As the first little bit of news to come out of Inman Connect (I ignored all the spam I got last week), Coldwell Banker announces that it is coming up with its very own hyper-local rate-a-rock social media web site. Called SpotIt, the technology is being developed with OnBoard, a hyper-local real estate data aggregator. Presumably, all the other no-sparrow-shall-fall web sites haven’t failed miserably enough.
Given that Coldwell Banker agents are already not populating neighborhood databases on Trulia.com, Zillow.com, StreetAdvisor.com (Breaking news: Now StreetAdvisor sucks even less!), etc., it makes complete sense to build an in-house system that they can ignore without even leaving the office intranet.
(Just as a side note for the retards bright sparks building this crap: A zip code is enormous and is often very diverse in demographic characteristics. Real estate marketing should be designed to appeal to those people who are qualified to buy and sell real estate. Virtually every spot on the map in Phoenix, at least, looks like a slum in a zip-code-sized demographic. If you can’t work in carrier routes — at a maximum — go home.)
Technorati Tags: connectsf, disintermediation, Inman, Inman Connect, RE Connect, real estate, real estate marketing
Jim Duncan says:
Regarding the zip code – this has been one of my biggest issues with sites like Outside.in. A zip code is a terrible way to define “neighborhoods”. Even in my relatively small market, a zip code can span 5-10 square miles. There are quite a few neighborhoods in that geographic area.
Bad information is much worse than no information.
August 1, 2007 — 8:18 am
Ines says:
OMG Greg, you just cracked me up with that! (considering I am a CB agent….should I whisper that?). Funny thing is that you know more about what CB is coming up with than their own agents…hmmmmm
August 1, 2007 — 5:14 pm
Thomas Johnson says:
As a part of the Evil Empire,(Realogy) I resemble that remark! Every CB shop will soon have an official hyper local blogger on salary to blog when not sorting all the triplicate additional addenda and disclaimer forms stashed back by the copy machine. If you ever get to meet this blogger you will see that they have a multi-tasking golden retriever back there. Perhaps Odessyus has met him? The CB agents are all too busy hauling Cartus Relocation transferees around on whirlwind property tours to new builder specs “Ready To Move In” that offer “Relo Reimbursement”
August 1, 2007 — 7:56 pm
Dave Barnes says:
Greg,
You are so correct about ZIP&174; Codes.
My ZIP Code (80209) spans a huge area compared with “neighborhoods”.
The people in “The Polo Club” would not lower themselves to consort with those in “Belcaro” who would not “Bonnie Brae” who would not “East Wash[ington] Park” who would not “West Wash Park” who would not “Lakota Heights” who would not…
People do not buy into ZIP Codes, they buy into a neighborhood.
August 1, 2007 — 8:03 pm
Greg Swann says:
> People do not buy into ZIP Codes, they buy into a neighborhood.
FWIW, the OnBoard people insist that SpotIt will support smaller regions, although I could not get it to do anything but zip codes. Other “neighborhood” vendors do different things. As we discussed a few weeks ago, a “neighborhood” to Zillow is a city planning district in Phoenix, also uselessly huge.
None of this really matters. Neighborhood expertise is detailed perfectly on pp. 5-6 of All Marketers Are Liars. There is nothing a database is going to do except annoy people.
August 1, 2007 — 8:18 pm
David G from Zillow.com says:
What you are seeing in the neighborhood space is the lack of any predefined neighborhood database. It’s never been done before and so, while there’s a great place to start when building a taxonomy of regions at any other level, neighborhoods are tough to build.
The 6,500 neighborhoods currently defined on Zillow were done by hand. We’ve talked this through with outside.in – they took the same approach. The solution is to allow homeowners to collaboratively describe their neighborhoods and we’ll iterate towards that but even homeowners seldom agree on neighborhood designations and boundaries. It’s an interesting problem to solve.
Greg – what do you mean by “Neighborhood expertise is detailed perfectly on pp. 5-6 of All Marketers Are Liars”
August 2, 2007 — 7:33 am
Darrin Clement says:
Of course neighborhoods are “impossible” to define accurately. Defining anything that is based on collective perspective (as opposed to government decree) is not possible. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful to craft a definition of neighborhoods that evolves closer and closer towards consensus. Maponics has over 11,000+ neighborhoods mapped out with distinct boundaries but of course the process of iteration is ongoing. David from Zillow is spot on.
August 2, 2007 — 6:57 pm
Brendan King says:
I agree that neighborhoods are tough to define. We (Point2 NLS) have leveraged the collective wisdom of our 141,000 (and growing) real estate professionals to build a neighborhood hierarchy. You can see in action on our reference implementation http://www.point2homes.com and learn about more about it here http://nls.point2.com/Content/FeaturesServices/SyndicationAdvertising.asp#neighborhoodDirectory . Watch the video to get an explanation. I believe that we have over 170,000 “places” in our hierarchy but I could be wrong as it is a living beast produced by people that know it best — real estate professionals. As agents and brokers add listings into the system they have to geo locate which gives us lat long co-ordinates and input the neighborhood the listing is in. Our Neighborhoods are a long way from perfect but we hope to get their some day.
Greg, I think you missed the idea of entirely of what “Spotit” is about. I had a presentation of the product at Inman and I can assure you that Marc and the boys at Onboard are a long way on the other end of the spectrum from mentally challenged.
August 4, 2007 — 2:05 pm
Peter Goldey says:
Well its always nice to stir up some conversation. I’m the head of product development over here at OnBoard and one of its founders, and I’d like to set the record straight on a couple of items.
SpotIt is an OnBoard initiative. Coldwell Banker is one of our launch partners.
SpotIt is based entirely on neighborhoods – not Zip Codes. We have a deep neighborhood database in 300 North American markets with well over 13,000 neighborhoods defined. By “defined”, we mean complete with mapping boundaries, full demographic datasets, home sales price trends, etc. These are the same neighborhood definitions that you’ll be seeing on many of our existing client’s sites in the next couple of months and is already available to clients of our hosted product Neighborhood Navigator. The neighborhoods have been very well received.
Neighborhoods are definitely tough to build – but we’ve been working on this for a long time and with 10+ years of data collection and aggregation experience, and a great feedback program in place. We believe we’re starting to see definitions that most people will agree with.
We had a great show with this product and would be happy to demo it for the skeptics.
Hey Brendan – thanks for chiming in. Your team picked up what this is all about immediately – a system by which agents and brokers can integrate hyper local content in a manner that helps them sell and promote their local expertise. If they contribute content that’s great – but SpotIt already has content in it and doesn’t rely only on agent contributions.
More info is available here on both SpotIt and our neighborhoods product ZoneOn – http://onboardllc.com/solutions
August 6, 2007 — 5:42 am
Paul Francis says:
Speaking of zip codes, I just released my comments on the annual Las Vegas Appreciation (depreciation) rates per zip code. Zip codes can be so very misleading that it’s sad to even consider this tactic in generating gimmicky leads.
February 28, 2008 — 1:08 am