An interview with Blogger of the Day, The fotoUR of  urbanfoto.

iBt4iM: Tell my readers who you are.

The fotoUR: Professionally speaking, I am a real estate ninja in Brooklyn, NY on a mission- to change a lot of how real estate is practiced in areas of rapid change.  I've been in NYC for a little over 3 years, but I came from Charleston SC, where much of my family still lives- my mother (also a realtor) lives in Florida.  My concerns are mainly centered around ethics and the various approaches that agents take towards 'helping' strangers find housing in an urban environment.  My background is Philosophy/Religious Studies and Anthropology- two bachelors degrees from College of Charleston with concentrations in environmental studies and communication science. Basically, not real estate.  I am in NYC to study (and hopefully become a Doctor of) urban anthropology- focus on gentrification.  As a fotographer, I simply capture instances from my day in order to share them.  To some, i suppose, my life may seem a bit exotic-always jumping trains and wandering in and out of old factories that are about to be torn down- i just attempt to deliver this day to the world at large- real and uncut, with a side of real estate talk. I live and operate in one of the hottest real estate markets in the nation, just 1 stop on the train from Manhattan into Brooklyn.  The displacement of families is hard to swallow, so i blog it.  My primary concern in all this is the people, however, and although every real estate broker i've ever met has told me "focus on the property and not the people," I still find myself riding around in a Uhaul with 'the evicted' and homeless, trying to find them something that they can afford.  The 'golden rule' is my mantra.

iBt4iM: What's your blog? What's your blog about?

The fotoUR: My blog(s) are about the life of an individual in a world of urban chaos and change.  My foto blog (URBANFOTO)evolved out of the want to show the "actual spaces" that are being offered for rent or sale through the company i work with- in NYC, honesty can be as hard to come by as a decent hole to live in.  Also, I needed a place to post my listings as they come available so that no matter what time of day or night someone gets that "I'm about to be homeless" twitch, they can go to my blog and see whats out there.  I work primarily with artists because they were (and are) the first to pour their hearts into these old factories and warehouses, many (if not most) sinking their $ and lives into other people's property, only to be kicked out into the street while the landlords capitalize on their efforts.  I don't speak Spanish or Polish very well, so artists are about as close as I can get to 'helping' these days.   My listings blog (NINJALISTINGS) has turned out to be a stroke of genius, as no one else in the nation (that I could find) had ever used their blog in this fashion- that is, syndicating listings as 'news' to those waiting beside the radio- so to speak. My clients have always called me the LOFTNINJA because a couple of years back, when I began working as an agent in an renovated 19th century tea factory (a story for another time), I rented lofts mostly.  I would write my ads in the form of a poem- to be displayed on craigslist (which, subsequently,  i wouldn't have been able to survive in NYC without))- and I always placed the word NINJA in the poem somewhere.  In turn, people began to just go to the RE section and type "ninja" into the search bar and "POW" all my ads would come up.  These days, craig won't tolerate this kind of posting method- and I don't blame him.  There are some lying bastards out there- especially in NY- that prey on the fact that you can't see their face.  My blog(s) are about taking that face and turning it around- I make art out of the constant necessity to weed through the BS involved in housing search.  Why lie about your name and identity to somehow trick a person into ill will?  I just make it obvious that I've become someone (something) else in order to 'help' others find what they need. It's the art that is missing in real estate that makes people so 'shady.'  I make art for people, not for myself.  If others with my job did this, the 'shady broker' would eventually become a thing of the past. It was you, Randy, that helped me discover the true power of RSS when I asked a question on a tribe forum about hooking a feed up to one's email.  You gave me Rmail and that is what made NINJALISTINGS original and unlike any other real estate website in existence.  During the next couple of weeks, I began to see other BIGGER named companies in Manhattan and elsewhere begin to imitate this tactic.  So then, I figured out how to podcast my plaintext posts and began to offer listings that could be downloaded to people's iPod. I don't even have an ipod, personally, but because you cant talk on your cell phone (or recieve text listings) underground, i felt that it might be interesting to listen to your apartment search while underground in the train.  To my knowledge, there are still no agents out there that have begun to use this technology and (somewhat) guerilla method of getting their listings out there.  Its merely a new way of ARTvertising vacant space.

iBt4iM: What secondary blogs do you have? Linkblogs? Moblogs?

The fotoUR: These are the ones that I actively post to:    

• URBANFOTO   [http://urbanfoto.blogspot.com]    
• NINJALISTINGS  [http://ninjalistings.blogspot.com]    
• THENyCBLOG   [http://thenycblog.blogspot.com]    
• LOFTBLOG   [http://loftblog.blogspot.com]    
• LOFTCITY  [new name for Bushwick]   [http://loftcity.blogspot.com]    
• CITYMOUNTAIN   [new name for Manhattan] [http://thefirstborough.blogspot.com]    
• POINTMOSTNORTH  [Greenpoint]  [http://greenpointonpoint.blogspot.com]   
• Newest and all inclusive project  http://justinyc.blogspot.com

In my early blogging days, I began to use the blogger platform because i felt that anything that i blogged about real estate would naturally rank higher in Google searches.

iBt4iM: Why do you blog?

The fotoUR: i Blogito Ergo Sum - sorry Descartes...the meditations required this of me.... Anyway,  for as long as I could remember, I've had a bone to pick with private property and when I arrived to NYin my van (ultimately chasing my girlfriend), i was quickly shown that it had a bone to pick with me. That winter, i was forced to become the worst real estate agent that ever hit NYC.  I refused to cheat people, lie to them, place them in spaces i wouldn't live myself, hand their souls over to landlords that lacked respect, etc.  I wanted to work with other agents, share my photos and info and not be like other agents that rip each other off an steal in order to get ahead. Because of this, I have remained pretty close to homeless myself- its kept me honest.  I appreciate the fact that I never give up and so through doing so, I've kept it interesting by teaching myself something new everyday in respect to it. I've never taken a photography class and the only C that I ever made in college was in computer class.   I have 2 bachelors degrees in Philosophy/Religious studies & Anthropology and I plan to incorporate all of my RE experience into my thesis on gentrification.  My father was a commercial artist and photographer  but most of this innovation has developed out of never wanting to follow any other person's example. I actually learned HTML by playing around on Myspace.com and started blogging out of  fear that Craigslist was gonna start charging for posting real estate ads- i couldn't afford it. When I realized that I could use HTML on my ads,  that was "all she wrote," as they say. So then I started "Space INdependent"- a play on words and with the traditional methods of real estate advertising.  Although that link is now a dead soldier, I got practice with HTML and I created a different blog for every area of NYC that I worked in.  People being forced to move into a new and unfamiliar hood could now go to my blog and see what the area looks like.  This is very important in NY where many times, people have to settle for a less undesirable area because they can't afford anything else.  So instead of wasting both of our times, tell them to check out the blog before getting on the train. A buddy of mine, moved up from SC and began working with me in Brooklyn- it was in the winter that he and I began to rename the hoods.  I blog because no one else does and because I feel that there is a level of transparency available in a blog that one is just not able to find in other forms of real estate advertising.  You need to know who is escorting you into your next phase of life- well, at least in respect to your shelter.  Brooklyn is a "live/work" borough- meaning people live where they work in many cases- it is important that one not interfere this process without having the best interest of all involved at heart.

iBt4iM: What are your favorite blogs?

The fotoUR: I find a new favorite everyday, but before I do, i usually check these out    

• I look for spelling errors in my own because my pace doesnt allow much time for editing    
• Curbed    
• Grow a Brain    
• Brownstoner    
• Inman Blog    
• The Real Estate Blog Squad    
• The RealtyGrammer    
• IBlogthere4iM    
• PropertyGrunt    
• deviantART    
• Satans Laundromat    
• Gothamist    
• Blue Jake

and many many others.....  i appreciate non-fiction

iBt4iM: What do you do when you are not blogging?

The fotoUR: I create content.  I take pictures, make ads, roam the streets, write and log experiences for my book, visit friends and, well, take pictures.  I  train agents to do the same- to share content and work together to help others find homes.  I'm not the most organized person (as you might imagine), so it is content that I bring to the table- in the blog, at least these days, I am able to find form.  Blogito Ergo Sum

iBt4iM: Thanks for taking the time to tell our readers about yourself. You are the Blogger of the Day.

Note: Blogger of the Day is a new series. We will interview one average-Joe great-blogger every few days (we hope). If you want to be the Blogger of the Day, then email me.

Previous Bloggers of the Day; Ozh of planetOzh, John of Freshblog, Aimee Evans, Allen Searls, Steve Michel, Jon Watson, Dave Walker, Oleg Dulin and Miel Van Opstal.