“You have to blog,” They said. “Everyone who’s anyone does it!”
Besides, I’m a real estate agent—having a real estate blog is simply presumed, like having a snappy professional website and pretty business cards. Never mind that most agents’ cards feature barely passing likenesses of themselves that are only misty memories, photographs taken in happier days and now bearing witness to the fact that our profession has made us Old.
“But blogging is fresh, it’s so 2011! You need it to keep up with the starry-eyed agents who’ve embraced social media like fawning tweeners at a Beiber sighting!”
Look, I’m not some technology Luddite with an anti-social media agenda. I’m simply into logic and common sense. Perhaps overly so. I tweet, I have two websites and I’m on the cusp of possibly considering maybe creating a Facebook page for my real estate business. But tell me about this thing you call a real estate blog.
“It will offer links to listings and lists of useful information about buying and selling homes!”
Umm, isn’t that called a website?
“You could write meaningful articles on staging one-bedroom condos and identifying termite mud tunnels!”
Wow. A must-read bookmark-me-now destination that I’m sure no one’s thought of before—for their WEBSITE!
Not to be a real stick in the mud, I see the value of providing useful information for my clients. Sort of like teaching them how to quickly de-ice their car door locks or safely belay down the sheer face of a cliff. Problem is, you see, they may not be contemplating a rock climbing vacation in the Canadian Rockies, and it may be June, a somewhat balmy month for car locks to freeze.
To beat my point to death, the contacts on my extensive client list are not necessarily in the process of—or even entertaining the thought of—hiring a good home inspector in anticipation of purchasing a home. If they were, my phone would be ringing off the hook and I wouldn’t be blogging about blogging.
I want to blog. There’s something visceral about putting one’s thoughts to paper in the hopes that they will be read, anonymously, without risk of judgment. But reaching out to a circle of people who’ve trusted me in the past and offering them a wealth of real estate knowledge packaged as a blog is inviting a collective wan smile and polite response: “That’s nice. Jotted down your email. Will think of you in the future. If we remember.”
So I will not blog much about real estate.
Oh, there will be posts and links, to be sure. Think of this blog not as a roadside stand offering freshly picked real estate veggies that are wholesome and good for you, but a general store filled with all manner of quaint curiosities and artifacts to touch and admire. And there on a shelf, convenient and available if you need them, are those wholesome real estate veggies.
“So what will you blog about?”
Ah. Anything and everything. Musings, observations, rants about the trivial lint of life. Reverence and convention have their place; just don’t look for them here.
Whether you’re an old or new real estate client, a friend, a colleague, or someone who just followed a keyword or tag on Google, welcome to my general store. Wander about, enjoy, leave a note of approval or even disapproval. My ramblings are displayed for your pleasure.
And if you’re in the market for a home, the wholesome veggies are right over there in the corner.
