With the increasing downward spiral of the economy and resulting record unemployment rate, many homeowners face foreclosure in their near future. In the past, most banks wouldn’t lift a finger to help troubled homeowners, and if they did, it typically wasn’t until they were already behind on their mortgage. With the high cost banks must shell out due to foreclosure they are now changing their tune. According to The Real Estate Bloggers Bank of America plans to proactively modify 630,000 loans totaling $100 billion. Now homeowners who are seriously delinquent “AND” those likely to become seriously delinquent will have the opportunity to receive this new streamlined loan modification.
The question to ask is why did it take a financial crisis for banks to proactively help homeowners stay in their homes when signs of trouble were in the forecast? There are many stories out there of homeowners reaching out to lenders to get help when they saw trouble coming, to no avail. “If your not late, we can’t help you” was the previous mantra. I wonder if these new types of policies will continue once the financial crisis subsides. I guess we can wait and see…
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Have you been wondering how you can leverage your following on social networks to help promote your business & services? iList is the latest online tool for managing your online marketing campaigns to social networks and the web in general. Real Estate professionals and online marketers are strongly focusing their advertising efforts towards social networks. iList integrates with popular web services like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, FriendFeed, and even Craigslist
Now you can create an online ad similar to Craigslist and distribute it through most of your social networks for all your contacts to see. iList also has a built in sharing feature which allows your social network contacts to share your listing with all their contacts, creating some what of a viral effect. This is just another great way to integrate yourself with the web by allowing the people in your circle to help you promote your business.
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Today, new real estate social networking site iwantanoffer.com officially launches to the public. The site launches complete with the ability to add friends, create a public profile, upload a walkthrough video, schedule a visit, showcase testimonials, and make an offer! The site surprisingly has a lot of features and I am sure that I am only scratching the surface.
The application doesn’t offer all of this for free. You can register for free, but there is a fee to list properties. I question the fee structure (for consumers); especially with the current list of free sites out there to market properties. But, it doesn’t hurt to actually launch with a business model.
Overall, I think the site has a lot of potential and is definitely worth checking out.
Having trouble selling your home? New real estate site Swapee.com wants you to swap it for something else.
Launched this month, swapee is a free service that gives users the ability to list properties for sale or trade. While trading properties is not a new concept, it is interesting to see someone trying a different spin on property listing sites. However, don’t expect a lot of inventory right now. The site has a few kinks and limited inventory (it just launched).
The service is also positioned as agent/broker-friendly and encourages agents to use it as another marketing tool. Personally, I doubt many agents will choose the trading option, but who knows.
At first the map interface is a little overwhelming (especially in a dense area), but after zooming in the data becomes much more manageable. The map also has a great filter on the left hand side, which makes searching even easier. Once you have found a property, you can quickly view the listing details in a bottom pane.
The interface becomes a little cluttered with the bottom pane, but all the listing details are easily accessible via the bottom tabs.
How do they compare to Trulia, zillow, craigslist, and Move? Really, in this particular battle the interface doesn’t matter. It is about the number of listings and the number of eyeballs. Agents/listings/consumers/etc will go with the one with the most and right now it is Move.com/Realtor.com. However, Trulia is gaining!
Overall, this was still a great launch for Hotpads, and they did come out swinging with over 200k listings. The Property Listing Battle continues!
]]>If you don’t, then don’t worry about it. The site has changed. The new site, which re-launched a week ago, is designed to be a hyper-local news aggregator but with some of the community features still intact.
YourStreet Before:
The new site shows geo-tagged news stories around a neighborhood via a map and article list. Users can comment on, recommend/vote, or forward stories; but even more interesting: users can create their own geo-tagged conversations. In addition, Yourstreet’s use of the map as an interface is perfect. Drag the map to update the news to reflect the area you are currently viewing on the map.
Overall, this is a great re-launch, and I am surprised that real estate professionals haven’t started posting conversations yet. It seems like a great (free) resource to announce open houses, recent sales, etc.
YourStreet Now:
My first impression: Great design! The site has a clean interface and a good layout.
Did I say that the site has a great interface? The process for searching a property is amazingly simple, and the search results can be viewed in a list, via a gallery, or on a map. Accessing the property details is quick and does not require navigating to another page. Basically, the property details are displayed via a pop-up window, and your search results remain in the background.
Listing a property on the site is straightforward, and the site gives a lot of helpful hints/tips in the process. Once a property is listed, the seller gets a hidden email to receive inquiries from interested parties.
The site also provides some state-specific legal forms (currently only Oregon, Washington, and California) to help sellers in the process of selling a home. The forms and the content have been streamlined with much less legal jargon than standard forms.
Anything different?
Not yet. In the current implementation the choiceA does not offer more functionality than ByOwnerMLS, ByOwner or forsalebyowner. Is it a good FSBO site? Yes and it is Free. Will it replace the MLS? Probably not, but it will disrupt the current for pay FSBO sites.
I will keep my eye on this one, but for now I don’t think agents have much to worry about.
]]>The beginnings of that idea can now be found at Roofable (www.roofable.com), a consumer-focused real estate blog for Orlando. Roofable is my attempt to create a rooftop view of Orlando’s real estate market, trends and neighborhoods.
If you’re in Orlando and have some thoughts, gossip or tips on real estate in our area – send it in to me at tips at roofable dot com!
Starting this new independent blog comes at a time where I’m also handing off the reigns of this blog (Realty Thoughts) to Damian Scott, president of eppraisal.com, and Allison Jordan, another member of the eppraisal.com team. I will continue to contribute here from time-to-time, but look for more from Damian and Allison than me.
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Just out through our eppraisal.com Labs, eppraisal Mobile is an easy way to access property valuations while on the road. Simply text an address to 972-413-9622 or to values@eppraisal.com (in the subject line), and eppraisal.com will respond with an estimated value range of the property.
By texting the street address, city and state, eppraisal.com will respond with an estimated value range for the property. More information about the property, neighborhood, or connections to local real estate professionals can be gained by visiting www.eppraisal.com.
Let us know what you think!
]]>- You know your property will be on the market for a long time
- The property is exquisite and needs to be showcased properly – not in some pre-formatted real estate brokerage site
- The domain is part of the sale – the new owner gets the domain as well as the house
It’s Going to be on the Market for a Long Time
You’ll likely list the property in all of the traditional ways, but since you know the property will not be sold soon it’s worth the investment of creating a special site for it. You probably want to make sure that your property isn’t buried and lost in a sea of other listings over time as well, which makes perfect sense for large or expensive property types.
I came across a great example of this recently “230+ Acres of Prime Connecticut Real Estate” has it’s own website. The designer of the website mentioned the reasoning behind his client coming to him:
The site owner figures the property being sold — 230+ Acres in Connecticut — will be on the market for a while. At only $1.5 million, though, I suspect it’ll sell in a flash. It’s a very nice piece of prime real estate. In any case the owner wanted the site to be highly indexed so hopefully it will be. The tools are in place.
Showcase High-end Properties Better
If you’re selling a piece of property for a lot of money, a case can be made that spending some money on a really well designed website can make you stand out, be noticed and shared more easily.
The Villa Pelican beachfront property in Montecito, California is amazing. With 8 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, great grounds and neighbors and a view to die for, it’s worth making sure people can really see and enjoy it. Here it is listed at LuxuryRealEstate.com, and here is a link the Villa Pelican specific website created for the property. See the difference? For a house selling for $34,000,000 it probably makes sense to have a good looking site for it specifically.
The Domain (if it’s a good one) Becomes Part of the Value
Realtors can start thinking of including the domain as part of the package. If it’s a well done website that showcases the property well, then it’s an asset. When the new owners want to show people what they just bought, or when they decide to sell it themselves, they now have a way to do that more easily.