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5 indicators real estate needs to keep innovating

By Jessica Swesey, Sunday, May 11, 2008.
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DALLAS – Errol Samuelson, president of Realtor.com, points to five challenges that lie ahead in online real estate:

1. Fragmentation: Samuelson during a real estate journalism conference Friday cited a survey conducted last summer that shows 20 percent of real estate consumers visit seven or more real estate Web sites when researching for one transaction. We still have too many niche applications specializing in one small aspect of transactions, he said.

2. Comprehensiveness and currency: Many listings sites only have part of the available property listings. Consumers are left to chance that their dream home is included in this partial view. Many sites still update only once every 24 hours, and consumers are sometimes getting stale information.

3. Poor market indicators: “I think most (real estate) sites do a very bad job of telling consumers leading indicators of where the market is headed,” Samuelson said.

4. Insufficient consumer focus: Many sites still aren’t making things easier for consumers.

5. Lagging in mobile: Over the next 10 years, more consumers will access the Internet from mobile devices than from PCs, Samuelson predicts. There hasn’t been much successful innovation in real estate on this front. He expects the iPhone will stimulate more development.

Samuelson’s predictions going forward? He expects more real estate sites will focus on one-stop shopping and comprehensive information, more sites will offer better transparency of information to consumers, and more sites will focus on the quality of information they provide.

What’s Realtor.com up to? The site’s been going through a series of updates and will be unveiling more features at the National Association of Realtors Midyear Conference in Washington, D.C., next week.

Samuelson also mentioned that Realtor.com just opened a big research and development center in Silicon Valley. Do we smell some serious movement coming from NAR’s online darling?

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Submitted by Ki Gray on May 11, 2008 - 12:50am.

Searching for homes using a mobile device seems like a pain. Maybe I am just old and stuffy but that seems like a really small screen to be able to search effectively.

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Submitted by on May 12, 2008 - 10:11am.

Now that the marketing is shifting, what are selling agents doing to gain exposure for their properties

Hi!

Please allow me to start this discourse by pimping my commercial properties...

C2 big lot
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West L.A. Office buildings for sale + lease.

http://www.3619motorave.jodisummers.com/
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What is everyone out there doing to find to buy + placing to sell their properties?

best,

Jodi Summers
Sotheby's International Realty Santa Monica
jodi@jodisummers.com
http://www.SoCalInvestmentRealEstate.com
http://www.SoCalIndustrialRealEstateBlog.com
http://www.SoCalOfficeRealEstateBlog.com
http://www.SoCalGreenRealEstateBlog.com
http://www.SantaMonicaLandmarks.com
http://www.SantaMonicaPropertyBlog.com
**
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle

 
Submitted by Aria Schoenfelt on May 12, 2008 - 1:11pm.

Mobile research is only a pain now because no one has designed a good site for mobile.

So many people want to sell you over-priced IDX solutions that are still not compatible with many browsers, like Firefox (50% of my website visits are using Firefox) and they limit us so much having to use iFrames and other extremely outdated code.

I am so sick of being limited online with systems for my website as well as offline with antiquated technology on lockboxes (infrared). I want API's, I wand Ruby on Rails, I want to access MLS in any web browser, I want bluetooth lockboxes. I want out of the dinosaur age and into a world of advanced web standards, handicap-accessible websites, and forward thinking software designs.

If you don't want technology in your business and in your life, step aside. The future is implementing technology into your everyday live and business practices.

Austin Home Search
Austin Real Estate Blog
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Submitted by Walter Boomsma on May 12, 2008 - 2:06pm.

There's a fine line between embracing technology and making it a pancea or some god to be worshipped and adored.

One needs to observe the source of this information (in the original post) and allow for the possibility that this is, perhaps, a bit self-serving.

Here's an unanswered (and perhaps unasked) question - WHY are consumers visiting 7 sites? I'd agree that many sites aren't consumer friendly, but that is the point.

There are far bigger challenges facting our industry than the latest technology. The very fact that this has become about what the industry wants is one of them. We ought to be asking what the consumer wants (and needs) and what we should best be doing to address those.

Sometimes we have solutions in search of problems.

 
Submitted by on May 12, 2008 - 8:38pm.

Perhaps all these ideas aren't really the problems. Maybe they are just symptoms of the same problem. What is the problem is all agents trying to be everything to everyone?

I think that if agents had niches and made their web site cater to that niche you could manage to achieve all the objective above.

For instance, if you were a CBD Austin luxury condo broker and only did that, your prospects and clients would likely find very detailed information on your site making it less important for the customer to go elsewhere in search of info. Secondly, with a small segment of listings and areas, you could preview all new listings and even check on FSBOs and pocket listings. With a small market, the data about where things are going could be complete. With a small inventory you could provide extremely detailed info on each complex, the HOAs, fees, taxes, etc. The mobile issue I have no answer for and I really think that it's a fall back technology. Who wants to use a slow connection, with a small screen, and annoying keyboard as a primary searching tool?

Now back to marketing to all of Austin. :)

Joe

Cat Mountain TX Homes MLS Search | Lakewood Real Estate and Cat Mountain Real Estate

 
Submitted by Eva Dellago on May 13, 2008 - 4:36am.

nice summary of what real estate websites still lack, not only in the english speaking world, but also in germany and austria. i put a link to this article on my blog www.immoblog.at