by Brian Brady
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
A La Jolla real estate broker noticed an article on Gawker.com, about a listing Redfin published, offering a currently occupied home (that isn’t for sale). From Coastal Real Estate Stars:
A new listing appeared on Redfin this weekend….1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!
Now, in fairness to the Redfin folks, garbage in= garbage out. Much of the FSBO data they aggregate comes from Owners.com. Obviously, some prankster listed the White House on Owners.com, which the RE.bots (including Redfin) picked up. Still, one has to wonder if last night’s speech caused Glenn & Co to take matters into their own hands 🙂
Clearly, Redfin.com has the best real estate search site on the internet but the glaring marketing lesson here is at the bottom of the post. JR Sullivan saw this as a great opportunity to showcase his own IDX search engine.
Don Reedy says:
Yes, I saw this “glaring” marketing opportunity as soon as it appeared. Wrote a short piece about why local real estate is often a better source than even the best national source.
All fun, of course, but bigger players, even great ones like Redfin, are always at risk for the unintended snafu.
All real estate is local. Period. The big guys can reel them in, and there’s gold in “them there hills”, but I don’t see any evidence that hyperlocal blogging, or very specialized local knowledge won’t always continue to be the best bet for the consumer.
June 16, 2010 — 7:29 pm
Brian Brady says:
I didn’t see yours, Don. It was definitely good for a chuckle (and a great chance to display that local still trumps national)
June 16, 2010 — 9:13 pm
Paul Caparas says:
I thought it was pretty funny when I heard about this. I even went on Zillow to see if they had a zestimate. =)
June 17, 2010 — 12:24 am