The Official HomeRoute Blog

Neighboroo – Visual Research Tool for Home Buyers

If your buyers are looking for a resource to help them research an upcoming move, HomeRoute’s Technology Watch has a great tool for you to point them towards. The new beta site Neighboroo allows users to browse cities across the country using a Google's click and drag mapping technology integrated with statistical data about community culture, lifestyle, school rankings, the local housing market and average household income. This site would be a great recommendation to home buyers looking for an easy way to research and compare neighborhoods of interest.

Check out this easy to use tool at www.neighboroo.com. Click along the left side column to view the trends for any given neighborhood. Learn more about the creators of this site at: http://transparentretech.com.

Online Video – The Next Big Trend in Real Estate Marketing Tools

HomeRoute Technology Watch has been reading several recent blog posts and articles about the explosion of online videos as a marketing platform for real estate. The buzz is talking about the evolution of user-generated content as the focus of up and coming website technology and how Web Video is the “poster child” for user-generated content. Don’t be left behind – catch up on the latest insight into how and why real estate agents are using web videos to promote themselves and market their properties.

Read Matt Carter’s article on Inman News: Video is King of User-Generated Content. Link to real estate websites already utilizing web videos from the blog post: Real Estate Agents bear witness… The rise of video is upon us.

Mining your Email Database for Gold

As more agents move their prospecting activities online, the HomeRoute Insider read a success story that demonstrates how nurture marketing your online database through targeted email campaigns can increase your sales.  The story of Galand Hass, Oregon mega-agent and iSucceed mentor, notes how Haas and his team communicate 60 times per year with their database of over 20,000 email contacts which has been the key to his team’s success.

To read about Galand Haas’ success with email marketing and what is working for him, read: http://www.rismedia.com. To listen to the audio interview on iSucceed.com, click here: http://www.isucceed.com.

Get Reading: 500 Real Estate Blogs to Watch

As the real estate “blogosphere” explodes with hundreds of new blogs buzzing about the latest industry news, technology trends and real estate success stories, The HomeRoute Insider found a great list of 500 Real Estate Blogs to Watch compiled by the PittsburghHomesDailey.com.  Organized by state, this is a great place to find some new reading material to follow via RSS feed. 

To read the entire list, check out:
http://www.pittsburghdaily.com. To read Jim Cronin's review on the topic, visit: The Real Estate Tomato.

The Business Blog vs. The Real Estate Website

If you have started your own real estate blog or are considering it, the HomeRoute Insider recommends reading Jim Cronin’s September 25^th blog post titled “The Business Blog vs. The Real Estate Website.”  According to Cronin “If Realtors are going to recognize the value of blogging, they first need to recognize it's distinction from their personal website.  An analogy to help understand the difference: Think of your personal website as a brochure.  Think of a blog as the editorial section of a newspaper.”

To read Cronin’s detailed list of the differences between your personal real estate website and your blog and how best real estate agents can leverage the two to generate business, read http://realestatetomato.typepad.com/the_real_estate_tomato/2006/09/the_business_bl.html