Houselogic.com – Major New Consumer Real Estate Site Coming November 12th
November 10, 2009
The National Association of Realtors will be releasing the public beta of their new consumer real estate website, www.houselogic.com, on Thursday November 12th.
What is Houselogic.com?
The website will have free information and tools that allow homeowners to make smart and timely decisions about their home, typically a consumers largest personal investment.
What does Houselogic.com include?
It has content covering home improvement, maintenance, taxes, finances, insurance and even ways to make your community better. It’s primary goal is to help consumers protect and increase the value of their homes by helping them make confident decisions.
What are some of Houselogic.com’s features?
The website will features a number of great features including:
- Right out of the gate the website will have over 120 articles by leading consumer writers on home ownership topics.
- The ability to save interesting articles to your own “Binder” to read later
- A Home Project Finder feature to help you find the best investments to improve your property
- Create your own “To Do” list and track your progress toward completion
- A feature called “Badges” which rewards you as you complete projects and allows you to share your accomplishments with other website users or with social media sites like Facebook
- The ability to collaborate with your local Realtor to answer questions about real estate
How will Houselogic.com be publicized?
The website enters formal beta on November 12th but won’t be officially launched and marketed until February 15, 2010. Feel free to take advantage of all it has to offer now and let me know what you think.
Real-Time Real Estate Data on Dakota County Cities
October 27, 2009
Today I implemented a new technology solution on my website that allows people who are interested in Dakota County (MN) homes to pull up real-time real estate data on each of the main 10 cities in the county. You can get access to this information from my main Dakota County Communities page here – Dakota County Communities
Here are the main features of this new tool -
Real-Time Market Statistics by City
Integrates with Zillow for updated overall real estate market data along with averages for different sizes of properties. The link to Zillow goes into much more comparison detail.
Real-Time Market Activity
Pulls Zillow.com data to show recent home sales in each city. You can click on the listed properties or click the link for much more detailed data on sold properties. The tool will also let you search for properties that are currently active on the market on my personal Zillow site.
School Data
Provides data on each of the public and private schools located within each city along with the ability to link to more detail on the Education.com website.
Walk Score
The Walk Score site is really a tool that helps people who want to live a lifestyle with as little driving as possible know what neighborhoods will allow that. While life in the suburbs usually demand a car a lot of the time there are certainly some homes closer to shopping, schools & transit than others.
Local Business Reviews
Yelp provides local business reviews that allow you to search for other businesses and retail establishments that come highly recommended by other consumers.
New Real Estate Search Tool Allows Agent Collaboration
October 2, 2009
One of the biggest things I’m trying to do in order to differentiate myself is to take full advantage of my 21 years at Microsoft to bring technology solutions to my clients. Last week I attended the Minnesota Realtors Expo and found a software company named Listingbook at the vendor expo.
What is Listingbook?
It’s an MLS online search tool that connects agents and their clients to an integrated platform for real time collaboration and communication. For buyers it conducts instant property searches connected directly into the MLS but it also allows instant communication and personalized service from the agent who can see what the client likes and doesn’t like about properties. For sellers it compares area sales by neighborhood and allows agent feedback reporting.
What Makes It Different?
While many agents & real estate companies have MLS search tools, this is the first product I’ve seen that really allows people to work more closely with their Realtor to communicate what they like (and don’t like) to find the best property. It also provides a platform that allows clients to know what they’ve already looked at and total freedom to customize the searches. Finally, it instantly provides information on new listings and price changes to identify new buying opportunities.
How Do You Try It?
It’s free to use (but it is advertiser supported). I’ve set up my own landing page so you can sign up and start taking advantage of this great resource. Let me know what you think!
Bill Wallace’s Listingbook Landing Page
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