Trulia is Your Competitor, Not Your Partner - Help Protect the Consumer
Author: Ryan Ward | May 12, 2008
There is a lot of buzz around the internet right now exposing one of the leading national real estate third party websites for what they are - a competitor and you may have been duped into thinking that they are a partner. It’s time to work this out and set the record straight. I first posted about this over a year ago here.
Trulia is Your Competitor, Not Your Partner
Let’s get right down to the heart of it shall we? First of all, if you have a website, you have an opportunity for buyers and sellers to find you and I’m sure that you know that the internet is the future of real estate marketing and that future is here.
So the first question is - why would you place a Trulia map or one of their widgets on your website? By doing so, you are sending links from your website to their website and you are indicating to the buying public that THEY are the authority. They are not an authority. We are. You need to go the MLS and check the real data against that which they display and it will become very clear, very quickly that their data is not nearly as accurate as ours. This part is easy to do, but, let me tell you what is even worse for you as an agent or a broker with a Trulia map or some other widget on your website than the fact that we have better data:
If You Have Trulia on Your Site, You are Losing Leads
Let’s repeat that: If you have a Trulia widget on your site, you are losing leads. Their widgets that you think are so “cool” are actually taking people off of your website and sending them to Trulia. Why would you give them your hard worked for opportunities to get new business? Are you beginning to see the larger story here? Remove the widgets, remove the links to them from you. Otherwise, they will just continue to improve their rankings pushing you farther down.
Nuber1Expert Now in Bed With the Trulia
Maybe that sounds a bit harsh, but, you need to understand that Trulia is your competition and they only care about you if it helps them outrank you, me, realtor.com and all of the places that consumers can get the most accurate information. NUMBER1EXPERT, the real estate website provider has now jumped in bed with Trulia. Why? One can only imagine, but, it certainly is an indication that NUMBER1EXPERT is not looking out for their clients - er, unless Trulia is now one of their clients!
CNN Also Duped By Trulia
money.cnn is using Trulia for their home search- I’m not sure if I should give a tip of the hat to Trulia’s talented sales staff or wag a finger at CNN for not being responsible enough to get the facts before using a site like Trulia. CNN should really be using a site that dispays all of the listings available. Remember, when you or CNN use a product, you are in fact endorsing that product. CNN has made a mistake by utilizing Trulia for their home search. At least Yahoo had the good sense to get accurate data from Prudential for their search - at least the consumer is getting the most accurate info that way. CNN does not offer the consumer that same assurance with Trulia.
Protect the Consumer
As agents and brokers, we have many obligations to the public that come before we make our first dollar. One of those obligations is that we will provide the public with accurate information. Well, we need to do so here. Trulia has some accurate and some not so accurate information. Much of their listing database is no longer active or sold. When you place a widget on your website or blog and the consumer sees it, they think you are referencing Trulia (we,ve already established that you have better info, right?) as the gold standard. They don’t have a Brokers license and they don’t have all of the data! Come on people!
Ranking on the Backs of Agents
Without us, Trulia would not be where they are. They understand this. They take our data, outrank us for it and then sell it back to us! How does that make any sense. At least realtor.com has accurate information. Again, let’s work to protect the consumer here. The Code of Ethics requires that we do.
A Couple of Plugs for the Third Party Sites Not Pretending
While I feel that it essential that we stop linking to Trulia completely, be it Trulia Voices or using their widgets, I do not feel that way about all of the third party sites. Louis Cammarosano of Homegain does an excellent job of explaining it in this post and David Gibbons at zillow.com does it by offering excellent insight for consumers like this post time and again.
More Reading and Resources on This Subject
If you have made it this far down in this post, I encourage you to do a little more research on this subject as we as agents and brokers all have something to gain by learning how a site like Trulia can ultimately do more harm than good for us and for consumers:
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Information about Trulia widgets - also read the comments
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Trulia’s linking Strategies - Please read this and the comments, very informative.
Topics: Marketing | 24 Comments »
Real Estate For Sale in 30022, 30005 and 30004
Author: Ryan Ward | May 6, 2008
Search homes for sale zip code 30022, real estate in zip code 30004 and real estate in zip code 30005.
One of the best parts of having a custom IDX that pulls the FMLS data feed is that I can create a custom search for anything that I can search for as a real estate professional in the FMLS. One of the best things that I can do for my sellers is to create a custom page that will showcase their listings for more buyers to find. With that in mind, I decided to make it easier to search homes for sale by zip code and to make it easier for buyers to find my listings by adding custom searches by zip code all in one place. I started this tonight and will add more and more zip codes to the website quickly and hope to have all of the areas finished that we serve and have listings in by the end of the week.
More and more buyers are learning to refine their searches to more specific places so I have a plan to add search by schools as well, but, that will be far more daunting so I’ll start with zip codes. The bottom line is that it allows buyers to find my listings and all homes for sale in ways that they are already using so it’s another value for sellers and convenient for buyers. Just one more reason to consider listing your home with us when the time comes for you to sell your home.
Tonight Alpharetta, tomorrow Roswell, Sandy Springs and more. If you are looking for other zip codes before I have them completed, feel free to comment, contact me or give me a call at 404.704.0214 and I will set you up with a custom search as well.
Topics: Alpharetta Real Estate | 4 Comments »
Northcliff Homes in Roswell on the Chattahoochee
Author: Ryan Ward | May 2, 2008
If you are unfamiliar with Northcliff by name, it’s located off of Riverside Drive in Roswell about 2 miles down from Old Alabama Road. This river community boasts one of the Roswell’s most convenient locations with access from Eves Road or Old Alabama from Holcomb Bridge, just off of GA 400 as well as the back way down Riverside over to Roswell Road if you prefer using the Northridge exit for commting over to the Cobb area.
Northcliff itself is just simply one of those neighborhoods that was built right. From the time you pull in off of Riverside and wind your way up through some gentle rolling hills on the wide roads it’s evident. Homes are seperated, the tree canopy is mature and the utilities are underground.
It just so happens that we have a new listing in Northcliff at 9240 Stonemist Trace Roswell, GA 30076. You can click the link on the address and view the website for the property and get more photos and information. I’ve included some of the photos that I took here (you might see some of the river photos again later in a seperate post about Roswell).
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Northcliff is just simply one of the neighborhoods that you should check out if you are looking at homes for sale in Roswell or specifically looking for homes near the Chatahoochee.
Topics: Roswell Real Estate | 2 Comments »
Where is the Breaking Point in the Market?
Author: Ryan Ward | May 1, 2008
Jonathan Miller writes an astute post about some of the misleading logic volleyed about on the internet today about the real estate market. The long and the short of his post is that basic economic principles dictate that the market will not on its own begin to shift back to a more balanced market and that there must be some force at play to cause the directional change. It’s very easy to see the impact on housing values in the Atlanta real estate market. Prices have been on a steady decline (7.1%), sold home listings are down about 35% year over year and a little bit of additional activity due to the historic upswing in spring is not driving inventories down.
So, the question becomes, what is the breaking point? Clearly the answer is not that homes are more affordable so we should see an upswing because that is not causation - it is simply an observation and an incomplete one at that. The fact of the matter is that housing is not perceived to be affordable and perception is reality. Justified or unjustified buyers feel housing is overpriced and when you couple that with underwriting guidelines that are more strict than in the past few years, affordability looks to be even farther away.
Population increase itself is not enough to overcome the market. Even though Metro Atlanta is the fastest growing city in the United States since the year 2000, the inventory levels remain unchained or increasing slightly.
So if I had to answer this question, I would say that the breaking point is when the average sold price drops another 4-5%.
Topics: Atlanta Real Estate | 11 Comments »
What’s Really Happening in the Alpharetta Real Estate Market
Author: Ryan Ward | April 30, 2008
O.K. As a consumer, you deserve to get the very best, most accurate information that we as real estate professionals have available. Most of the time, we can login to our trusted accounts in the FMLS and enter in what we are looking for and the system will dump the data in our laps which we then give to you in an easily digestible way. This is the case for most areas - except for Alpharetta. The problem is that agents enter listings from John’s Creek, Milton, Cumming and Cherokee County as “Alpharetta” so the numbers are terribly skewed. If I enter “Alpharetta” into the FMLS, the data is not very accurate because the markets are quite different even in the surrounding city’s that are adjacent to Alpharetta. O.K. so enough about that. Last August I wrote a post showing how you can find out if you actually are in or are looking at a house that actually is in Alpharetta, but, that doesn’t make it any easier for us to actually give you accurate information.
However, there is a way that we can get the information out of the FMLS and you can get it right here. So let’s get to it shall we?
- Right now, there are 419 homes for sale in Alpharetta.
- There 56 pending and contingent homes in Alpharetta.
- In the last 30 days, 28 homes have sold - that is an absorption rate of 15 months - a bad market for sellers. The days on market is 99 and the average sold price is $413,000.
- In the last 60 days, 56 homes have sold - that is an absorption rate of…15 months (the same as the last 30 days). The days on market is 97 days and the average sold price was $411,869.
- In the last 90 days, 69 homes have sold - the absorption rate over this period is 18 months - very bad for one of the most popular areas in all of Metro Atlanta. The days on market is 94 days and the average sold price was $394,000.
So there are the meat of the numbers for you. I do see a little glimmer of good news in those numbers. The sold values are a bit of a red herring as the actual values in Alpharetta are actually down over the last 12 months if you plot them on a map and on a trend line. You can see that graph here. But, the absorption rate is trending down. A little. Pending homes are on the rise slightly as well, but really, the market is flat more than anything. Flat itself is better than it was last fall.
Now, as far as the overall market in North Fulton that I follow, values in Alpharetta are down over the last year while they are up in Sandy Springs and in at least parts of Roswell, specifically 30076.
Looking for More?
Feel free to contact me with specific questions or if you see something that that doesn’t seem to jive with what you have seen elsewhere. I will be happy to show you how we make certain our information is the most accurate available to the consumer.
As Always…
The best place to search for Alpharetta real estate is on my website.
Topics: Alpharetta Real Estate | No Comments »
The Trulia Spin Stops Here
Author: Ryan Ward | April 30, 2008
Nothing like a good post by another one of the excellent writers over at the Bloodhound Blog, Galen Ward (no relation) to get me worked up. Again. About Trulia. I’ve written about Trulia before, but, before I go on about what I don’t like about them, I think that I do owe them a tip of the hat for forcing all of us to step up, be better bloggers, real estate agents and perhaps even shape the way “Web 2.0″, whatever that is exactly, works for real estate. Trulia has added a layer of competition that did not exist before them.
I’d also like to say that Rudy from Trulia(I nofollowed this link so as to indicate that I don’t “trust” Trulia the way they do to websites. No offense Rudy, you guys have plenty of links 
) has the sometimes unenviable position of having to run in and add some Trulia spin to places around the web like the post over on the Bloodhound Blog and he does an excellent job and seems to be himself a first class individual. However, my lack of trust for Trulia is not because of anything other than the simple fact they they are disseminating information to consumers that is less accurate than what is readily available from real estate professionals. So, let’s set all of the niceties aside and get down to what I think is a bigger problem than a nofollow, which most people have never heard of, and look at the endemic problems that Trulia has as well as why it’s better to find a licensed real estate professional that you can trust to find your information.
Bad Information Passed off By Real Estate Professionals as the Gospel
One of the most prominent places to find Trulia is on a real estate website controlled by a real estate professional. As a consumer, you wouldn’t think a real estate professional would place information that wasn’t accurate on their personal website - therefore the information becomes accurate to consumers through perception and then Trulia automatically becomes an authoritative force in providing information not only to consumers, but to real estate agents themselves. A brilliant move on their part. The problem is that this information is woefully inaccurate. Here are the real numbers for values, followed by what you see displayed on Trulia’s graph. I chose Alpharetta because I knew where to find one of their graphs and I also happen to have recently crunched the numbers myself so I know for a fact they are wrong and wrong by hundreds of thousands of dollars!:
Did you see how far off they are?
Let’s get to the important question…
If Trulia Didn’t Exist, Would Consumers Be Worse Off or Better?
Hard to say I suppose. Like I said at the beginning here, they have added a layer of competition that previously did not exist and that helps to make all of us better. But, I think there is more to this. Here is a quote from a comment I left on the other blog:
“Look. It’s very simple. They are a 3rd party site that wants in on a very lucrative piece of pie. They don’t exist at all if the majority of real estate pros were in any way tech savvy. Fortunately for them, that is never going to be the case.
So, they get venture capital, SEO the you-know-what out of there site, become relevant because of search engine ranking and “wedge” their way in.
Once in, they have the strength to force agents/brokers to consider them relevant, which they are because of the amount of traffic that they now have.
It’s a simple business plan and they have implemented it extremely effectively. So the rub is that more and more people will feel compelled to use them and then they can increase their revenue by reselling information given freely to them.
Brilliant, but, there is no need for their existance. How does that affect you and me? Very simple.
Eventually, they will increase our marketing costs.
The only way to stop them at this point is to beat them at their own game which only we can do because we hold the information - at least for now.”
I stand by this and I believe that ultimately, the consumer is the loser in this because of added marketing costs that are completely unnecesary. As they become stronger, more and more agents will feel compelled to “have to” use them to market homes. For the record, all of my listings are there already. I’m not a fool, I just don’t believe that there is a need for third part interlopers to jump in and wedge there way into a place all the while pretending to be an authority while they infact have less as well as less accurate information. I think it’s a sham on consumers and I think most agents have no idea. The more powerful they get, the more likely they are to increase costs paid by agents to “feature” listings. Large real estate companies, like Keller Williams (who I am with) have paid big money to Trulia already. I contend that they would have been better served by creating a more accurate version of Trulia through KW where they could display far more accurate information instead of adding to the credibility of a company that needs us more than we need them.
The Spin Stops Here
Topics: Marketing | 15 Comments »
Alpharetta Real Estate Market Update on Home Values
Author: Ryan Ward | April 25, 2008
The latest numbers for March are out for statistics from the FMLS and the overall Metro Atlanta real estate market is not beginning to show signs of an upswing. In fact, prices in Metro Atlanta as a whole are still declining. The chart below is for Alpharetta and goes back one year. As with most of the individual cities that make up Metro Atlanta as a whole, sales on a monthly basis are not large enough to prevent large swings in values because one $3,000,000 home sale can affect values for the whole city so what we have to do is look at the statistics over a longer period of time than one month and insert a trendline that shows the overall direction we are heading. For Alpharetta, home values are heading down. Not much, but down none the less. Here is the chart:
Furthermore, total monthly sales have declined and homes going under contract is not increasing significantly enough to indicate that the spring market will provide and substantial correction to the current housing slowdown.
What This Means For You
Fundamentally what this means is that if your home doesn’t present the best value at its price point, it simply is not going to sell. I recently ran across a post on the Bloodhound blog that linked somewhere else that I felt sums up short and sweet what you as a seller need to understand about the market. If you are thinking about listing your home for sale, don’t until you have read this.
Fundamentals and Better Marketing Are the Key to Sales in a Buyers Market
The link above will get you well on your way to understanding the fundamentals as you need to know them as a seller and marketing - better marketing - is what you need from your agent to get your home noticed in an increasingly crowded real estate market with 35% fewer buyers than a year ago.
Lots of agents have great ideas and we love to toot our own horns about what we can do to sell your home, but, really - how many of these marketing strategies do you think are actually effective? There isn’t much we can do to to market to other agents - they have to have buyers looking for a home like yours and they are going to look for it in the MLS when they have that buyer so don’t buy into the hype that your agent has some new and/or more effective way to market to agents because there isn’t one. That’s just a fallacy they will tell you to make you and them feel better.
Effective New Strategies Rely on Marketing Homes directly to Buyers
I don’t believe there is any need whatsoever to spend 20 minutes extolling the virtues of the internet and the fact that buyers use it to find homes so instead you just need to find an agent who has effectively been able to penetrate an increasingly difficult area of marketing. We all say we use it to market homes and I have been saying for months now that this statement, while on it’s face is true, does not provide you with anything tangible because everyone does it thereby lowering the overall effectiveness. If everyone is using the same techniques to market Alpharetta real estate than that marketplace simply gets more crowded and less effective.
The Real Answer is Being Able To Get Eyes on Your Home and Only Your Home When Searching For Homes Like Yours
That’s the closest thing to a magic bullet and I think we have found some unique ways to fire that gun. I’ll have another post running through some of these exciting techniques later.
Topics: Alpharetta Real Estate | 6 Comments »
Roswell Real Estate Market Update For 30076
Author: Ryan Ward | April 23, 2008
I’ve been posting some charts with updates on different areas of the market over the last week and today you can see a chart indicating the sold values for Roswell real estate in zip code 30076 over the last 2 years. There is a trend with all of the cities in North Fulton that differs from Metro Atlanta as a whole. Many agents and especially the news feeds us the “doom and gloom” of real estate, and, it is true that overall the market is down. However, it’s very important to remember that historically, real estate is an appreciating asset and should not be looked at as a short term way to make a buck, except for a small group of very savvy investors. So, without harping on about what’s good and bad about the market, I’ll just let you have a look at the ever important statistic of sold home values so you can see for yourself:
Here again you can see that another city in North Fulton has seen an overall increase in values continue over the last 2 years - Contrary to much of what you might have heard.
But This Probably isn’t the Great News You Thought
We are only talking about a very small increase of about 2% in values based on the trend line. This is not appreciation to write home about and it certainly is not the type of appreciation that you should be using as your ATM to withdraw cash! As usual, there is more to the story so you should know that while there have been modest increases in home values, they are somewhat offset by increased inventory and slower sales. Sales are off 30% and inventories are still increasing.
As Always…
You can search Atlanta homes for sale on our website with the most complete and detailed methods available to consumers.
And…If you are looking for more specific information about anything that I have not covered here, please just fill in the contact form on the right or just give me a call at 404.630.3187.
Topics: Roswell Real Estate | 2 Comments »
Open House in Sandy Springs
Author: Ryan Ward | April 21, 2008
Open house this Sunday, April 27th from 1-3 p.m. 750 Crest Valley Drive in Sandy Springs, 30327
Don’t miss this Sunday’s open house where you will have an opportunity to view an extremely hot property inside the perimeter in Sandy Springs. Attached below are some of the photos that you can see by viewing the single property website for this home.:
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Property features include:
- A 1.4 acre level lot
- Pool
- Huge Great Room addition with in-law suite
- New Master addition including new master bath and huge walk-in closet
- 3 car garage
750 Crest Valley Drive Sandy Springs, GA 30327 is located inside the perimeter on the corner of Mount Vernon Parkway. Please view the property website to view all of the details and a map to the property.
You can view all homes for sale in Sandy Springs on our website and our Atlanta open houses on an interactive map.
As always…
If you have any questions, please contact me using the form to the right or call me at 404.630.3187
Thank you
Topics: Open Houses, Sandy Springs Real Estate | 1 Comment »
Sandy Springs Sold Homes Values 3/07 - 2/08
Author: Ryan Ward | April 19, 2008
As with the sold homes values for Metro Atlanta, the information we use to gather the numbers for sold home values in Sandy Springs comes directly from the First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS). Sandy Springs home values, like most of North Fulton have not suffered the way the national average has. I have inserted a trend line on this chart, so you can actually see prices increasing over the last year.
Most areas in North Fulton have continued to see an appreciation of values, albeit with lower sales and higher inventory. It’s like a stalemate between buyers and sellers trying to pull the market. It’s unclear whether or not lower prices would have resulted in more sales, but, I suspect that it would not have made much difference. Sandy Springs homes for sale are and likely will continueto be a destination of choice for homebuyers. The first city on Atlanta’s premier north side and outside of the limits of the city of Atlanta, Sandy Springs offers more convenience to more parts of Atlanta such as the airport, Dunwoody and Midtown than the other North Fulton cities. For these reasons, you will pay a premium.
As Always…
You can search Atlanta homes for sale on our website with the most complete and detailed methods available to consumers.
And…If you are looking for more specific information about anything that I have not covered here, please just fill in the contact form on the right or just give me a call at 404.630.3187.
Topics: Sandy Springs Real Estate | No Comments »
