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.

The Cynics Guide to Choosing a Real Estate Agent

Finding a good realtor / real estate agent can save you money and heartache. Here is a helpful guide to finding the best possible realtor for any situation.

The Art of a Public Open House

Open houses are a great and neccessary tool for selling real estate. In the article, The Art of a Public Open House we go over the steps one should take in order to prepare for the potential owners to arrive. The article is written for those who are hosting the open house alone and with a realtor. GOOD STUFF!!!

A Great Place to Share Ideas with other Realtors

It is not easy to start a new career as a real estate agent. It is a dog eat dog world and each realtor must fight for every listing or client. But should realtors see each other as predators? I have found a site that does not think so.

Active Rain is an online community for real estate professionals. It allows realtors to share ideas about current topics in forums and blogs. It is definitly worth checking out even if you have not gotten your real estate license and are curious about the real estate profession. Remember, network, network, network.