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There’s always something to howl about.

Author: Ryan Hartman (page 3 of 4)

Retechulous...

July 30, 2009

Realbird’s Free IDX Alternative: (Eeeee….aaaaahhhh…aahhhhahhhhhhah)

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Retechulous...

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I just recently realized that Realbird offers the syndication based total IDX solution on the cheap for Real Estate Agents that I was talking about here a little while back.

 

Considering the whole MIBOR thing that went down a few months back, here below is how we might expect some local MLS board officials to be reacting to the product?

[Click to play obnoxious but hilarious vid in new tab/window….]
picture-23
Caption: Local Boards React To Free Real Estate Data For Real Estate Agents

 
Shouldn’t the freak of nature that is a free, framable, “google based” solution for displaying all that precious real estate property data have a whole lotta folks up in arms somewhere?

Oh well…doesn’t matter. Dead horse maybe… The important thing is this. I found a relevant way to share that video.

That and…

The Realbird search can likely replace your current idx solution, and is pretty darn feature rich for the money. An ad supported version is free, and to remove ads and allow tight, framable integration with your website costs an easy $99/year (That’s $99/12 per month, if you’re doing the math.)

 

Sure, I know… it’s not every listing in the local MLS system. Even though Realbird’s property search results appear to be limited to what’s available in google base, it’s enough in my opinion. All our search page needs to do these days is keep my visitors engaged for a while until they fall into one of our nifty lead capture traps, right? I’d argue that the day has pretty much arrived when a 3rd party providing a partially complete snapshot of local real estate market inventory based on data provided by syndication partners is pretty much as good as what most fully populated with local board data idx solutions have to offer.

 

To see what I mean, check out Central Pa’s cheapest and arguably most comprehensive Real Estate Search portal at Central Pa Living.Com.

 

And keep in mind just a few of the features on that page which the local board prohibits from being displayed on that page:

 

  • The ability to display property description remarks within the listings!
  • RSS feeds Read more
June 25, 2009

Google Wave Goodbye Real Estate Brokerage As We Know It?

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Retechulous...

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I found some time to check out the Google Wave Developer preview on youtube a few days ago. And darn if I haven’t thought to myself: “This’ll be way easier and more fun to do once Wave comes” at least 10 times since.

So here are some possible applications that have crept into my head. Keep in mind these are all based on the little “taste” this “junkie” got from the preview video, so I’m not even sure a few of these will be doable, but what better place to toss this stuff out than here at BHB?

What Will Change In Real Estate Brokerage Once Google Wave Takes Over The World?

Single Property Websties
I imagine a Wave template that pictures, documents, videos, maps, etc are all dragged into from the desktop or the web. I’m assuming here that we’ll then be able to purchase a domain name for each property and map it to a public url for the “public” version of the wave.

Listing and Conveyancing Folders
Save the trees baby! Can you see creating a wave for a listing or pending sales folder, then inviting other parties to the transaction to participate in the Wave? Need a copy of the Seller’s Disclosure? It’s in the Wave? How about the listing contract? In the Wave. (But only sharable to parties who should see it.)

Buyer Presentations?
Got a new buyer. Drag in the pre-approval letter. Add some links to the Wave MLS Single Property Pages for the listings you’ll be touring tomorrow. Answer the buyer’s questions about agency, marketing conditions, financing, or whatever, from right within the wave, in real time! Heck, even drag in those Google Voice Text Transcriptions! Can you imagine how comprehensive this search-able record of the whole interaction from web lead to settlement will be? Don’t do or say anything stupid! It’ll be in the Wave! (And don’t try to delete your shannanigans either, cause Wave records all edits. Freaky…)

Company Training / Office Procedures / Systems Manuals
Alive, breathing, dynamic, EASILY ENHANCED AND IMPROVED UPON …. In a Wave!

Company Intranet?
Wave. Enough said?

Niche Blogs Read more

May 31, 2009

Thwat?

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Retechulous...

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Sorry everyone…The writing around here over the past 12 hours or so has been nutty good and really high brow, so I feel a little bad about taking it down a level.

But… this is just too fun to let slip by without sharing? From Inman, in probably thousands of inboxes this morning:

thwat

May 28, 2009

Truzilla IDX = N/A R.Com?

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Retechulous...

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When I was looking into whether or not Realtor.com was publishing scrapable rss feeds based on searches a few weeks ago, I also took a look to see if Trulia was doing the same thing.

Sure enough, they are, but of course the quality and the diversity of the types of feeds they’re offering are way juicier than Realtor.Com’s. Not surprising.. absent a Move/NAR type hook up, these guys actually have to innovate, right…

So, with all this fuss over local boards and NAR trying to control the “misappropriation” of property data by regulating idx feeds, I’ve been wondering if one couldn’t just turn Trulia into a personal, free idx solution using the same method I used to tap R.com…

The ingredients?

  • Lotsa fresh goog juicy dynamic content.
  • Not all, but enough mls info to make your visitors at least hang around for a little while.
  • Sales Transaction, REO, Pre-foreclosure data and any other information not available in local idx data either because of local
    board regulations or limitations in the fields available in the mls software.
  • And more…

In short, you could probably “scrape” your way to a more informative site then your competitors have without the need to wrestle with the threat of an absurd Mibor type situation.

[An Example Start Here For The Curious]

But It’s A Half Measure…

Sure…that could work, sorta. But Trulia’s info isn’t all that comprehensive to begin with and you’d be offering your visitors a half-assed hacked up version of true idx. So we’re back pretty much to square one, with some extra dynamic content but no free idx via Trulia.

[Aside: Shouldn’t these guys do the right thing and disclose to their visitors that their’s isn’t a comprehensive “search engine?” I’d buy ads on trulia in a minute if they could say something like: “Yo, we don’t have all the listings, but we’re real good at roping you in, so why don’t you click this guy’s Read more

May 18, 2009

Taking A Page Out of Realtor.Com’s Absurd Playbook, Craig’s List Offers FREE Showcase Listing Package!

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Retechulous...

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I generally don’t get involved in causes. I don’t vote. I try not to step on toes. I truly think doing something trippy drippy nuts absurd is a more productive use of time then taking a real side or a position on anything.

But this MIBOR/NAR deal really has me going. I can no longer summon up that blissful apathy. And I’ve been scheming ways to get involved, to somehow help this situation along, basically getting senselessly fired up over something I can’t control…then came Greg’s last post.

From Greg’s last post

 

If you despise the NAR because it is technologically inept, you’re hating it for the wrong reasons. The right reason to detest the NAR, and to seek its extinction, is because it makes war upon the free market in order to expropriate unearned wealth for brokers.

Yeah, I’ve been feeling superficially pissed that the retechulously inept are making decisions that require some bit of tech-tidude. But really, this is about my right to innovate; to hack up what the competition is doing; to market freely in any ways I see fit just so long as nobody gets hurt in the process. After all, what’s going on with situations like Paula Henry’s is that they’re messing with what many of us (arguably the best of us) consider to be the best part about being a real estate agent—The fact that we’re truly independent business people with the right to roll as we see fit just so long as we abide by the code of ethics, some local regulations, and general golden rule style decency.

 

So how the frak does displaying property listing data, no matter what the source, become an issue for anyone other than the owner of the gosh darn property and the person they hire to complete the task? Answer: It doesn’t. It shouldn’t. Way to waste those NAR dues on something productive…  This whole thing really is totally and completely absurd!

 

So, what’s a guy to do?

Well, if as Greg says, “we can obviate the NAR by supplanting it…”

Then…

I hereby pledge to replace Read more

May 16, 2009

Press Pause Before I Get Popped In The Balls

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Retechulous...

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A ton’s been going on at CentralPaLiving.Com. I’ve got like 5 great topics for blog posts shamelessly promoting the site.

But for now, I’m hoping for some feedback on the video heavy approach I’m taking on the site’s home page…

Thinking maybe it’ll be better to charm em into opting into an e-newsletter and checking out a few featured listings?

[Sorry, you’ll have to actually hit Central Pa’s most funnest Real Estate site to get the full effect 🙂 ….]

So what do you think? Will this sorta chicanery work?

Too Corny?

SEO Ignorant?

Too Much Balls?

May 11, 2009

Free IDX from Realtor.Com!

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Retechulous...

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In response to the juicy IDX discussion going on over at Agent Genius, I figured I’d take a stab at misappropriating some property data featured over at Realtor.Com.

After 10 minutes, I had 100 of the latest Indianapolis properties listed for sale posted to my website and indexable by google.

Here’s a look at the results: Retechulous.com/Category/NAR-BLOWS

If you have a minute, check out the article over at AG and if you can find a way to get involved, please do so. I guess you could say this little scraping stunt is me contributing in my own obnoxious way. That, and I’m also now looking for a non-NAR Pa broker to hang my license with….

May 5, 2009

Wanna Help SEO My 404? – CentralPaLiving.Com/404LotsaListingLeads

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Retechulous...

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I’ve been sitting on this idea for probably about a year now, and figured Unchained was the appropriate place to let it rip. So for those of you that were there, you know where I’m going with this.

If you weren’t in Phoenix, please take a minute to visit Centralpaliving.Com/NoOneElseInYourMarketWillDoThisSoDontWorryAboutSharingItWithTheWorld

What you’ll see is basically one of the better real estate marketing ideas I’ve ever had and the latest addition to the CentralPaLiving project.

Once you get to the page, you might get the urge to thank me? Maybe you can do so by hitting CentralPaLiving.Com up with a juicy link from your own 404? Maybe do something like http://centralpaliving.com/(insertyournameorurlhere) so that you pop up when I do a google “links:” query?

Thanks in advance for your thanks 🙂 And thanks also to all the folks on the Scenius in Phoenix who helped turn a pretty good idea into the turbocharged video based squeeze page monster that it is now!

Bonus! — A Screencast Demonstrating This Thing In Action!

April 22, 2009

Redirect: HeyCentralPa.Com –> CentralPaLiving.Com

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Retechulous...

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301 Time — I’ve Found A Guinea Pig! What a relief… I think I’ll take the daily updates over to HouseYourMom.Com, posting only a high quality weekly update here, and sparing everyone the daily gory detail midnight rants…It just feels a little awkward hogging up everyone’s feed readers with this stuff. Seems more appropriate to do it on my own dime I guess…

🙂

So anyway.

Here’s Walt Wensel, RE/MAX Patriots (York Pa) responding to my pitch earlier today:

I like it, with some reservations. Can we effectively create what you want without alienating my customer base? Pictures of you and the orangutan taking a dump are cute, but not who I’m going to trust to make a $400K deal. I think we need fun and edgy, but we need York edgy, not Philly edgy.

Can you believe a guy with a pic like this sent me a response like that?

Walt

I’m just busting Walt’s chops. He’s exactly right, and I have no problem with a tone down now that I’ve got what I was looking for. A tech-literate open minded team leader with an eye toward creating value that will result in organic, sustainable expansion.

So check it out: HeyCentralPa.Com now 301’s to CentralPaLiving.Com [I spent an hour or so last night in CSS heaven cloning Walt’s soon to be delivered IDX portal being provided by Terabitz. Sorry again Dwellicious. I tried…(again…)]

So thanks everyone for bearing with my nuttiness over the past week or so…If you’re actually interested in the nitty gritty day by day posts and screencast chronicling how this thing is taking shape, please feel free to use the form on my subscribe page to receive the HouseYourMom.Com daily email updates.

April 20, 2009

Sin IDX (6 of 365)

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Retechulous...

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The best leads I get at PropertunityKnocks.Com are direct inquiries in response to my vids. And now on HeyCentralPa I’m going to take a stab at not measuring a real estate internet marketing campaign’s success by the daily number of “Mickey Mouse” and “Heywood Jablome” registrations.

In tomorrow’s episode, I’ll hedge my bets by begging for e-newsletter subscribers via AWEBER, but for today, I’ve grabbed a 30 day Dwellicious Pro trial and integrated it into the Hey Central Pa Property Search Page.

dwellicious

What’s everyone think? If our content is plentiful, dynamic, and populated with not so salesy lead capture elements, can we forgo an IDX integration? Can we get them to hang around just because they like us?

Is this Real Estate Tech Blasphemy?

I don’t know, but the Dwellicious integration could be interesting. I mean, the content better be darn good, right… because we’re telling people to go search elsewhere?

Will I be able to get agent contributors on board with this strategy?

Might I have a squabble with fee seeking local MLS boards on my hands? (Have there been any MLS v. Dwellicious run-in’s nationwide?) Or has the real estate search + social bookmarking experiment not yielded enough adopters to even be seen as any kind of threat?

April 19, 2009

I’ll Do It For Free… – “That’s What She Said!” (HeyCentralPa.Com: 5 of365)

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Retechulous...

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My screencast on installing plugins (“Plugin: ‘That’s What She Said'”) is up at HouseYourMom.Com. [I’m particularly proud of the intro this time.]

Here are the plugins that I’ve loaded up on the HeyCentralPa wordpress install so far:

Advanced Category Excluder
Cforms
Exec-PHP
Foreclosure.Com
Headspace2
NextGen Gallery
Similar Posts
SimplePie & SimplePie Core
TubePress
WP-O-Matic
Kimili Flash Embed

I plan to go a lot more into these as I implement each one, but for now I’m wrestling with getting Tubepress to work correctly with the P2 page template. It works fine with posts, just not pages. (Anyone wanna take a crack at helping me find the problem? I’ll happily hook up some ftp access..)

On the “how’s this gonna go down” front, I’m still looking for that big (open minded) Central Pa Broker to sweep me off my feet. Despite my tough talk the other night, I’m chickenpoop to try to establish a whole new practice in a totally new market and am more interested in other endeavors, so how’s this for an offer?

If you’re a broker in CentralPa and you want to give all of your agents free hyper local niche pages on HeyCentralPa.Com, I’ll set it all up, manage the technical details, and do free “how-to-blog” workshops in your office for free!

Why? What’s the catch? Need more details? Use my spiffy Google voice button to get in touch!

April 18, 2009

Audience Participation Request: Wanna Try Out The First Self-Hosted, Social Networking Real Estate Blog? (HeyCentralPa.Com: Part 4 of 365)

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Retechulous...

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Yep, I’m head over heals for Auttomatic’s P2 WordPress Theme.

HeyCentralPa.Com is now up and running and awaiting your participation!

Here’s what’s gone on today:

  • Customized the CSS with the help of this great free palette generating tool.
  • Generated A Horizontal Menu (P2 Doesn’t Come With One).
  • Uploaded and Activated A Great Custom Registration Plugin and included the appropriate login/register links on the site.
  • Tweaked The Main Index Template File So That The Part Showing Up Below The Pictures Would Be SEO Cool and hopefully Properly Draw In Visitors.
  • Integrated The Slideoo Horizontal Flickr Sharing Script so my header would be dynamic, colorful, and engaging. (I know, probably not the best for SEO? Eric?)

    • Which brings me to my final feat of the day. I used the flickr integration explained in this screencast to make it dead simple for me, or any of the site’s contributors to post to the site.

    So please…go ahead and give it a try by forwarding any old pic as an attachment to an email to “mores26into2blog(at)photos.flickr.com” ! [Please feel free to have fun and send some crazy stuff 🙂 — I’ll remove the test posts after we all have a good laugh…]

    I’m really trying to create an environment that will make it dead simple for agents-partners and other contributors to help enhance the site with their content. So if I may ask one more favor…If you have a minute, head on over to http://heycentralpa.com then register yourself and post a comment on the home page letting me know what you think of how it’s coming so far.

    Thanks much!

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