I tell you what, I’m lovin the new direction Coldwell Banker is taking with their web presence. Did I tell you this is the company that I work for?

Holy smokes, this new site, beta.coldwellbanker.com, is freakin awesome. It figures out where you’re located through your IP address, let’s you rate pictures of homes by giving it a thumbs up or thumbs down, and it makes suggestions based on your actions.

It’s like Itunes for home searches. I use Itunes all the time because they make it so easy to find stuff you like even though they charge a little more and do something to their files so you can’t burn MP3 cd’s.

Home buyers now have something like that for real estate thanks to CB.

Just like Itunes, the more stuff rate the better the suggestions. A lot of home sellers think that buyers for their home come will be from out of town but there’s a heck of a lot of buyers that come from nearby so I love how this new Bluescape search figures out where you’re at. I’m a tech junkie and gotta admit this thing is sick!

Coldwell Banker is also the first and only real estate company to syndicate listings. There’s over 300 sites that listings are syndicated to including zillow, trulia, nytimes, wsj, and a whole slew of others.

Here’s the entire list Coldwell Banker Listing Syndication List

In today’s world, most buyers will focus on the internet for their home search and this site is gonna be the shiznit once they work out a few little bugs. It’s still a beta site and under progress at the moment.

Here’s a few links if it’s something that interest you:

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:QdioCn2tg00J:sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/bmseries/news/story%3Fpage%3DTourn_TTBS_2009_Championship_Day_3+chang-ing+conditions&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/bmseries/news/story?page=Tourn_TTBS_2009_Championship_Day_4

It sounds like Google is saying game on with the announcement of their latest enhancements to http://maps.google.com/real estate. They’ve added a bunch of improvements to their real estate search and listings will now be included in their default map views. You had to specify real estate before, but now you it’s there every time you look at Google maps.

They also give a better view of the distribution of properties by adding markers that show the 10 most relevant listings and a small circle that allows you to get more detailed info on the property.

Google’s been collecting real estate data through Google Base for years and now they’ve got the data to make a strong push into real estate searches on the internet. I know this because the company I work for, Coldwell Banker, has been feeding data to them for years.

I gotta admit, I use Google to find nearly everything. I like the fact that Google’s getting into the game simply because of the fact that you can also use Google Street View alongside the search results. Now you can take a virtual stroll through the neighborhood after you find a house that you like.

Google makes finding things easy and now they’re focused on making real estate searches easy with http://maps.google.com/help/maps/realestate/ which is a map based search. Many of the major real estate portals make use Google maps anyway, so it’s natural that they make a few tweaks to make real estate searches easier. Many of the major brokers have been feeding listings into the Google database for years including Coldwell Banker and now they’re using it for their portal.

Once you find a listing, you can check out the Google Street View which is basically a virtual tour of just about any street out there, find local restaurants, businesses, and schools, as well as get directions all in one place. They’ve even provided a filter for foreclosures.

They seem be getting into everything and time will tell if they take over real estate searches on the internet.

Thanks to the adoption of the internet by the real estate industry, the days of having to drive countless hours is a thing of the past. Nowadays, you can refine the areas and homes you’d like to look at on the internet before hopping in the car making the process a heck of a lot more efficient.

This means if you don’t have web appeal, buyers won’t take the time to drive by your home. The curb appeal you’ve worked so hard on in preparation to sell your home doesn’t do any good unless it also looks good on the internet.

So how does one go about creating web appeal?

First and foremost, get a great picture of the front of your home. It’s the only exposure to home buyers most home buyers get. If buyers don’t like first photo, then they just move on to next gazillion properties that are also on the market.

You’ll also need lots of photos. The chances of a buyer coming to see a home will increase greatly with more photos. Just make sure they’re good photographs. I mean at the very least, make sure the photos are straight, correct the white balance, and watch out for those really bright windows.

Buyers also want a great description to go along with the photos.

I’ve had tons of buyers asking for an appointment excited because of the way a home looked on the internet. Home sellers have a way better chance of getting buyer’s interests on the internet than a traditional real estate sign or stunning curb appeal.

Posting property information on social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as local blogs are great ways to stand out from the crowd.

If you don’t have web appeal, a large percentage of potential home buyers will not see your home. Make sure you pay close attention to your home’s web appeal. It’s more important than curb appeal in today’s marketplace.

Coldwell Banker just developed a new home search app for the Microsoft Surface which is not available yet, but hopefully there’s a release in the near future. This technology is right around the corner and you’ll be able to harness the power of your PC on everyday appliances like coffee tables, refrigerators, etc.

Being a gadget geek, I think it’s pretty cool that the company I work for already has an app for this new technology. I can’t wait to try it out when it becomes available.

I noticed this short film on Future of Real Estate Marketing about a man who builds an idyllic virtual world for the woman he loves. It’s reported that it took film maker Bruce Branit over two years to create all the visual effect for this piece. Like any great work of art, the film conjures up some beautiful emotions.

I can imagine something like this as the progression of virtual tours in the coming years as Joel Burslem from Future of Real Estate Marketing pointed out.

The world’s leading real estate company, Coldwell Banker, has already created a virtual world called Second Life. Much of virtual world fantasies center around the buying or selling of virtual land and it’s no wonder Coldwell Banker is making a push into this world. After all, Coldwell Banker aims to stay in the forefront of innovative ways to buy and sell homes.

Other major companies are making a push into this virtual world… HSBC has a bank and Toyota has a dealership in Second Life. Below you’ll find the Coldwell Banker headquarters in this world complete with Porches and Beamers parked outside, a luxury yacht in the marina, a Coldwell Banker branded helicopter, and of course coffee and donuts available in the waiting room.

I tell you what, there’s lots of times I want to create a better world.

Check out this link to be transported to the Coldwell Banker headquarters in Second Life: TRANSPORT BUTTON

Instead displaying search results with links, it shows snapshots of web pages with your search terms highlighted on the page. Browsing through the results is a lot like going through your music on Itunes.

Of course, the SW Orlando Real Estate Scoop already comes up on the search results. Actually, I was surprised that it came up but I’ll take it.

You can also share your search results, preview videos quickly, and I’m sure there’s a few other neat tricks I haven’t come across yet.

Searchme is a refreshing way to do searches online. It would be great if we could browse homes this way in the future. I say it’s definitely worth a try.

You can virtually walk through any street with this feature and you can avoid a lot of sweating in the current steam bath temperatures we’ve been having lately as well as save gas which can be a pricey proposition these days.

It’s a wonderful tool for home buyers. Say you found a house that looks perfect on a website, but you’re not sure about what the other homes in the area looks like. You just type in the address on Google Maps and you use Street Maps to virtually walk down the street to check out the entire neighborhood if you want. Holy smokes that’s cool.

I’ve been wondering when they were going to include our area and I guess they finally got around to it.

Google Maps Street View

Click here to view the embedded video.