No, I’m not going to give you a magic link that will lead you to the ultimate real estate portal. I would gladly give you that link if I had it, but it doesn’t exist.
Matt Heaton asked a question of the ActiveRain community — “If you were going to create the ultimate informational real estate portal for consumers (buyers and sellers), what would it include?”
I thought that was a great question. It’s one I’ve been pondering since ThompsonsRealty.com went on line almost two years ago. My initial goal was to make our web site a “one-stop shop” for anything and everything someone looking for real estate info in the Phoenix area would need. I was (and still am and always will be) looking to build the ultimate real estate portal for the Phoenix market.
What information would the ultimate real estate portal include? Lots of things….
- Listings; with loads of photos. Sure there are many sites out there where people can view listings. But listings are what most real estate site visitors want to see, so my ultimate portal has to include them. No registration for this would be my choice. There are too many Trulia’s out there that don’t require it, as well as individuals sites. The ultimate real estate information portal must be a free source of information.
- Home Evaluations/Valuations. Yeah, there’s Zillow. But automated valuation methods (AVMs) frequently can’t “see” many things. “Unzillowable” factors mean that at least for now, consumers need a way to request a valuation from an agent. Some AVMs proclaim their “proprietary methods” can encompass anything. Don’t be so sure.
- Easy automated listings. In the Phoenix market, like many others, the number of listings is climbing steadily. Consumers need a way to get automated listing updates.
- Map based listings search — as an option. Some LOVE map based searches. Some loathe them. The ideal solution would provide both a map based search as well as the more traditional by location/size/style/ammenities searches. The best map based search I’ve run across yet is from Windemere (hat tip to the Rain City Guide for making me wish Century 21 was as with it as Windemere when it comes to tech stuff.)
- A community events calendar, that could be updated by users. I just recently found Trumba.com, and implemented one of their calendars on my site. A user updated calendar would be ideal, though how you’d keep the nimrod spammers off it, I don’t know.
- School information is critical. Boundary maps, testing scores, student:teacher ratios, etc are all something real estate site surfers like to find.
- Crime statistics. Yes, there are a gazillion places to find crime stats on the net. But having a nifty zip code and/or map based search of state and fed stats would be very cool.
- Demographic / Social / Economic / Housing statistics. Not just the standard age/gender/race/population type stuff. I want detailed demographics and economic data including data such as current and historical trends for housing starts, home sale prices, wages, employment/unemployment, commute times, etc. Census Bureau type stuff, but for smaller nieghborhoods than they typically provide.
- City level legal info. Easy access to city ordinances, zoning codes, building codes and permitting processes and forms.
- Neighborhood level legal info. A repository of Home Owners Association CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions — “the rules”) would be incredibly handy.
- City and neighborhood amenity info. This encompasses a LOT. Information on Parks & Recreation, children’s activities, churches and synagogues, swimming pools, libraries, sporting facilities, restaurants, shopping and other commercial operations–the list is lengthy, but you get the point.
As important as the information would be, how that information is accessed would be equally important. A portal type site needs an intuitive search capability. Extensive and deep cross-linking would be important, as well as having multiple sources for information. I don’t want to see test scores just from the school district. I want to see independent confirmation that those reported test scores are correct.
User interaction would be a key component to a great real estate portal. A blog is an obvious step in the direction given its ability to take user comments. A web based FAQ or Wiki is another avenue that allows a website user to interact with the webmaster and other users. But blog’s, FAQs and wiki’s are half-duplex communication systems–interaction can happen, but only one direction at a time. Full-duplex communication (think telephone) would be the ideal situation, but short of VoIP, I know of no current Internet based full-duplex system. Maybe that’s part of what is in store for us once we get past Web 2.0 and head to Web 3.0?
So there’s a brief run down of my vision of the ultimate real estate portal. In a nutshell, it’s all the real estate related information one could possibly need, in one place, and easily accessible. Is it possible to have the ultimate real estate portal? Sure. Basically all of the information is out there. The problem is, it is spread across hundreds of web sites and it’s hard to find. I can dig up just about any of the info I can think of. But I’m not a big enough propeller head to build the right kind of front end to assimilate it all. However, there are plenty of übergeeks out there that have the technical know-how. We just need to hook them up with people who have the time, patience and financial ability to put it all together. The information load is probably too much for the wanna-be national level Zillows and Trulias of the world. But a local market-level “superportal” would provide a wealth of information to the consumer, and should not be difficult (at all) to monetize for an aspiring real estate professional.
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...
Here is my real question. In Matt's post you said you had been thinking about this for 2 years already. How did you know about it that long ago? Or did I misunderstand something.
Off to the next island, but I'll be back.
Thanks for stopping by again Maureen. I've enjoyed sailing around the blogosphere this afternoon!
My "vision" when I first started working on ThompsonsRealty.com was to make it a huge "portal" so no one else would ever have to go anywhere else for Phoenix real estate.
Of course, it's a vision that will never be completed, but it's something to strive for.
And I don't really have the technical capability to make it happen. But I try to add something to our main site every day, so the AMOUNT of info is building, and is significant now. One day I'll be smarter and be better able to truly build a Phoenix real estate portal.
If not, I'll have fun trying!
Ahhhhh. That clears it up. I thought you meant you had been thinking about activerain for two years, like you were one of the insiders. I noticed you joined very early, so I thought maybe you were part of the AR team somehow. Now there is a misunderstanding.
Great Post,
I agree with you 100% we have been striving for the same goal for the last 4 years. We are very close.
Here is one of our clients sites
Allison Skibbs an agent in Gig Harbor Wa. On this listing page you can get to almost all the information you have mentioned above. Also if you click on the map link then click on parcel map link you will even see the parcel overlaid on an aerial photo.
One thing I would add to your list is Neighbor searching. Here is a link to Canterwood Golf Course from there you can choose any neighborhood in Pierce County Wa.
Allen –
Very slick stuff, thanks for posting. (BTW, I fixed the links in your comments so they'd work. Not sure why they didn't before).
Do you know if graphicaldata.com supports the Arizona Regional MLS (ARMLS)?
Jay,
We support the ARMLS area but we have an exclusive with the windermere folks there.
-allen
Wow. This is right up my alley. This sounds like a challenge and one fabulous Web 2.0 mashup. Technically I'd make the whole thing a blog (some blogs can already pull in MLS/IDX data and have built-in wikis- http://www.myrealtyblog.com – sorry for the obnoxious plug). You could use Yahoo! Neighborhoods and Maps to pull in all the census, crime, school, local attactions data and mapping components automatically (Yahoo! Maps is so much more functional than Google form a development perspective), Zillow to provide Zestimates and Comparable homes (their new API will be able to oh so much more) and then partner at the city level with libraries or chambers of commerce or city government sites for the rest. I love it. If I had the kind of investment it would take, I'd start coding my little PHP heart out.
Cool, our first international ping back! If anyone can translate from German to English, I'd be interested in knowing what this blog has to say:
http://www.immobilienportale.com/2006/10/09/das-u…
My one year of high school German won't cut it…
German is not my specialty either. I offer you this translation. You'll be left as confused as you were before you read it. Lets just say there is a lot of room for improvement in on-line free translation sites.
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://ww…
Nice going, Jay! I have a question (after a fairly lengthy background): I just bought three RE/MAX franchises for the Hamptons on Long Island and I'd love to build a site for my market that has all the qualities listed above. The only thing is: 1- we don't function on MLS – although MLS is in the area, only 10% of our listing are on it. The brokerages to date have not wanted to "share". 2- the ENTIRE Hamptons is unzillowable. Most houses are custom built and there are few, if any "neighborhoods" here. It's not unusual to have a 3/2 home valued at $650,000 next to a 6/7 home on a larger piece of land valued at $1.5M. And 3- We're a second-home luxury market with an average sales price of $1.4M So, now my question: Anyone interested in helping me build a kick-butt website for this market? md
Great post, Jay. I agree with your thoughts on incporporating (Google)maps – it's good for some people some of the time, but not for all people all of the time. So choice is important.
I think there might be a site coming out soon that endeavors to do much of what you discuss (eventually). I'll be sure to let you know when it launches… 😉
Michael – thanks for stopping by. Love your blog, need to get it on my blogroll. I bet someone out there would be willing to help with that kick-butt site. Sounds like a great challenge given your market.
I can't think of the Hampton's without thinking about certain Seinfeld episodes…
Tyler – another great blog! I just left a lengthy comment on Does the Public Need the MLS?
I need to get to work on my blog roll. I've been waiting for Livium to be unveiled… I'm most curious to see what you've got under that splash screen. Please keep us posted!!
Sounds sort of what the phoenix.homestore.com site was trying to be, a common entry page into a collection of Phoenix-area property applications, but… Has anyone actually done something like this WELL?
Some more things are more important to me:
-Finding Flats at a place related to your place where you work
-tagging the houses: find related information about crime rates, the city, blog entries, forum posts
…
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