Luxury Real Estate

By Robert Lockard

A helpful warning to bloggers: “Be prepared.” It’s the Boy Scout motto and it’s also good advice for people in all walks of life. It appears that many bloggers, myself included, are a little unprepared for the possibility of close scrutiny of blogging. What if we were told that we had used too much of someone else’s news article in our blog entry or that we got our facts wrong and are guilty of negligence or even defamation? It’s a scary thought, but that’s the risk we take in offering our work in a public environment.

Have you noticed that, as bloggers, our responsibilities and rules seem to be a little hazy and hard to define? It sometimes does to me. Luckily, in college I studied media law, fair-use doctrine and other libel laws, so I have a pretty good understanding of what is allowed and forbidden when writing content.

The rules can get pretty complex, but they boil down to the fact that writers need to respect others’ rights by not stealing their work, spreading lies about them or being unfairly critical of people we disagree with. I don’t believe I’ve witnessed any of that in the discussions I have seen on ActiveRain and the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog, but it’s still important to keep in mind. Kindness and honesty are generally essential for free speech and democracy to thrive. I have no desire to defame anyone because my goal is to uplift by exercising the Golden Rule as much as possible.

When you use a news story or another person’s blog in your work, make sure to give credit to the person you borrow from. I always strive to do that when I write a blog entry, since much of my inspiration for writing about specific topics comes from news sources and other bloggers. Actually, this blog was inspired by two news articles: a Seattle Times article by Brier Dudley entitled “Battle of the day: AP vs. blogs,” and Marcie Geffner’s article in Inman News entitled “Is your blog a lawsuit magnet?” I highly recommend reading them both so you can make sure you’re aware of some potential pitfalls.

The one thing I don’t know too much about is the fair use of photos in blogs. I almost always provide a link to the source of the photos I use, and I try to include the photographer/artist when it’s available. Maybe someone can help me out on this aspect of fair use because I’m unsure what the rule is there. Is it okay as long as we give credit to the person responsible for the work or do we need to obtain written permission? Speaking of which, the photo above is from www.flickr.com/photos/katiegail/1344714672, and it is the copyright of rakastajatar on Flickr. I got the idea to check Flickr for a safer photo to use because of Ms. Geffner's comment in my ActiveRain Blog.

In closing, I strongly advise you to pay close attention to Ms. Geffner’s 17 questions in her Inman News article. I won’t reprint them here because I wouldn’t want to use too much of her work or remove the incentive to visit her site. As I read them, I went over in my mind the times when I had encountered these different situations or at least considered them. I hope this helps you be a little better-prepared in case anything like this might come up as you blog.

Happy blogging!


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me with your suggestions about the photo issue I mentioned.

By Robert Lockard

I just have a quick thought to share today. I wish I had more time to write more about this topic, but I’ll just do the best I can in a short space. I read a wonderfully informative Inman News article today entitled “Media create foreclosure hysteria.” As you can tell by the headline, this article is trying to explain what various media sources are currently saying and not saying to make our current real-estate troubles seem even worse than they actually are.

Perhaps there is not a concerted effort to cause a panic by inflating numbers. Maybe the reporters who are striving to meet their deadlines and report this important story to their readers simply don’t have enough time to fully analyze all the facts they’re reporting. Whatever the case is, author Bernice Ross points out some excellent facts in her article that have failed to be reported correctly or been lost in the editing process.

I especially like how she ends her article. She says, ”The question I would like answered: Why isn’t this positive news being reported elsewhere?” Now that’s a good question. This question has been raised many times and the answer is often simply that news distributors are in the business of selling news to readers and viewers and so they want to make their stories eye-grabbing and ear-catching. A story about foreclosure rates increasing slightly isn’t big news unless it’s spiced up a bit.

Ross points out that there’s plenty of good news happening in a variety of markets. I try to get the word out about these stories by publishing a weekly newsletter called the Week in Review with Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate members’ positive news stories. I also try to keep the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog filled with great content from our members and employees.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. Feel free to share your thoughts on what we can do to share the good news happening in our markets.

By Robert Lockard

I originally planned on writing this blog entry earlier this week on the proposed settlement between the National Association of REALTORS® and the Department of Justice that would allow multiple listing service members to make private MLS information available to non-members. However, immediately after the story broke, plenty of real-estate bloggers came up with all sorts of reactions, positive, negative and neutral. Now I’m having trouble coming up with something to add to their expert opinions. I hope you’ll bear with me.

I’ll start by quoting Malcom Forbes (1919-1990), the father of Steve Forbes, current publisher of Forbes Magazine, “It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem.” My knowledge of the MLS is certainly not as impressive as those who have already voiced their opinions, but I’ll just try to bring my thoughts to the table in an interesting way and you can feel free to correct me if I mistake some details.

It seems to me that this really shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I agree with what Geoff Lewis, Senior Counsel for RE/MAX International, said in Glenn Roberts Jr.’s Inman News article entitled “Blogosphere reacts to proposed NAR/DOJ settlement.” He basically said that a lot of the information that will be opened up to public use by this decision has already been made public through free online sites.

The majority of home buyers start their search for a new home online and so, if you think about it, they’re already finding the homes they’re looking for without needing to log on to websites controlled by MLS members. There’s a lot of free information already available online. For example, buyers don’t have to pay anything to search for luxury properties on LuxuryRealEstate.com, even though they can find more than 55,000 such properties in 100 countries on that site.

It’s advantageous for brokers to share information freely with buyers and sellers because then they can allow the right people to find the properties they’re seeking more quickly. At least that’s what I think.

As Mr. Forbes eloquently pointed out earlier, it’s easy to say what I think, but I might not have the whole picture. The MLS, which I understand is not a completely homogenized collection of listings but a variety of different ones in different formats, is not necessarily a public good. It was created by a private organization to give a competitive advantage to specific professionals, and there might be less of an incentive to provide this service if there are few limits to who can access it.

The Internet age is changing the way we think about many things, including marketing and real estate. But perhaps it’s still true that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Anyway, that’s my contribution to this wonderful exchange of ideas known as the blogosphere.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. I welcome your input on this story. The Multiple Listing Service logo above is from: www.nsrealestate.ca/listings4.htm.

By Scott Rudolph

As a parent of four, it’s easy to catch me giving thanks for my extended family nearby always sharing humor, truth, kindness, expertise, compassion and much more. In fact, I’ve said we may not have had four if it weren’t for our support system nearby.

It’s a similar feeling I have when thinking of my career with this company. I wouldn’t have lasted a moment in my nearly eight-year career with LuxuryRealEstate.com without continual interaction with the finest in our industry. They continually succeed in any market – yes, even in a slow one – because of these same core character traits.

They are world influencers in constant communication with other world influencers, yet they are always sure to communicate each and every one of us is an influencer. There are others outside of my immediate reach, such as Joel Burslem, Seth Godin and Brad Inman, whom I admire as well. I trust they share these traits, too. Whom do you admire in this industry or others and why? Please direct your comments to me at Scott@luxuryrealestate.com or 206-695-4821.


Editor’s Note:
Scott Rudolph is the Director of Business Development for LuxuryRealEstate.com. He works with a variety of luxury-focused companies to expand the LuxuryRealEstate.com influence. Now that is a good question that Scott asked. Whom do we admire? I admire people who are patient, kind and longsuffering, among other things. I hope that we will all strive to be admirable and deserving of praise, just like Scott and many other people I know at LuxuryRealEstate.com.

By Robert Lockard

Predicting the future is a tricky game, as you can easily see from the failure of many experts last year to predict the problems this year in this Inman News article, entitled “2007 real estate forecaster report card.” I don’t expect people to be perfect and so it’s completely understandable even for experts to make mistakes from time to time. But here’s my question: Why do these experts spend time trying to predict things that they ultimately have little ability to control? Why not devote more time to simply suggesting good courses of action for regular people to take? That would definitely be more helpful to you, me and other homebuyers and sellers.

People probably pay more attention to expert advice about not getting into too much debt or staying away from certain risks because it’s something they can actually control. But hearing that a certain number of millions of homes are expected to be bought or sold in the coming year means little to most people. I just think it would be smarter to focus less on guessing and more on doing. Instead of asking, “What’s going to happen?” let’s ask “What can we do to better our situation?” Anyway, feel free to let me know what you think.

And, by the way, Happy New Year!


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more.

By Robert Lockard

Thank you, Bernice Ross, for your profound and eye-opening article entitled "Real Estate hurt by media spin" in Inman News. Sometimes one person can give the rest of us permission to speak up, inspiring us to combat half-truths with positive, accurate information. Ms. Ross focused her remarks on the fact that media outlets are not giving readers and viewers the whole view of the real-estate industry - they are simply shining their spotlight on a few bad markets.

I was amazed to learn that the "Mortgage crisis" is only really affecting seven states. The other 43 states have actually recorded fewer foreclosures this year than in 2006, according to Ms. Ross. This is the kind of information we need to hear. Yes, bad things are happening because of overbuilding, speculation and a loss of jobs in some markets, but let’s not let these overshadow all of the good markets and developments.

I would like to share just a few of the positive stories that I have the pleasure of reading every week from members of LuxuryRealEstate.com:

Atlanta, Georgia’s Beacham & Company, Realtors sold its 14th $2.5 million+ luxury property so far this year in October. Read about Beacham & Company’s strong performance here.

Terri Healey, a sales associate with Michael Saunders & Company® in Sarasota, Florida, sold nearly $13 million of properties in the traditionally slow months between late June and early September. Read about Ms. Healey’s success here.

I have much more to share, but I’ll keep this brief for now. I hope we can all share our good news so that we can keep the bad news in perspective and not lose hope. Thank you, again, Ms. Ross.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more.