Could Charlottesville be next?
Browsing Category Technology
Drop visual tours as a marketing tool?
I’ve been paying for Visual Tours for several years now – $29.95 a month. Originally, they offered a distinctively different product; most importantly, they offered linking partnerships for distribution to multiple websites. Now, there are more efficient method for linking distribution, not to mention video offerings and the fact that I can put unlimited photos on my website.I’m trying to justify the 30 bucks a month, but can’t seem to do so. The question is – Are Visual Tours worth it?
If they pass the Tipping Point
It may be over for Realtor.com. I’d love to see this functionality for our local MLS. Google announces neighborhood refinements:Fortunately, finding the best places just became a lot easier with the addition of user ratings and neighborhood refinements to Google Maps…. All you have to do is look for the “Refine by” link, click on a neighborhood or user rating, and the new results will appear immediately.And Drew is trying to stir the creative juices regarding Zillow’s Neighborhood information and API:While there are certainly some great WordPress plug-ins for real estate sites, I haven’t seen any that address the desire of local buyers, sellers, and owners to learn more about the neighborhoods and cities in their area of interest.I wish I had more time to put my ideas into action.
Another shovel digs Realtor.com’s grave
Dustin reports:Turns out that not only is Realogy (and that means Coldwell Banker, ERA, Sotheby’s International Realty, The Corcoran Group, and Century 21) adding all of their listings to Zillow, but they (or at least NRT, which includes all of those brands except Century 21) are apparently taking some of their ad money out of Realtor.com.When will Zillow gain critical mass over Realtor.com …… Likely I’ll (and many others) post more on this later, but … wow.So far, Realtor.com’s sole advantage has been that it has all the listings; what will it be without that advantage? One might think that Realtor.com might want to announce something at least acknowledging that they’re in a competition to the death.
Realogy sends (more) listings to Zillow – so what?
As noted on Inman this morning and the corresponding press release:Leading real estate Web site Zillow.com today announced an expansion to its marketing agreement with Realogy Corporation that will result in approximately 700,000 total property listings from Realogy’s brand networks to be posted to the Zillow.com Web site on a daily basis.For the record, I theorized earlier this month that:Where is the tipping point going to be when Realogy (for example) decides that it’s more beneficial to just send everything to Zillow rather than the MLS?We’re seeing a variation of the above example in some markets that have large non-Realtor populations – the MLS is not as effective due to lack of participation.Zillow is competition; if only for the fact that your data could one day be better than ours.Note also David G’s response:Your Realogy analogy is interesting though probably unlikely…. Realtors would still have access to all of Realogy’s listings; the only differences being that that access would be now be free and you would also find potential clients hanging out where you find the data.IMO, the fact that Zillow will be a richer source of information than the MLS’s is a given…. Likewise, since Zillow’s databases are exposed to a much larger audience, there’s significantly more opportunity for correcting data quality issues than in the case of a closed MLS.Questions – – Could this strategy disintermediate the local MLS? (doubtful, as MLS’ still have far more information than Zillow)- Could this be the way to finally divorce the commissions?- Does the average Realtor or consumer see the potential ramifications of this?
We’re lucky to have great GIS in Albemarle
Contrast Albemarle’s open and excellent approach to GIS to West Virginia’s:Now a county tax assessor has filed a lawsuit trying to block the tax maps from being put online, claiming copyright infringement and financial damages since fewer people are coming to her to buy paper copies at $8 per page.It would be very useful if the City of Charlottesville would upgrade their GIS applications – rich and accurate GIS applications are mighty useful to the well-prepared Realtor (and consumer).The comments in the /. article are mighty interesting.
Realtors gaming the MLS
This Realtor wanted to be able to withdraw a listing and put it back on so that it both got a new MLS number (to appear “new”) and so that the Days on Market number would reset – ostensibly because that’s what the clients wanted. MLS rules prevent this, but there is always “another way.”When I questioned why – she said that other agents do it, and while she agrees it’s not right, if they’re going to do it, she wants to as well. Rather than report the offenders to the MLS so that the data could be accurate, she would rather game the system.Does this type of gaming the system work? Only on those who don’t have competent buyers’ agents who will track the history of the listing.Now – contrast this attitude with that of previously-mentioned Roost:”The MLS is really the definitive hub … (its) core mission is the integrity of the data,” he said, which is why Roost decided to operate via these relationships in each market rather than rely on brokers to send listings feeds to the site.There’s a reason that Realtors are losing their competitive edge.