Real Estate Blog

It’s always great when you can meet up with someone that has influenced your development either directly or indirectly. This recently happened to me when I tracked down Michael Russer (a.k.a. Mr. Internet) for an Interview. I first started reading Michael’s work nearly 10 years ago. I’ve always admired his ability to look-forward and share his opinions. If you are like me and enjoy Michael, or just want some opinions about consumers, real estate technology and a few other gems…then you should definitely listen to this podcast interview:

Find Michael Online:
OnlineDominance.com
MrInternetNews.com/blog

Interview Timeline

The Michael Russer timeline  (0:33)

The consumer has changed (5:29)

Base technology skills for today’s agent (7:12)

iPhone talk (8:26)

Mobile Consumer Search (11:47)

Technological distractions (13:31)

What happened to that? Predications that never really took off.  (15:40)

Connected 2001 - The transformation of the residential real estate industry. (16:36)

Global listing search and Google (18:00)

XML and RETS (19:16)

Simulated Consumer Experience (20:12)

The next big technology “loosely defined” (21:35)

Machines understanding context (22:18)

What is online dominance? (22:45)

Why Real Estate Sales Associates Fail Miserably Online 

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Interview with Michael Russer (a.k.a. Mr. Internet)

Newly constructed multistorey apartment in Kalyannagar
Newly constructed property in prime locality ready for possesion in Novermber 2008 at an affordable price. close to major schools and shopping establishments Easy access to New international airport.

Continued here:
2 bedroom Apartment (Multistorey) for Sale in Kalyana Nagar, Bangalore ( #9606281)

newly constructed multistorey apartments for sale in OMBR LAYOUT
New construction ready for possesion in Jan 09. Approved by Major financial institutions, Loans also arranged,Close to major schools and shopping establishments.

Read more from the original source:
2 bedroom Apartment (Multistorey) for Sale in OMBR Layout, Bangalore ( #5374515)

ANAND BAUG
THERE ARE MORE THAN 50 PLOTS OF ABOUT 2000 SQFT. EACH OUT OF WHICH ONLY 6 PLOTS ARE AVAILABLE. EACH PLOT HAS ACCESS FROM THE MAIN ROAD THE OUTER MAIN ROAD IS ALREADY TARRED AND INTERNAL ROADS ARE GIVEN FOR EACH PLOT. THE TOTAL AREA WHICH WE GET AFTER…

Originally posted here:
Residential Plot / Land for Sale in Hadapasar, Pune ( #8514446)

renovated
with lift garden basement and club house having swimming pool etc

Continued here:
5 bedroom Villa/Bungalow for Sale in Wanowri, Pune ( #5690431)

BEHALA MENTON
Behala menton 2bhk,2toilet,balcony on rent 9000/per month

Read the original:
2 bedroom Apartment for Rent in Behala, Kolkata ( #870386)

COMMERCIAL BUILDING IN RDC FOR BANKS, SHOWROOMS, FOOD OUTLETS ETC..
WE HAVE A BUILDING OF 5 FLOORS EACH SQR FEET = 1800 - 2000. BEST FOR BANKS, RESTRAUNTS, SHOWROOM, OFFICES, ENOUGH PARKING OUTLETS LIKE DOMINOZ, MOTIMAHAL, NATHU SWEETS, PIZZA HUT ARE PRESENTLY RUNNING SUCCESSFULLY NEAR BY. aLL BANKS LIKE ICICI, IDBI…

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Multipurpose Building for Rent in RDC, Ghaziabad ( #4854835)

3BR-2Bath 7th Floor Apartment in Safe Society, Paradise Co. Society, Patpar Ganj, New Delhi
Top Floor in Paradise Co Socirty which is a very safe locality, apartment is fully furnished, separate entrance. 3 BR - 2 Bath & 1 Balcony. Adjacent to Shopping Complex, Metro Construction under way, close to NOIDA, CP and railway station. …

Read the original:
3 bedroom Apartment for Sale in Patparganj, New Delhi ( #9699138)

DLF EXPRESS GREEN-M1 MANESAR
ABOUT NEW PROJECT Location: Sector- M 1, Manesar on N. H. – 8 Gurgaon. · 25 Min. drive from Domestic Airport · 15 Min. drive from IFFCO Chowk · Walking distance from proposed metro station at IMT Manesar Apartments: · 1760 sq ft…

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3 bedroom Apartment (Multistorey) for Sale in Manesar, Gurgaon ( #9518470)

5/302 ,shree complex,phase -2, kalyan (west)
96 flat, 06 building,space for parking,playground,stage for programmes,good K.D.M.C water supply, 13 years old property, well plan projects

Read more:
1 bedroom Apartment (Multistorey) for Sale in Kalyan, Thane ( #9736121)

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While we are waiting for the expert judge panel (@LaniAR, @ResPres, @mlbroadcast, @RealEstateZebra) to deliberate and deliver their votes, let’s take a closer look at what the 12 Finalists have to offer?

(1) Ian Watt The original “Car Blogger”…aka “Clogger”. The most enthusiastic daily blogger who reaches out via video from his car and more!  He is your local Vancouver real estate expert!

(2) Kelley Koehler First off, Kelley is my middle name. Did your parents also name you after the Kelley Blue Book? (That’s what mine told me.) Anyway, superb patience with mobile technology at its finest!

(3) Keith Cuddleback & Tilton Quan An inside look at the real life of real CyberAgents.  They  “GET” mobile….and they are! These Docusign Dudes are all about convenience for everyone!

(4) Matt Rains Am I the only one who hears a slight resemblance to Matthew McConaughey? We could listen to Matt talk about Adobe Cold Fusion or anything else all day….and we did!

(5) Geordie Romer A quiet enticement of technology that takes us right back to the basics of high-speed Internet!

(6) Ted Mackel Ted feeds you the basics of how RSS can help your real estate business and some ways it’s already impacted his own! Oh, and video drives this man crazy…in a good way!

(7) Sheldon JohnsonAn evolutionary tale of real estate technology taking you from stone to his tablet PC!

(8) Adam Golden Have you heard of the “Ground & Pound? I know, it kind of scared me at first. But then I realized this man loves shoes as much as I do….so he can’t be bad.

(9) Robert Ashbey aka”Captain Mortgage” If Reggie gave me a dollar for every time I called him Captain Morgan, I’d be buying that new Marc Jacobs purse at Nordstrom right now.  Robert truly gives new meaning to the term “mobile agent”.

(10)Mike Lefebvre Mike obviously knows how to use video professionally and appropriately in his real estate business…while also being creative and LYAO funny. That is truly an achievement!

(11)Mike Mueller The dude seriously lays down the video schooling every newbie RE video enthusiast needs to hear! Mike’s a pro already…no doubt about that!

(12)Doug Buenz Like’s technology….A LOT! But knows what’s really important when it comes to his real estate business….making time for clients!

Here are some reactions from Lani to each of our contestants. No vote revealed…but listen closely, I think you can tell who her favorite is….or not!

Results will be revealed tomorrow! So, stay tuned!

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Here is the original post:
MTO Vlog Contest Finalists

The real estate application category on the iPhone seems to be filling out. When the upgraded version of the launched in July, Pulawai was the only real estate specific search tool (see 5 Apps Every Real Estate Agent Should Have on Their iPhone).

But that’s now changing and it looks like there is an epic battle brewing for screen space on my phone.

Trulia iPhone application

Trulia’s app is notable because of the prominence they give to open houses on the home screen. I think this is a wise choice, since people will likely be using this app as they are out and about and will want to find out what’s open near them to go have a look.

The search experience was very easy on Trulia’s app - simply pushing the ‘All homes for sale’ button takes you to a list of all the properties near you. (Your definition of “All Homes” may vary).

Searching all homes, it was a bit frustrating because wasn’t immediately obvious how the results we returned - it didn’t seem to be sorted by price or even distance away. Using the Custom Search option does let you get a little more specific on how those results are returned however.

Personally, I would have loved to be able to refine the search from the All Homes results page to weed out the listings that didn’t fit what I was looking for. Unfortunately instead, Trulia makes you go back to the beginning and start over again.

The biggest disappointment with Trulia’s app however are the listing pages themselves. Next to Utopria’s offerings they pale in comparison (see
Utopria Brings Property Listings to iPhone) Only one photo? Also, it’s great that you can show me where the property is on a map, but what does staring at a pin from space really tell me? I want a little more.

StreetEasy Real Estate

StreetEasy doesn’t waste any time. The New York based real estate site just takes you right into the search results as soon as you fire it up. I actually kind of enjoyed this - the less decisions I have to make up front the better. Let me get right to the meat and then let me start carving away.

(Though I have to say, the fact that the top listing it returned on its default search was an $80 million, 4 bedroom Central Park apartment made me feel more than a little bit inadequate.)

Clicking on the Edit Search button lets you refine the results and StreetEasy makes good use of the iPhone UI elements to make the refinement easy and enjoyable - lots of tumblers to spin up and down. Making search fun is one of the things the iPhone can be great at.

On the whole, StreetEasy succeeds where Trulia fails - showing you all the photos associated with a particular listing. Clicking on the thumbnail floats all the images upwards to a gallery like environment you can thumb through. I also loved the fact that the app lets you pull up the details on the building that a particular apartment is in.

Further, StreetEasy makes it really easy to tab between the listing description, the map and the agent’s contact information. Trulia struggles to accomplish this with a slightly clumsy popup menu.

HomeFinder

HomeFinder was created by developer Brandon Alexander (Alexander Mobile) and claims to bring over 4 million listings to the iPhone. Listings are drawn from Google Base, FSBO websites and feeds from several large MLSes and brokerages (not identified).

Compared to the two previous offerings, it’s pretty bare-bones, yet functional. HomeFinder gives you loads of options to filter a search - but it also kept crashing whenever it returned the results. So I’m going to have to withhold judgement on this app until we see a new revision.

So what’s the verdict?

StreetEasy’s iPhone app blows the competition out of the water in terms of ease-of-use, functionality and sheer slickness. Unfortunately it’s only available in New York City.

Trulia’s app looks great, gets off to a good start and then falls flat on its face. Frankly disappointing and hopefully future versions will add some of the missing features.

The others (Puluwai and HomeFinder) well, compared to their commercial competitors, feel unpolished and struggle due to poor data sources.

So for now, there’s no clear winner. Unless you live in New York.

Source:
iPhone Real Estate App Showdown

With the rise of online video sharing over the last few years, you might be asking yourself the question “How do I effectively implement video to promote my business?”  After all it’s an important question since you have so many items in need of promotion. Whether it’s you and your real estate business, a specific home, the surrounding community or testimonials; video has the power to capture emotion while also conveying difficult concepts.

But I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. I would guess the real reason most real estate agents would hesitate to implement video into their business stems from beliving video creation costs outweigh the benefit. Or you understand that self producing video takes skill and time. That’s not the case with SpotMixer a service from One True Media, which empowers businesses to expand their marketing reach through online video advertising.

SpotMixer enables users to create advanced video advertisements without having those advanced video production skills.  Their interface is simplistic, and offers the inclusion of pictures, audio and video. To start, SpotMixer offers over 300 eye-catching templates-even a category dedicated to real estate. All templates come with premixed transitions and music to make producing the video effortless. The background music can be easily substituted. Drag your photos or video to corresponding frames via the intuitive design process. Add text and/or voiceover with onscreen tools to improve your call to action. Once complete you’ll publish the ad and start your subscription. Plans range from $59 to $79 a month.

POSSIBLE IDEAS FOR A VIDEO AD
Persuasive video ads can be a powerful media when implemented correctly, here are 7 ideas explored:

1. Video testimonial: Include photos of families, smiles, voiceover of actual testimonial.
2. Neighborhood overview: Photos and video of park, row of homes, homeowner’s quotes about the neighborhood, map of downtown, closing video of you.
3. Home showcase: Video of approach to home, home photos, floor plan, closing video of you.
4. Community event: Video of event, photos, voiceover w/ history of event, closing video of you.
5. Sell Your skills: Photos of you in action, statistics, voiceover of skill and benefit to consumer.
6. Staging example: before and after photos, voiceover with music, staging statistics, closing video of you.
7. Charity: Charity event video, photos, text describing goals and your involvement.

 
I’VE CREATED MY VIDEO AD, NOW WHAT?

Once you’ve created your new video advertisement, you’ll appreciate the simplicity behind getting it seen via major online directories, guides, and listing services. Start by displaying the video ad on your site or others with the supplied embed code. Next look to Google TV Ads for increased exposure. 

SpotMixer has an easy post option designed to get your video placed into your Adwords account for use with Google’s TV ad service.  From there you’ll select the programs and channels to display your ad, set your budget and push live.  Then view the Placement Performance report to analyze detailed metrics including ad performance.

Also post that same video to YouTube.  If you’re looking for more exposure you may want to create a full video distribution strategy. Don’t worry it’s easier than you might think. SpotMixer allows you to download your video in MP4 format. Next go to a video syndication service such as TubeMogul to place your video on the top video sharing websites across the web at no additional cost.

TIPS FOR YOUR NEXT VIDEO AD

Truthfully the process is so simple you don’t need me to tell you much. But I should mention that the higher the resolution of your photos the better your finished output quality will be. Images should be standard JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg).  Also remember that you can include video in these ads. To start your video should be MPEG (.mpg or .mpeg), MPEG 4 (.mp4), QuickTime (.mov), Audio Video Interleave (.avi), or Windows Media Video (.wmv).  As Patty Nghiem, the VP of marketing for SpotMixer, mentioned in our interview including video or audio with SpotMixer is one way to enhance the ad.  For example, if your video ad is promoting a specific neighborhood in an ocean front town, video of crashing waves on the beach could be very compelling. If you are creating a video testimonial ad, you may show photos of satisfied customers while including a voiceover of the most gripping testimonial.

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Excerpt from:
SpotMixer: Creating Video Ads That Sell!

Trulia has been busy creating new features aimed at improving the home search experience while also making housing data readily accessible to today’s consumer. Pete Flint said “At Trulia, our mission is to deliver unique local insight to consumers when they want it, how they want it, and where they want it.  Today’s launch is a big step in this direction.”

Personalization

Trulia knows the areas you care about! How can that be? It’s true now when you visit Tulia’s homepage you’ll see local results for new property listings, home price changes, upcoming open houses, median sales price trends, recently sold properties, even related blog and Q&A from the community. This is Trulia using your IP address to determine your location. Then using the location Trulia can present content, including listing data, that is meaningful to the searching immediately. 

Portability

Trulia is now mobile! This ranges from new iPhone and mobile phone applications to Dash GPS integration. To start Trulia has built a new iPhone Application that is exceptionally clean and available for installation now in the app store. Once the application is installed and launched the user is greeted with 4 options: (1) Open houses this weekend, (2) Open Houses today, (3) all homes for sale, and (4) custom search. With options 1 - 3 the iPhone’s location services make finding area homes and open houses a snap. It’s as simple as selecting the option of your choice, then viewing available homes in your area. From the iPhone, users can check home price, details, open house times, and listing agent. If you’re a real estate agent and want your open house information available via this application visit the property online and look for “Open House Times.” From there let Trulia know.

Don’t have an iPhone, no worries. If you have a Blackberry, Blackjack, Sony Ericsson, Nokia (and a few others) you are in luck too! Introducing Trulia’s Phone Application. Much like the iPhone from a data perspective the user can search area homes, open houses and mapping. This experience has been optimized for your mobile phone screens and includes color photos of the homes.

Another feature sure to catch the attention of real estate agents and consumers alike is the integration of Trulia and Dash GPS systems. Now Trulia enables users to search homes for sales from their DASH Express GPS system. Via the Internet connected Dash, you can now retrieve information from Trulia on active listings, open houses and of course driving directions.

Participation

Trulia has launched their new blogging platform, which will be a strong marketing channel for real estate agents. The community will be an add-on to their already thriving community of over 300,000 users in Trulia Voices . To get started with a Trulia blog, visit www.trulia.com/voices/blogs. Start by clicking “Write a blog post.” If you don’t already have an account, you’ll be prompted for some basic account information. From there you will notice the blogging platform is very simplistic. Write your post, include basic editing tools

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Trulia Sure to Impress Consumers with New iPhone App and More