Archive for September, 2007
Database Consolidation: Nightmares Undressed
Want to know what keeps me terrorized at night?
Database management. I am in an urgent race against time–and my nightmare is one that haunts major corporations throughout the world– from retailers to brokerage firms to telecoms to the U.S. Government itself.
In our San Diego real estate practice, I have until December 30 to migrate several hundred clients and their specific and detailed property requests over to another improved database program that will continue to email the same meaningful information they are now receiving. You see, most of us are hobbling along with databases that are not compatible (because they are on different platforms with different vendors) and refuse to speak or communicate with each other. It is also next to impossible to migrate the detailed information from one vendor to another because of proprietary programming. The unpleasant alternative is to do it by hand. In our situation, we have accumulated client information from one source (that was started eight years ago), that is quite separate from real estate client information that has accumulated for the past five years on another vendor’s platform. The problem has now grown to nine distinct databases with detailed information that cannot be migrated from one to another because each database collects different types of volunteered information from web and blogsite visitors–and stores that data on proprietary systems.
Our goal is to condense this information onto a meaningful program that is retrievable and migratable from one system to another.
If our real estate practice operated at the big-time enterprise level, I would be calling ANTs Software today. ANTs now offers the solution for database consolidation, with their ANTs Compatibility Server (ACS). It is a plug-in which would allow Oracle databases to migrate IBM’s DB2, or for Sybase to migrate to Microsoft, or for Oracle to migrate to Sybase–or whatever combinations are possible therein.
Compatiblity between databases has become an enormous issue in computing of all sorts because just like me and on a much larger scale, governments and corporations usually have old legacy database programs that cannot be migrated to other systems without enormous effort and expense. That is why the ANTs Compatibiity Server is such whiz-bang technology. It is hoped that solutions such as what ACS has to offer the big guys, may eventually filter down to smaller users such as myself.
It’s only a dream, but how great would it be if ANTs’ database miracle–or something like it–could be installed on my computer before December 30? The clock is painfully ticking….
read comments (2)Luxury Home Digest Makes “Top 100 Real Estate Blogs”
It came as a total surprise when I received an email from International Listings that Luxury Home Digest had been tapped as one of the top 8 Home Buying blogs in the country.
WOW!
I join the other winners in this category in thanking the judges at International Listings for this special real estate honor:
Barbara Corcoran Ink: Barbara Corcoran, real estate entrepreneur, addresses real estate interests, concerns and questions. Her advice is mainly focused on home buyers and home owners.
For Sale By Locals (A New Real Estate Approach): A blog that is an offshoot of the œFor Sale by Locals Web site. Entries include business information, tips, and advice on how to work with online real estate services.
Home Buying and Selling Blog: About.coms Elizabeth Weintraub brings her home selling (and buying) experience to her blog. Wientraub is a real estate agent, but shes also lived all over the country from Maine to California and once even built a home in Mexico. She operates on the principle that œevery American deserves to own a home.
Hotpads: If youre in transition between homes, check out this site for information about available apartments, rental houses, sublets, and roommate opportunities. If youve got a place, theres someone out there who wants to rent it. This blog provides news, guides, tools, and promos for the site.
Luxury Home Digest: Roberta Murphy, editor for The Luxury Home Digest, is a real estate broker in the coastal San Diego market. However, her blog covers a wide range of topics related to fine living and real estate, including trends, markets, furnishings, tastes (including fine wines) and relevant gossip.
Real Estate Journal: This Wall Street Journal guide to real estate helps homebuyers arm themselves with the information they need to get the most for their money. Readers can browse entries on everything from mortgage rates and residential market trends to relocation and economic issues, home improvement ideas and advice on buying, selling and enjoying a home.
Trulia Blog: A Trulia employee blog where company happenings, real estate industry news, and other items are posted. The truly useful part in this site is the Trulia residential real estate search engine that helps consumers search for homes for sale, trends, neighborhood insights and other real estate information directly from hundreds of thousands of real estate broker Web sites.
Zillow Blog: Zillow helps consumers make smarter real estate decisions by providing them with access to the same information and tools agents use to value homes. Additionally, homeowners can take advantage of the Zestimate„¢ home valuation as a starting point for anyone to see - for free - for most homes in the U.S., discussions, and post homes for sale for free.
Most of all, though, I thank our readers and clients for all we learn from them!
Google to Gobble GoDaddy?
Rumors and gossip are are swirling around a possible Google and GoDaddy marriage.
It seems about two years ago, 
Google became accredited as a domain name registrar. Meanwhile, GoDaddy, the worlds largest domain registrar, has been busy filing patent applications for search, VOIP and other technologies that would make it an attractive buy to acquisition-hungry Google.
A few of GoDaddys recent patents would help propel one of Web 3.0s suggested features: Online reputation. Popular eweek says that GoDaddys search results could be filtered and sorted according to the œreputation score of a domain name or that domain name owners reputation.
That should be of interest and concern to all website owners or business bloggers and a relief to those seeking meaningful search results.
When asked about a buyout, GoDaddys CEO Bob Parsons is coy, saying hed like to comment, but couldnt. He also acknowledged to eweek that Google makes a lot of money from parked domains that serve as billboards for paid advertising links. Google, on the other hand, is more circumspect, but acknowledges that GoDaddy is not only a valued partner, but has features that blend nicely with Google Apps features that allow domain registrars to get their online business up and running right away.
On a final note, I have to smile and chuckle just a bit when I think about the now-noticeable percentage of my work week that is spent feeding the Google Monster. It was never an intention, but is something that crept into my life and has somehow became a daily utility.
New Real Estate Danger: Cancellation Fees
I believe we have a new issue to negotiate on behalf of our clients:
CANCELLATION FEES
A couple of weeks ago we had a buyer cancel a transaction within the timeframes agreed upon by the buyer and seller. Notice of cancellation was sent out shortly after the physical inspection on the $400,000 downtown San Diego condo.
It should have been a simple matter, but that was not to be the case.
The Prudential listing agent had stipulated that Prudential California-owned Pickford Escrow handle the transaction. All proceeded smoothly until the point of cancellation, when Pickford assessed a $1115 cancellation fee against the buyer, and refused to back down from that claim, despite our requests to do so.
Never in our real estate experience had we encountered an escrow cancellation fee of this enormity, and I cannot recall any escrow cancellation fee that had been assessed against any of our transactions in the last few years.
In the rare cases when we have had an escrow that cancelled, the escrow and title companies bore their losses along with the agents involved in the transaction. Even though œreasonable cancellation fees are generally allowed for in the escrow instructions, it is something that is rarely levied against the real estate client.
Curious as to whether this is to become a revenue-generating trend of some sort in a sagging real estate economy, I called the Pickford Escrow manager involved in this transaction and asked if cancellation fees were part of a new policy. He said it wasnt a policy, but was something that was allowed for in the escrow instructions and could be charged on a discretionary basis.
Hmmm..
I called Steve Torneo, San Diego attorney for First American Title and Escrow, and asked what First Americans stance would be regarding escrow cancellation fees. He, too, said it was a discretionary call, but that they would not levy that fee against a cancelling client who felt it was unfair in any way or who felt that First American had failed to earn what was charged.
He also agreed that $1115 seemed excessive.
A call to Alonzo Castro, a Carlsbad service rep with First American Title, further confirmed the rarity of cancellation fees and he could not recall First American assessing them against any clients.
To round out this informal survey, I asked senior escrow officer Deanna Lynch with Southland Title Escrow in Carlsbad, CA what their policy was regarding escrow cancellation fees. She said, œWe just dont charge cancellation fees.
A final call to Gena Riede, a seasoned Sacramento real estate broker, confirmed that she had not seen any fees assessed against any of her cancelled escrows either. I mentioned that an authorization for this fee appears in the small print of escrow instructions, and that in the future we will be inserting language in our offers that prohibits the assessment of escrow cancellation fees against any of our clients.
Gena will be doing the same.
It is the least we can do to help protect our clients.
