Baron Briefs

For several months, I’ve been working on a new listing product for Realtors. An important component is listing distribution. RealtyBaron already syndicates listings to Vast and allows agents to publish to Craigslist. But our listing product launching in early 2008 will require syndication to each and every listing destination site that accepts bulk feeds. And while RealtyBaron was early early-ish to the distribution game, we’re certainly not alone.

Listing distribution has become ridiculously easy. In just a few hours, I added feeds for CityCribs, Citylist, CLR Search, Oodle, Propbot, Propsmart, Trulia, Zillow, and Google Base. Once the feed format is known, it takes less than a few minutes to start churning out an XML file to feed a destination site.

All of which has me thinking about a future where listings seamlessly flow around the web. Can any one destination site gain a competitive advantage and win the listings race once real estate listings are ubiquitous? Probably not, me thinks. Instead, big destination sites will likely continue squeezing more search, more filtering, more analysis, and more data (sales data, demographics, etc.) into the same 1024 by 768 pixel space in an attempt to make sense of it all. Additionally, make room for more banner advertising to pay for the development of aforementioned features. Which brings me to…

Many Realtors continue to fear losing control of their listings. However, I can imagine an ironic outcome in which losing control of listings produces an explosion of information which eventually overwhelms and/or confuses the consumer. As a result, buyers and sellers who once went to Realtors for access to information increasingly use Realtors to slog through and interrupt the overly abundant data.

Q: The prices of U.S. homes fell by 3.2 percent in the second quarter, the steepest in 20 years. What do you think?

You’re probably thinking a snoozer, right? Wrong. PBS’ Paul Solman does the improbable by breaking down mortgage-backed securities and keeping the viewer engaged. This is the single best explanation of modern day mortgages I’ve ever seen or read. And honestly, I had never fully understood the inner workings of a mortgage-backed security until now. Excellent work, PBS.

Part One

Part Two

Clearing Title gives us an eyewitness account of the far-reaching effects of belt tightening in the mortgage industry. Everyone involved in a deal—real estate agents, loan officers, buyers, sellers, etc—is merely a bowling pin once a lender pulls the funding.

The following data was taken straight out of the Baron database. It compares the average time a home spends on the market (reported by our agents) versus the average final bid of listing auctions:

It’s quite simple when you think about it: the longer a home sits on the market, the more costs a Realtor incurs.

I’ve got a fantastic idea for a new Realtor product. I’ve never been more excited about the prospect for a new product than this one. If my assumptions are correct, this new product could dramatically change the way Realtors do business. However, my assumptions are just that…assumptions. So, if you are a real estate broker or agent, please consider helping me validate those assumptions by completing the following survey. It only has 7 questions and will likely take you less than 2 minutes to complete:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=9MpDZU5c16kiI6CjrmEN0w_3d_3d

If you’re a blogger whose audience includes brokers and agents, please consider linking to the survey. Be sure to leave a trackback in the comments if you’d like to preview the new product once the design is complete.

Thanks in advance for your participation!

Someone at Zillow let a feature announcement slip outside the corporate network tonight. It looks like Zillow is going after the neighborhood conversation, too.

Yahoo! Real Estate added two new online appraisal sources—Reply! and eppraisal.com—to their home value section this week. They join Zillow to form a home value estimates “trifecta” for consumers.

In my opinion, this is a big win for eppraisal.com. Just recently, eppraisal.com moved into the top 100 of real estate sites on the web according to Hitwise. Now, they will share “shelf space” with two competitors who each have millions in VC funding. Congratulations to Erik Hersman and his team over at Realty Thoughts on yet another victory.

It’s not uncommon for visitors to arrive at RealtyBaron.com after asking a search engine, “Are real estate fees negotiable?”. Notice the query is not “how” to negotiate, but rather “if” negotiation of a Realtor’s price is allowed.

That very question coupled with Redfin’s appearance on 60 Minutes has me thinking about upcoming listing appointments this summer. With 13 million viewers, 60 Minutes may have awakened the U.S. consumer—many who had previously assumed real estate fees where non-negotiable—and inspired them to bargin with Realtors while huddled around a listing presentation.

Consumers motivated to haggle (i.e. downward pressure on Realtor fees) combined with a weakening real estate market that requires more time and money from Realtors to market listings (i.e. upward pressure on Realtor fees) makes for a very, very long summer for Realtors.

“The average agent processes eight deals a year. We have an agent that can do that every week,” Kelman explains.

“Are you spinning me?” Stahl asks.

“I mean, seriously,” Kelman replies.

I reviewed the segment again this morning. I believe the key word Glenn used was “can”…. as in Redfin has an agent who can close eight deals per week if market conditions allow. If Redfin did have an agent who was closing eight deals per week, it seems Glenn would have said, “We have an agent who is doing that every week”. However, the impression of eight deals per week is certainly made. But it’s like a coach saying “we have a running back who can rush for 100 yards per game each week”. They’re both statements that speak of potential. In my opinion, Glenn was speaking to Redfin’s technological and organizational advantage over the average “traditional” agent rather than current performance.

Furthermore, “I mean, seriously” doesn’t seem like a confident response to the question, “Are you spinning me?”. I would expect “No”, “Absolutely Not”, or “Not spinning at all”.

In any event, I invite Redfin’s super-agent to publish his or her MyAgentRankâ„¢ badge on a website or weblog and allow their sales data to be vetted by the public.