Continued Housing Market Instability and Struggles in MLSes Highlight Key Insights From Technology-Focused San Francisco Event

ALAMEDA, CA–(EMWNews – August 6, 2008) – Inman News,

the leading source of independent real estate news, information, advice,

research, opinion and commentary, today announced its primary findings from

the 2008 Real Estate Connect conference, held July 23-25 in San Francisco.

In its 12th year, the Connect conference is the premier real estate

conference, focused on promoting change and technological innovation within

an industry that’s hit a rough patch in recent years.

More than 1,500 attendees were present to discuss new tools and learn about

industry trends. All sides of the current real estate spectrum were

explored, including foreclosures and international investment strategies.

Other areas of focus included best practices and examples around

search-engine optimization, online video, social media strategies and

blogging.

The following are the key insights identified by Inman News:

--  Housing market instability - Inflationary pressures coupled with

    financial system instabilities have hampered any short-term recovery hopes

    for the housing market. In the current state, would-be buyers can't get

    loans, a fact that's exacerbated by uncertain legislative outcomes.

--  MLS - MLS stakeholders struggle with their roles today. Debates over

    public-facing MLS sites and syndication of property listings data make MLS

    participants question where to put property listings online and how to

    retrieve and share data in an efficient way.

--  Marketing trends - Large companies have shifted to life-cycle

    marketing, engaging consumers throughout the entire homeownership process

    instead of stopping at the point of sale. For small companies, the focus is

    on better targeting, and how to find high-quality leads using tight

    marketing budgets.

--  International real estate - Fueled by a rapid growth in technology,

    real estate professionals are now able to attract overseas clients to

    location-specific housing investments. Because of the weak dollar and

    falling home prices, international investment will expand in the United

    States.

--  Social media - Real estate agents have embraced blogging and social

    sites as a way to disseminate local market information and win the trust of

    new clients, especially in niche markets. Widespread adoption, however, has

    lead to an inundated space where it's easier to be anonymous than

    effective.

    

The next Inman Connect event will be held Jan. 7-9 at the Marriott Marquis

Times Square in New York City. More details can be found at:

http://www.inman.com/events/real-estate-connect-nyc-2009.

About Inman News

Inman News is the leading source of

independent real estate news, information, advice, research, opinion and

commentary for industry professionals and consumers alike. Each month more

than half a million readers visit Inman.com to keep up to date on changes

in the real estate market. The site features breaking news and analysis,

video interviews with leading industry personalities, a network of the

Web’s top real estate blogs, a powerful online community and social

networking platform and much more. The company’s content is syndicated on

more than 150,000 web sites and in more than 200 newspapers, including The

Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago

Tribune, Yahoo!, The Wall Street Journal Online, and many more.