Zillow released a new homepage design this week.
It’s bold. It’s clear. There’s zero kruft.
A couple of things strike me here:
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Where we’re at
Yes, that’s about where I’d place us seventeen years into this online real estate thing.
The industry has yet to be truly disrupted.
Watch out here they come
WellcomeMat signed a big deal with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World this week.
Companies within the network of about 550 brokerages each get a video channel for their website and some seed videos to begin to populate them. WellcomeMat gets its own “channel” where it can begin to connect its network of videographers to broker clients.
This is a big win for all parties.
As someone who has been banging the real estate video drum for years, I’m encouraged by this development. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I think this year will be a big one for real estate video.
I’ll go out on a limb and speculate a bit, but here’s why I think we’ve finally arrived at a tipping point.
Must Reads
Redfin releases “instant” email alerts
I have broker friends that rib me about being something like a “Redfin-loving xxxx” because of the frequency with which the company is mentioned on this blog.
But here’s the thing: love ‘em or hate ‘em, there’s a lot to learn from their technology efforts. Redfin has the money and high-dollar talent to do things their competitors, who excel at other things, would do well to emulate.
Today’s news: “Instant” email updates.
Rather than waiting a day to send an email listing alert, Redfin will now ping the user within “15 – 30 minutes after a real estate agent lists a home for sale.”
Not too long ago, most MLSs were still updating their brokers and IDX solution providers via behemoth FTP pushes. Now, almost all do this via RETS server.
So there’s no reason, technically, why any broker couldn’t do this.
If I were one of those “any brokers” I’d be on the phone now with my technology vendor asking why this wasn’t done yesterday.
I’ve always believed the email listing alert was the killer online real estate application of the past 15 years. It serves everyone well: the consumer gets exactly what they want, pushed to them; the broker gets distribution and user data; the agent gets leads.
The trouble is, most alert implementations are poor. They get lost amid the “draw a map search, <company name> home hunter, advanced power search” mess most sites sport.
It would be better to clear the decks and focus on the things we know users want.
Waves, snaps and tomorrow’s home search
Flutter is a neat little app for your Mac. It’s in Alpha, so don’t expect too much.
Basically, it lets you control your Spotify or iTunes music player with a single, simple gesture. Wave your hand in front of your notebook’s camera and your music starts playing. Wave it again and the music stops.
Not much to it, right? But, really, it’s pretty eye-opening.
Friday Flash: Rocking the VOW, creative deal-spinning and Pinterest nostalgia
Redfin continues to rock the VOW. Yesterday, the company released what amounts to a consumer-facing CMA app. You enter the subject property, choose comps using MLS data, and get a value range. Familiar stuff.
CEO Glenn Kelman positioned this against the Zestimate, which I understand. But he also suggested this tool would let consumers do more or less what Realtors do to price properties, which I do not buy.
Zillow hires Jay Thompson, ups the stakes in talent war
Zillow has hired Jay Thompson.
Jay’s an Arizona broker and a prolific, smart and well-respected blogger. But you probably knew that.
Congrats to Jay, and to Zillow. It’s a good match.
The bigger picture here is that in the face of industry angst toward the “big 3″ online real estate sites, there’s a bit of a talent war going on. Expect to see more moves like this in the coming months.
Zillow has won the first battle in this war. Combined with the hiring of former ARMLS CEO Bob Bemis last month, they now have two of the most well-known – and, from and industry relations perspective, reasonable - people in the business in their corner.
It’s a good thing, really. If we’re going to settle into a place where the industry and the online players feel their relationship is win-win – and I think we must – then having more folks like Jay and Bob invested in making that happen is a good thing.
It’s 2012: does anyone want an “e-pro?”
So I have been thinking about designations lately in relation to a couple projects we’re working on.
And one keeps sticking in my craw:
What the new iPad means for real estate
A couple of thoughts on Appe’s new iPad, which was announced today and will be available for purchase March 16th.
Start rethinking your real estate website for high resolution screens
The iPad is now shipping with an insane 2048 x 1536 resolution Retina screen. That means the pixels on the tablet’s screen will be virtually indistinguishable to the human eye. To put it in another context, this is a higher resolution than even that 1080p HDTV set you have in your living room sports.
It’s going to make nearly every real estate website out there look, well, pretty fuzzy. Ever tried to watch a standard definition TV signal on your HDTV – looks pretty horrific, right?
Online real estate grows up
“Our little baby’s all growed’s up…”
- Trent Walker, Swingers, 1996
Sure seems like a different world out there now.
Back in 2006, when I started writing the Future of Real Estate Marketing blog, there was a palpable sense that big change was happening in online real estate. Real estate 2.0 was the buzzword of the day.
Zillow, Trulia, Redfin and a slew of other VC-funded swingers had just come hard-charging into the space, full of swagger and bravado.
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