Market crash – what better time to get a great realtor?

For all the complaining people do about realtors (and realtors must know that people do complain about them, hence the “what a realtor can do for you” sites out there), I think the real problem is not realtors in general but BAD realtors.

Hence Rate a Realtor sites like ours (launch date of Aug 15, 2008 still looks good). The great realtors float to the top based on what CUSTOMERS/CLIENTS say… not based on inflated marketing budgets.

Adding a new partner

We found out fairly early on that our team of 3 – made up of a Web experience guy, a developer and a content writer – wouldn’t be quite enough. We were missing a fairly critical element, even for the low-key kinda site we wanted: a designer. Someone who could basically take our PPT wireframes/mockups and turn them into jpgs in Photoshop.

We didn’t want to just throw partnerships at any ol’ Joe walking down the street, so we started by paying a designer. We used an awesome company called Confetti Creations (out of Calgary, AB) for our logo – they turned it around pretty fast, and we were wicked-happy with the results. But we’re also POOR! So we couldn’t afford to keep using a designer for all the pages we’d need developed. And, given that we’re based in Edmonton, we wanted to work with someone a bit closer to us. 

Down and dirty real estate agent feedback

Ever owned a house, put all you had into tearing out the old carpets, laying hardwood, finishing the basement, trimming the bushes, painting the shutters………. and then had to pay a realtor to sell your place for you? Has it hurt to see how much commission they’re making off your home?

We need realtors, sure. Just check out how long some of those homes have been on ComFree, and it’s clear that it’s not… um… how to put this nicely… lucrative to drop your home on a Web site and wait for the offers to come rolling in. Not in Edmonton, at least. And if the reports are accurate, not in any location in Canada or in the US.