Pittsburgh Homes Daily

Here’s a truemor for ya:

Did you hear that Guy Kawasaki is using Redfin to sell this house in Pittsburgh?

Innovation. That’s not what’s happening when a real estate agent figures out how to post a profile on Myspace and even turn that profile into a … gasp … client. Or when a Realtor starts a blog on Active Rain.

Innovation is when a Realtor figures out how to get a house on top of digg, like this one. It’s when a Realtor puts his face on a blog tour bus even though he doesn’t have a blog and gets a local paper to do a story about that! It’s when a Realtor figures out what the next big social networking and publicity coup will be and rides the wave before it crashes.

[EDIT: Innovation is also when you fall flat on your face as you insert a graph into a blog post and then have to quickly figure out what went wrong! Sorry! Try here for the Alexa graph of Truemors.]

I see Meebo or Plugoo springing up on blogs because they could be lead generation devices. But how about telling your clients in the listing presentation that they can find out what you are doing to sell their house 24/7 on Twitter? Absolute accountability.

Innovation. Now that’s exciting!

The Post-Gazette celebrates the announcement of the move of the Downtown YMCA from 330 Blvd. of the Allies to Millcraft’s Market Square Project.  The editorial says, “It will be a boost to the heart of the Golden Triangle.”

Total distance the facility is moving: ~ 1/4 mile.  I mapped it on Google and if you go around your elbow it’s about 4/10 of a mile.

I have no doubt that it will be a better location for the YMCA and its members.  May even do wonders for Market Square.  My concern is that the 300 block of Blvd. of the Allies can be considered off the beaten path and the relocation of a business from a few blocks away can be championed as a  healthy move to re-energize downtown vitality.

The last paragraph of the editorial points out that Millcraft will still have 27,000 to 30,000 sq. ft. of street level space.  I’ll be disappointed if filling these spots strips other nearby buildings of tenants.  That’s not too healthy.

What am I missing?

Deep within the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  coverage of the approval of the casino master plan was the statement that PITG Gaming spokesman Bob Oltmanns was not, in the words of the Post-Gazette, ”expecting major modifications or controversies at the project development stage.” [emphasis added].

Based on events so far, I wouldn’t put any money behind that statement.

Photo by D’arcy Norman.

Sorry - I was beginning to think that if I didn’t use the words “Redfin” and “60 Minutes” at some point this week I wouldn’t be able to call Pittsburgh Homes Daily a real estate blog in the future.

Yawn.

HouseFront announced yesterday that it now provides home valuations online and via text message for 100 million homes in the United States. HouseFront CEO James Eberhard graciously agreed to answer a few of my questions about HouseFront.

Tell me a little bit about HouseFront:

HouseFront is a Denver, Colorado based company. We were founded in late 2006. Our purpose is to provide accurate real estate values and information to the public and the real estate community. We believe that we have some of the most relevant data available on houses in the United States and we are using it to drive our service. Perhaps most notable, HouseFront leverages text messaging to deliver its real estate information. Text messaging is available on virtually all cellular telephones. By combining our services with text messaging we are able to deliver accurate information anytime, in any place to our users.

The advantage of HouseFront for real estate voyeurs is obvious. Why should buyers of real estate use HouseFront?

I have purchased numerous homes in my life. Every home that I have purchased I have taken the same steps. First, I decide that I have an interest in buying a home and I make a decision on two or three neighborhoods where I would like to live own an investment. Second, I research and get to know those neighborhoods. I will often ride my bike or take a jog in and around the area. I always carry a paper and pencil so that I can jot down houses that are for sale and take notes on what I think the average price range is. I also like to know what the listed price is for many homes and reference it against what others feel. After many weeks of research on the ground and then online I contact a realtor who truly knows the neighborhood I am interested in. At this point, I know where I want to buy, what the neighborhood is like and I have a feel for my price range. I leverage the realtor to provide expert advice on what homes I should put an offer on. Finally, I close the deal.

With the advent of HouseFront, this becomes a much easier process. I will still identify the neighborhoods I like and I’ll still get to know them, but now homebuyers have the ability to simply enter a text message and get valuable, pertinent info about houses in that neighborhood. Further, our website becomes a valuable research tool. We maintain an online database of every house text messaged for every one of our users! Homebuyers can go to the website and instantly view houses they have seen on the ground and compare them to other homes in and around the area. The research process becomes streamlined and homebuyers are able to make more well informed decisions.

As HouseFront matures, we are also developing new ways to link expert local real estate agents with these homebuyers.

One piece of information that HouseFront provides is an estimated price for the home. What is HouseFront doing to ensure the accuracy of this figure?

Boy, this is not a simple answer! HouseFront realizes that the accuracy of our data is paramount to the usefulness of our service. As such, we place incredible emphasis on continually refining our data which helps drive our house values.

Our values are built upon cascading technology that harnesses the power of MLS and public data to systematically improve the depth and accuracy of residential real estate intelligence.

Often public data is recorded incorrectly, which inaccurately describes the characteristics of a home. To overcome this, HouseFront leverages more accurate Multiple Listing Service data and unique neighborhood clustering to accurately depict the value of a home. Trusted property valuations are grounded in industry standard statistical measurements and our patent-pending algorithms.

Is there any way for home owners to opt out of the system or correct information that isn’t accurate?

This is something we are actively integrating into our services. Users will be able to log into the website, verify that they are the owner of a particular home and provide data on the house if it is incorrect.

I saw a few cost per click ads on the HouseFront website. Any other monetization plans for the near future that users should be aware of?

In the future we will enable real estate professionals to advertise via our text message service, direct to home buyers and sellers.

We love being near the top of rankings here in Pittsburgh. When I first checked out HouseFront, Pittsburgh was #38 on the list of the top 100 Popular Cities, beating out nearby cities such as Philadelphia, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Buffalo. Now we’ve slipped to #43 and we’re behind Baltimore and Philadelphia. Any way that we can reverse that trend?

The best answer I can give is through word of mouth. It sounds like you are doing a good job telling all of Pittsburgh about our service! Thanks.

Thank you, James, for answering my questions. For online home valuations when you are on the move, check out HouseFront. And keep up to date with the latest developments at HouseFront on the HouseFront blog.

Pittsburgh’s older homes provide the region with more than just great architecture! 

The Tribune-Review ran a short article yesterday announcing that Pittsburgh’s home improvement professionals ranked second best in the nation according to data released by ServiceMagic.  The data measured whether ServiceMagic.com customers recommended the professional that they hired to others.

12 months, 365 days, 371 posts, and 350 comments later, Pittsburgh Homes Daily is now 1 year old!

A page one ranking on Google for “Pittsburgh homes” and on the second page currently for “Pittsburgh real estate”.

15,000 visitors last year and 17,000 already this year (it’s about 4,000 unique visitors a month currently).

About 10,000 page views on my post of 500 real estate blogs to watch and 2500 page views over the last month on the most recent update.

Top 5 referrers in 2006:

1. Grow-a-brain
2. Zillow Blog
3. Hot Property
4. Bigger Pockets
5. Northern Virginia Real Estate Guide Blog

 Top 5 referrers in 2007:

1. Curbed LA
2. Retail Traffic Court
3. Pittsblog
4. Grow-a-brain
5. Sellsius

Search Engine Visitors over the past year:

1. Google - 10,500
2. MSN - 1,100
3. Yahoo - 900

New Friends:

Countless!  Thanks to everyone that has visited, commented, linked, emailed, encouraged, and supported Pittsburgh Homes Daily in the last year.  Hopefully, more great things to come in Year #2!

Mike Madison of Pittsblog is looking for a logo for the Pittsburgh Manifesto.  Here’s a few ideas and slogans for development:

Just the other day I said to someone that Pittsburgh is a very walkable city.  Now, it has gotten just a little bit easier for those in Pittsburgh without cars to get around - thanks to Flexcar.

Flexcar is a car sharing program that charges members by the hour for use of a vehicle.  According to the Flexcar website, there are currently 14 cars in the Pittsburgh area.   It looks like there are 2 in Oakland and the rest are downtown.

I went on a hunt this morning to find one - and there it was on Sixth St. right where the website said: