Mike's Corner Now MLBroadcast Blog - New Website Launched

I would like to extend a big thank you to all of the faithful readers of Mike's Corner over the past 3 years. I have thoroughly enjoyed the process of blogging and a platform that has allowed me to share my opinions of the real estate industry and real estate 2.0. No worries, I am not going away, just sort of relocating. MLBroadcast.Com/blog needs to morph into a platform that does a better job of focusing on our product and the niche we serve. As such, I will be working on a new location (and name) for Mike's Corner where I can continue to write the kind of content that seems to resonate with more people than I could have imagined it would. If you would like to receive an email notification when I launch, please drop me a line at 360podcast AT gmail DOT com with your email address and I will let you know the new URL.

As for this blog, I hope you'll remain subscribed as we talk about how our product and syndicated content in general can be one of the most effect tools in your real estate marketing arsenal. In our goal to do a better job of presenting our product to the real estate community, we have launched an entirely new web site. I hope you'll take a few minutes to review it and let me know what you think. Coming up next: How MLBroadcast community content creates tremendous search engine results.

Armchair Quarterbacking Real Estate 2.0

I started writing this post as a comment in response to Joel's post over at FOREM which was inspired by Dustin's post at 4Realz.net. By the time you finish reading it you may think you hear the sound of two lips puckered in the pursuit of serious "kissing up" to Zillow. You would be wrong. Those that know me would back up the fact that's something I have no use for, results yes...ass kissing...no. Those same people know I usually don't get involved in speculation either, especially in this blog. Most of the time it's too squishy to have the kind of value that I think readers are looking for. The more I thought about it, the more I realized a more in depth look might be in order. I know there are Brokers and MLS' considering relationships with Zillow. I'm not saying that Joel is right or wrong to bring up the issue. That said, I'm not sure I see the same connections between a nebulous comment in an interview to the 2005 patent filings of Zillow. I'm not a journalist, so perhaps there is something I am missing in trying to connect those kind of dots.

Let's start at what's the heart of the matter - the business model. If so many are convinced that the "end game" of being a "media play" has no future, where does that leave other teams on the roster? Move, Trulia, IAC (or whatever the individual properties become), NCI, Classified Ventures, FrontDoor etc.

Maybe it's a perceptive mistake on Zillow's part to pin the moniker of "media company" on their business model. I think it immediately puts people into a mindset of limited revenue channels when in reality there are many different scenarios under which Zillow could generate revenue without stepping in it when it comes to the transaction.

There were plenty of people making the same early assumptions regarding YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. In some cases the game hasn't reached half-time yet. But even with things still in play, you can step back and look at the almost endless stream of new and creative ways that these companies have partnered with the creative architects of the marketing and advertising world to generate revenue that goes way beyond banners and keywords. Creating API's, new application platforms and more are things that didn't happen during season 1.0. I'm not saying that the investments and valuations of all of them make sense and to be sure, there will be some big investments made in Web 2.0 plays that turn out to be nothing more than a popcorn fart. I honestly think Zillow is playing on different turf. With the right creativity and the ability to remain nimble, I have a gut feeling they will become profitable a lot faster than most pundits do.

Attempting to navigate the land mines that lie in the path of transaction revenue (via an auction model or anything else) would be insanely expensive and excruciatingly time consuming, especially to VC's that will not tolerate that path if winds and turns through a bureaucratic maze of glad handing. If someone could have figured out how to forge that magic bullet I think we would have seen something close to it already and to be sure, E-Bay doesn't count. That said, I reserve the right to a disclaimer myself so, as Dennis Miller used to say when he closed out every show, "That's just my opinion, I could be wrong"

Hindsight is a distinct advantage for Zillow. Dustin alluded to it in his post and I think that it's pretty clear they made a strategic decision early on that moved them away from repeating the mistakes made during "season 1.0. I freely admit that I'm like a lot of other people that felt completely different about Zillow in the early days. Sure you can bring up the patent filing from 2005. But to be fair, shouldn't you also bring up the more recent patent activity with Home Direct that clearly defines Zillow's offerings being based on advertising? If you tried to define Microsoft or Apple based upon their patent filings you would end up with business plans that looked like they were written by Mary Shelley.

I'm not privy to any inside information on Zillow's undefined offerings or strategies. My conjecture is based on my mind's eye concepts of the possibilities and what I know about their current products. If you're a broker or agent that hasn't taken the time to at least understand all there is to Zillow, you're not really in a position to call in any plays.

In the end it's about the the people. Look at this way, if you're going to arm chair quarterback Real Estate 2.0, you need to pick the players for your team. If had the likes of Rich Barton, Lloyd Frink, Spencer Rascoff, Sara Bonert, David Gibbons and Drew Meyers on mine, I would feel pretty good about the chance of the "End Game" being in the playoffs. Personally I don't think the 2005 playbook is being used. But once again, I could be wrong. If so, I will be the first to point it out.

Mike's Corner Celebrates Its First Anniversary

A little over a year ago at a board meeting our Executive VP, Mark Basile, suggested the concept of developing a blog for our prospects and clients. Our product is a single spoke in an entirely new kind of wheel that for better or worse has been slapped with the Web 2.0 moniker. It was clear to us that we had an opportunity and an obligation to help explain the landscape of Real Estate 2.0.

When Mark and myself get together to discuss business, we almost need a moderator to keep us on point. We both enjoy talking about everything we see as having an impact on the industry. Mark suggested we create the blog in a fashion that would establish a one to many conversation about technology and it's impact on the real estate industry. A face to a name, a direct connection to the leadership of the company. While I haven't exactly stayed on point every time, I think what I've had to say has been done in the spirit of our orignal goals.

Yesterday was exactly 365 days from my original post. I'm pretty proud of what we've accomplished. We plan to take the blog to another level in the next few months. If you've just started reading or you've had us in your RSS reader for a while now, let us know what you think and what you would like to see from us in our second year.