder than any area not directly on the coast. We are still without power and I am crafting these 0's and 1's to you via a generator generously loaned to us by future in-laws. Our home suffered no major damage at all and as luck would have it, I had business trip to Las Vegas scheduled right in the middle of these days of recovery. If you're an MLBroadcast client, please accept our thanks for your patience in the delays that have resulted in production. We are working hard to get back on track and should be caught up soon. Call me directly if you have a concern or issue 832-331-4846.

REBlogWorld
Last Thursday through Sunday was spent at the Real Estate Blog World and Blog World conference. Todd and Jason should take great pride in successful first time event with REBlogworld. The sessions were great, the preparation and execution stellar and the overall experience definitely a worthwhile one. I highly recommend this event to any real estate professional or company interested in blogging and new media as a part of their strategy. We are proud to be a sponsor of the event and look forward to getting involved with the event in a big way again next year. Stay tuned for information regarding videos that were captured for each session at the event.

BlogWord Expo
The BlogWorld Expo was amazing. I've either been involved in the planning of or in attendance at more expos and conferences than I can remember and I believe this event was as well done both in execution and content as any I have attended before. It's only the second year for this event, but I can already see it becoming one of the larger and more well attended "digerati" events in the future. It covered much, much more than blogging, in fact, if it had to do with new media of any kind, it was addressed in some way. I enjoyed speaking with my old pal Paul Cheney who is now the president of the International Blogging and New Media Association, we became members because Paul is at the helm and I had a chance to find out more about their charter and see how I can become involved. Look for a podcast interview with Paul in the coming days. The highlight for me personally was being able to network with folks in the speaker ready room. I had a chance to talk to the social and new media folks with Wal-mart and get a preview of their cool new iPhone app being released this week. It's pretty cool to hang out with people like Guy Kawasaki. Most of the people in this industry, not matter what their celebrity status, are very approachable and that carried through to the sessions and the expo floor. Keep in mind for next year that by attending REBlogworld you are also able to attend the entire BlogWorld event. As Jeff Turner put it during a conversation we had, BlogWorld has been very "mind expanding". After all, isn't that why we go to these things? Oh wait, it was in Vegas, let me rephrase that, "Isn't that one of the reasons we go to these things?"

REBarcamp Houston Is Still On
I had a few conversations with some of my REBCH cohorts prior to my departure about whether we should postpone Real Estate Bar Camp Houston. The overwhelming consensus was to stick with the original date and plan. With all that will be taking place afterward like NAR's expo etc., it just makes sense to push forward. We will need as much help as possible from volunteers. Rich Jacobson of Active Rain being the awesome human being he is, has offered to come in a day early and help set up. We need sponsors! It's only $250 to be a sponsor of the event, so if you know of a person or company that wants the extra exposure and overall warm fuzzy that comes from being a part of a cool grass roots effort like a barcamp, have them get in touch with me.

Links for 2008-09-18 [Digg]

2008-09-19T00:00:00-05:00

REBlogworld Kicks Off Friday. MLBroadcast To Sponsor.
Real Estate Blog World and Blog World Expo start Friday. Post your questions for panelists and moderators.

REBlogworld Kicks Off Friday. MLBroadcast To Sponsor.

2008-09-18T00:29:00.005-05:00

It's 2 am on Thursday and I am sitting here in the pitch black darkness except for the glow of a generator powered MacBook. Hurricane Ike has much of the Houston and surrounding area still without power. It's been one hell of a week and as Jeff Turner mentioned to me, I'm going to need to go to Vegas just to get rest. That's something you don't hear too often :)

I'm really looking forward to both Real Estate Blog World and the Blog World Expo. I'm extremely impressed with the sessions and the speaker line up. I will be sharing a presentation stage with Daniel Rothamel of The Real Estate Zebra and Morgan Brown of TurnHere to discuss the Why, How and Distribution of RE Video Content (Officially Titled: Video Marketing tools & strategies to help your business go viral). I've had a peak at my co-panelists' presentation decks, this should be one of the better sessions of the event! Matt Fagioli of Diamond Dwellings is moderating and has done a super job of getting prepared ahead of the event.

MLBroadcast is proud to also announce that we will be joining Trulia, Zillow, and TurnHere as sponsors of the event. We're honored to join this stellar group in supporting what promises to be a great first year event with many more to follow. Todd and JB have been working their butts off and I'm rooting for them to hit a home run. To use a Vegas analogy, I'd make book on it.

I wanted to offer my readers who won't be attending an opportunity to get questions in front of the moderators and speakers. I had hoped to pen this post earlier in the week, so if you would please Digg, Facebook or share it in your favorite way with the RE professionals in your network. I would appreciate it. Take a look at the sessions and then drop back here to pose any questions you might have as a comment. I will be sure to get them to the right place for you. You can also send your question via Twitter during the event as I will be trying to live blog as much as I can. I'll do what I can to get your answers and provide them in the form of a follow up post upon my return.

Once again, If you're an MLB client, we are working to get caught up as fast as we can. Normal production times should be back on track Monday or Tuesday. Thanks for your patience.

Production Delay

2008-09-15T11:21:00.000-05:00

Due to Ike we are experiencing a delay in processing MLBroadcast orders. You should receive an e-mail update tomorrow. We will resume production Tuesday morning. Thanks for your understanding.

Podcast Update: Derek Overbey - Roost

2008-09-07T20:06:00.002-05:00

Head over to Agent Genius to check out the details on the latest podcast episode.

Links for 2008-08-30 [Digg]

2008-08-31T00:00:00-05:00

Podcast: Heather Fernandez VP Marketing - Trulia
Podcast interview announcing the real estate search portal's new offerings.
Community is The Core of CoRE
Post regarding the Carnival of Real Estate and its mission.
Scouts of The New Frontier: Social Stewards & Custodians of
How does the role of a social media manager improve corporate communication.

Podcast: Heather Fernandez VP Marketing - Trulia

2008-08-27T01:22:00.003-05:00

Trulia announced several new initiatives this week that they unveiled as the the 3 P's launch.

Personalization
This comes in the form of a local news feed that is aggregated from areas of the site. After searching and navigating the site, your subsequent returns pull together content relevant to your efforts.
Portability
Three new mobile efforts comprise the portability announcement, the most notable of which is a new iPhone application. It's been a big hit with over 6,000 downloads according to a tweet by Rudy Bachraty earlier today. A blackberry application and Dash Networks GPS integration are avaialable as well.
Participation
Trulia adds blogging to the social effort in the site in the hopes that it will extend the ability for agents to connect to their growing consumer base.

Heather Fernandez, Trulia's VP of Marketing took time to speak with me about the new features as well as an overview of Trulia Pro, the self service marketing program for brokers and agents. Enjoy!

Click Here To Listen/Subscribe in iTunes

Community is The Core of CoRE

2008-08-25T21:45:00.007-05:00

It's hard to believe there have been 105 CoRE posts. This week's host, Toby Boyce posted earlier this evening on Twitter (@realtortoby) that He thinks that CoRE may have "jumped the shark" due to the amount of traffic to his blog as compared to his original CoRE hosting experience. I don't think that's entirely the case, but I do think those involved with the CoRE community as a whole have become busy and maybe a little complacent in their support and promotion. I will be the first to admit I am guilty recently of not writing posts like this one to draw attention to the weekly CoRE. The submission that I made this week was also my first in months. To top it off I fell behind in our volunteer duty of updating the podcast feed of CoRE audio interviews, which are actually very popular. I've taken care of the update and even decided to create the podcasts in an enhanced format. In the future I will be adding chapter markers that will make listening to the podcasts more enjoyable along with graphics and hyperlinks designed to draw a little more attention and traffic to the host via iTunes.

So, if you're a Carnival of Real Estate fan, help the community out by writing a CoRE link post once in a while, make sure you have it in your blog roll, and please submit your best stuff every week. I think the most important thing to consider is your role as a host and your responsibility to showcase the best of the best in the RE.net. That's kind of hard to do if you don't have enough to choose from. CoRE is one of the few community based efforts without a bigger corporate agenda and exists in a completely transparent fashion. If you look at the CoRE site you will find nothing in the way of self promotion for the founders and hosts. Zillow has put a lot into it in the way of resources (Including a great redesign just a couple of weeks ago). There are a number of extremely successful and popular blogs in the RE.net that have received a tremendous boost, or even been put on the map because of CoRE. This blog owes a great deal of it's success to CoRE and that's why I am stepping up to help make sure it continues to do it's chartered duty, expose the best of the best in the RE.net to the rest of the world!

Scouts of The New Frontier: Social Stewards & Custodians of Community

2008-08-24T12:29:00.011-05:00

The new frontier......social media. The full impact and role it will play in the future of business may not be clear for some time but it's a forgone conclusion that, at some point, you're going to need a strategy. You may even find yourself in need of a person dedicated to the effort of implementing and maintaining that strategy. Still not convinced? It's pretty easy to tell when something new is eventually going to take a mainstream role in business. It always starts with the consultants. It's hard to imagine how many shingles are hung (or changed) every day that say "Social Media Consultant". What's more intriguing are the number of positions within companies that are dedicated to the effort of being the bridge between companies and the people who speak about them in the "Socnets". The titles are just as creative as the people that fill the roles. Social Media Guru and Social Media Ninja are the monikers given to just two of the people I know in these positions. Whether you're an individual or a corporation, I can imagine how hard it would be justify a dedicated effort that, on the surface, seems like no more than talking to people online and at conferences. Opportunity exists at so many levels within communities and social networks that, given the proper skill set, this liaison could well become as critical as any c-suite exec.

I'm actually a lot like many old school business decision makers when it comes to Web 2.0 style tools that are supposed to be the next big thing. I'm pretty good at spotting opportunity that exists outside the fringes of conventional wisdom. I love looking at things that are disruptive as a means of improving or creating new things. The old school part kicks in because I look at everything with a skeptical eye when I first see it. I will openly admit that it took me longer than it should have to snap to the broader potential that exists with Twitter because I couldn't get past the thought of wondering why anyone would give a crap what I was eating for dinner. The tasks of keeping up with community and social media trends and platforms can be pretty daunting. Every day introduces something new to the realm of social media and community building and finding someone with the skills to separate the lemons from the lemonade should be on the mind of anyone with plans to grow a business into the future. Here are just a few of the things this person is going to need to be familiar with.

SMO - Social Media Optimization
Essentially this is a process that is dedicated to making sure the company is receiving as much exposure as possible through the Socnets including social bookmarking sites, video sharing destinations, wiki's, RSS aggregation sites, Digg and other social news sites, the wider blog community and more.

Social Media Metrics
Measuring the impact and return on investment in Social media efforts will eventually become an integral part of an overall web strategy.

Reputation Management
Spotting potentially harmful trends or spotlighting successes with regard to a corporate image. Dealing with them quickly and transparently is critical to success.

I've spent over 2 years entrenched in the world of community and social spaces. Some of that time was spent scratching my head and asking myself what the hell I was doing wasting my time. In the end I have found it pays to investigate it all and run it through a filter until your social media mix is optimized to generate results.

So who are some of the people having an impact in their role as a community or social media manager? You've probably seen most of them at one point or another. Whether you're an individual struggling to find your sweet spot within social media or a business that is interested in expanding your horizons, here are few people that you can follow :

Rudolph D. "Rudy" Bachraty III - Trulia
One of the smartest moves Pete Flint made last year was to hire Rudy as their "Social Media Guru". Rudy comes to Trulia with a built in following from the RE.net blogosphere. I think it's a safe bet that Trulia sees their investment in Rudy as a crucial means of connecting to the agent and broker base.
Twitter: @Trulia
Facebook

David Gibbons & Drew Meyers - Zillow
Greg Swann aptly coined WWDGD, "What Would David Gibbons Do?" because he was so impressed with the way David handles himself when faced with the prospect of defending a Zillow position or diffusing an issue within the RE.net. One of David's roles within Zillow is to be the guy that bridges the gap between perception and reality with regard to their products. He does it very, very well. If you engage David for any period of time it becomes apparent that he is passionate and believes in his product, without reservation or trepidation of any kind. Drew has a similar role in making sure the development and tech community are aware of Zillow. It's important to Zillow that the developer community within the RE.net be exposed to opportnutiies to integrate Zillow's offerings. By maintaining efforts like the GeekEstate Blog and The Carnival of Real Estate, Drew is doing a tremendous job of social stewardship.
David Facebook
Drew
Twitter: @drewmeyers
Facebook

Daniel Rothamel - Community Manager - Inman News
One of the things you have to admire about Brad Inman is his ability to use his resources to surround himself with young, top notch talent. Daniel is another blogger who has created a high profile for himself through quality blogging. His personality is perfectly suited to the role and he demonstrated his talents well during the recent REBarcamp and Inman events by using Social media to help make sure that attendees were able to get the most out of their investments in the conferences.
Twitter: @realestatezebra
Facebook

I would have mentioned Jeff Turner , but his ubiquity is borderline scary :). The guy is everywhere and though he has become a great friend over the last year or so, I'm still not quite certain he is a human yet. Research continues.

My company, MLBroadcast is pretty small. I'm the guy handles the social and community interaction. Even as we grow I will most likely maintain the role because I enjoy it so much. It helps me stay focused on the segment of our market that is most advanced. I can also filter ideas that I might think are the next big things through a group of people who are smarter than me and will tell me without reservation if I'm all wet. ( O.K. that's not really the truth. There's only room for one RE.net rock star and I am sick of Jeff getting more attention than me. :) All kidding aside, we've been able to build a strong branding effort through social media and community efforts. I certainly haven't done it alone and it has been a lot of work, but we can take pride in the fact that the strategy has paid off for us in more than one way.

There is a great deal more genuine interest in Web 2.0 tools at the Broker level recently, especially with Broker based, multi-author blogging. I think it's critical to find someone suited to the role to establish a strategy for social media and community that have tangible and varied goals attached to the effort. Those goals could be recruiting, retention, increased listings, competitive analysis, market anaylsis, .... you name it. Keep an open mind during the process. Realize that the results may take a while for portions of your efforts. Others not so much. Of the last 4 podcast interviews I have done, 2 of the companies profiled have already garnered new prospects and/or business from the exposure - exposure that cost them nothing more than about a half hour's time and a long distance phone call. I would characterize that as a pretty strong ROI.

So what are your thoughts? Do you think it's time to pay more attention to community and social media? Should you create a strategy for it or should you wait to see if it gets legs and play catch up later on? Maybe the LA Times killing their real estate section is just an isolated event.

*photo credit of me having fun with the Re.net crowd in S.F.: Jay Thompson

Mike's Mic - With Giovanni Galluchi of Viewzi.Com

2008-08-16T20:48:00.003-05:00

If you think the category of search has reached it creative peak, think again. There are some really impressive people out there working on ways to improve what is arguably the most used feature of the web. If you find yourself frustrated with the way your search results are delivered, you're not alone. Enter a new category....Visual Search. Viewzi.Com has been created as means of creating unique "views" of search results. You may prefer to see the results of your searches in a different context than others do. Viewzi's goal is to develop a platform that allows you to view results other than "pages full of blue links". Giovanni uses some great analogies explaining the application of this context and the unique way in which they plan to open the development of "view" based search to anyone with the chops and time to code it. As we discuss in the interview, this opens up a tremendous opportunity for the real estate vertical to create customized search views that can be added to their web marketing efforts. How do you see sites like Viewzi improving the real estate search experience? In the near future I will be speaking with another company working on ways to improve the experience of search. Stay tuned.
Click Here To Listen To This Episode:
Click the "Mike's Mic" link in the sidebar to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes.

Attention REBloggers: CREST Survey #2

2008-08-09T20:12:00.004-05:00

The Center for Real Estate and Social Technologies (CREST) released the results of their first survey at REBarcamp recently and they revealed some interesting information about blogging within the real estate vertical (view the results here). The second survey delves a little deeper to find out which social media tools are being used to enhance blogging efforts. I think if CREST can get a good cross section of participation in these surveys it could go a long way toward helping the industry craft some meaningful educational and reference materials for beginning bloggers. Participants in the survey will be able to receive the executive summary when it is released. Deadline for this survey is on Aug 21st.

Fill out my Wufoo form!
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REBlog World - Podcast w/ Todd Carpenter

2008-08-06T15:50:00.003-05:00

BlogWorld is the world's largest conference expo dedicated to blogging. When Todd Carpenter and Jason Berman attended the event last year they were amazed at the size and diversity of the event. They were also amazed that Real Estate was a vertical woefully under represented. The idea to team up with the folks at Blog World was hatched and the result is REBlogWorld. Here's a snippet from the BlogWorld site.

If you blog, dabble in new media, are a full time digital communications junkie ... or just dream of getting your feet wet in this phenomenon with a 6,000% growth rate ... you have to be at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas, September 20 & 21, 2008. Join more than 4 million bloggers who know this industry is going to continue to grow ... and want play an active role. Don't be left behind ... attend the show to secure and further your stake in the Blogosphere!

REBlogWorld is co-located with BlogWorld and will take place on September 19th in Las Vegas. Todd and Jason have pulled together a stellar crew of speakers and topics. If you're a real estate blogger you will not want to miss it. The price of admission gets you into the entire Blog World event and from what I've heard about last year's show it's worth every penny. I'll be on a real estate video panel with my new friend Morgan Brown from The Blown Mortgage Blog and Turn Here and my old friend Daniel Rothamel, aka The Real Estate Zebra. I spent some time with Todd to produce a podcast interview that should answer any questions you have about REBlogWorld. Check it out below. I hope to see you in Vegas next month!

To subscribe to our audio podcast, click the Mike's Mic link the right sidebar. (Requires iTunes)

Attention Video Bloggers and Vlogging Wannabes

2008-08-04T11:59:00.005-05:00

Reggie and Nik-Nik at My Tech Opinion are conducting a contest with some great prizes to see who has the best video blogging chops. I have accepted their invitation to be one of the judges along with The Facilitator, The Striped Crusader and the Queen of Personality. What is Vlogging? Basically it's a blog post done via video instead of text. In other words, it's usually someone sitting in front of camera saying what could typically be said in a blog post.

Personally, I think video blogging is a great idea, but only if you are using the medium to impart a message you couldn't otherwise write about. If it needs a visual cue, video is a great way to blog it. Maybe you're introducing a new tech gadget you want the world to see. You might be at a specific event like an open house, a town hall meeting, grand opening or more. Maybe you were planning on writing a post about the new park in town. If you're comfortable enough behind the lens, set up your camera at the park and go for it! I'm really looking forward to the entries. This should be fun. Set up your web cam or camcorder and submit your entry soon!

It's Hotter In Houston - BarCamp Slated For August 9th

2008-08-02T14:59:00.004-05:00

The Houston Technology Center will play host to a BarCamp taking place August 9th. The early volunteers and organizers of REBarcamp Houston will be in attendance to get ideas and meet the folks who are putting together the event. There is a pre-camp survey on line that will be used to help shape the sessions. My interests are in mobile app development and what we can do collectively to raise the profile of Houston as a tech destination. Austin is great, but we have more than our share of Geek Elite right here in H-Town.

I'm looking foward to participating in the sessions and learning all we can to help make REBCH a big success. Carson Coots has been working hard on the official site and it is outstanding! Stay tuned for the launc.

If you're interested joining us for the day, dm me on twitter (@mlbroadcast).

Podcast Interview: DiamondDwellings.Com

2008-07-31T12:31:00.004-05:00

The folks in attendance at this years SF Inman Connect event seemed a little more engaged than usual. They also seemed a bit more genuine with regard to their desire to wrap their minds around the new rules and new tools of real estate. I had the opportunity to meet with a few people developing some fairly unique concepts. Among them is an affable guy named Matt Fagioli. We've connected briefly in the RE.net prior to the events. He showed up to REBarcamp and Inman with an energy and passion that was very contagious.

Matt is in the process of launching a new brokerage model called Diamond Dwellings. His concept is to provide area market leaders with a best-of-breed platform that takes full advantage of Web 2.0 while still implementing the best of what he affectionately refers to as "old school" marketing.

I had the opportunity to follow up with Matt and one of his agents, Lane Bailey today via audio podcast. Lane did a great job of extending his social networking chops into the events that took place in SF last week. Take a few minutes to listen to the interview and if you have questions contact Matt, he strikes me as a real straight shooter who will give it everything he has to ensure the success of the professionals that get on board with his program.

I promised Matt we would do a follow up interview next month to see where they stand with their program. Stay tuned!

Check out the interview here:

Click Here To S ubscribe To Our Podcast Channel In iTunes