The December issue of REALTOR® Magazine has an article titled "25 Trends Driving Today's Market". At least four of these should be of interest to ActiveRain members. Actually, we may have played a big role in creating a few!
Bloggers The Real Estate Tomato, Jim Cronin, estimates there are about 3,500 active blogs about real estate, but also mentions that 96% don't make it past their first year. Of course, we know the success rate for ActiveRainers is much higher because of the strong support and encouragement within our community.
Virtual Assistants Just last month I wrote a post about the benefits virtual assistants can bring to your business. The VAs on ActiveRain are some of the best. Take a look at the Real Estate Virtual Assistants Group for some great posts about what a VA can do for you in 2008!
Go Green Green building, energy efficiency, and environmentally friendly are all terms that are being mentioned more and more in real estate. ActiveRainers have known about these since 2006, thanks to the ongoing efforts of our ECO All-Stars and The Green is Red Hot contest.
Emerging Micro-Markets "Practitioners have seen stable - and even rising - prices in certain sectors within generally declining markets," says REALTOR® Magazine. I can hear a chorus of agents responding, "Real estate is local!" ActiveRainers are some of the best at gathering and interpreting local market statistics, and are contributing huge amounts of hyper-local content to our sister site, Localism.
To read the full article, visit REALTOR® Magazine online. And here's a bonus: If you have your hard copy handy, take a look at the upper right-hand corner of the cover. It looks like the January issue is going to feature Social Media. 2008 is going to be a great year!
26 Comments on 25 Real Estate Trends for 2008
Hi John - This is all exciting stuff! I am thrilled with where things are going:) - I will check it out!
Thanks for sharing the great info. The tomato's comment that 96% of blogs do not make it past the first year is interesting, yet not completely surprising to me. Great job!
John - seems like the magazine was last years edition, Like you, a lot of your main points here are either already done, or are a continuing process. Going green, and marketing it, hasn't seen a lot of activity up here yet, but it should.
Courtney - This was a fun story to read ... it was great to keep finding trends that I already knew about and/or was involved in because of ActiveRain. Thanks for your comment!
Laura - Knowing what I do from all of the great content in the Rain, I feel that I have a big jump start on many of these trends. Thanks for stopping by!
Dave - That's a solid business approach -- find a way to make a prospect's or client's life easier. There are a couple of trends in the article that involve lenders. Thanks for your insight!
Lynda - 96% initially sounded high to me, but then I thought of how many people right here set up a profile and never get past the first couple of weeks. It take discipline, determination and a little creativity. Thanks for reading my blog!
Aziz - Thanks for taking a break from this wild day of college football to stop by my blog! I met a couple of the VAs on ActiveRain at NAR, and any of them would have a positive impact on your business. Make the call!
Gary - If some of the article seems old, that might just be an indication of how far ahead of the curve we are. :) I would expect Tahoe to have a large, pro-green population. Thanks for your comment!
John - It is so important to pay attention to the trends especially at this time when we are focused on our business plans for 2008. I so agree that AR is a very supportive network therefore people who start out blogging here will more likely stick with it.
Hi John, I have got to be your biggest fan. You are amazing. I love your blogs. The information is amazing always. Thank you for all the time you take to bring us this great information.
Eric - You're right about NAR and blogging. I think there's a little concern about responsibility for content. Is a broker responsible for all of the agent's individual blogs? Thanks for commenting!
Pat - Thanks, I appreciate that! There's a lot of great info out there on the web, and when we can share it with others in the Rain it makes us all better.
Thanks for this compilation post, John. We always read Realtor Magazine and I'm sure the internet is driving many changes in our industry. 2008 will be an interesting year!
John Novak - Las Vegas and Henderson NV Real Estate Las Vegas, NV More about me…
Keller Williams Realty The Marketplace
Office Phone: (702) 939-0000
Cell Phone: (702) 339-9700
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News, statistics, and observations about the residential real estate market in southern Nevada, and my experiences and thoughts about being a REALTOR®.
John Novak - Las Vegas and Henderson NV Real Estate
The December issue of 
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Hi John - This is all exciting stuff! I am thrilled with where things are going:) - I will check it out!