Condo Blog - A Non-Corporate Blog From CondoDomain HQ

This is too funny! Take the “Tedst”!

A Virginia Association of Realtors campaign, which calls attention to the Realtors’ Code of Ethics, gives Ted Truitt a bad name.

Truitt is a sort of ethical nightmare — a real estate guru who celebrates questionable behavior and mocks the best practices.

Decked out in a white suit, orange shirt and bad tie, Truitt offers a humorous, highly animated and totally interactive online training session in ethics at the TedTruitt.com Web site. Read More in Inman Blog

***** PS - this is a great example of a viral video - for a good cause!!!

The Globe today gave bloggers some praise on the front page of the real estate section. This is a big step in this very “traditional and NON-Real-Estate-and-Technology” town.

Bloggers headlined were: Our very own John. A Keith, Teresa Boardman, Dan Green, Jim Cronin, Stephen Meltzer, Joel Burslem, Brad Inman, Pat Kitano , us and two others in which we would much rather not give them the publicty.

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Agents are going online to get knowledge and information — and their opinions — out

That’s a definite no-no, Keith explained in his post, titled “How to annoy just about everyone.”

Over at condoDomain.com, another Boston-based real estate blog, Anthony Longo is writing about a warning issued by the Massachusetts Multiple Listing Service about using a new feature from website Zillow.com, which has emerged as an industry rival. Continued…

Source: Boston Globe

RISMedia recently published an interesting article about How the Internet is Reshaping Real Estate. The article quotes a February 2007 survey by Netcraft Web Server Survey as saying that there are 108 million web site on the web, and that academics estimate that 6% of these are about real estate. That would mean that there are 6.5 million web sites about real estate out there.

One of the interesting points that article makes is that real estate is an information focused industry, and that the realtors used to be the keepers of that information. But now, that focus is shifting to the web. The big thing now is sharing information and collaboration with other consumers. There are lots of players jumping into the real estate space, including Zillow, Trulia, PropSmart, condoDomain, LiveDeal, Point2, and Oodle. Continued…

Source: Search Engine Watch

We all remember this famous scene from Good Will Hunting staring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon…right? Well with the Redfin model, and their agents on salary and NOT commission, possibly a job interview could go like this?

Just kidding…we love the guys at Redfin. Here is their real biz model below:

Redfin’s service is half electronic, half personal. Redfin’s technology combines listings with objective data, including maps, property outlines, third-party appraisals and tax records. We are a new business, so there is still plenty more data we want to add to real estate search. Our business model focuses our personnel on customer service. We employ agents directly, and we compensate agents based on customer satisfaction. We believe this approach is not only more efficient, but leads to better service.

Our core value is consumer-driven innovation. We were the first to launch a map-driven search application in 2004, and the first to offer an online home-buying service in 2006. In our opening year of buying and selling homes, we refunded over $3 million in commissions and completed over $100 million in transactions. According to MLS records, we were also able to negotiate a lower price for our customers than other brokerages could. We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Redfin comes to Boston today (as quietly broadcasted Tuesday evening).

Redfin is the first major online real estate brokerage to open for business in Boston, with coverage across Essex, Norfolk, Middlesex and Suffolk counties, which includes Cambridge, Concord, Lowell, Newton, Marlborough and Stoughton. Boston is the first East Coast market Redfin has opened as part of a national expansion effort that began with its February launch in Southern California.

Earlier this week we had Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s CEO - HANGING Upside down in our office and we received emails from local brokers stating we should have just left him there. Thats not nice! Anyway we look forward in seeing how Redfin does right here in our backyard. Welcome Redfin Boston.
Watch Video Here

More “MOVE’ing” news on REDFIN!!!

With a little pressure from MOVE.com giant (not surprised). Redfin changed its logo to avoid litigation threatened by Move.com (NASDAQ: MOVE), which holds a registered trademark over a symbol that, similar to the original Redfin logo, included a house within a circle. Hornall Anderson Design Works developed the new Redfin logo, which combines an image of a person, a house and a fruit-tree. Hornall Anderson also led the visual design of the new website.

“Beyond changes to Redfin.com’s visual design, we have made significant performance and usability improvements in this release,” said Redfin Chief Technology Officer Michael Young. “Building on the only site that offers comprehensive MLS listings, tax records, appraisals and property outlines, our charter has been to make the Redfin.com experience simpler, faster and available in more markets. Having done that, we can now look to add new search features and more data about each listing in future releases.”
ALL IN ALL - I think Glenn and his REDFIN’ers can thank MOVE for making Redfin and even better site!!!

‘MOVE over, Redin is here!’

No, we are not talking about a yard sale.

We have all been to a hotel where we love a piece of furniture or decorative item and wished we could just buy it (unlike the towels we just steal).  Well, now more and more hotel’s are doing this.  The W Hotels which have led the industry in creative luxury overnight-stay’s is now allowing you to live it year round in your own home.  Of course you could always buy a condo-hotel from Starwood Group and have it be done,  but we are talking about going shopping for that cool, hip modern furniture that is always so hard to find and having it delivered to your own home.

Visit The W Hotel Store:  They have everything from footwear and music to bedding and furniture.  Pretty neat right?

Redfin Chief Glenn Kelman and Sr. Communications Manager Cynthia Pang popped in for a quick chat on the Boston condo market. Glenn noticed our Gravity Boot’s and had to try them. (picture above)
Redfin, claiming a Boston office to open soon was in town to enjoy our now very beautiful weather. Glenn is to appear on the news this evening, I believe channel 5 @ 6:30. We will look for more details and re-post.

If your in the Back Bay…we sent them down to Stephanie’s about 20 minutes ago…you can catch them there. We welcome and invite Redfin to Boston!

Previous Redfin Posts:

Redin Coming to Boston

Redfin Redfin Redfin

All other Redfin Posts

yup…I guess so I mean. More here. (Thx Jeff!)

I guess this developer did not read our post on Developer Incentives!

Can anyone tell me why we have 2 MLS systems in Boston??? It is completely pointless, weakens the data integrity and cost real estate professionals and Boston real estate service providers more money!!! Are there any other markets out there that have 2 MLS systems in their market?

In Boston we have MLSPIN and LINK. LINK was the market provider of MLS data but recently MLSPIN has started making in roads in the downtown Boston Real Estate market. I would guesstimate that LINK has 60% of downtown listings, MLSPIN has 70% leaving some the same as LINK and some not the same. We are estimating that 30% of brokers put their listings in both MLSPIN and LINK.

So what does this mean? Well it really means you need to look in both sources to find a complete list of Boston Real Estate for sale. Just looking at one source could mean you are missing up to 40% of the inventory.

ahhhhh….someone needs to buy someone out because this is pointless and is costing the professsional real estate community too much $$$.

Anyone else having the same problems???

Doggy condos take kenneling upscale

Bend Pet Resort rooms include beds, pillows, TV

You could call it the Ritz-Carlton hotel approach to boarding and kenneling your dog - doggy condominiums for the pampered pooch.

Bend Pet Resort earlier this year introduced the first doggy condos to Central Oregon after dog owners continually requested something more upscale.

“People would bring me their dogs and ask me, ‘Can’t you just take my dog home with you?’ Obviously, I couldn’t do that,” explained Bend Pet Resort owner Ken Gran-acki, who owns 11 American Kennel Club champion Samoyeds. “I really felt there was a market for more luxurious dog housing.”  Continued…

Source:  The Bulletin

I figured dog lover Johnathan Dalton from Phoenix would chime in.  Are these things for real?

….and they are stopping by condoDomain HQ!

Hmm…shall we plan a prank on our pal Glenn?  Any ideas?

We took a few days off this week and kicked back at The Standard in Miami. Got to hook up with Kamal Hotchandani from the elite ever popular Haute Living Magazine, Joey Goldman from Goldman Properties Miami and also a blogging friend from Aventura, Peter Santiago.

Took a little cruise of downtown Miami’s waterfront and all the new condo development. Passed by one of my all time favorite buildings - Ten Museum Park. Enjoy the pic’s.

Ten Museum Park Rendering from website.

Is Google Base ramping up to enter the real estate market? Maybe jump into the mix at a Trulia or Zillow based model? Maybe stay similar to Craigslist like base is right now? Who knows…but months ago (maybe more) they added their new GBase search drop-down’s placed in #1 Search Position for when you ‘do a google’ for “anything real estate“. So when you typed Boston Real Estate you would get these drop-downs as a #1 Search. (making it ever important to get your listings into Google Base)

Well the Break News is that Google has NOW also included the word “CONDO”. So when you ‘do a google’ for New York Condo, you will get those drop-down menu’s as #1 Search result.  Try it here:  NY CONDO
Hmmmm. What to do? Well nothing for now…except keep uploading your listings to Google Base…and if you don’t already….start today.

Remember, if you load your listings on to condoDomain.com they will get automatically submitted to Google Base and 20 other national and international real estate search sites including: Trulia, Oodle, Propsmart, Yahoo Real Estate, Edgeio and MORE (see them all here).

Due to Zillow’s new feature allowing agents to claim listings on their site… the Massachusetts MLS system sent out a reminder today:
Recently, the On-Line Valuation site, Zillow announced a new function being made available to advertise listings for sale on that site, whether or not you are the listing broker/agent. The MLS Rules and Regulations, STRICTLY PROHIBIT the advertising of another broker’s listings without their prior WRITTEN consent. The REALTOR® Code of Ethics, Standard of Practice 12-4 also prohibits the advertising of a listing without proper authority. Better safe than sorry; do not advertise another office’s listing anywhere without prior written approval.

I wonder if other MLS’s are on this nationwide? Anyone?

I know Sellsius and other have had posts on this lately.

We got notice today that “something wonderful was being cultivated in Soho.” The message was delivered via a little white box addressed to condoDomain.com. Inside the box was an interesting looking bag placed comfortably in a bed of grass. “Garden in a bag” a little tag gives you a preview of whats inside.

Ok…so we needed to do some digging before we opened this bad right? A few google searches later we find Curbed’s take on Soho Mews and the SOHOMEWS website. Although a nice shinny flash website, their is very limited amount of information…other than its located at 311 West Broadway and that the Sunshine Group is marketing the condominiums.

Well, Soho Mews: We understand Life’s Cultivated. We like lofts, townhouses and penthouses! So send us some more details!

Any others get this package…let us know what the surprise is so we know its safe to open!

As for Sunshine - so far so good…we are loving the creativity on this one! Although you do have some competition when Tony Goldman goes to market with his 25 Bond. Stay tuned….

Great video found on “The Real Estate Blog” our pals down at Sellsius!  Had to re-post…this is good stuff!

Condo Buyer Incentives: Results are in and FREE UPGRADES is NOT what they want!

In an earlier post last week we put a poll up asking home-buyers of new condos what they were most interested in for added value to their condominium purchase. The top incentive offerings we found were:

No Closing Costs

Cash Back at Closing

Free Upgrades

No Condo Fee for 1 Year

None, just sell me the unit for the right price.

…. now stating that these all had equal value here are the results from more than 160 voters nationwide.

No Closing Costs - 22%

Cash Back at Closing - 14%