To Real Estate or Not to Real Estate

I have run into Aaron Auxier's post How to lower your chances of getting a new real estate client by 50 percent when blogging.
This is a well written post, in strong terms showing us how we can ruin our chances of opening the gates to Paradise. Do not do this or you lose 50% and do not do that or you lose 20%... Educate the Buyers about real estate...
This is not the first time we hear that this is a real estate site, and we are limited strictly to real estate. Educating consumers about real estate is not what we as agents do best. Practice real estate and educating consumers about real estate is not the same. And while my license gives me the right to practice real estate and does not preclude me from educating, it does not mean that we are born educators.

For me AR is a terrific University. This is a wonderful source of information, and it is always just a click away. Then this is a terrific social place. Am I limiting myself because of my priorities? Maybe. But this is fine. I found what I wanted, and educating consumers about real estate is not #1 on my list. I'd rather educate myself on the issues, and enjoy socializing. How bad does that make me?

Of all the groups on Active Rain, how many of them are purely Real Estate?

Assuming that 110,000 + members are not all educators, I do not see any problem if we can be a more diverse group than just agents posting listings. If someone forgot, we are people, we breathe, cry, laugh...
Each of us here finds what they want to find. And if someone writes and places posts on Silent Majority, which is on the conservative side, others find refuge in Dissent, which is on a liberal side. Some do not talk politics, but talk families and there is a group for them. MeMes are not purely real estate, as well as hundreds if not thousands of other groups on AR.

Why would anyone try to narrow AR to their own agenda... when saying that agenda is what killing us?
And where the heck are you getting this statistics: 50%, 20%, 10%? I am a conservative, and my attorney is a liberal, and we enjoy the company of each other. Do you really change your car mechanic because you vote differently? Or your dentist would pull extra teeth because you disagree? And while I do not talk when dentist is pulling my tooth, I do talk to my barber, and I am still alive, though politically we are on different sides of a barricade and he is the one with the razor in his hands. Are you even on the same side with your gown up children?

My friends are not gathering around my table because of their political preferences. I do not choose service providers because of their political preferences.
When we all sing in unison, it is not a choir, it is a disaster.

If I were a buyer, I will be looking for a personality. Not an educator. And in Poinciana, FL I would pick Bryant Tutas. He is a live person with personality. And I believe that he is an excellent communicator.
In Salem, Oregon I would go with Melina Tompson, and in Madeline Island with Eric Kodner. I do not have a clue how Melina is going to vote, and we might have different views with Eric.

We all have space here, and there is no need to steer everyone in one and only direction. And no need to scare those who dissent, that they would lose clients. Maybe they are shining as personalities enough to get clients just because of that?

The beauty of it is we all can have what we want. You see it as money-making machine, fine. I do not have a problem. As my not seeing it as a money-making machine should not be a problem. Maybe it is time to stop fighting for the purity of AR. Imperfections make it great. Limiting it to pure real estate only is like castrating. Some of us prefer it a la naturel
So, be yourself.

Jon Zolsky, your Daytona Beach connection
www.BeautifulFlorida.com