Selfishly, I hope PageRank is a factor… It'd be nice to get some benefit from having PR5 (not an incredible PR, but not bad for a real estate blog). Haven't really seen many places that PR makes much of a difference. In my little SEO mind PR is grossly over-rated.
I think Justin's point is a good one. Picking key cities / communities will be important.
Good point Nick. Since there is a cost involved, many agents will not partake. Some more will likely not understand that if they install an indexable IDX solution today, they will not automagically have 41,000 Phoenix area listings indexed tomorrow.
Some will buy in, give the plugin a week, and proclaim “it doesn't work”. Those that do buy in and carefully craft content and navigation around the listings will be pleased. IMO.
Who knows if PR is going to be a factor. Everything I hear these days is that PR has been devalued considerably in Google algorithm. It is just one of many factors that could go into, for lack of a better term, the SEO power of a site.
I launched a site for a friend that used the LP plugin. I had 8 different results pages and 8 different details page. Google indexed 2,100 pages within 30 days. I thought this was in 3 months but it was actually a lot faster.) Better, I think I know why those pages designs were indexed and why the other page styles were not. Best, they were in either the #1 or #2 spot on Google, crushing Realtor.com, Zillow, etc…
This made me very happy.
I was curious about duplicate content so I analyzed the pages of all major competitors – after all, we all did have the same listing content and they were “authority” websites. Why were we crushing them? What was the difference?
That was easy to discover.
Our next step was to create a plugin that would take a keyword, for example “homes” and optimize the entire internal structure of the site automatically for SEO – think all tags, descriptions, internal linking, etc…optimizing for the name of the town + homes and boosting the value of similar pages.
Ok, that's as much as I'm giving away : ) except to say that we also have a way of adding non-duplicate keyword rich content that changes whenever the spiders visit. (This is especially important when we put up different sites in the same market.)
My partners and I are debating whether to enter the IDX playing field, or just keep our secrets for our own partners to dominate individual markets by optimizing a number of sites this way (yes, yes, on different server farms w/different ip addresses) and monopolizing the PPC space by running ads to those sites as well (all owned of course by different corporations with different credit cards, etc…)
The hilarious thing is that I'm not an SEO professional at all. I just read what a lot of people have said about “best practices” and then just tested the effects of each strategy as much as I could, and then used the wordpress plugin structure to do each one automatically but with flexibility to allow more testing and the use of different strategies by different agents. (I was really tired of SEO guys I knew 'speculating' with no data to back what they said up.)
Oh, @ United Realty of Texas, you want as many pages as possible indexed not only for visitors but because they can all link to your home page or other page you may want to optimize. When the listing “expires” but if it's still indexed by google, it's pretty easy to have a click to that page automatically redirect the visitor to another one. The secret here though is to first try and get the “Results” pages indexed. When this kind of page is indexed, the link will usually define a specific set of property criteria, so even when some listings disappear, new ones take their place. If the other SEO factors are in place, I think Google likes new content above all else.
My opinion on the IDX vs. Blogging “which generates more business” debate is that when people are browsing they want to use a great IDX solution and that is where 95% of their time will be spent. But, as soon as they think “Hmmmm…should I register, schedule an appointment, contact the agent” etc…then most WILL click and read the blog and about us page…or other pages to see if they can trust the agent. That's where blogging becomes valuable.
This is going to be very interesting over the next year as this plays out.
My best guess is that there will be some strong sites that can do very well in a broad sense right of the bat by taking advantage of the existing power of the site and clean structure. The difficulty over time for these sites may be trying to compete with very active niche (geographic or other) sites with people that are very active in producing compelling content.
For the little guy I think there is a real opportunity to focus on a small area of real expertise and use the relevant listings as one of the types of content offered to visitors.
Feels like an opportunity to dominate some neighborhoods/areas with very strong landing pages. In my experience listings offer an excellent opportunity to facilitate registration. and registration allows me to always have a pool of people to prospect and that's good!
If I were google…I would do everything I could to refer the expert and when everyone has the listings it will probably be the surrounding content that helps google decide.
I'll give DS some credit in saying that although they mention the possible SEO benefits in their literature, they don't stress it. If you look at past results of other built in IDX launches you'll see that the first person that operates the IDX gets immediate benefits but as more users get added that benefit is lowered exponentially. No matter what you do to try and avoid the duplicate content issue (which I know some other people are working on) as long as you have an IDX system that other people in the same area are using, you'll have duplicate content.
As I started to write my response to your post I saw Jim Duncan's comment, which pretty much sums it up. Hand wringing over SEO is something that entirely too many real estate professionals spend entirely too much time and, in some cases, entirely too much of their commission love on. Content is still King and when it comes to building a winning web/social media strategy, hyper-local is the only way to go. I am asked often for examples of real estate professionals who “get it” when it comest to localized web marketing – just like this comment thread, Jim Duncan is at the top of that list. Don't get me wrong, managing search efforts is an important part of a web strategy but if you're looking at an IDX solution or a blog plug-in to be the panacea to your web traffic issues, spend the $30 mo. printing some b&w flyers and go down to an apartment complex in search of first time buyer windshields.
Would Google give the near duplicate content little or no juice? Yep.
Will adding a lot of near duplicates dilute the first adopter's juice? Probably.
Will Google allow several pages all with very similar content to all rank well for “123 Oak St”? Probably not.
Cool plug-in. It'll be fun to watch how it plays out.
torontojulie
February 13, 2010 | 1:36 pm
Well… I think it’s fair to say that pundits qualified it with “the bottom is near”. As the supply dwindles prices will stabilize. They can still be high, sure, and maybe by many considered unaffordable, but if your alternative is to rent something and the spread between the buying and renting is much more narrow than it is today I have to agree that you got a bottom.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, I was only talking about #RTB, I wasn't talking about chopping down a forest, stoking a burn-them-at-the-stake sized bonfire and purifying the unworthy, the unholy, the unwashed and the average and ordinary! There won't be many left?
Seriously radical and uncommonly logical. I mean, don't they keep stats in most pay for performance professions?
Ok, I'm feeling woosey and a bit sick to my stomach. I'm gonna take a break, star this, and reread it 5 or 7 times.
Love it, need to print this baby and soak it up until I have time to digest and comment. Thanks for taking the time to share. Mike
dukelong
February 18, 2010 | 8:39 am
Ok, Let's start….and we do that how?
robhahn
February 18, 2010 | 8:40 am
Agreed generally with your thrust… but I wonder why the MLS has to be involved at all.
Why wouldn't the enlightened brokerage compile that data itself and make it available to consumers at no charge? Redfin does some of that; it could easily do more.
Every broker can request MLS performance data, and is routinely provided such data. For their own agents, they can easily disseminate that data (opt-in and such are easy to deal with when the people are in your own company).
So while I agree that transparency and performance metrics are good things, and likely to lead to competitive advantage, I just don't see the need to involve MLS directors, boards, association executives and the like. The brokerage would do it, based on the profit motive, if those stats and that level of transparency were things that consumers wanted.
If the consumer doesn't care about that, then a pay-for service is also going to fail, so…
MLS's house the most complete set of such data for given market areas, transcending brokerages, which is a must to properly establish The Bar for a given market area. They can also maintain a degree of objectivity that individual brokerages may not subscribe to. It's about time MLS's evolved their value proposition from compensation reciprocity.
Redfin and other independent brokerages can only offer a segmented view the greater picture, limited to the performance related metrics of their indigenous agents. I suppose if enough brokerages participated it could work, but it would be a fractured drawn out process at best…without (close to) 100% participation and some standardized, objective rules The Bar is skewed. MLS's have the ability to fast track this sort of initiative.
As a consumer, would you like to know an agents performance metrics vs market averages before hiring them? Their Facebook page is real pretty and all but….
If the consumer doesn't care about this sort of information and transparency then they should stop bitching about how the real estate industry and the agents that serve it 'suck'…
Performance metrics are fantastic and I love to show off that my firm got a higher sale price to list price ratio *with* shorter market time than our competition in 2009, research that I was able to do with our MLS data. Still, it's easy to get distracted with performance metrics. I find consumers still want trustworthiness more than anything in their real estate professional.
robhahn
February 18, 2010 | 5:49 pm
Thing is, most brokerages in most markets have the ability to track performance within the MLS. There are software packages available, most of them built right into the MLS. It would take very little work to create a MLS average, and then show the agents within Brokerage XYZ and how they stack up.
Once you enter the murky waters of MLS governance, it isn't clear to me that the desired end-result would be what you're seeking. The motives for the MLS's to do this are rather unclear; they don't serve the consumer, after all, but the professional.
On the whole, I rather think it best if we left it up to the broker and agent and the profit motive to drive the change.
This would be a super cool conversation to have in person, with people you trust. The layers, eddies and whirlpools around this topic can't accurately be expressed and discussed by writing a comment, you could write a novella about it if you had the time.
Also, because of the public nature of comments, some of the candid thoughts, arguments for/against, fears and speculation on the matter prevent many from joining the conversation (IMHO).
A post as rich as this should have 500 comments, instead, it's as silent as a breeze.
Absolutely correct Ken…dead on. Its a shame, but I understand. Hopefully this is a conversation that can begin within local trusted groups and grow organically…
Very interesting point made you've made here, Jeff. I would be willing to participate in a agent/broker performance rating system.
But I think the main thing I take away from this is that we need to first define where the bar is now so we can begin to determine how to improve things across the board. After all, if we don't know where the bar is now how can we determine how and where to raise it?
unworthyme
February 19, 2010 | 5:33 pm
I have been an agent for 2 1/2 years – my wife and I “The Lee Team” are top agents. I am a licensed commercial pilot, 12 years electrical engineer and ordained minister… but after reading your blog I feel inferior and unworthy. I think I'll become a professional blogger and blog myself into being above the meandering crowd of mealy mouthed, less than average real estate agents and learn to worship the professional agents.
This may be a different view, but in many ways the public are to blame for the proliferation of poor agents. In countless situations they hire their friends and relatives, people who have little experience, and then are surprised by the services they receive. Consumers make decisions about real estate agents completely different from how they would hire any other professional – maybe its because they don't consider RE agents to be professionals.
The biggest need to raise the realtor bar a few limbo notches is to close the ever widening technology gap brokers are “blind folded but reaching for their wallets to stop” gap. You need to embrace the technology, give the buyer, seller what they want. Completely, quickly, consistently. You will never get everyone in the real estate orchestra pit to embrace it and build their own. But cookie cutter, throw $4000 at it options are not helping. This is the information society..and the “Global Village” wants information on community, properties, you the broker who they hope is real, warm, genuine and dependable. The world is the market, the globe is getting smaller and marketing in highly specific ways to capture more than your share of all the niche audiences is the sport, the game, the thrill. Unless real estate is just a 9-5 job, a surface experience for you.
ashokeban
April 19, 2010 | 7:10 am
Its a great pleasure reading your post. Its full of information I am looking for and I love to post a comment that “The content of your post is awesome” Great work.
There aea a lot of reasons why DOM is a misleading statistic. Sure, I can sell homes more quickly if I lowball the offer price, it makes my DOM go down, but my client suffers. Where I decide to work is also a reflection. If I live in a heavily populated area (lets say, the Bay Area) there are lots of Buyer and Sellers and the pressure on availablity causes rapid turnover. If, however, I live in a small town far from an urban area, there are few properties available and fewer people to buy them.
If you are looking for a metric that works, simplistic answers like you show in you article will not solve the problem.
However, raising the bar is a good answer, if the DREs are willing to give up the fess they collect from sub-average agents that do nto produce a living or work part time.
The solution is clear: when investing, if you see use of “dogshit” in the instrument description or prospectus, steer clear!
robhahn
April 26, 2010 | 7:51 am
The strength of 7DS, I think, is in our diversity of opinion among other things. In this case, Jeff, I think you're missing some important critical pieces of data. As such, your last paragraph couldn't be more wrong.
To start, the primary “victim” in the Goldman situation was a yield junkie German investment fund. In fact, it was so bad that the fund fired the guy responsible for most of the buying, and yet kept on doing it. From the article:
IKB would approach banks with a request for a specially tailored CDO that matched their investment strategy of seeking out exposure to the riskiest bonds, because these came with the highest yields. And according to bank staffers involved in these transactions, which included not only Goldman but its German rival Deutsche Bank, they paid tens of millions of dollars in fees to get into these deals.
Now, the investors in IKB probably got screwed, but it seems a real stretch to say that these guys were somehow duped into buying subprime paper. They were actively looking for the worst pieces of crap you could get in hopes of generating yield.
The article makes clear that IKB was a very sophisticated investor: “They had a big research team of 20 guys and would inspect the asset quality outside of what any rater was saying about the bond.” These guys knew the risks and took them, in search of returns.
I hardly call IKB or its investors “unwitting pawns”. Nor do I call what Goldman did “sinister and sophisticated” manipulation.
Now, if the argument is that IKB's investors were comprised of pension funds and mutual funds and so on whose beneficiaries are unwitting consumers… okay… but that's why IKB and mutual funds and pension funds and professional managers, right? If those guys didn't do their job of protecting the investor… why are we blaming Goldman Sachs or “Wall Street” for delivering to clients (like IKB) precisely what they want: crappy subprime paper?
Having delivered such crappy subprime paper to yield junkies, are we blaming Goldman or others for having bought CDS on such crappy paper?
In the Goldman situation you are correct, IKB was the 'Primary victim', albeit a sophisticated outfit that 'shoulda know better' who was buying into these CDO's for different reasons:
“They would borrow short term debt on the commercial paper market in order to fund their purchases of mortgage bonds and CDOs. The difference between the costs of borrowing and the yield on the investment assets was the source of their profits. The assets of the conduits served as collateral for the short-term loans, which meant lenders to Rhineland and Rhinebridge would be entitled to their assets if they couldn't make good on their debt.”
IKB knew what they were getting into, so I wouldn't classify them as a victim…
Goldmans Abacus fund (based on the Magnetar blueprint) was but one of many and the trickle down effect, affected many more down stream, all the way to main street.
So, on the black and white issue of 'Did Goldman do anything illegal'? No, likely not- For the reasons you outline. They were just putting together securities, and engaging in tried and true practices of high risk, high yield, hedge your bet strategies…use the high yields to pay the high insurance premiums until the security defaulted, then really cash in.
Where the sinister (unethical?) part comes in, is that these funds enabled, created if you will, a market for dogshit mortgages that inflated the bubble…When it finally did pop, it was magnitudes larger than it could have been.
Should consumers been more careful about getting into mortgages that they couldn't afford? Yes. But it was a 'Great time to buy'!?!
These funds shorted the housing market. Absolutely brilliant Wall Street strategy…that isn't likely to be seen that way on main street.
robhahn
April 26, 2010 | 1:40 pm
I don't disagree that main street won't see things the same way. After all, there were periods when Congress (and Main Street) agitated to prevent short sales of equities, period.
That doesn't mean they're right.
The part I don't quite get is why you think these funds enabled a market for dogshit mortgages. If the demand isn't there, the product would fail. The trouble, it seems to me, was with yield-chasing institutions who needed to take greater risks in order to generate the kinds of returns they were promising investors.
The real problem for me is that these funds, once they failed because risk caught up with them, go around asking for government handouts and bailouts. And our masters in Washington, at the Fed, at the SEC, at the Treasury bail them out and make arguments about “collapse of the financial system”. That's had a greater impact on Main Street than any Wall St. machination.
Your point is well-taken, that these geniuses on Wall St. created some products that are the finance equivalent of porn. Sure, they're legal, and even “ethical” in some cases, but I wouldn't want my Mom to know that's how I make a living.
Funny you should mention the prevention of short sales. The uptick rule was removed in 2007 and reinstated in 2009…but thats another topic for another time.
“The part I don't quite get is why you think these funds enabled a market for dogshit mortgages. If the demand isn't there, the product would fail. The trouble, it seems to me, was with yield-chasing institutions who needed to take greater risks in order to generate the kinds of returns they were promising investors.”
1. Timing. By 2005 the first round of Sub-Prime mortgages had completed their fixed periods and were coming out dirty. Magnetar Capital and their elegant fund strategy began in 2005. This was about the time when mortgage conduits began rolling out very niche-y Sub-Prime mortgages with huge incentives…like no verification of mortgage/rent required, rolling 30-60-90 day lates = still qualified, 1 day out of Bankruptcy, 'stated wage earner' type of dogshit…effective rewriting the initial Sub-Prime crowd (and ushering in a new heard) into a new, extra toxic tranche of mortgages. 2 year ARMS with 3 year pre-payment penalties were sooo 2003.
2. The product did fail- Again. Only this time some well adjusted hedge funds did it right and banked on the losses they knew were coming. They needed even higher risk securities with the accompanying yields to pay investors (for a little while) and the premiums for the short. Instead of allowing the market to self-correct, these funds inflated the bubble further by fueling the market with this type of credit…demand from consumers, mortgage and real estate professionals never waned one bit. This was finance porn, an orgy of sorts, and more people paid to play and/or watch than will ever admit.
Demand on Wall Street is no longer there because 'all markets are cyclical' or something like that…the lights got turned on, the party's over to the point of qualifying for a mortgage today is the antithesis of 2005. People and property who are well qualified are being turned down because there is no appetite for a simple low yield annuity in an emotionally unstable market where the underlying assets are still probably overvalued. There are bigger dollars to be made elsewhere…On to the next one.
In the words of Def Leppard- It was better to burn out than fade away…
The real estate closer speeds through their explanations and then says 'sign on the dot'. I am also a title examiner – started in the seventies before the massive mortgage assignments started.I observed the owners of the title companies get richer by the day off the consumer's money greed got the best of all of them.
Amen. It's damn funny to watch the talking bobble heads on TV predict what's going to happen next, what ever they say, they look like bafoons the next day.
I feel for the guys who are still depended upon to do it because the public is conditioned to expect a level of accuracy. Its a slippery slope at best. Kinda like predicting the weather…whats the difference between partly sunny vs mostly cloudy? There's always a chance for rain, the occasional storm and even rarer 'natural' disaster.
In any case- if someone actually does qualify to buy or refi for a rate thats economically favorable, I'd be far less concerned with trying to time the market and focus on closing the loan…
I had to escape from ActiveRain to read this here… I guess because of emotions running high there.
I must live under a rock. I had never heard the acronym PIIG or PIG, I guess I don't pay enough attention to what is going on in Europe. At least I had seen tweets more than anything about things in Europe being why interest rates are so low here NOW.
Economic forecasting in general does seem about as reliable as weather forecasting has been. Emotions… hmmm.
Thats funny Maureen, I was initially rolling with a weather forecasting analogy. I actually got the estrogen and PMS analogy idea from a good female friend while we were discussing the state of the market.
Glad you put emotions aside and thought enough to stop by and leave a comment 'over here'
Same as Maureen I had to leave Active Rain to read this. To be honest, I didn't really care about the topic- just wanted to see what got so many women upset. I don't see the big deal. I've said worse.
Jeff, very, very pissed right now that I can't reblog this particular content. Oh, well. Maybe I'll try another approach. I won't get the points for it at all, but it will be well worth it.
Well you can throw all that logical shit out the window. There are days when stocks rise and rates fall.
Certainly could be considered an understatement. We've been working ourselves out of the stock market, and have done a fairly decent job of pulling portions out when the market is doing well. Lately, this has been next to impossible to do.
A bit of clarification…Although I state 'protracted depressed home values', that doesn't necessarily mean falling home prices as much as it means treading a saw toothed bottom for quite a bit of time.
Jeff- I just found this through the incoming link. Thanks for the mention. One thing I would add onto the posterous section. Take the time to have it connected into your site as a subdomain. You can add some great amounts of Google juice by having this be an easy simple place to add more & more content to your page quickly & easily. When you have it as http://jeremyblanton.posterous.com I am giving that juice to posterous, whereas when I switch it to media.210consulting.com I then get that juice.
Good wrap up, I am now off to look for part 2.
DrugLord
July 5, 2010 | 10:59 pm
I will tell you another financial paradox similar to your drug lords metaphor. Banks supposed to be out of business if there was no bail out from the government. The government bailed out the banks and then the banks started to sue people who couldn't pay mortgage and take their houses away. Now the government forgot that money also comes from people who pay taxes. So banks were saved with tax payers' money… and then banks started killing the people who paid their bail out.
AlysonAmber
July 10, 2010 | 1:03 am
Banks can easily be compared to drug dealers because loans could be interpreted as suffering from a drug addiction or something like that. People are suffering bad and the financial crisis doesn't seem to get any better for the normal people who work from 9 to 5.
StevenTaylor
August 10, 2010 | 6:11 am
'm amazed of what I have just read. The law is very weird and not even a civil procedure could have saved the fraud victim here. That is why we need to create better laws that cover such problems. If it were me creating the law, I would sentence such a criminal to death. That would teach them to play with someone's home and of course someone's implicit future. __________________________________________ payment processing
Selfishly, I hope PageRank is a factor… It'd be nice to get some benefit from having PR5 (not an incredible PR, but not bad for a real estate blog). Haven't really seen many places that PR makes much of a difference. In my little SEO mind PR is grossly over-rated.
I think Justin's point is a good one. Picking key cities / communities will be important.
Good point Nick. Since there is a cost involved, many agents will not partake. Some more will likely not understand that if they install an indexable IDX solution today, they will not automagically have 41,000 Phoenix area listings indexed tomorrow.
Some will buy in, give the plugin a week, and proclaim “it doesn't work”. Those that do buy in and carefully craft content and navigation around the listings will be pleased. IMO.
Thanks Jeff. It's getting there, still have a long way to go. It's a marathon, not a sprint…
Who knows if PR is going to be a factor. Everything I hear these days is that PR has been devalued considerably in Google algorithm. It is just one of many factors that could go into, for lack of a better term, the SEO power of a site.
I launched a site for a friend that used the LP plugin. I had 8 different results pages and 8 different details page. Google indexed 2,100 pages within 30 days. I thought this was in 3 months but it was actually a lot faster.) Better, I think I know why those pages designs were indexed and why the other page styles were not. Best, they were in either the #1 or #2 spot on Google, crushing Realtor.com, Zillow, etc…
This made me very happy.
I was curious about duplicate content so I analyzed the pages of all major competitors – after all, we all did have the same listing content and they were “authority” websites. Why were we crushing them? What was the difference?
That was easy to discover.
Our next step was to create a plugin that would take a keyword, for example “homes” and optimize the entire internal structure of the site automatically for SEO – think all tags, descriptions, internal linking, etc…optimizing for the name of the town + homes and boosting the value of similar pages.
Ok, that's as much as I'm giving away : ) except to say that we also have a way of adding non-duplicate keyword rich content that changes whenever the spiders visit. (This is especially important when we put up different sites in the same market.)
My partners and I are debating whether to enter the IDX playing field, or just keep our secrets for our own partners to dominate individual markets by optimizing a number of sites this way (yes, yes, on different server farms w/different ip addresses) and monopolizing the PPC space by running ads to those sites as well (all owned of course by different corporations with different credit cards, etc…)
The hilarious thing is that I'm not an SEO professional at all. I just read what a lot of people have said about “best practices” and then just tested the effects of each strategy as much as I could, and then used the wordpress plugin structure to do each one automatically but with flexibility to allow more testing and the use of different strategies by different agents. (I was really tired of SEO guys I knew 'speculating' with no data to back what they said up.)
Oh, @ United Realty of Texas, you want as many pages as possible indexed not only for visitors but because they can all link to your home page or other page you may want to optimize. When the listing “expires” but if it's still indexed by google, it's pretty easy to have a click to that page automatically redirect the visitor to another one. The secret here though is to first try and get the “Results” pages indexed. When this kind of page is indexed, the link will usually define a specific set of property criteria, so even when some listings disappear, new ones take their place. If the other SEO factors are in place, I think Google likes new content above all else.
Whoops. I shut up now.
Cheers!
My opinion on the IDX vs. Blogging “which generates more business” debate is that when people are browsing they want to use a great IDX solution and that is where 95% of their time will be spent. But, as soon as they think “Hmmmm…should I register, schedule an appointment, contact the agent” etc…then most WILL click and read the blog and about us page…or other pages to see if they can trust the agent. That's where blogging becomes valuable.
This is going to be very interesting over the next year as this plays out.
My best guess is that there will be some strong sites that can do very well in a broad sense right of the bat by taking advantage of the existing power of the site and clean structure. The difficulty over time for these sites may be trying to compete with very active niche (geographic or other) sites with people that are very active in producing compelling content.
For the little guy I think there is a real opportunity to focus on a small area of real expertise and use the relevant listings as one of the types of content offered to visitors.
Feels like an opportunity to dominate some neighborhoods/areas with very strong landing pages. In my experience listings offer an excellent opportunity to facilitate registration. and registration allows me to always have a pool of people to prospect and that's good!
If I were google…I would do everything I could to refer the expert and when everyone has the listings it will probably be the surrounding content that helps google decide.
I'll give DS some credit in saying that although they mention the possible SEO benefits in their literature, they don't stress it. If you look at past results of other built in IDX launches you'll see that the first person that operates the IDX gets immediate benefits but as more users get added that benefit is lowered exponentially. No matter what you do to try and avoid the duplicate content issue (which I know some other people are working on) as long as you have an IDX system that other people in the same area are using, you'll have duplicate content.
As I started to write my response to your post I saw Jim Duncan's comment, which pretty much sums it up. Hand wringing over SEO is something that entirely too many real estate professionals spend entirely too much time and, in some cases, entirely too much of their commission love on. Content is still King and when it comes to building a winning web/social media strategy, hyper-local is the only way to go. I am asked often for examples of real estate professionals who “get it” when it comest to localized web marketing – just like this comment thread, Jim Duncan is at the top of that list. Don't get me wrong, managing search efforts is an important part of a web strategy but if you're looking at an IDX solution or a blog plug-in to be the panacea to your web traffic issues, spend the $30 mo. printing some b&w flyers and go down to an apartment complex in search of first time buyer windshields.
Would there be a duplicate content penalty? Nah.
Would Google give the near duplicate content little or no juice? Yep.
Will adding a lot of near duplicates dilute the first adopter's juice? Probably.
Will Google allow several pages all with very similar content to all rank well for “123 Oak St”? Probably not.
Cool plug-in. It'll be fun to watch how it plays out.
Well… I think it’s fair to say that pundits qualified it with “the bottom is near”. As the supply dwindles prices will stabilize. They can still be high, sure, and maybe by many considered unaffordable, but if your alternative is to rent something and the spread between the buying and renting is much more narrow than it is today I have to agree that you got a bottom.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, I was only talking about #RTB, I wasn't talking about chopping down a forest, stoking a burn-them-at-the-stake sized bonfire and purifying the unworthy, the unholy, the unwashed and the average and ordinary! There won't be many left?
Seriously radical and uncommonly logical. I mean, don't they keep stats in most pay for performance professions?
Ok, I'm feeling woosey and a bit sick to my stomach. I'm gonna take a break, star this, and reread it 5 or 7 times.
Cheers and thanks….I think?
Love it, need to print this baby and soak it up until I have time to digest and comment. Thanks for taking the time to share. Mike
Ok, Let's start….and we do that how?
Agreed generally with your thrust… but I wonder why the MLS has to be involved at all.
Why wouldn't the enlightened brokerage compile that data itself and make it available to consumers at no charge? Redfin does some of that; it could easily do more.
Every broker can request MLS performance data, and is routinely provided such data. For their own agents, they can easily disseminate that data (opt-in and such are easy to deal with when the people are in your own company).
So while I agree that transparency and performance metrics are good things, and likely to lead to competitive advantage, I just don't see the need to involve MLS directors, boards, association executives and the like. The brokerage would do it, based on the profit motive, if those stats and that level of transparency were things that consumers wanted.
If the consumer doesn't care about that, then a pay-for service is also going to fail, so…
-rsh
MLS's house the most complete set of such data for given market areas, transcending brokerages, which is a must to properly establish The Bar for a given market area. They can also maintain a degree of objectivity that individual brokerages may not subscribe to.
It's about time MLS's evolved their value proposition from compensation reciprocity.
Redfin and other independent brokerages can only offer a segmented view the greater picture, limited to the performance related metrics of their indigenous agents. I suppose if enough brokerages participated it could work, but it would be a fractured drawn out process at best…without (close to) 100% participation and some standardized, objective rules The Bar is skewed.
MLS's have the ability to fast track this sort of initiative.
As a consumer, would you like to know an agents performance metrics vs market averages before hiring them? Their Facebook page is real pretty and all but….
If the consumer doesn't care about this sort of information and transparency then they should stop bitching about how the real estate industry and the agents that serve it 'suck'…
The outline is above. The general Blueprint is for another post. The specific Blueprint can be accessed by retaining 7DS Associates
Thank You Sir:) excellent and thought provoking post !!
Performance metrics are fantastic and I love to show off that my firm got a higher sale price to list price ratio *with* shorter market time than our competition in 2009, research that I was able to do with our MLS data. Still, it's easy to get distracted with performance metrics. I find consumers still want trustworthiness more than anything in their real estate professional.
Thing is, most brokerages in most markets have the ability to track performance within the MLS. There are software packages available, most of them built right into the MLS. It would take very little work to create a MLS average, and then show the agents within Brokerage XYZ and how they stack up.
Once you enter the murky waters of MLS governance, it isn't clear to me that the desired end-result would be what you're seeking. The motives for the MLS's to do this are rather unclear; they don't serve the consumer, after all, but the professional.
On the whole, I rather think it best if we left it up to the broker and agent and the profit motive to drive the change.
-rsh
This would be a super cool conversation to have in person, with people you trust. The layers, eddies and whirlpools around this topic can't accurately be expressed and discussed by writing a comment, you could write a novella about it if you had the time.
Also, because of the public nature of comments, some of the candid thoughts, arguments for/against, fears and speculation on the matter prevent many from joining the conversation (IMHO).
A post as rich as this should have 500 comments, instead, it's as silent as a breeze.
Bummer.
Absolutely correct Ken…dead on. Its a shame, but I understand. Hopefully this is a conversation that can begin within local trusted groups and grow organically…
Very interesting point made you've made here, Jeff. I would be willing to participate in a agent/broker performance rating system.
But I think the main thing I take away from this is that we need to first define where the bar is now so we can begin to determine how to improve things across the board. After all, if we don't know where the bar is now how can we determine how and where to raise it?
I have been an agent for 2 1/2 years – my wife and I “The Lee Team” are top agents. I am a licensed commercial pilot, 12 years electrical engineer and ordained minister… but after reading your blog I feel inferior and unworthy. I think I'll become a professional blogger and blog myself into being above the meandering crowd of mealy mouthed, less than average real estate agents and learn to worship the professional agents.
This may be a different view, but in many ways the public are to blame for the proliferation of poor agents. In countless situations they hire their friends and relatives, people who have little experience, and then are surprised by the services they receive. Consumers make decisions about real estate agents completely different from how they would hire any other professional – maybe its because they don't consider RE agents to be professionals.
The biggest need to raise the realtor bar a few limbo notches is to close the ever widening technology gap brokers are “blind folded but reaching for their wallets to stop” gap. You need to embrace the technology, give the buyer, seller what they want. Completely, quickly, consistently. You will never get everyone in the real estate orchestra pit to embrace it and build their own. But cookie cutter, throw $4000 at it options are not helping. This is the information society..and the “Global Village” wants information on community, properties, you the broker who they hope is real, warm, genuine and dependable. The world is the market, the globe is getting smaller and marketing in highly specific ways to capture more than your share of all the niche audiences is the sport, the game, the thrill. Unless real estate is just a 9-5 job, a surface experience for you.
Its a great pleasure reading your post. Its full of information I am looking for and I love to post a comment that “The content of your post is awesome” Great work.
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There aea a lot of reasons why DOM is a misleading statistic. Sure, I can sell homes more quickly if I lowball the offer price, it makes my DOM go down, but my client suffers. Where I decide to work is also a reflection. If I live in a heavily populated area (lets say, the Bay Area) there are lots of Buyer and Sellers and the pressure on availablity causes rapid turnover. If, however, I live in a small town far from an urban area, there are few properties available and fewer people to buy them.
If you are looking for a metric that works, simplistic answers like you show in you article will not solve the problem.
However, raising the bar is a good answer, if the DREs are willing to give up the fess they collect from sub-average agents that do nto produce a living or work part time.
The solution is clear: when investing, if you see use of “dogshit” in the instrument description or prospectus, steer clear!
The strength of 7DS, I think, is in our diversity of opinion among other things. In this case, Jeff, I think you're missing some important critical pieces of data. As such, your last paragraph couldn't be more wrong.
To start, the primary “victim” in the Goldman situation was a yield junkie German investment fund. In fact, it was so bad that the fund fired the guy responsible for most of the buying, and yet kept on doing it. From the article:
IKB would approach banks with a request for a specially tailored CDO that matched their investment strategy of seeking out exposure to the riskiest bonds, because these came with the highest yields. And according to bank staffers involved in these transactions, which included not only Goldman but its German rival Deutsche Bank, they paid tens of millions of dollars in fees to get into these deals.
Now, the investors in IKB probably got screwed, but it seems a real stretch to say that these guys were somehow duped into buying subprime paper. They were actively looking for the worst pieces of crap you could get in hopes of generating yield.
The article makes clear that IKB was a very sophisticated investor: “They had a big research team of 20 guys and would inspect the asset quality outside of what any rater was saying about the bond.” These guys knew the risks and took them, in search of returns.
I hardly call IKB or its investors “unwitting pawns”. Nor do I call what Goldman did “sinister and sophisticated” manipulation.
Now, if the argument is that IKB's investors were comprised of pension funds and mutual funds and so on whose beneficiaries are unwitting consumers… okay… but that's why IKB and mutual funds and pension funds and professional managers, right? If those guys didn't do their job of protecting the investor… why are we blaming Goldman Sachs or “Wall Street” for delivering to clients (like IKB) precisely what they want: crappy subprime paper?
Having delivered such crappy subprime paper to yield junkies, are we blaming Goldman or others for having bought CDS on such crappy paper?
-rsh
In the Goldman situation you are correct, IKB was the 'Primary victim', albeit a sophisticated outfit that 'shoulda know better' who was buying into these CDO's for different reasons:
“They would borrow short term debt on the commercial paper market in order to fund their purchases of mortgage bonds and CDOs. The difference between the costs of borrowing and the yield on the investment assets was the source of their profits. The assets of the conduits served as collateral for the short-term loans, which meant lenders to Rhineland and Rhinebridge would be entitled to their assets if they couldn't make good on their debt.”
IKB knew what they were getting into, so I wouldn't classify them as a victim…
Goldmans Abacus fund (based on the Magnetar blueprint) was but one of many and the trickle down effect, affected many more down stream, all the way to main street.
So, on the black and white issue of 'Did Goldman do anything illegal'? No, likely not- For the reasons you outline. They were just putting together securities, and engaging in tried and true practices of high risk, high yield, hedge your bet strategies…use the high yields to pay the high insurance premiums until the security defaulted, then really cash in.
Where the sinister (unethical?) part comes in, is that these funds enabled, created if you will, a market for dogshit mortgages that inflated the bubble…When it finally did pop, it was magnitudes larger than it could have been.
Should consumers been more careful about getting into mortgages that they couldn't afford? Yes. But it was a 'Great time to buy'!?!
These funds shorted the housing market. Absolutely brilliant Wall Street strategy…that isn't likely to be seen that way on main street.
I don't disagree that main street won't see things the same way. After all, there were periods when Congress (and Main Street) agitated to prevent short sales of equities, period.
That doesn't mean they're right.
The part I don't quite get is why you think these funds enabled a market for dogshit mortgages. If the demand isn't there, the product would fail. The trouble, it seems to me, was with yield-chasing institutions who needed to take greater risks in order to generate the kinds of returns they were promising investors.
The real problem for me is that these funds, once they failed because risk caught up with them, go around asking for government handouts and bailouts. And our masters in Washington, at the Fed, at the SEC, at the Treasury bail them out and make arguments about “collapse of the financial system”. That's had a greater impact on Main Street than any Wall St. machination.
Your point is well-taken, that these geniuses on Wall St. created some products that are the finance equivalent of porn. Sure, they're legal, and even “ethical” in some cases, but I wouldn't want my Mom to know that's how I make a living.
-rsh
Looks like its you and me at the water cooler
Funny you should mention the prevention of short sales. The uptick rule was removed in 2007 and reinstated in 2009…but thats another topic for another time.
“The part I don't quite get is why you think these funds enabled a market for dogshit mortgages. If the demand isn't there, the product would fail. The trouble, it seems to me, was with yield-chasing institutions who needed to take greater risks in order to generate the kinds of returns they were promising investors.”
1. Timing. By 2005 the first round of Sub-Prime mortgages had completed their fixed periods and were coming out dirty. Magnetar Capital and their elegant fund strategy began in 2005. This was about the time when mortgage conduits began rolling out very niche-y Sub-Prime mortgages with huge incentives…like no verification of mortgage/rent required, rolling 30-60-90 day lates = still qualified, 1 day out of Bankruptcy, 'stated wage earner' type of dogshit…effective rewriting the initial Sub-Prime crowd (and ushering in a new heard) into a new, extra toxic tranche of mortgages. 2 year ARMS with 3 year pre-payment penalties were sooo 2003.
2. The product did fail- Again. Only this time some well adjusted hedge funds did it right and banked on the losses they knew were coming. They needed even higher risk securities with the accompanying yields to pay investors (for a little while) and the premiums for the short. Instead of allowing the market to self-correct, these funds inflated the bubble further by fueling the market with this type of credit…demand from consumers, mortgage and real estate professionals never waned one bit. This was finance porn, an orgy of sorts, and more people paid to play and/or watch than will ever admit.
Demand on Wall Street is no longer there because 'all markets are cyclical' or something like that…the lights got turned on, the party's over to the point of qualifying for a mortgage today is the antithesis of 2005. People and property who are well qualified are being turned down because there is no appetite for a simple low yield annuity in an emotionally unstable market where the underlying assets are still probably overvalued. There are bigger dollars to be made elsewhere…On to the next one.
In the words of Def Leppard- It was better to burn out than fade away…
Government is calling Wall Street a whore while paying for her apartment, and coming by for a little sample just for stress relief.
Nice!
The real estate closer speeds through their explanations and then says 'sign on the dot'. I am also a title examiner – started in the seventies before the massive mortgage assignments started.I observed the owners of the title companies get richer by the day off the consumer's money greed got the best of all of them.
Amen. It's damn funny to watch the talking bobble heads on TV predict what's going to happen next, what ever they say, they look like bafoons the next day.
Hey Ken-
I feel for the guys who are still depended upon to do it because the public is conditioned to expect a level of accuracy. Its a slippery slope at best. Kinda like predicting the weather…whats the difference between partly sunny vs mostly cloudy? There's always a chance for rain, the occasional storm and even rarer 'natural' disaster.
In any case- if someone actually does qualify to buy or refi for a rate thats economically favorable, I'd be far less concerned with trying to time the market and focus on closing the loan…
I had to escape from ActiveRain to read this here… I guess because of emotions running high there.
I must live under a rock. I had never heard the acronym PIIG or PIG, I guess I don't pay enough attention to what is going on in Europe. At least I had seen tweets more than anything about things in Europe being why interest rates are so low here NOW.
Economic forecasting in general does seem about as reliable as weather forecasting has been.
Emotions… hmmm.
Thats funny Maureen, I was initially rolling with a weather forecasting analogy. I actually got the estrogen and PMS analogy idea from a good female friend while we were discussing the state of the market.
Glad you put emotions aside and thought enough to stop by and leave a comment 'over here'
Same as Maureen I had to leave Active Rain to read this. To be honest, I didn't really care about the topic- just wanted to see what got so many women upset. I don't see the big deal. I've said worse.
Jeff, very, very pissed right now that I can't reblog this particular content. Oh, well. Maybe I'll try another approach. I won't get the points for it at all, but it will be well worth it.
Well you can throw all that logical shit out the window. There are days when stocks rise and rates fall.
Certainly could be considered an understatement. We've been working ourselves out of the stock market, and have done a fairly decent job of pulling portions out when the market is doing well. Lately, this has been next to impossible to do.
Are we having yet?
A bit of clarification…Although I state 'protracted depressed home values', that doesn't necessarily mean falling home prices as much as it means treading a saw toothed bottom for quite a bit of time.
~jx
Jeff –
Thanks for the mention!
Wish I was at REBCCLT (is that the right hashtag?) but I did follow the tweetstream.
Can't make them all.
: )
Jeff- I just found this through the incoming link. Thanks for the mention. One thing I would add onto the posterous section. Take the time to have it connected into your site as a subdomain. You can add some great amounts of Google juice by having this be an easy simple place to add more & more content to your page quickly & easily. When you have it as http://jeremyblanton.posterous.com I am giving that juice to posterous, whereas when I switch it to media.210consulting.com I then get that juice.
Good wrap up, I am now off to look for part 2.
I will tell you another financial paradox similar to your drug lords metaphor. Banks supposed to be out of business if there was no bail out from the government. The government bailed out the banks and then the banks started to sue people who couldn't pay mortgage and take their houses away. Now the government forgot that money also comes from people who pay taxes. So banks were saved with tax payers' money… and then banks started killing the people who paid their bail out.
Banks can easily be compared to drug dealers because loans could be interpreted as suffering from a drug addiction or something like that. People are suffering bad and the financial crisis doesn't seem to get any better for the normal people who work from 9 to 5.
'm amazed of what I have just read. The law is very weird and not even a civil procedure could have saved the fraud victim here. That is why we need to create better laws that cover such problems. If it were me creating the law, I would sentence such a criminal to death. That would teach them to play with someone's home and of course someone's implicit future.
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