Week in review: June 9th edition

Here we go, a few bits you shouldn’t miss from this past week on the Real Estate intertubes.

A couple new entrants into the real estate listings sphere

Inman reports on Overstock, the discount retailer, getting into the listings business. If that wasn’t enough, how about Wal Mart?

Thinking about consumer

Daniel Rothamel comes through again this week with a manifesto at AgentGenius:

For far to long, the industry has talked about engagement, only to have cold feet when the time came to get down on one knee. That cannot continue if the industry wants to remain relevant and grow moving forward.

At the same blog, Danilo Bogdanovic states:

Consumers no longer view us as the gate-keepers of information. Consumers can (and will) find the information themselves whether it be by word-of-mouth in person through friends, neighbors, groups or online via social networking, forums, blogs, etc.

But he does offer a possible solution to this problem.

More on the DoJ vs NAR

More questions raised at Inman. And speaking of VOW and MLS restrictions, CondoDomain limits services to it’s site visitors at the request of MLSPIN.

Channel dominance

Eric Blackwell describes the the ultimate real estate marketing team as:

a highly skilled group of folks who can EACH dominate a vertical (read: marketing channel) and they work UNSELFISHLY to defend each others’ turf.

Another Twitter success story in real estate

The real gem of this article by Lani Anglin-Rosales is this:

Tapping into social media is NOT however a lead generation machine, it is a pipeline filler. Understanding that defines your success.

Read the full story at AgentGenius.

Week in Review on the Real Estate Web

Here’s some of the stuff that caught my eye this week:

A Real Estate Deal, Seen From 2 Sides

The New York Times published this article consisting of two fictional letters. One from a buyer to a seller and the seller’s response. The piece was written after the author had spoken to a number of real estate professionals. The content of the letters echoes a lot of the conversations happening online about why to buy and how to market/position a home for sale. Read it at the NYT site.

Real Estate and the Meatball Sundae

The Real Estate Zebra strikes by interpreting one of Seth Godin’s wonderful metaphors for real estate. The point seems to be that all the fun and exciting toys we all like to play with (Twitter, Flip video cameras, blogs, social media sites etc etc etc) probably shouldn’t just be slapped on to existing business structures and models. I’d love to hear more about this line of thinking. Maybe I’ll tap into it some next week. For now though, read up at the Real Estate Zebra.

Level playing fields in Real Estate Internet Marketing?

Bill Lublin, over at agentgenius.com, talks about MLS rules and level playing fields (and why those of you who bother reading blogs about marketing and all that probably don’t need/want level playing fields). Which brings us to…

The Dept. of Justice vs Nat. Assoc. Realtors settlement

This one is well outside my knowledge base (aka: I am not a lawyer). That said, lots to read about it: Inman News wrote the first piece I read on it, Jay Thompson gives a good roundup of reaction, Greg Swann gives a strong “who cares?” and Sellsius frames the decision in light of Zillow.

Silly MLS IDX Rules

Andrew Mattie posts at Geekestate a great list of odd MLS IDX rules. Sort of reminds one of those collections full of quirky laws on state and municipal books.

And it is the weekend after all…

From one of my favorite real estate blogs: Bad MLS Photo of the Day. We get a quick lesson in composition.

Easing Pain for Real Estate Sellers

Over at the Bloodhound Blog, Eric Blackwell has put together a great article about how to

accomplish EVERYTHING that needs to be done to MARKET and SELL a home, with as little pain (or even ANTICIPATION of discomfort) as possible. And, of course, then the process needs to be turned into a system and scripted.

(all caps are his)

While the article probably doesn’t cover everything it does a great job of getting the conversation rolling.

At the end of the article he asks for help in making the inspection process better. If you have a moment, head over, read the article and get involved in the conversation.

Heads up: Guest post over at MyTechOpinion

Readers of my “Site Optimization Series for Real Estate” may find some usefulness in my recent guest post for Nicole and Reggie over at MyTechOpinion.com.

It’s called “Three KPIs for Real Estate Websites.”

Economic Maps of the US

This little post is for the interactive economic map lovers out there.

Ann Arbor Real Estate Talk has tipped us off to USAToday’s “How’s the economy in your hometown.”

Combine that with the Phoenix Real Estate Guy’s tip to the WSJ’s “Housing Markets: A Vacant Look” and there’s definitely some overlap.

For example in the USAToday map, markets are listed alphabetically over on the right as you roll over by state. Meaning you had best paid attention in 4th and 5th grade when you were learning the important markets of the US to get any contextual information from the map.

WSJ, on the other hand, really only surveys a few counties, but you can see the data in context and the markets grouped together. California is a particularly interesting puzzle.

Do you see anything in these maps?

Branding through customer service

During the Connect keynote Inman stood in front of a room  packed with  real estate professionals and advised them to call all of their past clients and ask if they need help with foreclosures. I thought that advice was bold, honest and probably difficult to do. But completely worth it from a branding perspective.

If you’re a realtor and are interested in building a strong brand through excellent customer service read John Keith’s Boston Real Estate Blog: “Survey: Most consumers don’t understand foreclosure”.

Zillow on NPR

As I was driving home from biathlon practice last night I heard a good piece about Zillow on PRI’s “Marketplace” program. The program focuses on how the site is faring in the real estate downturn (very well, apparently). The link will take you to audio and text versions of the story. While you’re in media-mode why not get some historical perspective from this interview with Zillow’s Rich Barton from 2006?

If you’re new to Zillow or haven’t started using it yet, check out Maggie’s intro to Zillow post.

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