Notorious R.O.B.

It’s time, y’all.

Given all of the energy and action of late around housing, housing finance, and future of homeownership by the Federal government, I think it’s time the RE.net (and others!) put together a Carnival of Real Estate Policy.

I’ve organized one and will host the first one here on Notorious.  Submission deadline is 8/31/2010 and this inaugural edition will be posted on 9/5/2010.

I’m looking for blogposts that address the intersection of housing, housing finance, and government policy at all levels: Federal, state and local.  The posts can be mostly about housing, impact on price or sales, impact on consumers, impact on the industry, etc. but should at least address housing policy questions.  They can also be more about the politics — whether such and such a policy is a good idea or a bad one, or whether this policy or that one has a chance of success, or wider political implications, whatever.

This is the first edition; if there is enough energy around the topic, I’ll look to make this a regular monthly carnival, hopefully with other blogs hosting it as we go forward.

How to Submit

First, write a blogpost and schedule it for publication around 9/5.  Then email me the post and the permalink to rhahn@7dsassociates.com.  I’ll read it to make sure the post is on-point, then include it in the actual Carnival Edition post.  Readers will be sent to your blog to read the actual post.

Let’s get the conversation going on this all-important topic.  Looking forward to your thoughts.

-rsh

Last night, the RE.net and the world lost a thinker, a mentor, a wit, a pioneer, and above all, a good man.  Joe Ferrara has passed on.  My thoughts and prayers are with his family, and his wife Sandra, whom he loved above all else.

Joe’s Sellsius blog was one of the first and best real-estate blogs, full of interesting thoughts, news, and most of all, a great sense of humor that Joe imparted to it.  Posts like this one usually had me grinning, and sometimes laughing out loud maniacally, startling the nearby denizens of a Starbucks or two.

Joe is also one of the first people I’ve met in the RE.net.  When I first started blogging in 2008, Joe was one of the first to somehow find my unadvertised blog, comment on it, and contact me, encouraging me to keep writing.  If it weren’t for him, it isn’t clear whether Notorious R.O.B. ever evolves.  I called him the Godfather of La Blogstra Nostra, the East Coast RE.net Famiglia, out of respect for him and his sense of humor.  That is what I’ll remember about him — how great his laugh was, how his eyes would twinkle constantly, and how funny the man was.

I will never forget that Joe was a font of ideas and innovation.   Although not a wealthy man, Joe was constantly thinking about helping those less fortunate than himself.  We must have discussed the idea of pro bono real estate for hours, days, weeks.  He was the first person I remember proposing a “Hot Ladies of the RE.net Calendar” to raise money for various charitable causes, like Habitat for Humanity.  His ideas were often great, sometimes not, but always, always interesting.

Joe and I have had so many great conversations over the years, whether on the web, or in person at various conferences, or meeting up in New York City over a cup of coffee or seven, debating everything from social media to real estate to the state of the nation to whether Batman could beat Superman in a fight.  It was our love of conversation that led to the Lucky Strikes Social Media Club, which is still going strong in New York, in the hopes of getting together with other like-minded real estate, technology, and marketing people to share a meal and a great conversation.  That wonderful network of people does not exist without Joe Ferrara’s leadership and vision.

Above everything else, I will remember just how much Joe genuinely loved people.  That’s a rare enough quality in human beings, nevermind an attorney.  (Yes, Joe, I hope you’re laughing where you are, since you loved attorney jokes.)  But he really cared about people as people, was interested in them as human beings, and wanted to connect as one person to another.  If social media means anything at all, it means human beings treating each other as such.  Joe embodied that spirit better than just about anyone I know.

I’ll miss you, Joe.  See you on the Other Side.

-rsh

Joel Burslem over at 1000watt has proclaimed July 9, 2010 as the day that the real estate blog died, and given the thoughtfulness and intelligence of the author, it’s difficult to disagree with his conclusion.  Given how Joel defines “real estate blog”, the conclusions he draws are somewhat difficult to escape:

For every Phoenix Real Estate Guy, there are likely umpteen dozen soulless me-too real estate blogs in any given metro these days. Many are filled with meaningless “market reports,” meandering “community updates” – and most were last updated many moons ago.

These blogs float like drift nets on the web, hoping to snare the clueless web visitor who stumbles in through some long tail Google search.

I, however, don’t necessarily agree with his premise.  In order for something to die, it had to have been alive at some point.  Since I don’t believe that the “real estate blog” as defined above was ever graced with the spark of life, I don’t know that I would mourn its death.

Instead, I would like to recommend some tools that are critical to the aspiring real estate blogger in the hopes that we might change the definition of a ‘real estate blog’ from “soulless me-too” Google-farming wanna-be blogs to an actual blog: a weblog, a series of thoughts.

These are not free tools, unfortunately, but for someone interested in blogging — whether in real estate or hyperlocal or something else — these tools are absolutely essential.

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So this post will likely depart significantly from my normal topics of discussion: real estate, marketing, technology, etc.  Well, it might touch on technology… and who knows, it might find its way back to something useful.  But probably not….  That’s why this is my personal blog, not a series of industry white papers.

Was talking to a friend recently and she said that her teenage daughter just got dumped by her boyfriend of a year (which is a long time when you’re like 14 years old) via text message.  Now, I’ve heard of things like this before, but this one happened to come at the heels of a blogpost I read by my friend Melissa, also known as Single Gal In The City, about dating in Portland:

“There are so many shy guys,” Laura, 27, said. “And there’s a fine line between coming on too strong and helping them to overcome their shyness.”

Amy moved here from Iowa last year and says she doesn’t recall a man ever approaching her. Nina says Portland men are like the weather — soggy — and unwilling to go out on a limb.

“Men here don’t take initiative,” she said. “They don’t look at you twice or come up to you.”

What in the world… really?  Seriously?

So on the one hand, American men are now too spineless to make the first move on a woman, but they think it’s fine to dump the ye olde girlfriend via text message?  What’s next, divorce papers via FaceBook?

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There is a viral YouTube video going around right now, a “parody/spoof” of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” with Alicia Keys.  Here it is, in case you haven’t seen it:

I understand that the people behind the video, one Pantless Knights, were making a parody.  I hope to God that they’re ridiculing the people being held up as examples of successful entrepreneurs by the media.  The intro in the sidebar hints that may be the case:

This is a Pantless Knights tribute to our favorite entrepreneurs (who are all “new dorks”). It’s a spoof of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind,” from the guys behind Grasshopper.com (thank you!). We made it because there’s a new type of dork that is cooler than ever. Look at tech entrepreneurs, hipsters, Computer Science Barbie – they’re all super popular new dorks! Don’t forget to rate, comment and subscribe!

Trouble is, even if Pantless Knights were ridiculing the hipsters and Computer Science Barbies who flock to the latest get-rich-quick schemes that make up so much of the “Web 2.0/social media” world, there are entirely too many slackoisies in that industry making fools of themselves and cheapening the word “entrepreneur”.

Let me rage properly at these fools.

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Last week, a couple of folks were speculating about my employment status.  Apparently, I had taken a job at MRIS as the Director of Marketing, and so on.  As flattered and grateful as I am that people take an interest in my ability to pay income taxes I thought it might be time to clarify things a bit.

As I’ve disclosed before, MRIS has been a client of 7DS Associates for some time now.  We have done and continue to work on a number of business projects for them.  One of the assignments I’ve taken on recently is to fill-in as an interim capacity while MRIS searches for a Chief Marketing Officer.  I asked that the mistake about my being the Director of Marketing for MRIS be corrected because MRIS was at that moment trying to recruit a Director of Marketing, and I didn’t want that person thinking that she had been rejected.

I didn’t talk about this because I don’t discuss client matters in public.  Confidentiality is one of our core values at 7DS Associates, along with Competence (we give it our best) and Loyalty (we don’t take on clients where conflict of interest may arise).  We don’t even disclose who our clients are unless (a) they give us permission, (b) they disclose the relationship first, or (c) other ethical considerations mandate that we disclose the relationship.

Something to keep in mind is that Notorious ROB is my personal blog, of my personal opinions.  In some cases, they reflect the position of 7DS Associates, but I simply do not speak for my clients on this blog.  In some cases, our clients agree with my take on things; in other cases, they disagree.  They will vote with their feet if things go too far astray from their own points of view, or if they think our views get in the way of whatever assignment we are working on.

Finally, our client work is between us and the client, and we keep those strictly confidential; only our clients can decide whether they like the work we do for them or not.

I hope that clears up any mystery.

-rsh

I got a couple of requests via email/DM for this so…

This is the rent-buy worksheet I used while writing my latest Inman column (subscription required).  I took it from Khan Academy and then modified it.  Feel free to point out errors, etc. right in the comments, and I’ll modify what I can.

Rent/Buy Analysis Worksheet (Right-click, and “Save Link As…”)

Enjoy!

-rsh

Image via Lovely Petal (Flickr: Samiksha)

On Twitter tonight, Sue Adler (@sueadler) says nonchalantly:

Shocking to find MY town pgs & photos copied exactly on another’s site. Hoping this agent, who I know well, hired someone & wasnt aware. hmm

That ain’t a “hmm” Sue — that should be a, “I’ve been robbed!”  That’s outright copyright violation — a theft of your intellectual property.

I know it happens.  Copyright violation on the Internet is not a matter of “IF” it happens, but “WHEN” it happens to you.  A lot of the violations are these automated spam blogs (“splogs”) that go out, scrape content, put it on a page to drive Google rankings and make a few bucks off of advertising.  In less common cases, it’s someone who just really liked your post or your content or something and thought it’s no big deal to copy the whole thing and put it on their site, as long as they link back to you and give you credit.

Except that it’s not okay, since Google punishes duplicate content.  To be sure, there is some dispute as to whether the original copyright holder gets hit with the penalty or not… but since anyone who claims to know exactly how the Google algorithms work who doesn’t have a valid Google Employee ID is probably talking out of his ass, why take the chance?  It isn’t as if the plagiarist is doing something legitimate to begin with.

As it happens, there are others who are far more expert than I in this area of what to do and how to protect yourself.  So here are a few links you might want to browse if you think someone (or multiple someones) is copying your content wholesale:

• What To Do When Someone Steals Your Content by Lorelle.  This is a fantastic, detailed post, with helpful tips, even a form email to send to the offending party, useful links, and just a wealth of information.  Start here.
• Copyscape.  This is a website that can simplify the effort of tracking who out on the Web is stealing your content.  I’ve managed to find quite a few of my blogposts on random splogs through this tool.  It also has helpful links right into WHOIS and other tools to simplify gathering information you’ll want and need to pursue the matter further.
• Chilling Effects.  This is for those who want to get a bit deeper into some of the legal issues in copyright infringement and piracy.  They also provide a great FAQ on copyright on piracy.
• Splogs: Spam Blogs and Stolen Content.  More of a call to arms, but there’s a lot of great information on this post, as well as links to other useful sites and tools.

I’m certain there are other great resources on the Web and elsewhere.  I’d appreciate any comments sharing ones you’ve found.

Fight Back; Content Theft is NOT Sharing

I know the spirit of sharing on the Web generally and in the RE.net more specifically are very strong.  Many of us are constantly sharing ideas, giving away “intellectual property”, and go to REBarCamps where we give stuff away for free all the time without any expectation of (immediate) gain.

But stealing content outright is not sharing.  I’m not talking about excerpting a paragraph or two to make a point here.  I’m talking about copying entire blogposts, pictures and all.  I’m talking about taking another agent’s local market information lock, stock and barrel and passing it off as your own.  Even if you include a token link to my original post, or put up some little piece of crap like “originally posted on XYZ blog”, you’re stealing my traffic, stealing my ability to interact with readers, and should anyone actually comment on your copy of my post, preventing the community from sharing ideas with each other.

As in all things, you can go overboard with trying to fight content theft.  You can’t live with paranoia all the time.  You have to use your judgment as to whether the offender was trying to steal your intellectual property, or made an honest mistake.

But fight back.  For all of us.  I for one plan on starting.  Have sent one letter so far tonight to a splog operator.  We’ll see if he takes it down.

-rsh

Get yer popcorn here! Fresh piping hot popcorn!

Earlier today, we had a bit of a brouhaha among the Twitterati of the real estate set.  The genesis was this video blog by Greg Cooper in which he blasted Todd Carpenter, attacked him personally, and laid the heavy artillery on to NAR.  Which then brought responses from various members of the RE.net, some friendly to Todd and others hostile to him, and resulted in this post by Bill Lublin.

Periodically, it seems we get one of these little kerfuffles in the RE.net; I personally think it’s pretty healthy.  As far as the specifics of the Todd vs. Greg deal and all of that, the whole thing is likely blown way out of proportion, and others will address the “personal vs. corporate” burdens on someone using his personal channels.  I hear Jay Thompson is working on a post.  Suffice to say that Todd is a great guy, and if any “embarrassment” resulted, I’m 100% positive he did not intend it.  So count me in Team @Tcar as far as that goes.

But the real issue I’d like to discuss is actually from a comment by Ines Hegedus-Garcia to Bill’s post which goes:

But again, that’s not the point – it’s not about Todd, it’s about the flaming of an individual on a public forum that totally crosses the line. (And the fact that is Todd makes it all the worse)

And via Twitter, there are a number of folks who thought Greg’s post was over the top, unfair, and illegitimate.  Criticism, it goes, should be “constructive and thoughtful” of else, not worth the time at all.

This is where I part company with polite society.

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Sherry Chris at REBarCamp San Diego, 2009

In part 1, we explored the controversies and the issues surrounding what a Real Estate BarCamp should or should not be, and explored the rules and principles of the original tech-focused BarCamp.  At the end of that, I asked three questions:

• What goals are we trying to achieve with REBarCamps?
• Who benefits from REBarCamps?  Who should benefit from REBarCamps?
• What principles and rules help achieve the answers to the above questions?

The answers have been varied, and interesting, and I appreciate the dialogue, y’all.

The heart of the dilemma comes out in the responses as well.  Kathleen Buckley (@kvbuckley) writes:

# What goals are we trying to achieve with REBarCamps?
In my mind REBarCamps aim to help RE Professionals learn about and leverage a wide range of new, largely technology driven tools to enhance performance.

In contrast, Andy Kaufman (@andykaufman) writes:

# What goals are we trying to achieve with REBarCamps?
As organizers, I think we should strive to provide a friction-less setting where participants can meet face to face with their peers who are passionate about the space can interact. As a participant, I want to meet people, strengthen relationships, learn & share knowledge without ‘being sold’.

Is REBC about “helping RE professionals learn about technology”?  Or is it about peers meeting to share their passions?  Can it be both?  If so, how?

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