Disruptive RE Broker

Have you heard the news that Active Rain got one pulled over on them by Move Inc.

Active Rain wants $33 million in damages. HA. That’s funny. How did they come up with this number?

I always thought Move Inc. would buy a social networking site, I guess they think they can do it better.

I like this line:

ActiveRain provided “highly sensitive material about its members and its network or platform in electronic format, in anticipation of the supposed impending closing” on May 3, the lawsuit alleges, and “within hours of its receipt of this especially sensitive information in unrestricted digital electronic format, Move told ActiveRain that it had ‘cancelled’ the deal.”

What info is so highly sensitive? Move Inc. probably just realized that they didn’t like what they saw. Simple.

Active Rain. Don’t even bother, you will not win the battle. They got money - a lot of money. I haven’t read your claim but this sensitive info bs looks to be the start of a pretty lame claim.

I was just searching Google Images and I came across an image that was so me.  I loved it. Then I tracked down the artist and think they are my new favorite local artist. His name is Oneil Junior.

Check out his work. I want one of his brownstone paintings. Love it.

I have been paying particular attention to search engine optimization for about 4.5 years. I have learned a lot and have taught others a good amount as well.

This site is doing well for keywords:

ma flat fee mls Google - MSN - Yahoo

ri flat fee mls Google - MSN - Yahoo

ct flat fee mls Google - MSN - Yahoo

We are filling up the first search results page.

SEO is all about trail and error.

Check out these numbers from Hitwise Not sure I believe any of these stats but this is what we go on…

Google crushes all once again taking 65% of all US searches.  Yahoo and MSN follow.

How can Yahoo and MSN catch up.  Personally, I think they need steal Googles UI dept.

Is it about search results or is it about UI?  I like Google because its fast and looks good.

Ask.com is spending money on TV campaigns and I think this is a complete waste.  They should just partner up with MSN.

5) Constant Contact. Always be in touch with your sellers. Check in with them as much as possible. Show your value. Use email.

4) Don’t rely on a lock box.  It’s okay to use a lock box but don’t be lazy. Show up for as many showings as you can.  Sellers are not as dumb as you think.  Earn your money.

3) Bring a stagger in to work on the kinks.  This shows you care about the listing and its not just another listing.  They will remember that you took the time to bring in a stager.

2) Do an open house every other week. We all know Open Houses do not sell real estate, however, they do make the seller feel better that some

1) Finally, every home should have a simple website.  It’s called lock-in device.  There is no better way to lock-in a seller.  A property website will do this.  If they go to another agent then they loose the website. To them, this is serious. Don’t play it off like the site will help get the house sold, because it wont.  If you are an agent that thinks it will  - you are on crack.  They don’t and if you say they do you sound like a idiot.  Websites are a listing tool, not a sales tool.

According to TC Zillow just received another 30 million. Now they are up to 87 million in VC money. WOW.

The scale of Zillow is large in scope to say the least. They need money to become the HUB of real estate.

Perhaps they will start to acquire startups. I really hope they sick with evaluating rather than trying to do everything.

They clearly have a goal. I just hope they have more focus in the future. This investment makes me extremely excited because my upcoming platform release will benefit from cash infusions like this.

Nothing worthwhile has come about in the real estate space since zillow so each day I am more confident that we have something special to release. I really do and I am such a web 2.0 skeptic.

 The answer is simple: they are always open for business.  What does this mean?  Well they take the time to read all emails that come in and they give everything a once-over no matter what.

Check out the Sequoia website and you will see this which is very rare:

Connect

It is easy to reach us. E-mail works. Voicemail works. Direct approaches work. Referrals from people we know are helpful but they are not necessary. We have invested in many companies where, prior to the investment, we knew nobody in the company. If, for some reason, you do not get a quick response — just send a follow-up email to xxxxx@sequoiacap.com and you will get a definitive sense of where we stand. We do not like to keep people waiting.

Most VC’s will not even look at an email from someone who is not referred.   This is why they are successful.

I have glazed all the products and I don’t get most of them except for Mint.

Would I trust them with my data? No, but still looks like a killer service.

My guess is that Mint will win the prize.

Techcrunch40 is going on right now. 40 startups get to demo for a bunch of VC’s. Some are already funded (which is lame). 39 startups are set to go. The 40th will be selected from the crowded demo pit.

The startup that is selected to present will get the most attention. If I was one of the 140 companies at the pitch fest, I would have opted to enroll for the demo pit if I knew my startup was the bomb rather than the regular demo station (if possible) because the demo pit winner will get the most coverage as the champ of the pit.

I am going to look at the demo pit sites and make a guess on who will win. The pit is where its at.

It’s Rosh Hashanah. Eat drink and have a good time.

Hope everyone has a good new year.  Services were brief today and work will be light!

Great cover by the Peppers. Check it out.

You heard it first here.  I am going to have to say that they will purchase website maker weebly.

Google loves to purchase things that non techies can use.  This would be a good choice for Google.

Thank you David @ 93 South. Love the name, hate the road.

I will be following this blog from here on out!

Could this be the TC of the East?

If you enjoy reading about web innovation you have got to check out the Innovation Economy blog by Scott Kirsner.

Scott is a great writer who has a regular column in the Boston Globe called what else Innovation Economy.

Scott is so on-point about what is wrong with this area. I have been saying this to myself for a few years now. Perhaps now I have someone who can relate to what I have been saying.

Check it out. Oh, and Scott, we should not obsessing about this because being an East Coast entrepreneur is annoying. I also think you might be annoyed because you don’t have as much to write about as you would like.

He nailed it with his list of problems:

1. Our big companies locally don’t seem to spawn enough start-ups.
2. Boston doesn’t yet have a truly vibrant blogosphere that can help bring attention to new products/companies.
3. Investors here can have blinders on when it comes to consumer-focused technologies, or anything that seems wacky at first (let’s start a Web site that provides free hosting for videos, and has no business model, and let’s call it YouTube)
4. Graduating students sometimes don’t feel like there’s enough of a vibrant community here that will support their ideas/start-up.
5. We don’t have any big consumer device or consumer Internet companies locally.

#3 is the biggest problem.

Nice clip from Inman TV. I wish they would go longer with interviews. Like the set - coffee cups!