Disruptive RE Broker

I hired Softvention to revise my site and each week we find more bugs and problems. The entire site is so slow and I am going to have to have it redone really soon. I regret working with softvention to the point where I hope this blog post will help people not make the same mistake I did when I hired Softvention. If you are thinking about hiring Softvention please feel free to contact me first and I will tell you why I am so upset with the services Softvention provided.

I have always enjoyed Scott Kirsners’ writings about technology and he has a new blog called Innovation Economy. Check it out.

DRUMROLL PLEASE …

From: Ooma Customer Care
Date: Jul 24, 2007 1:41 AM
Subject: Greetings from ooma!
To: AndrewHillman

Congratulations on being part of ooma’s White Rabbit program. You’re one of the chosen few who will help us change the game of phone service forever.

Right now, ooma(TM) is only available to White Rabbits - you cannot get it anywhere else, and it’s not for sale. As a White Rabbit, you’ll receive:

* free ooma equipment
* free local and long-distance calling in the US
* free ooma service, including an Instant Second Line(TM) functionality, Broadband Answering Machine(TM) capability, and more
* 3 unique invitations to invite friends and family to become White Rabbits

Keep your eye out for the DHL truck in your neighborhood; it will be stopping by to drop off your starter kit soon.

In the meantime, why not get started and take a look at our support and installation tips (http://whiterabbit.ooma.com/support). Some of the information posted there may affect the way you install your ooma equipment, so we encourage you to read up now so you can hit the ground running the minute your starter kit arrives.

Once you’re all set up, you can start making free domestic long distance calls right away. We’ll need 24-48 hours to configure your landline so that it can support all of ooma’s other features, like the Broadband Answering Machine and the Instant Second Line. Sorry for the slight wait, but trust us, it is worth it.

Keep in mind that if you have DSL, it will not be affected in any way when we configure your line. We will remove Voicemail and Call Waiting if you have them, and add Call Forward Busy, but it’s up to you to contact your phone company and remove your current long distance plan - so you can start paying nothing, courtesy of ooma.

We don’t expect you to encounter any issues with your equipment, but if you do please contact us right away. If you have any questions or find something is missing from your starter kit, please contact us at http://whiterabbit.ooma.com/support. There you will also find insider tips, tales and tricks of the trade.

Don’t be shy about contacting us; your feedback ensures ooma is the best it can be when it finally becomes available to the public this fall.

Once again, welcome to the White Rabbit Program.

- The ooma Team

P.S. During online registration, you were asked to approve an eLOA (”Electronic Letter of Agency”), so that we could make changes to your phone line. If you chose to decline the eLOA, a member from our support staff will be contacting you soon to follow up.

Check this out.

I received this mass email letter from the President of Statewide MLS.

Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:50:08 -0400
From: “Cecile Cohen, RIAR President”
To: “Andrew Hillman”
Subject: Operation Tip Off: CBS Playing “Copycat”

OPERATION TIP-OFF PUBLICITY ALERT

CBS Playing “Copycat”

July 23 – If you get déjà vu from watching the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric tonight or Tuesday, your feeling is correct. It’s the same old, tired “FSBO” story that was bumped by breaking news last month. We told them then, and we told them last week, “There is no FSBO story.” We told them that if they go ahead with it, it had better be fair and balanced, after the hatchet job they did to us on “60 Minutes.” We also reminded them that the Katie Couric show has the lowest ratings of all the news networks: NBC, ABC, CNN and Fox News, and that she couldn’t stand to lose more viewers. They asked us for our FSBO stats, for a list of steps agents take to sell a house, and stats about the Madison, Wis. , FSBO study. We gave them the same information we shared with them last month—and told them once again that the academic study about Madison has been discredited. Then they wanted to know why sellers can’t save on paying THE 6 percent commission. And again, we told them: There’s no such thing as a standard commission—all commissions and fees are negotiable, and if you report anything else, it’s false. The FSBO market is at an all-time low for a reason, and media that tell sellers they can save money by not using an agent are doing consumers a great disservice. But they’re going ahead with the story. We offered to have them interview an NAR officer to rebut the FSBO premise. They declined, saying they would run an interview with Lawrence Yun taped last month. Lawrence did a good job during that interview, saying that the FSBO market has collapsed, not only in Madison but throughout the United States, because sellers realize Realtors add value to the transaction and are voting with their feet by turning away from FSBO ranks. And we told them you’d be waiting and watching CBS Monday and Tuesday nights and would be the judges of whether the story is balanced. Let us—and CBS—know what you think.

Yes.

Read this article from the Boston Globe today and you will see what I have been thinking for the last 4 years. If you have a consumer based startup - being in Boston can be be tough. The Valley is where things happen.

The West Coast VC’s understand whereas in Boston they don’t. I have met a few and I couldn’t believe they never heard of the companies I was referring to. In Boston VC’s want revenues first. In the Valley VC’s want page views first. I believe it the latter because you can always monetize eyeballs.

Boston has a few VC firms that will invest in so called web 2.0 companies but nothing like VC’s out west. This sucks for startups in Boston. East coast VC just don’t take on risk like West Coast VC’s do.

If you are interested in pitching a VC in MA you should check out:

Spark Capital.

Polaris Ventures
Walnut Ventures

But before you do this build your product and bring it to market and perhaps they will be calling you instead.

If you live on the left coast you may want to read this blog for pithy real estate news

If you live in suburbs of Boston and want some real estate info check out this site. This site needs to cover all of Boston though.

Brad Inman has a interesting post about the web 1.0 days.

He had a vision about doing the following:
1. Put all home listings and related data (property records, crime and school info.) on the Web.
> Executed and web 2.0 is about making it better.
2. Create a virtual tour [video today] for every listing.
> Executed and web 2.0 is creating variations.
3. Create a digital transaction.
> Not complete. Still too much paper. Fax machine is still king.

So Brad is asking what’s next?

I am not completely stumped, but I would love your thoughts on the next big idea. What can we achieve with Web 2.0 that seems very unlikely today but so important?

IMO innovation in real estate has been a bust. Why? Because MLS does not let access be free, which is hindering innovation on all levels. The only site that has the ability to innovate is Realtor.com because they have all the listings available. Unfortunately, Realtor.com isn’t smart enough to get it right. I have a really good friend who does sales at Realtor.com and he even says the company is so messed up. Can you imagine if a start-up had the content Realtor.com has? It would be crazy. They have gold but it’s just to corporate over there.

Anyways, I believe the next big thing will be an expandable real estate platform that will serve many purposes. Too vague? Sorry. From the consumer to the real estate professional. I am not going to break it down because it will be much easier to just launch but everyone will be able to build off of what we are doing. Yes, we are working on something that I think we break open web 2.0 and real estate. I honestly feel we have figured it out. To be honest, it was always there we just figured out how to bring it all together and make it work.

This time they banked $12 million Series C round of financing. TC has the story.

The round was led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Previous investors Vulcan Capital, Madrona Venture Group, BEV Capital and The Hillman Company also participated in this C round.

Does this mean they will be able to turn a profit soon. I’m not too sure. Look at discounter ZipRealty. Check the Redfin blog for more info.

What are they thinking? Yes, I understand the results are based on different criteria than I look for in a place to live but come on.

The 7th best place to live in Massachusetts is Milton. NOT!

Then they put Easton, MA at number 48. Crazy.

Westborough, MA comes in at 73. Hmm.

Give it a read.

I hired softvention to redesign our site and the project started off good but went down hill fast. They do a terrible job with coding. Dirty as can be. I made a huge mistake in paying them before the project was complete. I had asked them to make changes to buggy parts and they were never fixed.

I am not going to go into detail right now, but if you are considering hiring Softvention
do not. Go elsewhere and fast. They are also on elance so reject the bids they place to be on safe side.

If they just would have fixed the issues I had asked then I would have been silent, but they didn’t.

Slow down and fix your issues before you try to tackle the entire real estate space. Read this.

I just got a new puppy. He’s a good pup but seems to be wired when I am ready for bed. If he doesn’t chill out I’m gonna give him a lick of Patron without the lime.

A friend of a friend works for The Donald and the word is that Trump is looking to invest in an Internet start up that focuses on real estate. The start- up has not been identified, but it will be real estate related. His people have been searching around looking for something compelling to invest in. This should be interesting if true.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about social networks and how real estate can play a role. We all know that SN’s can be powerful for each age bracket if they are able to find a loyal following. In order for the real estate community to get serious about social networking I think Local will have to play a large role.

The local theme is still being worked on by various companies. None have come up with anything of use. However, I do like Google Maps/Local. I use this often, just like I used to grab the yellow pages. I guess Yelp Reviews, has done a good job but this is a different type of social site.

I believe real estate social networks need to be formulated around the local theme.
Any thoughts on how “local” can/will play a role in social networks?