The Johnston Team

It's true.  If you own an iPhone, you can now interact with the ActiveRain Real Estate Network of friends and business partners from anywhere your iPhone browser works.  This is not an iPhone application, it's a browser enhancement from our AR developers. (great job guys)

At 2:00am, we deployed a fix that will now allow you to post, and comment on ActiveRain Blogs using your iPhone.  Members have been waiting for this upgrade and I'm glad to announce it is finally launched.  It's great.  We're also working on an iPhone application that will be custom tailored and made available for ActiveRain members later.

The only things you can't do from the phone right now are create links, add images, and there's no text toolbar for bold text etc.   So now you can create a post from anywhere, make edits, add and delete comments using just the iPhone browser.  (iPhone uses the Safari browser) 

You can email posts to others right from the iPhone using the email graphic icon that's below each post.

10 minutes is all it took to create this using just my thumbs, (haha) it's a new record for an ActiveBrad post. 
We've taken one small step for mankind, one Giant step for Activerain and iPhone.

This was created and posted using the iPhone.  I'll add a picture from my computer later.  I love my iPhone.

In March 2008, - when we released the Google Street View integration for the RealBird single property websites -, we were fortunate to be presented as one of the a case studies on one of Google's own blogs. Even better, they linked to one of the property websites we featured as an example. That's right, an editorial link directly from Google herself to a then active, for-sale listing. Unfortunately, that particular property website has been deleted by our client and that led to an interesting situation: there is a link currently active on one of Google's very own blogs, pointing to a RealBird property website with "Property information no longer available" content. Now that's a waste of link love and goodwill, don't you think? We would like to redirect this link to a current listing website of one of our members. So here we go:

Sweepstakes

To be fair to all of our current and future clients, we decided that we are going to randomly select a RealBird listing which has Street View coverage available.

Pre-requisites:

1. Be a real estate agent/broker - residential or commercial
2. Be the listing agent/broker of the property advertised
3. Street View coverage must be available for your property address

In order to participate for free, all you have to do is:

1. Post your listing on RealBird (signup or login to create your property website, it's free)
   
2. Copy your RealBird single property website Url below as a comment

That's it. Please note, that we can only redirect to a listing website for which Google Street View is available because the Google post is explicitly referencing 3rd party Street View implementations. Other than that, any type of listing will work (residential, commercial, rental etc.)

The sweepstakes will run till January 17, 2009. No purchase is necessary, the RealBird Listing Publisher is a free service. We will randomly select the listing from the entries submitted as a comment.

There are three distinct benefits here:

1. Direct click-through traffic from Google's blog
   
2. Direct link from Google's blog for SEO
3. Most importantly: another power-marketing tool to present for your current and future sellers. This is a one time, special and a lucky opportunity for all of us. I am not aware of any other time, when a for-sale property was directly linked from Google's blog. Google is such a huge brand that all of your sellers will instantly recognize the value of their listing being linked from Google's blog. And even better, that is an achievement they will attribute to you, their real estate professional.
   

Please share the word...

Have questions? Let us know...

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-- Zoltan
RealBird.com

For free, high-impact, online listing marketing, visit RealBird.com

New Years always involves count downs or some type of numbering of things over the past year. Like the Top 10 News Stories of 2008. Well I thought I get into the numbering game and give my own top 10 list of 2008.

This one has to do with inspection defects, big surprise right. What I am focusing on is what I call creative construction techniques. Some of the other inspectors here in the Rain have other labels for it, but it all means the same thing. Stuff that makes you scratch your head and wonder what was that guy thinking.

So here are my Top 10 Creative Construction Techniques of 2008.

10. A good use of duct tape This water heater flue pipe was completely encased in foil (real) duct tape. The other problem was the foam insulation used to seal the chimney gap around both pipes and the fact that this pipe was below the bigger one.
9. I forgot the vent This drip pan drain line is missing a vent at the end of the tee. If water fills the pan it's going to drain right out the end of the tee and onto the ceiling below.
8. Does that pipe get hot? One of the by products of burning fuel oil is hot exhaust gases. Since we don't like those gases in our home we vent them out with a pipe and or chimney. Funny thing about metal is it gets hot when heated. I guess no one told this "electrician" about that little fact or to that he should secure his wires out of harms way.
7. What about my sister? When a house catches on fire the wood framing burns and becomes compromised structurally. Depending on how badly it was burned it may be salvageable or require complete replacement. In this house almost the entire roof had been significantly burned. Instead of replacing or "sistering" the burned rafters, the contractors just re-roofed right over the charred wood.
6. What's a structural wall and why do I need one? For a while now the craze is to open up rooms. Great rooms as they are called are all the rage. They are nice way to add the feeling of space, but designing and building one is a little more complicated than some folks realize especially in an existing home. Here some "contractor" removed about 12 - 15 feet of a load bearing wall to get that open feeling. What he will end up with eventually is an unplanned cathedral ceiling.
5. Where's the notch? Structural support is what I would call significantly important. A home needs to be built on a solid foundation and structural support. One of the main components is the main carrying beam on which sits the load bearing walls of the home. This beam sits in the foundation walls in a notch made just for this purpose. Well that is unless some forgets to put in the notches then a piece of framing lumber will have to do.
4. I thought you measured it Speaking of notches and beams what happens when you order the main carrying beam too short? Well you improvise of course. This beam was about two feet short of reaching the foundation pocket. And who says new construction never needs inspection.
3. Plug it up If you have a hole in a pipe just jam a piece of wood in there. That ought to hold it until we call the plumber... in 10 years.
2. I....can't....breath This has to be one of the just plain dumb, sloppy, I don't give a **** installations I have ever seen. There are minimum clearances around A/C compressors for a reason. I wonder how efficiently this unit ran.
1. Plug in the plug This is just plain goofy to me. This setup was used to provide power for the garage door opener and some plugs in the garage. The real funny thing was the main electrical panel was right there in the garage. I guess uncle Bob was cheaper than the electrician.

That's my Top 10 Creative Construction Techniques of 2008. Feel free to add you own in the comment section. I enjoy a good chuckle like anyone.

James Quarello
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC

The police officer asks for the motorist's registration, proof of insurance and real estate license.

"Excuse me, officer. Don't you mean driver's license?"

"No sir," the cop says. "Not everyone has a driver's license."

If jokes like this first make you laugh, then make you mad, you're NOT alone!!

RISMedia published the results today of a reader survey, in which they found that consumers were really looking for real estate brokerage as a whole to be "smaller and more professional."  Desired changes included a higher barrier of entry and improved financial savvy.

The conversation about the New Real Estate Agent has been a long time coming, and amidst a thinning of the herd this year, it has come to the forefront.  In his presentation at the NAR conference in Orlando this fall, Stephen Swanepoel suggested that our job description needs to change.  No longer do consumers need access to the listings - that's what the internet is for.  Rather, in this complicated market people need the level of service and guidance they get from their financial advisors, their accountants, and their attorneys.  They need a trusted real estate advisor.

Could a smaller and more professional industry lift the "Real estate agent" brand to the general esteem of "lawyer," "financial advisor," and "accountant"?  I hope so - and I hope we can pull the "lender" brand up with us.