vFlyer has assembled an excellent view of Real Estate 2.0. Twenty-six “representative” companies are spread out over thirteen different categories. Zillow tops everyone with four category appearances while Trulia and ActiveRain tie for second with three.
vFlyer was kind enough to include RealtyBaron in the “Reviews” category along with Homethinking and IncredibleAgent.
…pretty good if you ask me. This morning, I searched for homes with asking prices between $250,000 and $500,000 in 13 metro areas and compared the size of RealtyBaron’s RealSearchâ„¢ results with two real estate search leaders, Trulia and Propsmart. The results surprised me:
 |
 |
 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | 1,462 | 1,496 | 2,693 |
| Boston | 242 | 498 | 1,240 |
| Chicago | 2,420 | 10,023 | 9,199 |
| Dallas | 744 | 332 | 1,950 |
| Denver | 411 | 1,358 | 1,186 |
| Vegas | 5,050 | 3,264 | 3,336 |
| L.A. | 369 | 2,686 | 4,023 |
| Miami | 1,950 | 8,770 | 10,375 |
| Phoenix | 2,128 | 6,802 | 4,063 |
| Seattle | 298 | 3,470 | 751 |
| S.D. | 1,038 | 3,238 | 5,519 |
| S.F. | 75 | 468 | 1,186 |
| D.C. | 603 | 720 | 2,374 |
| **NOTE: 15% added to Trulia numbers to account for no FSBOs in results. | |||
Was this a scientific comparison? No, because it doesn’t consider the quality of the listing data. For example, Trulia’s or Propsmart’s search algorithms may exclude listings from their index if the listing is missing data points A, B, and/or C. As a result, the total number of their results would be lower. Regardless, it was nice to visualize how RealtyBaron’s RealSearchâ„¢ sizes up against the incumbents.
Business 2.0 put real estate on the cover of their November edition which arrived in the mail this week. As with any real estate feature, I dove in immediately. The coverage is good because it doesn’t dwell on the bubble bursting. Rather, opportunity is the focus.
Within seconds, however, my eyes were drawn to a footer on page 85 titled “New Ways to Buy and Sell: The latest real estate websites go beyond just searching the listings”. Occupying one of only eight panels was none other than RealtyBaron.com:
It’s an awesome feeling to see a major business publication take notice of my creation. Thanks, Business 2.0.
BloodhoundBlog questions the strategy of allowing other websites to plug into the Web services of Zillow and Trulia:
How the hell are either of these two quivering little firms going to make money on this? “Advertising!†they shout in unison, but the advertising is on their home pages, where these APIs aren’t. Each one has a little click-back button to take self-selected volunteers back to the home planet. But if I’m getting the milk for free at LargelyUnobjectionableAtlantaHomes.com, why the heck would I go to the dairy?
My initial thought on why each would do this: By opening up Zestimates and Zindices to the masses, Zillow is following in the foot steps of major players like Amazon and Google…build an API, let others innovate off the technology, and then acquire the best of breed. Remember, they recently picked up an extra $25 million to “broaden their product offering”. As far as TruliaMap, it’s likely an attempt to win over agents and brokers who haven’t warmed up to the idea of their website being crawled and scraped. Now, they get a cool widget for their website and Trulia gets access to more listings.
Since launching RealtyBaron.com, our auction platform has only been introducing homeowners to Realtors®. Today, we start helping the other side of the real estate transaction with Buyer Rebate Auctions.
Basically, anyone who has taken the home search into their own hands using vertical search tools such as Realtor.com, Trulia, or Propsmart can use this new feature to connect with a Realtor® who will represent them in the transaction. Realtor® bids are based on what sales commission (or flat fee) they’d accept as compensation. The rebate is the difference between the co-broke fee listed in the MLS and the Realtor’s final bid. For example, a co-broke fee of 3% minus a final bid of 1% = 2% rebate for buyer.
Like RealtyBaron’s current Listing Auctions, bidding on Buyer Rebate Auctions will be controlled by the gatekeeper algorithm, AgentRankâ„¢. As the name implies, AgentRank(TM) ranks agents and prevents underperforming agents from bidding. By specifying a minimum AgentRankâ„¢, buyers can ensure they meet a Realtor who has a proven track record.
For Realtors®, this feature is an easy way to connect with clients who have already absorbed the most costly part of representing buyers–the prolonged home search.
UPDATE: Inman News writes about our new Buyer Rebate Auctions. Thanks, Glenn!