Trulia to help consumers rate Realtors and shop commissions? – buzz

In December, Zillow announced they added Realtor ratings to their site, followed by the launch of Mountain of Agents in February 2011, followed by the beta launch of AgentLeaf.com in Spring 2011 after being founded in October 2010, according to CrunchBase.com where it is specifically listed under the description “Realtor Ratings and Commission Rebates.”

AgentLeaf.com offers rankings of real estate agents based on MLS data of their actual sales stats and gives a commission rebate option when consumers use participating agents. The reaction to the commission rebate portion of the site was received negatively by the AGBeat readers and stirred up some controversy. When we interviewed AgentLeaf.com CEO and Founder, Matthew Holder, he was relatively evasive about his plans and claimed his reason was that they were still in beta.

Prior to March, Holder was on a hiring spree with job listings online ranging from a CTO/VP to an Online Marketing Guru, showing all the makings of a budding startup. According to CrunchBase.com, there are five employees and one member of the Board of Directors.

Against the backdrop of competitive sites like MountainofAgents.com and Zillow’s Realtor Ratings system, AgentLeaf.com is no more. The site and all backpages have been redirected to Google.com with no announcement as to why. AgentLeaf.Blogspot.com’s last entry was on March 28, 2011 as was their last Facebook Page entry, and the company’s last tweet was on April 5, 2011. None of these social networks offered any explanation as to why all operations ceased.

Meanwhile, Holder was hired this spring as a Product Manager at Trulia and although no announcement was made on the Trulia Blog of his hiring and his Twitter account doesn’t claim ties to Trulia, Holder didn’t mention Trulia once on Twitter from March 1st to March 30th, but in the 113 days since, 196 references to Trulia have been made on his Twitter account ranging from postings of open Trulia jobs to Foursquare check-ins to Trulia headquarters as well as retweets of various Trulia employees, with Trulia being his primary topic of conversation.

Holder’s Linked-In profile as well as AgentLeaf’s Board of Directors member Alexandre Linares list AgentLeaf’s end date as March 2011 despite that being the time period Holder informed us that they would be launching in various cities shortly.

The timing of all of these events tied together and how a budding company went silent overnight are quite intriguing. Speculation is that the big announcement Trulia has planned for next week is that Trulia has acquired the technology or at least the talent behind AgentLeaf.com to rate Realtors and reveal their sales stats through the MLS, as well as offer the option for consumers to shop for agents that are willing to offer competitive commission rebates. At a minimum, it appears to be a talent acquisition, but it could be Trulia’s foray into the ratings offering they currently lack. We suspect that Trulia will add Realtor ratings in the near future and it remains unseen as to whether or not they will publicly tie that feature to AgentLeaf.com or to Holder.

We have no confirmation as to whether or not the controversial commission rebates portion of the Realtor ranking product would be included, nor what their announcement is for July 28th, and Trulia indicated that they would respond to our request for comment at a later date. What Trulia did tell us, however, is that today, they will be launching agent recommendations but indicated they didn’t anticipate any controversy attached to the soft launch.

This article published on Friday, July 22nd, 2011 at 1:53 am | Contact the editor Tags: featured, Real Estate News, Realtor ratings, Trulia

Category: Editorials

AgentGenius Editor-in-Chief: Lani, named one of Real Estate’s 100 Most Influencial, as well as 12 Most Influencial Women in Real Estate, is a business writer hailing from the great state of Texas in the city of Austin. As a digital native, Lani is immersed not only in advanced technologies and new media, but is also a stats nerd often burried in piles of reports. Lani is a proven leader, thoughtful speaker, and vested partner at AGBeat. You’ll often find her on Facebook and Twitter, so feel free to reach out and get to know her.

Email Lani Rosales

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Trulia launches Instant Leads to better connect Realtors with consumers

Trulia.com has announced a new online real estate lead notification system for real estate professionals powered by Twilio.com that automatically calls the agent’s mobile phone when consumers leave their phone number, which instantly connects both client and Realtor on a phone call. When a phone number is not left by the consumer or the Realtor does not answer, the Trulia Instant Leads system sends the agent a text message with the consumer’s contact information.

Instant Leads is now offered to all Trulia Pro account holders. Although messaging systems like this are not new and have been used by companies like PropertyMaps.com for years, Trulia would likely claim that its edge is that the Instant Lead systems is using cloud technology.

“Using Twilio, we’ve built what we believe to be a one-of-a kind powerful service that gives agents the opportunity to respond quickly to consumers inquiries, meet more clients and close more transactions,” said Georg Gerstenfeld, VP of Business Services at Trulia. “Twilio’s technology has allowed Trulia to create instant connections between consumers and real estate professionals. When consumers get a quick response it allows agents to build more relationships with potential clients.”

“Trulia has led the way in many aspects of connecting buyers to properties and agents in the real estate market, and Trulia Instant Leads is a great use of Twilio’s voice and text messaging products,” said Jeff Lawson, Twilio CEO. “We’re excited to power another transformative product from an industry-leader, and expect Trulia Instant Leads will re-invent how agents connect with consumers.”

We are enthusiastic about any system or method available to Realtors to connect with consumers in a meaningful way. Constance Freedman of the National Association of Realtors’ Second Century Ventures technology fund noted that 65% of all calls to Realtors go to voicemail and 80% of failed calls end up with competitors which amounts to major losses.

Trulia claims their Instant Leads tool increases the chance of turning online leads into a client by one hundred fold.

According to Trulia, “Agents who have instant access to their leads and respond to inquiries within the first five minutes have a greater likelihood of connecting with leads on the first call. Research has shown that the odds of contacting an online lead if called within the first 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drops 100 times, and the odds of qualifying an online lead if called within the first 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drops 21 times. Using Instant Leads and responding to online leads immediately can allow agents to catch the consumer at the peak of interest—while they’re still searching online and near a phone.”

They note that a recent industry report reflects that “86% of leads considered response time to be “extremely important” when deciding on their real estate agent, 31% of leads expected a real estate agent to reply instantly to their online inquiry while 96% of leads expected a real estate agent to contact them within 4 hours of their online inquiry.

This article published on Thursday, July 21st, 2011 at 8:28 pm | Contact the editor Tags: featured, real estate marketing, Real Estate News, Trulia

Category: Marketing

AgentGenius is a rapidly growing real estate social media, tech, news, and opinion site built and designed by and for the on-the-go agent. Our mission is to be a positive force in the industry, led by people inside of real estate. We aim to keep you up to date on trends that we study closely in order to forecast what’s next on the horizon.

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Integrity in real estate or slime ball Realtors? How to rise above

The phone rings and you are asked if you can show a home to a potential buyer. Do you qualify the buyer or jump in your car and out the door you go? My guess is the less busy REALTORS, and those with less business or new agents would do this.

But, after a few times of being burned… lesson learned. With all the increased activity of agents missing or killed this is also not the smartest thing to do at any time. Never mind that nine times out of ten, this showing isn’t going anywhere.

Most of the time when you receive a call like this, “Hey, I found this home on the internet and would like to see it,” it is from your IDX site or one of the major syndication sites.

Depending on where they found the home, I asked them to give me a minute to see if it is truly available. While they are waiting I qualify them.

Is this the type of home you are looking for?Have you spoken to a lender yet?Are you currently working with a Realtor?

Besides trying to find out the above answers, while I search I am trying to engage them to see if it would be a good fit to have one of my Buyer Specialists work with them, while looking up the listing.

When I ask the question of are you working with a Realtor, most will say…”we haven’t signed anything?”

Sometimes I get, “we are working with my Aunt, Brother, Cousin, Friend of my Sister but she lives 45 minutes away and we don’t want to “bother them.” Once I was actually told, “my Realtor told me to call the listing agents to see homes, and then they would write up the offer.”

Ok, but at least they are honest. More times than not you have to pull it out of them, by asking enough questions to get to the bottom of the answer.

Do you still go and show?Do you say call your relative?If it is your listing do you behave differently?

I have shown my own listing to a buyer like this, because I feel an obligation to my sellers to get their home sold. If they were honest with me. If it is on a listing that is via IDX, no I don’t. I tell them to have their relative to show it or to have their relative call me and I will be glad to work with them since I live in the area they want to purchase in. Showing homes to buyers that you will not end of working with is a complete waste of time.

The one thing that really upsets me is the attitude of the licensed REALTOR who has no respect or disregard for agents in other areas… someone in our profession! Seriously, you are telling your relative to call listing agents or agents in the area and go spend an hour or so to show a home, that you will write the offer on?

I know the consumers don’t have a high regard for REALTORS, that has been documented over and over again, but how can another licensed professional not have respect for what we do? Now if you didn’t take the time to qualify them before putting them in your car, then shame on you.

Once, I had a potential buyer call me and request a showing. As I began to qualify her, and look up the listing, I told her give me a minute to look it up and see if it is available. She said, “Oh you’re not the listing agent, well just give me the listing agent information, I want to work with them, I only saw it on your site and thought it was yours.”

Kinda took me back…the raw honesty. Did I give her the name and phone number? You betcha!

How can we expect the public to respect what we do if other licensed professionals don’t? More importantly how do we respect ourselves if we do this? How do you handle calls like this?

This article published on Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 at 3:04 pm | Contact the editor Tags: featured, real estate ethics, real estate professionalism

Category: Editorials

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Realtors and their MLS bloopers – “ducs for hazzards”

I love television, but I am beginning to believe it is the downfall of mankind. It seems people spend more time scanning the tube than studying. As a result, our psyches are imbued with TV trivia, while our spelling skills are atrocious.  

I get contributions from all over, folks, so this is not just an L.A. “thang.” Check out this week’s spelling anarchy:

“Seller pays ducs for hazzards” (Bo, Luke, Daisy, it’s cha-ching time.)

“New - Pam Dessert” (If you’re referring to Pam Anderson for dessert, get ready for a stampede.)

“One miley from intersection” (May I assume this listing is in the state of Hannah Montana?)

“Extra car parts” (David Hasselhoff’s driveway after an all-nighter.)

“A win-won for all” (Thank you, Long Duck Wong.)

“Furniture and rags negotiable” (…Just in case you plan to open a car wash.)

“Mosaic floor in foyer boasts inlaid brass and ox” (Mosaic floor in PETA  foyer boasts inlaid agent…)

“Needs TOC” (Offered by Hickory Dickory of  Mouse Ran Up The Clock Realty.)

“Tenant occu pies” (Hmmm…tenant’s eyes in a pie…wouldn’t a damage deposit be more humane?)

“Two banglos on a lot” (Attention, Susanna Hoffs, I found the rest of your band from the eighties!)

“Very nice plac” (Are you quoting your dentist?)

“Hipo and trendy neighborhood” (Isn’t this rhino discrimination?)

“Bar and s tools incuded” (Methinks the biggest tool has already hit the bar.)

(Contributed by our own Lani Rosales via Lily Aleksander.)
“This is one the most desirable one bedroom in the 360 towers. Fantastic views of the cty and  amd Lady Bird lake..Granite counter top stainless still appliences. hard wood floors in the kitthcen and carpet in living room and bedroom. ..a build in was is just babulows, totallty privacy and yeat letting lots natural light in..”

Hellooo??? So how did those shock treatments work out for you, dear?

This article published on Friday, July 15th, 2011 at 7:00 am | Contact the editor Tags: featured, humor, Marketing, MLS, Public Relations, Real Estate, real estate marketing, Realtors

Category: Marketing

I wear several hats: My mink fedora real estate hat belongs to Sotheby’s International Realty on the world famous Sunset Strip. I’M not world famous, but I’ve garnered a few Top Producer credits along the way. I also wear a coonskin writer’s cap with an arrow through it, having written a few novels and screenplays and scored a few awards there, too. (The arrow was from a tasteless critic.) My sequined turban is my thespian hat for my roles on stage, and in film and television, Dahling. You can check me out in all my infamy at LinkedIn, LAhomesite.com, SherlockOfHomes, IMDB or you can shoot arrows at my head via email. I can take it.

Email Gwen Banta

View the original article here

Realtors and their MLS bloopers – “ducs for hazzards”

I love television, but I am beginning to believe it is the downfall of mankind. It seems people spend more time scanning the tube than studying. As a result, our psyches are imbued with TV trivia, while our spelling skills are atrocious.  

I get contributions from all over, folks, so this is not just an L.A. “thang.” Check out this week’s spelling anarchy:

“Seller pays ducs for hazzards” (Bo, Luke, Daisy, it’s cha-ching time.)

“New - Pam Dessert” (If you’re referring to Pam Anderson for dessert, get ready for a stampede.)

“One miley from intersection” (May I assume this listing is in the state of Hannah Montana?)

“Extra car parts” (David Hasselhoff’s driveway after an all-nighter.)

“A win-won for all” (Thank you, Long Duck Wong.)

“Furniture and rags negotiable” (…Just in case you plan to open a car wash.)

“Mosaic floor in foyer boasts inlaid brass and ox” (Mosaic floor in PETA  foyer boasts inlaid agent…)

“Needs TOC” (Offered by Hickory Dickory of  Mouse Ran Up The Clock Realty.)

“Tenant occu pies” (Hmmm…tenant’s eyes in a pie…wouldn’t a damage deposit be more humane?)

“Two banglos on a lot” (Attention, Susanna Hoffs, I found the rest of your band from the eighties!)

“Very nice plac” (Are you quoting your dentist?)

“Hipo and trendy neighborhood” (Isn’t this rhino discrimination?)

“Bar and s tools incuded” (Methinks the biggest tool has already hit the bar.)

(Contributed by our own Lani Rosales via Lily Aleksander.)
“This is one the most desirable one bedroom in the 360 towers. Fantastic views of the cty and  amd Lady Bird lake..Granite counter top stainless still appliences. hard wood floors in the kitthcen and carpet in living room and bedroom. ..a build in was is just babulows, totallty privacy and yeat letting lots natural light in..”

Hellooo??? So how did those shock treatments work out for you, dear?

This article published on Friday, July 15th, 2011 at 7:00 am | Contact the editor Tags: featured, humor, Marketing, MLS, Public Relations, Real Estate, real estate marketing, Realtors

Category: Marketing

I wear several hats: My mink fedora real estate hat belongs to Sotheby’s International Realty on the world famous Sunset Strip. I’M not world famous, but I’ve garnered a few Top Producer credits along the way. I also wear a coonskin writer’s cap with an arrow through it, having written a few novels and screenplays and scored a few awards there, too. (The arrow was from a tasteless critic.) My sequined turban is my thespian hat for my roles on stage, and in film and television, Dahling. You can check me out in all my infamy at LinkedIn, LAhomesite.com, SherlockOfHomes, IMDB or you can shoot arrows at my head via email. I can take it.

Email Gwen Banta

View the original article here