Posts tagged Cyberhomes and Realtor.com

Cyberhomes and Realtor.com

Cyberhomes has Realtor.com in their cross-hairs.For the real estate buyers/sellers/consumers in the Charlottesville area – which site has better, more useful data, and data display, for your house?  Realtor.com has the current listing data:But Cyberhomes has more data, and is working on acquiring the “current” data.From an (subscription required) Inman News Article in May: Fidelity will keep property listings content fresh at the Cyberhomes site by updating brokers’ data directly from MLSs, said Marty Frame, senior vice president and chief information office for Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, a division of Fidelity National Financial Inc….In addition to past sales and for-sale home information, Cyberhomes also offers “heat maps” that allow consumers to visualize data on a map that is color-coded for home values, changes in value and property density at the neighborhood level….  This is what consumers want:users can also learn about the neighborhood and community, including the weather, economy, commute times, diversity, even air/water quality.As a Realtor, that is what I want to provide to my customers.Users don’t have to login to either Realtor.com and Cyberhomes, but here is one of the many distinct (and detrimental to Realtor.com) differences between the two.  To get the “value” of a home in Cyberhomes, create a login, search and get this data-rich page with options – neighborhood, schools appreciation rates, demographic information:Do the same search on Realtor.com, and users get this roadblock:1) They don’t have the data.2) There is no way to choose “your” Realtor, among other deficiencies noted earlier this year.When you do find a home you like, there is nothing more than information on the property itself (and there is no “maximum square footage” search limitation – only “minimum square feet” – a significant limitation in the search).It’s been said before – consumers want all the information, they want it now and they want it for free.Cyberhomes has the potential to move up the ladder in of usefulness for on the list of “Empowered Buyers’ Online Tools.”Take this example – I was previewing a home for a couple this past week.

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