Brendan's Blog

So, my blog posts have been lackluster as of late.  Partially from feeling a little beaten down about the market, partially from getting used to having our first child, and partly due to my latest project.

Many of you that follow this blog know that my primary career was as an opera singer for many years.  Last year, we were devastated to lose our beloved Baltimore Opera company.  In the "making lemonade out of lemons" department, we decided to take matters into our own hands in order to keep opera in Baltimore.  I'm thrilled to announce that not only is our company, Baltimore Concert Opera a great success, but there is also a flurry of activity out there surrounding the future of opera in Baltimore.  In fact, Baltimore Opera's old domain name was purchased at the auction (sad, I know) and has been turned into a resource for opera lovers in Baltimore.  Please visit baltimoreopera.com if you have any doubt that there are plenty of chances to hear live operatic music in Baltimore~

Now, although this takes a good bit of time, I try very hard to not let it take time away from my business.  Occasionally, it is a big challenge, as there is so much energy surrounding this project, the excitement is reminiscent of the real estate boom.  I realized very recently that there is a lot to be learned from this experience that can be translated into my business.  Rather than whine about the loss of our beloved Baltimore Opera company, we got to work...created something wonderful, and felt great along the way.  Our tumultuous environment in the real estate world certainly presents opportunities for us to re-tool, examine the way we do business, the way we ask for referrals, what we are thankful for, what used to be easy that is now hard work.  

With every performance that we present, I marvel at the work...from our volunteers, our singers, our pianist, the employees at our incredible venue.  There is a reason, after all, that opera is latin for WORK!  However, that work is appreciated by our audience, and at the end of the day, we take great satisfaction in that.

Running a business in a tricky business climate is work indeed, almost an art.  The next time that I get to the settlement table, I promise to reflect a little bit on the amount of work that went into the deal on behalf of my client.  I'll realize that I have a unique skill set that allowed this transaction to happen smoothly, or God forbid if something went wrong, I had the skills to "right the ship."  With that attitude, I don't see why my "audience" won't grow to standing room only!

If you are in the Baltimore area, and have interest in seeing opera in a very unique way, please stop by and see us. Those of you on Twitter can follow us @concertopera  We'll be melting the two worlds together next month when the Baltimore Concert Opera sponsors a networking happy hour at the Engineers Club (our phenomenal venue!).  Drop in for a drink and a song!  Here's looking forward to a great season of singing and selling!

As I mentioned in a post last week, it looks like we are getting close to getting some news on the homebuyer tax credit:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125678511901015147.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_realestate

I wonder, if this is extended only until April, as proposed, if it will really have the desired effect.  The upside is, perhaps it will help alleviate the pain of the slower winter months, if buyers have that deadline looming.

In any case, write your congressment...get this thing passed!

Good Morning All,

There is little doubt in my mind that Social Media Marketing has already become a huge part of our business, in fact most businesses.  In addition to my career in real estate, I also run a small non-profit opera company called Baltimore Concert Opera.  We rely, as we do in real estate, heavily on "word of mouth" marketing, and Twitter and Facebook have been a huge boon to building a fan base, as they have in real estate.

I find myself, however, going through vicious cycles where I become overwhelmed with all of the updating that is necessary.  Emails to our client list, updating our websites opera-houses.com, MtVernon-houses.com, as well as all of our single property sites, craigslist, Zillow, Active Rain, blogging, the list goes on...

Occasionally, I let things slip for a couple of days, or a couple of weeks, then I am overwhelmed with TOO MUCH information to blog about.

Anyone out there have advice for scheduling this sort of work, without letting it become all-consuming?  After all, I do prefer to work with real live clients, rather than cyber ones!  Any thoughts would be appreciated!

It has been entirely too long since my last blog post.  Am I burying my head in the sand during this slow market?  It sure doesn't seem that way.  We've actually been rather busy over the last year, but I have woefully neglected this blog, and many other on-line activities.  I know too well that waiting until the phone stops ringing to devote time to my on-line marketing is a big mistake...so, here comes my new year's resolution, in OCTOBER!  I will check in on my blog once a week, if not more, and I will get back to the marketing tools that have made my business successful!