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The entire election process has fascinated me. When you think about it, a long time has passed since it all started. I remember being at an early fundraiser in The Hamptons almost a year and a half ago.  There are a lot of firsts in this election. Of course there are the obvious ones: the potential first African American president, the potential first female vice president, and the potentially oldest president to take office.

There are some humorous firsts – this is the first election where the Saturday Night Live actors looked so incredibly like several of the candidates. This is the first election where a vice presidential candidate was punked by a Canadian radio station.

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Posted by Jason Steele

Two weeks ago, my wife and I resumed our home search. This time we were exploring a new county. Yes, “county.” We still haven’t narrowed it down to a single location at this point. It’s all conjecture anyway because our only potential buyer to date drew up an offer with their agent and has not been heard from since.

It was an aggressive day with 8 properties to see in 3 different towns. With a new baby in tow, we don’t have a ton of time on our hands so we need to cram as much into a day as we possibly can. Our agent only takes 1 appointment a day so it is nice to not feel rushed with so many homes to see. Long story short, I will forever recall that adventure as “Bait & Switch” weekend. All I can say is that pictures only tell half the story and, on that occasion, the photos were actually more misleading than helpful.

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Posted by Jason Steele

Over the past month I have been searching for the first addition to my staff. We posted the position internally and on all of the major job boards, monster, craigslist, Yahoo!, etc.. The position requires about 3-5 years experience and would most likely attract someone in their 20s. I had a hypothesis going into the process and it was to see how well my application of social media would shape each candidates interview process.

Before joining BH&G Real Estate I would go into an interview blind as Googling the company and prospective Executive leadership could only get you so far. When I was interviewing for the VP of Interactive Marketing position here it was a whole different story. I was on our Industry blog, read press releases on Realogy’s web site, investigated Sherry, Nicolai & Wendy’sbackgrounds on Linkedin, searched for any viral video on YouTube and lastly took a shot in the dark that they maintained Facebook pages (which they all do). I got to know each and every one of them personally and professionally via those sources before I even walked in the door. I was able to evaluate whether or not my vision for the brand and professional goals were shared amongst my prospective boss and peers. I assume you know what the answer was as you are reading my post on the brand’s blog right now.

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Posted by Sherry Chris

It never fails … good things happen when you least expect them. When we were offered a 15-second spot twice every hour for 60 days’ rotation on the CBS Superscreen at Times Square, it was too exciting to pass up! 1.5M people look at the huge screen every day! It wasn’t originally part of our extensive launch plan, but we quickly incorporated it. Of course, the challenge became: how do you create a 15-second video announcing the launch of Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate when you can’t display the name or trademark until July?

After many hours of creative and legal brainstorming, we came up with a teaser ad that we think will catch people’s attention. And just when they get a little tired of looking at our teaser, we will switch it to the real thing!

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With numbers like these, is it any wonder that agents are trying to promote themselves and their listings on these social media sites? We learned recently that some of these sites may not be as open to the advances of today’s modern Realtors as we once assumed (see Inman News-Future of Real Estate Blog). Well, to be fair Facebook will gladly let you advertise your listings as long as you pay!

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