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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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It has been a busy week with visitors and some traveling, but I managed to sneak away for a quick trip to visit my parents for Halloween. It wasn’t as much of a visit as it was an answer to the call for help. Each year my parents’ neighborhood in Beaufort, SC gets well over 500 trick-or-treaters. (This is in contrast to the 3 kids I get at my house each year in Charlotte). It’s a mad rush, and something you wouldn’t believe if you didn’t see it with your own eyes. It’s a true picture of Americana.

This year the kids didn’t start coming to the door until about 6:00. And by 7:30 we had over 300 kids come to our door. We ran out of candy and were forced to turn many kids away who were still circling the block. Even after we turned out the porch lights many kids were still knocking on the doors in hopes that we may have a few pieces left.

To chronicle the event, I took photos of EVERY kid who came to our door. Take a peak, and give it the page a few seconds to load. It’s well worth the look.

Update: My brother took these photos and did a short video. Check it out.

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