Evaluating Professionals: Imperfect Solution for an Imperfect World

Agent ratings are back in the conversation, thanks to this scintillating op/ed by Kris Berg (link is for Inman premium subscribers only) who is one of the best writers in real estate today.  I have written about this topic before (here and here) and it continues to fascinate and puzzle me still. Kris’s point essentially … Read more

Giving Thanks

It’s Thanksgiving, and despite our culture’s continuous pull to rename this day Turkey Day or some such and shift the focus to the feasting, I’d like to keep the focus on the actual point of the day: giving thanks to the Almighty, and to family, friends, and others for the life we have. First, I … Read more

Reflections from REBlogWorld ’09: Branding in the Social Age

Original posted on The Notorious R.O.B by Rob Hahn. Greetings from Las Vegas — I’m not sure what time it is, even though I’ve been fully awake for, oh, a few hours.  But some of the discussions at REBlogWorld 2009 have been so great that I wanted to get something posted now. One of the more interesting sessions for … Read more

Climategate & You: The Real Estate Edition

If you live in the United States, and rely solely on Pravda New York Times or similar for your news, you’re probably unaware of Climategate.  Basically, the entire premise of the global warming/carbon footprint craze of the past few years turns out to be totally bogus.  From the RealClearPolitics.com overview: Global warming “skeptics” had unearthed … Read more

Climategate & You: The Real Estate Edition

If you live in the United States, and rely solely on Pravda New York Times or similar for your news, you’re probably unaware of Climategate.  Basically, the entire premise of the global warming/carbon footprint craze of the past few years turns out to be totally bogus.  From the RealClearPolitics.com overview: Global warming “skeptics” had unearthed … Read more

Customer Wooing Illustrated (And Social Media?)

Original posted on The Notorious R.O.B by Rob Hahn. One of the finest online journals around is @Issue, which usually deals with topics surrounding design but with strong forays into advertising, marketing, and branding. I make sure to check up on it periodically, because of gems like this: This amusing graphic is from Marty Neumeier’s book Zag: The No. 1 Strategy … Read more

On Google's Latest Real Estate Foray: Implications & Speculations

From the Search Engine Land site comes news (h/t: Duke Long, @dukelong) that Google has built out what amounts to the start of a national real estate search website: The real estate listing place pages include property information, photos, map placement, Street View imagery and functionality, nearby public transit details, and even AdWords ads. Google … Read more

On Google’s Latest Real Estate Foray: Implications & Speculations

From the Search Engine Land site comes news (h/t: Duke Long, @dukelong) that Google has built out what amounts to the start of a national real estate search website: The real estate listing place pages include property information, photos, map placement, Street View imagery and functionality, nearby public transit details, and even AdWords ads. Google … Read more

No More Drama and Hype: Known Facts on RPR

[UPDATED 11/20/09: More facts added.] Earlier this week, Reggie Nicolay (@ReggieRPR), the Director of Social Media for the REALTORS Property Resource, LLC, wrote: I happen to agree 100%.  Also, a commenter on one of my earlier posts by the name of Kris Goodfellow wrote: Rob, I’ve got to say, that there is much in the … Read more