4realz.net

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 [...]

I thought it was interesting when he recently took a shot at Rich Barton and Pete Flint (twice), but my jaw dropped when I started reading his post criticizing (to put it nicely) Move’s opperation of Realtor.com.

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…than Trulia and Zillow combined.”
Can’t wait to check back in 2 years!

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“Over two days in June, we searched each site for three-bedroom, single-family homes on the market in Santa Monica.”
The results:

Zillow: 168 homes*
HomeGain: 142, 48 homes (depending on day)
ZipRealty: 126 homes
Yahoo Real Estate: 107 homes
Realtor.com: 103 homes
MSN Real Estate: 103 homes
RE/Max: 91 homes
Trulia: 77 homes
Coldwell Banker: 29, 96 (depending on site)
AOL Real Estate: 49 listings

These numbers [...]

…that reminded me of this video from the previous head of REALTOR.com:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DNtYtM_gX0]
[Ferrara's comment]
“…Instead of just copying everyone else, maybe REALTOR.COM (and by extension, NAR) could make some decisions based upon market realities. And the reality is that Zillow (and other similar tools) are really inaccurate because the “conditions” on the ground are always so fluid [...]

I’ve got something special planned for this week’s 4realz Roundtable. In honor of Realtor.com’s release of the home valuation tool, we’re going to cover the value of online home values!
Join us on Thursday at 4pm (PST) to take part in the conversation!
Of course, the discussion is what makes the 4realz Roundtable work, [...]

…didn’t even notice:

Introducing: Realtor.com Home Values

Apparently, Realtor.com launched their answer to Zillow recently without much fanfare!
The first thing to note is that the new tool mixes estimates for home values along side listings from the Realtor.com database. This would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, but even with an announcement from NAR, [...]

…some interesting insights into real time mortgage rates.   And being a sucker for a great interface, I really like how the chart changes dynamically as you adjust parameters.

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I really want to thank the industry titans who participated in today’s podcast:

Michael Wurzer of FBS Data Systems & FlexMLS blog
Bill Lublin of Move Philly
Jeff Turner of Real Estate Shows
Mike Price: MLBroadcast

As well as all the people who listened in and provided wonderful chat commentary throughout the podcast. There were so many [...]

…never made much inroads with the real estate community (or real estate portals for that matter).   Imagine if the Realtor.com team had bought Outside.in instead of building the neighborhoods project.
And it really doesn’t matter if it was Zillow, Trulia, AOL, Yahoo or Realtor.com, it could be a win for the real estate portal (lots of [...]

…in Realty Quest.
Here are some of the things I wanted to talk about this week, but haven’t had the chance:

4RealzEd is coming to Pasadena on May 30! The buzz from the first two events has been wonderful and I’m already seeing people sign up without any real marketing on our part! [...]

… with their latest home price trends.
With the colorful charts and maps, the Zillow team has done a great job becoming the de facto standard for home price trends. The free press they’re getting around this data is incredible.

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We all know that external sources of traffic are off, but what if you guys “quantified” the site so that a third party could transparently track your traffic?
I think that would be a great way to nip the traffic question in the bud.
And by the way, I “quantified” RCG about two weeks ago and, not [...]

It’s a great question…
I thought I’d dive into this question a bit so I started writing a killer-post! My thought was to put together a fascinating post that described likely revenue opportunities at both Zillow and Trulia and I was even going to go so far as to estimate the value of Trulia…
However, [...]

My take on Zillow has always been that accurate Zestimates was never particularly important to their business… What mattered was that people were talking about them. Zillow’s first strike of brilliance was that they took something that was traditionally complicated (getting a home value) and made it better than simple for consumers; they [...]

…thinks so.
On Zillow’s failings:
“Zillow is so 2006. The business model is based on advertising CPMs, and now that the real estate bubble has burst, it’s much less fun to track the (sinking) value of your home. There’s more competition as well, including Trulia and Redfin.”
On Trulia’s success:
“If location, location and location are what real estate [...]

…glassdoor with an ex-Microsoft/Expedia team. Rentbits thinks the name indicates a new real estate company, which would seem to scream conflict of interest with Zillow…
Considering Rich could probably self-fund a company like this, I can’t help but thinks he gets funding because he just enjoys the process.
(via TechCrunch)

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… surprise, surprise, it’s fun!
The idea is that they provide two photos of different rooms (or areas) of a house, and you get to vote on which one is better.  The process is simple… View, vote and repeat.   Getting the hang of the site only takes a few moments and it shockingly addictive.
Another feature [...]

… consumers continue to get more places to see listings:

Welcome, MLS PIN (Zillow gets comprehensive listings from the New England MLS)
Connecticut statewide MLS launches a public site

The Zillow story has to be the more interesting of the two… because, unless Zillow is doing something funny on their backend, this is the first example that I’m [...]

This interview by Global Property exchange with Simon Baker, who just so happens to be the CEO of News Corporation-owned REA Group, features a few choice quotes about web2.0 start-ups in the real estate space. Here are the two comments that stuck out for me:
“You don’t have to look sexy to deliver.”
“Sites like Zillow.com get [...]