Show me the market!

You may have noticed I am a big advocate of putting real estate market information into the hands of consumers.

During most of the boom years, buyers and sellers made life-changing decisions based on thin slices of information. A few comps fished from the MLS. County-level market trends. And, too often, uninformed or skewed interpretations from their agent.

Sure, there were the monthly numbers from NAR. Or the Case-Shiller Index. But they lagged badly. "Recent" sales data on the web were not recent enough.

Zillow and Trulia improved the situation and should be commended for it. They served up tons of market metrics and nailed the user experience. But they were based on some of the same old data, or used fresher data that represented but a fraction of the total available in a given market.

This lead to my bullishness for the MLS: For they have fresh data, all of it. The problem is that MLSs and the brokers they support generally have no idea how to shape that data into something usable.

That is now changing.

Here are some examples:

The Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS, in partnership with Northstar MLS, recently launched a suite of market reports that are very well done. A detailed summary for their entire region is produced each week; numbers for 100 area communities are published monthly. The visualization of the data is excellent and intelligent commentary is paired with the hard numbers. MAAR even created a blog -- "The Skinny" -- through which they publish and comment on the data.

Jeff Allen, Research Manager at MAAR, tells me the information is being gobbled up by consumers and professionals alike.

There are obvious limitations here (that reports are only available via PDF is the most problematic), but they intend to address them in the coming months.

I have discussed Redfin's use of IDX to create market metrics before. They have done an amazing job. But Estately appears to have made some nice moves in this area as well. They offer neighborhood level market pages that present at-a-glance views of the price median, inventory and days on market. This, again, is based on their use of IDX. 

Top Producer made an early move with their Market Snapshot product. While it's a vastly superior option for agents looking to move beyond marketing with recipes and saccharine proclamations of home ownership dreams come true, it suffers, in my opinion, from some data visualization issues.

I understand MLS data aren't perfect. And, yes, brokers in some markets still play hard-to-get with their listings. But the bottom line is clear: The MLS is the fountainhead of possibility for delivering consumers current, reliable, hyperlocal real estate market information. Brokers, associations and technology companies are starting to tap into it.

And that's exciting.

-- Brian Boero

Hell breaks loose in the new listings war

I returned from my vacation last week to find my inbox and reader filled with talk about listing coverage, comprehensiveness and quality sparked by a somewhat ham-fisted PR gambit by Roost.

I had just written about this the week before. It's been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. The fact that many of the most celebrated and trafficked real estate sites offer consumers a woefully inadequate view of the market is problematic.

Offering 70% of the inventory is OK when you're selling, say, digital cameras; it is not OK when you're claiming, with full--throated cries of "transparency" and consumer love, to help people make the most important decision of their lives.

Real estate has always claimed a certain kind of exceptionalism. Homes are not airplane tickets. Realtors are not stock brokers. And not seeing the perfect home in the next neighborhood over carries more consequences than not getting that new pair of Crocs in the color you really wanted.

I know: IDX is not perfect. And offering a full picture of the market dictates following Redfin's lead by offering MLS listings, foreclosures (many of which are in the MLS as well), and FSBO's side-by-side. But online real estate can and should do better than the gossamer fiber of broker feeds holding together otherwise great sites like Trulia and Zillow.

At the risk of sounding like a pedantic buzz-kill, I must admit that I found it hard to get truly excited about Trulia's nicely executed iPhone app and smart commitment to mobile, when I know, sitting on my deck searching "all homes for sale" on my phone, that what I am actually getting is something different.

I am left feeling that this sort of innovation is akin to a restaurant that obsesses on the dishware -- the means of delivery -- but drops the ball on the food.

I am not picking on Trulia. I just wish they and others would circle back to and nail down some basic content requirements.

So I hope the debate continues. It's healthy - and necessary.

-- Brian Boero

The School of Redfin, Part III

If you're in the "traditional" real estate brokerage business, make sure you send Glenn Kelman at Redfin a gift basket this holiday season. Make it one of those extra fancy ones, with the mini salamis and the macadamia nuts.

I'm serious. He deserves it.

Glenn's a really smart guy, with really smart people working for him, who has spent the past few years giving me and you a world class education on consumer engagement, marketing, and website user experience in the course of building his company. 

I have written about this before.

This week, the company released a significant update to its website. It is worth a close look. Redfin has used its access to MLS data to generate powerful and easy-to-understand analytics.

Consumers searching for homes on Redfin.com can now get accurate and current data on list prices, sold prices, days on market, price reductions and more -- at the neighborhood level. One particularly ingenious graph displays these last two data points side-by-side, allowing buyers to get a clearer read on the "offer now or wait" question.

This type of thing is not entirely new. Altos Research provides similar charts, but they are not derived from MLS data, and thus not as useful. Terradatum's Broker Metrics product does offer a solution that is MLS based, but its coverage is limited. Much of this information is available inside MLS systems, but is not optimized for public display.

And currently none of these solutions get users down the neighborhood level, where market data really becomes meaningful.

Redfin's effort sets a new standard for presenting market information on a brokerage website, which has heretofore been too reliant on stale public solds data.

This development also raises a larger issue: The value an MLS delivers to its subscribers. With dues dwindling, MLS organizations across the country are bolting applications onto their platforms in a scramble to justify their fees or generate new ones.

However, I think it might be more effective for them to pool resources and develop web applications based on the goldmine of information sitting at their feet. We have 12 years of research -- and the fantastical attractive power of the Zestimate -- telling us consumers love value and market data. Shouldn't more MLSs help their subscribers give it to them?

Most brokerage companies do not have a roomful of web developers or millions in VC like Redfin does, but they do have access to MLS data. And the off-the-shelf solutions I mention above offer some of what Redfin has done.

Some brokers will move on this. And I am nearly certain we will see more vendors enter the data and analytics space in online real estate. There's lots of opportunity here.

-- Brian Boero

Redfin sets sail: Are you following?

Redfin broke a big taboo this week by "co-mingling" FSBO's and foreclosures with MLS listings.

Under every circumstance it's the right thing to do. It delivers exactly what the customer wants: All the listings, in one place.

But there's something more here. Look beyond the mashup. How do you think the Redfin brand is being strengthened by offering every housing opportunity, politics be damned?

I'll suggest the following:

• It makes the company and its agents appear distinctly more expert.
• It makes the company seem more consumer focused and more trustworthy than other brands.
• It makes the company appear more sensitive to the needs of the community by providing representation to people with alternative needs.

I don't believe the first question most consumers ask when they hit a site is if it has all the listings. I believe they don't know to ask. Trulia's fabulous traffic proves that. If anything, the consumer has been slipped that false notion mickey about coverage for a long time.

But that's certainly about to end. And it's about time.

So what's next? Well, it wouldn't hurt to follow suit. The data feeds are out there. Along with a herd of new company sunrising across real estate's horizon with new ideas, tools, apps and possibilities. And it certainly wouldn't hurt to leap frog either. One up them as they say.

Or not. You certainly have options. You can use this opportunity to vilify Redfin. Or allow your local MLS to ban you from co-mingling.

I think that continuing to moor your boat to old taboos is a bad idea -- especially when your competitors have set sail into the future. 

- Davison