Welcome to the 120th Edition of The Carnival of Real Estate. We are honored to be hosting the carnival for the 2nd time. As a technology company we stay very interested in technology’s impact on the real estate industry. Keeping with that focus, I decided the criteria for my top post would be one that focused on the topic of  Real Estate Professionals and their involvement with Social Media. Many great posts were submitted this week, but only one touched on Social Media. So I have one winner for the week and honorable mentions for the other great entries.

The Top Post and Winner of the Realty Thought of the Week Award goes to Dustin Luther for his entry : The trouble with Marc’s approach to Twitter. In this post Dustin examines an approach to social media engagement for real estate professionals:

However, on a recent conversation, we were talking about where he’s getting his business and he mentioned Facebook (he’s very active on Facebook and MySpace having uploaded thousands of photos and shared countless stories).  Says his friends on Facebook have been treating him well lately sending him great clients and he’d love to get more.  But he doesn’t consider those “internet” leads since the clients typically come to him on a recommendation from a friend.

Honorable Mentions to other Great Posts:

• Peyman Aleagha discusses the value of text messaging for Real Estate Professionals
• Doug Willis wrote a funny story about Real Estate Agents seeking a Bailout
• Patrick Duffy takes us on a Review of 2008 and a look ahead
• Jim Reppond showed us a cool thermography tool used for home inspections
• Riley Smith discussed how remodeling might not pay, but will help sell your house
• Diane Tuman gives us a look into houses that sit because of bad design and blue carpet
• Shawna Ebersole showed us there are still options to buy a home without a down payment

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.

In case you haven’t heard, there is a device out there these days by the name of iPhone.  If you’re not currently using one you may just want to reconsider. The iPhone is making life easier and more efficient for professionals and consumers across the board. With the emergence of the Apple App Store, many professions are getting turbocharged by the useful applications that are developed daily by existing companies. Let’s look at one in particular from Trulia.

“Use your iPhone to search all homes for sale near you, find nearby open houses after Sunday brunch, or daydream about your favorite beachfront getaway. Scroll through the color photos or see results on a local map. See full property details and then get directions from Google. It’s just that easy and it’s free! It works great on the iPhone 3G, the original iPhone and the iPod touch. Your home buying experience will never be the same.” -Trulia

Instead of fighting this technology or avoiding Trulia for fear of losing leads, why not harness it to enhance your relevancy and offerings to your prospects? Real estate sites are becoming more and more popular by the day as consumers want information on demand, and there is always a need for pros to provide guidance and insight. The next time you’re scheduling an open house with a client, provide a real-time, dynamic tour by knowing where the homes are in the area they are interested in. Check out the video…

As a real estate professional your main focus in business has to be people. Converting those people into clients can be a tedious process which heavily weighs on trust and reputation. In the past the main avenue for getting new leads and networking was handing out business cards whenever possible. With the increase of social networks and the Web 2.0 culture, real estate pros must engage people where they frequent – the web.

So I guess you’re wondering what this has to do with business cards? There’s a neat tool I want to share that encompasses both worlds of live interaction and social networking online. It’s called a dropcard, and it allows you to give people you meet your business card via text message or over the web. Not only does it allow you to give your contact and business information, it also enables you to connect with these new contacts via the various social networks you have a presence in. I didn’t mention the awesome functionality that’s built into this process to integrate contacts directly into the iPhone, but I will have to save that for a future post…

Product Launches:
Last week, Trulia was the first to announced the integration of Google’s Street View (FOREM). Today, DotHomes also announces the integration of Google’s Street View (see below).

“DotHomes.com (DotHomes), the real estate search engine, today announced that it has implemented Google’s Street View to its US listings. This application adds to the already extensive list of real estate search functions including videos, maps, and aerial views, which home buyers can use to facilitate their real estate search. The “Street” button can be found below each individual property listing alongside other search functions such as Save, Add Video, Aerial and Map.” -Release

Question: What are you guys doing? We haven’t heard much from eppraisal/realtythoughts in a while.

Answer: Other than visiting real estate Agents across the U.S., we have been working on tweaking our technology and getting ready for the launch of hoodeo (www.hoodeo.com).

Question: Hold up, what’s hoodeo?

Answer: Right now, I can’t say much other than it uses the eppraisal engine in a very unique way. It is surprisingly simple and some would call it “revolutionary”.

Note, the splash page is up and we will be announcing updates over the next few weeks.

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.

On Tuesday Hotpads.com, the map-based rental listing site, announced they are entering the “for sale” listing market. The launch includes over 200,000 property listings from existing partners and clients, but anyone can list a property for sale on the site. And broker feeds are accepted.

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!

Remember YourStreet.com, the social community centered on connecting neighbors?

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: