Your Listing May Be Haunted If...
Do your sellers seem a little too eager to move out? Are buyers hesitant to hang around? If so, you may be dealing with a haunted house. Here are some tell-tale signs that your listing may be haunted.

Funniest Real Estate Videos Ever: Could Yours Be Next?
Real estate videos don’t have to be cookie cutter and boring. In fact, you’ll find funny or viral real estate videos are surprisingly popular on YouTube! Gain inspiration from these hilariously funny options that stand out from the crowd: Hand Out the 4-1-1 Funny but informative, this big budget informational video by Realtor.com features actress Elizabeth Banks addressing common questions that first-time buyers and long-term renters typically have about the home buying process – and determining when you’re ready. It’s actually part of a series: “The Home Buying Process in Plain English with Elizabeth Banks.”

My Techy Valentine: A Love Letter to Google
Fun fact: Google gets its name from the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes. And yet — we could profess our unwavering admiration for Google a googol times over — and it would not be enough. In simpler terms: Google, we like you. To celebrate Valentine's Day, we're penning odes about some of our oldest and most valued friendships. Google, this one's for you: An Ode to Google Signing quickly is divine But more divine from Google DriveBetter yet from Google ChromeGmail, GSuite — work or home.Let's be honest: You're a verbAnd intertwined with daily lifeWhen asked to sign — why minimize?Instead, makes sense to sign straight fromThe Google apps we know and loveNo closing tabs —No switching apps —Pretty, pretty, pretty neatPretty Suite we think indeed.Google, all that's left to say?We value you in many ways.

REALTORS® Really Hitting It Off a Few Rows Back on Airplane
PHOENIX—According to sources currently seated in rows 14 through 18 aboard flight 763, two middle-aged REALTORS® are really hitting it off during the trip to Inman in New York. Using terms like "AVM" and "CMA," the slightly overweight, average-looking men are reportedly engaged in a detailed discussion about overwhelmingly exciting work related topics and, sources said, seem to be getting along great. "They got to talking as soon as we boarded, and you could tell they just clicked right away," said 31-year-old Camille Catteano of 16B, adding that one of the men, upon looking up from his REALTOR® Magazine, immediately recognized the Keller Williams™ logo on the polo shirt of the man sitting down in the next seat. "Since then, they've been going on and on about Zestimates, lead generation, RPR, and commission splits." "I mean, just listen to them," Catteano continued. "You'd think they were old pals. But they just met and just happen to both be in real estate." Nearby passengers confirmed that the men, both wearing khaki pants with cell phones clipped to their belts, began the conversation by exchanging information about their respective listings and recent transactions. Reports indicated they then began to discuss various methods for "social networking" and "search engine optimization" which appear to occupy a sizable portion of the day-to-day work in their profession.

Lights, Camera, Fiction
Our son Freddy is one of those young people for whom the bumper sticker "Hire a Teenager While They Still Know Everything" was created. Perhaps that's why he can't get a job, now that he's no longer a teenager. "Dad," Freddy said when I last broached the subject of employment. "Real estate. Think about it." As an expert homeowner, I think about real estate every day. I have tremendous respect for the many real estate people I know. They are self-starters, highly self-disciplined, driven to succeed and if they don't close the deal, they don't get paid. There's no room for slackers in this real estate economy. They scrap for every little deal they can get. Didn't sound like the Freddy, I know. "Are you sure? You know, times are tough. Why don't you try something easier, like selling bunk beds to the kids your age who are going to be living at home until they're 35?" "No way, dad. Hey. I've been watching TV. Real estate is hot." Freddie likes to speak in very short sentences. My wife and I like Dancing with the Stars and she goes for Bachelor and I try to sneak in an hour of Wipeout now and then. So to encourage our son's newfound ambition, we checked out his favorites: "Power Flippers," "Rip and Rent" and "List it or Lose it." Few topics have such dramatic opportunities as real estate. I steeled myself for teary families reading the sheriff's notices nailed to the front door of their homes, black mold ravaging flooded basements and the heart-rending frustration of a mortgage rejection letter when you've found the dream house of your life. Perhaps with an intro featuring a helicopter-shot montage of foreclosure ghost towns like Mirage Mills, where we live, and otherwise known as the Chernobyl of American real estate.

Hope, Faith and Equity
Have you ever seen someone tease a dog? It doesn't take long to turn a perfectly friendly pooch into a nasty, mean mongrel. That's exactly what happy-days-are-here-again real estate forecasts do to me. When I hear that home values are finally going to go up, I get all excited. I look up the value of my home online and figure out how far I have to go to get above water (I'm deeper underwater than the Titanic). Even though it will take years to restore any positive equity in my home, I feel excited. At last, things will be going in the right direction. I do a little happy dance and I take my wife Felicity out to dinner at IHOP to celebrate. Then I wait. And wait. And wait some more, checking my home's value every day, only to find out that it was a false alarm. Sales hadn't turned out like the experts thought they would. Or a new bunch of foreclosures screwed things up. Or maybe they hadn't calculated something quite right and got a little too optimistic. The first time this happened, I was disappointed. The second time, I was annoyed. By the sixth time, I had turned into an attack dog, foaming at the mouth. So you can imagine how I reacted when not one, but two bona fide real estate experts announced the other day that THE RECOVERY HAS BEGUN. Oh boy. But in two weeks, my home value actually bumped up a little. In six weeks, it was up even more and by the end of two months, I was recouping lost ground for the first time in six years!

Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village
If you have ever Googled your full name, you may have experienced the panic of realizing so much of your life is accessible on the Internet. We are in the Information Age, and no matter how we resist, how we protect our information, our lives are more transparent than we may feel comfortable with.

If Only It Were That Simple...
As the week winds down and we all look forward to a 3 day weekend, a dose of idealism can be a great way to end of the week. All week long we are asked to do tasks that divert us from our path, force us to work backward in order to make any steps forward, and after days of this, it can be a little disheartening. But what if the sale or raise you mustered your courage to ask for was just given. No questions asked. What if it really only was flipping a swicth? Well... that's why this video is funny.  If only life WERE that simple.

How Much Do You Talk on the Phone?
We all know real estate agents are known for their extraversion... and phone bills. In an effort to poke fun at how much real estate agents are on the phone, T-mobile created this ad. 

Report: 90% of Waking Hours Spent Staring at Glowing Rectangles
PALO ALTO, CA — A new report published this week by researchers at Stanford University suggests that Americans spend the vast majority of each day staring at, interacting with, and deriving satisfaction from glowing rectangles. "From the moment they wake up in the morning, to the moment they lose consciousness at night, Americans are in near-constant visual contact with bright, pulsating rectangles," said Dr. Richard Menken, lead author of the report, looking up briefly from the gleaming quadrangle that sits on his desk. "In fact, it's hard to find a single minute during which the American public is not completely captivated by these shining…these dazzling..." "I'm sorry," Menken continued. "What were we discussing again?" According to the report, staring blankly at luminescent rectangles is an increasingly central part of modern life. At work, special information rectangles help men and women silently complete any number of business-related tasks, while entertainment rectangles — larger and louder and often placed inside the home — allow Americans to enter a relaxing trance-like state after a long day of rectangle-gazing.

Perception is Reality
Take a look at a home. How does it look... through the eyes of the owner... appraiser... lender... or buyer? Do they see the home the same way? Hmmm... Watch this short video to see what perceptions shape the realities of real estate.

Guess You'll Be Needing a REALTOR®!
There's another type of "real" when discussing estates.  Watch this reel of funny real estate commercials!  It's Friday!  If that doesn't make you smile, then we'll give you something that will. 1.) Real Estate has been essential to the American way of life, as far back as the Wild West. To watch the original video, please click here.

Green Stands for Everything Good...Or Does It?
Here in California, the term "going green" has a certain aura around it. Schools teach it, news covers it, friends and family evangelize it and customers prefer it. That may not be the case in your hometown, but in sunny San Luis Obispo, green stands for everything good, humane, and proactive in our happy town. However, like most things, going green shouldn't be taken literally. When it does... well, you'll just have to see for yourself.

Trouble in Twittersphere...
"Just woke up to the sound of my alarm.... ahh!" "FYI- I am moving on Saturday and need boxes - have any?" "If they say TVs are so bad for you then why do they have one in every hospital room?" "Mac or PC?" "I'm so cool I make the ice cubes shiver!" Do you ever get the feeling that your Twitter feed is a stream of too much virtual consciousness? SuperNews recently created a cartoon to showcase the ridiculous side of Twitter... when used for musings, ramblings, and other dead giveaways to social isolation.

iPad! Get it for Grandma!
I don't know about your Grandmother (or mother), but if she's anything like mine, she has already adopted Facebook, and while the going was a little slow at first, she is an avid commenter and socialite. Facebook to Apple products isn't that far of a leap, and now she is eyeing the new iPad. Not so new to all of her grandkids, but to her, it's a technology that is lightyears ahead of anything she saw growing up in the dust bowl during the Depression. If you too would like your Grandma to lead the WWII or baby boomer generation in technology adoption, consider this pitch!  Ahh... the high points of the iPad!

What Went Wrong? Cell Phone Call...
It's just a call... In a dressing room... Between a preoccupied man and a woman who is shopping. What could possible go wrong?

I Am A Top Producer!
  Staying in tune with the Internet marketing revolution can be crutical to winning a listing.  Don't agree? Watch this conversation and see how persuasive this real estate agent is in convincing the concerned seller to let her sell his home.

Merry Christmas Sing-a-long
Technology unlocks whole new dimensions of humor to us all.  Around the office a funny video staring a hilarious smattering of animals proves just this. Enjoy the melodious sounds of these animals. Deck the Halls with humor! This is for all you animal lovers out there!

Oh the Fun Things You Can Do With an iPad!
This Black Friday, many post-Thanksgiving shoppers will be off weeding through commercials and sales pitches in search of the right product.  Whether winter mittens or new digital cameras, there will be a lot of informercials and product demonstrations to wade through. Real estate technology is no different. But in honor of today's antics, this week's Friday Funny is dedicated to the creative sales pitch behind the renowned Blendtec. To prove the virility of this blender, the maker routinely documents the hearty technology products this food blender can reduce to mere ashes. This week's demonstration: the iPad. 

Are Your Business Practices Worth Creating a Museum Around?
The convenience of the Internet has replaced many walk-in, not-so convenient stores.  Remember Blockbuster, Borders, Virgin Records and drive-ins? The technology revolution propels us online and in doing so, leaves some practices and people behind.  Marketing trends move away from billboard and onto website leaderboards.  Networking moves from cocktail parties to Twitter streams. As many elements of industry move online, the question is, where do you and your business practices stand? Online, or will your current practices become be the next subject matter for what the Onion News Network calls museums of the past?

The Perfect Buyer?
In a bad real estate economy, what makes the "prefect buyer?"  Is it realism or a FICO score? This cartoon showcases the irony of a less than perfect buyer, compliments of xtranormal.com, as seen on YouTube. Please continue to watch...

Ever Heard of Whisper Targeted Ads? Introducing New Google Phone Service
Online advertising IQ is on the rise!  We see it on Facebook all the time.  Have you ever noticed how the advertisements on Facebook always target themes on your wall posts? For example, last week my friend posted on my wall, complaining about the loneliness of her Saturday night.  What do you think Facebook ads did?  Well they produced an advertisement for free iDating! Smart marketing, however embarrassing it is to have your friends alerted to your seemingly desperate dating status via intuitive advertising. What would happen if Google picked up this target marketing idea and applied it to their phone service?  Onion News Network, one of the most hilarious YouTube channels, took this idea and created the below news cast! 

Introducing the New Apple Friend Bar!
Chances are, if you know people who have bought and loved an Apple product they have most likely been converted by what is called "Apple evangelism", or are on the path to becoming an evangelist themselves.  Apple evangelists express brand loyalty like few consumer groups; they can be seen spending their Saturday mornings in the Mac store, simply to enjoy playing with the latest and greatest Apple products.  We at RE Technology, Inc. have several on staff (you know who you are, Victor and Melissa). Yes, even I, devoted PC user since infancy am writing this from a 28" Mac. Go figure. If you are not lucky enough to have several Apple evangelists in your organization, here are a few signs to look out for: 1.) Inventing technical difficulties to justify their loitering habits 2.) The urge to buy the latest product 3G, 4G... just wait till the 5G.  Hint: start saving now! 3.) Amazing resilience to AT&T's attacks to the iPhone, notice it's never Apple's fault, even if the phone dies!!  Stupid AT&T! 4.) They visit the Apple store at least once a week, and usually go with a fellow Apple evangelist Aware that the magnetic attraction to their store locations could potentially put Apple evangelists in harms way, as far as local loitering legislation is concerned, Apple has reached out to their devotees and has created a new innovation called the Apple Friend Bar. Watch this Onion News Network video and learn how you too can be welcomed into this elite group of Apple evangelists.

Mobile Office Productivity from a John Deere Tractor
In today's world of mobile devices, productivity is not restricted to the office. Gary Chambers, a Real Estate Broker and Grain Farmer, uses technology to run two businesses simultaneously.  Not only is working from Gary Chamber's field office productive thanks to GPS steering of his John Deere tractor, but it has less distractions than being in his real estate office! Enjoy watching smartphones, laptops and GPS systems work together to advance Gary's two businesses!   If you would like to see this drumhellerrealtor video on YouTube.com, please click here.   Interested in watching more Friday Funnies? New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users' Ears A Friday Funny Want to Escape the Information Age? Google Opt-Out Village is Here! A Friday Funny Escalator Failure: Technology Dependency to the Extreme! A Friday Funny