Geek Estate Membership
The post Geek Estate Newsletter #18 – An Inside Peak at Knock appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
Our 5th interview is with Caroline Pinal from Giveback Homes. I’ve written about Giveback Homes at length in the past, and am a huge huge fan.
Without further ado…
What’s your most significant business focus for 2018?
What real estate technology trend or product are your most excited about?
We are so proud of the way CEOs and leaders in both in real estate and outside of it have been stepping up and advocating for important causes. CEO acctivism isn’t a trend, it’s a movement that’s definitely not going anywhere. In the past, companies have tried to remain neutral on controversial social issues, afraid of alienating customers; but CEOs of large companies (e.g., Starbucks, Salesforce, Apple, Facebook, Ben & Jerry’s, Airbnb, Lyft, etc.) have been taking a stance on social issues like race relations, climate change and gender equality, making corporate neutrality a thing of the past.
What do you like about being a Geek Estate member?
I like that it’s a small curated group that can cultivate productive conversations. The members of this group care passionately about real estate, technology and the future of the industry.
Thank you Caroline for being a founding member!
Geek Estate Membership
The post Geek Estate Founding Member Spotlight: Caroline Pinal from Giveback Homes appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
Here’s the Kelle promo video:
I still have concerns none of these AI powered assistants being launched lead to a better consumer/buyer experience than they currently get by speaking to a real human (see here and here):
AI/Chatbots may be good 40% — or even 60% — of the time, but nowhere close to 100%. And a chatbot that is accurate any less than 100% of the time is pretty useless, and annoying, to your average buyer or seller.
Turning toward the topic of the “new Keller Williams strategy” of being a technology company and not a real estate company, I agree with much of what Rob says. Alienating the entire industry is not likely a good strategy to winning. If they are planning to literally build all technology themselves, from lead to close, they have about, oh let’s say ZERO percent change of succeeding. Think of all the money Zillow has spent on technology development. Think of all the companies they’ve purchased (each of whom invested a decent chunk of change on their own technology). Even with all that money spent, they still don’t cover everything from lead to close, and are forced to (or choose to) partner with many other tech vendors. Bottom line, I’m not optimistic the largest franchise in the country can magically turn themselves into a real estate technology company. Head over and give Rob’s post a read for more to ponder.
The post Kelle, AI, and Keller Williams as a Technology Company appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
The following post is copyrighted by Austin Tenant Advisors - .
Lantana Place is a 60,000 sf mixed use & entertainment retail & medical space project located at the corner of Southwest Parkway and William Cannon in Austin, Tx 78735 zip code area. It will be anchored by a 39,000 sf movie theatre and a boutique Marriott hotel. There will also be restaurants with outdoor patio options.
This is one of the most affluent and underserved areas in SW Austin. If you are interested in renting Austin retail space here and would like help negotiating the best deal give us a call at 512-861-0525
The daytime population in the 3-5 mile radius ranges from 42,000 to 131,000. The average household income ranges from $98,000 to $127,000 per year.
The communities surrounding Lantana Place offer high end housing, several private schools such as Regents and St Andrews, solid daytime office demographics, and dense multifamily projects
If you are looking for your first or second retail location Lantana is worth checking out. I imagine asking base rates will be $40 sf + $11 nnn. The space will all be in new shell condition and need a full build out. Depending on the strength of your credit we may be able to negotiate $30 to $40 sf in tenant improvement allowance.
If you have any questions about Lantana Place give us a call.
The post Lantana Place Retail Space – Southwest Parkway 78735 appeared first on Austin Tenant Advisors.
I met Paul a few months ago at Impact Hub in Seattle (he’s from Seattle, but lives in Los Angeles now), and found myself thinking through all the similarities between Paul’s RentHoop journey and my Oh Hey World / Horizon journey.
Without further ado…
What do you do?
What problem does your product/service solve?
What are you most excited about right now?
We’ve made a slight pivot to the blockchain that will revolutionize the rental industry. There is much opportunity to provide a streamlined process that allows for greater transparency and accountability for renters and landlords.
What’s next for you?
Getting ready for a token sale in the next few months while we continue to grow our app presence and aim to be the best roommate finder at colleges and in Los Angeles, Seattle and Bellingham.
What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?
My Mom does a lot of work with orphanages in Egypt. She’s absolutely incredible and has made a massive impact on a ton of children’s lives. Coming from an Egyptian family, it’s humbling to know that we came from the village that she contributes to so much. I’d like to get more involved in the future and be someone who makes a similar impact.
Thanks to Paul for sharing his story. If you’d like to connect, find him on LinkedIn here.
The post Meet the Real Estate Tech Founder: Paul Burke from RentHoop appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
It’s been awhile since we’ve talked about Broker Public Portal here (now a joint venture with Homesnap). Just this month, Homesnap raised $14 million. A few stats:
Especially given I’m in Seattle where the NWMLS operates (and is famously hard to deal with both on technical side of things as well as business), some big news hit yesterday: Homesnap/BPP is coming to Seattle this spring.
Will it take any buyer search market share from Zillow and Redfin? I’m not optimistic, but we’ll see.
The post Broker Public Portal Comes to NWMLS / Seattle appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
According to NAR there has been a lot of speculation recently about the 2008 settlement agreement between the DOJ and NAR.
Even though NAR reached an agreement with the DOJ, they successfully discouraged most brokers from using a VOWs by allowing the MLS to charge a lot more for them. In many cases it costs twice as much to put up a VOW vs. an IDX website.
This price increase means that companies that market websites to Realtors almost always market the IDX version. As most Brokers are not programmers and do not have a large IT staff, this effectively eliminated most of the Brokers from using a VOW. They had no choice, only IDX websites are being offered by the popular website vendors.
In addition, they added rules to a VOW that and IDX site does not have to worry about. One rule eliminates 80% or more of website visitors by forcing visitors to sign up before seeing all the data.
So it is no surprise that NAR has said “… we do not know how many VOWs are still operating today …”. The answer is probably very few. They could easily find out how many VOWS there are by simply asking the MLSs for a count of VOWs and IDX websites. I believe they do not want to do this because everyone will see just how effective their road blocks to having a VOW have been.
While they have taken some steps to make an IDX more effective by releasing some of the data they previously required an IDX to hide, they should take a final step and release all the data, as that is what consumers want, and it helps Realtors too.
By hiding withdrawn and expired listings sellers do not know what prices are too high. A seller might price their property higher, not realizing a neighbor tried the same price and after 1 year their listing expired. If they had that data, they could price their home correctly. Pricing a home right benefits the Realtor who now can sell the home instead of having it sit on the market, and the seller too.
You might say consumers can get that information from Realtors, so no need to give them access. I say the days of Realtors being the gate keepers to MLS data should be long over. Consumers have told us loud and clear they want access to all the listings, they do not want to be forced to go through their Realtor to get this data.
PS: For those of you interested in the future of VOWs, you may want to read this article Drew wrote at the end of last year.
The post How NAR got around the DOJ settlement by discouraging VOWs and hiding listings. appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
“Whoever solves the loyalty problem wins the future” – Brian Boero
Is loyalty a diminishing commodity?
A variety of studies have sought to determine whether or not millennials are brand loyal with some finding them more brand loyal than the Generation X and Baby Boomer generations and others like a study from Cadent Consulting Group saying that the more than half of millennials have no preference between a private-label and the bigger national brands.
This is good news in some ways. What it means is that millennials are open. They don’t trust what they’ve been sold. They don’t base their decisions on flashy marketing campaigns and you don’t need tons of money to capture their attention. They trust their own experiences and the experiences of others more than any marketing campaign. Their loyalty isn’t something that is earned once and remains fixed; it must be renewed experience after experience, connection after connection.
The loyalty challenge
The challenge in maintaining loyalty is in keeping track of people post-purchase. A friend of mine had a great experience with the agent and bought a very expensive gift that he planned to give to the agent the next time the agent contacted him after the sale of his house. The gift sat on a shelf for years before he eventually opened it as housewarming gift to himself. This man travels the country and interacts with real estate agents all year long, he could have provided plenty of referrals, but more than that, he was a good loyal customer who had genuine affection for his real estate agent. Studies show that less than 10 percent of agents have a follow up strategy for keeping in touch with past clients and even those that do rarely keep in touch for the five-to-eight year cycle that can be typical between home purchases.
One of our users recently said about the product: “Helps me keep my commitments to my clients with follow-up to eliminate the complaint I hear most often: My agent never got back to me.” These situations don’t just reflect badly on the individual agent, they reinforce negative stereotypes in the industry.
Many agents talk about the pain of finding out that a past client whom they sold a house to listed with another agent. They know the client was happy at the time and wrote a positive review, they may have even exchanged gifts at the time and promised to keep in touch. As time went on, they simply lost touch. Often this experience feels like disloyalty but disloyalty is an active act, this situation is more of a mutual forgetting.
Transactional vs. Relational
We tend to think of loyalty as transactional when truly it’s relational. Loyalty isn’t always measured in purchases or referrals, it’s often measured in engagement which is a two-way street. We are loyal to brands that we feel “get” us, that subscribe to our same set of values, that mirror our way of being in the world. We want great treatment, of course, but more than that, we want to be seen, recognized, and appreciated. The first year Amazon was in business, when it was still an online bookstore, it sent out gift mugs to all of its early customers. The clothing startup Everlane sent handwritten notes to its best customers the first year.
Appreciation drives loyalty.
Loyalty is a muscle. It gets stronger over time if used. A tech-solution can be akin to a gym membership if you don’t use it, it isn’t going to magically make you better. However if you do use it and you get into a routine, you’ll discover benefits that go far beyond what you think it’s going to provide.
An intelligent CRM doesn’t just do what you tell it to, it keeps track of what you may have forgotten. (disclosure I run a CRM company). It’s a discovery engine working behind the scenes to make sure that as you move forward in your business, no one gets left behind.
Loyalty isn’t a problem, it’s an opportunity. An opportunity to make real connections, to engage, to share and to be the advisor your clients turn to again and again.
The post Is Loyalty a Diminishing Commodity? appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
Real estate blogging – loved, hated, promoted, ridiculed. Nevertheless, I just read an article about real estate blogging “do’s and don’ts,” that was the absolute epitome of why we have to be careful from whom we take advice.
Blogging best practices include – typically at the top of the list – breaking up long paragraphs so that they are no longer than five sentences in length.
The aforementioned post about what not to do when real estate blogging started out with a paragraph that is TEN sentences long.
But, wait!
Further into the article there is a paragraph that is EIGHTEEN sentences in length
What happens when a reader is met with a huge block of text?
Most won’t bother reading it.
What else can you learn from sucky real estate blogs? Even better, how can you use these tips to become better at real estate blogging? Read on!
1. Ignoring blog structure best practicesThose overly-long paragraphs? Those are just the beginning of some of the structure blunders we see on many real estate blogs.
And, they go hand-in-hand with the term “whitespace.” You need as much of that as possible in each post.
Break up your posts into sections, using headers, sub-headers, block quotes and bulleted lists. Regardless of the length of your post, these “tricks” help the reader assume that it’s a quick read.
Consider incorporating photos, infographics, charts and other visuals. Get additional tips on blog structure at globalyogi.com.
2. Not understanding why blogging is critical to your businessBlogging consistently offers several valuable paybacks. For the real estate agent who does it right, blogging helps establish authority. It also builds the volume of indexed pages on your site, which is good for SEO.
And, lest you don’t believe us, check out the stats:
Want organic traffic visiting your site? Want site visitors to ‘discover’ you instead of having to be hit hard by your ads or direct mail? Want to be known as a resource to your community? Real estate blogging can give you all of this and more. A lot more, in fact.
3. Not taking the time to learn blog content best practices of real estate bloggingIt’s not enough to sit down at the computer and start dashing off your witty words of wisdom, though. Even the most brilliant blog posts run the risk of sinking into obscurity if they’re not formatted correctly or if they’re riddled with mistakes.
Blog topics should be, above all else, of value to your reader.
“For each post, I made sure to identify what my readers want to read and to define the problem that they want to solve,” explains Neil Patel, who can legitimately boast of receiving more than 262,000 website visitors in one month.
No, your latest listing isn’t all that compelling – at least not to the vast majority of readers. Choose your topics carefully and, when you come up with one, your job has only just begun.
Find a way to differentiate that topic from the millions of others out there. For example,
There are 154 million Google results for “How to buy a house”
Choose any of those results at random and you’ll find that most say the same things.
“How to buy a house in [your city]” is probably just as saturated. But, “How to buy a home with a view in [your city] isn’t.
Not only are you working with a long-tail, hyper-local search term by niching down your topics, you can reuse the topic repeatedly just by plugging in a different niche, such as “luxury home,” “condo,” “a home with a well and septic.”
You’ll also need a compelling title. According to Copyblogger, on average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the actual article or blog post.
“Essentially, your blog title has the ability to make or break the success of the whole post.”
according to Carly Stec, Hubspot’s senior content strategist. She mentions some takeaways from research performed by Takipi’s co-founder, Iris Shoor – words to consider using in your titles to help generate more shares of your blog posts.
They’re surprising and worth a read.
For more on the nuts and bolts process of writing a blog post, refer to Patel’s Ultimate Guide to Writing Blog Posts that Rank in Google’s Top 10.
4. Selling instead of informingWhile it’s perfectly fine to occasionally post information about a new listing or let folks know about an open house (although social media is a far better vehicle for this), avoid over-posting these items. Few people go to a blog to be sold to; most want to learn something.
Offering content that is relevant to the reader is the only way to do this
As well, don’t go overboard on your calls-to-action. We’ve seen some that are longer than the post. A call-to-action, by the way, shouldn’t read like a bio.
In fact, it is just what it says it is – it directs the reader to what you want him or her to do next. If you are using your blog to build community, for instance, you’ll probably want readers to share your posts and/or leave a comment.
Your call-to-action in this case would be to ask a question. “Do you have an autumn home maintenance routine? Feel free to share it with us in the comments.”
Posts about home selling might direct your reader to your free market analysis page and those buyer-focused posts should take the readers to some of those amazing buyer posts you’ve written.
Save the blatant self-promotion for other pages on your site.
5. Not leading the reader to more of your content“The longer someone stays on your website, the more they’ll get to know you and your business,” says Curaytor’s Kristi Hines. And, she’s correct. It’s the reason you’ll find links to other, similar articles at the end some of the industry’s best blog posts.
“Strategic internal linking is an SEO power technique,” according to Elliot Ross, writing at kissmetrics.com. How?
Links send signals to both search engine spiders and to readers that the content linked to is exceptionally important and relevant. This is something both search engines and readers want, according to Ross.
6. Not proofreading before publishingThis is a biggie. We recently read a blog post from a Florida agent who apparently wrote notes to his writer in the post and then forgot to remove those notes when he published the finished product.
Throughout the post, the reader is treated to gems such as “I CANNOT UNDERSTAND YOUR WRITING!” and “WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THIS?”
Then, there are the agents who hire writers who don’t know the first thing about real estate. What happens is they end up with posts full of misinformation, like this one, from a paragraph about being mindful during the final walkthrough:
“Realtors will only pay for something that is broken so make it a mission to inspect closely.”
Since this particular beauty was published in an agent’s newspaper, sent to thousands of people in his farm, wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall when one of his buyers demands that he pay for damage found during the walkthrough because, after all, he said in his newspaper that “Realtors” do that?
Whether you hire a ghostwriter or write your own posts, it’s important to proof carefully, several times, before publishing them on your site. Look not only for factual errors but grammar, punctuation and spelling errors as well.
7. Not promoting your blog postsSo, you’ve just published the world’s most compelling real estate blog post. Now you need to share it.
Not only does sharing help drive traffic back to your site, but “Blog content also helps keep your social media presence going,” according to Hubspot.
Publish that post to your LinkedIn Groups (as long as they allow this), Facebook, of course, and any other social media platform you use.
If you mention a local business in your post, let them know you mentioned them and ask them to link to your post. Now, each of their followers will see the post and, hopefully, many of them will end up on your website.
Real estate blogging isn’t for the feint at heart. It’s a big job but offers a spectacular return on the time and/or money you invest in it. Learn from the worst, so you can be the best.
The post Real Estate Blogging (7 critical lessons to learn from the worst real estate blogs) appeared first on Easy Agent Pro.
If so, Sequel released their “How Brokers are Handcrafting the Future of their Real Estate Technology” 2018 report.
Download here if you’re interested in learning from a few brokers who have shared their story.
PS: And, yes, Sequel is right that “The noise is getting louder.” That’s a huge reason the Geek Estate mastermind was created.
The post 2018 Report: How Brokers Are Handcrafting the Future of Their Real Estate Technology appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
The following post is copyrighted by Austin Tenant Advisors - .
Bee Cave Shopping Center located at 15500 W Hwy 71 in Bee Cave Tx offers excellent highway visibility as well as a strong surrounding retail base. It’s only a few miles from the Hill Country Galleria and within 3-5 miles of over 550 single family homes.
If you are interested in leasing retail space here and want to ensure you have the tools, experience, and resources to negotiate the best deal possible call 512-861-0525
The post Bee Cave Shopping Center – 15500 W Hwy 71 Bee Cave Tx 78738 appeared first on Austin Tenant Advisors.
Our 4th interview is with Ryan Coon from Rentalutions. I believe I first met Ryan at the MetaProp demo day several years ago, and have been impressed with the job he’s done building Rentalutions ever since.
Without further ado…
What’s your most significant business focus for 2018?
Our primary focus for 2018 is improving our platform for both landlords and their tenants. More than 60,000 do-it-yourself landlords and their tenants rely on our platform today, and they provide us a lot of feedback on how we can use technology to improve the rental experience. One example of this is our recent partnership and integration reporting rent payments to TransUnion. There’s a lot of exciting stuff on our roadmap.
What real estate technology trend or product are your most excited about?
I am most excited about the shifting attitude about homeownership, and the effect this will have on the rental market. For a long time, people were lulled into believing that homeownership was the pinnacle of financial security. Fortunately, Americans are starting to realize that this belief was largely fueled by self-serving interest groups. Freedom, flexibility, and mobility are finally getting the appreciation they deserve.
What do you like about being a Geek Estate member?
The best part about Geek Estate is the community of real estate thought leaders. Due to the quick rise of funding for real estate technology, everything in the industry is changing so fast. Being a part of the community helps me stay on top of the latest technologies, trends, and expert insights.
Thank you Ryan for being a founding member!
Geek Estate Membership
The post Geek Estate Founding Member Spotlight: Ryan Coon from Rentalutions appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
Zillow recently launched a new brand, Out East. It’s a portal for the Hamptons, joining Street Easy as a Zillow Group consumer brand on the East coast. It’s the result of their acquisition of Hamptons Real Estate Online (see here), which turned out to be an “SEO juice” acquisition (that shouldn’t surprise anyone). I wrote an article with my thoughts on their last consumer consumer brand launch, RealEstate.com — and thought I’d write a few thoughts on Out East.
What exactly is Out East?
Out East is the ultimate online destination for Hamptons real estate. Insider tips and locally penned guides complement a hyper-customized shopping experience that lets buyers and renters search by town or view and see a home’s proximity to beaches, farmers markets, transportation options, and other local points of interest. With the most comprehensive and up-to-date listings covering for-sale homes, short and long-term rentals, and land for sale across the Hamptons, the North Fork and Shelter Island, Out East is the perfect way to discover your dream home in the Hamptons.
After spending a bit of time clicking through the website, product wise — I’m disappointed. The one part of RealEstate.com I thought was different was their “All-In Monthly Pricing” module. Out East has no such unique feature, at least that I discovered. It has cool visuals under the “key features” module on their individual listing pages, but do I really need to see visuals to know the property has a pool, waterfront, and is south of the highway? They add to the brand, but aren’t a functional value add. Thee local guides include a few great photos, but don’t blow me away in terms of uniqueness, content depth, or visual appeal.
If we’re being honest, this is yet another bare bones IDX site. Sure, it has a cool “Out East” brand focused exclusively on the Hamptons. Yes, it has rentals, which make the portal more compelling (but so does Zillow and many other websites).
What’s different? What’s differentiated? Please, someone tell me how and why this isn’t simply another SEO play to control one of the top 10 slots for “Hamptons Real Estate”. What is Out East providing buyers they can’t get anywhere else?
If you have answers, I’m all ears.
The post Thoughts on Zillow’s Latest Consumer Brand, Out East appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.
