Archive for the ‘Real Estate Technology’ Category
May 19, 2006
John Cook blogged earlier today on the beginnings of a Web 2.0 backlash, in which some venture capitalists grumbled that Web 2.0 is a sham.
We saw the same phenomenon in the 1990’s, in which every dumb idea in software was redeemed by its use of Java. In 1996, Kleiner Perkins started a $100 million Java fund that was a flop even though Java has been quite successful. By the same measure, Web 2.0 will probably fail as an investment thesis even as the technology changes the way we build every Web application.
The reason Web 2.0 will fail as an investment thesis is that it isn’t a thesis at all: the idea behind a new venture is always the customer problem it’s trying to solve, not the tools it uses to solve those problems. But that’s not Web 2.0’s fault.
Perhaps Web 2.0 technologies, and MySpace’s success in particular, have encouraged us to build hit-driven applications in which fickle teenagers chatter to no effect, but come on: Google’s map face-crushes MapQuest, Flickr has made Shutterfly obsolete, Wikipedia is already indispensable.
The best test of a technology’s importance is whether there’s any going back, or if instead we’ll one day slink away from it, embarrassed that we ever thought it was cool. Ten years from now, it seems indisputable that Web applications will act more, not less, like desktop clients, and that these applications will become more powerful as a result of their socialization with human beings (user-tagged photos, most-viewed property listings, user-contributed videos).
It is this last trait, of openness to a larger community and the unpredictability that it engenders, which seems to gall Web 2.0’s discontents at a visceral level. But as John Keats once said”negative capability” — the openness to prolonged “doubt and uncertainty” before creating something beautiful — is a poet’s most important trait.
The poetics of Web 2.0 aside, it’s often a better way to build a mouse trap, but what’s most important are the mice and the cheese.
April 23, 2006
In its discussion of Redfin’s MapStats technology, the New York Times‘ real estate blog notes that the pace of technology innovation has become “ferocious.”
Of course, we agree. But such innovations aren’t always glamorous. For example, one insightful reader this evening asked that we incorporate information about sewer work permits on our map, which is publicly available from the city governments.
We’ve had other folks ask for horse paddocks, sex offenders (different requestor), flight pathways, commute times. The only way we’ll be able to keep up is by opening up our MapStats and MapLayers architecture to let other developers build their own mashups, which would be a first in real estate technology.
It could also be a first in a much broader sense, because unlike map mashups, we’ll probably take a portal approach. Instead of having five different sites for five different layers, we may let home-shoppers apply multiple layers, built by different developers (we’d find a way to give developers attribution within the site). This would let home-shoppers see all the layers — sewer work permits built by Bob & zoning permits built by Jane — all in one place.
Of course, to get layers, we’ll need a developer community. And to build a community we’ll need a conference. Not one for real estate agents, but for real estate developers & technologists. Wouldn’t that be fun? Stay tuned later this week for news about that…
And if you think of a layer you’d like to see on your map — or one you’d like to build — post a comment below!
April 21, 2006
Big Redfin news is headed your way! Redfin’s launching MapStats today, which lets you see neighborhood statistics like median price and dollars-per-square foot change in real-time as you move around the map.
View Image
To turn it on, check the Statistics box below the map. Then start playing around: move 500 yards towards Madison Park’s waterfront and average price goes up $50K; move 1 mile closer to the airport in Georgetown & prices go down $100K.
What’s interesting about it is that it’s a different way of thinking about maps: as a visual way of querying for information, which can then be used for further analysis. In the past, maps have just been used to show end results.
But eventually, this window can be used to query for all sorts of contextual information about a neighborhood: crime and demographic data, average time on market, relevant neighborhood Web feeds can all change as you move from neighborhood to neighborhood. We’re filing for patents on this approach
It’s one of those features you can just get lost in. After nine hours of continuous use, our focus group suffered massive brain damage:
Hats off to Sean Richter, Bryan Selner, our illustrious founder, David Eraker, and everyone else on the Redfin Team for making this happen.
April 11, 2006
Dustin Luther writes an excellent article on why real estate is a long-tail market, arguing that no single agent can have dominant market-share given the variety of inventory.
Three thoughts:
In real estate, it’s all tail: the long tail was originally developed to distinguish best-sellers sold in volume at Wal-Mart from indy titles on Amazon. In real estate, everything is the tail, as each house is different, and can be sold to only one buyer.
The long-tail applies to brokerages too: it is interesting to extend this argument not only to agents, but to the brokerages they work for: by allowing any online consumer to find long-tail inventory on his own, the Internet decreases the marketing power of the traditional brokerages, which have long maintained control of inventory. In a long-tail world, there will be more brokerages.
Maps, a new way to visualize the tail: Dustin’s best point was that agents can prosper by developing blogs that promote their mastery of a niche or a neighborhood. All real estate, Tip O’Neill might say, is local. At Redfin, we are recruiting neighborhood bloggers whom we can link to from our map. We think over time that sites won’t just be linked one to another in crazy daisy chains, but also organized geospatially, so that people browsing a map can uncover treasure chests of local information in the form of blogs. As users move from neighborhood to neighborhood, Redfin will show headlines from different neighborhood blogs. (We’ve already recruited a number of bloggers; but if you’re interested in participating in this program, please drop us a line at bahn (at) redfin (dot) com. We’ll even set you up with everything you need to get a blog going).
We hope to bring the traffic of Seattle’s most-trafficked real estate site to local bloggers. This gives consumers the best of both worlds, local knowledge and powerful visualization technology.
