Thanks for the Phone Call

We received a phone call the other evening from a website user in North Carolina. Their family had been in town over the weekend doing drive-bys and basically just checking out the Huntsville area in anticipation of a possible relocation. We actually had a pretty good time on the phone with lots of laughs, while we continued to cook diner on our end, and they told us how they loved our website, nevertheless they wish they could do this, or perhaps even that, etc, etc.

First of all let me assure you we truly appreciate such phone calls and we welcome suggestions, as well as critiques. While we don’t have a full time person working our websites and we do realize we still have a lot of work to do, we do take our websites rather seriously, and are very conscientiousness in fixing any short-comings and/or adding suggested functionality whenever it is possible.

Anyway, long story short, the basics of the suggestion was:

I want to search by specific builders and sort by subdivision!

Adams Homes,   Breland Homes,  Hunter Homes

Jeff Benton Homes,  Ken McDaniel Homes,  Woodland Homes

Well Here ya Go…

One of our website’s strengths is having a very strong search engine, underneath its presentation layer, that is capable of rapidly executing almost any imaginable  set of search criteria. In fact the capabilities are such that even a dynamically open and close sectional form would be just too cumbersome to realize any real use by the browsing public. You see, when we all surf the web; we want, what we want, and we want it with as few inputs and clicks as possible.

Filling out a form is just something most of us will simply pass-on when presented and from most of the input we have received; we also don’t like zooming in, zooming out, and panning around maps of picture-less icons just to end up getting a simple summary and thumbnail that a one click search can produce a list of.

Nonetheless we have put together a simple @Homes Search by Builder form where you can mix and match your favorite Huntsville Home Builders into segregated search results with optional maps every step of the way. We started with just a small number of specific builders but if you will comment on this post (without phone number or email) we will be happy to consider adding additional builders as well.

- Thanks  Tim

Our website properties continue to grow in the North Alabama area. Our first real estate search site Northern Alabama Homes is exclusively a property search website and its content includes of all the homes for sale across the entire northern Alabama region, including several counties where we are unable to serve personally with our limited staff.

Thus when applicable we refer many of our users to referral partners around the region to provide users with more detailed information and services.

However our primary territory of activity is the local Huntsville Real Estate market where we are active within the communities where we live and work. Thus to focus more precisely on our local Huntsville Real Estate market we launched the  @HomesHuntsville website which you are currently visiting. Its content and listings are exclusive to the local Huntsville Real Estate market including Madison and Limestone Counties.

We have had some preliminary discussions and some initial interest expressed in adopting the @Homes Franchise model into the Athens  Decatur area, our neighboring communities to the west. Thus to foster further interest and discussion, today we are proud to announce the launch of the @HomesDecatur website.

We realize not every broker will be a good fit with the @Homes Franchise model and a potential partner, however if you are a progressive thinking independent broker in the Athens  Decatur area wishing to expand your business activities with a focus on using Internet technologies to boost and grow your business, why not explore this preliminary website in some depth as it can be customized with your independent business interests in mind. Then why not contact us and explore some possibilities.

-Tim

Huntsville Real Estate – So Many Maps

While there is still quite a bit of work we are doing on all of our new Huntsville Real Estate maps they are beginning to take shape and over the next few weeks will continue to improve greatly.

Already throughout the entire Huntsville Home Search process you can optionally view maps within your search results, view one of an individual home, or homes within a 1 mile radius of a particular listing, etc. We have also dedicated a Huntsville Real Estate Map search page that is designed to use 100% of your browser’s canvas and it color codes results depending on the approximate age of the listing. Moreover you can now view listing details from this page and never have to leave it with more improvements underway.

Also our quick Huntsville Home Search widget displayed on most pages in the right sidebar gives you an option to display search results on a map or not, whether it be a school system, neighborhood/subdivision, city, or zip code based search. Maps are certainly a nice new feature and we are glad to provide them but depending on your connection these pages take a bit longer to load. Thus they are of course completely optional. Many searchers prefer a classic search display and take a closer look at maps only on the properties that most interest them. Others prefer to search from a map and after viewing listing detail return to the search map. Well all we can say is have your way, because we do it all!

Hey …Why are your maps so blue?

So funny really, a customer mentioned this to me just yesterday and admittedly when I first implemented Google’s street view overlay I found it strange looking as well. Nevertheless it is a really cool feature that allows you to bring up a panorama street-view anywhere on the map by simply clicking the street between the blue outlines, thus zoom in a bit and give it a try and be sure to use the Full Screen view as well when you want to take a close look, it is awesome!

As illustrated in the screen shot above simply click on any street outlined in blue and a small street view window opens up allowing you to pan in any direction. In fact, given we are using the street view overlay you are not restricted to just views around listing locations. Why not check out the neighborhood, the closest shopping center, or the local high school.

How do I find near-by schools and shopping?

It’s easy to do since we are using a local search control tool in the bottom right hand side of all of our maps. As illustrated in the following screen shot just type in schools, restaurants, libraries, etc and markers and navigation are added to the map for your convenience. Now zoom in near the school of interest pop-up a street view and go full screen to take a closer look.

What about Google Earth?

We have it too, as an option on all of our maps. However Google does require that you install a plug-in into your browser before it will function. Moreover don’t forget your connection type as this advanced feature is certainly not for dial-ups or for even DSL-lite access methods. Anyway hope you all enjoy the new map features and more is on the way.

Vote to Publicly Display Listing Addresses – Yes

A recent vote put to the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors (HAAR) on whether to allow the display of property addresses on all public IDX/RETS websites, has passed by a majority vote.

We feel this is a definite  win-win development for both consumers and local Huntsville Real Estate professionals alike. The proposal allows an opt-out option for consumers who may not wish the address of their listed home advertised on the Internet, thus a few new fields are being added to MLS listing forms and feeds to support this new feature.

Given these changes it will take a few weeks before procedures are documented and policy details get formalized, however it is very likely that early in 2010 Huntsville Real Estate consumers will no longer have to email or phone real estate agents for simple drive-by information. The drive-by phase of house hunting is an important step that often works as a filter of homes not making a consumer’s short list of homes to view. This enables the consumer to manage their home buying time in a more efficient manner, and alleviates agents of providing simple information to the public so they can sharpen their focus on serving their customers and clients.

How We Help Now

While per current MLS policy we do not publicly display any listing fields that are prohibited, our public website already has some tools that assist consumers during the drive-by phase of their house hunt.

For example, we have a database of Huntsville Subdivision locations and a software script that builds Google maps of subdivision locations throughout the area. While subdivision markers on a map are not explicit addresses and driving directions, they can be very helpful to consumers during the drive-by phase. So be sure to visit our Huntsville Subdivision Map page for assistance in exploring the various homes for sale within a variety of local neighborhoods.

In addition to the Subdivision Maps, every listing displayed publicly on our websites has a Request Drive-By Information link which brings up an email form that captures the particular listing of interest. By simply using one of your email addresses the home’s address, driving directions, and Google map link are emailed to you automatically. Sure we will likely follow-up with you in an attempt to build a customer relationship, after all we are in the relationship business, but believe me we do not participate in spamming, its against our @Homes consumer oriented company policies.

We are Ready For the Change!

While we do not know if additional fields will be opened to public display, we do know that if consumers wish their home’s location to be advertised to potential buyers, property addresses will become available. Just like much of the country already accomplishes today.

Given this, address geocoding is a simple step that will allow us to map properties for searching, displaying search results, and displaying all other listing within certain distances. This will change the online search experience of all local or relocating consumers dramatically, especially when incorporating Google’s street view overlay into the listing maps.

Thankfully we are ahead of the curve and currently have all of these features already developed and fully functional, however they are not yet published. Once our local MLS policy is updated and we receive the details, we will be tweaking these features and turning them on as soon as we can.  …So stay tuned!

Tim – the tool guy

First let me apologize to all of our regular users for any inconvenience you are experiencing and will likely experience over the next few days. We have received several emails and have also had a few phone conversations regarding our current website development. …So here is what is going on, website wise:

We are in the middle of transitioning our Huntsville Real Estate Blog to a new website location.  The Huntsville Real Estate Resource Center articles have always been focused on Madison and Limestone County real estate issues, current homes for sale, and market performance. This focus will not change, in fact the website and new company formation  are going to enhance this focus and improve the quality of information provided many times over.  NorthernAlabamaHomes.com on the other hand was designed as a ‘regional’ website and contains  more general information regarding homes for sale all over the entire north Alabama area.

While we will be re-branding the Northern Alabama Homes website very soon, the site will continue to serve its current regional audience and is not going away at all, as some of you have raised concerns.  …As long as we are in business in the Huntsville area, a re-branded NorthernAlabamaHomes will be alive and well with only additional enhancements and style.

In fact early next year and into the spring of 2010, we will be exploring partnerships with other regional brokers to expand our initial north Alabama regional effort into additional hyper-local focused websites like, @HomesHuntsville, hopefully across the entire northern Alabama area.

So stay tuned, we are going to clean up the current issues in no time at all.

It Has Been Quiet Around Here!

Well it has been 2 1/2 months since our last update post for the Huntsville Real Estate Resource Center. It’s not that we haven’t been busy, in fact these past few months have been the busiest of our lives from a business perspective anyway.

We very much appreciated the emails we received asking about our previously very regular market update posts and when we might be starting up again.  …Well the day has now arrived and over the next few weeks we will be welcoming on-board a few new associates and hopefully as we transition you will begin to see a few more new posters with a much wider array of interests and perspective.

So What’s New?

If your are a previous visitor to these pages you will likely recognize that the changes to the website are huge and while there are still a few broken links and some file not found errors, things are working pretty well.  At least good enough to launch the new site and get the gang back together to do some blogging over the next few months.

However much more has changed than our blog’s website address, as we have taken the plunge and Elizabeth has successfully completed her Broker License as well as obtaining an office license and has now opened a new realty office in Huntsville called the @Homes Realty Group.

The @Homes Realty Group

The brain child for @Homes Realty llc is Elizabeth herself, from the birth of the idea, the concepts, logo and branding, and of course her always consistent value system. As all of our regular readers know, the last few years of financial crisis in our country has irrevocably changed the real estate business, for likely far into the future. Along with the housing bubble,  I would be amiss not to mention that technology and especially web-2.0 technology has and will continue to couple with other outside forces bringing about long term changes within the industry. Even locally, rest assured.

The company and office names blend the old and the new in a very unique way. The old saying is, ‘Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water’. Thus keeping the traditional values of family, honesty, integrity, among others and blending them with new technologies, while re-focusing our real estate business efforts on the consumer, brought about the idea of a Neo-Traditional Realty business. One that blends the traditional business values of the past, with a modern implementation tool set. The @ sign is a familiar technological icon that everyone with email recognizes and Homes are much more than houses and real estate. Home has the feeling of family residents and the lives and dreams of our children. Homes are much more personal and warmer than a house or a parcel of real estate.

Thus was born @Homes Realty Group where home is: 475 Providence Main Str, Huntsville, AL 35806 – Suite: 302 …hey I ask you with this concept,where else would you locate Huntsville’s newest boutique Realty.  …Join me in wishing Elizabeth and her team the greatest success!

Tim

Yes, we are still here working hard behind the scenes on lots of changes coming soon. We are sorry about the recent lack of blogging activity over the last few weeks, but we have been swamped with some significant changes in our business structure and new website designs that we will roll-out prior to the end of the year. But all is not lost, because we have also added a team member to help us keep up with all your email queries regarding any real estate across the Huntsville and North Alabama area.

Some of you may have already chatted with Denise, our new Relocation Director, via email and/or phone who will be assisting all of our website users, customers, and clients in obtaining the information you need, as well as scheduling appointments with local agents within our referral network to work with you in viewing your favorite homes, negotiating contracts, and hopefully working through all and any complexities that come up in selling your existing property and closing on your new found home. So whether you are relocating from another country or state, finding another  home around the North Alabama area, or even simply moving across town, Denise is here to help your transition be as smooth as possible. …Welcome aboard Denise!

We have also been actively interviewing additional agents in hopes of adding to our available agent resources in the Huntsville area as well as adding to our referral network around various parts of the state. Look for a team page coming soon that will not only include our currently forming local Huntsville Team, but also many within our referral network around North Alabama. We will also likely be highlighting some of our partners that work with us in providing home inspections, mortgages, repairs, etc.

Some of you regulars may have also sensed an improvement in the page load times of the our blog, Huntsville Real Estate Resouce Center, this because our new development work as well as the blog are now hosted on a private dedicated server. We are planning a tandem private server archetechture sourced from two different data centers each backing up the other and servicing a different set of our websites. Thus we will soon be moving the North Alabama Homes property search engine onto its own private server as well. Thus things are going to get a lot swifter for all of our website users.

We truly wish to thank all of our customers and website patrons for all of your feedback and suggestions and we have received on more than one occasion comments like, ‘Wow that was fast, Thanks’! No its thanks to you for giving our effort a try and for feeding back helpful suggestions and problems that you encounter.

Thanks again and stay tuned,

Tim (Webmaster)

MLS Search Engine Adjustment

All right now! …Searching for Huntsville Alabama Foreclosures just got a lot easier utilizing our web-site’s embedded MLS search engine.

Yep, no more struggling trying to segregate these properties within your search results by reading comment details, no more complicated text string searches that can stress the search engine when it is under a heavy user load, and no more having to choose between Short Sales, Bank Owned, First Right of Redemption, or VA and HUD owned homes. Things are a lot easier now, so be sure to take this search option out for a spin and look at the listings with some detail! …and its fast too!

Huntsville Foreclosure Listings at Record Levels

With Huntsville Foreclosures at record levels, especially over the last 3 months, it seemed wise to make this technical adjustment to our MLS database structure to ease these popular listings out into public view.

Even if you are not sure of your interest in these properties, it is now virtually painless to adjust your favorite search parameters to segregate these properties for a close detailed look. Also don’t forget, registered users can also save these searches for easy One Click Recall and can even set up optional automated email notifications when new Huntsville AL Foreclosures meeting your search parameters hit the market.

Thus on each of our Huntsville MLS search menus, except for narrow neighborhood / subdivisions searches, you will now find a simple check box labeled: Foreclosures Only. By simply checking this search option your search results will be filtered to display only those homes that are in some stage of the foreclosure process, while also meeting your other criteria such as location, price, bedrooms, etc.

Some Caution Warranted

Of course as regular users of our website well know, we have not designed our Huntsville MLS Search process to be a hand-held and teacher-student lead process.  We leave the detailed search parameters to our user’s own discretion, thus there are options available on our website that are not found on any other North Alabama Real Estate website.

Thus if not careful you will find yourself on the dreaded ‘No Listings Found Meeting Your Criteria’ page and the Foreclosures Only check box can easily be the culprit if used with too narrow of a search, for example a neighborhood or a particular elementary school search within tight price constraints.

Thus we suggest you start out using this feature with broad searches on MLS areas, City Names, and Zip codes until you get the feel of the quantity and home types within the property category. Thus we have put together a few of these searches here within this post for your convenience:

Huntsville AL Foreclosures
Madison AL Foreclosures
Athens AL Foreclosures

Why Home Listings have no Addresses

I know it must seem strange to many, especially those relocating here from other areas of the country, that none of the real estate websites in Huntsville display: addresses, square foot measurements, days on market, Google maps, and other very useful consumer information. It is certainly not by our own design, as our  local board of Realtors® stipulates that none of this information can be displayed to the general public and we are bound by these MLS rules.

Whose Responsibility is it Anyway?

Alabama real estate law places a number of fiduciary duties upon real estate agents as they support their customers and clients. One of these fiduciary duties is Disclosure of any pertinent information that may benefit their client in the home buying process. It is hard pressed to see how location data would not be a fundamental part of beneficial information.

Thus since Huntsville homes for sale are not listed with their addresses or directions this is non-public information that is to be provided by the Huntsville Real Estate Agent of your choice.

How to Automate Addresses, Directions, and Maps

We automate this information via our websites for all of our customers and clients. Thus by contacting us and establishing a working relationship we can turn this service on for you and automate all of this information for your convenience.

We have a number of qualified real estate professionals serving our website customers; Elizabeth, Seth, Brenda, Nick, Stella, and Mike. So when you get ready to interview or select a local real estate agent drop us an email or give us a call and we’ll get things rolling.

I guess I don’t keep up very well with the technology news scene, because today I was looking through my website statistics and saw all this traffic from a website called Bing. I visited the site and hey looks like another off brand search engine, no big deal.

Then noticed later in the day lots more traffic from Bing, …uh …what’s up off brand search engines just don’t send this kind of traffic. So I did a Google search and lo and behold, Bing is the new Microsoft search product that rolls a number of existing products and technologies into a single interface including MSN Search, Live Search, as well as Microsoft’s Virtual Earth and a few other enhancements.

Anyway it’s doubtful that Microsoft can make much headway into Google’s 60% market share but I hope they do for a couple of reasons:

1. I’m not a big fan of monopolies and just don’t agree with the crowd that suggests Microsoft should give up on search. In fact, I would like to see both Yahoo (20% market) and Bing (8% market) make some inroads into Google’s lead.

1. Our own websites do much better on our primary competitive keywords in both Yahoo and Bing than we do with Google due to algorithmic differences. Google favors older seasoned websites much more than Bing or Yahoo and since our websites are approximately a year old we don’t have the same obstacle with Yahoo or Bing.

However I must add that competitive primary keywords are not the only source of website traffic and Google indexes far more of our web pages than either Bing or Yahoo and the long-tail traffic we receive from Google is far greater than Bing’s and Yahoo’s.

Bing’s success or failure to gain market share will be interesting to watch and the reviews are already flowing in. So why not give Bing a try yourself, with some of your own Huntsville Real Estate keywords.