A Real Estate Discussion Blog

What's your sign?  No, not your horoscope sign.  Your real estate sign!  That is what Coldwell Banker is hoping to help you discover by taking the HOUSETROLOGY quiz on their website.  In just seven questions you can find out if you are a Urbanist, a Contemporarian or maybe a Ranchero. 

Turns out I am a Urbanist.  Who knew?  Well, maybe I did since I live in the heart of Chicago and my neighbor's house is about three feet away from mine.... 

Take the quiz at http://www.coldwellbanker.com/home/learn/housetrology/housetrology_landing.jsp. 

PS- Big bonus points to Coldwell Banker for making this quiz an application easily added to a Facebook page!  Great way to attempt to make it viral. 

Zillow's CMO/CFO Spencer Rascoff provides commentary and insights about the second quarter housing data Zillow recently released. 

I recently did an interview with ListHub.com in an effort to help their clients better understand Zillow, as we are one of the many sites to which they syndicate.  If you are looking for a way to automatically upload your listings to a number of sites, quick and easy, their free syndication service is defintely something you should check out. 

Here are some excerpts from the interview, my answers are the non-bolded text:

Zillow currently has 3 million listings on the site. What is your objective in collecting all of this listing data?

Zillow is a data and info site where millions of consumers,more than 5 million a month, come to get their real estate questions answered. Whether that question is "what is my home worth" or "what type of mortgage rate can I get" to "what is for sale in my neighborhood" or, increasingly, "who is the right professional for me". All of this consumer traffic makes Zillow a unique and important marketing platform for real estate professionals. With Zillow's listing program, the agent can display up to 50 photos per listing, link to virtual tours, display their photo and all kinds of contact information -- phone numbers, email addresses, website links. Any leads from listings and/or profile pages are all sent to the listing agent for free.

If all of these leads and exposure are free, what's in it for Zillow?

This answer is easy -- advertising. Just as it is a goal of a newspaper, magazine or TV network to create interesting content and then sell relevant advertising around it, that is Zillow's business model as well. We have so much data on the site that allows us to put together some very interesting campaigns to best serve the client. For example, John Deere recently ran a campaign to sell riding lawn mowers. Their ad was targeted to appear only on homes that had a lot size of 1.5 acres or more. The advertising solutions are flexible enough to cater to the individual Realtor who wants to advertise an open house for one week in one ZIP code, to a large brokerage who wants a long-term, national exposure campaign.

On Zillow, buyers want to see which homes are for sale. Zillow offers real estate professionals a free way to get exposure to the millions of Zillow users and in return, Zillow gets great content to show consumers. The more great content we either create (like Zestimates) or aggregate (like listings), the more people use our site. The more they use our site, the more advertising inventory we have to sell. It is a win-win for both parties.

The site is very popular with home buyers and sellers, but just how accurate is the information that you are giving them?

I assume you are talking about Zestimates here, because when we get listing information from MLSs, the For Sale information is highly accurate. Nationally, Zestimates are quite accurate and have a median margin of error of 10.6%. We are very transparent about our accuracy numbers throughout the site. Zillow is the only home valuation site that actually publishes our accuracy numbers down to the county level. To see local information, please visit the About Zestimate Values and Accuracy chart found at the bottom of every Zillow page.

All that said, Zestimates are a starting point -- not an ending point. Consumers who use our site understand this idea. However, next to every Zestimate we link to a page which explains what the Zestimate represents and tells the user they should consult a real estate professional for more accurate information.

We also use the listing feed to help with pushing the most relevant information to the viewer. When a listing is fed to Zillow, we tag the property as being for sale and replace the Zestimate number on the map, in the search results, and at the top of the listing detail page with the For Sale price. This gives the sales price a much higher level of exposure than our Zestimate number.

Once the ListHub feed is in place, does the listing agent have to do anything on Zillow?

No, all of the listing information will be online and updated daily, along with any contact information sent over in the feed. This is the tremendous value that ListHub brings. Since ListHub is MLS-connected, there is no manual entry, and there is no need to worry about incorrect information displaying on Zillow. However, agents should definitely go to Zillow and create a free profile and upload their picture. When they do this, their photo will appear on all of their listings automatically. The photo will link to their profile page, which can contain marketing text, a link to their personal Web site and links to all of their other listings on Zillow. When setting this up, it is important that the agent uses the same e-mail address they use in the MLS so that ListHub picks it up in the feed, as this is how we match up the listings and the profiles. This added exposure is free to all agents.

This week we had a friend stay with us who is originally from Hungary, but is currently spending a year in China.  He is very well traveled, mostly because of his job and also because of personal interests- so he is a fascinating person to talk to as he has a worldly take on things.  He is also totally dependent the Internet, especially skype, for communication because of time differences and calling costs.

We were at dinner last night, as most dinner conversations do with me and my husband, we started talking about websites and particularly social networking.  While we were talking up how much we use Facebook, he was saying how much he uses Hi5.com.  I wasn't that familiar with the site, here a description of it, it is basically an international Facebook. 

Hi5 is a social networking website targeted at a general audience. It became one of the most popular social networks through a huge growth spurt during 2007 with much of that popularity coming from Central America. While it is often found in the top 10 most visited websites in the world, it often fails to make the top 50 in the U.S.

Later the conversation turned to real estate.  Our friend had just spent a few days in the LA area and absolutely fell in love with it.  He was intrigued by what was happening with the real estate market there and wanted to know more about the "deals" that were available.  Also, he is on the euro, which makes it even more affordable for him.  As I don't know much about the areas he was asking about, the question came up "do you know anyone who could help me?".  He doesn't know anything about the American process of buying a home, financing a home, and property management- but he thinks he wants to. 

These two conversation topics got me thinking about how they could become one.  I know I have heard from a number of agents around the country that foriegn money is what is keeping their business going.  Many companies are now looking at how they can market to these folks.  Most of the efforts I have heard about have been pretty traditional, with the possible exception of blogging. 

I am wondering if any agents concentrating on attracting foriegn investors have looked to international social networking sites, like Hi5, to reach this next generation of international home buyers who are eager to take advantage of what their euros can buy in the US today? 

Other top international social networking sites:

Badoo - Based in London, Badoo is one of the top social networking sites in Europe.

Bebo - Based in California, Bebo has gained popularity across the world, especially Ireland and the UK.

Cyworld - A South Korean social networking site similar to MySpace.

Faceparty - A United Kingdom social networking site founded in 2000, it differs from the norm by charging a fee for features normally found for free in other social networking sites.

Migente - A social networking site targeted at Latin America.

Orkut - Originally created by Google to compete with MySpace and Facebook, it has mainly caught hold in Brazil.

Piczo - A social networking site aimed at teens with a strong following in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Studivz - A German version of Facebook with a strong audience in students.

Passado - A European social networking site with strong audiences in France, Spain and Germany.

Roost.com has a free form keyword search on their real estate site that lets people type in what they are looking for to narrow down their home search results.  Interestingly, they just released the top 10 things that their users type into this box.  Here is the list:

1. Pool
2. Garage
3. Hardwood
4. Waterfront
5. View
6. Basement
7. Tile
8. Deck
9. Condo
10. Shop

They then compared this to the top 10 words real estate professionals most frequently used to describe homes.

1. New
2. Large
3. Great
4. Beautiful
5. Open
6. Huge
7. Finished
8. Spacious
9. Custom
10. Newer

It is interesting to compare these two lists.  The first is 90% nouns, or actual things that a person wants in the home.  Compare that to what words are most being used in marketing text, none of them are actual features of a home, all adjectives. 

I don't think it is entirely fair to compare these lists side by side, because 'great' could be used to describe each of the items on the first list, thus making it more popular then say 'hardwoods' which can only be used in cases where there are actually hardwoods present. 

But the idea of this list is at least important to think about when writing marketing text that is going to be found online.  This type of writing for marketing purposes might be different than a brochure that is left in the home at an open house.  At the open house you are trying to sell that home at that time to that person- maybe more descriptive words are appropriate.  With Internet market text, you are trying to get the home to come up in front of the person and making sure you have text that is feature rich, verses adjective rich, may help this happen more frequently. 

This week Zillow released their 2nd Quarter Home Value Reports, detailing what is happening with home values around the country and in the Chicago metro. 

When you look at greater Chicagoland, overall homes experienced a 7.3% year over year decline in value.  The up side to this is that if you have owned your home for more than 5 years, overall we are still up 2.3% (which is a lot better than what other US metros can say). 

Here are some of the biggest gains and losses in the area:

• Quarter over Quarter:  Lake Bluff, up 5.8% ; Melrose Park (60160), down 6.5%
• Year over Year: 60605, up 6.7% ; 60620, up 6.4% ;  Northbrook, down 19.2% ; Des Plaines, down 18.4%
• 5 yr change: North Center and Austin, up 7.7% ; Plainfield (60585), down 1.2%
• 10 yr change: Logan Square, up 9.7% ; Harvard, up 1.4%

Before you start calculating what 7.3% is of what you think your house is worth, remember that real estate is LOCAL.  I give you those far reaching numbers, so that you have a benchmark.  But it is important to know what is happening in your immediate area, and various neighborhoods are experiencing different growth rates. 

Here is a partial list of some of the more popular areas in Chicagoland.  For a complete list or to see other areas of the country, please visit this link to Zillow's Home Value Reports and click on the EXCEL icon next to the Chicago title. 

Today Zillow released our 2nd Quarter Home Values data.  Nationally, the news isn't too bright with home values decreasing by almost 10% in the second quarter compared to a year ago.  Also, nearly a third of homeowners who bought since 2003 are underwater on their mortgages, meaning they owe more than their home is worth. 

I know, I know- real estate is local Sara.  Hyperlocal.  There are even areas in the country which have experienced positive increases in value, as illustrated by the red squares below.  So rather than list in detail the 165 metro the report covers, I encourage you to visit the Home Values Link where you can drill right down to the zip code and neighborhood to get local information that is actually meaningful to individual buyers and sellers.  When you visit the report main page, click on the  icon next to you metro and an excel spreadsheet will launch where you can explore the in-depth local data. (I am sure there is some good fodder for Localism posts in there) 

Click for the full Zillow Home Values Q2 Report, including hyerlocal information. 

I came across an Active Rain network blog the other day of someone who is in a similar line of work as me, working for a major real estate website.  Funny, I thought, I haven't heard of this person before nor ever seen their blog.  I checked out the blog and found some interesting content and nicely written posts.  When I clicked to find out more about this person, turns out they have written 128 posts!  So why haven't I heard of this person before? 

I think the answer lies in "social" aspect of blogging. 

I have written 138 posts, so about the same amount of content. Let's compare the activity around our blogs:

Other blog: Comments received, 463   My blog: Comments received, 1758

Other blog: Number of subscriptions, 16    My blog: Subscriptions, 122

Other blog: Number of associations, 8   My blog: Associations, 90

Here is why I think the reason for the difference in numbers exists:

Other blog: Comments made, 30  My blog: Comments I have made, 485

Commenting is something I made a conscience effort to get better at this year, and when I did, I saw the traffic to my blog increase.  (and when I say "comments" I mean actually saying something interesting that makes other people want to find out more about you, not just "nice post".) 

In fact, when I comment, I can often see the traffic to my profile increase.

What I have learned is that when you participate in a social community or network, like Active Rain, it is important to engage others just as you would like to be engaged.  To not do so is similar to watching an ad on TV where there is no interaction between the source and the viewer.  There is no personal attachment. 

This is why I think it was smart for Active Rain to create the position of "community builders".  When Rich Jacobson leaves a comment on my blog, I don't feel like I am just giving Active Rain content, but I feel like Active Rain is also engaging me on personal level.  This builds an emotional connection with the product.  When there is an emotion connection, this leads to creating passion, which leads to me spending more time on the site than I care to admit.

So what communities would you like to engage you?  Personally, I would like to engage real estate agents, which is why I am here.  Another example- I own an investment condo in FL.  About a year ago the condo board set up a website for owners to communicate about the property and with each other.  On the website is a forum.  There is one owner who is a local Realtor, he engages every single question involving anything to do with the value of the property or what is going on with local real estate (there aren't too many, can't take more than 1-2 hours a month).  I will use him when I sell the unit. 

Think about engaging the community you want to engage you.  If it is other Realtors, than Active Rain is the place for you.  If it is local home buyers, Localism.  You can even carve out a niche by getting involved with Groups.  Maybe you want to engage other parents in your child's school, find out where they hang out online and be there too.  Maybe the group you want to reach doesn't have an online social network, start one by using ning. 

The last part of this "socialness" is extending these relationships beyond the computer screen.  When you see something interesting, send a personal note or pick up the phone.  If your network organizes themselves offline, get involved.  For me, this means attending Inman Blogger Connect, Active Rain Chicago gathering or other real estate conferences.  If no one else initiates the get together, be the one to do so with evite, twitter or meetup.com. 

Blogging is great way to get started with social media, just make sure you are actually being "social" when doing it to achieve the maximum benefit.

Walkscore is an incredible website for learning what individual neighborhoods have to offer within walking distance.  Personally, living in Chicago, it is very important to me because my husband and I only have one car and he takes it to work everyday, leaving me to get places either by foot or bike.  But my home has a walkscore of 91 (out of 100), so it isn't a problem. 

This weekend I was at a cook out of some friends who recently had a child.  This live in a condo in the hip neighborhood of Roscoe Village(their condo has a walkscore of 90).  But now with child, you know where this conversation is headed, they decided its time to head to the burbs. 

My friend was telling me how she spends hours online looking at homes and school district information, which wasn't a surprise to me.  But I was surprised to hear her add "I walkscore every home I am interested in".  Hmmm.... this walkscore site is now becoming so popular is becoming a verb...

This got me thinking, what a cool service it would be if an real estate website was able to put a search field for walkscore in their advanced search capablities.  For examples, if you want to be pretty urban, show me homes with a walkscore of 80-100.  If you want to be more remote, show me homes with a walkscore of 0-20.  Walkscore does have some open source code posted on their site, I am not sure it is enough to create a search filter with yet.  If someone could figure this search out, could be a pretty cool reason to use your site verses another agent's in town. 

Unfortunately I wasn't abel to attend RE Bar Camp last week, I only heard fantastic things about it. Luckily this video was put together which covers some of the highlights from the day. It gives you a sneak peak into some of the fasinating conversations that happened. I loved how there wasn't an agenda until everyone got there and made one.

Mike Price just announced that they are planning another holding another REBarcamp in Houston Texas on Oct 22nd the day before the Houston Association of Realtors annual Trade Show, to be held at Reliant Stadium.

The video is a little shaky, but the content is good. Shot on a flip camera.

Thanks to DavidG for the video and Soundtrack credit: Orphan by Laptop & Reilly via Open Source Audio

Immediately following RE Bar Camp was Inman's Blogger Connect. You can spend hours reading and watching all the recaps and commentaries on this event. However, here is my favorite one which highlights snippets from "celebrities bloggers", courtesy of Agent Genius (fantastic blog btw) http://agentgenius.com/?p=2985.