We are a finalist in the Real Estate Pacesetter 2008 put on by Inman News and their Real Estate Olympics for most innovative, web 2.0 real estate company.
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Vote for us Here
“This week, till Friday 6PM Pacific, the Trends Community Blog will accept nominations of Companies that you consider to be one of the industry premier Pacesetters in our industry. Companies that are creating and leading our industry towards change. Then over the coming weekend I will select among all the nominations the Top 8 finalists that will be posted next Monday the 18th. Next week all members of the Inman Trends Community will each have one vote to help determine which three companies are our medal winners for the title: Real Estate Pacesetter 2008.”
What are you voting for? Well at the core of this Olympic Race for innovation in the real estate vertical are these 4 attributes:
1. Innovative Web 2.0 company or user of Web 2.0 technology
2. The size, need and demand for the companies/services
3. The quality or uniqueness of their services
4. The potential impact of their services on the industry We belive we served these line items better than anyone else…read our presentation below.
We here at CondoDomain.com (http://condodomain.com Boston is currently live @ http://boston.condodomain.com) believe we are not only at the cutting edge of the transformation that is occurring in real estate, we are also helping to reshape the entire industry. Headquartered in Boston, we operate as a web-based buyer’s brokerage company and offer full, buy-side services for a flat fee. After all, why should a buyer’s broker be compensated more if their buyer spends more. That’s backwards in our opinion!
I believe we are at the commencement of the decoupling of the ‘traditional’ real estate model. The old model of full, ‘bundled’ services of showings, negotiating, listing, etc. etc. etc. are beginning to be offered in an a la carte fashion to provide the ever increasingly web-savvy real estate consumer with CHOICES. While I do not believe the full service brokerage model will ever fully go away, I do believe that within the next 2-5 years, brokerages will begin to offer buyers a wide array of options in order to accommodate the various demographic and generational behavior patterns that are already emerging in the marketplace.
1. As an innovative and forward thinking company, CondoDomain.com continually implements the latest technologies. For instance, within a week of Google releasing their Street View, we implemented it into our site and our buyers and fans love it. One of the main components of our platform is to bring all data, without exception, to the surface so our clients can get a transparent and complete view of each property.
We are also finding and engaging customers through the various social aspects of web 2.0 - Facebook, LinkedIn, Trulia among several others - and we communicate with everyone through all means: IMing, Emailing, Video conferencing, Txting, mobile phoning (of course!) and yes even, believe or not, regular mailing! We make ourselves accessible however our buyers want us to be accessible.
2. As a web-based (virtual office) business, CondoDomain.com targets high-density cities because they attract a high population of young savvy professionals, middle-aged single and/ or divorced buyers, and empty nesters. We focus on these individuals because, on average, they make more money, they move more frequently, they are heavy Internet users, they are more educated and they are one of the fastest growing and highest spending groups in the industry. Focusing on this vertical, CondoDomain.com taps into the new construction condominium market, which has a much higher profit margin than the traditional re-sale market.
One of the biggest advantages of our company’s business model is the timing. With a rising inventory, condominium developers are now (finally!) marketing to the real estate brokerage community. The need to access buyers has become more important than ever. Evidence of this is shown by the increase of cash bonus incentives and commission structures marketed towards the local brokerage communities and their agents.
In 2006, there were over 1,000,000 sales of condominiums and co-ops. Many developers saw opportunity in the surge and began large-scale projects. Since then, the market has slowed, with pre-construction sales dropping in numbers and inventory increasing.
Experts expect buyers to take advantage of the over-saturated market, which developers are desperate to dispose of. Large condominium developers & marketing firms, like Florida’s largest private real estate firm, Fortune International, have created accelerated marketing programs with cash bonuses and commission fees up to 10%. Many of CondoDomain.com’s other clients - The Carlyle Group, MCZ/Centrum Properties, Draper & Kramer, Inc. and Crescent Heights - have all initiated incentive marketing programs to increase sales, which will supplement our company’s gross revenues.
The current economic conditions support our business model even further. What buyer is going to walk away from a $13,000 check at closing (our average client refund) Refunds this size or more pay for years of condo fees, new furniture or closing and moving costs - it is a lot of money! The demand for our service is steadily growing because buyers realize that they can save a ton of money doing a lot of the initial research themselves; this is, of course, work that they are ALREADY doing.
3. Quality and uniqueness is at the core of our business model. Our website, which is our #1 sales agent, is one of the most up-to-date pieces of web technology in our industry and we know it is one of the best for condominiums and for real estate in general. We are a niche player and we only work with buyers making us just that much better at it. We know urban markets, we know condos!
4. Being an urban player, we play a significant role in the future of real estate. Most innovation and concepts start in city centers - in high density populations and then they spread out. In the not too distant future, we anticipate seeing suburban players taking our successful model and replicating it in their local markets.
We look forward to your feedback and brokers/agents interested in joining us in the next revolution of real estate should get in touch immediately!!
Brian-Logan Reid
National Director of Real Estate
http://boston.condodomain.com
Like what we have to say….please do vote and help us win this award! Thank you!!!
SEATTLE - March 7, 2007: Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation today announced a ruling from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service that Redfin does not have to issue Form 1099 to customers that receive commission refunds because such amounts generally are not taxable as income. Redfin is notifying all of its home-buying customers by mail that the company will not report their commission refunds to the IRS.
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