Thursday, January 05, 2006
Blumberg speaking at Inman Connect Conference, January 12 2006
January 12 2006
3:45 pm to 5:00 pm Mobile
Learn how mobile technology is changing the business.
Brad Blumberg, CEO, Smarter Agent
Glenn Kelman, Vice President of Operations, Redfin
Everett Kaneshige, President, Pocket Real Estate
Bill Oliver, President & CEO, Cellstory
*********************************************************
The Inman News Real Estate Connect New York Conference and Exhibition that will occur January 11-13, 2006 at the Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway. We will be conducting our event on the 4th and 5th levels of the hotel.
3:45 pm to 5:00 pm Mobile
Learn how mobile technology is changing the business.
Brad Blumberg, CEO, Smarter Agent
Glenn Kelman, Vice President of Operations, Redfin
Everett Kaneshige, President, Pocket Real Estate
Bill Oliver, President & CEO, Cellstory
*********************************************************
The Inman News Real Estate Connect New York Conference and Exhibition that will occur January 11-13, 2006 at the Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway. We will be conducting our event on the 4th and 5th levels of the hotel.
Realty Times talks about mobile....
EXCERPT
New Technologies, Happier Customers Go Hand-in-Handheldby
by Blanche Evans, REALTY TIMES
...real estate services companies are working in overdrive right now as they prepare to show off hot new technologies... While the technology they're gearing up to show you varies, much of it was created with similar bottom-line goals: to help you win new business, and to get ever-larger quantities of information into the hands of consumers quicker than ever before.
It's all in response to one of the most fascinating trends to emerge in the real estate industry in decades -- a consumer-driven desire for larger quantities of information, sent by agents faster than ever before, to an ever-increasing number of devices, from iPods to MP3 players to Blackberries. These hand-helds are quickly gaining traction as hot tools for agents to not only better communicate with their clients, but to enhance their marketing efforts through the ability to instantaneously relay information on a client's home to prospective buyers.
According to NAR, nearly three in 10 agents (some 27 percent) are already using a PDA device. An even larger percentage of consumers are getting in on the tech fun with these devices and others...
Another unique technology comes from Smarter Agent. This technology enables home buyers to dial into a database via either a cell phone or Blackberry (notice the handheld trend here?).
Then, a Global Positioning System (GPS) will not only show them where the home is, but also match it to available information and records about that house (no matter if it's for sale or not).
Taking things one step further, assuming the house isn't for sale, the Smarter Agent technology will then offer to find another house as similar as possible to the one the buyer is standing in front of -- but that is on the market.
The company isn't shy in its marketing, calling itself "the world's best real estate search engine," and stating that its patented technology "brings you all the real estate information you need no matter who you are and no matter where you are." (Visit here, for the company's animated video demo.)
New Technologies, Happier Customers Go Hand-in-Handheldby
by Blanche Evans, REALTY TIMES
...real estate services companies are working in overdrive right now as they prepare to show off hot new technologies... While the technology they're gearing up to show you varies, much of it was created with similar bottom-line goals: to help you win new business, and to get ever-larger quantities of information into the hands of consumers quicker than ever before.
It's all in response to one of the most fascinating trends to emerge in the real estate industry in decades -- a consumer-driven desire for larger quantities of information, sent by agents faster than ever before, to an ever-increasing number of devices, from iPods to MP3 players to Blackberries. These hand-helds are quickly gaining traction as hot tools for agents to not only better communicate with their clients, but to enhance their marketing efforts through the ability to instantaneously relay information on a client's home to prospective buyers.
According to NAR, nearly three in 10 agents (some 27 percent) are already using a PDA device. An even larger percentage of consumers are getting in on the tech fun with these devices and others...
Another unique technology comes from Smarter Agent. This technology enables home buyers to dial into a database via either a cell phone or Blackberry (notice the handheld trend here?).
Then, a Global Positioning System (GPS) will not only show them where the home is, but also match it to available information and records about that house (no matter if it's for sale or not).
Taking things one step further, assuming the house isn't for sale, the Smarter Agent technology will then offer to find another house as similar as possible to the one the buyer is standing in front of -- but that is on the market.
The company isn't shy in its marketing, calling itself "the world's best real estate search engine," and stating that its patented technology "brings you all the real estate information you need no matter who you are and no matter where you are." (Visit here, for the company's animated video demo.)
Sunday, January 01, 2006
National Geographic on Philadelphia
National Geographic called Philadelphia the country's next hot city....
Next Great City: Philly, Really
Text by Andrew Nelson Photograph by Raymond Patrick
Geno's Steaks on Ninth Street sells cheesesteaks, Philly's guiltiest pleasure.
After decades of relative obscurity, Philadelphia, a classic American city, is ready to step back into the national limelight.
You don't usually don white tie and tails for a birthday party, but then, how often do you celebrate the birthday of a hotel? Yet, here we are—me, Walter Cronkite, and 1,854 other guests assembled to help blow out the candles for the hundredth anniversary of the opening of Philadelphia's Park Hyatt at the Bellevue, "the grand dame of Broad Street." As the crush in the lobby grows, I seek refuge from Philadelphia's elite on a spiral, marble staircase from which I can survey the scene. F. Scott Fitzgerald got it wrong, I think. There are second acts in American life—for hotels, certainly, and, yes, for entire cities.
When the (then) Bellevue-Stratford debuted in 1904, the elegant, 1,170-room French-Renaissance wedding cake embodied Philadelphia's status as one of America's premier metropolises. But as the decades passed, the Bellevue, and Philadelphia itself, lost their sheen. In 1976, Legionnaires' disease killed 29 of the Bellevue's guests, and the hotel closed for over a decade. That same year, Sylvester Stallone's Rocky brought worldwide exposure to the City of Brotherly Love—but as a synonym for gritty urban decay. Indeed, residents were fleeing the city's core just as more vibrant urban areas were coming into their own.
My theory is that, like dogs, each city has its day. In the 1960s, people flocked to San Francisco; in the '70s, Dallas and Houston got hot; during the '80s, it was Miami, full of vice and sockless loafers; in the '90s, grungy Seattle became Nirvana. Now, in the new century, the Bellevue is back, and it's Philly's turn for the limelight."
I've long thought of Philadelphia as the Next Great American City," says Tony Goldman, a real-estate developer who invests in nascent urban neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan, Miami Beach, and, more recently, here in Philly. "But it's just now being recognized and celebrated for it."Moreover, says urban planner Richard Florida, who wrote The Rise of the Creative Class, Philadelphia is showing itself to be an "open city," a term that separates America's urban dynamos like San Francisco and Miami from struggling cities like Cleveland and St. Louis. "Open cities welcome people—singles, gays, artists and individuals," he says. "They have excitement and a sense of creative energy."
For years, I've been hearing great things about this city of 1.4 million on the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. Newspaper articles speak of innovative development projects. Friends return from visits amazed that the nightlife is actually lively. "It's no longer D.C. on a bad hair day," as one jokes.Philadelphia, I discover, comprises 152 distinct neighborhoods, ranging from working-class South Philly to yuppified Manayunk to ivied University City to up-and-coming Northern Liberties and Fishtown. But it is the Center City, the heart of downtown, that's energizing the rebirth.
Trendy restaurants and condominiums abound. A soon-to-be-completed Cesar Pelli skyscraper, the Cira Centre, just across the Schuylkill River, forms a daring twist in the cityscape. The striking Kimmel Center, with its digital-age design, is the new home of the Philadelphia Orchestra.Philly, the only U.S. venue chosen for Live 8, last summer's multinational rock concert, is clearly on a roll. The city's official promoters have been aggressively marketing it to everyone from Canadians to gays to MTV execs. There's more to Philly, you'll hear, than Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Like public art? Philly has some 2,400 murals. Razzle-dazzle? At the National Constitution Center museum, the nation's most hallowed document is celebrated with Vegas-style glitz. Street parties? Odunde, an annual Nigerian-inspired summer festival, attracts over 300,000 revelers. Enough visitors heed Philly's call that Southwest and Frontier airlines started service here last year, and the cruise terminal on the Delaware now offers 32 annual sailings.
A few months after the Bellevue bash, I step into the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to see an 1822 self-portrait by Charles Willson Peale. The artist depicts himself raising a curtain, beckoning visitors into his Philadelphia museum. Inspired, I've enlisted modern Philadelphians to lift the curtain on their city for me.
I MEET KYLE FARLEY IN A coffee shop, appropriately enough, in the Bellevue's lobby. He looks more urban hipster than history scholar. Farley runs Poor Richard's Walking Tours, devoted to bringing Philly's past to life. I'm game...
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/features/philly0510/philly.html
Next Great City: Philly, Really
Text by Andrew Nelson Photograph by Raymond Patrick
Geno's Steaks on Ninth Street sells cheesesteaks, Philly's guiltiest pleasure.
After decades of relative obscurity, Philadelphia, a classic American city, is ready to step back into the national limelight.
You don't usually don white tie and tails for a birthday party, but then, how often do you celebrate the birthday of a hotel? Yet, here we are—me, Walter Cronkite, and 1,854 other guests assembled to help blow out the candles for the hundredth anniversary of the opening of Philadelphia's Park Hyatt at the Bellevue, "the grand dame of Broad Street." As the crush in the lobby grows, I seek refuge from Philadelphia's elite on a spiral, marble staircase from which I can survey the scene. F. Scott Fitzgerald got it wrong, I think. There are second acts in American life—for hotels, certainly, and, yes, for entire cities.
When the (then) Bellevue-Stratford debuted in 1904, the elegant, 1,170-room French-Renaissance wedding cake embodied Philadelphia's status as one of America's premier metropolises. But as the decades passed, the Bellevue, and Philadelphia itself, lost their sheen. In 1976, Legionnaires' disease killed 29 of the Bellevue's guests, and the hotel closed for over a decade. That same year, Sylvester Stallone's Rocky brought worldwide exposure to the City of Brotherly Love—but as a synonym for gritty urban decay. Indeed, residents were fleeing the city's core just as more vibrant urban areas were coming into their own.
My theory is that, like dogs, each city has its day. In the 1960s, people flocked to San Francisco; in the '70s, Dallas and Houston got hot; during the '80s, it was Miami, full of vice and sockless loafers; in the '90s, grungy Seattle became Nirvana. Now, in the new century, the Bellevue is back, and it's Philly's turn for the limelight."
I've long thought of Philadelphia as the Next Great American City," says Tony Goldman, a real-estate developer who invests in nascent urban neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan, Miami Beach, and, more recently, here in Philly. "But it's just now being recognized and celebrated for it."Moreover, says urban planner Richard Florida, who wrote The Rise of the Creative Class, Philadelphia is showing itself to be an "open city," a term that separates America's urban dynamos like San Francisco and Miami from struggling cities like Cleveland and St. Louis. "Open cities welcome people—singles, gays, artists and individuals," he says. "They have excitement and a sense of creative energy."
For years, I've been hearing great things about this city of 1.4 million on the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. Newspaper articles speak of innovative development projects. Friends return from visits amazed that the nightlife is actually lively. "It's no longer D.C. on a bad hair day," as one jokes.Philadelphia, I discover, comprises 152 distinct neighborhoods, ranging from working-class South Philly to yuppified Manayunk to ivied University City to up-and-coming Northern Liberties and Fishtown. But it is the Center City, the heart of downtown, that's energizing the rebirth.
Trendy restaurants and condominiums abound. A soon-to-be-completed Cesar Pelli skyscraper, the Cira Centre, just across the Schuylkill River, forms a daring twist in the cityscape. The striking Kimmel Center, with its digital-age design, is the new home of the Philadelphia Orchestra.Philly, the only U.S. venue chosen for Live 8, last summer's multinational rock concert, is clearly on a roll. The city's official promoters have been aggressively marketing it to everyone from Canadians to gays to MTV execs. There's more to Philly, you'll hear, than Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Like public art? Philly has some 2,400 murals. Razzle-dazzle? At the National Constitution Center museum, the nation's most hallowed document is celebrated with Vegas-style glitz. Street parties? Odunde, an annual Nigerian-inspired summer festival, attracts over 300,000 revelers. Enough visitors heed Philly's call that Southwest and Frontier airlines started service here last year, and the cruise terminal on the Delaware now offers 32 annual sailings.
A few months after the Bellevue bash, I step into the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to see an 1822 self-portrait by Charles Willson Peale. The artist depicts himself raising a curtain, beckoning visitors into his Philadelphia museum. Inspired, I've enlisted modern Philadelphians to lift the curtain on their city for me.
I MEET KYLE FARLEY IN A coffee shop, appropriately enough, in the Bellevue's lobby. He looks more urban hipster than history scholar. Farley runs Poor Richard's Walking Tours, devoted to bringing Philly's past to life. I'm game...
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/features/philly0510/philly.html
