4realz Strategies

Tagged: rss RSS

• Dustin 3:06 am on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: event (28), real estate (168), rss, Yahoo (17)   

  The Big List of Real Estate Events 

  As best I can tell, there isn’t a great list of real estate events that is published anywhere on the web.   CourseDates probably comes the closest with their list of real estate conventions, but even they’re missing the smaller events that I want to track.

  So this evening, I created a group on upcoming simply called Real Estate, and I invite all of you to join me in my endeavor to track the various real estate events that occur around the country.

  I settled on upcoming for a variety of reasons:

  1. Many people with the RE.net are already using it to track their events (see Portland RE Meetup, Adwords Training by Reachd and RE BarCamp as examples)
  2. It’s free
  3. Nice RSS support (including the ability to sort-events by start date within feeds)
  4. It has great social features including a “groups” that will allow me to promote others to help manage the group.

  So, here’s how I plan to use the group:

  1. I’ve added the list of events to the sidepanel of 4realz.net
  2. I subscribed to the group’s RSS feed so that I can get an update any time someone else adds a new event to the group!
  3. I opened up permissions on the group so that anyone can join and add events to the group.
  4. I’ll continue to add events as I learn about them.

  How can you use the group?

  1. Join the group and add your own events.
  2. You can subscribe to the group’s RSS feed to learn about new real estate events as they get published on upcoming.
  3. Add the list of real estate events to your sidepanel.
     • You can either add the events as a badge or
     • If you’re using wordpress.com like me, then you can add them via the RSS widget (and if so, use this RSS feed: http://feed43.com/real-estate-events.xml  since it is already formatted to display the events a better and took some odd/ugly parsing to get right)

  Of course, if people start adding spammy-type events to the group, I’ll buckle down the hatches a bit in terms of who can post events, but at least initially, I don’t see that being much of an issue.   And if you have any ideas for how to improve the tracking of real estate events, I’m definitely interested in hearing about it!

  Joseph Ferrara.sellsius, Jay Thompson, Dustin and 9 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    Justin Zimmerman 6:05 am on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    I just started this same project!

    Bernice Ross hooked me up with the 1st piece of the puzzle.

    *NAR’s List of State Conventions* http://www.realtor.org/convhome.nsf/pages/StateSched?OpenDocument

    Small world!

    -Justin Zimmerman

  • 

    Jay Thompson 9:08 am on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Very cool! I joined and added Inman Connect SF…

  • 

    toddwcarpenter 9:57 am on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Dustin, did you change dates on your education seminars, or did I just screw them up when I put them on CoRE?

  • 

    Dustin 11:01 am on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Awesome Justin! Great find!

  • 

    Dustin 11:05 am on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Jay and Todd : So glad you both joined up and started adding events! (it works!)

    And Todd: We did change the dates on the 4Realz Events. Sorry about any confusion!

  • 

    Steve Jagger - Reachd 12:04 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Great idea in creating the upcoming.org group. We have been using upcoming for a while to promote our events and it has been every helpful. Great idea to list them all together.
    Thanks again.
    Steve

  • 

    Dustin 12:10 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Steve, so glad you’re on board with the idea! I did notice that you guys are pretty good about posting all your events there. Feel free to join the group and add any additional events as you publish them.

  • 

    Magnus 1:33 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Great idea!

  • 

    Dustin 1:37 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    By the way, if anyone else is wondering why my sidepanel doesn’t update after you submit an event to upcoming… it turns out it just takes time. The feed parser I’m using only updates itself every 6 hours unless I pay $29/year…

    I’d probably folk over the money except I’m not sure I even like this solution… and besides, it gives me a chance to see events (my feed reader picks up the events directly from the upcoming site without much delay) before they hit 4realz.net.

  • 

    Dustin 1:40 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Magnus:

    I’m all for including international events, so let us know if there’s something going on in your part of the world!

  • 

    Jay Thompson 2:09 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Whoops, I wasn’t aware Joel had Connect already in there.

    Strangely, the system won’t let you delete an event (even if you created it). It takes an email to Yahoo. That seems remarkably inefficient.

    Updating the sidebar every 6 hours sounds fine to me. A built in delay before posting to your blog isn’t a bad thing. It might keep someone from creating an event like, “Dustin Luther is a numbskull”.

    Not that anyone would do that…

  • 

    Dustin 2:15 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Jay,

    I think Joel added the event AFTER you!

    Even so, I went with his event for the group (and removed yours) figuring he should probably be in charge of the presentation of the event. And knowing you, I figured you wouldn’t mind too much.

    Nonetheless, thanks for adding it! I think we spurred Joel into action!

  • 

    Joel Burslem 9:13 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    You’re right Dustin, you’re post did remind me that I had to do another one for Connect 08.

    Jay, I think we must have added them simultaneously. I noticed right after I submitted Connect that you had done it too! I’ve put Bloggers Connect in there too.

    Upcoming’s a great service – we did it for BC and Connect last year and I’ve been using it to keep track of all the events in Portland for a while. It really seems to vary though based on what city you’re looking at, but if your city is active you can find some really interesting stuff in there.

    A couple more to take a look at are eventful.com and zvents.com

  • 

    Bucking the Real Estate Trend 4:06 am on March 14, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Another great idea. Looking forward to hearing you again in ATL on 03/27.

  • 

    Dustin 7:37 pm on March 14, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Also, while I’m in Canadian event mode, I just found this list of Canadian real estate conferences/events!

    If things slow down (yeah right!), I’d love to add those to the list as well!

  • 

    Dustin 4:02 am on March 15, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Wow! After the 2nd person pointed out the fact that Greg wrote a mean-spirited post on BHB about this real estate event group, I decided to check it out late on a Friday night.

    My initial reaction was shock… while my second reaction was to feel sorry for him considering the hatred he must have bottled up inside him. Ouch.

    However, since he raised the issue, I might as well explain why I didn’t add both the Unchained AND the RE Connect events to the initial list. When I started adding real estate events to Upcoming, those two events stuck out as as being unique in that I was sure that other people closer to the messaging of the events would likely WANT to be in charge of how they were displayed on the site. And just as I suspected would happen, both events were quickly added by others. Joel stepped up to the plate within hours to add the RE Connect conference and someone else (turns out it was Todd, but that wouldn’t have been my first guess), stepped up to the plate to add the messaging for the BH event.

    There were other events, like NAR Midyear and Realtor Quest, where I was pretty certain others would NOT step up to the plate, so I happily gave them a generic description. And I could have done that with the BH event, but, again, I was pretty sure that Greg would like to be in charge of how his event was portrayed on Upcoming. I also had the secondary concern with the BH event that if Greg didn’t like how I described his event, then he’d have to contact me to have it changed and I don’t think that is an exchange that either of us would look forward to.

    We obviously live in completely different worlds, because it didn’t even occur to me that he would accuse me of a attempting to stifle his freedom because I did not market his event on a public calendar for him. Again, wow!

  • 

    Greg Swann 7:16 am on March 15, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    > considering the hatred he must have bottled up inside him

    Don’t kid yourself, Dustin. I went out of my way to bring you to the attention of the Los Angeles Times and you betrayed my trust in return. You called Cathleen Collins, Teri Lussier and Mike Farmer liars because they dared to call you on your hypocrisy. You made common cause with Joseph Ferrara and Keith Brand, the two most malevolent trolls in real estate weblogging. You completely destroyed your reputation with one word. I don’t hate you, but I definitely do pity you.

    > We obviously live in completely different worlds

    Obviously. I can think of two important differences: I take care of my friends — telling the truth no matter what the consequences. And I actually know how to market real estate.

  • 

    Toronto real estate 8:16 am on March 15, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    What a great idea! Unfortunately, I work in Canada and I am dealing with real estate in Toronto so it would be difficult for me to visit events in the US. However, I just noticed your comments and that you also added the international events. Thank you! I hope there will be more people from Canada who will contribute and add some interesting events.

  • 

    Dustin 2:10 am on March 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    > Don’t kid yourself, Dustin. I went out of my way to bring you to the attention of the Los Angeles Times and you betrayed my trust in return.

    And don’t kid yourself… I went out of my way over the past two years to bring media attention to you as well. The fact that you did many good deeds for me (LA Times wasn’t the only one) doesn’t mean I have to stand by silently as you spew your style of hatred at others.

    >You called Cathleen Collins, Teri Lussier and Mike Farmer liars because they dared to call you on your hypocrisy.

    I did no such thing. Looking back over the post, I told Teri I wasn’t going to answer her question, ignored Mike completely, and told Cathleen that I thought she was making a disingenuous argument. I see nothing about me calling anyone a liar. Now it is your chance to fess up… you just lied.

    >You made common cause with Joseph Ferrara and Keith Brand, the two most malevolent trolls in real estate weblogging.

    Again, I did no such thing. I acted alone (and encouraged no one else to act…) and made my decision based on your writings alone.

    >You completely destroyed your reputation with one word.

    If unsubscribing to your occasional attacks on people ruined my reputation with a group of your followers, I can totally live with that. However, I clearly won’t return the favor of spewing out hatred back at you or anyone else. Hatred only breeds more hate, Greg… and I don’t need that in my life or any community I choose to be a part of. You’re obviously free to spew your brand of hatred at others all day long and if you think that it is good marketing, I’m under no illusions that I could stop you, nor would I try.

    >I don’t hate you, but I definitely do pity you.

    I’m in no need of your pity. I’m doing just fine.

    >Obviously. I can think of two important differences: I take care of my friends — telling the truth no matter what the consequences.

    I’ve always taken care of my friends as well… It is the reason I took a stand against your hatred and it is the reason I won’t return that hatred to you.

    >And I actually know how to market real estate.

    Really? You end your comment on such a weak dig at me. You’ve mentioned many times in the past that I was a huge influence on how you decided to build and market BHB that I’m surprised that you’d take such a low pot-shot… Considering the number of people who are generating quality leads (i.e. leads that convert) each day thanks to platform that I’ve created on RCG, I’m somewhat surprised you’d want to take the conversation here considering you have nothing similar to demonstrate.

  • 

    Greg Swann 8:40 am on March 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    One of the benefits you had from my friendship is that I didn’t lean as hard as I might have on the truly stupid things you say.

    Linking to 4Realz will be good for the linking blog? That’s a self-serving lie.

    If RCG gets visitors who come to the site 201 or more times in a year, they must be sellers? I can’t tell if this is deception or just moronic wishful thinking. For the benefit of inlookers: The people who come to real estate weblogs most often are Realtors. Amazingly enough, ordinary people aren’t obsessed with real estate.

    Real estate webloggers shouldn’t write about their listings because some of them might do it badly? Yes, of course, and they shouldn’t write at all, since so many Realtors are very poor spellers.

    Whether these pronouncements are venal or just idiotic, it was an injustice to the ninety-and-nine for me to have let them stand unchallenged. An injustice to you, too, since suffering foolishness is no kindness to the fool.

    In any case: No more.

    My loyalty is to the people who trust me to say what’s what, without fear, without favoritism, without the incessant kissing up that typifies the vendor side of real estate weblogging.

    I do want to thank you, though. You issued a challenge.
    

    I’m going to leave my opinions out of the discussion in order to leave more space for these people to see the error of their ways, apologize profusely, and re-enter our community in a constructive manner.

    And I was able to use it in a practical demonstration of how to stand up to intellectual thuggery. Saying “I won’t back down” is easy. It’s rare to have the opportunity to show people, in the most public and deeply philosophical of ways, how one can sustain human integrity against the howling of any mob. I’m no different than I was before, but a lot of people are stronger for having watched me stand up to you — and stand you down. That’s the kind of gift I want to share with people. The human race has spent entirely too much time on its knees.

    But now you’re stuck, you and Joel Burslem and a host of others, having to pretend that you are not reading the most important and most informative weblog in the RE.net. This would be self-destructive if it were true, but the hypocrisy is so much worse, so much more corrosive. This much I don’t like — which is not to say that I don’t see the comedy in it. Self-destruction is the exact opposite of appropriate human behavior. You’ve painted yourself into a corner, and even trying to slink your way out of it is self-destructive. If we are not telling the whole and perfect truth, we are lying — dismantling the ego. I do hope for your sake that you can find your way out of this mess.

  • 

    Dustin 2:41 pm on March 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Greg,

    I think the hardest part of having a dialog with you is that you’re not necessarily interested in finding any truth or coming to an understanding, but rather, you consistently go for the kill, whether it is intellectually honest or not… Rather than try to defend your obviously bone-headed statements (or admit you were wrong) when I point out where you are mistaken, you are like a blind man throwing grenades hoping that something falls near me.

    Nonetheless, I’ll keep playing defense here since I have no real desire to go on the offense against you.

    > Linking to 4Realz will be good for the linking blog? That’s a self-serving lie.

    Never said that… I said it would benefit them if I provided them a link… and if someone is on my radar, then they are more likely to get links from me. If you’re a new blogger is interested in getting valuable links (and many of them are) then linking out to some of the more prominent bloggers is the best way to get links back to your site. I stand by everything I said earlier even if you’re tried to mis-interpret it in your paraphrasing.

    > If RCG gets visitors who come to the site 201 or more times in a year, they must be sellers? I can’t tell if this is deception or just moronic wishful thinking. For the benefit of inlookers: The people who come to real estate weblogs most often are Realtors. Amazingly enough, ordinary people aren’t obsessed with real estate.

    Again, I never said that, but I’ll take credit for not explaining it clearly enough so that you could understand. We get a lot of emails through RCG from from buyers and sellers who are asking for help. I’ve noticed (anecdotally) that a majority of the people who don’t know much about the site (but contact us anyway) tend to be out-of-town buyers, while people who tend to know all about previous RCG conversations tend to be local sellers. Again, I stand by everything I said earlier even if you’re tried to mis-interpret it in your paraphrasing.

    > Real estate webloggers shouldn’t write about their listings because some of them might do it badly? Yes, of course, and they shouldn’t write at all, since so many Realtors are very poor spellers.

    Nothing to do with writing about them badly or not… And as a matter of fact, I still think most listings are not interesting enough to be included in a blog post. Consumers do come to the internet to look for listings and that it why agents should make sure that there listing stands out in the various comprehensive databases that are available (most of them through their MLS, but there are others). It has nothing to do with agents being good writers or bad writers, it has everything to do with using a blog to create a sense of community and listings are a conversation killer that reinforces to consumers some of the worst stereotypes about agents (i.e. “featured homes” on a blog indicate to consumers that an agents is only in it to sell them a listing, and not to provide them with the best possible home). Again, I stand by everything I said earlier even if you’re tried to mis-interpret it in your paraphrasing.

    > Whether these pronouncements are venal or just idiotic, it was an injustice to the ninety-and-nine for me to have let them stand unchallenged. An injustice to you, too, since suffering foolishness is no kindness to the fool.

    I’m not sure why you think that you let these things go unchallenged since you commented or blogged about each of these issues! You may not have been mean in your comments or argued your case effectively, but you clearly did NOT ignore them.

    > My loyalty is to the people who trust me to say what’s what, without fear, without favoritism, without the incessant kissing up that typifies the vendor side of real estate weblogging.

    Not sure what you’re referring to here, but these vague pronouncements are powerful in their emptiness.

    > And I was able to use it in a practical demonstration of how to stand up to intellectual thuggery. Saying “I won’t back down” is easy. It’s rare to have the opportunity to show people, in the most public and deeply philosophical of ways, how one can sustain human integrity against the howling of any mob. I’m no different than I was before, but a lot of people are stronger for having watched me stand up to you — and stand you down. That’s the kind of gift I want to share with people. The human race has spent entirely too much time on its knees.

    You’re ego go the better of you on this one. I was not (and still am not) so disillusioned to think that you would ever recognize the errors of your ways… My comment was not directed at you, but rather to some of your followers who were leaving comments on the post that were clearly using disingenuous arguments. At the time, I wasn’t clear to me that those people had completely fallen for your (mistaken) logic that good marketing involves going for the kill as oppose to being intellectually honest.

    >But now you’re stuck, you and Joel Burslem and a host of others, having to pretend that you are not reading the most important and most informative weblog in the RE.net. This would be self-destructive if it were true, but the hypocrisy is so much worse, so much more corrosive. This much I don’t like — which is not to say that I don’t see the comedy in it. Self-destruction is the exact opposite of appropriate human behavior. You’ve painted yourself into a corner, and even trying to slink your way out of it is self-destructive. If we are not telling the whole and perfect truth, we are lying — dismantling the ego. I do hope for your sake that you can find your way out of this mess.

    No problem there… If you’re ready to dismantle your ego, then you should start by addressing each of the points you’ve conveniently ignored when I raised them in this thread. I’ll help you with a summary list:

    * Do you still think it would have been wise for me to add the unchained event to upcoming or was that something that would have been much better left to someone closer to the messaging of the event like yourself?

    * Do you still think I was stifling your freedom by not adding the unchained event to upcoming? If not, then your post and follow up comments were clearly a mistake based on your not having a clear understanding of the consequences of my taking on the marketing of your event.

    * Do you still think that I should stand by and let you spew hatred at others because you did me a favor?

    * Were you lying when you said I called Cathleen Collins, Teri Lussier and Mike Farmer liars?

    * Can you show any basis for saying I “made common cause with Joseph Ferrara and Keith Brand”? Just because I agreed with them on one issue (i.e. your hatred got the better of your in your post), that doesn’t imply I made joined some cause with them. Again, explain yourself, or admit you were wrong in making this attack on my motives.

    * How did removing myself from a community that accepts the spewing of hatred is going to ruin my reputation, because it obviously hasn’t happened yet?

    * Please explain how you are more of a marketing expert than me considering I can demonstrate experience creating a real estate platform that has generated hundreds (more likely thousands) of quality leads for real estate professionals, and you have nothing similar to turn show.

    If you’re not willing to address these issues, I would not be a bit surprised. However, it would be quite indicative of the fact that you are in no way searching for truth, but rather trying to go for the kill by making disingenuous and mean-spirited attacks.

  • 

    Greg Swann 3:36 pm on March 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    I don’t have time for this, nor do I have any respect for you. I do hope you will find an honest way to undo the damage you have done to yourself by striking a childish pose. It would seem from the length of this response, which I haven’t taken the time to read, that you are moving in the opposite direction. Your problem.

    If I decide to take this up again, I will do it exhaustively, from BloodhoundBlog, and the last of your ugly secrets will be exposed.

    You can have the last word. I’m done with you.

  • 

    Dustin 8:29 pm on March 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Greg,

    As I suggested in my previous comment, I can’t say I’m a bit surprised you don’t want to continue this conversation since you have clearly not been able to demonstrate that you can sustain an argument with intellectual honesty.

  • 

    Jay Thompson 7:40 am on March 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Wow, I got chastised by Greg for saying “Been away for awhile. I see nothing has changed.” in a comment on his blog. (and that was the entirety of my comment on BHB)

    His response to that comment was that I was “rude beyond all accounting”, “churlish” and pulling a “public posturing stunt”.

    He then had the gall to tell me I needed to apologize to him.

    But in yet another display of the ultimate in hypocrisy he comes here to “your place” and spews this sort of venom???

    Unbelievable.

    And no it’s not surprising, at all, that he refuses to answer the questions.

    I used to have a lot of respect for Greg and what he’d done with Bloodhound. He says nothing has changed, but he is mistaken. His personal attacks have increased in quantity and volume, the incessant gloating about the traffic to BHB, and promotion of his (excuse me, Brian Brady’s) event have turned BHB into a mere shell of what it was. It’s quite sad actually.

    I took BHB off my feed reader a couple of weeks ago. I went back a couple of days ago to look at a comment thread I had subscribed to and was foolish enough to read more. Got sucked into making the above comment and I regret it.

    I’ve since unsubscribed to all the comments on BHB and will not return. I’m sure Greg could care less, what’s one less reader (and advocate) to him? But judging by the volume of calls and emails I received expressing support when I left BHB, I’d have to say I’m not the only one no longer reading. Whether Greg believes that or not, I don’t really care.

  • 

    Joseph Ferrara.sellsius 2:57 pm on March 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    For the record, Mr. Swann, my “cause” on the occasion of your most recent hate-filled harangue, as expressed in my Wrath of Swann post, was different than Dustin’s.

    While Dustin and others (rightly) objected to your mean spirited personal attack on another blogger, I did not. While I disagreed with your hateful and demeaning attack (it was not satire, my dear fellow– you lack for humor as a desert lacks for rain), I defended your right to do it. I objected to your hypocrisy vis-a-vis your niceness comment policy, which, everyone now knows is a total farce and nothing more than a clever mechanism for controlling the conversation so that you look like the BMOC. That is why you rarely venture out of your lair to debate– you can’t control the conversation on other venues as you do at BHB. Besides, when it appears you are losing points in a debate (as here) you take your ball and run home.

    What I find particularly hypocritical is your knocking the efforts of other real estate agent bloggers (like Daniel R) for trying new things when the truth is you are a novice realtor with meager sales success– using both online or offline methods, you simply can’t sell (hey, it’s a tough profession & we all see you want to do something else– nothing wrong with that). But how then do you dare ridicule others when you have such a beam sticking out of your eye?

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• Dustin 12:56 pm on August 1, 2006 Permalink | Reply
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