Entries Tagged 'Real Estate Technology' ↓

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Google has added a great deal of capability to their Google Maps application that includes the ability to see property listings pulled from it’s Google Base, Wikipedia entries, and other sources.

The other big thing I have been able to gather is that it has added flash capability to Google Maps. The ability to embed maps that are “mashed up” with your information should be a huge help for real estate agents that are web savvy.

If you’re looking for a home in a certain location, you have a new search option: Google maps. Enter an address and click on the “show search options” link, which is right next to the “Search Maps” button. You can set whatever limits you want on size, price and other variables.

Another improvement to Google Maps adds geo-tagged photos and Wikipedia entries that are associated with specific locations. To see these, click on the “more” button on the map — it’s right next to the “traffic” button. via The Dallas Morning News.

More information on this:

• Trusted Reviews
• Wired Blog
• C-Net
• Google Operating System Blog

The real estate world has always protected their MLS data like it was gold, and to them it is. Go to almost any real estate office and see the security that is put on the MLS computers. If you think of Fort Knox you are not far off. But the protection of the data that the MLS thinks is what gives the power to the real estate agent is breaking down.

With the advent of online listing services the data is being put out there many different ways. The agents realize that their worth is not being the conduit of the information as it was in the past, but rather the services, support, and institutional knowledge they offer to their clients.

Will this lower commissions, sure, but not that much. I would be worried if I was an agent that thought that putting a sign in a lawn was marketing a home.

Professionalizing the industry and weeding out the dabbling agents is the benefit of breaking the walled garden mentality of data protection. Once the data is available to all then the true worth, knowledge, and skill of an agent will be the defining criteria for paying a commission.

Selling a home is a complicated and difficult process. The buyer and seller can do somethings alone, but there will be a large part of the population that will need the help that a trained and caring real estate professional can offer.

The idea that an agent can hold the 6 percent commission hostage is long gone, but an effective agent will find that being a true professional they will bring enough benefit to the public to have a long and prosperous career.

The triple threat of a weak market, legal pressure and increasing competition has compelled real estate professionals to offer their information more freely online, putting cracks in a walled garden of data that stood strong while the industry enjoyed its breakaway growth. It also presages an end to the days when sellers must list their homes with a broker so buyers can see them.

The trend revolves around the nation’s roughly 900 multiple listing services, or M.L.S.’s, where local brokers post information about homes they are selling. In years past, these services were highly restrictive about where and how that information could be distributed — for instance, frequently not permitting Web sites to display M.L.S. listings alongside for-sale-by-owner homes, bank foreclosures or other properties not represented by real estate agents. via the New York Times

If you are a fan of big buildings expect to be thrilled because Prince al-Wahid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia is planning on building a tower that will stand a mile high into the sky.

No, that is not a misprint.

If you do not think that the 100 dollar barrels of oil are creating a windfall for the Saudis then this will change your mind. In the Red Sea port town of Jeddah they are planning on building the largest building in the world, doubling size of the Dubai Tower that is nearing construction and tripling the size of the CN Tower in Toronto.

On a clear day, the view from the top will take in the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian Ocean - providing you’ve a head for heights.
Plans for a mile-high tower in the Saudi Arabian desert have been unveiled by the billionaire owner of London’s Savoy Hotel.
At 5,250ft, the £5billion project, masterminded by two British engineering consultancies, will be twice as high as its nearest rivals, skyscrapers under construction in Dubai and Kuwait, and almost seven times as high as the Canary Wharf tower in London’s Docklands.  via the Daily Mail.

Dustin over at 4Realz.net has an interesting letter he received about a MLS that is looking into opening up their listings to comments. Go give it a read and then come back.

For those of you not wanting to leave it essentially wonders about the issues that the MLS would face opening up homes to comments that may not be flattering to a home and or homeowners.

Here was my comment, I figured I would share as it talks to the issues that Realtors face when discussing homes:

I think this is the Catch 22 of the real estate world. They created a cartel that keeps real estate agent complaints in house with onerous restrictions in a tough marketplace.

Before the internet it was very difficult for information to be put out without going through the cartel (MLS) or one of it’s members without the cartel rules being invoked.

Add to that the pressure of the government adding another layer of restrictions and compliance factors, almost all homes are forced to be discussed in a very narrow way.

But with the internet and non cartel members there are ways to take this data and avoid the legal and industry barriers to the truth.

It will be tough when I as a non Realtor or agent can say things about a home that you can not when it comes to marketing or getting eye share for the information on real estate in a particular area.

The real estate industry is in a tough place due to the rules they have created for themselves. Savvy entrepreneurs will be able to slide into the marketplace and create a much more accurate representation of towns and cities that the Realtors will not be able to compete with.

While I as an active participant to a transaction would be beholden to the rules of the state and federal government, as a commenter I would be only held to those of the 1^st Amendment. That will be tough for real estate agents to counteract on a property or region.

A grant of 3 million dollars by Baltimore developer John Colvin and his wife will be used for a new green real estate program at the University of Maryland.

I am not a big fan of environmentalism for the sake of environmentalism. What I am a fan of though is taking the best of technology and applying it to reduce the energy usage by innovation without sacrificing the quality of life for typical Americans. Those that fly around in their private jets, Al Gore, to tell us to stop global warming really drive me batty.

But for a developer to donate money for green innovation I think is great. As long as the pointy headed academics do not take over the program and politicize it, I think the potential to add to innovation and energy saving features in homes makes a great deal of sense.

It is a win win situation, we use less energy, we save the homeowner money, and the technology that is developed can be shared across the world. That is the right way to be green in my book.

The donation from John Colvin and his wife, Karen, will be used to create the Colvin Institute of Real Estate Development in Maryland’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The donation will be used to create a new track in the program focusing on green design, sustainable development and energy financing.

Colvin, a University of Maryland graduate, is a principal at Baltimore-based real estate development Questar. The new institute will be the academic home for the university’s master’s degree in real estate development track.  via Washington Business Journal

When HouseValues invested 2.75 Million in Active Rain my first reaction is that they were buying eyeballs for their product.

The announcement 2 days later that HomeValues is laying off 45 and ditched their CFO makes me worried that there is lots of rot in the organization. To invest in a company like Active Rain that is still growing and developing a vibrant community of real estate professionals makes sense and could be healthy if the balance sheet made sense.

But if HouseValues is in a death spiral then this could essentially pull act Active Rain into the vortex. Because no matter what is said, HouseValues is a marketing company. They have a lead product but they need to be constantly marketing to succeed.

The cultural differences between the two worlds will only work if the approach from HomeValues to the ActiveRain community is subtle. But when a company is fighting for it’s existance, how subtle can you be? And how quickly will the users leave the ActiveRain if HomeValues makes it a toxic place of constant pitches and come-ons?

If I had the money and inclination I would set up a competitor to ActiveRain today to provide a sanctuary to the community members that try to get out of the death spiral I see coming.

HouseValues, the struggling Kirkland online real estate company, has laid off 45 employees and announced that Chief Financial Officer R. Barry Allen has resigned.
HouseValues also said it expects a net loss for the fourth quarter and for the year.
“These cost-reduction measures are in recognition of real estate market trends and the effect they are having on the company’s business,” the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. John Cook at Seattle PI

If you are wondering why so many new homes were built recently, it may be a by-product of the technology boom. Wired has an article that places the blame on the housing boom on techno-lust, but I just attribute that to the prism that they see the world through.

However, this paragraph is telling. According to a study cited by Wired over 74 percent of people wanted a new home. That could explain the skewed numbers builders looked at, but with the inventory of existing homes the math does not add up.

Of course the amount of homes in unsold inventory does not add up so logic may not play a part in the equation.

Still, you’d never guess it when shopping for real estate. That charming 1920s three-bedroom craftsman wasn’t built to accommodate all these new devices, much less modernized subsystems like updated electrical, solar power, or flexible plastic plumbing. Which is one reason Americans have come to prefer new homes to pre-owned ones. Check out these numbers: In 1993, just 48 percent said they hoped their next house would be newly built. By 2004, that number had grown to 74 percent. via Wired

GMAC Real Estate is on to something. They are closing 15 offices in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Why you ask? Well, they announced that buyers are starting their searches on the internet and do not need to visit offices as often. By using the internet, buyers do not need to have an office nearby to view listings and have close contact with the real estate agents.

This is very logical, sort of like how banks in the 1980’s contracted and closed branches when ATM’s were introduced. The need to have the full service tools close by were not necessary when 90 percent of ones banking could be done through the ATM.

So now the same is happening with Real Estate. The advent of internet listings and searches, email, and remote contact tools have progressed in real estate to the point that a local full service office is not mandatory for a real estate firm to be successful. Most of the agents work can be done from home and the buyers and sellers can be kept up to date more effectively than they could have in the past from a full service office.

I think GMAC is ahead of the curve on offices and probably this will turn into a trend in the coming years.

GMAC Real Estate is closing 15 offices in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and laying off staff as home selling and shopping increasingly migrate to the Internet amid a housing slump.
The Minneapolis company said yesterday it would lay off about 50 managers and support staff during the consolidation in New England. By Dec. 31, real estate agents in the affected offices will be relocated to GMAC’s remaining 35 offices in the two states. via The Boston Globe.

Hey Real Estate agents and brokers, are you still having trouble kicking the newspaper advertising habit. Well, don’t be the last one throwing money into dark, grainy pictures and smudged type. It looks from the new numbers released that many are fleeing the newsprint to online.

So if your boss thinks that putting ads in the local papers is still necessary or your customers are begging you to ego list their homes in the paper, here is more ammunition for you.

Total advertising expenditures at newspaper companies were $10.9 billion for the third quarter of 2007, a 7.4% decrease from the same period a year earlier. Spending for print ads in newspapers totaled $10.1 billion, down 9% compared with the third quarter of 2006.

Among the major print components in the third quarter, classified advertising fell 17% to $3.4 billion. Retail declined 4.9% to $5.1 billion, and national was down 2.5%, coming in at $1.7 billion. via Marketing Vox

Meanwhile online advertising in the newspaper industry is growing by double digits.

You make the call.

Face it, we all could improve our data backup procedures. Fortunately, Brian Davis at Appraisal Scoop has done an amazing post on data backups for appraisers. The focus may be on appraisers and their needs, but the primer could be used for anyone in the real estate business.

Brian goes through the different online backup solutions and provides a great dissection of the pro’s and con’s of the software alternatives. While it is not a topic that gets you all excited, it may be the motivator that will save you a huge heartache in the future.

Brian’s article on Backing Up Data for Appraisers.