Nick Bostic » Technology

Property Search Accuracy

Nick Bostic — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:31:07 +0000

I was interested in the possibility of adding a property search tool to a web site without having to pay the monthly fees. So far, I haven’t found a free option that covers RMLS, but I was curious again about the accuracy of the various tools available to consumers.

Here’s my search criteria:

Zip: 97006
Bedrooms: 2+
Bathrooms: 2+
Price: $150,000-$200,000
Property Type: All Residential

Fairly narrow criteria just for testing purposes.

And now for the number of results across a few of my favorites:

RMLS (the official count): 77
Google Base: 61
Roost: 79
Cyberhomes: 36
Zillow: 156
Estately: 77
Yahoo! Real Estate: 49
Trulia: 51

So the clear winner for accuracy is Estately. Their search tool is great and a pleasure to use too. Roost is very close, which makes sense too since they have IDX access as well. Zillow wouldn’t let me deselect foreclosure, so that may be part of why their number is so high.

My big surprise, however, was with Google Base. Again, I was looking for a tool to integrate for free into a web site, since so many are on aggressive budgets these days. This seems like the only tool that might be able to be integrated into a site for free without using an ugly iframe solution. Based on counts at least, Google Base appears to be fairly accurate which means this could be a good free property search option for someone willing to integrate it into their site.

Can You Join Too Many Social Networks?

Nick Bostic — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:26:24 +0000

photo credit: anjrued

Twitter, Facebook, Digg: Can You Join Too Many Networks?

One of the biggest concerns I am faced with when working with online marketing customers is their fear of the sheer volume of networks they must join. This is an excellent article to help you build your plan of attack as well as several distribution tools for managing your online presence.

Consumer Reports Shouldn’t Review Cellphones Anymore [Consumer Reports]

Thank you! When I worked in wireless sales, people would always come in with Consumer Reports and say “I want this phone” and I’d have to say “Sorry sir, we haven’t sold that phone in over 2 years and when we did, it was a POS”.

Blog Comments as Strategy — 10 Tips Every Blogger Should Know

For me, comments are a form of validation that people actually are reading. Sure, my uniques are right on target, my search referrals look great and my time on site is incredible, but when someone comments, I really know they read and were interested. These are some great tips to get more comments.

MiFi Coming Soon!

Nick Bostic — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:58:01 +0000

photo credit: mightyohm

People don’t trust company blogs. What you should do about it.

It’s always important to know which distribution methods work best, and trust is one of the key factors so success. I’m actually surprised to see print yellow pages and newspapers rank so high since I haven’t subscribed to a newspaper ever and I yell at the kids who throw 3 yellow pages on my door step.

Novatel MiFi proves “3G hotspot” and “sexy” can coexist

It’s about time! Not only will this be great for business travel (place this thing in the one tiny window that gets a signal, and use your laptop throughout the room), but also for conferences where sometimes the in-house WiFi is insufficient. I’ll try to get one before next years’ Inman Connect San Francisco to share with all my Agent Genius friends

Sweet! A Phone with Media like an iPhone but a BlackBerry Keyboard! You know, other than a BlackBerry…

Nick Bostic — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:31:03 +0000

photo credit: andreas_fischler

Black and Decker Thermal Leak Detector Can Cut Your Energy Costs By 20

Not only do I love gadgets, I love the idea of protecting the environment by not wasting so much natural gas to heat my house (along with saving a buck or two). This is definitely a tool to keep our eyes on when it rolls out in January.

Google Reader gets a new look

Ummmm….it changed? I think mine still looks the same. I’m on it all the time, but I didn’t notice anything different.

WordPress 2.7 – 20 Must See Features

Egads, time to update a zillion or so sites! For those of you on WordPress, the time has come for another major update. Take a look at some of the key features, although I had personally implemented many of these through a variety of plugins already. I think I’ll give it a little while while I wait for theme/plugin developers to check for compatibility.

New Android Phone Debuts, Looks Like a Blackberry

In this article, I keep reading that this new phone is the best of both worlds with iPhone-like music apps and a BlackBerry-like keyboard. Ummm…hello? Do people not realize that BlackBerry’s sync with iTunes? So if I want iPhone-like music and BlackBerry-like keyboard, shouldn’t I just get…a BlackBerry? Plus then I get BB durability, battery life, push email, great free apps…

Twitter Automation, Netbooks and HDR

Nick Bostic — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:31:33 +0000

photo credit: Lucas Jans

Twitter automation, a terrible trend

I do agree to a point. When I first started on Twitter, I did no automation. I engaged in real dialog to get to know my initial followers. Then the snowball grew and grew. It’s too noisy most of the time and I take many discussions of Twitter quickly. I share my blog posts and thank new followers automatically, but auto follow is off and some person’s idea of have a whole slew of auto-tweets daily (5 I think) disgusts me.

Netbooks can do anything a notebook can do

This is one point of view leading up to my eventual complete review of my HP Mini I’ve been using for about 10 days now. I’ll give you two things a netbook can’t do (yes, I’m bitter): Run BlackBerry Media Manager and run Handbrake.

Dan Achatz Talks About HDR and Blending

I love HDR photography and have been playing with it quite a bit over the last year or so. It’s fun to play with and can easily be overdone, but this was a great tutorial that I wish I had when I first started in HDR.