The Sandberg Team @ Ponte Vedra Key Realty
Real Estate Sales & Service in Nocatee, Ponte Vedra & Jacksonville, Florida
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash.com
We’ve written before about Zillow’s dodgy Zestimates, but there’s another data error we’re running across these days that can also trip up buyers and sellers. Like a Zestimate, which is just an automated estimate of a home’s value based on an amalgam of public data sources, this is an error (it seems) with the way Zillow pulls data from public websites. [Read more…]
The headline of an article in an e-newsletter sent to me recently by the Florida Association of Realtors® stopped me dead in my (digital) tracks. The headline read, “Realtors’ websites no longer a key marketing tool”.
Really? Even when we know that 92% of homebuyers use the internet in their home search?
That headline turned out to be a little bit misleading, but only slightly so. The article went on to discuss a recent National Association of Realtors survey indicating that Realtors increasingly turn to social media and online communities to build brand and generate new connections/business. [Read more…]
Recently, .Realtor joined a long list of new top-level domain (TLD) names available for use on the Internet. Reserved solely for Realtors®, i.e., members of the National Association of Realtors, the .Realtor TLD seems, at first glance, to be a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t we want to clearly identify ourselves as Realtors® on the web, making it dead simple for potential customers to find us?
The answer, of course, is that we already do. [Read more…]
A non-scientific, non-peer reviewed discussion of an all too common affliction affecting some homebuyers
By now, we all know the stats. According to NAR, nearly 90% of homebuyers begin their home search online. The question is, when do they stop?
With so much inventory available in today’s market, and more coming on everyday, it seems some buyers are having a hard time quitting the home search habit. Even after they’ve made an offer.
These days, it’s pretty common for me to be negotiating an offer for a client at the same time that they’re emailing and texting me with a list of additional homes to research. This isn’t necessarily a bad move if the idea is to have some backup options if the current deal doesn’t go through. But some customers continue looking even after their offer has been accepted!
The issue of net neutrality has been in the news again lately. And if some of the geeky discussions about packet throttling, peer-to-peer networks and torrents tempts you to tune out, don’t. Net neutrality is an important issue, especially for Realtors and other small businesses.
At the heart of the issue is whether or not Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, Bellsouth, Brighthouse and the like can give some content on their networks priority over other content. Basically, without net neutrality, content providers could be asked to pay a fee to have their content prioritized, or even streamed at a better/faster rate, than other content. Great news for deep-pocketed content providers (think Disney, Time-Warner, Fox, etc.) ready to expand their reach and influence. Not so good news for the millions of individuals and small businesses who rely on the Internet to maintain a level playing field, Realtors included.
For example, do you currently post videos/virtual tours to YouTube? Without net neutrality, consumers may find it more difficult to locate and access your content…unless you pay a fee of course. Or maybe your website, along with all your listings, photos, etc., won’t load as quickly as your competition’s website.
Of course, some of the large national/international real estate firms could potentially pay to ensure all of their agents’ content gets top priority online. But let’s face it, those costs will be passed on to you, the agent, one way or another.
When the Internet first moved into the mainstream in the early ‘90s, it was widely hailed as the great equalizer. Individuals and small businesses could publish online just as quickly and cost-effectively as major corporations…maybe more so. The result was a whole slew of innovation and new businesses, including some of the household names we know today.
For instance, without net neutrality, we might never have heard of companies such as Amazon, eBay, Zappos, YouTube, MySpace and others. We might not have ever heard of a small movie called The Blair Witch Project, or ever had access to a little social network run out of a college dorm room called Facebook.
Of course, we wouldn’t have had to watch the Dancing Baby, Keyboard Cat or Trololo man. And nobody would have ever been Rickrolled. But that’s beside the point.
The point is, an Internet that treats all legal content equally, and gives all users access to that content equally, is what has led to much of the growth and innovation we’ve experienced over the last 15 to 20 years. The Google/Verizon discussions are even more troubling, as they aim to essentially eliminate net neutrality on the fastest growing segment of the Internet, wireless networks (consider how many people access your content from smartphones or a laptop using a 3G connection). Surrendering control of online content to a cabal of large corporations and government bureaucrats is a recipe for disaster.
To learn more about net neutrality:
L.A. Times