Archive for November, 2008

Virtual Real Estate Makes a Come Back

I got my beta invite to PlayStation Home last night. Home, for those of you who don’t have a PS3, is Sony’s attempt to create a 3D environment where gamers can congregate and connect with each other. Much like Second Life, Home lets you create an Avatar, sets you up with you an apartment and [...]

The Future of Real Estate

My employer Inman News has embarked on a major editorial project over the next few months focusing on the future of the real estate industry.
I’d love to hear from FOREM readers what they think that might look like. You’ll score a pass to the upcoming Real Estate Connect conference in New York for your efforts.
We [...]

Sponsor Shout Out: Real Pro Systems

A big thanks to Real Pro Systems for supporting FOREM this month.
Real Pro specializes in web sites and marketing solutions for the real estate industry and have a pretty comprehensive internet marketing solution for Realtors. Their Gold3 package includes a web site, blog and all kinds of integrated lead cultivation and drip marketing tools designed [...]

Estately Expands Eastwards

One of my favorite online real estate search tools, Estately expanded in to two new markets today; Greater Chicago and Long Island, New York. This marks the first markets outside of the West Coast for the Seattle based search site — Estately previously only served Washington, Oregon and California.
This means Estately, which pulls all of [...]

These Are The Photos in Your Neighborhood

Neighborhood boundaries are a fluid thing. My definition what encompasses my neighborhood (Multnomah Village in Portland) may vary greatly from the person across street.
It’s also one of the Holy Grails to online search. The ability to confine a search to a particular neighborhood. Roost does this particularly well, as does Estately and to a lesser [...]

New Face for Windermere

Taking a page from the its search portal cousins and perhaps even its cross-town competitor Redfin, the new Windermere web site launched today, with a simple search box up front and center. Simple, slick and straight to the point.
Broker web pages are often cluttered with all kinds of extraneous information; programs on this and that. [...]

5 Great Sites to Help You Better Understand This Crazy Market

For real estate buyers right now it’s a crazy time. The fear of making the wrong decision can be paralyzing at times, so having access to information is critical.
I thought I’d share some of the tools I’ve been using in my own search.
What’s Happening on the Ground?

Trulia.com
Trulia generates its reports from its internal database of [...]

MRIS Takes on the Search Sites

MRIS, the MLS which covers DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the Virginias and is the nation’s largest MLS, today launched HomesDatabase 2.0, its new public-facing web site.
It’s a pretty impressive effort. HomeDatabase takes its design cues from some of the big listing portals (Zillow and Trulia) but merges it with the extensive listing data available from [...]

Lat49 Lets You Monetize Your Maps

Got a map based real estate site? Vancouver-based lat49 lets you monetize that asset with its geo-targeted advertising network.
It’s pretty simple really, as a publisher you simply sign up to join their network, incorporate their API and then begin earning ad revenue passively. Think of it like Google Adsense for maps.
It raises the possibility for [...]

HouseValues Retools as Market Leader

HouseValues (SOLD), the 10 year-old lead generation company, shed it’s skin this morning and repositioned itself as a marketing and technology solutions company.
The new company is going to be called Market Leader and brings together a number of HouseValues’ recent acquisitions, including RealtyGenerator web site and CRM tool, under a new roof. They also have [...]