Based on these listings in my neighborhood, it looks like I have over $125K in equity in my home. That’s a 55% increase on my investment in just 5 years. Amazing! The real estate bubble is no where to be found in Charlotte.

According to the S&P Home Price Indices, Charlotte is now the top city in the nation for growth in home values. Read the story here. This equity in my home keeps getting better and better!

I’m doing a few tests with video. Here’s a sample of our work.

Last summer, I was introduced to Karim Tahawi, the creator of my-currency. Karim comes from a markets background, and at the time was developing the infrastructure of his newly launched service. He explained to me his efforts to integrate a wisdom-of-the-crowds platform to home valuations. At the time I had a hard time trying to wrap my head around the idea. And to be honest, I still am.

my-currency has received a lot of press recently. Some good, and some bad. They even gave their pitch in front of a big crowd at DEMO.

Ok, so we have another socially interactive website centered around home prices (see Zillow). And yes, instead of relying on Zillow’s “black box” algorithm, you the people have the power to provide your input as to what value you actually place on the home. Sounds great, but useful? Will people really care? Which people will actually care? Do we really want anyone controlling the valuations of homes?

The way I see it, this my-currency prediction model is significanly flawed. We all know that something is only worth the value of what you can actually sell it for.

The real predictive, wisdom-of-the-crowds valuations of home prices are already being done when a prospective buyer submits an offer on a home which is for sale. Multiple offers are evaluated, one is ultimately chosen, and these offers resultingly dictate the actual market value of the home.

Receiving input from non-participatory parties in the sale transaction simply creates a value which is unusable and unrealistic. This would be the equivelant of asking your taxi cab driver of what value he places on your stocks and bonds. True, trustworthy values are created by those in the trading arena - not the bystandards.

So, with this being said, what are the possible applications for this model? Instead of opening this application to the entire world via the wide-open internet, what if this software was modular and was available at open-houses? Give a survey box to every person who walks through, and allow them to grade the home’s valuation as they are there in person. (Kitchen outdated? Minus $10,000. Breath-taking view? Add $20,000).

I’m sure there is a benefit for this type of modeling system within the home buying industry, but I’m sure making home valuations this wide open isn’t the sweet-spot.

We are getting closer to launching RealtyAgents.com. This an exciting venture for us. After speaking to many industry experts and lay-persons, it is clear that this network should fill a void in the agent community. I don’t want to give away too many things just yet, but it is safe to say the RealtyAgents.com will be a site built for the working real estate agent.

This snapshot should give you a few hints. Keep tuned for more updates.

A great insider look of Trulia is available on The Scoble Show.

Click here to watch the interview.

Click here to see Pete give a demo of Trulia.

In this 15 minute interview Pete Flint gives a candid summary of how Trulia was founded, how they came up with the term ‘Trulia’, their means of startup, the business model, and market outlooks.

Scoble Show is just one of the show’s on the Podtech Network. If you haven’t stumbled across this site yet, you gotta check it out.

Here are the notes that I jotted down as I listened to the interview.

(Continue reading…)

I’ve seen mentions of RealEstateVoices before. But, honestly, I haven’t really dugg too much into it. It’s a good tool for our little real estate niche. The more people who use it, the better the tool it will become. I recenlty submitted some of my real estate related stories. Check it out, and vote for the best stories you like.

Thanks, Homethinking!

Check out Joel’s summary here for a more detailed review.

According to a recent post on the Fast Company blog a French physicist says he has come up with the formula that calculates a business’s success in a particular location. We’ve always been told that the key to real estate is location, location, location. Now, apparently, the perfect location can be pinpointed using Pablo Jensen’s model.

This is very interesting. We know that all the top Silicon Valley companies employ some of the world’s top minds, and often squable over them. Suppose if one of the big three (MSN, Yahoo, Google), or even someone within the real estate community (Zillow, Move, Realogy, Trulia), were to hire Pablo and apply his algorithms to real estate search. Now that would make for an interesting property search!

I was reading Greg’s post on the dismal state of HouseValues, and I had to think back to a post I wrote for Inman just over a year ago. The comments left on Greg’s blog by “John C” were highly entertaining. Is it me, or have traditional Realtors gone mad lately? The thought of legitimate competition is driving them crazy.

In response to John C., let me say this. After careful consideration, I recommended HV to my brother who is a new agent. HV is legitimate, they have commercials on TV, and they have great support and CRM solutions. So, after my lofty recommendation, my brother signed up. Two years ago, what was a $250/mo fee, turned into a $600/mo fee last year for my brother’s small market. My brother received several leads per week - week after week. He followed up on them all. He followed HV’s recommendations, went through their training, and offered every service they suggested. After 5 months of no sales, he gave up. He realized he was wasting his time chasing these leads which simply did not close. He was locked into a long-term contract, but realized that his time was best served finding business elsewhere than spending the majority of his day chasing curious home owners who weren’t interested in selling - or selling with the HV agent.

My article below basically questions the excessiveness of lead generation. The consumer deserves the opportunity to browse homes online without the pressure of having to provide their personal information. Zillow provided this option to HouseValue’s dismay. And now, companies like Trulia, Propsmart, Redfin, and Blueroof are providing home listings as the consumer deserves.

See the original story and the rest of my thoughts here.
Originally posted by Inman News here. (subscription required)

It should be noted that Realty.com was strictly a lead-gen site at the time of me writing this article. Immediately after, we began work to provide a broader range of services. The new site was launched 5 months later, and we still are working on providing a better consumer experience.

Preface: I could go on and on with this analogy. But, for the fear of being too wordy, I have kept my comments curt.

During my trip to Manhattan yesterday, as I sat in JFK awaiting my hotel shuttle to arrive, I couldn’t help to notice the similarities between taxi cabs and the current state of real estate.

First: the story about taxi cabs.
In New York, if you flew into JFK airport and wanted travel home to the city, chances are you’ll walk out to the sidewalk, approach the cab stand, and stand in line for the next available yellow car. Once inside the taxi, just like all other vehicular options, you’ll be sitting in traffic for the next 60-90 minutes as your driver takes you to your destination. In the taxi, the meter runs constantly. Taxi meters work on the FM principal for me, but my guess is that there’s some algorithm which charges for each mile and each minute used during your ride. So, in essence your fare is a commission of the time & distance you travel. For this ride the total is going to average around $50.

Second: the story about private cars and limousines.
When traveling from the airport to home the taxicab isn’t your only option. In fact, there are several options - one of which is the private car and limousine service. When you walk out of the airport onto the street level chances are that you’ll see several black town cars and limousines. These private cars are sitting there to serve you, just as the yellow taxicabs are. However, instead of a metered ride, the limos and private cars offer a flat fee service. One driver I saw held a sign which said “$35 - All City”. This meant that for anywhere destination inside of Manhattan his fare would be a $35 flat fee.

What a deal, right!?! For the same travel time, you’ll travel inside of a nice town car with tinted windows, and have a driver who is nicely dressed in a full suit and tie - and for $15 less! All of this, plus you still have the personal service of having a car to yourself.

Third: the story about shared shuttles.
Another option for the commute into town is a shared shuttle. Many hotels offer a shuttle service as a complimentary pick-up service for their guests. But, in addition to these hotel shuttles there are a few-third party services which provide similar services — the shared shuttle.

With a shared shuttle, you’ll travel in a 8-15 passenger van along side many other travelers. The fare is significantly less (in this case just $15), but the trade off is that you’ll be crammed into a bouncy van along with 10-15 others on a long, nauseous ride. Luggage will be placed on laps, under your feet, and chances are you’ll travel all over town dropping the other passengers off at their destination prior to arriving at yours. It’s cheap, it’s not sexy, but the result is the same — front door drop-off at your destination.

So what does this have to do with Real Estate?
Clearly, you can see that the weary traveler has options. But sadly, most people don’t know that they do. You can take the yellow cab for about $50 (depending on the meter). You can grab a private car for $35. Or you can try a shared service for as low as $15. Depending on your mindset, a good argument can be made for selecting each service over the other. But, it’s obvious that the taxi cab is most expensive and offers no direct advantages to the consumer.

The only advantages that taxis have are that they outnumber the other options 100-fold. They are readily available on any street corner. They breed familiarity. And they are unionized regulated - one of the largest! (see Matt’s comment below).

So to figure out what this has to do with the future of Real Estate, read the above stories again. But, this time change the out the following words:

Taxi Cabs = Traditional Real Estate Brokerages
Limousines = Discount Realty Brokers
Shared Shuttles = Limited Service MLS Listings
Taxi Union = National Association of Realtors

Am I wrong??

I think I’ll be taking a limo from the airport from now on.