"Singing in the Rain!"

My first thought was that this BEFORE ActiveRain and NOW contest would be a snap. Ha!!

Once I started actually thinking about it I realized my memory was going to be significantly challenged (that happens often). Of course I joined AR in August 2006 so I'm old in blog years - those who are newer may easily recollect their before-AR personas. But let's give it a shot with the few neurons I still have.

 BEFORE ACTIVERAIN I HAD NO FRIENDS.

Well, not quite - make that no real on-line friends. The shift from Internetless-friends to where I now have more than I would ever dare to try and list (not just the many casual connections but folks I call true friends) has been an amazing transformation, and one which I never would have anticipated.

And now I have personally met well over 100 AR folks from all over the country, many of them more than one time, and THAT, for me, is remarkable. Hmmm, I wonder if anyone is dating or even got married from having met via AR? Any spicy stories to share?

 

Two early AR gatherings of Friends in Southern California - Crystal Cove and Manhattan Beach 

 

Before ActiveRain I knew nothing...and Now I know everything.

Ok, that's writer's privilege here to exaggerate. I knew a fair amount about real estate and marketing before AR, but that knowledge has grown exponentially, with AR being the 24/7 on-line seminar that it is. In some ways I was a child embarking on an amazing journey of learning that continues today. I have learned more about on-line marketing, dealing with short sales and REOs, dressing up my website, social media, listing presentations, dealing with buyers and sellers, different types of technology and various gadgets, and endless other topics than in any series of classes, webinars or reading I have done. Truly AR is a remarkable brain trust. If you can't get an answer to a question from at least one of the 160,000+ members, well, then, perhaps there IS no answer. Imagine the power and influence we have with all that knowledge!!

 BEFORE ACTIVERAIN BLOG WAS A FOUR-LETTER WORD.

OK, blog is still a four letter word. But instead of being clueless, and fearful, about this four-letter word, thanks to AR I can actually write articles on a blog, talk with others about blogging, and even teach. AR has helped me know myself better- my likes and dislikes, my passions and interests, my values, my ethics, my emotions, my humor and sarcasm. I have a pretty good sense of my voice and what I like writing about, and discovered my creativity. Plus I think I have become more tolerant of other's perspectives, and, indeed, truly value the diversity that is ActiveRain. Nope, still don't like the bad behavior I see, which I ignore as best I can.

ActiveRain, and blogging in general, has helped me become a much better agent. I had barely lived in CA for a year when I started blogging and it has enabled me to become an area expert in many ways - housing, things to do, communities, restaurants, local happenings, to name a few - and to understand my market conditions by writing monthly market reports.

Being a source of information IS essential and I am now this in spades (so I'm told). Buyers and sellers find me on Google because of what I know and write about. How cool is that?

Before ActiveRain my business was coming from some print advertising, a few referrals (several through my broker) and luck. Having only been in CA for a year in a rapidly declining market with a zillion agents and no network when I moved here was challenging. AR has changed all that. Apart from my CRS referrals and some past clients back East, my business now comes predominantly from my blogging, including referrals in and outbound (do you know a better referral network than ActiveRain?!).

There has been a growing awareness on my part of what consumers are looking for and need in their real estate transactions in a market that is unlike any other - this has come not only from my own personal growth in my blogging, but perhaps more so from the many others who form the greatest social media network in the world that I have learned so much from and who so freely and generously share their knowledge and expertise. ActiveRain is an unbelievable gift. 

ActiveRain has led to teaching at several local real estate boards, talks at several RE Bar Camps and the Women's Council of REALTORS, a panel at the recent C.A.R. convention, a Los Angeles Times article, an Agent Interview in "Thrive: How REALTORS Can Succeed in a Down Market (2009)," and interviews for several REALTOR magazines including the The Residential Specialist (CRS) for January/February 2010.

What lies ahead? A time of tremendous growth and change, an opportunity to learn from the greatest collection of brain power in real estate I can imagine, and the knowledge that where I am now is nothing like where I will be in the future.

And I look forward to more friendships around the country and beyond.

THAT is Before ActiveRain and Now.

This morning, I received an email from the head of marketing at a very large real estate company who is a listing partner of Zillow's. He asked me if I had a canned response to agents asking about Zestimate accuracy. Here's the email that I sent him:

 

 

Hi XX,

We have two videos on this topic which we send to a lot of people.

This video is geared towards consumers.

And this video is geared towards real estate professionals.

So the easiest thing for you to do is to send your agents a link to the video

Also here’s a blog post on the topic. 

But here are the main points so you also have them in text.

• Zestimates are calculated three times per week by computer models that try to approximate what the market value is for almost every home in the country. We crunch numbers on 70 million homes and publish those Zestimates to the website every few days.
  
• We're very transparent about our Zestimate accuracy and we report on it quarterly on the site here. We encourage agents to show the accuracy table (which can be found by clicking on “Zestimate Values & Accuracy” on the bottom of every page of the website). The accuracy table helps agents explain to clients the limitations of the Zestimate, and helps reinforce the importance that a real estate agent has in helping the client think through the value of their home.
  
• Zestimate accuracy varies depending upon the quality of the information we have on the specific home. Also, Zestimates are more accurate on homes that are more similar to other homes that have recently sold; on the other hand, Zestimates are less accurate on more unique homes.
  
• Keep in mind that when a home is listed for sale on Zillow, several things happen with respect to the Zestimate:
  
  • 1. The Zestimate comes off the map page and is replaced with the For Sale price
    
  • 2. The property attributes (e.g., # beds, # baths, sqft, etc) which were previously provided by the county are replaced by the listing information
    
  • 3. Zillow recalculates the Zestimate within a few days based on the new property attributes. The For Sale price of the home is not a direct input into the Zestimate though.
    
  • 4. On the listing page (aka “the home details page”), the Zestimate is removed from the top of the page and replaced with the For Sale price. The Zestimate still appears on the page, but at the very bottom. In some cases, the Zestimate doesn’t appear on the listing page due to an inability to match the address from the listings feed with an existing address in our database.

 

We tirelessly explain to consumers and agents that Zestimates are just a starting point and they're not the end-all-be-all in figuring out the value of a home. They're just another datapoint which needs to be considered and discussed between real estate agent and client. Best regards, Spencer