DISQUS

Can I ride with you guys instead :)? Oh yeah, I have kids... please have a beer or two on my official donation!

Hello Chris,

Thanks for reviews will have to check those out. Recently been reading Distracted by Maggie Jackson which I'm finding very interesting and re-reading Five Myths of Consumer Behavior: Create Tech. Products Consumers will Love by Smethers / France, also recommended. Looks like Buyology maybe my next read based on your review.

Totally agree with the filtering and your "fuzzy" search. The issue is always "GIGO". For most of the others RE.net sites they are access data via feeds and that data does not contain the details your are mentioning. Roost solution of having the feeds directly from the MLS does give them the ability to apply those types filters assuming the MLS provides access to the fields but then again a broker could provide the same functionality to their own buyers also with their own IDX powered solutions.

Hello Joe.

Great post as always, few comments.

A) "Real estate search nirvana is still a dream." - which is why most buyers search multiple sites and why we are trying to make it easier and faster for them to do what we already know they are doing.

B) "they are not search engines in the consumer understood Google sense that they search everyone’s stuff" - Couldn't agree with your more. I think only dothomes and us are true search engines.

C) One comment that surprised me was Marty Frames' from Cyberhomes who said the FSBO argument is "red herring", I respect Marty alot but thought this was way off base. I do think that cyberhomes maybe in the best position for coverage due to their access to data and ownership in some MLS's via FNRES, so will be interesting how they evolve.

Online makes up such a big part of peoples life that the lines between online / offline are getting blurred quickly. Remember early on people hid behind the internet, now people are using it to project who they are and to find things that are close so they can connect offline. This move towards transparency reinforces traditional offline practices.

I think it depends on the level of sophistication of the searcher. Certain sites will attract a different level of buyer... so with that said, a Walmart maybe a good source for first time buyer type listings.

Personally, I think Walmart purpose is not to get into real estate but to use the listings as a "life event" identifier for their clients. When buying or selling is typically the time when shoppers purchase alot of products and Walmart wants to be in front of them at that moment. They will probably run this beta test then start to incorporate some type of offer for users to shop back at walmart.

More importantly is this issue...

"Do people know that they aren’t seeing all the listings? "

As there are more and more sources of to advertise listings and this will become a bigger and bigger issue and consumers are becoming more more sophisticated in searches as evident by the long tail searches of 4 words or more now.

Hello Joel,

I agree that by nature the real estate search process is a mobile activity but I'm not sure what the traction is from users. Iphone users are early adopters by nature, so it may happen quicker with this platform. I suspect users would search at home and map but then use mobile search only when they run across a listing that looks interesting to them while they are out in the streets.

I wonder what the big R's success has been with it's mobile search product - http://labs.realtor.com/mobile/mobile.html and when they may convert the existing product to work with the iphone?

The other item that I think is interesting about this real estate advertising vertical is that in traditional (print) real estate advertising the money was spent by agents / brokerages to brand themselves and listings. Now most RE sites allow the agents / brokers to advertise for free who will purchase the ad inventory?

Z's Ez ads don't seem to have really taken off... T already allows the brokers to post listings and now brand listings.

Sure all the ancillary services to real estate transactions (moving, painting, cable, etc) may advertise but that seems like a small percentage of traditional ad dollars that are migrating online.

Regarding who will last? At this point I have been underwhelmed with Cyberhomes but they have the most potentional due to the access to FNIS resources and data while Trulia already has many good relantionships in place and has a strong organic SE foothold but seems more vunerable due to dependance on agent community for listings.

Joe, I agree. Based on his rebuttal to my comment, it appeared he was upset regarding the use of unchained…

“He doesn’t understand the ideas he’s trying to steal, and he’s so clueless that he swiped the defining metaphor without even realizing it.”

Ok… one made reference to music… the other, his dog? Both are the passions of each poster from which they draw inspiration to convey a message.

Like you, what bothers me is the lack of respect he displays towards just about anyone who seeks to contribute to the RE community at large, simply because he thinks they don’t understand his (a RE agents) world, the re.net or in this case, the perceived association of a word to the BHB.

As you allude to with the ad hominem reference, maybe he didn’t take the time to read the author’s bio?

Hello Todd,

Excellent points and one very close to home for us. I agree that the the Trulia & Realtor don't provide a real search engine experience of being totally transparent, just based on their revenue models. These are really just real estate advertising platforms with a search engine function.

The goal of these is as you say to possibly delay and wow the user with sticky features so that they can sell advertising.

Although I also think dothomes may face some issues of what "fair use" is with the combination of photos, description, address and price.

In my early review of the site it seems that they are getting the listings from 3 main sources c21, era and coldwell with some sprinkles from other sources like Alain Pinel according to Kevin http://3oceansrealestate.com/blog/dothomes-is-y...

As they get more listings the task of managing all the listing data may get very difficult. Although this model is good for savy web pro's like you do you think that consumers are ready to be retrained on how to search real estate?

I think it is important to understand that the demographics of people who will control the majority of real estate transactions in the future is changing rapidly. The Gen X & Y who are going to help their parents (the largest real estate owning group) with all of their future transactions WILL check online on behalf of their parents, when they decide to do something.

Think about it. How many of you reading this right now, get questions from your parents regarding various issues that you research for them online?

Sure, a 55 year may work on a referral because that was the best referral then but now when he / she seeks the opinion of from the son / daughter, they (son / daughter) will go online and do research on the person or subject parents are interested in. At the very least you better be ready to answer question about items posted about you online.

Keep in mind, this demographic is already communicating with friends and family online, they are communicating via text message and im more than in person or verbally over the phone. This change basic interaction has far reaching implications that must in real estate haven't really thought about.

Andy is a leader in this field and his suggestions should be studied and applied. Look at his suggestion #6... remember redfin recent tv appearance with scientific facts on selling your home?

Excellent points to which I agree. I think you can already see this devaluation of brand. Compare real estates top brand - REALTOR.com to Z & T by looking at an Alexa chart comparing traffic levels over 3 yrs. You can see a trend (no just the obvious slowing of the market as a whole) but Z & T market share increases it appears to take directly away from R (who also spends 20+ million in advertising w/ 1.2 mill advocates – how’s that for brand building?).

I would also say there already is no “brand loyalty” when it comes to selecting a buyers agent / RE company to find real estate. This is evidenced by CAR’s surveys, which indicate that 71% buyers selected their real estate agent based on who called back first. This is because most buyers initially call agents only to get in to see inside properties they have already identified. Again supported by NAR’s survey, which indicated that only 36% of the time did the buyer purchase a home found by the actual agent.

When it comes to sellers selecting a company to list with, I suspect there is more perceived brand “trust” not actual loyalty. Sellers often select an agent based on the referral of a friend to an individual agent not the company they are with.

Regarding… “It seems inevitable brokers and agents will be asked to upgrade to featured status,” or course this is exactly what will happen. But will it be effective in the long run?

The idea of advertising is to increasee awareness of something by making it stand out. But how much can a listing stand out when it’s on a page that is full of other listings? This solution is what I call the “yellow page syndrome” – just buy a bigger ad – instead of being more creative in your marketing. This is a “syndrome” because you see your competitor buying a bigger / featured ad so you get infected with the need to replicate vs. differentiate. Look at any of the supermarket RE books… all the ads look the same, right?

As I indicated in the referenced post, craigslist has loyal users because that’s the only place you can see those listings. Imagine what would happen if a major RE brand did the same? They automatically go onto all buyers “short list” of must visit sites. Obvisiously difficult to achieve is they are members of the MLS with the current DOJ issues.

If the brands continue as they are now doing, real estate agents will move from a profession to simply a service provider. Especially if as you say Zillow becomes that “monster” since they allow FSBO to appear next to traditional listings, which will enable consumers to have the same audience access without the traditional RE costs.

Here is a few other real estate sites worth noting:

http://www.retrove.com - New BETA - the first vertical real estate search engine.

http://www.forsalebyownercenter.com - FSBO / Google Maps mash up with multiple tools and calculators.

Here is a Web 2.0 FSBO site which is free: http://www.forsalebyownercenter.com, Google maps mash-up, Google Earth KML file for each listing, automatic XML feed to Oodle, Backpage, Lycos Classifieds.

It's a great site and will change real estate for the better. Some people
question accuracy of the results... here are the Zillow results tested and charted against real-world closings.