Free Zillow Local Events in Bellevue, Seattle and Houston! More Coming Soon! - 02/26/10 01:27 PM

Via Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow):
Ever hear the question "But Zillow says..."?  Maybe once or twice?  We at Zillow have put together a program that we are hosting in cities across the US to help you better respond to this and learn how to fully utilize all that Zillow has to offer real estate professionals. 
Spencer Rascoff recently delivered the program in San Francisco (here is his review of the event).  And next on the schedule is Seattle, Bellevue, and Houston.  As we add more cities, I'll make sure to blog and www.twitter.com/sbonert about them. 
To learn more and … (0 comments)

"Zillow A to Z" presentation - 02/25/10 01:21 PM
I just finished wrapping up my San Francisco "Zillow A to Z" event where I spent about an hour talking with a lot of agents about how to make the most out of Zillow. Thanks to all those who showed up! I enjoyed it very much. Here is the presentation.
We have upcoming free events planned for Seattle (3/12), Bellevue (3/11), and Houston (3/30). We're also planning them in many other cities.
If you're a brokerage or an Association and you'd like us to present to your group, please let me know (spencer@zillow.com).
 
Zillow a to Z Presentation_general_short … (0 comments)

Did the 2008 tax cuts work? - 02/24/10 06:03 PM
As readers of this blog know, I'm fascinated by tax cuts and whether or not they're stimulative. I think that's one of the most important economic questions facing America. After all, if there were agreement on whether tax cuts stimulate the economy (and to go a step further, if there were agreement on whether they are revenue accretive as Reaganomics would have us believe), then partisan differences on fiscal policy would likely evaporate. This issue matters a lot.
Unfortunately whenever a new tax cut (or increase) is proposed, economists and lobbyists differ wildly on what the expected impact of the new … (37 comments)

Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Works For Lenders - 02/23/10 03:29 PM
I try to avoid salesly blog posts about Zillow's products, but occasionally I can't help myself. This is one of those times.
Zillow Mortgage Marketplace has been in existence for around 18 months. If you don't know how it works, please watch the video here. But here's a quick primer. Borrowers fill out a short form loan request -- it takes about 3 minutes. They fill in info about the loan their looking for (refi or purchase) and their financial situation, but they don't include any personally identifiable information (no social security number, no phone #, no email address). This happens … (0 comments)

What would Nancy Botwin say? - 02/17/10 06:33 PM
El Dorado California police seized more marijuana from a home than the entire house is worth. From the local Fox news station: "The street value of the 1,000 marijuana plants seized today is estimated at $700,000. By comparison, the 4,000 square foot home where the pot plants were found is worth $650,000 according to Zillow.com."
 
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If you want to close internet leads, respond to them quickly! - 02/12/10 12:15 PM
Back in December, I gave a speech at the NAR Convention in San Diego called "Understanding the Internet Buyer". I posted my presentation here on my blog and a very lively discussion ensued. You can also see the video via a link in my prior post.
There were a lot of takeaways from my presentation, but the most important point was that if you want to close internet leads, the single most important thing is response time. If you don't get back to people quickly, they'll move on.
I've recently experienced this first hand as I've become an online lead in … (1 comments)

Credit Suisse Real Estate Agent Survey (Feb2010) - 02/12/10 12:01 PM
Industry Realtor Survey 02-05-2010 … (0 comments)

Dr Stan Humphries (Zillow Chief Economist) on Bloomberg News - 02/11/10 12:14 PM
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Sophia, Luke & Friends raising money for the Western Pond Turtle - 02/10/10 04:47 PM
 

 

 
This is the cutest thing ever. Sophia (in the aqua jacket up top) and her friends did a bakesale in Madison Park to raise money for the Western Pond Turtle which is endangered.
Check out the Woodland Park Zoo Blog post on it here for a full recap.
 
 
 
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If You Are In the San Francisco Area on 2/25 - 02/09/10 06:07 PM

Via Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow):
Please stop by and meet Spencer Rascoff, the COO of Zillow.  He'll be hosting an educational event wherereal estate professionals can come learn more about Zestimates and how to use Zillow in their business. 
The event is free and coffee and light refreshments will be served. 
Please click here to RSVP and learn more about the event. 
What:  Zillow A to Z: From Advertising to Zestimates, Learn How to Make Zillow Work for You
When: Thursday, February 25, 2010 from 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM (PT)
Where: Hilton San Francisco (Union Square)  Room: … (0 comments)

Raincamp in Dallas (And On Twitter Everywhere!) - 02/09/10 05:27 PM

Via Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow):
I had the privilege of attending RainCamp New York in January.  It was a room full of people where you could actually feel the energy in the air.  At breaks people were literally buzzing with information they'd just learned.  This is on top of the awesome networking opportunity to meet fellow Rainers. 
Because we were so impressed with the event, Zillow wanted to be involved in a bigger way.  I am happy to announce that we will be a sponsor at the Dallas event.  (I am unhappy to say that I won't personally be … (0 comments)

How To Dominate As A Premier Agent In A Zip Code On Zillow - 02/03/10 09:18 PM
At Zillow we keep thinking more and more about how we can match up the millions of people using the site each month (traffic record in January of 9 million!) with real estate professionals.  We've evolved from just having ads show up in a Zip code, to also wrapping in premier listing search value. 
How to be a triple threat on Zillow in a Zip code- we've now bundled these 3 things into a powerful package. 
1)  Showcase Ads - What Zip codes do you want to target?  There are 2 Showcase Ads in each one.  Here you can advertise a listing or … (32 comments)

A real email from our head of sales - 02/03/10 05:41 PM
Here’s an email the team here just got from our head of sales:
"I just spoke with an agent in [the northeast] who is ECSTATIC about the ROI she’s seeing with Showcase. She works in a market that has a lot of summer home properties for people in [the northeast]. She started with us in April of 2009 and gives credit to Zillow for 7 transactions over the past 9 months! 4 of these deals were buyer transactions and 3 were listings that we helped her win."
 
You can learn more about real estate advertising on Zillow here or by … (3 comments)

The Housing Bubble: not just an American phenomenon - 02/03/10 11:27 AM
In this paper from Banque de France, Pamfili Antipa and Remy Lecat argue that home prices in France and Spain ran up to about 20% above their fundamental value by the end of 2008. Only 20%? Ha, I laugh at you France and Spain! America crushes you.
All kidding aside, what's interesting is that the paper concludes that it wasn't loose monetary policy that mostly drove the Spanish and French bubbles; it was loose lending standards that really mattered more so than low interest rates: "When enriching fundamentals with a measure of households’ borrowing capacity, most of this overvaluation, however, disappears … (22 comments)

Moonlighting CIA agents analyze earnings conference calls for truthfulness - 02/02/10 03:52 PM
Interesting article on CIA agents who (with permission) moonlight as human lie detector machines for companies, including hedge funds that retain them to analyze corporate earnings calls.
Article is here in Politico.
… (0 comments)

The Trials and Tribulations of Raising Venture Capital - 02/02/10 11:21 AM
Kudos to Rand Fishkin, an SEO expert and FOZ ("friend of Zillow"), for writing this excellent post on the venture capital process. [Hey Rand, how do you like that anchor text on "SEO expert"? You're welcome.]
This is a must-read for entrepreneurs looking to do a VC round.
… (0 comments)

Movie Trailer: "Wall Street" (the sequel) - 02/02/10 11:17 AM
Looking forward to this movie.
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How important are startups to job creation? VERY! - 02/01/10 11:28 AM
A very interesting study was just released by the Census Bureau analyzing job creation at startups.
 
"The fraction of employment accounted for by U.S. private-sector business startups over the 1980-2005 period is about 3 percent per year...While this is a small fraction of overall employment, all of this employment from startups reflects new jobs. As such, 3 percent is large compared to the average annual net employment growth of the U.S. private sector for the same period (about 1.8 percent). This pattern implies that, excluding the jobs from new firms, the U.S. net employment growth rate is negative on average.
… (1 comments)

 
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Spencer Rascoff

Seattle, WA

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Address: 1301 2nd Avenue, Floor 31, Seattle, WA, 98101

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