Adult classifieds from Realtor.com?

You all know Realtor.com, the first listing megasite? It has been a little eclipsed by Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, etc. but it's still a place that serious buyers go to search for properties and contact listing agents.  I just got this contact:

To: Judy Graff

From: laproductionss@aol.com

First Name: robin

Last Name: y

Subject: Lead from a REALTOR.com website consumer about your other listings

Message:

Just saw your pic. You are beautiful.

I'm an investor looking for a beautiful agent to work with and have fun on the 

side.

Interested?

Um, no, Robin Y and you need to get your eyes checked.  Or I need to get a more recent picture.  Realtors out there, feel free to contact Robin if you're interested, but don't forget to give me a referral fee!

Why you trust the internet for homes for sale info

I entered a listing -- the new one below at 2101 N. Rose in Burbank -- into the Combined Los Angeles Westside multiple listing service this a.m.  It is supposed to go to the other area multiple listing services right away (there are about three in So. Cal. and different Realtors use different ones for various reasons).

Four hours later, the listing is still not coming up on the other mls's.  But it's on Redfin!  And probably Zillow, Trulia, etc.  No wonder clients want to search for properties themselves -- they're getting info faster from the internet than from the Realtor community. (Yes, I've called the other two mls's to let them know.)

Redfin sets the blogosphere on fire, along with lots of agents

Late last week, Redfin announced an important addition to their site -- an agent scouting report.  Now, you'll be able to look up just about any agent anywhere in the country and see their statistics -- average sales price, number of buyer and seller transactions, map where those transactions occurred, etc. 

The r.e. blogosphere has gone crazy over this. I'm a Redfin Partner agent myself, and I often look at the Redfin site to get property info that I can't get on the mls (yes!).  I don't think this will be useful for many, many reasons.  My main area of concern is this: real estate is not baseball, and statistics don't really tell potential customers much.  Stats simply measure number of properties bought and sold, and as we all know, a real estate transaction isn't necessarily a unit that can be measured.

We'll see how this plays out in the coming weeks.

I've joined a new real estate company!

Yesterday, I ended my eight-year long association with Dilbeck Realtors and joined Aaroe + Williamson, a division of John Aaroe Group.  My new office will be in Sherman Oaks, but I'll still be covering Burbank homes for sale, Studio City real estate, Toluca Lake, Toluca Terrace, Glendale, Hollywood Hills, North Hollywood, Valley Village, Valley Glen and Sherman Oaks real estate.  And of course, as needed, Pasadena, Eagle Rock, the West San Fernando Valley, Silverlake, downtown L.A., etc., etc.  I cover the waterfront for my clients.

It was difficult to leave Dilbeck Realtors.  I've been in that office for 8 years (10 if you count when it was Coldwell Banker) and the people there are like family to me.  I know that's cliche to say, but it's true.  I have been very comfortable there.  Too comfortable.  I am ready for new real estate challenges, a new outlook, and new clients, and the John Aaroe Group fits the bill. (Call me or email me offline if you want more details.) I'm thrilled to be with r.e. geniuses John Aaroe's and Michael Williamson's relatively new real estate company.

For those of you that are curious, yes, I investigated other brokerages (again, email me offline...), including Redfin. I think Redfin may indeed be the wave of the real estate future, but I was not ready to jettison my own online presence -- and that includes blogging for you, dear reader.  But I hope to become a "partner" agent for Redfin once my feet are on the ground at JAG.

I don't have a new phone number yet, but if you would like to contact me, please call me on my cell, email me or answer here.  And please wish me luck!

New, noteworthy site

So much for privacy. I just discovered Blockshopper.com, courtesy of LALand. Yes, you can now easily search by block and learn what your neighbors paid for their homes. It appears that the site sources the L.A. County tax assessor's data, although some data for certain properties is missing -- like what we originally paid for our house, for some reason. It's a cool site, though, and fills in some Redfin/Zillow gaps.

Search the MLS BY MAP from my site

I've just added a map search feature to my real estate site at http://www.judygraff.com/. This offers many of the same features as mega-sites Trulia, Property Shark, Redfin and Zillow. To access:

• Visit the home page of my site at http://www.judygraff.com/. Click on the "select page" box at the top right-hand corner for a drop-down menu.


• Scroll down to MLS Map Search and click. You'll be taken to a new page.


• Click on the link and have fun searching.

Of course, you can still conduct a standard property search from my site, as well. Just click on the "mls search" button at the left on the home page.