Ten Best RealTown Blogs (in my humble opinion)

 Sellsius^o Blogs Top 10 Women Bloggers...inspired me.  Thank you fellas I am honored.  

Sellsius ^o_,   wrote, "To find more great blogs by women, visit BlogHer."

Columbus Best Blog is a RealTown Blog.  Maureen.RealTownBlogs.com is the url.  RealTown Blogs Member List shows approximately 1200 member blogs, today.  In an effort to copy Sellsius^o (because I do copy, or respond to Sellsius^o Blog's fun entries each and every chance I get...) here is my Ten Best Real Town Bloggers list.  The Ten Best RealTown Blogs (IMHO) are not all female bloggers.  The Ten Best RealTown Blogs list (IMHO) cross and recross (spell check tells me recross is not a word and suggests redress?... I will stick with recross...) gender lines in an effort to give credit where credit is due.  

1.  Best Cool Refreshing Blog - Real Estate Snippets by Bonnie Erickson... It's a Minnesota snowflake and I am one of her biggest fans.  Bonnie is one of Sellsius ^o Top 10 Women Bloggers.
2.  Best Newbie N.J. Blog - Somerset 08873 by Michael Adams
3.  Best use of a hogs head on a community blog  Welcome To Shavehead Lake On The Web! by Mike Bosela up in MI. The link will take you to the 'Hogs Head.'
4.  Best Curmudgeonly Blog and Best Ranting on an RT Blog-The Gene Molloy Real Estate Blog by the one and only Gene Molloy of Chicagoland.
5.  Best Use of a Long Geographically Titled Blog... All the points were tallied and it is a tie between:

Real Estate Blog for Palo Alto, Mountain View, California, and Surrounding Communities by  Lynne Mercer and Real Estate Blog for the Golden Isles of GA including St. Simons Island, Jekyll Island, Sea Island, and Brunswick, GA.... by Sally Hardman. 

6. Best Use of her Muse - Real Estate Bits and Pieces by Susan Pruden in Prince George's County MD. (That is pronounced "youze of her muze")

7. Best "Extra, Extra! Read All About IT!" coverage of local real estate news- Florida Real Estate Blog by Leanne Paynter. Love the little newspapers... all the news links.

8. Best Self Promotion - Ardell's Seattle Area Real Estate Blog by Ardell DellaLoggia. Ardell is one of Sellsius^o Top 10 Women Bloggers. Ardell is also part of the award winning Seattle's Rain City Guide.  

9. Best Charitable use of a blog the Web Women Giving Circle blog by Frances Flynn Thorsen and Joeann Fossland. Joeann is one of Sellsius^o Top 10 Women Bloggers.  I think of Fran a PA REALTOR® as my fairy blog mother, she was the first real estate blogger I knew of.  It's hard to keep up with all Joeann and Fran are involved in; they're everywhere, blog on multiple blogs....

finally in an effort to be an inclusive, worldly and sophisticated "BEST of" list....

10. Best use of a real estate blog by a transgendered person - Manhattan Loft Guy by Sandy Mattingly...

       ooops my mistake.  Sandy Mattingly was ALWAYS a male   I just assumed Sandy was a female when I met HIM online a couple of years ago...  I read his posts on a national real estate forum and assumed for months that Sandy was a sassy female NYC real estate agent.  It never crossed my mind that Sandy was not a female.  Now that's good writing!  No masculine chest pounding, no cave man grunts...  what a guy! 

No joking I love reading Sandy's NYC blog.   Tomorrow RT Blogs...honorable mentions 

c. 2006 Columbus Best Blog and Maureen McCabe

Blogger Celebrates 100th Birthday! 

It's all in the numbers

I got frustrated with RealTown Blogs late in 2005.  This blog was started on RealTown Blogs in August 2005.  There were few other RT bloggers .. it did not have a lot of features. I did not know how to blog...... On New Years Eve I started  blogging on another blogging platform, Blogster.   I named the new blog  "Columbus Best Blog."   A week later realizing I had started a blog on Blogster  but really wanted to be on Blogger... I started a blog on Blogger and named it  "Columbus Best Blog." 

Dumb...very dumb.  Having the same blog three times does a number on how Google Yahoo, etc. search engines see a blog....but what about a 100 year old blogger?  On Blogster you put your birthdate with the year on your profile... after I started the Blogster blog I realized  my birthdate was on the internet for all to see....  Gasp ...Those with math skills could figure out how old I am. 

So I changed the birthdate year on my profile so I was 99 years old on Blogster.....  and  wrote:

"edited again 1-7-2006*.  I changed my birthdate on Blogster....or the year.  I am now 99. Oldest blogger on Blogster?  I still don't understand why they would have age on a blog. Or I do... but if they have any respect for us middle aged women they would not.... I saw someone else who was 0. "

"June 26, 2006 I will turn 100 on Blogster (the birthday will be less momentous in real life.) I better get some birthday greetings. "

I forget about the other two abandoned Columbus Best Blogs.  Usually.

Another RT blogger,  Andi Durbin of Rooftop Views   Rooftop Realty  in Denver  mentioning her birthday (NOT HER 100th!) on her blog made me think I probably did not even mention my birthday on on my RT blog...Nope.  I did not.  If I was still  a 100 year old woman blogging on the Blogster blog Al Roker should have been covering the story.   

RealTown Blogs now has almost 900 bloggers. Lots of new features are added all the time. 

I believe Bonnie Erickson and Ardell DellaLoggia both started blogging on New Years Day 2006 ..I've always wondered if there were New Years Resolutions involved.  As I was resolving to jump ship from RT blogs these newer than me bloggers  were committing to RT Blogs.  Both have committed!  Bonnie blogs about St. Paul MN real estate on Real Estate Snippets  Ardell's RT Blog is called Ardell's Seattle Real Estate Blog.  Ardell has other blogs but she named the other blogs something different, and each has different content.... smart.  Very smart.

* On Blogster it says 2005... but it was 2006.  Confused?  On 1-7-2005 I did not know what a blog was.

Copyright 2006 Columbus Best Blog and Maureen McCabe

Reading the Sellsius Blog I don't consider myself a Blogaholic....

"You Might Be a Blogaholic if.."

Signs of Blogoholism

9. Visit everyone on your blogroll at least once a day

I can stop anytime I want to.... writing blog entries and reading blogs about real estate elsewhere ... and reading ColumbusBlogs and looking for mentions of Columbus in blogs....

Sellsius' #11 sign.... is not me.

11. Have a significant other that no longer talks to you in person, rather by commenting on your blog.

I don't believe my significant other has ever read my blog.  He asked once if I blog about him.  I think he is thinking of a blog being a bit more personal than my blog is.  He told me I can blog about his cat.  I believe I have.  ooops ignore that personal note.....What significant other?

I think yesterday at an open house was the first time I ever did a Sellsius #5.  

5. Tell people you just met “I have a blog”

A man told me I was a good writer from my fact sheet at an open house.... a mere fact sheet??  .. I am a "BLOGGER." I exclaimed.

And Sellsius # 6 "sign of blogoholism... 

6. Have the skin color of a corpse

I have always been fair! 

 I forwarded Sellsius Blog's "You Might Be a Blogaholic if..." to a number of RealTown Bloggers.  I think more of RealTown bloggers should become Blogaholics.  I am promoting Blogaholism among Real Town Bloggers!  Bonnie Erickson of Real Estate Snippets, a St. Paul MN blog is one of the RealTown Bloggers that I believe is a blogaholic and I am proud of her for it!  Blogaholic

Denial? Maybe I am a blogoholic... an atypical blogoholic..(special?) ....  a closet blogaholic... a functional blogaholic?

Copyright 2006 Columbus Best Blog and Maureen McCabe

My friend Bonnie brought it up domestic spying on her Minnesota Real Estate blog, 'Real Estate Snippets.'   

The gist of the story …real estate licensee is showing a buyer a home.  At the end of the appointment real estate licensee becomes suspicious that the seller has used a baby monitor to listen in to their conversation about the house and their impending purchase offer.  

I hate to show myself up as a true couch potato but... the first thing I thought was the seller watched the finale of ‘Desperate Housewives Sunday.  Gabrielle used a baby monitor to catch Carlos and the maid having an affair.  

I know in the past 11 years someone in my Central Ohio real estate office had an experience with a bugged house… the seller used technology to record the buyers and agent’s comments. We were warned by our manager to be careful what we say during a showing.  I don’t know that I usually discuss the offer with a buyer in the house... but I probably need to be more aware of domestic spying.

The example of  “Domestic Spying” on the 'international list serve of real estate professionals" is in the state of Oklahoma. 

Bonnie Erickson wrote in Real Estate Snippets:

"A buyer contracts with an agent to represent him/her for many reasons.  These include:

• to keep both the buyer's and seller's emotions out of the transaction
• to get input on a reasonable price commensurate with condition, location, and other terms
• To keep confidential information from being disclosed to negotiate the best deal possible for their dream house"

Real estate is local. 

The real estate licensee in OK is NOT an agent.  There is no agency in OK according to real estate agency EXPERTS on the 'international list serve of real estate professionals.'  Oklahoma is different.  I am sure the real estate licensee is still charged with confidentiality but is the agent showing the house contractually charged, "to negotiate the best deal possible for their dream house?”  The OK real estate licensee does not use written buyer agreements.  I believe the real estate licensee in OK is a transaction broker.  Does that change the rules regarding bugging the house?      

About Ohio Real estate agency law  remember real estate is local.   

... A Michigander on the "international list serve of real estate professionals" said and this is a paraphrase not a quote.  'It's the seller's home, he has the right.' 

Conventional wisdom on the "international list serve of real estate professionals" was in this day of nanny cams:

"Whisper"

"Take the conversation outside, or back to the office... “

Real estate is local, technology is everywhere.....

Copyright 2006 Columbus Best Blog and Maureen McCabe