Cyberhomes Looks to the Future for Salvation
Like it or not, Cyberhomes just really hasn’t caught on like some of it other contemporaries. Technically it’s a very competent site and one that I’ve always thought was definitely under-recognized. But even I’m guilty myself of forgetting it’s out there somedays.
Part of the problem may be the disjointed approach it has taken to its product over the years – CH has had more homepage redesigns than any other site I know – but it may also just be that it has never really found a good niche to corner. Property valuations, Zillow’s got them licked. Likewise Trulia with search experience, Realtor.com with depth of listings. And Frontdoor’s got them beat editorially.
To date, I hate to say it, there never really was a good reason to go to Cyberhomes.
But they launched a new service last week that might just turn that around.
Called the Market Forecast, Cyberhomes now promises to help you understand where your local market is heading. The report uses Cyberhomes’ unique access to its parent Fidelity’s data on over 40 million loans, and layers on top of that all of its property records and other data sources.
So for only $3.99 you can order a 12-month real estate market forecast and housing supply projection, one that includes “delinquency and foreclosure trends, a 12-month value projection and summary information about the subject property”.
Brilliant.
I think this could just be the tipping point for a turn around in Cyberhomes’ fortunes. Forget about the past and look to the future (literally). Especially if they can focus 100% of its marketing efforts towards branding the site as THE destination to go and get the answers to the two most burning questions today; should I sell or should I buy?
There’s their niche.
This could be a winner in my books. Best part is – there is a real revenue model behind this too. Shocking I know. But premium reports can be a real money maker.
Nevertheless, I suspect Cyberhomes has a very short window to execute on this. The other players can reproduce much of what they’ve done and will certainly do so if Cyberhomes starts selling lots of these reports.
So come on Cyberhomes, there’s no time like the present to change the future.
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dumb and dumber | Jun 2, 2009 | Reply
from the sample report I don’t see anything I couldn’t from other websites, like zillow.com.
With my $3.99/$9.99 purchase, does it come with any guarantee?
I think it is a pretty dumb idea to charge people for usage of a fourtune telling program.
Mike Hale | Jun 2, 2009 | Reply
The full report has some good info on it. FRom the sample, it seems like it’s mostly info you can find elsewhere, but there’s some value to having it all organized in one place. If they were charging the $3.99 for this report, it’d probably be worth it.
But the “market forecast”? There’s zero value in that. Zillow can’t even get *current* values accurate on a consistent level! There’s no backtesting of historical data to show if their projections have any reliability whatsoever.
This may make some good money for CyberHomes, but I jsut don’t see any real value in the “predictions”
A Little Birdie | Jun 4, 2009 | Reply
Salvation? I’ve heard rumors that they CH is dead, folks are moving on and that they are on the block. Can you substantiate?
Rob Hahn | Jun 6, 2009 | Reply
Joel -
I saw that “Market Forecast” announcement as well, and my first thought was, “Really?” Second thought was, “Hrm, liability….” That’s probably the whole legal training thing.
In any event, I don’t think that’s where their niche really is, although I do see your point. If I were Cyberhomes, I’d really take a stronger look at Loopnet’s whole model, specifically LoopLink.
-rsh
John Wake | Jun 8, 2009 | Reply
I always thought CH was brilliant techically. Well done, programmers!
But their strategies for monetizing the product were, um, bad. Just lame stuff.
I figured they would eventually hit upon a winning monetization strategy but I guess not.
The programmers got them to 3rd base but the business managers couldn’t bring them home.
Reggie from Cyberhomes | Jun 8, 2009 | Reply
@dumb and dumber: The Market Forecast report is not built from public records data outside of the initial valuation and the sales history grid. So you will not find the same data on Zillow as you mention. Rather this report is built off a very unique database of credit information, loan repayment data, delinquencies and foreclosures.
@Mike Hale – Check out page 2 of the report for the market trends matrix
@John Wake – brilliant technically…thank you. I’ll past that on to the programmers.
I want you to know that we’re always working on new ways to get our name out and of monetize the product. But we do not want to sacrifice the user experience…that’s very important to us.
Market Forecast is the perfect example of ways we can deliver increased value for the consumer with a small premium attached. We’re in a very unique position to create this report and believe we’ve placed the report at a price point everyone will appreciate. Our initial feedback is very positive.