Lord, grant me the serenity to read other local blogs without screaming or fuming or raging and grant me the wisdom to count to 10 before I begin my responses. Oh, and I'll also take a few more readers while you're at it.
It was suggested to me this past Friday that I'm rather passionate about real estate and even more so about the ever-growing real estate blogosphere, both local and national. I don't disagree with this analysis.
It also was suggested by someone reading my articles, particularly those on my Active Rain blog but also the general tone of my most recent reading list, that I take some of the real estate debate far too personally. Again, I don't disagree.
When I initially started this blog in January I had little idea what I wanted to do with it. I'd read discussions about the need for a blog but never understood why I needed one. Most of the blogs I read and most of the comments I saw seemed to be about self-congratulation among the blogging set, which interested me very little. And so my blog sat untouched for about six months while I contemplated what I wanted to do.
Fortunately, I ran into Ardell DellaLogia, her blog, and the Rain City Guide. Between her advice and her blog, and the larger Seattle based blog to which she contributed, I got a sense of what a blog could be - articulate, meaningful, educational. And that's what I decided I wanted and what I've strived for, with mixed success.
As I've written I have read. And here's where the frustration has started, because I am both a Realtor and a writer. For every well-written, well-articulated, intelligent blog I have found - Greg Swann's Bloodhound Blog (with which I rarely seem to agree but can't help but read - call it the Howard Stern theory), Jay Thompson's Active Rain and local blog, the good folks at sellsius and The Real Estate Tomato and of course Ardell's - I have found a half-dozen others that are either very poorly written, thoroughly illogical and ill-founded or just plain incorrect.
I'm concerned as a writer about the demise of the English language - I'm far from perfect, but ever since I took a professional writing class in college, poor usage and grammar and incorrect spelling has become the literary equivalent of fingernails dragged across a blackboard. And I'm concerned as a Realtor because of the sheer volume of faulty information being posted to the blogosphere for all eternity.
In some cases, I admit, my view of the post quality has been colored by my own opinions. But in other cases, such as a recent Active Rain debate about whether advertising commissions runs afoul of anti-trust laws, the information provided is simply incorrect. Yet it's there for the general public to consume.
The goal for my blog has been to educate, to enlighten and to demystify the real estate process. In some cases I think I've succeeded and in other areas I feel I have a long way to go. And with the month of December looming - the longest of all months in real estate as there's little business to be found - I expect to bring this blog closer to my ideal in the fairly near future.
While I once said participation in the blogosphere was pointless unless it directly led to more business - time is money after all - I've learned there are larger issues at play. I've also learned I might be earning the business of folks who have acquired a better sense of who I am and what I offer, people who wouldn't respond to the usual marketing pablum. It's harder to measure - there is no "I Want to Sell!" button on this page, and that's by design, but I believe it's a definite possibility.
Ultimately, I hope my readers will find this blog to be a place where they can learn about the local real estate market and the industry without the typical hysterical bombast so common to the local news media and other local blogs - especially the Bubble Boys, who still believe the market will return to 2004 levels any day now. And I hope my readers - all of you - continue to pass this page along to your friends and family, so they too can enjoy a more balanced, more thoughtful perspective.
(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes | 
