Luxury Real Estate

By Frederick Peters of Warburg Realty

The current Goldman Sachs SEC investigation stems in large part from injudicious e-mail messages written by a 30-year-old trader, reminding us once again that e-mail is never private, and it is never gone. It is easy to forget that as you sit in your bedroom responding to e-mail at 1 A.M., and people easily forget the same thing about Facebook. You had better get rid of that photo of you in your underwear holding a bong if you are applying for a job or to a college. And you had better make sure your kids do the same if you are applying to a co-op. One story making the rounds of New York real estate this week is about a co-op Board turndown which came after compromising photos appeared on the Facebook page of the applicant’s child.

New technologies change our world, influencing how we interact and with whom. In the Web 2.0 era, the blending of the personal and the professional is inevitable and, when managed judiciously, even desirable. People who know a little about you may feel more comfortable approaching you professionally, thus expanding your sphere of influence. Similarly, social networking sites can provide extensive exposure for listings and blogs, promoting the agent/writer as an expert in the field (I will post this blog entry to both Facebook and LinkedIn as soon as it is finished.) But the key word here is “judicious.” Don’t say too much. Don’t be prurient. Don’t log in thirty times a day, informing others about where you are having dinner or when you are brushing your teeth. Social networks are just likeany other social situation: what you get out of it has everything to do with how skillfully you manage what you put in.

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