Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Lead Ambiguity

One of the favorite vendor pastimes is trying to solve “the big problems” in online real estate today. This happens in hallway conversations, lobby bars, or big plush chairs in hotel lobbies. One of the biggest topics is the fact that most agents don’t respond to leads. Who cares if your site has tons of traffic, if the leads it generates don’t get responded to? And if you are selling products to agents that claim to generate leads then you have a bigger problem. Retention.

Typically the conversation ends in a head shake, a swirl of the adult beverage you’ve been sipping on, and the muttering…

“Stupid agents”.

I got a call from Dave Howe from MetroList Services in Sacramento. Dave has been in the MLS business longer than most. He’s seen vendors come and go through his market for many, many, years. I fondly call him the “hardest working man in the MLS business”. Anyway Dave wanted to chat and said to me, “You know I’ve come to realize, it’s more important to brand a lead “trusted” to an agent, than it is to brand a listing “trusted” to a consumer”. In a Yogi Bearish type of way Dave was on to something.

But how do you brand a lead “trusted”, or maybe a better word is “legitimate”? Most lead notification comes via email, and you can’t really brand a subject line.

After a bit of back and forth what we came to was that the problem really wasn’t “stupid agents” not responding to leads, but the shear amount of other email filling their inboxes that causes the agent to be distracted. I’m not talking about the “mickey mouse” or “john doe” leads, there will always be those. What I’m more talking about is the desensitization agents get from the promotional email they get from vendors promising them leads/services. Sometimes they can be from the very vendor who they are paying to receive leads from trying to upsell them to a another package.

There have been several solutions to this problem, most of them center on the broker (i.e. Weichert) taking over the lead follow up process and doling out the leads to paying/qualified agents. But the problem still remains for a vast amount of agents wanting to sign up for these lead generation services directly. It’s a huge opportunity.

But it’s time to change the premise of the argument. We (vendors) are so compelled to upsell agents to the next column of products and services we forgot the rules of any long term relationship. We need to establish trust first, then deliver on what we promised. If we do that, the rest will follow.

The big problem in online real estate isn’t just the agents not responding to leads (or using your product), it’s stupid vendors who want to jump from first base to third base too quickly.

NAR REach program: “shady and predatory”

This accelerator charges its companies $25,000. That’s just wrong — right?

“And it’s why it’s surprising that REach, the just-launched accelerator program from the National Association of Realtors, charges its companies as much as $25,000 to participate in the program. The fact was conveniently left out of my briefing on the program for this story, and since I learned about the fee, I’ve asked several accelerators if they’ve ever heard of such a practice.

The answer was a universal “no,” with the only other comparable example being 500 Startups. That accelerator charges companies a program fee of $6000 per founder and $3000 per non-founder (the average cost for companies is $12,000 to $15,000, I’m told), but 500 Startups also invests $50,000 in each startup for a five percent equity stake, meaning the companies alway net positive. The consensus among industry people I talked to was that an arrangement that charges companies and takes equity with zero capital invested seemed shady and predatory. Some even equated it to the much-maligned pay-to-pitch events that take advantage of desperate startups’ need to get in front of investors.”

There was always something that bothered me about NAR’s angle on this. PandoDaily nails it.

iMapp sells public records business to CRS Data.

CRS Data and iMapp Sign Strategic Agreement

“CRS Data is focused on expanding their data operations and the creation of the industry’s best-in-class software while iMapp continues to expand their highly effective, criteria-driven MLS advertising delivery system.

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/04/23/4799149/crs-data-and-imapp-sign-strategic.html#storylink=cpy”

If I have my Tennessee decoder ring correct. iMapp has sold its public record/tax business to CRS Data and will now focus on MLS advertising. Not sure what I got wrong in my first post this news.

What’s an “App”?

It’s not a web app. It’s an app you install from the web.

We received an email…

“I heard about Forecast, but I couldn’t find it in the App Store. How do I get it?”

“You don’t get it from the App Store: just go to http://forecast.io/ on your phone, and you’ll be given instructions on how to download it.”

“Wow, this is great! I didn’t know you could get apps outside the App Store!”

We’ve had conversations like this dozens of times since launching Forecast. They usually comes from people who have an iPhone but aren’t particularly tech savvy, and I’m fairly certain none of them will ever know that Forecast is actually a web app. To them, it’s just an app you install from the web.

Great insight in to the whole native vs. web app debate. You should also check out Forecast, its my favorite weather app and its not available on iTunes.

via @danwoolley

T3 Summit recap

logoI went there expecting something different. The program promised Las Vegas, Stefan Swanepoel, “TED like” talks, and Inside the Actor Studios interviews. Hell, you had me at Vegas.

First things first, the event was held at The Ravella Hotel, which used to be a Ritz Carlton, at Lake Las Vegas. Which is a $50 to $60 dollar cab ride around 25 minutes from the strip. The event started at 6PM (which meant you had to eat dinner prior) with a introduction from Stefan and a 90 minute, 160 slide deck, from Darren Hardy (the publisher of Success Magazine). I heard mostly positive reviews of Darren’s talk but felt sorry for people who flew in from the East Coast. When the speech was over we were treated to a cash bar (Stefan felt is was important for the event not to be “commercialized”).

The next day started at 8am (now I felt sorry for West Coasters like myself) with a keynote from Stefan. I have to say I’m a big fan of Stefan. He truly cares about the industry. I always enjoy his Trend reports, and even read his book, Surviving your Serengeti“. I love his speaking style and enjoyed his keynote. He has a brilliant way of breaking down complicated concepts. I playfully tweeted that Stefan would make a perfect Bond Villain. With his accent, his penchant for talking about high tech devices, all his was missing was an ugly scar and a henchman to take over the world!

A couple highlights of the event were Stefan’s “Inside The Actor’s Studio” interviews. His first, and in my opinion the best, was an interview with Ron Peltier of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services. The interview was very personal with pictures of him when he was younger and his family. It felt like you had a few round of drinks with Ron. At some points during the interview Ron even got a little emotional.

Like the real “TED talks” they were hit and miss. I enjoyed Rob Hahn’s “Black Swans or Real Estate” presentation, Jim Marks brought some energy to the stage but my favorite was from Curt Beardsley, when he started with a reading from a Ray Bradbury book and somehow tied it all together with real estate.

The panels were also mixed with some good feedback and stuff we had heard before.

By far the weakest part of the event was the emcee. While I’m sure the women is a nice person in real life, she was awful. To me a good emcee should be likable, funny, keep the audience engaged, and keep things rolling. Sadly, that person was not on stage, I saw a lot of eye rolling from the audience members.

Stefan wrapped up the event with an interview of Logan Kugler, a self described “space entrepreneur”. Since I’m a bit of a space geek I just loved it. A great mix of youth, enthusiasm, and inspiration.

So I expected something different from the T3 Summit and I got it. It being Stefan’s first event of this type, they still have some rough edges to work out. But overall I thought the event was good. I think this type of inspirational, deeper thinking type event has a great niche. With Stefan’s leadership I look forward to their next iteration.

CRS acquires iMapp?

Sounds like its true. From what I’ve heard CRS is going to aquire the iMapp tax business. Bill, Joel and Robert will not be involved post transition. Developing…

Cloud CMA 2013 Power Pack

We are starting to roll out our 2013 Cloud CMA Power Pack in selected markets. It’s an optional upgrade to agents who want to further differentiate themselves, you can read more about it here.

I made a couple videos to help promote the Power Pack I thought I would share with you. Hope you enjoy. Have a great weekend!

PropertyInfo and zipLogix partner.

PropertyInfo Corporation and zipLogix to Provide an Integrated Forms and Transaction Management Process for the Real Estate Industry.

Tom Groom, Senior Vice President, Title and Realty Technology for PropertyInfo Corporation:

““We now have the most widely used forms and transaction management systems working together to provide the powerhouse of integrations for our customers. This will mark a truly integrated process for real estate agents and brokers from start to finish.”

Both are part of the old guard. And this looks like they both have decided to team up and enter the fray together. The transaction management game is heating up.

Worry warts.

“If we all banned together, we could put Zillow and Trulia out of business”

Todd Carpenter:

“Brokers and agents seem to spend a lot of time worrying about Trulia and Zillow; they aren’t the competition. They’re just the tools your competitor is using to try to outperform you in your market. You may decide these tools are good for you. You may decide you’re better off without them. Waxing poetic about their demise is a waste of time. Worry about your competitors, not the tools.”

Todd nails it.

Is ListHub playing favorites? Part II

I might be beating a dead horse here but I’m still a bit confused. Based on the comments of my last post on this subject here’s what I understand to be true.

Trulia must get permission from brokers and MLS providers for a free app that provides leads to agents.

Zillow doesn’t need to get permission to power a free app, Google Now, using ListHub data. They can just zip up a data file and send it directly to Google, no permission required, no questions asked.

What am I missing here?

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