Baron Briefs

This morning, RealtyBaron began posting AgentRank™ activity to the popular micro-blogging platform, Twitter. Specifically, an agent’s sale transactions, client reviews, market forecasts, and new ranking value is posted when captured by the system. You can subscribe to system-wide activity by following AgentRank™ on Twitter.

More importantly, however, agents can “tweet” their own AgentRank™ activity to their “tweeple” by providing their Twitter account credentials.

Twitter is only the beginning. I plan to add other notable social arenas as time permits. If you’d like to request a specific platform, please let me know.

A new Google patent application surfaced this month with the title ‘Agent rank’:

The techniques include receiving multiple content items from a corpus of content items; receiving digital signatures each made by one of multiple agents, each digital signature associating one of the agents with one or more of the content items; and assigning a score to a first agent of the multiple agents, wherein the score is based upon the content items associated with the first agent by the digital signatures.

It’s their next generation ranking technology for organizing web content and is entirely unrelated to RealtyBaron’s AgentRankâ„¢. However, I can hear myself in the not too distant future: “No, not that Agent rank…”.

An anonymous real estate agent in the comments of Realty Thoughts’ blog pens three things you should avoid doing when selecting your real estate agent:

1. do not choose an agent because they have 8 on a widget on their blog.

2. do not choose an agent based on what strangers have said.

3. do not choose an agent based on how much commission they give back to you before you even enter into a transaction.

Put another way:

1. do not pay attention to the real estate agent’s website or blog. Especially avoid any type of message that summarizes the agent’s track record and differentiates him/her from the hundreds of other agents in your market.
2. do not speak with any of the agent’s previous clients about his/her performance during a transaction. Because they are strangers, their input has zero value.
3. do not negotiate with the agent regarding how much of your own money you get to retain before you hire him/her.

- The first MyAgentRank™ badge appears.

- MyAgentRank™ first day in the Widgetbox gallery.

- MyAgentRank™ receives its first kudos from RealtyThoughts:

…kudos go out to AgentRank for their brilliant widget! What an outstanding way to spread the word about their product by helping their agents show how good they are.

…not bad for day two.

In the spirit of “2007: year of the widget“, I released MyAgentRank™ over the weekend, a product that will take AgentRank™ to a new level. MyAgentRank™ is a “snippet” of HTML code that displays an agent’s AgentRank™ when inserted into their website or weblog. Visitors see the agent’s AgentRank™ in real-time plus a snapshot of the agent’s experience, sales, and endorsements. The visitor can click through to AgentRank.com for a detailed report of the agent’s track record. I’ll add the newest AgentRank™ components–Market Forecasts and Weblogs–to badges soon.

Ultimately, MyAgentRank™ is a lead generation tool for agents…albeit for their own website or weblog…by making a stronger case for visitors to complete a form or pick up the phone. Best of all, MyAgentRank™ allows the best agents to differentiate themselves from the competition because only a select group can display a “9″ or “10″ regardless of MyAgentRank™’s popularity.

To prevent gaming the system, MyAgentRank™ allows rankings to be flagged for review by staff. Community review is a new dimension for AgentRank™ which has been totally data-driven until now.

If you’re an agent, you can get your free MyAgentRank™ badge by completing the AgentRank™ setup.

Of all the moving parts in our system, AgentRankâ„¢ is the most difficult to communicate. Most people look past the role it plays in pairing homeowners with an agent. Frankly, I’m surprised how often homeowners choose the default value of 1 (out of 10). However, when I designed the system, it was the “eureka” moment. Without it, the system would be fertile ground for bottom-feeding, hungry agents who would inevitably disappoint homeowners.

I’m always trying to think of “real world” examples to use as comparisons. A few weeks ago, credit scores came to mind. Borrowers with better credit scores typically are seen as less risky and, as a result, receive a better interest rate. Today, however, I thought of an even better one while shopping for a printer with my Consumer Reports ratings in hand at Sam’s Club. AgentRankâ„¢ is nothing more than an objective rating assigned to a Realtor representing the quality of service a consumer can expect.

Just as consumers don’t have to test each and every printer when armed with Consumer Reports ratings, consumers don’t have to interview and haggle with each and every Realtor operating within 10 miles of their home. They simple pick a number–1 to 10–and let the bidding begin.

Speaking of AgentRank(TM), I added two more components earlier this week:

1. Market Forecasts
2. Weblogs

Market forecasts will be used to measure an agent’s knowledge of price trends. By comparing the agent’s forecast of median sale price against the metro prices reported by the National Association of REALTORS®, we’ll identify agents who have exceptional insight into the local market.

Weblogs will be used to measure an agent’s authority on matters of real estate. The popularity of an agent’s weblog in the blogosphere will help identify agents who are considered the experts in their local market and beyond.