The real estate application category on the iPhone really seems to be filling out. When the upgraded version of the software launched in July, Puluwai was the only real estate specific search tool (see 5 Apps Every Real Estate Agent Should Have on Their iPhone).

But that’s now changing and it looks like there is an epic battle brewing for screen space on my phone.

Trulia iPhone application

Trulia’s app is notable because of the prominence they give to open houses on the home screen. I think this is a wise choice, since people will likely be using this app as they are out and about and will want to find out what’s open near them to go have a look.

The search experience was very easy on Trulia’s app - simply pushing the ‘All homes for sale’ button takes you to a list of all the properties near you. (Your definition of “All Homes” may vary).

Searching all homes, it was a bit frustrating because wasn’t immediately obvious how the results were returned - it didn’t seem to be sorted by price or even distance away. Using the Custom Search option does let you get a little more specific on how those results are returned however.

Personally, I would have loved to be able to refine the search from the All Homes results page to weed out the listings that didn’t fit what I was looking for. Unfortunately instead, Trulia makes you go back to the beginning and start over again.

The biggest disappointment with Trulia’s app however are the listing pages themselves. Next to Utopria’s offerings they pale in comparison (see Utopria Brings Property Listings to iPhone) Only one photo? Really?

Also, it’s great that you can show me where the property is on a map, but what does staring at a pin from space really tell me? I want a little more.

StreetEasy Real Estate

StreetEasy doesn’t waste any time. The New York based real estate site just takes you right into the search results as soon as you fire it up. I actually kind of enjoyed this - the less decisions I have to make up front the better. Let me get right to the meat and then let me start carving away.

(Though I have to say, the fact that the top listing it returned on its default search was an $80 million, 4 bedroom Central Park apartment made me feel more than a little bit inadequate.)

Clicking on the Edit Search button lets you refine the results and StreetEasy makes good use of the iPhone UI elements to make the refinement easy and enjoyable - lots of tumblers to spin up and down. Making search fun is one of the things the iPhone can be great at.

On the whole, StreetEasy succeeds where Trulia fails - showing you all the photos associated with a particular listing. Clicking on the thumbnail floats all the images upwards to a gallery like environment you can thumb through. I also loved the fact that the app lets you pull up the details on the building that a particular apartment is in.

Further, StreetEasy makes it really easy to tab between the listing description, the map and the agent’s contact information. Trulia struggles to accomplish this with a slightly clumsy popup menu.

HomeFinder

HomeFinder was created by developer Brandon Alexander (Alexander Mobile) and claims to bring over 4 million listings to the iPhone. Listings are drawn from Google Base, FSBO websites and feeds from several large MLSes and brokerages (not identified).

Compared to the two previous offerings, it’s pretty bare-bones, yet functional. HomeFinder gives you loads of options to filter a search - but it also kept crashing whenever it returned the results. So I’m going to have to withhold judgment on this app until we see a new revision.

So what’s the verdict?

StreetEasy’s iPhone app blows the competition out of the water in terms of ease-of-use, functionality and sheer slickness. Unfortunately it’s only available in New York City.

Trulia’s app looks great, gets off to a good start and then falls flat on its face. Frankly disappointing and hopefully future versions will add some of the missing features.

The others (Puluwai and HomeFinder)… well, compared to their commercial competitors, feel unpolished and struggle due to poor data sources.

So for now, there’s no clear winner. Unless you live in New York.

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Simon Baker, former CEO of Australian REA Group, has launched a new web site he’s calling Property Portal Watch. From his blog:

Property Portal Watch will be the one stop shop for all information on property portals around the word. It is designed to provide news, views, rumours, overviews and general information on property portal sites throughout the world. In addition it will provide tips and techniques for those wanting to advertise online. Its first incarnation is as a blog (while i get the proper site built).

Simon helped build REA Group into a truly global real estate search powerhouse that now has operations in 10 countries. It owns 22 websites, eight print publications and its web sites have over 8 million unique visitors each month.

Given that background, I’m sure there will be some great info coming out of there. For anyone who’s interested in watching the Real Estate 2.0 space - make sure you give it a visit and subscribe.

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Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen a handful of companies launch real estate search tools for the iPhone, but Canadian company Utopria is the first out of the gates to take the listing flyer and single property web site and bring it onto the mobile platform.

I gotta say. I love this thing.

Here’s how it works. Punch in a single property website URL found on sign rider (e.g. www.262mapleview.com) using Safari on your iPhone. MediaPod (Utopria’s platform) then delivers a specially formatted version of the listing page to your phone.

The Mediapod flyer incorporates all the expected marketing elements, like a company logo and phone number but the first sign that this is something different is that rather than a static head shot, Mediapod gives agents the ability to embed a video that introduces themselves. Very slick.

(Another clever touch is that the agent’s contact information includes email and phone links that dump you directly into the respective application on your iPhone.)

Still pushing the multimedia angle, inside the property information section of the flyer, in addition to the standard information (price, square footage etc.) prospective buyers can listen to a pre-recorded audio introduction by the agent about the specific property.

Another slick touch is that buyers can also choose to view surrounding schools, restaurants, parks and shopping outlets from a drop down menu and then have those instantly mapped into the Google Maps application on the iPhone. (To which you could then get directions, using iPhone’s location awareness.)

If you don’t have an iPhone, you can see how it works watching this video.

A few downsides however. The implementation of the property photos seems a little weak. I would love to be able to pull up the photos full-screen and be able to scroll through them using the beautiful touch screen interface of the iPhone. Though I suspect this may be due to the limitations of the iPhone SDK rather than the Mediapod platform.

Also, any existing virtual tours of the property are disabled - but this again is due to a limitation in the iPhone OS which has put the kibosh on Flash. Presumably though, if the home has a video tour associated with it, that could play through.

Finally - the basic design of the page could use a bit of a face lift… it didn’t knock me off my seat. But I guess that’s something that could be customized for each agent anyway.

All in all, Utopria’s offering is a fantastic demonstration of what makes the iPhone such a powerful consumer tool - and I suspect it is the first shot in a coming fusillade of iPhone-based property marketing tools.

I’d say it’s well worth exploring as part of your marketing tool set, especially for any agent who’s looking to establish a differentiating wow factor for their sellers or one who works in a tech heavy (Silicon Valley, Seattle, New York) area.

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In its September 2008 issue, alongside its reviews of tub cleaners and organic produce, Consumer Reports turns its critical eye on the real estate industry.

The publication polled a sample of 3753 readers who sold or tried to sell a home, 4029 readers who bought a home and 7368 readers who did both. The results are illuminating to anyone in the industry; especially some of its findings which will surely be controversial.

Let’s look a bit deeper at the numbers.

First, the good news. Only 1% of sellers tried to use an online web site (craigslist, forsalebyowner.com etc.) to sell their home. 80% chose to go with an agent. It suggests that any fears that online players may someday distermediate the Realtors seem overblown. Sellers want to work with a real estate professional.

The bad news is that CR concludes is that overall “higher commission didn’t always translate into more service or better results.”

Moreover, respondants who “paid commissions of 3 percent or less were just as happy with their brokers performance as those who paid 6 percent or more.” In fact, those who paid more were “more likely to say they had regrets about the selling process”.

More troubling, is that CR recommends that consumers continue to aggressive negotiate the 6% commission downwards.

Seems to me that the real challenge here is that, moving forward, the industry needs do a better job of communicating its value (beyond puff advertising pieces) and, more importantly, delivering that value to consumers.

There are many ways to turn this tide, but I believe one way to slow the downwards trend on commissions is if brokers and agents can demonstrate to consumers they have an aggressive multi-modal marketing package in place for each and every listing.

Unfortunately, despite overwhelming evidence that consumers are looking for homes on the Internet (about 80%), it seems some Realtors are still choosing to ignore the medium.

According to CR, 85% of Keller Williams agents advertised homes on the Web - compared to only 76% of RE/MAX agents and 75% of Century 21 agents. The numbers, while high, are still unacceptable.

Agents should be syndicating their listings across the Net, taking dozens of high quality photos of the home, creating single property sites, doing video tours, blogging about their listings’ key selling features. Any or all of these approaches can add value (either real or perceived) to the bottom line of the transaction.

Brokers aren’t off the hook either. They need to be educating their agents on what the 21st Century internet-savvy buyer is looking for and then provide platforms that can deliver those services to their agents.

The Internet is not the be all and end all to getting a home sold. But far from being a threat to the 6 percent commission, it may just end up being its salvation.

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One of the things that always struck me at the last couple of Connect conferences was the number of folks in the audience that came from outside the US.

Last month in San Francisco was no different. I met people from Canada, Mexico, Germany, Australia, Spain, France and many others, all walking the floors of the Palace Hotel.

Every day, I look at the Inman News Facebook and LinkedIn groups and there are requests from entrepreneurs and real estate professionals from every corner of the globe who want to participate in the conversation.

So this got all of us at Inman thinking, why not give them that forum?

Let’s get the folks from Booli.se, Zoomf, Immobilien Scout24, Igglo, Properazzi or Immobiliare.it and connect them with the people at Zillow, Trulia, Redfin and others and share the insights.

Let’s examine REALTOR.ca, a truly national real estate search site, MLS driven and controled by Realtors. Sound familiar?

Let’s look at markets in North America, Asia, Europe, South America and understand how the greater global economy can impact even the smallest local markets.

Let’s learn how brokers and agents around the world are retooling, relaunching and reacting to ever-changing global real estate markets.

Let’s understand how new technologies like smartphones, video and social media are knocking down traditional barriers and borders around the globe.

Global Connect will be all of that and more… Mark your calendars, we’re bringing the world to New York City, January 7-9, 2009. You can learn more on the Real Estate Connect NYC 2009 web site. With much more to come.

I’m also looking for speakers, topics and anything else FOREM readers can contribute. I’m honored that this blog reaches the far corners of the globe, and over the years I’ve had many conversations on line and off with readers from around the world.

So whether you’re in Rotterdam or Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town or Chennai, Tokyo or Toronto; if you’re working on a cool technology, doing something innovative with your business, writing a blog or just have a interesting new idea - let me know. I want to hear about all of it. I want to bring you to New York.

Please contact me at joel [at] inman.com or phone me at +1 (971) 228-5704.

This should be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there.

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Google Insights for Search is a fantastic new tool that allows you to dig into Google’s search volume patterns to find trends.

While I think there are a lot of ways you can use this tool (see agentgenius.com), I think that for most marketers the geographic breakdowns will be one of the most interesting - mainly because it can help identify brand awareness in any particular location.

Let’s look at the national brand awareness of the big search portals:

Strong Nationwide (Near universal brand awareness)

Realtor.com

Yahoo! Real Estate

Regionally Strong (Strong in specific regions; east, west, south, north)

Zillow.com

Trulia.com

Confined Awareness (Searches confined to single States)

Cyberhomes

Frontdoor.com

Poor roost.com did not have enough search volume to show any results.

(h/t Sellsius blog)

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Wish I could be in New York for this. Looks like a fabulous get together.

Surely someone is going to shoot it on video and share with the rest of us right?

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iPhone 2.0 turned the iPhone from smartphone to full-fledged pocket computer. Applications continue to pour into the iTunes store and I’ve been experimenting with a lot of them. Here are a few of my favorites, practical applications:

Evernote - Need to keep track of all the contacts and colleagues you meet on the road? Scan their business cards with the iPhone’s camera and Evernote will scan in the information so it’s waiting for you in text form back on your desktop.

Puluwai - The power of location-based, mobile real estate search can be seen in this app. Bare bones for now, and the search results are pretty sketchy - but familiarize yourself with this experience… the future is here.

Yelp - Keep track of your online reputation in Yelp’s reviews with this handy app. Better still… find a good place for lunch when you’re out on the road.

Nearby - On a neighborhood tour with out of town clients? Top up the databanks with useful local landmarks pulled from Platial’s geobits. Better still create your own neighborhood tours on Platial and pull them up on your iPhone.

Sketches - Take a photo of a property you want to email to a client? Use Sketches to mark it up, add arrows and notes right on the photograph.

Any others to add to the list?

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Housevalues lost $1.3 million in the 2nd quarter of 2008, the company reported in a press release last week. John Cook also reported that they lost over 400 customers in the same period.

But don’t shed a tear for HV - they’re still sitting on $62.7 million in cash. And that’s a bucket of cash that they’ve been willing to swing around a bit recently.

The press release highlighted RealtyGenerator, a company HouseValues acquired in November of last year. RealtyGenerator is a pretty slick product that functions as a lead generation and CRM tool for brokers and agents.

Personally, I was more curious in seeing what HouseValues had to say about its other investment - the $2.75 million they plunked down in January into ActiveRain.

Took a while for me to find any mention, but I did manage to dig this out of their Letter to Shareholders from the 2007 Annual Report (PDF link).

While the acquisition of Realty Generator will go a long way toward enhancing our products, we believe our investment in ActiveRain will help us broaden our sales reach. ActiveRain is a leading community and social networking platform for real estate professionals. The company has attained a high level of user engagement and has rapidly grown to more than 80,000 members. While ActiveRain will continue to operate as a completely independent business, our strategic relationship creates the potential for a new and rapidly growing channel.

Clearly Housevalues is excited about their new properties. I’m not sure investors were similarly moved however, as the stock price (SOLD) has remained relatively static.

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Roost.com, recent Inman Innovator Award recipient, has redesigned its real estate search results pages.

The biggest change is the search criteria, which were previously available on the left and right sides of the listing results and are now all above the fold. They are now, according to company PR, “completely hide-able” too.

Once expanded, the criteria panels slide from left to right. It reminds me somewhat of the Xbox 360’s dashboard tabbed interface which features 5 “blades” that also slide in and out.

The goal, I’m guessing, is to get people right to the meat of the search, the results, quickly and not clutter it up with too much extraneous information. Also notable is the map results now take advantage of Google’s new terrain image data and the map pins dynamically update as you view the listings.

Overall, it’s a pleasant experience. But it strikes me that it may still be a bit much for the average real estate consumer. The bigger issue here is that as more and more filters get added to Real Estate 2.0 search tools; neighborhood boundaries, school districts, keyword searches, I’m finding myself a little overwhelmed with options.

Ultimately the challenge for any of these sites, lies in creating a user experience that is both rich with data and pleasant, intuitive and easy to use.

Companies like Redfin, Estately, Trulia and Roost are all creating innovative new ways to present the massive amounts of data that is available to online searchers. But, in many cases, the rush to add even more features (fsbos, foreclosures, mls/broker listings, local context) to search results isjust adding more noise.

I applaud Roost’s attempt to ‘hide’ some of this features but personally I’m still waiting for someone to bring Google-like (or even Cuil-like) simplicity to real estate search results.

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