Movoto Grows its Real Estate Reach
Movoto is expanding its services to the Alameda, Contra Costa counties in California. Movoto is a web-based real estate broker, that focuses squarely on the buyers side and aims to offer an advanced search platform to help home shoppers find real estate.
It’s among a small crop of local real estate companies that are radically reshaping their business models around the Internet and more specifically, map based searches. Some of my favorites currently are Blueroof.com (Salt Lake City, UT) and GeniusRealty (Boise, ID).
Many of the big brokers seem reluctant to embrace or clueless about (or both) many of the new technologies (RSS, Mashups, blogs, etc) that are powering Real Estate 2.0.
I think there’s a real opportunity here for a tech-savvy, entrepreneurial agent or broker to go off and create their own home search web site. With a little investment you can create a really compelling home searching experience these days. Couple it with some effective marketing and you could very well capture your local market’s real estate searchers.
Just take a look at some of the sites I mentioned. These guys are leading the way.
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4 Comment(s)
4 Trackback(s)
- From Real Estate Blogs | Jun 8, 2007
- From kebmillard | kebmillard | Nov 30, 1999
- From TRANSPARENT REAL ESTATE (www.TransparentRE.com) | Nov 14, 2006
- From +X.ReadMail+' - mgold@ppmgcorp.com | May 6, 2007
Kevin Boer | Nov 7, 2006 | Reply
Movoto’s site is wickedly Web 2.0-cool, but I really wonder how defensible their technology is? They spent a hefty chunk of change building their site, and have done a commendable job, but in the age of widgets, how long does that advantage last? For $19.95 a month to Realbird, I get search capability on my web site that’s easily 70% as good as Movoto’s.
In the end, I believe what’s going to make or break a Web 2.0 real estate company is primarily its business model, not its technology.
Joel Burslem | Nov 7, 2006 | Reply
You’re right Kevin. Technology is only the first step. As consumers migrate their home searches to the Internet, I believe investment in a usable and friendly web site will pay off in eyeballs. That needs to be followed up with a solid, innovative business model and of course, great customer service.
Michael Price | Nov 8, 2006 | Reply
I couldn’t agree more. Here’s what we know. The business is, and will always remain local. The business is, and will always remain relationship based. The winners will be those that apply a combination of great marketing acumen with consumer centric pricing and service models. Those models may be represented by specific brands within the same organization. It’s interesting to note that the folks doing the best with this combination of skills are all local. Shackyack.Com, Genius, BlueRoof, etc. etc.
Nimble and flexible. Two words that typically do not describe the larger of the players in this industry. I’m guessing they are all taking copius notes though.
Matt Newbill | Nov 8, 2006 | Reply
Thanks for the props Joel.
I would have to agree fully with Michael. The business is local and will always be that way, no matter how much VC money you get. Consumers don’t just expect a flashy website, they are also expecting a high level of service. Service that can come best and easiest from a local company.