Real Estate Blog

Right now my life feels a little like this motorcycle ride I took a few week’s back…

It’s all a bit of a blur.

Real Estate Connect SF 2008 kicks off in little less than 24 hours and I think it’s shaping up to be one of the best events we’ve put together. But, needless to say, it’ll be slow posting here on FOREM this week.

However, if you want to keep up with everything that’s going on from afar, make sure you:

Follow me on Twitter.
Connect with me on LinkedIn.
Friend me on Facebook.
Watch my Flickr Photostream.
Find me onTechnorati.
Converse with me on Disqus.

More importantly - if you’re coming to Connect.. make sure you say hi in person or give me a call at 971.228.5704.

Hope to see you there.

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Related Articles at Future of Real Estate Marketing:

• Video Highlights from Connect SF 2007
• New York Connect Kick Off
• Inman News Real Estate Connect Warmup
• Connect SF this Summer is Going to Rock
• Help Plan My Trip to Inman Connect NYC

Go here to read the rest:
Connect with me at Connect

Frontdoor.com, the upstart real estate search portal from media giant Scripps Network Interactive, continues to move forward. From their most recent press release:

Just six months after opening, FrontDoor.com, the real estate Web site powered by HGTV, continues to unlock home ownership information for users – now offering more than 3 million listings of homes for sale across the country.

So is 3 million the magic number?

Zillow’s Real Estate Search Results claim to have close to that (2,626,271 to be exact). REALTOR.com says you can “search over 3 million new, existing and rental properties”.

Young buck Roost.com has about half that… but then they’re only live in a handful of markets.

Roost.com now provides consumers access to homes for sale in 26 major markets, over 12,000 cities and nearly 1.5 million listings in total.

Nothing from Trulia on how many listings they have but I’m going to take a wild guess here and say that they have… oh I don’t know… approximately 3 million listings?

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Related Articles at Future of Real Estate Marketing:

• Estately Schools the Competition
• Oodle Launches Real Estate Pricing Guide
• My Reply to Reply.com? Waste of Money.
• Lots and Lots of Real Estate Lists
• Searching Real Estate Listings By Brand

Go here to read the rest:
Millions of Listings Oh My

Open registration for .Me domains starts to today. The domains, which were previously reserved for entities based in the country of Montenegro, are now available for anyone to purchase.

(Amusingly, .Me was assigned to Montenegro after is declared independence from the former Serbia and Montenegro which used the TLD .Yu… so .Me split from .Yu)

Uses for a .Me domain?

Realtors using their own names as their main branding element would be wise to snag that URL. Using joerealtor.me might be a unique marketing angle (…for a short while anyway) but in any case, it would be good to stake your claim on it, even if you don’t end up using it.

Also, if you’re planning on using Apple’s MobileMe push contact and calendaring service with your hot new 3G iphone - you can assign your .Me URL to your MobileMe account (by adding it as your personal domain under the account settings).

Anyway, I snagged burslem.me - if you want to as well, go get ‘em.

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Related Articles at Future of Real Estate Marketing:

• Searching Real Estate PPC Advertising
• ActiveRain Launches Outside Blogs
• How To Research Your Competitors’ PPC Advertising Campaigns
• How to Keep Tabs on your Search Ranking
• Realogy Makes A Big Ad Buy

Here is the original:
Get Your .Me Domain Today

The guys at 1000Watt have redrawn the Real Estate Web 2.0 mindmap. Make sure you go and check it out.

What’s impressive is that despite the gruesome economic news and horrific market conditions many in the industry are facing there is still so much innovation happening on the technology side.

I think this is going to be the big story of the latter half of 2008. It’s make it or break it time for many of the players on the list and those who haven’t raised a few rounds for a decent war chest to wait it out (see Trulia Gets Beaucoup Bucks) are going to struggle and probably fail.

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Related Articles at Future of Real Estate Marketing:

• VentureBeat Reveals Trulia Redesigns
• Zillow and Brokers Kiss and Make Up?
• Trulia Helps Agents Put their Stamp on their Listings
• Zillow Is Creating It’s Own Reality
• Zillow expands its reach

See the rest here:
Real Estate 2.0 Expands

Q My girlfriend and I bought a condominium together about two years ago. Everything was beautiful until our relationship ended. I moved from the master bedroom to the spare room so we could live as roommates. Unfortunately, the situation went from heaven to hell. She started to make my life…

Excerpted from:
A Mortgage Is a Tie That Binds, Even After the Owners Break Up

Yahoo! Inc., just released the results of a study they did on how the Internet influences home buyers and sellers and specifically how it influences consumers when it comes to selecting a real estate agent.

No great surprises in the results (which were tabulated from a survey of 500 participants)… Yahoo’s found that… Yes… the Internet plays a “pivotal role in the selection process and was central in helping consumers identify agents”.

The numbers are good brain fodder though.. here’s what Yahoo! found:

• Home buyers and sellers consider approximately two agents on average before making a final decision.
• The Internet impacts consumer trust. Forty percent of respondents credited a site in increasing their trust in the agent.
• 74 percent of people who accessed an agent Web site got there with the help of a search engine. [emphasis mine]
• The online research process is quick and intense: consumers spent an average of 12 hours online researching agents and 75 percent selected an agent within one week of starting their search.
• 45 percent of respondents used the Internet to learn about agents they didn’t know existed.
• 41 percent discovered special deals and promotions offered from an agent through the Internet.

Struck me that maintaining a blog might still be the best way for Realtors to deal with the discovery and introduction process.

But the biggest find reinforces what many of the online search sites are banking on (see Trulia Gets Beaucoup Bucks) - there is still a massive disconnect between Realtor’s advertising budgets and where consumers are looking for information. According to Yahoo! (bias noted) 77 percent of respondents searched the Internet for information during their research process compared to 34 percent for print.

And guess where Realtors are still spending the most of their money? A Borrell Associates report quoted by Yahoo says that newspapers continue to get biggest share of Realtor advertising dollars at 40 percent (though online is catching up - and now stands at 32 percent).

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Related Articles at Future of Real Estate Marketing:

• Stroking Your RSS Ego
• MyNewPlace promises to help you find an apartment
• Turnhere Takes a CAR Ride
• Jump into 3D with Agent Earth
• Internet Marketing for Real Estate Developers

Source:
More Proof You Need to be Marketing Online

Simmering resentment over Trulia’s SEO practices (see Trulia Caught Cloaking Red Handed) hasn’t stopped the search site from landing another $15 million in funding.

Deep Fork Capital LLC led the financing to top up Trulia’s reserves; Trulia’s other investors Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Fayez Sarofim & Co. also participated.

In the statement, Trulia co-founder and CEO Pete Flint said… well, he didn’t say all that much really…

““This additional capital will help us take advantage of this opportunity and continue our accelerated growth. This market is also a unique time to help real estate brokers and agents transition their marketing efforts and services online. In the coming year, we plan to roll out world-class products that will continue to transform the online real estate experience.”

Also found in the release - Trulia claimed it has:

• Approximately 5 million unique users
• 100,000 real estate professionals as registered users
• More than 3 million real estate listings nationwide
• Over 70 million property records providing constantly-updated comparable sales

Trulia has now raised $33 million since it launched. That’s big money - so somebody definitely thinks there’s a payoff somewhere to be had. The only question is from where?

—
Related Articles at Future of Real Estate Marketing:

• Trulia’s Web Site Down?
• Too Busy To Blog? Pay Someone To Do It For You
• Trulia Now Live in the Pacific Northwest
• Welcome Trulia!
• Quick Hit: Trulia profile

Go here to see the original:
Trulia Gets Beaucoup Bucks

Moo is one of my very favorite online printing companies. In fact, the first time I went to Inman’s Real Estate Connect (see Help Plan My Trip to Inman Connect NYC) I carried with me in my pocket a handful of Moo’s MiniCards with me that had my blog URL and contact information on it.

For those of you who have moo’vd your marketing yet, Moo (which is based in London) creates brilliant printed products that can pipe in photo feeds from your Flickr or Facebook account so every single card can have a unique image on it.

For this reason, it makes Moo uniquely useful to the real estate agent. And they’ve just released a new product that their aiming directly at agents too - full-size business cards.

Using Moo’s “PrintFinity” technology, you could be printing business cards for a new listing that has a different picture on every card with the property information on the back. Imagine blowing your seller’s mind when you show up with a box of these for them to pass out.

Alternatively, you could create a series of business cards that have all the listings you’ve ever sold on the backs of the cards, along with your contact info.

The other nice thing is that Moo lets you do very small print runs (of only 50 cards) - which makes sense for a single listing - as you end up having a lot less waste and a run can be updated if there’s a price change. 50 cards costs only $21.99 and you can choose to get the cards in 100% ‘Green’ card stock (recyleable and biodegradeable) too.

—
Related Articles at Future of Real Estate Marketing:

• Friday Fun: Business Cards to Remember
• In the Daily Grind with Real Estate Agents
• Agent 2.0: not-so-clever play on ‘Web 2.0’ or the future of real estate marketing?
• BuyerHunt is Real Estate in Reverse
• An Embarassment of Riches

Read the rest here:
Moo Launches Business Cards for Agents

Despite the housing recession, there are still more than 1.5 million real estate agents in the United States.

Excerpt from:
To Sell to Gen-Y, You Have to Meet Them Online

Marketing Real Estate on Facebook (and Other Social Networks) by Joel Burslem on Wednesday, May 2, 2007.

I’ll admit it. I’m hooked on Facebook. I somehow missed out the whole MySpace craze (thankfully, visiting a MySpace page now just makes my eyes hurt) - but Facebook has me hook, line and sinker.

Over on the Inman Blog, I wrote a post recently about real estate marketing through social media - where I implied that you should be thinking about marketing your listings in the places where your target markets are these days. Believe me, that’s rarely in the classifieds sections of your local newspapers anymore.

Now, industry social networks like ActiveRain are great for connecting with your peers; but let’s face it, Consumers aren’t hanging out there. If you’re looking for buyers and sellers, in this day and age you need to be a little more creative.

The news that Facebook may launch Local Classifieds got me thinking on how you can take this idea and use social networks like Facebook to really power your business.

Here’s how:

1. Encourage past clients and new clients to ‘friend’ you or ‘add’ you to their networks. Include links to your profile in your marketing materials, business cards etc. Build out a brand new online “sphere”.

2. Creating Groups - This is the most obvious way to use the site. Create a “Portland Homebuyers” group for example and help first time buyers with their questions. Leverage your expertise to become the expert in the group.

3. Creating a unique Group is also a great way to keep in touch with business networking contacts you meet - maybe it’s at a local Chamber of Commerce meeting or even a Real Estate Connect conference. (I’ve set up a SF Connect group, by the way, where I hope we can all meet up). You can engage in post conference discussions, share information in a neutral open forum that doesn’t demand the intimacy of an email or telephone contact.

4. Shares - You could use Facebook to market properties to a select group or share properties with your friends . A handy bookmarklet lets you add external links to your Shares. You could add a link to a property from your own site, even a vFlyer page or Sellsius listing etc.

Think about it, you could have an exclusive Group of Realtors in your market, maybe its even inside a single branch office, and you could share great listings with each other even before they hit the MLS.

5. If you’re a blogger, add your RSS feed to your profile. Facebook lets you add a Blog feed to your Notes. You could find new readers and even drive traffic back to your blog by sharing your posts with your network.

I think that maximizing your exposure on social networks like Facebook are going to be increasingly important to small businesses - especially in industries that are already so network-dependent like real estate. Unfortunately, due to the fleeting nature of these sites, the trick is going to be to stay on top on where everyone is. The real danger is arriving too late and finding your audience has already moved on.

—
Related Articles at Future of Real Estate Marketing:

• Facebook Could Make or Break Real Estate 2.0
• Marketing Real Estate on Facebook (and Other Social Networks)
• Brokers, Don’t Fear the Fish, Fear the Friend
• 3daybid Spams Social Networks
• Marketing Yourself with Facebook Flyers

Read the rest here:
Best of FOREM: Marketing Real Estate on Facebook (and Other Social Networks)

Marketing Real Estate on Facebook (and Other Social Networks) by Joel Burslem on Wednesday, May 2, 2007.

I’ll admit it. I’m hooked on Facebook. I somehow missed out the whole MySpace craze (thankfully, visiting a MySpace page now just makes my eyes hurt) - but Facebook has me hook, line and sinker.

Over on the Inman Blog, I wrote a post recently about real estate marketing through social media - where I implied that you should be thinking about marketing your listings in the places where your target markets are these days. Believe me, that’s rarely in the classifieds sections of your local newspapers anymore.

Now, industry social networks like ActiveRain are great for connecting with your peers; but let’s face it, Consumers aren’t hanging out there. If you’re looking for buyers and sellers, in this day and age you need to be a little more creative.

The news that Facebook may launch Local Classifieds got me thinking on how you can take this idea and use social networks like Facebook to really power your business.

Here’s how:

1. Encourage past clients and new clients to ‘friend’ you or ‘add’ you to their networks. Include links to your profile in your marketing materials, business cards etc. Build out a brand new online “sphere”.

2. Creating Groups - This is the most obvious way to use the site. Create a “Portland Homebuyers” group for example and help first time buyers with their questions. Leverage your expertise to become the expert in the group.

3. Creating a unique Group is also a great way to keep in touch with business networking contacts you meet - maybe it’s at a local Chamber of Commerce meeting or even a Real Estate Connect conference. (I’ve set up a SF Connect group, by the way, where I hope we can all meet up). You can engage in post conference discussions, share information in a neutral open forum that doesn’t demand the intimacy of an email or telephone contact.

4. Shares - You could use Facebook to market properties to a select group or share properties with your friends . A handy bookmarklet lets you add external links to your Shares. You could add a link to a property from your own site, even a vFlyer page or Sellsius listing etc.

Think about it, you could have an exclusive Group of Realtors in your market, maybe its even inside a single branch office, and you could share great listings with each other even before they hit the MLS.

5. If you’re a blogger, add your RSS feed to your profile. Facebook lets you add a Blog feed to your Notes. You could find new readers and even drive traffic back to your blog by sharing your posts with your network.

I think that maximizing your exposure on social networks like Facebook are going to be increasingly important to small businesses - especially in industries that are already so network-dependent like real estate. Unfortunately, due to the fleeting nature of these sites, the trick is going to be to stay on top on where everyone is. The real danger is arriving too late and finding your audience has already moved on.

—
Related Articles at Future of Real Estate Marketing:

• Facebook Could Make or Break Real Estate 2.0
• Marketing Real Estate on Facebook (and Other Social Networks)
• Brokers, Don’t Fear the Fish, Fear the Friend
• 3daybid Spams Social Networks
• Marketing Yourself with Facebook Flyers

Read more:
Best of FOREM: Marketing Real Estate on Facebook

While cruising along Route 7 in western Fairfax County, it’s easy to overlook Holly Knoll, a house built in 1858 that’s the namesake for two neighboring subdivisions. Its brick facade peeks from behind giant sycamore, oak and holly trees, and its long gravel driveway trails forlornly through…

Credit:
Stonewall Stopped Here

What Does the Real Estate Brand of the Future Look Like? by Joel Burslem on Monday, October 8, 2007

The news that Realogy Corporation is going to license Better Homes and Gardens magazine’s brand to launch a new brokerage got me thinking again once again about what the real estate brands of the future are going to look like. (More on the launch from The Real Estate Bloggers).

There’s little doubt we live in an era where the big brands dominate. Drive through most towns these days and you’re going to see the same handful of big box stores that results in a startling uniform and homogenized consumer landscape. Welcome to the United States of Generica.

As these brands reach saturation point however, it’s natural for them to want to begin extending themselves into related markets. To leverage their name recognition and consumer awareness into new business verticals. Starbucks’ push into music sales is a perfect example of the powerful crossover nature of new brands, as is the push into white-labeled banking and finance services by retail outlets.

Real estate is no different - and Realogy gets that. There’s a trust factor that comes with an established consumer brand and a pre-existing identity to build upon. Plus, licensing an existing story is far easier than writing a new one (see Why Do All Real Estate Logos Suck So Bad?).

So it got me thinking, just for fun, what could be some interesting crossover brands for the real estate brokerages of the future?

• Martha Stewart real estate. A pretty obvious one - they’ve already licensed the brand to KB Homes to build a new community of homes in North Carolina.
• Ikea real estate. They’re selling prefab “Boklok” homes in Scandanavia and the UK - a trendy condo sales arm, for example, could be fun.
• Virgin real estate. Up to now, Richard Branson has had a fairly rough time penetrating the US market as extensively as he has done overseas, but the launch of Virgin America may start to turn that around. Might appeal to the 30-something crowd.

(Personally, I’d love to see Steve Jobs at the helm of Apple Real Estate - but that’s just geeky wishful thinking.)

What about the online players then?

• Zillow. OK, OK. I know I’m beating a pretty tired drum… We all know Zillow is a media company… But I still think it makes a lot of sense for them to take the brand to the streets. A true online and offline hybrid brand - Zillow’s the only one with deep enough pockets to do this. I’d be all for it.

• ActiveRain. We all know that right now ActiveRain is a big unprofitable echo-chamber. If it turned itself into a brokerage there could be a renewed sense of purpose to the brand, as well as a way to drive the much-desired consumer traffic to the site through traditional offline methods - yard signs etc. Further, you could connect individual franchisers through the social network for support and training. Ultimately you’d leverage the power of a distributed agent community working for and with each other.

Any other ideas of crossover brands?

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Related Articles at Future of Real Estate Marketing:

• What Does the Real Estate Brand of the Future Look Like?
• Advertise
• Happy Holidays from FOREM
• Now In FoREM News
• FOREM got Posh’d

Original post:
Best of FOREM: Crossover Real Estate Brands

What’s wrong with down-payment “gift” programs in which all or most of a home buyer’s equity stake comes from the seller, funneled through a third party? And why is the federal government determined to ban them?

Read more:
FHA Calls for an End To Seller-Funded Down-Payment Charities

The phenomenal metamorphosis of Arlington County’s Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, among the region’s most dramatic real estate transformations, teaches a timely lesson: Successful urban revitalization requires long-range planning and long-range public investment that sparks private investment.

Excerpt from:
Lessons of Arlington’s Urban Development Needn’t Be Just History