Brian wrote this toward the very end of December 2007. I remember both of us flying down to Los Angeles (each from different destinations), meeting at the airport and grabbing a cab to meet with a client. We were throwing ideas around and before long we realized the cabbie was completely lost. In the few minutes I spent trying to get the cabbie back on track with the directions we had, Brian hatched this idea and presented it to me. It was one of those moments when I wished we still had our tech company so we could build an app that enabled our customers to do this. I loved this idea then, and I still love it today. …Marc
On Friday, Davison and I gave a presentation to a group of top producers at a large real estate company here in the Bay Area. At these things, I usually play Ed McMahon to Marc's Johnny (minus the pre-show hi-balls). I keep things moving and laugh at all the jokes.
But this time I wanted to take a few minutes to share an idea I had with the crowd. I offer it for your evaluation below.
I've been thinking that if I were to sell real estate in my neighborhood, one of the things I would do would be to create a comprehensive database of images, sales histories and notes on every single home in the neighborhood (in my case, about 1,200 homes).
In other words, I'd create my own private Zillow or Trulia — or, really, something even more valuable to my clients and prospects. Maybe I'd call it Zulia.
The data would be impeccably accurate, the images would be clear street level views, and it would be frequently and meaningfully updated. Each home would have its own page. Heck, I could even run this on WordPress. Every home would be a post.
But — and the real value would lie herein — all of the data, all of the images, would be complemented by my own assessment of the home. This might include observations taken on a broker tour at some point in the past ("next door neighbor raises German Shepards"; "living room gets very little light in winter"), or notes on sales prices that would make such data much more meaningful than a list of out-of-context comps. I might, for example, note that an unusually low sales price could be attributed an out of area listing agent, not a marker of a market shift.
This database could be used in a couple different ways. I could either use it as a tool for myself and my clients and keep it password protected. It would be helpful in discovering buyer preferences or helping shape sellers' perception of their home's value. Or I could leave it wide open.
Either way, I'd be using the Web to leverage my valuable experience and knowledge in a new way that would help clients and differentiate me from every other agent in my neighborhood with a stack full of comps from the MLS.
The agents in attendance liked the idea. But in reality, most were selling super high-end homes and don't get their fingernails dirty in the nitty gritty of technology. With a more time and effort, this could even be done at a brokerage level.
Your thoughts?
– Brian Boero
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Very profound idea, Brian.
It's really whoever implements this idea first (the fastest) that will become remarkable.
I'm just trying to figure out a way to get this process streamlined. I don't think too many homeowners would want to take out the time to take pictures of their own property and upload it unless they're selling the home, and in the long term, the clause of "information deemed accurate but not guaranteed" would really come into play.
possibly a great idea. The minor problem i see is that amount of work that would require.
but the amount of seo that would give you could be tremendously valuable.
you could have
http://www.mysite.com/address1
http://www.mysite.com/address2
talk about a crap load of possibly valuable contect
even if you were to do 2 properties a day that would take almost 2 years
I'm doing something similar. I'm not an agent, decided that I could be my own Zillow if I focused on a small enough market. Most RE-Agents have hyper-localized prospect markets. My idea id to work within a hyper-focused niche. Modern Homes here in Denver.
I've taken about 1500 pictures in the last few weeks. Photographing a neighbor takes time, but then all the pictures are yours. The only unexpected difficulty was the surprisingly bad look I've had at visiting a neighborhood on trash day.
The pictures themselves are named after the properties address. Google looks for images as well you know.
The beauty of a blog is that you can add a little bit of data, every day. Like eating an elephant one bite at a time. I'm enlisting the help of RE agents by letting them post information and pictures about their listings for free. MLS and static web site listing data goes away. But it's a massive long tail for me.
It will be a lot of work, but I'll be the premiere resource for all things modern in Denver.
huh. Sounds like a ton of work- not sure if it's worth the payoff. Great idea tho! The value would be searchability within the site. To be valuable, you would have to incorporate a 'Master Map' where you could get an overview of the area. I'd want to be able to search specific properties/parameters (size, year built, levels, pools, etc etc). Again, might be a ton of work to re-create the MLS, but, just might be worth the payoff.
I heard Greg Swann / BHB cite almost the very same kind of system… I think it's a a matter of time and $$
Ideas which require time and money are my favorites. It almost guarantees that your competition won't do them.
It's a great idea. Taking the time to closely examine each new listing in your area could be a great help on the listing appointment within a few months.
"Ideas which require time and money are my favorites. It almost guarantees that your competition won't do them."
Norm's response is very valid, but really the main question is, how much benefit will this painstaking process provide for the 1st year? 3rd year? 5th year?
So after 5 years, do you have to start the documentation all over again? That'll be a major turnoff.
I like the idea and agree that it would be a fair amount of work. Making the software to make it easy is a great opportunity for a techie-company though.
I love the idea. I already have a handyman that I pay hourly. I will have him take some pics when things are slow. It will be easy enough to have a system of how the photos will be taken etc. He can do two every time one of the house and one of the address just like a bpo. Then I will know which one it is when I load it. Already he is making me money so this should be gravy.
The idea is great and it would only cost you a few hundred thousand dollars so I think you should go ahead a and implement it! You'd be the next famous Real Estate mogul.
We've built a tool like this at Z57 and provide it to agents. We teach them how to market it both offline and online as their own "Zillow" like feature – and how to use it on conjunction with IDX.
The tool is called "Insta-Compare", and we're powering it with County Historical data records like Zillow does.
We have thousands of agents using it, and they get 700% more lead capture on this form than any other form in our websites with the exception of the IDX search.
Some of the ideas shared here are good enhancements for us to look at adding as evolve the tool.
To try it out – visit my demo website and click Instant Home Valuation.
I call it Zestifarming, after the Zestimate. The pics are the barrier to entry. Photography is pretty much precluded at this time of the year due to decorations.
I want to do something like this in my marketplace with new condo developments. Map-based, seachable/sortable, and with long-tail stats, photos, info, etc. on each development. Building the database is the hardest part. Imagine the potential of adding VIDEO to this equation too. could be awesome. if anyone wants to help me out, contact me via my webpage.
Hi Brian,
Your concept sounds similar to what we have just launched Down Under. The computer algorithm(s) are used to automatically match the subject property with 6 ‘like’ recent sales. The user then adjusts for the quality differences as per your post “complemented by my own assessment of the home”.
It’s all built and now in production within Australia. If any reader would like to learn more visit http://www.pricefinder.com.au or view the user-guide at Slideshare (www.slideshare.net/pricefinder). Our original design incorporated sliders with the objective of improving the residual error and making the estimate more accurate. What we did not plan for was how addictive the user interaction would become and the various ways the system could be used e.g. What-if analysis for renovations. What also helps it work well for us in Australia is the high coverage of Google Street View.
I would be happy to talk to anyone who wants to leverage what we have built using your own instances of Virtual Earth or Google Street View and listings/sales data. We own 100% of the IP and have spent 2 years refining the model. A demo can be set up within a few days as a proof of concept.
[...] Bing maps and Google maps integrate Flickr. The Google Maps API was a foundational component of online real estate’s second wave of innovation. Now you can mix all its power with Flickr, the flexible and powerful photo sharing service. Think about this: You’re looking at a street view photo a house; layered on top of that view is a photo or photos showing you interior shots. Or, say you want to display a photo guide to a neighborhood on your site. Super easy, super cool. This makes me think of an idea I had a couple years ago, Zulia. [...]