This week, 4realz
While at Move, I used to send out a weekly email to the bulk of the executive team where I listed the top 5 to 15 news items from the past week that I thought they should know about (along with a dash of commentary). From the feedback I got, I know it was greatly appreciated and started more interesting conversations they I could possibly count.
Now that I’m no longer at Move, I’d like to continue doing these emails, except open it up to real estate technology executives from across the industry. (And although it is geared towards executives, I’m happy to add just about anyone to the distribution list.)
Getting a weekly email from me is 100% free and 100% opt-in. The only way to get on my list is to email me @ thisweek@4realz.net with a simple request to be included. Unsubscribing will always be just as easy. 
Without further ado, here’s the topics I covered in this week’s email:
- FrontDoor.com opens to ‘home enthusiasts’. With listings from Realogy, the team at Scripps Networks (more commonly known for content plays such as HGTV and the DIY Network) launched FrontDoor.com in order to highlight (and drive traffic to) their non-listing content around real estate. I kinda like the flip in logic, even if I’m not convinced it will drive much traffic.
- Real-Time National Housing Report Released. On the heals of a Realty Times article about warring housing indexes, Altos Research announced the creation of a new housing index to (theoretically) improve upon the Case-Shiller index by providing a real-time look at market conditions in a few major markets. Interesting that this followed up an interesting conversation between David G (of Zillow) and Greg Swann (of Bloodhound) about using the Zindex for just such an endeavor. Mike was also featured recently on ths InmanTV video.
- Borrow from Your Neighbors in a Private Network with Neighborrow. Another twist on trying to get local people to create an online community around their neighbors. Sorry to say, but my take is that Neighborrow is solving a problem that very few people have.
- RealEstate.com buys Arizona brokerage. I still don’t understand IAC’s strategy around real estate.
- Vast.com Brings Vertical Search to Real Estate, Hires Ben Clark. Vast launched an interesting search tool with about 2.4M listings. It’s an interesting tool, but I’m not seeing what’s going to give them buzz over the long-haul.
- Hotpads Gives You the Monthly Breakdown. Joel gives an interesting breakdown of Hotpads new features (including a map-based rent-vs-buy tool)
- Hot Property How’d we get in this mess? Here’s how… BusinessWeek’s Hot Property covers an innovative debt management strategy.
- Worst. Forecasters. Ever? Daniel Gross seems to enjoy launching grenades at NAR economists…
- Edgeio To Shut Down - In The DeadPool. This “web2.0″ site with high-profile backers is shutting down and auctioning off their assets (including Adaptive Real Estate Services, a IDX provider with a database of 1.3M active listings)
- Move.com. Niki Scevak of HomeThinking dives into the numbers and comes out bullish on Move’s future.
- The Gosselin List, Best in Real Estate 2007. Kudos to 4realz for making Matthew Gosselin’s list of most influential real estate blog after only two weeks of publishing!
- LinkedIn Gets Web 2.0 Makeover… making it easier to get value from your LinkedIn connections. (Are you connected to me yet?)
Typically, I’m not going to repost the weekly emails here because it will be duplicating a lot of the same stuff that I will have already covered on 4realz, but this week is a bit different since I thought I should give people a flavor of what to expect.
And remember, if you want to be included on the email list going forward, then all you have to do is email me at thisweek@4realz.net with a request.
Posted: December 14th, 2007 under Industry Blogs, News.
Tags: research
Comments
Comment from mike simonsen
Time December 14, 2007 at 10:33 am
I hadn’t seen the Vast / Ben Clark news. Ben’s a good guy, but he always seemed a bit peripheral at Zillow. Based in Virginia or somewhere.
Hey Ben - here’s task #1 for you: real estate search results aren’t like results for used cars. When I search for homes in “Sunnyvale, CA” I do NOT want 24,000 results. I do NOT want the first results I see to be in East Palo Alto. I want the 50 homes for sale in Sunnyvale. That’s it. Please.
http://www.vast.com/real_estate/location-sunnyvale~ca
I tried to feed Naval these use cases a year and a half ago, but apparently they had other priorities.
Comment from Dustin
Time December 14, 2007 at 11:57 am
Geordie:
You bring up a great point that blogging should be enough… but my experience has been that blogs simply don’t reach everyone. If you’re comfortable with a feed reader or you actively make the round of blog sites on a regular basis then I don’t think you’ll have any need for the email.
Nonetheless, I’m positive that (at least at this point in time) I will not reach many of the people I want to reach (i.e. real estate tech executives) with a blog. That’s reality. The typical real estate tech executive is too busy to follow this blog on a regular basis and I’m going to happily fill up 4realz with a lot of fluff stories that will be interesting to my blog audience, but not necessarily relevant to them.
To put it simply… I’m looking to create something that is appropriate to the audience. In this case, I think an email is the most appropriate tool. I could be wrong and may change it up in the future. 
With that said, a good email is often quite different than a good blog post, so I won’t just copy-and-paste the same stuff that I write here. However, please don’t feel like you have to subscribe to the email to get the best stuff. I love to blog and do not plan to hold anything back on 4realz.net!
Pingback from Get the top realty news of the week spoon fed to you by Dustin Luther | Mortgage Industry Blog
Time December 14, 2007 at 2:48 pm
[...] I just signed up myself. Dustin created Rain City Guide, a top real estate blog, and until recently, was employed by Move.com. Each week he sent a roundup of the top news to the big wigs at Move. Now he’s willing to share it with you. var OutbrainPermaLink=”http://blog.mariah.com/2007/12/get-the-top-realty-news-of-the-week-spoon-fed-to-you-by-dustin-luther/”; var OB_demoMode = false; if ( typeof(OB_Script)!=’undefined’ ) OutbrainStart(); else { var OB_Script = true; var str = “”; document.write(str); } [...]
Comment from Mike Mueller
Time December 14, 2007 at 7:05 pm
I just clicked on the link to LinedIn. We are second cousins.
But I also noticed you need to update your employer…
hint hint…
That’s the problem with having profiles all over the net. One thing changes and you are out of date on 50 sites.
Hey, that might be the next great thing, eh?
A central repository system that would feed all the profiles from one source…
Mike, stop typing! You’ll give it all away!
I can’t…
oh no I accidentally hit the submit button
Comment from Dustin
Time December 14, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Mike: Someone will crack the multi-profile nut some day, but I think I’d be more worried about a central profile repository than an outdated profile!
Pingback from There’s been a great vibe from… « 4realz.net
Time December 15, 2007 at 11:27 pm
[...] 15, 2007 by Dustin …my announcement around the weekly emails. I have a few dozen sign-ups at this point along with some much appreciated plugs from Todd and [...]
Comment from Dustin
Time December 16, 2007 at 12:30 am
Geordie: When I read Paul’s post showing the ubiquity of email (as compared to blogs), I couldn’t help but think about this conversation!
Comment from Geordie Romer
Time December 16, 2007 at 4:19 pm
I guess my suggestion (request?) is to post your weekly roundup on the blog as well as send out the email.
There will always be those consumers who would rather stay anonymous and read a blog rather than get on another email list.
There are others (like myself) who would rather just subscribe to the blog and read it all here as oppose to deal with another email clogging the system.
I agree that email is here to stay and am not suggesting that Twitter or Facebook or texting is going to replace it anytime soon.
Comment from Dustin
Time December 17, 2007 at 1:36 am
Geordie: Great suggestion… Since I’m still only one email into the endeavor, I’ll play around a bit with formatting and what I publish here on 4realz. Best.
Comment from Ben Martin
Time December 21, 2007 at 6:52 am
Let me echo Geordie’s request. Please post it to the blog! You know the execs have it backwards… They should be RSS-ing not SMTP-ing. Don’t you want them coming to your blog so they can start figuring out that the internet isn’t just something you dump something on? So why not post the column to your blog and then email the link to the execs?
Comment from Dustin
Time December 21, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Ben,
You make a good point except almost everything I write is a summary of something that was posted on 4realz earlier in the week. I think I’ll post this week’s “email” over on RCG as a test…
Pingback from This week according to 4realz… | Rain City Guide | A Seattle Real Estate Blog…
Time December 22, 2007 at 4:12 am
[...] besides blogging on 4realz, I’m also committed to sending out a weekly email that summarizes the news and gossip that I think the typical real estate executive should know. [...]
Comment from Geordie Romer
Time December 14, 2007 at 8:22 am
ummm. Isn’ t that the point of blogging? Why not post all the content here on the blog instead of asking us to email you? Do I really have to have a subscription to the blog and the email to get all the good Dustin content? Is there a glossy print edition with timeless content for readers who can’t be bothered with email or RSS feeds?