Aftonbladet takes comps online

Today Aftonbladet (Swedens largest tabloid) took 'their' comparable sales online. 

 

The service is available as part of Aftonbladet's existing PLUS subscription, which costs 19 SEK per month (~3 US Dollars). Those listings have every now and then been put in the regular paper. So the move to a digital version comes as no suprise. The data is provided by Värderingsdata AB, which has a number of professional services focusing on comparable sales.

The offer consists of a list with;

• adress
• link to the Hitta.se mapping solution  
• sales price  (SEK)
• area  (square meters)
• seller
• buyer

However, the service takes limited advantage of the technical possibilites. It's only a list, nothing more. No searching, re-ordering , any detailed data on the house, just the last two months of sales. To mention a few limitations.

I guess those limitations are there for a reason...

"The buyers aren't the users"

I'm a believer in making user-friendly and attractive interface to IT solutions.
The question is; why is it still so rarely found when it comes to Enterprise software?

Khoi Vinh, Design Director at NYtimes.com, wrote a post about it. 

Further reading, 37signals, the legendary company that is "committed to building the best web-based software products possible with the least number of features necessary", added their thoughts about the topic.

37signlas point is that "the people who buy enterprise software aren't the people who use enterprise software. That’s where the disconnect begins. And it pulls and pulls and pulls until the user experience is split from the buying experience so severely that the software vendors are building for the buyers, not the users. The experience takes a back seat to the feature list, future promises, and buzz words."

Great point.

Presentation: What is a blog?

I've been asked by a Swedish commercial real estate consulting firm to make a presentation about blogs next Friday. So why not use the same tactic as Dustin Luther at Rain City Guide and ask the readers for advice. 

The key area in which I'm looking for example on blogging in the commercial real estate market.

There are tons of activity in the residential area, but how about the commercial sector of the industry. Are you aware of any commercial real estate agent that has a blog, or a property company that uses blogs for communication.

Good examples are appreciated.
Add a comment or drop me an email.

Thanks in advance.

Report from the PCS expo in London

It’s 3 am and I’ve just got home to Sweden after some hectic days at the PCS expo (a Property Computer Show) in London.

Being on panel for one session, attending another 5, get an understanding of 100 exhibitors and conducting 12 meetings in two days surely was surely a challenge…

My strongest impressions are;

More energy then ever – it’s my 3rd time going to this event and I haven't seen this much of energy before.

Finally the web has hit the property industry - almost every boot you went into was displaying their solution using a web page. Even property management systems have taken on a SaaS aspect (well kind of… more about that later)

The most impressive presentation was about e-Leases -  Chris Lees from Calvis had a brilliant walk through of the project how one of UK's largest property owners has gotten four law firms to use Acrobat Reader documents to fill in and send the lease agreements (including over 200 data fields) using a PISCSES standard XML schema. Which has the effect that the data gets directly imported in to the owners property management system without re-typing any data.

Rewarding to meet other believers - One of the great benefits of going to an event such as this one is about meeting other believers. One needs that ones in a while.

In the upcoming week I’ll write more posts about my experience and thoughts about PCS.

The believer.se

As of today this blog has a new name; The believer (www.thebeliever.se).
(Have to admit that the previous name wasn't the catchiest blog name around....)

This because I believe in;
     ... the smart use of Internet
     ... that the real estate industry can be more efficient 
     ... that a process always could be better
     ... doing all things above at the same time!

The focus about this blog will still be the same. In other words, focus on "the smart use of Internet in Real Estate". My ambition is to be an inspiration for businesses in the real estate market on how to use the Internet. Both in Sweden but also elsewhere.

Looking forward having you as a reader.

Meet me at the Property Computer Show in London

If you're visiting the PCS Expo (Property Computer Show) in London mid-October, why not come by the session "The Property Investment Forum: 2008, the year of change"?

Bob Thompson, RETRI Group, will chair a session with John Glascock, Professor of Real Estate Finance Cambridge University, speaking on the risk in the property market. Nick Laird, Channel Rock Funds LLC, and myself will be on the panel.

For me it will be about commenting on the "... the challenges for those who provide information in this environment".
Will for sure be interesting.

See you all in London.

Appraisals/Brokers - Start your engines and show off

Drew at GeekEstateBlog posted an entry about a game called "Price Me Now" from the folks at Realius. It's about guessing the sales price of real life listings. Sounds great!

"Realius will allow conference attendees to play its flagship game, Price Me Now™, which challenges players to guess the price of homes for sale in their market, on the show floor. Price Me Now™ evaluates player guesses and awards points based on their performance against the “Realius” price, an aggregate combination of previous player price estimates and the actual list price. Real estate companies and professionals can purchase placement in the game as “coaches” who guide players and make their own professional price guesses."

Will be interesting to see how it will be used by the RE industry, maybe it will be used...

... at universities
Why not include this game in courses about pricing the real estate market?

... by brokers/appraisals
This is the opportunity for all brokers and appraisals to show that they are better then Zillow to forecast the sales price!     

I guess they don't include listings in Sweden...   ;-)

Conference in NY focusing on information in Real Estate

Talking about conferences, The Conference Board is gathering high-level executives from the real estate industry, in New York on the 18-19th of October, to cover the topic of information in a global commercial business environment. The name of the conference is "Corporate Real Estate Conference - Information and Action".

A friend of me, Peter Slatin (founder of The Slatin Report and writer at Forbes ), is Conference Program Director so no surprise that the agenda looks impressive.

However, not only is the trip from Stockholm a bit to far for a two day event, hopefully I'll be in London this week for the Property Computer Show.

Realcomm takes on Europe

Not only will Realcomm hold a conference in Dubai, they will also expand into Europe and Australia.

 

Great news for all believers.

Hopefully the Europe event in Janury 2008 will gather people from more countries than where show is held.

It would be great if there where an event like MIPIM for the RE.IT industry.

Great work Jim!

Call for speakers for RealTech Middleeast

Are you an expert in the field of Intelligent Buildings or Property Asset Management solutions?

Why not apply to speak at the RealTech Middle East event in late October?

The people behind RealComm (read Jim Young) is expanding there business globally with an event in Dubai (for sure the place to be if we talk about building, see this video, or this one).

The conference topics are divided into two areas;

Intelligent Buildings Track
   Defining The New NextGen Building Team 
   Tradition Meets The Future: Integrating BAS and IP Technology 
   Building Efficiencies with Building Operations Centers 
   Deploying Digital Signage to Enhance the Tenant Experience 
   Wireless: The Wave of the Future 
   Security / Access / Parking - IP Based Infrastructure

Business Solutions Track: 
   Evolving An Integrated Portal Strategy 
   Controlling Your Portfolio with Automated Asset Management 
   Driving Profitability with NextGen Budgeting and Forecasting Systems 
   Keeping Pace with the Market: Software Vendor Forum 
   Improving Business Processes and Identifying Best Practices 
   Business Intelligence - Turning Data Into Valuable Business Insight

Read more about the event here.