Using your Blackberry as a modem - 04/30/08 02:22 PM
 
I had no idea that you could do this, but it turns out that you can connect your Blackberry to your laptop and use your BB as a dial-up modem. This will be very helpful to me after long flights -- I usually have 50-100 emails in my outbox when I land, and this will allow me to have them start being sent as soon as I land rather than a few hours later once I'm hooked up at a hotel. Should also be very useful to real estate agents who have laptops and Blackberries in their car...
You can also use … (9 comments)

NWMLS Membership - doubled between 2004 and 2006 - 04/29/08 09:05 AM
I had the pleasure of seeing Pat Grimm, the owner of the Capitol Hill Windermere office, speak yesterday at the Rainier Club Real Estate Roundtable. He shared this fascinating statistic:
2004 NWMLS # of sales associates: ~15,0002006 NWMLS # of sales associates: ~30,000Entering 2008, we were still at about 30,000 real estate agents in the Northwest, and so far we've only had a few dozen leave the industry in 2008. I'm sure there is a day of reckoning coming, probably later this year. There just aren't enough transactions to support this many agents.
… (2 comments)

$11,000 to clone Trulia - 04/29/08 08:16 AM
Here's a post from a technology developer's messageboard -- someone is willing to pay a developer $11,000 to clone Trulia. Sketchy... … (4 comments)

Marketwatch video about real estate trends - 04/29/08 08:13 AM
… (1 comments)

Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, 3 weeks in - 04/25/08 01:44 PM

The Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is now about three weeks old, so I thought I'd give an update.
What is it?
In short, think of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace like a free, anonymous version of Lending Tree. Borrowers submit loan requests but don't share their name, their SS# or their phone #. Lenders then respond to the Loan Requests with their own customized Loan Quotes, for free. Borrowers then choose which lender to reach out to and the borrower contacts the lender. The entire marketplace is transparent, so everyone can see what loan requests have been submitted, and what loan quotes have been returned.
Is it … (28 comments)

Lots of sizzle, but where's the steak? - 04/25/08 11:22 AM
I’m a judge in the upcoming Web2.0 awards, which Zillow was fortunate enough to win last year. I guess I was asked to be a judge by SEOMoz, the awards organizer, because I’m pretty hip ti what’s happening on the web. So I was floored to see how few of the nominees I had even heard of, no less used. (I don't think I'm allowed to share the names of the nominees until the winners are announced in a few weeks, but trust me: there were dozens of companies that you and I have never heard of.)
There are dozens more web2.0 … (4 comments)

Why I doubt the tax refund will help the economy - 04/22/08 08:42 PM
 According to a recent survey from NPD, here's what people will do with their refund checks:
42% pay down bills 21% save it 14% say they don't qualify for a refund check 12% spend on discretionary items 11% other  This was a dumb idea from the start.  
Hat tip to Paul Kedrosky.
 
Update: As I expected. NY Times:
"The federal government is showering households with tax rebates to spur spending and invigorate a troubled economy. But many Americans are so consumed with debt and the soaring price of gasoline that they are opting to save the money or use it … (19 comments)

Fascinating interviews with entrepeneurs - 04/22/08 11:32 AM

A friend of mine from college, Jessica Harris, has recorded a series of interviews with entrepreneurs  for NPR called "From Scratch". There are some really interesting 20-30 minute interviews available on the website with people like Richard Branson (Virgin), Julie Clark (founder of Baby Einstein), Reed Hastings (founder of Netflix) and Rich Barton (founder of Expedia and Zillow). She recorded an interview with me about my co-founding Hotwire.com which hasn't aired yet; I'll let you know when it does.
Anyway, if you're interested in entrepreneurship, I highly recommend listening to some of these interviews. I just finished listening to the Ian … (2 comments)

What's a brand worth? - 04/22/08 12:58 AM
Apparently $86.1 billion, at least if you’re Google, according to a new study by WPP Group’s Millward Brown.

… (3 comments)

The internet's impact on the housing downturn - 04/21/08 11:09 PM
Obviously there are many more online resources available to buyers, sellers, homeowners and agents now than at any time in history. These tools have proliferated rapidly -- it's hard to believe, but only a few years ago homeowners couldn't get home valuations; sellers had to rely solely on the MLS to market their listing; agents had to rely almost exclusively on newspaper classifieds; heck, buyers couldn't even find the address for most listings, no less other info about the home. A lot of these tools have become so ubiquitous so quickly that it's hard to imagine a time before they existed.
In … (9 comments)

Real estate Examiner - 04/18/08 05:39 PM
I've been asked to be the National Real Estate Examiner on Examiner.com, which means that I'll be blogging about real estate over there also. I'll try to keep my Examiner posts more consumer-focused because it's a newspaper website, and I'll keep my AR posts more industry-focused.
Suggestions for blog topics that buyers/sellers/homeowners might find interesting are always welcome. 
… (3 comments)

Megalistings - 04/11/08 11:42 AM


Here are a few pretty incredible listings that I've come across recently:
$65 million in San Francisco $14.775 million in Greenwich CT$13.9 million in Saddle Ridge, NJ$100 million in Tahoe NV$45 million in Cumming GA$76 million in Del Mar, CAYes, I know that the Zestimates on these houses are way off. Zestimates on very high end homes can frequently be incorrect either because we have incorrect data on the house, or because there aren't enough good comps for our models to Zestimate them. Still, I thought these listings (and others like them) were too cool not to share.
… (2 comments)

Circles and Smileys and Frownies: explaining housing prices - 04/10/08 09:20 PM

 
At Zillow, we crunch a lot of data about housing prices. Every day we “re-Zestimate” about 70 million home values, almost every house in the country. We roll up all that data to create a “Zillow Housing Index” or Zindex, which is the median Zestimate for any geography. We then publish all of this data for the press and for real estate junkies. Sometimes all of the data can be a bit overwhelming. So let me break it down for you. Here’s the note that I drew a few weeks ago while I was on a media tour talking about home … (22 comments)

Zillow house price data vs NAR vs OFHEO vs Case-Schiller - 04/10/08 06:08 PM
Zillow has made a name for itself by becoming a major supplier of housing data to the media over the last two years. Our major point of differentiation versus the other guys is that the Zillow Housing Index (“Zindex”) measures the median value of ALL homes, not just those that have sold. This is a big deal, because changes in the TYPE of home that is selling can distort analyses. For example, imagine a grocery store that suddenly starts selling more candy bars and fewer steaks. If you just looked at the median sale price at the grocery story, it would … (10 comments)

Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Launches: FREE MORTGAGE LEADS - 04/03/08 10:33 AM
 

We've been hinting at it for a few weeks, but tonight I'm pleased to announce that Zillow Mortgage Marketplace has launched. Here's the 411:
How it works:
1. Borrowers fill out a form for free, entering their financial information but NOT their personal info. No name, email, phone # or Social Security #.
2. Borrower's loan request gets posted into the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace anonymously.
3. Lenders access free leads, choosing which loan request they want to respond to.
4. The borrower then decides which lender they want to reach out to, and contacts the lender via email or phone. In addition, borrowers can … (46 comments)

Shine A Light - 04/02/08 06:27 PM

I was lucky enough to attend a pre-screening last week of Shine A Light, the new Martin Scorcese movie documenting a recent Rolling Stones concert. I've seen hundreds of Stones concerts in my lifetime; my father has worked for them for 35 years as their tour producer/promoter and business manager. I've become an enormous fan over the years.
I thought the movie was very good, and I'm really glad that the energy and excitement of a Rolling Stones concert has now been preserved for the ages. Someday my grandchildren will be able to watch a Stones concert and have an experience somewhat … (2 comments)

Iphone: Good for Blackberry. Really!? - 04/02/08 06:16 PM

Who woulda thunk it? But the numbers are in, and apparently the iphone has been GOOD for Research in Motion, the maker of the Blackberry. Apparently the iphone has grown awareness of the category (smart phones) which helped RIM.
RIM added 2.2 million new subscribers in the quarter and it shipped 4.4 million new phones. There are now 14 million Blackberry subscribers. Pretty incredible results for a company that was basically written off as dead only a few years ago because of a patent dispute, and was then again written off by Apple-philes. Congratulations to RIM for a fantastic quarter.
If this trend … (3 comments)

 
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Spencer Rascoff

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