Many of my friends are ar #RETS (ReTechSouth) mingling and uniting and re-uniting with each other IRL (In Real Life). I am not there, but WILL be doing some IRL mingling this Sunday when some of my online peeps make it to Colorado Springs for a NAR event.
Although these friendships are CREATED online, it is the IRL times that solidify the awesomeness that we all share.
I did some IRL connecting today as well. There is only about ONE other prominent real estate blogger in Colorado Springs and for as much as we tweet back and forth and chat with each other on Facebook, we had never really “met IRL” beyond a passing “hello” IRL. Her name is Kathy Torline (@COSRealEstate) and works with Colorado Springs luxury home foreclosures.
Lately, I have begun to really look at all my IRL relationships and realized that I really didn’t KNOW her at all. So, the other day I decided to ask her to join me for a cup of coffee.
Today we met for coffee and our hour-long (or was it 2??) conversation could have easily lasted all evening. Sometimes you never know what to expect from someone IRL … even when that someone is in your own city! But, what was once an online friendship has now turned into great IRL friendship.
We were able to chat about the recent change in her company and the various implications – (She was a Prudential Agent until the local owner dropped the Prudential affiliation, leaving Colorado Springs Prudential-less as of yesterday.)
We talked about how important “culture” is in a local real estate office and how sharing cool ideas with your “competition” is always better off for everyone in the long run.
We talked about short sales and shared ideas on how to better serve the sellers in these situations.
We talked about all kinds of things that IRL conversations let us talk about, without the distractions of email notifications, direct messages or random thrown sheep.
Thank you social media for introducing me to my new friend, but …
IRL ROCKS.
*Image courtesy of one of my favorite people via a social media site.
