Notorious R.O.B.

I'm the better looking one...

So Joe Ferrara and I are going to do a fun little event: a live debate on some topic or another.  We’ve been talking about doing this for a while now, and with Inman behind us, I have time finally to try it out.

So, the time and place and topic:

TalkShoe (Link: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/35673)

4:15PM Eastern

Topic is Lifestyle Search:

Description:
Joseph Ferrara of Sellsius and Robert Hahn of Onboard Informatics discuss whether consumers need or want lifestyle search when looking for homes.

The call-in # is:

Phone Number:
(724) 444-7444
Call ID: 35673

The “debate” is public, which likely means we’ll get about six people showing up.   But all six of you are welcome!

-rsh

UPDATE: The call was a lot of fun, and I owe many thanks to the various folks who participated.  You can listen to the recording here.

2009 is indeed upon us, and with it, Inman’s Real Estate Connect NYC.  I would like to welcome all the realestistas heading to the Big Apple, and say I’m looking forward to meeting you all in person.

And temporally speaking, 2008 has given way to 2009.  I can’t explain the feeling, but I have this strong premonition that 2009 will be a watershed year for the real estate industry.  Many important debates on Big Topics are happening right now, and I think events of this year will start to show us where the future lies.

I plan on revisiting this soon (after this week’s worth of meetings and discussions) but as I see it, there are three Big Topics for us in 2009:

1. Big Dogs or The Swarm
2. Brand or Social Media
3. Centralization or Diffusion

The three are, of course, inter-related.  And it isn’t clear that any of the above are Either-Or choices.  They may, rather, be a spectrum along which each individual realestista and the companies that make up the Industry align themselves.

But broadly speaking, and generalizing much, it does seem to me that 2009 promises to be an important year pitting two ideas against each other: The Firm or The Network.  The ultimate solution is likely to be a blend of the two (thesis & antithesis into synthesis), but that debate will be fun to have.

And it just so happens that some of the best and brightest are coming to my town, to spend a few days doing nothing but eating, drinking, and debating.  I’m looking forward to it with gusto.

Wilkommen, Herren und Damen!

-rsh

Christmas Eve being tomorrow, and with me being out over the Holidays next several days originally intended to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world in the Christian faith upon which Western Civilization has been built, blogging will be light to nonexistent.

And yes, I know that the word realestistas doesn’t really exist. Yet. But RE.net has such a specific connotation now that is far more connected to blogging than it perhaps ought to be. Twitterati is obviously connected to Twitter. We need a term that refers to all of us in the industry, who care about the industry, who see the importance of technology in real estate, and are active in the industry in one way or another.

So I give you realestistas (REE-uhl es-TEES-tas). Consider it my gift to all of you. And like most Christmas gifts, it may be returned for a full refund, or regifted, or hidden in a dark attic to be found decades from now by your grandchildren who will marvel at us poor backwards people and put it up for auction on Goobaymazon.com for like 250 Universal Credits.

There have been a lot of great discussions and grand debates on this blog recently, and while I want to continue the conversation, right now, all I wish is peace on earth, and goodwill towards men and women.

May the Lord smile upon you and yours during this blessed season.

-rsh

As some of you know, I am a fairly conservative Republican in the mold of Reagan.  My intellectual influences are the likes of Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Thomas Sowell.  I did everything I could given a fulltime job, a young family, and a blogging habit to see a Republican elected in 2008.

I believe Barack Obama to be a dishonest politician, a shell of a man with little character, who is now in way over his head and will likely plunge this nation into some of the worst crises we have faced.  I disagree with him fundamentally on philosophy, and on many of his policies, and do not trust him.

Having said that… as an immigrant, and an ethnic minority myself, I simply cannot help but marvel at the United States of America.  A significant majority of my fellow citizens have chosen to elect to the highest office in the land a man who a generation ago couldn’t have gotten served at a restaurant, or stayed in some hotels.  Those ancient prejudices have been wiped out in a matter of forty-some years.  Somewhere, there is no doubt that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is smiling at this turn of events.  They chose a man whose father is a foreign national, who is in our immigrant parlance, a second-generation American.  They chose a man who did not come from privilege, from the ancient political families, with all the money and advantages of ancient and modern nobility.

In what other nation on Earth is this possible?  None.  Not one.

So even as I dread the next four years politically and economically, even as I gear up to fight the Social Democrats as much as I can in my small way, and even acknowledging that I believe all of you in the 63 million who voted for Obama made a tremendous mistake… I congratulate you all.  I congratulate us all.  Even those of us who voted against him, and will fight against his policies, are part of what is simply the greatest country ever.

Mr. Obama is not Hope and Change.  But you are.  We all are.  America itself is.

May God keep and bless Her always.

-rsh

My short vacation in the mountains (hills?) of Pennsylvania is now over, and I’m sitting at the Westin in Las Vegas.  The RE Blog World show opens in a few minutes, and I’m sure blogs everywhere in the RE.net will be blazing with news and info.

I do have a ton of things to get caught up on, but am looking forward to the show.  More later, then.

-rsh

Just a brief note to let you know I’ll be on vacation until heading out to RE Blog World on Thursday.  So posting will be light or non-existent.  It’s hard to find the Internet up here in the mountains.

-rsh

In case you have visited Notorious R.O.B. before, you will surely notice that I have changed my blog theme.

I was using the Blix theme before (y’know, with the glowing eyes and all) which was a great theme.

But in putting the Onboard Informatics blog together, I came across a WordPress theme named The Journalist.  It really appealed to me not because I’m a journalist — in fact, I really would rather not be one of those — but because of its simple, clean, minimalist design that really emphasizes the writing.

The increased legibility from the larger fonts and the lack of clutter made it appealing to me, since I tend to write lots of words for no real reason at all.

It’s sparse, almost Spartan, but… I am really on a simplicity kick of late.  So here it is.

Expect new content soon — the Inman conference and the RE Bar Camp were amazing experiences.  I’ve met so many great people, got to know quite a few, regret not being able to spend time with many others of you, but look forward to the next meeting.  Oh yeah, and I got a ton of ideas for future posts.

And of course, I should have more time now that my major project for the first half of this year is finished.

-rsh

So I’m off to San Francisco today to attend RE Bar Camp and Inman’s Real Estate Connect.

I’m sure this is going to be a great week, filled with new people, new things to learn, and new stuff all around.

I’m hoping to meet many of the bloggers I’ve only communicated with over the Interwebs — many of you, I’m sure I’ll meet at one or more of the events.

Blogging may be very light while I’m over there, since we’re also a sponsor and I have various other duties, but… we’ll see what I can put up from time to time.

It is probably obvious by now that I have been letting this blog slide for quite some time.  The reason is that I have a day job as head of marketing for Onboard, and well, as is my wont, I’ve taken on a bit much at the same time.  In my defense, I feel that we had to do these things, but still… it’s about five or six major projects at the same time.  With but a fraction of the budget I was used to at Realogy.

In any event, we’ve been working our butts off (quite literally, as I’m down 5 lbs from the last physical) for the past several weeks, and I’m seeing the end of the tunnel.  I can’t show you all what my team and I have been working on so hard, but suffice to say that those of you attending Real Estate Connect in San Francisco will see some new things from Onboard.

You’ll have to tell me what you really think of the result.

-rsh

Just curious… anyone going to Inman SF?  Looks like I will be able to make it out there, and just thought I’d see who else (who might be reading my tiny little blog) might be going.

Would be great to finally meet some of you folks in person.

-rsh