Iceland's (Volcanic) Ashes

Iceland's Last Wishes

For connoisseurs of dark humor, there's a beauty on Twitter that apparently has gone "viral":

Iceland's last wish: to have its ashes scattered all over Europe" -- market analyst

For those who don't recall, Iceland's (ongoing) banking crisis makes the one in the U.S. look like a summer squall.

Twitter Overload

The "Fail Whale"

Is every one's obsession with Twitter tapering off?

Apparently not: its system just crashed due to overuse.

Or, I suppose it could also be the result of a hardware malfunction (or both?). . .

Twitter Converts --- and Skeptics

To Twitter or Not to Twitter (that is the question)

Non-Realtors wouldn't necessarily know it, but there's a huge debate going on within the Realtor community at the moment about the need to get up to speed with -- "re-tool" for, if you will -- so-called social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Here's a quick summary of the points each camp is making:

Twitter converts: everyone's using social media. "Be there or be square."

Twitter skeptics: actually, it seems like the most avid Twitter demographic is . . . teenagers. And not many teenagers buy homes.

Twitter converts: Not true (about the demographics). The common denominator is technological sophistication: people whose jobs require it (marketing, high tech, computer-related generally) are embracing social media, too.

Twitter skeptics: Yeah, those folks are so busy checking out sites like Zillow and Trulia they think they don't need a Realtor. And tell me again, how does someone who has time to Twitter all day hold down the kind of job that pays a big mortgage?

And so and so on.

Count me firmly in the . . . undecided camp.

I remember having a spirited conversation with someone, way back before anyone had even heard of Netscape, about why the Internet wasn't merely "CB radio's with typing" (I was right, they were wrong).

And yet, I have to confess, even I have doubts that Twitter represents a seminal, culture-changing shift: somehow, I just don't see my target market tweeting (or posting on Facebook), "I wish I hadn't just eaten that second hot and spicy burrito at lunch."

My best guess is that two considerations will prove paramount for Realtors weighing the "to Twitter -- or not?" question: 1) no one wants to be labeled a "Luddite," "behind the curve," etc.; and 2) you become proficient in whatever medium or mode of communication your client(s) prefer.

"Technology Losers" . . . and Ostriches

Technology Adapters: Early, Late . . & Never

If you've yet to "Facebook," "Twitter," "Link In" (yes, they're all verbs) or otherwise seriously partake of the orgy of social media apparently going on out there, I'm sure you'll relate to the following:

If Caroline Cua’s iPhone looked anything like her closet, where she keeps her dozens of pairs of shoes, she would have screen after screen of applications. But instead her iPhone is nearly empty.

And that’s just fine with her, until she finds herself among friends whose iPhones are studded with icons. When a fellow iPhone owner asked recently to see her apps, she grew self-conscious. “I said to him, ‘O.K., now I’m officially feeling like a loser,’ ” she recalled.

--"Skirting the Glut of iPhone App's: When Phones Are Just Too Smart"; The New York Times (1/2/2010)

Actually, there's an even more antediluvian state than the self-described "technology loser" (above): "technology ostrich."

That would be anyone putting off buying an iPhone because they don't want to be one of the technology losers walking around with only 5 app's installed on their smart phone.

Like me!

In my defense, I know lots of other seasoned Realtors walking around with not-so-smart phones because . . . they still work!

In my case, they also open up Realtor lockboxes (because my Treo has an infrared beam, I don't need to carry around a separate "fob"); and synch, reliably, with my calendar and contact list.

If it ain't broke . . .

"Your Money's No Good"

Boycotts, Social Media & Goldman Sachs

If artists doodle, and musicians play little ditties in their head, what do bloggers "noodle around" with in their free time?

At least in my case, provocative phrases with multiple meanings.

Like, "your money's no good."

So far, I'm already up to four, alternative definitions:

One. "I won't accept your money because I hold you in high esteem" (in other words, it's free).

What the bartender says to a longtime friend, star athlete, war hero, etc.

Two. "I won't accept your money because I hold you in low esteem" (in other words, the price is infinite).

What fashionable, upper East Side restaurants now say to Ruth Madoff, or gated communities in LA presumably used to say to OJ Simpson after he was acquitted of murder, but before he was (finally) sent to prison for armed robbery last year.

Three. Your money, specifically, is no good: your credit cards have been revoked, your bank account is overdrawn, etc.

Four. Your money's no good -- and neither is anyone else's -- because the currency has been debased (as they say, this one's "ripped from today's headlines").

Ostracism, 21st Century-Style

Of the four possible meanings, the one I find the most tantalizing is #2.

Combine the latest social networking technology; some old-fashioned notions about boycotts, shunning, and ostracism; and a feckless, co-opted political system -- and suddenly you've got a way to deal with a corporate miscreant like Goldman Sachs.

Namely, society could collectively refuse to do business with Goldman Sachs and its greedy, economy-wrecking executives.

Boycott, the term for such collective action, is usually thought of as a refusal to buy from someone. In fact, the term comes from the local Irish community's refusal to sell to Charles Boycott, after Boycott took the landowners' side in a labor dispute in 1880.

And to think, they had to organize their boycott without the benefit of email, smart phones, instant messaging, or Facebook!

P.S.: One of the funniest stand-up comedy bits I ever heard was (a then unknown) Rob Schneider cataloguing the various usages of the word "Dude."

As in . . . Approval ("Dude!"); Disapproval ("d-u-d-e"); "Is that a stranger in my bedroom closet?": ('d-u-u-u-de??'). And so in that vein (I think Schneider topped out at 12 meanings).

Online Shorthand, or, "Joke #37!"

Tweets, Grunters & Grimacers

Every day, it seems like online communication is devolving into ever more succinct, real-time "bursts" of information.

Other bloggers have noted this phenomenon as well:

Perhaps [Twitter] is just the first step. The text-based Twitter will be replaced with an audio-based “Grunter.” Rather than spend a full 140 characters, you have your choice of 10 gutteral grunts registering surprise, anger, sadness, joy, etc. Then we can move to the next phase: Grimacer. Just pictures depicting how you feel.

--Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture

"Joke #37!"

Personally, I think it's more analogous to physics.

First there were blogs, which would be the equivalent of molecules.

Then came Twitter (and "tweets"), which would be the "atoms" of the online world.

For awhile, that was it; nothing was supposed to be more elemental than atoms.

Of course, physicists went on to discover all manner of sub-atomic particles, including quarks, electrons, and neutrino's (this effectively exhausts my physics vocabulary).

So, perhaps Ritholtz is right.

P.S.: Natan Sharansky, the Soviet dissident, tells an anecdote about how he and his fellow prisoners killed time while enduring long stretches of solitary confinement. Through Morse code, they would take turns "telling" their favorite jokes.

As the years went by, everyone knew everyone's repertoire by heart. So, instead of tapping the whole joke, they would just tap the punch line. Eventually, even that became truncated. So, one prisoner would tap to the others: "[joke] #37."

"Just the Facts (Fax?), Ma'am"

Presenting Offers

Old-time Realtors -- my definition is anyone in the business before there were faxes -- may not know how to twitter or blog, but there is one skill that they excel at relative to newer Realtors: presenting offers.

Once upon a time, Buyer's agents would actually meet the Seller and their agent to personally present the offer (imagine!).

Then, if the Buyer was available nearby, all the parties could convene and hash out any differences.

Weaker Glue

Now, of course, Facebook has supplanted face-to-face. Offers are electronically submitted with the click of a button or keystroke.

The result?

Often times, deals with less give-and-take, that come together slower and break apart more easily.

Real Estate & Technology

"The More Things Change . . ."

Taken to their logical conclusion, innovations like Twitter are inevitably leading us, I suppose, to some sort of real-time, Borg-like mind meld (my apologies to Star Trek fans).

And certainly, advancing technology is affecting how real estate is bought and sold (more posts on that in the works).

However, I think it's fair to say that a good percentage of the advances relate to the speed and reach of people's communication.

So, Susan Boyle is a nobody yesterday, and famous today (and back to a nobody tomorrow?). Or, the street riots in Tehran are on display worldwide, notwithstanding the regime's efforts to suppress eyewitness accounts.

In the meantime, real estate itself is surprisingly technology-resistant.

At the end of the (24-7) day, it's still about bricks-and-mortar, or land, or some combination thereof. That's so even if the "bricks-and-mortar" are now high-tech composites, and the central nervous systems of buildings -- homes included -- are increasingly sophisticated.

"The more things change . . ."

I find that both a bit of a relief, and reassuring.

It reminds me of an experience I had in law school, when I argued a real estate case in moot court (simulated courtroom practice for novice attorneys, in front of a panel of attorney-judges).

Although I did well, advancing three rounds, I remember being thrown by one of the judge's questions.

In particular, he wanted to know why I couldn't "cite any legal authority more recent than 1892" to support one of my arguments.

A bit flustered, I said that, actually, that still appeared to be the governing precedent.

Afterwards, the judge came up to me, and told me I should have "stuck to my guns" when he had pressed me.

"A century-old case is recent when it comes to real estate law," he pointed out (correctly).

Realtor-Friendly Edina

Best (& Worst) Local Cities for Realtors

Just like people, some cities have their act together, some don't.

Ranking very high in the former category: the city of Edina.

Admittedly, it's not the most important thing for Realtors (or their clients), but it does come up.

Examples include: getting information about zoning and building permits; compliance with any applicable truth-in-sale of housing ordinances; and navigating city rules regarding things like set-backs and remodeling.

Cities That Twitter

So, from a Realtor's perspective, what separates a well-run city from one less so?

Here's my (subjective) list of criteria:

--Well-designed and current Web site
--No maddening "phone trees" or voice mails that never get returned
--Being routed, quickly, to an actual human being who has jurisdiction over the issue/question you're dealing with, who's authoritative and knowledgeable.

On all these counts, Edina scores superbly (I won't name a city that doesn't score so well, but it rhymes with "Schminneapolis").

P.S.: to my knowledge, the City of Edina is the only local municipality that now twitters!