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Last week, Chicago Tribune reporter Mary Umberger called me for a quote about new media and... of all things, real estate. I suddenly had a flashback....
My first job out of college was as a reporter for a weekly business newspaper in Boston called the Banker & Tradesman. I wrote about banking and real estate trends -- countless stories on commercial building vacancies, new construction starts, and (because this was the late 1980s) bank failures, the housing bust (and then the boom) and the stock market crash. )
I covered real estate marketing, too. But I never, ever would have predicted that some day I'd be commenting on new media's affect on old media ways. Nevertheless, today, on Valentines' Day, it does my heart good...
Marketing real estate has never been a hip business. The people in it might be cool -- but the advertising venues that work best for real estate have long been traditional vehicles like postcards, print newspaper ads and signage. Real estate is nothing if not a local business, after all (hence the real estate mantra of "location, location, location") -- you don't buy a house off of the Internet, right?
Maybe not yet. But increasingly, tech-savvy real estate agents and developers are turning to online and social media tools like video, blogs, and other new media to sell their properties.
And sometimes, they are having new media tools thrust upon them, as the industry itself is being revolutionized by Web tools and startups.
Which brings me back to the future... and the Chicago Tribune's interest in The Donovan, a condominium building under construction in the apparently hip Yaletown neighborhood in Vancouver. The building has a starring role in a sitcom called "Donovan Life," a new web video series produced by Vancouver moviemaker Roger Larry.
In addition to The Donovan itself, "DonavanLife" includes the very gay Dougal and his best friend Anya, who live there, along with the smokin' neighbor, Jack. I only saw the first episode, but it seems a major theme of the story centers on Jack's sexuality. Is he gay or isn't he? (Dougal says yes, Anya begs to differ.) As Umberger described it, "Their onscreen story is Sex and the City meets Will & Grace."
The video story line was commissioned by Cressey Developers, Donovan's developer. Cressey VP Hani Lammam told the Chicago Tribune: "We do a lot of elegant high-rise buildings, and [the marketing] becomes quite formulaic. How do you capture the audience's attention when it is constantly being bombarded by so much media?"
As I told Umberger, the Donovan webisodes reminded me of last year's campaign by Dove, which cast "Desperate Housewives" actress Felicity Huffman in three Penny Marshall-directed Webisodes.
Then again, Dove is has become known of late for marketing innovation and creativity. It doesn't come as naturally to the real estate industry... until now.
It seems that some real estate agents and developers and others are starting to leverage the Internet in some interesting ways:
- Signs that real estate agents are embracing blogs in a big way -- a trend some observers call "the cusp of a blogging revolution" in real estate. This year, more real estate agents than ever are relying on blog to cultivate an image of authority and trustworthiness.
- One-year-old Zillow has launched a toolshed full of tools that makes the buying and selling process more transparent, including a Zillow's Real Estate Wiki.
- Redfin's idea to use Yahoo!'s cool new Pipes service to mash-up Web site feeds with real estate's Multiple Listing Service data. Earlier, Redfin launched a series of local blogs in which writers record their impression of various houses for sale, a la reader reviews at Amazon.
- My-Currency, which seeks to put a new spin on pricing homes, launched this month in San Francisco.
Clearly, the industry is in the midst of Real Estate 2.0.
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Comments
Don't forget Google Base - real estate listings are starting to pop up on the site, much to the chagrin of MLS. Craigslist has a good following in some markets as well.
And in the SF area, there's also Movoto.
Speaking of which - do any readers have a recommendation on a Movoto-like tool for Boston?
Posted by: Pete | 02.14.07
And social media also makes it easier for people who are trying to sell their homes without an agent. We are actually doing this right now, and I created a blog to promote the house, which has received quite a number of views. Soon I think we will see the brokers removed from the picture of home selling/buying, except as advisors in the contractual process.
Posted by: Nedra Weinreich | 02.14.07
Peter -- Google Base...right! I don't know of anything like Movoto outside of SF.
Nedra -- Great idea to put up a blog! One Boston seller actually took bids on her house and sold it via the Internet: http://107ocean.com/
Posted by: Ann Handley | 02.14.07
You're bang on Ann. The real estate is in the midst of a real shakeup. Everything from the way Realtors market themselves to the way properties are marketed online.
It's definitely an interesting time.
Posted by: Joel Burslem | 02.14.07
Hi.
I am the founder of Trendirama.com, a community of online amateur writers. We write about the future of everything. I would like to invite you to write an article on our website, perhaps based on what you are mentioning here. Maybe you can write "The future of Real Estaten in the US"? It is up to you, you choose the subject.
You would get a link back when you link to your own article, if you wish.
You can even re-use some of what you've written here, in the last part of the article, "your view and comments". That would save you time and still be interesting for readers.
Look forward to hearing from you
Best regards
Javier Marti
http://www.trendirama.com
Posted by: Javier Marti | 02.14.07
Great Post. This trend is definitely here to stay. www.atonePlace.com is another company that aims at leveraging technology to enrich our real estate buying experience.
Posted by: Manisha | 02.15.07
I'm surprised you didn't also (and surprised, since the Chicago Tribune featured this site a few weeks ago, that the reporter didn't mention it) mention www.Blockshopper.com.
Posted by: Curt Mercadante | 02.15.07
Thanks for the link, Curt. Blockshopper is specific to Chicago only, I think? But yes -- it's another good example.
The Chicago Tribune piece I referenced was about The Donovan video as a marketing tool -- not about "real estate 2.0" buying and selling tools in general.
Posted by: Ann Handley | 02.15.07
The missing part of this discussion is all the legal issues facing the real estate industry and the protectionist state laws that are being challenged by the federal government and others. Here in Michigan the trade practices by multiple Listing Serviuces are being challenged for failure to remove exclusionary practices relating to fair trade. As this shakes out, as it has in many other industries, the laws in Michigan prevent the use of tools and information at the heart of many new marketing tactics. But, wow what a flood the industry will face when the playing field opens up.
Posted by: Mike Mohan | 02.15.07
Hey Ann:
The important story about recent real estate has been those shoddy mortgage companies who have been underwriting substandard loans and packaging them off to be sold in the marketplace. These creeps have been folding their tents and slipping away.... leaving an overpriced and oversold market. POP !!!
Just like the stock market swindlers, classic pump and dump. How come I don't see enough of these stories? Guess when the bubble breaks and we slide into a recession, the end of this year?
PS Don't expect the Fed to write that article .....
Posted by: Jon Foster | 02.16.07
I agree with you on the platform for real estate professionals to be an authority and show trustworthiness.
Table Talk With Apella is a blog with the goal to be a resource. You can find links to news and blogs throughout the nation related to real estate and business.
I Think that this is where the true change will come from, a national and even global market that over laps the local markets where the consumer will be able to follow both better and see how they relate. Real estate has not enjoyed the same kind of media as say the financial markets and Wall Street and now there are the tools to do that.
In regards to real estate and media, it is nice to see more real estate related video with some becoming series like such as flippernation. These videos take the shape of news, listing or services being offered, humor and other more traditional video programming TV or other.
It will be interesting to see how this develops and is great to be in an industry while it is at a new a crossroad for communications that may not have been seen in an industry since the barcode.
Posted by: apella | 02.18.07
Forget "new media", real estate agents are too lazy to take advantage of the tools at their disposal now. I can't tell you how many times I've gone online and clicked on a listing only to find that there are no pictures. Or maybe one picture of the front of the house.
Or condo listings that show a picture of the pool and common areas but no interior pictures. Until agents get hungry and start having to work for their money, who cares what media is available when they're too lazy to use them.
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Posted by: Anand | 03.05.07
Check out our site, we are trying a new style of Property videos, mainly high end stuff, but I like the project anyhow.
www.peachfilm.com
Posted by: fuzzel | 03.16.07
Great post! We are also trying to create a new experience for researching and buying realestate.
Check out our website http://www.realestatechannel.ca
We will be National in a month or so.
Posted by: Real Estate Channel | 04.17.07