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Real estate technology: think food, not forks

By Brian Boero | March 11th, 2010
Tags: , , | Categories: Brokerage 1 Comment
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Yesterday I participated in a session at the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World conference on “The future of technology.”

I thought about this a lot before the event and decided I didn’t want to talk about technology, for two reasons:

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Infographics as a cure for marketing sameness

By Joel Burslem | March 10th, 2010
Tags: , , | Categories: Marketing 7 Comments
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Edward Tufte is a statistician, author, lecturer and graphic design legend.

His seminal work, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, is considered by many to be the go-to book on data visualization and has been described by Amazon.com as no less than one of the ”best 100 books of the 20th century”.

Pick it up. If you’re a visual design nerd like myself, it’s gorgeously fascinating.

So it was a pleasant surprise to hear that last week, Tufte was charged by the Obama Administration to help communicate and visualize the progress of the $787 billion stimulus program. (For more on the appointment, Newsweek has the scoop.)
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Must Reads

Brokers: embrace difference, love the eccentric

By Marc Davison | March 9th, 2010
Tags: , , | Categories: Brokerage 11 Comments
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In a recent post I waxed on about the type of agents I would recruit if I started a brokerage.

As someone who believes branding results from the conscious decisions you make about what you want the world to remember about you, well, I’d create something memorable. And a brokerage filled with salespeople isn’t memorable. It’s commonplace.

So why duplicate that?

Especially when it appears that isn’t working out for most brokers.

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The passion of the Realtors Property Resource

By Brian Boero | March 4th, 2010
Tags: , , | Categories: Marketing 12 Comments
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I find it hard to discuss the RPR these days without a certain wistfulness. Conversations slip into the past tense.

Which is a funny thing because the product hasn’t even been released. It is also a sad thing, because the basic idea, and its early manifestation, is so appealing.

Am I nuts? Or has the launch of this thing just been screwed up that badly?

I tweeted a couple weeks back that the communications effort around the RPR is “at once excellent and catastrophic” and I still feel that way. The excellence is mostly tactical – the great looking blog, the nicely executed demos – but these things alone cannot mitigate a botched launch and persistent strategic gaffes.

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As Estately grows, so does consumer choice

By Joel Burslem | March 2nd, 2010
Tags: , , , , | Categories: Technology 1 Comment
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DC residents now have a virtual panoply of real estate search sites to choose from.

Estately, the IDX-powered online brokerage, just moved into DC, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia today, adding 60,000 new homes and condos to their database.

In addition to Estately, lucky Mid-Atlantic residents can thaw themselves with dreams of warmer springtime home searching by hitting a slew of MLS powered sites like Homesdatabase.com (run by local MLS heavyweight MRIS), Sawbuck Realty and national brokerages like Redfin, among others. (Full disclosure: 1000watt Consulting has performed consulting services for MRIS and Sawbuck in the past.)

In addition to the new states Estately added, they’ve revved up their site by optimizing their page load times (now 50% faster, according to the company), redesigned map balloons (now 100% prettier!) and some great new features like auto-suggestions for searches and the ability to search by price drops.

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1000watt Index Additions: 3.1.10

By 1000watt | March 1st, 2010
Tags: | Categories: Technology No Comments
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The following companies have been added to the 1000watt Index this week.

All submissions are reviewed by the principals at 1000watt Consulting before publication. Publication in the 1000watt Index does not constitute an official recommendation or endorsement, nor is any financial compensation accepted for inclusion.

Total links = 402

If you’d like to have your company or product added, please complete the submission form found on 1000wattindex.com


The Golden Age of Real Estate Search

By Joel Burslem | February 25th, 2010
Tags: , , , , | Categories: Technology 17 Comments
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Redfin expanded into Oregon this week.

I’m excited – if for no other reason that I am finally able to use one of the best online search interfaces in my home market.

We’ve come a long way with search since the introduction and explosion of map-based search tools not so many years back. And while the tools available to consumers today are better than they’ve ever been, I still think there are more exciting things to come.

Here a few things that get me fired up when I think about the future of search:

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Real Estate Pandora

By Marc Davison | February 24th, 2010
Tags: , | Categories: Featured, Technology 15 Comments
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I took part in a radio interview yesterday. The interviewer sent me some questions in advance.

We never got to any of them. But one really stood out and beckoned me to respond:

How might Google upend the real estate Industry?

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A pulse, a passing grade and a business card: raising the bar on real estate agent qualifications

By Marc Davison | February 22nd, 2010
Tags: , , | Categories: Brokerage 144 Comments
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Ed McMahon: A pulse, a passing grade, and a business card

Carnac the Magnificent: Name the three things required to become a real estate agent

Inspiration

Lots of talk these days about the brokerage of the future. The brokerage model is under intense scrutiny. This is a good thing.

In fact, I’m inspired by those who seek a better way.

Still, a dark cloud hovers.

One that continues to rain on their progress.

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Claim Your Identity Through Google Profiles

By Joel Burslem | February 19th, 2010
Tags: , , | Categories: Featured, Technology 4 Comments
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Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
- The Who

A few weeks ago, like 106 million other people, I tuned in to watch a couple of aging mods rehash their greatest hits in front of the largest audience in US broadcasting history. For 12 minutes, Pete Townshend’s power chords and Roger Daltrey’s vocals echoed throughout Sun Life Stadium and caused a whole new generation of TV viewers to turn away from their sets and ask, “Who are these guys?”

Only this time the question was likely aimed at their parents.

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