Zillow Turns Up The Buzz Meter

It's Zillowpalooza time again. Lots of Zillow mortgage news and the RE.net has been all over it, so much so it makes no sense for me to add yet another post to the mix so here's roundup of some of the best coverage.

Zillow Blog
Lenderama
Blown Mortgage
BloodHound Blog
BloodHound Blog
BloodHound Blog
BloodHound Blog
Agent Genius

I'm really impressed with the buzz marketing effort surrounding Zillow's new mortgage product. Nobody really knows yet exactly what the product looks like, however, Zillow is able to generate a new level of exposure each time they tease the market a bit more. By the time the time the full release takes place, every warm body involved with the lending process will have heard about it. Brilliant. Update: If you know of a good post, let me know so I can add it to the list.

Zillow Set To Release Viral Video Marketing Campaign?

A while back Drew emailed me a link to a Video produced by someone that I think was Zillow employee at the time that lampooned the whole Mac VS. PC debate. It was short lived viral hit on all of the video sharing sites.

It looks as if the brainchildren of that video are working on a viral campaign for Zillow as well. David Fine, one of the video's producer was quoted in a PCWorld blog interview I stumbled on from a Google alert as saying:

"Currently, we are in post-production on a new video for client zillow.com, an online real estate site. We are also in discussions with a few start up companies around the bay area interested in viral marketing campaigns. Ideally, we would like to establish ourselves as a commercial production company for online based advertisements."

It will be interesting to see what they come up with and how effective it is as a marketing tool.

Zillow Out of Beta, Improves Numbers

Zillow announced yesterday in a press conference with a handful of RE.net bloggers that they have "substantially expanded their database of U.S. Homes" while dramatically expanding and improving its Zestimate algorithm". Also announced was the desision by Zillow to come out of beta. The press release is below. You can find out more by visiting Zillow's blog.

Zillow.com® Substantially Expands Database of Homes

Real estate site now has data on nearly 90% of all U.S. homes and Zestimate® values on 74%;
Improved algorithm, user input boost Zestimate accuracy by 12%

SEATTLE – January 10, 2008— Real estate Web site Zillow.com today announced a major expansion and upgrade to its database of nearly all homes in the country– increasing data coverage from 70 million to 80 million U.S. homes in 48 states, or 88 percent of all homes in the country . Zestimate values are now available on three out of four U.S. homes, or 67 million, up 68 percent from when Zillow launched in 2006. New areas with Zestimates include the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, West Virginia and New Hampshire.
Zillow today also announced it has dramatically expanded and improved its Zestimate algorithm, incorporating 20 times the number of statistical models than before that factor in more local and home-type variables and now integrate homeowner-edited home facts – such as the number of bedrooms, bathrooms or square footage. More than one million homes have been claimed and updated by their owners to date, contributing to improved Zestimate accuracy on many of these homes. Incorporating these changes along with continued algorithm upgrades have resulted in a 12 percent improvement in Zestimate accuracy nationwide. Many larger metropolitan markets, such as the greater San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles and Atlanta areas, have some of the most significant accuracy gains at 18 percent, 21 percent, 22 percent and 28 percent respectively.
“We’ve come a long way since Zillow’s launch nearly two years ago, adding more data on more homes along with numerous new products and features. The hard work of our team has been heavily supported by an incredible amount of participation from the Zillow community of homeowners, buyers, sellers and real estate agents,” said Lloyd Frink, Zillow co-founder and president. “Each day, more than 25,000 community contributions are made to Zillow.com – things like homeowner updates, photos, or Home Q&A. This type of active participation means a more accurate and transparent real estate community, which benefits everyone.”
Zillow Vice President of Data and Analytics Dr. Stan Humphries provided perspective on the magnitude of Zillow’s statistical processing effort, “To calculate Zestimates on nearly all homes in America, we process more than a decade of market data to generate over 13 billion historical Zestimates using 67 million statistical models. Our enhanced algorithm along with greater computing resources enable us to process this data at a more granular level than before, resulting in better accuracy.”
Unlike most real estate sites, Zillow provides data, information and community features around all homes, not just those on the market today. In fact, 40 percent of all U.S. homes have been searched on Zillow since the site launched in “beta” form in February 2006. With this latest release and round of improvements, Zillow now comes out of its “beta” phase.
More specific details about Zillow’s coverage and accuracy down to the county level can be found in its updated data coverage and accuracy pages that now show how often a Zestimate comes within 5 percent, 10 percent and 20 percent of the final sale price, which nationwide is 32 percent, 54 percent and 77 percent respectively. These pages will now be updated every three months, arming consumers and real estate professionals with the most frequent and detailed information possible, supporting the company’s commitment to information transparency.
The updated data and accuracy pages may be accessed through a link at the bottom of any Zillow.com page. For more information and commentary from the Zillow team, or to ask a question about the new features, visit the Zillow Blog at www.zillowblog.com.

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.

Localization Available To Large Zillow Advertisers

Zillow announces a new toolset available to large advertisers that will allow for the ability to pinpoint different consumer segments often referred to in the advertising worlds as psychographics. The new program is called HomeDirect and according to the press release it's a patent pending process, something that should make the VC's very happy.

National advertisers are clamoring for this type of product for their online initiatives to improve their ROI's. The service is broken down into 4 categories:

-- Home and Geographic Targeting: Advertisers can target their online ads to visitors of a specific home's page on Zillow, much like an offline direct mail campaign. Advertisers can specify addresses, streets or ZIP codes.

-- Zestimate Value Targeting: Knowing the Zestimate™ values of individual homes, advertisers can choose to show their ads to specific home-value bands, by individual home or by neighborhood.

-- Move Predictor: Because of Zillow's extensive data on homes for salhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gife and traffic activity around a home's page views, Zillow can predict whether a household may be moving. This allows advertisers such as cable providers, financial institutions or home improvement stores to reach homeowners before purchase decisions around the move are made.

-- Psychographic Clusters: Advertisers can specify for their creative to be shown to households composed of any of the 65 psychographic clusters defined by the U.S. Census data, such as suburban households with children or high-income urban singles.

Localization is sort of the holy grail these days for advertisers. As advertisers continually try to move beyond keywords and banners, you'll see more and more efforts like this. It should be very interesting to see how unique the patent filing is and if it has the promise to become a licensing bonanza for Zillow. When I have time I will jump over to the USPTO (patent and trade office) site and give it a once over. If you're familiar with the patent filing, please comment on it here.

Tech Companies Are Greedy Too, Just Ask This Realtor

Hat tip to David G. for sending this my way. Too damn funny! If you haven't seen what inspired it take a look here.

NOTE: I was just made aware that the young man in this video, Aaron Anglin, was killed in a car accident. Lani has asked that his video remain posted. To Lani, her family and friends, our prayers are with you, we will always be able to remember Ben with a huge smile on our faces. Please take a minute to read Lani's post and consider doing what you can for his wife and babies. They will need help.

InmanTV Posts Connect Conference Videos

It's interesting how the web has changed the way business is conducted at so many levels. It used to be that when you attended a conference, if you wanted to have a copy of a session or a keynote, you had to pay big bucks for an audio or video tape whether you attended the event or not. You also had to wait for it be produced and mailed to you. Not so in the world of Web 2.0. As I mentioned in a previous post, bloggers report in real time on what's taking place during events. The innovations in digital video allow the capture of event sessions to be uploaded almost immediately after some of them take place. It's a great marketing vehicle for events like Inman and should go a long way toward helping them increase attendance at future events.

InmanTV is in the process of posting some great video, including the Welcome Address, a lively, but civil conversation with Zillow CEO Rich Barton and Dale Stinton, CEO of NAR and more. I thought the idea of taking questions from the audience via text messaging on his iPhone was a brilliant idea on Brad Inman's part. I only wonder if he had to change his phone number afterward (Maybe I'll text him and find out :)

Special thanks to Jamie Glen of Trulia for including MLPodcast.Com in his list of 50 tech innovators during the welcoming address presentation and more importantly, for saving the best for last. :)


Technorati Tags: connectsf mlpodcast NAR Zillow

Inman Connect Live Bloggers

I wasn't able to make it to the Inman Connect conference in SF this year. Keeping up with the event is being made a little easier this year through the efforts of a few people who are trying to "live blog" some of the sessions and events. David Gibbons of Zillow, Paul Chaney of Blogging Systems and Erik Hersman of Realty Thoughts are doing a great job of it. It certainly has to be difficult given the pace of things at the conference. Folks are tagging blog posts with "connectsf" to help round up content and photos on the web. Thanks to all of you who are taking the time to keep us connected.

Update: My friend, Bill Wendel of the Real Estate Cafe did some great digital note taking during the conference and posted it to his Wiki.

Technorati Tags: connectsf blogging systems inman connectsf Realty Thoughts

New Real Estate Technology Blog Launches

Zillow has announced the launch of GeekEstateBlog.Com. The new resource's sole focus is on the rapidly changing world of real estate technology. I'm happy to be a contributing blogger and look forward to being a part of the process. As industry blogging evolves, vertical destinations with a clearly defined niche will emerge as "go to" sites for certain topics. I think it's a natural transition for blogging that will take place across many industries. I also think it's a great way for companies like Zillow to extend their brand and establish meaningful relationships in the RE net.

GeekEstate is launching with an impressive group of RE "technologists" that have all agreed to contribute on a regular basis. They are also soliciting more bloggers to participate in the community.

I'm not sure what Greg Swann at the Bloodhound blog put in his kibble yesterday. He has his leash in a twist over the effort. For some reason he has it in his head that the blog was created to divide and conquer the entire real estate blogging community. Sheesh. It would be funny if he didn't really think their was a vast conspiracy of control and domination at foot. That's why I've learned to let my blog posts marinate in the draft area a while before I click publish. I too have made the mistake of not getting all the facts or really thinking things through before I open my pie-hole. It may take GS a while to extract his foot from his.

Technorati Tags: geekestate blog real estate technology zillow

Real Estate 2.0 Observations From The Street

I've been doing something the past few weeks that I haven't done in quite a while. I've been hitting the streets. Tuesday morning meetings, broker technology committees, training classes, you name it. I've been getting face to face with as many folks in the business as I can. In doing so I've made a few observations I'll share with you.

Observation I.
There are some very forward thinking people out there. There was some enthusiasm and activity surrounding new business models and the new rules of real estate. Some brokers are making some changes in business models and marketing that are bold, but wise moves in my opinion.

Observation II.
It's time for a little tough love. For the most part (at least at the agent level) it was like replaying presentations I made 10 years ago. The same questions were being asked and the same fears were being uncovered. Many agents were unaware of Web 2.0 companies like Zillow and Trulia. Blog is a four letter word that many still do not know the definition of. Industry events like the recent fed report on competition were unknown to many . The impact of social commentary/networking, listing distribution etc. etc. are issues that are largely ignored. The same "I just don't have the time to learn all of this" statements were being made. As I said in the meetings, I can empathize. There really isn't much choice in the matter though.

Transparency is forcing the methods in which an agent interacts with a consumer. Things are different now. The days of having everything happen by osmosis because of things like a Title company handling all of an agent's listing marketing efforts are gone. Consumers are armed with a great deal of knowledge and information. If I were an agent I would more fearful of not having the proper amount of product and industry knowledge than where I was going to find the time to learn it.

Observation III.
Attention levels were at an all time high. Most agents recognized that if they want to thrive in the RE industry of the future it would be a good idea transcribe "the writing on the wall". I've never seen more copious note taking.

Observation IV.
Brokers are getting with the program and providing agents with education and tools necessary to compete in the world of Real Estate 2.0.

Observation V.
Broker, Agent or Vendor. . . I think it's a great time to be in this business.

Smart Moves in Minneapolis

Edina Realty gets it.

"Edina Realty President Bob Peltier announced ambitious plans Wednesday to tap into the growing pool of 20- and 30-something home buyers by beefing up the company's website, hiring younger sales agents and redirecting its advertising dollars to nontraditional venues. To move forward over the next five to 10 years, we have to be positioned differently than we have been in the past," Peltier said in an interview before taking the stage in St. Paul at the annual Edina Realty Expo."

Check out the whole story in the Star-Tribune. Note the mention that they will be acquiring Cyberhomes. Some times to beat em, you gotta join em.

RE Carnival Number 26

The Real Estate Carnival is back in town for it's 26th stop on the whirlwind tour of everything real estate in the blogging world. This stop is in the Twin Cities at the Minneapolis Real Estate Market Update. As usual, we're a bridesmaid as a runner-up, but we're not complaining, we'll get to be the bride some day :) Check out all of the great posts this week. Also, thanks to Zillow for hosting this Carnival at about a little over the half year mark. I'm sure it requires some resources and I think I can speak on behalf the RE.Net in saying job well done.

"Make Me Move" = A New Lead Resource

I wanted to let the dust settle a bit before I posted on the news regarding Zillow's entrance into the world of home listings. How do I see it? If I were an agent or broker I'd be pleased as punch that someone with whatever's left of 57 million bucks in the bank and a darling of the PR world is now going to create a new resource for me to find new leads. It's called, "Make Me Move". Anyone who owns property that has been "Zestimated" in the Zillow index can now attach a price that they are willing to accept for the property. As Joel points out, it's not an original idea. In fact, I am still scratching my head at why the industry is buzzing like a hornet's nest that just was poked with a stick. Is anyone really that surprised by this? They had to do something. As I pointed out in a recent post, the online valuation space is already getting a bit crowded. If you're going to please the VC Gods, you better be able to stoke the coals, and this was the only play they had in the book to do it with.

From what I've seen so far, no has pointed out that this could be an agent's dream for generating leads. Zillow isn't going to work as the only marketing effort for a property any better than Realtor.Com or it's ilk has in the past. Call it a national MLS or whatever you want, it's still just one more point of distribution for listing data. Sure there are some nifty new Web 2.0 tools associated with it and I like them all, but at the end of the day, it's not a magic distintermediation bullet. In fact, the API's and others features of Zillow might just turn out to be some of the more effective tools in an agent or broker's arsenal of web features. Time will tell.

Greg Swann has an extensive write up on the issue. I'm guessing his recent cuddle up with Zillow has him close to the top of the pre-IPO friends and family list. His tone has changed completely regarding Zillow. He still holds true to his original desire of disclosure regarding Zestimates. I'm not with him regarding his doom and gloom forecast for other listing sites like Trulia and Propsmart. I also don't see Zillow as being the 900 pound gorilla in this space quite yet. We still haven't heard from the real 900 pound gorilla in the AVM world. They have billions with a B and they own what Zillow doesn't. Only time will tell if Zillow's traction helps them maintain dominance in this new space.

I'll wager there are creative real estate pros that realize that real estate is always going to be local and will figure out how to convert "Make Me Moves" into new clients all the while gearing up to add their listings as just one more point of distribution in their marketing plans.

Valuation Saturation

We have another entrant into the world of online AVM. Joining Zillow, Eppraisal, Visient is Fidelity. Fidelity has branded their service "Cyberhomes" and launched Wednesday. It was just a matter of time. I'm sure with the coverage First American has with regard to AVM data, it won't be long before the pool rises again.

The site has a Web 2.0 look and feel, and of course, is branded as Beta. I'm pretty sure there's an unwritten rule in the Web 2.0 space that says no matter what condition your code is in, call it Beta. According to the article I read in Inman, they've been working on the site since June. The site already has banner and skyscraper ads.

One of the quotes from Fidelity's CIO in the Inman article said:

"We think the right way to (market) this is through the real estate industry and through our affiliates,"

The Cyberhomes web site says

Now you have access to the same data the professionals use. It's easy, free, and instantaneous.

Cyberhomes is a domain name that has been in use in one form or another starting in 1997 by FNIS. It was an early entrant into the world of real estate portals. If you visit the Internet WayBack Machine you can see the different derivations of how the domain has been used since then.

It will be interesting to see which players and eventual business models will emerge as victors in this new web category.

ZillowPalooza At Sellsius' Blog

I won't have time to post much of anything today. Why? I used up all of my allotted writing time reading a zillion Zillow posts at Sellsius. It's a veritable cornucopia of Zillowness with opinions and commentary from every corner of the ring! Good stuff, check it out.