fun

Tons of fun new features going on here at Altos Research. Today we get to announce AltosXplorer: our full database query and charting system, is now mobile! That's right folks, a couple terabytes of real estate statistics and pretty charts right at your fingertips.

Altos subscribers: Get your AltosXplorer mobile link by logging in to your account and selecting My Xplorer, Xplorer Mobile from the menu. Then send the URL to your phone. That's it! (You will, of course, need a phone with a web browser. And it'll need to have javascript enabled. My Blackberry did not have javascript enabled by default, FWIW.)

On your phone, you'll be able to select market area, city, zip code, and any of a bunch of different statistics. Want to take a peek at condo inventory trends while showing properties to a buyer client? Just a couple of clicks and you're at the data.

Lead Contact Form Goes Mobile Too!

Many of our realtor subscribers like to use the data to reach new clients. What do you do when you find yourself engaged in a conversation about the market with a someone? Well now you can say, "Here, let me send you a report, you can check for yourself." The AltosConnect mobile lead-sign-up form is super handy. Pop in their name and contact information and they'll have a local market report in their inbox before you're even done with the conversation. How cool is that? We rolled this out a couple weeks ago. Lots of positive response.

To get the link to the mobile version of your AltosConnect contact form widget, sign in to your account, select My Connect from the left hand menu, Save and Preview the widget, and enter your phone number. Again, that's it! Bookmark it on your phone and you'll always have access to your Altos database.

Give both features a try and let me know how they work for you!

I've been deficient in my blog posting lately, so I'll squeeze one last one in to 2008. Let's look back at the predictions I made a year ago and speculate out a bit for this year, shall we?

Grading my 2008 Predictions, which focused on the RE.Net

1. Zillow.com doesn't IPO in 2008. Grade A: Well that was easy. (Note to self, negative predictions are easier that positive ones.) The news here, of course, is that NO ONE went public in 2008. Certainly not real estate related firms. 2009 isn't looking like any change on that front either. Last year I imagined a scenario that had 2010 liquidity event for Zillow. I'd revise that to 2011 at the earliest.
2. The corollary - Executive turnover at Zillow. Grade C: Zillow recently and wisely cut a big chunk of staff. But I've got to hand it to them, they've been more stable at the exec level for longer than I expected. I figured that with so many top people, some would be ready to try new opportunities this year. It looks like most of the gang is still there. I remain a bit suspect. A long time in this Valley makes me still feel like they're top heavy. (Do they really have two VPs of engineering? That can't be healthy.) In Zillow's favor this year, the economy will dramatically reduce the greener-grass effect on their talent.
3. Redfin.com launches premium products. Grade A: The story in 2007 was Redfin as the consumer champion discounter. The story in 2008 was Redfin as a maturing company, realizing that they needed broader revenue sources and that consumers are often happy paying premium rates for great service. I wonder about Redfin in the coming 18 months or so. Here's the dilemma: It's a sound business with a real market need, but I remain skeptical that the company can achieve the promises made to its investors ($100 million in revenue) any time in the foreseeable future and without significantly more capital. The good news is that Glenn Kelman has proven himself to be a savvy leader and insightful marketer. Redfin marketing has moved from "realtors rip you off" to "Redfin is a way better way to buy a home." Nice work.
4. Trulia's traffic ascendancy. Grade B. I was able to call an early win with one comScore traffic chart. But over the year we've seen a leveling off and Trulia not pulling ahead of Zillow. Both sites have continued to add features for pageviews. Though Trulia this year found itself receiving some of the negative pub from the blogosphere previously reserved for Zillow and Redfin, the only one under real pressure looks to be realtor.com (Move).

A pretty good batch if I do say so myself. And maybe I'm just off by timing on the misses. All in all an exciting year for Altos and all the players in the real estate interwebs business.

I'm out of time today. Will try to get my 2009 outlook posted before it hits, you know, second quarter.

The economy may be tanking all around, but we're still growing here at Altos Research. (The silver lining for us is that everyone needs to know what's going on in the housing market.) Today we get to announce the latest addition to Team Altos, Ricky Fernandez.

Ricky joins our sales team as our New Account Manager (he likes the title "Sales Guy" but we opted for a more functional title). Ricky's background is in mortgage finance and real estate, but his biggest asset is his huge personality. He's the kind of guy you can hear smiling on the other end of the phone. Energetic and insightful, Ricky is going to be a real positive for our clients.

They say that bad economic times make good times to build a company. I can vouch for the fact that the cratering job situation in California made it much easier for us to snag rock stars like Ricky (and Kris last month). I'm going to add the corollary that it's also a great time to join a startup. Altos Research is not a venture funded rocketship of a company. When we chose not to raise investment, we also knew that we wouldn't get to staff up hundreds of people like so many here in Silicon Valley. Rather, we're more like an ultralight - highly efficient and lots of fun. As a result, we like to aim for each new hire to lift the company to the next level. As each new person joins, they get the opportunity to join at a critical moment for the company, to significantly contribute to our success. When we look back in a few years on the other side of this crazy economy, and Altos emerges strong and innovative and bigger, we'll all get to say, "I created that." And at the end of the day, isn't that the greatest reward from a job?

But I digress. Help me welcome Ricky aboard. You're going to love working with him.

We see a lot of good real estate data here at Altos. We see a lot of great presentations of that data too. We decided that we'd like to offer some recognition for the best stuff out there. So we thought it'd be fun to have a little awards ceremony. We'll call it the Data-Rich Realtors Awards.

A few guidelines:

• Despite the name, we'd like to honor people in all parts of the real estate world. Realtors, mortgage, investors, other service providers.
• The nominations are not limited to blogs. Though since many of the best publish their work on blogs, we expect that'll be a big part. There are tons of ways to analyze, present, and leverage data in the real estate business. All are welcome.
• Nominations are not limited to Altos Research clients. There's tons of data out there and we want to honor innovative analysis and useful presentation. (Though many Altos clients are indeed data-rich...)
• We're honoring people, not websites.
• Individuals who contribute to websites are indeed eligible.
• We'd like to honor brokerages or other firms, especially if you have the name of the person spearheading a great data project.

Nominate someone! (feel free to nominate yourself!)

Powered by Wufoo

Or email us: send name, web site, and other relevant info, like a particularly great blog, post to datarich@altosresearch.com

We'll take nominees through December 15, 2008

The Winners

Winners will be selected from the nominees by a panel of judges. We'll annouce the winners at the end of December. Nominate early, nominate often!

It's been over a year since we last hosted the Carnival of Real Estate (my how the landscape has changed). We like hosting because it gives us an opportunity to find new voices and highlight the good work going on out there in the blogosphere. Plus, this time around we have a ready-made clever metaphor to use in highlighting the best blogging submissions to the carnival. Not content with a simple gold-silver-bronze metaphor, we thought we'd prowl around the margins of the Olympics to highlight the things that make these games unique. Enjoy.

Let's kick things off with the opening ceremonies

• For articulately exposing an insider tale of don't-believe-your-eyes-trickery, David Blockhus gets this week's award for The Best CGI Enhanced Opening Ceremonies.

The Games are an international affair

• The Countries with Fewer Medals than Michael Phelps award goes, of course, to Canadian John Pasalis at movesmartly.com. John takes a look at an IMF report and why Canada's housing market may be less volatile than the US.

As the week progresses we get to see the competitors up close

• How do you get foreclosed on when someone gives you a new home? Why, take out a $450,000 second mortgage, of course! Since it pains me to read this, TheDigeratiLife gets the Inverted Elbow award.
• Karen Goodman gets Synchronized diving is a sport?! recognition for her straightforward take on St. Louis Market data (and a blog titled, ahem, Real Estate Insights)
• The Underage Gymnasts award goes to Pam Buda for a Cinderella story that has just begun.
• The Seven-Foot-Wingspan award goes this week to Dan Green for his take on the broad reach of the latest trends in mortgage lending.

Finally, no Olympics is complete without The heartfelt story of overcoming personal adversity to rise to glory.

• This week the Bob Costas narrated vignette goes to Riley Smith and the Coconut's tale of a horrifying foreclosure purchase process that actually ends well. [dabbing tears of joy from corner of eye].

So there you have it folks. I've been mildly ambivalent about these games, but there's always entertainment to be found when dig a little. Hopefully you'll find the same with this week's carnival. Next week hosted at ValleyMarket.com (Alaska!)

Wow. Do you read AgentGenius? If you're in the real estate biz, you should. Heck, if you use the interwebs in your business at all, you should. They've pulled together a group of stellar writers. I already liked the work going on over there and then they go produce a conference roundup like this. Rock on.

A couple of events coming up at the end of July:

We'll be at the Inman Connect conference in San Francisco for the week of July 23-25. I'll be speaking in the blogging session on "Content That Hooks Readers" which, if you read this blog, you'll know I'm woefully under-qualified for. The good news is that the session is hosted by Kris Berg, and includes the inimitable Jeff Corbett, Benn Rosales, Ben Martin, and Sarah Hromack. Heavy hitters all. You're bound to learn something.

We've ponied up for a (gasp) sponsorship this time. Make sure you come by and help us pretend it's worth the investment.

The preceding Tuesday July 22 is the Real Estate BarCamp - conveniently also in San Francisco. Which, when shortened to REBarCamp it sounds like a concrete conference, I know, but I assure you it'll be more compelling. At a BarCamp the attendees get to create the conference on the fly - presenting content that you think others care about and interacting with those who know stuff you want to learn. I've been to a few bar-camps including the proto-FOO Camp last year and they're always a super enjoyable experience.

Scott and I thought we'd bring some Altos Research technology goodies to share with our partners and anyone else who wants to learn how to maximize all the Altos products. So if you're on your way to San Francisco for the Inman conference, stretch a day earlier and come for the BarCamp.

REALTOR Magazine is out with their annual 30 Under 30 issue. I'm always a sucker for these types of articles highlighting the young and uncannily-good-looking - no matter the industry.

So I was browsing through this year's list of the preternaturally successful and - waitaminnit - I KNOW these guys! Check the Friends-of-Altos on the list:

Boston's Condo king Mike Dimella

East Bay AltosCharts hound Tyler Moxley

and the inimitable Jon Washburn of ActiveRain

(Even if I'm, ahem, a bit beyond the bounds for being included in the list, I'm ecstatic to see our friends on it. Look out, though, because next year Altos will be gunning for 25% reach.)

Congratulations on the attention, guys. It's well deserved.

I've surprised myself, but I'm diggin' Twitter. As far as Internet communication goes, I love the blog for it's ability to reach our customers/friends/colleagues; I'm not a big Facebook user (I find FB mostly useful as a repository for friends photos); and I lean to email over IM.

In a fit of myopia, I held out against Twitter for a year, but now I've been tweeting (yes, tweeting) for a couple months. I've come to the realization that Twitter is the social network I've been waiting for. Twitter's focus on pure communication elevates it above the colleague/friend/acquaintance/follower asymmetry problem in the Facebooks of the web. With Twitter I can listen to people who interest me-whether or not they are my "friend". I don't creep them out when I listen. Likewise, my Twitter followers are people who are interested in me and/or Altos whether or not I've ever met them.

I'll often publish market data nuggets on Twitter that are too finite for a blog post. I'll post info on new products to Twitter before it goes anywhere else. Why? It's easy, and the listeners have, by definition, said they want to know.

So in the interest of developing this communication channel, if you are interested in what I/Altos say/do/visit/publish, then follow me on Twitter.

Still asking, WTF is Twitter? See Tara Hunt's explanation

Just spent a couple of fine days in Atlanta with the RE Tech South crew. Brad Nix and Matt "blog from the heart" Fagioli pulled together a great session with just a couple of weeks planning, so kudos to them. All in all a couple hundred people, interactive, interested, motived to improve their internet marketing.

Great conversations on real estate video, blogging, search optimization. I did a panel where we talked about leveraging widgets on your site and in your marketing.

For me the most informative session was on video. I've not previously been a video guy but then I'm not selling houses. But the panel had a chance to dive into some of the great innovations in video that are really exploding the medium for realtors. From cheap easy cameras, to professional videographers, and powerful presentation tools. Rock on.

Rudy proved again why Pete Flint got a steal bringing him on board as Trulia's social media guru. And I always enjoy working with Dustin, Jon, and the maniacs at Domus (who contributed a lot to this day too. golf clap for Pat and Kevin.)

We met some new friends too. Atlanta Real Estate blogger Kathy Drewien is going to be spicing up her market data posts with spiffy AltosCharts. With Michael Fournier, we're growing our reach in the Charlotte market. Michael liked to point out that Charlotte is the only one of the 20 Case Shiller-measured housing markets where median home price is up in the twelve months ending January. Desiree at Bella Web Design sums up the day nicely.

Some Altos links:

Charlotte real estate report

Atlanta real estate report

AltosCharts trend charts widgets

Since we started our company a couple years ago, we've generally frowned on marketing activities that that require cash. Our marketing consists primarily of this blog, personal referrals, and the press generated by the real estate data content that we provide. (No taxi billboards for us.) So it's a big deal for us to announce a sponsorship of Dustin Luther's 4Realz Education seminars!

Despite our, ahem, frugality, the decision to sponsor 4Realz was an easy one for us. Dustin, of Rain City Guide and late of Move.com, has proven himself to be not only one of the most savvy internet marketers in the real estate world, but also a gifted teacher of those lessons.

Further, Dustin's been a fan of our products and technology for a while. He gets our vision. When he was at Move, subscribers would call to tell me that they'd attended a Top Producer seminar and Dustin Luther was on stage recommending the Altos products! Let me tell you, those kind of unsolicited, un-sponsored endorsements mean so much to an entrepreneur. They also speak volumes for Dustin, in that he's an independent voice that will guide his audience to the best options available no matter who's footing the bill.

Conclusion: Dustin will be hosting a valuable day for real estate professionals - the kind of activity that we want to be associated with. See you there!

Details: 4Realz Internet Marketing for Realtors

March 6, 2008

Skirball Center, Los Angeles

I have a new article up at Om Malik's startup-focused news site, Found|Read, today. The Silicon Valley startup geek that I am, I like to publish for Om from time to time. This one's on the financing strategy we've used in building our company and my thoughts for other entrepreneurs.

I generally try not to stray too far from the real estate topic at hand on this blog, but I want to call your attention this morning to an article by Kevin Kelly (founding editor of Wired Magazine among other literary accomplishments). Kelly's the rare "futurist" who deserves the title.

This week he published Better Than Free. The article captures succinctly, why in a world of free and freely copyable information, Altos Research just had another record month in sales.

In fact, Kelly's concepts also capture why our most successful real estate agent clients, in a world of commoditizers and discounters, command a premium, even in this crazy market.

When everything is free on the interwebs, what is it that people really want to pay for? Kelly identifies 8 generatives: uncopyable values generated or cultivated from within. Here's a snippet, do yourself a favor and read the whole article.

Immediacy: Sooner or later you can find a free copy of whatever you want, but getting a copy delivered to your inbox the moment it is released -- or even better, produced -- by its creators is a generative asset.

Personalization: A generic version of a concert recording may be free, but if you want a copy that has been tweaked to sound perfect in your particular living room -- as if it were preformed in your room -- you may be willing to pay a lot.

Interpretation: As the old joke goes: software, free. The manual, $10,000. [The listings? Free. The right neighborhood and home for you? ...]

It turns out while we weren't nearly so articulate about the process, these generatives have been the Altos DNA from day 1. How do we get you great information in real-time, and not just data, but analysis, personalized for you, and leverage-able into your business?

Anyway, to all our clients, readers, subscribers, partners: thanks for being with us. Rock on.

Last month I indulged in some year-end speculation about the state of the RE.net in 2008. One of the things I predicted was that we'd soon see one of the traffic measuring firms show Trulia's web traffic cross over Zillow's. I just didn't expect it this soon.

ht: techcrunch

For the NAR conference this month I was a bit tardy in posting my travel schedule, and I missed some connections there as a result. So here's a heads-up for my conference travel schedule in January and February.

January 8-11 New York: Inman Connect conference. Brad Inman always throws a grand shindig. I make connections, friends, and new clients at every Inman conference. My meeting schedule is filling up fast, but I still have some time on Thursday and Friday. Give me a buzz and we'll get together. Scott will also be in attendance so we should have good coverage meeting old friends and new.

February 5-8 New York: O'Reilly Money:Tech conference. This conference is all about hacking Wall Street with new data and tools. It promises to be one of a kind. Love it. I'll be presenting on real-time real estate market analytics, plus our data that leads the Case Shiller and Radar Logic housing futures markets. We'll be demonstrating some never-before-public data goodies.

Lots of big shots presenting at Money:Tech too. Jim Cramer, Barry Ritholtz, Henry Blodgett, Bill Tancer, and more. Check it out.

As always, these trips are about meeting clients, partners, and readers. email mike at this url.com to get in touch.