However after reviewing NWMLS rules, I don’t see anything of that sort. Seems (for now) redfin is in the clear. UNLESS other rules implicitly apply to data in a Member’s (Broker) site in general (ie. Framing rules).

Having said that, WordPress is the way to go. It’s growth far exceeds Blogger and it offers a more advanced platform.

Good luck with your little extortion experiment fellas!

From the Beach Chair,

Matt Gentile - 300 Days of Sunshine
FloridaMoves.com

We’re definitely going to do some more seminars this summer. We’ve been holding off getting too far ahead of ourselves as we wanted to get a better idea of what it takes to put one of these events on successfully. With that said, with two under our belt, we’re feeling MUCH better about our set-up and will almost definitely have an event in Orange County in mid-July! Hopefully we can get you in town then!

Congrats on the mention….Funny, Stephanie emailed me at 6:34pm a couple nights ago for thoughts on the story too asking to talk for 5 minutes that evening and when I emailed shortly thereafter, she never responded. Weird.

Yup, Jonathan is awesome.

Rudy
Social Media Guru at Trulia.com

“Consumers’ first question of any real estate site is whether it shows all the homes for sale,” said Redfin Chief Technology Officer Michael Young.

I 100% agree with the above statement and it’s exactly what is driving the development of our beta site.

Although other sites have claimed to do this… I think it will be very interesting to watch how the re.net will react to this.

Thanks so much for stopping by! And so very cool that BH&G has a blog!

I personally think it’s great for the consumer but part of the reasoning to move forward is for the PR attention they may get from a possible MLS that file complaints which would make Redfin appear even more pro-consumer.

We were unsure of the commingling issue so we dont pull onto the same page/map…rather you have to perform separate searches.

Check it out at http://Boston.CondoDomain.com click on search and you can see you can search for: New Developments, Exisiting Buildings, Full MLS, Foreclosure, FSBO and even Auction.

However after reviewing NWMLS rules, I don’t see anything of that sort. Seems (for now) redfin is in the clear. UNLESS other rules implicitly apply to data in a Member’s (Broker) site in general (ie. Framing rules).

Also, if a listing is both a for-sale-by-owner home and is in the MLS (perhaps it’s an old FSBO listing, or the seller is trying both approaches), we show the MLS listing first by default.

And finally, thanks for noticing that you get the address with foreclosures. We looked at a few ways of doing this and really didn’t like the idea of teasing searchers with a foreclosure, only to send them off to a fee-based site to get the address.

The next big goal for RedFin will undoubtedly be free access to MLS comparables for the general public. The NAR is clinging onto this data by their fingernails…. I wonder how soon they’ll loose their grip on this, too?!

Yours with boundless enthusiasm,

Richard

Chief Deal Weaver
http://www.BlackWidowNetwork.com

We regularly report our site’s Unique (monthly) Users. That data’s collected for us by omniture. If we’re ever running behind on an update, just ping me. We sell ads and so we discuss our site audience statistics publicly and with our clients and potential clients. [5,2M UU's in March - 46% of whom have annual household incomes over $100,000!] We need accurate and public traffic numbers. For better or worse, we decided to discuss UU’s and have done so pretty much since launch. We did look into being “quantified” but we unfortunately had to pass for business reasons relating to the service’s t.o.u. Sorry - for now, you’ve just got my word - and the fact that Rich would have pulled my plug by now! (ht jd!)

C’mon, doesn’t anyone over at Realogy want to bribe a couple of RE.net bloggers for some spin?

I kid, I kid!

-rsh

It’s not that I think David is lying or wrong about his numbers… But my experience is that different stat packages will ALWAYS give different results.

To give one example… While at Move, at one point, I was put in charge of organizing an A/B testing program.

Up to that point, Move (like Zillow) had been using Omniture for internal stat reporting. (By the way, you can see this for yourself by looking at the page source for the various websites).

However, I really liked the A/B testing capabilities of Google Analytics, so I helped convinced the powers-that-be to put Google Analytics on every page on realtor.com and move.com.

I won’t say which way things went, but it is fair to say that the results from Google Analytics were often substantially different than the results from Omniture…. despite the fact that both stat packages used the same technology (i.e. a bit of javascript on every page).

I say all this only to make the point that I have good reason to be extremely suspect of internal numbers… especially if you’re trying to make comparisons to other sites. 3rd Party sources may be wrong, but at least they offer a better apples-to-apples comparisons among sites.

To your other point, I was told VERY clearly while at Move NEVER to talk about internal stats for the very reason you suggest… I’m pretty sure no one wanted to open up the internal stats to investors, so we were always best off quoting 3rd party sources.

As a matter of fact, the only numbers you’ll ever see quoted by Move officials are from 3rd party sources (mostly Media Metrics).

Also interestingly, the reason I like Quantcast for Zillow is that it would offer the benefit of being 3rd party source… and, at least for me, the numbers more believable than Omniture results.

And for sites (like WordPress.com,) , that get quantified, they give some great info around demographics, popularity, and similar sites.

It’s only recently that I’ve started to see wordpress.com tags show up on search results… Combined with your point that they only do well on niche tags means that you’re right that they aren’t a dominant source of traffic (yet).

But in many ways, I live for the niche traffic since it is often extremely relevant, so I’m more than happy to get the jumpstart from WP.com’s.

And, of course, you’ve earned a spot on the blogroll!

So there will never be any real change at MOVE…

However, speaking of burn rate, MOVE has an accumulated deficit of over $2 billion. They have burned through $2 billion to get to where they are today. Zillow seems to be a bit more efficient with capital. And smarter. On a smaller scale, people check Zillow on prospective homes like they check the weather. Zillow will ultimately figure out a way to benefit in a big way from this.

Trulia might be worth even more. However, one risk factor is this: Once a major brokerage decides to open up its listings, it’s open to everyone through Google Base. The decision for brokerages is a binary one: Is listing data proprietary or open. Once they decide on open, everyone is going to get it even though Trulia did all of the heavy-lifting on the business development front. Low-cost start-ups will be free riders on Trulia’s efforts. This is one reason that Zillow could actually win on both the listings front and with creative offerings elsewhere. On a pure-listings basis, it’s going to open.

I’d like to talk to you about your social networking story sometime but not publicly. Looking forward to finding out more. Quite a bit going on in Europe as well.

By the way, I added you to our site in a number of sections including
http://www.globaledge.co.uk/real-estate-partners/united-states/1050

If you thought it added value, I’d very much appreciate a link on your blog roll.

If you ever come to London, it would be good to meet.

Best

Ashley

In case it helps with the math; Zillow had 5,2 million unique visitors visit the site last month.

I’m inclined to think an IPO is in the works and will occur sooner rather then later…. I think finding the right buyer would be a challenge right now….. and their existing investors are certainly going to be weary of raising another round, but it could happen….

Their functionality is great, but cloning another site is just asking for trouble on a bunch of different levels and shows a real lack of understanding about the web. It takes plagiarism to a whole new level!

On the REW forum he said, “My project on getacoder.com was for a Redfin.com clone, in all functionalities and appearance.”

Someone “clones” one of my sites in “all functionalities and appearance” and I’m coming after them with everything I can muster.

And Redfin has just a wee bit deeper pockets than I do.

Amazing….

Yeah… Spock takes the idea to a whole new level in that they appear to be crawling the web in order to create a profile for individuals. I haven’t signed up to “claim” my account because I never liked the idea behind the site.

http://www.spock.com/do/profiles/index/Dustin-Luther%E2%80%94-Rdvla1Nj

I think it unlikely they’ll get much traction in the US domestic market. Awareness of them is low in the UK but this isn’t the point. Overseas lifestyle buyers are often in the market only once in their lives and the buying cycle can be up to 15 months from initial research to purchase.

If they get good natural search visibility on Google during the research process, they have the best product in the market in terms of scale so will attract and retain interested buyers.

They also get more blog mentions than any other English language overseas portals I know of which obviously helps for SEO. This hasn’t yet translated into rankings on Google.co.uk but they have strategic advantages which in the long run will tell (in my opinion).

Great site by the way.

Best wishes

Ashley

Maybe they will use the information for an easy one-click registration sent via a personal email invitation - verses just starting with the site pre-populated. If the site that is behind this is a big brand that you already know and trust, it could get legs?

I agree with everyone here. But like Vicki, I probably wouldn’t notice. However, I am just not sure I have the time for yet another social network.

Next…

As far as going to a site and finding out that I was already a member, I don’t even think I would even notice. I sign up for lots of services and sites, don’t go back to them for several months (or years) then eventually click a link to look at them later.

If I ended up in a network that I didn’t sign up for, I probably wouldn’t know the difference!

Jeremy
@NRVLiving

I don’t know if “upset” is the right word. But it does creep me out and just seems wrong on many levels.

Anyone can easily find a great deal of info about me from existing public sites.

But taking that info and placing me into a “social network”?? I don’t get it.

If I found a profile-like thing somewhere that I didn’t put it, my first reaction would be to delete it and never return to that site.

Doesn’t seem like a very prudent way to build a network…

The Irvine seminar was a real eye opener. The information that you and Jim put together was so unique and valuable to the current real estate marketplace. I am really looking forward to the 90 day ramp up and will definitely recommend your seminar. The only change for the next one would be to turn up the heat. It was freezing in there.
Best of luck.
Nick

I’m hoping that Rudy, Jeff and I will be able to put something fun together or NAR, but that is still a ways off… Much sooner (end of May), Jim and I will be having another 4RealzEd event in Los Angeles!

Thank you for all of the information provided. I think the 90 days of just 15 minutes at a time is a wonderful model, and I look forward to it.

Look forward to seeing you on May 2nd at the Marmalade Cafe.

P.S. if you’re seeing double comments…was typing too fast the first time and hit the wrong button… not sure if comment was submitted.

In re-reading the article, I just realized they don’t say how they collected their data. I just assumed it was a random sampling of women. Maybe the Blogher group simple sampled their userbase or something, in which case, the numbers would clearly be misleading as presented.

What do you think, Dustin?