Ubertor Real Estate Blog

Ubertor and Reachd co-founder Michael Stephenson was at the Wordpress 5th Birthday party last night in San Francisco. Here wrote a little summary of the evening as well as emailed me a couple of pictures from the event.

“Matt Mullenweg is the founder of Wordpress; pretty cool; most consider him the most important person in blogging.

the place was packed. he called Vancouver Drupal land; and said its a very nice city.

all drinks where free with the password. you had to ask another wordpresser for the password to engage conversation….and introductions… password was b2 which was the software he did before Wordpress.

When we first got there it was packed with people for Sketch Tuesday; an artist thing where a swarm of them show up to sketch for 3 hours then sell their work; it was hard to to know who was with each party (unless you spoke with them);

anyhoo that is my report. off to Google. - Mike”

(L - R) Matt Mullenweg - founder of Wordpress, Michael Stephenson - co-founder of Ubertor

My business partner Michael Stephenson and our lead programmer are down in San Francisco this week attending Google I/O. Google says it is “Two days of in-depth, technical sessions on how to build the next generation of web applications with Google and open technologies”. Mike was invited to attend the event and will be chatting at the fireside with the Google Engineers on integrating Google’s exciting new applications and technologies to once again redfine the Real Estate Website Space.

Also, tomorrow night is WordPress’s 5th birthday party and Mike will be there. It is being held at 111 Minna Gallery (111 Minna Street, San Francisco, California) and it looks like it is going to be a lot of fun. If your in the area and want to pop by and say hi to Mike, drop him an email (mike /@/ ubertor.com) and I’m sure he would be happy to buy a round of drinks. Click here to get complete details for WordPress’s birthday party.

Interesting interview with a real estate agent that began blogging 1 year ago. She shares her experiences as well as the results that she has had.

h/t: MyTechOpinion

There are lots of real estate focused seminars coming up in the next few months all across North America. If you can make one or some, do it. Great speakers, great information, great opportunity.

March 27th, Atlanta, GA: REtech South - Large line up of real estate bloggers as Speakers

April 17th, Irvine, CA - 4RealzEd - Super Real Estate Blogger Dustin Luther’s Workshop

April 17th, Seattle, WA - Reachd - Learn about Google Adwords within Zillow’s offices

April 24th, Vancouver, BC - Reachd - Search Engine Optimization hands on training

May 18th - 20th, Phoenix, AZ - BloodHound - Social Media Marketing Conference for Realtors

July 23rd - 25th, San Francisco, CA - Inman - Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2008

The LA Times wrote an interesting article talking about the success that Realtor Bloggers are having in this ever changing real estate market. Take a moment to check out the article.

Many agents think that locking down the MLS data, password protecting it and requiring visitors to login is a great way to gain leads. I don’t agree.

I agree with what Larry Cragun said in the above article:

“There is a new wave growing. Agents that blog. We believe you will eventually only use an agent that blogs. Why? Because . . . if they blog about a community they must know it. . . . You also learn more about them as they blog.”

Agents will get leads by putting their thoughts and opinions out there on the internet. If you write about the areas you work in, talk about the changes, your thoughts on the market, etc people will come to you for your opinion and in turn give you their contact information. That is a LEAD!

We were fortunate enough to have Joel Burslem the Social Media Manager from Inman News come up from Portland on Monday to speak to our agents at the monthly Real Estate Technology Meetup. I was unable to attend this one as I am at at a Google Adwords conference in Chicago but I have had tons of excellent feedback, even from agents that did not attend stating they heard they should have. You can see his summary of the event here.

Jordan Behan said “he hit upon the changes in the markets in the States (their bubble has has done what bubbles always do) and how it is affecting the businesses and professionals in that industry. His words come as a bit of a warning to Canadian Realtors; there’s still time to establish a level of service and interaction that will keep people coming back lest our markets suffer the same fate as down South, and the web is a key piece in the puzzle.”

Benson Wong points out the 4 points that he liked from Joel’s presentation. From the Sutton Blog:

1. Learn the new tools. The “winds of change” are coming.
2. Build your online reputation. The game is the same, you build your business by touching bases. Online your website can work for you while you sleep.
3. Have conversations. Blogging and participating in online communities (LinkedIn, FaceBook, Yahoo! Answers, etc) demonstrate your expertise. Have conversations with people. Learn to type.
4. Show, not tell. More photos, more video and more information. Use your digital camera, make a video, upload it to YouTube.

Our pals over at Vopenhouse.ca were happy to hear that Joel mentioned the use of Video and showed examples of agents using video to showcase their listings.

Once again, a big thank you to Joel for taking the time out of his busy schedule to make it to our meetup. The feedback has been outstanding and we hope to have you back again sometime soon.

As for those agents who missed it, or are interested in learning more about our monthly meetups you can see the details here. All of the meetups are free and they are designed to educate real estate agents from all over about real estate technology. Hope to see you at the next one.

(photo from TellTenFriends.com)

I am pleased to announce that Joel Burslem will be coming up from Portland OR to speak about trends in online marketing (video, online reputation management etc.) as well as provide a snapshot of what’s happening industry wide at the upcoming Real Estate Technology Meetup. We have confirmed attendees coming in from Bellingham, Whistler, Victoria and all through the Lower Mainland. To RSVP please click here.

Joel’s professional background is in high tech marketing and consumer public relations and he has been working in marketing and communications for nearly ten years, most recently at Prudential Northwest Properties in Portland, Oregon.

In 2007 he joined the Inman News organization where he is helping developing many of their social media and next generation web initiatives.

Joel is also the author behind the hugely successful FutureofRealEstateMarketing.com which is a powerful force in the real estate blogging world.

We continue in our campaign to get real estate agents blogging… many have stepped up, started blogging and have seen the results. CNN Money wrote an article in late January 2007 about the effects that blogging is having on the real estate industry.

Blog if you love real estate
Bloggers are changing the equation when it comes to buying a house or condo.
By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
January 19, 2006: 12:23 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Blogging has hit the real-estate industry…and it just may upend a marketplace known for inefficiency and restricted information.

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of blogs covering real estate and they shine unfiltered lights on their subjects, reporting market gossip, innuendo, facts, opinion, virtually anything. . . .Complete Story Here

Want to learn more?
- Attend our Real Estate Technology Meetup
- Chat Live with our customer service team
- Signup for an Ubertor Website

My business partner and I took a quick day trip down to San Francisco for a few meetings today. We left from Vancouver early this morning and returned on the evening flight out of San Francisco. We had a few meetings scheduled throughout the day and had the opportunity to meet with a couple of real estate moguls.

I had the opportunity to have lunch with Pat Kitano of www.TransparentRE.com. He and I met up at Zuni Cafe in downtown San Francisco. Zuni is a hot San Francisco cafe overlooking Market Street. It was great to finally put a face to the guy on the other end of www.transparentre.com. Pat and I have emailed back and forth for a while now and I have enjoyed reading his blog. Pat runs free blogging seminars on “why blogging is the next generation real estate marketing tool for the Realtor’s online presence. With very pragmatic steps Realtors can create a successful, marketing-oriented, lead generating blog.” Anyone interested in reading a great real estate blog take a look at www.TransparentRE.com. (pictured on the right: myself, Pat Kitano)

Later that afternoon Mike and I had the opportunity of touring the Craigslist.org offices with a tour from Craig Newmark himself. Craig and I have emailed back and forth for a while but have never had the opportunity to meet in person. Craig was great to make some time for us in his busy schedule to show us around the Craigslist operation, meet some of his team and learn more about the inner workings on Craigslist. I did ask about their policy of adding more cities as I constantly get asked from Realtors about why Whistler is not included. I mentioned it to him and he said that it is up to Jim Buckmaster, the CEO of Craigslist.org, and when he wants to add more cities. He did suggest that the cities that get more attention are the ones that are discussed in the Craigslist.org forums. (pictured on the left: myself, Craig Newmark and Mike Stephenson)

It was interesting to see the Craigslist.org operation. They run out of a house that has been converted into offices in downtown San Francisco. The house for the most part looks like a house. The programmers are downstairs, the customer service team in the kitchen, Craig and Jim Buckmaster are in what could have been a bedroom and there were a few other staff members in rooms at the front of the home. (pictured on the right: Craigslist.org Offices)

All in all an excellent day.