Usually when something unpleasant occurs in the business, such as watching an escrow unravel when a buyer flakes, I look for new worlds to conquer.

In this vain, I joined Facebook yesterday (making me the last person in Maricopa County to do so by all estimates.) Here’s the thing, though … I’m not sure why I’m there.

I’m certain there’s a compelling reason. I think I found my class valedictorian from Dobson High’s Class of 1986 (who, incidentally, is not a good ping-pong player.) I’ve found a bunch of us real estate types.

I found Jay’s online tracking of this weekend’s Texas-OU game (memo to Longhorn fans … wait until the clock reads 0:00 before singing the Eyes of Texas. Bevo’s horns may not have come off but the wheels of the season surely are.)

This blog’s now linked there, which seems like a tremendous thing. I think. I’m really good at Arizona State football trivia, which I suppose also is a good thing. Or maybe it’s not.

One of the great challenges with this whole Real Estate 2.0-business is keeping up. It’s all but impossible to do. I’ve seen multiple articles about the need to be on Facebook and on MySpace (Tobey has a page - I’m along for the ride. Seriously) but I don’t fully understand why I need to be there.

It’s not like I’m a technological dinosaur, counter to what my recently-acquired Arizona State transcripts might say (three hours of credit for “Applied Problem Solving With Basic.” Apparently “Applied Problem Solving With Sanskit” wasn’t available 19 years ago when I first step stepped foot on campus.)

Do I really need this profile? I dunno.

Did it give me something to do other than search for the nearest bottle of Hefeweizen after explaining to my sellers that buyers can walk for any reason during the 10-day inspection period, that after a week of frantic searching they aren’t moving after all? Sure. Maybe that’s enough until someone explains the finer points.

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… have posted at the Bloodhound Blog. How did I know Michael Wurzer and FBS would make the cut somehow?

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… has posted at the vFlyer Blog.

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Alex Mather’s open letter to NAR made the short list for this week’s Odysseus Medal People’s Choice award and immediately landed him in my feed reader.

I’m now up to a full dozen domain names that are in violation of the all-mighty REALTOR trademark. They’ve been extremely easy to find. From what I hear, the legal-type folks at AAR spend a considerable amount of time working on these issues so at least are dues are being well-spent.

As I was looking more closely at the web rules for the trademark, I discovered this little nugget and realized we’re fortunate NAR isn’t more strict in its enforcement:

The following salutations are acceptable:

“Dear REALTOR^® Jim” (first name)
“Dear REALTOR^® Smith” (last name)
“Dear REALTOR^® Jones and Mr. Doe”
“Dear REALTOR-ASSOCIATE^® Martin”

Spoken use or written use in the following way is permitted:

“I respect the views of REALTORS^® Smith and Jones and of Mr. Doe who is a non-member broker.”

“According to REALTOR^® Smith and REALTOR-ASSOCIATE^® Martin, interest rates are a major factor.”

Spoken use? If I use it incorrectly in a sentence on the phone are members of the NAR trademark SWAT team going to crash through my window with a C&D letter in hand?

Speaking of spoken use …

Irrespective of local dialect and custom, the term REALTOR^® has but one pronunciation:

REAL’ tor

Members are encouraged to carefully train new employees and salespeople, particularly receptionists, on the proper pronunciation of the term REALTOR^®. Consistent aural use is just as important as consistent visual use to the preservation of the distinctive and recognizable character of the MARKS. Teach employees and salespeople to avoid uses such as:

“Good morning! John Doe, REAL-A-TORS.” or

“Good morning! John Doe, REAL-I-TORS.” or

“Good morning! John Doe, RE-LA-TERS.” or

“Good morning! John Doe, RE-AL-TORS.”

Again, I’ve never been more pleased with the use of my money.

Incidentally, if you’re wondering whether your domain name is in violation, here are the rules surrounding use of REALTOR in a domain. They’re amazingly simple:

1. The term REALTOR^®, whether used as part of a domain name or in some other fashion must refer to a member or a member’s firm.

2. The term REALTOR^® may not be used with descriptive words or phrases. For example, Number1realtor.com, numberone-realtor.com, chicagorealtors.org or realtorproperties.com are all incorrect.

Given the sheer volume of domains that violate that rule it still seems like enforcement is rather haphazard if not outright selective. Maybe they just don’t look too hard. It takes a lot of time to enter a search term in Yahoo! after all.

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Actually, news that FBS landed the contract to provide the software powering the Arizona Regional MLS spread quickly across Phoenix’s real estate blogs. In the midst of the celebration, however, Odysseus suggested creating a specific blog dedicated to the transition … a by-user-for-users help guide, if you will.

The result is the Phoenix Real Estate Technology Exchange, which went live this morning. Your initial contributors are a who’s who of the Phoenix real estate blogging scene as well as FBS’s Michael Wurzer and incoming ARMLS president Gary Cumiskey:

• Cathleen Collins
• Steven Groves
• Gary Cumiskey
• Greg Swann
• Russell Shaw
• Tony Marriott
• Michael Wurzer
• John Wake
• Jay Thompson

Subscriptions via e-mail and RSS both are available, naturally.

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