Eric Blackwell's Blog: All Categories

As part of my new years' resolutions, I have commited to introducing more of my agents to the world of Real Estate Webmasters and vice-versa. I work with the BEST REALTORS in Louisville, hands down. Stephanie Mattingly is a great example of what I am talking about. Great REALTORS win and she is a winner.

After 7 years of working for another REALTOR in Lexington and a career in marketing and as a stay at home mom, she and her husband both launched their own businesses at the same time. She went into real estate (he is an engineer by trade.) What sets her apart from many other agents is her creativity in getting exposure for her clients.

YouTube  -  An example of Stephanie's marketing savvy...

Step 1: When Stephanie lists a home, she creates a cool You…

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As a parent of 4 kids, my comments about parenting have often been pretty pointed and heartfelt. I posted a while back about how ABC's "Extreme Home Makeover" team came to town and built a new home for the Hughes family. The home builders in the show were Joe and Rocky Pusateri. Their mom is an agent in our office.

Long story short, I found this really cool youtube video of Patrick and his dad, done by ESPN and thought I'd pass it along...(please be patient...it takes a minute to load -- long video)




Many can father a child, but it is a rare individual who can be a dad like this.

Hope you find it as heartwarming as I did. Read Full Post

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to find more of our agents' listings that offer (in my opinion) true bang for the buck or are otherwise interesting to me and write about them. If you are looking for a condominium or patio home in Louisville, you may actually want to look outside of downtown Louisville. Crestwood Gardens is a new development of condos / patio homes in Crestwood Kentucky that offers an amazing alternative to downtown Louisville condo living and yet allows you to enjoy the carefree condo / patio home type of lifestyle that is more free from maintenance worries.

I am going to post the full listing of these condominiums in the "My Listings" section (another one of my new year's resolutions is to get a bunch of them listed here… Read Full Post

ABC's Extreme Home Makeover crew hit Louisville this week to build a home for Patrick Hughes and his family. If you've ever seen the Louisville marching band recently, then you know Patrick.His dad assists him in marching with the band by pushing him in a wheelchair. And he's not just doing that for show. Patrick plays a mean trumpet and piano, despite his disabilities. He was born with no eyes and a disability which confines him to a wheelchair because he cannot extend his arms or legs fully.

What is amazing about Patrick is that he (and his dad...) do not let this stop them. It is an amazing story of the love his Dad has for him and what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it.

ABC's started this last Wednesday and demolished the old house… Read Full Post

Maybe it's just me...but the current market "slow down" is being treated by MANY REALTORS as a road sign to "Slow down". IMO nothing could be further from the truth! it is in times like these that market share is gained, new ideas are forged and much is learned about the business.

A slow market is one where everyone else thinks that things are slow, so that the resourceful entrepreneur can have a field day. It clarifies WHO can truly market as oppposed to sell.



In our office, we use the phrase "OMG corner" to describe the feeling we get this time of year. You close the last deal that you have on the books right now and get lulled in to the sense that you have no more business in your book.

And you say "OMG--where's my next one coming… Read Full Post

OK...Here's is my final rant on R.com...

It is really my own beef with semantics, but it is important in my view...

Enhanced listings on REALTOR.com

In my view we send you guys at REALTOR.com freshly minted new listing EVERY DAY off of the assembly line. They are COMPLETE with good descriptions, tons of data and more than a few photos. We do our best as REALTORS to market the home online....Then you guys go and and do this with them...





















You mangled the comments and reduce the photos to only one! Then we get a phone call from your sales team that says..."How about we put it back to original condition for say "$1,200 bucks a year" (hypothetical, but REAL example).

Tell me REALTOR.com ... is this truly…

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The Bloodhound Blog recently published one of their (IMO) funniest posts yet. I read Greg's blog for comic relief, but these guys and gals can truly write and have exhibited some real talent. This post was less writing and more graphic...ummm....literally! That graphic was hilarious! But also carried a message.

After reading the post, I felt inspired to write a post of my own. (see the comments of the link above).

While the message was funny, the point of it is pretty clear: to me. REALTOR.com is going to keep raising prices and offering little for the consumer in terms of solid information when compared to most individual REALTOR websites. My preference is for the local real estate agents to win here. Drastic changes are needed at R.com to turn this… Read Full Post

"Yellow journalism" was a phrase coined in the 1800's to describe the press taking liberties and pushing their own views on the people. And when they did not like someone or their point of view, simply running a smear campaign was what happened.

In my opinion, the Louisville real estate market is suffering somewhat from visit back to those dark days.How else do you describe the onslaught of real estate articles promoting doom and gloom. The Courier-Journal has been a veritable negative news factory--and all of this in a market that has actually outperformed last year in the dollar volume of homes sold.

Recently Joe Simms, current president of GLAR, went back on the offensive and received some positive press for his efforts. Kudos Joe. I applaud your… Read Full Post