Just Pass Your Real Estate License Exam? Real Estate Bubble... BOO!

I am sorry. I didn't mean to scare any new real estate license examinees. I have been thinking a lot about the potential for a "real estate bubble" to pop and ruin the party we have enjoyed as realtors over the past years. I constantly hear about this bubble. Paints the image of the .com bubble popping. I think the fundamentals are a bit more sound when someone buys a house compared to the frivolous ways the early Internet compaies did business but I do recognize that many of my clients have, in my opinion, spent more than they are capable of paying. Over financed themselves. I am not sure how some have kept living under a roof for as long as they have.

I figured that it would be interesting to share some Real Estate Bubble blogs. While I like to keep a positive attitude when it comes to the real estate market, I find it important to look to both sides of the fence.

Obviously Southern California has a dynamic real estate market. I have helped many students obtain thier real estate licenses in So. Cal. The Southern California Real Estate Bubble Crash blog. I like this blog cause it is constantly posting new info. Pretty interesting stuff going deep into the economics and sociology of Southern California.

My next blog comes from the East Coast. It is the Northern new Jersey Real Estate Bubble blog. If there is ever going to be a real estate "correction" then it would have to happen on a national level. This is why I like to follow these pages from multiple states. If I look into how the real estate markets in New Jersey and New York and compare them to the West Coast I can come up with my own conclusion which way the market is going.

Continuing with this theory of taking samples from multiple markets I next like to read the Seattle Bubble blog. It has an interesting topic in that they have open threads that people can post thier own info. I thought it would be filled with spam but it is pretty informative.

There are plenty of fear mongering blogs pushing the idea of a bubble popping on a national level. The Housing Bubble blog is very imformative. It has lots of info and is constantly updated. Just be careful not to visit housebubble.com. It looks like spam. There are so many splogs out there. I read about that word in a wired magazine. Spam blogs. Argh. What an awful thought. I hope that just moves on and stops.

Now anyone who is looking at these blog sites and thinking wow... i dont' think i want to become a realtor should stop and instead think "How can I become a realtor" instead. The market is still strong. Having a real estate license is never a bad professional choice. No matter what the condition of the industry, there is still always someone needing a realtor.

Blogs, Blogs, Blogs

Blogs, we keep hearing about them but what are they and how can we enjoy them. Well, blogs are a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links. They usually center around either a person or a topic. With the creation of various publication tools on the Internet writing your own blog is as easy as sending an email.

I thought it would be interesting to go over all the various sites that will help you blog for yourself as well as break down many blogs by their topic and how they relate to real estate as this is of course a real estate blog.

First of all, I will go over some websites that will allow you to begin blogging yourself. Personally we use Blogger. Blogger is owned by Google and comes with all the tools one would need in order to publish their own thoughts online. Best of all it is free. TypePad is another popular blog website. It offers powerful tools and hosting features. It will cost you about $50 a month to use. A third popular blog site is Wordpress. Wordpress comes with all the necessary tools and is free unless you want to host it with a third party.

Now that we know the tools to use in order to publish our own blog we should look at what type of blogs are on the Internet. This might give you some ideas as to what you would like to write about.

Some of my favorite real estate blogs are:

• Inman News: Covers a huge amount of topics in the real estate world. Very professionally written. A must for any realtor.
  
• The Real Estate Marketing Blog: A great reference for realtors who wish to market themselves using modern tools.
  
• The Rain City Guide: Seattle based blog. Covers many topics that will interest any realtor no matter what city they are from. Many contributors which means a lot of content and interesting articles.
  
• Real Estate Investing for Real: Covers the ins and outs of real estate investing. Great tips and a large forum.
  
• The Real Estate Bloggers: Covers almost any topic dealing with real estate. Constantly being updated.
  
• Curbed: the New York City Neighborhoods and Real Estate Blog: Lots of great info for the New York City real estate market. Very dynamic site.
  
• Fran and Rowena’s Real Estate Blog: We have been in contact with Fran and Rowena over the years. Great ladies, interesting site.
  
• Housing Panic: The Housing Bubble blog with Attitude : Real estate isn’t always a good investment. They want to prove this to you and share their theories on how the housing market is crashing. Interesting to read both sides of a story. Sometimes dark, sometimes funny articles.

These are some of the real estate related blog sites that I like to visit. I would love to hear about some of the blog sites you like to visit.