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Hitwise, a subsidiary of Experian, has been collecting and analyzing data directly from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) since 1997.
The search terms in the latest results were ranked by volume of searches that successfully drove traffic to Web sites in the Hitwise Business and Finance - Real Estate category for the four weeks ending June 28, based on U.S. Internet usage.
Hitwise Real Estate Search Term Rankings
1. realtor.com - 1.64 percent
2. remax - .81 percent
3. zillow.com - .56 percent
4. zillow - .39 percent
5. real estate - .38 percent
6. apartments - .37 percent
7. century 21 - .33 percent
8. realtor - .31 percent
9. homes for sale - .30 percent
10. www.realtor.com - .29 percent
In addition, Hitwise confirmed that remax.com was No. 4 among the most popular real estate sites in June.
Hitwise Most Visited Real Estate Web Site Rankings
1. realtor.com - 4.46 percent
2. Yahoo Real Estate - 2.70 percent
3. ZipRealty - 2.65 percent
4. RE/MAX - 2.47 percent
5. Rent.com - 2.36 percent
6. Zillow - 2.30 percent
7. Homegain - 1.77 percent
8. ServiceMagic - 1.69 percent
9. Trulia.com - 1.63 percent
10. Apartments.com - 1.62 percent
To Your Success
Mark Schwartz
Real Estate Technology Blog
Mark’s All About Real Estate Blog
RE/MAX Realty Professionals
Here’s the first thing I like about Zillow. And I like this part A LOT. Zillow is NOT
a lead-reseller. if my client goes to Zillow, they’ll print out the Zestimate and bring it our our office, and we’ll talk about it.
If that client went to a site such as HouseValues.com, they would be required to fill out a personal contact form, they would then be sold as a “lead” to a member agent, and that “local” agent would start bombarding them with emails and phone calls (I think HouseValues calls it a “Drip campaign”)
The Zillow model is obviously better for me, as a broker, since my client can go to Zillow,
search around all they like, and Zillow does NOT in any way interfere with my relationship with that client.
Here’s the next thing I like: We make the Zillow Zestimate report part of the data we review with buyers and sellers. We’ll print out the zestimate in addition to pages from RealEstateABC, Property Shark, and HouseAmerica. Then we include these with data from Dataquick’s Data Express, title company comps, and the three MLSs that over lap in our area.
We’ll sit down with the client, review all that data, add a dash of our own brand of “Street Smarts” and there you are.
What Zillow does need: A big fat CYA disclaimer on their initial entry page. Maybe this will be a requirement of any settlement reached. You have to dig a little to find the current disclaimers.
Whoever thought there’d come a day I’d be agreeing with Glenn Kelman?!?!! “Glenn Kelman, the chief executive of Redfin, a Seattle online real estate service that utilizes data from Zillow, said he thinks the complaint is a “publicity stunt” motivated by appraisers who have a financial interest at heart. He has no plans to remove Zillow data from his Web site.” (Quoted from a Seattle PI article) Who’da thunk it!!
A Google Blogsearch on Zillow NCRC serves up a whole platter full of interesting reading.
To Your Success
Mark Schwartz
Real Estate Technology Blog
Mark’s All About Real Estate Blog
RE/MAX Realty Professionals
The Internet (Craigslist.com, Oodle.com, realtor.com, eBay, etc.)
It’s possible that the Internet might be the single most valuable invention for real estate investors. Before the Internet, whenever a real estate investor needed to research a property, they had to go down to where their local government was headquartered, and then go from office to office asking civil servants for real estate related information.
But today, thanks to the Internet, any investor with a personal computer and Internet connection can have instant access to just about every type of real estate related record, 24/7, right in the comfort of their own home or office. This is especially nice for investors starting out part time, because they can do searches online during their free time.
The Internet has leveled the playing field between part-time and full-time investors. So take advantage of the worldwide web: sign up for real-estate newsletters, post ads about your business, and of course search for properties (using keyword searches - motivated, must sell, etc.). It’s all at your fingertips.
Your Own Websites
Create your own website(s) to advertise and market your business and what you do. Make the focus of your website be finding and purchasing properties. Be sure to include information about what types of properties or deals you are interested in, and provide contact information so that people can get in touch with you quickly and conveniently. For examples look at http://www.msbuyshouses.com/, http://www.internetrealestatecenter.com/, http://www.markvschwartz.com/ .
Provide a contact phone number and email address, and put your website information on your business cards and hand them out everywhere you go.
To Your Success
Mark Schwartz
Real Estate Technology Blog
Mark’s All About Real Estate Blog
RE/MAX Realty Professionals
RealSeekr.com, becomes the latest social network devoted to real estate. It appears there’s no end in sight for all of these networks. Some of them are kind of fun to use, while others are a real pain.
RealSeeker.com was founded by agents and it looks like it may be a promising site. It centralizes many of the traditional social networking tools into one place, thus making it easier to set up and manage.
The following is RealSeekr’s announcement describing their new real estate social network.
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We’re excited to announce the beta launch of RealSeekrSM - a FREE real estate search and social networking site, built by brokers for home buyers, sellers and professionals that’s Social, Useful & FunSM. For the first time, RealSeekr brings together nationwide Real Estate and Social Media in one central location with instant real-time interaction. RealSeekr is the place where home buyers, sellers and professionals Seek, Learn, Share & ConnectSM.
We focused on three important objectives with our initial release:
1. To present a comprehensive property database, with accurate and detailed listing data. Data includes enhanced content such as video tours, audio tours, additional photos, keywords, descriptions and more, with a lightning quick, easy to navigate search interface.
2. To drive traffic to our database of property listings, participating broker and listing agent sites, by optimizing all listings for search engines, for increased views which generates greater home buyer interest and greater results for home sellers and real estate professionals.
3. To provide an interactive community, social network and marketing destination for everyone to directly engage and communicate in real-time with one another using a variety of technologies, in a fun-filled, friendly, informative environment.
RealSeekr connects you, the home owner (Buyers and Sellers), with agents and other service providers in a personalized, trusted environment. We save time by providing content, information and functionality in one inclusive location. In essence, we are a community populated by millions of nationwide listings with the ability to connect and network instantly with one another using a variety of communication channels.
Ultimately, relationships are about communication. The challenge was to embrace the technology of today and open up new ways to interact and build an integrated platform that could benefit everyone. For the first time, we can all utilize a variety of communication tools, functionality and resources in one place.
We are proud to present nearly 1.6 million listings to coincide with our launch, comprising agent listings, as well as nationwide foreclosures and properties being sold by owner (which can be uploaded directly by you), with additional properties scheduled for integration as we create the largest real estate listings and community destination on the web.
To ensure we are building the best site possible, we’ve launched in Beta that means over the next few months RealSeekr will continue to grow and change based on the feedback we get from you, the SeekrSM Community. While in Beta, we will be adding more and more properties to the search database, which will boost the total properties and also provide the most coverage across the country then you ever thought possible.
Our Beta release comprises of agent listed properties from selected regions within the following 20 States:
Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin. In the days and weeks ahead, additional properties from the following markets will be added: Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
By working in harmony with Listing Associations and partnering with Brokers and Agents on a local and regional level throughout North America, we are making sure that the quality, reliability and integrity of the listing data presented to users is of the highest caliber.
RealSeekr also provides you with an unparalleled research capability to accompany property search including property profiles, neighborhoods (coming this summer), schools, blogs, questions and answers, media files, networking tools and agent profiles representing just a sampling of the many opportunities. In future releases we plan to expand on these offerings and include many other innovative products.
Most importantly, we have taken interaction a step further by integrating real-time communication into the mix, powered by Skype™ with the inclusion of Video Conferencing, Instant Messaging, Voice-to-Voice (VOIP), file sharing, as well as Mobile SMS Text messaging, Twitter™ and more. In essence, we have created a highly transparent medium for the first time that now enables you to directly meet, participate and converse online, and in real-time, with other home owners and professionals around the country.
Personalized agent profiles, similar to an online resume, are a great way to locate, research, compare and interview potential REALTORS® to assist you with your real estate transaction(s). Use the RealSeekr research tools to learn each agent’s areas of expertise, specialization, background, interests, languages and experience and use the real-time functionality to interview a network of tech-savvy agents from the comfort of your own home.
As brokers ourselves, we fully understand the important role that Listings Associations and Agents have in the real estate transaction and the valuable opportunity that the web presents for everyone with an interest in real estate. By addressing the needs of the home owner, and to better embrace the internet, as well as a place to meet online, we arrived at a solution that we feel benefits us all.
Seek, Learn, Share, ConnectSM: For example, you can Create watch lists to keep your eye on properties of interest, get your questions asked and answered in real-time, share listing(s) with family and people in your network, and Connect and make friends with others in the Seekr Community.
RealSeekr is your community. The Members Feedback Corner is your place to communicate opinions, share ideas, suggestions and more. Your input will make RealSeekr even better. With an exciting version 2.0 already under development, with your help we will raise the bar even higher and provide even more compelling tools and functionality. Let us know what you would like to see in successive releases, and particularly, what else we need to include and improve upon. Your feedback is important to us, so give RealSeekr a test drive and tell us what you think.
With RealSeekr the possibilities are endless, restricted only by our collective imaginations.
Welcome to RealSeekr - we are thrilled to have you part of the community!
Team Seekr
Socializing Real EstateSM
To Your Success
Mark Schwartz
Real Estate Technology Blog
Mark’s All About Real Estate Blog
RE/MAX Realty Professionals
