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In the 1995 movie, The American President, there is a scene where President Andrew Shepherd, is in a heated discussion with his domestic policy advisor, Lewis Rothschild, about the President's falling poll numbers.

In this scene Rothschild pleads: "People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand."

To which President Shepherd responds: "People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty, Lewis. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference."

Let me rephrase this exchange as it applies to today's real estate consumer:

I'm not in the book review business but I have to tell you that I just got through reading World Wide Rave by David Meerman Scott and it is an amazing book!

As I posted on Facebook last night:

I've been struggling with how to get my book and company more noticed without much in the way of funds, and after reading this book, I feel like I have a new lease on life and work. If you know me at all, you know I don't swoon over much but this book is incredible.

Like many of us ACRE®s, David challenges the conventional wisdom on how to bring online eyeballs to whatever you do. I found myself nodding my head and saying YES! out loud.

AND...if you want to get a taste of what I'm "raving" about, you can go to his site and download his free e-book that started it all: The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How Word of Mouse Spreads Your Ideas for Free.

But, it gets better...

Recently on the ACRE® Coaching Exchange, our coaching platform for ACRE® graduates, we had a very interesting discussion about where our value today lies as agents. It seems that in the tough market that we are working in, many agents are competing for listings by charging less than the competition and requiring less commitment in the way of an exclusive agency contracts with buyers.

This is so sad because you can never compete on price and stay in business. No matter how low you go, there will always be some desperate soul who will charge less. And when you don't require a commitment from those you work with, you only underscore that your time, experience, and expertise has no value.

In a recent article, the founder of a leading online real estate referral site, tried to make the case to beleaguered real estate agents that buying leads is good for their business and intimated that failure to buy these leads from third party companies (such as theirs) is to miss out on business.

First, let's start with the basic premise - I agree with them that there is a cost of obtaining business. Whether you do old-fashioned farming, mailings, phone calls, or put your resources into your client base and get your business from referrals, business has to come from somewhere and it has a monetary cost.

Zillow is now offering a "great deal" to agents: you can post your listings for FREE! What great exposure, and how kind of Zillow to offer such a wonderful service to agents without taking a dime-what a nice company!