Learn How Blogging Can Benefit Your Business

Valley Marketing Association
Pleasanton / Dublin, CA

The Groundhog Day meeting of the Valley Marketing Meeting in Pleasanton, CA kicked off as usual with friendly greetings at the door of Tommy T's from this old gent and the youngster next to him.

Wendy Wilson, Channel Sales Manager, from Northpoint Real Estate Investment Services gave a short presentation of what Northpoint has to offer the real estate professionals in the room. Northpoint is one of this month's room sponsors - Thank You Very Much.

Wendy was accompanied by several other representatives of Northpoint, but I only got the chance to talk to Rob Borghese. Rob and I took a moment to discuss group dynamics and the importance of attending meetings such as the Valley Marketing Association for building solid business relationships.

Dean Guadagni of TransparentRE introduced me to several people interested in our upcoming blogging class on Feb. 27. The class is being hosted by Stacy Kennedy of Pacific Auction Exchange (PAX) fame. Leslee Barnhill and her team from Financial Title Company are planning to attend.

Toni Wilson from the BayEast Association of Realtors gave a presentation on wht she and her group are doing for Realtors and the real estate industry in the Bay Area including a TV show on Channel 30 and a long list of educational seminars.

Local Market Trends 

Roy Dronkers gave a great overview on what is happeing in the local Pleasanton and Dublin real estate markets. Pleasanton has seen a decrease in inventory. A very interesting piece of information was the results of a poll Roy conducted. Fifteen of about 42 people responded to his questions of multiple offers on closed sales. Of the fifteen, nine had had multiple offers and the closing price on all was right at the asking price - one went for a bit more.

The consensus in the room is that this does not signal a change in the market, but more accurately reflects that the market is stabilizing and heading toward a more normal Spring home sales market.  

New Home Listings 

• New home listings included:
• 1462 Whispering Oak Way, Pleasanton
• 6869 Massey Court, Pleasanton
• 5943 Annadale Way, Dublin
• 3866 Santa Clara Way, Livermore
• 7405 Oxford Way, Dublin
• 3537 Gulfstream Street, Pleasanton
• 2088 West Lagoon Road, Pleasanton
• 6832 Tiffany Common, Livermore
• 2229 Shire Court, Livermore
• 1119 Burghley Lane, Brentwoood

The Harper Team can assist you in the purchase of any of these new listings or any other properties for sale in the East Bay area. Give us a try - we guarantee our services in writing and aways provide our clients with a cancellation guarantee.

Help Fight AIDS - Hands Across the Water 

Roy spent some more time with Otto Catrina on stage talking about Otto's upcoming trip to Africa with his "Hands Across the Water" team who will be doing what they can to help address the AIDS epedemic is South Africa. Otto expressed his thanks for all of the donations received since last weeks meeting and presentation. Contact Otto via his website link above to contribute.

Friday night, I met up with Pat Kitano of TransparenRE, Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing, and Theresa (Caro Consulting) and Dave Caro at MoMo's in San Francisco. Pictured here are Theresa, Dave and Toby.

Theresa and Toby were in town to talk about social networking to the Fancy Food Show folks. Pat and I hooked up with the ladies to talk about blogging. Pat and I see the tremendous affect blogging is having on the real estate business, but we wanted to get some insight from these marketing professionals on how blogging is affecting their business and their take in general on the impact of blogging in business.

We all seem to agree on the overwhelming positive effects blogging has on business whether it is a small business or a large corporation. Another big plus of blogging is connecting with bloggers. Pat recently returned from the NYC Connect, a gathering of bloggers connected with real estate.

Pat and I will be teaching our first blogging class on Monday over in Marin at Keller Williams in San Rafael. We still have about 5 seats available. On Thursday we will be at Keller Williams in Danville for our second class. Email me for details.

We will be organizing several new blogging classes for the Bay Area in February. 

One of my joys is the experience of connections. For the last couple of years I have watched many fascinating people enter into the field of my experience that brought with them a network of connections. I'm always curious how life will unfold and how connected networks will connect with other networks and what will come of it all.

It's one of the great things about blogging and the evolution of the Internet.

Today, I was privileged to join Pat Kitano of TransparentRE and Jim Walberg of The Bay Area Team in a discussion of where the future of real estate and the real estate agent may be heading. We met up at Starbucks in the Marketplace Center in San Ramon, Ca. All three of us attended the weekly Realtors Marketing Association meeting just across the street at the San Ramon Community Center.

After Jim hassled a bit to get his WiFi connected (see my rant on that), the lively discussion began. It was great to sit back and listen to Jim & Pat converse. They each bring a completely unique perspective, experience and history to the table, but it was clear they share a common vision of where they feel real estate is going.

All of us think there are huge opportunities available for those willing to "step out into thin air" as Jim says - trusting that the ground will rise up to meet your foot.

Just a great morning with connections.

I met up with Dean Guadagni and Patrick Kitano of TransparentRE at the TriValley Marketing Association meeting in Pleasanton, California on Friday. Afterwards we headed over to a Starbucks to talk about Pat’s recent trip to the NYC Connect, our upcoming blog classes in Marin and Danville, and how technology and blogging are changing the real estate industry.

Today, I read Pat’s post Elvis = Zillow and I just have to accept that challenge as Elvis figures prominently in the explosion blogging. There are many sightings of Elvis in the blogoshpere and real estate blogs in particular continue to be heavily influenced by him.

Here is a partial list of Elvis' involvement and influence in blogging:

• Many real estate agents are feeling All Shook Up by technology and blogging.
• Most postings by Realtors are Almost Always True
• Many bloggers feel that their blogging will pay off Any Day Now
• Are You Lonesome Tonight? – post some comments
• After a Blue Christmas many real estate agents are in better spirits due to blogging
• It’s often reported that bloggers develop a Burning Love for blogging
• When writing a post or leaving a comment – Don’t Be Cruel
• Fools Rush In to blogging
• Be careful who you link to. Don’t wind up In the Ghetto
• With the market transitioning, many agents feel It’s Now or Never
• Mortgage fraud is introducing some to Jailhouse Rock
• Don’t post pictures of your Little Sister on your blog
• Many a blogger’s partner is pleading – Please Don’t Stop Loving Me
• Bloggers keep hoping for a Return to Sender feature for comments
• Some traditional agents look on blogging with Suspicion
• And of course, some brokers have Suspicious Minds

In summary, many real estate pundits feel that there is A Whole lot of Shakin’ going on in the industry