REbarcamp San Antonio is here!

It’s been a long time coming, but REbarcamp San Antonio is finally a reality. I’ve been dreaming of the day when San Antonio would host it’s first REbarcamp, but when I spoke to Philip Becker (my broker) about it, he instantly began thinking it through and helping put together the plan. As “Head Nerd” at Becker Properties, the building of a website fell on me and I’ve been working away at it. With most of it finally in place and where I want it to be, I can now begin working on some other web projects that I’ve had in mind. First up, is a complete redesign of the Becker Properties website.

REbarcamp San Antonio is going to be an amazing event and the hope is to build a great group of agents and industry professionals to learn and share together. We’re hoping the event will be such a success that we can make it an annual event for San Antonio. Of course, that success depends largely on the involvement of the San Antonio real estate community, as REbarcamp is a volunteer organization, with all the profits going to charity. Spread the word and we’ll see you there!

Website: www.REbarcampSA.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/REbarcampSA

Twitter: @REbarcampSA

Twitter Hashtag: #REBCSA

logo courtesy of Something Clever Productions (contains photo courtesy of Beau B)

New home, new role.

As you may know by now, I recently joined forces with Becker Properties. I’m really excited about the energy and ambitious nature of the office and I think you’ll be hearing a lot about what we’re doing in San Antonio and how we’re looking at real estate from some new perspectives. The process of real estate is still the same, but how we work with our clients and how we utilize the tools and technology will be what sets Becker Properties apart from other companies.

As part of Becker Properties, I’ve taken on a new role as well. We’ve tossed around a thousand names from Head Nerd to Chief Technology Officer to Lead Web-Geek to King of All Geekery. Basically, I’ll be handling the company’s web, tech, and social media needs – plotting a course for the company as well as building and maintaining the various platforms.

What does this mean for you, the home buyer and seller? For buyers, you will have access to many of the tools that I make available here through the various Becker Properties websites, plus we will consistently be searching out new technologies that can make your purchase better – from educational ideas to providing you with better search and market data tools. For sellers, this will mean an increase in the exposure your property sees on the internet and a unified approach to getting your home sold. This is something I’ve been dreaming up for sometime now and Philip Becker saw the vision and had the desire and ambition to allow me to team up with his company to bring some of these ideas to fruition.

Becker Properties is taking a different approach by providing their agents with more tools than your average real estate office. It started with an in-house video production unit (have you seen the Becker Properties videos?) and is now expanding to include my work and knowledge of web and social media technologies.

Watch for big changes on the various Becker Properties websites and social media accounts (like the Becker Properties Facebook page) and stop by and say hello.

Pass it on…

We share everyday. Websites, funny videos, informative articles…even celebrity gossip. Thanks to social media, sharing is now a normal function of our daily lives. I share things with you, you share my articles with others, we all keep sharing. Just today, someone told me that another Realtor® in San Antonio had shared one of my posts in their newsletter (with proper attribution). The real question is, does anyone care about what you share?

Having your posts (or updates or tweets) shared is a great feeling. It gives validation to the author – that they wrote something that was worth telling your friends about. Every time I see any of my stuff shared someone, I get a little giddy. The thing is, with all this sharing going on, there’s something missing from some of it.

The caring.

When you share something, do you just throw it out there or do you tell your friends, your readers, or your followers why they should care? As more and more people share, dilution becomes a factor. Think of those funny forwards you used to get. Okay, maybe they were never funny, but the first time it was no big deal. The second and third, it was still okay. By the time the forward had circled the globe a few times and you were receiving it from your mom, your dentist, and that kid you never really talked to in middle school, well it was kind of annoying, wasn’t it?

I’d never encourage anyone not to share. What I try and do with each and every share (and I don’t always do it successfully I’ll admit) is tell a bit about why I’m sharing it. In that simple act lies the important part – caring. It shows why I care and tells my readers why they might care. It doesn’t make them care, but it gives them enough info to click that link and decide for themselves.

So next time you share something, whether from your friends or from this site, stop for a second and care about it too. It will make the internet a much more caring place.

photo courtesy of wlodi

Lance Armstrong – Thank You!

You’ve heard me talk about Clint Miller and his recent fight with cancer. The recent news coming from his wife (and him) has been nothing short of amazing and we’ve all been thankful to see his progress. None of us ever doubted for a moment that Clint would stay strong and we’ve kept the thoughts, prayers, and love heading his way. The other day, I spotted a tweet from Mike Mueller about Clint’s desire to meet Lance Armstrong – like many others, I spread the message as far and wide as I could.

By the end of the day, I found myself seeing status updates regarding Lance Armstrong and his video message to Clint. Huh? I immediately scrolled through the stream and found the video. Twenty four seconds of Lance’s day that wound up meaning the world to Clint and his friends. I could go on and on about how this made me feel about Lance and his LiveStrong organization, but I’ll let the video speak for itself.

photo courtesy of internets_dairy

#savethezebra widget for WordPress

**UPDATE** Daniel Rothamel has written a blog post detailing and explaining his decisions in regards to the lawsuit.

I wrote a bit of quick code based off of Jay Thompson’s work on the Zebra Defense Fund site. Feel free to cut and paste the code into your own WordPress blog under the widgets section.

I also wrote some specific code for ActiveRain bloggers. ActiveRain doesn’t allow the form actions required to make the PayPal link work, so I removed that and opted for a link to the Zebra Defense Fund website. You can find that code at the end of my blog post “The Lones Group and the Real Estate Zebra: Is the trademark worth more than your social capital?.”

Cut and Paste

<center><a href=”http://www.zebradefensefund.com” title=”Zebra Defense Fund” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.rerockstar.com/documents/zebra-defense-fund/save-the-zebra.jpg” title=”Save The Zebra – Zebra Defense Fund” alt=”#savethezebra”></a><br><br><form action=”https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” method=”post”><input type=”hidden” name=”cmd” value=”_s-xclick”><input type=”hidden” name=”hosted_button_id” value=”3TZNVMGUBRWYY”><input type=”image” src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif” border=”0″ name=”submit” alt=”PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online!”><img alt=”" border=”0″ src=”https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif” width=”1″ height=”1″></form></center>

Please note: some cut and paste operations will mess with spacing and affect the code. If you need help, feel free to ask.

Is there anybody out there?

There are times when social media seems like a very quiet place. As business owners we send out our messages, talk about our services, write our blog posts, and upload our videos. With all that activity, someone must be out there who will call us, tell us they need our services, and hire us to do the job. It doesn’t allows work that way and the silence can be discouraging. If no one calls or connects, does it mean we’re just spinning our wheels?

After a conversation with local San Antonio businesswoman Michelle Poteet (check out The Productivity Boost) about on and offline relationships, something she said had really stuck in my head. Social media is an excellent tool for reaching out to people you may not have met normally, but if they don’t connect back, you would never know they’re out there (other then some traffic numbers). Those connections are reassurance that you’re doing something right. What if they’re listening, but they’re not ready to connect yet – because they don’t need your services at this exact moment in time?

photo courtesy of Charles Williams

Xplode This!

The Xplode Conference in Austin, Texas yesterday was a blast. I was able to meet many people I’ve known through social media channels and blogging for years, learn from some of the best and brightest in real estate, have fun, spend some time in Austin (which I always love), and give my presentation, “Punk Rock and the New Agent” to a packed crowd of Texas Realtors®. I have to say, I was rather nervous about my presentation as this was my first time in this capacity, but it’s something I really looked forward to doing. Special thanks to Xplode mastermind, Matt Fagioli, Austin broker extraordinaire, Krisstina Wise, and the ball of non-stop energy, Amy Smythe Harris for pushing me to join the presenters and give me the opportunity to be a part of this excellent real estate conference.

Punk Rock and the New Agent

My presentation was about my experiences within the music industry and growing up listening to punk rock and bringing some of the lessons I learned there into the world of real estate. It was great fun to share my thoughts with so many Texas Realtors® and although I was a bit nervous and learned a few lessons on what I need to do better in a presentation situation, I think it went quite well. Some of the comments on Twitter were great and I thank everyone who participated or gave me feedback.

I will be posting a bit more about my presentation and covering the slides and my thoughts a bit more in depth over the next week or so. I hope you’ll enjoy them and comment, question, and suggest. If Xplode heads to your city, I would definitely recommend checking it out. The attendees had a great time and were exposed to a full day of some incredible ideas, thoughts, and opinions.

slide images courtesy of Xplode and Dina Gunderson of Creative Thunder Design

Finally.

I feel like it was months ago that I wrote excitedly about my new partnership with Diverse Solutions to provide San Antonio with a new real estate search function on this site. The process took a little longer than expected (the system set up has to be approved by the San Antonio Board of Realtors®. They approved it and I now have all the code necessary to bring you the best real estate search in San Antonio. Expect to begin seeing changes throughout the day as I tinker with the layout and functionality.

Today I will begin the installation and configuration process, so you’ll be able to get back to doing what you love – searching for homes in San Antonio! Of course, this will also require me going through and finding old links and mentions of the search section in order to clean them up and redirect them to the new San Antonio home search. I hope you’ll enjoy the new set up (they just released an upgrade as well and I think it looks spectacular)!

photo courtesy of Daniel Dionne

San Antonio real estate search returns.

You may recall that my San Antonio real estate search has been down for awhile after the company I had partnered with closed up shop. After a lengthy search of the various real estate search products out there, I have chosen to work with Diverse Solutions and begun the set up process. Their map-based search solution is hands down, the best real estate search available today.

I expect to have the system up and running by the end of the week. It’s a lengthy approval process in which I have to send various forms to the San Antonio Board of Realtors® for signatures and sign offs, but once that is complete, I should be up and running in no time. I hope you’ll enjoy searching the San Antonio MLS and finding your new home on this site!

photo courtesy of Las Valley 702