Custom Content/New Realtor Reality

A small news item in the papers this week was a real eye-opener: the Chicago Tribune has partnered with TiVo which will automatically record all the program recommendations of the Chicago Tribune's well-known television critic and make them immediately available to TiVo subscribers who participate in the service.

Think about the implications of this. We've been big boosters of what we call 3R systems (ratings, ranking and recommendations) for a long time. But here's another layer of value being added to a 3R system, in this case, television reviews. One of the main benefits of 3R systems is that they save users valuable time by filtering, synthesizing and suggesting courses of action. In this case, here's an application where users don't even have to review the reviews: they are immediately translated into a tangible result for the user. More time savings, more efficiency.

Spend a few quiet minutes pondering if there are value-added 3R opportunities in the markets you serve. I bet there are more than a few, and there is nothing inherently B2C about this concept.

Another news item worthy of note is that the U.S. Department of Justice has reached a settlement with the National Association of Realtors (NAR). As part of the agreement, NAR has agreed to discontinue a number of anti-competitive practices designed to discourage the growth of online real estate brokerage services. Key among these practices was restricting online brokers from accessing all the listings in the local Multiple Listing Service databases controlled by the NAR.This is a game-changer for sites such as Zillow and Trulia, where the Champagne must still be flowing. Until now, these sites have had to employ all sorts of contorted techniques to get access to home listings. And when it comes to online real estate listings, success is all about having everything in one place. This settlement is probably not generating equal enthusiasm at Move, Inc., which has long operated the realtor.com site along with the NAR, and has, quite coincidentally I am sure, never faced any difficulty getting access to local Multiple Listing Service databases. Expect frenzied activity in the residential real estate data market as a result of this settlement.

Labels: chicago tribune, move inc., tivo, trulia, zillow

National Association of Realtors Launches New Site

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) this month launched a new web site focused on commercial real estate. The site contains a commercial property listing database that offers access to commercial property listings from all 50 states. It can be found at www.commercialsource.com, which was once the site for the Realtors Commercial Alliance's online convention.

The site, which is geared toward investors and consumers, contains the listing database, an online convention and trade show, industry news and events, research and articles. Basic listings can be uploaded by commercial information exchanges, multiple listing services and practitioners free of charge.

eProperty Data, a commercial information exchange services and solutions provider, will provide technical support for the new site. NAR recently acquired eProperty Data.

According to a news release announcing the launch, state and local real estate associations are interested in uploading their commercial listings onto the site.

The new site is apparently already gaining traction in the marketplace, but it will certainly take a while for this to become a prominent source in the industry. When the announcement of the launch was made, there was only one property listed for the entire state of Pennsylvania. At this point, the main competitors in this space, LoopNet and CoStar, don't have much to worry about. But of course, with the strong NAR name, that could certainly change over time.

CoStar Launches Listing Showcase

CoStar Group, a commercial real estate information/marketing solutions provider this month announced the launched CoStar Showcase, an online property marketing service. The new service will serve as a platform for commercial real estate professionals to showcase their available properties to a broad online audience.

CoStar.com boasts traffic of more than 1.3 million unique visitors each quarter; traffic which will potentially view the listings featured on CoStar Showcase. CoStar expects additional traffic to be driven by the major search engines.

Visitors to the CoStar Showcase don't have to register, and can search the for-lease and for-sale commercial property listings for free. Listings can be searched by location, available space, and rental rate or sale price range.

CoStar is only allowing listings from commercial real estate professionals to appear on the Showcase to ensure their quality and accuracy. Listings will include the listing broker's telephone number and email address.

Listing information is taken from CoStar's commercial property database, which the company expects will also help maintain the accuracy of the listings. This also makes posting listings an easy task, since text doesn't need to be keyed in and images have already been uploaded.

According to CoStar, the company has already signed more than $1 million in presale subscriptions for the Showcase, which includes subscriptions with more than 100 commercial brokerage firms in the U.S.

The launch of CoStar Showcase will undoubtedly increase CoStar's presence in the commercial real estate market and effectively convert the company into a one-stop shop for its already established customer base.

Because CoStar already has a vibrant database in this space, such a move really makes sense. Essentially, it's just another way to package the data. But such packaging can really benefit CoStar customers through a larger venue to reach potential real estate customers and generate more leads. So with not much legwork, CoStar is poised to help its customers solve their biggest problems.

In today's tight real estate market, real estate brokers really do need all the help they can get in marketing their properties. So the promise of reaching CoStar's 1.3 million quarterly site visitors will certainly appeal to many. The time could be just right for such a launch.

Dow Jones Launches Private Equity Source Database

Dow Jones Financial Information Services, which provides information for the financial, corporate and emerging markets, this month launched Private Equity Source, a database that tracks all buyout and growth transactions in the U.S. and Europe, including the investment firms and companies involved in those transactions.

Private Equity Source is geared toward private equity firms, hedge funds, investment banks and service providers to complement their research on key investment sectors, deal partners and potential deals through information on today's buyout industry. The database will launch with three years of deal data, covering about 7,700 private equity-backed companies and 1,800 investment firms managing more than $1.56 trillion in assets.

The new database boasts several key features, including profiles that contain complete snapshots of private equity firms and portfolio companies (with investment histories, product overviews and key executives). It also contains contact information for senior personal at these organizations as well as information about which banks, accounting firms, law firms and other service providers have been involved in similar deals.

Private Equity Source also offers analytic tools that can help the user compare target companies to similar deals already closed in a particular sector.

Users can also pinpoint the exact information they need through advanced searches. Search queries can contain such criteria as types of deals (buyouts, M&A, IPO), deal size, time period and company/firms involved. Searches can then be saved, downloaded and shared.

This seems like a very comprehensive database that will provide users with the various and complex pieces of data they need to accomplish their goals. As important as the presence of good data is, of course, the ability to comb through that data to find the most relevant and usable information is just as vital. With the search capabilities Dow Jones has launched with this database, it truly looks like the company has all of its bases covered.

Spoke Launches ConnectUs Email Service

Business networking site Spoke has launched ConnectUs, an email service that enables business professionals to connect with each other via email while protecting their privacy.

Spoke members can use ConnectUs to send a personalized email message to anyone in the Spoke network--which consists of 40 million professionals. Each message is delivered directly to the recipient's email inbox without revealing the recipient's email address, thus ensuring the individual's privacy.

This new feature really helps Spoke close the loop for its users. They can search the Spoke database for relevant business contacts via a variety of criteria--by title, company, industry and location. And now, by using ConnectUs, they can immediately reach out to people with whom they have identified as valuable contacts.

There is certainly a need for this, as most business professionals want to be able to connect with individuals outside of their personal network, but don't know how to make that happen. However, ConnectUs may not be as well received by the individuals who could potentially become bombarded by unsolicited emails. Yet, Spoke most likely offers a feature that can block the messages if a member prefers.

Still, this is a smart--and required--launch for Spoke, and necessary if the company wants to be considered a viable player in the business information and business networking space. Others, such as LinkedIn and Hoover's, have offered such functionality for quite some time. It's a service that business people now just expect to be offered. While it's great to provide them a robust database of contact names, that information isn't nearly as valuable if you can't help them actually connect to those names as well. This is another example of how combining content and tools really works.