FreeGreen.Com Inroduces “Facebook” Like Profiles For Builders- at $25 per month.

FreeGreen.com SnapshotIt is always exciting to see real estate related industries trying to innovate. There is no question that we have few difficult years ahead of us, and those who truly innovate will not only survive these times but will become leaders forcing others to measure up to their success.

An email alert notified me today about a press release announcing that FreeGreen.com has introduced “Facebook” like profiles for the builders joining the website:

FreeGreen.com, provider of free green house plans has launched its FreeGreen Builder Program. This new feature allows green home builders across the country to upload their own “Facebook” like profiles, portfolios of their work, and even “price out” FreeGreen’s Free House Plans. FreeGreen users can then search for green home builders by zip code, state, or by the house plans that a builder has priced. This unique service allows builders to obtain targeted leads, and FreeGreen users to research and find reputable green home builders.

Unfortunately you don’t have to wait long to get completely disappointed:

FreeGreen has offered its existing builder users a free year subscription to this new service. Many of FreeGreen’s builders have already loaded profiles prior to go-live and are ready to accept new leads. New builders will be able to take advantage of a free trial period which lasts until January 1st, 2009. After this date FreeGreen will begin charging $25 per month for this service.

In my humble opinion they completely are “missing the boat” by setting this deadline after which they will begin to charge builders this monthly fee.

“Going green” is going to be real hot in the next few years and FreeGreen.com is probably positioned to be the leader in bringing “green builders” and “green (or aspiring green) shoppers/homeowners” together. I am sure there might be a need to monetize quickly their project. However it might be somewhat shortsighted.

If you think about Facebook or any other “social media” websites, the major part of their success was easy and FREE access to their services. Especially since you are trying to imitate these websites.

As of this time I have seen nothing at FreeGreen.com that resembles the Facebook. I wish some one from the FreeGreen.com team shows up and leaves a link so I can be proven wrong.

My wife and I were always interested in “going green” and to reduce our footprint on the environment, so we will definitely keep and eye on this project. Hopefully FreeGreen.com will introduce us to a “green builder” or offer us some ideas. I do encourage visiting the website and see what they have to offer. Any one can join the website and you can look up “green builders” in your area or even plan and order blueprints of your “green home”. Hopefully you will find more builders that I did.

What Happened To Top 100 List?

UPDATE: The list of top 100 real estate blogs is back – click here to see it.
I am aware that there are few real estate bloggers out there that are wondering what happened to “top 100 list” I have been toying around with few months back.

If you are not following me on Twitter, you have most likely missed the news that the list is up and running once again- redesigned and updated. The Top 100 Real Estate Blogs now updates ratings on daily basis (or just about daily basis) while the “recent links” are update every hour.

If this is the firs ever time you hear about this list feel free to submit your blog. You blog has to be related to real estate in order to be added to the list.

There is also new addition to the website – a blog. The experience in putting the list together have taught me a few things and showed me certain traits that successful loggers have in common. I plan to share what I have learned there.

Poll: Who Is Your Choice? Obama or McCain?

[poll=5]Who is better for our economy? McCain camp responded rather quickly to the today’s financial news with their latest TV ad “Crisis”. The news about Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers no question will put the economy to the forefront of this election season.

McCain campaign has responded with the following ad to the news today. This ad is the featured ad on McCain YouTube Channel as of today.



On the other hand Obama’s Chanel Is featuring the following ad:


Who do you think is better fit to lead our country as it faces the economic crisis?

History Flasback: Autoweb.com, Inc – 2001

Internet indeed has a long memory. Some respectable bloggers are praising one of the undertakings of founder and CEO of Reply.com, Autoweb, as an example of incredible success.

Flash back… Year 2001. A lawsuit is filed on behalf of shareholders of Autoweb in connection to IPO (Initial Public Offering):

The complaint alleges that defendants Autoweb.com, Inc., Dean A. DeBiase, Farhang Zamani, Payam Zamani, Mark N. Diker, Jay C. Hoag, Mark R. Ross and Peter S. Sealey violated the federal securities laws by issuing and selling Autoweb.com common stock pursuant to the IPO without disclosing to investors that some of the underwriters in the offering, including the lead underwriters, had solicited and received excessive and undisclosed commissions from certain investors. – Source: AllBusiness.com

The above mentioned lawsuit also alleges that underwriters and their costumers were able to reap enormous profit by buying the stock at IPO of $14 and then selling it at inflated aftermarket prices. A profit with a twist if you wish:

Rather than allowing their customers to keep their profits from the IPO, the complaint alleges, the underwriters required their customers to “kick back” some of their profits in the form of secret commissions. These secret commission payments were sometimes calculated after the fact based on how much profit each investor had made from his or her IPO stock allocation. – Scourse: AllBusiness.com

So how did the law suit ended? Apparently the case is still in the courts: Autoweb.com, Inc. – Securities Class Action Suit.

What happened to Autoweb? It was acquired by Autobytel, Inc after Autoweb’s stock price had gone below $1.

Was Autoweb an unfortunate victim of the frenzy by the “class action suits” lawyers? Hard to tell.

The bottom line is that investors in Autoweb where likely to loose their money and have never recovered their loss.

ActiveRain: Why Every Real Estate Professional Should Join?

Over the past few months I have been slowly falling in love with ActiveRain. The first time I have ever came across this real estate network, I did not know what to make of it. I did not join ActiveRain right away because I did not feel there was a place for me. I had no interest renewing my real estate license and was under impression the network is reserved to real estate professionals exclusively. I am not sure why I had this perception, but after joining ActiveRain I quickly realized that this community is very open minded and most importantly not limited to real estate agents exclusively.

However in this article I would like to point out that real estate professionals can probably benefit the most from ActiveRain. And here are just few points why.

  • Blogging. Every member upon joining the community is given their own blog. If you were thinking to start blogging yet was not sure you were ready to invest resources and time into it, ActiveRain blogs is a place where you can try to “wet your feet” as far as blogging is concerned. While their blogs may not offer all the bells and whistles that you can normally get when hosting a blog on your own domain. It does offer the basics and can get you started.
  • Instant Audience. One of the best part about blogging on ActiveRain is that you have an instant audience for your blog. Even a newbie to ActiveRain like myself can often get 10+ comments on their initial posts. To me the most rewarding part of blogging is an audience that is engaged.
  • Networking. As I am writing this post there are 108,851 members on ActiveRain. My guess that majority of the members are real estate professionals or working in the field closely related to real estate. If you ask me that is an impressive number of members!
  • ActiveRain’s Popularity. Before joining any online community or forum, I am always trying to look at the “popularity factor”. The more popular certain website is, the better chance to gain some extra visitors to my own websites. According to statistics from Alexa and Compete (see the charts below) ActiveRain is outranking Inman by quite a margin:

    Click on the image below to see detailed statistics on Alexa:


    Click on the image below to see detailed statistics on Compete:
  • ActiveRain Referrals– a place to share and find referrals posted by other ActiveRain members. If you are on a “hunt” for leads, why not to browse referrals by other agents rater than spending money on lead generating schemes?

To conclude, I simply would like to repeat my earlier statement- I am slowly falling in love with ActiveRain. I am also confident you will appreciate ActiveRain as well. If you are already a member, visit my profile page and add me to your associates, I would love to connect with you on ActiveRain.