Tag Archives: real-estate

Beware No Trespassing (even if you do have a keybox)

Posted on by
38

Learn something new every day. Can an agent access a vacant home with a keybox, without an appointment? What if that agent represents a buyer under contract on that home?[photopress:no_trespassing.jpg,thumb,alignright]

I had to learn this answer the hard way a couple of years ago. Here’s what happened:

I sold a vacant home in Issaquah to clients subject to inspection. During the inspection, it was noted that the furnace had a very high level of CO (92%) and needed to be replaced. Seller (an attorney) would not replace the furnace. Buyers decided to replace it themselves before they move in and waived the inspection contingency.

Given that it takes a few weeks after ordering a furnace to get it installed, I, knowing that the house was vacant, met the furnace installer (call him Bob) at the home for measurements. No, I did not make an appointment. During the measuring, the furnace guy TAKES THE FURNACE OUT OF COMMISSION! Of course, it was in the dead of winter and the weather was below freezing. Furnace guy says that by state law, he is required to decommission a furnace if it is a safety issue and considering that the furnace was burning outside of the combustion chamber, it quite obviously was a safety issue.

Now we have a vacant house with no heat, with a seller who refused to pay for a new furnace with the inspection period waived and with me and my furnace guy Bob having entered the home without an appointment. Listing agent is furious with me and calls his broker who calls his attorney who calls my broker who calls me and says that, Guess what, technically it IS considered trespassing to re-enter a home that is pending even with the pending buyers or buyer’s agent.

The solution was simple enough. Seller had the furnace installed (immediate when in an emergency situation) and buyers paid for it at escrow. And I learned a new lesson. The hard way.

Interview with Ardell DellaLoggia of the Searching Seattle Blog

Posted on by
64

[photopress:ardell_mlsphoto.jpg,full,alignright]There is only one Ardell. She’s a top-notch blogger that shows up all over the place in the blogging world. In addition to RCG, she keeps up an ActiveRain blog and her solo blog at Searching Seattle. And while it might seem somewhat self-serving to interview one of our own contributors, I couldn’t resist the curiosity to unleash this interview on Ardell! 🙂

However, before I begin the interview, I have a HUGE announcement! Today marks Ardell’s one year anniversary as a Rain City Guide contributor. Her first words may have been “be gentle” but she has been much more disruptive than gentle on the real estate blogging world! Let me be the first to say thank for for giving us such a fabulous, fun, and fantastic year!

What inspired you to start blogging?

I wouldn’t call it an inspiration. I honestly was just doing my “good deed for the day”. A Microsoft employee named Noor, explained to me in his Toastmaster’s International speech at our club in Redmond/Bellevue, that a blog was a personal online journal, a web log, a log on the web. So when John Reilly of Internet Crusade emailed me on 1/1/07 and asked me to be one of the people to test their blog product, I had a basic idea of what he was asking. I said yes and just started typing away. I wasn’t really realizing others would read it, except John. I look back at those first articles and wonder why I chose to write on those topics. I mean, who is sitting around on New Year’s Day writing on such intense topics? I’m not a techie geek for sure, as you can tell by my huge print, color text, etc. But I am a real estate nerd.

Unlike other people who decided to blog, or who had an urge to be a writer, I was just typing out whatever I was thinking about. Just turned out to be TMI about real estate 🙂

Are there any special topics or issues that you enjoy covering?

I like to talk about the real estate process, real estate commissions especially the buyer agent fee, and how people and agents interact differently using technology and why that will make things easier and cheaper. I think people want to know a whole lot more about what they are getting themselves into. They may still want to hire someone to do “it” for them, but they want to know a whole lot more about what that “it” is, and why it costs so much and does it have to cost so much. I think talking about these things angers a lot of people, so I mix up other things in between. If I could, I’d only talk about those three things.

What have you done to personalize your blog?

Personalize my blog? LOL That’s an oxymoron…I’m all over it. To read me is to know me. I think I need to learn how to DE-personalize it 🙂

[photopress:ardell_at_computer_small.jpg,full,alignright]Do you have any favorite posts?

I loved this post and I especially loved when the client commented. It totally surprised me. This was my favorite, but it just slid by. I must have been the only one who liked it…oh, and my sister loved it. Most people, like “Jack” in that first linked article, came to me from this one. So I’d have to say that is one of my favorites as well.

What are some of your favorite blogs (real estate or otherwise)?

My first instinct in answering this question would be to link to the Who’s Who of the Blogosphere and the Usual Suspects, but honestly I don’t like blogs…I like people. To me Sellsius is Joe and Rudy, Urban Digs is Noah, Urbnlivn is Matt and Property Monger is Jon. I like those people via their blog. The only blog I used to read regularly was Bloodhound, but it has gotten too confusing for me. Too many people with too many different viewpoints. If I could click on Kris and read all her stuff in sequence, and then click on Greg, etc , the way RainCityGuide functions when you click our pictures, I’d still read it. But I can’t keep up with all the people, and I like the people, not the blogs. If I read the blog and don’t like the person…I leave. If the blog doesn’t have a personality, I don’t read it.

How does blogging fit into the overall marketing of your business?

It’s turned it upside down, as you know. Most of my clients come from my writings now. It’s nice that they already “know me” when we first meet and there doesn’t seem to be much difference from “me on blog” to “me in person”. I like when they say “Oh, now I know what Dustin meant when he said he can see your hands moving in your writings”. I think Glenn Kelman was one of the ones who said that when we met. I am in person as I am on the blog…one of the benefits of “stream of consciousness” blogging.

What plans do you have to improve your blog over this next year?

I added the podcast. Other than mispronouncing my name and calling me Ardle, I like it. I also want to make it easier for people to find specific topics of interest. More like an encyclopedia of real estate topics. Oops I mean wiki 😉 Right now you have to go to the archives, but I think that is one of the problems with a blog. The older it is the more you bury what people want to read. I indexed it last year, but I changed my categories so I have to get the index back up and linked. It’s a lot of work.

What is the one tool or feature that you wish your site had?

I actually like it the way it is. I’ve tried a lot of different platforms to test them. My Bloglines went caput the other day and I lost my entire Family Blog. It’s still there but it’s totally blank, so I’m never writing there again. Blogger is OK, but it bores me for some reason. I’ve tried it two or three times and can’t seem to be consistent there. I like having both WordPress and RealTown blogs. Word Press for Rain City Guide is THE best, but that’s because of what you, Dustin, have done to it. My other Word Press blog is not nearly as easy as this one. So best is Word Press after Dustin modifies it!

What do you think real estate blogging will look like 3 years from now?

I think you will see some lawsuits, actually. A lot of people are writing like they are 12 year olds on My Space and ranting about things that border on slander. Making negative comments about competitors, badmouthing those who “discount”, some even say nasty things about their own clients. Of course after a law suit or two the blogs will become less colorful and will be “bought” from news sources. So enjoy reading the colorful ones while you still can!

Thank you Ardell for taking the time to answer these questions!

Interviews, interviews interviews:

Group-Blog Etiquette

Posted on by
88

[photopress:e.jpg,full,alignright]Will the Emily Post Institute add a section on Group-Blog Etiquette someday? Maybe. But in the meantime, we all are creating that which future generations will write, and possibly adhere to, so let’s “have at it”. I will post my views on the topic, and maybe we can all pick this apart and come up with some acceptable norms for others.

Just like the other “blog rules” like no deleting, and striking out instead of straight editing…and other Blogosphere Guidelines (vs. Rules), the Group Blog introduces a whole new bailiwick of issues to be struggled with and ironed out.

For those not in a Group Blog, some of these issues still exist for you. As in when do you or do you not go into someone else’s blog and start disagreeing with the “host” of that blog? Do you jump in with your opposing view, different view, or do you read and lurk?

So while I am tackling this from a Group-Blog standpoint, there are ramifications for all bloggers in “the Blogosphere”. Dustin and I have discussed this topic from time to time and our feeling, generally, is let it run its course so we all learn from the experience. “All” being “The Blogosphere” generally. So while I am touching on it here…this is a scenario that will play out differently in different places.

My thoughts are that a Group-Blog should avoid Fellow Writers tripping over each other by the structure of the blog itself. I’ve used this analogy with Dustin, “Would you rent three stores in a 10 store shopping strip to three different Pizza Places?” But then, everything goes back to real estate for me, so maybe that’s not a reasonable analogy 🙂

We have two attorneys. But Craig and Russ pretty much have different areas of interest. I never see them tripping over each other. So that’s a good mix, and in my opinion, two attorneys in a room is always the limit, though I have had three at once, but only once.

I think the same theory applies to lenders and agents. A commercial and a residential agent…good…no tripping. I’m not going to tell a commercial real estate agent how to do his business, and he’s not going to tell me how to do residential. Elaine’s focus was not the same as mine for the most part…so not much tripping.

The mix of people, I think is the main key, as it will keep blog etiquette issues to a minimum. With two commercial agents or two residential agents, that they work in different areas is not sufficient, but helps. When Greg Swann first added agents from different states, I have to admit I thought it was strange. But at least if they disagree on strategy or principle, they can say “Well here in San Diego things work differently. So in hindsight, Kudos to Greg on that one. (though I do not mean to suggest that is WHY they did that) Greg’s having come from the writing industry, I think, gave him the foresight to consider this the way one might divvy up the topics in a writing establishment. She’s gardening tips, he’s sports, etc… Though he has a mindset mix in AZ mixed in, they understand “their space” as far as I can tell. Whether it’s because they are just sharp dudes about it, or had an actual undertanding? I think they are just “sharp dudes about it” 🙂 Maybe a little of each.

However, we cannot do that nor do I suggest we do that, because we are Seattle. We are “Rain City”. So as much as I admire BloodhoundBlog’s format, I don’t think we can handle our blog etiquette issues in similar fashion. Having 12 real estate agents in the same marketplace, coming from all different directions, can turn into a very interesting thing to watch, along the lines of mud-wrestling in bikinis or a constant smack-down. Exciting, I guess to some, but…hmmmm.

I have been asked by some hefty blog sites out there in the Blogosphere to be interviewed on this issue, and have declined, as I think we need to talk it out here, where it happens. And not there, where they want to discuss it for other reasons. So this is just a beginning point, as I know for sure that “The Blogosphere” is inquiring into this issue.

In fact if anyone knows of any articles already written on Group-Blogs, please provide the links in the comments.

My thoughts are this. You run it like a combination of a Newspaper and an Agent Office Meeting. You try to keep the “group” going as cohesively as possible by keeping the mix a true mix, as in no “three pizza parlors”. We’ve already, though recently, stepped out of that advice/mindset, so obviously not all agree 🙂 I won’t go into what you do when you already have three pizza parlors in the shopping center, other than my comments to this scenario in comment #35.

Hashing out industry issues like Redfin’s treatment of the Buyer Agent Fee, whether or not to use written contracts with buyers and a host of other industry wide topics, is great.

But to give the consumer the transparency of strategy and procedure and detail, that they want, and not always be wishy-washy generic BS, will create a lot of differences of opinion. So if we are going to stop tripping on each other by not raising the topics the consumer yearns for…well, let’s just say that is my worst fear.

Ok Blog Etiquette Junkies! “Have “At It”!

Mash-up 102 – Virtual Earth Pushpins

Posted on by
4

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.

You are breaking my heart Redfin…

Posted on by
10

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.

Interview with Drew Meyers of the Zillow Blog

Posted on by
38

[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.

Interview with Joel Burslem of the Future of Real Estate Marketing

Posted on by
8

[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:

Hotpads: A Slick Search Tool for Apartments, Rentals, Sublets and Roommates

Posted on by
14

[photopress:hotpads.jpg,full,alignright]Thanks to John Cook post on Real estate timeline debuts, I found the greatest site for Apartments, Rentals, Sublets and Roommates I have seen. HotPads.com provides users with the ability to find dwellings based on Density, Per Capita and Median Age/Renters/Rent. They even use census data to color code their maps based on this data. For the property owner they create listings on HotPads is free and easy! If you are a landlord, they eve send your listings to Oodle and Google Base.

HotPads currently uses census data to color code our map based on a few different statistics:

  • Population Density
  • Per Capita Income
  • Median Household Income
  • Median Age
  • Percent Renters
  • Median Rent

Here are some examples from Seattle: Seattle, WA

Per Capita Income
[photopress:wa_seattle_perCapitaIncome.jpg,thumb,centered]

Household Income
[photopress:wa_seattle_householdIncome.jpg,thumb,centered]

Median Age
[photopress:wa_seattle_age.jpg,thumb,centered]

Percent Renters
[photopress:wa_seattle_percentRenters.jpg,thumb,centered]

Median Rent
[photopress:wa_seattle_rent.jpg,thumb,centered]

Even though rail stations are not available in the Rain City yet, with HotPads maps you can see various points of interest that might help you decide where to live:

  • Subway and Train Stations
  • Public Schools
  • Private Schools
  • Universities

[photopress:hotpads2.jpg,full,centered]

Points are added to the map with their nifty icons:

Colleges
[photopress:university.png,full,centered]

Schools
[photopress:schoolhouse.png,full,centered]

Train and Subway Stations
[photopress:trainStation.png,full,centered]

They are currently listing the following rail systems:

  • New York City Subway
  • Washington, DC Metro
  • Bay Area Rapid Transit
  • Bay Area’s Caltrain
  • Boston’s MBTA
  • Chicago’s El
  • Los Angeles County Metrorail
  • Denver’s Light Rail
  • Dallas’s DART
  • Miami-Dade County Metro

As John Cook pointed out (looks like Galen has added Shackprices‘ GREAT search to the list), their Real estate timeline is pretty cool too:

[photopress:hotpadstime.jpg,full,centered]

Interview with Michael Simonsen of Altos Research

Posted on by
12

I first met Michael in person back at the Real Estate Connect conference in SF last summer and was immediately impressed.

[photopress:mike.jpg,thumb,alignright]The Altos Research blog has been rolling full-steam ahead with really solid analytical posts about changes in neighborhood value up and down the West Coast. At the same time, I could tell that his business running Altos Research must have been taking off because his widgets that track market value by neighborhoods were showing up all over the real estate blogosphere.

Needless to say, Michael’s posts just keep getting better and I’m extremely excited he agreed to this interview…

What inspired you to start blogging?

In mid-2005, the Altos Research platform was really kicking in for the first time. My co-founder, Jason, and I loved seeing the output of the analysis – geeking out on the data. The blog seemed like the best channel to start letting people know what we had. So in October 2005 we started. The process of blogging, it turns out, is crucial for me to actually figure out what we had and how people like to consume it.

[photopress:altos_logo.jpg,full,alignright]Are there any special topics or issues that you enjoy covering?

Altos Research is all about analyzing real estate markets in real time. I think our blog is at it’s best when we identify and publish market information that no one else has.

What have you done to personalize your blog?

Despite the fact that our blog is first and foremost a marketing channel to interact with our customers, the content is intensely personal.

There’s a fascinating disconnect between traditional corporate marketing and sales processes. Corporate marketing (or real estate marketing for that matter) is planned, structured, and homogeneous (read: stiff and impersonal). But everyone knows the adage that people buy from people they like. Sales is about personality. The blog is really the first time a marketing channel leverages personality. Many of my customers know me before they ever speak with me.

Do you have any favorite posts?

A couple months ago I did a quick post on our stats tracking flipped properties in a market (quick remodel and back on the market for more money.) I cited San Jose. The post got picked up in TheStreet.com and some other heavy-traffic investment sites. We had huge (huge for us) traffic spikes.

What are some of your favorite blogs (real estate or otherwise)?

I read Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed every day. I’m an unabashed Silicon Valley-phile. I love the ethos and dynamics of the technology startup/venture capital culture and Paul is like mainlining for that addiction.

What tools/websites do you find most helpful in putting together your blog?

I’m a huge fan of HitTail. More than any other analytics tools I’ve found, HitTail provides a clean, clear presentation of how people find you and guides thinking about what people want you to write about.

How does blogging fit into the overall marketing of your business?

Blogging, believe it or not, is nearly 100% of our marketing to date. Our sales come either from our passionate clients recommending our services to their friends or from people who read the blog. We’ll augment our marketing with other techniques as we grow, but it’s hard to imagine any single approach more effective.

What plans do you have to improve your blog over this next year?

The biggest key for me is to post more. I tend to be a long-form poster: I try to find a topic, formulate a thesis for a post, construct the argument, get supporting images and links, edit, edit, edit. That process takes me several hours, when I’m thorough. I need to sleep less or something.

What is the one tool or feature that you wish your site had?

I wish the damn system of trackbacks or Technorati or something worked reliably. The effectiveness of these types of features is just plain random.

What do you think real estate blogging will look like 3 years from now?

We’re still really, really early in real estate blogging. Real estate is a relationship business. You know how to build relationships off line. But the Internet is where 70% of people start the home search. The blog is the premier mechanism for building relationships over the Internet.

The good news is that the real estate blogosphere will never be overcrowded. It is self regulating. Many Realtors will never start because the evidence of lousy performance sticks around for ever. If you are a lousy networker off line, that’s ephemeral, no one ever knows. The fear of failure will keep this space open to those who are dedicated and enthusiastic. Rock on.

Thanks again to Michael for your insight!

Want more interviews? Try one of these on for size:

Commission double-take

Posted on by
18

Ok, for those of you thinking from the title that I’ll be going back to the subject of dual agency and taking a seller and selling side of a commission this is about something else. What I’ve got a question about as well as a big concern right now is that I just got mutual acceptance on a deal for a client and I’ve just noticed that the listing agent has changed the commission on the listing data. It was at 3% on the day my clients saw the house and now, tonight when we got MA, it is at 2.5%. Anyone have an idea how the local MLS views this kind of thing? I have a feeling that she changed it just because an offer finally came in (it was full price on a big price tag) and as of 01/06/2007 it was at 3%.

[photopress:washer_dryer_photo.jpg,full,alignright]Considering the listing agent screwed up and had posted a washer/dryer as part of the listing also and then she couldn’t work that problem out with her client (happens to be her father-in-law) I was planning on using part of the commission to buy a set for my clients. That may be shot now with the reduction although (the set they want is $2600) [photopress:pennies.jpg,full,alignleft] but I’m planning on pointing out the change and requesting that she pay the amount she originally noted and submitting the printed copy of the listing as my documentation with the disbursement form. The MLS rules as I see them state that the “commission shall be paid as designated in the listing (or any change thereto).” Which this could mean that I’m hosed the money, BUT, I can’t tell if she changed it before or after we got mutual acceptance – which I find to be a possible ethical violation if it was the agent’s choosing. Furthermore, which rate would apply if it was changed after the fact? The same section of the rules states “consent required to change other member’s commission”. I’m pretty sure the seller or the listing agent decided to drop it when faced with an offer and for no other reason than to save the money even though this has been the SOC for months – this place had been on market for over 100 days. Anyone got a clue on this one?