Gee whiz I hope not.. but why did I feel a strong urge to go out and steal a cartoonish image of a magnet to illustrate this post?

In "Is your blog a lawsuit magnet?" on Inman News (link below) Marcie Geffner wrote:

"Have you discussed your blog with your broker and agreed on guidelines and policies?"

Nope...

Not yet.

Would an open conversation on my ActiveRain blog be an OK place to start? Better late than never... Geffener's article made me yearn for guidance... (as well as a great image of a magnet.)

Hellooo...out there Real Living and Real Living HER:

What are the company policies and guidelines when it comes to blogging?  What about other social media?

"Just do it" ??? It being blog.

Who would you discuss it (blogging or social media)  with at your office?  Your manager?  Or would you contact someone higher up?  I thought about asking my manager about blogging when I started blogging on my RealTown blog in 2005 but I was not even sure I could explain what blogging is... or "why blog?" to Tom waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back then.  Or now.

I invited Tom Holcombe (my manager ) to ActiveRain in August 2006.  I will admit I invited Tom for the points. I wanted points, so I invited a couple of hundred people... a bunch joined relatively quickly.

At a presentation in the summer of 2007 about 360 Degree marketing we (Real Living HER)  were told to join ActiveRain by Marc Davison.  I believe Davison made the same presentation in some of the other Real Living markets.  If you joined because of Marc Davison's endorsement raise your hand (leave a comment.)

At Momentum 2008 we were told to join ActiveRain  Join ActiveRain   .... if you are with Real Living and  joined ActiveRain because of the presentation at Momentum 2008 raise your hand... (leave a comment)

This morning on Real Living News... on our Real Living Business center it says: 

"Tips for Writing an Effective and Legal Blog"   

The Real Living Business Center gives some valid points and then says....

"For more information on how to avoid blogging lawsuits, click here."  The "Click here" link is Marcie Geffner's article on Inman. Not finding fault with Real Living but what a vicious circle...

Do you believe more real estate agents would blog if they had parameters of what to say and not say? Real Living agents,  What did you think of the advice on Real Living today? I have a strong urge to cut and paste it here but... that would not be right.

This post was inspired by:

Robert Lockard's blog post  Bloggers beware! Copyright battle might be coming

Chris Dreyer's post about my new " Outside" blog being featured on Inman:

Inside Out? Inside Inman is Marueen's Outside blog Inside Active Rain

Image credit that is a "ferromagnetic material magnetic domains being magnetized" I think... the diagram is from JA.Davidson at en.wikipedia.  According to Wikipedia... it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License so I am OK as long as I atttribute it to JA Davidson.... I think.  I don't really understand licensing... but hope I have all my ducks in a row.

I was surprised that recipes rated as high as they did in a poll about what should be outlawed on ActiveRain.

Recipes now have 27 votes or 19.15% of the vote in the very unscientific poll.

Now before any doofus starts whining, ranting or screaming about censorship, I personally have no problem with recipes on ActiveRain. I don't believe I have ever posted one but here goes....

From HER Realtors Cookbook Number .... No I can't do it. I have a degree in Home Economics (no cooking or sewing involved) and worry about being pigeonholed. Do I care if others post recipes on real estate blogs? In email newsletters? send out recipe cards?

I wrote about the history of cookbooks in ColumbusBestBlog.com the company I work for now known as Real Living HER used to be known as HER Realtors. HER Realtors (it's not Her Realtors, it is a man's initials, the founder's, Harley E. Rouda.) In a nutshell HER was founded in 1956. the company published a number of cookbooks over the years.

Here's the first edition HER Cookbook for sale on Amazon.com

On the " ActiveRain ought to have a law against posting" poll Lane Bailey commented that he voted for a law against recipes on ActiveRain:

"because of the stereotype of agents sending out recipe post cards."

The McCain presidential campaign just had Recipegate.

"Ooops, Cindy McCain's recipe for recipe plagiarism" on an LA Times blog says :

"It was a really popular feature. So the McCain folks are gonna put up new Cindy McCain favorite recipe pages. As soon as the oven reaches 450 degrees."

Sue Ann Niven, the Happy Homemaker was just a TV character...and "the Happy Homemaker was from the 1970's and times change I don't know there is something unsavory about calling the "Happy Homemakers" of ActiveRain "point whores." Monika McGillicuddy mentioned "point whores" on the post about what should be "outlawed" on ActiveRain, not in relation to Happy Homemakers or recipes. Just what "point whores" are in general. Could you "point whore" with recipes. You could, IMHO. Is there something intrinsically icky about recipes. Or is it that no one should just because you wouldn't?

There are recipe groups on ActiveRain and regional groups on ActiveRain which welcome recipes including:

Recipes

Founder: Keith Jeppson - Salt Lake City Real Estate
Founded: 11/29/06
Subscribers: 181
Posts: 588

"Suthern Thangs"

Founder: Jimmy Breazeale
Founded: 04/18/07
Subscribers: 45
Posts: 166

"A group for all things southern, from wild game recipes to Aunt Junie Mae's quilts. Guys, gals, and yes, even Yankees are welcome here. ..."

be careful... I was hankering for some ribs after visiting Jimmy's "Suthurn Thangs" group...

another poll a couple of doofuses I mean respected ActiveRain members commented on my post last Sunday said there ought to be a law against polls on ActiveRain.

Ha Ha...

move along...

I personally am just not clever enough to think of April Fool's pranks...  I doubt I have ever done an April Fool's Day gag. 

I had a client stop in and play one on me in the office a number of years ago.  Thanks Kyle! I was summonsed to the front desk...by my manager (our old manager...)  for an irate former client..  Kyle did scowly face real welll and he started telling me a horror story about the home I sold him and then... "April's Fool's!"

Sales meetting this AM my boss Tom Holcombe got some of us... We have a new MLS.. at the Columbus Board of Realtors. it's about a week old.  There are some frustrations, we need to learn how to get around.. we don't want to learn to get around.  We were all so relieved to hear the news...  No wait maybe I can call one of my co-workers who could NOT be at the meeting... 

I've seen a few of the online April Fool's Day pranks... even a couple on ActiveRain. The word on Twitter this AM is all the best gags this year were already done in Australia.

Did you get anyone this year?  Or did you get anyone on past April's Fool Days? Did anybody "get you" this year? Did you believe any that you saw on ActiveRain?   ...one got me.   For anyone who is successful... how do you come up with this stuff?

Happy April Fool's Day!

The image above is a  Real Living eCard

What's Open Sunday in Columbus?

Best Open House List in Central Ohio

OK maybe I am a bit biased about the open house list on our Central Ohio Real Living website. I've blogged calling it the best open house list in Central Ohio on both of my other blogs, ColumbusBestBlog.com and Discover Columbus (which used to be called Columbus Best Blog) the best thing is kind of habit.

The link above is to the Real Living HER open house site through my Real Living site, MaureenMcCabe.com

Today, Friday January 25, 2008 the Real Living HER open house list says:

"There are 280 Open Houses available" That may go up today, Saturday and Sunday.

There was a national open house website started in Central Ohio a few years back called "What's Open Sunday." The Columbus Business First article said:

Real estate search engine lists Sunday open houses 12-13-2004

"Columbus entrepreneurs John Beckley and Jamie Davis recently launched www.whatsopensunday.com, a Web site where home buyers can preview open houses.

The search engine allows house hunters to choose communities and home features they're looking for among the houses agents list on the site, said Davis, the service's chief information officer. A one-time charge of $17.95 allows agents to include up to eight photos and details on each open house.

The effort had three listings during the weekend of Dec. 4-5, but Davis said momentum gained in coming months could lead to expanding the service in Ohio in 2005 and nationwide by 2008."

The link to the What's Open Sunday site seems to be dead today.

I don't believe it ever got off the ground outside Central Ohio, they weren't the only ones that had the idea.

A site called OhioBiz.com has a listing for What's Open Sunday with this information:

# of Employees: 1 to 4
Annual Est. Revenue: $500,000 - 1 Million

When I first read about What's Open Sunday I spazzed... I did not want to have to pay for open house ads (even just 18 dollars for a property), online but what if it was successful? I emailed the Columbus Business First article to my manager, Tom Holcombe. He (or maybe someone else?) had an idea which I thought was brilliant... if "What's Open Sunday" site became popular, our company , Real Living HER would offer free open house listings on our open house list (the Best Open House list in Columbus.)

My boss asked me if I thought agents at Keller Williams, the local Re/Max offices, Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and all of the small local real estate companies would put their open houses on a competitor's website. The Real Living HER webiste's Open House list, even if it was free? I think I wrote something that was the email version of shrugging my shoulders in my reply ... I did not know whether they would or not... remember this was back in 2005? Nope 2004. No Trulia... No Zillow... Everybody and his brother wanted to use real estate content on a site.

It obviously never had to happen. Real Living HER offering free ads on the brokerage open house list online. I used to email my boss weekly updates on how many local open houses the What's Open Sunday site had in Columbus. I don't think it ever got about 30 open houses, but I could be wrong. Sometimes I would lose interest in even checking how many houses were on the What's Open Sunday website. Surprisingly recently a Real Living HER agent was the only one advertising on the What's Open Sunday site, but he had a condo development advertised. I don't believe the What's Open Sunday site ever expanded anywhere outside Central Ohio.

OpenHouse.com

Recently Roberta Murphy a real estate agent with Villa Sotheby's International Realty (a Realogy brokerage?) in the San Diego area shared that Realogy, opened their site to everyone... OpenHouse.com Opening Door to All Brokers

On the OpenHouse.com site:

"OpenHouse.com has approximately 15,000 to 20,000 open house listings in markets across the nation on any given weekend. The easy-to-use site allows homebuyers to see schedules for open houses in their area, view detailed information about homes, print a route planner, request information or a private showing, and sign up for e-mail alerts.

Doing a search with a 50 mile radius from my offices 43085 ZIP code I find 98 open house listings on the Realogy site. Between the Real Living HER site and the OpenHouse.comi site that's a lot of Open Houses for Central Ohio home buyers.

Will the OpenHouse.com site someday beat the Real Living site in number of Open Houses in Central Ohio? Will I post open houses there? How do you shrug your shoulders in a blog?

And you thought Sunday November 4, 2007 was just the day to fall back...  It's National Open House Sunday!

Nationwide:

Link to home removed as I am no longer marketing his home.

"4 days, 12 hours, 11 minutes, and 27 seconds. left"

National Open House Sunday... so far my Powell Open House is the only one in Central Ohio on the Open House list for Central Ohio... but David Childress of Real Living Realty One in Akron has an Open House on the first National Open house list too...

An Open House opportunity? If you went to my Powell Ohio Open House at 2:00 and then drove like "a bat out of hell" could you get to David's Open House... nah and our open houses are two very different price ranges... two very different buyers. 

...could you make it to any open houses in neighboring states? PA, MI, IN, KY? Why?

Statewide:

In an email from the Ohio Association of Realtors:

"OAR Web site to promote open houses...

An exciting new marketing tool, designed to increase exposure of "open houses," will soon be made available for statewide use by Ohio's REALTOR community. Read more..."  Although red and linked the "read more..." in the email from the Ohio Association of Realtors did not WORK for me...

Local:

So far this week.... Real Living HER's Open House list on website have 177 listings as of Tuesday morning... Not all 177 are Sunday open houses.  Some are each day of the weeks as this list has Open Houses for new construction and there are homes that are held open other than the typical Sunday Open House too... but the list of Real Living HER's (Central Ohio) Open Houses is more homes than are on the National Open House Sunday list.  We are one of four Powell homes on the list for Sunday but so far we are the only house featured on the "National Open House Suday List.

What do you think of other real estate professionals in your market commenting on your blog?  Good thing?  Bad thing? Depends on how they do it?

What do you think of people within your own company commenting on your blog?    This was on my other blog. The company I work for is called Real Living HER.

"Hello, I am _____ _____ with Real Living HER. I would be happy to share some more insight on the building industry if anyone has interest. As we all know our local builders are suffering from the housing slow down and the economy. But they are still building quality homes at an affordable price. It's unfortunate that the local media has caused a lot of people to question if now is the time to purchase a home/condo or not. I hope that if any buyer has any doubt about purchasing a home or condo that they do one of two things: (1) contact a local Realtor from Real Living HER, by working with a Realtor specialist the value of the home/condo can be proven as well as the Realtor will be able to provide pertinent information on the area and resale value in the neighborhood (2) speak directly with the builder about any concerns they may have."

Get your own blog!

Does it sound as if she is soliciting business on my blog? Or is she just being helpful to readers of my blog?  Offering to share her knowledge of the local building industry??  She did not put contact info in but she put her full name in the comment. 

Rules For Real Estate Blogging and Commenting

I believe if that comment was on an ActiveRain blog post it would that be against the ActiveRain Guideline:

Again this comment was on an outside blog, not on ActiveRain.  Consider though the principle of the ActiveRain guidelines, just before the admonishment to not advertise yourself or your services in the comment on another members blog post ActiveRain asks us to respect the community.

"Respect the ActiveRain Community

Being a part of any community requires a certain level of trust. Don't abuse the site or your fellow members. By joining the ActiveRain community you are given a platform to present your ideas and opinions to a large number of people. We trust you to be responsible with that platform; thousands of other ActiveRain members are also counting on your trustworthiness. "

• Do not advertise yourself or your services in the comment section of another members blog post.

Respect and Trust

The person leaving this comment works in our corporate office***** SHE IS NOT AN AGENT******

I assumed she was an agent when I first saw the comment... but one sentence (below) was perplexing.  She is not advertising herself or her services but rather the company.  Insert the name of your company in this sentence in place of Real Living HER and tell me how you would feel about the comment on your  blog:  

"1) contact a local Realtor from Real Living HER, by working with a Realtor specialist the value of the home/condo can be proven as well as the Realtor will be able to provide pertinent information on the area and resale value in the neighborhood."

Chances that I would spend time blogging and then festoon MY blog with "find an agent"  button's linking to the company from my blog are slim to none.  

I trust Elaine to leave comments on my blog that are respectful to me and that are not trying to advertise herself.  I trust Toby (with another real estate company in Central Ohio)  to leave comments on my blog.  I want to trust my company and it's employees.

Would you feel respected by your company if the corporate staff left that comment on your blog?  This comment was left on my ColumbusBestBlog.com  The blog post  is not about new construction, it is about Columbus being listed in Forbes.com as a stable housing market.  The entry has a link to the Forbes report. 

Web 2.0 - It's a Whole Different World Out There - Learn

Here is an open invitation to all members of the Real Living corporate staff.   Join ActiveRain

We work for a great company that promotes new technology.  We work for a company that said "blog."  Don't say I am on the staff,  I can't blog and then leave a comment like that on an agent's business blog, join ActiveRain and get some practical experience on how to present yourself and your company in the blogosphere. If you want to share "some more insight on the building industry if anyone has interest. As we all know our local builders are suffering from the housing slow down and the economy." get your own blog. 

I wondered if the company had a policy againt staff joining a real estate network.  The company ought to have a policy against the staff leaving  disrespectful comments promoting the company and trying to solicit  business away from an agent /blogger IMHO.

I changed my settings for comments to  "An administrator must always approve the comment" if I can't trust the people with my own company who can I trust?  

EDIT:  The comment was in comment moderation, it was never published.  First comments from a person are never published on my blog.  WordPress.org and Askimet are wonderful things, it is not like ActiveRain because Thank God there is not a high volume of comments.   Please don't comment "delete"  here.  Thank you for reading, I now return you to the regularly scheduled wrap up to this post... 

The Real Living blog is a great place for a line like:

"1) contact a local Realtor from Real Living HER, by working with a Realtor specialist the value of the home/condo can be proven as well as the Realtor will be able to provide pertinent information on the area and resale value in the neighborhood."

My ColumbusBestBlog.com is not.

I found  Twitter from someone's recommendation on ActiveRain. 

I am not sure whose.  I kind of remember it as Jeff Turner...

I never understood Twitter but I have been a member since March. I update it every few weeks whether I need to or not. That shows I am not using Twitter right.  I just noticed you can say if you are at home, at work... somehow that bothers me but then again I am paranoid.

Marc Davison of  1000watt Consulting spoke at our company (Real Living HER)  meeting yesterday.  Davison recommended Twitter. His explanation made Twitter a bit clearer than it had been.  

None of my friends Twitter.  Most of my friends don't blog, many don't check their email with any frequency, I don't see them Twittering soon. I don't know if any of my clients Twitter.

When I recently commented on Jeff Turner's March entry about Twitter asking if he was still twittering he responded yes and:

"I can see apps being built on it's API to allow more effective group communication."

Like real estate teams?  Real Estate companies? 

I got an email from Twitter Tuesday that someone is "following me."  The name kinda sorta sounds familiar. I assumed it was someone from ActiveRain but it is someone in Columbus.  I'll be checking to see if he is someone from my company... actually I think he may be a friend of a friend.  Do we follow friends of friends until our friends become members of Twitter so we can follow them?

I have Twitter on my Discover Columbus blogin the side bar.  I used to have Twitter on ActiveRain in the sidebar but I removed it.

After the Real Living HER marketing presentation where they (Marc Davison or Alex Wright Green our marketing guru... I am sure Alex has another title, a real title.... ) mentioned Twitter, Linked In, MySpace and ActiveRain (among other social media the good, the bad and the ugly) I am trying to get profiles in place on each.  I joined, I accept friends, I even have a couple of followers  but I am not active on much of any of it really, except ActiveRain. I don't remember anyone mentioning Facebook  (or MySpace) during the company meeting Tuesday but Alex from marketing "friended"  me yesterday... or asked me to be friends.   

I "poked" Patty Abass, a co-worker yesterday.  Poking is Facebook.  Facebooks on the front cover of Newsweek August 27, 2007 edition. Journalist Steven Levy has a big Facebook article including a sub article "Is it OK to Poke You?" about Facebook ettiquette.   Patty poked me, I'm just poking back.  But maybe I poked Patty first.  I don't remember....

Personally I like Facebook better than MySpace. I don't get Twitter and I admit I am paranoid about having followers. 

I got an email from someone via ActiveRain last week asking for info from MLS about homes on a particular street.  Not homes for sale.  History. I wrote back "Do I know you?"  I have not heard back from the anonymous person.  The email was not really asking if I would pull the info, it was instructing me to pull the info and how detailed the anonymous person wanted the information from two to three years ago.  I felt the email was written as an assignment rather than a request. More importantly the information requested is not public information, I felt like the request was an invasion of someone's privacy.  I just could not tell whose privacy. A homeowners? A buyers?  A sellers?  A listing agents?  A selling agents?  I could not tell why someone would anonymously request that information from astranger via the Internet.  A stranger who has nothing to do with any of the information requested.  

Real estate agents, what would you have done?

I have worked with buyers who found me from my blog.  You know nothing about them but they know you. 

Back to social media, Twitter, Facebook...  I worry about all this what if I get confused and Poke someone on Twitter and follow someone on Facebook? 

When people ask me about Twitter I am going to start saying  "I can see apps being built on it's API to allow more effective group communication."  hopefully that will stop them dead in their tracks. I don't know if I am comfortable with some of Web 2.0 but then again I am paranoid.

Last Friday's visit by Joe and Rudy of Sellsius°  Real Estate Blog made our local Worthigton paper this week. 

Blog Tour stops at HER Office

Rudy and Joe are pictured with Real Living HER office manager Tom Holcombe in the article in This Week Worthington, part of the This Week Community Newspapers which said. 

"Creating a tour to educate and talk about blogging is such an exciting idea and very relevant in today's tech-savvy world," said Bill Evans, president of Real Living HER. "It is a great event for anyone in any industry to learn about the new technology that is changing the way we do business."

The event was open to real estate bloggers and non real estate bloggers as well as individuals curious about blogging throughout Central Ohio. 

Bill Evans writes the Real Estate Notebook column in the This Week Community Newspapers.  Last week he wrote about  Blog Tour USA visiting Central Ohio. 

Real Living (not Real Living HER which is only in Central Ohio) is a sponsor of Blog Tour USA.  Real Living is in 20 states now. Real Living HER Worthington hosted the Blog Tour USA event. Real Living Title and Chicago Title sponsored the event at Real Living HER's Worthington office. This may have confused the boys on the bus.  They headed to downtown Columbus first. Details, details...

The BlogTour USA bus stopped here in Columbus. NOW. 

Joe and Rudy of BlogTour USA and Sellsius Real Estate Blog  are here! 

The BlogTour USA guys slept in Goodale Park last night!

It is here in the parking lot of Real Living HER Worthington... after visiting our downtown corporate office.   Oooops.   We probably should have told them the address huh?

Gray skies but no rain yet...  

Elaine Reese did a great presentation about blogging that is outside for bloggers and non bloggers to watch.

Who is here to greet BlogTour USA?   

Sondra Johnson of ColumbusRealEstateVoice.com

Jonathan of  DCS-Media.com    (a non real estate blogger)

Toby Boyce of  Sadie's Take on Delaware Ohio  and Sadie!!! 

Joe Peffer of Columbus Real Estate  and Elaine Reese of Reeses Pieces of Real Estate

Me of Columbus Best Blog  of course...

We're still hoping to see more bloggers and we can add photos in the comments. 

If you work in the real estate industry and are not an ActiveRain Member -   Join

Anyone I missed?   

Limited Time Offer! YOU may comment spam!

Experienced bloggers reading this... here's a one time only opportunity to comment spam! For the unfamiliar with blogging among us, if you comment would you in your comment tell us who you are, where you are,  What you are (a real estate agent, a loan officer, a web designer, an innocent bystander)  and give us a link to your outside blog if you have one.   We can show those reading this how to find your ActiveRain info and blog from the link if you are signed in on ActiveRain.  Of course we can show them how to find who you are, what you are, where you are... from the link... but humor us this one time only please and comment spam us.     

Columbus Ohio The Bus Stops Here  ONE of the Project Blogger apprentices!  Joe and Rudy of Sellsius° Real Estate Blog AND Teri Lussier of TheBrickRanch.com. 

11:00 AM  to 1:00 PM

6902 N. High Street Worthington OH 43085