In my world, we are all the same.
United by our commonalities, bonded still further by ardent disagreement.
Through tension, debate and collaboration, we rise and evolve.
Chris Brogan, well known in tech/social media circles, has this to offer real estate professionals. He begins with the disclaimer:
I’m not in the real estate biz, so I’ll write this from the perspective of what I’ve observed and what might be useful.
Real estate practitioners have often discounted the opinions of outsiders. But that seems to be changing.
The year 2000. Homegain launches amid considerable controversy that lasts for years. Today, they are woven deep into the fabric of real estate, connecting thousand of practitioners with nearly six million consumers who visit the site each month. They have a flourishing business and provide real opportunities to their members, including the agent who received my business. He would tell you the cost to acquire my transaction was worth it.
The year was 2006. Zillow emerged. While many enjoy the sport of skeet shooting Zillow’s product line, many more have woven Zillow’s cotton lining inside their linen business coats and wear better as a result.
A rainbow collation
One could argue that in the 90′s, the first wave of Internet invaders were made up of dot-com rustlers looking to wrangle consumers away from the traditional real estate coral. By 2002 – high noon – most if not all them were gunned down or run out of town.
Today the landscape sparkles, augmented by a beautiful rainbow forming over yonder. It’s comprised of a pantone chart of vendors, bloggers, thinkers and innovators with new perspectives, deep intelligence and wonderfully fresh offerings. You know some of them — Joel, Dustin , Seth — who join with many others like Jessie, Chuck and other new entrants with cool, new, engaging ideas.
Real estate today. It’s a rainbow coalition of outsiders, insiders, consumers, MBAs, college students, Americans and friends abroad all participating in the construction of a new real estate experience. Not only for themselves, but for everyone.
Join in.
Add your color to the spectrum.
When the bad market storm passes, be part of the rainbow.
My sense is, there’s a pot of gold waiting at the end of it.
- Davison
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Just checked out retrove.com, what an interesting site. Surprised that I never knew about it before. Not sure what to think about it yet. I can see the usefulness of the site, but do not know if consumers will see it easily and if they do how word of the site will spread. Thanks for the link.
btw, I enjoyed your writing on this post, not quite sure how you make real estate tech writing so rich.
Thank you Marc for the mention of retrove with the other sites in your post.
Jonathan, we appreciate you taking a look and the positive comments. We agree that consumers may initially have a difficult time understanding the usefulness of the site, since it’s breaking away from the traditional experience and expectations of a real estate search site.
In the long run we do feel that the comprehensiveness of the search and familiarity of a traditional search engine interface will keep them coming back over and over during their 4-8 month search phase. The issue of real estate sites having incomplete listing inventory seems to be a trend the bloggers and consumers are concerned about and the primary problem we are attempting to solve.
We have not “officially” launched and been operating quietly in beta. We are finalizing the testing on the consumer and agent tools that will help spread the word of the site and when its consumer grade” we will do something a little more official to get the word out. Thanks again and any feedback you have would be appreciated!
Jonathan wrote
"not quite sure how you make real estate tech writing so rich."
I agree Marc is unique. I think I know how Marc does it. He is an artist. Really. As an accomplished guitarist and performer he transfers his music learning and display techniques to real estate. He cares and it comes through in his writing.
Besides he is from New York where stimuli is freely available. Outside the confines of NY, and sequested in an isolated California Central abode, Marc's imagination and creativity provide him with a faux substitute to the daily rich New York active street mosaic.
Marc's pain is our gain.
"Marc's pain is our gain"
Louis, you must be a closet psychologist. Perhaps the "pain" of living this cloistered lifestyle in a remote, republican rich, bible beltish, coastal village that leaves me little outlet for expression has somehow served as a muse.
In any event, I'm inspired knowing that my attempts to spice up tech talk has been noticed by two folks (yourself and Jon) who's ink I myself am drawn too.
Thanks.
Thanks so much, Marc. Just got an email from someone who reads YOU regularly, and decided to follow your link. : )
Cool. Pleasure having you as a guest.
Great piece btw and enjoy your work immensely.
Honored to be part of the rainbow coalition. We are all trying to bring fresh new ideas to the marketplace.