I just placed my 2 votes in the 2 contests that pit the Final 4 against one another.

Intowninsider.com did not make it to the next round, and neither did The Phoenix Real Estate Guy!

We both prepare for 2010 – better, stronger, faster!

Regardless, you should vote here.

Be nice, unlike these uncivilized socialists with too much time on their hands on their particular election day!

Ines Hegedus-Garcia commented on my post from yesterday.

You know, in the online world, comments are one way to really know if people care about what you believe in – and, online, you better believe in what you are writing because all of the marketing doublespeak guru types are talking about “transparency” and “authenticity” and “community” and “social media” and issues of grand import and significance that matter, matter, matter in the world of “web 2.0.” They are well intended, yet for the most part, speaking to the amateurs.

What really matters is that I just met the best Real Estate team in Miami and she just met the best Real Estate team in Intown Atlanta, in the past week, and now we can refer business to one another henceforth and forevermore, and that is truly enriching.

What was Ines doing on this website? Well, she and I are competing in the Virginia Association of Realtors nationwide BLOG BRAWL in round 3. IntownInsider.com is seeded second in a field of 8 – Miamism.com, her website is seeded fifth and the votes close at 8:59 am tomorrow morning, Friday March 27, 2009. The winner moves on the the final 4, probably to compete against one of the best and the brightest of all real estate bloggers, Jay Thompson.

I said this about Jay just 2 weeks ago: Ladies and gentlemen,  Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy is a digital upperclassman and he speaks the lingua franca of the world wide web. And, he remains humble…

Here’s what Ines wrote:

Hey Lee – I just read your description of Miamism “Somehow, we are the #2 seed right now, and lo and behold we are competing with the internationally recognized and broadly lauded, miamism.com. We are certainly the challenger here!” – WOW!! just with that I’m a winner – thank you!! Best of Luck with Blog Brawl!! and you have a friend in Miami.

Now, we all have incredible tasks ahead of us in 2009 and beyond as real estate licensees – brokers and agents. And, if you are in the Blog Brawl, and if you are a pure, hyperlocal real estate broker or agent, then you connect your real estate license to your blogging and your online “marketing” - the quality and the quantity, the frequency and the accuracy, the good, the bad and the ugly. All of those impact how often you will deploy your real estate license and how often you will earn the business of others, because we really do have businesses that generate “met” and “haven’t met” sales leads, in many ways from having a blog that attracts interested hyperlocal consumers.

We are all cool like that, and I promise no more marketing doublespeak!

My favorite quote from Sun Tzu, the Chinese military philosopher that I began studying in my US Army ROTC classes at Furman University in 1985, is this:

“To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”

And, one more: “the good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but can not make certain of defeating the enemy.”

So, regardless of my use of the word “enemy,” I am not superficial enough to call Ines my “enemy.” However, we are pitted against one another in a very fun and very informative contest, and we will both walk away from the contest at 8:59 am tomorrow undefeated…but, I want to win.

VOTE HERE for intowninsider.com!

I’m a voracious reader, particularly of business and marketing books. I also have an affinity for military, geopolitical and trend books – I like authors who look ahead, who think boldly and who sometimes make grand statements. I like authors who inspire the “challenger” in me.

Right now, my favorite author is my lovely wife, Laura Davis-Taylor, who self-published a very successful, niche marketing book called Lighting Up The Aisle in 2007.

That little book paid some of the bills last year, so how can it not be my favorite?

Laura operates a “challenger brand.” Adam Morgan may not have coined the term, but he has captured the marketing zeitgeist of challengers, studied challengers and absorbed a ton of knowhow with the successes and failures of challengers over the past 2 decades.

Laura inspires many, many people, and she is the challenger in every game that she plays – she’s on the bleeding edge of strategic digital out of home marketing, and I wake up every day immensely honored to be her husband.

Adam’s book, “Eating The Big Fish,” in addition to the books of Seth Godin and Gary Keller, has been one of the primary textbooks that has guided me since I founded The Rootdown Group on April 1, 2004 – almost 5 years ago.

Adam’s book, published in 1999, is a book that I read about 3 times in 2003. I wanted out of corporate America. I’ve read Gary’s The Millionaire Real Estate Agent 8 times since 2003.

So what’s my point?

Well, we are celebrating the anniversary of my agency practice on April Fools Day. We’ve helped over 160 clients buy or sell Atlanta area real estate since we listed our first two properties on April 1, 2004. We’ve built a talented team of 3 and Dana and Greg are both remarkably talented and hard-working and their strengths compliment mine.

When we started, and even today, our “ambitions outstripped our resources.” Some of Intown Atlanta’s finest real estate agents have gone away since we started – broken business models litter the Intown Atlanta real estate agency landscape.

On the playing field of 2009, we’ve seen that this blogsite, and our complimentary community-building on Trulia (since December 2007, and since March 2008, the #1 Trulia Voice in Atlanta), Facebook (since May 2008) and Twitter ( since February 2009) is what keeps us in business.

Gary Keller breaks it down to “mets” and “haven’t mets.” We do our best to honor our mets and we’ve been blessed with a solid referral stream.

We’ve found a tremendous resource in the “web 2.0″ tools that have become part of our daily life since 2007, and our web 2.0 efforts are our PRIMARY “haven’t met” lead generator, by a long, long measurement.

Today, this blogsite obtained the honor of making it to the 3d round of the Nationwide Blog Brawl – out of 1000′s of real estate blogs, and out of 32 initial competitors in the 2009 Blog Brawl, we are in the “Elite 8!”

Please vote for us; we are THE challenger out of the Elite 8 – the other 7 are well-known, established, delightful, superbly crafted and masterfully led real estate blogs.

Somehow, we are the #2 seed right now, and lo and behold we are competing with the internationally recognized and broadly lauded, miamism.com. We are certainly the challenger here!

The votes close at 8:59 am on Friday, March 27.

I’ll wake up tomorrow and remember that the reason why this website exists is to help my clients – we want to help people buy Intown Atlanta real estate, and we want to help our listing clients sell Intown Atlanta real estate. The dynamics of both of those tasks require a leaner, smarter and more resolved business model in 2009, much more than the requirements that I met or exceeded back in April 2004.

The most vital thing Adam Morgan taught me in 2003, and what he continues to teach me today as I approach the most unique and the most widely reviewed marketing challenge of my 21 year sales career, the Blog Brawl, is this:

My business is threatened by the superior competitive positions of larger, better placed competitors. That’s my daily mindset, and that’s what motivates me to get better, to be better and to act better.

Since April 1, 2004, so far, so good. Thanks for your votes!

Here’s a well-known challenger on video from 1974…may we all be this good.

We mentioned last week that we have been honored with the opportunity to compete in the Virginia Association of Realtor’s Nationwide, 3d annual Blog Brawl.

We also featured a ZZ Top video. It may be worth a look, even today.

But, it’s a new week. Now, we are now in the second round. We are honored to be here!

When I woke up today, I thought to myself, what would I do if I had to step up in an elevator pitch debate against my Round 2 competition, Matt Dollinger?

Here’s where that led me…

Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith, collectively known as Brookwood, NY’s own EPMD, wrote the following poem as part of their 1988 breakthrough hit, I’m Housin’.

“…I come on strong, like a bodybuilder

Cast a spell upon a sucker, like that witch Matilda

Deliver a rhyme like Federal Express

My intention’s not to dis, but only to impress…”

That’s how I’m thinking about Blog Brawl Round 2. Are ya feelin’ me?

This blogsite, http://intowninsider.com/ , is seeded second in the nationwide Real Estate BLOG BRAWL Round Two, Zone 2B – #2 vs.#6. Please vote for us before Tuesday at 8:59 am! We want to make it to the Elite 8!

Thanks to all who voted so far!

Click here to vote before 8:59am tomorrow, Tuesday March 24 – thank you for keeping us in the game!

We are housin’ today.

The median of Sales Prices as a percentage of Original List Prices has continued lower, and is at historically low levels.

This decline began in 4Q 2007, and is a fairly clear reflection of the many problems inside the “gap” between buyers and sellers in the Intown Atlanta and Decatur residential real estate market. The day to day stultification can perhaps best be summarized in the “not in my neighborhood, not on my street” effect that Zillow described in a few articles last year.

Yeah, and as the Mother of All Intown Atlanta Real Estate Charts reveals, 70 out of 100 Intown Atlanta and Decatur sellers FAIL TO SELL!

The slower market environment forces Sellers to negotiate away a growing portion of original listing prices, and that negotiation leads to more than just financial pain, blues, misery and woe. Time, and the quality and value of time, is crushed.

The fact that a property is not priced to be “in” the market, but merely “on” the market is pervasive…did you see that part about the 70 out of 100?

I’ll wrap this up with a statement from noted Atlanta Trulia Voice, Associate Broker with Prudential Georgia Realty and a mega-experienced appraiser, Cobb County’s finest, Hank Miller.

Hank and I think alike and when we see the numbers and when we bear witness to the pain, blues, misery and woe, we know that the signs are pointing the way for Buyers to buy, and to do it fairly soon.

He stated this in his Trulia post on March 20: “It’s Now Officially OK to Buy – If You Do It Correctly.”

“Now is the time to seriously consider getting into the buy pool. If you do it, do it with the right intentions” – here are Hank’s tried and true tenets:

1. Don’t expect to make a killing, a home should be part of an investment portfolio

2. Buy a home, make it a home and understand the non-monetary benefits of ownership

3. Don’t buy more than you can afford

4. Don’t buy if you’re not financially set

5. Don’t try to time the market – no one can, including you. Know what constitutes success for you, execute when you find it. Buy your home, enjoy it and don’t look back. How many gamblers leave Vegas broke after being up big? How many buyers and owners putz around and lose great opportunities? Review point 2 – you’re buying a home to live in.”

Thanks Hank – you rock.

Intown Atlanta Sellers – it’s time to shrink the gap.

Know your numbers and when a Buyer arrives for a showing, ready to buy something, make it your house, by pricing it right the first time!

I’ve spent a lot of the day with super Trulia Voice, Deborah Madey from New Jersey. I’m not saying that she’s old, but just like me, she’s old school.

Deborah is extremely cool. I also got to see lots of other old school playas like Dave Jenks, Shaun Rawls, Brenda Richterkessing and the founders of RETech South, Matt Fagioli and Brad Nix. All relevant, and all looking for an edge.

But, she made a trip from New Jersey, of all places. I learned so much about Trulia mastery from her, and from Trulia’s social guru, New Jersey’s own Rudy Bachraty.

I met a lot of new school playas like Nicole and Reggie Nicolay and Mary McKnight. They all offer incredible, web savvy knowledge to their constituents daily and I’m blessed to be in their networks.

I’m looking to grow The Rootdown Group for the next 20 years, and we are about to celebrate our 5th anniversary as an active, full-time practice.

Looking ahead, we will respect the old school, tried and true tactics of great customer service and street smarts, and at the same time, we’ll be keeping our game tight with some of the amazing, high-touch elements of the new school.

I had a great day at RETech South, and to the thousands of Atlanta area agents who did not invest their time and who did not attend, I suggest that you get your REtech on next year!