Well, it's going to be a great Christmas, because I can go into a bit more debt. At least that's what Lawrence Yun at NAR says. My income, and yours by the way, is going up 20% next year! I really need to find that credit card I hid from myself.

Of course, my income's been down about 60%, but up is good right? I'm already feeling richer. It might have been better if I hadn't read that article till I got back from my wife's school conference this weekend at a Casino hotel. Then again, it sounds like my luck is changing, so look out blackjack tables!

Social media is a sinkhole that absorbs time, effort and money that could better be spent on finding listings and selling houses. Powerful words from Mike Parker, and you should read the article.

But, as someone who spends less than an hour a week on all my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts combined, I can't agree with all of his statements. I also don't spend any money on social sites, though I tried a paid upgrade to LinkedIn that I'm not going to renew.

First, I've helped a lot of people to buy and sell homes and land in my market. Note that I didn't say I sold them anything, and would recoil at the thought. I provide a service, and it's helping buyers and sellers of real estate to locate property to buy, or market property for sale, and then to get from contract to closing as efficiently as possible.

And, I do agree with Mike that a great many real estate professionals are spending a lot of time and effort on social media, and most can't peg a transaction to this effort. I have not had a stellar year in my small resort market this past year but, as in every year since I've been here, 100% of my transactions have come from my website, or referrals from clients who came from my site. I've changed it over time, several times, evolving from a static site through a site with a blog attached, to a WordPress based site.

I'm very laid back in my marketing, but do employ RSS and Twitter and Email subscriptions for my content. I also have lead generation forms that add people to my list who want more extensive local real estate reports or automated alerts for their search criteria. I don't call leads, in fact, don't even ask for a voluntary phone number in my forms. It's not my style, and I'm sure it costs me business. But, it's a comfortable way of working for me.

Mike says that you shouldn't listen to those telling you that you must participate in social networking, and that you don't need it to succeed in "selling houses." I agree with that. But, my style, and my way of looking at my services to my customers, is one of a local expert who will always try to keep them out of trouble in a transaction, negotiate the best deal, and realize their goal of buying or selling property in my market.

My blog positions me in my market in line with my business style, and my audience. According to Quantcast, my visitor base is heavily weighted to the high end of income, college graduates, and post-graduates, and the 35+ age group. All of those are the people who buy vacation homes and ski condos. Doing automated posting to Twitter of my blog post headlines, answering any questions that come in via social media, and broadcasting market alerts via social media all reinforce the presence I want to have on the Internet. None of this costs money, and I have my broadcast and delivery systems set up to minimize the time invested.

I'm not sure how many of these people who have worked with me would have done so if I was too pushy in getting their contact information in their visits to my site. And, I NEVER do mass or drip email. But, I usually make a nice living in my small market, and I enjoy doing business with the kind of people my low key and high information approach bring to my site. I do fine on Google for my most competitive key phrases, and even do a very low budget, but consistent, bit of PPC on Google because it brings me very targeted traffic.

I absolutely agree with Mike that fast response is critical, but my response is not a phone call or unsolicited email after a site visit or form submission. A form is submitted for a report or MLS search results, and that's what I send, very quickly. But, no phone call or subsequent emails follow, unless they ask for something. I have several hundred subscribers via email and RSS to my posts, and that's all the push marketing I do.

So, some of Mike's comments may apply to you, and some may not. It may come down to style and the way you want to do business. I never intend to be a Top Producer in my area, and don't want the volume headaches that would go with it anyway. But, I do believe that content is king on my site.

Realtor.org's article released today, says the home buyer tax credit is close to final approval and signing. The Senate has passed the new version, and the House and President are expected to approve it as well. Here are the high points:

• Extended to May 1, 2010
• $8000 for first time buyers
• $6500 to repeat buyers with limitations on time of residence
• Home price capped at $800,000
• Income limits now $125k individuals and $225k joint filers
• Reduced credits for $145k individuals and $245k income joint filers
• Contracts in place by April 30 will get 60 days to close

May the next flurry of activity begin!

One of my daily Twitter searches is on the keywords "wordpress" and "real estate." Most of the tweets are of little interest, but there's a gem every now and then. One caught my eye this morning with the message in the tweet: "WordPress and Real Estate Done Right."

If you've read some of my many articles on using WordPress as your real estate website, you know that I think it's the very best way to go. So, this tweet got a click to the site. When I arrived, almost my entire 21 inch screen was filled with one image of a house and a picture of a real estate professional holding a Sold sign. It was one of her listings. Though there were buttons across the top linking to other parts of the site, there was nothing to indicate where to go to search listings in the area.

I was curious now, as the URL was actually her home page at hername.com. So, I opened another browser and went to the domain again, and found a different listing filling the screen, with the same buttons along the top. Yep, it's WordPress, but Nope, it's far from "done right." Basically, every time the site home page loads, a different listing is the entire presence. The tweet that sent me there turned out to be one from a web design site.

Realtors are the target of every web marketing wannabe out there. And this is a great example of how NOT to spend your money. They took an excellent platform, WordPress, and managed to create a useless website for this Realtor. Now, maybe if all she uses this one for is to impress sellers, it has a little bit of value, but as her main site?! And it's just my picky side that doesn't like the misspelled word in one of her navigation buttons.

Please read a lot of the free material here and on other sites about how effective WordPress can be for your main web presence. But, don't let someone who has no idea of why blogs work so well and the nature of the content that makes them so effective take your money to design a site that will bring you zero, zip, nada for business.

Is it here that I put the disclaimer that I don't work for WordPress or get any money or freebies from them?