What I Learned at REBarCampDC and What It Means To You

This past Tuesday, I attended REBarCampDC - an informal “un-conference” focused on how to incorporate the latest social media and technology tools into your real estate business model. The event brought together some of the best and brightest Realtors and technology folks from around the Mid-Atlantic area - even as far away as California.

REBarCampDC proved to be a great learning experience. No matter how long you’ve been doing something, there’s always more to learn. There are always others that know more or do things differently that can give you a new/fresh perspective on things if you care to listen/learn.

But, more importantly, it proved to be a great event for my clients. Eve though my clients were not there, they will directly benefit in the form of better service and a better experience thanks to the tools I learned about at REBarCampDC.

Some of my personal highlights of the event were…

1. Home Search - the event reiterated the need to have a “Home Search” function available to my blog readers and clients. The general consensus was that FrankyMLS was the most up to date, accurate and user-friendly real estate search site in the DC/VA/MD area. I’m happy to say that I’ve had that feature available to blog readers and home buyers here on my blog since day 1.
2. Statistics - Home buyers, sellers, investors and the media want to see statistics. One of the technology gurus present present at the event was Mike Simonsen of Altos Research. Altos provides in-depth and up-to-date data in the form of tables and charts. I had the chance to sit down with Mike one-on-one to get a test run and tutorial of Altos’ new flash charts, which are interactive and should be a big hit with consumers. You can find an example of these charts on my previous blog post talking about Loudoun County housing inventory being down (click here).
3. Community Topics - Though home buyers and sellers want to know about real estate in the area, they also want to know about the area itself. Though I do talk about local businesses and community events from time to time, I will be focusing much more on this moving forward. I am currently working on several posts about local businesses and events by reaching out to owners and event coordinators for interviews, information, etc. And I’m not talking about posting the facts (What, Where, When) - I’m talking about the “feel” of these businesses and events and my personal take on them as a consumer/attendee.
4. Video - is where it’s at. This is according to many of those at the event that have been dabbling around with video. I tend to agree with them because I’ve done a few video tours of builder’s model homes and they’ve been a big hit with home buyers/consumers. Therefore, I will be doing video tours of all the builders’ model homes in the area over the next few months so that you can see what they look like from the privacy and comfort of your own home.
5. Knowing what you don’t know - is more important than knowing what you do know. Though it’s not necessarily a social media or technology topic, it was talked about a lot at the event. Blogging about or talking to clients about areas or topics that you are not an expert in is a disservice to your clients (and the general public). If you run across a buyer or seller that wants to buy or sell in an area that you’re not completely familiar with, refer them to someone who does. The consumer will value your honesty and integrity and will remember that for years to come. And what goes around comes around…the consumer you referred out as well as the Realtor that you referred them to will most likely refer people back to you at some point down the road. Same thing goes for blogging - Realtors should focus on blogging/talking about topics and area they’re familiar with rather than going outside their area of expertise for the sake of making more money.

Exchanged great ideas…one-on-one time with the top guy at a real estate technology firm…learned a lot…clients will benefit from what I learned…hung out with friends…made new friends… You can’t ask for much more!

Special thanks to Ainsley McDougal of NVAR for helping make the event possible!

RE BarCamp Virginia Brings Lots of Knowledge, Big Annoucements

RE BarCamp Virginia, a peer-to-peer event for Realtors who want to hone their social media skills, is almost here! It's being held at the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors on March 3, 2009. The seats have all been RSVP'd and there's a waiting list - and for good reasons.

Why all the fuss?

Since RE BarCamp Virginia is a peer-to-peer event, the more experienced and more knowledgeable your peers in attendance are, the more everyone gets out of it. The list of attendees this year is bigger than ever - the knowledge being shared, the lessons that will be learned and the announcements being made are all huge!

There are folks flying in from all parts of the country (even as far as California) and include successful Realtors, Realtor Association execs/staff, social media heavy-hitters and reps from companies such as Altos Research, Onboard Informatics and ML Broadcast.

The amount of talent and information that will be together at one time is amazing. Everyone should walk out of RE BarCamp Virginia better at what they do than before they walked in.

As for one of the announcements…

NAR has hired a social media director and will be making the announcement as to who it is at RE BarCamp Virginia. Since Daniel Rothamel and Ben Martin are currently stable and happy at their jobs, it won't be either of them (sad yet, happy at the same time). But I do hope that it's someone at least remotely as capable and independent-thinking as either of them or the others coming to RE BarCamp Virginia.

Looking forward to seeing old and new faces at RE BarCamp Virginia next month!

P.S. If you're on Facebook, check out the RE Bar Camp Virginia Facebook event page.