Instead, why not fill your website with everything a home owner may be interested in no matter where they are in the home ownership cycle? Neighborhood news, school information, demographics, crime stats, local business information, etc. — this is all information of interest to buyers as part of the process of finding a place to live. I covered some available sources for local data quite some time ago, but one to add to that list is Outside.in. They aggregate news from blogs down to the ZIP and neighborhood level and allow others to integrate that data into their websites (and BTW – if you have a local blog, you should syndicate your content to Outside.in as a way to get traffic). Here is an example page for the Brentwood community in St Louis with data from Outside.in integrated by Eric Stegemann, who runs the Tribus Group.

So, is your website maintaining relevance throughout the homeownership cycle?

I wanted to congratulate fellow Geek Estate contributor Steve Jagger (and his friend Shane Gibson) for releasing a new book in the Amazon store for $25 — Sociable – “How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside-down”

I haven’t read the book, but Steve does know a thing or two about social media, so I feel comfortable recommending trying the book. If you’re feeling nice and want to help Steve promote his new book, here are some resources to help you write a blog post.

Is having no IDX search on an agent or broker website better than having a really bad search experience?

What do you think?

If you have feedback or suggested changes to the policy, please leave them on this post and I’ll update the policy as I see fit.

Note: Thank you to Jay Thompson for letting me use his policy as an outline for Geek Estate’s policy.

What closings did you have in 2009 from social media; what sources and how many units. What ROI?

Any feedback for Kathy regarding what ROI you saw from social media in 2009? Are you tracking it? Do you have a strategic social media plan for 2010 to improve your ROI?

Good thing you have done here, Thanks!

Simon Salloom LA Times: Southern California home prices and sales improve in November
Southern California’s real estate industry, decimated by the mortgage meltdown and housing bust, is stirring to life again — even making hiring plans — as home prices bounce back.
Find more information about Santa Monica and Brentwood Real Estate here

What does this have to do with the topic of the post he commented on? Nothing. It’s clear as day Simon obviously didn’t review my presentation prior to commenting, nor did he read the Anti Comment Manifesto Justin posted last week. The comment is pure SPAM. Here is a short statement to Simon if he is reading this post:

Dear Simon:

I’m guessing you simply hired the wrong SEO firm to build links for your site and this was their mistake. However, this comment reflects extremely poorly on you and I strongly suggest you fire that SEO company immediately. Spamming blog comments is clearly NOT the way to build links to your site and is going to severely damage your online reputation in the process; any SEO shop that engages in these tactics is not worth the time of day. Hiring the wrong SEO firm is a mistake many others have made, so don’t dwell on this mistake. Instead, do a bit of research prior to hiring your next SEO consultant (you can start here) or decide to dive in and do your link building yourself. One of the social media survival tips listed in my presentation is a quote by Napoleon — “Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence“. I’ll try to give you the benefit of doubt on this one — I sincerely hope that you simply don’t know any better and are not purposely trying to SPAM Geek Estate with crap.

Though Disqus makes moderating comments easy since I can do everything via e-mail, I’ve still been getting extremely annoyed with the volume of spam comments over the past few weeks. It just never seems to end. As a result, I’ve been contemplating writing a “Blog Comment Policy” for Geek Estate Blog so I have something to point to if people question the moderation policies on this blog, and to point to spammers in the future if they ask why I deleted their comment. This comment tipped me over the top and you’ll be seeing a Comment Policy here on Geek Estate later this week.

RepMgmt-VREBC

It was definitely a new experience doing a presentation to an audience that I could neither see nor hear with my own two eyes and ears, but live and learn! Thanks to Jim Cronin and the Tomato gang for organizing the 2nd Virtual RE BarCamp!! If you got value out of today’s sessions, please consider donating to the Warmath Charity.

What do buyers care about when evaluating potential areas to live?

Here are the top 15 factors according to research Zillow.com (my employer) did several years ago when deciding what information to include on our “local” pages (I really don’t think these factors have changed):

1. Crime statistics
2. Type of neighborhood (urban/suburban/rural)
3. Average home prices
4. Types of homes (sfr vs condos)
5. Percentage of homes owned/rented
6. Home appreciation rates
7. Property tax rates
8. Price/square foot
9. Info on nearby health facilities
10. Age of homes
11. Location of nearby neighborhoods
12. Proximity to highways
13. Quality of parks/recreational facilities
14. Convenience to restaurants, cafes, shopping
15. Population density

Note: The results came from 193 responses from Zillow users who had all indicated they were moving within the next 1-2 years.

Another interesting data point is that only 33% of the 193 people who responded said they had already decided which area or neighborhood they want to live in, which means 67% of respondents had yet to determine the area they wanted to live. Home buyers looking to move in the next 1-2 years are spending time online researching the areas they are interested in, and I’d argue strongly that every agent and broker website should help them do that research to maximize the possibility of converting those future buyers to clients. Since there are a number of extremely successful agents and brokers who have first hand experience and data from their own sites who read Geek Estate, I thought I’d try to get some additional perspectives on this issue by posting it here. Regarding helping future home buyers determine where to live, a few questions come to mind:

• Are you providing information covering the factors above to help home buyers answer the question of where to live?
• What have you seen work? What hasn’t worked?
• What “local” information on your website do buyers tell you appeal to them?
• What type of data converts web traffic to registrations/contacts at the highest rate?
• What type of “lifestyle” questions do you find yourself answering over and over?
• Are you utilizing neighborhood videos for the areas you cover?
• What real estate data sources are you using to fulfill the consumer appetite for information?

What got me thinking about this today? The rentals category in Zillow Advice. For instance, here are several questions that present an opportunity to engage with future home buyers:

• Carson City, NV — what can happen if my landlord does not give me a contract to sign to rent his/her home?
• Temple City, CA — What is reasonable rent for 3 bedroom 1,200 sq. foot single family residence in Temple City Calif.?
• National City, CA — how much can a house 660 sq ft, 2 bdrm 1 ba on a large lot, rent for?

Are there real estate professionals who have effectively used social media marketing to help people through the rental process and ended up turning those people into clients? What sites do you utilize to connect with renters? And, of course, let me know in the comments if you think this strategy is flawed…