Two years ago, Realtor Frances Flynn Thorsen was asked to leave the press room at the National Association of Realtors convention in San Francisco because bloggers were not accredited journalists. At this year's convention, Thorsen was a star, not only in the press room but in the expanding world of real estate blogging. "The typical consumer is paying attention to real estate blogs these days," said Thorsen, who relocated her real estate business and blog-hosting Web site, Realtown.com, last year from Bethlehem, Pa., to Tucson, Ariz. She has become a blogging coach and offers 10-week "Webinars" on finding a focus and a niche, as well as information on installing widgets and embedding video and audio seamlessly into these sites.
Lucien Salvant, head of public affairs for the Realtors' association, was the one who asked Thorsen - nicely, she recalls - to leave the San Francisco press room in 2005. He explains now that his decision then was based on her Realtor membership. "When she was here before, she was running her blog as her business, and that is not a news-gathering organization," Salvant said. "As a Realtor, she had another access to information she was seeking, as well as access to cover anything here."
There are, by various estimates, thousands of real estate blogs, and more appearing every minute. They range from the large and influential - such as Curbed.com, which has sites in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and recently secured $1.5 million in expansion financing, and the Seattle-based ActiveRain.com blogging platform, with 35,000 to 58,000 members (estimates vary) - to local agents' blogs created at no cost through Google's Blogger.com or Wordpress.org, or for a fee on www.typepad.com or other platforms.
Locally, real estate blogs are emerging, but none has gained a national readership like Curbed.com. Realtor/condo developer Allan Domb launched a blog over the summer(http://allandomb.blogspot.com/) "to promote Center City living," he said. Realtor/mortgage broker Fred Glick has a blog (http://fredglickre.blogspot.com/), as does Realtor Mark Wade (http://blog.centercitycondos.com/). And some general-interest blogs, such as thephiladelphiamainlineblog.com, include real estate listings.
Blogs have several advantages over traditional Web sites, according to Paul Chaney, who with Richard Nacht of Princeton's Blogging Systems published the book Realty Blogging in November 2006. "Blogs provide an inexpensive and fast way to begin building an online audience," Chaney said. "[They] are all about opening up your knowledge, expertise, processes and goals to your customers." And no technical expertise is necessary, which means that you can add to a blog without having to make an appointment with a Web designer, and can add video, photos and audio with a click of a button or two.
After initial wariness, the Realtors' group seems to have wholeheartedly embraced the blog. Realtor.com, which hosts them around the country, sponsored a blogging cafe during the recent convention at the Venetian casino-hotel, as well as a cocktail party that was wall-to-wall bloggers. "As online social networking gains popularity, more and more Realtors are engaging with consumers through blogs to share knowledge about local real estate markets that also demonstrates their industry expertise," said Realtors.com president Errol Samuelson. Realtor.com's new blog tool, "Featured Blog," gives consumers direct access to Realtor blogs across the country. Highlights are posted daily at http://talk.realtor.com.
Not only is real estate blogging growing popular, it's also growing litigious as it becomes a big business. In September, according to an Inman News Service report, ActiveRain sued the listings site Move.com, which is owned by Realtor.com, accusing M
Source: phillynews.com