My New Position

YES!

I have taken a New Position.

If you know me, you know I am passionate about two things:

1. Social Media and
2. Technology.

I have contended for years that Real Estate Professionals were the greatest people to walk the Earth.

So when a V.L.H.T.O.C. * approached me and asked if I would like to teach Technology to Real Estate Pro's my answer might have been a little quick.

How Quick?

Let's just say...

• It was so quick it couldn't have been measured in nanoseconds.
• Top Fuel Eliminators?  They don't have the reaction time I had.
• F/A-18 Pilots?  Too slow.  They might as well have been flying a Cessna.
• The Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa?  Feels more like a moped.

 

 

We live in interesting times.
More now than ever before a successful agent has to be on top of their game.
They need to properly leverage the technology and tools available to their advantage.
My job is to help those agents become more successful, to thrive, and to excel.
I'm looking forward to the new challenge.

 

*  stands for "very large, highly tech oriented company"

Are you following me on Twitter?

Grilled by REMBEX

Ok, so it wasn't  a real challenging interview, I wasn't really grilled, but it was fun to do.

Honestly, I had read just a couple of the interviews but it wasn't until I was asked that I realized the who's who that I am following. 

Here's a link to my interview: LINK

My name is now amongst some of the most influential and respected bloggers out there.  I'm certainly not worthy.

Previously Grilled:

 

Alex Clark April Groves Ardell DellaLoggia Chris Lengquist Dan Green Dave Smith David Porter Dustin Luther Eric Blackwell Frances Flynn Thorsen Greg Polashock Greg Swann Jay Thompson

Jeff Brown Jeff Corbett Jeff Turner Jessica Hughes Jim Cronin Jim Duncan Joanne Hanson John Harper Jonathan Dalton Kelley Koeler Kristal Kraft Lani Anglin Laurie Manny Linda Davis Mariana Wagner

Marlow Harris Mary Pope-Handy Maureen Francis Maureen McCabe Meredith Hanson Morgan Brown Nicole Nicolay Pat Kitano Phil Hoover Phil Leto Rhonda Porter Rob Blake Steve Scheer Teresa Boardman Teri Lussier Todd Carpenter Tom Wolf Vali Wimberly

 

Now, there's some great reading!

Top 20 Bloggers?

According to one of the best in the mortgage business,

The Mortgage Cicerone

Mike's Minute was voted one of the top 20!

The Storytellers:

Mike Mueller - A long time blogger that not only contributes at Lenderama, he maintains his own site at Mike's Mortgage Minute. His greatest asset however is his ability to use metaphors and parables to clearly explain complex issues and concepts. Mike never ceases to amaze me with his use of metaphoric devices to articulate daunting concepts...I wish he would have been my Calculus teacher in college!

Additionally, Mike is one of the good guys in the industry!

The other 19 are really the heavy hitters in the finance and real estate world.

I highly recommend reading everything they write for consumers and insiders alike!

Brian Brady Pat Kitano Ed Rybczynski Brett Rogers Dan Melson Sound Bite Blog Jeff Brown Maggie Dokic Julia Wei

Rhonda Porter Dan Green Morgan Brown Todd Carpenter Greg Swann Athol Kay Joe Zekas Nicole Nicolae

Gift or Curse?

I don't read books.  I read blogs.  I read plenty of blogs. 

It would take me hours and hours if I had them all saved as bookmarks and had to hit each site to read what was new.  So when I find a blog I like, I subscribe to it's RSS feed.

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication.  It has it's own cute little international symbols too.

         

Some even have color coordinated versions like this:

Most every blog also provides an RSS Feed.  How all this works is unimportant.  What you do with that feed is the important part.  You are going to want to send that feed to your Feed Reader.

I've tried a couple of different Feed Readers.  I started with my iGoogle home page.  That worked great for a while.  Then I .  In the interest of science I also tested the aptly named Bloglines, Feedreader, and SharpReader.  Then I tried Internet Explorer's own built in Feed Reader (you did you know IE had that, right?) I tried them all and settle on using the  Google Reader .

A Feed Reader, properly setup, can drastically reduce the workload of reading all these blogs.  I prefer to separate the various feeds into sections.  I'll read the most important sections first then as time permits move on to other less critical sections.

Once I have a section open, I'll skim each post quickly.  Dustin described his daily read of 421 subscriptions in a recent post.  He uses the Google Feed Reader too.  He showed the shortcut I like best - "J".  Using this approach I quickly go onto the next post inline marking that last post as "READ".

In reading Dustin's post I was struck by the fact he has 421 subscriptions.  I'd like to know who in the heck he is subscribed to...  EVERYONE?   The other day, I was talking to a local real estate agent.  He is new to the blogging phenom.  He wanted to know who I was reading.  I sent him an email containing the URLs of a couple of blogs I like.  Then I walked him through the way I grab the Feeds and send them to my Feed Reader. 

Today the light bulb went off.  There is an easier way to share my 116 subscriptions.  It's called the .xml file or more specifically my OPML.  Don't worry about that geek stuff, I'm going to make this really simple.

Here's a link to my daily blog subscriptions: LINK

Don't click on that!  It'll open up a window and just show you the html.  Instead,

• Right click on it and save the file to a folder on your computer.
• Now open your Feed Reader of choice.  

I'll use I.E. as for this example.

1. Under FILE > Import / Export - this will open up the Import Wizard.
2. NEXT > Import Feeds
3. Choose "Import from a file" and browse to find the file you just saved.  It'll look like this "mikes-favorite-reader-subscriptions.xml" > NEXT
4. Save it in the folder called Feeds. > NEXT
5. Congratulations!  You now have every feed I have - in your very own Feed Reader!

If you are not seeing the feeds make sure you are looking in the right place.  Click on the Big Yellow Star (Favorites) and make sure the "Feeds" button is selected.

So there's my 116 favorite Blogs.  They say, "Sharing is Caring". 

Dustin, Todd, Greg, I know you know how.    Let's see yours!

 

Y.V.H.S. E-Waste Recycling Success!

It's Blog Action Day and it came at just the right time. This weekend we helped with the Ygnacio Valley High School Electronic Waste / Recycle Event. I am happy to report that it was a success!

In case you missed it - the parking lot at the high school was turned into a giant drive through recycling center for all items that shouldn't go to the landfill.

The event was a fundraiser for the YVHS Music Department. As you might guess, the Music Programs have all had serious funding issues lately with little chance of a brighter future. Since the Feds and State are cutting back - fund raisers like this will become more critical in the near future to the continuation of the entire music department.

While the heavy lifting and sorting was left to the professionals, the kids were allowed to explain the program, accept donations and talk with the public.

Here's a couple of interesting factoids:

If you were to drop off a TV or CPU at the local landfill, they would charge you $25 to $40 per item. The dump cannot treat these items like normal rubbish - they must collect and turn it over to a proper e-waste recycling company. That company crushes the items - then sorts and separates out the raw heavy metals.

Everything is crushed - nothing is reused. To the horror of the kids - if someone were to drop off a brand new in the box iPod - it would be crushed! No questions asked. This is part security, part business. If I was to drop off a CPU I wouldn't want to see that Hard Drive reanimated into a newly refurbished computer with all my important private information on it.

All in all the E-Waste recycling event was a smashing success! We thank you for coming. We thank you for helping the environment and we thank you for your donations!

Technorati Tags: e-waste, recycling, ygnacio valley high school, fundraising, marching band

Redfin Sweet Digs, The Chron, Bankrate and me

I do a lot of daily reading. Yesterday I was reading the Redfin Blog. In it they referenced an article that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle last Thursday.

Mortgage crunch hits Bay Area hard because of jumbo loans

The article covered most of the basics, got most of the info correct, and overall was a well written article. Good job, Carolyn Said and Kelly Zito!

But then I got down to the bottom...

Do you know that sound Sitcoms use? The old needle on the phonograph record being dragged sideways? That's what I heard inside my head. Why?

Bankrate.

What you can do

With the mortgage situation changing day by day, it's hard to say what's best for consumers. One thing all experts agree on: If you don't have to be in the market right now, it might be best to wait this crisis out. If that's not an option for you, there are still places to get advice. For instance:

-- Bankrate.com: A free, online source of personal finance information that includes an entire section on mortgages, including local rate comparisons.

-- FDIC: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. provides comprehensive consumer advice on mortgages and home lending. Check its "Looking for the Best Mortgage" page for starters. You can find it at links.sfgate.com/ZOL.

-- The Federal Reserve: The Fed offers a great consumer overview of lending issues, particularly focusing on settlement charges. Check it at links.sfgate.com/ZOM.

-- The FTC: The Federal Trade Commission also offers an advice site for consumers navigating the mortgage market. Here's a shortcut to the site: links.sfgate.com/ZON.

Remember Sesame Street's "Three of these things belong together..."?

Three of these things belong together, one of these things just doesn't belong. three of these things are government agencies, one of these things is a capitalistic business who's primary function is generating income by selling leads, advertisements and banner ads. They also are knee deep in a Bait and Switch Lawsuit brought on by a former Advertiser / Lender dating back to 2002.

Bankrate is much like LendingTree. Both disguise themselves as friends of consumer. LendingTree is a lead generation business (who also was caught in a lawsuit of their own. See: The Truth About Lending Tree). Both are in the business to generate income. Both advertise massively and tout that they are there for the consumer.

There is nothing "Americanly" wrong with the business model. They are in the business of making money and do so by attracting clients in what some might say is a deceptive manner - the truth is, that's advertising!

My issue is with the Chron article including and referencing Bankrate as a real resource. I'd have the same problem if they had said, "Go to Mike - He's the Man!" Yes, I am. But I too am a capitalistic business who's primary function is generating income, albeit with a slightly different advertising pitch.

Integrity.

Nice To Be Noticed

Like an internet IM hug,
it's nice when someone thinks you are worthy of a mention, or better yet, a link.

This last week there were a couple.

• Tony Gallegos, who writes "The Mortgage Cicerone" thought my post called "Seriously" was fantastic. "From reading your blog, I can tell you are cut from the same cloth. I think it is SO important we protect the professionalism of our industry." That's a big honor coming from somebody like Tony. He is indeed a stand up "trust him with your wallet" kind of guy! Read his blog and you'll see for yourself.

• David A. Podgursky, also liked the "Seriously" and featured it in his Weekly Review, saying "This is a scenario mortgage brokers hear at least once a week."

• John Lockwood, emailed me yesterday to let me know he was including a couple of my posts on his rather excellent Sacramento Real Estate BLOG. "Yes, times are tougher than they were, but I admire your take on BS optimism. A little sincere gratitude for what we do have goes a long way, as you show."

How nice is that?

To all three of these fine professionals - I am honored and deeply appreciate your public acknowledgment! It's people like you that help make this world a better place!

Thank you!