Eric Blackwell's Blog: Personal Thoughts

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…

One of the things that many people don't realize about the Kentucky Derby is that is is actually about 3 weeks long!. No I am not kidding. Every year, the Derby festival starts with Thunder over Louisville and culminates with the actual race. Here is a video of Thunder over Louisville.

It is (reportedly) the largest fireworks display in the U.S. (the calm parts feel like the finales of most fireworks shows) and I can tell you first hand that it is fun. You can see for yourself what the finale is like...amazing! Between the airshow that goes on all day and this, it is a huge family event. It is also one of the reasons I like living here. Enjoy!

Best;

Eric

It was announced in several places, including here, that Yahoo is laying off "hundreds of its employees".

I have taken some time to think over why it is that Yahoo is laying off hundreds of people in an ever-growing industry (online search / online advertising). I mean think about it. This is an industry that is growing by leaps and bounds. if you can't make money in THIS environment, you must really not be good at business, right?

I mean, i get it if they were in the mortgage business, but they are not. So I went to Google and Yahoo in search of answers. All I needed to do was take a couple of screenshots of their home pages:

CAN YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?

Game. Set. Match for Google. Those who FOCUS on one thing very…

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

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

"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

On the wall in the offices of RE/MAX Properties East in Louisville Kentucky hangs a sign:

"The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack."

For 20 years, they have thrived on the notion that the basic economic unit of the real estate sales industry is the brokerage. A patriarchal broker built a caring staff and helped agents develop thriving businesses of their own, and yet all hunted together by buying space as a group in newspapers and other marketing ventures, sharing office expenses in lieu of the agent getting an ever increasing share of the commissions. It has worked and worked well.

As brokers in general are aging and looking toward retirement, franchise chains are looking to grow, agents are looking to increase…