Union Street MediaReal Estate and Ecommerce Web Design

Over at the Bloodhound Blog, Eric Blackwell has put together a great article about how to

accomplish EVERYTHING that needs to be done to MARKET and SELL a home, with as little pain (or even ANTICIPATION of discomfort) as possible. And, of course, then the process needs to be turned into a system and scripted.

(all caps are his)

While the article probably doesn’t cover everything it does a great job of getting the conversation rolling.

At the end of the article he asks for help in making the inspection process better. If you have a moment, head over, read the article and get involved in the conversation.

Readers of my “Site Optimization Series for Real Estate” may find some usefulness in my recent guest post for Nicole and Reggie over at MyTechOpinion.com.

It’s called “Three KPIs for Real Estate Websites.”

This little post is for the interactive economic map lovers out there.

Ann Arbor Real Estate Talk has tipped us off to USAToday’s “How’s the economy in your hometown.”

Combine that with the Phoenix Real Estate Guy’s tip to the WSJ’s “Housing Markets: A Vacant Look” and there’s definitely some overlap.

For example in the USAToday map, markets are listed alphabetically over on the right as you roll over by state. Meaning you had best paid attention in 4th and 5th grade when you were learning the important markets of the US to get any contextual information from the map.

WSJ, on the other hand, really only surveys a few counties, but you can see the data in context and the markets grouped together. California is a particularly interesting puzzle.

Do you see anything in these maps?

While at Inman Connect in New York last month Maggie and Gahlord had a great conversation with Charlottesville, Virginia real estate maven Daniel Rothamel. He’s promoting his business by being an active video blogger in his community. One of the things I admire about his work is that he just keeps putting it out and doesn’t let the technology get in his way.

Later on during the conference Daniel approached us for some video quotes for his coverage of Inman Connect, which you can see posted on Real Estate Zebra blog.

During the Connect keynote Inman stood in front of a room  packed with  real estate professionals and advised them to call all of their past clients and ask if they need help with foreclosures. I thought that advice was bold, honest and probably difficult to do. But completely worth it from a branding perspective.

If you’re a realtor and are interested in building a strong brand through excellent customer service read John Keith’s Boston Real Estate Blog: “Survey: Most consumers don’t understand foreclosure”.

As I was driving home from biathlon practice last night I heard a good piece about Zillow on PRI’s “Marketplace” program. The program focuses on how the site is faring in the real estate downturn (very well, apparently). The link will take you to audio and text versions of the story. While you’re in media-mode why not get some historical perspective from this interview with Zillow’s Rich Barton from 2006?

If you’re new to Zillow or haven’t started using it yet, check out Maggie’s intro to Zillow post.