The early chat room was the open porch in rural America..the one under the star filled skies. Outside information came in seventh grade geography class, from the men who served overseas in the last conflict or world war. No interstates, no internet, and your circle of friends was small and intimate. Your family, the folks you spent most of your waking hours with working on the farm that 96% of us tended seven days a week. Church family. The neighbor down the road we helped with the barn raising. We were all farmers, creating something from the dirt, heating with wood. Grandmother knitting wool mitterns, summer kitchens to can and preserve food. Three generations under one roof.

As a real estate broker, in the early days it was tell them about the property’s features. Keep it frugal. Appeal to the common sense of purchasing this one after lots of thought, much diliberation. The sticks, bricks, practicality of it caused the local sale. And why would the ad copy be written with a slant to what an outside buyer would want to know? Why would someone seven states away want to move to this same ole small town local burg anyway? That all changed.

We are mobile. We text, twitter, do shout outs. The world is suddenly small and getting smaller. We are connected six ways from Sunday. We are very social and on a larger scale now with LSD (Labor saving devices). No longer is the number of bedrooms, the square footage and property taxes the three top questions posed after learning the price tag figure hanging from that local real estate. The audience has expanded one thousand fold…the further away the reader of your blog, the listener of your podcast, the owner of the eyeballs scanning your vidcast or property video, the more they are intrigued, curious. Inquisitive. One reason? Rural real estate is soooo much less expensive, cheaper than urban properties. Small town America is full of volunteers with hearts the size of Texas..that give more than they receive. And they are grateful. No traffic, no crime, and you can see the stars at night..no light pollution. Man has not spoiled this camping spot. Maine is like that. Simple, pure, honest, healthy, spacious and roomy.

So now the modern day Buck Rogers real estate practioner carries more than one ray gun that broadcasts the fine attributes of the newest listing that he punctured the front lawn to insert a sign on. His other two ray guns transmit tons of local information like the blog you are reading right now. What is the area where the sticks and bricks are all about? There is a hunger for local information, blogs, videos to show the area…where they have never been. The first attraction is the incredible lower prices. The next hunger and thirst come from getting older, wanting to slow down or simple find a safer, saner place to raise a family. The third ray gun gets slid from the utility belt to subtly brand the broker, the peddler of properties. Who is this guy that can type, communicate and do I trust him with the single largest purchase / sale I will probably ever make?

Modern day real estate brokers can tap into the social media explosion. They can Twitter, can post updates on Facebook, Myspace, upload video to Youtube, images to Flickr and shine the light on their local area. “You can not be a beacon if your light don’t shine” sang Donna Fargo back in the 70’s when I was a local record spinner at a Houlton Maine radio station owned by Howdy Doody. I’m doing my best to be a beacon, to set up lots of transmitters to turn on a constant stream of information. The signals to be picked up by folks tired of living in the city, pinned to a wall by an office desk and thinking..is that all there is as Peggy Lee sings, asks, ponders, whines. Local Maine information…we are here to provide it. I speak Maine real estate but also have a “fire in my belly” on living here, sharing the excitement of what Maine is all about. When you are ready….
Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers