If you’re not familiar with the concept of visual search, its the process of searching from information using a picture. Google Goggles is the most prime example. Google Googles lets you snap a picture of something using your phone’s camera, and then Google searches for more information about whatever you took a picture of. If [...]

In early January, Jeff Shore and I began an ambitious project to survey nearly 300 new home sales and marketing leaders about what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s really happening in the marketplace. This in-depth survey asked leaders specific questions about topics including negotiating frequency, salesperson turnover, social media use, and online leads. Because of [...]

Just like every market is different, every builder is different. This means how best to judge a successful campaign or online initiative will be different for every builder. Despite my best efforts to convince builders to compete against themselves when determining their success, most builders still ask, “So how am I doing compared to other [...]

Its no secret I’m a big fan of what opportunities the mobile web presents for home builders. What I didn’t quite expect was a recent wake-up call on how closely email marketing is linked to mobile. We recently sent out an email promotion for an apartment management client. The day after the email went out [...]

QR Codes seem to be all the talk these days, picking up a tremendous amount of steam in the last year especially. The companies that sell this free technology are making claims about how “QR Codes are the future”, “QR Codes are a ‘must-have’”, “QR Codes Saved my Life,” etc. If QR Codes are truly [...]

Over the years I’ve written down a number of opinions about the mobile Internet and home builders.  In 2008, I wrote Homebuilder Mobile Marketing with Google discussing the impact Google’s Android platform would have on mobile usage (now with the greatest market share). In 2009, I wrote about how Foursquare would impact mobile real estate marketing. [...]

The mobile Internet is still a young frontier for builders. While directories and large brokerages have invested in mobile apps beginning a couple years ago, most builders have just begun to dip their toe in the water. The benefit to a company with an “innovator/early adopter” approach to marketing technology is that, while they pay the occasional [...]

I’m not normally one for drama, but I’m not sure the message is really reaching the industry. In the past I’ve written about home builder mobile marketing and how to use Foursquare for real estate. Thankfully, a group called Mobile Future has put together a great “Did You Know?” type video with some sobering stats [...]

I am convinced that the mobile web offers some of real estate’s most exciting opportunities in the next 5-10 years. Some of the ideas I’m about to share are certainly not the “show me some case studies” type, but most great opportunities are best identified early, no? And as is the case with all impactful technologies, [...]

A few weeks ago I got seriously excited when I saw the future of hyper-local real estate search offered by the Layar browser. At the time, this “augmented reality” browser wasn’t available yet in the U.S. However, now it appears it is, and Trulia is the first one that I know of to offer their [...]