Matt Dickman put together this helpful piece explaining AJAX. (Asynchronous JAvascript XML). The reason I thought to post this is because AJAX has come up in meetings in my company. Typically it comes up in the context of the direction we (I) would like to see our company move as we plan for upgrades to our web sites and online communities.
Now, when I explain (or try to explain) the resulting interface enhancements of an AJAX-enabled site, I can simply send them a link to Matt's explanation, along with links to some sample sites: Google Reader, Google docs,Google Maps, and so on.
I remembered an article here last month along the lines of a "what if" scenario involving possible PR opportunities for NAR if a fund were established, in part, to offset homeowner commission costs on short-sale transactions if a Realtor had been used on both the buy-side, as well as on the sell-side. Admittedly, I wasn't quite onboard with the proposal, but I remember thinking the author was on to something with the idea of a Realtor-originated fund for the purpose of giving back to the community somehow.
Charity funds are great for that sort of thing. Many local boards have 'em. But sometimes the payouts feel a bit like the old dichotomy between giving people fish and enabling them to fish on their own. Don't get me wrong, I think giving is good; it's just that enablement feels better somehow.
So it was with pleasure when I happened across news of how the Pacific West Association of Realtors (PWR) did just that. Early this year PWR turned a charity fund, along with donations from corporate sponsors and C.A.R.'s Housing Affordability fund, into a community support program that helps low income first-time home buyers get into their first home. With median home prices in Orange County, California well-surpassing the conforming loan limit, it's almost a given that a first-timer would already be in jumbo loan territory even for a smallish condo. And, given the higher lending standards today, first-time buyers is a demographic that definitely could use some help. But not only that, it's also a program that ends up being a bridge that enables the Realtor to keep the deal together and their client in the game.
As for PR? Well, there is that. But it's refreshing to see that PR didn't seem to be the main driving force when this program was thought up. But, come to think of it, it does carry a tint of that warm fuzzy feeling for Realtors giving back to the community, doesn't it? ;-)
In an earlier post I alluded to one vision of the (near) future where real estate property information pops up on navigation systems in consumer automobiles. Click a button on your nav-unit and up pops amenities and public record data about the property: # bedrooms, square footage, last sold date, last sold price, build-date, and so on.
Zillow's announcement of soon-to-be-released VSS, the Virtual Sold Sign program basically allows an agent to hang a "sold" sign on properties listed on Zillow's site. And to keep it there long after the transaction has closed escrow. The details, while a little sketchy, seems to leverage Zillow's listings feed program to populate agent contact information and/or branding inormation to go along with Zillow-listed homes for brokerages with a listing feed arrangement. They also promise to do this for individual agents who manually add listings to the site.
So for me, this is interesting as it introduces another possible vision of the future: [Web-enabled automobile navigation unit] + [VSS] = [New agent advertising channel].
In fact, the advertising potential for this kind of integration has already been considered.
Says Dash Navigation's Mark Williamson, "...
generally speaking, consumers are (making) three types of searches...
there's a location-specific search... the other is a category search... (and) products... if you actually
think about those three types of searches, what consumers are really
doing is they're saying, 'I want to go spend money somewhere.' And when
you find yourself with the consumer expressing intent to go spend
money, the ability to help them take action, and in our case it's to
route to a destination... it's all the right ingredients for a
potential ad model..."
Imagine the same consumer pressing another button on the navigation unit in her car and up pops a list of homes with your branding and contact info. If you dominate a geographic farm, that could be visually compelling when a consumer pages back to the map-level view.
Will consumers find more doors open to listings directly?
Raise your hand if you've found yourself in this scenario: You're driving with your buyer-client on a property tour. You're following a judiciously-prepared route comprised of property listings in your client's stated price range. You're both chatting about likes/dislikes of the morning's "best of" tour when you turn a corner and there's a yard with a for sale sign. For some reason, the property isn't on your list. Then your client says, "oh!, what about that one! It's like the bay windows we loved from that house on Cedarbrook but with the acreage and back bay view we adored from the one on Canyon Rim. Can we see it?"
If your Suprakey works with the lockbox, no problem. You just have to manage the unscheduled drop-in with the property owner. But it might also help to get the showing information, financials and history from the MLS listing so you can fulfill your role as the knowledgeable area expert.
With a wireless card and handheld or laptop, you can fire up the computer and login directly to the MLS and get the property information yourself. Or, you can call your assistant or hit up a buddy on the up-desk to look up the information for you. ("Oh, and while you're at it, Sam, would you mind also seeing what else is in the area in the next price range? Looks like my client is really liking this subdivision. I owe ya.")
If Dash GPS has it's way, you may soon be able to get that info direct to your GPS with the push of a button. The video below shows a demo of their upcoming web-enabled GPS using a programming interface to a third-party database. (The demo below links to Zillow.)
Agent-hissing aside for a moment about the accuracy of Zestimates, some of you might see the potential here. And, despite my scenario-building above, I dont' mean only the potential benefits to agents.
Given time, it's in the realm of possibilities that Adam Smith'sinvisible hand will find increasing opportunities for "MLS-like" functionality direct to the consumers via mobile platforms such as GPS. At the recent Web 2.0 Summit, Dash Navigation reps Mark Currie and Mark Williamson, not only demonstrate the possibility of pulling basic property information such as: list price, last sold date, last sold price, amenities and square footage, but they also discuss the functionality of mining other databases. For example, finding scheduled open houses "nearby" at the punch of a button. (Fast forward to about 6:30 in the video below.)
In an 
