American real estate flea market

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

Losing a race with progress

Feb 26th, 2009. The Rocky Mountain News closed its doors after 150 years of operation.

Rather than link to the story, I thought this 45-slide photo gallery of Rocky employees as they gathered to hear the news might serve as a dose of healthy reality to those within our industry who continue to resist change.

Yesterday, after speaking to a small group in Southern California, an agent rose and told the room about his dilemma in Pittsburgh, where MLS rules are preventing him from displaying IDX on his own site. I actually called the Pittsburgh MLS today to learn more.

Got voice mail.

Another agent spoke of her broker, in Chicago, who forbade her and her agent colleagues from having their own IDX display. She asked me what I thought she should do.

I suggested she leave and join the competition. 

Driving home I heard an interview with the rapper Fifty Cent. He spoke about selling his Connecticut mansion and how he had to fire his broker because he did not know how to market the property internationally -- where Fifty believes his buyer lies.

A gangsta who has a deeper understanding of property sales, marketing and merchandising than a so-called real estate professional. 

It's sickening just thinking about what will happen to those newspaper employees. These people did not resist change. They simply could not keep up, no matter how fast they ran.

In our business, too many are just standing still.

- Davison

Google adds images to Street View

Google announced today that it has integrated location-specific images from its Panoramio product with Street View.

For online real estate, this means a more visual property search experience -- something I wrote about last week -- is coming fast.

Buyers on sites that have implemented Street View can now not only "walk down the street" on which a home resides, but can get images of the surrounding area in the same view.

This is good for agents too, who spend less time and money when buyers can get well down the path to decision online rather than relying on the traditional backseat tour.

-- Brian Boero

Another chip falls off Move's shoulder

I won't try to read between the precious few lines of the press release announcing Lorna Borenstein's departure as Move's president.

But I will offer this opinion: I hope the company takes this opportunity to leave behind once and for all the arrogance and bellicosity that has marked its executive ranks since the beginning of online real estate time.

When Lorna Borenstein spoke on a panel at Real Estate Connect last July, I was struck by the carelessness with which she repeated the mistakes of her predecessors. There was the condescension laced with hostility toward others in the space (Zillow and Trulia got the worst of it in this instance); the expressions of Realtor love that seem forced; the defensiveness uncharacteristic of a "category leader."

I kept thinking "Why is she doing this?" as she spoke.

Stuart Wolff fancied himself a filmmaker before getting into legal trouble.

Mike Long righted the ship admirably, but engaged in an unadmirable sort of Realtor populism aimed at "interlopers."

Allan Dalton, an undeniably smart man well liked by many in the industry, seemed to think sneering was a good communications strategy. I still can't watch this video without feeling ill, even though I agree with some of his underlying points.

Steve Ozonian broke this mold, but was eclipsed by the dark shadow of Wolff's regime. Errol Samuelson, Realtor.com's current president, always speaks with brains and class.

I hope the company takes cues from them as they turn yet another page.

-- Brian Boero

What's blowing your mind these days?

I have become bored with video chats in the span of six months.

When I bought a Macbook last July, the built-in webcam was a revelation. Now I rarely call Davison, who lives 250 miles from Oakland. Instead, I click on the video icon next to his name in iChat. I say hi to Lori, his wife, if she walks into the room. I get to see his kids. If there's something in his office he wants to show me, he picks up his Macbook and points to it.

Sometimes we conduct three-way video chats with clients who use Macs. Sometimes there's a little chit-chat about how cool it is. Then it's just another meeting.

Technology now moves at a pace that leaves little time for amazement. Our "capacity for wonder," to borrow Fitzgerald's phrase, is now filled with "transitory enchanted moments" on a regular basis.

The fantastic becomes banal in a matter of days.

This is exciting, fleetingly, but also exhausting. At least it is for me. I find it tough to keep up with everything flying by the window as we speed forward.

Once in a while, though, I slow down enough to let something sink in. And damn if that video chat isn't something! The possibilities, looking forward now, are pretty stunning. Take the integration of 12seconds with Tweetdeck announced today. Or the rapid dispersion of Seesmic across the web. These things, or their progeny, will radically alter how property is merchandised and sold online. It's easier to see that when you pull back from the grind.  

Perspective

My grandmother turned 91 today. I just got back from visiting her. It's shaken me out of my unconscious disregard for the extraordinary for a few hours.

She grew up poor, the daughter of Italian immigrants. They had a goat in the backyard for milk, a wood stove inside for warmth, and a drunken illiterate uncle (exquisitely named Guido Guidi) living in the basement.

Now I video chat with my business partner from my home office... and take it for granted.

So enough aimless rambling form me. What's blowing your mind these days? 

-- Brian Boero

Dude, where's my brand?

-- Brian Boero

Here lies Web 2.0

John Cable published a blog post this past October titled "The End of Web 2.0?"

His end was marked by the drained IV bag of venture capital that no longer pumped its lifeblood into the veins of all the loosey-goosey ideas hatched to amass audience rather than revenue. When the flow stopped, so did they.

Many are now on life support. Last December, Peter Schwartz published this article in the The Huffington Post. He cites the Web's most popular social network, Facebook, and the $300 million they earn as having little impact on the expenses they burn. With ad dollars evaporating and their need to add more servers and personnel, their future, in a way, looks grim. 

Peter talks about Web 2.0 burnout, and the "longing to return to the wholeness of the physical world." That has resonated heavily with me for a while now.

As Peter explains, Facebook grows by reaching new audiences but also recedes as old audiences shut it off. They unhook. And go back to taking long walks, reading books, hanging with real friends and seeking some white space in life. 

Twitter continues to grow at an explosive rate. In better, more fantastical times, fanciful conjecture such the late Portland journalist Russell Shaw's prediction that Google should buy it might be exciting. But this would'nt be too thrilling today unless Twitter or Google could explain how to monetize all those millions of disposable and time sensitive Tweets. 

The true fate of Web 2.0 

In recent months we've read about layoffs in the Web 2.0 space. Jaxter, LastFM, Mahalo, Yoomba, LinkedIn and YouSendit are some of the many firms doing everything they can to weather the storm.    

None of this comes as any surprise given the state of our economy. But does all this point to a pandemic that could wipe out even the most popular Web 2.0 sites? 

It's still too early to tell of course. But we all need to be prepared. There are plenty hanging on for dear life in real estate.

In order to survive they must evolve out of the primordial FREE waters of Web 2.0, deliver real benefits and start charging their users. This presents a challenge to the many people who have been enjoying and benefiting from these no-cost services.

A couple weeks ago real estate's largest online community, Active Rain, enacted a controversial subscription fee for new members. It would be absurd to think that AR could continue operating without finding some way to monetize members who use its platform to build their businesses.

Recently, on Twitter I posed the question, "Would anyone here pay for their Twitter account?" Every single single response I got was "not I."

Really? Mmm. I would. Considering the benefits I've reaped from a free Twitter, I can only imagine what I could garner interacting with a paid membership. The thought of Twitter going away because they can't create revenue from its millions of users who have been spoiled by free is alarmingly sad. 

So given the inevitability that many more Web 2.0 sites will perish, including those inside our own industry, do you have a game plan for what's next when the free service you've been leveraging either goes belly up or starts charging?

You should. After all, it's not likely that door knocking is going to come back into fashion.  

- Davison

Twitter: 1000wattmarc

The real estate office of the future is here

I envisioned this a while back. Intero Real Estate has brought it to life in the South Bay Area.

Read about it in this post, "Rethink your real estate space" on FOREM.  

Here's a glimpse of what it looks like. Pictures courtesy of Ash Munshi, CEO of Terabitz.  

 

 

Nice going!

- Davison

Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Lost and found: Surviving real estate reality

You're thinking, "Not another Top 10 things to do to survive in '09 list!"

Relax. That's not my style. I'll offer two simple ideas below.

But first:

Lost

I am a big fan of the show, which follows the fate of a group of people stranded on a remote island following a plane crash.

But I could care less about the Island, time travel and all the hooks and secrets woven into the story lines. What grips me most is what unfolds as the layers of each character's personal onion are slowly, agonizingly, frightfully, peeled away.

Jack Shephard is a charismatic doctor and natural "take charge" guy. He commands the entire group's attention with a passionate plea at the onset of the first season: "To survive," he says, "we are all going to have to work together".

Jack emerges as the appointed leader. Over the course of the show's five seasons his decisions are carved from a strong and stubborn point of view. He never comes to grips to the realities the Island presents. And despite numerous opportunities, fails to let go of preconceived notions that blind him to the true nature of what his experience is all about.

John Locke, another survivor, was wheelchair-bound when Oceanic flight 815 took off. He was an otherwise regular guy with a regular job -- the antithesis of Jack. Laying on the sand yards from where he was thrown from his crashed plane, John discovers his feet move. As do his legs. Almost instantly, he recognizes something about his new situation Jack never does. As a result, John's path is completely different, and more meaningful.

I often wonder what type of Lost character I would be. How I might play out if I were ever dealt the type of hand that faces the castaways.

Would I lead? Would I follow? Would I continue to apply an old set of beliefs to a new set of circumstances? If so, how long would I persist in the face of obvious signs that those beliefs were useless?

Most of the survivors follow Jack. The obvious choice. Few, if any, follow Locke. And why would they? He never presented himself as a leader of any kind. Their choices determine how their lives unfold. Some, including Jack, must wait until it is almost too late to realize they followed the wrong person.

What it takes to survive

Two simple ideas:

Mark Burnett, the British producer of the hit show Survivor, believes success does not depend on where the pot of gold resides or finding the right path to get there. For him, what's most important is the companions with whom you choose to take the journey.

Watch Survivor and you will see that played out each and every season. Alliances form. The strong ones prevail. And yield a winner.

Mark explains that no matter how focused your eye may be on success, if you are surrounded by stubborn, "stupid people" who don't get it, they will drain you of your energy and derail your attempts to win.

Perhaps your stupid people are your agents, your broker, your employees, your boss, your association executive -- anyone who, as Burnett says, is an "energy sucking loser that acts like a cancer in your organization".

Mark would tell you that the only way to survive an ordeal like the one we are all facing today in real estate is to fire, detach, gravitate away, shuck or let go of all the "stupid people" around you.

It's not the classiest statement, and it sounds better with his English accent, but it's the truth.

Les Stroud is a Canadian filmmaker and survival expert who drops himself into remote locales with only his wits, a knife, a harmonica and two cameras. In order to survive, Les shifts his thinking completely and uses the natural elements around him in creative ways.

Out in the wild, Les survives alone for seven full days living off whatever the land offers him.

What would Les would do to survive inside the wilds of the real estate business? What would he do if he ran an MLS, a brokerage, or a legacy technology firm? What would he do if he were an agent trying to survive in the barren desert of today's market?

He'd look for sustenance in unfamiliar places. Source water from faucets that may not appear as such. And stop trying to milk the dried up udders of a dead value proposition.

Good companions and fresh eyes.

Most in our business are in survivor mode right now. Lost. Strewn across the sandy beach of this island called real estate. This is real. Hard. Depressing.

But it is not hopeless -- if you find yourself some powerful new alliances with folks who see things just a tad differently.

- Davison

Twitter: 1000wattmarc

"Seeing" the future of online real estate

A couple weeks ago, Frontdoor.com released its City Guides product [Disclosure: Frontdoor.com is a 1000watt Consulting client]. This is worth noting for several reasons. The user experience is first rate; the balance between content and design, data and vibe is pitch perfect; it supports the decision to live a life somewhere, not just to buy a house.

Their implementation of real estate-relevant APIs is well done. They've done a great job organizing Yelp reviews in each city, and display local events through eventful.

A slice of life

But it's their use of Flickr that got me thinking.

Flikr has been around for a long time. It has been plugged into thousands of websites and blogs. But the volume of geotagged photos it holds is now to a point where users can get a good visual sense for most any place. Frontdoor.com is taking advantage of this.

Check out Fairfield, CA

Or Athens, Georgia.

Or how about this: My wife is from Marshall, MN, a small town way out in corn country. Flikr brings it to life. This image illustrates why my wife now lives in California. 

You get a slice of life from each of these places, usually seen through the eyes of people who live there. I may know that Athens is a college town, but now I can actually see what a University of Georgia college student looks like these days. I can look at a map of Marshall mashed up with points of interest, but this gets me deeper. 

These photos pull you back from the tight focus on the home and touch on the blurry edges of decision making. And this, I think, presents really interesting possibilities for online real estate.

I am not certain what those possibilities will amount to. But the confluence of visual search, location awareness, Street View, online video, and massive stores of goetagged photos will get us closer to "virtual real estate" than we could have imagined even five years ago.

Something else to consider: There are hundreds of millions of photos sitting within MLS systems across the country. Most brokers have thousands of images they're not using. We focus so much on listings data; is there hidden value in the images?

-- Brian Boero