Mimi Osterdahl, GRI, ABR, GREEN, WCR

Until my move to Seattle in the summer of 2011, I proudly called The Muljat Group Realtor's in Bellingham, Washington "home". Muljat is a small, locally owned and operated firm that employs the best and brightest Realtors in Whatcom County. While it is one of the smaller firms, Muljat sells more real estate per agent than any other company in Whatcom County.

In Seattle, I wanted to be a part of something similar. I love working in an environment of "help-mates" instead of "competitors". I like my business environment to feel like 'family' and 'home'. I wanted a company where I could give back to my profession and share. I wanted the opportunity to mentor others. I wanted to help grow a company. I wanted a business environment that encouraged me to grow personally as well as professionally. And, as a licensed Real Estate Instructor for the State of Washington, I wanted the opportunity to teach others.

After an exhaustive search, and a short stint with a really large franchise, I found my new Real Estate family and "home" with Real Living Northwest Realtors.

If you are interested in knowing more, or looking for a change too...contact me. I will be happy to share with you the unique and wonderful opportunities to be found with us!

And, if anyone you care about needs a Realtor, please, share my name with them.

Live good. Be happy. Be real.

Mimi Osterdahl / Broker / GRI / ABR / GREEN / Real Living Northwest Realtors / 360-220-6787 www.rlnorthwest.com / www.livegoodbehappy.com

MOO!

I am a Seth Godin junkie. I have devoured everything he has written since, well, he started writing. And I BELIEVE in the concept of the PURPLE COW.

Yesterday I attended my second Raincamp which boasted leaders in Real Estate Technology the likes of: Zillow, Docusign, MarketLeader, ActiveRain and (a personal favorite) Estately.com (Sheesh! How fortunate I am to live in the corner of the world where most of the best and brightest Real Estate technology POWERHOUSES also lay their heads at night?!)

Highlights of the day spent at RainCamp?

Most valuable for me was another refresher course on SEO. More importantly was finding out how the large online Real Estate clearing house companies treat my posts. Long tail descriptions are the Name-of-the-GAME.

I was impressed by Spenser Rascoff from Zillow. He spoke about Zillow's commitment to support Real Estate Agents. He also shared Zillow's humble understanding that the information they provide the public is an ESTIMATE based on AVERAGES compiled by a COMPUTER MODULE. And their deeper understanding and support of the agent community as the RESOURCE for market value. I needed to hear that.

Helpful was the long list of sites that will serve to expand my Real Estate tool-belt. Most of which are free services. I really like FREE.

Missing at this RainCamp, though, were a step-by-step for how to write a long-tail ad (I get it...but did every one who paid to attend?).

Also missing was a deeper emphasis on the importance of personal branding...the aforementioned "Purple Cow". Yeah, it's great to send traffic to your site...but what are they going to find when they arrive? And, are you consistently being the Purple Cow...everywhere you are? Or, are you sometimes blue, sometimes, pink, sometimes just a regular cow??? Being found online is one thing, but have you only provided information...or have you established enough about WHO YOU ARE that a perfect stranger will trust/feel they "know you" well enough to decide to CONNECT with you? That would have been nice to talk a lot more about. (Hey! Ben, Jonathan....guys! Call me. I'll do that part.)

Which leads into the obvious...we are still a person-to-person business and only make income when we DO BUSINESS with REAL PEOPLE. SEO is great IF it produces RESULTS. SEO is NOT GREAT if it keeps you shackled to your computer day after day trying to get rated on search engines. Hmmm...it would have been nice to have some FREE TOOLS introduced that specifically unlock the thing most agents find themselves lacking...T-I-M-E. (I know they are out there.)

Ultimately, RainCamp is a worthwhile experience, and worth the day you will need to give it. But, in this agent's humble opinion, (this is for my friends running ActiveRain) it would have been better if Bellingham's camp had followed the agenda of the Seattle Camp. MORE content, more hands-on, less "motivational moments" and more sharing of results from Real Estate practitioners experiencing successful business outcomes from their online efforts.

Seattle rocked my socks off...Bellingham was ok.

Live good. Be happy. Attend RainCamp.

-Mimi

Mimi Osterdahl / The Muljat Group Realtors / Bellingham, Washington / www.LiveGoodBeHappy.com

Founding President, Northwest Washington Women's Council of Realtors

When I became a Realtor nearly 14 years ago we had "The Book", the little metal key to open boxes (which I still carry on my key ring) and printed forms in triplicate ("Make sure to press real hard when you are signing.")
Since then we have gone through the uproar around releasing our "power over the information" by going digital - which everyone thought would be the "end of the industry".

(Nope)

We have changed the online provider for the MLS (3 times!), gone digital with our key boxes (with two major overhauls), consolidated to one MLS for the state (for a while there, our office had to input all information to TWO different MLS's for every listing, every change order, etc...glad that didn't last!), broker's won't hold earnest money anymore and we now have Buyer's Agency/. I have seen at least 6 MAJOR changes to Real Estate Law and Agency Law, we digitized the forms, the emergence of online clearing houses for information and online agents has become 'normal', I have learned to blog, twitter, facebook, build websites, I no longer have to wait for film to get developed or cut and paste together (with real scissors and tape!) flyers or marketing materials, I have upgraded my phone 4 times, my computer 4 times and have occupied 3 different offices at the Muljat Group. I have been in Buyer's Markets, Seller's Markets, a recession, and a "gold rush", I have seen REO's, and Short Sales, and bidding wars, and (even) lotteries for home purchases. I have seen interest rates close to 10% and as low as 4%. I have seen an overhaul to financing guidelines, appraiser guidelines, inspector licensing and the advent of Form 17 (with it's most recent connection to the purchase and sale agreement through mutual agreement). And this summer, we will (finally) make some MASSIVE changes to licensing and continuing education requirements for new agents. (even our titles will change from "agent" to "broker")

Through all of this shift, morph, change, I continued being needed by people to help them navigate the buying and selling of homes, protected by well written contracts and I found really cool new ways to market the homes I have listed to the

WHOLE WORLD.

Is there a moral to the story? I guess the only thing we can ever truly count on in this business is CHANGE...so, I say,

EMBRACE IT!

Live good. Be happy. Embrace change.
-Mimi

Mimi Osterdahl / GRI, ABR, ABS / The Muljat Group Realtors / Bellingham, Washington

Founding President, Northwest Washington Women's Council of Realtors

www.LiveGoodBeHappy.com / mimi@muljatgroup.com

The Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, Washington. A hop, skip and a jump (and a very short ferry ride) from Bellingham. Just one more reason I LOVE where I live. Live good. Be happy. Fall in love with the Pacific Northwest. Mimi Osterdahl / The Muljat Group Realtors / Bellingham, Washington / www.LiveGoodBeHappy.com / Founding President, Northwest Washington Women's Council of Realtors (Simply click on the photo for the web album)

Wooden Boat Festival

Hello again Active Rain...it's been a while.

I stopped by to check out my blog today, and saw that ALL of the Postlets I have posted are inactive. Reason : They are all SOLD!!! WOW!!! It has been a GREAT SUMMER for Real Estate in Bellingham and Whatcom County Washington! I have quite a number of new listing Postlets that never made it here, because I have been too stinkin' BUSY this summer to update the myriad of sites I belong to.

(It sure would be nice to post to my Active Rain site using the ADD THIS feature. Does anyone know how to do that?)

It's good to be busy. It's good to be a Realtor. It's good to help people buy houses to call "HOME". It's good to remember that Real Estate has and always will move in tides, Buyer's markets, Seller's markets, Buyer's markets, Seller's markets...in and out, and so-on and so-on... And it is GREAT that I am now a Washington State Certified Instructor!!!! Yippee!!! (More blogging on where that is going to take me later....)

It's also good to ride bikes in the rain. Eat sushi. Fall in love. Buy a house and renovate it. And read a book on the kayak while the crab pot sits in the water. Just a few more reasons I have not been by my Active Rain blog lately. :)

And so it goes as we close-out the Summer of 2009:

Live good. Be happy. Make hay.

-Mimi

Mimi Osterdahl / The Muljat Group Realtors / Bellingham, Washington / www.LiveGoodBeHappy.com / Founding President, Northwest Washington Women's Council of Realtors