Occasionally you read an article or a comment, and it's so powerful that you can't hep but repost it.  I came across the following reader comment on Inman news on the Oct 2 guest perspective, "Opportunity street is still knocking."

"... Those real estate professionals who decide they are going to make the best of this situation and not complain about it and those who continually educate themselves on the newest trends, use the Internet to hone their networking and marketing skills, (and) do something different to stand out ahead the crowd will reap huge rewards as this market turns itself around, as they have already set the stage for success.

Whether you decide to specialize in short sales, foreclosures, investment properties or you chose to work closely with a mentor or a real estate trainer or real estate coach, the fact is you are chosing to DO something about it! You make your own success, and I totally agree you either put roadblocks in your way or you drive on through to that 'Street of Opportunity.'" --Peter Vekselman

This short two paragraph comment strikes the very core of the purpose and intent of the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER (REW) - that is if you want to better yourself, invest in yourself.

We all know in the last few months that the blogosphere has grown in staggering leaps and bounds. Many RE professionals have realized that they need a blog, but many don't understand how to maximize the benefits of blogging.

Enter the Advantage Solutions Group's "No Blogger Left Behind" webinar. Labeling it simply as a "webinar" is a huge understatement. Hosted by faculty staff Joeann Fossland (e-PRO, GRI, PMN, ACRE) and Frances Flynn Thorsen (e-PRO, SRS, CEO), "No Blogger Left Behind" is an 8 week, all-inclusive, everything you need to know to become a successful blogger roadmap.

Eight 60 minute webinar / teleconferences discuss everything, from the very basics of what blogging is, to finding your niche, to even earning revenue off of your blog. A downloadable workbook containing live links to blogs as well as the course homework assignments combined with group activities provides for an interactive learning experience.

As an added bonus, all courses are recorded, so if you miss a session, or you are just looking for a review, they can be downloaded anytime.

"No Blogger Left Behind" is a stellar example of not only spreading technology knowledge amongst RE professionals, but also bringing the real value-proposition behind the technology to the forefront.

Recently featured in Inman News, Scott Einbinder wrote an excellent article, entitled "Death of the listing presentation", calling to attention the ineffectiveness of today's current listing presentations.

This article really hit home - sellers don't want to know every accolade you've earned, they don't want to be drowned with pretty graphs and a host of facts and figures, and they definitely don't need slide after slide of AVMs and CMAs they can easilly obtain on their own. All of these things are great, but 1 or 2 slides in an entire listing presentation would easilly suffice.

They want a plan - no - they want a detailed plan of how you intend to sell their home. Not a series of advertising actions, but a well laid out plan, including the services you will use, and how they jive with one another to create an overall marketing campaign.

Scott Einbinder thinks we should change the name of the process from a Listing Presentation to a Listing Education, and I couldn't agree more. RE agents need to educate their consumers on the services available, which ones they use, and how they are effective. It is this sort of presentation that will capture sellers and turn prospects into clients.

Recently I was in contact with one of our REW candidates, Kim Desroches-Noel, a virtual assistant with the REW technology partner Team Double-Click. I had a chance to catch up with her and ask her how her life as a VA is going (clients, technologies used) and how REW is playing a role.

KIM: "I am still with Team Double-Click and using my [REW] knowledge as I am working for a Real Estate company through them. I am working in LeadTrax CRM and online platforms through Yahoo. Currently I am using IM programs as we work in a team of three per shift and we use the conference functionality to keep in contact throughout the shift. I am now in the process of using RELAY with my new job for online transaction coordination and have a local realtor who has me doing his quarterly newsletters for him."

"Your [REW] certification has been wonderful in increasing my knowledge and allowing me to serve my clients in a more productive way. I have recommended it to many colleagues and I hope they take my suggestion and pursue the certification."

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Thanks for the feedback Kim and best wishes with your continued success!

Today, the National Institute of Webographers, provider of the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ (REW) certification announced Homeminders® as the premier "Closing Gift" technology within REW™. To see the full press release, please click here.

"We are excited to showcase Homeminders® to candidates of the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ certification (REW™). As the industry’s leading provider in home-maintenance, closing gifts, Homeminders® is perfect for real estate professionals looking to continue their relationship with clients well after closing,” said Marc Grayson, president of the National Institute of Webographers. Grayson continues, “Gifting a Homeminders subscription to your clients provides them with an online tool to manage their homes, store and access valuable information, and receive monthly email reminders that help maintain that important asset, their home.”

The Homeminders system simplifies home management by creating a web-based detailed home maintenance plan that covers every facet of a home’s upkeep. It also acts as a centralized storage solution for owner’s manuals, warranty documents, receipts and photo records. Its personalized upkeep schedules and monthly email reminders help homeowners make important decisions about their homes quickly and easily, and manage their contractor/handyman relationships more efficiently.

Homeminders joins the host of Technology Sponsors providing their technology solutions as case study examples to reinforce the technology courses within REW; providing live demonstrations to look underneath-the-hood of today's foremost technologies.

Recently, discount brokerage, Foxton's, announced it laid off 90% of its work force, essentially signalling it's demise. Inman News' Scott Einbinder wrote an excellent article entitled "After Foxton's, a 'real' real estate story" covering the news, adding an interesting take on the reaction of this brokerage's downfall . To see the original Inman News post, please click here.

The emotional reaction to this event in the real estate community is extremely revealing because it demonstrates an unfortunate trend that has existed in the industry for ages. That is the industry is too often focused internally on itself, rather than on the customers it is supposed to serve. You constantly hear and see Realtors spend untold sums of money splashing their pictures and logos on everything from park benches to refrigerator magnets, but ask a brokerage or an independent realtor how much they have invested in themselves and their education, and more often than not, the answer, is very, very little.

And the reasons for not continuing their education don't always revolve around the expense of it. You often hear "I'm are too busy to educate", or "I don't see the real value in it". Real estate professionals regularly talk about service, and "placing the customer first", but a shockingly small percentage of them actually follow through.

Thankfully with the advent of Web 2.0, and the continuous flow of "need for technology education" articles originating from the most popular real estate news sites has changed this attitude significantly in the last few years, but many professionals still sit on the side line.

Real Estate brokerages, Realtors, and assistants need to realize the value in investing in their skills - the skills and techniques that will help them better serve their customers. In the current real estate landscape, that means utilizing web-based technologies. These technologies were created to make our lives easier, to more successfully serve our customers - so why do we not utilize them?

Benjamin Franklin wrote that the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result". Maybe it's time, as a community, we realize that the same old RE practices are merely producing the same old results. Maybe it's about time we learn some new ones, not only to benefit ourselves, but for the benefit of our customers...

In recent years there has been a big push to learn how to better and more efficiently obtain leads. Volumes of literature have been written and a myriad of software and social techniques invented. After so much effort has been exhausted to generate these leads, eventually folks realized that transforming suspects into prospects is as difficult as finding them, if not more so.

So how DO you get people off the phone and email, and through your door? One thing you must constantly be aware of is your responsiveness to your prospect's requests. Most first time home buyers are Generation Xers, 20s and 30s-somethings brought up by the "www" - a virtually immediate gratification device. There's no more waiting for the morning news, traffic, or weather reports - it's all there when they want it, at the click of a button.

Moreover, in a recent California Association of Realtors (CAR) publication entitled "Internet versus Traditional Buyer Study", 63% of traditional home buyers felt agent responsiveness to be either an "extremely important" or "very important" aspect in selecting the right RE professional. These numbers climb even higher - up to 83% - when polling internet home buyers.

To keep up with what consumers are expecting, agents are going to have to continue to decrease their response time, and mobile technologies is their vehicle. With almost any standard PDA, an agent can use the mobile technologies available to boost his or her availability to nearly 100%. These technologies take you to the next level, from answering phone calls, responding to agent or single property website inquiries, or even browsing the MLS.

Those agents who are successful know a quick response time is part of the complex recipe to winning more listings turning their leads into clients. Have you gone mobile yet?

Technology is streamlining operations, transforming neighborhoods into global communities, and enabling real estate agents to go mobile. You can now do things that practitioners could only fantasize about only 10 years ago. Mobile technology, blogging, agent and single-property websites, on-line transactions - these were mere figments of the imaginations of early adopters’ in 1989 and that of the technology speakers that were granted platforms in the 90’s.

Technology is the new segway to building your returning customer base, and customers can be realized learning the technology just as easilly as adopting them. Taking classes will motivate you and provide you with information you can utilize while you learn. Some classes afford you direct networking opportunities in person or grant you access to large online communities while others present PR opportunities that can be leveraged in your marketing efforts. Knowledge with a bonus!

Technology can save you time! Streaming your marketing process provides you with more client-facing opportunities and allows you to foster what is of the utmost importance, your client relationships. Technology enables one to more quickly interpret information and facilitate a transaction, all while providing extraordinary service and care; not only fulfilling requests made but excelling and exceeding them and others only imagined. Digital solutions will assist you in maintaining meaningful contact with past clients for years to come.

Building an ongoing referral network need not be an expensive or time consuming process if you’ve learned which technologies to deploy. With some programs, REW™ for one, you can “try before you buy”. This allows you to work with various technologies to determine whether they meet your needs, without spending your hard-earned money on trials and subscriptions you may not really want.

Many RE practitioners feel the relationships take too much time away from transactions. Utilizing technology can provide smoother transactions, from beginning to the end. This ultimately creates a better client experience and affords you the opportunity to grow client relationships into clients for life. With the stakes rising, so does the cost of customer acquisition - technology will lower that cost.

Pursuit of knowledge and becoming certified also lends itself to credibility. Of course, displaying your certifications proudly, and having the know-how to explain them is definitely important, simply demonstrating to your clients that you have the motivation to achieve for yourself will tell them volumes of what you are willing to do for them. As stated in a recent RIS Article, ”How to become a lifetime Learner” (RISMEDIA, 7/19/2007), becoming “certified” in a particular field or subject area makes you an instant expert. The more classes you take, certifications you garner, knowledge you obtain, the more trust you will engender with potential clients and your fellow Realtors. With technology rapidly changing the RE landscape, Confidence is King, whether you are a new or seasoned agent.

Provide more than your clients expect. Although the technology solutions available may be new to you, your clients may have come across it already while shopping on line. If you are one step ahead, and you can show them what's under the hood, you make a niche for yourself. Provide a complete package as a differentiating factor.

Be able to say with confidence, ”I use these client-facing technologies for each and everyone of my clients…and I exceed their expectations everytime."