Inman Blog

Connect NYC 2009 videos are now available!

RealEstateZebra — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:17:50 -0800

Videos of the general sessions from Inman Connect NYC 2009 are now available. The videos are available to Premium Members as a member benefit. If you're not yet a Premium Member, now would be the perfect time to upgrade your membership.

If your experience at Connect NYC 2009 was anything like mine, you probably attended a whole lot of sessions, but couldn't make it to all of them. These videos will help you fill those gaps. The vidoes are also great even if you did attend the sessions, because you can visit them as many times as you want to reinforce your knowledge and beef up your notes.

The videos include the keynote addresses by Robert Shiller and Gary Vaynerchuk, the very popular and informative "Bulls vs. Bears" panel, "25 Websites to help you find customers and save money in the downturn," and so much more! If you weren't able to attend Connect NYC 2009, these videos are a great way to catch up on much of what you missed.

Another option for those who want to be able to revist the entire Connect NYC 2009 conference is to purchase a USB key loaded with the audio from ALL of Connect NYC 2009. That's right, on one USB key, you'll get all of the audio from the main conference, PLUS all of the audio from the breakouts, workshops, and sponsored intensives. The entire conference, complete and portable! Check out the details and place your order today!

And if attending Connect NYC 2009 has you excited for San Francisco, I've got good news-- early-bird registration for Connect SF 2009 is NOW OPEN!

Vaynerchuk, round two

matt_carter — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:30:53 -0800

Phoenix real estate broker Jay Thompson tweets that he's getting a lot out of a podcast interview with WineLibrary.com's Gary Vaynerchuk that Michael Price has posted to his MLPodcast.com blog. Vaynerchuk takes 30 minutes to expound on his Inman Connect NYC keynote speech.

"Don't think he applies to real estate? Listen!" says Thompson, who's PhxREguy on Twitter.

Connect NYC 2009 sessions are now available as MP3s, and videos of general sessions are being added to the site. Check out other Inman News podcasts here.

A little real estate birdie told me

matt_carter — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:46:39 -0800

Wonder what all the fuss about Twitter is about, but clueless about how to get started Tweeting? G. Dewald, director of web strategy at Union Street Media, has opened up two avenues for exploring the social networking tool.

For those who can never be bothered to read the user's manual, first go get yourself a Twitter account and then check out Dewald's list of real estate professionals who are using Twitter. The list has grown to several dozen names and is over in the Real Estate Marketing 2.0 group in the Inman.com Community section. Dewald's made it simple for you to click on a link and start following any of these folks Tweets to learn how it's done.

If you'd rather get a handle on what Twitter's all about before diving in, Dewald's rounded up a comprehensive set of posts on his company blog that explore using Twitter for lead generation, customer service, trend spotting and reputation management. There's even a list of other Twitter user lists.

So it's up to you -- get schooled or learn on the fly. Oh you can pick up those Twitter icons (above) for your Web site or blog over here, at AODdesign.

Buffett: Obama best choice to face 'economic Pearl Harbor'

matt_carter — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:04:54 -0800

President Barack Obama takes office today holding the power to unleash the second half of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, and there's also legislation in the works to provide an additional $825 billion jolt to the economy (see Inman News story).

Billionaire Warren Buffett thinks Obama is "the absolute right commander in chief" for tackling the financial crisis. Excerpts from a transcript of an interview with NBC's Tom Brokaw posted by CNBC:

BROKAW: I've been describing this as the domestic equivalent of war. Is that an overstatement?

BUFFETT: Well, actually, in September I said .... this really is an economic Pearl Harbor. The country is facing something it hasn't faced since World War II.

And they're fearful about it. And they don't know quite what to do about it. And the point is ... temporarily it looks like we're losing. It has that same aspect. Interestingly enough, we were losing for a while after Pearl Harbor. But the American people never doubted that we'd win. I mean, we had that attitude then. I think, right now, that they're sort of paralyzed.

BROKAW: Is Barack Obama the right commander in chief for the economy?

BUFFETT: He's the absolute right commander in chief ... that's another thing the American people seem to do, occasionally, is that we elect people that are right for the times. You know, whether it was Lincoln, Roosevelt. I would say Obama ... you couldn't have anybody better in charge.

BROKAW: But why is he right for the times?

BUFFETT: Well, he's smart, he's got the right values, but he also ... understands economics very well. He's cool. He's analytical. But then, when he gets it all thought through, he's fast -- he can convey to the American people what needs to be done. Not to expect miracles. That it's gonna take time. But that we're gonna get to the other end.

...BROKAW: The stimulus program, that the new president wants to have, and that Congress is cobbling together, in your judgment is it sound? Are there some things they're-- they should be doing they're not doing?

BUFFETT: Well, they're ... gonna turn the fire hose on this fire. I mean, it's a blunt instrument to some extent ... but it's very, very big. We're gonna have a medicine coming in a dosage we've never seen before. But it won't have immediate impact. It should take time for it to hit the economy in real force. So people should not expect miracles in February or March or April. That isn't gonna happen.

...BROKAW: Paul Krugman, among others, says we're not doing enough. That we've got to ... open the valves even greater than we have been. A lot of people are concerned about the deficit and what the consequences are gonna be down the stream. Are we doing enough?

BUFFETT: I don't know the perfect answer. Nobody else does either. I mean, Paul Krugman doesn't know it. And Barack Obama doesn't know it. And (incoming Treasury Secretary) Tim Geithner doesn't know it. All we know is we have to do something on a very major scale. And if we find out six months down the road ... we've gone a little off course, left or right ... that can be (adjusted) we do not want to sit around and debate for six months what the perfect solution is.

We wouldn't know it if we found it. The important thing to do is do what we know we need to do now. And ... there will always be critics on that. The important thing is, that the person that's there takes the action that makes sense at the time. Did we handle the aftermath of Pearl Harbor the next month perfectly? I don't know whether we did or not. But I would doubt that. You know, somebody now can come up with a better system. The important thing is, we got going.

...BROKAW: But how much money can we print? I mean, the people are already saying, in the latest NBC News Wall Street Journal poll they're as concerned about the deficit as they are about almost anything else going on in their lives.

BUFFET: They should be concerned about the deficit. But they should be more concerned about getting the economy working right ... there are consequences to printing money, and they're not pleasant.

...BROKAW: (With) Democrats controlling both chambers now, there's gonna be a big cry for more regulations on Wall Street. For the financial institutions to be more closely supervised. Is that a good idea?

BUFFET: Well, it's probably a good idea. But I wouldn't look at that as a panacea. What you have to do, to some extent, is you have to create the right incentives also for those that are running those institutions. And, you know, I'm not sure whether I would shoot the CEO of any bank that went broke or anything. But I would make it much tougher than it's been in the past to run an institution into the ground. I think there are plenty of things to be done in the boardroom as well as in the rooms of the Senate or the House.

Explaining the financial crisis with humor

jburslem — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:17:22 -0800

An update to last year's popular subprime sketch performed by British comedians John Bird and John Fortune.

In two parts:

Part 2

Anger management

matt_carter — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:15:13 -0800

Wondering what Barry Ritholtz -- who last week told attendees at the Inman News Connect Real Estate conference in New York City that housing rescue proposals to date amount to little more than "the hair of the dog that bit you" -- thinks of the government's $100 billion+ backstop of Bank of America and the breakup of Citigroup (the recipient of $45 billion in TARP funds)?

Ritholz uses some PG-13 language in his post on The Big Bicture, "Time to fire Ken Lewis." In a more sedate passage, he writes:

"What a joke this has become. Are we supposed to be somehow comforted that the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., alongside the Treasury, are involved in the negotiations? They do not seem to have clue.

Time for an orderly liquidation: Start with Citi, move on to BofA, fire the execs, toss the Board, spin out the assets to competent managers who now how to manage risk and avoid excess leverage."

Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis said he moved forward with the company's acquisition of troubled Merrill Lynch because government regulators were worried about the impact on the entire financial system if the company went down.

"We did think we were doing the right thing for the country," Lewis said in a conference call with investors today (the deal closed Jan. 1, and today Bank of America disclosed Merrill Lynch is expected to post a $15.3 billion fourth quarter loss).

Mortgage broker and columnist Lou Barnes says the government has no choice but prevent more catastrophes like the failure of Lehman Brothers in September. The global financial system, Barnes says, can't "rest on market-discipline dominoes. We are stuck with too-big-to-fail, and must adapt to that reality."

(Bank of America today highlighted the fact that it extended $115 billion in new credit during the fourth quarter, including $45 billion in mortgages and nearly $7 billion in commercial real estate loans.)

But Barnes agrees with Ritholz on one point: "We're not going to get anywhere until these imperial CEOs, their co-conspirators, and especially their boards of directors face public disgrace."

Bloggers share their experiences from Connect NYC '09

RealEstateZebra — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:57:08 -0800

Blogger's Connect kicked-off Inman Real Estate Connect NYC '09 one week ago. I think it is only fitting that we share with you the blog posts from around the net from bloggers who attended Connect NYC '09. This list probably isn't every post out there, but it should give you a great taste of what went on at Connect.

Wendy Forsythe from Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate shares her Connect takeaways.

Poppy Disney, of Globrix, gives us an international perspective on AgentGenius.

Steve Jagger, of Reachd and Ubertor, caught Keynote speaker Gary Vaynerchuk for a 60-second interview.

Phoenix-area REALTOR Richard Rector started a discussion about Brad Inman's top-10 list for the Road to Recovery.

From north of the border, Susan Harrison gives a run-down of Day 2 of Connect NYC '09

Maryland REALTOR, Meyer Leibovitch, shares his Connect experience.

REALTOR Magazine covered Gary Vaynerchuk's keynote.

C Tann-Starr takes us for a walk in the Rain (the ActiveRain).

Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy, offers his take on the Gary Vaynerchuk keynote.

Morgan Brown and Derek Overbey caught up with Gary Vaynerchuk after his keynote for an interview of their own.

Pennsylvania REALOTR Kim Wood plays Connect NYC '09 word association.

What happens when you return home after all the fun and learning at Connect NYC '09? Inman News columnist Kris Berg helps us process all that information.

If you have written a blog post about your experience at Connect, please share it with everyone by leaving it in the comments. If you are looking for pics of Connect, check out the over 400 photos submitted by attendees in the Real Estate Connect Flickr group.

It seems that everyone who attended had a great time, learned a lot, and made some new connections. If all of this talk of Connect NYC '09 has you excited about Connect San Francisco '09, you're not alone. Registration for San Francisco will begin soon, so be on the lookout for announcements. New York was awesome, and San Francisco promises to be even better.

See you in San Francisco!

(photo credit: bhgrealestate via flickr)

Where everybody knows your name

matt_carter — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:10:36 -0800

This year is probably the last one you'll see national TV ads like this 2008 spot promoting April as open house month from Century 21 Real Estate. The company says it's pulling the plug on national TV ads and putting the money into online advertising and marketing instead (see story).

Century 21 says it was the first franchisor to start running national TV spots in the 1970s. But the main benefit of ads like this one -- building brand awareness with consumers -- is perhaps less important when you've already got the name recognition Century 21 has achieved over the years.

There are more innovative ways to use television than conducting national brand building ad campaigns. ERA Franchise Systems has built an integrated national and local campaign around its sponsorship of "Ask This Old House," an online Q&A for consumers tied to the popular home remodeling show.

Confessions of a NAR economist

Inman_News — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:29:25 -0800

A Wall Street Journal article catches up with David A. Lereah, the former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors who was known for talking up the housing market well into the downturn.

Lereah left the association to participate in a secretive project at Realtor.com-operator Move Inc. in mid-2007, and that project was canceled last year (see Inman Blog).

The Wall Street Journal reports that Lereah, 55, "says he was pressured by executives to issue optimistic forecasts -- then was left to shoulder the blame when things went sour. 'I was there for seven years doing everything they wanted me to.' "

A NAR spokesman, meanwhile, said in the article that Lereah used similar forecasts in his book, which was not published by the trade group.

The article includes a link to a sidebar article with statements Lereah made about the market from January 2006 through January 2007, as well as a link to a real estate newsletter that he now produces, titled the Reecon Advisory Report.

The future of real estate video

jburslem — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:32:25 -0800

At Inman News' inaugural Digital Video Summit last week in New York, we were honored to have Channing Dawson, the Emmy award winning adviser from Scripps Networks Interactive, deliver a keynote address that gave us a peek at some next generation interactive video strategies and their application to real estate.

Many attendees requested links to the videos contained within Channing's presentation, which we've posted below, as well as how it related to his talk, which will we have available shortly on Inman.com.

In the meantime, enjoy these fantastic videos and let us know if you'd like us to host another Video Summit this summer in San Francisco.

Marshall McLuhan (predicting the rise of social media online):

Google Chat (video collaboration):

Neil's Home Cinema (user-generated media):

Bruce Lee Ping Pong Nunchunk (viral video for marketing):

Obama (one-to-many communication via video):

Facepaint by James Kuhn (new forms of art):

YouTube Symphony (collaborative music):

Redfin (video marketing as education):

PlayStation 3 Home Edition (video embedded in virtual worlds):

Wii Bowling (video marketing as entertainment):

CNN Hologram (new video technologies):

Blendtec (video brand building):

Loreal Not for Women (user-generated advertising):

Perceptive Pixel Wall (new ways to interact with video):

Children at SmartBoard, Edusim (immersive education):

Mankind is No Island (short-form cellphone video):