I think I have done around 121,894 posts about building my website… Ok, maybe not, but it seems like it.
Friday night I crashed it. Bad. Like off-line for hours bad.
But, I learned (or was reminded about) a few things.
Category Archives: honesty
Building a better website, part ZCXII
- Sunday, 02 December 2007 14:53
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 1 Comment
Free Milk… Get your Free Milk!!!
- Wednesday, 28 November 2007 10:56
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 0 Comments
I had an interesting conversation. it was interesting for many and varied reasons.
- There were three people gathered in place that were familiar with my blog… and I was only one of them.
- Only one of them was familiar with Active Rain… me again.
- One of them was an honest to goodness consumer.
- Nobody got punched… the Realtysaurus only pushed me a couple of times… ok, she didn’t, but she wanted to.
- The path of the conversation was VERY interesting.
So, let me elaborate.
So, he’s hit the But that’s the way I want it to be stage…
- Monday, 19 November 2007 22:28
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 0 Comments
Many of you might know that I have a three (and a half) year old son. He has graced a variety of my posts, and is one of the primary inspirations for me being in real estate… but I digress… Often.
So, while it isn’t the first time, I wanted to relay a little story involving the “Boy Wonder.”
Upon my return from the NAR Convention, my wife promptly left town… to do a little scrap-booking with her mother. She left Mini-Me in my care for the weekend. During one of our dinners, he became impatient. It went something like this…
“Daddy, is dinner ready yet?”
“No buddy, I just started it… give me a few minutes.”
“But, Daddy, I’m hungry nooowwwww.”
“Well, a few minutes ago when I asked if you were getting hungry, you said that you weren’t.”
“Is it ready yet?”
“No.”
“Yes it is!”
“No, it isn’t… no matter how much you want to change it… it won’t be ready until it is ready.”
Seems simple enough, right?
So, Lane… why are you writing this on a real estate blog?
Simple. He isn’t the only one that is prone to statements like that. I’ve been seeing a lot more of them in the last few months. Sometimes it is from those that lobby on our behalf. Other times it is from those inside the industry.
“Real estate sales are off by 15%”
“That isn’t bad.”
“The trends aren’t pointing to a recovery yet. It could happen, but we can’t know.”
“Yes they are! Everything is hunky-dory. We are already seeing the recovery.”
“No, it isn’t… no matter how much you want to change it… it won’t be ready until it is ready.”
Let me make this clear. I believe that real estate will see a large scale recovery in the next year or so… but it might not. Then again, it could be sooner. Where I have the problem is when we are faced with a difficult market, some in the NAR, and many agents simply say that everything is great. One might almost think that they feel if they say it enough, it will be so. But, just as with the media talking of values “tumbling” when they drop a few percent, saying that there is “nothing to see here” when there clearly is… doesn’t help make us look honest and transparent.
There are incredible opportunities. But, as investors know, there have to be risks. Those that get in BEFORE the recovery is piling away at full steam will get the best returns… and, as in the last cycle change, the last ones to the party just get to clean up and don’t get to play in the fun.
Lend me your “too cool” garage… ok, just tell me about it!
- Thursday, 08 November 2007 19:09
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 0 Comments
I was going to call this post “A funny thing happened on my way to the Search Engine Results…” and then start it with… I got hijacked. It was one of them long-tailed searches. They sure are sneaky. But, I got hijacked with a different idea, sooo…
I got hijacked. It was one of them long-tailed searches. They sure are sneaky.
This one was called “cool garage toys”. Now, if you take a look at my tags, you’ll see that I have around 30 posts that mention garages. I have over 100 that involve real estate. One might think that I would get some search engine lovin’ for real estate… but, nope. It’s all about garages.
Seriously, my top six search terms are all garages. Now, I will say that there is one post I have here that has surpassed all others in contacts… my phone rings twice a week over it, and it is real estate related, but nobody that calls has the $20M to actually do it, and they just want me to tell all of my secrets… but, for the most part, I think that most of my Googling readers are hitting me looking for the grooviest and coolest garage stuff.
Being a tech savvy guy (think Steve Martin’s “wild and craaazy guys” line), as well as a garage geek and swift thinking marketer, I have a solution. I want to see YOUR garage. That’s right… YOUR garage.
So, being the swifty that I am, after a mere 4 1/2 months, I have figure out that I need to showcase some cool garages. Now, of course this blog isn’t the best platform for it, but I do have a real estate and garage website (duh!) that would be perfect.
No charge. No geographical restrictions. No pressure. I’d just like to see some cool garages. I might even be able to put you on the front lines of a cool reward I’m looking to announce in a week or two as well.
The only thing I ask is that they look better than the sad sack I have pictures of here. This is a truly terrible garage. It is clogged with crap, and needs a much better system for storage. I just haven’t had the time of money to finish the projects that is clogging it up… Talk to my wife. As soon as she let’s me, I will clean it up and turn it into the 26’x24′ one car garage it always wanted to be… with attached tool room.
So, comment and send me an email. I’ll gladly feature YOUR garage on my website. For the whole world to see. Maybe my wife will stop buying purses long enough for me to do something with my own garage.
Oh yeah… If you need a bigger garage, let me know. I’m in Gwinnett County, GA and also work South Hall and South Forsyth. Furthermore, I have agents all over the country that would love to get a “car people” referral.
Wandering through the DoJ website
- Monday, 22 October 2007 09:51
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 0 Comments
What is it going to take to make them happy? Did someone at the DoJ have an unsatisfactory experience with a real estate agent? Or is it simply that they know our approval ratings are down there with our Democrat led Congress (which would love to have even the dismal ratings of George W. Bush), so we are an easy target?
There is an interesting report called “Competition in the Real Estate Brokerage Industry” that is a pretty interesting read…