Thursday, May 04, 2023
Since the beginning of the year (2023), I have had a number of problems with my new real estate site.
I installed the core site area on a subdomain (realty.reginathomas.studio), because I decided to use the WordPress CMS.
I used Wordpress quite a bit in the past, however in 2011 decided the program's programmers changed too many core features for new releases.
In addition, my web hosting services regularly requested I allow the updates for outdated Wordpress installations. This meant I had to stop what I was doing and "fix" any problems that arose because of a new Wordpress update.
This was very time consuming, so I moved on to Thingamablog.
The main site (reginathomas.studio) area is a Thingamablog. I use the main site area as a blog and the subdomain (realty.reginathomas.studio) to maintain property listings.
When (March 2022), I initially installed Wordpress for my new real estate site- the Wordpress version was 5.9.2.
In March 2023, when I began having issues with the automatic updates installed on my site, I changed the wp-config.php to disable the automatic Wordpress updates. See the following illustration.
My current Wordpress version is 6.1.1 and no longer works. The latest release of Wordpress is 6.2.
I spent most of yesterday researching this problem with no luck. It was almost as if someone else was online at the same time changing my .htaccess file as I was trying different options. The error is a 403 code which is normally very easy to correct.
Long story short, I have updated most of the links to the Wordpress site to the blog on the main area. When I stop screaming (get off my site), I will look at this issue again.
Monday, September 12, 2022
It has been a busy start to September 2022. Some of the things I have been doing, include:
- Corrected the problems with my Instagram demos, see here and here.
- Corrected an issue with the Zillow Zestimate API demo.
- Filmed cooking videos for my Youtube channel. I have a lot of editing to do on the videos.
- Began working on a new tool using the Youtube API that provides earnings for specified Youtube channels.
- Researched Youtube Vloggers.
- Completed 1.5 hours of real estate continuing education (Fair Housing) for my license renewal in April 2024.
- Researching ways to make money online. Wanted to understand whether surveys were a viable source of income. Made about $20.00 in a little over a week, however given my other time constraints, feel it is more of a burden than I can handle. That said, one can earn money online, doing surveys.
- Went to the markets (Costco, Safeway, Food Lion) on separate days.
- Finished a book I borrowed from the library, "Cry of the Halidon" by Robert Ludlum. Thought I had read everything he had ever written.
- The $10,000 five year CD with my business bank matured, so closed it out and opened a new CD with another of my banks. The rate of 3.50% APY on a five year term CD was too hard to pass up at the other bank. My business and personal banks are large institutions with many branches. For most things like opening or closing accounts I have to make an appointment at one of the branches. My online banks do not have branches, however I love the fact I can open a new account without leaving home.
- Noticed tributes for Serena.
- Watching some of the many tributes for the Queen of England.
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
I built my new real estate site using WordPress, incorporating several plugins to further one of the goals of the business plan, sourced marketing.
Sunday, June 12, 2022
In the United States, real estate career professionals must meet
continuing educational requirements for license renewal. Educational
related areas are chosen to ensure compliance with current federal,
state, and local laws and regulations.
In Maryland, the Maryland Real Estate Commission (MREC) maintains the education records for each licensee for the individual's two year license term.
Monday, May 02, 2022
I have been so busy setting up online resources for my real estate activities, I have had little time for anything else. Based on these recent activities, I added two items to my wishlist:
The Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens will enable the wide angle room or exterior property shots that are popular with real estate photographers and agents. I use an adaptor with my Canon EOS M50 camera which allows any Canon EF lens to be attached.
The Canon EOS M50 comes with software which greatly enhances the quality of my photos. Combined with Canon EF series lenses, I am able to capture great photos.
Over the last two weeks, the only other thing I have had time for is baking. Sunday, before last, I made an almond, strawberry filled buttermilk two layer cake with almond butter cream icing. This cake was so good, I told myself I would miss it when it was all gone. Every time I lifted the glass dome from the cake plate, I could smell the wonderful almond extract that I had been very generous with- when adding the ingredients.
I used the basic buttermilk cake recipe from this post, however made the following substitutions:
- Rather than ¾ C (or 6oz) of Buttermilk, I used 7oz for this version.
- Rather than pure vanilla extract I used just under a tablespoon of pure almond extract.
For the strawberries, I used fresh- which I sliced, de-stemmed and macerated in pure cane sugar for a day or so. The almond buttercream icing:
- ⅜ C Unsalted Butter or 1 whole stick plus 2 tablespoons, room temperature
- 2+ C of Powered Sugar
- 2 Tablespoons of Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1½ Teaspoons of Pure Almond Extract
Whip the butter for about 5 minutes before adding the other ingredients- to taste. Note, I made the cake around 5:00 in the evening on Sunday (earlier, busy shooting photos for my real estate profiles) and after it cooled, let it sit in the pans in the microwave until the next morning. I then made the buttercream icing and put everything together.
Last week, I was out shopping for the basics, when I came across the wood cake stand shown in the photos below. Also shown below, the very similar cake stand I found on Amazon.
The cake stand I purchased, did not come with the glass dome and quite frankly was under $20 from Walmart. I wanted to show how the stand looked- covered.
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Yesterday, my brokerage office sent over a copy of the PDF file, the Maryland Real Estate Commission (MREC) issued to my broker, providing a copy of my license and pocket card.
Tuesday, April 05, 2022
Over the last two weeks I have worked a number of projects, mostly related to becoming a real estate agent.
- Last Tuesday, had a job interview with a local real estate team. Having problems in that- though I apply for the non-commissioned positions, they want the commissioned sales agent. Looking into a referral agent type affiliation.
- Reviewing a number of invites to apply for positions in both the real estate and software development areas.
- On Wednesday, attended the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Real Estate Forecast Summit via Zoom.
- Last Thursday, out taking photos of area model homes to use on my new website.
- Most of the weekend, tweaking different areas of my new web site. WordPress with three real estate related plugins.
- Setting up related social media accounts for the new site, see illustration below.
- Yesterday, minor research for my online shop.
Monday, March 21, 2022
It has been awhile since I have done any work with WordPress. Q's Wire was a WordPress blog that went online in the spring of 2005, and was retired in 2020 or so.
Over the weekend I began researching options for establishing a web presence for my real estate interests. The first major hurdle involved my current domain registrations and could any of those domains be used.
