House Talk - Hope for Homeowners

Realtor Magazine's Good Neighbor Award Finalists Announced

Very excited to share the results for Realtor Magazine's 2009 Good Neighbor Award Finalists. I'm pretty sure I gave high marks to everyone who finished in the top 10. Not going to be objective on this one, I am pulling for Regina to take the top prize. The link provides a description about all of the finalists, I had the privilege of reviewing their applications, letters of recommendation, plans for award money if they were to win the grant. We voted all 35 applicants on eight categories on a scale of 1-10, I made certain that Regina received my only perfect score. In the case that my blog followers are too lazy to click on the link, here's a list of the finalist (though I'm not giving you a description, USE THE LINK)

* Greg Adamson, Prudential Utah Real Estate, American Fork, Utah, Utah Heart 2 Home

* Margaret Pruitt Clark, Ken Meade Realty Inc., Surprise, Ariz., Eve’s Place

* Diana J. Croteau, Sun Mountain Properties, Williams, Ariz., Williams Needs an Angel

* David E. Dalzell, Dalzell REALTORS®, Abilene, Texas, FaithWorks of Abilene Inc.

* Cindy Johnson, Dona Christensen Realty, Woodbury, Minn., The Arc of Minnesota

* Helen Marotto, EXIT Homeplace Realty, Hampstead, N.C., Cape Fear Guardian Ad Litem Association

* Michelle M. Phaup, Clarkston Realty Inc., Clarkston, Mich., Lend a Helping Hand Inc.

* Regina Ragon, Prudential Realty Center, Flintstone, Ga., Latin American Community Development

* Jeffrey Davidson Schrager, Realty Blue Inc., Fresno, Calif., Community Housing Council of Fresno

* Samuel Thomas Jr., Imani Realty & Associates, Willingboro, N.J., QUEST Community Outreach

Video about Social Media "Fad"

Timothy Geithner Can't Sell His House! - The Daily Show

House Talk LIVE!! - Web Chat

Fox Providence set up an in-studio web camera and chat room where House Talk viewers can directly submit questions and watch our responses live from their computers. Today's session was about an hour and a half and we answered 20 questions. We had a ton of fun and were very impressed with the quality of questions The pre-recorded in-studio or on location segments are great, but everything is chopped up and we're limited in time, not to mention we are basically assuming the questions that our viewers want to ask based on the issues pertinent to our clients. The live web chat is the perfect forum to establish an open-ended, free flowing dialogue between us and our viewers.

Highlights include: My insistence on dropping in and out of the shot (I was looking at the in-studio camera not realizing half my body was cut out of the web cast), Ron's use of the phrase "hook you up," Ron's various disclaimers when I flew off the handle- most notably, my suggestion "Don't Pay Your Mortgage" which out of context could be very dangerous.

I had some issues viewing the entire webcast on our office computer (not my personal MAC), hopefully you don't have a similar experience

Class #2 - Introduction to Social Media

Earlier today, I taught my second "Introduction to Social Media" course at the Rhode Island Association of Realtors. Once again, I'm happy to report that the class was full. I think it went well, the students gave me high marks though there were definitely a few bumps along the ride.

Specifically, I had one student who didn't know how to access his own e-mail account, "I usually ask my secretary to log on for me." Imagine trying to teach someone how to drive when they don't even know how to use a key. Another student typed their e-mail address (ie bobjones@hotmail.com) into the browser when attempting to retrieve their facebook profile confirmation e-mail. And there was little I could do to help the woman who misspelled her password when she was prompted to "re-type password" on the initial sign-up page. I'm not trying to insult my students on cyberspace (though there is probably little chance they'd find this website) simply acknowledging that this is one of the challenges of instructing an introductory level course.

Still, we made considerable progress and by class' end: every student had created a facebook account, they accepted and requested few friends, commented on my page, posted a link to a Statewide MLS article, experimented with privacy settings (example: they learned how to block me from seeing their photos), and developed a working knowledge on how to post listings. I wish we could spend more time discussing the nuances of facebook marketing for Realtors, but with a majority of novice social media uses I have to allocate a good chunk of time to the very basic steps of setting up account... One or two of my students had a solid understanding before they entered class, things moved a little slower for them but I was still able to address their concerns as well (one woman wondered how she could post family photos but only allowing her family to view them)

Good class, I look forward to the next one and I'm actually working on developing an intermediate level course maybe "I have a Facebook Account, Now What Do I DO?" or "How To Market Yourself through Social Media."

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