Idea Starter: What if homebuyers & sellers managed their own data?

When the headline “Freeing ‘captured’ homebuyers” arrived in my email two weeks ago, I thought the real estate industry had just discovered VRM: Vendor Relationship Management (see series of videos above for an overview).  But scanning the article quickly, it became clear the author was just repeating a tired rant against national lead management companies “capturing” home buyers and reselling them to local real estate agents for a referral fee.  Ironically, 3.5 years earlier, the Realtor’s chief technology officer had a better insight into the radical re-thinking necessary to reorient the industry from attracting attention to responding to intention.

As discussed in a blog post entitled Is Real Estate ripe for VRM? following the Realtors annual convention last year, some real estate innovators are already building VRM-like applications.  What might the future hold?  Join the conversation at VRM+CRM 2010 tomorrow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society by (1) following the Twitter hashtags #reVRM and #vrmcrm2010, or (2) commenting on or adding to this preliminary list of idea starters The Real Estate Cafe has prepared to kick-start conversation about VRM’s potential role in the residential real estate industry.  Here are ten of our favorites ideas about how to retool the real estate industry with VRM.  What are yours?

1.  Sellers will be able to search buyers as easily as buyers currently search listings.  (See comments received / Discuss)

2.  Everything is for sale (at some intended point in the future) for the right price.  (See comments received / Discuss)

3.  Already into a “post MLS” world.  For every home on the MLS, there are two units in the shadow inventory.  Only half of units in MLS selling, in some markets, one in three.  (See comments received / Discuss)

5.  Buyers will be able to sign into open houses, and transfer their buyer profile or homesearchID by “bumping” their smart phone.  (See comments received / Discuss)

6.  Fourth parties, like locally initiated homebuyer club, will aggregate and deliver savings to buyers and sellers.  (See comments received / Discuss)

10.  Buyers will be able to manage and release their listing clickstreams so sellers, including distressed sellers, auctioneers, and leanders or government agencies with foreclosures, can invite them to bid on properties.  (See comments received / Discuss)

15.  Fourth parties will develop platforms to certify trust worthiness of real estate professionals based on terms of service, eg. No conflicts of interest because brokerage prohibits dual agency.  (See comments received / Discuss)

18.  Geoloco apps, augmented reality, and smartphones / mobile devices will enable real estate consumers to connect at hyperlocal level and engage in meaningful conversations that translate into more informed decisions and savings opportunities.  (See comments received / Discuss)

20.  eGov will embrace VRM tools, particularly homebuyerIDs, to reduce paperwork and help make sense of morass of competing housing program guidelines.  (See comments received / Discuss)

22.  Decisions to buy and sell homes are preceded by a continuum of intention that can be expressed through VRM tools and informed by VRM apps (eg. think “farecast” of buying & selling based on local supply / demand factors, seasonality, annual absorption rates, unsold inventory).  (See comments received / Discuss)

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Real Estate…a National Pandemic?

Barron’s
       
cover
        article “The Big Glut-Trouble in Paradise” didn’t help
        rattled nerves when it outlined that prices and sales have already
        slumped by up to 40% in some areas,
and that second home sales now
        made up 40% of the U.S. market. The article also told how while 10,000
        condominium units were built over the past ten years in Miami-Dade
        County, 50,000 units are currently under construction or soon to
        commence with another 50,000 currently in the planning stages.

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2006/0708.html

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1st Annual Real Estate Fleece Buster Awards

Honor former Senator William Proxmire (confirm name) famed for his Golden Fleece awards, but calling for nominations for the first annual Real Estate Fleece Busters Award for truly acting in the public interest in their efforts to enhance competition in the real estate industry (link to the Washington Post article.).

Honorary Nomination:  Fr. Robert McEwen (sp?) first president of the Consumer Federation of America.

Others:

1.  DOJ

2.  FTC

3.  Inman News

4.  Wall Street Journal

5.  Founders of Future of Real Estate

6.  Flat fee service vendors, particularly those who are the leading listing agents in their respective markets

7.  Attorney generals monitoring real estate fraud

8.  Everyone who submitted comments to the DOJ / FTC public comment process.

9.  Retiring chair of House Financial Service Committee

10.  Technology innovators who continually develop new business models designed to save real estate consumers time and money.

11.  Authors of Freaknomics

Emeritus:  Alan Greenspan, who first proposed that banks be allowed to provide real estate brokerage services

Mapping comments from the HousingBubbleBlog

Has anyone given any thought to "mapping" the kinds of trends and location specific information readers of this blog contribute from around the country?  Comments posted here could protect home buyers from making a mistake that will cost them for years.  Skeptics, like those in the recent newspaper article in Boston and other markets who blame the market slowdown on the media, should check the locations, price declines, and duration of past price corrections on this experimental site:

http://www.realestatebubblemap.com

Your comments are welcome.  Better yet, create your own local bubble map and let others link to it; and if readers are in the housing market, attach comps to their offers.  Be sure to click on the Boston map to see homes selling for below their assessed value, some $100,000 or more below their original asking price.

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