BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Disintermediation (page 21 of 43)

November 23, 2007

Consumers to Realtors: “Don’t push me, I’ll pull you instead — and if you push too hard, I’ll pull away”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic. Not by coincidence, I’m talking about the curriculum of our forthcoming marketing conference.

 
Consumers to Realtors: “Don’t push me, I’ll pull you instead — and if you push too hard, I’ll pull away”

There is a quiet revolution going on in the world of real estate marketing — in the world of marketing in general. We are gradually changing from a push-based kind of selling to something that is much more pull-oriented.

What do I mean? Picture me pushing my business card into your hand. Or pushing a flyer at you. Pushing an ad in front of your eyes in the newspaper — or a commercial on television. Since marketing began, it has always been about pushing things, with the effort being led by the pushy salesperson.

As with everything else, the internet is changing this. Your own pursuit of information — not just marketing information but putatively disinterested facts — is becoming more and more pull-oriented.

Interested in wide-screen TVs? You might visit a store or two tomorrow, but tonight you’re going to research everything you can find on the internet. You might start with a Google search, then go to Wikipedia to learn all the arcane details. You might click on a few manufacturers’ or retailers’ pages, but you’re just as likely to read weblogs or discussion forums to find out what real people just like you love and hate about their new televisions.

By the time you show up at a store — or more likely an on-line store — you will know enough to make the right choice without any help.

And here’s the interesting thing: If some pushy salesperson tries to talk you into making the wrong choice — you’ll understand exactly what is going on.

Buying or selling a home is more complicated than shopping on-line, but more and more consumers are going through the same research process before they contact a Realtor.

What does it mean? In the long-run, push-based marketing is a diminishing return. Consumers are going to shop until they find a Realtor they know they can trust — and Read more

November 18, 2007

BloodhoundBlog.TV debuts: NAR Convention survivors hold forth on Web 2.0 marketing in a scripted, refrigerator-magnet world

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Clearly, this is a star-crossed enterprise. The audio worked fine tonight, so the video started capturing out of phase about 17 minutes in. The video is short, but the accompanying audio podcast contains our full discussion.

Ignore all that. I fixed it. The video shown below is complete, and it is also linked as the first video at BloodhoundBlog.TV. Dan Green’s audio is a little weak, mine is a little strong, Jay Thompson is a little out of focus, but we’ve gotten to a place we’ve never been before, a do-it-yourself multi-camera remote interview segment. Many more to come — with steadily increasing quality.

This is Daniel Rothamel, Dan Green and Jay Thompson discussing their experiences at the NAR Convention, carrying forth from there to a broad discussion about how the benefits of Web 2.0-style marketing might be communicated to the 1.3 million members of the NAR.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

November 18, 2007

NAR Convention convocation: We live in a small world — for now

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

There are 1.3 million members of the National Association of Realtors. Of those, 30,000 descended on Las Vegas for last week’s NAR Convention.

How many of those people, either the larger group or the smaller, know about our world, the world of Web 2.0, real estate weblogging, social networking — the world we think of as being “the conversation”?

Almost none.

BloodhoundBlog is big as real estate weblogs go, and we’re arguably the biggest of the blogs focused on real estate industry issues. We get around 1,200 unique visitors a day on weekdays, a steadily rising number. Many of those “hard clicks” are not Realtors, of course, but we have a large and growing population of RSS and email subscribers. I have no numbers for RSS subscriptions, but the email server demands kicked us from a shared-server account to a quarter-server to a full dual-core server in a little over a year. It would not seem unfair to me to estimate that we are talking to at least 1,200 dues-paying Realtors a day.

It pays to do that math, doesn’t it. We are well-known, highly regarded, deemed influential — and we are talking to fewer than one in 1,000 members of the NAR on any given day. Not everyone reads everything on any given day, but, on the other hand, things get passed around. We might be seen by as many as 50,000 Realtors a month, perhaps as many as a quarter-million in a year’s time.

But even then, for all but a few hundred Realtors, we are noise in the background. The others see what they see, with Debunking Zillow.com and What’s Wrong with zipRealty? being by far the two most popular hard clicks into the weblog.

There is a over-arching message here and in other places we frequent, a message about our world, the world of Web 2.0, real estate weblogging, social networking — the world we think of as being “the conversation.” But who among the attendees of the NAR Convention — much less the NAR membership as a whole — knows anything about it?

This was one of the points Jeff Turner raised in Read more

November 16, 2007

Call it by its right name: It’s Friday-afternoon real estate gossip

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Glenn Kelman wonders a little too self-revealing about the hype motivating serial entrepreneurs. Guy Kawasaki jumps to exactly the wrong conclusion, asserting that VC funds are wasted if a start-up’s founders have conquered their acne. And Marlow Harris wonders if the whole thing is simply Kelman campaigning for his next job.

Loren Nason asks an excellent question: Why the hell isn’t Apple pushing product at the NAR Convention? At a minimum, the smart folks from the Apple Store at the Fashion Show Mall could be selling iPhones by the dozens.

The New York Times notes that TV is losing viewership to on-line alternatives. Ya think? Everything that exists exists in finite quantity. The more of my leisure time I spent on the nets, the less I will have to spend on other pursuits. The more my work time and leisure time blend together, the more everything looks like a nail. If you’re not selling nails, precisely what do you think you have to sell me?

Finally, in more jobs news, Vanessa we hardly knew ye. I didn’t think this was big news on the way in, so I’m less that whelmed on the way out. Much more interesting, a little bug in my ear intimates, is this:

But Fox isn’t the only one who has departed the heavily-funded company in recent months. She said there have been a few people who have left to pursue early-stage opportunities, while one Zillow employee recently set sail for Facebook. Still, she said there is by no means a “revolving door” at the company.

However, some former Zillow engineers — Logan Bowers, Sameer Rayachoti and Greg Whelan — left to create a Seattle startup called Fridge Door. I have been tracking the stealthy startup for the past few days, but have yet to uncover a Web site or contact details. (Shoot me an e-mail if you know it or if you work at the company and are reading this.) I am told that others have left, though not sure if the churn rate is unusually high for a company of that size.

I know nothing about the world of start-up companies, Read more

November 15, 2007

Not to take anything away from the NAR Convention in Las Vegas, but this seems like the better takeaway . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This requires reasoning by analogy, never a welcome exercise. Even so, there’s a clue here if anyone cares to catch it:

“We used to fool ourselves. We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won.” — Edgar Bronfman, Warner Music

Technorati Tags: , , ,

November 14, 2007

Zillow.com enables listing agents to pee on the tree perpetually

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

There has been a ton of Zillow.com “news” lately, but mainly I’ve been ignoring it. News is news when it is something other than PR — free advertising for the company pushing the press release. In other words, what’s-in-it-for-me? — or for you or for anyone other than the owners of the company.

So:

  • Zillow announces new listings from Big Bob’s Bait and Realty
  • Zillow discovers newspapers don’t know what was planned for Hansel and Gretel
  • After months of announcements, Zillow finally takes listings feeds
  • Zillow announces even more new listings from multiple miscellaneous sources
  • Zillow rapidly approaches a one-percent listings penetration; if you’re looking for a home, almost one out of hundred are now on-line!

Okayfine. I don’t care. The feed is a happening thing, but I said a long time ago they would have to have one, at which time they demurred. If they celebrate with a cupcake for each new brokerage they sign up, they may someday have to go to Costco once a week to buy more cupcakes. Good news for them. Not very interesting otherwise.

But then there’s this:

In addition, today Zillow is announcing its revolutionary Zillow Virtual Sold Sign program (VSS), to be added to Zillow Listings Feeds in the coming months. The VSS program allows a broker’s branding and contact information to permanently become part of a sold home’s Web page on Zillow, where four million people visit every month, 70 percent of whom are buying or selling in the next two years. The VSS functionality is free to all brokerages and Web vendors with Zillow Listings Feeds.

“Imagine having a permanent ‘sold by’ sign in front of every home a brokerage has ever sold — giving buyers and sellers a critical piece of information on who is selling homes in a neighborhood — today and over time,” said Rich Barton, Zillow co-founder and CEO. “Given Zillow’s focus on all homes — more than 70 million of them — and not just those on the market today, we are in a unique position to provide this historical sales information to buyers, sellers and homeowners.”

Now that’s interesting. If you list well in Read more

November 13, 2007

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” — Howard Aiken

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The quote comes from WorkHappy.net this morning. Yesterday — plane-bound, casino-bound, Twitter-bound — unable to post — I reflected upon why it’s all just so much waxed fruit — for now:

Rusting in irony. I really, really want to post and I have 140 chars to work with.

That’s Jeff Turner and a newly-shorn Dustin Luther checking out Jeff’s camera at last night’s BloggerCon event at the NAR Convention in Las Vegas. The event was a lot of fun for me, much more fun than I had anticipated, but we were just so much waxed fruit to the NAR, a minor constituency to be placated.

So be it. A year ago, there was nothing of our world at the NAR Convention. This year, amidst the pageantry for MS FrontPage and MS Publisher, Dustin Luther spoke on “Understanding Your Online Competition.” Seth Godin is speaking, too, although I think he might go over like The Great Gazoo.

And: So be it. What I was ruminating on, unable to post, was Jim Duncan’s optimistic take on working within the NAR. My thoughts run in the other direction — working without the NAR — and my honest belief is that the NAR is destined to go the way of the Typographer’s Union — marching stoutly and steadfastly into an unlamented irrelevance. Sic semper tyrannosauris — thus, ever, to dinosaurs.

Organizations don’t change because they should. They don’t change because the world has changed on them. The don’t change because glib ideologues like me persuade them to embrace their better angels. Organizations change — if they do — when they have to: When a sufficient power-bloc within the group forces a change or when a force from outside the group proves irresistible. Most dinosaurs change — to a state of perpetual demise — when they get hit by a meteor.

Are we — the RE.net, the Web 2.0 world — are we that outside force for the NAR? Are we that meteor? Don’t kid yourself. We’re waxed fruit for now, up from barely negligible a year ago. But a year from now…?

I live in a very long-term world, but I live Read more

November 12, 2007

Working from within the NAR

by

Realtor, Real Estate Ethicist

Author website

There are two premises to this post:

1. We accept that the National Association of Realtors is going to exist for the foreseeable future.
2. They have an existing infrastructure, including its 1.4 million members, that could potentially be leveraged to do great things.

First, we need much more than a “massive media campaign,” as stated by Dale Stinton, CEO of NAR. Not once does he mention improving the product (the Realtors) – all the technology in the world will not improve the competence of the professional.

Greg and I disagree on this – rather than supplant the various associations, I argue that working from within, in tandem with efforts from outside (read: the RE.net), may prove to be an even more effective strategy. Many in the RE.net recognize the opportunity to effect change; there may be great value in working, not necessarily with, but on parallel paths with, some components of the NAR. I mentioned in the inaugural Bloodhound.TV effort that the NAR clearly does recognize the impact and influence that the RE.net has on the industry – by choosing to assist in the BloggerCon, the NAR is reaching out to the bloggers. From my experience, the leadership of the NAR and the local and state associations, wants to be led, but often don’t know where to begin.

To lead, sometimes you just need to ask – or be asked.

With some prodding by some people whom I respect greatly, I am going to put my money/time where my mouth is and try to gain a seat on the Professional Standards committee (requires login) within the NAR, which may be tasked with evaluating blogging. This is the committee’s charge:

To advise and make recommendations to the Board of Directors on matters relating to the Code of Ethics; upon request, the Committee advises member boards on interpretations on the Code; upon receiving notice of lack of enforcement thereof by member boards, the Committee inquires into the situation, seeks remedial action and, if necessary, brings to the attention of the Board of Directors or the proper official of the Association in case of failure or refusal to enforce the Read more

November 12, 2007

Stifle those yawns: CyberHomes is coming out of beta

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Q: Is there room in the Realty.bot business for a third major player?

A: What business?

Joel Burslem came to Phoenix last week, and I had a chance to spend a few hours with him before he flew back to Portland. Because I live and breathe real estate and because I’m casually cruel in a thoughtless kind of way, I punished him with real estate tour — major commercial developments with side trips into residential neighborhoods. Joel’s observation: “There sure are a lot of ranch houses.”

It’s one of my life’s goals to be a kinder, more thoughtful person, but dramatic differences may require a reincarnation or two. Even so, I didn’t just make Joel look at houses. We had plenty of opportunities to talk as we meandered. One of the topics I wanted to discuss was the profit potential for Realty.bots like Zillow.com and Trulia.com. Zillow has firmly embraced the Google.com business model of delivering advertising based on targeted search. Trulia had just moved to a business model pioneered by Realtor.com — milk the listers.

My question is this: Taking account that I myself am impervious to advertising, how is any of this going to play out in the long run? People will pay for clicks for a while, but sooner or later they’re going to try to account for those clicks in converted sales. If the impact of advertising is not demonstrably cost-efficient, then why do it? I’m not saying this will happen, but as media consumers become more and more like me, it seems to me to be more and more likely.

Into that steaming cow-pie steps CyberHomes, about to emerge from a year-long beta period:

That’s not auspicious, but who know what tomorrow will bring.

But, more importantly: Who cares?

For now, CyberHomes is Yet Another Map-Based Automated Valuation Model. Punch in your address and you get a wild-eyed pricing guess based on tax records and statistics and having no material connection to the actual house, which, as I have demonstrated in the past, may not actually even be there. So far: Big yawn.

CyberHomes hopes to dominate the hugely unprofitable free-AVM market by having access Read more

November 10, 2007

Agents Using the term “MLS” in Their URL

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

The following email was sent to me by Steve Westmark. I posted about Steve and the Minneapolis MLS back in April. Seems the Chicago MLS got the same Stupid Factoryidea but has now changed their mind. Or should that be “minds”? Or “numb skulls”?

I really do not understand how any association that is supposed to have been formed for the benefit of Realtors can possibly come up with some of the retarded gibberish that some of them do come up with. I fully understand that it isn’t polite to poke fun at retarded people but in cases like this I just can’t help it. What tortured logic makes it alright for Homegain – and others like them – to use the term MLS in their URLs but not alright for an agent to do it? Is it that the dimwits who sat on that board thought it might be a lot easier to push those local agents around than it would be to push the attorneys who work for Homegain around? Homegain would have been willing to litigate until they won, the local agents were not.

I would also have been willing to litigate and I would not have just fired a few emails back and forth. In addition, I would have waged a local and national PR battle (for starters, naming all the names of the spineless and mindless dolts that passed such a ruling) that would have had them playing defense – not me.

(why yes, I do write this sort of post to make good friends with the various boards of directors around the country:-)

_________

—– Original Message —–

From: Bryan VantHof

To: steve@stevewestmark.com

Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 3:45 PM
Subject: Fwd: Update on Chicago area use of MLS in URL’s

Steve,
Thought you might find this interesting. Thanks. Bryan Vant Hof – fishMLS Realty

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Gene Carey < Gene@view-mls-homes.com>
Date: Oct 15, 2007 4:11 PM
Subject: Update on Chicago area use of MLS in URL’s
To: bvanthof@fishmls.com

Bryan,

Just wanted to give you an update on Chicago areas plans to start fining agents who use MLS in their domain names. After sending them some very extensive emails threatening lawsuits Read more

November 7, 2007

New self-promo play at Trulia.com: Like Realtor.com, but cheaper

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

The details are here. This was to have been news tomorrow, but Trulia broke its own embargo. Unlike the last round of upgrades, this release is all about milking cash from Realtors in the best Realtor.com tradition. Perfectly understandable as a means of making money, but hardly earth-shaking. I would have more readily welcomed actual functionality, rather than just pay for play. The good news is, buying leads on Trulia.com is a lot cheaper than buying leads elsewhere. This argues to me that selling leads is a business ripe for disintermediation. If so, that day cannot come soon enough.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

November 5, 2007

TV writers shoot selves in foot: Rassafrassin’ swearing unconvincing

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

TechCrunch:

The strike poses an interesting challenge for television at a time where internet usage has surpassed TV viewing time in most homes. Users are already choosing online entertainment over TV, how many more will switch off their televisions when their favorite shows stop going to air? These eyeballs present a real opportunity for online content creators at all levels; from the VC funded video startups through to the DIY part timers. The trends in viewer numbers have all been headed online to this point, this strike could well accelerate this trend, particularly if it lasts over the long term.

I was thinking about this yesterday, and, of course, this was the subject of the very first post I wrote on BloodhoundBlog:

In a subsistence culture, the work of the mind is precious and literally unsupportable. We are by now so rich that millions of people can create intellectual resources that they give away, in turn to be remarketed by others…. If almost-as-good is free or nearly free, what is the market value of slightly-better?

As an irony supplement, some of the free content that will be created during this strike will have been created by the strikers.

Amendment: Like this:

There are natural barriers to wealth, such as scarcity and inaccessibility. There are man-made barriers to wealth, like walls and laws. And there are barriers to wealth that are co-factors of relative wealth and poverty.

In a condition of vast abundance, trying to build walls around popular media content is an effort doomed to failure. What the Writers Guild actually needs to advance its agenda is not a strike but a campaign to forbid the creation of cheesy entertainment without a license.

And now you understand the National Association of Realtors…

Technorati Tags: , ,

« Older posts Newer posts »

Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

Media Contacts