Inman Blog

What's Your Favorite Map?

joel@inman.com — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:36:19 -0700

Google's acquisition of Panoramio, a location based photo service, adds yet another dimension to its Maps product that neatly dovetails into the new street level views it just released (see Google Maps Hits the Streets). Rain City Guide reminds us that Microsoft has not been sitting still on this front either. The race to ground level is definitely on between the two giants.

Strangely absent in this arms race however is Yahoo; product development is quiet and their Maps API has sat largely ignored.

Map mashups play such an integral part of Real Estate 2.0 and since most real estate brokers incorporate map-based searches into their web sites somewhere, I'm curious which of the big three Maps people prefer? Is it Google, MS Virtual Earth or Yahoo? Are there any compelling reasons to pick one over the other to develop a new site?

Technorati Tags: Google Maps, Mashups, Virtual Earth, Panoramio, Yahoo Maps, map mashups, real estate search

Going up?

matt@inman.com — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:46:30 -0700

Minutes from the May 9 meeting of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee, released today: Energy and commodity prices keep going up, along with wages, so we are still worried enough about inflation that we're not going to cut interest rates even if the housing market ain't turnin' 'round as soon as we'd thought it would.

That's what we thought you said.

"The incoming data on new home sales and inventories suggested that the ongoing adjustment in the housing market would probably persist for longer than previously anticipated. In particular, the demand for new homes appeared to have weakened further in recent months, and the stock of unsold homes relative to sales had increased sharply. That said, participants also noted that sales of existing homes appeared to have held up somewhat better since the beginning of the year. Moreover, the turmoil in the subprime market evidently had not spread to the rest of the mortgage market; indeed, mortgage rates available to prime borrowers remained well below their levels of last summer. Nevertheless, most participants agreed that, although the level of inventories of unsold homes that homebuilders desired was uncertain, the correction of the housing sector was likely to continue to weigh heavily on economic activity through most of this year--somewhat longer than previously expected."

...

"Labor markets appeared to remain relatively tight. Unemployment continued around the low levels seen since last fall, and many business contacts reported difficulties in recruiting suitably qualified workers, especially for certain types of professional and skilled positions. However, several participants observed that aggregate measures of labor compensation had so far increased only modestly, perhaps suggesting that the labor market might be less stretched than it appeared. Moreover, even if wages and salaries did accelerate, the resulting cost pressures might be absorbed by a narrowing in firms' profit margins from current elevated levels, rather than being passed on in the form of higher prices. On the other hand, some participants reported that their business contacts appeared very resistant to any squeeze in profit margins. All told, for most participants, the apparent tightness of the labor market remained a significant source of upside risk to inflation.

...

Nearly all participants viewed core inflation as remaining uncomfortably high and stressed the importance of further moderation. Although readings on core inflation in March had been more favorable, this followed several months of elevated inflation data and price pressures were not yet viewed as convincingly on a downward trend. Most participants expected core inflation to moderate gradually, fostered in part by stable inflation expectations and a likely deceleration in shelter costs. Some participants also expected the anticipated slight easing of pressures on resources to help nudge inflation lower, although others felt that small movements in resource utilization were unlikely to have discernible effects on inflation. All participants agreed that the risks around the anticipated moderation in inflation were to the upside; and some noted that a failure of inflation to moderate could entail significant costs particularly if it led to an upward drift in inflation expectations.

College optional

matt@inman.com — Thu, 31 May 2007 13:06:49 -0700

So what kind of jobs are available at Countrywide Financial Corp. as it hires 2,000 new sales people in mortgage, and fills thousands of other openings company wide (see Inman News story)?

CountrywideCareers.com lists 9,648 openings (although a spokesman told me the company doesn’t intend to fill them all). Countrywide's also advertising more than 1,000 openings on Yahoo! HotJobs, which I’ll use because they’re easier to link to.

If you have a high school diploma or GED, and one or more years of experience "including at least 6 months experience in a high-volume, customer-service environment" you may be able to land this job at the company’s Plano, Texas call center, "finding solutions for customers who are encountering temporary financial difficulties, resolving customer issues by identifying reasons for default and establishing promises to pay," and "collecting mortgage payments, outstanding fees and corporate advances."

A "high school diploma, GED or equivalent" is all that's required to work as a Countrywide loan specialist in Forest Hills, N.Y., although three years of experience in mortgage lending in finance is a prerequisite, and the "ideal candidate" will have an associate's degree or completed some college coursework in mortgage lending. The job entails making sure loans are processed in accordance with Truth-in-Lending rules, drawing up closing documents, and coordinating disbursement of funds.

To work as a home loan consultant in Newark, Del., you'll need 5 years of experience in mortgage banking, and 3 years originating residential home loans. But a high school diploma or GED is OK for "advising potential borrowers regarding appropriate loan programs and processes" and "assisting in preparing and participating in realtor/broker/builder functions—including open houses and conventions."

Other lenders also seem to be willing to give you a foot in the door without a degree. To work in outside sales at Quality Life Reverse Mortgage, you should "enjoy dealing with and helping senior citizens" and have your own computer, car, and cell phone. But there's no mention of any educational requirements.

The first listed requirement for employment as a mortgage consultant at Citigroup's CitiMortgage office in St. Louis, Mo. is the "Ability to sell CitiMortgage products." You must also possess solid math and analytical aptitude and be able to work flexible shifts. One to two years in mortgage sales or finance is "desired" but not required.

A college degree doesn't guarantee that its bearer is smart, ethical or even competent. And there's no reason people who don't have college degrees can't be trained to accomplish these jobs. Pay enough, and you will attract quality workers.

But I guess it's a still a little surprising to think that many of those involved in helping people make what may be the biggest investment decision they'll ever face may only have a high school education -- if that.

More addicting things to do with your cell phone

readeropinion@inman.com — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:36:23 -0700

PHILADELPHIA -- A handful of real estate reporters had the chance to test drive a mobile real estate toy while walking around Philadelphia today. It was Smarter Agent's GPS mobile real estate application, which enables you to stand on the street and pull up information about nearby homes for sale on your cell phone. The Smarter Agent team equipped me with a Sprint phone (currently the only carrier enabling the app), which I flipped open and scrolled through at various points to see what's on the market. Listings are shown on a map or as a scrollable list and users can get details about square footage, taxes, number of beds and baths, price, listing broker info. It gives you the option to click a button and contact the agent to see the house.

I've been following the development of this application for many years now since the Blumberg brothers got their patent and started working out deals with MLSs and cell phone carriers. The application runs smoothly, with the only holes I could spot being the lack of info from the actual listing in some cases (no photos or just a photo of the outside of the building). And also I had no way of knowing whether it was picking up all the MLS listings around since this isn't my 'hood and I don't know the market.

It kind of adds an Amazon-ish "if you like this, you might like that" layer to looking up real estate. For instance, the row house with the Prudential sign on it was too expensive, but look there's a home with a lower price in the same neighborhood a block over.

Eric Blumberg, president of Smarter Agent, said the most challenging part of building this type of application has been figuring out how to get all the information into a tiny a cell phone screen without driving users bonkers.

The service is expected to hit San Francisco soon.

Trulia Charts the Past

joel@inman.com — Wed, 30 May 2007 09:05:29 -0700

Trulia Hindsight is the latest web mashup launched by the real estate search engine Trulia, which allows you to see how cities or towns grow over time. Other mashups from the Trulia team have included Truliaholic and plotornot.com.

The map plots color coded points representing dates that individual properties were built and animates them over a time line. It's an interesting and creative way to visualize how your own neighborhood built up, or to chart the urban decline in Detroit or rampant development in Las Vegas if you're curious about other parts of the country.

More on Trulia Hindsight from the Trulia Blog.

Google Maps Hits the Streets

joel@inman.com — Tue, 29 May 2007 16:06:55 -0700

Today at the Where 2.0 conference, Google announced it has rolled out city level street view in several metropolitan areas, including San Francisco (e.g., a search for "94111").

Unlike Microsoft Virtual Earth's Birds Eye photos, which are shot from low flying aircraft, Google's imagery gives you an immediate on-the-ground perspective and using a nifty Flash interface actually allows you to navigate the streets in a nearly 3D environment.

Clearly, this has great application in real estate, as you will now be able to scope out a potential neighborhood or property from the ground up. Of course, it still doesn't beat seeing it in real life - but becomes another handy way to narrow down search results.

It remains to be seen whether Google will roll out this feature to its API users (Trulia et al.) or if it'll keep this card close to its chest.

Also at Where 2.0, Google announced Mapplets, widget-like applications that you can add your Google Maps searches and create your own customized Maps pages. There's already a pretty substantial Real Estate Mapplets Gallery that includes contributions from Zillow, Propsmart and others. You can see what a Mapplet enabled page would look like at Google Maps.

Technorati Tags: Google Maps, Google, Where 2.0, Google Maps street view

Video killed the blog post

readeropinion@inman.com — Fri, 25 May 2007 08:03:56 -0700

Actually, this video is about "What makes a good blog." What did we miss?

NO! Polly's in foreclosure?

matt@inman.com — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:34:47 -0700

Writing about mortgage lending, the stuff that comes into my e-mail inbox never ceases to amaze me.

I used to LOVE this cartoon when I was a kid (but no, I am not planning to see the forthcoming Disney movie).

I don't know much about this particular offer, but my first instinct would be that Underdog would not be endorsing an interest-only, stated-income home equity loan. Maybe he'd come to your rescue when they take your house away.

Or maybe he'd just say tough, you should've known better.

Worth the $6 million sales commission?

info@realestatecoach.com — Fri, 25 May 2007 10:07:37 -0700

Can you really sell ultra-luxury property for-sale-by-owner? Ask any full-service luxury agent this question and the answer will probably be a resounding, "No." Yesterday, however, USA Today reported that Ron Baron, founder of the Baron Funds investment company, paid a record $103 million for a residential property in East Hampton, N.Y. The price is strictly for the land and it supposedly sold without an agent.

Clearly, this was a "discreetly marketed" property, which many ultra-high-end sales are. The owners want absolute privacy about the transaction and rely on personal spheres of influence to push the sale rather than going public and listing. There's nothing unusual about commercial or industrial properties of this magnitude being sold directly without an agent. At this level, there are only limited number of players. In terms of residential real estate, however, this is unprecedented.

The typical arguments those of us on the full-service side make is that we can market the property internationally, we can provide better exposure throughout our national and international brokerage networks, and we can help the seller negotiate a higher price. The question in this case is whether these services and the potentially higher price are worth a $6 million commission. Clearly in Baron's case it was not. It will be interesting to see whether the Blixseth estate at Yellowstone Club or any of the other $75+ million listings follow suit.

--Bernice Ross, RealEstateCoach.com

Is There Any Truth in Reality TV?

joel@inman.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:12:23 -0700

Despite a cooling housing market, the market for real estate television shows seems to be getting hotter and hotter, or so says USATODAY.com anyway.

Bought & Sold, Designed to Sell, Secrets That Sell, My First Home, Get It Sold are just some of the shows that grace the upper-end TV channels these days and of course, there's still the granddaddy of "flipper" shows, A&E's Flip This House.

All is not well in flipper-land however. Dean Foust from Hot Property, tips us off to an investigation into Atlanta real estate investor Sam Leccima, one of a number of new teams brought in to be profiled on Flip This House after the show split from its popular season one hosts, Richard and Ginger from Trademark Properties.

Now the Trademark gang have jumped over to TLC's The Real Deal, and not only has Flip This House lost its biggest stars to a rival show, but has now had two of Leccima's 'flips' blow up in their face - as they look like they may have been complete shams.

Fox5 in Atlanta discovered that both of Leccima's so-called deals had been staged for the cameras, there were no sales, no profits, and it seems Leccima even stands accused of defrauding numerous other real estate investors as well.

You can watch both segments detailing the accusations on the Fox5's I-Team page.

I-Team Investigative Reporter Dale Russell has more about Leccima on his blog and you can also follow all the drama at the Flip This Lawsuit blog. A&E has pulled both of the episodes featuring Leccima from the air.

Technorati Tags: Flip This House, Sam Leccima, property flipping, real estate