The Commercial Real Estate Blog, Needle in a Haystack.

(Please note that if you are looking for help developing a custom, commercial real estate blog, we can help)

Blogging has been the avant garde in real estate for a couple of years, to the point where there isn’t an agent that hasn’t at least heard of the phenomena. Inman dedicates two days to it, Realtor.com is on the bandwagon, and all the Big Box agencies have now been forced to consider it.

One irony however, is that a liberal estimation of the percentage of real estate agents that actually call themselves ‘dedicated bloggers’ is less than .01.  To think that such a small percentage of the industry has had such a big impact on it, to me, reinforces the reason it is so damn important.

But the more alarming fact is that the world of Commercial Real Estate has completely overlooked blogging as a viable means of online marketing.

Last year, in February, I was interviewed by Mariwyn Evans, a senior editor for Realtor Magazine on the subject of Commercial Real Estate Blogging.  She was looking for some insight on whether or not blogging was “for” commercial real estate practitioners, given the scarcity of their existence.  My response: Blogging can be an incredibly effective marketing tool for anyone that relies on content as part of their business model.  But as to where they all were?  I had, and still have no idea.

Where are all the Commercial Real Estate Bloggers?

It would make a convenient excuse that I have been searching for them all month, hence the lack of posts here at the Tomato… but the reality is, I just spent a few of hours digging through Google, Technorati, blog directories, ActiveRain, Twitter and blogrolls and came up with the following, piddly little list.

By far the most celebrated and visible commercial real estate blog I found is SquareFeetBlog.  Their most recent post is the 14th of Nov, but their normal frequency is as much as several articles a week.   

From there, I located a total of 10 active CRE blogs.  Listed in order of their most recent post, you are looking at the trailblazers of the industry.

Adam Commercial Minneapolis Commercial Real Estate
Latest post: 11.25.08

Lon Peper - Large Commercial Real Estate
Latest post: 11.25.08

Hans Hansson - Starboard TCN
Latest post: 11.25.08

American Apartment Owners Association
Latest post: 11.24.08

Masoud Saberzadeh - Las Vegas Commercial Real Estate Blog
Latest post 11.24.08

Nathan Hughes - Richmond Business & Commercial News
Latest post: 11.24.08

Michael Mandel - Brokered – Thoughts on NYC CRE
Latest post: 10.28.08

Terry Hand - The Commercial Real Estate in Athens Blog
Latest post: 10.23.08

Rob Powell – Investing for Wealth
Latest post: 10.07.08

Will Hicks - Commercial Real Estate in Memphis and our Galaxy
Latest post: 8.28.08

Social Networks and Multi-Contributor Blogs

ActiveRain, boasting 100,000+ members has a whole roster of Commercial Real Estate Agents, but after looking at about 20 of the CRE members’ blogs, it’s clear that blogging on topic isn’t really a priority.
Only two ActiverRain bloggers are consistently blogging about CRE:
Michael Setunsky
Gregory Garver

EWM has a bunch of agents contributing to their Commercial Real Estate Category!

BiggerPockets has a a Category for Commercial Real Estate blogging, but there are also only two active participants: Rob Powell and Ted Karsch.

NAR Commercial Real Estate Blog (now defuncts, and never really got started)

Twitter

MicroBlogging is blogging to some degree, so here’s the Twitter Wire on
Commercial Real Estate and Commercial Real Estate Blog

Must Mentions

Rofo.com - “Commercial Real Estate For The Rest of Us”
Rofo is an online network helping connect investors and brokers with advice and property. 
I have to thank Sean Murphy of Rofo for inspiring me to write this post.  He had asked for some exposure on the site and I returned with a request for a blog about commercial real estate blogging.  His submitted article, which we won’t be posting, made some of the above observations.  So, thanks Sean!

My personal favorite CRE industry blog is Sibdu.com. 
Similar to the Tomato’s effort of helping the RE industry leverage blogging as an effective marketing tool, Bob Woods and Brett Rogers have built an invaluable resource for the CRE industry to learn how to leverage the advancements in technology and marketing.

Notable online resources for current articles on CRE:

National Real Estate Investor
Commerical Investment Real Estate Magazine
Wall St. Journal Commercial Real Estate
Commercial Real Estate Direct
Commercial Property News

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Comments

[Joshua Dorkin @ BiggerPockets]

Thanks for letting everyone know about our great Commercial contributors on the BiggerPockets Blog! I didn't know about half of the other sites you mention, so thanks for the list!

[Artur]

It's possible you did not find much because commercial is quite different from residential: commercial has specializations, multifamily, office etc. My blog focused on small multifamily seems to be doing quite well for me and ranks hight but I don't have much competition: touche.

[Magnus]

Great post!
I've been looking around for great examples of commercial real estate blogs so this list is brilliant.

Another great blog is from Steve Felix,
Head of Marketing for North America, Aviva Investors Multi-Manager Real Estate.
http://stevefelix.blogspot.com/
(just turned away from the email version that had over 1000+ readers)

Why not more CRE blogs?
Great question, one reason could be that they are communicating with far less people than on the residential market. (I still believe there is reason for great writers to blog though.) Another reason is that many are afraid of doing something different. Especially in those times.

[Jim Cronin]

Artur, we all know that's because you are the MAN!

[squarefeetblog]

thanks for the mention of SquareFeetBlog.... I've been on vacation for a few weeks, but blogging should resume next week!

Happy Thanksgiving

[Michael Setunsky]

Thanks for the mention in your post. I'm always looking for information about other commercial real estate agents in the business. Thanks for the list.

[Colleen Kulikowski]

Great list of commercial sites. Thanks for sharing them with everyone!

[Kent Shaffer]

I just started a blog on our new commercial real estate listings site, AcreScout.com.

You can read our commercial RE blog at:
http://www.acrescout.com/blog/

[Compete Realty]

Great list! Thanks for putting these links together all in one place.

[John Harper]

The San Jose Mercury News pulled the plug on the Square Feet Blog and others. We noted the passing here: http://www.theharperteam.com/blog/our-team/mourning-the-loss-of-sue-mcallister/

[Eric- New Orleans Condos and Lofts]

I have never thought of commercial real estate blogs as our two businesses rarely cross paths. However I will check it out as a way to learn more.

[Chris Fyvie]

Great post. Going to go through these one by one. I thought I could do a little self promotion here too... check me out at http://officesearchtoronto.com.

[Judy Peterson]

Commercial Real Estate in my area tends to be a hip pocket business and very different from Residential Real Estate. Many properties are not even multi-listed. Thanks it will be interesting to followup on your links.

[Jim Cronin]

Chris Fyvie,
Normally not tolerated, but given that I was on a quest for CRE Industry blogs, right on!

[Bob Woods]

Jim - Great post! Thanks much for the very kind comments about our blog, too. I plan on linking to this from our Sibdu Blog, probably later today.

BTW, I agree with @Magnus that: "Another reason (why there's not a lot of CRE blogs) is that many are afraid of doing something different. Especially in those times." I'd assert, though, that doing something different is exactly what these tough times call for.

In the meantime, I'll be checking out the other blogs mentioned here.

Also if you have the chance, check out our professional / social network for CRE that's directly tied to the blog, at http://www.sibdu.com . I hope it's okay to mention our network here; if not, please feel free to delete it (for your Comments section). But check it out nonetheless. Thanks again.

[Jim Cronin]

Bob,

Given that the article is about uncovering the CRE Industry blogs, I think any self promotion in the comments that is tied to the quest is an asset, so thanks for participating.

[Myrtle Beach Real Estate]

Its really informative and awesome post,commercial real estate blog providing information, market data, as well as commentary on news and happenings which have an impact on the Silicon Valley commercial real estate market.A Commercial Real Estate Blog focusing on all aspects of Commercial Real Estate with a focus on Silicon Valley.

[Jerry Gault]

We will have a business brokerage blog up and running in early January. Ideas for sellers and buyers of businesses.

Jerry

[Thea]

Thank you for an awesome post. I will check out the list today!

[David Stejkowski]

I know I am late to this game, but the blog I read just about every day (and a good source for my own blog) is Traffic Court at http://blog.retailtrafficmag.com/retail_traffic_court/. Thanks for the informative post!

[Flat To Share]

Really a nice blog..thanks..keep the good work going.

[Rob Powell]

Kuddos and thank you for the kind comments. My blog, Investing for Wealth, has moved. I now have a new blog www.TheRealWealthBlog.com dedicated to commercial real estate investing.

Again ...thank you!

rob powell
www.TheRealWealthblog.com

[Atlanta Realtor]

Interesting that so few active CRE blogs exist. The different market dynamic must play a role I would think. Regardless a blog still seems like a good way to get exposure.

[Allen Davis]

This is an interesting phenomenon. Commercial real estate is such a big market and yet so few people are interested in it. I have pondered over this at real estate investing groups many times. Why are so many people interested in residential property when the residential market is the hardest hit in today's economy?

[Allen Davis]

It is interesting to note that there is so much information available on residential property, yet so little on commercial property. The market for residential property has been much harder hit by the economic crisis, but people still prefer to wallow through the foreclosures rather than stick a toe into commercial property to test the waters.