patrick.net

Why are the property pictures a freaking Ajax call? This is what I hate about design patterns, they get in the damn way. People don't know when, why or where to use them, but they think they know "HOW" to use them.

What's wrong with a page that retrieves the blob from the db, converts it back to an image and passes it as an image. You just create an image tag, and point it to the page that gets the image from the db, with a parameter so it knows which picture to fetch. There's no less over head on the client than just fetching the picture from a directory on the web server. 50 ajax calls each fetching a picture in the background on the Clients dime, is just silly.

Ajax is not for this kind of work, never use Ajax for anything that fires on page load. Ajax is for Post or Get calls with out posting the page your on, after it has loaded.

The GOP says

What's wrong with a page that retrieves the blob from the db, converts it back to an image and passes it as an image

Jeez, why even bother with a blob from the db? Just put the path to an image in the db.

Say, how can I use Zillow's weakness here to compete with them?

Copy the simple design they abandoned.

The GOP says

What's wrong with a page that retrieves the blob from the db, converts it back to an image and passes it as an image

Jeez, why even bother with a blob from the db? Just put the path to an image in the db.

Say, how can I use Zillow's weakness here to compete with them?

Patrick - you could look to compete with the Zillow's of the world, but what the world really needs is a new paradigm for buying and selling homes. The really old paradigm involved MLS and Realtor monopoly. The now old paradigm is MLS online, Ebay, craigslist, redfin.

The new paradigm is somewhere in between (leveraging the strengths of these different approaches), as they are extreme solutions with major cons. MLS cons are the obvious high cost, monopolized environment; for craigslist, it is the lack of features (it is a selling place for everything, thus does not excel at selling anything) and lack of control (a realtor can post the same property 20 times, cluttering everything); Redfin is pretty close from a features/usability perspective, but it is still tied to MLS.

So imagine Redfin capabilities/eye candy meets Craigslist cost, but with a slightly higher price than Craigslist (i.e $0), of course (think $5-10 range to post a home). You already have the technical knowledge on how to do this (if I did I would try this myself), and the user base, and the interest/passion in the field...imagine if you could be the craigslist/ebay (i.e. household name) of home buying & selling...heck if this worked out you could bring down the whole Realtor monopoly - you could even come up with a new breed of buyer's/seller's agents, based on reviews within the site's ecosystem (think Yelp) - you could display interesting stats such as star reviews by former customers, agent's performance (time to sell, how close to asking price it sold for...), even have agents bid for their services on a hourly or % basis (could have a process for agents to bid on a property Ebay style, so that seller gets the lowest % rate), integrate services (also with reviews) for appraisers, lawyers, plumbers...even Legalzoom it for the DIY's.

I am admittedly rambling, and describing a non trivial technical challenge (i.e. may need to setup a startup w/ multiple people working on this), but the point is that the internet could make home buying/selling SO much better than it is today, and nobody seems to have done this...I am fairly certain that you know this already, and that you are thinking about the competition with Trulia since you already offer a similar service as they do (although I think they offer for free something that you want to charge for, so there may be a small problem there, unless your offering is that much better), but I have thought about this for a while and thought I would throw it out there...

Dsdf4 says

So imagine Redfin capabilities/eye candy meets Craigslist cost, but with a slightly higher price than Craigslist (i.e $0), of course (think $5-10 range to post a home).

Hmmm, OK, let's say it costs $7 to list a house for sale on Patrick.net.

What do they get for that? A dedicated page where they can enter property details and photos would be easy.

But they may not like it when I refuse to reset the Days on Market or play the other usual dirty tricks on buyers. And they may hate it if I allow uncensored commentary on their property.

How can I remain honest and yet attract seller listings?

That's easy, don't be a clearing house for distressed properties.
Zillows biggest customers are obviously the bank and realtors.
They are the ones interested in sugar coating the turd.

Honest sellers, with a honest assets, doesn't have to play the MLS game.
Provided, they have the location, and the price, the house will sell eventually. When I was looking for a house, days on the market didn't mean Jack Squat to me. I viewed that as a commentary on our lending system, more than it raised a red flag for the property. Every house I inquired on early on, ended up being in contract. But by the months end they were always back on the market. That was almost always due to funding falling through, than inspection snafus.

Dsdf4 says

So imagine Redfin capabilities/eye candy meets Craigslist cost, but with a slightly higher price than Craigslist (i.e $0), of course (think $5-10 range to post a home).

Hmmm, OK, let's say it costs $7 to list a house for sale on Patrick.net.

What do they get for that? A dedicated page where they can enter property details and photos would be easy.

But they may not like it when I refuse to reset the Days on Market or play the other usual dirty tricks on buyers. And they may hate it if I allow uncensored commentary on their property.

How can I remain honest and yet attract seller listings?

Well, what does anyone get when you list something on Craigslist, Ebay, MLS...exposure to the market/advertising. People may not like it when many of the bad things that can happen in all these other mediums take place, but do it anyways because it is worth it overall (e.g. meeting a weirdo via craigslist, getting ripped off on Ebay, getting ripped off by the realtors on the MLS...) the point is not to build a perfect system (impossible), but a better system/platform, completely focused/customized for real estate (unlike craigslist, ebay, etc...), and more fair and transparent & cost effective than MLS/Redfin. I would pay to post on it, and would go to it to search for places to buy, as long as it improved on current paradigms.