Are you coming to NAR’s Mid Year Meetings in Washington DC on May 11-13? If so, here’s a quick and dirty guide to what to check out and where to grab a cocktail. If you are going to be at the meetings please be sure and let me know, in the comments or DM me @nartech. I’d love to meet the Agent Genius crowd IRL.

Follow Along at MidYear Live

Even if you aren’t going to be in DC you can still follow the action at Mid Year Live.

Midyear Live brings all the news and conversation about the Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo direct to you. Visit Midyear Live between May 11-14 to check out Twitter and Facebook coverage, follow featured NAR members as they attend the event, and view news reports and recorded sessions.

From the Center for Real Estate Technology—Throughout the meetings…

Starting Tuesday, May 11, CRT is sponsoring the Wi-Fi area in the Marriott Wardman Park in the Maryland Foyer.  It will be available 24 hrs a day thru Saturday 2pm.
The Bloggers’ Lounge opens at the Omni in the Forum Room, Tues – Thurs 10am – 6pm and Friday from 10am – 4pm.

Wednesday May 12:  Business Issues Committee 10:00 AM-Noon, Marriott Wardman, Salon 3

This is where technology policy issues are discussed. If you have an interest in issues like data security and privacy, net neutrality and other tech policy issues, come and observe the Business Issues Committee and say hello. I am one of the staff executives for this committee.

Wednesday May 12: Tweetup 5:00-7:00 PM Marriot Wardman Park Lobby

To RSVP and more info.

Wednesday May 12 Raise the Roof Event 5:00PM-8:00PM Tabaq Bistro, 1336 U Street

Cocktails and Hors D’Oeuvres on trendy U Street. RSVP to erin@listhub.com with your full name and company by May 3.

Thursday May 13: Business Technology Peer Breakout Sessions 8:00AM-11:00 AM, Omni Shoram Ambassador Room

Garron Selliken, Todd Carpenter, Heather Elias, Keith Garner, Tina Merritt, Jeff Allen, Kelley Koehler, Dale Chumbley, Nobu Hata, Greg Carpenter, among others will be on hand to discuss tech topics that all real estate professionals should know about.  Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Market Stats, Converting web leads to clients, mobile apps, and other business tools will be discussed during these informal conversations.

Thursday May 13: Business Technology Forum 3:00PM-5:00PM, Omni Shoram Empire Room

Hear what industry thought leaders have to share about today’s and upcoming tech trends.
Jeff Allen, Heather Elias, Garron Selliken, and Aaron Wheeler share their experience & insights on how technology is impacting their day-to-day business.  Audience questions are welcome.

Friday May 14: LinkedIn Breakfast 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM, Omni Shoram, Bloggers Lounge

Join Todd Carpenter and other NAR LinkedIn members for coffee and danish. For more info

If you know of something I missed, please let me know in the comments. Hope to see you in DC!

It doesn’t get any better than this – you can actually get Inman Connect Tickets and help a charity at the same time!  I was the lucky winner of Inman Real Estate Connect Registration Passes and with the creative help of some friends (thanks @tcar and @andykaufman) decided to auction them for charity.

I’m sure @jbern had no clue what was going to happen when he started the competition: What’s Your Tweet Worth? ….between Jay Thomson’s raffle and this auction, there are some creative minds at work to help our colleagues as well as great charities.

So here’s what I would love for you to do –

1.  go place a bid

2   spread the word  **tweet it! facebook it! email it! **

3. check on the bid

4.  spread the word again **tweet it! facebook it! email it! **

The highest bidder will win full registration to Inman Connect San Francisco (both Inman Connect and Blogger’s Connect passes) and proceeds will go to Mothers Fighting For Others (that’s a $939 value).  What are you waiting for??? Go Bid!  We will be announcing the winner before the weekend.

**thanks for the tix Inman!!  Let’s see how much money we can raise**

On Tuesday morning I woke up and read a Tweet on Shaun Donovan, Secretary of HUD, announcing that first time buyers could now access their $8000.00 tax credit in the form of a bridge loan and use it towards their down payment on the house they were buying.

I went to NAR press release and read the posted the comment from his speech at the Pre-NAR conference, The Real Estate Summit, advancing the U. S. economy.

Later that day, I received an email from the Michigan Association of Realtors with the same announcement.

As the day went on I received an email from Keller Williams, Ann Arbor saying the same thing.  Later that day, one of my team members sent me and email saying she was sending out the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT to all her first time home buyers.

I posted all about the announcement here and then a few lenders said they smelled a fish. I thought to myself, oh they just haven’t got their Mortgagee Letter yet because no way would NAR, MAR and KW say this.

Problem

The problem is this announcement was not going to happen (yet) and the Pre-Published speech of Mr. Donovan was gone from the HUD web-site.

It is still up on the NAR site and I have had no retraction from MAR.

The Dilemma

The point I am making is not to stir the pot again. But, to ask how and why was this ever allowed to be published?

• Why is it still on the Realtor.org site?
• Why no recanting from MAR?

We know the effect social media can have on getting the word out and the speed at which it can happen.  My frustration is that reading from three credible sources that their is a new rule FHA rule for first time home-buyers only to have it vanish in a New York minute.

Credibility

When we blog, we put our credibility on the line. Oh it is easily corrected on Activerain but what about the consumers who get the information from an RSS feed or search the $8000.00 tax credit read a post, announcing they can use the $8000.00 tax credit up front  for a down payment. (this has been my most searched term since Feb.)

One of my own lenders called the HUD office in Chicago and was told, “Well, it is  going to happen, Shaun Donovan announced it, but the details are just not worked out so the speech shouldn’t have been published.” She told her she had pulled it off the HUD site, printed it, then came back after lunch and it was gone. She too had been getting lots of calls from lenders on it wanting more details.

Having attended big conferences I know the leadership likes to announce new things first to a receptive audience before it hits the public. It gets a warm welcome and everyone is happy, happy.

I am just bummed that when we blog, think we have credible sources and then have it blow up in our faces.  Are we to accept that with the speed of the internet things just might not be 100% truthful?  What happened?

I want to believe I can trust my trade organizations to print the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

The thing is I believe they did publish the truth about what Mr. Donovan said, and news like this spread like wild fire. Hungry Realtors were thrilled with the announcement.

Then the message disappears and like a commenter on my blog said:

“Your trade associations have the credibility of Nancy Pelosi. They told us QUARTER AFTER QUARTER AFTER QUARTER in 2004, 2005, 2006 & even 2007 that the worst is over in the real estate markets. LOL!!!!”