John’s Law is a scientific law — a hypothesis about the way the world works.

It has a comfortably mathematical looking formulation:

G = 1 / R²

Let’s break it down. G is the global importance of a given issue to consumers, the general public, the world at large.

R is the number of real estate bloggers writing about it during a given week.

Stated in words, the overall importance of an issue is inversely proportional to the square of the number of real estate bloggers talking about it in a given week.

Some hubbub over ePerks has gotten everyone up in arms this week. I estimate that there are 20 real estate bloggers talking about it, at least. So I judge the importance of this issue to be 1 / 20 squared, or .0025. We probably had a hundred bloggers talking about Greg Swann bagging on some guy’s video, so the importance of that issue was about .0001.

Counting the actual bloggers is left as an exercise to the reader.

To date I’m the only one writing about John’s law, so its importance is 1 / (1 squared), which of course is one.

I hope no one will write about this law except me.

I would hate to see it trivialized.

It’s a kitten!

Photo courtesy of FreePhoto.com.

Well, I don’t want to embarrass master builder so-and-so by printing his name, but one of the details he didn’t oversee was hiring a listing agent who proofreads.

Careful attention to detail, indeed.

Several authors including Genuine Chris Johnson have been making the point that that the real estate Blog-O’Sphere is inbred and cliquish.

I’ve been noticing that as well.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with cliques, per se, but I do object to those that don’t center around me.

This is, after all, the Social Internets. It’s a series of tubes where people should try to be more friendly to me.

Introducing the Real Estate John O’Sphere

Unlike that worn out, old, legacy Blog O’Sphere, The Real Estate John O’Sphere (O’Sphere 2.0) includes me by definition.

Here are some important differences between the real estate blogosphere and the Real Estate Johnosphere:

Membership

Membership in the Real Estate John-O’Sphere is simple. All past and future clients are members by default, since I enjoy getting paid. Therefore they are members of my O’Sphere of O’Influence.

For everyone else, the nomination process is simple. First I think about you, and then I think “Do I like that person?” If I like you and I feel like you’d make a good fit, then you’re in.

The Appeal Process

What if you’re not in, then what? Well, that’s where the appeal process begins.

You try to do something to make yourself appeal to me. If you succeed, then I let you in.

Did you ever notice that Real Estate Agents always seem to have three important things?

1. Nice cars we may or may not be able to afford.
2. Our pictures on our business cards.
3. Some kind of motto that describes our business.

Well, naturally I’ve noticed it, too — hence my ability to point it out. Of course, if you saw my Honda Accord you wouldn’t exactly accuse me of extravagance in the car department. But I do have my picture on my business card. I even wore a tie.

And when it comes to marketing slogans, brother, sign me up! I love those things. “Putting service first”. Wow, that one’s bound to put me head and shoulders above the competition. Or how about, “It all adds up to better service”? That’s actually our Real Estate PLUS Team’s latest motto. (Back when I was a solo act, I used to use: “Professionalism You Can Count On.”)

In fact, I’m such a motto junkie that I’ve considered many alternatives over the years. For some reason, a few of these mottos never made it into our marketing materials. I don’t know, maybe it was fate, or maybe wisdom. Maybe that certain marketing “je ne sais quoi” just wasn’t there.

Now these misfit mottos are revealed. I’ve kept them in my sock drawer so long, but I thought that not sharing them would be an unfathomable loss to the mythopoeic literature of Real Estate Marketing.

Top Ten Rejected Real Estate Mottos