Guest Blogger, Mike Bowler, Sr. has been in the real estate business (Lansing, MI) for the past 32 years. During that time he’s educated and consulted hundreds of REALTORS. Mike is a former owner; broker of Coldwell Banker Bowler Real Estate and is currently an Associate Broker for Coldwell Banker Hubbell Briarwood in Lansing Michigan, who bought his company in 2001. He also owns his own company PRETEC (Professional Resources, E-Business, Technology, Education, & Consulting) and is an avid fan of social media in the workplace. Mike was named in 2009’s Top 25 Most Connected Real Estate Professionals by PROXIO and selected by Inman News as one of the 50 Most Influential Online.

The real estate industry is in a constant state of evolution and changes every day with technology, regulation changes, and economic challenges, never experienced by most of us in the real estate business.  You can either bury your head in the sand or dig in and get on this exciting train ride. I choose to ride it out and continue becoming educated by some of the best resources I have witnessed over the past 32 years.

When our industry gets lax in education, it contributes to the lack of professionalism, our growth as REALTORS, and affects how competitive we as real estate agents will be in the coming years.  I really believe that adapting and learning new ways to do business will help brokers, managers, and agents stay ahead of the knowledge curve and strengthen our ability to survive this paradigm shift.

Who would have thought a few years back that:

• Move would be acquiring Threewide (ListHub) providing a huge syndication for Listings (See Inman News story)
• RPR – REALTORS Property Resources would be formed and providing 98% of the nations property data (For those who have it)
• That YouTube would be the number 2 search engine
  • That Facebook would have 500,000,000 members, the average user would have 130 friends and People would spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
  • That approximately 2.5 million foreclosures would be in the process, and another 2.5 million mortgages would be 90-plus days delinquent.

Yes, we are in a whole new era of education for REALTORS, with short sale designations, foreclosure classes, green designations, new mortgage regulations, classes on how to work with your ancillary related businesses like appraisers, mold technicians, home inspectors, and of course loss mitigation.  The sampling of changes above are just a small portion of drastic game changing events that any REALTOR, who has an interest in being a player for the future of real estate, must be aware of.

So where do we begin?

Professional development, learning new trends, and adapting to a more complex industry are musts for brokers, sales managers, and real estate agents. This also includes ancillary businesses like appraisers, mortgage originators, and title companies that have experienced massive change. My point is that as professionals we must adapt to new business strategies that enhance our knowledge, give quality service, and meet the demands of the e-consumer. We Must Raise the Bar!

Here’s a Place to Begin at Zero or Little Cost:

Right Tools Right Now
Agent Reboot™
Real Estate BarCamps
REALTOR University
Your Local Association, Company and Professional Educators

Setup Google Reader and Subscribe to the following sites:

Future of Real Estate Marketing
Mashable
Inman News
RISMedia
Realty Times
My Tech Opinion
Trulia Blog
Zillow Blog

I could go on and list many other avenues to education, however this list will help you grow your own list of favorite places to learn. Developing an edge in today’s market requires that real estate practitioners be proficient in Blogging, social media, search engine marketing, and how to work with the e-consumer once they contact you.

It is imperative that those real estate professionals who have come through this challenging market be fully prepared to take advantage of new steady growth that will be forthcoming. My point is that our industry needs to step up to the plate and sharpen our competitive edge by using good old fashion service integrated with new technology. Consumers drive the industry and have always driven it, however today they are looking online first. Are they finding you when they go to Google, Yahoo or Bing? If not, you owe it to your family, company, and yourself to get on board and learn this business all over again. All this is part of your newfound professional development, learning new trends, and adapting to a more complex industry.

Please share your strategies for staying abreast of the current trends in real estate.

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Augmented Reality (AR) is definitely one of the hot new mobile technologies right now. Augmented reality, simply put, is the layering of data on top of the visual output from a smartphone’s camera. This has big implications for all kinds of local search tools, but particularly in real estate.

Layar is a European company that has developed a platform that helps developers customize and build these data layers (see Layar MARS Browser Supplements Reality on Sellsius blog).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkPHDMVxKn0[/youtube]

Called their Reality Browser, it has already been used by French company MeilleurAgents.com to create a layer that displays realtime property valuations in Paris (see Augmented Reality Real Estate Valuations).

The big news this week however, is that Layar is now available in the iTunes Store (Download Link) for the iPhone 3GS handset; which will potentially take this application to a huge new market.

As consumer awareness grows of AR, I’ll bet we’ll see many more innovative uses of this technology in the months to come.

In fact, an article in the latest issue of Fast Company reports that Trulia has already developed a layer for Layar’s Reality browser. The app will “overlay listings on top of a Google phone’s camera view. Scan a neighborhood’s available properties and even connect with the realtors.” (emphasis added)

Coming soon to an iPhone near you?

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Congrats to Trulia for winning the 2009 Webby award in the real estate category. This is nice recognition for the Bay-Area company, but they still have a ways to go to catch up its nearest competitors.

Traffic to all the major portals seems to be ticking up after a pretty miserable 4th Quarter all around. Trulia sits third, while Zillow looks to taking a remarkable run at knocking Realtor.com off the top spot.

Congrats also to the folks at Hotpads who won the People’s Choice Webby this year.

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I was out sick for most of last week so rather than regurgitate a bunch of old news; here’s a quick summary of the reaction to some of the bigger stories.

Redfin’s New (Old) Business Model

Redfin launched a referral-based business model that allows them to expand in to new markets. They also add data-rich review pages on all their agents.

Tech Crunch – Redfin Rolls Out The Welcome Mat For Foes Amidst Real Estate Crisis

With the real estate market contracting and credit tightening, Redfin has been forced to reconsider its business model. It seems that these partnerships with real estate agents was necessary for Redfin to expand throughout the country without having to hire more agents.

Redfin Corporate Blog – Redfin Creates a Marketplace for Agents

Sure, these guys work for traditional brokers like Century 21, Prudential, and Coldwell Banker, but they’re progressive: as part of the program, they agreed always to put the customer first, to let us publish all sorts of data about their performance — and to refund part of their commission too.

TechFlash – Once arch enemies, Redfin partners with real estate agents

The concept is not new. In fact, Seattle area companies such as Estately and Market Leader (Formerly HouseValues. Note: post has been updated to reflect the company’s current name) also earn money through agent referrals. But the program is a big switch for Redfin, which has always touted the customer service focus of its agents.

Rain City Guide – Redfin Circles Back to an Old Biz Model…

this is a business model that they’ve tried in the past… and it failed miserably the first time.

The Notorious R.O.B. – Redfin Transforms: The End of the Beginning?

Redfin was the pioneer of a new model, centered around a fantastic website, direct consumer engagement, and a novel refund concept. Their obsession with transparency, truly excellent user experience online, and “freakish depth” was the precursor to what the brokerage of the future might look like.

That chapter, I think, now comes to a close. The new real estate companies have found that they cannot make money directly from consumers.

Bottom line?

It sure does look like Redfin is getting back into the lead-gen game. But I think this a smart move for them. It’s a quick and easy way for them to ramp up service in areas they don’t already serve. And heck, why reinvent the wheel?

They already have the best search experience on the web (hands down) and this is the best way for them to leverage that asset.

Will it succeed? Who knows. But the agent reviews rock.

Trulia Takes On HomeFinder

Fresh from it’s recent dust up with Realtor.com (see Take the Trulia Challenge), Trulia seems to be picking a fight with another industry giant. This time it’s Classified Ventures Inc’s HomeFinder (formerly HomeScape) and last week Trulia snagged a crown jewel by snatching the Washington Post away from them.

Inman News – Trulia to power WashingtonPost.com searches

The Washington Post hopes a new partnership with Trulia will help the newspaper’s Web site become the “definitive source” for real estate information in and around the nation’s capital.

Local Onliner – Real Estate Coup: The Washington Post Quits HomeFinder for Trulia

The move from a Classified Ventures, Inc. (CVI) product is somewhat surprising, in part because The Washington Post Co. is a CVI shareholder, along with several other newspaper companies.

VentureBeat – Real estate sites like Trulia see record traffic and revenue

It’s yet another sign newspapers haven’t been able to figure out how to manage their once-lucrative classifieds offerings themselves. They’re dependent on startups like Trulia to do the work for them.

Bottom line?

Newspapers have, overall, done a pretty crappy job of creating a compelling online experience for consumers to replace their dead tree Sunday real estate sections.

More importantly however, they’ve done even less to attract the real estate advertising dollars that are fleeing print.

Now they’re desperate to claw back even a little bit of that revenue and help with their hemorrhaging budgets and Trulia’s offering stems the bleeding just a tiny bit.

At least it buys them a little time to figure out what they’re going to do. And they can’t beat the price (free).

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Agents can now change the linked web site of their listings on Trulia to their own web site.

A common request from agents on Trulia.com is to change the linked web site for their listings, so the listing points to their own web sites. When we receive multiple listing submissions for a property, we aggregate the listings together, and display the highest priority source. Usually, this is a franchise or broker submission.

With a Trulia Pro subscription, you can change the web site linked to your Trulia.com listings. When some one clicks for more information about the property, you can redirect them to your own web site, and get more traffic to your site, as well as your other listings.

[Emphasis added]

I think this is a sign that The Notorious R.O.B. might be on to something.

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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 property listings (most of which are pulled from its relationships with real estate brokers). Inventory is admittedly incomplete, but it’ll give you a good sense of the trajectories of the local markets.

Cyberhomes.com

Cyberhomes, on the other hand, gets its data from its records on over
100 million US properties. Their neighborhood overviews are a little slow to load but can give you a overview of what a zip code is doing and see the overall direction of the market.

Get the Big Picture?

Altos Research

Altos reports are real time market intelligence that deep dive in to what’s really going on in your market, right now. As a buyer, you can also get a snapshot of the trends in any given market. Altos founder Mike Simonsen claims their reports lead the Case/Shiller Index by three months.

Foreclosures

Understanding the volume of foreclosures, bank owned properties and auctions that are hitting your is key to gauging where prices might be headed in your local market.

RealtyTrac

The 800lb gorilla in the foreclosure space. RealtyTrac has a fantastic amount of information despite a clunky web site. There is a monthly charge to have access to this data – but it’s well worth it, especially if you’re looking at these opportunities seriously.

ForeclosureRadar.com

California buyers may want to look at ForeclosureRadar, a “professional grade” search tool that tracks all foreclosure activity in the state. Designed mostly for Realtors and investors, it’s a fantastic tool that gives you unparalleled data and analysis. Too bad it’s not available outside of the Golden State, yet.

Bonus – Find Homes on Auction

Also, if you’re interested in getting homes at auction, check out Zetabid.com. Right now they are running auctions in California, Florida and Illinois.

Trulia, Cyberhomes, Altos, RealtyTrac, ForeclosureRadar

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photo by paulhitz

A weak dollar and fire sale prices have all led to strong interest in US real estate market by foreign buyers.

Whether it’s Russian oil billionaires in Manhattan, Asian buyers on the West Coast or Canadians seeking warmer climes in Phoenix, international investors are eying US properties these days and US Realtors are perking up to that demand.

Trulia, which has enjoys decent international traffic, is now making an active push to help those agents reach those potential buyers (see How Can I Reach out to International Home Buyers?).

In principal this is not terribly unique, since most ad platforms offer
some sort of geo-targeting capability. As an advertiser on Trulia you can now opt to display specific ads only to Trulia’s international visitors.

For example, a San Francisco based Realtor might want to run a Chinese language ad to Chinese visitors or, alternatively, a Phoenix based Realtor might want to run a Beer and Hockey themed ad to Canadian visitors. (Go ‘nucks!)

The real challenge is going to be get the right messaging and in many cases, get the advertisement and listing information translated into the appropriate. Immobel is one company that offers translation services for real estate.

I think it’s smart for Trulia to position themselves as US based alternative for Realtors looking to market overseas.

There are other international-based options out there (GlobalEdge maintains a great list and so does Simon Baker’s Property Portal Watch) but this is the first dedicated effort I’ve seen by a local portal to tap that need.

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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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Photo by Tracy O

Simmering resentment over Trulia’s SEO practices (see Trulia Caught Cloaking Red Handed) hasn’t stopped the search site from landing another $15 million in funding.

Deep Fork Capital LLC led the financing to top up Trulia’s reserves; Trulia’s other investors Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Fayez Sarofim & Co. also participated.

In the statement, Trulia co-founder and CEO Pete Flint said… well, he didn’t say all that much really…

“This additional capital will help us take advantage of this opportunity and continue our accelerated growth. This market is also a unique time to help real estate brokers and agents transition their marketing efforts and services online. In the coming year, we plan to roll out world-class products that will continue to transform the online real estate experience.”

Also found in the release – Trulia claimed it has:

• Approximately 5 million unique users
• 100,000 real estate professionals as registered users
• More than 3 million real estate listings nationwide
• Over 70 million property records providing constantly-updated comparable sales

Trulia has now raised $33 million since it launched. That’s big money – so somebody definitely thinks there’s a payoff somewhere to be had. The only question is from where?

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Trulia continues on its quest for revenue by adding Trulia Pro today – a new ad platform for agents looking to create a quick and easy ad for themselves on Trulia’s search pages.

The package (which runs $39 a month) gives you unlimited “Feature Listings” (meaning participants get their listings floated to the top of the search results) and unlimited Local Spotlight Ads – Trulia’s new take on self-service ad concept.

Trulia CEO Pete Flint gave me a demo of the system recently and it looked pretty straightforward. Ads are easy enough to create (in fact, if you have a profile on Trulia already it’ll prepopulate the ad with your photo). You can add a tagline and a URL to your web site or blog (no-follow’d, natch).

When buying your ads you can pick to have them run in zip codes, neighborhood or cities. You can choose up to 20 locations when checking out (and change them later on if you want to tweak the campaign). Ads show up on Trulia’s search results pages, mid way down the right column.

Nothing terribly new here; Zillow already has its EZ Ads pay-as-you-go platform and Realtor.com has long offered up geographic regions to own. Trulia’s twist is they are offering unlimited impressions – so you’re not paying for a set amount of views. They’re throwing all the pageviews into a bucket and divvying them up according to how many people are wanting to be there.

(It is proportional however, meaning those who have fewer locations overall get more impressions in the areas they have chosen to mark.)

Flint made a good point when I spoke with him that fortune will favor the early adopters – the more people piling into the mix later on means the fewer impressions go around. If you get in early, right now you can own a city – for a while at least. Portland Real Estate is up for grabs, for example.

And Trulia is definitely trying to goose this out of the gates and poach some ad dollars from from their competitors by offering a Trulia Pro promo for the first three months free for current EZ Ad or Realtor.com advertisers.

My biggest concern with the ads however, is the placement on the page is poor so I doubt it draw many eyeballs beyond the initial curiosity phase. Past that, I’m also not sure how many home buyers will actually click through on any of the ads, making the ROI questionable in the long run even with the low monthly costs.

It’ll be interesting to see and hear what people’s experiences are running Local Spotlight ads. And, for that matter, any of the other self-service ad platforms that exist out there already.

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