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Wikipedia and Real Estate

By S. Leanne Paynter ☼ Broward County, FL

Real Estate Agent with United Realty Group, Inc. BK641413

September 12, 2006 10:09 AM

An interesting article in today's MarketWatch suggests that companies (in general, not necessarily real estate companies) are having to spend millions of dollars on improving their particular brand's search engine rankings because Wikipedia has become so successful. Due to the fact that Wikipedia's content is written by individuals (not companies), the content does not always favor the company's image and people are sometimes influenced by what they read in the entries. From what I could see, there was very little written about the larger real estate companies, though I suspect that will change over time.

Here is a selection of Wikipedia entries relating to real estate:

Realtor®
Real Estate Agent
Buyer Brokerage
Multiple Listing Service
U.S. Housing Bubble <-- lots of information here
Zillow
Home Staging
Blogging (once there, scroll down a bit)
Nothing on ActiveRain (yet!)

Some interesting information I found while on Wikipedia's real estate market page is that according to The Real Estate Roundtable, real estate "generates nearly a third of U.S. GDP [Gross Domestic Product] and creates jobs for over 9 million Americans". I also learned a new term... "BosWash" (a.k.a. BosNYWash / Boshington) which is used to describe the megalopolis that consists of everything between and including Boston, MA and Washington, DC -- and has a population of 44 million (or 16% of the US population).

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Ann Cummings

RE/MAX Shoreline - NH and Maine - Portsmouth, NH

Portsmouth NH Real Estate Preferrable Agent

Interesting post, and it's always interesting reading what folks find on Wikipedia. I had never even heard of Wikipedia until this past year, and then I saw it mentioned everywhere. I wonder how that came to be?

"BosWash"--what a funny term! I live in what some would consider part of the Boston metropolitan area, Portsmouth, NH, and I've never heard "BosWash" before. Funny the words & phrases that come into our language almost on a daily basis, isn't it?

I'm going to have to break down and check out Wikipedia for myself, I guess! ;-)

Sep 12, 2006 10:27 AM

Teri Isner

Keller Williams Realty at the Lakes - Orlando, FL

GRI, CRS, CIPS

Wikipedia has some great stuff and you can spend alot of time browsing there. BoxWash who would have thought..before we know it there will be orampa the population growth between Orlando and Tamp...

Sep 12, 2006 11:10 AM

Matt Heaton

Timu Corp - CEO, ActiveRain - Co-founder - Bothell, WA

Despite the bad rap Wikipedia has gotten in the media as of late for how their information can be manipulated, I find that they are probably one of the best informational sites on the web. Their editors take a lot of pride in what they do, and trying to present unbiased facts.

Yeah, someone should create a ActiveRain page on Wikipedia, there's one for most of the other social networks. I just hope whoever is true to the Wikipedia spirit in trying to write a unbiased informational page.

Sep 12, 2006 11:36 AM

Jay Thompson

Zillow - Seattle, WA

Actually, I thought about writing a Wikipedia page on AR. I figured that would have to be worth a bazillion bonus points.

So I checked it out. They actually have *very* strict guidelines about what websites, and social networks are lumped in there, can be added.

This makes sense if you think about it. Without restrictions, everyone and their mother would be writing wiki pages just to get one-way links. From Wikipedia.

But it's only a matter of time until AR qualifies....

Sep 12, 2006 02:24 PM

John Novak

Keller Williams Realty The Marketplace - Las Vegas, NV

Henderson, Las Vegas and Summerlin Real Estate

With their content being individual-driven rather than corporate, it's a whole new demographic. Real estate agents who can tap into that will be rewarded well.

Sep 12, 2006 03:15 PM

Toby Barnett

KW North Sound - Marysville, WA

Toby Barnett

But doesn't his encourage people to build a industry specific content rich websites to compete with Wikipedia? Wikipedia is a content rich site regardless of the author and I would think it would encourage more people to compete based on cotent. As so many people realize they need a website they don't normally realize that content over features is what drives traffic, Content is King.

Sep 12, 2006 04:59 PM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

I think it was you Leanne that pointed out the spam comments I got from an Illinois flat fee broker on my blog were word for word the "MLS" entry from Wikipedia without atrribution to the source, along with links to the spammers website.

Sep 12, 2006 07:40 PM

Brian Nelso

Thneed, LLC - Aliso Viejo, CA

Brian Nelso

GIGO... wikipedia tends to have some good information is generally correct. However, it the data all depends on how knowledgable the commentator was that added the data. My experience is that it has been hit or miss.

Sep 14, 2006 03:30 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Barrett wrote of Wikipedia:

"However, it the data all depends on how knowledgable the commentator was that added the data. My experience is that it has been hit or miss. "

hmmmm kinda reminds me of blogs in that way...

Sep 14, 2006 03:45 AM

S. Leanne Paynter ☼ Broward County, FL

United Realty Group, Inc. - Davie, FL

Davie, Plantation, Cooper City & Weston Specialist

I agree, Matt... from what I've seen, the Wikipedia editors do try to present unbiased facts. I've only edited one thing on Wikipedia which was an obvious abuse on the part of a real estate agent who conveniently placed a link to their own website from the content on the page. I check back every once in a while to see if they've added the link again (so far, no). I hope I never come across that sort of thing again, but I can't say I'd be surprised if I did.

Good point, Maureen... but the best bloggers provide lots of facts and links to essentially prove their point -- or at least let the reader find out for themselves from more than one source.

Sep 15, 2006 02:32 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Leanne I was thinking of a blogger who many seem to think is one the "best" bloggers on a blogging platform we are both familiar with who just learned how to link to other blogs, websites, and information commonly available on the internet ...that blogger and some new bloggers is what I was reminded of by ..Barret Niehus' ."However, it the data all depends on how knowledgable the commentator was that added the data. My experience is that it has been hit or miss. "

To me good blogs support the info with links.

Sep 15, 2006 02:51 AM

S. Leanne Paynter ☼ Broward County, FL

United Realty Group, Inc. - Davie, FL

Davie, Plantation, Cooper City & Weston Specialist

I agree 100%, Maureen... generally speaking, whenever possible and appropriate, bloggers should include a link to an another source of info... adds credibility / validity to their post. Sometimes it's like doing mini-research projects.

Sep 18, 2006 08:44 AM

Angus in Naperville IL

RE/MAX of Naperville - Naperville, IL

As a general rule, I think Wikipedia is an excellent resource. But like any other resource, it's good to have more than one.

Sep 18, 2006 03:15 PM

Anonymous

Matt

Looks like there is now an entry for ActiveRain on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActiveRain

Oct 04, 2006 06:20 AM

#14

S. Leanne Paynter ☼ Broward County, FL