Friday Flash: A home is not an egg roll, iPad goodness and the cost of paranoia

It was a quiet week. Or maybe I just had my head down. In any case, I do know there are some big deals about to break, so we have that to look forward to!

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I have thought for a long-time (a “long time” being, these days, something like six months) that group buying, while insanely successful, would sooner or later fry the neurons in our brains that respond to time pressure and price discounting and just go away.

Well, Inman brings us the news that Dream Town Realty out of Chicago is the first real estate company to offer a Groupon – $1,000 cash back at closing for $25.

Yes, I am sure a bunch of people will buy this. And Dream Town’s phones will ring. But before you jump on the bandwagon and go for the easy hit, remember for a moment that you are selling homes. Not egg rolls. Not manicures.

Call me a sour-puss, but if you want to be considered a professional, if you want to regain the confidence of consumers still feeling stung from the last time the real estate industry lost its head, then please, please, think hard before you do this.

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HomeAdvisor.com is for sale. There’s so much to think and say about that. So I’ll leave it at this: I am getting old.

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I came across Loquize this week, a new company taking the Q&A craze local. It’s worth signing up for the beta. We’re going to see more of this – organization of hyperlocal knowledge in ways that are more conversational than reviews and more focused than large-bore social platforms.

The Realtor has a place here.

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Bing released an iPad app. I’d suggest downloading it. It’s loaded with ideas for making search more interesting and visual, something we could use more of in real estate.

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“How design thinking can help prevent another mortgage bubble.” Worth a read. Think about how this sort of thing might play out in your digital marketing. Design is much more than pretty pictures – it’s an expression of empathy for your customer.

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The 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals held that Realcomp, a large Michigan MLS, restrained competition by limiting distribution of listings entered into their system by flat-rate shops.

Whichever side you take here, it seems clear to me that immediate cost of defensive tactics like those taken by Realcomp is almost always higher than the level of real threat posed by “alternative” market participants merits.

Can we just leave this stuff alone now?

Enjoy the weekend!