The CandysDirt Story: How I Got to be So (Dang) Real Estate Obsessed!

Have I ever told you my story, why I am so obsessed with real estate and why I blog? It goes like this: I was a journalist, a magazine journalist, who covered real estate as a journalistic beat, then got hooked. I realized that blogging about homes and featuring them on the web is really the only and best way to market homes.  If you disagree, I want to know. And I may challenge you to an ad dual. Agents in Silicon Valley don’t even bother with print any more: 89% of buyers search for homes on line, and internet buyers’ incomes are 25% higher than traditional print buyers. By the time a certain listing is printed, that home may have a price change or even be sold, if anyone ever reads it. In fact, the homes we feature are selling sell and when we write about a home, the open houses are overflowing. This one sold four days after our posting.  From a reader in Plano:

Candy, Just thought you’d like to know the impact of your article on our house. The weekend after it ran, we were inundated with showings – I think we had 12 total. Last weekend, after the buzz from your article died down, 2 total showings!

I cannot thank you enough for the article, hopefully someone will like it enough to put a bid in. –Thad

I believe residential real estate should completely migrate to the web, and that blogs are one of the best, most efficient ways to deliver real time information and promote transparency. On CandysDirt, we focus primarily on residential real estate in Dallas and increasingly, North Texas. I founded CandysDirt.com as a hyper local real estate blog to take off where DallasDirt left off. I created SecondShelters.com for the growing (and struggling) second home community niche. My heart was proud the other day when I posted a listing and the community told us that when he showed it, it smelled of smoke. We want the truth about these homes — price and condition! Ultimately, I want to add more transparency to the buying process, help consumers find the very best homes and deals, and obtain the very best value out of their real estate investments.