Real Estate News

Yesterday, the “IE6 funeral” took place in Denver. This is what appeared on the funeral site:

Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc. Internet Explorer Six, known to friends and family as “IE6,” is survived by son Internet Explorer Seven, and grand-daughter Internet Explorer Eight.

Those mourning the Web browser, but unable to attend, were asked to send flowers. So, Microsoft sent a big bouquet!

In the photo above, a funeral guest is showing off the card that arrived with Microsoft’s bouquet. Microsoft confirmed the test and also that it sent the flowers (according to SeattlePI.com.)

The card reads:

Thanks for the good times IE6, see you all @ MIX when we show a little piece of IE Heaven.

The Internet Explorer Team @ Microsoft

Internet Explorer 8 has been in existence for over 8 years and Microsoft plans to continue support until 2014, but many in the tech world are happily ready to move on and ‘kill’ IE6 – especially with all the problems and bugs it has caused users.

Still using IE6? Please, either upgrade or I recommend switching to Firefox or Chrome!

What’s your browser of choice? Would love your feedback, leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Fun Friday: Microsoft sends flowers to the IE6 funeral

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Tune in Wed. January 13th! Ask questions live via Twitter and Facebook to some of the very best leaders in the industry.

Brand NEW for Connect NYC 2010: Live Streaming and Interactive Video – “Spinnio” – courtesy of Dustin Luther. We will be LIVE on Wed. Jan. 13th from 11 am (EST) – 2:45 pm (EST) and then 5-6 pm (EST). During that time you can watch Inman News Columnist and Broker/Owner, Kris Berg interview some of the best of the best in the industry. You will be able to ask questions via Twitter and Facebook!

If you are going to be at Real Estate Connect NYC make sure to stop by the Inman booth (#904).

Click HERE to see the Inman Spinnio page and make sure to check back Wednesday to see all the action!

Scheduled so far are:

• Brad Inman, publisher Inman News (Wed. 1/13 at 1 pm EST/10 am PST)
• Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist.com (Wed. 1/13 at 2:30 pm EST/11:30 am PST).

This will be a great opportunity to “turn the tables” on these guys and ask hard-hitting questions.

Not yet registered? Very limited seating still available – click here to register.

View the complete conference program.

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Wishing you were at Connect NYC? Join us virtually!

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Sign up for Real Estate Connect by between Monday, December 28th and Tuesday, December 29^th at midnight (PST) and you will be entered into a drawing to stay in Brad Inman’s suite at the Marriott Marquis Times Square! Brad will not be staying in the room

The winner will receive 3 nights free in Brad’s suite (January 12-14). The winner will be picked at random, and announced on Wednesday, December 30^th.

Register NOW! Use promo code “freesuite” to win!

Also, everyone who registers with this promo code “freesuite” will receive $100 off the current registration price.

DEADLINE: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29^TH AT MIDNIGHT (PST)!

View the full conference program

Questions? Contact Katie Lance at katie@inman.com

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WIN A FREE SUITE AT REAL ESTATE CONNECT NYC!

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If you have never experienced Real Estate Connect, I highly recommend you check it out!

Connect brings something no other conference does – the ‘best of the best’ in the real estate technology world. The group of journalists, bloggers, CEO’s and top executives is unbelievable.

Before I worked for Inman News, I attended two Connect conferences, and I can say from first-hand experience – it changed the way I did business.  I remember being at Connect and feeling so blown away by the content, the learning, and the people I met.

Connect is truly like no other conference. It is worth every dime! FOREM members, save $100 off the registration price – use promo code “FOREM”

If you are an agent, broker, owner, marketing person, tech geek, or all of the above – you can not miss Connect. (Check out the complete program!)

Here are the details: Marriott Marquis Hotel – in the heart of Times Square! Jan.13-15, 2010
Book your room by this Monday 12/21 to get the group rate!

FOREM members, save $100 off the registration price – use promo code “FOREM”

posted by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Greetings FOREM readers!

I am really excited to be a featured writer on FOREM’s blog. I have been a reader and admirer of this blog for some time and am thrilled with the opportunity to contribute!  It is an honor to write along side Joel Burslem. I am equally as excited about my new position as marketing manager with Inman News. I look forward to bringing a fresh and new perspective to our readers and fans!

To read more about me click here!

So for my 1st blog post, I am going to talk about one of my favorite subjects – Google.

Let’s face it, we are living in a Google world. But, as you all know Google has become so much more than just a search engine.

There are tons of experiments going on with Google – but I thought I’d take this opportunity to give you the 3 latest (and in my opinion most exciting) things happening with Google that will impact you and your business.

1. Google Living Stories – This looks like it could be the next “big thing” for Google and potentially down the line for real estate. Google Living Stories takes newspaper reading to the next level.

Newspapers?  Yes. Stick with me here. This is where it gets good.

It’s not surprising to anyone that the newspaper industry is dying but breaking news and the hunger for news continues to grow at an exponential rate.

Google Living Stories is in beta form right now, and is very “Wikipedia” looking.  So far, Google Living Stories has partnered with The New York Times and The Washington Post. When you go to Google Living Stories and click on a story, you are brought to a page with 1-2 paragraphs of text, photos, graphs, timelines, related links, and related stories.

I love this.

If Living Stories takes off this could be HUGE for the real estate world. Imagine a client searching for “New York Real Estate” – when they click ‘search’ they then may come to a page with listings, photos, neighborhood info, school info, timelines, video, and so much more.

Living Stories still has a ways to come but it has a lot of potential!

News organizations produce a wealth of information that we all value; access to this information should be as great as the online medium allows.

2. Google Chrome – This free web browser is literally taking the web world by storm. Just 2 days ago, at the Googelplex in Mountain View, over 500 new Google Chrome Extensions were unveiled.

Why Chrome? Speed, simplicity and style – but the best part is the speed. It is lightening fast! Already  have Chrome? Check out these experiments from Google to play around with! Also announced today on Google’s blog is the launch of Mac and Linux extensions for Chrome.

3 . Google Goggles – Take a picture of a book, a store, a landmark and that picture translates into a search for that object. It is still in its infancy and only available on the Android (but the rumor is that it will available soon on Google Chrome) but think about the possibilities for real estate search. What if this worked with homes on the market? You could snap a photo and instantly see how long it had been on the market, details about the home, listing agent, virtual tours, and more.  I think there are lots of possibilities for this – plus I love the “cool” factor.

What’s next for Google? Stay tuned – the possibilities are wide open!

Posted by Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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Top 3 Latest & Greatest Products from Google

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Altos Research has released four new WordPress Plugins that make it dead simple to go deep in to the numbers and create data rich local market blogs.

Altos is among many real estate data providers out there, but is unique in that many of its core products cater to individual Realtors rather than large institutional or corporate clients.

These new plugins allow subscribers to easily embed Altos charts on new posts or pages on their blogs through a very easy interface. The upshot to all this?

It makes it dead simple to create new web properties dedicated to answering real estate consumers’ biggest question right now… “How’s the Market?” – Market blogs are on the rise.

LoCo Market Stats is an Altos-powered blog that is doing just that. Realtor Heather Elias is using the charts to illustrate a week-by-week snapshot on the Loudoun County Virginia real estate market.

Realtor Eric Stegemann at stlhomedata.com is taking a slightly different tack – and using one of the plugin’s most powerful features; which is the ability to create static pages per city or zip-code and then have the data flow in to each page dynamically – like this one he created for Valley Park, Missouri. This means that, unlike the static charts, each time the page is reloaded, the data is refreshed.

Call it the fire-and-forget method to building out market blog.

Real Estate 2.0 is probably best characterized by the explosive growth of social media that allowed Realtors to begin to publish real estate related content to web. I believe the next phase in this phenomenon will be tools that allow individual brokers and agents to begin to expose, publish and interpret the data that drive local markets. This is the premise underlying ventures like the RPR (see NAR Leaps into the Fray — In a Big Way) and what every MLS executive in the country should be thinking about right now.

The winners in this game will be the ones that blow open the doors to the deepest, richest data but, more importantly, make the it easiest, cheapest and most intuitive for the masses to share.

With this release, Altos stands at the head of the pack. At least for now.

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Original post:
Data Sharing and The Rise of the Market Blog

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Online real estate video host Wellcomehost released its first annual report on the use of video in real estate marketing.

Significantly, the company found that the use of video is up 95% in the first half of 2009 versus the first half of 2008.

Breakouts like Realtor Ian Watt (see Video Isn’t Just About Your Listings) set the bar for the creative use of video and also seemed to have kick-started a whole generation of car-mounted video blog posts.

But it’s not only the little guys getting in on the fun; big brands like Corcoran Group are embracing video too.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What I found particularly interesting in the report however, was the breakdown of the how real estate professionals are using video. Marketing listings comes in at the top of the list 30 per cent; showcasing local areas and professional introductions round out the top three but oddly, demonstrating market knowledge comes in dead last.

Seems to me, if done properly, market intelligence is the biggest opportunity to push video in a new interesting direction. Imagine an animated Common Craft style monthly video market report, for example…

Here’s a few more slides from the full report.

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Real Estate Video Use Rises in 2009

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Dothomes.com is for sale.

Google PR 4. Yours for the right price.

Dothomes was one of a number of overseas property portal sites that tried in the last few years to make their way on to US shores. Turns out playing in the US market is much more complicated than they thought.

Much ballyhooed at the time (see DotHomes is in the Running), Dothomes was a product of BytePlay Ltd, which also had a presence in the UK and South Africa – no word if those sister sites will stay active though.

The reason for the sale? From the founder directly, “real estate was never our cup of tea…”

So the company is changing their strategy to provide “enterprise data acquisition solutions in UK.” The sale of Dothomes will be conducted by private auction and will conclude October 1st. I’ve asked for a link to the auction site, and will post here as soon as I can.

Globrix, the News Corp backed site, is the only overseas portal that I’ve heard is still pondering a US based entry. News of Dothomes’ retreat may make them a little more wary however.

Photo courtesy of wizardofthefiretopmountain

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Wanna buy a web site?

Wanna buy a web site?

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Great news for those of you who are building your web sites in Wordpress. Zillow has announced the release of the new Local Market Explorer WP Plugin.

The LME plugin, which was built by Jonathan Mabe and Andrew Mattie, developers with Diverse Solutions, automatically creates rich pages on your blog that incorporate data from Zillow, Education.com, Flickr, Walk Score and Yelp.

Zillow has set up some test pages here:

• Los Angeles
• San Diego
• Seattle

You can download the plugin immediately from WordPress plugin directory.

A couple of key notes; you’ll need separate API keys for each of the data sources but you can turn on or off which sources you want to incorporate. Also, the plugin does not let create hyperlocal pages (at either a neighborhood or ZIP code level) so you must keep all of your pages at the city level, for now.

Zillow promises future versions that will address these issues. But regardless, this is an instant, dead simple way to instantly create compelling content that your web visitors are looking for. Organized correctly, you could create a powerfully relevant local resource.

wordpress, zillow, local market explorer, plugin

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New Local Market Explorer plugin for Wordpress

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The eyes of the real estate industry will be on California again as Inman News’ annual Real Estate Connect conference kicks off this week in San Francisco.

Having been involved planning Connect conferences for the last couple of years, I can honestly say the Inman News team has really pulled off an amazing schedule of events this time around. There’s a ton of great speakers and sessions this time around that will really make a trip to San Francisco worthwhile.

Here’s a few highlights:

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and Zappos COO Alfred Lin are going to keynote at Connect!

Also who could forget ReBarCamp – at Trulia’s HQ tomorrow!

Parties! Vendor Alley has all the deets.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend this summer’s Connect – but I will definitely be following the goings-on online. Should be a great conference and there’s still time to register.

And hey, if you’re attending Connect – let me know how it’s going in the comments below!

Full disclosure: The Future of Real Estate Marketing is part of Inman News. Inman News also organizes the Real Estate Connect conference.

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Real Estate Connect Kicks Off this Week!

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Well, at least in the eyes of these WSJ film producers it is, who are releasing a new web video series about the tumultuous period at the end of 2008.

Most of the info in the video probably won’t be news to many of this blog’s readers, but they did a nice job summing up all the events that led to the crash last year. (Also make sure you check out Michael Lewis’ fantastic piece in Portfolio that covered much of the same ground.)

I know this blog usually focuses on the important stuff – like Twitter – but I thought it was a great video and thought I’d share. Now back to our regular programming.

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Originally posted here:
Wall St. Bust Now History

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Thousands of fans packed Pioneer Square in downtown Portland at 1am last night to see and hear comedian Dave Chappelle perform. Later dubbed “Davestock” by some in the crowd, the event was a truly remarkable night.

The evening unfolded something like this.

Allegedly, Chappelle, while wandering around Portland yesterday,told a handful of people he would be doing a free set at 1am on the steps of the downtown gathering spot.

Word began to spread through social networks, via Twitter and Facebook status updates. Anticipation began to build. (As did some healthy skepticism that it was all a hoax).

Chappelle expected a couple hundred people to show up and instead, this is what happened.

An utter mob scene – but in typical Portland fashion, totally chill.

I think this is a wonderful illustration of two driving concepts in today’s web economy; the power of giving something away for for free and the power of social networks to distribute that message for you.

Let’s tackle the first concept – as Chris Anderson explains in his book Free, “free” is a incredibly powerful motivator and can instantly build brand loyalty. How many Chappelle fans, spurred on by the thrill of him just showing up, raced home and purchased his CDs or DVDs off Amazon? How many will be in line to buy tickets the next time he swings through Portland? By deciding to perform for free on a whim, he instantly connected with a legion of local fans and gave them a unique night to remember.

So what are you giving away for free? A market report, your home search tool (i.e. no registration). There’s lots of things you can be doing for free.

Secondly, the excitement around the mere thought of a Chappelle appearance in Portland was amplified exponentially by online social networks, as friends told friends, and the word of mouth buzz spread. And, either online or offline, this buzz (and good will) will likely continue for weeks as the story is retold over and over.

Granted most of us aren’t stars the magnitude of Dave Chappelle, but each of us, in our own way, can use this understanding that by doing something remarkable, and better yet, by giving it away for free, you can create instantly communicate invigorate and even resuscitate your brand to your fans.

We can all learn something here. Even from a funny man like Dave Chappelle.

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Thousands of fans packed Pioneer Square in downtown Portland at 1am last night to see and hear comedian Dave Chappelle perform. Later dubbed “Davestock” by some in the crowd, the event was a truly remarkable night.

The evening unfolded something like this.

Allegedly, Chappelle, while wandering around Portland yesterday, told a handful of people he would be doing a free set at 1am on the steps of the downtown gathering spot.

Word began to spread through social networks, via Twitter and Facebook status updates. Anticipation began to build. (As did some healthy skepticism that it was all a hoax).

Chappelle expected a couple hundred people to show up and instead, this is what happened.

An utter mob scene – but in typical Portland fashion, totally chill.

I think this is a wonderful illustration of two driving concepts in today’s web economy; the power of giving something away for for free and the power of social networks to distribute that message for you.

Let’s tackle the first concept – as Chris Anderson explains in his book Free, “free” is a incredibly powerful motivator and can instantly build brand loyalty. How many Chappelle fans, spurred on by the thrill of him just showing up, raced home and purchased his CDs or DVDs off Amazon? How many will be in line to buy tickets the next time he swings through Portland? By deciding to perform for free on a whim, he instantly connected with a legion of local fans and gave them a unique night to remember.

So what are you giving away for free? A market report, your home search tool (i.e. no registration). There’s lots of things you can be doing for free.

Secondly, the excitement around the mere thought of a Chappelle appearance in Portland was amplified exponentially by online social networks, as friends told friends, and the word of mouth buzz spread. And, either online or offline, this buzz (and good will) will likely continue for weeks as the story is retold over and over.

Granted most of us aren’t stars the magnitude of Dave Chappelle, but each of us, in our own way, can use this understanding that by doing something remarkable, and better yet, by giving it away for free, you can create instantly communicate, invigorate and even resuscitate your brand to your fans.

We can all learn something here. Even from a funny man like Dave Chappelle.

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Apture is one of the coolest plugins I’ve stumbled across in a long while.

It allows you to instantly add rich, dimensional media to your blog or website but integrating text, images, video, maps, music and much more from over 50 sources; including Wikipedia, Flickr, NY Times, YouTube, Twitter and many more.

In the data rich environment of the Web that we now all live in; for many of us the challenge is finding the proper context for all the content we find on a web site.

As a web site owner or blogger, Apture allows you to begin to curate that content and begin to provide the proper context for your visitors.

Take, for example, this widget (click image to activate) I created for the neighborhood in which I live; containing a map, photos, video driving directions, historical background and a great article from the NY Times on Portland’s restaurants.

You can also create a link that has the same functionality built in.

Using a third party source like Outside.in for content is certainly a sensible and easy way to add some depth to your web site (see Looking for Hyperlocal Content?) but using a plugin like Apture, you can really add the right personal flourish (like linking your Twitter profile) and, more importantly, begin to apply the proper editorial oversight to really present your city, town or neighborhood in the right context.

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Apture Lets You Create Rich Information Widgets

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Have you got your ticket for Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2009 yet? Only one more day till the price goes up!

This will be the fifth Connect conference that I’ve been been part of and I’m proud of having been able to contribute to the program over the years.

But more importantly, Connect is something that I personally look forward to attending every summer. It’s a great place to meet up with all my friends in the industry and catch up; but I also get a ton out the conversations that spin out of the conference.

Here are 3 things that I’m personally really stoked about seeing this summer’s Connect:

• The Keynote address by Zappos’ COO Alfred Lin;
• The revival of the ConnectTech Workshop;
• Connect Create – The first-ever online real estate developers challenge. 72 hours to build a killer real estate app.

I’m also speaking this year again on a panel called How the Amazon Kindle Will Change Your Business
on Thursday, August 6 at 2:00 pm. So I hope to see you there!

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Real Estate Connect registration deadline tomorrow

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