In my previous post I talked about our old site and how successful it’s been for us. Well today, I want to talk about our new site. We’re very excited about some of the major changes we’ve made.

Let me first say that this site is a complete do-over in many ways. The old code was getting stale and some of the design was getting outdated for what could be done today. We wanted to update the back end structure along with the front end to make it easier on everybody. Plus we added some new kick-butt features that we hope everyone will find useful.

Without further ado…here are the newest features that we’re excited about.

Agent Interviews: We’re proud to announce that we’ve created the newest way to find a Realtor online. We’ve built the ability for consumers to Interview as many Realtors as they like using our patent pending interview process. A consumer simply needs to choose the Realtors they want to “Interview”, ask their questions and wait for agents to respond via our website. They will then be able to hire the Realtor they want to use based on the responses and we will then connect the two parties. This service is 100% for free to all Realtors and all consumers.
***Agents are also able to use our website and Interview process to recruit their own exclusive agent interviews for free.

Agent Scoring & Rankings: Now every agent will have a score next to their photo. Their score is based on reviews left on their profile along with additional information about each agent including how much they’ve updated their profile, how many years they’ve been in business, how many homes they’ve sold and much more.

Free Agent Profile Enhancements: We have decided to no longer charge to enhance an agent profile. All agents are now able to update their profile with their photo, office logo, cities they work, homes sold, website, welcome letter, welcome video and Realtor designations.

Review Responses: We have also decided to no longer charge in order to respond to reviews. All agents are now able to respond to reviews for free. If they have an issue with a review that was left on their profile, they are now able to clarify the issue for everyone to see. This includes reviews that were previously posted on the old version of IncredibleAgents.com

Social Networking Links: Agents are able to link directly to other profiles on websites they participate in including Zillow, Trulia, Active Rain, LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace.

New Widgets: We’re providing agents with a few widgets for their websites and blogs to help them recruit more reviews to their profile and exclusive agent Interviews.

City Sponsorships: Agents are now able to be the exclusive sponsor of the cities they work. The agent’s sponsorship ad will be displayed across every page within the city, including other agent profiles. Each city will have one sponsor and is on a first come first served basis. The first 100 agents who sign up will receive a 50% discount for the cities they sponsor.

Overall, I hope it’s a smoother user experience than before. There was definitely some clunkiness to the old site that is hopefully ironed out with our newest version.

As you can tell this not a small update. These are huge changes for us and we are very excited about them. I’m sure there will be some bugs, so feel free to send us an email and let us know what you think.

PROBLEMS: We’re having a few database problems with the new launch. Hopefully they’ll be resolved soon.

It’s been rather interesting around Incredible Agent lately. Between getting ready for our giant booth at NAR, launching new features every week on our platform and trying to help our clients survive the current real estate market, we’ve been awfully busy.

One of the things we’ve been running into lately is defining the difference between our product and Point2, Superlative, Z57, Advanced Access, Homes.com, etc., etc. etc. For us it’s very simple, but we’re starting to realize the challenge ahead of us for defining the difference. Here’s my quick shot at it.

We’re creating a network of real estate brokers and agents to collaborate and create an open enterprise platform for themselves and their companies. The other companies products are simply real estate websites.

Example: MS DOS/Windows is a platform (Incredible Agent), Outlook is a product running on a platform (all the others).

Our philosophy is rooted in the fact that real estate 1.0 was all about competiting against one another and that real estate 2.0 will be rooted in collaboration.

There has been lots of talk lately about the direction of RE 2.0 and where it will take all of us. At Incredible Agent, we believe collaboration will be the name of the game. Collaborating together to build better products for brokerages and agents. Collaborating together to create a product better than Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, etc. After all, collaboration is what Active Rain, Facebook, Youtube, Trip Advisor, IncredibleAgents.com and all the other successful User Generated Content(UGC) sites out there are built on.

User generated content is an overused term with little clarity. Some seem to implement UGC just to show off that they’re a Web 2.0 company. Yawn! RE 2.0 has nothing to do with Questions and Answers. It has everything to do with collaboration. Collaborating to solve problems and find great solutions.

Incredible Agent is building a team of brokerages and agents who have come together to build a better solution for their companies, themselves and their clients.

We’re not building websites! We’re building a platform!

That’s why we don’t sell websites, we sell memberships.

Side Note: The term “Platform” is becoming a buzz word lately around the RE space. Remember, a platform is something that can grow as the users build onto it. A simple website with a few tools is not a platform.

Ok, this years Connect conference was awfully busy for us at Incredible Agent. There was plenty to do and lots of people to meet and catch up with.

As always, there are lots of take aways from Connect. Here are a few things we learned this year…
1. BS is marketing 1.0
2. User Generated Content(UGC) is marketing 2.0
3. Your online reputation will replace your resume.
4. Web 2.0 started on some island in the South Pacific in 1917. (Kula! Kula! Kula!)
5. Blogging is getting bigger. Much Bigger!
6. Being a Geek is cooler than it was in High School. (www.GeekEstateBlog.com)
7. There are lots of features being created and not many businesses.
8. Everyone is a competitor and some are friendlier than others.
9. Business is still about people and face to face introductions.
10. There are plenty of small ideas, but very few big ones.
11. Our industry is panicked with excitement.

Overall, it was a very good conference. Last year, there were some companies in the audience that were under the radar who showed up big at this conference. It makes me wonder which companies were under the radar this year and will be big next year. Hmmm??? We’ll have to wait and see.

It’s hard to believe, but yes, we’re giving away our real estate website to every Realtor and brokerage who wants to use it for free. It’s also open to anyone who wants to add new tools, create custom designs and do anything they need to make their website better. No longer are Realtors and brokerages stuck with using old technology from 1998 and limited to only their designs.
Find yourself saying…”You fools, why are you giving your websites away for free?” We’ll tell you…because we’re tired of looking at all the junk Realtor websites that lose leads, get no traffic, cost Realtors valuable marketing dollars and do nothing in the search engines. Yes, we’re talking about Point 2, Advanced Access, Superlative, Z57, Number1Expert and all the others. Those companies have been keeping Realtors behind technological bars for years and we are here to free them. The current web providers don’t understand Web 2.0 and probably never will. Realtors need to stay up with technology if they are going to stay in business in this fast changing environment.

Our websites are very different than the other real estate agent websites you’ve seen. We’ve integrated Google Maps, YouTube, a simple blogging platform, lead capture forms, some fancy AJAX, Home Feeds for listings syndication and much more. I encourage you to check out our demonstration website at http://demo.incredibleagent.com to get a feel for what these sites are truly capable of.

2.0 in 2 minutes:
You can say bye-bye to that stale old website and hello to your new one in a matter of minutes. It’s literally a 2 minute process to create your own website and begin editing it in “preview mode” before you launch. Simply go to http://www.incredibleagent.com/membership.php to sign up and begin using your new website. Once you’re ready to launch all you need to do is point your domain name servers over to ours and you’ll be live within 24 to 48 hours.

Here are a few screen shots for you..

Here are some photos from our Incredible blog fest that we threw last night with the Blog Tour USA guys from Sellsius Real Estate. We were joined by many bloggers and everyone enjoyed the margarita fountain, lots of beers (more than we expected) and lots of mini chimi’s. Blogging and drinking just seem to go together, so we’re looking forward to the bloggers connect party in SF in a couple of weeks. Hope to see everyone there.

Rudy, Tom & myself having a little fun

Tom, Monica & I hanging by the bus

Christoph Schweiger, John Dalton & David Smith talking up a storm.

Michelle Shelton and team member from the AZ Mastermind Group

A little crowd shot for you.

I dug into my closet the other day and found my trusty magic 8 ball from when I was in high school. I asked it a few potent questions about the future of the real estate industry over the next year and thought I would post the responses here. Feel free to weigh in on some of the questions or just want me to ask some new ones. I’m sure I’m missing a few great questions. By no means is this scientific…but the magic 8 ball is all powerful, so keep an eye out for some of the predictions.

Q: Will Zillow and Trulia be direct competitors fighting for advertising dollars?
A: Signs point to yes.

Q: Will Realtors find it more important to post their homes to their website than it will be to post it to the MLS?
A: Outlook Good

Q: Will the real estate lead industry change dramatically?
A: Reply Hazy, Try Again

Q: Do you think comments and ratings on home listings will become commonplace?
A: Ask again later

Q: Will Realtors lose potential clients if they do not have maps and cool web 2.0 tools on their website? (Being cool is hip)
A: It is certain

Q: Is the IDX going into the twilight years of it’s life?
A: You may rely on it

Q: Will there be massive consolidation in the Real Estate industry?
A: Outlook Good

Q: Will the beginning of a National MLS be released?
A: It is certain

Q: Do you think Video home tours will begin to replace the virtual tour?
A: Yes, Definitely

Q: Will Realtors spend more time on their computer than in their car?
A: Most Likely

Q: Will more Realtors start to recognize the importance of real estate agent reviews.
A: It is certain

Q: Will brokerages?
A: Outlook Good

Q: Do you think many Web 2.0 companies will fall just like the Web 1.0 companies did previously?
A: Concentrate and ask again (so, I did)
A2: Better not tell you now (Dang!)

Q: Will every Realtor at least know what a blog is?
A: Don’t count on it

Q: Will the real estate market bounce back?
A: Ask again later

For 100% of my real estate career I have loathed real estate websites. Simply put…They suck! That’s one of the reason’s I started Incredible Agent. I wanted to create good websites that stayed up to date with technology and didn’t look like they were built in 1997. This is a common complaint and I am 100% confident that I am not alone. I hear it all the time from agents, consumers, home buyers…whoever! It’s the first thing on their mind when I say I help agents market themselves on the Internet. Personally, I think the people in charge of the website providers should be taken out back and straightened out. You know who they are….Homes.com, Superlative, Z57, Number1Expert, AdvancedAccess, Etc.

Since starting Incredible Agent, we’ve been able to help a few agents with their website. Not nearly as many as we want, but we have a big announcement coming soon that will help every agent have a great looking and productive website. If you want to help in this endeavor…drop us a line. We’re looking for a few good people to spread the word.

What I love best about the whole web 2.0 revolution is that you can put a website out there and change it over time. That’s what we’ve done with our real estate agent review website IncredibleAgents.com. The only difference is that we left the whole “beta” tag off the logo. Here are some of the recent changes we’ve made to the site.

1. Free Accounts: Ability for agents to edit their account for free.
2. Simple Questionnaires: Simplified the questionnaire process and allow the agents to edit their questionnaire.
3. Video Introductions: Agents can now add a YouTube video introduction to their profile.
4. Dispute Reviews: Allowing agents to Dispute reviews they think are bogus.
5. Confirm Reviews: Attempting to confirm each review left on the site.
6. Highlighting Agents: Incredible and Preferred agents are now highlighted in every city on their profile.

Upcoming Changes: We are working on a few new tweaks to the site to make it more powerful for the agents and their offices. All in due time…all in due time.

As you probably already know, we have a real estate agent review website that gets a fair amount of traffic and a fair amount of reviews left by consumers (Incredible Real Estate Agents). This topic has stirred a lot of controversy and we are a part of it everyday. Many agents want to be taken off the site and don’t want to be reviewed at all. Many complain about the reviews that were left on their profile. Some actually threaten lawsuits and so far we have 1 death threat. Needless to say it’s a very hot topic.

At Incredible Agent we’re about helping agents become INCREDIBLE by using the power of the Internet to capture leads and ultimately sell more homes. One of the key components of this process is re-enforcing your marketing materials with “Third Party Credibility”. We don’t believe reviews are meant to be open complaint sessions for clients to critique their real estate agent. Sure, that can certainly be done, however we believe agents should be utilizing their positive client testimonials to gain even more clients. Agents can view this as a huge liability or they can view it as a huge asset. It’s up to them to decide how to use this.

I have an agent that I’ve been working with for years who hangs all his client testimonials up in his office. Every letter is framed and signed from the client. When working with relocation clients he literally mails them a booklet of the same testimonial letters that he has collected over the years he’s been in business. If you’re looking to nail down a potential clients committment, I assure you this is a great tactic.

Agents have used this same kind of tactic for years. We all know that one of the best ways to gain a client is to be referred by another client. That “Third Party Credibility” is very powerful in all types of sales. Word of mouth travels fast and we all need to embrace it to be successful. Just think how popular Myspace.com would have been if other people weren’t referred to it by their friends. It’s all about creating “Third Party Credibility” and that’s where Real Estate Agent reviews become highly useful.

The only difference between testimonials and reviews is that people can leave negative comments along side the positive comments. The fear of a few negative comments causes so many agents to freak out. The truth is that most comments are positive comments. Especially if the agents send their happy clients to their profile to leave a positive comment. There’s nothing wrong with pushing your clients to your profile for a few reviews.

Many agents understand this point, many don’t. However the agents who take advantage of and manage their online presence will be far ahead of the agents who don’t.

So my question to you is…”Are you for or against real estate agent reviews and why do you feel the way you do?” I’d love to hear some feedback on this issue as it is a daily topic around the Incredible Agent office.

BTW: Sorry for the delay in my posts. Just a little busy being Incredible elsewhere.

Over the past few days, we’ve been a little busy around here at Incredible Agent launching HomeHugg. We’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback about the site and thanks to many of our blogger friends, there has been several blogs written about HomeHugg. I wanted to put them all in one place, so here you go.

Sellsius Blog - Home Love at HomeHugg
Future of Real Estate Marketing - Digging For A New Home
RealtyThoughts - HomeHugg: Bookmarks for Real Estate
MLPodcast (Interview) -  Interview: Damon Pace - HomeHugg.Com
Inman - Social networking for homes
Jonathan Dalton - HomeHugg - Real Estate Hot or Not?
Matt Guyer - HomeHugg
Immobilie Portale - digg für Immobilien (German?)

I believe that’s about it. If anyone see’s anything else out there please let us know.