Thanks to the Lost Remote, I came across this story from Northwestern University’s Readership Institute site that unintentionally makes the parallel between how Realtors think of MLS data (we want to keep it in a box, and control access).One of the most striking developments in online news in the past year or so has been -the rapid proliferation of interesting database applications-…. newspapers have been leaders in this area, driven by the company’s “information center” initiative, which is yielding new organizational structures and approaches to information gathering and presentation. The “data desk” is one of the seven pillars of the company’s new approach to news.As Gannett realizes, data should be a driving force in online journalism, for at least the following reasons:- Data is “evergreen” content.- Its value to users does not end after 24 hours.- Data can be personal.- What’s more relevant to someone than, say, reported crimes in their neighborhood, or nearby property assessments?- Data can best be delivered in a medium without space constraints.Michael asks a similar question this week – Are Listings Information or Advertising?If Realtors could develop a product that had all of the information…. In the context of the Group I have been working on for the past year – what are the top 10 technological creations/developments over the past 12 months?
Browsing Category Technology
A word on Trulia’s new features
Trulia announced their “Featured Listings” product the other day to much fanfare within the RE.net. There’s little to add to the discussion but my personal experience beta testing the product. All I have to offer are the stats provided by Trulia on my listings (click the images for higher-res) – 1 – The increase in views for my listings is impressive…. While similar to Realtor.com’s differentiation of listings, Trulia’s mission is clearly different – they are out to make a profit.
A follow up on Cyberhomes/AOL
One would think that a company seeking to revamp/redevelop/survive might shy away from tactics like keyword stuffing.Keyword stuffing is considered to be an unethical search engine optimization (SEO) technique…. The repetition of words in meta tags may explain why many search engines no longer use these tags.Searching for Unrepresented Sellers in my home zip code of 22901 brings this at the top of the page:This type of tactic detracts from AOL’s and Cyberhomes’ credibility. Credibility is, or is fast becoming, the currency of the web – not something you want to spend so unwisely.Grow up, AOL. Cyberhomes – now that you’re partners with AOL – you’d do well to fix this.*It probably would have been more legible to have copied and pasted the text, but I didn’t want to do that which I am criticizing AOL.
Cyberhomes and Realtor.com
Cyberhomes has Realtor.com in their cross-hairs.For the real estate buyers/sellers/consumers in the Charlottesville area – which site has better, more useful data, and data display, for your house? Realtor.com has the current listing data:But Cyberhomes has more data, and is working on acquiring the “current” data.From an (subscription required) Inman News Article in May: Fidelity will keep property listings content fresh at the Cyberhomes site by updating brokers’ data directly from MLSs, said Marty Frame, senior vice president and chief information office for Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, a division of Fidelity National Financial Inc….In addition to past sales and for-sale home information, Cyberhomes also offers “heat maps” that allow consumers to visualize data on a map that is color-coded for home values, changes in value and property density at the neighborhood level…. This is what consumers want:users can also learn about the neighborhood and community, including the weather, economy, commute times, diversity, even air/water quality.As a Realtor, that is what I want to provide to my customers.Users don’t have to login to either Realtor.com and Cyberhomes, but here is one of the many distinct (and detrimental to Realtor.com) differences between the two. To get the “value” of a home in Cyberhomes, create a login, search and get this data-rich page with options – neighborhood, schools appreciation rates, demographic information:Do the same search on Realtor.com, and users get this roadblock:1) They don’t have the data.2) There is no way to choose “your” Realtor, among other deficiencies noted earlier this year.When you do find a home you like, there is nothing more than information on the property itself (and there is no “maximum square footage” search limitation – only “minimum square feet” – a significant limitation in the search).It’s been said before – consumers want all the information, they want it now and they want it for free.Cyberhomes has the potential to move up the ladder in of usefulness for on the list of “Empowered Buyers’ Online Tools.”Take this example – I was previewing a home for a couple this past week.
Marketing real estate internationally
With that being said – here is a “first-to-market” for Charlottesville – This is a property video that is professionally done and translated into English, Spanish and Portugese.The world is flat. Buyers are coming from all over, not just English-speaking countries – reaching those buyers is key.Visitors to my real estate site come from Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Boliva, India, Australia among other countries…. With the value of the dollar worldwide taking a dive, our real estate is much more affordable.”Implicitly, Paulson and the Federal Reserve are happy with a gradual fall in the value of the dollar,” said Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University and president of Roubini Global Economics, a consulting firm that also operates a popular economics Web site. “They’ll never say they favor a weak dollar, but the benefits to the U.S. in terms of competitiveness are significant.”Take a look at their value proposition as well as this post – Extending The Concept Of Distribution “Hubs And Spokes†To Include Value Measurements.
How do we think and learn?
What follows are two outstanding videos. As interesting as the videos themselves is the manner in which I found them – The first one came to light from this blog:The second one (Greg posted yesterday as well) was one of the “you might also like” recommendations at the end of the video.How we categorize things, even in real estate and MLS’, is changing. Also recommended: The Office and Ron Paul.Think about it.
Collaborating in real time
In working on this presentation on blogging for the past week or ten days, we used Google’s Presentation (Powerpoint for the unenlightened) to work together. Chatting within the presentation making changes was mighty efficient.I’ve said before, and this is a clear example, effecting change needs to be at least a two-pronged approach. Working from outside the aging gorilla’s reach is effective, but working within the behemoth’s reach in tandem with those outside efforts should prove much more effective…. Influencing their conversation is but one way to get things done.In an example of the Web 2.0 world, I’ve spoken to Ben Martin dozens of times, (only a couple of times on the phone, the rest on IM or Skype) worked on this presentation for a couple of hours, and have yet to meet him, but have full confidence that today’s talk will go smoothly.