On bloggers' turf
When Mesha Provo and her husband decided last March to sell their 1,350-square-foot home in El Sobrante, a Bay Area suburb, she saw green in her garden. A self-styled "fanatical gardener," she recognized the potential draw of her labors -- and she hoped to find a buyer who would appreciate her garden's beauty.
So in addition to hiring an agent to list the property, Provo started an Internet Web log -- blog for short -- and told her real estate agent to include the Web address on her home's Multiple Listing Service information.
Each day, she wrote about and posted photos of her daisies, jasmine and roses to entice prospects.
"I had this idea that I would first tease them with pictures of the garden," said Provo, 52, who is the national sales manager for Ballentine Vineyards in Napa Valley. Later, she added shots of the home's interior and exterior.
Her clever marketing appeared to work. The house sold for $612,000 -- $43,000 more than the original asking price -- to another gardener who read her blog.
Provo's story may be unusual, but it shows that Internet blogs have the potential to be effective consumer tools for home buyers and sellers. They also appeal to real estate junkies who watch and follow market trends. A blog such as Provo's (gardenforsalehomeincluded.blogspot.com) is an online journal, a chronicle of personal opinions, reader comments and Web links to related topics. It's one person's take on life or on a particular topic -- uncensored, edgy and updated frequently.
Some readers base their buying decisions on the information they read on real estate blogs.
Brandon Farley, 36, of San Diego, is a devotee of the Housing Bubble 2 at thehousingbubble2.blogspot.com.
"There's a lot of information out there -- journalism and advertising -- that's very pro about buying homes and investing," said Farley, a transportation planner who's waiting for prices to drop before buying. "I don't think there's been a lot -- until maybe this blog -- to provide a counterargument."
The Housing Bubble 2, a popular blog, is a labor of love maintained by 41-year-old Ben Jones, a writer and investor based in Sedona, Ariz. Jones, who's never worked in the real estate industry, posts commentary and links to real estate articles several times a day. Daily readership is in the "thousands," Jones estimates, and he's gotten as many as 20,000 hits (site visits) per day. It's not uncommon to find 200 or more daily comments from readers seeking a slant they believe isn't offered by their local news media.
- The new faces of the city Dec 01, 2005
- Realtor blogs help reel in clients, boost sales Feb 10, 2008
- To live and blog in L.A. May 13, 2004
