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Whose brand is it, anyway?

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, November 25, 2009.

The thing to keep in mind about Realtors Property Resource is ... what's that? We're not talking about RPR yet again? Oh good, I was hoping to let that topic rest for a few days ...

Instead, let's talk about a topic of interest to you -- well, to at least one of you: Kathleen Buckley, a broker from Hopkinton, Mass., who incidentally is the only person I've ever seen with a Casey Kasem quote on her Web site's home page, responded to my call for topics with a tweet suggesting "personal branding: to what extent should agents be branding themselves in addition to/rather than their broker?"An appropriate topic indeed, given trends in the industry.

Let's start with some video:

more...

HouseLogic is the real deal?

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, November 18, 2009.

Lost in all of the hoopla around the Realtors Property Resource (or RPR) database this past couple of weeks was one of the smartest strategic initiatives that the National Association of Realtors has launched in years: HouseLogic.

And while RPR is and will remain a hot topic for the next few weeks, for the average broker/agent the impact of RPR may not be felt all that deeply. HouseLogic, on the other hand, holds the possibility of being a real game-changer. more...

The end of Big Technology?

By Robert Hahn, Thursday, November 5, 2009.

There is a special category of news that no one will actually pay attention to, and yet is incredibly important. For example, most people will not pay attention to the bankruptcy of CIT, which likely means that thousands of small retailers and mid-sized clothing manufacturers will not be around come 2010.

Nor will the vast majority of people even care that Boeing is opening a new 787 plant in South Carolina, instead of Washington, even though the reason why Boeing left its traditional home might be important to think about.

Within the real estate world, the recent unveiling of the new Web site for @Properties, among the largest residential brokerage companies in Chicago, should be filed under "critical but ignored" news items. more...

Transparency works both ways

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, October 28, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/spilt-milk/2882642676/in/set-72157604069131486/" target=blank>yoppy</a>.

There was a time when baseball was called America's pastime. Ah, those innocent bygone days of lazy Saturday afternoons in Mayberry ...

The America we live in today is a little bit different. Our national pastime is probably video games, and our national sport is without question the grand obsession that is the National Football League. Football is America writ large: aggressive, competitive, passionate. more...

Those who lack, innovate

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, October 21, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/2151361243/" target=blank>Craig Anderson</a>.

I am not writing a review of the 2009 BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas.

First, such a task would require several books containing details that likely may lead to lawsuits in several jurisdictions.

Second, others have already done an excellent job: I'd recommend Morgan Brown's excellent (and brief) recap of BlogWorld as a starter, and David Thomas's recap of Chris Brogan's closing keynote hits pretty much all of the themes from this year's BlogWorld event. more...

Your VOW sucks

By Robert Hahn, Thursday, October 15, 2009.

It's an odd thing to be involved in the real estate industry, working with some of the top agents, companies and technology providers in the industry, and then going through the consumer experience firsthand.

My wife and I are looking to buy an investment property in the Charlotte, N.C., area, and we're working with a couple of Realtors in that area. They're both delightful people and so far I have no complaints.

But today, looking through the VOW (Virtual Office Web site) that one of them has directed us to, I was really struck by how horrible it is. more...

Everything is nothing

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, October 7, 2009.

We start today's column with a visualization exercise. So sit back, relax, close your eyes (well, in just a moment, as this requires that you stop reading), and think about a single word. Ready?

OK. What one word describes your brand?

You may now close your eyes and begin the reflection. Come on back when you're done.

Done already? more...

The tragedy of a Twitter strategy

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, September 30, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/markhillary/2950218400/">markhillary</a>.

Twitter. The word itself is enough to strike fear and loathing into the hearts of some Hollywood A-listers. And yet, within the real estate industry there is apparently no technology tool that inspires more passion than this microblogging service.

Why, a raging online debate popped up recently between Marc Davison (@1000wattmarc) and Dustin Luther (@tyr) about how to measure influence in the Twittersphere. That debate, in turn, led to this rather interesting post from Marc that included an in-depth interview with Joe Fernandez of Klout -- a service that offers a measure of your social media influence.

It's all rather interesting, and if you have a free rainy afternoon -- or live in Seattle, which I suppose is more or less the same thing ... more...

Make your real estate stats count

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, September 23, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/myklroventine/3355106480/" target=blank>Mykl Roventine</a>.

I recently took part in the most amazing panel on Internet marketing ever. Two other panelists and I spoke on Internet marketing, Web site optimization, and social media at a fantastic conference on distressed properties. Well, that was supposed to be the topic of the panel, at least.

The other two panelists decided that the more interesting topic was how to run a brokerage focused on selling bank-owned properties (REOs), and I spent most of my time trying to make the point that marketing shouldn't be an afterthought. I have no idea how successful I was in trying to get that message across. more...

The joy of real estate operations

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, September 16, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jm3/472149426/" target=blank>jm3</a>.

Realtors love sales and marketing. Get in a room filled with real estate brokers and agents and one simply cannot escape the conversation about selling, marketing and "relationship building."

This somewhat obvious point was recently reinforced when I attended RE BarCamp Ocean City in Maryland, a wonderful event with an amazing setting: starlight, waves lapping against the piers, swaying masts of various boats tied up next to the restaurant, and awesome conversation. The organizers deserve credit and thanks. more...

Your real estate depth chart

By Robert Hahn, Thursday, September 10, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirkhansen/1780424954/">SD Dirk</a>.

Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer and the start of the most wonderful time of the year for millions of Americans. No, we're not talking about Christmas.

Christmas hasn't been the most wonderful time of the year since Hollywood started shooting movies in color and American society, as a whole, decided to transform a religious holiday into an orgy of consumerism and a festival of awkward family gatherings. more...

A real estate client in name only

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, September 2, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mugley/513515114/" target=blank>mugley</a>.

Folks who know my work on Notorious R.O.B. know that I go out of my way to avoid controversy in the same way that "congresscritters" go out of their way to avoid lobbyists. In that spirit then, I'd like to tackle a topic that is sure to generate only agreement and head-nodding in all readers: forced registration on a Web site.

The impetus is a challenging and perceptive blog post by Redfin Chief Executive Officer Glenn Kelman in which he posits that hiding the address of a listing hurts the client. It appears that some multiple listing services allow a listing agent to withhold the address of a listing "without registration," and Kelman thinks this is bad juju: more...

A social media policy of truth

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, August 26, 2009.

"It's too late to change events
It's time to face the consequence
For delivering the proof
In the policy of truth."
--Depeche Mode, "Policy of Truth" (1990).

Writer, blogger and blog coach Frances Flynn Thorsen published a "Real Estate Social Media Policies Manual." It's a 19-page PDF document, apparently, and I say "apparently" because I haven't read it given that it cost $67 and I don't have an advance copy or some such. more...

Your real estate trading card

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, August 19, 2009.

Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/trialsanderrors/2861795441/" target=blank>trialsanderrors</a>.

At the Inman Real Estate Connect conference earlier this month in San Francisco, one of the coolest new sessions was something called Connect Create.

Developers were challenged to create something cool and useful within 48 hours and two teams -- from real estate tech companies Diverse Solutions and Real Estate Webmasters -- stepped up to the challenge.

Diverse Solutions came up with an online tool dubbed "Agent Scouting Report," and I believe it has some great potential. more...

The Big Change in real estate

By Robert Hahn, Wednesday, August 12, 2009.

Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cesarastudillo/158254288/" target=blank>cesarastudillo</a>.

It has been quite a week. The Inman News Real Estate Connect conference is one of the key events of the RE.net calendar, and this year was more special in at least one respect: It marked the one-year anniversary of the birth of the RE.net as we know it today at the very first RE BarCamp in San Francisco last year when Andy Kauffman, Todd Carpenter and Brad Coy organized an impromptu gathering of bloggers, Realtors, vendors and other similarly minded folks.

The venue of RE BarCamp SF this time around was in itself an indication of how far we have come in just a year: the spacious headquarters of Trulia instead of the cramped Elks Lodge facility. But more important was the difference in the greetings. more...

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