Okay, I know I’m already getting a lot of crap from everyone about not spilling the beans on the other thing I posted about. Trust me, just wait for it.
But I’ve got another secret I want to tell you about. Three of your favorite people are putting together a special get together for all of you Cool Cats going to San Francisco for the Inman Conference next week.
The time and location will be revealed in the next few days. You’ll need a password to get to details about the party along with special instructions. For those of you with a Vendor Alley Backstage Pass, you will be able to retrieve the secret password from the Backstage Pass area.
Check back here later this week for more details and information!
This just came on my radar. Looks like a few former vendors got together and have created a niche blog as a “gathering place for women in real estate”.
Sorry for the tease but something big is on the horizon. Most likely the news won’t break until after the Inman Conference but if I’m right this will be an industry game changer.
For those of you with a Vendor Alley “Backstage Pass”, I’ll try and let you know a bit sooner.
Stay tuned.
***Don’t have a Backstage Pass? Email me at vendor.alley at gmail dot com to request one.
Alice from Inman News has the hook up for Vendor Alley readers today.
First up
“No Vendor left behind”
Everyone has that guy/girl in the office that wants to go to Inman this year but because of budget cuts can’t. Well not anymore. Vendor Alley readers who already purchased 2 conference passes can add a third for only $399. That’s over $500 in savings!
So bring them along! They’ve been working hard, and deserve a business trip to San Francisco. They will come back energized and ready to continue to do the work of the 3 other people you laid off last year!!
Contact Madelyn at 510-658-9252 x122 or madelyn at inman dot com to get the deal, make sure you mention Vendor Alley.
Next
“Vendor Cocktail Tables.”
Alice also informs me that they only have 4 demo stations left. Demo stations are cool, just enough room to have a sign, a laptop and still have space for your glass of gin and tonic.
She is going to give Vendor Alley readers first dibs on a super deal. But you have to contact her for details ( hmmmm secret pricing). These won’t last long, contact Alice at 510-658-9252 x124 or allice at inman dot com.
Today Better Homes & Gardens rolled out an update to their BHGRealEstate.com consumer facing website. They have done a superb job and the improvements are markedly better to their previous iteration. One thing Sherry Chris and her team has done very well is the attention to design. The site just screams of quality, and a certain airy lightness to it. Simply gorgeous, and very intuitive.
It is by far the best design of all other Realogy websites.
I did a few searches on the new site and got back few listings, which is understandable since BH&G is still a relatively new franchise. So I went over to BH&G sister company sites from Realogy. I did the same search on each of them: I typed in 92648 and clicked search. Here’s my results.
century21.com => 23 listings found
coldwellbanker.com => 41 listings found
era.com = > 40 listings found
Seemed way low.
So I did a search upon for zip code 92648 on a few other sites.
realtor.com => 373 listings found
remax.com => 404 listings found
roost.com => 339 listings found
Find the listings!
So, on average, (according to my very unscientific test) other real estate portals are showing up to 10 TIMES MORE LISTINGS than Realogy websites. 10 TIMES MORE LISTINGS!!!
Now on some of the these Realogy websites you get a button that says something to the effect of “Would you like to see more listings?”
“Well F-Yeah, I want to see more listings! What’s so special about your listings? And why are you making me jump through more hoops??”
It’s like going to a restaurant to being handed a menu with three entrees, but the menu also includes a quick map to go fetch another menu in the back of the restaurant with more choices.
Would you ever go back to that restaurant again?
And don’t blame IDX, this is not an IDX display issue, it’s an implementation issue.
So, can someone tell me that why in the year 2009, where everyone agrees that close to 90% of homebuyers go to the internet first to search for home, Realogy is still only showing their own listings?
A quote for this special day from one of my favorite American writers.
We are called the nation of inventors. And we are. We could still claim that title and wear its loftiest honors if we had stopped with the first thing we ever invented, which was human liberty.
– Mark Twain
