When I originally started at eppraisal a couple years ago I discussed the idea of creating a service that would allow someone to sell and buy a house online. It would be an end-to-end transaction with all of the documents and tie-ins to vendors that might be needed to make that work. I quickly realized what a challenge that might be.

The Real Estate Journal is reporting on a new real estate web product called RealUmbrella that positions itself as the one-stop-shop for FSBO transactions. My first inclination was to think, “is this a Redfin clone?” It isn’t, it’s much more like that idea I was chomping on back in 2005.

Their basic offering is this: for $349 – $949 you can utilize their services, which will give you a bunch of tools to market your property and will give you all the legal documents to transact a real estate sale online with a buyer in real time – no agent necessary.

Most real estate agents will think this is ludicrous, and many home buyers and sellers will tend to steer clear of this type of a service. That doesn’t matter though. As long as there is a significant enough percentage of people willing to use RealUmbrella, they will do well. It’s a large industry and there is room enough for multiple business types.

Will this disintermediation of real estate agents matter? No more than the general FSBO market already does. The other 98% of the real estate industry can continue doing their own thing, and will continue to do well/not well depending up on their own actions.

Of course their claims use all the normal anti-establishment rhetoric used to garner attention. Understandable and expected. What I want to see is if they can pull it off and if they truly can create a paradigm shift in buyer/seller behavior.

I’m interested in hearing from someone who uses their service, so let me know if you have plans on being a guinea pig for the rest of us!

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Owning the conversation around real estate seems to be a big trend these days. Zillow’s trying to do it with their new release (see Zillow Asks What’s For Sale in your Hood?) and now there’s another competitor on the block, so to speak.

YourStreet.com went live this morning. It’s a site for real estate geeks (of whom I proudly count myself one) to get together and talk about what’s happening in their city. The site covers Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle right now and soon will be adding Boston, Chicago, Dallas, and San Diego into the mix. They hope to be covering the top 50 metro areas in the country by the end of the year. (Hopefully Portland gets in there).

The site was started by a group of CNET veterans and was demo’d at the SFBeta mixer last month; Rafe Needleman mentioned it briefly in his recent post Start-ups in the city. YourStreet uses a bunch of ’social’ features to try and aggregate the local neighborhood knowledge of local residents. Local news articles, forums, blog posts and neighborhood wikis all add to the conversation. Flickr photo feeds from each city liven up the page as well.

Much like mycurrency.com (see My-Currency Wants to Use the Wisest of the Crowds) is trying to do, YourStreet.com is also hoping to tap into the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ to track neighborhood real estate markets. The idea is the people on the ground have an intuitive sense of what’s happening in their neighborhood, so users vote on a scale of 1 to 10 on whether it’s a hot or cool market. The votes are tallied and presented in a color coded graph. Votes are tied to a user’s profile and people can choose to agree or disagree with that opinion, which effectively polices the ratings – I suspect that the more people disagree with a particular ranking, that vote would drop out of the calculation.

I think this is probably the most compelling aspect of YourStreet. It allows anyone to quickly add their voice to the mix in a really fast and easy way. I bet this becomes one of the most popular features on the site. How accurate the Market Monitors actually become is another question altogether.

Real estate professionals are invited to become part of the site and even promote themselves (adding a link to your user profile) as long as you follow the guidelines established in their Good Neighbor Policy.

No sense of how they plan on monetizing the site – not even the ubiquitous Google Ads right now. I think with a few more smart content partnerships (Turnhere’s neighborhood videos for example, or Trulia’s neighborhood data) this site could take on the big Z and turn into a great consumer neighborhood resource.

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Jeff, the Xbroker, has slowly been leaking details of his newest venture, RealEspace, over the last few days. What is RealEspace? Well, no-one really knows just yet, but details are emerging. From a recent post at The XBroker, Jeff describes RealEspace as:

* A Best-of-Breed user interface to search property listings, backed by robust demographical analytics and localized content provided by qualified agents on the ground

* A single point of entry, syndicated listing solution for real estate professionals

* A transparent wholesale mortgage search engine—100% anonymous, automated mortgage pre-qualification

* A mortgage broker network offering true flat-fee, full-disclosure loans—you see what they see

* Standardized video tour production & marketing services

Reading through the list, these are lofty goals and while RealEspace hopes to raise millions in their first round of VC funding (see RSS Pieces) – it’s going be a tough play for them to take on some of the more entrenched players like Zillow or Trulia in the search game.

I do wish them well, and I suspect they have some interesting cards up their sleeve, but it seems to me they’d be best focusing on some of the smaller, under served segments with this push, rather then spreading themselves too thin trying to be everything to everyone right out of the gates.

Personally, like sellsius, I’m most interested in what they can do with a mortgage search engine. I think this is a critically overlooked space right now – one that is screaming out for improvement (can anyone say subprime meltdown?) and has been largely ignored by the Real Estate 2.0 revolution. One that could definitely benefit from Jeff’s experience.

Speaking as someone who is gearing up for a home purchase themselves, I find myself increasingly dissatisfied with all the mortgage tools that exist out there already. I’d love to see a place where I could research the loans available to me, find out what I qualify for and then contact a reputable mortgage broker; rather than having my email address and phone number snatched away from me and resold to some money-grubbing loan shark before I get any answers.

If nothing else I’m looking forward to seeing what these guys can pull off. Especially anything that involves a greased pig.

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Paul at Blogging Systems writes about Bring the Blog (see ‘Bring the Blog’ Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be) today, a new service by BloodhoundBlog contributor and Mortgage Reports Blog owner Dan Green.

Ostensibly, Bring the Blog is a simple blog platform but they take it a step further, they also provide a ghost-writing service – for $300 a year you can get your own real estate blog and not have to lift a finger.

The pitch from their web site:

Every business day, we post new, consumer-focused content to your blog for you. That way, you never have to worry about your blog going “stale” when you don’t have time to write. Heck, you never even have to write at all!

This is not a new idea, K2Bloggers has been offering to write real estate blog posts for a while (see Too Busy To Blog? Pay Someone To Do It For You) – what is surprising however, is that two well known REBloggers, Green and Teresa Boardman from St. Paul Real Estate, would be offering up their writing services so brazenly.

I’m troubled by these types of services, largely because like Paul, I believe the power of blogging hinges in the transparency and authenticity that the medium offers.

Clearly, blogging can be a money making opportunity. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t begrudge anyone the ability to earn a buck off their blogging efforts. (Full disclosure: the meager ad revenue I get from FoREM funds my raging gadget addiction). Paul’s company also sells a competing blogging platform, so even he has an economic interest in getting people to blog.

But there’s a difference between enabling someone to blog, or encouraging them to do it, and then flat out doing it for them.

Of course, one can make the supply and demand argument. These services exist because people want them. In that sense, blog writing services are no different from the essay mills that offer to write your college papers for you (see Slate’s How to buy a good college term paper online). But heck, why stop there? Why not skip college all together and just go buy a degree? Sure would be cheaper.

Shortcuts abound in all areas of life. But should you necessarily take them?

sellsius likens Bring the Blog to “skydiving strapped to someone’s back” – I think that’s being a little Pollyannish.

I doubt very much the people buying this product are going to use it as a way to dip their toes into blogging waters. More likely it’s the people who just want “a blog” with their name on it and don’t care how much it costs.

And, I’m sure Bring the Blog will rope in a few suckers who just want an easy way to jump on the blogging bandwagon. But they are the one’s being fooled. They’re the one’s buying degrees online.

The bigger question, is, just like PayPerPost (for more, see Techcrunch’s PayPerPost.com offers to sell your soul), services like Bring the Blog may be a way to bring short term financial gain to bloggers, but ultimately at what cost?

Are they legal? Sure. Ethical? Borderline. Something I’d get involved with? Absolutely not.

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The guys at Realivent have been doing some really interesting things lately, most recently creating a real estate specific Wordpress theme.

This is an idea that’s been floating around for a while (see Do Single Property Websites Sell Homes?) but it’s nice to see someone stepping up to bat and creating some templates specifically designed to show a property. (And releasing them to the community as well).

If that’s not enough, they’ve also developed a number of widgets and plugins for Wordpress blogs; including featured listing plugin, home search plugin and property watch form, and they’re also using WordPress MU to power a network of individual property blogs.

The idea behind all of these initiatives is to take advantage of Wordpress’ inherent SEO advantages and get the best search engine placement for your listings.

This is a smart idea. Wordpress is by far my favorite blog platform, partly due to its Google friendliness but mainly because of the sheer amount of customization you can do very easily to the software.

Much of the development of these projects is still very early stages, but I definitely think Realivent is on to a winning idea.

P.S. Looking for more Wordpress themes? Check out 83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen from Smashing Magazine

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I took the plunge into 3G recently with the purchase of a Samsung Blackjack. I love it. Having near broadband Internet speeds on my phone means I can check email, catch up on the latest CNN video news, get the latest traffic and weather streamed to me – even catch up on my Google Reader subscriptions if I’ve got some downtime. In a pinch I can even use it as a modem for my Macbook (so no more eyeing sellsius° Rudy’s EVDO setup).

Enough with the geek speak though. Today’s Boston Globe writes about a number of companies that are trying to push banner advertising onto mobile screens and reading this immediately got me thinking once again about mobile technology and the real estate space (see my previous post mRealty: House Shopping by Phone).

Companies like Property4Cell and text-ed.com are already enabling real estate agents to market properties to consumers via SMS. But there doesn’t seem to be an easy way for consumers to search for new homes while out on the road.

House hunting seems to me to be an inherently mobile activity but as yet all of the house hunting options we have require you to root yourself in front of the computer. This strikes me as a pretty large disconnect, especially as the mapping/mashup technology already exists. Google Maps and Microsoft’s Live Search for mobile already make good use of it.

What I’d love to see is a mobile versions of Yahoo! Real Estate or Trulia’s search engine. Something that would allow me to punch in my current location, search criteria and then have it return driving directions to each of the results to me. Maybe even a one-touch ‘click-to-call’ link to instantly connect me to the listing agent. Brad Inman’s call for an open house guide makes even more sense when you throw it into this environment.

Some folks are already trying. Smarter Agent can already show you apartments for rent and recently sold homes and they promise to have homes for sale available this Spring. But I’m not clear where they’re going to be pulling their listings from.

It would also make sense for the local MLS’ to provide this. It may even be a way to allow them to reclaim some of the ground they’ve lost to the Realty.bots (h/t to Greg for the term).

So is mobile house hunting even viable? Anyone else want to see this happen?

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AgencyLogic, the single property website provider, unveiled the latest version of its PowerSites product today, adding free syndication of listings to Trulia, Oodle, Edgeio, PropSmart and Google Base. They’ve also added RSS feeds to their templates so you can begin to aggregate them all back to a central location.

This got me thinking. Single property websites are an interesting question and I go back and forth in my mind on their effectiveness.

On the upside, you can highlight the specific features of the home you’re trying to sell. And for an FSBO, there’s no question that you should have some sort of web presence. Case in point, I recently created a website for my parents, who are trying to sell a condo in Victoria, Canada (BTW, anyone interested in a 2BR/2BA Downtown Victoria Condo?)

I suppose as a point of differentiation over other agents, especially if you’re competing for a high-end, luxury property, then appealing to a seller’s ego and telling them you’ll build them a unique website could secure you that listing. So could telling you’ll put them on television as well, I guess (see Success with Spot Runner?).

Also, if there is some unique characteristic to the home, like the fact it has a 1600sq. ft. subterranean fortress 45′ under the house (now, how cool is that?) – then you definitely need a unique web site to detail its features.

Finally, there are some SEO advantages to maintaining a network of individual property pages – not only for heightening search engine visibility on particular search times, but linking them all back to your main web site may give you a squirt of Google juice.

Back to PowerSites though. I do like their product. Functionally, their sites are pretty decent (for an example, check out www.123anyst.com). But I think they face a big uphill challenge largely due to their price structure.

Tech- savvy Realtors will take one look at the price and scoff. $3000 for 50 sites? I can host 100 domains on a (gs) Grid Server at MediaTemple for $20/month and $8.95 at Godaddy will buy me all the domains I need. Throw up a free Wordpress template for each listing and I’m off and running. (Heck, the guys at Bloodhound Realty are already doing this).

But, if what I just said made your eyes cross slightly, then stay with me – you could still be in the market for what AgencyLogic has to offer.

As a percentage of a commission (especially again, for those high end homes), or if you’re looking for a hand’s off option, AgencyLogic’s prices might be inline; considering they do shoulder the lion’s share of the development.

But, even then, their pricing seems a little out of wack – especially with all kinds of new competitors now offering virtually the same services for free. I’m thinking specifically of Postlets and vFlyer (whom I used to build my parents’ condo site).

In the end however, I think that most agents should focus on getting all their listings on their primary web site first, before they dive into creating single property web sites. Then, on a case by case basis, explore any of the options outlined above.

What are your experiences with single property websites? Are they worth the time and effort?

Update: Read the Tomato’s take on single property websites.

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Matt Goyer digs up a new tool that help you calculate the costs of home ownership. HouseMath 2.0 lets you calculate all the costs associated with your new purchase and gives you a true monthly cost of owning your new home.

Online property searches are evolving quickly and are morphing away from simply displaying listings on a map. Adding the proper context to the data, like Trulia’s heat maps or Oodle’s Index or Shackprices‘ neighborhood suggestions, is the next frontier of real estate online.

I’ve always liked mortgage calculators as part of a listing page – it lets a buyer quickly see if they can afford the property they are looking at. That said, most mortgage calculators only work as function of the term, down payment and interest rate and are therefore not truly reflective of the full cost of home ownership. (Unfortunately, they also tend to quickly crush my fantasies when I see how much that nice 4 bedroom is going to probably going to cost me)

HouseMath aims to fix that. It gives you a very detailed analysis what it’s going to cost you per month to own that home. It even gives you a number of charts so you can see what a buyer can truly afford. It seems to me this could be particularly useful for investors as well.

I can’t testify to it’s accuracy of their calculations as I’m no financial whiz but I’d love to hear what others find out (Noah?)

HouseMath is not live in all cities right now and does not have complete market data for all of its cities (i.e. some cities are limited to condos, or houses).

But, I’d love to see one of the big Real Estate 2.0 guys take look at this and implement it or something similar on their sites. HouseMath is already tied into Zillow’s API, so it would make sense that they could use this to supplement their Zestimates and homes for sale. Dontcha think?

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Redfin relaunched this morning with a brand new mapping interface using Microsoft Virtual Earth platform. They’ve retired the old Flash based maps, which frankly were looking a little long in the tooth.

By moving to the Virtual Earth API, Redfin can now concentrate on building out new features on the site. Redfin’s blog gives a good overview of why they choose to go with Microsoft over Google.

First impressions, I like it, but…

Redfin’s web site now looks like everyone else’s. Rival Seattle-based broker John L. Scott, for instance, uses the same Virtual Earth technology. Now, I never liked the old Flash maps and am happy to see them gone, but the result unfortunately is the new site has a pretty generic feel to it.

The new house icons are a significant improvement over the previously highlighted parcels, but the green house pins feel a little disjointed from the rest of Redfin’s branding – Maybe they should have been red? (They do kind of remind me of the houses in Monopoly though.) Finally, there’s no obvious difference between a single family or multi-family dwelling, something that ShackPrices.com does much more intuitively.

While dropping the proprietary maps surely will save them tons of development costs and frees them up to easily start adding new cities (their website now announces they will be heading into Southern California, Chicago, Boston and Washington DC soon), by jumping on an open API Redfin has lost a significant point of differentiation from its competition.

Arguably they do still have one of the better interfaces of the realty search sites and they continue to add new interesting features (like the ability to instantly chat with a Redfin agent) but the reality is the rest of the industry is quickly catching up.

This means Redfin looks less and less like a pure tech play and will increasingly have to compete on the strength of its business model, which they insist is working.

Ultimately, I believe this is a good thing however, as it’s the business model not their web site that going to sink them or make them a success.

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Transparent Real Estate shows us Neighboroo, a Google maps mashup that overlays all kinds of data onto a heat map. Great looking site and lots of fun to explore. Pat asks what Neighboroo’s business model should be; I think they should license this to brokers for display on their web site – I’d love to have them on ours.

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