I decided it would be interesting to get Erik’s thoughts and motivations behind the new blog, so I conducted an e-mail interview with him to publish here:

Q: What inspired you and (other founders) to start this blog?

Roofable is a new real estate and neighborhood blog for the Orlando area.

As you know, I’ve been blogging about real estate for a while at RealtyThoughts.com, and because I live in Orlando I keep looking for good local real estate blogs. You see great real estate blogging communities growing up around San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, New York and a few other areas. I want to help that happen here in Orlando

On top of that, I run seminars on real estate blogging for the local REALTOR organization, and keep telling people that they should be doing this on the hyper-local level – they are the experts in their communities after all. I wanted to make the meta-real estate blog for Orlando and use that to grow the hyper-local real estate agent blogs that should be coming up around the area in the near future. Something like this can really grow the local blogging community.

One last thing to note is that there are certain things that real estate agents can’t talk about. I’m not a real estate agent, therefore I’m not bound by those same restrictions .

Q: What target market are you aiming to hit?

If you’re talking about real estate in Orlando, we want Roofable to be part of your conversation. Roofable is for people who are interested in their neighborhood, their homes and who want to know what’s going on locally as it relates to real estate.

An old adage is that, “politics and real estate are local.” Our goal is to eventually drop down beneath the broader Orlando level and actually help facilitate neighborhood discussions around real estate within the hyper-local community. I might live in East Orlando, so don’t really care about downtown or Winter Park. Roofable will soon start segmenting content at those levels.

Q: How are you thinking about consumer versus industry content?

This is a change-up for me, as I’ve written mostly about the real estate industry in the past. Instead, Roofable is for the consumer and thus will have more information that they will care about. Since I can’t change completely, I’m sure you’ll find me injecting a few industry opinions into the mix, but with an angle that might actually interest non-real estate professionals.

I have recruited someone with a pure consumer mindset to help me write the blog – Pam Johnson. Her ability to give us an even keel when it comes to consumer content is very important. It’s too easy for us “industry people” to veer off into insider language and topics that don’t interest anyone else.

Q: What benefits are you aiming to get out of this blog, either for yourself or your company?

I’d like to be part of the real estate conversation here in Orlando. This is a great area to live in, has strong growth and continued economic strength indicators. As more people realize that they can find the conversations online about the local market, I want to position Roofable to be the place they do that at.

Honestly, I’m not sure where the blog will go over time, or what will happen with it. Right now I’m committed to finding good interesting stories that people here want to read. Luckily I can look to some of the other great real estate bloggers who do this around the country to see what works well for them and then try and incorporate that with an Orlando twist.

Today’s “Found” Blog: Business2 – Real Estate agent News and Information Technology

Blog’s RSS Feed: http://www.business2.com.au/feed/

Who: Business2.com.au is owned and operated by the Australian based company Agentpoint Pty Ltd.

What: Developed to help real estate agents better understand the Internet and its implications upon their business.

Where: Based out of Australia

When: Updates blog about 3-5 times a week.

Why: Nice to have a different perspective on technology related to real estate. The blog has a nice, clean look, and is updated frequently. Lists recent comments with a link to commenter’s homepage.

Interesting Topics Discussed:

• Dumb and Dumber Real Estate Awards
• Bubbles, Bust, and the Great Disconnect
• Money Down the Drain?
• 2007 and Technology Rules Our World

Final thoughts: It’s a well done blog. It covers a wide range of topics that appeal to real estate agents, and the fact that it’s based out of Australia doesn’t hurt the content a bit.

Photography For Real Estate does one thing, and it does it perfectly. It tells you how to take better pictures of the homes you are marketing. The blog also gives tips on Virtual Tour products, and photo editing software.

The blog is written by Larry Lohrman, who has been involved with photography since the mid 70s, and his wife became a real estate agent in 1985. He explains his blog best, “I started this blog in 2004 after seeing other real estate agents and photographers struggle with the same problems shooting interior photography that I’ve solved over the last several years. I enjoy helping agents raise the level of their photography and discussing interior and 360 photography.”

In addition to this incredible blog, Larry has started a very active group on Flickr where you can find great examples of real estate shots. Make it a point to visit Photography For Real Estate today, and let us know how it works out for you.

As you can see from the picture of the header, the slogan is, “Go ahead and read my mind.” It’s an amusing take on the Southern California real estate market, and includes random thoughts in addition to real estate; covering sports, movies, etc.

With posts with titles like Huh?, Location, location,…..location?, and Stop! Thief, you know you’re in for something a little different. The blog feels very personal, and well written.

Give Blog’s Away a try!

The first blog I’ve uncovered, written by Marlow Harris from Seattle Washington, is Unusual Life, and features posts about unusual homes, amazing architecture, and strange places. The blog’s loaded with pictures of extreme homes, offbeat homes, weird homes, and unusual art, and is a nice addition to your feed reader.

Well written, and a plethora of pictures, makes reading Unusual Life a nice change of pace. The layout is simple and clean. The content is fresh and updated regularly, and it’s a general enough topic that anyone can enjoy. As I read through the posts and see the pictures, I can’t help but be reminded of the opening credits of National Lampoons “Vacation.” There’s just something fun about seeing a building with a cowboy hat for a roof.

Take a few minutes and see how “unusual” things can get in our “usual” real estate world!