The cover of the April 2007 edition of Wired Magazine is pushing transparency. “Smart companies are sharing secrets with rivals, blogging about products in their pipeline, even admitting to their failures. The name of this new game is RADICAL TRANSPARENCY, and it’s sweeping boardrooms across the nation. Even those Office drones at Dunder Mifflin get it. So strip down and learn how to have it all by baring it all.”
What does that mean for real estate agents across North America?
– start blogging about you, your business, your thoughts, your listings, listings you did not get, etc
– stop trying to get weak leads by hiding information (ie, free reports if you give up your name, access to the mls, etc), put all your information out there and the true leads will come
– learn how to podcast and discuss real estate, your business, etc
– do a video on yourself about who you are and what is important to you
Basically, let people learn more about you, even your competitors, in the end you will win!
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Want more proof that this is the way to go, look at Zillow.com’s newest release:
“Among many other new features, today we are launching a novel new idea: Home Q&A. Anyone can ask any question about any home — and have these questions answered by the people who know best: all of you, the Zillow Community.”
– Who is the Zillow community you ask?
– Realtors, Home Owners, Investors, Neighbours/Neighbors, the Mailman, Buyers, Real Estate Agents, etc
What is this going to do?
Increase the transparency to the real estate business. Now if your curious about:
Q: How long has this house been on the market?
Q: Want to buy my house?
Q: Anyone know the architect for this home?
Q: How’s the street noise from this house?
Q: For my morning commute, what’s the best way to get on I-5 going South from here?
Q: Does this home have a cozy place for coffee nearby?
Q: I heard this house might have just sold? Is this true? Anyone know the price?
The community will answer. This is the real estate version of social networking.
Want to learn more about Zillow’s new features?
Zillow Blog
TechCrunch
FutureofRealEstateMarketing.com
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4/6/2007 at 8:12 am
I would like to introduce HouseFront to you! HouseFront is a service that is similar to Zillow, but extraordinarliy realtor centric. Also, we are the first to deliver the information via mobile phone. It is free and immediate. Text any house address to 46873 (which spells out HOUSE on your cell phone) and you will receive the info back in seconds.We provide an estimate range, instead of providing one value for a home, HouseFront purpose in doing so is to avoid undermining the expertise of the Realtor. Further, we are developing our services to be a powerful and extremely cost effective marketing tool for real estate professionals.
HouseFront was developed and founded by people engaged in real estate. People who understand that real estate is constantly evolving and can leverage cutting edge technology to provide consumers with the best services available.
Please give a try, and let me know what you think.
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