American real estate flea market

Joel over at FOREM sent this to us. Happy Friday!

It's time to focus on content

How do we fulfill the promise of Web 2.0 in real estate?

Content.

Yes, content. It's been lost amid the Web 2.0 rave pulsing in our business for the past three years, a party threatened by a harsh dawn of hungover reality.

Let's be frank:

1. Most agent blogs are really bad
2. Most brokerage attempts to participate in social media deliver little more than PR value
3. Most Web 2.0 plays in the online real estate space have failed to ignite large scale consumer use

Social media is not a cosmetic for fundamental business blemishes. In fact, it may actually aggravate them. A bad blog is worse than no blog. Display of previously unaccessible real estate or community data without intense regard for quality and context does little more than pique curiosity, or, worse, create confusion. 

New applications are great, but that's the easy part. Content creation is the hard part. It's less sexy, but it is what will win in the long run. This applies both to online real estate companies and brokerages.

A friend of my mine made the statement back in the Web 1.0 boom days that "The truth is, most of the applications out there don't really work." Today, we have tons of apps that do work, but too many are empty vessels, beautiful ships light in the cargo hold.

Hello in there ...

Let me give you some examples:

Agent reviews

Consumers reviewing Realtors. A great idea! Several companies continue to chase it. But has one broken out into widespread consumer use? When you go to these sites, do you, like me, catch a wave of loneliness? The number of real consumer reviews is terribly low. I make decisions based on review sites in other categories like TripAdvisor and Yelp. The Realtor review sites aren't even close.

Why?

Well, Yelp invested in paying people to generate reviews to prime the user generated content pump; they continue to invest heavily in editorial moderation and quality. TripAdvisor spent tons of money on the marketing and distribution needed to reach consumer contributors. Code and content go hand-in-hand.

That's not happening enough in online real estate.

Local

Intimate knowledge of the community has always been a key element of a brokerage company's value. Applications for leveraging that value online abound. Yet to this day, there are very few brokerage Web 2.0 success stories.

You can guess why. Blogs thrown up without a commitment to making them useful; shoddy writing; poorly conceived video. A lack of resources for creating the sort of content that creates the magic of "engagement" we all hear so much about.

Most brokers should remove or re-purpose their PR department. Make it an editorial department. "Managing Editor" not a typical brokerage title? Exactly. I am serious. Do it today!

Until this happens, you can expect few meaningful innovations here.

Listings

I won't subject you to another rant about listings coverage on online real estate sites (though that is definitely relevant to my post here), so let's just look at the larger quality issue. Listings are the most valuable piece of real estate content a broker or media property can display. We have apps for creating listing shows, video listing presentations, mobile listing delivery and more, yet too many listings still evidence few photos, crappy photos, all caps agent comments and just generally bad merchandising.

You can telepathically transport listing alerts direct to my cerebral cortex based on my mood and geocoordinates, but if the content is sloppy, you're not really nailing it.

What do we do? Brokers, get tough with agents. No more typo-ridden comments and poorly composed photos. You can't merchandise a listing online? Take your license somewhere else. NAR: Include minimum standards for online listings display in your Code of Ethics. I'm not joking. Getting online marketing right is no longer a benefit or differentiator, it's a solemn obligation to sellers.

Street of dreams

Online real estate has been like a ride down the Las Vegas Strip for the past three years, an Electric Circus of Ajax, Ruby and Mirrors. It's delivered some great things, but I am becoming more convinced that it is time to pull off to the side, grab a cup of coffee, and work on fundamentals.

Like content. 

-- Brian Boero

Amid the Web 2.0 hoopla, something to get excited about

I like technology applications that solve real problems. Think email listing alerts. That's a perfect app. Solves a problem for both the consumer and professional.               

It is for this reason that I love Forms Advisor.

Boston

I almost forgot how cool this city was. I was there over the weekend to deliver a speech at the AE Institute event produced by the NAR. I had an hour -- I wish I had three. There's so much more I wanted to share with the group. For instance, how the 98% of those in attendance challenged by technology could share their fears and questions with the remaining 2% who aren't through a social network or an AE wiki.

Or what it would look like if those associations that have undertaken progressive initiatives and resolved thorny legal issues could share them with those in the group that haven't. You know, through an open source idea share.

I never got that far.

But I did get to do a quick scan of all the vendors present. I was encouraged by the fact that the booth offering Realtor hats and pins was buried way in the back. Association executives don't need Realtor hats. They need solutions to problems. One of them was located at a booth smack dab in the center of the hall.

Forms Advisor

I can only imagine how many Prilosecs I'd be popping each day if I were a broker stressing over the notion that at any moment in time, one or more of my independent contractor agents might be screwing up their transactional paperwork. I know it happens. I talk to brokers every day. This market's an E&O tinderbox. REFN, the company behind Forms Advisor, understands this.

Forms Advisor takes the agent user through a simple question interface that asks about the type of transaction for which they need forms. Once this is completed, the system creates and organizes each and every form needed for the transaction. Automagically.

It's convenient.
It's easy.
It solves a problem.

Amid all the all Web 2.0 hoopla ...

I find all the Web 2.0 stuff cool, hip and sometimes useful. But right here, right now, if I'm a broker and my agents aren't rock solid on the paperwork, all the social networking, blogging and widget wiggling isn't going to mean a hill of beans.

Forms Advisor might not be fancy. It might not be whizbang. It lacks the high gloss Web 2.0. But it's real. And it works. If I were a broker, I'd make a beeline for it and free throw my Prilosec into the trash.

It's a digital version of your Association's legal department at your fingertips strapped to a GPS.

3 points.
Game over.
Everybody wins.

- Davison

The customer has left the building

Last month, the Financial Times reported that Google's search numbers coming from the iPhone were so high the company's engineers thought the data were bogus.

Further on in the article the company's head of mobile operations asserts that "the number of mobile searches will overtake fixed internet searches 'within the next several years'.

I've spent the better part of the past five years making the case that real estate brokers and agents need to ditch the office and its menagerie of paper based, profit eating animals like the copy machine, fax machine, and file cabinet. Adoption has been slow.

But consumers are moving rapidly to relocate the real estate experience away from the desk. And so far, neither the real estate brokerage community or the online real estate industry seem to be taking it all that seriously. Perhaps it's denial. Brokers just getting used to the fact that they need to offer tons of free data and information on their company Websites with no strings attached must grapple with how to serve it up to go. Online media companies challenged to monetize destination websites must now figure out how to monetize a mobile platform.

That's rough, but the customer has left the building. It's time to hit the road with her. There's no choice: She's going with or without you.

Here's an example: If my local brokerage company doesn't offer me an IDX app for my iPhone I'll simply subscribe to a search on Trulia via RSS and view listings within the absolutely amazing experience that the mobile version of Google Reader delivers. That'll be great for me, but tragic for my brokerage and something of a half-win for Trulia, both of which will have conceded an important brand touch point.

Consumers can easily get sports scores and weather on their mobile phones. Where are the homes?

There are some bright spots. Realtor.com launched a Windows Mobile app last year. SmarterAgent, a great little company that survived the online real estate dark age of 2001-2004 just closed a round of financing and is gaining traction for its mobile home search offerings. TextBound, a new venture backed company offering SMS apps to Realtors, launched last week. Zillow has offered Zestimates via SMS for nearly a year and a half. The New York Times and a few other newspapers offer mobile versions of their real estate sections. U.K. based Properazzi unveiled mobile property alerts late last year.

But these are largely small gauge or isolated efforts amid a sea change in consumer behavior. Here are some things I'd like to see soon:

1. A major IDX vendor release a suite of mobile IDX apps for all major platforms (Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android, etc.)
2. True mobile versions of Zillow, Trulia, Frontdoor and Roost
3. A bunch of real estate iPhone apps unleashed shortly after Apple opens up its platform later this month
4. A real estate website vendor roll out a brokerage web platform optimized for mobile use
5. A real estate specific version of the Yahoo! onePlace service announced today
6. The NAR to redirect every dime it is planning to indulge in the Gateway delusion toward development of mobile applications for practitioners.

Listings are nearly everywhere. The major search sites are reaching parity. IDX is widely adopted. The winners in real estate search will win on experience and service. The small screen will be a key battlefield. Those who ignore the writing on the wall will be pretty lonely back at the office.

-- Brian Boero

Clarity and confusion in online real estate

Two important stories hit Inman News yesterday: 

"Realogy plans national IDX web-search platform"

and

"Consumer access in the cards for NAR's real estate 'Gateway'"

Right here, in two stories posted within hours of each other, we see the conflicted state of online real estate, the poles of a mania not easily shaken. The Realogy story offers a model for how any brokerage company might think about leveraging their listings inventory. The second reflects the uncertainty many real estate practitioners still feel about how to navigate the waters of web 2.0.

Realogy, for its part, seems to be executing a carefully considered listings strategy that began with a partnership with Trulia early this year and has since been extended, to varying degrees, to Google, Yahoo! and Zillow. The company recognized that these sites offer compelling distribution channels for its listings. They have extended their reach considerably, while maintaining control of their data - something any brokerage should find attractive.

Today's announcement evidences an effort to leverage listings on their own brand sites as well, providing, in the words of CIO Craig Cuyar, "... a consistent and clear format, regardless of the listing source. Visitors to our brand Websites will be able to find all the local market information they are looking for faster and easier."

That may sound simple, but consider how jumbled most IDX functions sitting on broker sites right now truly are. This is a case study in getting back to basics using newly available technologies and media that many brokers would do well to emulate.

Such is the clarity that's emerging in online real estate right now. Now let's enter the mist of confusion that shrouds the elusive 'Gateway'.

The Inman News article noted a number of things that I found really puzzling:

• The idea that NAR would "restructure" its operating agreement with Move, Inc. to pursue an as-yet undefined venture.
• The Gateway is being considered as a means to ensure that certain data are not presented "by others" when every data point mentioned by its planners to date already is.
• Gary Thomas' quote that the Gateway "Is not a national MLS. It could evolve to that at some point. If you wanted to make it that way, it's up to you. It's not our intent -- but if that's something you want to do, go for it. I won't be up here doing that," illustrates just how fraught doing anything big and innovative in the MLS world can be.
• The statement (also from Thomas) that the Gateway, while  designed for practitioners loaded with for sale listings, "...would not allow the offer of compensation and cooperation." This seems to me to exclude the glue that could make the whole thing come together.

I know it's early. And there are people smarter than me working on this. But everything I have heard and read to date makes this project seem completely unhinged from any sort of strategy.

It reflects uncertainty, not clarity.

-- Brian Boero

Leaving NAR

My Southwest 737 lifted above the electric circus of Las Vegas. My head ached. My voice was gone. I wheezed from two days' worth of secondhand smoke.

It was 11:00 p.m. on Thursday night, and my capacity for analysis was shot.

72 hours later, I am no closer to a neat summation of last week's NAR show. Too much happened too quickly. The meetings, hallway huddles, half-heard cocktail party conversations and booth breeze-by's didn't add up to anything neat and tidy. But here are a few observations from an intense couple days.

• There was little evidence of the down market and recently cleaned up credit mess. Unlike the post dot-com boom EXPO of 2002, there were no empty booth spaces and few notable absences. In fact, the major lenders featured their usual casino games and carnival barkers. These things always entertained in the past, but seemed clumsy this time.
• Web 2.0 in real estate is largely -- and, arguably, most significantly -- a small-gauge, mass phenomenon. I have made this point before, but the hall, the talk and the party circuit underscored the fact that no new company has made a big splash in online real estate in the past year. But the number of practitioners using social media and tools to reinvent their business continues to explode.
• The antipathy in the industry toward its own trade association seems to be increasing. Whether the gripe is about the "Gateway", the bureaucracy, or the tin-eared responses to challenges from the media and justice department, few I talked to had much good to say about NAR (my only complaint is that they persist in keeping Orlando in the EXPO site location!).
• Brokers -- even those who are hurting -- have some pretty compelling opportunities at hand. They were lavishly courted at the show by Google, Trulia and Zillow for access to their listings. The cost of technology innovation has never been lower. The down market has shaken up traditional tensions with agents. I talked with several brokers who not only understand this, but are taking advantage of these interesting times to do things they never would have considered trying in a boom market. This may be a little of "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose", but I think those who make bold moves right now will be rewarded.
• The technology story is not just about Web 2.0. I came across two new takes on old applications -- IDX and online home tours -- in the exhibit hall. Diverse Solutions was showing off its new IDX solution, which is a dramatic departure from the difficult to use, uninspired offerings to which we have become accustomed. HomeZone shared its suite of Flash-coated marketing apps, including a home tour module that is truly elegant.
• Change is afoot in the MLS world. Execs and staffers I talked to at the show are thinking in ways that would have been unheard of even a couple years ago. They are coming to recognize they literally hold the goods in the online listings game. Look for some interesting moves in this space in the coming months.
• Realtor.com had the most significant announcement of the week with its new Neighborhood app. I have always thought Move missed the mark on user experience far too often, but what they have done here might be a model for a second wave of real estate data mashups. The experience is rich, but, more importantly, it is functional. They avoided the trap of more data, more mapping, more tabs and more tools that still plagues many sites.
• I am now officially not cool enough and not wealthy enough for Las Vegas. Something's happened in this town since I was here last about a year and a half ago. I just can't pull off $25-a-hand blackjack or an apple-pomegranate-saketini. Maybe I shouldn't complain about Orlando.

-- Brian Boero

Hatfield Consumers vs. McCoy Agents

As I read the Inman News letter to editor written by Professor Erik Gartzke regarding Dian Hymer’s article  ‘Is Buying Home a good investment” I heard the popping sound of a can of worms being opened. Yesterday, as I read through the Inman Blog (excerpted below) I saw the worms wriggling out:

"Dian Hymer stated that, buying a home is a good investment if, a) you can afford it, b) if are ready to put down roots in a community, c) If you want to invest in your personal happiness.

Her premise is if you’re planting roots and becoming part of a community, you’ll inevitably swing though up and down cycles. Over the long term, historically, the home will appreciate."

The good professor disagreed. Violently. He believes now is a historically bad time to buy and took Dian to task in blatant disregard of her expertise. Follow up posts by agents and non-agents clearly indicate the line being drawn in the sand - agent opinion on one side, consumer opinion on the other.

It doesn’t begin or end here. Numerous articles, studies and voices are exposing the fissures in the solid ground of trust real estate once stood upon. So what’s at the root of all this?

Could it have anything to do with the gold rush of recruiting that has taken place over the last 10 years, which exposed homeowners to hundreds of thousands of uneducated and inexperienced practitioners?
Could it have anything to do the unregulated self-promotion that allows anyone with a license to call themselves an “expert”?

Could this have anything to do with the decay of the professional real estate press?

Could it be that the ethics card -- the premise NAR rests its entire marketing hat on -- seems hollow?

In my local paper this weekend, over a dozen agents advertised themselves as the # 1 listing agent for the month of October. I know I can’t be the only one who looked at that and wondered how that could be.   

When professionals like Dian who actually have credibility are treated with such insolence, maybe it’s time to sit up, take notice and ask some hard questions.

Do consumers trust real estate agents?
Is buying a really home a good investment today?
Why?

As I leave for NAR and prepare walk the convention floor along with the people tasked with brokering our most precious possessions, I’m hoping that I can come back and report that amid the hoopla, there’s deep attention to these issues and can isolate who among the millions in real estate are offering consumers something that doesn’t draw fire.

- Davison