Housing News
Move, Inc. goes hyperlocal with new partnership- agent notes on listings
Today, Move, Inc. has announced an exclusive partnership with Blockshopper.com to “power its real estate ads and expand the online reach of agents and brokers.”
Blockshopper.com currently serves 20 markets and claims they’ve driven 800,000 unique visitors to their four million pages in January 2011 alone, double their traffic in January 2010, supporting their claim of rapid growth.
Two new hyperlocal products
The partnership between Move, Inc. and Blockshopper.com brings hyperlocal products to the ad network. Two Blockshopper.com tools “designed to increase local visibility and search engine indexing across the Web” will be available through Move, Inc. later this year including Local Note Pro and Agent News Releases.
Local Note Pro allows Realtors to create “notes” about properties “on which they have useful knowledge for active buyers, sellers and homeowners” which Move, Inc. states will boost agents’ visibility online.
Agent News Releases is said to help agents “make news” about their listings, sales and accomplishments.
Move, Inc. CEO weighs in
“Today BlockShopper.com covers 20 highly visible local markets across the country with great community-based ad products,” Berkowitz said. “As we work together in expanding BlockShopper’s coverage and products, Move’s real estate advertisers will be able to easily scale the reach of their brands on a personal and local level with the assistance and convenience of Move as their national marketing partner.”
But how will this work?
We haven’t seen the product in its finished version as a point of comparison, Local Notes Pro has us pondering the rich history of this very element in the industry. In years past, other real estate companies have attempted to open specific listings and neighborhoods to commentary (“notes”) but were shut down, most notably Redfin which was fined $50,000 by NWMLS and forced to discontinue not only because commentary was considered advertising another broker’s listing, it was considered altered marketing which is also not allowed. It seems that one agents “notes” with existing knowledge on any listing if not their own would fall into the category of disallowed. It will be interesting to see how allowing “notes” will work as Move, Inc. aims to expand their offering to their Realtor consumers.
One of Move, Inc’s companies, Realtor.com is an advertiser on AGbeat.
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Housing News
Average age of houses on the rise, so is it now better or worse to buy new?
With aging housing in America, are first-time buyers better off buying new or existing homes? The average age of a home is rising, as is the price of new housing, so a shift could be upon us.
The average home age is higher than ever
(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.
With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.
Prices of new homes on the rise
Newer homes cost more than they used to. The price differential between new homes and older homes has increased from 10 percent traditionally to around 37 percent in 2014. This is due to rising construction costs, scarcity of lots, and a low inventory of new homes that doesn’t meet the demand.
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Housing News
Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?
The last year has been one of dramatic and rapid change in the real estate tech sector, but Realtors are vulnerable, and we’re worried.
Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes
(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.
Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.
So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.
1. Zillow poaches top talent, Move/NAR sues
It all started last year when the gloves came off – Move’s Chief Strategy Officer (who was also Realtor.com’s President), Errol Samuelson jumped ship and joined Zillow on the same day he phoned in his resignation without notice. He left under questionable circumstances, which has led to a lengthy legal battle (wherein Move and NAR have sued Zillow and Samuelson over allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets), with the most recent motion being for contempt, which a judge granted to Move/NAR after the mysterious “Samuelson Memo” surfaced.
Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.
2. Two major media brands emerge
Last fall, the News Corp. acquisition of Move, Inc. was given the green light by the feds, and this month, Zillow finalized their acquisition of Trulia.
…Click here to continue reading this story…
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BawldGuy
March 9, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Had to read it twice to be sure of what it said. This is what happens when you let third parties mess with your product without a short leash and a cattle prod. Can’t wait to see the food fights generated by this one. I genuinely hope I’m wrong, but from where I stand, this should be filed under, ‘Ya just can’t make this stuff up’.
‘Course, this begs the real question, which is: How many of your listings are sold due to anything other than your direct efforts, the MLS, or similar methods? Not one in my personal experience.
Jill Kipnis
March 10, 2011 at 1:47 pm
We’re excited about working with Blockshopper, as it plays to both of our strengths: leveraging Move’s sales force and Blockshopper’s network. Blockshopper and its tools allows agents and brokers to show off their local expertise, helps them create buzz around the properties they are selling with news stories and comments, and creates visibility through SEO.
–Jill Kipnis, Community Builder @Realtor.com