2007 Q4 Maps from Zillow

Thinking of using the Internet for property search? What's your time worth and how much of it are you willing to spend online?

Every real estate agent in the world wants your eyeballs. It used to be that we wanted your ears - "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." Well not anymore, we want your eyes and we're spending lots of time and money to try and capture them for a few minutes.

Real Estate's presence on the Internet has been one of tremendous growth, hype, and controversy. It's been a wild ride and it ain't over yet!

In the past year or so, we have seen many Internet startups forming to try and capture some of the easy cash cow money falling off the real estate money tree. Alas, so many try, so few succeed. Perhaps, they miss the point that you must first bring value to the consumer or the agent before you seek profits.

Last year, we saw agents running scared of Zillow taking over the online real estate world. Today, most agents don't see Zillow so threatening. Why? - Zestimates. Zillow's property value estimates continue to so unreliable in so many markets that they have fallen victim to that worst of all fates - word of mouth marketing. Many homeowners are not liking what they read about their property on Zillow. But hey, Zillow's a great site for gathering information. Just remember to take along a grain of salt as you should to all sites you visit.

We find Trulia to be more consumer friendly than Zillow. Our point of contention with Trulia continues to be with Trulia Voices, a forum intended for consumers to pose questions to real estate agents. I continue to see more agents asking questions in the areas we serve, than consumers (we do see some improvement). It seems obvious that agents are doing this a a means of trying to leverage Trulia Voices to capture those eyeballs of yours. Not a bad strategy, but I don't think it would do much for our team image if I pose a question like one I saw from a thirty-year real estate veteran - Are the schools in Pleasanton any good? Wouldn't you expect a real estate agent that had lived in the area for thirty years to know a little something about the local schools?

Realtor.com is a fading star. Younger, sprier more consumer oriented business people are sticking it to this site representing the National Association of Realtors. Why? My opinion - the NAR is spending more time reacting than leading. They also suffer from what may be a fatal case of grandiosity and arrogance. You see this all the time in business - look at Yahoo! When you start dictating and protecting instead of listening and innovating - you're in trouble.

And now we have RottenNeighbor, a site where all the pissers, moaners, morons and fans of Jerry Springer can go to shoot themselves in the foot. Are people so stupid that they don't realize that bitching about their neighbors is going to hurt their property value? It's one thing to complain to your spouse it's another to bitch to 2 billion people about your neighbor's barking dog or yard maintenance habits. It's a sad state of affairs when people are so desperate for attention that they will make public fools of themselves for a fleeting moment of - again - getting your eyeballs.

Buyers interested in locating accurate property information need access to their local MLS. This is where you get the changes as they happen, not 48 hours later or next week or never.

Whether you gain access through a local real estate agent or some other means doesn't matter. What matters is that the MLS is the most accurate, most up-to-date source of information available on property for sale.

Related Posts:

• Trulia Voices - Another Platform for Narcissism?
• How to Waste YOUR Money Selling YOUR Home
• Buyer’s Best Friend

If you're the type of person that worries about what people can find out about you on the Internet - it's time to ratchet up your Fear Factor another ten notches. The recent controversy around Zillow allowing anyone to post comments about your home on Zillow seems like just the first of many challenges to a homeowner's privacy.

PropertyShark has upgraded their site so now anyone can find out about your mortgage. Check it out. You have to provide a valid email address, but that's it. I registered using a throw away email address and provided bogus info for the rest. What I saw set me to worrying about all the future scams that are now possible because people motivated by profit have picked up the banner of Free the  Consumer from the Evil Empire of Real Estate!

One thing that is certainly being freed is the homeowner's privacy. 

Several times a week we add fresh content to our Real Estate Industry News section. We follow over 70 blogs and news sources so we can sort through and post relevant content of interest to those thinking of buying or selling real estate in the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, CA. 

Here is a sample of what we would have posted there today. It only took an hour and a half to go through all the sources to choose these three. Our time or your time - you decide.

Sub Prime Meltdown and Foreclosures: How do they effect home values? - In a report from the Fannie Mae Foundation they estimate that “each conventional loan foreclosure within a 1/8 of a mile of a single family home results in a 0.9% decline in the value of that home. Certainly, there is a correlation between home values and foreclosure rates.There is a factor here that no one is really talking about though. It’s the idea that what could really impact home values is a significant reduction in available credit via a tightening of credit standards. A reduction of loans being made is also a reduction in buyers to make purchases and this results in lower sales prices because there are fewer buyers in the market.

I believe that the current run of foreclosures and credit tightening is going to be contained and normalize over the remainder of 2007 and that home values are stabilizing. There is reason for optimism and I suggest everybody stop listening to all the negative talk they see on the news, hear on the radio and see on the web! Keep in mind – your ownKen Mascia positive thinking impacts the world you operate in so be a positive influence on it!

Arizona bars online home price estimator - Arizona regulators have ordered a Seattle-based online home price estimator to stop doing business in the state.The Arizona Board of Appraisal issued two cease-and-desist letters to the company that operates the popular real estate Web site Zillow, saying it needs an appraiser license to offer its "zestimates" in Arizona.

Mortgage defaults in California near decade high - According to DataQuick, mortgages were least likely to go into default in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, three affluent coastal markets with a tight supply of housing that has helped prevent home prices from slipping.The likelihood of default was highest in inland Sacramento, Riverside and San Joaquin counties, where prospective first-time home buyers rushed in during the housing boom in search of relatively affordable housing.

Next weekend is the GoodGuys All-American Get-Together at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton. How do I know this? Because I pick up a copy of the Pleasanton Weekly every Friday at the Valley Marketing Association meeting.

Today's meeting was held in the right venue - Tommy T's Comedy Club - as there seemed to be an unusual number of comics in atendance including Pat Griffin who announced she is listing Tommy T's(in her dreams). The lucky buyer gets a free mobile home. Someone needs to tell Tommy, before it all goes into escrow!

Roy's real estate market update reflects what we're seeing in our MLS graphs. The chart to the right reflects an increase in transactions coming in with multiple offers. The final sales price is not exceeding sales price in most cases, but the multiple offers are helping sellers to get their asking price.

Today's new listings included:

• 3847 Vinyard Avenue #B, Pleasanton
• 2131 Vineyard Avenue #124, Pleasanton
• 3259 Harvey Court, Pleasanton
• 588 Annandale Way, Dublin Ranch
• 3849 Brockton Drive, Pleasanton
• 5471 Black Avenue #2, Pleasanton
• 7218 Moss Tree Way, Pleasanton
• 7292 Bedford Way, Dublin
• 4734 Newhaven Street, Dublin
• 8148 Moller Drive, Pleasanton

It appears that Elizabeth Forth is also being funny - sneaking this pic into my camera. Roy Dronkers and I were discussing Zillow and some of the other Web 2.0 real estate sites. Many Realtors have negative opinons of these new entrants into the real estate industry. My opinion, having had my own Internet marketing and promotion business, is - things change. My advice - read the book I am currently reading - Change or Die.

One organization that looks on the verge of extinction to me is the NAR - National Association of Realtors. In spite of example after example down through history of organizations, companies and industries that tried to stifle change or minimize it to protect their vested interests - the NAR is attempting to do the same with the real estate industry. Their reaction to Zillow is to now offer a Market Snapshot which site visitors can only get if they leave their contact info - a clear indication that the NAR is clearly out of touch with where the Internet is going.