Real Estate and The Social Network Effect

It looks as if the Facebook / MySpace bug is attempting to find it's way deeper into the ecosystem of the RE.net. I would do some deep commentary on the whole Active Rain / Move, Inc. debacle but it makes me sleepy. If you want the whole play by play here are several dozen blog posts and stories. It seems as if every real estate blog on the planet has an armchair quarterback's opinion of what took place. The cliff note version of my opinion is that just looks like a poorly executed business deal with some monumental boo-boos on both sides of the conference table, not the least of which is a valuation that a 3rd grade math student would question. I guess some of the agents with blogs in Active Rain got their undies in a twist when word got out that AR was going to sell "their content". That issue is pretty much a non-starter for me as well. I find it hard to shed a tear for anyone that doesn't bother to read a terms of service, or better yet, has an issue with someone trying to sell their own company. The active rain platform is free for agents to use, so I guess if the issue comes up again AR can just give everybody their money back.

What I'm finding more interesting is the entrance into the real estate social media space of some new players. The first of which is Zolve.Com. It's the effort of a Realtor, Iraqi War Vet, fellow GeekEstate contributor and Real Living franchisee from Colorado, Brian Wilson.

It seems there was a lot of blog reading time to be had during his tour of duty, so he used it to develop his concept of a Real Estate social network. So far Brian has a blog with a few entries and a new intro page to his site. From what I've picked up reading his blog posts, he's got a tidy sum invested in outsourcing his site development, PR, advertising and other start-up efforts. His blog says he has over 500 agents pre-registered for Zolve. The placeholder page at Zolve.Com has one of those "walk into your browser" video spokespeople thingys that introduces the site with typical web marketing speak like empower, collaborative, "e-bay like" etc. but no real details on the service. Unfortunately the video doesn't set a cookie in your browser. Every time you return to the page you have to go through the intro again. The site says you can join for $395 and represents a $600 savings from the regular price. I have no clue what you get for that, but we'll let you know when we find out. All I can think is that with that kind of price point in this market, there must be some kind of secret sauce. If you join, be sure to read the terms of service first. It's standard boiler plate stuff, but at least you'll know what you may or may not own for your investment.

Next up is RealtorClix.Com. Check it out while you can because I doubt it will be under that domain for very long. From what I can gather it seems the site owner has already received his cease and desist letter. Doesn't matter if you're a member of NAR or not. NAR protects their trademark with ferocity and has done the smackdown on an untold number of domains in the past. The Sellsius boys have taken up the cause to help. Nice but futile, NAR will not give in on the issue. The attempt to put REALTOR® in the public domain has failed time and again. The intro marketing paragraph says "It's so addictive, It's been called MySpace for Realtors" LOL. My guess would be that it was called that by the people that created it so they could say it in their marketing efforts. Personally, I think that's a bad branding position. Pimple face teenagers don't buy houses. (Unless they start real estate technology companies) Brian's attempt to link the E-Bay effect to his brand makes more sense. It looks as if there about 15 users of RealtorClix so far. The site has your standard fare, chat, the ability to build a blog, a forum, and the ability to add listings. One thing I couldn't quite understand was the Terms Of Service. It was the one thing that prevented me from signing up for a test run. The site says it is "Another Slamwire Innovation". I checked out slamwire.com and the only thing it references comes back to the RealtorClix service. The Terms of Service that you must enter places you in a contractual relationship with an entity or service called "Handshakes". Im not sure if this is just an issue of forgetting to do a search and replace on a document or something else. Maybe I am only one in a very small minority that reads a terms of service document. Either way, I like to know who I am doing business with and what I am agreeing to. Here's a screen cap of the TOS:




















I wish anybody who jumps into the effort of creating social networks for Realtors luck and I hope Active Rain can move forward after they pay the attorneys. That said, I think the jury is still waaaay out on whether or not the entire concept has a chance for success. It will require some pretty deep pockets and considerable consumer participation at some point. Those eyeballs are not easy to capture. I'm surprised that some of the larger trade associations (other than NAR) that fancy themselves as technology providers haven't jumped into the fray yet. After all, networking is one of the components of a "broker cooperative". Time will tell.

Update: David G. at Zillow has a blog post that referenced a social networking site in Canada, MyRealPlace.Com. I remember vaguely seeing something about this site when it first launched and evidently it drifted out of my Radar. The site says it has 4200 registered agents (not too shabby eh?). It has a blog section, however it looks as if there are less than 100 blogs created, most of which either only have one entry or being used as nothing more than another place to create an advertising or marketing message. There is a "Find A Property" link, but the page says that section is under construction. However if you register as a consumer, you can view listings. There is a "Finance Finder" section that basically just captures consumer contact info and is most likely sold to the highest bidder in the mortgage space. I'm not sure why consumers would think they are gaining any sort of advantage by agreeing to allow someone to sell them down a spam and telemarketing river. The site clearly states they are not mortgage brokers and the terms by which you relinquish your personal information should give pause to any reasonable consumer. Also on the site is a Trulia Voices style Question and Answer section but only 30 questions exist. That pretty much validates my earlier statement regarding the need for consumer participation and the uphill battle these new social networking sites are going to have garnering it.

Update: Joseph @ Sellsius reminds me to add PropertyQube to the mix. I think the reason the thought to add them to this post escaped me is because the site is so much different than those I've referenced thus far, however, it does fit within the category. Here is an interview I did with one the Co-Founders at GeekEstateBlog shortly after their launch a few weeks ago. It looks as if this site is also experiencing fits and starts. The discussions are sparse. I'm not sure how many registered members they have been able to acquire thus far. The focus of PropertyQube is consumer centric and success in its current state will require them to come in droves to do one thing, talk about property. Did I miss anyone else? What are your thoughts on the concepts thus far?