Innovative Colorado Real Estate

You’ve likely heard the term “Web 2.0″, but what does it mean? Many Internet experts have different opinions on what Web 2.0 really means, so I’ll defer to Wikipedia for my definition…

According to Wikipedia: “Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web.”

OK, that sounds great, but what does that mean for you and how does it translate to Real Estate 2.0? Simply put, it means real estate buyers and sellers now have access to more information and communication tools than ever before. Now I’ll break it down for you in real estate terms:

Facilitating Communication and Information Sharing:

Real Estate companies are communicating with their clients in so many new ways it is almost mind boggling. I remember when email emerged on the real estate scene and we would copy and paste property listings into email for distribution to our clients. Now you can access our IDX-MLS data directly and sign up for your own email alerts when property meeting your criteria becomes available.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds have also become a popular way to communicate. For example, you can subscribe to this blog via RSS here and add our blog to your favorite RSS reader.

Speaking of blogs, this blog is another example of the type of information sharing that is Web 2.0. Real Estate blogs are becoming more and more common and finding the right blogs for your real estate needs could be challenging. Stay tuned to this blog and I’ll share some other useful real estate blogs as we discover them.

And, what about micro-blogging, aka Twitter? Probably the most popular Web 2.0 technology to emerge in years, Twitter has taken the Internet by storm. If you still don’t understand what Twitter is, it is really quite simple. Twitter answers the question: “What are you doing right now?”. People post “Tweets” about what they are doing and other people follow the “Tweeters” by subscribing to their posts (aka. following). We use Twitter to keep you updated on what’s happening in Real Estate and within our company. Try following us on Twitter.

Interoperability and Collaboration

I don’t want to get too technical here, but I think these concepts deserve some discussion because of their profound affect on the way we run our Real Estate business. Simply put, our web site, IDX-MLS system and our customer relationship management (CRM) software all communicate seamlessly via Web API and XML (email me if you really want to know more about these things). This interoperability allows us to provide our clients with a new level of service by vastly improving the efficiency of our reporting and communication. Furthermore, through our web-based back-office software system (we are in the cloud!), we can collaborate as a team more efficiently, which translates to better customer service through team support.

And, lets not forget how these systems have made us more environmentally friendly. On-line contract collaboration, electronic document sharing and virtual tours are some of the things that make us a Green Real Estate office.

Social Networking, Video Sharing, Mashups, etc., etc.

The social networking phenomenon is a direct result of Web 2.0 and the emergence of web sites that provide user-based information as their primary resource. Our agents are active in Facebook, LinkedIn and other networking sites as a way to communicate with current clients and reach out to new clients. To share our web site resources with your social network, try the Share This function located throughout our site.

Video and Photo Sharing via YouTube, Flickr and other media sharing web sites has provided many of us in the real estate community with a great way to distribute our video, photos, property tours, etc. In addition, we have leveraged the vast YouTube library to provide you with a real estate video library on our web site.

What in the world is a mashup? A mashup is a web page or application that combines data or functionality from 2 or more external sources to create a new service. For a great example of a MLS-IDX and Google Maps mashup try our Map Search.

As Web 2.0 continues to develop and amaze us all, we will continue to keep you updated on the impacts to Real Estate and our evolving Real Estate 2.0 services.

When the Obama administration announced recently that they were expanding their housing rescue plan to include incentives for banks to approve short sales, they were applauded for their actions and rightfully so. Its about time they realized that their initial plan, heavily dependent on loan modifications, was falling short. According to a recent Reuters article only about 3% of delinquent loans are being modified, a far cry from the administration’s goals.

The irony of the recent “short sale” announcement is that we only had to look to our very own Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to find a blueprint for government regulated short sales. The new Foreclosure Alternatives Program (FAP) looks quite similar to a 15 year old program called the HUD Pre-Foreclosure Sale (PFS) Program, http://www.inetproperty.com/hud/short-sale/. The PFS Program is targeted at FHA insured mortgages and allows borrowers to sell his/her home and use the net sale proceeds to satisfy the mortgage debt even though these proceeds are less than the amount owed (aka. Short Sale). It is actually a decent program, with incentives for the bank to complete the short sale and a provision for up to a $1,000 incentive for the borrower as well.

Here is the problem: even though the PFS Program has been around for over 15 years, in our experience loan servicers still don’t understand the program that well and it is far from being an efficient process at the bank level (try asking for the HUD desk). And, just try to find any relevant information about the program (the HUD web site is limited) and you’ll likely get confused and opt for foreclosure (just kidding – foreclosure is rarely a better option, but the information is definitely lacking). My point is that if the government is going to promote short sales, don’t make the same mistakes with FAP that you made with PFS. Make the information accessible to borrowers and make sure lenders understand the program and are accountable for its implementation. After all, many of the large lenders are already on board with FAP – lets give them more than some easy PR and make sure they put their money where their mouth is. And finally, you promised more information on FAP before the end of July – is it too much to ask that you lead by example and show lenders how to meet a deadline? 11 days to go ;0)

By the way, we know how to help FHA borrowers with those troublesome PFS short sales – they really aren’t that difficult when you take the time to do the research and talk to the banks. Give us a call and we’ll be happy to talk you through it.

Lets get one thing straight. We are all for saving the environment and at iNET Property we do our best to run a “Green” business: http://www.inetproperty.com/green-real-estate/

But lets be honest, the real estate business is tough enough right now and homeowners are already absorbing significant losses when selling their homes. Should there really be a government mandated energy inspection done of your home when you sell? If so, should the homeowner really be responsible for the cost of the inspection and the resulting mandatory repairs? If you can somehow get through the Michael Jackson media coverage to the real news you’ll find that the House of Representatives recently passed a “Cap and Trade” bill that includes these provisions! Has green gone too far?

What you can do…
The good news is that it is not too late. This bill still needs to get through the Senate, but lets not assume they are smarter than their counterparts in the House. Write, email or call your Senator and let them know that this is not the right time to be imposing additional expenses on already distressed homeowners. Forcing homeowners to comply with these regulations will either cause them to not sell their home or increase the price of their home to cover the expenses. Either way, the housing market will suffer and everyone knows that if the housing market doesn’t recover, neither does the economy.

Once again, we are all for saving energy and the environment, and for homeowners who can afford to make green improvements to their property, more power to them. We are just not there yet, and the cost doesn’t make economic sense for most homeowners right now. Nice try Representatives, but you’ve gone too far.

If you read last week’s post, then you know how proud we are of our web site and what we offer our clients in the form of web based information and resources. The good news is that we have only just begun our web site development and our commitment to growing our web site and increasing our Internet based resources is real. What may not be completely obvious is that we have a similar commitment to our back-end software systems, including CRM, electronic contract and document management, and the industry’s leading MLS/IDX technology.

What is CRM?

CRM is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management and it allows us to manage all of our critical client information through a web-based centralized platform. In addition to basic CRM functionality, our CRM includes sales force automation, transaction management, document sharing and communication features that allow us to maintain control of our customers and their transactions without letting things “slip through the cracks”.

Contract Management

You don’t have to “press hard” to make sure you imprint all copies of our contracts. We utilize computer generated contracts with leading real estate contract software and we even offer “green” technology that provides electronic documents complete with electronic signatures and virtual document storage. In a real estate world full of contracts and disclosures, we are proud to offer some relief from the legal paperwork that has overcome our industry.

Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and Internet Data Exchange (IDX)

For decades the real estate industry has used the MLS to market real estate listings to other real estate professionals. This closed system has traditionally been available to only those who are members of their local Realtor association as well as the National Association of Realtors (NAR). As a technology driven company, we pride ourselves on being MLS power users, providing our sellers with the best MLS listings, as well as data mining the MLS more efficiently for our buyers and investors. More recently, through the Internet Data Exchange, we are able to post much of this data on our own web site and automate the delivery of current property listings via email and our web-based property organizer. Try our IDX functionality and let us know what you think.

Welcome to the new iNET Property web site. To put things in perspective, I first started Internet marketing back in 1994 and when I launched my first real estate web site in 1995, the Internet was not exactly a household word. In fact, only 36% of households had computers in 1997, and only about half of those even had Internet access. Today, many households have multiple computers and just about everyone is on the Internet. In the old days (I’m not that old) setting yourself apart from other real estate web sites was easy because there weren’t that many of us. These days, real estate web sites are a dime a dozen and many Internet savvy Realtors have more than one web site. So, how can you tell the difference between a good real estate site and a bad one? What features does a good real estate web site have? In today’s post I’ll answer these questions and over the coming weeks, I’ll go into detail on our web site technology, what’s going on behind the scenes and what else to look for in a good real estate company besides their web site.

First of all, I’d like to make a very important point – a nice web presence is worthless if you can’t back it up. There isn’t a web site in the world that can replace experienced real estate brokers and efficient back-office systems. Our brokers have years of experience in real estate and we provide them with the software and support systems they need to help buyers and sellers compete in an ever changing real estate market.

What to look for in a real estate web site:

1. Usability – Is it easy to find what you are looking for? Does the navigation make sense? These are important questions about any web site, especially a real estate site that you may be visiting on a regular basis. We’ve designed our site with logical navigation, plenty of white space and easy to read formatting.
2. Property Search – Can you search for all the MLS listings in the area you are interested in? Some real estate sites restrict your search to their in-house listings only. Our IDX (more on IDX in future posts) powered web site enables you to search all listsings, no matter who the listing company is. And, we don’t require registration to search. *If you want to receive email updates, we’ll need your email address :0)
3. Education – Is there educational type content on the site? Is it current? This is important, especially given our ever changing marketplace. Our brokers are required to maintain strict educational requirements and we pride ourselves on our efficiency in sharing this important information through our web site. Are you learning something right now? Good, because we plan to post our broker’s educational updates on this blog!
4. Contact Information – Can you reach somebody? Many brokers who are good at web sites unfortunately are not as good at communication. There is nothing worse than getting an email property update with the perfect house and not being able to reach your agent for a showing. Multiple contact options are posted throughout our web site and we also ask that you provide us with your preferred method of contact: email, phone, text, smoke signal, etc. If your primary agent is not available, we have on-call backups ready to assist.
5. Content – Did you find the information you are looking for and is it up to date? This is where many web sites miss the boat because they don’t keep their sites updated and their content gets stale. We utilize Web 2.0 technologies (more on Web 2.0 in future posts) to provide you with quality updated content in a variety of formats – RSS news feeds, YouTube Videos, etc. and we also distribute via various social media networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. This Blog is another good example of how we keep our web site updated.

There is certainly more to the real estate web than I have shared with you today, but that’s part of our strategy – come back often for more information and to watch us grow!