A Bird’s Eye View

So it’s mid-July, and to most, the holiday season is still five months away. But for all those real estate technology geeks out there, our Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa starts on Tuesday and lasts the rest of the week. Inman’s Real Estate Connect San Francisco is once again gracing us with its presence in this beautiful city of ours.

This is the one event that cannot be missed if you work in the real estate technology space. It’s a virtual who’s who and unless you are anti-social by nature, I would find a way to get in the door if you don’t already have a ticket.

So for us here at Roost.com, this is our first RE Connect San Francisco since we launched back in late January. We are especially excited about this particular RE Connect because not only is it being held about five blocks from our office but we are one of the finalists for an Innovator Award in the new technology category. Inman is always on top of everything real estate and we are extremely honored to be nominated.

So who from Roost.com is going to be in attendance at this year’s event? Well for starters we have Alex Chang, our dynamic CEO, who will not only be roaming the lobby of the Palace Hotel but will also be speaking on a panel titled “The MLS Mess” on Thursday, July 24^th from 11:00 to 11:45 AM. The other members of the Roost.com team in attendance will be Alex Lange, CTO; Matt Cullen, VP of Business Development and of course Derek Overbey (me), your guide to everything Roost.

So what is the Roost.com team going to be up to while attending this great event? A lot! Between meetings, panels and social events, we are all going to have very packed schedules but we are just as excited as you to attend this incredible conference.

I’m going to be posting daily on all of our activities over the next week so you can get the scoop on any news, deals or great information that might come out of the Roost.com camp. To get this party started, I sent out a list of questions to Alex C., Alex L., and Matt so everyone could see what everyone is looking forward to at Connect this year. I even answered them myself.

Alex Chang - CEO & Co-Founder

Is this your first RE Connect? Nope.  I think this will be my 5^th or 6^th.  Can’t get enough!
What are you looking forward to most? Excited to catch up with some of our clients.
Any big ideas you are hoping will be discussed? I’m really hopeful there will be some discussion about what it’s going to take to help consumers have confidence again in their ability to buy a home.
Who is the one person you hope to meet at this year’s event? Someone who thinks the housing market is already turning around…

Alex Lange - CTO & Co-Founder

Is this your first RE Connect? No. Second Year.
What are you looking forward to most?  Announcements and new releases… It’s all good fodder for me to improve upon.
Any big ideas you are hoping will be discussed?  Most interested in the industry’s opinion on the future of MLS.
Who is the one person you hope to meet at this year’s event? Just one?  I plan to meet everyone!  Joel Burslem and Andy Kaufman are at the top of my list.

Matthew Cullen - VP of Business Development

Is this your first RE Connect? No this will be my second.
What are you looking forward to most? Networking with forward thinking brokers.
Any big ideas you are hoping will be discussed? Tracking to conversion…How brokers effectively track traffic conversion on their website(s).
Who is the one person you hope to meet at this year’s event? Lennox Scott, CEO of John L. Scott and David Therrien, CTO of Keller Williams

Derek Overbey - Sr. Director of Partnership Strategy

Is this your first RE Connect? Nope, this will be my fourth year in a row. I also went in 2000 when I worked for eHome.
What are you looking forward to most? Meeting all the people I have met online in the “REAL” world.
Any big ideas you are hoping will be discussed? How Twitter is going to be effectively used in the Real Estate space.
Who is the one person you hope to meet at this year’s event? I would love to meet Craig Newmark from craigslist.

So we all look forward to seeing everyone in San Francisco next week and if you see us in the hall, don’t hesitate to say hi.

We know how important social networking is becoming in our daily lives. Drew Izzo, CMO of Roost.com, and I attended SocialMediaCamp this last Tuesday and learned how social networking sites are being integrating into businesses everywhere. From Twitter to LinkedIn to Facebook, the world is becoming connected.

Social Networking Sites

So I got a tweet this morning from Peter Cashmore at Mashable.com linking me to a post on their site titled “Social Networking Stats: Facebook and LinkedIn Surging in US” by Adam Ostrow.

MySpace might have established the category but Most-Networked-Executives according to Nielsen Online, they actually had a decline in unique visitors in June year-over-year (YOY). Now they only dropped about 300,000 unique visitors to 59.4M, but it was the first decline they have experienced in their incredible growth so far.

On the other end of the spectrum, up and coming social networking sites Facebook and LinkedIn saw substantial increases in their unique visitors. Facebook was up almost 14M YOY (77% growth) and LinkedIn was up more than 6M YOY (187% growth).

So why am I writing about this on a real estate blog? Well because I think real estate as a whole is playing a part in why this shift is happening.

MySpace was, is, and probably always will be thought of as a social networking site for Generation Y and Generation Z. It is more about sharing new pictures from the party you were at last weekend rather than networking for new customers.

Enter Facebook and LinkedIn. These sites introduced a lot of agents and brokers to the world of social networking for the first time. I remember late last year while I was still at Intero, a gentleman came to the training center to talk about LinkedIn and the place was packed. Everyone was not only interested in what LinkedIn was, but how they could possibly leverage it into their business. It gave agents a great reason to reach out to clients by adding them to their connections. It also provided them with a way to reach a ton of people quickly and efficiently, whether the message needed to be personalized or not.

Will these social networking sites prove critical in helping consumers find homes for sale or an agent? I think the jury is still out on that one but what I do know is that people that use these sites (myself included) are building sizeable networks and correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t a good network critical to a successful career in real estate?

Derek Overbey
Sr. Director of Partnership Strategy
Roost.com
derek.overbey@roost.com
Twitter - @doverbey<–>

We’re now live in fabulous Las Vegas as well as Austin and Nashville metro areas.  So if you’re looking for a home for sale in those markets or any of our other markets, you can add a new favorite to your browser or social bookmarking site.

Roost.com now provides consumers access to homes for sale in 26 major markets, over 12,000 cities and nearly 1.5 million listings in total.  If you’re searching for a home for sale in a market that Roost.com covers you can rest assured that if it’s out there it’s on Roost.com.

Viva Roost!

Other top real estate markets in: Chicago real estate, Phoenix real estate, Houston real estate, Miami real estate, Atlanta real estate, Boston real estate, St. Louis real estate, Denver real estate, Philadelphia real estate, Portland real estate, Arizona real estate, California real estate, Florida real estate, Georgia real estate, Illinois real estate, Massachusetts real estate, Texas real estate, Virginia real estate, Other real estate

So I’ve been out of the brokerage world for a little less than a month now and I’m seeing the world from a much different perspective since taking my position with Roost.com. In my current role, I’m communicating with a plethora (I really like that word) of real estate brokers, owners, marketing professionals and technology gurus.

What I can really relate to in these conversations is the frustration that most, not all, are experiencing with the tracking of their online efforts. Back in the good old days, there were a handful of marketing channels that included newspaper, magazines, outdoor, radio, TV and maybe some direct mail. In today’s world of real estate marketing, people are overwhelmed with the amount of online channels they must deal with in addition to the above mentioned traditional outlets.

Online marketing efforts include “cost per click” (CPC) advertising (i.e. Google, Yahoo!, Roost.com, etc.); lead generation websites (i.e. HomeGain, Reply!, HouseValues, etc.); online communities (i.e. ActiveRain, RealTown, etc.); real estate blogs (blog.roost.com, http://www.inman.com/blog, etc.); social networking sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.); video sites (i.e. Seesmic, YouTube, Revver, etc.); video tour platforms (i.e. TourFactory, Obeo, CirclePix, etc.); banner advertising; email campaigns and many, many more.

The good thing about all of these online marketing efforts is that they can be tracked. You heard me right, they CAN be tracked. Unlike a newspaper ad that would have to use a special phone number or URL address to track a user, your efforts online can be measured, evaluated and tailored in real time to help you accurately manage your online marketing spend.

(You knew this was going to come in somewhere) BUT, you have to be ABLE to track it on your website to fully evaluate your efforts. Before 2006 it was enough to just drive traffic to your website and hope that the increased volume would equate to more closed transactions. Today with online marketing spends on the rise, brokerages and agents need the ability to compare and contrast what is working and what is not.

This goes deeper than basic analytic tools such as Google Analytics, WebTrends or VisiStat but involves applying a tracking pixel to each user session to let you know where they go once they make it to your site. Combining the tracking pixel with your website analytics will now provide you the ability to not only see where the clicks are coming from and how many clicks from each source but what they do once they get there (i.e. fill out a lead capture form or leave your site after a few page views).

The outcome from these efforts will provide you with vital information to help you market your business more effectively. You can now have empirical data to compare and contrast the online sources you are using and let your marketing budget generate the most positive results possible.

If you are interested in learning more or discussing options to help you track better, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Derek Overbey
Sr. Director of Partnership Strategy
derek.overbey@roost.com

My Conference Call With Poppy Dinsey of Zoomf.

Earlier this week I had the distinct pleasure of chatting with Poppy Dinsey of London-based Zoomf (Yee Haw for Skype). Don’t let the name fool you, this is one incredibly bright and articulate Real Estate/Web 2.0 Geek with a passion that would rival most in the industry.

So how the heck did I meet some random woman that works for a real estate search site half way around the globe? Why Twitter of course. You can keep up on her latest banter by following her at @PoppyZoomf.

So after some technical challenges and Poppy removing herself from ear shot of the programmers, we got down to business. What I found out was fascinating. Zoomf and Roost are really trying to accomplish the same thing by providing consumers with an informative and easy-to-use real estate search site with the most up-to-date data possible.

The big advantage that Roost has over Zoomf is the fact that there is a formalized Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in the US which the UK does not have. The big advantage that Zoomf has over Roost is that they can scrape real estate websites to aggregate the data (a big no no in the states). There were also some very distinct differences in regards to the brokerages themselves. Unlike in the US where the agents really retain the power because of their direct client relationships, in the UK they have estate agents that can work for the brokerage on salary, commission or a combination of the two. You could seriously walk in to a brokerage five times and talk to five different estate agents. That would never happen in the US.

Currently Zoomf is concentrating on the UK property market where like the US, more than 80% of consumers are searching for property online. As stated on their website…”Up until now the property search market in the UK was missing something, the ability to truly ’search’. Enthused by the support of leading estate agents, we set out to build the solution, a genuine vertical search engine that showed unbiased and complete results. The result was Zoomf.com. “

Zoomf has plans to bring the rest of Europe into their search engine in the near future and if Poppy has a hand in it, I won’t doubt it will be another success story.

Thanks again for your time Poppy.

Derek Overbey
Sr. Director of Partnership Strategy
Roost.com
Twitter - @doverbey

Check out our new homepage!  http://roost.com/

We’ve also added Google Street View.

Let us know what you think.

We are thrilled to announce today that leading real estate brokerage Baird & Warner has joined the Roost IDX Partner Network to support its online marketing programs.

Chicago-based Baird & Warner is the largest independent real estate broker in Illinois with more than $6 billion in annual sales. Founded in 1855, it is also the oldest independent real estate broker in the country.

Charles Melidosian, Baird & Warner’s Chief Information Officer, said, “We’re firm believers in performance-based marketing. It’s not enough to know where online visitors are coming from: we need to know where the best and most qualified visitors are coming from. The Roost platform provides that level of track-ability and accountability.”

With the additions of Baird & Warner, Roost.com is now working with more than 60 regional brokers across the U.S. that have joined the Roost Partner Network since Roost’s debut in January 2008. Partner brokers span regional markets including the Atlanta; Baltimore; Boise, Idaho; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Minneapolis, Minn.; Orange County, Calif.; Philadelphia; Portland, Ore.; Sacramento/Modesto, Calif.; San Diego and Washington D.C. areas, with more markets to be added soon.

Melidosian said, “Our reputation has been built over five generations and is our most valuable asset. We’re therefore extremely selective of the companies with which we work. Roost’s commitment to providing consumers with comprehensive, up-to-date information in the markets it serves was an important part of our decision to work with them.”

“We’re thrilled to have Baird & Warner as part of the Roost Partner Network,” said Alex Chang, founder and CEO of Roost.com. “Not only is Baird & Warner the oldest real estate broker in the country, it is also widely regarded in the industry as one of the most progressive in its use of technology and innovative online marketing techniques. They therefore understand the tremendous value of the kind of qualified, engaged homebuyers Roost can deliver.”

For more details on the Roost IDX Partner Network, visit www.roost.com. For brokers and agents interested in joining the Roost IDX Partner Network, contact sales@roost.com.

Exciting news in the Roost.com nest! We just found out that a great story on Roost.com has appeared in the July issue of The Pennsylvania REALTOR®. Our own Alex Chang provided some color commentary on the Roost.com value proposition and Steve Storti, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Prudential Fox & Roach, provided his own take on Roost.com as well as the Internet landscape in the real estate space.

We are very excited that a local MLS board would think highly enough of Roost.com to include us in their monthly publication.

Here is the story:

If you are interested in downloading the entire magazine, it can be found at: http://www.parealtor.org/content/PA_REALTOR.htm.

 Are you and your REALTOR® speaking the same language?

We see a lot of property listings here at Roost. And we’re self-confessed data geeks. So, when someone came up with the idea to analyze what those listings really tell home seekers, we couldn’t resist the challenge, and dove right in.

We wanted to take a look at some of the most commonly used words brokers use to describe homes for sale, and see how they varied by region and price bracket.

This was a fascinating project for us, and gave us a real insight into real estate trends across the country. Even simple adjectives like ‘new’, ‘nice’, ‘beautiful’ and ‘wonderful’ can give you a sense of how tastes vary region to region, and we also found some quirkier terms, including ‘wow’, ‘cool’, ‘savvy’ and my personal favorite ‘fussiest’.

It also gave us a look at how house prices are faring across the US, with many listings featuring the words ‘reduced’ or ‘reduction’ in their descriptions.

You can find more on this here: http://www.businesswire.com, but here are some of the top-line results to take a look at. It was definitely a fun project, but of course, there’s a serious point. Everything we do here at Roost is aimed at making the home search experience easier, faster and less painful for consumers. By helping both buyers and sellers learn which features and characteristics are most marketed in their city and within their price range – we can help them make the right decisions.

So, here’s the data, but let us know what you think. What’s the weirdest word you’ve ever seen used to describe a property? Are quirky descriptions helpful, or a hindrance? Do they help you stand out, or filter you out of the game? Looking forward to your feedback.

Top ten adjectives used to describe homes, by metropolitan area:

Top ten adjectives used to describe homes, by price and metropolitan area:

	Homes less than $250,000	Homes $251,000 to $500,000	Homes $501,000 to $750,000	Homes $751,000 to $1,000,000	Homes $1,000,000 to $1,500,000	Homes $1,500,000 to $2,000,000	Homes more than $2,000,000
Boston	New Great Large Nice Newer Updated Fenced Finished Beautiful Colonial	New Large Great Open Beautiful Colonial Private Finished Spacious Updated	New Large Colonial Private Open Great Custom Beautiful Spacious Finished	New Custom Large Private Colonial Open Great Beautiful Spacious Finished	Custom New Private Colonial Large Great Open Beautiful Formal Spacious	Custom Private New Colonial Open Large Beautiful Gourmet Designed Spacious	Private Custom New Colonial Spectacular Detail Designed Beautiful Large Magnificent
Chicago	New Large Great Newer Fenced Huge Nice Finished Beautiful Updated	New Large Great Huge Beautiful Newer Finished Spacious Open Updated	New Large Custom Huge Great Beautiful Story Finished Open Spacious	New Custom Large Huge Great Beautiful Open Finished Private Gourmet	New Custom Great Huge Large Beautiful Cherry Gourmet Private Open	Custom New Gourmet Huge Great Beautiful Large Cherry Private Open	New Custom Private Stunning Beautiful Finished Construction Large Cherry Great
Dallas	Large Great New Open Beautiful Nice Covered Paint Huge Spacious	Large Custom Beautiful Great Open New Huge Covered Spacious Gorgeous	Custom Large Beautiful Great Open Huge Gourmet New Private Gorgeous	Custom Large Beautiful Great Open Gourmet Huge Private New Covered	Custom Large Beautiful Gourmet Private Open Great Gorgeous Huge Spacious	Custom Large Beautiful Gourmet Private Open Huge New Covered Fabulous	Custom Large Gourmet Beautiful Private French Huge Great Gated Country
Washington, D.C.	New Great Large Fenced Nice Finished Sold Beautiful Spacious Updated	New Large Great Beautiful Finished Open Fenced Huge Spacious Well	New Large Great Beautiful Finished Open Huge Colonial Custom Gourmet	New Custom Large Gourmet Beautiful Great Open Huge Private Finished	New Custom Gourmet Large Private Open Great Huge Finished Beautiful	Custom New Gourmet Private Great Open Beautiful Large Finished Huge	Custom Private New Gourmet Large Great Beautiful Spectacular Grand Open
Miami	Great New Beautiful Large Nice Owned Single Spacious Motivated Corner	Great Beautiful New Large Spacious Nice Corner Remodeled Huge Motivated	Beautiful Great New Large Spacious Miami Corner Huge Gated Private	Beautiful Great New Large Gated Corner Huge Miami Updated Spacious	New Beautiful Great Large Spacious Remodeled Gated Updated Private Gorgeous	New Beautiful Great GatedCustom Renovated Spacious Best Finishes Gorgeous	New Gated Custom Private Beautiful Construction Spectacular Prestigious Miami Magnificent
Orange County	Great Large New Nice Beautiful Newer Spacious Open Paint Huge	New Large Great Nice Beautiful Newer Spacious Huge Open Remodeled	New Large Great Beautiful Custom Newer Spacious Remodeled Private Huge	Large New Custom Great Beautiful Private Formal Huge Open Spacious	Large Custom New Private Beautiful Great Huge Formal Open Spacious	Custom Large Private Beautiful New Formal Great Gourmet Huge Center	Custom Large Private New Gourmet Beautiful Gated Formal Great Huge
San Francisco	Great Large New Newer Nice Maintained Sold Big Spacious Beautiful	Great Large New Beautiful Nice Spacious Remodeled Well Open Newer	New Large Great Remodeled Beautiful Updated Spacious Easy Formal Open	New Large Formal Remodeled Spacious Great Lower Beautiful Open Huge	Large New Remodeled Open Spacious Beautiful Landscaped Huge Custom Gourmet	Large Formal Remodeled Spacious New Huge Beautiful Great Private Custom	Large Great Open Private Stunning Custom Beautiful New Lower Modern
San Jose	Great Large New Nice Beautiful Owned Well Newer Open Perfect	Great New Large Nice Beautiful Spacious Newer Well Open Huge	New Great Large Beautiful Remodeled Newer Spacious Nice Pane Open	New Large Great Beautiful Remodeled Open Spacious Custom Private Huge	New Large Great Beautiful Custom Private Open Remodeled Spacious Huge	New Custom Large Great Private Open Beautiful Spacious Gourmet Remodeled	New Private Large Custom Great Gourmet Beautiful Open Formal Spacious
St. Louis	New Large Great Newer Updated Lower Finished Beautiful Ranch Open	Large Great New Custom Beautiful Open Lower Finished Spacious Newer	Custom Large Great New Private Beautiful Lower Open Finished Spacious	Custom Large Great Lower New Beautiful Private Finished Hearth Spacious	Custom Private Great Large Hearth Beautiful Lower New Luxury Finished	Custom Great Private Large Hearth Lower Beautiful Finished New Gourmet	Custom Large Hearth Lower Great Private Beautiful Finished Fabulous Gourmet

Three reasons why Kayak sets the standard

OK, I know firsthand that there are more reasons why Travel is unlike Real Estate then there are similarities. Real Estate is fundamentally local; I do not believe REALTORS® can/will be disintermediated; the purchase cycle happens over months if not years; and so on.

But despite all that, I still look to Kayak.com for inspiration more often than I’d care to admit.

Full disclosure, there are a few extenuating circumstances that influence how much I pay attention to it. First, two of our Board members at Roost sit on the Board of Kayak as well, so we certainly share some DNA. Second, I know one of the founders, Paul English, relatively well and he is never shy about giving advice. Finally, Kayak is my Mother in-law’s favorite travel site…nuff said.

Never-the-less, I’m unabashed in my belief that they set the standard for search in ways that apply to many, many verticals - not the least of which is Real Estate. And I think some of the principles that make them so good at what they do, can, and should inspire us in this space as well.

First, Kayak does one thing and one thing extremely well.

From content…to community…to widgets, the allure of offering all the various types of information & gadgets a consumer could possibly want is incredibly seductive. This is equally true in Travel (if not more so). And yet, Kayak has done an incredibly good job of being disciplined & staying true to its mission of search. When I visit as a consumer, there is no question what I’m going to get. I’m going to get laser focused search and it’s going to be better, easier, and faster than what I’d find anywhere else. I don’t use Kayak to get reviews of places to vacation. Perhaps that’s on there somewhere and I don’t know it. But when I want to search through a lot of airfare or hotels, I’m going to use Kayak and know it will deliver.

Second, they are constantly iterating

Every time I visit Kayak I come across some new candy (in fact that’s what inspired this post). And I’m not talking about extraneous features. I’m talking about candy that improves my experience of doing the core of what I’m there for. In my latest visit I discovered that they had added a mouse over event that makes it easier for me to filter on one flight’s time from within the search result. Very cool - see below. I feel like every time I come back…there’s something new like this that just works.

Third, they are obsessed with customer feedback

One of my first experiences with Kayak involved emailing them a bug. You’d think this would be a bad thing, but amazingly it turned out to be just the opposite. That same night their Chief Architect emailed me back personally to ask a follow up question, and they had the bug fixed the next day. That blew me away on pretty much every level. Can you imagine if you had a customer service issue with a big retail store and a VP level person emailed you that night?

This all adds up…

I was at a online marketing summit where someone asked how many folks in the room had used Kayak, and probably 2/3 of the room put up their hand. Then they asked how many had discovered Kayak via an ad and virtually no one raised their hand. Almost all those folks had heard about it from a friend. That is a powerful dynamic my friend…and no accident.

We try very, very hard at Roost.com to emulate Kayak in order to make it easier for folks to search through accurate & up to date homes for sale. I think we have a long way to go, but let’s hope a little of it is starting to rub off…

alex

Alex Chang
CEO
Roost.com
2008 Inman Innovator Award Finalist