This is a test for a blogging class

hello we are testing WindowsLiveWriter.  How does this work? here is a link to our golden isles realtor site.

 

Virtual Real Estate Bar Camp

First of all, you’re asking “What’s a BarCamp?” right?

In a nutshell, a BarCamp is an open workshop where people get together and share information and ideas on a given topic.  The real estate barcamp is apparently one of the fastest growing and more successful for this type of format… I think it has to do with the fact that we’re independent contractors and must get our information from our own sources so these barcamps provide an easy collaborative answer.

Traditionally, RE BarCamps are held in major cities which leaves those of us here in the Golden Isles or other places not close to a major city out in the cold.  Sure we could try and hold one ourselves, but I’m afraid the attendance would be meager to say the least.

Well, worry no more.  A Virtual RE Barcamp is scheduled for next week.  It’s all free and it’s virtual, which means rather than having to drive to Atlanta, Miami or Charlotte, you can attend in the comfort of your own office or home – in pajamas no less!   Go check out the site – it explains everything and ’see’ you next week!

Also on the horizon, RETechSouth is scheduled for March 2010.  This one will require a drive to Atlanta – but it’s huge and will be worth it!  More on this later!

Latest AVG Update Confusing You?

If you’re using AVG’s Free Anti-Virus program on your computer (as I know many of you are), you are probably receiving pop-up warnings that you have until Dec. 1 to upgrade to the new 9.0 version.

Word of caution: When you click on the ‘download‘ button you are taken to a page that basically tries to sell you the premium pay version.  If you are not careful, you may overlook the free download option altogether.  Look at the bottom of the page below the “Buy” section which is huge with a large download button next to prices like $49.95 and such.  In the smaller print below this, you will see a line that says something to the effect of ‘to upgrade existing free version.’

If you are not sure, simply close out of the pop-up box and Google: “AVG Free 9.0″ and you will see the site where you can upgrade.

Everytime AVG sends out an upgrade notice, I get calls from people crying that AVG is no longer free and they had to pay to continue it.  This is NOT the case!  AVG is trying to get you to buy their premium service, afterall, that is their purpose… they are not out there simply to offer free services to everyone.  If you do not want the additional services offered in the premium package, don’t pay for it.  You CAN still get it for free!

It’s About Time!

A universal phone charger has been approved by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union – a body of the United Nations).  Could this mean the end of buying new chargers every time you buy a new phone?  The end of finding random chargers in the bottom of drawers and not being sure which phone it went with? Trying in vain to cram it into your current phone hoping it will work?

I just think it’s crazy that I have owned a series a LG phones over the past several years, usually upgrading to the next model each time.  And yet, each time, there was an entirely new charger designed specifically for that phone to ensure we couldn’t possibly use the same charger as the older model, which by the way was almost identical to the new one.

What a scam!  Well check out this article from BBC News.  Just because they’ve approved it doesn’t mean the companies out there will jump on the band wagon… that’s easy money they’re makin’ off those stupid chargers… So I’m looking forward to see what happens!

Realtors Wrote the Book… so What Happened?

The business of real of estate has always been about networking. This industry practically wrote the book on networking. I remember when I first moved here, sitting with friends at Rafter’s in the Village, packed in like sardines listening to some band when the woman sitting next to my friend started talking to us. We made small talk until she offered me her business card out of the blue – a real estate agent.  What a conversation killer.  We made excuses and slunk away into the crowd. I wish to this day that I had kept the card so I would know who that was. Midnight at Rafters, people out having fun, drinking and listening to music – and here was this real estate agent passing out her business card.

I still hear people saying things like: “I don’t go home until I’ve passed out at least 15 business cards on a given day” or “You need to join your local church, rotary or other organizations to network.”

And yet, if I ask them if they’re on Facebook or LinkedIn, they throw me that exasperated look as if I’m asking them if they play video games. But it’s called Social Networking folks! It is the heart and soul of our industry, but for some reason, passing out business cards to random strangers makes more sense to them.

On-line, you have the opportunity to show people who you are, to ‘build’ relationships. You have ability to make people understand what you’re about and what you can offer them. They can see your personality beyond the hard sell of “do you need to buy or sell your house?”  Handing out your business card to every random stranger you meet… yeah, that’s effective.

Wanna know what I did with that business card handed to me at Rafters? We marveled at how pathetic it was to be lurking around Rafters on a Saturday Night trying to peddle your real estate business. Wanna know the best part? I was in the market for a house at the time. Was I going to use a perfect stranger who handed me a business card in the middle of a good time at Rafters? No way!

Also, don’t be one of those people that other people try to avoid… do you notice that people seem to duck behind the banana display at the grocery store… or how many parents at school seem to rush off when they see you, suddenly remembering they had to be somewhere?  It’s those business cards you’re shoving down their throats.  No one likes to be sold to…

Conventional thought had been that social networking on-line was the realm of teenagers or the young in general. Well, perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel.  If the average age of a REALTOR® is about 55 years old… then these new statistics should prove positive. I found this great quote today:

Older users continue showing up on Facebook and social networking sites. Facebook saw an increase in visitors who are 55 and older, a whopping 108 percent in September 2009 compared with September 2008.  Overall U.S. visits to social networking Web sites from users who are 55 and older have increased 77 percent year over year. Visits from users 18 to 24 to social networking sites have decreased 33 percent year over year.amychorew.com, Thinking of Using Social Media in your Business?, Oct 2009

You should read the whole article.  Then hope that among those who made up the 108 percent increase in Facebook were REALTORS® finally seeing the light.

In any case, my next free seminar for our board office is coming up Oct. 21 at 2:00pm called “Social Media: Business of the Future or Just and Excuse to Goof Around?” It’s a basic overview of what social media is… how it works…why it works… and how it can impact a real estate business.  The coolest part of this is that I used the Prezi presentation tool rather than the bland PowerPoint for this class… so it’s sort of cool and I had fun putting it together!

And by the way, my feelings are this: join a church, join the rotary club, join all the charitable organizations you want… but do it because you want to join – because you believe in their cause… not simply to find prospective buyers and sellers. The business you get from that should be a side effect of higher intentions and jobs well done.

WordPress Thesis Theme

Been working with WordPress all summer, having upgraded over from my basic dumb-dumb blog on Blogger and testing the waters a bit with their hosted WordPress.com blogs and one on my own hosting with WordPress.org. I’ve played around with Artisteer, designing my own templates… but something has still been missing.

At the same time, I’ve been re-working my real estate website on Joomla! but have found that a bit uninspired and left feeling like I wasn’t quite on the right track.

I am now fully convinced that my website – which is information intensive – and my real estate blog should be merged as one entity. I think with the purchase of the Thesis Theme (those in the know rave about this so much, you’d think it was the best thing since sliced bread…) and it’s flexibility, this is the way to go. I feel like I’ve wasted the summer monkeying with Joomla! but I suppose it’s all about the learning process. It took me awhile to relinquish my grasp on my old, faithful static website… but I do think it’s about moving forward.

Unfortunately, this Thesis Theme is forcing me back into CSS and HTML…which is really rusty… but if you’re picky like me and want everything just so… I suppose you gotta do what you gotta do.

Social Media

Check this out..

Slowly but Surely…

Attended the Georgia Association of REALTORS’s Technology Committee Meeting recently in Orlando at our annual convention.  While I’m not a member of the state committee this year, I will be in 2010.  I was just sitting in as an interested observer. The last meeting I attended involved a presentation about Second Life.. which has apparently all but gone bust as far as realtors’ use is concerned.

This session started with Chris McKeever from NAR’s Center for REALTOR Tech speaking about statistics… until one bold voice (not mine! even I don’t have the testicular fortitude to do that… despite wanting to) interrupted and asked what this committee was all about.  Then the pandora’s box was open with people voicing all sorts of opinions and frustrations.  It turns out that the Tech Committee at the state association is about as discombobulated as most tech committees at the local level.

What became obvious at this ‘forum’ was that we, at the Golden Isles, have already taken the steps that GAR needs to take by shifting gears years ago and focusing on members and their need to adapt to new technology.  You see, when most boards started a tech committee, it was really to make sure someone knew how to plug in the VCR to the TV or who know what a megabyte was when deciding what type of computer to buy for the office. 

Today, technology has evolved so far beyond that… now it’s about educating the members of the associations on the evolving nature of real estate in a technology driven world.  How there has been a huge shift in our industry where we are no longer the keepers of the information (MLS in print form) requiring Buyers to work with us solely for that holy grail of information sources.  Today, the information is out there.  There are those who think they can stem that flow, but little do they know that it’s gone way beyond holding back… Our role as REALTORS today has changed.  Since we no longer hold the information, we must recreate ourselves and our objectives.  What is it that you want to be as a REALTOR?

So I’m looking forward to seeing what the GAR Technology Committee can evolve into with their greater access to knowledgeable techie members!

Back Yourself Up!

It’s funny. In the last week or so, numerous people have mentioned to me how they lost all or some of the data on their computers’ hard drives… that’s not the funny part. The funny part was that each of them said the same thing afterwards. Something to the effect of: “I had it mind to sign up for Carbonite, but my hard drive died just before I did it.” People don’t realize that a hard drive is simply a machine made up gears and moving parts, and like most things with moving parts, they break. I burned through my first hard drive on my laptop in less than 2 years.

There are relatively cheap services out there that will help you. Carbonite is one of them – they are pumping a lot of money into major advertising. Mozy is another one. Someone told me (don’t know if it’s true) that Mozy is not encrypted like Carbonite is. Carbonite also allows you to access all the files that would be in your computer, backed up on their server, so you can get to your files from anywhere with a internet connection. Pretty cool, huh?

Me, I’ve been on ‘Hard Drive Death Watch’ for the past couple of months since this one is now over 2 years old and has been creaking a lot… if hard drives actually creak. Been backing everything up and storing all my files on a Passport, a little external hard drive with tons of memory… but still considering the on-line back-up solution.

Prezi

For a long time, giving a presentation usually meant being in front of a class with a PowerPoint presentation running on the screen behind you.  I’ve grown pretty adept at working the PowerPoint – to get creative and have a little fun.  And just when I was getting really comfortable with good ol’ PPT… I discovered Prezi.

Prezi is a whole new take on presentations.  It has a non-linear format… and at first, it was a little difficult to get used to the functions and features.  But after four or five trials… I finally got the hang of it.  You can zoom, angle, zoom some more, insert media, frame things… and place things all over the place and create your own path, zig-zagging all over the place as you go.  You can unzoom… back up… rezoom and continue without missing a beat or sitting through click after click of slides.  It’s fairly liberating…  I used it for the first time last month for a Social Media class I taught to my local association and my students all agreed it was much more interesting than your typical PowerPoint slide show.

Apparently, the program is relatively new with some modifications pending.  As of right now, you select a template and you are stuck with the three font types & whatever font colors the template gives you.  I’m told that will be addressed in future modifications.

You can purchase the program or you can use the free version which gives you 100mb of space.  My Social Media class took up about 14mb… so it was plenty of space.  If you buy into the program, be prepared to convert euros to dollars…

Check it out: http://www.prezi.com and let me know what you think.