I saw Blockfeed this morning, a hyper local news app in NYC. See Fred Wilson’s Been There Done That post — aggregating hyper local news has been tried (Outside.in & Everyblock among others), but that doesn’t mean Blockfeed’s latest attempt will fail.

We all know everyone cares (to some degree) about what is going on in their hyper local neighborhood. That’s precisely why we’ve seen multiple attempts at aggregating local news over the years.

The technology isn’t rocket science. The challenge, is like most things, a matter of (lack of) incentives. You know what all these past attempts at hyper local were missing? 1 million Realtors around the country residing in every city in the United States. That just so happens to be the one thing the National Association of Realtors does have.

Everyone is, at some point, a renter or buyer. Reach home owners with hyper local news. Upsell them (aka monetize) with homes for sale and rentals (with the help of a Realtor).

Would the strategy work? I have no clue, but I would give the strategy better odds than competing head on with the portals as a non profit entity.

And yes, going after the hyper local opportunity would be playing the long game.