Housing News
Trulia updates data cycle as accuracy debate reignites
Trulia makes updates to their data processing framework, highlighting one of the most contentious issues in real estate today.
Trulia claims “the most accurate real estate listings”
Realtor.com announced recently that their mobile app has been updated, offering the most accurate real estate listings, updating their system directly from Multiple Listing Services every 15 minutes. On the heels of the statements, Trulia has updated their own data processing framework, enabling continuous data cycle processing and updating for property information displayed on the site.
The company says the new framework ensures high-value listing information including property type, listing address, and basic property details like the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, open house times, and photo updates are refreshed on Trulia “in as little as 10 minutes.”
“It is an obvious advantage to consumers and to our listing brokers to display only the most current information in Internet advertising. Brokers now see their listing changes updated on Trulia in near real-time,” said MRED CEO Russ Bergeron. “These changes help the real estate practitioner throughout our Chicagoland market to more effectively market their properties and ensure consumers receive the most up-to-date information while searching for their new home.”
Trulia investing “significant” resources into data accuracy
“Our new data processing framework is far more efficient and reliable, allowing us to update more feeds and more listings on a continuous basis throughout the day,” said Alon Chaver, VP Industry Services at Trulia. “We’re investing significant engineering and product resources to improve the accuracy and freshness of listings on Trulia as part of our long-term commitment to solving one of the industry’s toughest challenges.”
Chaver adds, “Providing the freshest and most accurate listings to consumers is critical and requires ongoing collaboration with our partner brokers and MLSs. We are committed to continually working together to best serve the needs of buyers and sellers searching for property information and connecting them with agents online.”
Highlighting the top real estate issue du jour: data
Trulia says the data processing upgrades are part of their ongoing efforts to improve accuracy, so we anticipate more announcements will be forthcoming this year.
The timing could be coincidental, but highlights that the biggest real estate search sites are responding to their feet being held to the fire by the real estate industry regarding data accuracy, and it is of particular note that Realtor.com refreshes data every 15 minutes, with Trulia stating they update “in as little as 10 minutes,” which offers them a little more wiggle room than Realtor.com’s statements, but is noteworthy.
While it is definitely a win for everyone for real estate listing data to be accurate, particularly home buyers and sellers, the focus on data processing frameworks reminds us a lot of the eight minute ab people trying to be outdone by the seven minute ab fanatics, and so on and so forth. The races have already begun, so we will be watching as they heat up.
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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.
Click here to continue reading this story…
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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Greg Fischer
January 29, 2013 at 10:30 am
Weird, I would think the listing broker would have the most accurate information since they control the outbound data feed, but hey – maybe Trulia has top secret tech I don’t know about!
Bob Wilson
January 29, 2013 at 10:50 am
Many brokers that have feeds are only getting updates daily. If Trulia is getting some of their info from a Broker’s RETS, it isnt all 10-15 minutes fresh.
Todd Carpenter
January 29, 2013 at 5:47 pm
Todd from Trulia here. Brokers often source a feed of their own listings from the MLS, then deliver it to us. In this situation, many are now choosing to have the MLS provide the information to us directly. Much of it depends on their business model/practices.
Greg Fischer
January 29, 2013 at 8:05 pm
Understood. I guess my point was…the listing broker still knows far before Trulia knows, what the intent/status change is going to be on their own listings – additionally any licensed agent with MLS access still theoretically has 15 minutes more accurate data than Trulia does (if they query straight from their MLS, which is the only true source of “the most accurate listings”)
Todd Carpenter
January 29, 2013 at 11:56 pm
I didn’t write the press release, so not sure on the intent of that quote. My understanding is that this new framework is the “most accurate” way for us to publish listings (as opposed to using syndicators.