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

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.

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.

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.

The battle lines are drawn. The domain portfolio companies are here to stay, and they brought friends. Companies like Marchex, Oversee.net, Demand Media, and Internet REIT are all backed by millions of dollars from investors and incoming revenues. And on the other side of this battle field is corporate America. Companies refusing to see the value in generic domain names as prime real estate along the information super-highway are simply missing out.

The Domain Name Journal couldn’t have said it any better…

…Schwartz asked the panel “How is it that Hilton and Marriott and Westin and all of the rest couldn’t figure out how many leads they would get from a domain like hotels.com? Instead of paying a million or two for a domain they now have to pay tens of millions (for leads) for the rest of their lives. So they flunked – they failed – and their advertising agencies failed them too!”

Regarding corporate America’s opportunity…

What we think they fail to understand is that a generic domain name reaches the consumer when they are thinking about buying something in a category, like an automobile, before they zero in on brands. Owning the generic domains, like cars.com, could effectively make them the gatekeeper for the entire industry, allowing them to intercept the customer and send them to the brand they want before they go to a competitor.

I wouldn’t say that we here at Realty.com are close to being the gatekeepers of our industry…yet. But, I would say that we’re getting closer to figuring out the combination!

Yesterday I woke up with the farmers to catch a 6:00AM flight to New York. I was there for a short meeting, and flew back later that day. But, the day was jammed packed with cool little nuggets.

First, I flew on JetBlue. They just opened up in Charlotte, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. This was my first time on a JetBlue flight and I was overly impressed. Free Wifi in the terminals. All seats are made of plush leather. (I said ALL seats). Each seat has their own personal TV monitor and headphones are provided for free. Each TV comes equipped with 36 stations of DirecTV and XM Radio. And when it came time for snacks, the attendents didn’t roll out the drink cart, they personally went to each seat and took your order. I thought this was a nice touch to eliminate the drink cart, but it did lengthen the time to receive your order (my only complaint).

Second, and the downside of the trip, is that I flew into JFK. OMG! What a small, outdated airport. It’s located way outside the city, and by car it took 90 minutes to get from the airport to Manhattan. The flight from Charlotte was only 75 minutes. So, this was a bit unexpected. Ontop of rush hour traffic and being crammed in the back of a shared shuttle, this transit into Manhattan left much to be desired.

Then the good stuff. On the way into town, we passed all the goodies. Grand Central Terminal, Park Avenue, NBC Studios, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, Carnegie Hall, and I swear I saw Mayor Bloomberg walking on the sidewalk. I wish I had access to my camera then.

We arrived at the hotel at 10:00. Walking into the Hilton NY, Adtech was booming with activity. People were everywhere. Ontop of all that, the NY Marathon runners were all checking out, so it made for a hectic time. You couldn’t help to feed off of the energy of the room. You could tell everyone was amped. After a few brief meetings and lunch, I was back on my way to JFK to catch my 5:30 flight.

Is it me, or does any photo snapped from a moving taxi cab just look awesome. Out of focus? Who cares! Subject not fully in frame? I meant to do that! Fuzzy images through the back window? It makes the image authentic! I wish I had snapped some images going into the city, but these photos still do the job. Having NY, NY as the backdrop is only a plus!

The cab ride back to JFK sucked. But, after arriving back in Charlotte by 7:15, I realized I still had time to make it to my weekly card game. So, waking up at 3:30, flying to Manhattan for the day, flying back and being able to play a few hours of poker are days when you know you are blessed. Ok…back to work.

Ok. It’s time for a reader poll. This will really have no real outcome whatsoever. But, I’m rather just wanting to get a validation of my thoughts. (keeping on the ‘wisdom of the mobs’ theme). Below I have included a few variations of the Realty.com logo. We’re playing with a few themes lately in our upcoming redesign, and thought I’d let everyone voice their opinion of their favorite logo. Some are old, some are self made, some professionaly done, some I like, some I don’t. But, the question now is, what do you think?

1. Yellow Door
2. Target Door
3. Roofline
4. Color Door
5. Picket Fence

Vote Now.

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For those of you who are in the know, I posted an ad listing on ProBlogger for real estate technology bloggers. If you are an active real estate agent and active blogger, and think you have your finger on the pulse of online trends… drop me a line.

We’re bumping the total number of bloggers up to 4, so we’ve got just 2 more openings.

I was driving around town today and saw this sign at the bottom of an exit of I-77 and Morehead. I thought this was interesting. Is House.com going to copy the RealEstate.com business model and start trying to convert some of their own leads into sales?

A friend of mine, who’s in the industry as well, tipped me off recently that House.com had moved their operations from NY to Charlotte. So, seeing the sign on the side of the road wasn’t too surprising. But, it did make me wonder about House’s business model, and about Charlotte in general.

Charlotte is quietly becoming the mecca for online real estate. Now, there’s no way that it can compete with the prowess of Emeryville, Seattle, or the Valley. But, just take a look at which companies call Charlotte home.

• RealEstate.com
• House.com
• Realty.com
• iHomes.com
• LendingTree
• Bank of America
• Wachovia
• Lowes

In addition to LendingTree and RealEstate.com, I also believe that IAC has parts of GetSmart.com, Domania, and iNest here. If not in total, some representation of these three can be found in Charlotte. I also was informed recently that the new CEO of NewHomes.com was pulled from Charlotte to their Florida home office.

I was curious about what House.com was up to. So, I shot an email out to Dan Parisi - no reply. (He rarely does). Then, I figured I would call the 800 # listed on the sign. After asking a few questions to the customer service rep I was informed that their plans for opening a brokerage are on hold, and they are focusing on obtaining more agent relationships for their lead network. That’s cool. Sticking to your core biz strategy is never a wrong move.

But, with all of us in the same town, we should all get together for a drink and chat. It would make for a fun game of trying to find-more-about-your-competitor-than-they-can-find-out-about-you.

So, Dan, Eric, Gary, Michael, Doug… when’s the first pow-wow?

I am attending the Inman Connect conference this week. After a long day I got hungry. So I walked outside the Palace Hotel in San Francisco yesterday in search of some authentic SanFranciscan food. Out to the streets I went, and this is what I ran into right on the corner of New Montgomery and Market Streets. Local citizens had arranged a protest at rush hour yesterday afternoon to state their opposition to the Iraeli offensive in Lebanon. Personally, I feel Israel is justified. (I appreciate Andy Monfried’s take on the situation).

Here are the rest of my photos…

On a lighter note. I had dinner with the crew from RealtyTracker.com last night. Thanks to Sean, Tom, and Colette for a good dinner and great time connecting. The Clift was a great place to hang. And at the end of the night as I was walking out the door, in walked…HULK HOGAN. So surreal. What the heck was he doing in San Francisco??

technorati tags:ConnectSF, protest, war, Israel Lebanon, San Francisco, RealtyTracker