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One year ago today. . .

. . . I started this blog, on April 4, 2009.

Didn’t want to do it, didn’t know how and didn’t want to spend the time.

But 345 posts later (including this one), here I am with a measure of success for which I had hoped and that I didn’t quite expect.  For example, I had a grand total of 58 page views in my first week; last week, it was 4,611.

Also, I have established beneficial ties with a dozen other real estate bloggers who knew each other online and often linked to each other.  But most of us hadn’t met or even spoken until I got us all together a month ago.

And new customers have come my way just because of the blog, an obviously desired result.

As a former  journalist – traditional journalist, I now have to say – the writing has come easily to me.  Still, it is on top of the burden of the lengthy free e-newsletter, now in its eighth year, that I write myself and send out every two weeks. Only rarely does the material overlap or duplicate itself, and I strive to keep the newsletter as free of opinion as this blog is full of it.  (Oops!)

Carrie Gable

So, I’m proud of my achievement, and I owe my deep appreciation to the team of virtual assistants who work in Chicago and whom I never have met face to face.

Carrie Gable – whose business has grown many times over since we began our association in 2003 while I was selling real estate in Washington, D.C. – was the person who talked me into starting the blog and whose loyalty, professional help and advice, and friendship have kept me going all this time.

Among other things, Carrie and her expanding team at RealSupport take care of my Web site, format my newsletter and keep me sane when I’m frantically busy.  They also set up the blog and provided me with continual encouragement after I moved back to Manhattan.

Thank you, Carrie, and thank you, readers, for sticking with me!

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Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Senior Vice President
Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022

M: 347-886-0248
F: 347-438-3201

Malcolm@ServiceYouCanTrust.com
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I may have vowed that I would never, ever tweet

Don’t get me wrong: I still hate the idea.  But. . .

It occurred to me a few weeks ago that many of us local real estate bloggers read each other’s posts all the time and link to each other regularly even though many of us have never met or even spoken to each other.

So, I asked several bloggers who mostly concentrate on Manhattan and a couple of writers from the traditional news media whether they’d like to get together at long last.  Sure enough, they would.

A lunch dish from Kouzan on the Upper West Side.

The other night almost nine of us met for drinks (and, it turned out, dinner) at the commendable Kouzan restaurant near my apartment on the Upper West Side.  (Hey, I got to choose.)

Attending were folks from Curbed, Urban Diggs, Westside Independent, New York magazine, Habitat, the Wall Street Journal and Brick Underground.  Three others – the Real Deal TrueGotham and Matrix – couldn’t make it. Continue reading →