Is this a bizarre case of road rage or a scene out of the remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds?

How many times has someone flipped you the bird on the freeway? It seems there are more and more birds flying around on the freeway these days and a recent incident in Danville, CA will serve as a lesson to us all.

I was having a discussion with my buddy Jim Walberg, when Ann Marie Nugent, his wife, popped in with the cell phone to her ear. I could hear a very agitated person on the other end and from Ann Marie’s responses was getting the sense of an auto accident or something.

It turned out that their daughter, Briana, was driving down the road in her Honda when a flock of birds flew in through the opened driver’s window.

The birds were going nuts, Briana was going nuts, but some quick thinking on her part led to rolling down the passenger window at which point her excited passengers left the scene of this “moving violation”???

Now how bizzare is that?

Thursday’s weekly meeting of the RMA – Realtors Marketing Association – at the San Ramon Community Center included the acknowledgment of the Realtor of the Year and the Affiliate of the Year awards.

Jim Walberg of Keller Williams Realty in Danville received recognition for his service to the community and the association. He was awarded Realtor of the Year. Jim has been selling real estate in the East Bay for over 20 years. He is a past president of the RMA, amember of Rotary and is actively involved in the Winter Special Olympics and the One Warm Coat program.

Affiliate of the Year went to Cathy Lee of CLDesign Services. Cathy Lee is one of the foremost stagers in the I-680 Corridor. She attends all three marketing association weekly meetings regularly and is always lending a hand in the numerous yearly activities. She is actively involved with the Women’s Council of Realtors.

These awards went to well-deserving people. They are exemplars of what professionals in the real estate community should be and I consider myself fortunate to be their friend and professional associate.

Old News Never Goes Away on the Internet

My friend, Jim Walberg, called the other day to ask me a question about Google and search engines. (I used to own an Internet Marketing & Promotion business that specialized in SEO – Search Engine Optimization)

Jim’s concern was about an article that appeared in the East Bay Business Times back in February of 2006. The article (my opinion) challenges Jim’s integrity over an issue that is common practice in most brokerages – supporting your fellow agents by attending their open houses.

The current situation is that some of the East Bay Business Times’ content seems to have refreshed in the search engines. This has resulted in the Feb. ’06 article moving back into a high ranking position, bringing attention back to an issue that was never addressed in a responsible manner by the East Bay Business Times (my opinion).

Jim wanted to know what he could do about this situation. I told him that getting the article removed from the East Bay Business Times archive would be impossible and consequently getting it removed from Google’s index would be impossible as well. The best thing to do would be to explain your side of the situation – this is a great opportunity for the public to get to know you better and see you as many, many people in the East Bay and the real estate industry do.

So, The Harper Team decided to give Jim Walberg some space on our blog to do so since we outrank the East Bay Business Times on Google when it comes to Jim Walberg.

The Impact of Responsible and Irresponsible
Articles Posted on the Internet

John, thank you for your comments on a challenging moment for me relating to an article in the East Bay Business Times in February of 2006.  The article, written by Katherine Conrad was posted without any conversation with me regarding the intent of the email I sent out to my fellow Danville Keller Williams Realty agents.  Also, I never gave the East Bay Business Times permission to print any text from a private email from me to professionals within our Danville office.  Nor, did the Realtor who contacted Katherine Conrad with a copy of my private inter-office email speak with me about my request to have my fellow Keller Williams agents visit her new listing during the Thursday brokers tour for the San Ramon Valley.

Like many “news items,” this one, too, does not supply the reader with much of the context surrounding an event which helps create “a story.” Adding the omitted context to this news item turns this story into just another day at the office which is not very newsworthy.

At the time of this article, I was the Assistant Team Leader in the Keller Williams’ Danville office. Part of my responsibilities involved training new agents on all aspects of becoming real estate professionals. There was some concern at that time by a few of the agents that Keller Williams did not have enough public recognition. One of the ways to build recognition and support fellow agents at the same time is to insure that our agents are actively attending the local Realtor association marketing meetings and touring as many of the new listings on brokers tour as they can.

The intent of the email was to encourage agents to support each other and to emphasize that Keller Williams Realty not only is one of the top brokerages in the East Bay, but they are also the #4 ranked real estate company nationally.  Our team must have done something right because the East Bay Business Times recognized Keller Williams Realty – Danville as “The East Bay’s Real Estate Firm of the Year” in October of 2006. 

I have no problem taking full responsibility for any behavior and actions connected to me.  The most valuable assets I have in business are my reputation and my integrity.  I also know that anything written in an email by me, no matter what the intention of that email was, could be published, in whole or part, worldwide by anyone for any reason. 

It was a confusing moment for me when the East Bay Business Times produced an article that was motivated by a conversation with a Realtor from a different Brokerage who took objection to my email sent to my fellow Danville Keller Williams agents.   Plus, there was no follow-up by the East Bay Business Times to confirm that the information given to them by the Realtor was correct.

When it came to my attention that the article was published, I immediately contacted the Realtor who had motivated the article and left a detailed voice message apologizing for any misunderstanding on her part regarding my intentions.  I never heard back from her.  I also contacted and spoke with Katherine Conrad, the reporter from the East Bay Business Times, to find out why she had not contacted me to get a balanced opinion of this moment that I never dreamed was that important.

What Ms. Conrad created was an ad homeni that had no connection to the intention of my email.  Ms. Conrad apologized to me for rushing the article without the courtesy of checking with me, but said she would not be able to give me any editorial time in the next issue of the East Bay Business Times as she had resigned her position as the Real Estate editor and taken a position with a different news organization.

I guess the point of this comment is that the Internet is an interesting and fascinating place where information never goes away, even if it is irresponsible and incorrect information. All of us using the Internet need to ensure the veracity of what we find published online.  I welcome anyone who has an interest in any aspect of real estate that involves me to contact me for any open discussion.

Joseph Natividad, our guest author, is starting to gather national attention for his prolific real estate blogging. As far as we know, he is the youngest (18) real estate blogger in the blogosphere.

Joe has been writing for us for a couple of months now. His interest in journalism really shows up in his writing and research. His blog is building traffic about twice as fast as ours did when we launched it 10 months ago.

Inman News will be interviewing Joe tomorrow. Joe was the youngest attendee at the Inman News Bloggers Connect held recently in San Francisco. Here is a pic of Joe at the connect courtesy of REMBEX: Blog Fiesta. Here's what Joe thought of Bloggers Connect:

“The Bloggers Connect was one of the most memorable experiences from my summer break. There was no need to wonder if I was the youngest person in attendance that day because I didn’t see anyone else that looked as if they had just graduated from high school.

I couldn’t leave Bloggers Connect without brushing shoulders and meeting some of the most prolific bloggers in the real estate industry. I was able to take a lot from that day (along with a bulging stack of business cards in my pocket).”

Joe is getting set to head south to UC San Diego for his freshman year. First, he has to attend a scholarship function. The main speaker will be Phil Bronstein, executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.

It would be great if Joe and Phil Bronstein could hook up. With Joe’s interests in economics (his major), journalism, and blogging – I’m sure the two of them could find a lot to talk about. Joe is already on LinkedIn, a business networking site – maybe Mr. Bronstein could add Joe to his list of contacts and allow Joe to add him to his!

The Harper Team is biased toward Joe. We were reading his posts on the CC Times LIP Blog since it launched and were the first to ask if he was interested in writing for Realtors. You don’t have to take our word though, here is what Jim Walberg, owner of the Caribbean Islands Realty Blog says about Joe:

"Joe’s work on our site has been absolutley fantastic. By providing two articles each week for us that highlight cultural and important events happening in the Virgin Island region of the Caribbean our site has been enhanced beyond my expectations.  Because of the combination of Joe’s articles and the others we post,  our site is now on the first page of Google after only two months of concentrated blogging efforts!  We have already begun to receive requests for more information about buying and selling real estate in the Caribbean.  

Joe’s writing and research skills are just what we were looking for to compliment the blogging that I am doing regarding what it is like to live and experience the Caribbean as a local and as a Realtor. I would be glad to speak with anyone else who is considering his services in order to be a “raving fan” of his."

Yesterday, when updating our Industry News page, I found this little tidbit included in the report from the National Association of Realtors®: 

Existing-home sales eased but prices stabilized as inventories tightened in December, while 2006 was the third-highest sales year on record, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

It got me to thinking about Rick Geha of Keller Williams over in Freemont, CA. Rick is owner and part owner in several KW franchises in the East Bay area of California. He is also one of the elite trainers in Keller Williams University. Rick travels around the country helping KW agents build successful careers in real estate.

I attended two Rick Geha trainings last year - the year of continued "doom and gloom" from the media about the real estate industry. Rick started both classes asking, "How's the market?" As you might expect, he got varied responses as some agents actually parroted the media. The first thing Rick did was set everybody straight - "It's unbelievable!!" is his reply.

And then he goes to work to show you why it really is. Rick Geha has been selling real estate in the East Bay area almost as long as my buddy Jim Walberg. He's been through blood-letting of a couple of real down markets and he knows the market as well as anyone. When he tells you the market is unbelievable, he's not blowing smoke up your …

All along, he was telling us - It's the second hottest market in history for this area. It seems to have been, or close to it. The wildfire market of 2003 - 2004 is going to make any other market look extremely bad.

This has raised a couple of interesting thoughts in my brain. Many people think today's interest rates are not so good, but they're comparing them to the interest rates of post 9/11 when they were lowered to help the country move through some difficult times. Historically, interest rates are a great deal right now.

The other point is how attached we become to "paper profits." Many property owners are holding on to the thought of having money in the bank that was never there. Property values fluctuate and until you sell it, the money is imaginary. Just ask all of the millionaire investors of the dotcom era that woke up one day a lot poorer than the day before. Many had still realized great profits from their original investments, but it was interesting to watch them suffer losing their "paper profits." 

One situation we are seeing more and more of these days - clients attached to a home valuation that is a year or two years old. We often hear - an appraiser told me… Rick Geha's advice is call the appraiser and see if he/she will buy it for that.

That Rick, he's a funny guy and one hell of a trainer. He's the reason you see us putting so much time and effort into "knowing our market" and communicating to our clients so we're all on the same page - current reality.