Eric Blackwell's Blog: All Categories

This last week, one of the members of our blogging group, Anne Mayhugh, asked me one of those questions... the kind that keep nagging at you until you do something about it.

Here's her concern. She and partner David Hartlage are both highly experienced real estate investors and REALTORS in our office. Anne focus with her first blogging effort was for those who wanted to buy and hold. She is looking now to expand that to all areas of real estate investing here in Louisville.

One thing that she is still struggling with is that she finds noobie investors an incredible waste of time. (And there seems to be more and more of them every day. Anne can smell them a mile away. They are fresh off of this seminar or that. They haven't and won't buy anything. They…

As the technologist in an office of 110 agents, the days can get long and be stressful. It is well after 9pm as I write this and I have quite a ways to go. I am tired. It has been a long day, and there is still lots to be done on this Monday night. I have some RUSH playing on my headphones to keep me going while my wife starts heading the kids to bed.

But I love Tuesdays.

Everybody has those favorite days of the week when the chores are done and you can do the stuff that really juices you. For me that is coaching, teaching and helping those in our office who WANT to build their online presence in our blogging group. We meet every Tuesday for lunch. How do I know they WANT it?

Simple.

If I cared to look at twitter right now, Scott Hack would be…

Yeah...I know it is a bit late to be posting more New Years resolutions. (It is January 14th) But the truth of the matter is that I have been swamped with things to do, client work, my work at the office, and all sorts of other stuff.

So here goes for my January 15th edition of positive change I am going to create in 2009.

Spend more time with Family

This tops my list for 2009. 2008 was a great year, but with the growth, learning and fun, I woke up and realized that my kids are aged 10-17 and the two oldest are both over 6 feet tall. Yikes. Time to spend time with them while I can.

Concentrate my Writing Time to Friends, Family, Client work, and Important Projects

If there is anything that I have learned in the past years of writing stuff online, it…

If you have been ANYWHERE on the real estate web world lately, you have heard about Marc Rasmussen's battle with the Sarasota Association of REALTORS and their abusive tactics in taking the authority that he has created/built over several years and taking it away.  Details are here. (Morgan on a personal note-you are doing a stellar job of advocating and supporting Marc...I have no idea of everything you've done, but what I have seen shows me a LOT about you. Kudos)

It is apparent to me that this is a simple act of jealousy by cowards. Redirecting the domain should have been enough. Period. The Board of the Sarasota Association of REALTORS is ALL culpable for their actions. (And I know at least one of them and it HURTS to say that.) If they disagree with…

Well, isn't that nice. I woke up Saturday morning to read an email from a fellow blogger telling me that Trulia is now hiring a "team" of real estate industry execs to go influence and "connect with" NAR and local MLS's.  He posted it here on my blog (he's a reporter).  I have spent much of the weekend thinking (and editorializing about the implications of this.

Lobbyists.

Great. Now we are left with the task of combating the mis-information on both the REALTOR and the MLS / NAR level. 

Here's two open questions for the industry:

Aren't lobbyists hired to convince people in another industry to do stuff THEIR way? Whether it is RIGHT or not? They answer to the dudes that pay them. Plain and simple.

How's this strategy working for Congress and the…

$7500 Tax Credit?

Congress recently passed (and the president signed into law yesterday) a housing stimulus package that has been billed as the $7500 Tax Credit for first time buyers. What does this mean to frist time home buyers? The correct answer is--it depends.

First off, we know that people are inquisitive about the tax credit and we are getting more than a few questions here at RE/MAX Properties East about it. We have put together an information pack about the details of the new law...as always, we recommend that you visit with a competent financial professional before doing anything.  That is always good advise!

Secondly, it is not, by precise terms, a tax "credit". It is actually a no interest loan over 15 years. You GET the tax "credit" for…

My last REW blog post was about (of all things...) the keywords that we use nowadays that were not used before. Terms like "Short Sale" were simply not in the lexicon until recently.

As part of that post, I made mention of my friend (and REALTOR) in our office, Anne Mayhugh. I wrote about her experience with investment properties in Louisville and how she really knows her stuff. Little did I know that this would reach someone who was looking for someone just like Anne to help her. I received a blog message via email this past weekend from the NICEST person.

Here is a little of what she wrote:

"Hi Eric, I saw your blog and am interested in getting in contact with Anne. If you could forward this information to her, I'd greatly appreciate it. I am a…

365 days ago, the term "short sale" was just barely a blip on the lexicon. Now, everyone seems to know what they are. I had an internet lead the other day from our main site asking specifically. "I need short sale help. Please call me." (that's a quote).

I don't know about your market, but in Louisville, the foreclosure market is picking up big time. One member of our blogging team jumped in and created a Louisville Short Sales and Real Estate Investing Blog. (Great Job Anne, BTW). She has actually been on this side of the business for years and is an awesome agent IMO.

Since being on our team comes with a few **cough** advantages **cough**, she made it up to #2 on Google for the term "Louisville Short sales" (relatively little competition there) along…