What I've Learned in One Year of Blogging

It's hard to believe that I started this blog for our appraisal company one year ago. It really all started when I came across a guy named Phil Crawford and his weekly podcast for appraisers, Voice of Appraisal.  Phil does a great job of informing appraisers of relevant news and information for appraisers. His podcast comes out once a week and if you are an appraiser or interested in appraising I highly recommend you give him a listen.  It is informative and entertaining.   On Phil's show he spoke of how important it is for appraisers to have a blog and be our local market experts.  His list of Appraiser Power Bloggers do just that.  His show inspired me to start a blog for our appraisal business.  There is really a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about appraising, appraisers and the appraisal process.  It is my desire to help others, whether it is borrowers, sellers, realtors, or mortgage brokers, to understand what we do and why we do it. My first blog was attached to our website and then I shortly moved it to a Blogger format.  So here I am a year later and here are some of the things I have learned:

1. Be Yourself-  One of the most important things to find is your voice.  I have learned to go ahead and be myself when communicating. My voice as an appraiser will be different than others because of my background, personality and experiences. Formally an educator and a mother of seven children, I can use those experiences in expressing my thoughts.  An example of this is my post How Real Estate Appraising is Like a Track Meet where I compare appraising to a track meet.  All seven of my children have participated in Track and Field and I have spent tons of time at track meets.
2. Be Connected- The biggest surprise in blogging for me was all of the connections that I have gained throughout this year as a direct result of my blogging.  I have been able to connect with some of the appraiser power bloggers from the Voice of Appraiser website.  Bill Cobb, Ryan Lundquist, Tom Horn,  Lori Noble, and Rachel Massey are all real estate appraisers with terrific blogs and have been very helpful and encouraging to me.   I have also connect on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ with others in the real estate industry such as realtors, mortage brokers, and investors.  It has been terrific connecting with others in the industry and sharing great content.
3. Be Consistent-  The key for me was to find what level of consistency I would be able to maintain.  I started out trying to blog weekly but with my busy workload and busy family this was not feasible.  I have found that for now twice a month is what works for our business. Providing monthly market analysis for our local markets and then appraisal information has seemed to work. Finding the time to blog is the biggest challenge.  I just encourage anyone to find what works best for them and their schedule. 

I have enjoyed my first year of blogging and I look forward to what I will learn in year two!  I am thankful for my husband and business partner, David Slater the founder of the DW Slater Company and my appraiser mentor for supporting my efforts.  I have also been honored to have my posts shared by others as well being listed as one of Top 35 Bloggers & Social Media Real Estate Power Players and 56 Terrific Real Estate Tweeters To Follow on Twitter!  Please let me know if you have questions about appraising or appraisals and I will do my best to answer. As always just contact us at www.dwslaterco.com for your questions or real estate appraisal services. 

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net