FRANK LL0SA- Northern Virginia Broker .:. FranklyRealty.com

The ugly site is now pretty! After 5,000,000 page views served and 40,000 Wiki added photos, FranklyMLS.com has done it again. A new round of 1sts for MLS Search engine features! And you might have been wondering what I was up to (besides law school and a new wife). PREVIOUS LIST OF FIRSTS:

1. First with Keyword search of remarks, subdivisions, zips, city, schools, agent name etc. (like Arlington bank owned)
2. First Wiki site. Over 1300 buyer agent reviews and photo albums. (details)
3. First with 4x larger mls photos. (example)
4. First to Scrub remarks for Short Sales adding a * (blog post)
5. First to Scrub remarks for Open Houses (since 50% of agents enter them wrong)
6. First with a cell phone mode (see video how-to, or see cell mode)
7. First to sort by Tax Assessment as % of List price. Bargains!
8. First Export the data to Excel* (*this might not be true)
9. First to show both Days on The Market DOMM & relisted DOMP (what's that?)
10. First with spreadsheet searching. (more data on 1 page)
11. First with password free email alerts. Video showing the latest features: Link to video

New round of FIRSTS:

1. First to incorporate Google Streetview & MS Virtual Earth Aerialview. Photoless listings come alive (see ex: 1, 2, 3)
2. First with Price history & Previously listed price history! (ex: 1, 2, 3) (so far not on all homes)
3. First with Open House history. See how often they have opens.
4. Now 80% faster! Fastest site out there.

Other new features:

1. New design. You voted for it, apprentice style.
2. Export the data to Excel
3. New Search syntax. Now you can search by

• Negatives. Remove areas or words you don't want. Like: McLean -22102
• Bedrooms. Want only 2 bedrooms? Use 2bdr or you can remove 1 bedrooms with -1bdr
• Home Type. Add to your search: detached, condo, townhouse
• Phrases. Search for "bring all offers"
• Partial words. Use the *. Like: PW* for all MLS #s that start with PW. or: Water* for Waterfront and Waterview.

So hope you enjoy the changes, hope you will offer some feedback. Coming up next... MLS sold data! Agent Update: Ask about the Free-IDX for your blogs and free-branding. Also it is now easier to become a top contributor on the WIki MLSs. Just review about 10 homes and get free visitors to your site.

Written by Frank Borges LL0SA
Broker FranklyRealty.com
Owner FranklyMLS.com twitter= franklyrealty

ps. Funny story, so my favorite post is my Frankly CRA post, so I decided to get the domain name www.franklycra.com , only to realize that it spels Frank Lycra. So don't think it is a site with me wearing Lycra!

So the stock market is crashing to the worst week ever (I think due to off books Enron style account, see 07 warning).

So how will that affect the housing market for luxury homes?

Don't care? Then don't read this.

I had a theory- albeit obvious - that those buying Virginia luxury homes over $1 Million in Arlington and the DC area would come to a halt since these buyers most likely "had" their money in stocks.

Who is going to unload their stocks down 25-45% to buy a house? With a 20-25% down payment (5%-10% down is much harder, if not impossible, now) that can make that $2 million property feel like $2.2M overnight, and without another wing on the home.

My data-pull results (not regurgitated data):

I pulled up homes in the DC area from $1 Million to $4 Million that went under contract (more reliable than solds) for a 4 day period and compared it to the one and two weeks before.

• 9/21/2008-9/24/2008 26 under contract
• 9/28/2008-10/1/2008 25 under contract
• 10/5/2008-10/8/2008 13 under contract

For homes from $800,000 to $1,000,000:

• 9/21/2008-9/24/2008 24 under contract
• 9/28/2008-10/1/2008 25 under contract
• 10/5/2008-10/8/2008 12 under contract

That doesn't look good, to say the least. Will this become a longer term trend in the higher end luxury market? Dunno.

What if you are high end buyer?

Know the stats, know that 50% of your competition just flew the coop. This allows you to be more aggressive. As for waiting, that is obviously your call, I don't believe in market timing. Heck it could get MUCH worse, or things might stabilize and the buyers might come back.

What if you are a high end seller?

Read above, but know that it isn't your agent slacking off. Also if you do get an offer... man, you have to have some serious cohones to try and get much better. Sure next week might look better, but you really never know.

If you have any specific questions about a marketplace or price bracket, let me know and I can run some specific numbers.

If you know somebody looking at high end homes, forward them this email and make sure they subscribe to Blog.FranklyRealty.com .

-Written by Frank Borges LL0SA Broker FranklyRealty.com

Image is a photo of a $3.3M property sold previously by FranklyRealty.com

Please report typoes

ActiveRain members, join the new Virginia Luxury Homes group.

First my thoughts on the $700,000,000,000 bail out... I told you so!

Read my blog post from 12-2007 entitled: SIV= Imagine Enron, Bank Wide. (I posted it on my more frequent, but less polished blog on ActiveRain) The #1 problem is OFF-BOOKS accounting! All of these sub-prime loans are hidden. Nobody knows how much exposure all the banks have.

Secondly, people have been emailing me asking what I've been up to and why I haven't posted more frequently. Well, as some of you might know I'm in night school at Washington College of Law at American University. (I should be reading right now actually)

Oh and I also got married!

Anyhow, don't fear. I'm still sharing my thoughts, but more so over at my WheelEstateCam on Youtube. I attached the camera to my steering wheel and I take you for a spin as I head over to class. The "Video Blog" was featured in Friday's Washington Times. Make sure you subscribe to Youtube.FranklyRealty.com

Here is a round up of my recent Video blogs:

• Lending Tree blows. How to Pick a Lender & today Close call closing.
• 4 Bank Tales: 22 Offers, Destoyed HVAC, Verbal counters, Bank Required lenders
• FranklyMLS.com 101 New E-mail Alerts. NO Passwords! How-To Video. This video is particularly cool. I have been constantly upgrading FranklyMLS.com. No MLS search site site comes close in terms of speed and massive amounts of data at your fingertips. Even other buyer agents use it!

• "Wheel" Estate Cam- Bank Foreclosure Bidding Wars (the first one!)

• Redfin- Debating their "Real Estate Science"
• Need to Sell before you can Buy? Some Options.
• And a little shout out to NVAR (Northern Virginia Association of Realtors) for their new Youtube channel to promote Realtor classes. Watch (the class is on Nov 12 2008)

So if you don't have a Youtube account, you can sign up for free and subscribe to my Youtube Channel and get emailed when I post something new.

Oh, and yes, I'm still doing real estate! (plug: in case you need a Realtor)

Written by: Frank Borges LL0SA Broker FranklyRealty.com

ps. Please send me any typos

Any agents out there frustrated because their clients got caught up in the "Lending Tree, When Banks Compete You Win?" Well, as many of you know, that is a crock. Great marketing slogan though!

"When Banks Compete, You LOSE!" Too many times these internet lenders screw my clients. They get suckered into these fake rates and promises, and they repeatedly drop the ball. Why?

1. FAKE RATES! The rates they quote are below cost, so they WIN, just to change the terms when it is too late to turn back.
2. NO ACCOUNTABILITY. If they screw you, what the hell do they care? What, YOU won't use them again? Big whoop. You are a number. If 60% close, they are fine with that.

The problem with many consumers is what alternative do they have? They can't trust the Realtor right? All of those damn ABAs Affiliated Business Arrangements (semi-illegal kickbacks).

Well all I can do is vow that I don't have a ABA, and I don't take kickbacks. And now, they have to watch this video...

By the way, I mentioned Lending Tree in this video BEFORE I found out that the client found his lender through... Lending Tree! Coincidence? I think not.

This video will be followed shortly with the ACTUAL pissed off customers anti-testimonial.

I know we can't REQUIRE our lender, but what can we do to make sure they don't walk into a nightmare? Charge them more if a problem comes up. Consider it "overtime?"

Have a client that wants to use some random bank, send them this link.

Frank
Broker FranklyRealty.com

I just found this too. Kinda dead on!

I am officially launching FranklyMLS.com, the World's First Wiki MLS!

Where BUYER AGENTS from multiple brokerages come together to ADD information and photo albums to listings they visit. MORE DATA & 1,000+ MORE PHOTOS!

THE "OLD 1.0 WAY" MLS: (see all 31 MLS search engines here)

1) One-Way Information. "Here are the homes for sale, as marketed by the listing agent. Take it, trust it, or leave it."

2) Photoless MLS Listings! They sell for $15,000 less but they are a pain for everyone. Oftentimes foreclosures or a listing by an underpaid or sucky agent.

3) Confusing Branding.Who is selling what? Each of the 60,000 MLS listings are plastered with one "Brought to you by" buyer agent from one brokerage. I tried to explain: "No, I am not listing 1,298 homes," but it isn't the consumer's fault, it is confusing! See my account on Homesdatabase.com/frankly a service that many agents pay $30 a month for. My annoying face on each listing.

4) Limited Data or Sign-In Required. All but a few sites have stopped the practice of requiring users to create an account and login in order to see listings. Also may sites will NOT show you all the data possible. Some even hide the addresses so you have to "call your local trusted Realtor!"

5) Slow, Fancy, & Feature Filled- Some of it might be useful, but it slows down the website. Their goal is to have such perfectly targeted results that it can take minutes to find something.

6) Small photos.As our computer resolutions get higher, the images get smaller. On my screen most MLS sites show 4 inch photos.

7) Computer based. No focus on cell-phone ready searching.

THE "NEW 2.0 WAY" MLS: FranklyMLS.com

1) Wiki it!

(Attn Buyer Agents, do you have a progressive office? Let me come and talk at your Tuesday meeting so that more Buyer Agents can get involved)

The World's First Wiki MLS. No, we can not CHANGE the listing itself (or the price!) as presented by the listing agent. What we do is ADD comments and photos to the listing and as a community flag and remove inappropriate comments. Every buyer agent with an ounce of techie-ness should be taking Buyer Agent Photo Albums. What is that? Well, the listing agent takes photos for their sellers to put the house in one light, but the buyer agent takes photos for their clients in a more realistic light. Including shots of how far it might be from a highway, or showing bathroom water damage or a roach infested place (scroll to bottom of those listing to see the comments).

The goal is to add information, and not opinions. No "this house stinks" or "this house is great," but instead factual information like "This house backs to Rt 66" or "This house is listed at 44.6% lower than the purchase price in 2006." Information not evident in the listing agent's presentation. I wish everyone was like Loudoun agents Tony and Danilo with their Blogback blogging for feedback where they list the pros and cons of their listings and ask buyer agents to leave comments. How can you find the reviewed homes? When you do a search on FranklyMLS.com, homes with a yellow highlighter, those have the comments, see an example search for 1021 Clarendon.

2) More Photos Than ALL other MLS sites.

So far, prelaunch, 10 buyer agents from 5 firms add photo albums with as many as 40 photos of 50 properties. With this, the database grows to thousands of extra photos. Consumers want PHOTOS,PHOTOS, PHOTOS and on our co-opetition website, several otherwise competing agents come together to give what the customer wants... MORE INFO and PHOTOS.

Sidenote: A year ago I bought a baseball glove from Amazon.com. It was photoless. After getting the glove, they asked if I would take a photo of it and post it on Amazon. That is what first gave me the idea for this Wiki MLS. (see post)

The site also has a point system. 1 point for comments, and 10 points for a photo album. For that, the contributor is listed underneath the listing instead of my mugshot on each listing (see above). They also get a front page link to their website. Why contact me as a buyer agent, if another agent has actually BEEN to the property, specializes in that area and has helped you get more information on it.

Buyer agents, here is a " how to add the photo albums."

3) No branding, advertising, or logins required. Other than the required link from the site owner (me) at the bottom of each page, there is no advertising or cheesy recommended buyer agent next to each listing. Only when a buyer agent contributes to a listing with comments or a photo album, do they get a link to their site. Also, you should already have a buyer's agent by the time you hit this site.

4) ALL MLS DATA(that is legally allowed to be shown) We show everything. Including BOTH the Days on the Market-M (MLS#) and Days on the Market- P (Property). Otherwise known as DOMM and DOMP We even show you the "within the industry 'you must be nuts'" listing agent's name and number. Only 1 other site does that. Don't worry agents, there is a disclaimer that says NOT to call the listing agent and why. So why have it? Well the consumer should ultimately decide.

What we can NOT legally show is: Realtor Remarks, Compensation amount (ask your agent if they take buyer agent bribes), Owner's phone number, showing instructions and lockbox codes.

5) Not Fancy, just FAST.Except for photos of houses, there is not one graphic, icon, logo on the site. No Geewhiz, just speed. With that comes fewer features, but how many features do you see on Google or Craigslist? Just give me info fast, even if it isn't 100% accurate (as in there might be a "madison manor" in both Arlington and Baltimore). FranklyMLS.com searches by keyword only. I know that looking at 400 homes can take a ton of time. The goal was to count each click and scroll in the home buying process and cut that time down by 80%.

1. "Sexy?" homes? Search the Realtor Public Remarks. Try it, search for "sexy." Only a 3 of the 33 local MLS sites will let you search the Realtor Public Remarks as part of an advanced search. Some information in these remarks can't be found in any drop down or checkbox search. For example: Lake Ridge Short Sales or Arlington Metro
2. Keyword search for ANYTHING.One box, search anything. Including, search by ZipCodes, subdivision name, school name (if the agent put it in), street name, street number, city, brokerage name, and even by agent name (nobody does that). It takes getting used to, but it works for Google and Craigslist, dso it works for FranklyMLS.com
3. Spreadsheet mode.Search like the Realtor's back end system. Text only results to quickly find what you need. Also the columns show you in a quick second the List price, Original Starting price, Tax assessment and DOMp/m. (See link above)
4. Photos only mode. Just a page full of 50 medium sized images. For the quick glance.
5. Photos and Details mode with image rollover. Most sites that have this mode have useless 1 inch images. We show in this mode the 4 inch images that other sites use for their "full size." Also you can use a rollover link to see all the other 2-30 images.

6) HUGE PHOTOS. Example. All the other sites use the 4 inch photos for each listing. Probably to leave room for mortgage calculators, frames, ads etc. We instead are the only ones that pull the high res 7 inch photos as the DEFAULT. Bigger is better.

7) Cell Phone Ready. Nobody offers this... for FREE.

With the former slogan, "So easy, a cellphone could use it," the site wasn't designed for the cellphone, but it is so simple that it still works great on most cell phones. I recommend the "photo mode." This is perfect for when you are in front of a house and want to get the details. I suggest using the house # and the zipcode.

******

Other interesting features:

• FACEBOOK integration.We all have been asking ourselves if a useful tool for Facebook will come up. Well now there is one. You can "save" each listing into your Facebook account with 1 click. Then your friends can comment on what you have selected, or you can share them easily with loved ones.
• Super Short URLS. http://franklymls.com/FA6683625.htmlfor easy copy and pasting. (soon we are dropping the .html) into an email for others to share. I'm obsessed with "easy."
• Super Short Search Strings: www.franklymls.com/default.aspx?m=R&h=ALL&s=1021+Garfield (soon this will be even shorter). You can also bookmark the search string to quickly see all listings for that search.
• Find Similar Results: If you see a "more" or a ">>" click it to find similar homes or to see ALL the listings that a particular agent has (great for comparing listing agents!).
• Links to similar Craigslist FSBOs, and to Zillow for previous sale data.
• Link to that property on Google maps. Click on the "map" link.

So that pretty much wraps it up. I hope you have enjoy the site. I would love to get some feedback from current users (see Feedback contest), local agents and others on how to improve the site.

- Written by Frank Borges LLosa-Broker/Owner FranklyRealty.com

p.s. Yes I bought WikiMLS.com and I started the Wiki MLS group on Active Rain in early Nov 2007.

p.s.s. Several comments (the ones with no last names) were added by Frank. Those comments were sent in via email.

Reviews of the Wiki MLS
• A Stroke of Genius! The Epitome of Real Estate 2.0 By Matthew Rathbun Real Estate Instructor and Consultant
• Broker launches 'Wiki MLS' site Inman News