Real Estate Blog

Amid stories of personal financial hardship, Statistics Canada reported that, in the third quarter of 2008, Canadian corporations earned CAD$77.3 billion in operating profits, an increase of almost 8 percent over the second quarter. Gains in the non-financial sector climbed more than 9 percent to CAD$58.1 billion, while profits in the financial sector rose significantly to CAD$19.2 billion.

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Adopt the “Forge Ahead to Prosperity” Attitude Essential in Business

The real estate sales business, like all other businesses in the world, is in a techno-revolution. The new technology in the world has created tremendous changes and growth in our industry. Agents and companies are dramatically changing the way they do business to take advantage of this vast new frontier. And technology is moving at a faster rate everyday. As an Agent, you must prepare and learn to capitalize on this revolution.

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Techno-Selling

My employer Inman News has embarked on a major editorial project over the next few months focusing on the future of the real estate industry.

I’d love to hear from FOREM readers what they think that might look like. You’ll score a pass to the upcoming Real Estate Connect conference in New York for your efforts.

We are also calling for essays that focus the future of real estate. Write no more than 400 words on how to reinvent the real estate industry and revive the housing market. Pick a category — brokers, agents, technology, title or lending — or discuss the entire industry. Our editorial team will review the essays, publish many of them, and hand out a $500 check to the author of the best essay. Also, the authors of all essays published in full will get a free pass (valid for new registrations only) to the upcoming Real Estate Connect conference. Send your essays to future@inman.com by Dec. 31, 2008.

Read more on reinventing the real estate industry.

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The Future of Real Estate

One of my favorite online real estate search tools, Estately expanded in to two new markets today; Greater Chicago and Long Island, New York. This marks the first markets outside of the West Coast for the Seattle based search site — Estately previously only served Washington, Oregon and California.

This means Estately, which pulls all of its listings from its relationships with the local MLSes, now has over 330,000 homes for sale on its site.

Another welcome feature in this latest release is the addition of past home sales information to every listing. You’ll now be able to see the entire sales history on any listed home to see if has recently changed hands and if so, for how much. This new feature is powered through a relationship with Cyberhomes.

With these two new markets, Estately is taking big strides to move beyond being simply a regional player. Even if it still has a long way to go to rival the reach of the big national sites, there’s no question the underdog is starting to lose its puppy teeth.

estately, real estate search, real estate 2.0

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Estately Expands Eastwards

Neighborhood boundaries are a fluid thing. My definition what encompasses my neighborhood (Multnomah Village in Portland) may vary greatly from the person across street.

It’s also one of the Holy Grails to online search. The ability to confine a search to a particular neighborhood. Roost does this particularly well, as does Estately and to a lesser degree Zillow.

Zillow also took the step of creating a set of neighborhood boundaries (over 7000 of them) that they released earlier this year in Shapefile format.

Another effort is slowly taking shape (literally) however. The popular photo-sharing site Flickr is also releasing Shapefiles of neighborhoods, using the data it collects from the geotagged photos in its database to accumulate a collective definition of what makes a neighborhood.

The project, which is in early Alpha, can best be viewed on the mashup site Neighborhood Boundaries. Simply punch in your neighborhood name (or city name) and see how the boundaries are being defined in your neck of the woods.

Again, this is early Alpha, so many markets won’t have much coverage. But the possibility of user-defined neighborhood boundaries is intriguing to say the least.

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These Are The Photos in Your Neighborhood

Taking a page from the its search portal cousins and perhaps even its cross-town competitor Redfin, the new Windermere web site launched today, with a simple search box up front and center. Simple, slick and straight to the point.

Broker web pages are often cluttered with all kinds of extraneous information; programs on this and that. Windermere cuts right to the chase and puts the power of its IDX driven search tool up front and center. Just what I’m looking for.

Better still, the search experience gets even better once you dive in. Results return speedily are mapped quickly onto a Microsoft Virtual Earth map. Clicking on a individual listing and you get a nice big picture as well as the ability to read the entire property details, view all existing photos and print out a ready-to-roam flyer.

I suspect this is the model for the brokerage web site moving forward. A simple, interactive online destination that supplies the consumer with the complete search experience. If Windermere takes this to the next level and white-labeled this tool for its agents, they’d be on to a winning combination.

Windermere serves the Western US, in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington state and Wyoming.

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New Face for Windermere

Contact ZipRealty at 1.800 CALL ZIP — Creative development opportunity on this large corner lot! Quiet street with easy access to the 710fwy. Build out of 4th bedroom and second bathroom was started but never completed. Great opportunity for the ‘do it yourself’ individual or savvy investor! This is a short sale, all offers will be considered subject to bank approval.

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1002 SOUTH WHITE AVENUE, COMPTON, CA — 3bed/1bath — $199,000

For real estate buyers right now it’s a crazy time. The fear of making the wrong decision can be paralyzing at times, so having access to information is critical.

I thought I’d share some of the tools I’ve been using in my own search.

What’s Happening on the Ground?

Trulia.com

Trulia generates its reports from its internal database of property listings (most of which are pulled from its relationships with real estate brokers). Inventory is admittedly incomplete, but it’ll give you a good sense of the trajectories of the local markets.

Cyberhomes.com

Cyberhomes, on the other hand, gets its data from its records on over
100 million US properties. Their neighborhood overviews are a little slow to load but can give you a overview of what a zip code is doing and see the overall direction of the market.

Get the Big Picture?

Altos Research

Altos reports are real time market intelligence that deep dive in to what’s really going on in your market, right now. As a buyer, you can also get a snapshot of the trends in any given market. Altos founder Mike Simonsen claims their reports lead the Case/Shiller Index by three months.

Foreclosures

Understanding the volume of foreclosures, bank owned properties and auctions that are hitting your is key to gauging where prices might be headed in your local market.

RealtyTrac

The 800lb gorilla in the foreclosure space. RealtyTrac has a fantastic amount of information despite a clunky web site. There is a monthly charge to have access to this data - but it’s well worth it, especially if you’re looking at these opportunities seriously.

ForeclosureRadar.com

California buyers may want to look at ForeclosureRadar, a “professional grade” search tool that tracks all foreclosure activity in the state. Designed mostly for Realtors and investors, it’s a fantastic tool that gives you unparalleled data and analysis. Too bad it’s not available outside of the Golden State, yet.

Bonus - Find Homes on Auction

Also, if you’re interested in getting homes at auction, check out Zetabid.com. Right now they are running auctions in California, Florida and Illinois.

Trulia, Cyberhomes, Altos, RealtyTrac, ForeclosureRadar

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5 Great Sites to Help You Better Understand This Crazy Market

Apartment, Venezuela, Your (holiday -) apartment next to the most beautiful beach on Isla Margarita … 35.000 EUR

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Economic duplex flat in Cabaña - Style

Apartment, United Arab Emirates, Luxury Aparment at Dubai Marina with Full Sea View … price on request

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Luxury Aparment

Commercial Property, United Arab Emirates, Lucrative Ready to move in office spaces with 10% Rental Guarantee available at Tecom (Freezone & Freehold), Dubai, UAE. … price on request

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Executive Heights - TECOM, Dubai

Contact ZipRealty at 1.800 CALL ZIP — Lovely 2-bedroom, 2 and 1/2 bath home in guard-gated northpark! Shows light and bright! Move-in ready, this immaculate home has soaring ceilings and a floor plan perfect for entertaining, with formal living room, separate dining room, and a spacious kitchen with maple cabinets and premium appliances. Tranquil, enclosed patio with fountain. Master bedroom with french doors, balcony, striking hill views, walk-in closet. Northpark resort-style amenities include pools/spas, parks, tot lots, tennis courts, clubhouse. What’s more, this is not a short sale or reo, just priced like one. Move in in time for the holidays!

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54 MODESTO NO.58, IRVINE, CA — 2bed/3bath — $499,000

Aside from price, home buyers customarily have a laundry list of “needs” they would like to see fulfilled when purchasing a new home. Certainly there are those common factors, such as number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, garage size, etc. There are often community desires as well, like high-ranking schools, reasonable taxes and accessible shopping, to name a few. During the years, these amenities have remained fairly constant.

The new millennium has brought to light an additional necessity: broadband availability.

Once upon a time, having broadband in your home was tantamount to the introduction of the television in the early 1950s. Many Baby Boomers can remember a time when whole families were invited to a neighbor’s home to watch Milton Berle or the Saturday night fights. An entire scene in the 1985 movie Back to the Future conveys the uniqueness of the television experience in the home - no big deal to Marty McFly, but quite remarkable to his extended, “back-in-time” family.

For some of us, initial access to the World Wide Web, even through a modem, was awe-inspiring. Because of its limited ability, we might have had to wait 20 minutes for something to download. No matter! We felt like this was the “cutting edge” of technology and we were content to just know someone who had the Internet at home.

Today, many home buyers are adding broadband access to their list of real estate priorities. Urban workers who are looking for wide-open living spaces in rural communities may find getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city could leave them empty-handed when it comes to a high-speed Internet connection.

For “at-home” workers, whether urban or rural, broadband has become a huge factor in their choice of where to live - it is literally their lifeline. For the worker on the move, it’s great that many motels/hotels, coffee shops and fast food restaurants offer wireless access to the Internet, but at the end of the day, if they can’t work in their jammies, in the comfort of their own home, off-site Wi-Fi is of little consequence.

The importance of broadband access is surely a sign of the times. And like the demand to be readily available, the speed in which it’s delivered is entering a Star Trek dimension. Soon we’ll no longer be content to wait 5 to 10 seconds for information to download. Our expectations may be no different than the command of a well-known captain: “Mr. Sulu, ahead warp one.” I wonder if g-forces will come with that connection? 

Posted by Sharon Walker

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Apartment, Spain, The unique penthouse with a breathtaking view of the Mediterranean, it will impress … 1.100.000 EUR

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Luxury penthouse with ocean views

In May of 2007, I was convinced by someone I used to like (just kidding, sort of) to set up a booth at the NAR Expo in Las Vegas. She convinced me it would be fun and that she would handle all the details — all I’d have to do is show up.

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Confessions of a NAR Exhibitor