My Money Blog is letting you peak into a money-nerd’s head before he buys a home with his wife. Seems like a great specialty for an agent – Money Nerd Adviser.
See him worry about losing money, consider the merits of renting versus owning, and debate how much house he can afford. The last one is pretty good.
After last month’s Mash-up 101 – Virtual Earth and RedFin’s recent switch to Virtual Earth, it’s time for another mash-up class. Last time, we created a simple aerial Virtual Earth map (centered above the Seattle Space Needle).
This time, we will create a simple road map (that is bigger and centered above the continental US) which has pushpins for the Seahawks road to SuperBowl XLI. So first of all, we need to change our map view, like so.
| function loadmap() { var vemap = new VEMap(’VEMap’); var vepoint = new VELatLong(40, -100); vemap.LoadMap(vepoint, 4, ‘r’); } |
You’ll notice that the vepoint object has a different latitude & longitude this time. I just picked some random point above the middle of the US that looked good. The point in question is a few miles north of Norton, Kansas (which is located halfway between the middle of the US and the middle of nowhere). I also called vemap.LoadMap method with different parameters this time. The first parameter is the center point of the map (but you already figured that out). The second parameter is the zoom level. Valid values are from 1-19. A 1 will zoom out to the entire earth, while a value of 19 will zoom in to house/street level. Since we just want the continental US, we’ll use a zoom level of 4. The last parameter is the map type. ‘a’ is an aerial map, ‘r’ is a road map, and ‘h’ is a hybrid map. You can also use ‘o’ for oblique (aka bird’s eye view), if you are zoomed in near street level.
Now, we need to add a simple pushpin for the location of the SuperBowl XLI. To create a simple pushpin, we need to add the following code to our loadmap function like so…
| var veMiami = new VELatLong(25.9577745, -80.2391839); var veMiamiPin = new VEPushpin(‘SuperBowl’, veMiami); vemap.AddPushpin(veMiamiPin); |
In the above code fragment, the veMiami object contains the location of Dolphins Stadium in Miami (nothing new there). The second & third lines are the interesting ones. In the second line, the VEPushpin object takes a least 2 parameters. The first parameter is a unique ID and the second parameter is the location of the pushpin (Dolphins Stadium in this case). Now that we’ve created our pushpin, we need to add it to our map via the AddPushpin call.
You should now see a red thumbtack on a map (unless you are using Firefox 2). Unfortunately, there’s a minor bug in current version of the VE map control that causes it to use the wrong drawing code on Firefox 2. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix described on Via Virtual Earth. (Which is a site I highly recommend you visit if your serious about Virtual Earth development). Anyway, assuming you’ve gotten your thumb tack to show up, it’s time for a complex pushpin. This time we’re going to put a Seahawk logo at Qwest Field with an HTML popup balloon. Time for more code…
| var veSeattle = new VELatLong(47.5950437, -122.3327744); var veSeattleDetails = “<img xsrc=’thumbnail.jpg’><br>In a game for the ages, <a xhref=’http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/recap?gid=20070106026′>Seattle beats Dallas</a> on fumbled snap by Tony Romo for a 19 yd field goal and a game saving tackle by big play Babs.”; var veSeattlePin = new VEPushpin(‘Seahawks’, veSeattle, ‘http://espn.go.com/i/teamlogos/nfl/sml/trans/sea.gif’, ‘Seattle 21, Dallas 20’, veSeattleDetails); vemap.AddPushpin(veSeattlePin); |
In the first line, we create a VELatLong object for the location of Qwest Field. The second line, contains the HTML that we want to appear in our pushpin’s pop-up balloon (the above picture of Tony Romo and a brief description of the play of the game). The third line creates the pushpin, except this time we have more parameters. The third parameter is the url to the icon of the pushpin (aka the seahawks logo). The fourth parameter is the title of our pop-up balloon, and the last parameter is the HTML for the details section of our balloon. Finally, we add the pin to the map. Assuming it all works you should see something like this…
[photopress:mashup2.gif,full,centered]
Otherwise, goto http://www.annaluther.com/mashup2.html to see what a working version of this example looks like (Firefox work-arounds and all). See ya next time.
I will start with a caveat. I am a owner in a real estate development company and I am not primarily shopping homes for clients, but instead buying properties to develop and build. That being said, you may think I have nothing but critiques for any other real estate company… not true! Dustin and I have been playing with mapping applications in regards to real estate for a long time. This is actually the way I was introduced to RCG.
Way back then we (LTD, not Dustin) were attempting to integrate what was not being done… Aerial parcel mapping of real estate listings. Around that time Redfin launched a pretty slick product. As a visitor of Redfin my only complaint was the size of the viewable space. There was no site out there that utilized the whole page like Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. The size and detail of the photos (at least in the PNW) were great and although not that recent at the time, much better than using what else was out there.
My biggest gripe with Redfin has been their use of space, most notably the size of their map. In my eyes you could get an idea of the neighborhood, but not a great idea without knowing the area already. Virtual Earth’s full size maps on the other hand were and are great. NWMLS made us change the name of the map because of the words MLS in the URL. MLSMAPSONLINE (image to the right) used the full size maps and parcel data much like Redfin, except we choose to use an opaque layer over a part of the map to maximize the user experience. We stopped working on that product when Zillow launched and we realized it would take too much $$$$$ to stay in the game.
Anyway as I said I am a guilty of using Redfin. When John L Scott did a great job when they launched their new site using Virtual Earth. A great job, but were still missing many of the features that made Redfin great. Redfin was much faster than the NWMLS for a simple search and easy to drag the map to increase the prospective area. I still never understood why they used such a small area for the map, but then again, they were my competition so I wasn’t that worried about the problem.
Then I heard they launched a new version using Virtual Earth. I was so excited when I caught word I quickly ran to my mouse and was ready for the thrill, but I was quickly let down when I saw they kept the same map size and page orientation.
Here is the image from Redfin
Here is the image from Shackprices
It would be great if when using Redfin you could see how the house sat on the lot, what size is the front yard, where the driveway is, in this pick the massive amount of trees in the front and rear yards, etc. I am sure the parcel box will be changed right away, but I am surprised about the map size and location of the content. There is plenty of room on the monitor, so I am confused. MLSMapsOnline used the vertical orientation, so I know it can be done.
In then end, this blog is not about a critique, but instead a nudge nudge.
This New Year brought significant changes to the mortgage industry. Loan Originators who provide residential loans in Washington State are now required to be licensed. This legislature applies primarily to Mortgage Brokers and not LOs who are employed by banks or credit unions. As I am employed by a Mortgage Broker (technically, we are a Correspondent Lender…I’ll save that for a later article), I thought I would share some tidbits of what I’ve found so far during the first two weeks into the licensing period.
I completed my online application with DFI, submitted my MU4 forms and 2 sets of fingerprints all prior to the due dates so that my background check to determine that I am not a felon and do not have any gross-misdemeanors can be performed. DFI is inundated with applications and they are posting the list of licensed loan originators on line. I’ve been checking the list daily for my name and license number. As of Tuesday, DFI is showing 9,913 licensees from 123 Cash to Zippy Cash. Loan Originators must display their license number on their business cards, loan applications, marketing and websites. This seems kind of odd to me. Realtors and Escrow Officer’s (L.P.O.) do not have to attach their number to their name for the public to see…don’t they trust us?
Currently, Loan Originators who have completed the required steps of the online application, MU4 and fingerprints are operating under an “interim license
Over the years, often the hardest part of this business is dealing with the “unfairness” of the realities of the real estate transaction. Even when everything is going exactly as it should, often someone is thinking that “It Just Isn’t FAIR!”
When that someone is a newer agent, it is very difficult for me. I try to hint them into the right direction, but their lack of experience causes them to be defensive, instead of listening between the lines for what I am trying to tell them. In Multiple Offer situations, I simply cannot be more direct. That would be unfair to the other agent and their client, who “has their act together”.
Here’s a very recent example:
I receive an offer from a newer agent on one of my listings. It has major weaknesses. Price is a bit on the lowball side. “Story” makes no sense and points out weaknesses in the buyer’s stance, warns of potential buyer remorse or someone “tying up the property” until they know if they have the job offer in Seattle. Escrow time frame is longer than the norm, and the house is vacant…so short escrow should have been used. Home Inspection timeframe is at max point. Lots of loose ends.
First I try to work the agent into getting the offer in better shape, but of course the other agent wants me to do that from “my end” with a counter offer. Sure…that’s OK…but sometimes OK is not good enough for their buyer client. OK is only good enough if they are the only offer. No one has a crystal ball with regard to what is happening with other buyers in the marketplace. So depending on a counter from the seller to “fix” the offer is not a smart thing to do, and is not “good enough”.
Most of you have guessed by now what happened. Another offer comes in. A soon as I know one is coming in, I call the agent who has an offer already submitted and say, “I have received word that there will be another offer”, that’s all I can tell you. I get many calls from the first agent…but nothing in writing. Lots of verbal. Lots of inappropriate reactions like “You said the seller would counter”. NEW BALLGAME! Sorry, what I said an hour ago is no longer VALID!
No modification of first offer in writing signed by the buyer. Second offeror knows there is an offer in hand…but knows no detail of the first offer. Second offer is a slam dunk winner. First offer is still playing verbal tag and begging us to counter them and whining that three hours ago I said… Oh well! Things CHANGE! There is no methodical sequence here, even though it would make your life easier. S..t happens and you have to know how to DANCE in this business! Seriously, all agents should be required to take dancing lessons at Arthur Murray or something, before given a pen and a paper with blanks on it.
A seller is not going to counter a weak offer, once a strong offer is in hand. Why would they? Why should they?
First agent says “Well can’t the seller counter US because we were first? I put what the buyer told me to put, isn’t that what I am supposed to do?”
Depending on a counter in multiple offer is just naive. Often the “best man” just wins and sometimes the “best man” is the agent and not the buyer…and that is truly the crying shame of it. As to “putting what the buyer says to put in the blanks”…no, that is not the totallity of your job. That is the lowest common denominator position.
I write the offer as if I am buying it, using my perception of this buyer’s thoughts on the house. I factor in how much they like it and how disappointed they will be if they do not get it. That differs from buyer to buyer and from house to house. I give the offer “fully completed” to the buyer showing what they SHOULD put “in the blanks”. Then we discuss each “blank” and they can modify what I have “recommended”. I show them how to fill in the blanks in the manner that they should, in order to be successful at what they are trying to accomplish…again that differs from buyer to buyer and house to house. This way at least if they do not get the house because they change my recommendation, they learn something. Maybe they learn to trust my experience, skill and knowledge. They learn something.
Once you submit a weak offer and another offer comes in, change it, in writing, and FAST…IF you get the opportunity to do so. Many then ask: But how do I know there is REALLY another offer? Trust me. We know. We can tell. Maybe someday someone will figure out how to put one over on those of us who can tell when they are lying (which is EXTREMELY RARE), but I find that those who have the audacity to lie are also bad liars. Escalator clause helps, but not really. If you are tightening up the date, reducing the home inspection timeframe, cleaning up the offer as to terms and not price…an escalation clause won’t help you, if there are no other offers. You need to have an agent who can dance, and who can tell a con from a truth better.
Best move is to understand that an offer is a give and take. If you are trying to beat on price, then give stellar terms. If you want to stretch timeframe or be contingent, then don’t beat on price at the same time.
Those who try to make it a Win/Lose…usually end up the loser. May not be fair…but just how it is.
[photopress:drewmeyers.jpg,full,alignright]Drew is one of the most frequent contributors on the Zillow Blog, which is considered to be one of the best corporate blogs around. I was fortunate to spend some time with Drew at the Blog Business Summit this past fall where I was also turned on to his personal blog where he takes on all types of technology issues. Drew has all the attributes of a great blogger… interesting, smart, opinionated… so I was particularly happy when he agreed to tell us about his blogging experiences.
What inspired you to start blogging?
We decided to start blogging at Zillow for a couple of reasons, well before the site even launched. We felt that blogging was, and still is, a powerful way to communicate. It allows us to talk to people; to give them insights into our site and the industry overall, while also gaining feedback directly from our users. Additionally, we believe in being transparent with our users (and the industry) and we try to do this by blogging about what is important and top of mind for the company. It’s real. It’s refreshing.
Personally, patience isn’t one of my strong traits (though I’m improving). Everyone who has worked in a software/web development environment probably knows that it takes time and man power to make an idea a reality. By blogging, I feel like I’m making an immediate impact to help build and strengthen Zillow’s brand one post at a time. Blogging is also a very creative way to express myself through writing.
Are there any special topics or issues that you enjoy covering?
There are a number of personalities amongst those of us who are regular contributors to the blog, all with preferences on topics we like to write about. This is great for our readers, as we like to believe that there is something of interest for everyone on any given week — it is one of the perks of having a group blog. As for me, there isn’t one specific topic that I like to cover. I have many interests and real estate is a very broad category, giving me freedom to write about a wide range of issues – if I HAD to choose one, I’d say the technology side of real estate.
What have you done to personalize your blog?
Audiences increasingly want companies to provide some insight into the personalities behind a brand, a concept that blogging allows us to do. We encourage as many employees as possible to contribute. As you can see on our blog, there is a range of levels, departments and variety of topics that our contributors tackle. It can be our tech guys trying to explain the Safari issues, it can be our general counsel talking about the significance of the Craigslist ruling, it can be an intern pitching the widget he just created or Lloyd announcing that “we’re opening it up.” This range of contributors adds a dimension of personalization.
We’ve also recently added MyBlogLog’s “Recent Readers” widget to make it even more personal. We think this helps our readers connect with each other. We like the picture feature so much we are thinking about adding this to the site for our contributors in the near future.
Do you have any favorite posts?
There have been a ton of great posts since we first launched the blog in February. A few favorites that I have posted include:
- Why Do You Blog? — Along with many others in the real estate industry, I have grown to really enjoy blogging. With this post I tried to get inside the heads of some of real estate’s most intriguing bloggers regarding why they are compelled to blog.
- The Shire in Bend, OR — I really do like finding interesting or odd stories related to real estate that interests a wide audience. And seriously, I’m not including this just because it focuses on my uncle’s development — I would have written about the Shire even if the developer wasn’t a relative.
- Seattle During a Windstorm — Zillow employees are down-to-earth people and sharing some personal stories is essential to building relationships with our users (even if those relationships are only virtual).
What are some of your favorite blogs (real estate or otherwise)?
If you asked our blog team this question, each person would likely have very different answers (which again, makes us pretty unique). For me personally, my favorites include:
- 3 Oceans – Kevin is an incredibly smart guy (our Blog Team even got to meet him while he was in Seattle) and likes to write about the technology side of real estate.
- A VC – David Gibbons (Zillow Director of Customer Support) and I are both pretty avid readers of Fred Wilson’s blog focused primarily on the Web 2.0 space.
- Scobleizer – What I really love about Robert Scoble is that he is REAL. He says what he thinks and doesn’t hide from any issue. He’s definitely a 1st mover in social media by revolutionizing corporate blogging while at Microsoft with his Naked Conversations book. His new company, Podtech, is an early front-runner in the podcasting and videocasting explosion.
- Trizoko biz journal – This is an business blog that definitely has its own style. If you’re looking for some business advice mixed with a good chuckle, this one’s for you.
- Guy Kawasaki – Guy is simply a fantastic communicator who always seems to write interesting stories.
What tools/websites do you find most helpful in putting together your blog?
I would say the team overall is the greatest tool. We tap into each other to bounce ideas around or to brainstorm new angles & then make them a reality through collaboration. We all have different news sources that we read regularly which mixes things up a bit. I’m a pretty big fan of regularly reading posts on Active Rain to find interesting perspectives on different topics within the industry.
Technology-wise, I do Technorati searches and have an RSS reader, both which help monitor the blogosphere to track industry blogs.
How does blogging fit into the overall marketing of your business?
Very heavily. As many of you know, Zillow has not spent any money on traditional advertising. Yet, we’ve managed to attract between 3 and 4 million users a month strictly via PR and word of mouth efforts. That said, the Zillow Blog is our primary communication tool with the outside world and thus has been very important to us from a marketing standpoint.
What plans do you have to improve your blog over this next year?
In 2007, Zillow is planning to upgrade the site in a number of ways. The Zillow Blog team certainly has no shortage of ideas, but we always like to hear feedback as to what features would make our blog more interesting and engaging. Any ideas?Some features we are thinking about include:
- Effectively surfacing recent comments and most popular posts
- Author bios and photos
- Burning feeds for each category of our blog
- Giving the Zillow Blog team a better way to surface links we find interesting, but don’t have time to write a whole blog post about. Basically, a link-blog within the Zillow Blog structure.
What is the one tool or feature that you wish your site had?
We’d love to have a blog widget for the Zillow Blog that allows a reader to pull a Zestimate (via our API) right from the sidebar of the blog — hint, hint to the developer community. Between this and the features above, I would be a happy camper.
What do you think real estate blogging will look like 3 years from now?
I see it being different in four key ways. 1.) Real estate blogs will add multimedia, both audio and video (video blogging will explode in the next 3 years), to become more interactive. Many realtors will probably have short overview videos detailing all the neighborhoods that they cover available on their blogs. 2.) I think that about half of the influential industry bloggers today will remain highly influential – the ones that don’t tire of the time required to blog. 3.) I predict neighborhood blogs will all but overtake local neighborhood newspapers in the vast majority of major cities as consumers continue to turn to online news sources. 4.) I certainly agree with Sellsius’ response to this question — that a blog will be attached to EVERY real estate web site.
Redfin Integrates Microsoft Virtual Earth Map Platform,
Continues Expansion in Greater Seattle and San Francisco Bay Areas
SEATTLE – Jan. 12, 2007 – Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation today released a new version of www.redfin.com based on the Microsoft Virtual Earth map platform, offering home-buyers powerful new ways to explore a neighborhood. With today’s announcement, Redfin also more than doubled its geographic coverage in the Greater Seattle and San Francisco Bay Areas; and added online agent chat and more listing information such as homeowner’s dues.
The first to display real estate data on an online map, Redfin originally developed its own mapping technology using government-provided imagery of Seattle and San Francisco. Now that mapping platforms have become publicly available on the Internet, Redfin replaced this technology with Virtual Earth to expand more quickly and to offer a richer user experience. A blog posting on why Redfin chose Virtual Earth over other mapping platforms is available at: http://www.redfin.com/blog/redfin/2007/01/redfin_on_virtual_earth.html
The integration available today gives Redfin users better performance, double-click zooming, and a choice between aerial imagery and the traditional map view. Redfin plans to use Virtual Earth to offer bird’s-eye views of neighborhoods, driving directions, mobile telephone integration and more neighborhood information about local attractions and retail shops.
With the new map, Redfin is expanding from San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in California to now serve Napa, Santa Cruz, Solano and Sonoma counties. In Washington, Redfin is expanding eastward to include all of King County as well as Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties. Redfin also has hired new agents in these areas to provide local support for customers using its e-commerce service to buy or sell a house. The expansion increases the number of listings available on Redfin.com by nearly 200 percent and the number of records on past sales by more than 150 percent.
The latest version also includes new features based on direct customer feedback:
“The Redfin real estate brokerage site provides precise outlines of every property directly on the Virtual Earth map, demonstrating just how flexible and powerful our platform can be,
[photopress:100_2533.JPG,thumb,alignright]
Photo:7:15 am. oriented south towards Mt. Rainier ,1/12/07
Copyright Tim S. Kane
Wish I had a wide angle lens to showcase the rose colored snow on the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. Nothing like waking up to a day of Sun in the Pacific NW! If I uploaded the full size picture it gets smaller and the Moon is removed. Maybe there is a trick on WordPress to keep pictures the same size but I haven’t figured it out.
[photopress:joel_crop.jpg,full,alignright]When I first started reading Joel’s blog last Spring, it was like reading the type of posts I wish I was writing… He was covering a huge swath of the real estate technology field every day and making me look lazy! Needless to say, I always enjoy his writing and I consider him to be today’s gatekeeper of real estate technology news.
In terms of real estate technology, if it doesn’t go through the Future of Real Estate Marketing, it probably doesn’t matter.
What inspired you to start blogging?
I’ve always enjoyed writing as a way for me to help get my thoughts together on a particular subject and I’ve had a personal blog in one shape or another for about four years now. My first blog in fact was simply a way for my wife and I to keep our friends and family informed of our travels throughout Asia.
I have worked in different marketing roles over the years, in several different industries, but real estate was a new challenge for me. I quickly realized I had a lot to get up to speed with and started doing a lot of research online, which meant stumbling across and reading some of the existing real estate blogs, including RCG.
Naturally, after a while, I felt compelled to jot down a lot of what I was thinking about and so The Future of Real Estate Marketing was born.
Are there any special topics or issues that you enjoy covering?
I find it fascinating reading about and reporting on how the Internet, social media and technology are changing the real estate business. I’ve always tried to steer clear of market analysis or commenting some of the more pressing structural changes facing the industry. I prefer to leave that to the experts.
What have you done to personalize your blog?
I’ve always tried to have my own voice be heard through my writing. That’s by far the most personal side of blogging for me. Also, I’m fairly selfish on the things I write on; I tend to focus only things that interest me. But because I come from the high tech/consumer marketing world, and not strictly a real estate background, I think that I bring a fairly unique perspective.
From a technical standpoint, I use WordPress 2.0 with a heavily modified Qwilm theme. I did all of the design myself. I don’t consider myself a web design guru, but I can muddle my way through HTML, PHP and CSS. I love WordPress’ extendibility and am constantly installing and playing with new plugins. You can expect to see the sidebars on my site change fairly frequently.
Do you have any favorite posts?
Not any in particular. But I do like to think really big picture at times. Those are the posts that I really enjoy sitting down and hammering out.
What are some of your favorite blogs (real estate or otherwise)?
RCG of course. I’m not just pandering to the host either. Dustin was definitely a driving force in getting me to put my thoughts out there. His encouragement early on was what helped me stick with it too.
I love the Bloodhound, Greg’s prose constantly amazes me, even if it takes me a couple of times to read it and understand it. The guys at Sellsius do an amazing job of pounding out useful posts day in, day out. I’m especially excited about some of the newer voices on the scene; Mary at RSS Pieces and Pat at TransparentRE in particular.
Some others in my newsreader:
Required Daily Reading
Guilty Pleasures
What tools/websites do you find most helpful in putting together your blog?
I swear by Firefox and its extensions. I collect links and interesting articles with Del.icio.us and compose my blog posts with the Performancing plugin. I usually have several tabs open at the same time and I never have to leave my browser.
How does blogging fit into the overall marketing of your business?
I never saw blogging as a way to improve my business when I first started. I just started writing. It’s grown to a point over the last little while where it can support itself financially (advertising revenue covers my hosting costs now) and it’s definitely helped raise my own profile in the industry I guess, but I think I’d still keep writing even if no one was reading it.
What plans do you have to improve your blog over this next year?
Maybe another redesign? Who knows… I’ve always more or less done things on a whim with FoREM. I love the challenge of pulling something down and recreating it in an entirely new form. I’m not happy unless I’m constantly innovating. That’s led to a lot of sleepless nights.
What do you think real estate blogging will look like 3 years from now?
Honestly I think there’s going to be a shakeout. People are dipping there toes in right now and I expect over the next 6-12 months we’ll see a big rush of Realtors trying out blogging. But I’m guessing most will quickly tire of it. Those who are still at it in 3 years time will be the ones who persevere and stick it out.
I also hope we’ll see a lot more netcasts/vlogs – right now there’s a real lack of decent real estate-related content outside of the written word.
Thank you Joel!
If you liked this interview, you may find some of these appealing:
Every New Year, my husband’s family makes a trip to Ocean Shores with most of his brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews. It is a tradition that we look forward to which includes as much bowl games you can cram into a weekend, razor clamming, go karts and I get to read the newspaper from front to back while everyone else in our hotel room is still sleeping.
To my delight in the Dec. 30, 2006 issue of The Seattle Times, there is an article forecasting the local 2007 real estate market called “Looking ahead: The sky isn’t falling for the Puget Sound market