Very big news today in the world of 2.0 property search as Nestoria announces they're now powering The Independent property search on their just launched revamped website:
"It’s great to see a traditional brand embracing a web2.0 approach generally and working with a small start up like us," according to the Nestoria blog. So far to my knowledge this is the biggest media partnership deal for any European 2.0 property search engine.
Following today's scandalous resignation of Peter Hain, the once highly respected and influential British Politician, It was also announced that Yvette Cooper, the current MP for housing and head of the newly created Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will be moving office to the become chief secretary at the Treasury.
You may remember that Ms. Cooper replaced former Deputy PM John Prescott for housing last year after Tony Blair created the DCLG (or something like that, I don't really keep up to date with too much politics). Anyway the DCLG has been instrumental in providing critical and informative housing data. Ms Cooper will be replaced by Caroline Flint, who is currently Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform
Yours truly will be speaking along with Mike Carter of Zoomf; Mark Hopwood of snowvalley.com; Mike Toogood of m2pm.com and "hostess with the mostess" Poppy Dinsey. The seminar topic is well timed, given todays' roller-coster stock-market ride after Helicopter Ben's shock rate cut this afternoon. Will it or wouldn't it help in our quest for profits? Join us on the 6th February and be the first find out!
RSVP marianna@zoomf.com
is confusing. Nevertheless, I've found a great source of independent commentary ironically out of Barcelona. Gary Stewart, CEO of Goa Internet Services who produce Nuroa, the Euro property search engine offers excellent commentary focusing intently on the race between Barack and Hillary. Checking Huffington Post and Drudge Report, the two most influential blogs in American politics and it seems like the blog world are leaning towards Hilary, but then I just got back from Canada and watched a lot of American TV, and the mainstream media is definitely riding Obama's d_^k.
Of course Ron Paul's being blowing up our interweb for the past year. Unfortunately for him it seems computer geeks are just too lazy too vote, even though his politics seem to make a lot of sense to a lot of people.
Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008 everybody; I know a little late, but better late than never.
Well what a great way to start my 2008 blogging adventure. Here's an interview with the incredulous property porn king Ben Brandt, owner and editor of the influential Rat and Mouse, London's property blog:
Tell me Ben, what prompted you to start blogging about property?A very intense 2004/2005, in which I sold a house and bought another house and a flat during a momentary weakness in the market. Over the course of a year I experienced just about every property-related stress you could think of. I accepted an offer from a nutter with no money whatsoever. I was gazumped on a purchase. Somebody tried to gazunder me on the sale. One of my estate agents was a crook. My solicitor vanished. And my purchaser’s solicitor failed to release funds in time for the system to clear them… late on a Friday night. But after a year of following the market intensely online, I couldn’t “let go”. These were also the very early days of blogging. I was fascinated by what Nick Denton had done with Gawker, and really wanted to try blogging as a form. The Rat and Mouse was a kind of experiment… the coming-together of two fascinations. I never really imagined I’d still be doing it even a year later.
How do you go about choosing the articles you link to and write about on R&M?
Firstly, I try to provide all the dry statistics… indices and data relating to the property market… but delivered with a sense of humour. The property market’s emotional… there’s surprisingly little science or sense to it, so I don’t believe a conventional, straight-faced approach is necessarily more appropriate. Secondly, I try to pick up on the kind of stories that might stand a chance of being discussed. Property’s an obsession for Londoners, both renters and owners, and during both boom times and bust. I trawl through most of the day’s newspapers – from the UK and abroad – for relevant or interesting stories. I think a lot of people come to the Rat and Mouse because it saves them the work. I also respond to the mailbag… I get a lot of email.What has been the most interesting observation you have had since you started blogging?
Everybody needs to blame somebody. The vendor blames the agent. The agent blames the vendor. The landlord blames the tenant. The tenant blames the landlord. The CML blame the Government. Everybody blames Foxtons.What is your assessment of the London property market?
It’s overpriced. Having said that, so are Bentleys, but don’t expect to see them on sale for £10,000 any time soon.How important do you think R&M is to the property market?
It’s not important, but it’s read, and I’m very happy about that. The Times and the FT have written some very nice things about the Rat and Mouse, traffic continues to grow, and it never ceases to surprise me how many people have heard of the blog, even if a small minority think it’s about rodents.What are your goals for R&M?
I didn’t start with goals, but I’m beginning to think I need to formulate some. The Rat and Mouse is becoming quite expensive to run (in terms of bandwidth), so I guess my goals are to capitalise on a few years’ hard work, arrange some advertising or sponsorship and continue to grow traffic. I’ve had some interesting offers recently that have shown the value of “the brand”. The Rat and Mouse is the top search result when Google-ing “property blog”, and has nicely targeted traffic.Do you consider yourself a professional blogger?
No, but I’m a professional writer/broadcaster in my “other life”… so journalism isn’t a mystery to me. I’m not sure how many professional bloggers there really are in the UK. There are a few venture-funded bloggers…Has anybody ever offered you money to blog about something?
Yes. Frequently. Without exception, the answer’s “no”. There’s always ad space, however, if anyone’s interested…Best / worst aspects to blogging?
Just knowing I’m being read by more people than I could shake hands with in a day is a real thrill. The worst aspect is undoubtedly comment spam. In the thousands. Daily. “I am much enjoying your rats, and will please be telling my friends, thankyou, click for tits-pix…”And thank you Ben for continuing to entertain and inform us after all these years. Blogs come and go quite frequently and property blogging is time consuming requiring a great deal of dedication and focus. No doubt about it, Ben B. is one of the unsung heroes of the London property market. Let's continue to give him all of the support that we can ...
Thanks, Harvey, for the chance to talk a little about the Rat and Mouse. It’s been fun. Keep up the good work on Renthusiast.
