Technology... A Terrible Thing To Waste

Below is my first article for BloodhoundBlog..

Hopefully as a new contributor to the forum I will be able to provide some insight on the commercial side of the business. Without going into the history of the Site To Do Business and its involvement with the CCIM Institute (I’ll save that one for a later date), I wanted to point out that one of the most helpful, most talked about (at least within the inner circles of the Institute) and worth every penny of this designee’s annual dues is the Site To Do Business (“STDBonline”) website.

Simply, STDBonline is an information resource site geared towards the commercial real estate professional with over 20,000 subscribers to date. It is offered as a subscription service for non-CCIM designees, but included as an exclusive membership “perk” once you become a CCIM candidate “on the way to the pin” ( another topic to be discussed later). For those in Silicon Valley and Bellevue pushing the residential side of the real estate technology chase (zillow.com, trulia.com, terabitz.com, et al.) in order to attract numerous eye balls searching for homes to justify venture capital dollars looking for advertising payback, the informational aspect of the commercial side of the technology chase is left to a select few (providers, that is). As a CCIM, this invaluable tool continues to add features and data that meet the demands of sophisticated owners, investors and potential clients. For many of my CCIM colleagues, STDBonline is always open in one browser on the taskbar.

For example, the October 2007 news blog on the STDBonline website highlights the following valuable data resources for its subscriber base:

• Business Lists - Once you establish a project and create a study area, you are able to generate lists of businesses to use for market analysis, competitive analysis, marketing, or prospecting. Business lists are available on study areas using radii, donuts, and hand drawn shapes or a standard geography, which receives the closest 2,000 to your center point. Currently, there are 16,000,000 businesses in this database. After creating/selecting a qualifying study area you want to use to create a business list, go to the deck entitled “Choose Reports and Maps.” Step one asks you to choose a report package from the drop down list of categories. There are two possible choices, the Business Extract or the Business Locator. The Business Extract provides you with an Excel spreadsheet of businesses that you can manipulate, upload onto a map, or use mail merge to create a mailing list. The Business Locator generates the same information but in a PDF;
• Flood Maps - FloodSource has 100% up-to-date coverage of the entire U.S. and 100,000 plus flood maps online. The data and the maps come directly from the actual up-to-date, official FEMA flood maps. If you’re an appraiser, surveyor, or other real estate professional and you simply need a “snapshot look” at a property’s location relative to the nearest floodplain, FloodScapes are what you need. They are ideal for inserting into reports or as a pictorial tool for illustrating a property’s likelihood of incurring flood damage. The concept is simple: enter any street address or any latitude/longitude in the U.S., and FloodSource automatically creates a custom map report, containing only the portion of the FEMA map you need with the property’s location indicated right on the map. You can save, import, or print your FloodScape report. Enter an address and get an official FEMA map;
• Environmental Reports - The First American Environmental Risk Determination Report is used for evaluating and completing due diligence on a commercial real estate loan or for a property transaction. The report also provides extremely valuable environmental information for assisting in your financial decisions. It not only provides all governmental listed environmental action sites within a one-mile radii of the subject site, but also ranks the RISK from these sites and provides next step actions; and,
• Business Information Summary - Now you can determine the number of businesses and employees in your area and compare its daytime population to its residential population. The Business Information Summary identifies the number of businesses and the number of employees by SIC and NAICS classifications in a market. The Business Information Summary also compares daytime population of the area to the residential population. Knowing where people live and work in your market is vital to deciding where to locate businesses and services such as new bank branches, ATMs, restaurants and hotels.

These are just a few of the features incorporated into the website, which has a separate sitemap as a promotions list of the available tools, but here are a couple of my favorites and why:

• GlobeXplorer – Online aerial mapping site that won’t replace Google Maps, but it will provide the latest aerials in the industry. And the most useful tool (at least with my clients) is a dropdown menu bar to show the previous aerials taken over the property. Need an aerial from 10 years ago to compare the growth patterns for your residential developer clients, you won’t find that information from Google Maps;
• LenderCheck – Online reports emailed to you for a specific property that will help you stay ahead of many “surprises” on your way down the Closing Checklist. Need to know if the property in escrow will require a Phase II, this tool will help you identify problems before they become surprises weeks before closing (as we all know, any deal has its "problems", but what you try to eliminate are the "surprises" that kill or delay a deal to death);
• Consumer Expenditures – Online consumer expenditure demographic reports emailed to you based upon radii, donuts, customized grid or drive-time analysis. Here's what I like to do with a drive-time analysis in a cold call example: “I know that the market is slow right now on the other side of town and you may be interested in looking for alternative retail space, I wanted to email you an excel spreadsheet of the business customers within a 20 minute drive time of our center so you can see your potential customer base from our location. Can I get your email address?”Which agent do you think a potential retail client is going to remember after you email him/her a list (in excel format – along with a graphical representation) of all the businesses in a 20 minute drive-time from their potential new retail location? With practice, the report takes less than 5 minutes once you input your location.

Many, if not the majority, of the new clients we pursue in the commercial real estate industry test our “proximity to opportunity” to help them make money. This “proximity to opportunity” might be the first step in the process, but the information, technology and resources (along with the speed in which we provide it) helps solidify a foundation of trust to maintain a lasting relationship with any client. STDBonline is our information staple in the commercial side of the business. Thanks again for the opportunity to contribute to the forum.

Technology: New Jott email today

Here's what's new:

Link your voice to your online world

Jott Links: Now you can update your blog, Twitter™, add to your 30 boxes™ to do list or send a message through Yahoo Groups™ - all with Jott! For example, when Jott asks you "Who do want to Jott" just say "Twitter", speak your message and your update will appear in text on Twitter. Not bad, huh? Click here to set up your Twitter Jott Link

For those real estate mavens we have created an easy way to get a "Zestimate™". Just call Jott, say "Zillow" and you'll be prompted to give the address details. In minutes a Zestimate will be sent via text to your cell phone and e-mail.

Twitter™, Jaiku™, Zillow™, 30 boxes™, Blogger™, Word Press™, Live Journal™, TypePad™ and Yahoo Groups™ are all accessible with Jott...and we're adding more soon. Click here to set up your Jott Links.

Stay organized with Folders, Reminders and more!

Jott Folders: With Jott Folders you create preset categories for your Jotts to self. Set up folders for family, expenses, to-do list, or anything that you want. Then simply say the name of the folder the next time you leave a Jott and it'll be waiting for you in that folder at Jott.com. Click here to learn more.

Jott Reminders: With the new Jott Reminders, Jott can remind you of important events 15 minutes before they start. Just say "Reminder" and Jott will ask you for the date, time, and subject. Now you can stop worrying about remembering those important appointments in your busy life. Click here to learn more.

Profiles: Want to personalize your Jotts? Just create a profile to add your customized signature to the end of every Jott. You can include your name, picture, e-mail, title, and more. Click here to learn more.

Status alerts: Now you can update your mood on your blog, personal home page or other sites. Say "status" when asked "Who do you want to Jott?" and say how you feel that day. Your status will then be posted to the Jott flash widget wherever you put it. Click here to try it out.

Take a look at what else we're working on...and give it a try.

Jott Labs
We now have a section of our website that lets you test some of the latest Jott ideas.

Jott Express: Our new desktop application keeps Jott on your PC desktop. You can send Jotts, manage Jotts, and so much more. Click here to try out Jott Express.

Jott Gadget: This gadget is made specifically for iGoogle. It keeps Jott at your fingers tips as one of your selected gadgets on your iGoogle page. Click here to get the Jott Gadget.

Thanks again for using Jott. We always look forward to hearing your feedback at feedback@jott.com.

Stay tuned for more features coming soon.

The Jott Team

Online: New Online Maps for Real Estate Users

Since Google made its maps available for customization last year, savvy programmers have created thriving businesses by adding layers of information.

So in May, Washington-based startup FortiusOne launched GeoCommons, a cartographic portal where users can easily create their own mashups.

The site has 2 billion pieces of localized data -- from census figures and school district budgets to water-contamination and traffic-congestion hot spots -- and it is rapidly adding more. Two examples are below offered by users that collected data through business and government sites:

1. Foreclosure Filing and the Subprime Collapse: Foreclosure filings are starting to hit hard. People all over the country are having trouble paying off their ARMs (Adjustable rate Mortgages) and houses are being foreclosed. This is having a ripple effect in the economy, Home Depot and Lowe's have already cut their earnings estimates and it looks likely that more trouble is on the way. Our map will show you the locations of foreclosures, auction notifications, and other housing indicators. this map shows the Top 500 Zipcodes ranked by number of foreclosures.

2. House Hunting Made Easy: I wanted to demonstrate how to speed up a home search by using Intersection Heat Maps. In my scenario, we are looking for a home in neighborhoods that have large numbers of kids, large numbers of tech workers, newer homes, low crime rates, and large number of parks. This data includes information on subsidized housing in the lower 48 states. The source of the data is HUD. A full description of the variables and coding used in the dataset is provided on the HUD website: http://www.huduser.org/picture2000/dictionary.pdf

Interesting items I found on the web today

Home buyers and home sellers alike can find more innovative and useful features than ever on real estate web sites, which are nimbly adapting to the U.S. housing slump. Residential agents are beginning to be wary of www.buysiderealty.com and www.iggyshouse.com – while investors, lenders and homeowners are using valuation tools like www.zillow.com, www.housefront.com and www.trulia.com

At market close today, Research in Motion (RIM)'s market cap of $42.3 billion edged out Motorola's $41.4 billion. This despite the fact that RIM's annual revenue of $3 billion is puny next to Motorola's nearly $43 billion. (Yes, you read that right; Motorola's market cap is less than its annual revenue.)

A new service called Ether (www.ether.com) provides an innovative and easy way to sell what you say to others that need or want your expertise.

FW: Real estate search engine launches

Feed: bizjournals.com Real Estate:Commercial headlines
Posted on: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 11:48 AM
Author: bizjournals.com Real Estate:Commercial headlines
Subject: Real estate search engine launches

Zooven Inc., which offers an online real estate database, has partnered with Austin 360 Realty to launch Zooven.com, a real estate brokerage services company.

View article...

CCIM Podcasts - Free downloads

Finally, want to hear what’s going on in the industry? Visit the CCIM Podcast page -- http://podcast.ccim.com/. No User ID or password required.

Regards,

Edward M. Bury, APR
Director of Public Relations

CCIM Institute
www.ccim.com

California to build 'world's largest' solar farm

Cleantech America, a San Francisco based developer, has launched a project to build the world's largest solar farm, giving this Spanish solar tower a run for its money, as well as insulting the work of countless Tesco engineers and their puny, insignificant solar roof. When completed in 2011, the 80-megawatt spread of solar panels will cover roughly 640 acres and be 17 times the size of the largest US solar farm in existence. The project, which will generate enough power for nearly 21,000 homes, will be sold to the Kings River Conservation District, a public agency that purchases power for 12 cities and two counties in California's Central Valley. The company hopes that a solar farm of this size will be an industry-wide tipping point for energy providers, and will drive the cost of solar energy downward. Meanwhile, Tesco and Spain will be plotting their sublime revenge.

Click here for link..