Over the past two weeks I’ve had a little bit of time to think about and discuss the findings of the first CREST real estate blogging survey with REALTORS® and social media experts in the industry. After spending nearly twenty hours poring over the data, writing the executive summary, preparing for a session at RE BarCamp, and answering questions about the report, I’m ready to start talking about the implications. Let’s get practical, shall we?

I’ve distilled the findings of the first CREST survey into three actionable things you can do to maximize your real estate blogging effectiveness. For reference, check out an abbreviated version of the results, or whip out your credit card and drop $9 to buy the full version. Of course, if you completed our first survey and provided us with your e-mail address, you’ve already received the full version.

Here are my conclusions:

1. THE TENURE EFFECT: The longer you blog the better it gets.

From visitors, to comments, to RSS subscribers, there is a positive correlation between your tenure as a blogger and these metrics. The CREST data suggests that there is a strategic inflection point after three years of blogging. Blogs started in 2005 received more than double the median comments, nearly triple the median unique visitors, and nearly six times the number of subscribers. I don’t think this is as simple as being a long-time blogger, though. Just because you’ve been blogging since 2005 (or earlier) doesn’t mean you’ll just automatically get better traffic and engagement, like some kind of entitlement. My suspicion is that the tenure effect is less about tenure and more about commitment. In other words, there are some real estate pros who started blogging many years ago and just decided it wasn’t right for them. They aren’t around to answer the survey. The best of those early bloggers — the ones who have stuck to it, continually trying to perfect their craft — ARE still around. And, I might add, they are more inclined to answer a survey like this one, because they want to compare their results to their peers and learn how to get even better. Is there a tenure effect? Yes. Is it based only on number of years blogging? Not likely. Bottom line: Keep blogging! The positive effects multiply as time goes on, but you’ll have to work hard, too.

2. FOR MORE ENGAGEMENT, POST LESS: The law of diminishing returns applies to blog posts.

The CREST data shows that the more you blog, the less engaged your readers are on a per-post basis. For example, on a per-post basis, respondents received the highest average number of comments when they posted between one and 10 times per month. If they posted between 21 and 30 times per month, the CREST data shows that they received the highest number of unique visitors per post. The CREST data shows that posting more than once per day triggers the law of diminishing returns. The lowest number of comments and unique visitors on a per-post basis was found among those bloggers who posted 31 times or more in a month. Bottom line: To maximize unique visitors per post, author between 20 and 30 posts per month on average.

3. PARTIAL TEXT RSS FEEDS DON’T PAY: Publish a full text RSS feed for more unique visitors.

At some point, virtually all bloggers are tempted to publish a partial text RSS feed. Many assume that by publishing only a snippet of their content by RSS, they’ll force subscribers to click through to their blog, and thereby earn more site visitors. The CREST data does not support this assumption. In fact, real estate bloggers who published a full text RSS feed received almost double the number of unique visitors per post than those who published a partial text RSS feed. I’ll leave it to the commenters to conjecture about why this is as it is. Bottom line: Publish a full text RSS feed.

Of course, YMMV, but the collective experience of 128 real estate bloggers is certainly more accurate than any one blogger’s isolated experience. I welcome your thoughts and conclusions about the first CREST survey results, leave a comment or link to us to join the conversation. And, before you click away from VARbuzz, please complete our second real estate blogging survey, which focuses on clients earned, a little bit of social networking, and frequently-used blog widgets.

Also, be sure to check out Mark Eckenrode’s analysis of our survey. He has some great insights, including a simple way for REALTORS® to reap potentially hundreds of potential prospects.

So the housing stimulus bill was signed into law yesterday. Is it good? Is it bad? What does it mean? (Yes, yes, and we’re gonna try to sort that out.)

First, the practicalities as they affect REALTORS®. Well, practicality, because there’s only one, but it’s a biggie: that $7,500 tax credit. It’s basically a 15-year interest-free loan for first-time homebuyers from your dear old Uncle Sam.

To take advantage, you must not have owned your home during the three-years before the purchase; you must buy a home between April 9, 2008 and July 1, 2009; and you must have an income less than $75,000 ($150,000 for married couples).

So many, many people will qualify, and it’s something you need to bring up when you’re working with first-time buyers and trying to counsel them in an uncertain market.

And that, of course, is the idea: Give folks an interest-free loan and hope it convinces them to buy a home. But the housing bill is more complicated than that, and it has some notable downsides — and its share of critics.

The good

Offering first-time buyers an incentive in the form of, essentially, an interest-free loan, should help increase home sales, according to NAR. At the very least it could push some ‘fence-sitters’ over the edge and into home ownership. Supporters say even a small increase in home sales could be enough to jump-start the housing market.

The bill also extends a line of credit to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and increases oversight of the companies — both these things should restore confidence in the secondary mortgage market that’s been clobbered by its over-enthusiasm on housing prices.

And the bill also allocates $300 billion, through the Federal Housing Administration, to let the government back cheaper mortgages (to bail out homeowners who can’t afford theirs) and for local governments to repair foreclosed homes and increase property values. “Mortgage relief” is a phrase that thousands of people will love to hear as they try to cope with skyrocketing payments on ARMs that reset on homes that lost value.

The bad

All these programs cost big money, money the government doesn’t have. And when government spends too much, you get inflation. Critics also point out that much of this money is going to bail out private corporations and irresponsible homebuyers, rather than letting the free market determine their fates. Many of the same critics say that this economic adjustment is necessary, and that meddling in the housing market with artificial stimuli will only postpone a full economic rebound.

(There are some other buried measures in the bill that haven’t gotten as much press, but should at least raise an eyebrow. For example, anyone working in the mortgage industry will be fingerprinted. )

While it’s easy to say that the housing bill is “great for America” or “a long-term disaster,” the reality is that, in any legislation this complex (600 pages!), there’s good and bad. And trying to predict its long-term effect on a monster economy like ours is all but impossible. So hang on.

Out on the Net

RealCentralVA brings us Ron Paul’s take: “[T]oday’s vote on the House floor dealing with the housing bubble there’s no sign that we’re about to tighten our belt and live within our means.”

From the Piedmont Real Estate Blog: “First, you should know that almost no one really likes this bill. But even those who don’t will generally admit they think it’s a necessary evil.”

Marc, a REALTOR® in Florida, offers his perspective: “It’s being touted as a panacea for our mortgage and housing market ills, but unfortunately comes nowhere near to being such.

Musings of Caroline Virginia says: “The Housing Bill that President Bush approved on July 30, 2008 appears to be a life preserver for many communities.”

Matthew Kelly of Geek Estate offers a detailed list of suggestions.

And the National Association of Home Builders has lots of information, too.

July’s Commonwealth Online e-newsletter hit inboxes on Tuesday. These are the most-clicked links:

1. NEW Residential Disclosure Form from VREB (PDF download)
2. VAR’s Convention & Expo 2008 - Save $80 when you register by Sunday, July 20
3. Are agents independent contractors or just cheap labor?
4. NAR’s online Code of Ethics training (must complete by December 31)
5. CommercialSource.com, the commercial real estate marketplace

Stuff you might have missed:

1. Two online ZipForms training sessions (July 22, 2008 and July 29, 2008)
2. Virginia REALTOR® Land Institute education
3. Broker webcast: Managing Change with Roger Turcotte
4. Valuable VAR member discounts
5. Risk Management Roadshow for Brokers (PDF download)

Do you write a real estate blog? If you answered yes, you should take the Center for Real Estate & Social Technologies’ (CREST) five minute blogging survey. The deadline to complete the survey is 9 a.m. on Friday, July 11. For taking the survey, we’ll provide you with an executive summary of the survey results along with the aggregate data.

The results of this survey will help you benchmark your stats against the field so you can see where you stand relative to your competition. If you ever wondered about your blogging success on any of the following metrics, this survey will help you figure it out:

• Number of RSS subscribers
• Number of monthly unique visitors
• Number of comments per post
• …and more!

REALTOR®-bloggers: Take five of the next 2786 minutes to take this survey!

REALTORS® are coming out of the woodwork in reaction to the May/June issue of Commonwealth magazine. In addition to the comments left on the three feature articles here on VARbuzz (count them #1, #2, #3), we’ve also received numerous phone calls and e-mails about the issue. Here’s what members like you are saying:

“The non-English speaking population in Virginia was disproportionately affected by the foreclosure crisis. In my opinion, mortgage brokers took advantage of these people.”

“Short sales are not for someone who is looking for a quick close. What is more interesting about the process is the same bank that can give you a response on a foreclosure in 48 hours takes 60 days to go through the file on a short sale. We all realize it is two different departments but if you are sitting on a file with all of the required documents and four offers why wouldn’t you respond?”

“Short sales are a great opportunity for investors, but I still believe they should be avoided by people who are looking for a home.”

“It was funny for me to see this [magazine cover]. I had a house listed a few years ago in Austin and advertised it with an upsidedown photo. It got a lot of attention and I got some good calls off of it.”

“This is one of the clearest and most straightforward breakdowns of short sales that I have ever seen.”

“One of the only correct, concise articles I have read about short sales! … Thanks for a great article!”

We’ve also gotten a couple of inbound links from these articles. One comes from the Memphis Area Association of REALTORS®.  The other from Jeff Royce, a Fairfax REALTOR® who was quoted in one of the articles and explained his position more fully on his blog.

In related news, Cindy Jones says REALTORS® should factor in 25% more time to work a short sale listing, based on her personal experience (see the comments). What’s your experience?

Got feedback about this issue? Leave a comment or blog about it and link to us!

Oh, you haven’t read your May/June Commonwealth yet? Now you know what you’re missing.

Here are the top five most-clicked links from June’s Commonwealth Online e-newsletter:

1. $10/gallon gas good for the real estate industry
2. REALTOR® Tools page at VARealtor.com
3. VAR’s Convention & Expo 2008
4. Ethical Considerations in Short Sales webcast
5. HUD Anti-Flipping rule waiver request form

Maybe you missed these items…

1. Want to become more efficient and proficient with ZipForm? Attend one of these two webcasts
2. Be heard on how biosolids affect residential home sales
3. Check out the REALTOR® Code of Ethics in StraightTalk
4. Fundamentals of Technology class (CRS 106) in Harrisonburg
5. Take NAR’s mandatory Code of Ethics training before December 31

A friend of mine has a pretty darned successful play published called "The Line That’s Picked Up 1000 Babes (And How it Can Work for You!)" with, obviously, part of the plot hinging on this one, magical line.

Only in fiction is there one comment or one question that will magically solve your problems. (Although, when I used to interview people for a job, my "magic" question was "When you go home and talk about this interview, what will you say makes you hesitate to take this job?" It worked pretty well.)

That hasn’t stopped Zac Bissonnette over at WalletPop from suggesting "One question to ask your real estate agent."

The question: Do you own a home in the area where I’m looking and/or do you own any investment properties here?

There are a lot of agents out there preaching the gospel of real estate and then stuffing their commission checks in savings accounts paying 0.3%. This is a good way to screen those clowns out.

So, any clowns out there? :)