GENERAL REAL ESTATE
Zillow’s Data About to Get Worse – for the short term
Update: And Trulia. Update 2: Looks like Trulia keeps the listings, for now. This likely a short-term hiccup, but those of you searching for houses in Charlottesville in 2015 … you’d be best advised to not count on Zillow for MLS-listed homes. For MLS-listed homes (the…
GENERAL REAL ESTATE
Searching for homes in Charlottesville – Zillow, Trulia, MLS?
Not much has changed in the nearly four years since I first wrote about how to search for homes in Charlottesville. I know consumers use these sites, but they tend to not be the most accurate if you're looking for homes to see this weekend.…
GENERAL REAL ESTATE
Speaking at National Association of Realtors Convention in San Diego
I'm sitting on a panel discussing the Future of the MLS at the National Association of Realtors convention in San Diego. After the announcement of RPR last week, the future is bright/cloudy/great/muddled/uncertain. As with every conference I attend, I go with a couple goals: 1…
SIDEBLOG
A Timely Revisiting of IDX in Charlottesville
A snarky, ignorant anonymous coward is sending a letter to some sellers in the Charlottesville area, the text of which follows. I have removed the identifiable information. (Grammatical errors are the letter writer's.) The part that gets me the most is the anonymity. If you…
FRIDAY
Friday Chart – 1st 17 Days of September
The first 17 days of September. This is the time of year that we start to see the Charlottesville real estate market start to slow down ... I tell my clients that if they're looking to sell their house, things tend to taper off until…
GENERAL REAL ESTATE
Google Assumes it is a Foregone Conclusion
Part One of at least Two. I was looking at Google's blog post about how they have taken their real estate search to Australia, and I revisited their real estate search here in the United States. They have the most boldly assumptive FAQ I think…
MARKETING
More and Better Pictures, Please
I received this note last week: "Jim, Can I just complain about the horrible photos on the Cville MLS? There is a listing with 25 photos and 11 of them are of the kitchen. This house has 3 bedrooms, and there are NO photos of…
VIDEO
Property Videos – What do Buyers Want?
Michael at FlexMLS wrote a few months ago that: 70% of consumers would be more likely to list with an agent if they used video as part of their marketing effort. In contrast, only .33% (that's one-third of one percent) of agents use video. Transcription:…
SIDEBLOG
Diverse Solutions Speeds it up
And it's all about speed ... and accuracy ... and functionality ... searching for homes in Charlottesville and Albemarle just got faster. From Diverse Solutions' blog: Two days ago, we deployed a very significant change to the way our dsSearchAgent IDX product is served to…
TECHNOLOGY
FranklyMLS Working Again in Charlottesville
For those of you who love using FranklyMLS to search for homes in Charlottesville, it's working again. I'll spare you the gory details and who is to blame (it's about MLS politics and shifting/evolving technical specifications), but suffice it to say, thanks to Frank, FranklyMLS…