After nine months of development with it's beginnings as a real estate blog aggregator, Regator.com is now open to everyone and has much more than just real estate blogs.
At Regator, people who have never even heard of RSS feeds can show up and, within seconds, start browsing high-quality blog posts from nearly 500 categories. Meanwhile, advanced users can upload OPML files, create playlists to listen to while they comment on popular posts, or share links via Twitter, Facebook, and email.
Regator is not just unique because of its ability to serve a wide spectrum of users, it also has an unexpected method of selecting its content: human power. The thousands of blogs featured on Regator have been hand-selected and categorized by the editorial team for their quality writing, original content, frequent updates, and relevance. “We sort through the junk, so you don’t have to,” says editorial director and co-founder Kimberly Turner. Regator’s category structure, search options, and selectivity make it easy to find the things you need—and fun to discover things you never knew you wanted. There is a real estate section where Realtors can nominate their blogs for addition into the site.
All this is packaged within a fast, clean interface that makes careful use of Ajax technology. “The intuitive, responsive interface lets our users navigate quickly through the site, but doesn’t draw unnecessary attention to itself,” says CTO and co-founder Chris Turner.
Regator is also a feed reader. Users can upload OPML files and add individual blogs to view on their personalized My Regator page, along with their favorite Regator blogs. In keeping with the site’s quality-over-quantity approach, these blogs are visible only to the user who added them. They are automatically nominated for inclusion in Regator’s main database, but are added and categorized for all users to see only if they meet Regator standards. This system allows the site to maintain its selectivity while giving its users a one-stop page where they can view all their favorite content.
In addition, Regator users can:
• Save, organize, discuss, and rate posts
• Browse Regator’s 300-plus categories to find quality content that interests them
• Listen to audio, create playlists, and watch videos without leaving the site
• Create custom RSS feeds
• Find out what the blogosphere is buzzing about with Regator’s What’s Hot Lists
• Create Keywords and have posts on those topics delivered straight to their My Regator page
• Save and manage their Favorite Blogs and Favorite Channels
• Discover posts that are related to the one they’re currently viewing with Regator’s “Kinda Related” button
• View the highest rated, most commented on, or newest posts from all of Regator’s blogs—or within the topic of their choice
• Overcome their fear of alligators by bonding with Reg, our charming mascot
In most markets your personal property search website is one of 1000s with pretty much the same information on each template driven website. Differentiation is key to success and but the only way you can seen to be different is to be seen in the first place. That is the first and most crucial step that many agents who pour $1000s into marketing their website traditionally find elusive or very expensive. A blog can help you get seen by going after search engine users head on and then differentiate yourself once they get there.
Back to Basics: 5 Blogging tips for beginners:
1) Keep it simple with quality content 2) Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should 3) Too many gratuitous outbound links… bad 4) Update often 5) Encourage conversation
Keep it simple with quality content Need I say more? Your content needs to be relevant to readers as at the end of the day, even if you have the best SEO and have people coming to your real estate blog; you have to have something interesting for them to read. Sure, put in Keywords, but someone has to read it so keep that in mind as you are creatively stuffing your posts with the best "[insert city/town name] real estate" and such keywords throughout your posts.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should I love a YouTube video showing someone having some unfortunate event befall them as much as the next guy, but at the end of the day you have to keep in mind that the blog is representing you and your real estate business. Keep your posts on topic and sure, show some personality, but always keep in mind what the purpose of the blog is for; which should be to generate leads. Good blogs generate business, bad blogs don’t.
Too many gratuitous outbound links… bad There is can always be too much of a good thing! Use this rule when linking to other sites from within your blog post: • Is the link relevant to the theme of the post? • Is the site I am blogging to a reputable site • Will the link be helpful and provide more detail to complement the post? • Is each paragraph more links than text?
Apart from getting very hard to read, too many links on a page especially your homepage can negatively affect your search rankings. Also keep in mind that every link could be sending someone away from your site. Make the link valuable enough and it increases the chances of them coming back. Without getting into the intricacies of interpreting the relative value of outbound links, I will say that if you keep your links to a reasonable level (one per paragraph of text and two max) and they are relevant you will do fine. After all you don’t want to spend ALL your time reading about SEO, you may want to sell some real estate eventually…
Update often The goal here is to get subscribers, regular readers and attract new readers to your real estate blog. The more often you post about relevant topics the more opportunity you will have for people to link to your posts driving more clicks your way. Also, the more you update your blog the more often search engines will index it. This is one of the key benefits of blogging and it really can only be fully realized on a site that is updated at least a couple of times a week. I have to say here though, that content does matter and just because your site is getting more indexing attention, that doesn't always equate into better search results rankings.
Encourage conversation Blogging is not a one-way medium, through comments your blog will become more valuable to you and your readers. A blog provides the opportunity to discuss your posts, explain you point of view further and interact with your readers. Remember to always make a point to respond to comments on your blog. I have seen that more you respond, the more people will comment. Here's a good post about encouraging people to comment on your blog.
So what is the next evolutionary step for Real Estate Technology? Web 3.0? Is it too early to start thinking about it? No way. If the recent wave of fresh ideas and new technologies is any indication, the rate of technological advancement within the real estate industry (and in general) is doing nothing but accelerating. As a technologist I see this rapid change as great, but as a real estate technologist I take a slightly different approach. The fact of the matter is that in real estate, most agents are not tech savvy and it is fair to say that most don't take near full advantage of the technology available to them today. This will over time have multiple effects, however there will be two major ones : it will further separate agents who do embrace technology from those who don't and it will change the ways the industry works even more than it already has. It is inevitable. It is more a matter of who will be driving this change. Short answer: the consumer.
We need to look at the tasks, processes and activities that agents routinely do (or "should" do) and make them simple and intuitive so that people of any level can use the tools with limited training and most importantly consistently. This will be the key to Web 3.0 in real estate. Technology companies although they will argue otherwise, for the most part do not understand what agents are looking for. If they do understand they haven't done a great job translating it into tools for the most part (granted there are some notable exceptions). Most are trying to drive agents to run their businesses as dictacted by the technology, as it (and they) apparently know better. Guess what, this doesn't work. We have some great tools today, but the vast majority agents do not have the time, know-how, motivation or need to use them. Is this the average agent's fault? Not really. If they are making a good living, why complicate it further for a questionable return on what for most is a large time investment? The next generation of technology tools for agents will be taking basic concepts that have been around for decades, that have been extended through the current Web 2.0 phase (mapping, instant communications tools, newsletters are being replaced by blogs) and making them easier to use to the extent that they are based on achieving a very high goal - satisfying the consumer's ever growing demand for information, control and accessibility while remaining complementary to the agent/client relationship.
Key Real Estate Web 3.0 Concepts:
Integration - kill redundancy and increase knowledge power, taking the idea of a google maps mashup to the next level with now disparate data sources and tools coming together to create truly useful tools.
One Stop Shopping - consumers are looking for easy and best. As brokerages and agents start to truly understand the value in providing a complete home buying or selling solution as opposed to just having a role in the transaction. There have been attempts to do this (rateplug, being a notable player) Consumers are demanding this and the next generation real estate website and back-end tools will be a conduit for marketing, capturing and managing this business.
A Semantic Web Experience - by taking all the disparate data sources available, online user behavioral patterns and a fair bit of common sense; Real Estate Web 3.0 websites will be able to learn from what the user is looking for directly (property search) and indirectly (from their onsite behavior) to provide the user with hyper-relevant content.
Intelligence - with more knowledge you can make better informed business decisions. The problem today is that knowledge and information are not accessible or understandable for most agents. This works for consumers as well. This will be a key value that agents will have to bring in the future.
Alignment - producing quality automated (and refining manual) processes that provide valuable benefits to agents and consumers. This will start with real estate technology companies learning more about their customers (consumers, agents and brokerages) and building applications that work with them and not against them in many cases. Right now this is a major issue.
Transparency - consumers will not feel good about dealing with a company that they feel has something to hide or is in some way not out for the client's best interest. Don't be scared to divulge!
All of the above, in one solution - the key to Real Estate Web 3.0 is that it is the sum of it parts, not the discrete concepts individually.
Will the advancement of these technologies effect the profile of what an agent is (and does) over time? Absolutely. It is important to note that although it has been shown that even with the recent rise of discounters and alternative online (and offline) business models over the past 5 - 10 years, there is no substitute for good service. If this wasn't the case, we would have seen a similar chain of events that killed the majority of the once established travel industry's agents. We have not seen this at all, in fact; as this is a little different than buying a plane ticket or booking a hotel room. Can a high level of service and satisfaction be achieved though an automated website? rarely right now (and I'll add that a blog or a fancy map search ain't going to ever get you there). Can this service goal be achieved by over-stretched tele-agents who will only speak to you over the phone? Not often in my experience. Web 3.0 will provide today's full-service oriented brokers and agents an opportunity to provide a great online experience that complements the value and service that is at the core of their respective business models. It will be a challenge, but one that will make those who embrace it more valuable and competitive over discount and limited service models that we have today and will have more of tomorrow.
At the end of the day, through using emerging and established technologies and concepts, putting this puzzle together into one cohesive platform will be the ultimate goal and achievement of what will be Real Estate Web 3.0.
So you didn't think the 60 Minutes piece on real estate was exactly fair and balanced? Check out this "16 minutes" YouTube satire version. This is a very funny video that tells the other side of the 60 Minutes story, and dare I say it is a fair bit more accurate, even in it's satire. This was done by the folks at Point2
In reading through some posts today I came across a post by a nice couple from Colorado who were part of an affiliate program for a company, Voice2Page. Firstly it seems like Voice2Page is a legit company and I do not want to infer otherwise. But they are charging REALTORs to use their website audio services. They also have an affiliate program that allows members to get $1 per month per user they recruit. Not a bad idea really. Except that you can get exactly the same tool for free from Snapvine. The Snapvine tool allows you record a message by phone and embed a widget in your website or blog that will play back the audio file. This tool also allows other people to leave messages on the system back to you and will txt message you when it happens. This could be a nice tool to put on listings especially when posting on AR or Craigslist, etc.. Just please don't make it auto-start (which you can but shouldn't).
Voice2Page does have a free option but it only lasts 24 hours and includes adverts appended to the message. Not so great for many REALTORs. The one that most REALTORS would probably use is the monthly option which runs $7.95. Voice2Page actually has other options which are fairly cool but are of more limited applications, these include (they are listed on their site):
Professional Voice Over Work for $39.95 (this is a good deal)
Teleconferencing
Voice to Podcast tool - which is okay I suppose
AND MY FAVORITE - a background noise simulator that will play traffic noise or office noise in the background while you are on a call. Yeah, its hokey, but very funny.
Take a look for yourself at the links below. In my opinion the tools are okay but you could be spending your time on better things. At the end of the day most agents would get just as much value out of Snapvine (since it is free!) as Voice2Page, but I am sure that they and their affiliates may disagree.
In reading many AR posts about things not to do on your personal agent website, I have put together a list of the some of the most common areas of opportunity (mistakes!) that agents have on their websites that I have seen working with 1000s of agent websites in our company and others. Here goes:
Prioritizing your Site What do your visitors want when they come to your website? Make sure your site addresses these 3 main key consumer objectives of why they are at your site in the first place:
To search properties - so make it easy and obvious for them to do so.
To get your contact details - make sure your name, email contact form and main number is on every page and prominent on the homepage
To see if you are legit - yes, people will use your website to see if you all that. Make sure that you reinforce your value by taking the time to concisely sell who you are. Its amazing how many agents do not do this effectively and rely on the canned blurb that comes with the website or just waffle on about how great they are. If you are lucky enough to have testimonials, use them.
Poor Writing Many people think that a lot of text on the page is fantastic for SEO purposes. Well, that is true to a point but you actually have to keep someone on your site after they get there for the site to really work for you. If there is pointless text or links all over the page, it really affects the usability. Think of your website as a treasure map, you know where you want the reader to get (that would be the treasure "listing"), so tell them how to get there and keep all your 1000s of words about "insert your market" homes and "insert your market" real estate measured above the fold. You can always go nuts 600 pixels down the page.
Bad Navigation (or way too much) Many agents obviously want to show that they firstly know everything there is know about their markets and secondly that there is a link to get you there fast. But too many links in the form of text links or images (worse!) can be very counter-productive. People are mainly coming to your site to do the 3 main things in #1, so just get them quickly to the place that they want to be and amazingly most will figure it out. The best way to do this is reduce on-screen clutter and reduce redundant links, images and text.
Hype! I know its a competitive business and the market is tough these days, but every agent thinks they are the BEST!!! You need to go beyond that you are the best and explain WHY you are the best. By doing this people will gain confidence in your abilities. One of the best ways to do this is have a page where you give a brief professional history (one paragraph max) with some bullet point achievements (no more than 5) and add as many testimonials as you can below it. People will maybe read your bio, but will be drawn to the testimonials like people to before and after weight-loss photos. Even better, If you can, add yourself to a site like Kudzu.com where you can be ranked and commented on by your previous clients. Then link to it from your site. This definitely puts yourself out there for criticism but it lends a huge amount of credibility. If someone has something bad to say about you, respond. Sometimes things go wrong in real estate transactions and working with clients, but addressing bad situations and mistakes professionally often turns a bad comment into an opportunity. Be a professional and have the courage of your worth and convictions.
Frames Don't use them if at all possible. Frames are an archaic html function that allows you to "frame" another website within your website. This rarely works out well. Most of time frames are used to display a 3rd party IDX property search provider (listingware,etc) in an agents site. There are far more elegant ways to do this these days. Frames are so '96!
Please, No Moving Stuff!!! Yes, it is fantastic that website text can scroll, blink and change colors. It doesn't mean you should do it to make your site, or the page element/link that you are trying to highlight, more obvious. Often websites end up looking like the Vegas strip where all the blinking scrolling just kind of blends together. There are cases when this can be effective, but subtley is often rewarded online. Also, that flash you love with your name flying in with the house fading up from nowhere may be great, but again is just a distraction from what people are looking to do on your site (the 3 things in #1). Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
Text Images Don't do it. Yes I like the fancy fonts too, but why waste the opportunity to get some SEO credit from putting in some nice H tags and real text. Plus if someone has bad eyesight and has the text size large it will severly affect the accesibility if they can't read the links.
Irrelevant Information Stay on topic! Many agents with a lack of much of anything meaningful to say start going on about some things that leave me scratching my head. Keep it relevant and if you must talk about your love of cats or dogs to appeal to the cat or dog lovers out there tuck it away in an inconspicuous place on your site if you absolutely must. At the end of the day, most people are looking for an agent who can help them buy or sell a home for the best price with a smooth transaction - not whether they are a cat or dog person. really, most people don't care. Stay on topic and stay relevant to the majority of visitors! Things you can talk about if you are at a loss for something to say include:
Descriptions of your market areas
Commentary on local and relevant market conditions (feel free to spin this one a little but not too much!)
Profiles of previous transactions
FAQs and Buyers/Sellers guides. Most of the default "For Sellers" and "for Buyers" sections of agent websites are so generic and don't really sell what YOU can do. Rewrite them keeping in mind that many people do not know as much about buying and selling homes as we think they do. Tell the story of how you can make this special and how you are different in how you meet buyers/sellers needs by doing (insert your story here).
Special reports - I know of a few agents that do well out of offering special marketing reports on certain areas and or moving kits (which is a glorified pdf of moving tips - but it works) which they require people to register for.
Put Down the Phone (Get a Professional Photograph!) In your photograph you want to convey professionalism, personality and approachability. After all this what consumers are looking for. Professional doesn't mean Glamour Shots either... There was a time when having a photo with a phone in your hand showed that you were busy and waiting for their call. Now it just says you are outdated. One more thing, if its been a while since your last photo please get a recent photo online. Having a grossly out-of-date photo is nothing but misleading and when you do meet the person it can be kind of weird for them and can send negative messages.
Registration I have left the most contentious topic to last... Registration or more accurately the ability to collect personal consumer information is one of the most hotly discussed topics that I encounter. For the record, I fully support the notion of requiring registration to recieve valuable information (IDX listings) and access to additional search tools (save search, property updates). From a business perspective it makes more sense and in most cases results in more leads, and contrary to popular opinion not all of these leads are garbage. In my experience only around 20% are phony/donald ducks .
However, the horse has preverbially bolted through the gate. We are left today with a competitive landscape where many brokerages/agents have opened up the MLS data for all to see and there isalso the fact that "forced" registration to view listing detail just plain pisses consumers off these days. Consumers see it it as a premature requirement for their personal information - Hell, they just want to see some homes and most are well over a year out from even seriously considering talking to an agent.
Forcing registration limits your ability to meet consumer's situations and expectations. So... what do we do? We need to take another look at how our websites work and look at new tools that we can use in order to drive leads and capture business. The next generation of real estate website WILL NOT have forced registration, it's just too late for that. These websites will have tools that are compelling enough for consumers to want to register to use and in registering provide realtors a valuable profile to use in converting that contact into a client. We as an industry have to listen to and understand consumers and give them what they want, whoever does this first and best will win in the long term.
What does this all mean for agents today? Many of the most successful agents that have a predominantly online business model, require registration on their site. Until a time comes that you can confidently convert a higher percentage of visitors into clients through having an open system and tools worth registering for, I would think seriously about putting in registration. A slightly annoyed registered user is better than no registered user at all. "A bird in the hand...", as they say. But be sure to know, you will make some people mad. On the other hand, if you have a great site that effectively communicates your value enough for people to want to contact you and you don't want to alienate any visitors, you know the answer. At the end of the day it is your business and up to you to decide, but whatever way you choose it is important to understand the implications of your decision either way.
Have you tried Twitter yet? Twitter is a Web 2.0 online application that allows you to micro-blog what you are doing through IM, SMS text messaging and through the twitter website. How does this benefit teams? Each of your team members can join Twitter (free!) and become friends with each other. From there each of you can update and be updated through text messages on your cell phone (you have to pay for whatever your txt message cost is with your carrier). Everytime someone twitters in your group you can recieve it on your phone in a text message. This is a great way to keep track of people in your team when they are showing homes, not available for calls or hopefully at a closing. Take a look for yourself and see.
The latest gadget from Apple is coming out on the 29th of June and it is set to revolutionize how people use and think about their cell phones. The iPhone is really 3 devices in one: a cell phone, a video iPod and an internet browser with email. As they did with the iPod, the iPhone has been designed to work within a simple, modern interface which makes it very intuitive to use for users of all levels.
The iPhone will be able to do some things for REALTORS that other portable devices can't do or at least do as well. Firstly the design is simple, yet impressively sleek. This is something that Apple does so well and definitely will give the iPhone a wow factor well into the future as Motorola, Palm and RIM have a long way to go to catch up. Obviously this will show clients that you are up with the latest technology and have style doing it. But that is really just superficial, its whats it can do for your business that really counts.
The phone is operated by a 3.5 touchscreen display that you use without a stulus pen. It does operate on quad-band which means you can take it around the world without any issues. As far as its size, it is about the same size as a Palm Treo 750. One very nice touch for REALTORS is visual voicemail which shows you all your voicemail in a list and allows you to select which voicemails you want to listen to as opposed to just wading through skipping, saving and deleting message after message.
At the end of the day it's a cell phone, a really nice cell phone that has some features that could benefit agents. Do REALTORS need to rush out and get one? Probably not if you are already using a Treo or Blackberry. I would wait until it dies and then think about it. The price will have come down by then!
REALTOR PROS
Looks really slick! People will want to talk to you (at least for a while) just to see your phone
Allows you to access your website online - Warning not all MLS's are compatible with Safari (Mac Internet Browser)
Large screen will allow you to show clients internet listings and virtual tours/video anywhere.
Allows you to visually view all your voice mail
Will sync with your contacts on your computer (outlook)
Has your email account accessible 24/7 (pop & IMAP4)
2 megapixel digital camera with photos you can email from your phone to anyone
4 or 8 Gigabytes of data storage - you can use it for more than storing your Hall and Oates collection
Simple to use intuitive user interface
Built in microphone for on the fly recording
Conference calling built in
Google maps support
Calendar/Organizer application
REALTOR CONS
Price (4GB will be $499 (2 year contract) and 8GB will be $599 ( 2 year contract)
It will not work with Supra Lock boxes like the Treo
There is a good chance it will not allow you to access the MLS through its Safari internet browser
You have be on the AT&T (formerly Cingular) network if you want one when they launch or for a good while thereafter. (only a con if you are not on AT&T)
Many in the industry are looking at mashed up map-based search as constituting a revolution/evolution of the way people search for property online. Thinking if you make your property search, if not your entire site, entirely mapping based you will get the adoration of a thankful consumer and in the process look really really cool. Well I am sorry to put a dampener on all of this, but I don't think works as well as other more established methods of searching for anything online. Before you start thinking I have some deep seated thing against maps or that I was beaten with a map as a child; I have to admit - I really like maps, especially ones that pull once disparate data sources together to make something very useful. I just don't think they are practical as the primary way to search for property online. I believe they can be used to complement a search and listing detail pages, but I just can't see what the hype is about as a primary search tool. But okay, they do look cool.
Why I don't like maps (or, who do you think your consumer is?)
Yes, maps are brilliant! Now we have that out of the way, let's take a look at why they aren't in many situations.
Firstly, most people I know, and many that I have surveyed, have trouble navigating around their own city. Then how are many consumers meant to know where they are looking on a big city map. God help someone who isn't from that town, as is the case with many homebuyers in the Atlanta market. In just about every map-based search thatI have seen (and I feel like I have seen most) the level of specificity is just not there. If you want a 3 bed, 2 bath with a fireplace, 2 car garage, finished basement, with master on main you are out of luck or the mechanism for selecting these additional criteria is just not intuitive to most people. I am sure it made sense to the developers at the time...
Enough with the push pins already!
Okay, I get it... I can drill down and get specific about an area and the number of markers will go down. I am sorry but this is a completely inefficient way to search. You have to mouse over or maybe click the marker to get the property detail bubble if it has one and maybe the site is advanced enough to bring it up somewhere else on the page. You only have to look at other industries that are location dependent like travel, not one of the major travel websites gives you a map to plot your starting point and to plot your destination. Maybe they should, you may be thinking. If they did it would be completely inefficient. Instead of going to one box and entering your departure point, which in many cases will have some kind of cool auto-complete function. You would have to hunt and peck for it on a globe. Cool maybe... efficient no. The trend with websites has to continue to aim to provide consumers and users in general with the information that need, in an easily accessible and clearly communicated fashion.
Full Hypocritical Disclosure As you might already have guessed, although I do not like maps as a primary search mechanism or the foundation of a site - I do have map search on http://www.atlantarealestate.net/. In fact I am expanding the way that mapping is used to complement the user experience as we are undergoing a major overhaul and redesign of the website. 'Cause you know what... some people actually like it.
Your thoughts? Please let me know if you know of good examples of maps used in sites... or of course if you think I am right/wrong/crazy.
Cheers - Scott.
(you always remember your first time - blog post #1)
Scott Lockhart, former Chief Technology Officer of RE/MAX Greater Atlanta and now President of RSS Pieces on all things "real estate technology" and maybe some other stuff.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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