Power Tools on Technology

Amazon, Microsoft, and a number of other Internet powerhouses make Seattle their home. Might the next big thing in online homebuying emerge from the West Coast city, too? Already garnering praise from homebuyers in Washington State and California, Seattle-based Redfin is taking its successful business model national, with new offices opening soon in Boston, Chicago, and Washington, DC.

Redfin lets buyers do their own shopping with tools to help them research and find the home they'd like to buy, then offers the services of a real estate agent to assist in making a formal offer, negotiating the deal, lining up inspections and coordinating the closing. The company rewards Web-savvy buyers for their work with a rebate. By letting buyers find the property they want and letting agents handle the transaction details, Redfin hopes to bring changes to the real estate industry. The company is barely a year old, and already "[o]ur numbers have gone from zero percent market share to about 2 percent [in the Seattle area]," CEO Glenn Kelman told the Seattle Times. "That's insignificant, but time is on our side."

Posted on February 26 at 10:11 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (0)

Both consumers and real estate professionals are flocking to the Web, employing new technologies to find, buy, sell, and market property. BtoB, a magazine for the marketing industry, believes direct marketers can learn some things from the real estate business and its use of videos, RSS, blogs, and other Web features. "Make an emotional connection," "Build relationships," and "Dare to dream" are among the five top tips explored in BtoB's article. One central theme tying the five tips together is learning to adapt to new technologies. "“One day someone will be driving through a neighborhood and they’ll see a sign with a podcast URL. A few minutes later they could be sitting in front of the property, watching a video tour on their cell phone. We want to be ready for that … and make sure we’re adapting to accommodate it,” said one real estate executive.

Posted on February 23 at 11:31 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (0)

Are blogs poised to become the next big thing in real estate? According to a Chicago Tribune report on a recent symposium on real estate technology, experts are predicting that in 2007 "real estate bloggers would at last depart from the tried-and-true formula of offering just home listings and common-sense home-sale advice and instead swing toward personalization to cultivate an image of authority and trustworthiness.

But real estate professionals are only just beginning to see the benefits of blogging. A blog requires a certain amount of time and effort to work well, keeping many time-squeezed agents on the sidelines. "You have to be blogging consistently for six months to a year, with good content, not just boilerplate, to generate transactions," one agent told the Tribune. Those who persist and find ways to make their blog interesting claim the technology can generate clients and more sales.

Blogs are just one of several technologies making inroads in real estate marketing, says NAR chief technology officer Mark Lesswing. "What we're going to see goes beyond listings," he said in the International Herald Tribune recently. "We'll see blogs take off, maps take off, research-driven things like trends in the market, more tools on social networks."

Posted on February 5 at 11:38 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (2)