Posted by Vikki Neil | July 20, 2008
This past week, we reached a big milestone by hitting 3 million listings on FrontDoor! It’s an exciting time for our team, because we’ve reached this goal in about 6 months, way ahead of our goal.
No rest for the weary though, we’re pushing towards 4 million now and focused on delivering the best consumer website possible for real estate. Listings are starting to become ubiquitous, so I believe those websites that create something beyond just a listings search will be here to stay.
We’ll create that compelling experience in many ways, but video and written content that helps consumers learn from expert advice on real estate decisions is one of our first commitments.
Check out one of my favorite content packages: Savvy Woman’s Guide to Buying a Home
Posted by Rich Lacy | July 16, 2008
Tags: blog, FrontDoor, launch, welcome
Planning for the launch of FrontDoor’s official blog has been a curious process. Since the days before our beta site went live last November, the FrontDoor team has been ruminating on how best to make a unique mark in the real estate blogosphere.
Certainly, others have already blazed the “official blog” trail, and there is no shortage of inspiration as to the kind of content we knew we’d be “expected” to have.
But there was the rub… that one little word: “expected.”
As the offspring of a major lifestyle media company, we’re used to blazing trails and looking at the world through all kinds of different lenses. So, it makes sense that we’d approach our blog in the same way.
We’re not saying we’re going to redefine the whole real estate blog genre. From time-to-time, we’ll use our blog (as others do) as a forum to let the world know about the new and cool stuff we’re cooking up at FrontDoor HQ.
But, we’ll also step outside our own walls and toss out some of our observations and questions of/about the entire real estate universe.In fact, we’re going even further and inviting some of the web’s savviest real estate bloggers to our party to create even more lively debate and discussion. (You know that dude at the party that simply MUST be the center of attention at all times? FrontDoor is so NOT that guy.)
At FrontDoor, we want users to feel like they’re going househunting with a really smart, “in-the-know” friend. And, here on the blog, we hope you’ll feel like you’re hanging out with some really smart people who love real estate… people who care about making their corner of the blogosphere a smart, creative and engaging place to spend a few minutes each day.
So, we invite you to come inside and take a look around. Sit and read for a spell. Drop by anytime.
The FrontDoor’s open, and there’s no need to knock.
Posted by Vikki Neil | July 15, 2008
People always ask me what drove HGTV into the real estate space? Well, it was a pretty simple leap for those of us on the inside.
Since launching HGTV in 1994, Scripps Networks Interactive has become the dominant media and marketing company in the home, food and lifestyle categories. Many of those highly rated shows that led to the success of HGTV were based on home design and real estate entertainment, such as House Hunters and Design on a Dime.
As HGTV started branching out and creating more shows that were in the focused lens of real estate buying and selling, the ratings were staying strong or increasing. We knew the real estate category had connected to consumers in terms of television. Why couldn’t that extend itself to an online product?
I think a lot of people in the industry were surprised to learn we were developing this product ourselves. How can a television company compete in an online space?
A little known fact: we have over 300 people in our company focused on building, designing, selling and programming our online properties. And while we’ve never dealt with real estate search before, we do own The Food Network. And while I’ll be the first to admit that real estate is way more complicated, you’d be shocked to discover just how many similarities there are between chicken recipes and home listings.
We considered partnering with established real estate portals, but the more we evaluated potential partners, the more we realized that something was missing. All the offerings were/are were very intensely data-focused. Don’t get me wrong, I love data almost as much as an analyst, but it’s only part of the picture.
A home is the biggest investment most people will ever make, but it’s not an investment that is made solely with a calculator. Emotions tend to run high when you’re buying, selling or moving, because ideally it’s not just about finding a “house,” it’s about finding a “home.”
Recently, a well-known broker in the Northeast told me that it’s the kitchen or the neighborhood that make 99% of the buyers take the plunge. Buyers hope for a deal along the way, but a “deal” is almost always secondary. I tend to agree.
For the FrontDoor team, we’re focused on creating and sculpting the real estate search experience into something holistically different. For the last six months, we’ve been dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s. But now, we’re headed towards some really cool stuff that we can’t wait to share.So, stay tuned and keep enjoying the hunt….
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