(Full disclosure: I work for Move, which owns Top Producer, so please put on your skepticism hat any time I talk about their products!)

About three months ago, I mentioned a soft-launch of a new product from the Top Producer team called Home Insight. Some of the comments were pretty tough on the product with Cheryl starting off the conversation saying that the product was just another “fancy front end for a lead-generator”. I can tell you from the many conversations I’ve had with the team at Top Producer that they took many of the comments on RCG seriously.

[photopress:Seattle_s_Rain_City_Real_Estate_Guide___Improving_Online_Home_Valuations____Mozilla_Firefox_11_15_2006_10_48_42_PM.jpg,thumb,alignright]The response is that they’ve retooled the product and announced a new element for agents called Top Marketer just in time for the NARdi Gras convention. While the product is still geared toward providing agents and consumers with the real-time analytical tools based on MLS data, the emphasis on lead generation has been stripped of the product. To give an example, the front door to home insight now only asks for the most basic information (address and home type). Although because some of the more detailed information (like pending sales) is required to be behind registration, users will still have to register if they want the full package of information available.

The new project also has a much bigger emphasis on educating the users with a lot more text on interpreting the data and integrating blog posts about local market conditions from agents who are using the Top Producer blogs.

Also, you might be interested in the recent interview with Matthew Moore I published on Move Home.

[photopress:adv.jpg,thumb,alignright]As with most of my blog articles, I am writing to a specific young woman who is suffering from advice and information overload.  In a lot of ways, deciding where, when and whether or not to buy vs. rent, is as personal a decision as choosing a mate.  Sure, everyone wants to tell you how they feel about that new boyfriend, just as they want to tell you where and how to live.  But at the end of the day, you are the one who needs to live with your choices.

Friends, co-workers, parents, siblings everyone becomes a real estate expert over cocktails.  With Thanksgiving and “The holidays” around the corner, it’s time to come to terms with how YOU feel about the prospect of purchasing that condo or continuing to rent, before everyone and their mother starts putting in their $.02 about what you should do.

You have dipped your toe into the real estate market.  You have seen what your choices are.  You hear all of your friends talking about their purchases and how much money they have “made” since they purchased.  Well, first let me tell you that these are just stories.  They haven’t sold their condos.  They are talking gross not net, and they are assuming that they could sell their place today for what they think a buyer would pay.   None of it is real, and clearly none of it has anything to do with you.

Your friend referred you to me, and so I get to be one of the many who gets to put my $.02 into the equation.  So here are my thoughts for you, and you alone.  I watch my clients closely.  I feel their emotion more than I listen to their words.  Your brief experience into the real estate market, leads to the conclusion that you might be happier someplace else.  That someplace else is more expensive, than buying where you live right now, and buying there is more than you want to spend.  So consider renting there instead. Often that third, middle of the road option, is the right one.  Rent there.  Move.  Try that neighborhood on for size.

By the time your lease is up there, you will know better whether or not you are going to change jobs, and where that job will be.  By the time your lease is up there, you will know better if your current relationship is going to a place where you, together, will be deciding where and what to buy.  In your circumstance, a year from now will bring many changes.  Perhaps more certainties…or more uncertainties.  But this I know for sure.  If you try that neighborhood now, the monthly cost to rent there, will be less than buying either here or there.  If you try that neighborhood now, you may find that the differences between your current neighborhood and that neighborhood are not worth the added cost…or that they are in fact well worth the cost differential.

Anyway you look at it, by moving there now, into a rental, you will have more information later than you have now.  Real information based on your personal happiness factor…and not just everyone’s “opinion”.

Thought I’d throw this out there: Agents do you use any CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools besides a rolodex or Outlook Contacts? Do you know anyone who does? There are a lot out there, but I’ve really only heard of salesforce.com and only in the context of other industries.

Also, a question for the home buyers and sellers: have you felt the sting of bad CRM? I’d say that you can identify bad CRM when you get generic emails periodically from an agent to whom you once gave your email address.

[photopress:sng.jpg,thumb,alignright]The book shown on the right is my favorite.  Not meant as a “tourist” guide, this Newcomer’s guide has long been my best recommendation for people relocating the the Seattle Area.

So chock full of good info, that even long term residents who take the time to read it, learn a thing or two.

Alki – voted by me as the best place to go to watch the sunset on the longest day of the year.

Belltown – Locals would say Ballard, more “Newcomers” start out in Belltown or Bellevue

Capitol Hill – My favorite place to hang out, while the girls are shopping for that unique item

Denny Blaine to Downtown

Eastside – Seattle’s version of “the burbs”

Fremont the “center of the universe”? or a Ferry Ride, hard to pick which should take this F spot.

Green Lake, where I first landed, to Golden Gardens Park, a spot too often overlooked.

Houghton – Home of Sarducci’s my favorite Seattle Sandwich and Calzone shop.  A must mention –  the Huskies

International District – More than just a “Chinatown”.  Is Maneki still there?

Juanita – Not too many places are named after a poplular song of the day

Kirkland – Home to ARDELL 🙂 My kind of town.

Lake Washington – The Lake that defines so many of Seattle Area Neighborhoods.  To me it is the crown jewel of Seattle. I think being able to take a cruise to a Husky Football game, is one of the coolest things about Seattle!

Mercer Island – For non-residents, going over Mercer Island is the next best thing to living there.

Northgate Mall – Seattle prides itself on being a non-mall kind of town…Northgate’s about the only “true” mall IN Seatle.

Oympic National Park – Many Seattle neighborhoods enjoy an Olympic Montain View, but a two hour trip to the park itself, beats the daily peek of the mountains from here.

Pike Place Market – The Main Event

Queen Anne, or course!

Rainier! – I sight for sore eyes, that causes me to bless myself and pay homage to “the maker”, on the days it chooses to “appear”

Seattle Center – You can’t see it all in a day! but DO do one from The Duck.

The Seahawks – The Sonics The Mariners The Storm

U-Dub

Vashon Island Getaway

Whidby – another Island Getaway

X-Gym – OK…YOU find another X 🙂

Yulefest – Just a few days away!

Z – oops, had to drop the link to the Z Club

In a featured artice by Ashley Bach in yesterday’s Seattle Times:

We live in an exciting time. Now I don’t have to park in Barnes and Noble parking lot to pick up a signal in Bellevue! I’m so for blanketing the world with free wireless, like radio signals, then I can get rid of my sprint wireless card that I’m paying $60/month for.  Yeah, City of Bellevue

 Waterfront Property for Sale! (See the For Sale sign by the garbage cans?)

Time to re-analyze the best marketing plan for this home! OK, Duvall realtors, let’s have a Sunday Tour of Homes by Boat! Better yet, let’s get this home Off the Market!  

Though this is an extreme case, Northwest sellers are having a Sale! Sellers that really need to sell are making incredible deals. This is more than a seasonal slump, this slump has been created by the media as much as anything, rates having dropped. We’re seeing offers 10-15% off our normal market conditions of 99% list to sell.  But, like any sale, you have to buy from the available choices (like above?).  So buyers, if you want a deal, be prepared to not buy your ‘perfect home’  For that, you’ll have to wait until more buyers are back and the demand goes up enough for sellers to relist their homes and get our normal market values, which is anticipated (by some, me included) to be 3-10% better in 2007 than in 2006. 

It’s really tempting to just take a vacation from now until February.  I should have saved more nuts for the winter!   My advice to sellers this year, JUST HOLD OFF selling until late January unless you have no choice or if you are going to sell and buy and be a bottom feeder yourself!