RISMEDIA, November 20, 2009—I recently returned from the NAR National Convention in San Diego, California, a convention that had a feel of celebration. I believe that’s because every one of the 19,000 attendees is a survivor of the past three years of the worst economic and real estate crisis this country has seen in 80 years. For me, the experience was one of confirmation of what I believe to be the future of the real estate industry—Internet-based real estate. The business model, like ours, is a national Internet-based Real Estate Brokerage,

RISMEDIA, November 19, 2009—Ever since people stopped dropping into their neighborhood Realtor’s office to look at the MLS book, landing customers has been harder than many of us remember it back in the “good old days.” Let’s face it—with over a million Realtors out there, it’s very hard to stand out. It’s even harder if you find yourself in a remote community with few full time residents: while you can be sure there are plenty of real estate agents there, there may be few buyers who find their way to your town.

RISMEDIA, November 17, 2009—In this month’s NAR Power Broker Roundtable, incoming NAR President Vicki Cox Golder discusses how she will lead the real estate industry into 2010. While she believes that we can once again approach the industry with a sense of optimism, there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done as we move into the future.

RISMEDIA, November 12, 2009—Remember when MySpace ruled the social media scene? Remember News Corp buying them for the heady sum of $900 million? MySpace  just announced that their traffic has gone down so much that Google will not have to make this year’s annual payment of $300 million or so. Did you see the article in another e-newsletter last week in which two “successful” social media real estate agents were profiled:

RISMEDIA, November 11, 2009—Geared specifically toward agents, don’t miss “Staying Up in a Down Market: Short Sales, Expireds & Price Reductions,” scheduled for this Saturday from 1:30-3 p.m. at the San Diego Convention Center during the NAR Conference.  All NAR full-conference and day-conference attendees are encouraged to attend.  This session—held as part of the NAR Conference program,