RCG: Now with Seattle listing goodness

It may be late in the night as I start to write this post, but I’m so excited because I just flipped the switch on some pretty big changes to Rain City Guide.  They include both a complete redesign as well as one of the coolest features I’ve ever added to RCG:  A very, slick home search tool!

You know when you meet up with someone and you almost instantly bond with them… Well, a few months ago, I had one of those bonding experiences when I met with a broker out of Portland named Garron Selliken who gave me a demo of the custom home search tool he had built.  Our conversations reminded me of the good ‘ol days when real estate search wasn’t nearly as stale and was actually pushing boundaries. Not surprisingly, we immediately started hatching a plan for launching his home search tool on RCG!

Hatching a plan to launch something interesting on RCG happens all the time, so I wasn’t too surprised. However, I became a bit concerned a few days later when I realized that Garron was serious and this idea had legs.  And just a few weeks later, the new site has been launched!

It just so happens that Garron and I are meeting up this week in San Francisco (for only the 2nd time in person) and I’m positive I’m going to take some time aside with him to talk about why we’re so excited about the changes to RCG! As a broker and software developer, Garron really does rock. He has an awesome team and we have some interesting ideas for improving the site over the next few weeks and months.

But for now, it’s way too late for me to continue writing, so I’ll end the post by asking you to play with the revised site, kick the tires on the home search tool and let us know what you think.   If you see anything that looks broken or just not working like you want it to, don’t hesitate to let us know!

98 thoughts on “RCG: Now with Seattle listing goodness

  1. Wow, the Magazine Basic theme sure didn’t last long. Still don’t like having to click off the front page just to read even one full post. Overall the new design looks a lot more like the site is selling something. Don’t know if that’s particularly good or bad, just an observation.

    • I was thinking the same thing… I’ve always just grabbed a free theme and modified it myself, to obvious “rain city guide” results, so it never did look too professional. I have so little faith in my design skills that I was simply impressed when I saw RCG posts on a theme that looked and felt custom designed! 😉

    • I totally get your concern and that was mine as well when I first saw the design… As you know (more so than myself), we’ve got to have the broker’s info up there in order to get the listings on the site, so I’d love to hear your thoughts on how we might do it better.

  2. I think the M Realty thing really should go at the bottom and small – it doesn’t need to be so prominant if it is just a legal requirement. The map crashed my computer a couple times from IE. I like the site design, but I really liked the Magazine layout quite a bit!

  3. Agree with Galen. The old design felt more “sincere” and less “coporate”. Post Headlines should be much larger. Also, the new search doesn’t look like it was tested on IE (which despite it’s shortcomings is still the most popular browser on the net).

    I think your broker branding needs to be prominently at the top for the map search, because the NWMLS police will probably deem it out of compliance otherwise. Similarly, the broker branding should be toned down on the rest of RCG, otherwise people will think RCG has sold out.

  4. FYI, the first time I pull up raincityguide.com in a given browser session, a second window pops up that loads a Rain City Guide page on http://www.connect.facebook.com. If I close the Rain City Guide tab and re-open it, it doesn’t re-pop-up the facebook window. But if I close the whole browser and re-open Rain City Guide, it does.

    This happens for me on Firefox 3.0.13 but not on Internet Explorer 8.

          • As usual… I’m the bottleneck! 😉

            No kidding Tim… It was totally my fault. I never did load up my computer for three days as I played, talked and coordinated at the Real Estate Connect conference. I can’t remember the last time I did that, and I didn’t expect to be so out of the loop.

  5. Have you tried the M Realty site?

    It has average price per square foot, square footage, and average price. It’s pretty funny.

    The search function froze a couple of times while trying to get it to work, but hey, it’s free.

    I like the look and feel much better this time and the comments seem to be working.

    Thanks

  6. Have you tried the M Realty site?

    It has average price per square foot, square footage, and average price. It’s pretty funny.

    The search function froze a couple of times while trying to get it to work, but hey, it’s free.

    I like the look and feel much better this time and the comments seem to be working.

    Thanks

  7. I’ll try a post tomorrow with graphs. When I saw it as a prototype when I went down to Portland, it looked a lot more peppy. I think it just needs more posts per page with graphs and pics. I’ll see what I can do with it in the morning.

    • I agree that Galen’s stuff is awesome, and definitely enjoyed when we teamed up in the past. However, there’s a bunch of things I want to see in a search tool and my ability to work with the M Realty Seattle team to implement custom features is so exciting to me it’s ridiculous…

  8. The new layout looks decent in Firefox, but is nearly unreadable in Internet Explorer. The problem I notice in Internet Explorer is that the black text is on a dark blue background.

    I like that the new format shows the number of comments per topic on the front page. That lets me see which topics have attracted conversation since I last visited the site.

  9. Love the site Dustin. Really do.

    The question becomes one of neutrality. If M Realty is paying you for the space (directly or indirectly), that is one thing, if not, it presents a set of concerns our customers (agents ‘n LO’s) may have with the “perception” of being affiliated with Blog/M Realty they compete with. It is entirely possible I’m not seeing something as well.

    I’m uncertain of the reception you will have with other contributors (who work for competing businesses, particularly in this market) that blog here with M Realty being prominently displayed.

    By the M Realty company stamp (copyright and other) on the top and footer, you’ve moved into the Broker world, which is totally different with it’s own set of issues, reg’s and compliance vs. managing a consumer blog. The impression could be that this IS a M Realty blog vs a Rain City Guide consumer blog where everyone can join the conversation. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this being conduit for M Realty, but you have to move in that direction by stating that is the intent. I can see the murmuring from our Windermere and other customers coming soon after directing them to RCG for industry discussion only to find it being a M Realty website (with a WordPress backend).

    I think this blog layout change is really an improvement though, even after I enjoyed the last recent change. Good stuff! 🙂

    • It’s a really interesting point you bring up…

      For the majority of RCG’s life, we’ve been affiliated with a brokerage. For the 1st year or so, I had the Keller Williams logo on the site and then for the next 2 years, I always made sure to featured the LTD brokerage logo on the site (after my wife switched brokerages). We have also included a link to a real estate search run by my wife (at annaluther.com) for almost the entire time.

      The big new changes are: 1) more prominent brokerage info and 2) the search tool is located ON RCG and 3) a much more prominent link to the search tool.

      I had more than a few conversations with Garron (from M Realty) about how to minimize the effect of RCG “looking” like a brokerage site, while at the same time not making him feel like he was in danger of getting fined by the NWMLS for breaking IDX rules. He feels very strongly that we need to have the logo and contact info is prominently displayed, i.e. “above the fold”. And while I can totally see if that makes some folks uncomfortable (it makes me uncomfortable!), I feel even stronger that the RCG community will never reach our potential unless we figure out a way to be more relevant and helpful to people looking for homes, so I decided to move into that uncomfortable zone! 😉

  10. Love the site Dustin. Really do.

    The question becomes one of neutrality. If M Realty is paying you for the space (directly or indirectly), that is one thing, if not, it presents a set of concerns our customers (agents ‘n LO’s) may have with the “perception” of being affiliated with Blog/M Realty they compete with. It is entirely possible I’m not seeing something as well.

    I’m uncertain of the reception you will have with other contributors (who work for competing businesses, particularly in this market) that blog here with M Realty being prominently displayed.

    By the M Realty company stamp (copyright and other) on the top and footer, you’ve moved into the Broker world, which is totally different with it’s own set of issues, reg’s and compliance vs. managing a consumer blog. The impression could be that this IS a M Realty blog vs a Rain City Guide consumer blog where everyone can join the conversation. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this being conduit for M Realty, but you have to move in that direction by stating that is the intent. I can see the murmuring from our Windermere and other customers coming soon after directing them to RCG for industry discussion only to find it being a M Realty website (with a WordPress backend).

    I think this blog layout change is really an improvement though, even after I enjoyed the last recent change. Good stuff! 🙂

    • It’s a really interesting point you bring up…

      For the majority of RCG’s life, we’ve been affiliated with a brokerage. For the 1st year or so, I had the Keller Williams logo on the site and then for the next 2 years, I always made sure to featured the LTD brokerage logo on the site (after my wife switched brokerages). We have also included a link to a real estate search run by my wife (at annaluther.com) for almost the entire time.

      The big new changes are: 1) more prominent brokerage info and 2) the search tool is located ON RCG and 3) a much more prominent link to the search tool.

      I had more than a few conversations with Garron (from M Realty) about how to minimize the effect of RCG “looking” like a brokerage site, while at the same time not making him feel like he was in danger of getting fined by the NWMLS for breaking IDX rules. He feels very strongly that we need to have the logo and contact info is prominently displayed, i.e. “above the fold”. And while I can totally see if that makes some folks uncomfortable (it makes me uncomfortable!), I feel even stronger that the RCG community will never reach our potential unless we figure out a way to be more relevant and helpful to people looking for homes, so I decided to move into that uncomfortable zone! 😉

  11. Pingback: Local Real Estate Search Consolidates and Expands | Seattle Bubble — News & discussion about real estate & the housing bubble in the Seattle area.

  12. Tim,

    I think we have to give it a little time.

    To have a search function, it has to be connected to a…or be a…brokerage site, by NWMLS rules (to the best of my knowledge). Hard to balance that with giving the impression that the bloggers “work for” M.

    I think public perception and perhaps misrepresentation is more the issue, than how the agent writers and readers “feel” about that. If writing here gives the wrong impression about who “the broker” of the agent writer is, that is against the spirit, if not the letter, of just about every State Reg. I think that is manageable to some degree, but will take the effort of the writer to adjust and make more prominent, their particular “broker of record” to comply with their individual licensing requirements.

    In other words, more the writers dilemma to make adjustments accordingly, than Dustin’s problem, unless NWMLS doesn’t like the whole “setup”.

    Even if a writer determined they could no longer write here as a result of the M-Realty prominence (not saying that’s the case) there are years of prior posts that would create the same mis-perception as a new post. So no longer writing here might not resolve the issue…if in fact there is an issue.

    I think giving everyone 30 days or so to figure it all out might be the first step.

  13. Tim,

    I think we have to give it a little time.

    To have a search function, it has to be connected to a…or be a…brokerage site, by NWMLS rules (to the best of my knowledge). Hard to balance that with giving the impression that the bloggers “work for” M.

    I think public perception and perhaps misrepresentation is more the issue, than how the agent writers and readers “feel” about that. If writing here gives the wrong impression about who “the broker” of the agent writer is, that is against the spirit, if not the letter, of just about every State Reg. I think that is manageable to some degree, but will take the effort of the writer to adjust and make more prominent, their particular “broker of record” to comply with their individual licensing requirements.

    In other words, more the writers dilemma to make adjustments accordingly, than Dustin’s problem, unless NWMLS doesn’t like the whole “setup”.

    Even if a writer determined they could no longer write here as a result of the M-Realty prominence (not saying that’s the case) there are years of prior posts that would create the same mis-perception as a new post. So no longer writing here might not resolve the issue…if in fact there is an issue.

    I think giving everyone 30 days or so to figure it all out might be the first step.

  14. Dustin:

    I hardly qualify as a web expert, more like a frequent customer and commentator.

    I’d prefer stuff didn’t change so often. There’s too much of that going on all around us already.

    I’ve failed to realize the positives, and the negatives are mostly a resistance to having to learn new changes.

    Also, as alluded to in above comments, what is the motivation for the changes…who benefits?

    That’s my 2 cents. Hopefully that doesn’t come off as “grumpy old man” talk…obviously, I hold the site in very high regard, and don’t understand why it had to change.

    But then, I complain when my wife moves the furniture, too…

  15. To add to what Tim touched on in his comment, M Realty appears to have more importance than RCG. From small details to “About M” being before RCG in the upper right corner to the big orange M at the top of the site.

    Recent posts and comments are now buried at the bottom…making them appear less important…in my opinion. Contributors have moved off the front page all together.

    I know this is all new and Dustin’s been busy at Inman…so I’m waiting for his response when the dust settles.

  16. To add to what Tim touched on in his comment, M Realty appears to have more importance than RCG. From small details to “About M” being before RCG in the upper right corner to the big orange M at the top of the site.

    Recent posts and comments are now buried at the bottom…making them appear less important…in my opinion. Contributors have moved off the front page all together.

    I know this is all new and Dustin’s been busy at Inman…so I’m waiting for his response when the dust settles.

  17. The benefit of the changes are obvious. There is more content to choose from. This look is much cleaner than the other magazine look and seems to be performing much better.

    As far as the M Realty it is something they will chose to move. It’s just another function. Once it gets beat up enough by commenters it will move further down the rankings, or not, it makes no difference.

    In my opinion this has always been a Brokerage site trying to sell new web 2.0 transparency. There is the Real Estate agent, the attorney who will write it up for less, the on line education, mortgages, and escrow. Is there a Title Company some place here? Did I miss that?

    So there is a bias anyway you slice it.

    The look presents content of interest to a wider audience. If the purpose is education people can navigate until they find what interests them. I think it’s a grand experiment that we can all benefit from. It’s a step forward.

  18. The benefit of the changes are obvious. There is more content to choose from. This look is much cleaner than the other magazine look and seems to be performing much better.

    As far as the M Realty it is something they will chose to move. It’s just another function. Once it gets beat up enough by commenters it will move further down the rankings, or not, it makes no difference.

    In my opinion this has always been a Brokerage site trying to sell new web 2.0 transparency. There is the Real Estate agent, the attorney who will write it up for less, the on line education, mortgages, and escrow. Is there a Title Company some place here? Did I miss that?

    So there is a bias anyway you slice it.

    The look presents content of interest to a wider audience. If the purpose is education people can navigate until they find what interests them. I think it’s a grand experiment that we can all benefit from. It’s a step forward.

  19. Ardell, my thought is not that people think we work for M Realty. I’m commenting that the perception of consumers AND the people who work in the business who pop in from time to time may construe this as a sole conduit for M Realty, right or wrong. Let’s say, for example, that M Realty and the clear business connection with RCG takes root. There may be an implied endorsement of that relationship by the consumers who read here. Worse, consumers may wrongly presume that a contributor is directly tied to M Realty, even though a link to my name may say otherwise. That may put contributors in a bit of a pickle. Also, if I’m looking for a mortgage while also working with a Windermere agent and I go to RCG for Rhonda’s input on mortgage info, the agent I work with may not be fond of me to browse around RCG because M Realty may offer an attractive business model or I may like their sytle better.

    It is a pickle for Dustin because in order to tap into the IDX like Robbie says, he’s moving into a whole new ballgame and also opening himself up to other potential issues. It would be kind of like me being a contributor over at Talon Group’s Blog. Or, Ardell being a contributor at Redfin, while working for another broker. Or, Rhonda being a contributor over at Cobalt Mortage.

    I ‘m not against the arrangement in any form whatsover as a legitimate business, I’m just saying it presents issues that will need time, as you say, to work out. Anyhow, just food for thought.

  20. Ardell, my thought is not that people think we work for M Realty. I’m commenting that the perception of consumers AND the people who work in the business who pop in from time to time may construe this as a sole conduit for M Realty, right or wrong. Let’s say, for example, that M Realty and the clear business connection with RCG takes root. There may be an implied endorsement of that relationship by the consumers who read here. Worse, consumers may wrongly presume that a contributor is directly tied to M Realty, even though a link to my name may say otherwise. That may put contributors in a bit of a pickle. Also, if I’m looking for a mortgage while also working with a Windermere agent and I go to RCG for Rhonda’s input on mortgage info, the agent I work with may not be fond of me to browse around RCG because M Realty may offer an attractive business model or I may like their sytle better.

    It is a pickle for Dustin because in order to tap into the IDX like Robbie says, he’s moving into a whole new ballgame and also opening himself up to other potential issues. It would be kind of like me being a contributor over at Talon Group’s Blog. Or, Ardell being a contributor at Redfin, while working for another broker. Or, Rhonda being a contributor over at Cobalt Mortage.

    I ‘m not against the arrangement in any form whatsover as a legitimate business, I’m just saying it presents issues that will need time, as you say, to work out. Anyhow, just food for thought.

    • Kevin: M Realty manages the customers that get sent through the search tool… but that’s always been the case, except they used to go directly to my wife (through annaluther.com) where she would manage the customers. I’ve made sure that the author contact information (including links, phone numbers, etc.) is, and ALWAYS will be, attached to every post, which is the primary way that contributors have always been contacted by potential clients and will likely continue to be contacted well into the future.

  21. RCG started out being a vehicle for Dustin’s wife but since she’s not licensed in Washington anymore, I’m guessing they had to find another brokerage to host a search. Not sure why that wasn’t Estately, but maybe M Realty was willing to pay the big bucks. They’re office is listed on RCG as being in Seattle, but according to the NWMLS, the office is located in Vancouver WA with a mailing address of Portland, OR. They only have 3 agents listed — hopefully at least one of them is in Seattle.

    BTW, the new site works ok in Chrome and Firefox, but is unreadable in Internet Explorer and the map functions keep returning errors.

  22. I like the search though I haven’t studied it extensively. I’m sure you’ll need to increase, not decrease, the broker’s presence on the page as per NWMLS rules about co-branding a site. At the last Membership meeting there was mention about those rules changing, being more specific about where and how the brokerage is shown on any page where MLS listings appear.

    • Yeah… it’s interesting because our thought was that it’s just not worth it to follow the “letter of the law” as far as these things are concerned, but rather stay within the spirit of what the NWMLS rules were asking… With that in mind, we may have gone a bit too far in making sure M Realty is prominent, but those are rules we’re still figuring out.

  23. I haven’t tried to break the search page and I don’t care too much about the branding issues. I am one of those agents who pop in and out and comment on occasion. I comment because I find something interesting or something I want to support. Also everywhere my name appears gives me more authority when it comes to rankings. It is just another tool like the other SMM tools we are all trying to implement succesfully.

    I will applaud innovation on any web site. My company recently switched IDX providers because I chased down the provider I found on someone else’s web site that I was impressed with. Luckily we found someone who was willing to listen to us and create a specific search for environmentally-certified homes. As far as I know we are the only company in the state – probably the country – that offers this sort of search. GreenWorks worked to get the E-Cert check boxes into the NWMLS, it just took awhile to figure out how to go further with that feature to make it available for the public.

    Growth is painful! Just go slow and take one day at a time!

    • Nice… I remember when the folks at realtor.com decided to launch a “green home” search, but it was implemented in a pretty lame way, so I’m glad to see others playing with the idea. Are you determining “green homes” simply if an agent checks the box on the NWMLS backend or is there something more to it?

  24. I haven’t tried to break the search page and I don’t care too much about the branding issues. I am one of those agents who pop in and out and comment on occasion. I comment because I find something interesting or something I want to support. Also everywhere my name appears gives me more authority when it comes to rankings. It is just another tool like the other SMM tools we are all trying to implement succesfully.

    I will applaud innovation on any web site. My company recently switched IDX providers because I chased down the provider I found on someone else’s web site that I was impressed with. Luckily we found someone who was willing to listen to us and create a specific search for environmentally-certified homes. As far as I know we are the only company in the state – probably the country – that offers this sort of search. GreenWorks worked to get the E-Cert check boxes into the NWMLS, it just took awhile to figure out how to go further with that feature to make it available for the public.

    Growth is painful! Just go slow and take one day at a time!

  25. The search works pretty slick on a Mac OS X using Firefox, but threw some errors about a slow running script on Windows Vista with IE8.

  26. i still miss the old, simple annaluther.com listing site that sorted by days on the market. waiting for gimmicky scripts and other bs to load is nothing but a waste of time, and not user friendly.

  27. Kevin,

    See Marlow’s comment. M-Realty is the new Anna 🙂 The search function and the authors have always been separate. Authors write and are contacted directly by readers, not referred to or by RCG. The authors have never had a monetary relationship with the site.

    If someone calls Rhonda for a mortgage, or me to be their agent or Legacy to handle their escrow, RCG generally doesn’t even know that. If someone calls RCG “to see a house” we don’t see that. Never did. Pretty much separate functions.

    It is expected that besides M-Realty being the new “Anna”, the site will stay about the same as it always was as to function. Time will tell.

    One of the exciting features is that the blog posts will interact with the search function. The posts will show up on the map. For instance I put the address of the house I posted today into the blog post so that a post “dot” will show on the map when people are looking for homes in that area. This way they can see property and articles about the area, all at the same time.

    Imagine looking for property and seeing 40 homes and 20 blog posts in that neighborhood. You can get neighborhood info and home info all in one map search. That is the exciting feature that will take some time to “play out”.

    The one thing RCG is most famous for is that we embrace vs. fear, change. That is “who we are” more than anything else. A group that embraces new technologies, and who are willing to be the guinea pigs that help invent the future of real estate. We welcome people “stealing” our ideas and we welcome people teaching us new things. “Staying the same” is just not our style 🙂

  28. Kevin,

    See Marlow’s comment. M-Realty is the new Anna 🙂 The search function and the authors have always been separate. Authors write and are contacted directly by readers, not referred to or by RCG. The authors have never had a monetary relationship with the site.

    If someone calls Rhonda for a mortgage, or me to be their agent or Legacy to handle their escrow, RCG generally doesn’t even know that. If someone calls RCG “to see a house” we don’t see that. Never did. Pretty much separate functions.

    It is expected that besides M-Realty being the new “Anna”, the site will stay about the same as it always was as to function. Time will tell.

    One of the exciting features is that the blog posts will interact with the search function. The posts will show up on the map. For instance I put the address of the house I posted today into the blog post so that a post “dot” will show on the map when people are looking for homes in that area. This way they can see property and articles about the area, all at the same time.

    Imagine looking for property and seeing 40 homes and 20 blog posts in that neighborhood. You can get neighborhood info and home info all in one map search. That is the exciting feature that will take some time to “play out”.

    The one thing RCG is most famous for is that we embrace vs. fear, change. That is “who we are” more than anything else. A group that embraces new technologies, and who are willing to be the guinea pigs that help invent the future of real estate. We welcome people “stealing” our ideas and we welcome people teaching us new things. “Staying the same” is just not our style 🙂

  29. One of the things I never never recommend doing is hitting publish and then running, which I’ve clearly did on this post… so sorry about that.

    I spent the last three days without ever once opening up my laptop, which is something I haven’t done in so so long. The only good news is that because we launched the site just before arriving at Inman’s Real Estate Connect conference, I was able to talk about to the site and get tons of feedback from hundreds of people over the past few days. Anyway, I’m definitely going to read through all the comments and hopefully doing a much better job addressing issues going forward. In the meantime, I really want to thank Chris and Simon of HomeQuest for holding down the fort while Garron and I played in San Francisco.

    • It’s been a pleasure working on the site, We have also received a tonn of feedback on the new design, and the map search aspect of the site. Unfortunately there were a few bugs for ie6,7 that I think we have sorted now, It’s been great following these comments and seeing the conversation flow, I’m hoping that all the bugs will be ironed out by the end of today and everyone can enjoy the new site features and design!

      Again, sorry for the few bugs that slipped the net, We test on as many browsers and platform configurations available to us but sometimes the best way to truly test things is to just throw it out there and check the feedback over a couple of days, You guys have found things it would have taken us weeks to spot with internal testing, so cheers and keep sending us your feedback!

  30. One of the things I never never recommend doing is hitting publish and then running, which I’ve clearly did on this post… so sorry about that.

    I spent the last three days without ever once opening up my laptop, which is something I haven’t done in so so long. The only good news is that because we launched the site just before arriving at Inman’s Real Estate Connect conference, I was able to talk about to the site and get tons of feedback from hundreds of people over the past few days. Anyway, I’m definitely going to read through all the comments and hopefully doing a much better job addressing issues going forward. In the meantime, I really want to thank Chris and Simon of HomeQuest for holding down the fort while Garron and I played in San Francisco.

    • It’s been a pleasure working on the site, We have also received a tonn of feedback on the new design, and the map search aspect of the site. Unfortunately there were a few bugs for ie6,7 that I think we have sorted now, It’s been great following these comments and seeing the conversation flow, I’m hoping that all the bugs will be ironed out by the end of today and everyone can enjoy the new site features and design!

      Again, sorry for the few bugs that slipped the net, We test on as many browsers and platform configurations available to us but sometimes the best way to truly test things is to just throw it out there and check the feedback over a couple of days, You guys have found things it would have taken us weeks to spot with internal testing, so cheers and keep sending us your feedback!

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