Real Estate

Real Estate Lessons Learned From a Bottle of Smirnoff



Janie Coffey | 2009/12/01  | 23 Comments

Writer Debut:

janie ines Real Estate Lessons Learned From a Bottle of SmirnoffPlease welcome AG’s newest writer, Janie Coffey, owner of Pappilon Real estate and Papillon ReDevelopment in Florida. She has a very unique background ranging from commercial construction, residential sales, undergraduate work in historical preservation all the way up to her current higher education pursuit in the history of business and technology. Spend five minutes with Janie and you’ll learn about her obsession with anything geo- mapping old school and new school, and is a consummate researcher. She will be writing about geotechnology and consumerism along with her related passions in real estate. Please take a moment to welcome Janie in the comments of her first post.

Smirnoff has a pretty catchy ad campaign running called “There”


It’s all about being there, in the moment, and capturing something  unique and special.  You may have seen them; building islands, foam pools and underground jam sessions…. Watching the ad made me realize that Smirnoff is  darn smart.  They realize where we are in the world today and what grabs our attention.

Lessons I’ve learned from Smirnoff:

  • You need to think outside the box, go for the unexpected.
  • You need to tell the story, the unique story.
  • You need to be “there”, both literally and figuratively.

If you are not “there” you won’t even know the story happened and might miss something really special.  Special might not be building an island, but it might be a great connection, new insight or broadened horizons.

GooglePins 300x200 Real Estate Lessons Learned From a Bottle of SmirnoffThe evolving geoweb makes it easier than ever to be “there”, to hear about the story in real time, to have the pulse of your community. Twitter now is geotagging tweets since last week,  WordPress has some nifty mapping plugins and geosocial apps such as Foursquare and Brightkite are popping up left and right. Geomapping, geotaggin and geosocial gives “Location, Location, Location” even more relevancy than ever before.

The geoweb is just starting to gain momentum and is building on the foundation laid by blogging and social media.  The geoweb is the next generation.  For someone who absolutely loves maps and the information that can be gleaned from them, I’m all in.  My first boyfriend’s mom was a cartographer.  I didn’t know what that meant, so I ran home and looked it up and I was hooked from that moment on.  My obsession with mapping has not waned and judging by the speed in which geo-everything is taking off, I am not the only one obsessed.

So, what do you think? Is geo the new wave (and not google wave) or is it the next “shiny new object” which will be turned over in our hands and eventually set aside in a short time?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!


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This article published on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 1:50 pm | Contact the editor

Keywords: , , ,

Topics: Real Estate, Social Media

About this Columnist (Full Profile)

Janie has been in the development, construction and real estate industries for over 20 years. She began her career in commerical construction and has slowly worked into all of the related industries and added residential properties to her resume 7 years ago. She is currently the co-owner of sister companies, Papillon Real Estate and Papillon ReDevelopment (a construction and project management firm). Janie blogs for The Coral Gables Story. In her “free” time, she is a graduate student of Atlantic History with a focus on the history of business and technology. She is a lover of geo-anything. She loves the story.

Email Janie Coffey



Comments (23)

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  1. Real Estate Feeds:

    Real Estate Lessons Learned From a Bottle of Smirnoff: Writer Debut:
    Please welcome AG’s newest writer, Janie Cof… http://bit.ly/5hgPX2

  2. Dave Murray:

    Smart blog! RT @LaniAR real estate lessons learned from a bottle of smirnoff: http://is.gd/59cOM (great article by new AG writer, @janiec)

  3. PopREblogs.com:

    Real Estate Lessons Learned From a Bottle of Smirnoff: Writer Debut:
    Please welcome AG’s newest writer, Janie Cof… http://bit.ly/5hgPX2

  4. RealBird.com:

    @agentgenius Real Estate Lessons Learned From a Bottle of Smirnoff http://bit.ly/54uzL3 by @janiec

  5. Cheryl Ritchie:

    @agentgenius Real Estate Lessons Learned From a Bottle of Smirnoff http://bit.ly/54uzL3 Go JanieC Go!

  6. Diettry:

    http://bit.ly/1U168u Real Estate Lessons Learned From a Bottle of Smirnoff: janie ines Please welcome AG's newest w… http://bit.ly/7Jg58u

  7. cskyle:

    Real Estate Lessons Learned From a Bottle of Smirnoff http://bit.ly/5rMp6w

  8. Twitter’s Purchase Of GeoAPI-Townme Creator Is A Game Changer:

    [...] our blogs will help provide a rich robust local information source for our readers.  We will be there, we will be a part of the [...]

  9. Janie Coffey:

    RT @agentgenius:.our blogs will help provide a rich robust local information source for our readers. We will be there.. http://bit.ly/5cJ1sY

  1. Keith says:

    Welcome Janie! Looking to learn more about anything Geo!

  2. Hey Janie – what a great first article! Love seeing you here on AG!

  3. OMG!!! Janie!! welcome to AG! this is such awesome news! (and that photo was when we first met at BarCamp Miami).

    As for Geo-tools, they scare me a bit, especially in a world of crazies. So of course we have to be smart about how we use these tools (I confess to logging into brightkite for example when I’m leaving the place if I’m alone). So looking forward to hearing what you have to say. (correction: to hearing MORE of what you have to say)

  4. Pam Buda says:

    Hi Janie,
    Welcome–I agree with Ines, what a great first post. I too am fascinated with the geoweb–I don’t think it is a shiny fad and that it is here to stay–amazing implications for real estate too. Ever since I got my iPhone this summer I cannot have enough of the geo-apps that help me find nearby resources–Open Table is far more useful geo-enabled on my phone than it was on my laptop, so is Yelp. I agree about Brightkite and share the same security concerns–we have to be careful how and when we enable geo-tagging in our apps. But augmenting reality with geo tagged information is a killer app for real estate sales. The devil is in the details.

  5. Just when I realized it has taken two pairs of running shoes to keep up with and learn from you, I discover that I better order a third pair. Great Post. Oor “Crabcakes and Coffey” Event just hit the front Featured Post on Active Rain thanks to Martha Brown’s idea.

  6. Jacci says:

    Great first article. Look forward to future posts.

  7. How could I pass this one up? Real estate and Vodka – my two favorite things. Seriously tho – great points.

  8. Mike Mueller says:

    Yay!
    That’s all I need to say – right?

  9. Brad Officer says:

    Lesson I learned from your article: Use alcohol to relate to real estate as it will entice more agents to read it! Congrats on your first article!

  10. Erin Golding says:

    Great first post Janie! geoweb is here to stay and something I need to learn more about in my “spare” time ; )

  11. Janie Coffey says:

    Thank you everyone for the kind words of welcome. I figured that bringing alcohol to get a party started is never a bad move;-)

    Ines, I remember well, and that was a real tech barcamp, pre-RE bar camp days

    Mike, I knew you’d love this series!

    Pam, Ines, I definitely plan to address the security and privacy issues the new geo brings with it…

    If there are things you’d like to hear about, please let me know.

  12. Erion Shehaj says:

    Welcome to AG Janie!

    How’s that for a title that grabs you and brings you in for the read.

    Great Debut and looking forward to more

  13. Hi Janie,

    Great to see you here on AG as a writer. Looking forward to reading your articles.

    – Zoltan

  14. MIssy Caulk says:

    Janie, wow I had no idea…until I saw your latest post. Welcome to AgentGenius.

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