Shocking...or not. Personally, the #1 BEST find for me in this brave new world of social media, is a blog post about real estate written by, gulp, A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC! A real life, flesh and blood, card-carrying member of my biggest TARGET MARKET...people who want to buy a house!
I have an RSS feed chock-a-block full of feeds from "experts", "advisors", "designers" and practitioners of every branch and offshoot of real estate, from all over the country and from every possible angle. I learn every day from them and make my own decisions about how I want to apply their thoughts and strategies to my own business. But for pure, unadulterated "THIS IS WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR" stuff, how can you possibly beat stumbling upon a post written by a homebuyer about the process they are currently engaged in! A "real person" out there who has become some lucky agents client and then blogs about it!
I don't care that she isn't MY client or that this isn't MY market (although it is my state.) I just LOVE reading about how she sees and feels the process...what makes her swoon and what creeps her out. I've never read Molly's blog before and only through the divine synergy of RSS feeds and Google Alert did I find it but here it is...my pea sized golden nugget in the murky, cold and gray running water of my virtual sluice of real estate related information...
Just a sample to pique your interest...
"5. I'm starting to believe that "For Sale By Owner" means "Realtors wouldn't even take the listing because the Owner believes that it's worth twice what the market data says." I'm amazed at what some of them think their houses are worth."
Click link to read Molly's Blog~your mom goes to college~ as she shares her recent revelations about the real estate world and they are priceless!
Oh, and if you have her dream home listed you might want to call her agent!
It's Simple...When You Have A Great Agent!
SarahGray Lamm is a licensed, full time, residential real estate professional in the Raleigh Durham area of North Carolina with over 60,000 hours of experience. She specializes in serving the real estate needs of home sellers, home buyers and investors in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham and Northern Chatham County and is proudly associated with Allen Tate Realtors, the Carolinas #1 independent realty company.
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This is a great blog. Thanks for the link (LOL).
Featured @ Club Chaos
What a great blog. She is a very creative and funny writer. Loved her definition of the"Arts District" so thanks for sharing
Sarah:
That's really getting it from the source. She has a lot of interesting observations of the local housing market. She's a talented writer as well.
Carolyn, thanks for the Club Chaos feature!
Glad to see all of you enjoy her blog post as much as I did! Getting the "real" skinny from a "real" person...absolutely fab!
Thank you for the compliments! We're definitely getting somewhere on the house-hunt, I'll definitely post about the process more now that someone other than my close friends is actually reading about my boring life! And in case my mother's reading, I apologize for a few salty words on a few of my posts...working on that one.
Molly, keep the updates coming and I'll keep you linked up!
Good Lord Sarah...
How in the world did this slip by my radar? This is just awesome. Even better is you have Molly right here with you. Very Cool :)
TLW...ROAR!
I just love stumbling onto a new good blog. Only recently have I started subscribing though (outside of AR subscriptions that is)...I'll have to check this one out.
Back when my husband and I sold our last home I said to him that I thought every real estate professional should have to buy or sell a house at least every 3-4 years. It's easy to become numb to the process and living through it is a quick wake up call!
SarahGray, This is really cool!! Nothing like getting it straight from the horses mouth (Mollly I mean that in a good way)!
TLW, Colleen, Bryant! You guys ROCK! Thanks for stopping by...I promised Molly I would keep us up to date on her home search!
SarahGray, I love seeing the perspective from the OTHER side. Thanks for the alert...
Hi SarahGray -- You are so right, there is nothing better than learning from our clients and the general public. We won't change public opinion overnight, but if collectively, we all strived to be better, over time, it could be a tsunami!
Gary and Chris, you guys are "old school" like me and I know you appreciate the value of input from the folks we really want to talk to! I'm not sure Molly knows what she has inspired!
Thanks for the heads up on this blog! It was a fun read. I will look forward to updates.
Sarah,
Molly is actually a very good writer, and "funny" too.
Brian
SarahGray: You are a genuine real estate blogging goddess! I know when I see a new blog from you crop up, that I'm going to learn, learn, learn ... all while being entertained! My mind never wanders when you're around ...
Thanks for the great find with Molly .. and giving me the incentive to search for other "educators" like her. What they have to teach me is priceless.
I eagerly await more from you in the future!
Gene
Sarah - I had to chuckle at the "FSBO" quote you pulled. I just sought out some info one for a client. When they gave us the price, the client and I spent about 5 minutes laughing, before asking each other "are you kidding?" Some "for sale by owners" are realistic and just trying to save some money, but many of the ones I see have unrealtic expectations of price.
I'm heading over to read through Molly's blog and I'm excited to see her post here as well. Thanks Molly, just based on what others have said about your blog, I'm excited to read from a home buyer's perspective.
I wonder what that would look like, seeing us from the perspective of a buyer or seller...Thnaks Sarah Gray, now I have to go and read Molly's post!
Hi SarahGray ~ That was a great post - and a wonderful blog. Molly sounds like she'd be a fun customer - and that goes a long way in my book. I found it interesting that she went with a small local company as a way to "shop local". I've wondered about that since I work (me - my own little business of me) for the big blue.
Liz
It is so refreshing to realize that some people realize what we have known for a long time about FSBO'S.
Thanks for sharing. It was a great read.
Very funny blog. Thanks for sharing Molly with us. She is a great read.
A blog within a blog within a blog . . . it's a blog world after all!
Cute concept . . . now let me got check out Molly
Thanks for the great post, it is always nice to get a new perspective on things.
SarahGray...
Thanks for bringing this blog to my attention. It is a very interesting perspective indeed!
Great perspective ! I love the comment about FSBOs : ) . The Internet and blogging is such an amazing place. I would not be suprised if we see more blogs about this in the future as well : )
I'll go visit Molly today. I think we can learn from hearing consumers take on our industry. Thanks good post. My Rss feed is full, I managed to read it yesterday, the first time in a few months.
Sarah, This is a great post. Thanks for sharing what you had found. I've opened your link in another tab for reading later.
I have to agree after reading that entertaining treatise. This post makes me want to go out and find some non real estate industry real people, and ask them to guest blog. What the people really think, what a concept!
Off to a sales meeting...but looking forward to reading the blog...thanks for the link.
Brilliant...nothing like thinking outside of the box, and sooooo cool that Molly chimed in on this!!!
My clients said almost the same thing to me yesterday about FSBO's.
Sarah,
Great post! Molly is probably everyone's dream buyer. Wish I lived in her area with just the right bungalow for her! Hope after she finds one and eventually becomes the seller she will be as insightful as she is as a buyer.
OMG - what a great find!
I love #7. Charlotte listing agents have a habit of classifying any adjacent bad area of town as "Arts District".
I think that is true in Tulsa. Interesting to read her experience. Now she's going to wonder why all of these Realtors have subscribed to her blog!
Thanks for sharing!
A consumer that gets it! Awesome!
Thanks for the pointer to Molly's blog. This post was an ejoyable read. My brother lives in Charlotte, so I'll have to quiz him on the local issues discussed.
I plan to ask my current buyers and sellers if they have blogs that would allow more insight into their views of the process.
Molly's blog was so funny... she's really creative.
I love that Molly mentioned she values her agent for being the 'voice of reason'. That is a skill set to develop for sure. Wonderful post and co-post!
Thank you SarahGray. Molly should be the profile for a stressed-out buyer. The agent who brings their stress level down will long be remembered.