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Why I'm writing on the HomeGain blog
2008-02-21 19:20:00
A friend asked me why I posted an article on the HomeGain blog, considering HomeGain's position as a lead generation and lead sales company. I refer to an article I posted on the Inman News blog last June: Web 2.0 Disruption : Louis Cammarosano, General Manager of  Homegain engaged - don't dismiss Web 1.0 businesses like Homegain, they work because they are tried and true business models... "Web 1.0 companies, like HomeGain and "bricks and mortar" franchises like ReMAX, will add web 2.0 features when and as it pays to do so. Adding heat maps, HVAL tools, blogs, user generated content is not all that difficult. The trick is making those features pay. Making real estate pay is something that companies like HomeGain and ReMAX have a long history of doing.  Have Web 2.0 companies like Zillow and Trulia figured that out yet?" I see what Mr. Cammarosano means. Simply put, Web 1.0 upheld, even enhanced the status quo real estate business models like lead-gen...
More About: Writing , Blogging , Blog

Forbes Blog Network
2008-02-19 09:21:00
I've discussed how mainstream media is rapidly moving to include user generated content, particularly well trafficked, influential blog content, onto their sites. Forbes .com is developing a blog network of sites in the financial and business arena that is supposed to launch fairly soon. I received an invitation to participate for Transparent Real Estate, but I'm not exactly sure what to expect.  World Beta does the best job shedding light on how the new network, essentially a blog aggregator, works. Forbes seems to be copying the business model of Seeking Alpha, an aggregation of financial and business blog feeds that share revenues between Seeking Alpha and its contributing bloggers. Although slated to start last month, it now appears it will be unveiled soon... members received their site "badges" a week ago. Bill Hartzer started the MyBlog Log tag "ForbesBlogNetwork " to recognize this group. Here are a few other bloggers' commentary... conclusion - no one exactly knows...

Multitasking a boon for work/family life balance
2008-02-17 10:22:00
Mainstream media almost uniformly blasts on the stress of daily life facilitated by "Crackberries", wifi, laptops and multitasking in general. However, for working parents balancing work and family life, the "always on" life makes complete sense for certain character types who are comfortable with peripatetic multitasking. At the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, at chess tournaments and other indoor competitions, parents wait for their children to finish practice or matches in wifi-enabled lounges working on their laptops. The new Conservatory opened last September, and the architects made the common mistake of wiring for too few outlets so there's always a rush for plug position on Saturday mornings. To me, work efficiency makes life less stressful... I would rather spend that hour or two waiting for my children to finish practice on the laptop than wasting time driving back and forth. Moreover, the kids are used to it, they know that when they are finished, they get my full...
More About: Family , Life , Work , The Future , Balance

NBA All Star Weekend
2008-02-16 14:45:00
Love our Warriors... here's what Jeff van Gundy said after the Warriors/Suns game last Thursday:Jeff Van Gundy: "We should let them keep playing. We should let them play all through all-star weekend. In fact we should have these two teams play each other 16 times in a season"
More About: Events , All Star , Weekend , Star

Orange County sets trends for suburban living
2008-02-16 01:22:00
Despite the media portrayal of Orange County as a the new Peyton Place overrun by blondes and bikinied teenagers, this county of over 3,000,000 people is really America's suburban bellwether. Its melting pot demographics of 32% Latino and 16% Asian population defines a multicultural suburb that, by virtue of its trendsetting SoCal pedigree, is ground zero for propagating the new suburban lifestyle trends. After hearing rave reviews about the new Whole Foods located in the District shopping center next to Irvine, I had to visit before going to the airport. The press release says it all better than I can: Since its opening in 1980, Whole Foods Market has helped transform the way Americans eat and think about food. "We want our shoppers to celebrate the joys of eating and living well. We hope Whole Foods Market will continue to prompt change in the way people think about and shop for food" said John Mackey, Whole Foods Market CEO and co-founder. Highlights of T...
More About: Living , Trends , Sets , Orange County

Kinkos disfunctional business model
2008-02-14 10:08:00
We're traveling this week and had to make some copies at Kinko's (now given the tongue twisting name of FedexKinkos... which causes one to consider - does a brand name have such ego that it needs to insert itself into a simple, effective name like Kinkos?). I've always thought Kinko's was dysfunctional - a combination of demanding customers, poor service provided by a staff that seemed to be hired because they lacked the people skills to become barristas, and ugly fluorescent interiors. Well, Kinko's also has a completely backwards business model based on their main product: copies. Copies made by their service staff - collated and stapled if necessary - cost 8¢ per copy.  If I hook up my laptop to their LAN system, I can print directly to Kinko's printers for 49¢ each, 600% higher. It's the only model I've ever seen where automating a procedure takes the back seat to giving employees something to do, like managing a copier.It's backwards... I can't even think of an ...
More About: Business , Disintermediation , Model

Blog as door opener
2008-02-11 11:56:00
When a real estate agent starts developing a blog, the main objective is usually simple, even one-dimensional - to enhance their online marketing profile in order to get more leads. The blogger's progress follows a certain ritual: First, bloggers develop the hyperlocal content that position themselves as experts in their targeted area / city of influence. Example: Sunday's LA Times highlights real estate blogging as marketing tool (h/t to friend Elaine Carlson) As a blogger, the sudden realization they have gained entry into a larger social network of bloggers. Example: Active Rain. They find, and interact with a smaller corps of bloggers for friendship and to trade business ideas, just like physical life. Example: What my Group Blog means to me and you The network becomes a referral source. They understand that bloggers do business with other bloggers for the same surprising reason as any social network they belong to - trust. Example: As referral sources, commission spl...
More About: Blogging , Door

Commercial social networks
2008-02-08 00:10:00
While I was selling my car, I noted that it was still hard to sell items via the social network. Theoretically, transactions between friends in an established network is efficient because the trust factor needs to be maintained... any transgressions will create network friction. Facebook provides a social selling widget Radical Buy that allows the seller to set any commission to an intermediary who connects the buyer with the seller. In the larger scheme, the widget could make Facebook users eBay-like hubs who extend their networks commercially. The social network is being leveraged to facilitate peer-to-peer financial transactions. Read Gartner Group's study on how social banking platforms may account for 10% of retail lending within two year (a striking claim...) Non-bank competitors are pushing aggressively into banking and investment services, threatening to undermine banks in the financial relationship, according to Gartner. The threat is particularly pronounced in two bu...
More About: Social , Commercial , Social Networks , Networks

Help the Tornado Victims
2008-02-07 22:03:00
Kudos to  Agent Genius...their message:[Thanks] All funds will be given in the name of RE.net - our online real estate community.  Where ever you see [Help] around the RE.net, thank them, we surely will with lots of link love, and kudos.
More About: Events , Tornado , Victims

Watch Election 2008 Returns on Google Maps with Media Twitters
2008-02-05 23:36:00
H/T to Screenwerk for pointing out an intriguing way to watch the SuperTuesday Election 2008 returns on Google Maps with Twitter feed comments from all over the country (and world) in real time...See how Twitter is beginning to integrate itself into new media as a vox populi ticker tape?
More About: Media , Watch , Google Maps

Economic doomsayers - part 2
2008-02-05 01:33:00
Two interesting links appeared in comments from yesterday's post on the Armageddon Economy. First (h/t to Sean O'Toole for setting me straight on Janszen's perspective), iTulip's Eric Janszen explains the distinction between two types of economic doomsayers: Deflationistas (Janszen's term) believe that continuing asset deflation is rooted in consumers spiraling deeper into debt while real wages fall due to global wage arbitrage (plus the added bonus of the deflating asset values like stocks and housing). Hyper-inflationistas believe rampant inflation will rear its head with further massive Fed / Central Bank rate cuts combined with a sinking dollar. Janszen argues this won't happen (for similar reasons I've expressed earlier in Transparent): For a nation to experience a hyperinflation, all four of the following conditions need to be met: Large and growing external debt as a percentage of GDP with falling GDP (Yes, like the US.)Politically and economically isolated and...
More About: Part , Economic

Too much focus on the Armageddon Economy
2008-02-04 02:06:00
The US Economy faces the Guillotine - when Newsweek predicts Armageddon to the masses, and the masses all believe in the upcoming Armageddon, then we're in a state of mass hysteria. In such an absolute state,  only a contrarian can provide counterpoint and potentially profit from the unexpected. Let's counter some of the accepted wisdom the mainstream media and the financial pundits have been spouting with some legitimate contrarian perspective. The accepted wisdom: As the Fed drops interest rates, the dollar will crash The contrarian view: According to Bloomberg, the dollar is primed to rise this year versus the Euro as the Fed's bold rate cuts will boost the US economy just as the European economy slows: For the first time since 2003, investors are focused on relative growth prospects rather than absolute borrowing costs, according to Geoffrey Yu, a London-based strategist with UBS AG, the No. 2 trader. The steepest cuts by a Federal Reserve chairman in seven years w...
More About: Focus

Free wifi networks
2008-02-03 12:24:00
In San Francisco, a city wide free internet initiative proposed by Google and Earthlink was met with fanfare last year and then notoriously dumped by a dysfunctional Board of Supervisors who made extra demands on the wifi providers that toppled the deal. A private company, Meraki started a "Free the Net!" campaign that uses wifi repeaters to spread the wifi signal free. Consumer participants need to capture the "Free the Net" signal before they can qualify for a Meraki repeater to boost the signal further onward across San Francisco (unfortunately the signal hasn't reached my neighborhood yet or I would qualify for a free repeater).Meraki started its network in the center of San Francisco and its currently in build out towards the edges. Yesterday, Meraki announced a $20 million VC funding to provide free wireless internet access for the city of San Francisco. After proving the repeater proliferation model in San Francisco, the company will expand nationally. There are many homegr...
More About: Technology , Networks , Wifi , San Francisco Bay Area

Free the Net!
2008-01-31 22:47:00
This is a pet peeve story.Up to early 2007, free wifi signals dotted the urban landscape of San Francisco and one could just park the car, open the laptop and voila! be on. Now, people have figured out how to set up WEP passwords due to the imagined threat of "drive-by" spammers who, as urban myth has it, find a free wifi signal to unleash their spam distribution. We had grown accustomed to wifi being like electricity... open and free. I (and I'm sure countless others) mentally note every free wifi coffee shop in the neighborhoods where we have meetings so we can refer to them immediately. These shops always get my business. Coffee shop owners complain of wifi-loungers, so they should do what this brilliant bakery chain Panera Bread does - they offer free wifi except between the lunch hours of 11:00 - 2:00 when wifi use is restricted and clocked to 30 minutes. Panera is my meeting spot of choice whenever I'm in SoCal. Every restaurant chain should do this. Booking a conference a...
More About: Free , Disintermediation , The Future

A rash of property search engines
2008-01-31 01:31:00
To the untrained eye of the consumer, the functionality of real estate search and listings sites all seem similar. The first glance differentiating factors are ease of use, attractive design and special features. Many of the newer search sites take their cue from Google's simple query box: The initial feedback on newly launched US version of European based DotHomes is its ease of use and speedy search results. What's under the hood of these new search engines? DotHomes is a data aggregation search play. Its technology extracts specific fields off listings websites - # bedrooms, # bath, sq ft, price per sq ft - and displays the data on site. It also catalogs tag words - neighborhood name, probate, backyard - from the listings description to refine more detailed queries, like "san francisco pacific heights with backyard". The differential technological advantage is DotHomes' ability to "wrap" any listings website quickly and extract data deep down to the individual listing. I be...
More About: Technology , Search Engines , Property , Search , Engines

The new Investment Banking paradigm
2008-01-28 03:22:00
If one subscribes to the idea that a real estate transaction is basically matching capital with opportunity, and that the transactional process has become more transparent due to internet data, then it's logical to see that any intermediary based transaction is also fair game. Investment banking and venture capital is a relationship based business that matches investor bases, often institutional investors, with opportunities - stocks, bonds, M&A, start ups, etc. Like any other lucrative business model, maintaining the mystique of "high finance" and managing deals behind the scenes keeps power contained within the select few who live on Park Avenue or in Woodside. TheFunded.com, a website where entrepreneurs post data and feedback on the venture capital community, begins to level the playing field for entrepreneurs who pilgrimaged to so many VC meetings in order to figure out where their investment opportunities stood. Techcrunch notes TheFunded is now creating a database of V...
More About: Banking , Disintermediation , The Future , Transparency

Can the new refi boom usher in new lending models to keep the industry ethi
2008-01-24 23:40:00
(from Bankrate.com 1/24/08)Mortgage broker friends have been telling me there is a refinancing boom happening with mortgage rates sliding.  With the new boom, I'm hoping the shady mortgage lending practices of the pre-credit crunch days have been scrutinized by and made more visible to the consumer. However, I hear once again those ubiquitous, vainglorious mortgage broker radio ads with that call to action - "mortgage rates have again hit all time lows and won't stay there, so call now". We're ready to see the Charles Schwab-ization of mortgage lending - with rates visible to the consumer without hidden backends / yield spread premiums, or prepayment penalties that can indirectly compensate brokers. With product simplification, all the Schwab-like mortgage broker would add is his/her fee. I'm sure mortgage brokers will cry "it just isn't that simple", and that's likely true now, but we're heading in that direction because mortgage lending will, like airplane tickets an...
More About: Models , Industry , Usher , Disintermediation , The Industry

Now the European Central Bank waffles on rate cut recovery measures
2008-01-23 13:35:00
ECB President Jean Claude Trichet replaces Bernanke as not "getting" the magnitude of the global recessionary threatSurprisingly, the UK and European Central Bank s did not see fit to drop their interest rates in tandem with yesterdays's 75bp Fed rate cut, citing inflationary pressures. Coordinated action by the world's Central Banks in lowering rates to head off a global recession was expected here. After all, Bernanke made the first move yesterday.... now the ball is in Europe's court. Jon Ogg at 24/7 Wall St. explains the implications of the ECB's stubborn, but fallible position - "maybe the Central Bankers and their wives want to... come shopping in New York City before they lower rates". Notice though the dollar has remained remarkably resilient vs. the Euro today, perhaps in part with the expectation of future coordinated rate cut action. In any case, most pundits expect European markets to suffer from this short-sighted decision, it's the principle reason why Europe fel...
More About: Economy , Recovery

Global crash unnerves Fed - Interest rates will plunge
2008-01-22 08:54:00
The global market meltdown unnerved the Fed and they made their first intermeeting Fed Funds rate cut of 75 bp since September 17, 2001. Investors are still massively selling off Tuesday because they are panicked. Even though the cut is positive, they are selling to catch up with the other markets with one extra day of losses due to the MLK holiday. The bear market  dominates and a "sell into the rally" mentality is the theme for today. The Fed finally looks like they will take a sledge hammer to avoiding the recession for the globe's sake, and it's quite likely that another 50pb cut is coming on January 31 for their formal meeting. The dollar is doing fine, reflecting the fact that Central Banks are all working in unison to solve the global selloff.  The European Central Bank is also considering rate cuts. If the dollar continues to hold up over the short term, it will engender confidence that the US can lead the global markets away from today's panic. In fact, the t...
More About: Economy , Interest Rates , Global , Interest , Crash

Global market crash update
2008-01-21 15:39:00
Updating from yesterday's article on Bernanke and the Fed's credibility as they dawdle from decisive action to avoid recession, it's becoming clear that a US market crash is pulling down all global markets. US markets are closed today for Martin Luther King Day, but the rest of the world is melting down while Nero fiddles. Tomorrow's futures markets imply a 3-4% drop in the major indices when markets open. The Fed is now further burdened with staving off a global market crash with its actions in the US. Fortunately, the world's economic leaders will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos this week to control the effects of "irrational depression" that everybody is feeling. Hopefully, the Forum will stimulate the global Central Banks to work together in unison to lower interest rates and consider anti-inflation policy. Bold assumption, but it's perfect timing for a special Fed rate cut tomorrow to reassure the markets that the Fed now "gets it". Update : Matt Carter ...
More About: Economy , Market , Global , Crash

Bernanke's credibility on the ropes
2008-01-20 14:50:00
As the spectre of economic meltdown has media, Wall Street and George Bush crying for a solution in unison, Ben Bernanke's counterpoint message that the economy is just growing slowly and not yet headed into a recession seems surreal. Wall Street's market crash seem to be a ploy to force Bernanke and the Fed to drastic rate cuts... and Bernanke is starting to look like the problem - "all talk and no action". Bernanke and the FOMC, knowing that each time they meet over the first half of 2008 will likely require one more rate cut, seems to be setting a target low Fed Funds rate (such as Goldman Sachs year end 2008 rate target of 2.5%), and then backing into a "schedule" for an orderly rate drop. Economist View has a good reference article on this rate cut control strategy by Fed watcher Tim Duy, who believes that the Fed will continue to act conservatively with a 50bp rate cut on January 31, and not the 75bp the masses are clamoring for, so they have room for further future cuts if...
More About: Economy

Drastic rate cuts by the Fed should ease mortgage rates even more
2008-01-17 21:31:00
With the stock market crashing daily, Wall Street and Main Street look to the Fed for a series of interest rate cuts this winter (although most acknowledge it's too little, too late). According to HSH, the financial data publisher, changes in the Fed Funds rate correlate poorly with changes in mortgage rates: Indeed, according to Dan Green, Bankrate's Mortgage Rate Trend survey states 62% believe mortgage rates will increase even though the Fed is expected to cut rates, even a dramatic 75 point cut on January 29. Last week, Inman News' Lou Barnes also states: Dramatic Fed cuts would hike mortgage rates. However, history says that when the Fed cuts rates drastically, mortgage rates also inevitably drop (an eyeball perusal shows this). And mortgage rates are plunging now (50 bp in a month!) - , today's 30-year fixed rate is at the same level as it was in July 2005. Simple facts: the housing market needs the boost from lower mortgage rates, lenders need to lend... ...
More About: Economy , Rates , Ease

Property search engines' marketing conundrum
2008-01-16 02:04:00
AltSearch Engines discusses property search engines with Europe-based Yannick Laclau of Properazzi and Victor Aloi of Migoa/Nuroa. Here are the takeaways, all pretty obvious to anyone who has studied listings search engines: Marketing - getting noticed and capturing market share from the incumbents - is the key challenge. In the US, Realtor.com by virtue of its older brand name is still the gorilla that Trulia and Zillow are trying to catch. ComscoreThere are a lot of property search sites, and the consumer generally can't tell the difference until they use Properazzi or Nuroa and realize their advanced functionality.Business model is... advertising.Vertical search sites all borrow features from each other, so sites tend to evolve along the same paths.With so many sites, all with the same business model and similar features, property search engines become indistinguishable... which leads to >>>Marketing is the key challenge. In particular, viral marketing is a most effici...
More About: Technology , Search Engines , Property

Peer-to-Peer Lending - Credit crunch meets social networking
2008-01-15 02:43:00
Combine the credit crunch with the inherent trust factor being cultivated within social networks, and you get peer-to-peer lending. Today, the Digerati Life gives a comprehensive overview of the major P2P lending players : Prosper.com, Lending Club, Zopa.com, Kiva.org And USA Today sports a research analyst's prediction on the growth of P2P lending: We know there's a surfeit of borrowers today... why is lending on a P2P network so worthwhile and who would take the chances of unsecured lending to strangers? From USA Today: Default rates are lower for peer-to-peer loans than for other consumer loans. Cory Moore became a lender on Prosper.com this year. To hedge against defaults, he spreads his risk by lending small sums to different borrowers. So far, he's made 170 loans, for $50 apiece. "If one defaults, I've lost (money for) a dinner for two," says Moore, who says he's collected about $4,000 in interest from the loans. "Each loan is only $50, so I'm ...
More About: Social , Social Networking , Credit , Networking , Peer-to-peer

OpenHouse.com
2008-01-14 01:48:00
While at the Inman conference last week, I met up with Ben Phillips, Managing Director of OpenHouse.com, a new site focused on supplying open house listings data, glaringly missing from most MLS systems. Although developed and managed by Realogy, OpenHouse.com is positioned as non-denominational and is encouraging any brokerage or agent to participate by submitting listings feeds. It's significant that one of the largest brokerages is developing an "open data" product for the benefit of the industry. The impetus behind OpenHouse was to develop a user generated content site of open house listings and do away with all Realogy companies' print ads that were populating weekend newspapers. Ben says it saves the company several million per year. With the real mission of saving brokerages money (and of course, further disintermediating print media), advertising will be limited or non-existent. Realogy may benefit from owning a valuable online asset if OpenHouse.com does become a destina...

Why good Real Estate Video is rare
2008-01-13 14:11:00
I saw Rachel Klein, real estate video producer/star... from far away... at one of the Inman Connect cocktail parties last week. It was tough to get a word in edgewise to say I was a fan... she was like a media celebrity in a crowd of real estate agents (well, I guess that explains it...) We're so accustomed to TV-quality video production, or even JibJab-simple quality production, that anything less seems amateurish. (Link) This is the way to make compelling real estate videos... and Rachel demonstrates exactly why it's hard for real estate agents to get their hands around video as a marketing tool. Thus, the need for quality production assistance from For Sale by Locals, Real Estate Shows, and Wellcome Mat to name a few.
More About: Video , Real Estate , Good

Inman Connect review
2008-01-11 10:44:00
Five quick observations about this week's Inman Connect NYC: The declining housing market, credit crunch and looming recession seemed to dominate the conversations. Reason? All panelists in four general sessions (here's the liveliest one ) revolving around the economy acknowledged how critical the problem is with varying degrees of doom. There was not too much room for optimism although John Vogel does propose a solution.Brian Boero provides 50 powerful tips to help your business (the powerpoint will be posted here once I receive it)... and he goes beyond the remedial. Twitter arrives with real time comment streams on speakers in session. The stream reminds me of a ticker tape, and future conferences might experimentally include Twitter in one of the presentation windows behind the speakers (although I see it could easily distract the audience). Andy Kaufman (working virtually from Berkeley) ingeniously set up a compendium of Twitter streams from the Inman participants' Twitter ...
More About: Events , Review

Trulia distributes listings to media free
2008-01-09 08:11:00
Today, Trulia announces their publishing platform that can essentially place Trulia's feature tools - the heat maps and listings/comps data - on any site. I'm particularly focused on their partnership with publishers Kiplinger.com, Village Voice Media and AmericanTowns to facilitate the creation of co-branded sites that display on the publishers' sites. And it's all for free.The offering takes one further step towards commoditizing listings data and making them free.  It takes dead aim at the third party vendors like Homescape that provision listings data for publishers and charges them for it.Since no monetization is involved, what are the benefits to each party?Benefits for publisher - free listings contentBenefits to brokerage partners and their listings agent - broader listings distributionBenefits to Trulia - Trulia further positions itself as a national listings distributor. In particular, these content distribution agreements get their consumers comfortable with Tr...
More About: Free , Listings

Year of the Blog Networks
2008-01-06 23:35:00
This is the first of a few "prediction" articles I'll be developing this month in tribute to 2008. "Blog networks" is not part of the lexicon yet, but it will be. They already exist on many online newspapers like the New York Times as "blog network gardens" that consist primarily of the blogs of their own journalists (essentially, blogs have become the online incarnation of the journalist's daily or weekly column). All types of publications, like Forbes.com, will be creating blog networks by selecting and aggregating blogs by business/financial topic. More thematically, real estate trade publications are also exploring the launch of blog networks (more later). Finally, although technically not blogs, companies like Circuit City are inviting their customers to register as users and participate in comment streams and forums revolving around the products that Circuit City sells... it's a concept for potential adoption by real estate companies - builders, title companies, lenders, e...
More About: Networks , Year

Counter intuitive lead generation ideas
2008-01-04 03:00:00
During today's discussion on how to make brokerage websites even better made me think about counter-intuitive lead generation ideas 1) Consumers want tools and free data for their home buying experience but are wary of submitting any personal contact information. Why not just explicitly state on the website - "REGISTER TO USE OUR TOOLS AND WE PROMISE NEVER TO SPAM OR CONTACT YOU, OR ABUSE YOUR PERSONAL DATA. IT'S COMPLETELY UP TO YOU WHEN YOU WANT TO INITIATE CONTACT". I would sign up to use good tools with this guarantee. 2) When the consumer wants to start contacting agents for conversation, provide tools like Meebo / Plugoo chat boxes and Jaxtr anonymizing phone callers that allow the consumer to contact agents anonymously and encourage them to make contact anonymously. Why? Interviewing and ultimately rejecting the hiring of an agent slightly tears the social fabric. Rejection causes disappointment and a me versus them / good guys/bad guys feeling. For example, I stopped get...
More About: Ideas , Counter , Generation , Lead