Inside Real Estate Technology

New and cool (or not so cool) technology for consumers, brokers and agents.
There are 12 articles written on this subject. The most recent 10 are listed here:

Experimenting with FusionCharts V3 Beta "Ready for Some Stories?" In the Sunday Post: About RSS Los Angeles Broker Creates New Search Widget Gooooooogle Trends

A pot of coffee, FusionCharts, PHP and mySQL... I grabbed the light: FiOS Zillow sharpens its sword...challenges the status quo One small step for a Blogger, one giant leap into the Blogosphere Internet Explorer 7

You will find a complete Index of Articles by Category and by Month in the Archives.

January 17, 2007

+ + + = I think I am transforming myself into a real estate techno-nerd. Why else would I be up at 4:00 am rummaging through the MLS, updating data tables and a weird obsession to make the Daily Market Charts more sophisticated and meaningful? PHP? Don't ask. mySQL? My next technical conquest. I have become a monster of science fiction movie proportions. I love real estate...I am passionate about using technology to drive more capability and useful data to real estate interested consumers!

I finished updating the Daily Market Charts this morning to make them easier to see the relation of the various market indicators. And, I'm not done. More to come over time (when I have time). Now back to development of the ACRE™ Coaching Forum. You can take a peek now but it will be closed to the general public when it goes live.

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December 24, 2006

This is going to sound like a commercial for Verizon and maybe it is.

Verizon FiOS (Fibre Optic Service) was available in our neighborhood several months ago. Since we run our business from our home and incorporate all the necessary technology to support our clients, I was hesitant to make the switch, especially since everything I have is working fine. Everything is (was):

• Verizon local service (3 lines, 2 for voice and 1 for Fax) ~$100/mo.
• AT&T long distance (I've been a loyal customer since dirt) ~$25/mo.<\li>
• DirecTV (I was an early adopter 13 years ago since cable was not available, and still isn't). We were hooked on DirecTV. A great service except in severe weather. ~$100/mo.
• SkyNetAccess for broadband internet access. DSL was never available. SkyNet provides DSL like service over microwave. Without it I would have had to resort to satellite which was not a good alternative. SkyNet speeds averaged 1.5Mbs down and 0.750Mbs up. Certainly adequate. ~ $60/mo.
• Total monthly cost: ~$285/mo.

On December 21st I made the switch. After about a 4 hour installation in the afternoon, FiOS was cut over without a glitch. I experienced a couple of hard issues both of which were my problems; one with Outlook email accounts and the other a network storage hard drive that had addressing issues.

I 'm here to report that the service is everything advertised! Same quality phone service (now with unlimited domestic long distance), blazing fast internet at 5Mbs down and 2Mbs up (this is the entry level service) and a superior television feed with high definition and receivers that have integrated DVR. WOW is an understatement (so far). More capability for less cost (estimated service cost is ~ $250/mo.). Now that's a value proposition. I may change my tune when we experience the first power outage. That's supposed to be protected too with battery backup.

I also use Verizon Wireless for cell coverage and I am told that I can get a 10% discount (~$20/mo.) on that bill (~$200/mo.) since I am totally Verizon dependent.

My Verizon service calls are always first rate. I hear horror stories about all cable companies. Verizon is betting the company on this service with $Billions$ in infrastructure investment. Looks to me like a good bet.

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December 7, 2006

The Blogging world is buZZing this morning about Zillow's announcement last night offering free listings tied to your homes tax and sales history in their gargantuan data base. And, it is up and running. Zillow is taking aim with their sharp, swift sword at the heart of the real estate industry. Every real estate blogger on the planet is reporting and offering opinions on the significance of this announcement and capability. My favorite commentary can be found at

• the BloodhoundBlog (Greg actually had advance notice),
• sellsius,
• Ardell and Galen at the Rain City Guide,
• Kris Berg at The San Diego Home Blog,
• Inman News and
• Jim at Real Central Virginia.

The significance of this might well be to make every MLS obsolete, realtor.com irrelevant, Google Base old fashioned, Craig's list history and significantly transform the role of a real estate agent as a central figure in the transaction to one of a real estate transaction advisor as buyers search for homes and sellers are empowered to market their own homes on a massive scale. The difference between Zillow and the rest of the world is the integration of "free" listings to the tax and sales records of nearly every property in the US. Will there be kinks? Sure, but these guys can figure out how to smooth them out. Incredible!

There is no better time for every real estate agent to figure out how to transform their business from sales agent to consultant. It may take awhile but, I truly believe this may be the single event that will force the industry to change. It is serendipitous that Pam and I had the vision to establish our business on a consulting business model with a complete, transparent fee schedule.

Watch for the mark of Zillow coming from the tip of their long sword of innovation on everything real estate. I love it! See Zillow now.

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December 3, 2006

Software is a wonderfully weird, mysterious beast. Most of the time it works. Sometimes it doesn't. It often behaves in peculiar ways when its creators and users least expect it.

Great and noble minds expend significant creativity, time and energy designing masterpieces that we minions look upon with admiration and wonderment. We often ask "how'd they do that?" And the we exclaim "I gotta havit, gotta havit right now!" We take a giant leap of faith and subscribe to trial versions and install them into production with ample expectation that this "new thing" is going to satisfy our appetite for ever increasing complexity not thinking what the ultimate end user might regard as negative usability. After implementing new and improved capability widgets, the trial versions die a quick and painful death. We languish in a short state of mourning before we remember the secret unlock code to re-activate the cherished system in all its production glory is available for a mere pittance. Having secured the code and re-activating the NEW AND IMPROVED Version we proclaim "this is a good and wonderful creation I gave to my users" and enter into a state of self absorbing bliss.

We are often so convinced of our technical prowess and the quality of the masterful underlying work of art that we embark on multiple simultaneous implementations of advanced features to satisfy our need to show the world that we have arrived on the bleeding edge of every Web standard known to the inhabitants of the universe.

It is now that the most devastating, ego diminishing messages are received through the collaborative features of our creation (this is Web 2.0?):

• the search function doesn't search, it just dies...
• Server errors 404 and 500! O m'god...
• Trimming comments in the middle of a link causes unexpected formatting results
• your RSS 2.0 comment feed is malformed!...the result of smoking and drinking while creating it?
• drop downs are not dropping...pop ups are not popping (to some this is OK because they are really annoying).
• and on, and on, and on...

We then expend exorbitant amounts of debugging brain power completely disregarding our spouses, the dog and taking the trash out on Thursday mornings. Speaking of trash, that thought runs through our minds briefly as the absorption rate into fixing software is increasing exponentially.

One by one, each of the sad reports of malfunction (and malformation) are completely cured and we once again retreat into a blissful and highly egotistical state of mind. Finding and fixing bugs in Blogs is a very satisfying endeavor even though it comes not without immense personal sacrifice (read lots of personal sacrifice).

This long and sometimes excruciatingly painful musing must now come to a natural creative conclusion. I have coined a new term for all good and honorable Bloggers in Blogosphere:

BLUG: (unknown type) BL.og b.UG...
1) a malfunction of blog script due to NOT reading the instructions before implementing new features (this is also synonymous with: "the male species hate to ask someone for directions");
2) a malfunction of the underlying Blog platform used to create Blogs on the web (as in: does not perform as advertised, or finding a unique way to exercise the software that its creators never imagined);
3) Alternate existing definition: an acronym for the Bangalore Linux User's Group.

Entering this on Wikipedia will have to wait until I have the latest BLUG attack resolved. Now back to the real world that I have so cleverly ignored...

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November 4, 2006

Internet Explorer 7 is now available for download. I installed it on both desktops and my laptop. Installation was easy and seamless. The experience so far is great. Microsoft changed the toolbars a bit which will get some getting used to after many years of previous versions with little user interface changes. Two big pluses: tabbed browsing ala Firefox and auto detection of RSS feeds and essentially using IE7 a pretty doggone good feed reader. The only thing I don't like is a requirement to name a default search engine that permanently takes up toolbar space. I use Google's search add-on which is highly customizable and feature rich and makes IE7 search redundant even though it defaulted to Google in my installations.

A good review can be found at HelpWithWindows.com.

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October 21, 2006

I use a software product called FusionCharts for all the charting I do. The current production version gives me wide latitude of chart types and formats. The new version (Version 3) was just released in beta (maybe not quite ready for prime time) and I elected to be a beta tester. This version gives me more control over the look and feel by an order of magnitude. The downside is that there are so many options and variables, it will take me an order of magnitude more time to discover them all. I modified the Fairfax Daily Market Watch charts this morning with Version 3. I have to say that with little change, they are backward compatible and provide a much more sophisticated look. Take a look and see what you think...

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October 3, 2006

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) = Ready for Some Stories (RSS). Thanks to Galen at RCG for discovering this nugget. Still confused about RSS? Read this about RSS Oprah style!

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September 10, 2006

A good article this morning in the business section about news feeds for those that are RSS challenged (Really Simple Syndication).

Making Your Own News Page Is Really Simple
By Chris Barylick
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, September 10, 2006; Page F07

Imagine a book without an index, chapters, page numbers or paragraphs. All the information you'd ever need might be at your fingertips, but without a clear way to sift through it, the chances that you'll find what you're looking for are slim...

But how much do you know about something called RSS -- a technology that allows you to put updates from news sites in one easy-to-scan location on your computer or on the Web?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a tool that allows you to subscribe to a site's update feature with only a few mouse clicks.

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August 16, 2006

Thanks to Inman News for tipping us off on this new search service created by Brock Real Estate in Los Angeles. Called Shack Yack, this might be the coolest real estate search services I have seen yet. Developed with Web 2.0 (what's this?) in mind, consumers can not only do map searches by various criteria, the site also lets consumers leave comments on properties they find. Truly data rich, user friendly and "participatory."

If you are looking for SoCal property, check this out. Even if you're not, it's fun to play with. Thanks Inman!

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May 12, 2006

Thanks to Jim Duncan over at Real Central VA for pointing us to Google Trends Beta. Very interesting! Put in a series of search terms and Google will show you the trend and relative frequency of their use.

Here's our test (Try to guess which comes out on top for each series):

• Real Estate, Stocks, Bonds, Gold
• Politics, Religion, Sex, Music
• Website, Blog, Newspaper, TV

I tried some other terms but Google told me there was not enough volume to graph them. Oh well. I suspect we will be able to find good use for this capability. Leave it to Google to innovate. Lets see...how do we use this for the benefit of our clients...?

Guess what these results are...

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