NRVLiving - Real Estate. Simplified.

Lee Corso and Hanging Chads in the Same Post

Last week I mentioned that I'd been knocked out of the second annual VAR Blog Brawl.  In the words of Lee Corso, "not so fast, my friends."

I can't say for sure exactly what happened because truth be told, I've no clue.  But I've just learned that I'm in the semi-finals of the contest and I need your help!  Take 30 seconds, visit VARBuzz.com Take 2 and  please vote for NRVLiving Real Estate.  Your reward?  Absolutely nothing but the warmth in your heart from knowing you took the time to vote.

Yea, we're keeping it simple like that; no hanging chads here.  I'd greatly appreciate your vote.

VAR's Second Blog Brawl

Earlier in 2008, the Virginia Association of REALTORS held it's first Blog Brawl.  NRVLiving went deep into the tournament, eventually falling and quietly shedding tears.  Well, the second Blog Brawl was organized just a few days ago at VAR, and NRVLiving was once again in the tournament.

Unfortunately, I didn't tell you all so that I could shamelessly beg for votes.  I got caught up in some other things, and today it was announced we didn't even make it past the second round!  Well ... congratulations to the winners.  We'll be back, I'm sure of it! 

(Here's a video of Ben and Jovan at VAR making fools of themselves.  Love these guys - our state association really is the best)

Blog Brawl 2 - Round 2 winners from Andrew Kantor on Vimeo.

Down Goes NRVLiving

I was afraid of this ... I quietly drown my tears in my coffee as I check out VARBuzz.com and see that NRVLiving has been tossed - unceremoniously - out of the contest.  Queen Blogger Teresa Boardman has moved on into the Elite 8 and I couldn't be happier to go down at the hands of someone so accomplished as herself ...

Of course, thanks to you I didn't go down without a fight.  The difference in votes?  Five.  That's right ... FIVE.  I lost to the Queen Mother by only five votes.  HAH!  There's victory in defeat!  That's awesome!  Thank you to EVERYONE who voted and let me pester their email inbox with bribes and pleadings. 

If you want to continue following the Blog Brawl and voting, subscribe to VARBuzz.com and follow the action! 

Now ... back to the real estate.

Blog Brawl - Round 3 ... Will You Be My Friend (& Find Me A Few New Ones, As Well?)

Round 3 is up and active, please don't wait to head to VARBuzz.com and vote!  You've come up HUGE in the first two rounds, and I need to call in ALL of my favors for this round.  You see, I'm up against the Queen of Real Estate Blogging, the Blog Mama, the Godmother of All That Is Blogging - the one, the only, Teresa Boardman.  If you're a real estate geek like I am, you've heard of Teresa ... in fact, I THINK her St Paul Real Estate Blog was the first blog I ever subscribed to.  So needless to say, I'm thrilled to be going up against her, but know it's going to take EVERY friend I have (and I few I don't know of) to stand a chance.  Will you be my friend?

Here's the deal:

It's a NCAA-style, single-elimination blog tournament.  We survived the first AND second rounds, now we're in the Sweet 16, and it's getting serious.  REAL serious.  I'm not kidding - Teresa Boardman was just featured in REALTOR(R) magazine, and gets up to 5,000 visitors a week to her blog.  Seriously ... FIVE THOUSAND?!?!

For this round, you'll need to click on this link and vote for NRVLiving.Typepad.com, right there at the top of Zone 1.  You can only vote once from one computer, but if you'd like to vote multiple times from multiple computers PLEASE, don't let me stop you!  Voting will close Wednesday, March 18 at 11:59pm so be sure to get your votes in.  And tell a friend - all they have to do is click this link and vote one time - pass it on!

Last round, I offered my eternal gratefulness for your votes, as well as a bag of Skittles.  I don't know that there's a better thank you gift than that, but I'm open to suggestions.  Now ... what are you doing just sitting there?  GO VOTE!

Blog Brawl - Round 2

MUCH THANKS to all of you who voted for the NRVLiving Real Estate Blog in the Virginia Association of REALTORS(R) first annual Blog Brawl!  Thanks to everyone's votes, we took the MOST VOTES and captured a bye in the first round of the tournament! 

Here's the deal:

It's a NCAA-style, single-elimination blog tournament.  We survived the first round, but now the real work begins.  This week we're up against Diane Cohn from Reno NV, and we're quaking in our blogger shoes!  It's crazy - Diane's a VERY accomplished agent and blogger in Reno, and we've got our work cut out for us.  Just look at her blog!  It's pretty!  Informative!  Well-designed!  (she used to work for Apple, so she knows design)  It's 1983 - Jim Valvano and the NC State Wolfpack vs. the Houston Cougars ... who comes out ahead?

For this round, you'll need to click on this link and vote for NRVLiving.Typepad.com, right there at the top of Zone 1.  You can only vote once from one computer, but if you'd like to vote multiple times from multiple computers PLEASE, don't let me stop you!  Voting will close Wednesday, March 12 at 11:59pm so be sure to get your votes in.  And tell a friend - all they have to do is click this link and vote one time - pass it on!

You'll have my eternal gratefulness ... and really, is there anything more valuable??  Okay, I'll thrown in a bag of Skittles as well - taste the rainbow.

It's 1983 All Over Again

More on this soon, but it has to do with VARBuzz.com's Blog Brawl.  We've survived the first round, but we're going to need your help soon.  Stay tuned here for more information ...

My palms are getting sweaty. 

Will NRVLiving Make The Tournament?

Not without your help. 

What tournament am I talking about?

How about the first annual Real Estate Blog Brawl, sponsored by - officially?  unofficially? - the Virginia Association of Realtors. 

Here's how it works.  It's a single-elimination, winner-take-all competition to establish whose blog ... well, there's really no reason for it.  It's bragging rights, pure and simple.  And I'm fairly certain I'm the first VA blogger to mention it other than the official announcement, so that's got to mean I'm at the top of the heap - for now.

I can't win without you.   And you want me to win, don't you?

By clicking here, you'll be directed to a single-field entry form.  Enter "http://NRVLiving.Typepad.com" into the field, and click "Submit".  It's that easy.  The top 64 blogs will move on in the tournament, with one blog eventually standing - after six rounds of exhausting voting - on the top of a very high and successful pile of Virginia real estate bloggers.  There are no rules, which means you can vote as many times as you want for the NRVLiving Blog.  If you're a programmer out there and can write a script that'll keep nominating me, feel free to contact me at jeremy (at) nrvliving (dot) com.  I'm not above that ... Again, all you have to do is CLICK THIS LINK and enter "http://NRVLiving.Typepad.com" into the text field.

Deadline to be nominated for the tournament is this Friday, February 29th at 11:59pm EST.  Don't think I want to win this thing?  It's 1:35am and I'm writing about this tournament, so I've got to imagine - at least for the time being - I'm the leader in the clubhouse.  Winners never sleep, and I don't plan on sleeping until I win.  So start clicking, NRVLiving Readers, and tell your friends about this contest!  There are absolutely no prizes available for helping, other than the good feeling you'll get once your mouse-clicking fingers regain sensation. :)