Saturday, September 17, 2005
Searching All Properties: USCONDEX, Sellsius, The HomeNet
Just a few days ago, I wrote this:
“Regardless, so long as the laws remain friendly to free enterprise, consumers will win this. They always do. And consumers must be able to easily search every available property, just like they search every website with Google. When consumers can do that, it will mean they are being better served - because agents and FSBO companies will then be competing based on the service they provide to the public, rather than on the information they have access to.
It has happened with stock trading, travel, and insurance. The time has come for it to happen with real estate.”
It’s starting to happen. Comments and news started rolling in almost immediately, from different people saying “we agree - we’re already working on it!” or “we agree - we’ve done it!”
USCONDEX - The U.S. Condo Exchange
They have a well-done site. It appears to combine data straight from the MLS with listings they accept directly from the USCONDEX website. I’m not sure how they got around the MLS policies that prevent doing that, but regardless, they have. They should be commented for an excellent start at serving a niche market. But it is still just that: niche…they need to expand their horizons to cover all properties.
Sellsius
The semi-anonymous poster of this comment certainly intrigued me. “RDB” wrote: “i am proud to announce, for the first time anywhere, that our organization has been developing this venue for many months now. our consumer friendly real estate community is called sellsius. our goal is to debut sellsius @ the 2005 TRIPLE PLAY Realtor convention & trade expo. this event will take place in atlantic city, new jersey on December 6.7.8. more information will be available soon…”
There is nothing at their website yet, and they won’t give out any more information. So we’ll wait and see on that one… But a word of thanks, RDB, for choosing us to make your inaugural announcement! We’re flattered.
The HomeNet
This last one (so far) is by far the most exciting, first of all because it’s actually operating NOW, but also because of the innovative approach. They publicly announced their availability this week (look here if Inman story doesn’t show), and apparently have built a platform that takes my conclusion that “consumers need to be able to search all properties at once” one step further: their technology allows consumers to search all properties from ANY website. That is, the platform can do it - they don’t have all the properties included, yet. Their model of voluntary contributions makes widespread adoption critical for this concept, but assuming the real estate industry embraces it, I LOVE it! I’ll review this more, as I get a chance to play around with it.
This is really exciting….it’s innovation time at the O.K. Corral!
~Robert Creek
The FSBO Blog
September 17th, 2005 at 9:26 pm
Thank you for looking into our site - uscondex.com. We launched on June 15th this year and the business we have generated has surpassed our expectations. We are expecting to upgrade to v2.0 of our site next week when we will begin offering FSBO and For Rent By Owner listings at fixed fees ($450 to list until sold). Please check back then as we believe the difference in the site will be meaningful.
Also, we maintain a blog, which is mostly articles which are relevant to the participants in the condo market.
All the best,
jh
September 25th, 2005 at 3:37 pm
I’ve been poking around here a bit and just wanted to be clear on one point. Home Net (thehomenet.com) and this blog are owned by the same people, right? Because in the absence of disclosing this fact it seems like you’re giving independent and unbiased endorsement of thehomenet.com when in fact you have a whale of a built-in bias.
Personally, I think thehomenet.com is seriously flawed, benefits mainly the owners of thehomenet.com and will possibly spell the demise of many of its participants. (Unless you’ve significantly changed your model since last you tried to convince me to participate.)
Thanks for the forum!
September 26th, 2005 at 3:59 pm
Glad you clarified, David. That’s a “negative” on the owners of The FSBO Blog being the same as HomeNet. I am the sole owner of this blog, and am completely independent of HomeNet, aside from…
a) HomeNet now being a contributor to the blog
b) The company I work with being a participant in HomeNet, now
I’m curious, though, how you think HomeNet is seriously flawed? How does it not benefit the participants, and how will it spell the demise of its participants?
You’re welcome!
~Robert Creek