Real Estate Agents and Dodo Birds

Steven and Stephen, the dynamic duo behind Freaknomics have a bit on Real Estate Agents being added to the Endangered Species list in the New York Times. Nothing new to anyone with a little understanding of the real estate market and how the internet has dissolved both travel agents and stock brokers. The more conversations …

Property History & Comments – Another Reason for Real Estate Agents to Blog

There’s been a few parties interested in our house, I’m surprised to learn from our agent how unstructured, the agent-to-agent feedback process is. Sounds like the listing agent has to initiate the contact with the showing agent, rather than the showing agent providing it by default. As a seller, I want to know what prospective …

Zillow.com First Impressions

Zillow.com launched today, and since our place is still on the market, I thought I’d check what Zillow’s estimate for 2701 31st Ave NE was. Huh, Zillow puts the marker above the 189,900 we started the listing at. Cool. Overall, the site is zippy and filled w/ ajax-y goodness (and I can therefore forgive the …

Three Thoughts on Demand Supplying Itself

“So what do you do when the deer have guns, You get into the ammunition business.” – Gordon Borrell “Attention tuning will reduce RSS overload but not noise to signal.” – Steve Gillmor “[Real Estate] Sellers and buyers can figure out pricing via Zillow; they can bid via Redfin; they can list via PropertyShark or …

Wanted – Real Estate Agents to Blog

Before I bought my current place, Jen and I talked with a handful of real estate agents. We didn’t purchase from any of them. In general, they didn’t feel authentic, connected, credible. Felt like the stereotypical used car salesman. With a housing boom like this – I don’t blame them. Problem is, demand won’t always …