I never thought I’d be the person who builds software. In college I paid someone to do my C++ homework because I assumed my brain just wasn’t built for this. For most of my life, the most advanced stuff I did felt like MySpace-level coding. Changing colors, hiding a music player, adding a cursor glitter trail. That was my ceiling.

Now I’m sitting here on my phone, vibe coding apps with AI and connecting APIs like it’s normal. What’s strange is how different this feels from how I normally work. I usually get stuck in analysis paralysis and overthink every detail. With vibe coding I don’t hit the brakes. I just move. It feels almost feral. No bottlenecks. No overthinking. Just forward motion.

Andre Hegge reignited my curiosity almost a year ago when he showed me what DeepSeek could do with property data. That was the spark. I did not realize it right away, but that moment pushed me back into the idea of building my own tools instead of waiting for someone else to get around to them.

One of the first things I revisited after that was AI Personas. I opened it again, talked to AI like it was Jarvis, and suddenly I was generating code, connecting APIs, and everything was actually working. Not a demo. A real tool. And the wild part is how it tied back to something I had written about before. I had posted a breakdown of a long running mystery in real estate data on my Substack in my piece titled A Real Data Case Study. That problem lived in my head for almost ten years. AI Personas is the first time I saw the entire pattern laid out in one place without jumping between tools. Finally the puzzle made sense.

That was the moment I realized I was not experimenting anymore. I was building real products.

That momentum carried me directly into SodaCloud, which became its own rabbit hole. It started because SoundCloud annoys me and I wanted something that behaved the way I needed it to. I did not write a plan. I did not map anything out. I opened a blank project and went feral with it. In a couple days I had uploads, timeline comments, waveform previews, mobile layouts, everything. Then I got obsessed with waveform accuracy and spent hours tightening scrubbing behavior and visual fidelity. I swapped themes, fixed seeking, fought with storage, battled CORS until it finally listened, and kept going. Eventually it turned into a full platform. The kind of thing I used to assume only big teams could build.

It still blows my mind that I made that.

I am not trying to act like a developer. I am not pretending. I am just building. And it is actually working.

I am grateful to the people who nudged me in the right direction.
Michael Bergin, Tony McGibbon, Brian Warren, and the Realforce crew who let me build internal tools which are classified. And shoutout to YouTubers Alex Finn and Corbin for explaining things in a way my brain could follow. Their videos helped me move from prototype mode to production.

I am still figuring out what this version of me looks like. But this is the start.

Hey everyone, It has been over a year, but I am sure you have seen my updates on social media. I have also started a new full-time gig at a real estate advertising vendor called Realforce, a Swedish company. They are pretty impressive. I don’t want this to be a plug for them, though. They saw my experience, and we clicked very quickly.

So I am a sales guy now. Technically, I am an Account Manager, but that is in 2010, so I am called a Customer Success Manager. I have always described myself as a sales guy trapped in an IT guy’s body, so this is a good fit. I am enjoying myself!

This will be a short check-in, but I do have some cool tools and stories to share, and I will post them here.

The new website is substack.com. It is free instead of Ghost, and I am currently trying to cut back on reoccurring expenses. Since I last evaluated it, it can do everything and more, so it is a win-win.

Other news: we are buying our condo, I am playing adult soccer and getting hurt constantly, and my daughter will be part fish now that she can swim.

Thank you for your continued support!

Howdy, everyone. I have been a bit busy working on my hard skills. Most recently, it was a Google Data Analytics Certificate. I have been a part of many data visualizations over the years that have answered many business questions. Sometimes, it answered questions that were not asked initially.

This is what I love about data analytics. It caters to the curious.

Data analytics can cut through assumptions, prove theories right or wrong, and save stakeholder resources.

What I am going to do in this space is try to answer real estate questions with data. Hopefully, it will be questions that you have had as well.

Where should I market my property?

This is where I will be spending most of my time. It has been a question I have been trying to answer for over a decade with facts and not opinions. We are in a multi-channel advertising world and need to know the suitable advertising medium and where to target. In this case, I spend more of my time on the latter.

Table of contents:

1. Story 📖

2. Goal 🎯

3. The Data 🧩

4. The Answers 📊

5. Improvement 🧰

6. Business Idea 💡

7. Conclusion 🔚

Story

Once upon a time, we launched a slick new digital advertising tool that allows agents to easily place listing, open house, and personal branding ads. I only got only one question, and I felt it was a bit of a gray area:  Where do we target?

Typically, two general options in targeting real estate ads are a 15-mile radius and choosing zip codes or cities. "Which method should I use?" came up a lot. I would tell agents that if you are trying to target people fleeing San Francisco, then targeting SF would be good, or second home markets in Tahoe might target the Bay Area, but I couldn't give much more detail. It hurt my soul not knowing exactly. Even if I was right, I didn't know for sure. So agents took this minimal information and ran with it. I heard exciting theories like Livermore, CA buyers come from Fremont, CA. While this might be true, how do we know?

This started my journey to find actual data on migration/mobility habits on a city-by-city level. I got close a couple of times, but something was always missing, like the age of the data or scale, or it only showed state to state.

Another assumption we make is about who uses what to view ads. Rural communities use the radio still, and seniors communities like print media more than the Internet. While there is a large chance this is true, wouldn't we like to know for sure? Maybe one gets more eyeballs, but something else converts better. As we go through these case studies, questions like this will be answered eventually.

Fast forward to now, I have been studying data analytics and am determined to try to answer this question again. Armed with new tools, programming languages, and new data sources. I want to show you what I have found. It is not perfect, but it is the beginning of something that could be used in the future.

Goal

The goal is to have a tool that Realtors can use to gain insights on where to market properties.

There are many ways to expand on this:

1. What type of marketing works best by age and location?

2. How much should I target inside my area versus outside traffic?

3. Can this data be used to simplify the advertising purchasing experience?

The Data

The data I will be using is US Census Data. It can be found here. I have many other ideas of data that could be used, and you will see that in the improvement section, but we will be going with what is freely accessible and publically available for this version. Unfortunately, Census data is only as good as the collected time frame and the participants' entries. I don't know when you last filled out a Census, but I can't remember mine.

🐘

The elephant in the room: The data is from 2015 to 2019.

The elephant in the room: The data is from 2015 to 2019. The answers shared will be from that timeframe. Many of us have massive assumptions about moving habits before and after 2020 due to COVID-19, but this data will not help. In the improvement section, I will go deep into other data sources that are way more current that I either don't have legal or financial access to.

I built a data dashboard in Tableau Public. Take a look at it here. You can choose a general metropolitan area and see where people are moving from. Not all metropolitan areas are there, and it is not shown if they came from a different state. For example, you might want to see Danville, CA, but your only option is larger regional areas in the Bay Area. Or if you choose Reno, NV, or Austin, TX, you won't see what state people are fleeing from in detail.

The Answers

While the results were limited to the data supplied (2019 Census data), I found a lot of insights.

Examples:

1. People moving from San Francisco mostly came from San Jose, Sacramento, and LA.

2. When something says "Outside Metro Area within U.S. or Puerto Rico," that could be anywhere the Census didn't track, not necessarily a different state. So when I looked up Reno, Nevada, the primary travel from destination was   "Outside Metro Area...".

3. Speaking of Reno, NV, the next closest Metro Areas people moved from were Las Vegas, NV, Sacramento, CA, Carson City, NV, and Phoenix, AZ. Looking at it confirms many political and economic assumptions that many of us have.

4. Not all cities and towns were clearly represented, so I couldn't look up places I know well, like Danville, CA, or Brentwood, CA.

Improvement

What I have found only scratches the surface. The data was old, and we just got through a pandemic. For this to be more viable as a targeting tool for real estate marketing, we need more accurate data and different data on the most appropriate method for marketing to a subject region.

There is better data. I do not have the resources for it, but the US Postal Change of Address database seems more reliable. Not everyone fills out a Census,  but they must get their mail. The US Postal Service has The National Change of Address Link, which one can subscribe to for over 160 million entries. Most people use this for mailer marketing, but getting to and from data would really answer the main objective of real estate targeting. This costs a lot of money which this researcher does not have right now.

Another great data source would be if you are a brokerage with transaction management data. This would give you facts on your company's transactions. But a big problem would be messy entries like abbreviations instead of writing out the full city name. The same thing applies to the lead source. If the data isn't a drop-down menu where every option is already typed out, humans will write in data however they remember it. This can be solved with better form field control at an admin level.

Another question that just this 2019 Census data doesn't answer is the appropriate marketing method. Factors to consider are age, access to high-speed internet, and which mediums convert best. That would be a project on its own, but if I could combine the best medium to market and best area to market in one visual, users of the tool will have a very clear answer for success.

Using the visualization tool was helpful, but there are limitations to what visualization tools can do. For the most part, they are read-only. They are meant to be read and applied somewhere else. You can have the best data and valuable insights, but action must be taken elsewhere. This leads me to my next section.

Business Idea

Imagine a near-perfect set of data, as live as possible, showing where people are coming from and what method you should use for marketing to them. Then a tool for putting in your subject property or marketing territory to grow your customer base. This tool will be visual and impress you by showing you what you didn't know or confirming your gut feeling on what you knew already.

The ability to buy digital, print, radio, or TV ads right through the product will make this truly special. This isn't as far-fetched as it sounds. Middle-manning ad tools with APIs (bolt-on tools from other companies) is possible.

Knowing that a senior community in City-X consumes all its content in print, digital, TV, or radio and then being able to order those ads on the same screen is the real trick. Or, to find out that everyone was wrong about seniors preferring print and pushing a huge digital campaign for the win would be an awesome customer experience.

There are two ways for this to happen. The product described above as an all-in-one product/service. Or the data and insights are licensed to existing ad product vendors for them to integrate into their ad-buying tools. I believe the latter is more likely since these ad companies are already built for integrations for lead/list sources. Then, this data tool would be a subscription as a business-to-business product.

Conclusion

Okay, we are done for now. While I didn't make any major breakthroughs, I figured out how to do it with more resources. I have demonstrated the ability to find data, analyze and scrutinize it, visualize it with an easy-to-use interface, how to apply the insights, and, most importantly to me, how to improve and monetize the results.

At the end of my certification process, I was supposed to do a data case study on either some boilerplate project the educator supplied or my own. I couldn't get this data question out of my head, so I was determined to stick to it. I realized I do not have the resources to make it happen on my budget, but I know what needs to be done. I also know how to monetize a data project for a business. This is what I love about data. Sometimes it can answer day-to-day business questions

or open up new revenue streams while helping its users.

This is not the end of my data case studies. I think the next will be about internet access and usage. I want to see if those people in rural areas really don't have internet. My theory is that mobile data hasn't been considered. Another factor not considered is aging individuals getting into technology because they were locked up during the pandemic. I want to see the hard data on this.

Thank you for making it to the end.

Okay, get ready for a spewing of technical terms for something straightforward. The point of this post is how you can do something you never thought possible with ChatGPT. I made a plugin/bot for a social chat room tool called Discord. Think of Discord like Microsoft Teams or Slack, but for the cool club. Discord was initially just for gamers, but content creators and brands have also taken it in as a hub for their communities.

Tangent, did you know before Slack, teams, discord, GroupMe, Viber, WeChat, aim, hangouts, and messenger, there was something called IRC (Internet relay chat). Old-school nerds will know that everything today with chat is just IRC with a lot better interface. And yes, before IRC, you had to chat in the snow uphill, Grandpa.

Anyway, friends and I hang out in discord all day. We have had this chat-based social club since 2009, which was pretty handy during the pandemic. A modern way to think of it is like group text on steroids. We have changed platforms several times, but discord has been the stickiest.  Every time we change, we miss a feature or two.

Okay, backstory over...

The missing feature of Discord is the one-click engagement, like a heart emoji. In Discord's case, it was two clicks.

🗣️

One or two clicks can be life or death on a mobile phone.

So when I started challenging myself to do new things this year, I proclaimed I wanted to make a bot that makes one-click engagement possible inside Discord (like what we see above in that groupme image). A couple of days later, I did just that with ChatGPT. Bear in mind my coding experience is minimal. I can read some of it but do not speak it fluently. I can make you a mediocre website from scratch or use a design tool and make a kick-ass one.

Take a breath here. I am about to throw out a bunch of stuff I used in about 2 hours total work time to make this. I will spare you the line-by-line code steps. That is what ChatGPT is for.

Start your engines

I asked ChatGPT to help me make a discord bot that adds an automatic thumbs-up or down emoji to every post. This will make it so members of our server can quickly one-click a reaction.

It spits out some javascript code to copy and run on my computer and set up in the backend of Discord Developer. It kinda worked. I knew I didn't want to use this on my computer long-term, but host it online somewhere, so I didn't need to keep my computer online to make it stay alive.

So I used Amazon Web Services to store the bot/code and run it remotely. I have never used AWS, SSH/Putty to install node.js and connect to the bot, FileZilla to transfer my code onto the server,  and ChatGPT walked me all through it.

This is the point: I touched at least three unfamiliar tools, and ChatGPT walked me through them. I was okay as long as I was patient and could follow instructions.

The Magic

🗣️

My first instinct was to google the problem, but not with ChatGPT

I got stuck so many times. My first instinct was to google the problem, but not with ChatGPT. I just told it that it didn't work, and it gave me options to try. When the suggestion fails, I tell it. ChatGPT comes back with an alternative solution. There were times when I exclaimed, "this isn't working, the experiment failed, ChatGPT can only get me so far," but then I told the bot I was still stuck, and it gave me another solution to try, and voila, it worked!

It worked! I am a developer now! I am an AI whisperer! I am shouting from the rooftops! $500,000 salaries, here I come!

The Reality

What I made sucked. Everything worked, but the result was annoying. Two emojis on every post were ugly. This is where understanding the medium you are working in matters. In Product Management, this would come up early in the concept phase.

Because the emoji/reaction format goes under the post, it added extra spaces between messages, and the thumbs-up emoji looks like Homer Simpson is touching every line of text.

Sometimes we need to build first and ask questions later. That is what was done in this case.

• I built a discord bot with ChatGPT and a bunch of foreign tools

• The bot worked, but it turned out to be a bad idea

• The next bot I build might not suck

• I still feel an immense sense of accomplishment and inspiration from AI

Up Next

AI for development is going to be huge. I'm sure you have seen the memes about high-salary developers using search engines to solve their coding problems or do most of the work for them, and AI will expand on that.

There are already more robust tools launching, like Git Copilot and Copilot X. They will help you write a lot of code and check for errors.

Did you make it this far?

Congratulations, you won!

❓

What does this have to do with real estate?

Some of the hardest things we do only require our attention and patience. Being overwhelmed can be painful, but the sweet satisfaction of completing a project makes it all worth it.  

Thanks for reading

If you are like me, you might have made a few thousand bucks buying digital trading cards called NFTs. That stands for non-fungible tokens. Which means they can't be copied or replicated outside their serialized production. The token part is interesting. It is a smart contract on the blockchain and doesn't always have to be a picture/video of a basketball play or a bored ape. As you know, those things, along with all crypto, took a considerable plunge last year.

So I have a bunch of media of basketball plays, metaverse content, and mafia dogs (don't ask), and they are all worth 2-10% of what I originally spent. Now is the time to buy those things since there is blood in the streets. Instead of me shilling some jpeg of some financial opportunity, I want to talk about fractional real estate ownership.

There is a company called Arrived Homes that has ties to Jeff Bezos—ooo fancy. What caught my eye was the low gate for entry. For as little as $100, you can buy a share of a real house. This company handles the sale, rental, and property management as well. So I started with a couple hundred dollars last year and slowly bought more in one-hundred-dollar increments.

Before I keep going, I want you to know I lost money. I lost $22 out of my total $1,200 investment. How much did I lose in crypto? Tens of thousands. So -$22, and I still own something. Something real. Can I go snoop on the tenants? No. Can I stay there one week a year? No. Do I have rental income? Yes. Is there equity? That depends on the market.

Suppose you are an individual like me that always wanted to buy a duplex with an FHA and rent out one unit but has yet to have the opportunity. In that case, this is a fun way to get started.No I don't get the benefits of a 1031 exchange or write-off mortgage interest, but I also don't have to bother with that.

What I get to do, and what makes this so unique, is that I get to participate in real estate at a level that people dream of someday, with disposable income. I can still do an FHA duplex or triplex hack eventually, but I am buying property shares instead of homes and short-term rentals instead of animated trading cards and pyramid schemes (don't ask again). I need to post all the times I lost money on scams. That will be fun.

if you want to check our Arrived Homes, google them or use this link. Getting "in" to their platform has a waiting list, and there access to inventory is limited and calculated, so you won't be able to buy anything this instant, but they advertise when properties are coming.

What the hell is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a conversational AI model developed by OpenAI, based on the GPT architecture. It is designed to answer questions and have conversations with humans in natural language. It can be integrated into a chat interface, such as a website, mobile app, or messaging platform, to provide an everyday experience for users. ChatGPT can be used in various applications, including customer service, information retrieval, and personal assistance.

It is not the boogeyman. It's a hammer.

ChatGPT is suitable for scripts, content ideas, and making your drafts sound better, but know that you will still need to edit and ensure you don't look silly. It still needs a subject matter expert to operate it. It is a tool, not a personal assistant. It will stab you in the back editorially if you are not paying attention. It also is running old data. Sorry, no market updates, but you can ask it to help you describe a low inventory and expensive money market in a positive light.

Have you ever heard someone (who doesn't know what to write about) start with "According to websters dictionary_____"? Well, ChatGPT will be that for a lot of people. AI will be a commodity, like a web search. It all comes down to how you use it. So here are some ways.

Scripts

"write me an email to an old client to catch up and see how they are doing."
"a video script for my market update, with a positive attitude in a down market"

Content Ideas

"Give me a 12-month campaign for email ideas to past real estate clients."
"52 blog post ideas"
"I need a fun and engaging way to tell everybody Happy Thanks Giving."

Suppose you ask ChatGPT what it can do for real estate. In that case, it will give you many answers like "add ChatGPT to your website as a chatbot (i haven't seen anyone do this, and if it is more complex than using ChatGPT, most people won't do it.)

Remember the Zestimate? That is what ai can do for valuations, and Zillow has been working on it for ages. Is it good? Zillow lost the iBuying game because they leaned too much on their estimate data. A valuation either needs a local human or more data that even big dog Zillow can't get.

I want to pause and think about the movie Robocop.

For all we know, this could have been a Realtor on zoom on the screen. Putting up signs, interpreting data, opening doors, talking people off ledges, and answering many of the same questions over and over will always be needed.

For now, ChatGPT and AI are tools, not job killers. Yes, even if you are a social media manager or copywriter. You will still need to know how to post, shoot, plan, and edit.

🗣️

I predict we will see social media pages dedicated to AI FAILS, where ai looks or reads so poorly it gets people fired.

Please let me know if you are an AI, and if I offended you.

Hi everyone...

Well, this is awkward. I have been silent for a bit. It has been over a month, and I have yet to post. So here we go.

It has been a week since my three-month contract ended, so technically, I am unemployed again. Is this what it feels like in between real estate transactions? DANG, I have a new respect for you folks.

So here is what happened:

1. I turned 40

2. I got tired of losing my hair

3. I shaved my head (full Britney Spears mode)

4. Resented the world

5. Felt like a failure to my family

So yeah just your average mid-life crisis. I listened to my press for the last ten years and let that define who I am. Joe Manning, the prominent Director to C-Level stud. Handsome too. Of course, I am more than that, but I forgot.

So this is what I have been doing, other than having complete meltdowns:

1. Talking AND listening to my most trusted friends (Jim and Brian), family (Petya and my Dad), and peers (Keith, Tei)

2. Acting on their advice

In more detail, I have been trying to be the best version of an unemployed person that I can be. For the last nine days, I have been working intensely on that. Each day I wake up, pray, study (I will get to that later), exercise, meditate, clean something, and embrace my wife. And you know what it works.

I am still consulting with CEOs on projects and working on some long-term stuff, but short term, I am working to redefine who I am. I am a father, a husband, a son, and a friend.

🗣️

I, I, I, me, me, me... How are YOU doing?

Anyway, when I said "study" earlier, I was referring to getting some new hard skills to go with my soft skills. I am currently blasting through a 10-month Google Data Analytics Certification. I chose this route because it has been one of those things I enjoyed doing and building in the past. I also decided to write down all the data projects I have worked on since I was little, and it was interesting to reflect on things I built or worked on and how much fun I enjoyed.

1. When I was about 16, I built a catalog in Filemaker of all my father's sales sample inventory in our garage.

2. When I worked in Mortgage, I used Microsoft Power BI to find the highest ROI between cheap and expensive leads.

3. For fun, I used Google Sheets with a live cryptocurrency price plugin to demonstrate the real price possibility for smaller coins.

4. A baby tracking app to see when it was time to switch from two naps a day to one

5. In real estate, I used Zoho Analytics to find a lot of insights into the correlation between success and CRM adoption, training opportunities, Mortgage adoption, Help Desk opportunities, and time to close by using Disclosures.io vs. not.

Each of these projects was fun to work on, helped the stakeholders, and made me feel like I was using hard skills and experience to build something. This experience is why I am studying now. To make it official and validate that skill and experience.

When the certification is complete, Product Management has my eye, but I want to focus on one goal at a time here.

So I have no Real Estate Strategy for you here today. Just an update. Your takeaway could be "who are you?" and "what do you do during downtime?" Take that class you have been ignoring. Be the best version of yourself.

Apps used:

1. Todoist, my daily checklist

2. Calm, the meditation app

3. Coursera, the certification tool

Enough about me; HOW ARE YOU?

Chatbots are a valuable tool for real estate professionals looking to improve their website's accessibility and customer service. These computer programs can simulate conversations with human users and provide instant assistance to visitors on your website, even when you're not available. In this article, we'll discuss the benefits of using a chatbot on your real estate website and introduce one service, Roof Ai, that can help generate leads and qualify mortgage leads for brokerages. We will also talk about all those creepy new ones out there making headlines today.

Benefits of using a traditional chatbot (the ones that have been around for years)  on your real estate website include:

• Increased accessibility: Chatbots allow you to assist visitors 24/7, even when you're taking a break. This is particularly useful for serving international clients in different time zones.

• Improved customer service: Chatbots can handle a large volume of inquiries simultaneously, ensuring that all website visitors receive a quick and helpful response.

• Lead generation: Chatbots can be programmed to ask questions and gather visitors' information, which can generate leads for your business.

• Time-saving: By automating the answering of frequently asked questions, chatbots can save you time that can be spent on more critical tasks.

One service that may be worth considering is Roof Ai. This chatbot platform uses Natural Language to handle conversational inquiries and has successfully increased user registrations and closed deals for brands that have incorporated it. I have seen the numbers/results, and they are legitimately helping companies scale their service level. Additionally, for brokerages, Roof can help qualify mortgage leads.

It's important to note that old and new chatbots are still in the early stages of development and may not be able to handle transactions or other advanced tasks fully. Consumers may also be hesitant to trust everything these new chatbots can do, as there is potential for mistakes. However, chatbots like Roof can still be valuable to your real estate website, providing assistance and generating leads while more advanced tools are developed.

So in the meantime, let's let Roof handle what they handle, and Skynet can be tabled for later.

I recently noticed that my daughter has been telling me what she wants to do the next day before bedtime. This got me thinking about my own goals and life. She has said things like "tomorrow I want to craft _____" and "tomorrow can we _____." She wishes she could do these things instead of sleeping but are not things she can't do during the day.

Like many kids, my daughter doesn't always want to go to bed. But what stood out to me is that I am the same way. I have always been a "night owl," staying up late to play video games or watch car reviews on Youtube, or binge Netflix, but also able to get work done. For example, I spent three hours building a website last night until 2 am. Sometimes that's the best time to put on some music and focus on a task.

Here are my "tomorrows do's":

• Tomorrow I will pray when I wake up🙏

• Tomorrow I will workout when I wake up💪

• Tomorrow I will build that site that I have been thinking about🏗️

• Tomorrow I will make that song in my head🎶

• Tomorrow I will clean the whole house like a tweaker🧹

I learned a productivity secret from an old boss named Ed Krafchow. He told me to focus on just one thing and set sub-goals. I didn't fully understand this advice until I followed it five years later.

I've tried a lot of productivity tools and apps, but the one that worked best for me is Todoist. It allows you to set tasks and review them at the end of the day or week. It's available on all platforms, which is essential to me.

Another tool that has helped me is a paper productivity planner. It helps me plan my week with primary goals, tasks, and sub-items and review them. I'm not setting up an affiliate program for this paper product, but here is the link if you're interested.

If you ever feel like you're missing out on your day, you could have forgotten to write it down. Consider trying out a productivity tool or just using a post-it note to write down the one thing you want to do today. It could help boost your motivation and sense of accomplishment.

If this post has been confusing, it is because I have so much to say about it. I want to tell you multi-tasking is a lie, I want to tell you about how my tomorrow wish list is just like my daughters, and I want to tell you that I have a solution and only sometimes follow it. I think the point is nobody is perfect, and we need to work on one thing at a time and be okay with having an extensive to-do list. Mine works when I work it. Otherwise, I freak out and build websites at 11 pm.

Oh, and happy New Year.

Thursday, I heard someone say "Merry Christmas, and if saying that offends you, Merry Christmas." My inner instigator enjoyed it.

Earlier in the day, I volunteered at the dreidel station for my kids' class. They were learning about Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. It was fun. And the kids had fun.

What matters most to me right now is tradition. I want to make sure that what we do is remembered by my daughter and carried on to her children someday. For Christmas Eve, we plan to do a fun Bulgarian tradition (not limited to just Bulgaria) that involves baking bread with a coin inside.

If we did lighting candles or handmade gifts, I would be down with that too. I do not care. I like that we have time to be together and honor some traditions.  Except for that elf on the shelf. I hate her.

So what are your holiday traditions?

Ps. there was no post last week. Thank you to those that reached out and checked in.

Zillow, the popular real estate website, has long been known for its calculated and opportunistic approach to business. Founded by Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, two entrepreneurs with a reputation for being bold and cunning, Zillow has consistently outmaneuvered its competitors and cemented its position as a dominant force in the industry.

However, some have begun to question the morality of Zillow's tactics. The company's failed iBuying experiment, which saw it rapidly expand and then abruptly retreat from the home-buying market, left many disillusioned and exposed the reckless nature of Zillow's decision-making.

But this hasn't stopped the company from continuing to pursue its aggressive growth strategy. This week, Zillow announced its acquisition of VRX Media, a real estate marketing company, in a move that further strengthens its already formidable position in the market. This follows a string of successful acquisitions, including Diverse Solutions, StreetEasy, Retsly, Trulia, Dotloop, Bridge Interactive, and ShowingTime.

These acquisitions have allowed Zillow to amass an unparalleled collection of real estate data and technology, giving it a significant advantage over its competitors. However, some have criticized the company for using its resources and influence to dominate the market and squeeze out smaller players.

As the industry continues to undergo a digital transformation, Zillow's ruthless approach to business may become increasingly apparent. The company's goal of securing its position as the leading real estate listing service provider has come at the expense of many of its rivals, who are struggling to compete with Zillow's massive audience and vast array of resources.

While Zillow's growth and success may be impressive, it's important to consider the potential consequences of its dominant position in the market. As more and more of the real estate industry falls under its control, it's worth asking whether Zillow's ruthless pursuit of power is truly in the best interests of consumers and the industry as a whole.

I'm sure some of you have seen what is going on with the AI revolution. Maybe you even played with it. I am not talking about the Lensa AI app and all those new profile pics we see on Facebook, either. I am referring to AI Chat/Text bot called ChatGPT. I don't know who gave it such an awkward name, but it is incredible. It should have been Jarvis, "computer," or let us name it ourselves.

Let's cut to the chase, if you thought of yourself as a good googler, you now need to step your game up. Google is like the yellow pages compared to this tool. A bold statement to make for a billion-dollar company, right? I'm so edgy…

Coming from an IT background, we rank each other on how good someone is at troubleshooting and learning. So we always boast our google skills or ability to look up programming code solutions on places like GitHub. With AI, it will be about knowing how to ask the right questions, syntax, and how to take the answers/results into your project.

ChatGPT is a powerful natural language processing tool that can be used in various fields, including real estate. With chatGPT, real estate agents can quickly generate personalized and engaging content for their websites, social media, and other online platforms.

You guys, this is nuts. Watch:

I asked it to write a property description for a 3&2, 3,000 square feet, newly remodeled, great views, and 10/10 schools.

This was the output:

This stunning, newly remodeled home boasts 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a spacious 3,000 square feet of living space. The views from this property are breathtaking, with panoramic vistas that will take your breath away.

Inside, you'll find a beautifully updated kitchen with a large island, stainless steel appliances, and plenty of storage space. The bathrooms have also been updated, featuring modern fixtures and spa-like features.

But the real selling point of this property is its location. It is located in a highly desirable neighborhood with excellent schools and a strong sense of community. The schools in this area are rated 10/10, making it the perfect place to raise a family.

Overall, this is a truly special property that must be seen to be believed. Don't miss your opportunity to make this beautiful house your new home.

Then a social media post:

Just listed! This stunning 3 bed, 2 bath home with panoramic views and newly remodeled interiors. Located in a top-rated school district, this is the perfect family home. Don't miss your chance to make it yours. Contact us for more information and to schedule a showing. #realestate #dreamhome #newlylisted

Another way that chatGPT can also be used in real estate is to assist with customer service. With chatGPT, real estate agents can set up automated chatbots to answer common questions from potential buyers and renters. This can help to free up their time and allow them to focus on more critical tasks, such as showing properties and closing deals.

Okay, cool, but how can ChatGPT help me in this down market?

Let's ask:

Here are ten potential steps that realtors can take to help attract buyers and sellers in a down market:

1. Understand the local market: In order to be successful in a down market, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the local real estate market and the factors that are driving it. This might include things like economic conditions, housing supply and demand, and demographic trends.

2. Develop a strong online presence: In today's digital world, having a strong online presence is crucial for realtors. This might include things like having a professional website, maintaining an active social media presence, and using online tools and platforms to connect with potential buyers and sellers.

3. Offer competitive pricing: In a down market, buyers and sellers may be more price-sensitive than usual, so it is important to offer competitive pricing that reflects the current market conditions. This might mean offering lower commission rates, or providing incentives and discounts to buyers and sellers.

4. Be flexible and adaptable: A down market can be a challenging and unpredictable environment, so it is important to be flexible and adaptable in order to succeed. This might mean being open to new marketing strategies, trying different approaches to working with buyers and sellers, and being willing to adjust your business plan as needed.

5. Network and build relationships: Building strong relationships with other real estate professionals, as well as with potential buyers and sellers, can be a valuable way to attract new business in a down market. This might include things like attending industry events, joining local real estate organizations, and networking with other professionals.

6. Provide value and expertise: In a down market, buyers and sellers may be looking for guidance and support, so it is important to position yourself as a valuable and knowledgeable resource. This might mean providing helpful information, offering advice and suggestions, and demonstrating your expertise in the local market.

7. Be proactive and responsive: In a down market, buyers and sellers may be more hesitant and less likely to take action, so it is important to be proactive and responsive in order to engage with them. This might mean being the first to reach out to potential buyers and sellers, following up promptly on leads, and being available and responsive to their needs.

8. Differentiate yourself from the competition: In a down market, there may be more competition for buyers and sellers, so it is important to differentiate yourself from other realtors. This might mean highlighting your unique skills and experiences, offering unique services or packages, and providing a compelling reason for buyers and sellers to work with you.

9. Be persistent and consistent: Attracting buyers and sellers in a down market can be a challenging and time-consuming process, so it is important to be persistent and consistent in your efforts. This might mean continuing to market and promote your services, following up with leads and contacts, and staying focused on your goals and objectives.

10. Stay positive and optimistic: A down market can be a difficult and stressful environment, but staying positive and optimistic can be an important factor in your success. This might mean maintaining a positive attitude, focusing on the opportunities that are available, and believing in yourself and your abilities. By staying positive and focused, you can increase your chances of attracting buyers and sellers in a down market.

Of course, this needs more context and retooling, but it's impressive.

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But Joe, I need to recruit 

To recruit experienced realtors in a down market, you will need to focus on highlighting the benefits and opportunities of joining your team. Here are a few steps you can take:

1. Identify the unique value proposition of your team and the services you offer to clients. This could include training, support, and access to resources that can help realtors succeed in a down market.

2. Create a compelling recruitment message that showcases the benefits of joining your team, such as the opportunity to work with experienced professionals, access to a strong network, and the potential for growth and success.

3. Use targeted marketing and outreach efforts to reach experienced realtors, such as attending industry events, networking, and using social media and other online platforms.

4. Offer competitive compensation and benefits packages, as well as ongoing support and training to help realtors succeed.

5. Foster a positive and supportive team culture that encourages collaboration and personal growth. This can help to attract and retain experienced realtors.

Okay, I'm done giving examples for now. Copying and pasting are different from what makes this a success. It's about taking the answer and retooling it for you. That is where skill comes in. Google will still live on, but more like the yellow pages.

I have so many ideas. If I ask, this tool can push out code for an entire website or app. But it's all about knowing how to ask and what to do with the results. So go give it a try.

What was your experience with it? What would you name it?

This excellent tool called HighNote came across my desk some time ago. It confused and impressed me all at the same time.

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In its simplest form, HighNote is a unique-to-the-viewer presentation sent via email that can track which materials they viewed and clicked on.

What confused me was how simple it was, but that's what makes a great product. Simplicity is definitely what many tools and experiences lack in our industry.

When was the last time you tried to send an email with many attachments, and how do you know if they viewed them all? With HighNote, you send a link and know exactly what was looked at and what wasn't.

Tell me something that does this right now. I'll wait…

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"We are all looking to get to a presentation the fastest way. What is the shortcut?" -HighNote founder Mark Choey

I hope I didn't just ruin the context of that conversation, but his point is clear.

Sure, you could make your own little Squarespace website and send it to people, but what HighNote does is create a unique presentation per person. You can't scale Squarespace like that. You can also make a general presentation, send that link out, and collect an email address, so you know who they are when they visit and view.

Here are some sample uses of HighNote that I've seen:

• Listing presentations

• Buyer presentations

• New development presentations

• Agent presentations for prospects

• Loan product presentations

• Market updates

• Valuations

• Brokerage recruiting presentations

• Team building presentations

• Open house binders

• General lead capture pages

We might have to do a demo on each of these at some point...

Do not be discouraged. The setup is effortless. You can start with some of HighNote's content in their library or build your library to reuse your materials per presentation or package.

If Disclosures.io is just a folder, then Highnote is a link in an email. But we both know that they are far more than that. Highnote is a powerful tool to help you give your audience a more personalized experience. From tracking their activity to displaying your tailored presentation, it's an excellent way to give your audience the best experience possible.

If you want to try HighNote, there is now a trial offer to check it out. I suggest you click the link to get started.

Check out HighNote

It's been almost seven weeks, and it's time to check-in. First, I want to thank you with all my heart for signing up and sharing this site with your friends on social media; it has been a big help.

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"Help for what, Joe? What are you trying to achieve?"

Nothing has changed. I am building an audience to keep informed and share my thoughts and recommendations.

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"How are you going to try to squeeze us for money?"

The content that you receive now weekly will always be free. I have so much stuff I want to get out. This is my outlet. I think there is a way to monetize that, but it isn't with a paywall.  Where I make money is from my links. I haven't made any money from them yet, either.

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"I knew it! He will only show us stuff he can get paid on!"

Not true. If there is an affiliate link, I will use it. If there isn't, and it is still the best product, like the Dot Card, I won't use affiliate links.

Remolab

You may have noticed Remolab at top of the site. That is a very beta project, but it will be the consumer reports of real estate tools and more. I get a lot of questions about what the best X is. This will be my answer section.  I plan to evolve this a lot more, and you will see cross-posting between the recommended tools and reviews here. So check it out. I am thinking of adding a request section where people can request reviews; it might get crazy.  

Meet

I added a calendar scheduling section if you would like to meet. It is part of a more significant review of alternatives to Calendly, but I think it could also grow into some one-on-one consulting.

Okay, that is it for now. Back to your regular Saturday 9 am Morning Joe.

The Friday after I got let go from my last job, I met with my friend and mentor, Keith Robinson. Many of you know Keith, and if you don't, think of him this way: some of you have Tom Ferry, Brian Buffini, or Ninja Sells. I have Keith.

Even better, we are friends, so he reached out when I was let go from my fancy C-level gig. We met for coffee to catch up and discuss the future, and we ended up with a challenge.

Keith brought up a writing challenge because he knew I wanted to get JoeManning.com off the ground. He said, "Let's start at the beginning of the month," I said, "Let's start tomorrow." I needed some regimen, and I needed it fast.

So 30 days and the goal was one publishable content piece per day, we both wrote 30 articles, but it wasn't daily. Weekends were more challenging, and we did two on Sundays a couple of times.

Lesson 1:

Daily is hard, and weekends are more challenging. Life happens. You may need to spend time with family or be busy showing houses. Working on the weekend will test your mettle.

As for publishable content, that was a much more significant challenge for me. My brain can't produce decent material for the same audience per day. Not yet, at least. Sometimes we need a break from our "brand" and need to write about life, other hobbies, or complain.

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If this was a workout challenge, doing the same exercise every day is what I would compare this to.

Lesson 2:

Publishable on-brand content takes time. Don't rush it. That means it needs a beginning, middle, and end. Like writing a song, it usually starts with a beat, melody, or chorus. Then it goes into a draft and many revisions, mixing, and mastering for the audience and mediums. Making a radio-ready song in one day is close to impossible.

Okay, the song writing analogy is over...

Sometimes all I could do was write a sentence or an idea for the next couple of days, but I only finished one publishable piece in 3 days.

Lesson 3:

Writing for the same audience daily is more complex than it sounds; sometimes, you need to change the audience for your sanity.

At first, I thought this was going to be easy. I had 3 pieces ready for the site and was excited to get 30 weeks of material in 30 days. But things changed quickly. I found that I was still only making 1 decent article per week and a lot of ideas that I needed to spend more time on than the rushed daily challenge.

Lesson 4:

Understand your pace. I can blab out a lot of stuff quickly, but if I want to tell the whole story and motivate, I need more time than one writing session.

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It's three touches for me, minimum: idea, draft, and refine.

Halfway through, I would jokingly tell Keith I hate him and this stupid challenge, and he would say, "no, you don't." In the end, I have a strengthened bond with him and myself. I know I can do something I don't want to, and hard things make hard people.

Lesson 5:

The obstacle is the journey. I stole that from a stoic reading Keith shared with me.

Without the challenge, I could have done one article per week, but I wouldn't have the writing muscle or this experience to learn from.

So now I challenge you to a 30-day writing challenge. Who is your audience? Is it for work, fan fiction, a journal, or your memoirs? Why not all of the above? That way, you will have lots of material to work with. Find a partner to do it with.

As for Keith and me, a long-term weekly challenge is in the making. And you are a part of it, reading this right now.

Before I bore you with a complaint, where do you get your real estate news from?

In our industry, there is only one primary news source compared to all the others, and that is inman.com. Sure there are other industry publications and news sources, but none seem to capture the attention or stir gossip like this one.

Inman is also known for its conferences and keynote speakers, but most of all, it's known for reporting on real estate drama. There is nothing like it which is why I love and hate it.

I don't like it because it costs anywhere between $100 and $200  a year. And you get access to everything Inman has to offer. But for some reason, they also email you a minimum of daily. Every day I get an email from Inman, and it becomes noise. One time when I let my subscription expire, I found the free version with just the breaking news-only articles all I want to read anyways. But occasionally, a headline that isn't breaking news interests me, and I want to click it, but of course, I need to have a paid membership to do that.

This annoyance leads me to my second point. The headlines read like clickbait, and they know it. Inman runs like the TMZ of real estate. That could be good, but it's also quite annoying for busy people. Which we all are.

My third issue is the engagement that we have with Inman. There is a comments section on every blog post; most of the time, it's empty. There's no collaboration and communication dialogue other than the author's writing. I've lost track of how many times I went to see the comments of an article to see if there's any engagement happening, and it's empty.

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Side note: Joe Manning Dot Com will be having a comments section soon. I need to build it. :D

Brad Inman is the only one that brings engagement with his articles. They are also the most controversial and written with high-level statements, which naturally get attention. For example, the most recent one was the industry's failure, attempting to combine everything into one platform at different brands like Zillow. That's going to bring more engagement than the day-to-day filler posted. Still, I often want to engage about things that interest me in the comments, like MLS changes, CRM updates, products, and services.

And last but not least are the events. Inman Connect has gone from one of the most fun events to the most boring one. That could be more about the stage of my career that I'm in. All of the online events they do since Covid are a big waste of time and money. The networking of in-person events in the exhibit halls has always been my favorite. Smaller-focused events on luxury, technology, and operations have delivered more applicable content. Clubhouse chats, TikTok lives, and others are significantly more inspiring and actionable.

So my relationship with Inman is that it's necessary, but it can also be very distracting, and it is a business that sells attention. Remember: when it comes to media, you are the product.

Some day I hope to have the trust and the size of an audience Inman has, though, so maybe I'm just jealous.

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Where do you get your real estate news? What are your favorite topics to read?

Real Estate social media is easier than it seems. I've shared this subject before, and I'll continue to talk about it. Many people already know about this, but it needs to be repeated regularly.

I have some opinions on social media, but today it is about content.

Quite often, our social media feeds are comprised of transactional content. Coming soon, new to the market, open houses, and just sold. They typically have a pretty picture of a home, with a location, details about the property, and a price. Very rarely is there a story about the people in that transaction.

The picture of the family with 2.5 kids holding the just sold sign tells a better story than the stunning picture of the house and the dollar amount.

Have you ever looked at these transactional social posts' comments, likes, and engagement? It's all the same people. Your peers, your friends, and your family.

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Are you growing an audience or showing off to the same circle of people?

If your goal is to show off, then you're doing fine. Most luxury real estate social media is about showing you can handle significant transactions. Everyone will do simple math to determine the commission and congratulate you. But if you want to gain a new audience, attract new customers, tell a story.

• It took a lot of work for first-time homebuyers to secure a loan.

• It was the 17th property that they bid on, and they finally got it.

• In this market, the story could be more about being patient with a buyer or dealing with the market conditions for the seller.

There's an old saying about social media: being the mayor of your market. I know it's cheesy, but it's true. The mayor talks about things that opened downtown, ribbon-cutting ceremonies, new playgrounds, events, interviews with local shop owners, and beautiful photography stories.

I have some homework for you:

1. Go outside 🌅

2. Take a picture 📷

3. Think of 2 to 3 sentences to go along with it ✍️

For extra credit, shoot a video. Don't be scared. Practice makes perfect. Make mistakes. Get uncomfortable.

There's something authentic about being awkward. Stutter, say "uh" a lot, and don't look into the camera lens. Eventually, you'll get it, and don't be so hard on yourself.

In the future, I will discuss social media tools for saving time and share thoughts on paying someone else to do it. So stay tuned.