A long time comrade and blogger, Lucas Lechuga, was slapped with a $25M law suit today for steering his readers clear of a specific condo development on his blog, MiamiCondoInvestments.com. Lucas has been finding out the hard way that his honest opinion(s) are not widely appreciated by the industry: in addition to the news that he is being sued by the Opera Tower developer, he has lost two positions (one today) at brokerages because of his raw blogging style.

Herein lies the dichotomy: being an expert in the real estate (or any) industry absolutely requires having strong opinions. But, strongly voicing your opinions in real estate is a high-stakes game. Lucas is generating/closing quite a bit of business in what most would consider a terrible market (South Florida). Ask him why he’s doing so well, and Lucas will proudly state that it is his blog that generates the majority of new business.

It seems apparent that consumers like what they find in Lucas, and his blog. So what gives? How does one become/stay an expert without stating what could be, at times, unpopular opinions?

CBS4’s Video Coverage of the Law Suit

Popularity: 72% [?]

Curbed SF covers the Rock & Roll Astronauts! I think Rudy from Sellsius secretly envisions himself in an Astronaughty Onesie. Our pics/videos keep popping up.

Popularity: 69% [?]

by Phil

Here’s what happened the last time we crashed a conference…

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The Sellsius dudes asked this very question in a recent poll.

Being passionate about what we do, it is easy to get sucked into “the great video debate” with virtual tour and slide show vendors. It’s easy for us to get emotionally involved when discussing video with people that resist change with all they have. It’s also easy to see which way video is headed: every number we have have points video up and to the right. Is video more expensive/difficult than its counterparts? Yes..it should be. But, we have to get passed the scenario where we just stick video next to other types of presentations and ask “which is more expensive?” because the reality is that real estate pros that aren’t using video will soon begin to lose business to those that are. Am I just some real estate technology vendor flapping my gums? What does your gut tell you?

Popularity: 41% [?]