Test Drive: Neighboroo

nospam@example.com (Craig) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 18:24:44 -0600

There are a host of web-based real estate tools out there for anyone looking to acquire, revalue, or manage their properties. What I see out there is that because of the last few years being dominated by moving of single family homes, almost all of these tools are geared for the buyers with that intention.

However, there has to have been some thought put into these online services that allows for them to be easily used by those of us who are in the business of finding, acquiring, and reassessing rental housing. Hm.

Neighboroo.

The apparent purpose of Neighboroo is to throw up some nice regional statistics such as Crime (they apply their own weighting system to this, giving more weight to "violent", versus "property" crime), Politics, Elementary School Rankings, Cost of Living, and Median Income per zip code, on a google map of the US.

The pros:

Very simple interface, with obvious left hand navigation. The data provided is actually useful in doing some very top-level, simplified analysis for a given region. Nice, quick snapshot. Plus, this is a brand-spankin’ new company, and I’m honestly not even sure where they plan on going with this. I just happened across it while searching for similar internet sites.

The cons:

Not really deep on the data side. Sure, it goes down to zip code, you can even type a specific code in and get your results in an arrowed bubble, but many times zip code isn’t precise enough a measure when sniffing around a potential new investment area. And the “Population Density�? section concerning race is a bit, well, racy for my taste. For an investor of my variety, the only color I’m ever concerned with is green. The rest is a waste of my time.

Side note: What would be REALLY cool is if there was a time-warping feature where one could see stats like these from the past. Perhaps it would help clue an investor in on income/population/rental value trends. Perhaps.

All-in-all, I’m going to chalk Neighboroo up as a “work in progress, with much promise�?.

realestate.google.com

nospam@example.com (Jeremy) — Thu, 6 Apr 2006 11:21:00 -0500

For those who thought Google Base was yet another nerdy, slightly hard-to-use product from Google, it’s time to take another look. This week, pictures of Google Real Estate surfaced. RealEstate.Google.com (I’ll assume they’ll call it that) is a new service built on top of Google Base, but tailored to the needs of home buyers, renters, realtors, FSBO sellers, and basically anyone involved in the sale or leasing of property.

What’s more, Google has shown that it plans to integrate listings into its main search results. Search “Atlanta For Rent�? and you’ll be wisked directly to Google Real Estate’s for-rent listings in Atlanta, complete with a Google Map showing all the properties, just like HousingMaps.com (whose creator, by the way, now works for Google).

For consumers, this will make it easier to find houses for sale or properties for rent. If Google Real Estate takes over, no longer will consumers have to visit multiple sites to see everything that’s available in the marketplace. For sellers and landlords, it will lower the cost of advertising available properties. For middlemen, like realtors and apartment locators, it will be a must-advertise location.

What if Google pulls it off? Let’s fast forward 10 years: assume Google creates a single massive marketplace for real estate. They get every available listing into Google Real Estate—from the sketchiest HUD-subsidized properties to the highest-end luxury properties, short-term vacation rentals, homes, apartments, condos, land for sale, commercial property… everything.

What problems will consumers encounter then? Is simply porting traditional list-and-wait advertising to the web truly the best way to match buyers and sellers or lessors and lessees of real estate? The answer, we think, is no.

Do-It-Yourself Landlord's Blog - TechBiz

Test Drive: Neighboroo

realestate.google.com