The first camp’s position seems to be “I don’t do politics as a real estate professional, it’s personal and I don’t mix it with business…that’s what I pay NAR to do for me.”

The second camp takes a different approach which might be characterized as, “If not now, when…we need to start speaking up and letting our individual and collective voices be heard in order to impact decision-making.”

As we approach the election on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, REALonomics would like to encourage all real estate professional, regardless of which camp they reside in or what their political persuasions might be to vote.

Voting influences outcomes. A proactive real estate industry that votes is but the expression of choice on a single day. Beyond the ballot box we should be using our individual voices to influence opionion and stake our individual and collective places in the political process. Our individual voices form a type of collective concensus in the arena of public opinion and the national soapbox of ideas.

We can engage the voting public by exploring political social media opportunities that are outside industry, such as iVoteAmerica and other political blogs that reach the general public.

Let your voice be heard by voting and by blogging about the great issues of our day that are influencing the country today and into the future.

Related posts:

1. REALonomics Launches National Political Blog Network
2. Deal or No Deal – Play America’s Game of Chance
3. Obama, McCain and Real Estate

EDITORIAL

A re-post from iVoteAmerica, dated Monday, September 15, 2008.

In the movie Wall Street, Gordon Gekko proclaimed to shareholders, “Greed is good!” Gordon was wrong. Wall Street was wrong. The real estate and mortgage industries were wrong.

Oh, by the way…Alan Greenspan was wrong too when he proclaimed that subprime lending was “innovative” and “beneficial to consumers.”

Sound economics and the art of lending are predicated upon the borrower’s capacity to service the debt, pay it down over time and deliver return to the lender.

The concept of borrowing without capacity is foreign to all western economies and you won’t find it on any campus in America in Economics 101. Neither you nor many of your friends was ever taught the principle “you can have something for nothing.”

No One Whined about the Flow of Money

From about 2000 through 2005 greed was good to Wall Street and to the real estate and to the mortgage industries. No one whined about the money back then.

Even REALonomics, one the real estate industry’s few cutting-edge, truth-telling blogs has acknowledged in a recent post the roll the real estate and mortgage industries have played in the crash of the housing market. Refreshing honesty amidst a sea of excessive finger-pointing and blame gaming.

With today’s huge 500 point decline in the NYSE, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the timely absorption of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America we have the first bright light in the housing market collapse.

The First True Glimpse of Light

Today’s calamity was a glimmer of light and good news. Today’s plummet was the true market telling us greed is bad.

Yes, this is a bright light! Finally, the healing can begin along with celebration of the release of the last hot air from a pumped-up pseudo market, held together by slick accounting practices.

If not next year then certainly the year after your home value will begin to increase again.

Politically, this means there is less chance the Federal Government will continue its bailout of collapsing institutions that have made greed their mantra.

Tomorrow may see an uptick in the market as the true, blue-blooded economists and investors who understand the balance between eithical lending and moral borrowing begin to buy into a new market that is finally vomiting the economic bacteria from the depths of its belly.

Let the healing begin!

Related posts:

1. Paulson Pushes Bush Plan to Revamp the U.S. Financial Regulatory System
2. Deal or No Deal – Play America’s Game of Chance
3. The Federalization of our Financial System at your Expense

Because we wanted our faithful readers, authors and commentators to know first, REALonomics is pleased to announce that it has cooperated in spearheading the launch of the iVoteAmerica Network (iVA). iVA is a national polling and blogging network that includes political polling and blogging (Plogging) for all fifty States. The iVA network creates an online political blogging forum for each State allowing people to post to the left, the middle or the right of any issue.

As we have discovered in the last 12-24 months our industry is confronted with many challenge that have us wound up with politics and politicians. With the recent takeover of FANNIE MAE and FREDDY MAC by the Fed, we need to reconsider our ability to influence outcomes by creating voices. The iVA Network is one way we can do that.

The iVA Network incorporates polling as a means of measuring participant opinions on a variety of political and social issues. At its heart iVA is a political blog or, what we call a “PLOG.”

We simply are not vocal enough…we are informed, we vote, we care, but we are not vocal enough in the competitive political arenas. My vision for the iVoteAmerica Network is to simply deliver a political platform for people who vote. Who votes? People who own real estate vote, people who care about the influence politics has over us, our families, our industry and our lives. – Donald Teel, Founder

The iVoteAmerica State Networks

Each State in the iVA Network is its own plog and we are licensing the iVote State Plogs to individuals or groups who want to engage in political blogging, the creation of polls and a balanced approach to allowing consumers to voice opinions.

“We hope that real estate industry professionals will see the connection between politics, the power of our industry and our imperative to influence outcomes. Too often, we are letting others to create voices and control the content and we are then placed in a position of reacting to the babble.” said Donald Teel, Founder of iVoteAmerica.

Each iVote State Network operates under its own domain name (URL), such as iVoteCalifornia.com, iVoteNewYork.com, iVoteKansas.com, iVoteOregon.com, iVoteTexas.com, etc. The iVoteAmerica.com site is the national site that generates some of the polling content and advertising, while allowing State iVote Affiliates to operate their own State Networks independently.

Getting Started with your iVoteAmerica State Network

REALonomics hopes that real estate industry professionals who also have an interest in the political outcomes that shape our industry will consider involvement in the iVote State Networks. Each iVote State Network will be delivered to a qualifying party or entity that would like to build content, opinion and influence over issues at the city, county, state and even national level.

Want to find out more? Call iVoteAmerica toll free at 1-877-380-1000 for details or, if you prefer you may submit an online request for information through email or summit through the iVoteAmerica Contact Form.

Related posts:

1. Voting Influences Outcomes
2. Deal or No Deal – Play America’s Game of Chance
3. Local -vs- National MLS: May ‘07 POLL