Farming for listings, Pinterest for real estate, and coffee might not be the miracle it seems

Looking for listings, agents are going to happy hour, checking property records, and giving away half of a commission, according to Bloomberg.  Many homeowners aren’t interesting in selling since the properties are worth as much as they own on their mortgages.  Sellers are listing because of life events, such as births, marriage or an empty nest, not because they wish to purchase a move-up property.

More owners of foreclosed homes are getting back into home ownership, much quicker than they anticipated.  With help from such agencies as the FHA, the Veteran’s Administration, credit counseling and home builders, families are moving into their own homes again, instead of renting.

You may have created Pinterest Board to plan your wedding, save decorating ideas, collect recipes or get craft ideas, but Pinterest can also help your real estate career. For many agents on Pinterest, getting traffic back to their site is a goal. “I’m posting things from my website and blogs and hoping to get the links back to my website and to drive traffic,” says Karen Highland, an agent in Frederick, MD. “I’ve only been on it a month or two now, and I’ve seen a little bump in traffic.” Mike Bowler, a Lansing, MI, agent, says that getting traffic is important but that agents should be sure to also repin content from others.” Pinterest allows you to create and build relationships with current and future customers.  Agents are also posting information about activities and information in their towns.

The world is full of myths – some we regard as ‘truths’ others we scoff at as ‘crazy’. It all depends on your experience, upbringing, and sucker-ability. The curmudgeons at Wired look at some myths Americans tend to believe in – stock picking, diets, lie detectors and paying people to work harder – and call them out as scams.

A new study came out this week purporting to show that coffee drinkers live longer. However, further digging into the research by the Washington Post shows there could be a few snags. First, you have to drink A LOT of coffee – we’re talking Girl with the Dragon Tattoo levels – to get the full benefits.  And also secondary habits common among coffee-addicts (smoking, drinking, lower rates of exercise) all will make individual coffee drinkers more likely to depart to the great beyond sooner rather than later.

New iPhone expected to have larger screen.

Gizmodo has an interesting long post on Flickr and how Yahoo! killed its golden child with integration and corporate needs. The once premier photo social network is now little more than an internet backwater. New managers are trying to recapture the lightning, but it’s doubtful the brand can be saved.

And so it begins…Virgin Atlantic is becoming the first airline to allow mobile phone calls on flights. The carrier places lots of restrictions on when and where and the costs are through the roof, but it may be too juicy of a revenue stream for other airlines to pass up.