Weblogs, or blogs, as they have come to be known, have exploded, with 175,000 debuting each day, according to Technorati, which tracks the phenomenon. They are still a comparative rarity in the real estate business, though blogging proponents say the industry is starting to get it.
However, broker Thad Wong says he doesn’t see a great deal of utility in blogging. The co-founder of @properties, a Chicago real estate brokerage, said his company has a blog in the works that will focus on hard real estate news and sales data, but he doubts the value of personal blogs in generating business.
Last month at a national symposium on real estate technology in New York, panelists said the industry was on the cusp of a blogging revolution.
In 2007, they said, real estate bloggers would at last depart from the tried-and-true formula of offering just home listings and common-sense home-sale advice and instead swing toward personalization to cultivate an image of authority and trustworthiness.