From CNNMoney.com:
Blogging has hit the real-estate industry…and it just may upend a marketplace known for inefficiency and restricted information.
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“Blogs are telling it like it is at the street level,” said Brad Inman of Inman News, a large real-estate news service. Inman said real-estate blogging began in the Bay area, took hold in New York and has now spread nationally.
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Blogs also help even the playing field for consumers. Traditionally, only professionals could get full access to comparable prices and property conditions. “Blogs add information — they level the playing field for consumers,” said Dobkin.
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The info comes from people like you. “Normally, in real estate, most of the information available comes from those representing the sale of properties,” said Palmer. “They have a different agenda than the consumer.
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“A lot of people recognize that the industry is changing,” he said. “The era when almost all of the information was controlled by one side is going the way of the dodo.”
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With all the negativity surrounding the real estate bloggers lately, it’s actually kind of refreshing to read something as positive as this.
Caveat Emptor!
Grim
major media outlets recognize this and are scared. look at the NYtimes “Walk Through” blog.
blogging keeps major news outlets honest. if people (like me) start to distrust the info they get in their local paper, they stop reading it.
this is the dirty secret of why newspaper readership is down. it isn’t that people are lazy or stupid. it’s that newspapers have proven themselves to be untrustworthy.
Every form of media is advertiser supported. They will bend their back to make sure advertisers keep coming, and they’ll print in the advertiser’s favor to keep the business coming.
-Richie
I believe blogging is a movement. If the media don’t recognize it they risk being seen as less relevant than they already are. So they are now recognizing the fact that valid points are made. It is pretty hard to argue against blogs where facts are generated with data (For example nnjbubble, themessthatgreenspanmade, calculated risk, ben’s blogs etc.)or actual anectdotal stories like Antherf’dborrower.
When ‘blogging’ started going mainstream, I remember reading a handful of articles and thinking to myself, “what’s the point?” There was nothing to stop anyone from starting up their own web site to say whatever they wanted. Blog-this, blog-that, blog blog blog. What in god’s name was the big deal?
Now that I’m firmly entrenched in the blogging community I finally understand what it’s all about. Blogging is an incredible enabler, especially considering sites like blogger that make it an almost trivial exercise to start and run a blog. Now that blogs are indexed on search engines, being fed out to the world via RSS feeds, it’s very easy to get your message out to a very large audience in a short amount of time.
Caveat Emptor!
Grim
Transparency to Real Estate markets is a great thing for BUYERS!
Send all these articles to local papers. These conartist are paid mouth pieces to the highest bidder. And Real Estate is at the top of its game.
Home prices will fall much more quickly than past times due to the open society we now live in with the internet. News travels much more quickly and lag time reduced dramatically. What took 4-5 years to correct real estate in early 1990’s may now only take 2 years.
I’m somewhat new to blogs, but they’re definitely more relevant and in many ways more truthful than mainstream media.
As someone else mentioned, the truth deficit is the main reason that subscription levels are down for mainstream newspapers. I suspect the same thing is happening with mainstream TV and radio news as well. I find myself rarely watching TV now; too much irrelevant BS.