This and That
Its time for a new post, but I don’t have a bunch of time right now, so I’ll keep it short.
First, we’ve made a few changes in the appearance of the blog. Can anyone notice it?
Second, I recently read a post on Bloodhound Blog about Google and MLS. For those following it, the real estate board in Indianpolis was trying to stop Google from scraping MLS info from realtors’ sites. I’m not clear if they were actually suing Google, but its clear that they were acting as a stalking horse for NAR. The biggest stick they had was to punish member realtors who had searchable/indexable sites. My terminology may be wrong, but apparently there’s a way to make your site “un-Google-friendly”, and as I understand it that’s what the Indianapolis board was trying to do.
Obviously that’s a good way to hammer someone – its what many municipalities here do about grow ops, for example. Its great at punishing someone, but it doesn’t solve any problems. You can imagine how many realtors felt – they spend money an a good site, but can’t offer services to their clients, who then go to Zillow or Trulia.
The upshot is that the MIBOR case has been dropped. NAR won’t fight Google on that front anymore. Will Google provide a new MLS? Not so fast. There are some real challenges there. But, what if local boards continued to collect the info and enforce data integrity, and Google handled the search and display part of it? Could that work? See what John Rowles says about that here, and here.
Last, I’ve got a tagline on the blog that reads “Real Estate Online”. If a site claims to be an online real estate site what characteristics do you expect?
37 comments
I think the market is slowing.
That’s all I’ll say about that.
Just kidding Rob…
Interesting changes to MLS…
Do you notice any change in temperature of the market (I know, I ask this a lot – still, I’m hearing this from more and more sources, so wondering what you are seeing from your vantage point).
De-Nile.
All I’ve noticed is that you spelled VOW wrong… It should be WOW… give him his own space in cyberspace where he can perpetually ask the same question over and over and over… have you noticed the market has changed? any signs of cooling off? has it stopped cooking now? Every minute of every day a new WoW update everyone can click on.
Hey Rob, any takers on that apartment in Maple Ridge?
As we’ve all said, innovation is coming and you can’t stop it. Keep trying to monopolize your database and someone else will come along and do it far better and more open. Good luck.
You can tell Google not to spider your site, but then it won’t refer people to your site either. There is not much point in having a site without Google Juice.
Ray
I’m not sure you get it. First, its not a monopoly. Second, I’m sure I’m not alone in saying I don’t mind my customers having complete and unfettered access to the same database I use, but I get annoyed at people who feel entitled to the free use of our property.
Newcomer
That’s why it failed. Individual realtors want to share the info and compete witheach other for custonmers. They want the least interference possible from the board. They want google rankings. The board was acting against its members interests.
The question, as always, is how do you replace MLS? You need someone to collect and maintain data efficiently while complying with agency and privacy laws. That’s one part of MLS. Out of those challenges which is toughest? Complying with the law or being cost effective?
What’s the second part of MLS? How does something without members make that opart work?
@Newcomer: You can control Google (and other compliant spiders) indexing on a page-by-page basis.
…and noncompliant spiders can be dealt with via a well-aimed phone book.
Rob, glad to see the blog get top billing. I’m curious to see where this experiment leads.
>>>Hey Rob, any takers on that apartment in Maple Ridge?<<<
I can’t imagine that dream home still being available. 780 sq. ft. of badly outdated Maple Ridge ugliness is “dirt cheap” according to Rob.
Hell, it probably went $200k over asking.
Come on, people! Only $170k for this gem!
Handyman’s delight! Original condition (bonus)! Can fit a BBQ outside! Possible spice garden!
Did I mention it’s DIRT CHEAP?
http://www.robchipman.net/my-office-listings#http%3A//listings.myrealpage.com/wps/myofficelistings/13886/ListingDetails.form%3FlistingId%3D9604962,mrph-2217
Nice Favicon…is it new?
VD, what can I say – I’m right, and now is our time to shine.
Turkey – anymore Open House stories? (The last one was…one of the best reading experiences I’ve ever enjoyed!:)
Rain – is it impacting open house traffic? Is Larry right, is it slowing?
this is amazing. saw this place in 2006. listed for 599k I think. and was not selling for many months. not sure if it ever sold. but back up now for 988k !! that’s a good three years.
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=8875571
Anonymous 15: Given today’s market, I think it’s worth it! Unless of course you’re a member of vancouvercondo.info
15:
Oh, for the love of Pete. A million bucks for a lot off Main St. Sure, why not?
@15,
well it is amazing how depreciated Canadian dollar is in comparison to Vancouver’s RE. But as long as there are buyers….
Dubai has been hammered. They had a RE boom. This boom has gone bust. Will China fall next (overcapacity)?
Does Dubai’s bust have any lessons for Vancouver? Could we fall 47% in one year – is this at all possible? How bad could things go here? Or will we keep going up up UP?
Rogers just laid off 900 employees.
WoW/19… ‘Dubai hammered.’ No kidding, and – as you may recall – that topic (sovereign default) was ringing HP’s alarm bells earlier this week… YVR implications?… Anything is possible in a quantum universe – but as long as exogenous demand remains an important factor in certain YVR micro-markets we may be waiting a long time for the ‘fall’… On the other hand, if a global liquidity crisis forces recent arrivals to YVR to simultaneously ‘cash out’… it could be brutal. So I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
I will make one prediction, though – we’re going to see a LOT more American flight capital being parked in YVR and environs….
A selection of this morning’s best – with a heavy weighting towards ’sovereign default’…
[G&M] Dubai debt ‘standstill’ sounds alarms
http://tinyurl.com/ygx2l3h
[Bloomberg] Canadian Stocks Decline on Commodity Slump, Dubai Debt Delay
http://tinyurl.com/yfrpzrb
[zeroHedge] Holiday Morning In US Sees Futures In Free Fall, FTSE Halted For Hours And Dubai CDS Surging Again
http://tinyurl.com/ybpo9d9
[FT] Dubai default fears spook investors
http://tinyurl.com/ylxzh2y
[vox] Default and DSGE models (some heavy lifting here – of interest primarily to macro theoreticians)
http://tinyurl.com/yl9o7uw
Last up – this mornings ‘Moment of Zen’ – as American policy makers finally stumble upon the odd revelation that foreign wars cost money. Lots of money….
[CNN] Afghanistan: Pay for it or charge it?
http://tinyurl.com/yjl9vlm
oops! 21 was me…. (PS – like the new favicon, Senor Caballero)…
i have only one question:
would a truly sane person participate in an irrational market?
Afterthought… anyone besides HP remember this…
http://tinyurl.com/ylle5rv
“I’m not going crazy….I’m going sane in a crazy world!” — The Tick
HP
I have a hard time not believing its starting to slow now.
HP
Local mood seems to be shifting down with the gloomy weather and worsening economy.
I don’t theink the 900 job losses at Rogers helps at all…
WoW/27… and let’s not forget our pals in Quebec….
[G&M] Bombardier to cut 715 workers
http://tinyurl.com/ykuxz2l
One last link… extraordinarily well written/researched Dubai backgrounder/think piece by Hari @ UK Independent (published this Spring – shockingly prescient)…
[UK Independent] The dark side of Dubai
http://tinyurl.com/cgwa9q
Investment question for the forum:
Do you agree with the following argument
“My wife and I maximize my RRSPs, and in addition, we put 10k annum into our mortgage cutting the amortization from 25yr to 15 years. I consider these mortgage contributions to be the fixed income part of our retirement portfolio. Consequently our RRSPs are almost entirely equities (e.g. 1/3,1/3,/1,3 canadian, US and internation index funds). We are in our early 30’s.”
So therefore it is not really correct to say that we should always put 30% of our porfolio in fixed income (recall the rule of thumb that says that you should have X% of your RRSP in bonds where X% is your age)”.
When you agressively pay down mortgage debt, this is conservative investing, and consequently you can be more agressive in your RRSPs.
No, you should buy more Vancouver real estate.
Suguar went to the Acura dealer yesterday. While she was there, they sold 19 cars! That’s 19 freakin’ expensive cars. All before 1 pm. Money is being spent in this town and the same people bidding up the homes are buyin’ up the cars. The only reason this market is slowing is because it’s supposed to slow at this point, seasonally speaking.
My auto updater tells me it’s still a busy month. Lots of sales still going through.
It’ll soon be time for another spring bounce!
BlueSkies/23… Yes. In the immortal words of Dr. HST, ‘When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.’…. He was also quoted as saying, “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me”….
As ExBanker might say, ‘Tiny Bubbles Time’… HP is exhausted after a rather frantic day of GlobalMacro ‘digging’ in the shadow realm (vs. what he was supposed to be doing)… And then I remembered something that might help to contextualize a good many things we’ve been discussing here lately. Apropos, today’s positively, absolutely final link (longish but well worth a look) - of particular interest to AC/Turkey/VD/BS et al… Grab your favourite substance of choice, go ‘full-screen’ and enjoy…
http://tinyurl.com/yj5zfbn
VD/32… I know you actually meant ‘Sugar’ vs. Suguar [sic] - but it was kind of fun visualizing Javier Bardem in character/full sinister as Anton Chigurh [No Country for Old Men] prowling the Acura dealership! PS – did Sugar notice whether the new car buyers had trade-ins?
is it slowing out there?
dubai!
we live in interesting times
there is an air of surreality about
i can almost taste it
but it remains nameless……….