4realz Strategies

Tagged: Roost RSS

• Dustin 3:03 am on November 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 4realz (7), ActiveRain (31), favicon, icon, Inman (11), rcg (5), real estate (168), Realtor.com (29), Roost, Trulia (54), websites (4), wordpress.com (3), Zillow (61)   

  Because favicon love is so easy to give 

  If you’re running a website, did you give your favicon any love?  Do you even know what a favicon is?

  A favicon is simple a mini-logo (icon?) that shows up next to your URL in most address bars. (Favicons also show up on the tabs of browsers and are often included next to articles you write when being pulled by other news sites, such as this business week page about online real estate that pulled the favicons when linking to articles from Rain City Guide and Inman News). and

  Here is the favicon I created for 4realz.net: 

  In terms of a icon, I don’t like it as much as the 4realz logo that I generally use on my marketing materials:

  

  but it shows up so much better when displayed at a really small size and kept the site’s color scheme. The idea is that people who know the site will quickly start to relate the favicon to 4realz.net.

  Before creating a favicon for a different site (not yet launched), I decided to do a bit of research and look at the favicons for a variety of real estate sites. Here’s a peak at some of the sites I looked at:

  

  There are some really good favicons there in that they are instantly recognizable for the website they represent, but just as many are pretty bad… and without the help of a little text, it’d be hard to know what site they represent.
  

  So what makes for a good favicon?

  A good favicon is:

  1. Really simple
  2. Limited to two or three colors
  3. Recognizable in place of your logo

  However, as the examples form above show, using your logo is almost never a good idea.

  For example, the blue/green “Z” house of the Zillow logo, just doesn’t cut it for me at the small size of a favicon.   Ditto for the landscape scenes used by Altos Research and Real Central Virgina.

  Something more likely to work is a cute play on the logo, such as the tomato from the Real Estate Tomato, the owl’s eyes of Roost, the explosion from Blown Mortgage, or (I like to think) the rain drop of Rain City Guide.  At the same time, the “R” of Realtor is so recognizable that the realtor.com team was smart to keep their favicon that simple.

  Looking through the list of favicons from above, it’s also obvious that the “home” metaphor is way overdone. Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Redfin, The Real Estate Bloggers, Move, HotPads, Estately, Altos Research, and Zillow all feature homes in their favicons…

  Create your own Favicon!

  So, you’re inspired to create a nice looking favicon for your site.   Here’s how I created the 4realz favicon in a few minutes using nothing more powerful than Microsoft Word (or in my case, Mac’s Pages app):

  Step 1: Using a document processer (Microsoft Word will work), create your image. For the 4realz logo, I create a grey circle and put a blue “4″ in the center.   If you feel like you need something more complex than simple graphics and simple text, then you’re probably making your favicon too complicated!

  Step 2: Take a screenshot of the image

  Step 3: Upload your screenshot to Genfavicon, and follow their simple instructions in order to create an “*.ico” image. (as mentioned in a recent hotlist post!)

  Step 4: Rename the file “favicon.ico”and upload it to the root file of your server.

  That’s it! Once you’ve created one favicon, I think you’ll see that the entire process can be done in less than 10 minutes.

  It’s worth noting that in order to have a personalized favicon, you MUST be using a self-hosted website where you can add files to the server.  Folks using blog platforms like ActiveRain and Wordpress.com can’t have their own favicon.

  Of course, if you have photoshop you can get way more advanced and create really killer favicons directly from the app, but if you know what you’re doing in photoshop, then you probably wouldn’t read this far! 

  Finally, favicons are important because they show just how much effort you put into the details.  They’ll never be a big thing (they’re way too small!) and they’ll never bring success to your website, but with a little effort, it’s not hard to create a fun, recognizable icon that will help you make a better connection with your readers.

  Dustin, Mr Williamsburg/ John Womeldorf, Rhonda Porter and 12 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Susie Blackmon 3:12 am on November 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Hmmmm, I love details. Am working on new website with Mark Davidson so will have to add this to the mix. Why do I only think of naughty favicons?

  • Dustin 3:27 am on November 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Speaking of naughty, here’s a favicon I just created yesterday!

    

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    Jay Thompson 5:56 am on November 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    *Love* RCG’s rain drop.

    And you’re right, the house is overdone. But I had mine first damn it! Perhaps change is in order….

    Outside of the real estate space, flavors of the RSS icon are also overdone, so I’d avoid that too.

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    Marlow 10:21 am on November 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    I put a flower on mine, http://www.SeattleDreamHomes.com. My sites theme is “Martha Stewart goes into real estate.”

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    Mike Simonsen 12:24 pm on November 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    ooh. I hate to be cliche. But with a compelling name like “Altos Research” at least the logo should imply the market we work in, right?

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    Irina Netchaev 5:46 pm on November 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    I love my Favicon! A friend helped me set it up before getting these neat instructions – check it out – http://www.pasadenaviews.com

    

  • Dustin 11:01 pm on November 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Irina: You’re way too cute!

  • Dustin 11:02 pm on November 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Mike: I agree that the logo is good, but I can’t make heads or tails out of your favicon. Just a simple “A” and “R” in the right colors would probably be a bit clearer.

  • Dustin 11:02 pm on November 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Jay: I love your house! You can keep yours. (as if I had any say over it!).

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    Steve Jagger 8:43 am on November 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    A little self promotion, but in the Ubertor platform, you can change your favicon. Plus we have most of the major real estate companies favicons already available for use.

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    Linsey 5:47 pm on November 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    I like mine I but I’m open to feedback.

  • Dustin 5:47 pm on November 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    The OC works for me!

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    DesignTeam 10:11 pm on November 5, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Hi,
    Would you like to see favicons near search results? There’s a firefox add-on that does the trick.

    Looking forward to your comments.
    Design Team

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    Kevin Tomlinson-Miami Beach Real Estate 2:31 pm on November 6, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Interesting. Thank goodness I don’t have a home for a favicon.

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    Geordie Romer - Leavenworth Real Estate 1:07 am on November 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Any thoughts from the masses about my new (draft) favicon? It’s for the soon to be redesigned Icicle Creek Real Estate site and can be seen in the attached avatar.

  • Dustin 1:16 am on November 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    My initial thought is that there’s no way the four letters will be readable at 16 pixels wide… I tried to get three letters to show up on one favicon I designed and it was really hard to find a font that was long and thick enough to work. Just a head’s up!

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    Tina 6:49 pm on November 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    OK now I have favicon envy, I’ll be adding one to my site, thanks!

  • Dustin 11:01 pm on November 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Tina, let us know when you add one so we can come check it out!

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    Tom 3:17 pm on November 25, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    a favicon should never be missing. I love these colorful images in my bookmarks.

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    Rhonda Porter 12:08 am on December 27, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    I would love to have a favicon…I’m just not sure what to use. I’ve sadly used my big “head” shot as a logo on my blog. I do have a snazzy logo that I paid dearly to have created…but it really doesn’t suit me anymore.

    You’ve got my wheels spinning again, Dustin.

    Besides being cool to look at…what purpose do they have?

  • Dustin 3:04 am on December 27, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Rhonda: even if it’s simple to begin with, I highly recommend getting yourself a favicon!

    In terms of their purpose, it’s just an added way to identify your blog on other sites. I’m sometimes surprised to see the random places I’ll see the RCG and 4realz logos. Obviously places include the browser tabs and bookmarks, but more interesting places include google reader, various profiles on social networks and links to articles from social bookmarking sites.

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    Mr Williamsburg/ John Womeldorf 6:12 am on January 13, 2009 Permalink | Reply

    Dustin,
    Great sessions at ICNY . Learned more in 3 days than I have in the last year.
    FYI You can have a favicon in a wordpress blog.
    See mine for a poor example http://williamsburgsrealestate.com/
    After reading your post I am re doing it..
    Thanks

  • Dustin 11:34 pm on January 13, 2009 Permalink | Reply

    John, I just checked out your favicon, and it’s pretty small and definitely too small to read. Even the same icon next to your comment above is a bit too small to read.

    One idea would be to use a “W” or something a lot simpler for the small graphics just so that it would means something for the rest of us… I’d also probably go with white for the letter of your favicon instead of grey/gold just so that there’d be a bit more contrast between the background.

    Nonetheless, thanks for sharing!

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• Dustin 5:02 pm on August 14, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bloggers, email (15), Estately (5), myfrontsteps, newsletter, Roost, stellarbid, surveys   

  When a tree falls in the forest… 

  Been way too swamped with a consulting project lately and haven’t had a chance to blog much (or send out my weekly emails).

  However, that doesn’t mean interesting things haven’t been happening.   Here’s just a sliver of the things that have crossed my path recently:

  • Brendan gets $3M in funding for MyFrontSteps!  A huge, public congrats is in order!
  • (month old news): I’m extremely skeptical that anyone will make progress on the transaction front when they require people to change their behavior, but I’m wishing N-Play well because I like the founder, Mark Bloomfield.
  • Agent Bloggers:  Take the survey or Ben is going to be forced to eat lovely salads for a week!
  • Roost expands to Seattle (and San Francisco!)
  • The neighborhood analytics have been very well implemented by Redfin! Great feature
  • StellarBid is looking to base the size of the commission on performance
  • Do you think they see the irony of naming themselves after an event that many blame on agents?
  • Share your home search with friends/family/agents. Love it!

  By the way, this blog post is very similar to the emails I (normally) send out on a weekly basis.    If you want to get a weekly update on what’s going on in online real estate, simple subscribe using the widget on the 4realz.net sidepanel!

  Beth, Ben Martin, Va Assn of REALTORS, Dustin and 2 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Drew Izzo 11:27 am on August 15, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Thanks for the mention Dustin. We launched in New England yesterday as well. Covering all of Vermont and New Hampshire and the northern part of Massachusetts and Western Maine. http://www.roost.com

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    Marlow 5:27 pm on August 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    “Bellevue Bubble” is a terrible name unless you think there was one or is one or one burst or one’s about to burst. Most of the blogs with “bubble” in the title are really negative.

  • Dustin 5:36 pm on August 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Marlow, I was definitely surprised at the name…

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    Ben Martin, Va Assn of REALTORS 11:17 am on August 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    LOL. I hate rabbit food.

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    Beth 10:53 am on December 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    I just now watched the NPlay commercial – the agent with the giant name tag makes me think of that Progressive (I think?) car insurance commercial where the saleslady notes that with all the money you save you can buy a “big tricked out name tag…” HEE!

• Dustin 12:42 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 4realz Interview (4), interview (20), real estate (168), Roost, search (51), web2.0 (22)   

  The 4realz Interview with Alex Chang of Roost.com 

  After interviewing Marty last week, I thought it would be interesting to turn to Alex Chang (CEO of Roost) in order to get the perspective from someone entering the real estate search space from a different place in terms of timing, funding and resources…

  I first met Alex while we he was setting up shop at NAR (in Vegas) outside of the blogger’s lounge at a table right next to mine. He was holding court with some interesting players in the real estate space, so when a free moment for both us turned up, I introduced myself and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Alex not only knew who I was, but that he had a strong command of the players in the RE.net (score a point for Alex!).

  A few months later at RE Connect, Alex was nice enough to give me a demo of Roost, and I was immediately impressed. His team is obviously focused on doing one thing right (real estate search) and they have the money and talent to do it. However, seeing as they are relatively new to a fairly crowded space, I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone that they have their work cut out for them.

  Dustin: Can you briefly tell us a little bit about the products and services that your company offers for real estate professionals?
  

  Alex: Roost is an open and inclusive marketing platform for all brokers, large and small. Roost’s goal is to help broker partners drive more business for themselves and their agents in a way that puts them in control. To do this, we provide two services that operate in parallel. First we offer brokers of all types & sizes a powerful, IDX-compliant property search site that they can use at their discretion. Second, we send qualified home buyers to their sites via the Roost.com search engine. Our model is transparent and performance based. The broker only pays for the traffic they want by setting a monthly budget that meets their needs.

  Who do you view as your main competition and how do you differentiate yourself?

  There are a lot of companies out there doing related things in different ways.

  In order to differentiate, we need to appeal to the fact that buying a home is one of the most important life decisions consumers will make. We need to offer a comprehensive, easy, fast and fun way to search for homes. We feel that Roost has cracked the code on providing comprehensive data on top the fastest and most intuitive way to search for homes. That’s our biggest differentiator.

  When we think about our competition, we think more about the demands on a consumer’s time than we do about other companies. Between work, kids, home maintenance, etc consumers only have so much time in their day to dream about their next home and actively research it online or off. Roost’s mission is to create an experience that works despite these demands.

  Between Move getting $100M, Zillow getting $87M, Redfin at $20M, Trulia at $18M, Terabitz at $10M, and NAR looking to invest approximately $30M through their 2nd Century Fund, there’s a lot of investment money floating around the real estate space at the moment. Do you see this as a good thing for the industry?

  Without question. That capital is fueling innovation. And in most cases that innovation is an effort to provide the industry with better/more efficient marketing tools for brokers and better services for home buyers. Ten years ago it would have been about trying to disintermediate the Realtor. But that’s not the case today. The more options Realtors have to market their services, the better. Competition keeps everyone honest and striving to provide better services.

  Besides the venture capital money mentioned in the first question, there are also a few big players from related industries who are jumping into the listings game. Such as Fidelity with CyberHomes and HGTV with FrontDoor. Why do you think there are so many companies chasing the listing side of this industry?

  I doubt your average adult site would be very successful without the porn. Consumers want access to listings plain and simple. Other bells and whistles around home buying are nice, but when my wife Beth and I sit down to think about our next home, 90% of that time is spent checking out listings of homes we could go visit. I’d imagine that’s pretty common. That’s the focus of Roost and we’re solely concerned with filling that need. And besides, listings one of Gary Keller’s “3 L’s of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent” – so you know they’re important.

  I don’t think it is a stretch to say that the big brokerages are only just beginning to use their websites to create a compelling consumer experience that competes with REALTOR.com. Why do you think it has taken the national brokerages so long to complete on this front?

  It’s a question of core competency. It took a long time for retailers to get good at building e-commerce sites which is one reason why Amazon has done so well. Clearly, forward thinking brokers get this and are investing in their own websites. But the bottom line is that building great customer experience online is hard, even if that’s all you focus on all day long. And it’s not cheap. Also, I think it takes a little while to start to be able to measure and see a return from a broker’s site in this industry. So you have to have the appetite to make longer term investments in technology. That can be a tough pill to swallow.

  ActiveRain, Trulia, Zolve, Realtor.com and others have created social networks that use real estate professional content in order to better inform consumers and (theoretically) drive more business to these online professionals. Does your company have any plans to either create your own social network or engage in these existing networks? If so, how?

  No, we don’t. Our sole dedication is on search and building the Roost platform for brokers. That means we have to say no to lots of other seemingly cool and sexy ideas. I won’t say that we’ll never expand past this focus, but right now, being excellent at search is enough of a challenge and something that we believe the market is lacking.

  To date, many of the most successful real estate professionals do most of their marketing off-line. If one of these experienced real estate agents wanted to jump-start their online marketing, where would you recommend they begin?

  It starts with your own Web presence. First, create a couple great websites and blogs that get across why you are the best at what you do in some specific ways. Ensure that there are all sorts of ways for consumers to contact you on these sites, and obviously make sure you have some excellent ways for consumers to search for homes on these sites (you knew we were going to say that). Second, get some tools that will help you actually see what return you’re getting from traffic to these sites. Where is the traffic coming from? What leads is it generating? When those are done, find targeted marketing vehicles that send traffic you can actually measure to these sites at budget levels you can afford.

  Would it be different for an agent who is just starting out in the business? If so, where do you recommend they begin with their online marketing?

  I don’t think it’s a different set of steps for new agents. In fact, I’d say following the above list is even more important for a new agent who may not have an installed referral base.

  What do you see as some of the biggest changes coming to online real estate in the next two years?

  I see three things on the horizon. First, I think there will be a shakeout of wheat from chaff. Businesses that can’t add real value to both the consumer and the Realtor in a way that proves profitable, are not going to make it. Second, I think there will be a real premium placed on great product. This industry needs to catch up (and we’re seeing that happen). Sites that offer excellent experience will rise to the top. Finally, like many, I think mobile is going to become a huge force in this industry both from a consumer and Realtor perspective.

  UPDATE: Joel just published a video interview with Alex on Inman News that is definitely worth checking out!

  How Do You Compete With WalMart? « The Notorious R.O.B., Jessie B, Victor LUnd and 6 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Toronto condos 4:06 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Good article, I think Alex is right in a lot of things. Web services are growing so enourmously in real estate sector and internet is the most powerful marketing tool. However, we are in Toronto real estate business for 16 years and I believe the key is direct attitude to the customer. Long term relation and excellent reputation are the best marketing tools and you can’t be on the top not having them!

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    Victor Lund 5:08 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    The roost technology that displays IDX listings on roost.com is very interesting.

    It looks like they co-brand the page to the broker and mask the roost domain name with the broker providing the IDX listings, and display all listings in an mls market.

    Are MLSs cool with this?

    It would seem that roost is either scraping IDX listings, which is a violation of IDX rules and regulations in IDX data agreements, or that the broker is providing IDX data to a third party – which is also a no-no in most mls IDX agreements. The language reads something like “IDX listings may only be displayed on the brokers primary website” which is listed in the agreement.

    I think that what they are doing is great, and definitely broker-centric, just not sure what will happen when roost grows and comes under the watchful eye of MLS executives.

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    Dustin 9:03 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Victor,

    You’ve definitely hit upon an interesting element of their business model… My take is that they’re definitely following all the rules in terms of displaying the listings appropriately, but if MLS start to enforce the “primary website” element (which I was unaware of), then it could start to be an issue. But from everything I’ve heard, they seem to have great interest and support from the brokers currently using their system, which I think will greatly enhance their chances into the future…

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    chrisdoesloans 9:43 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Dustin-

    Well, you now have my attention. The BHB flap elevated you from the “newly added” to the top of the list. You’re smarter than me, and I’m really interested in what you’ll say next.

    I look forward to it..all.

    Best,

    CJ

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    Dustin 9:56 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Chris,

    So glad to have you reading, although I would never claim to be smarter than anyone… Not the least of whom would be the BHB folks. Those are some smart cats… uhh… I mean dogs!

    You’re now on my radar as well and I look forward to reading your stuff!

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    Not Sold on Roost 11:21 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Your interview with Marty Frame was more insightful. Marty came out with stronger points of view. This guy, Alex, was towing the PR-prepped lines a little too much.

    How is what they are doing any different then what Vast is out there doing?

    Also there are a couple of holes in Roost’s “We have all the listings argument”
    1) For any given market, they don’t have FSBOs and can’t due to regs
    2) For a given region, Roost may not have cut enough deals with key brokers to have the appropriate coverage
    3) At a national level, they can’t compete w/ Realtor.com or even any of the other Web interlopers aggregating listings

    I will give Alex credit that he was clear that Roost isn’t in business to support agents – it’s a broker focused model. And that he acknowledges that in this particular market, start-ups need to demonstrate real value or they will go away (VC funding doesn’t keep flowing, just like house prices don’t keep going up).

    Look forward to the other interviews – btw – can you get one from your ex-employer Move.com. Would really like to know if those guys are going to get their heads out of the sand and do something. Everyone always says that it’s theirs to lose.

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    Bob 11:45 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    @Victor – In San Diego I have tried to do something similar to what Roost was doing and was denied several times. As soon as Roost launched in San Diego I contacted Sandicor (the regional mls) and asked about what Roost was doing. I was told that while the rules have not been updated, they did indeed approve the IDX feed to Roost.

    Because Roost is broker centric, and they went after a few powerful brokers, they got the mls to roll over.

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    Dustin 11:47 pm on February 26, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    @ Not Sold on Roost:

    You make some very interesting points (and many of which I agree with)…

    But I think there is a bit more to the site than you’re giving them credit. Here’s why:

    1) They do have FSBOs… And they are allowed to as long as they don’t “commingle” the listings on the same map/list. See this [san diego] search for an example of how they implemented this.

    2) Because they are grabbing an IDX feed, they only need one broker in any given area to get all the MLS listings.

    3) Definitely not today with their existing inventory of listings, but it’s not clear to me why you think they couldn’t compete in the long-term.

    I’ll work on interviews with the Move team… but I didn’t even go there for the first round.

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    Victor LUnd 7:01 am on February 27, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    @roost more digging

    See http://www.roost.com/web/industry.action.

    They have a relationship with iHomefinder.com to get the data. The brokers who use their services simply submit IDX paperwork to their respective MLSs using a roost subdomain.

    If approved, they are good to go. If they must have a custom domain, Roost accommodates for compliance. They are doing a nice job. However, their only differentiation is in the simplicity of their model and the potential to cover “all” listings.

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    Jessie B 11:27 am on February 27, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    I like the interface, it’s fast and simple and roost group obviously understands the importance of the user experience based on the history with kayak. I 100% agree that users want listings and they want all of them regardless it’s on the MLS or FSBO or new construction or exclusive listings. In looking at the model I think there maybe a few possible issues that may come up.

    1 – The roost model is interesting from a listing coverage point of view as they “only” need 800 MLS feeds and they will get about 90% (2007 NAR report indicated that 10% of agent represented properties did not make it onto the MLS) of the MLS listed coverage. This is a task that I’m not sure even REALTOR.com has been able to accomplish but I’m sure you know the answer Additionally, some brokers may not want the FSBO coverage and therefore one of the value propositions of the site may not be fulfilled for the consumer.

    2 – If a MLS faces pressure from the other brokers in the area who don’t like the model, they may pull the feeds or change the rules. At that point, leaving roost to get listings like T & Z via broker submitted feeds.

    3 – The next issue maybe the monetization of the site with the CPC model. Although details having been released its been indicated that it’s on a CPC model. http://www.roost.com/web/realtors.action

    Since users are paying for clicks to each individual listing, it’s not unlikely that a user may look at 20-30 listings in a single session at say a guess of .10 per click to a listing – then that users visit may cost as much as $2 – $3. If the same user grows accustomed to using the site (which would be desired and the ultimate goal of roost) and returns 5 times prior to contacting an agent, then the cost of that buyers visits maybe as high as $10 – $15. If that is the case the brokers would not see the value and could do it cheaper via cpc on the se’s. If the model is only paying once per user session at say .50 then roost would need significant traffic to get profitable. Again, I don’t know the details just making assumptions based on the known CPC business model.

    4 – Getting Traction? Since the site is hosting sub-domains and possible outside domain to be in compliance with MLS rules, it would seem difficult to get organic search traffic like say Trulia. This means everyone needs to come via the front door of the site. This may lead to roost to do significant advertising via cpc to generate traffic. At that point they are doing click arbitrage (paying G .20 and selling traffic to agent at .50) competing directly against local brokers. If there is not enough users the brokers may not see the benefit and pull the listings.

    5 – I also think an upcoming trend of the MLS’s themselves becoming more of a destination site for consumers much like HAR.com is doing and now some of the other MLS sites may impact the roost model. If the trend gets traction and is supported by the brokers, the MLS may change the rules, pulling feeds as they don’t want to create competition for themselves.

    It will be interesting to follow their moves and see if they can make it happen. I fairly certain Alex and team will review post like this to find solutions to the possible issues that have been pointed out – so I don’t doubt we will continue to see them evolve as needed.

• Dustin 4:07 am on February 12, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: listing (66), Roost, search (51)   

  Just noticed that Roost pushed out keyword search… 

  … and I really like the implementation. Between allowing multiple terms, providing the check-boxes and allowing users to cancel any given term, there’s all the right options packed into such a simple tool.

  

  (h/t to Matt)

   

• Dustin 5:22 am on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ActiveRain (31), ads (21), Altos Research (11), cms (5), consumers (15), Marketing (77), mortgage (18), Roost, search (51), services (2), social network (57), Terabitz (6), Top Producer (6), Trulia (54), web2.0 (22), Zillow (61)   

  Greg thinks Top Producer is vulnerable to… 

  …the Zillow machine, but I seriously doubt it…

  I 100% agree that someone could seriously improve on the existing CRM products for agents… During our after-lunch conversation this past week, I mentioned that if Trulia really wants to reach marketing dominance some day, they should offer a free, high-quality CRM to agents. But first, they’d need to start thinking of themselves as a company that provides marketing tools to agents, not just as an advertising platform (and interestingly, I get the impression that Rudy is already thinking this way!).

  However, I don’t think Rudy is enough to make it happen for Trulia.

  Why? Because to call either Trulia or Zillow a “marketing” platforms for agents would be to confuse marketing with advertising. The core DNA of both companies is to build consumer-oriented products and then find a way to integrate agent-advertising into those products. Other than the (very valuable) service of getting agents in from of consumers, I’m yet to see either company make the mental leap toward thinking what should they do to make the day-today business of agents easier or more efficient.

  Just as it is in TP’s DNA to build products for agents, T and Z still live in a world of consumer-oriented products. My guess is that some of the executives at T or Z would view the development of pure agent-centric products (like a CRM) as selling-out the consumer experience of their core sites.

  Nonetheless, if T or Z (or Roost!), decided to build some agent-centric projects, I’d argue that they’d likely open up some interesting business opportunities and potentially do a much better job endearing themselves to their core advertisers.

  And a quality CRM is only one way they could go… CMS, market intelligence, and transaction coordination are three other (obvious) areas where existing agent-centric products are either seriously lacking features or the market is seriously under-served.

  But just because the market is starved, doesn’t mean T or Z have any interest in coming to the rescue. As a matter of fact, inertia suggests to me that they are not even thinking about taking on this market and TP executives are right not to worry about Zillow.

  (Are you having a hard time translating this post? A key can be found here.)

  Going way back before I took my job at… « 4realz.net, Incredible Agent, Dustin and 7 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    whatley 7:29 am on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    What about Google?

  • 

    Christina Ethridge | North Idaho Real Estate 7:36 am on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Despite there being great CM programs out there (Act!, Goldmine, etc), TP has a strong and growing client base. Even though the program is clunky, there are simply too many things that it does well that the other programs do not. It’s so specialized for real estate and when you know everything it does and integrate it into your business, it’s an awesome program. I can not see Z, T or R even considering it and G, well, it’s so specialized with such a ’small’ client base that I doubt they’d consider it either.

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    mm 7:51 am on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Isn’t this the direction the folks at Fidelity National are going with Cyberhomes.com? Since they have a ton of agent software and services in the their family to begin with (e.g., CRM, MLS mgmt, title agent svcs, etc.), they have the potential to stitch this all together for the agent community and also to have excellent data for consumers. What do you think?

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    Jim Reppond 7:56 am on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    With TP8i coming out at least they are moving away from javascript to be more mainstream. (they even recommend Firefox now!) It’s going to be very hard for any new player to jump in and get a toe-hold in the market. Most top producing agents use TP and are going to be very reluctant to switch. I, for example, have a half dozen licenses with multiple Action Plans and systems integrated into TP. It would take someone (and I don’t have the time) three to six months just to recreate everything we do in another CMS. No thank you.

    TP was originally designed by a Canadian RE agent who was a programmer. (same geeky guy as did the old training videos). It was obvious he was more of a programmer than a design or relational database person. And he never even got around to setting up proper import-export or customizable report functionality (which is the basic definition of a real database, IMO).

    Still, he threw in everything except the kitchen sink and, if you can live with it’s horrible interface, you can do more that any other real-estate-specific CMS. So regardless of it’s lack of GUI and other frustrating limitations, I think it’s the only viable solution for what it does. It’s here to stay.

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    Greg Tracy 10:51 am on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Blueroof360 has a powerful lead and client management system built into it.

    And, unlike Top Producer, it is very easy to use and understand.

    The Blueroof360 product also schedules showings, gets feedback on your showings and every client has a log-in to see all the activity on their file, including showings and feedback.

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    12:17 pm on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Hi Dustin!

    Interesting thoughts. Keep the ideas flowing. We’re always listening…..

    Rudy

  • 

    Dustin 8:20 pm on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Sorry everyone for disappearing for the day after publishing this post.

    Whatley: I’ve always thought Google could do a MUCH better job creating a healthy marketing platform for real estate professionals… hell, they already have a few thousand real estate professionals using their blog platform and they offer NO special incentives or marketing opportunities. However, the entire industry for offering a marketing platform is probably only worth a hundred million a year or so a year (all non-ad stuff), so it wouldn’t likely dent Google’s margins even if they dominated.

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    Dustin 8:38 pm on February 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Christina and Jim: I think the point Greg was trying to make and one that I’d agree with is that someone could easily offer a free (or nearly free) CRM tool that was specifically for real estate that could capture much of the market. Of course there would always be people who would be stuck with TP because of their years of specialization, but my guess is that 80% of TP users never use 80% of the features… and that a simpler program would not only suffice, but actually be preferable, for many agents!

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    David G from Zillow.com 11:00 am on February 11, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Successful marketing tactics are shifting from selling to serving (at least in Real Estate.) IMO, the real question here is; what role does CRM play in a permission marketing world?

    Last week I came across a blogger (not in the RE.net) who referred to the popular hosted CRM software as “forcedsales.com.” That post really got me thinking about the dubious future of CRM. Consumers no longer want to be leads and Gen X and Gen Y don’t want to be “sold.” They want to take control, they want to choose their service provider and they want to be able to contact you when they need you not when you feel like “marketing” to them. It got me thinking that if permission marketing is working for you – on your blog or in the online real estate communities – why would you need to manage leads?

    I could be wrong but I don’t think you’re going to see many new players trying to get into the lead-harvesting space. Rather, we are seeing new marketing platforms emerge that focus on earning consumer’s permission and that enable service, not sales. Blogs are such a platform. Zillow’s Q&A, Discussions and even the simple ability to upload Neighborhood Photo’s are all examples of next generation marketing tools (not advertising!) Permission marketing absolutely does put the consumer first – that is how it works – but it is definitely marketing. And advertising compliments social media marketing so well because, unlike sales, advertising has always worked on the permission-based principle that empowers today’s consumer with choice.

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    Dustin 11:19 am on February 11, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    David G: You make a very interesting point… as I had never thought about the disconnect between keeping contact with people in your address book and permission marketing. But I don’t think it is a real one.

    You’re example of using a blog for permission marketing would only work for a small subset of real estate consumers. For better or worse, many consumers still prefer email… and I’d argue that reaching consumers how and when they *want* to be reached is the essence of permission marketing.

    Are you the type of consumer who wants a monthly update on market conditions? A weekly summary of my blog posts? A daily update on mortgage rates? An on-the-fly update of homes that meet your specific requirements? A email campaign from an easy to use CRM would likely be the best way to help any of these clients out!

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    Incredible Agent 2:05 pm on February 11, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Simplicity is the key. TP is a dinosaur and those who are stuck with it will be dinosaurs too. Maybe their new version will be something different, but it’s probably only an improvement…not a complete redesign.

    Blogs, Q&A, etc are great tools for permission marketing, however I believe it is only the best way…not the only way. Just because a few people like to read blogs, doesn’t mean everyone does. Most consumers don’t have the time and certainly aren’t using RSS readers to keep up (yet). CRM tools are great to keep in front of your client without the effort. Lead harvesting is critical if you are going to spend time and money generating leads. Otherwise you’re letting potential slip through the cracks.

    My advice…do it all and let your prospects decide how they want to be converted. They will in the long run anyways.

• Dustin 4:34 am on January 28, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: consumers (15), design (8), DotHomes (2), Google (39), listing (66), real estate (168), Roost, search (51)   

  DotHomes Launches US Home Search Tool 

  I’m somewhat of a night owl, so I thought I’d have no problem waiting out the U.S. launch of the UK site DotHomes. But it is getting pretty late and the U.S. version of the site still hasn’t gone live.

  However, TechCrunchUK published their story (with the not so promising comment: “The question, is will the US – packed to the gunnels with property search engines and in a sub-prime slump – actually notice?“), so I thought I’d give my analysis based on what I learned from a good, long conversation with one of their co-founders, their press release and a bit of playing on their UK site.

  Let’s start with the good stuff:

  • They have slick crawling technology that does a great job indexing home listings from a variety of listing sites
  • They have a well developed one-box search that allows for all kinds of inputs and actually delivers decent results
  • They have a healthy sense of flair as demonstrated by their “I’m feeling wealthy” button

  Whereas the recently released search site Roost.com appears to be going for the “kayak of real estate”, DotHomes is clearly going after the “google of real estate”. Like Google, they display only the teaser information on listings before sending you back to the original source (the crawled website) for more information. So far, so good!

  However, I’m a bit skeptical this site will generate much interest or buzz in the U.S. for a number of reasons (none of which are fatal, but…):

  • DotHomes is following less than a week after the release of the Roost.com site, which got some great buzz around the RE.net for having a listings aggregation approach that made sense (i.e. get all the MLS listings!).
  • Besides entering a crowded space, DotHomes is also opting for a crawl approach to get listings, which will never compete in either comprehensiveness or timeliness with direct MLS feeds.(although it does allow for more freedom to add other listing types).
  • And finally, I didn’t get the impression that the DotHomes team really understood oddities of the existing US real estate market. Some of the background material they presented made me think they hadn’t really done their homework in terms of really understanding the complex dance of agents, brokers, brokerages and MLS organizations that allow listings to get placed on the internet in the first place.

  With all that said, I’ve been following the cofounders of this site for quite some time (including back when the site was called Extate.com). Artemi Krymski and Douglas de Jager are extremely smart guys and I’m sure that after they get some U.S. experience with this launch, they’ll regroup, adjust their tactics a bit and continue to produce interesting products that will keep us talking.

  International Real Estate Search Site Makes a Move into US | Future of Real Estate Marketing, Dustin, Tim O'Keefe and 4 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    Jessie B 10:38 am on January 28, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Excellent write up about dothomes.com. A possible issue I see is the scrutiny they may receive for scraping the listing information. You may remember when Trulia launched – http://www.raincityguide.com/2005/09/28/trulia-better-real-estate-search/

    For the comparison against Roost – all dothomes needs to do to get MLS listings is crawl broker sites with IDX feeds or public access MLS sites. This is a fairly simple process, as we have already indexed most of roost I don’t see it as being too difficult for dothomes to do the same but I do agree it maybe difficult to update based on current format of individual listings.

    Dustin, since you get all the info.. do you know how they plan on monetizing the site? Looking at the uk it seems to be simple sponsored advertisting or will they go the trulia / realtor route and offer “featured” advertising?

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    loren nason 6:40 pm on January 28, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    whats the point with DotHomes already entering a crowded marketplace of Home Search Portals.

    How will they make money? Yes they can sell ads, but selling ads is pointless if their is no traffic and I don’t see it getting much if any traffic

  • 

    frankschulteladbeck 7:00 pm on January 28, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Thank you for the information. I think your analysis is spot on.Current sites like Zillow and Trulia are looking into ways to extend their reach, but many real estate professionals do not have much care for them. It will be interesting to see how the lawsuit with Zillow and its estimates will turn out.

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    Kevin Boer 8:34 pm on January 28, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Why crawl all the IDX sites? They can just tag behind Roost and slurp up all their data…

  • 

    9:39 am on January 29, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    This should be a wakeup call to the *plug n play onliners. If agents are not creating content their sites will be relegated to what the general population of agents have been for years, a commodity without differentation (in the publics eyes of course).

    *plug n play- or “set it and forget it” websites. Put IDX and a couple templated content pages and pray for business.

  • 

    Dustin 2:57 pm on January 29, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Tim: You’re definitely right that differentiation is key for agents if they want to be effective on the internet!

• Dustin 2:51 am on January 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ads (21), CPC, design (8), idx (5), listing (66), Marketing (77), MLS (25), photo (8), remarkable (4), Roost, search (51), Trulia (54)   

  Who gave Roost complete MLS listings? 

  Roost.com is a real estate start-up that just launched their real estate search site….

  I had a chance to meet the Roost.com team at NAR in Vegas and was impressed with them… so I was downright excited when they offered to give me a preview of their site at RE Connect (see comment #1).

  During my conversation with Alex Chang (their CEO), he mentioned multiple times the similarities between Roost and Kayak… And I think it is safe to say that they would like to be the Kayak of real estate which would not be so bad considering Kayak’s success (and Eric at TechCrunch notes that Roost even shares a few board members Kayak. I believe they also share major investors…).

  Like Kayak, Roost has:

  1. Clean “web2.0″ interface.
  2. AJAX “magic” that allows for listings to dynamically change as option boxes and sliders are changed.
  3. A CPC business model that charges the brokers/airlines for hits that go back to their website.

  There’s also some real estate-specific goodies, like the photos that open up “inline” and the ability to highlight only specific listings (to be mapped).

  However, the real gold is that by teaming up with brokers to display their IDX feed they are able to display complete MLS listings. (The RE/MAX search site provided by eNeighborhoods does something similar, but without all the bells-and-whistles of Roost)

  And while Greg is right to highlight the irony of Brokers paying Roost to send leads back to them, he’s also right to point out that “The IDX systems available at a monthly cost in many markets are so poor that Roost may prove to be a potent weapon in a broker’s arsenal.” My take is that if Roost can deliver consumers, then brokers will be happy to pay on a CPC basis… and the reality is that it only takes one broker to give their IDX to Roost for them to enter a new market, so they should be able to expand pretty quickly.

  As a side note, I’ve always thought that this approach to getting listings for a real estate tech start-up makes the most sense… and I remember suggesting to Sami that Trulia should take this approach as oppose to going broker-by-broker at our coffee session in Seattle a few years ago. (I don’t care much for the CPC monetization strategy, but in terms of getting listings, it seems like a no-brainer to give a little bit to a local brokers in each market to get their listings.).  However, I can’t blame Sami for not wanting to go down this route since the various MLS’ would have put so many restrictions around what Trulia could do that they’d never been able to release some of the things that they’ve done (like mixing MLS listings with foreclosure listings and opening up an API into their listing information).

  Overall, I’d say that the Roost team has done a really good job with this first release! It’s a quality product that delivers as promised.

  If I have one knock on the site it has nothing to do with the technology and everything to do with marketing. I simply don’t think the site is different enough from existing search sites to warrant continued buzz.   I think they’ll get some great initial pick-up (considering it is a slick site with smart founders and investors), but unless they continue to deliver new features/announcements at a breakneck pace, I’m not sure how they keep people outside of the RE.net talking about the site beyond the next week or so.

  Is Roost.com roosting on the brass ring? Start-up Realty.bot comes to market with two firsts: MLS listings and a business plan | BloodhoundBlog: Real estate marketing and technology blog | Realtors and real estate, mortgages, lending, investments, Reno Real Estate, Brad Nix and 6 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    Michael Price 9:17 am on January 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    It’s been a while since I have been involved with the nuances of IDX. Maybe you can help me understand how the rules play out. In the case of Houston, one broker has republished the entire IDX data feed in Roost.Com. All of the leads go back to that broker.

    Is the future of listing distribution based on the size and ability of the broker to create these kind of relationships? It was my understanding that a single broker could republish the IDX feeds on their own site only, however, as is the case with Yahoo Real Estate and now Roost.Com that is unclear.

  • 

    Ed Kohler 9:23 am on January 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    That is a nice use of AJAX. It’s fun watching new uses come to the industry almost every day. Some are actually useful.

  • 

    Incredible Agent 9:48 am on January 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    @Michael: The way they are getting around this is by making the page the “Brokerages” page…so in a sense it is the brokers site…not roosts. That’s why you see the brokername.idx.roost.com in the url. Essentially they are an IDX vendor for the brokerages with a front entry way to drive traffic to their IDX search.

    @dustin: I agree. The site isn’t different enough to warrant continued buzz for very long. I don’t see it as anything special.

  • 

    Michael Price 10:32 am on January 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    I noticed that as I surfed through the site but did not snap to the significance of it. Thanks for pointing it out Damon.

    Have those big feet of yours healed up from the NYC trip?

  • 

    Dustin 10:43 am on January 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Michael:

    Damon has it just right and one of the other things that they do is cookie you when you first arrive at the site so that the experience will continue to be brought to you by one broker. In other words, even if there are 10 brokers signed up to Roost in a market area, you’ll always see the same brokerage branding when you return to the site.

  • 

    Jessie B 11:26 am on January 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Possible issues.

    (A) site structure may make it difficult to get organic results, so your comment about building buzz is 100% correct.
    (B) since the model is cpc some brokers will simply do cpc with the SE’s if roost cpc cost is higher.
    (C) Possible dissention from agents to broker / MLS for providing access to FSBO on same platform, which may cause brokers / MLS to pull feeds. (my guess this will be pulled off site in less than 3 months)
    (D) “even if there are 10 brokers signed up to Roost in a market area, you’ll always see the same brokerage branding when you return to the site.” – this may cause a problem where they cannot deliver enough traffic to multiple brokers signed up in the same areas.

  • 

    roostblog 2:50 pm on January 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Alex from Roost here. Thanks for the great write up Dustin, really enjoyed chatting with you at Inman. Thought I’d clarify a few things for everyone:
    - First, our broker partners actually rotate through the search engine by session
    - Second, one thing that has kind of gotten lost is that the search engine is really only a part of the equation. Roost is actually a network of IDX compliant broker sites with a search engine sitting on top of them. Brokers receive these sites, and are in complete control. Those sites receive geo-targeted visitors from the Roost search engine depending on the broker’s needs/budget. Each broker site goes through standard IDX approval process with each MLS
    - Finally, Roost is a completely open/inclusive platform for any type of broker (large, small, independent, franchise group, corporate, etc)

  • 

    Brad Nix 4:26 pm on January 25, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    As a small broker/owner, I placed a call into Roost two days ago and have yet to hear back from them. We’ll see how “open/inclusive” they are.

    Please check my site and get my number to call me at extension 303.

  • 

    Reno Real Estate 5:45 pm on January 25, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Hi. I am also a small broker who would like to get more information on the pricing model.

    When the Roost “ers” get back to this blog, please follow my site link above and tell me about pricing and capability in the Reno Real Estate market.

    Thanks. Mitch