The Facebook Answer to Going Local: HomeElephant
I recently came across a new website, Home Elephant, and wanted to spend some time explaining how it fits into the online landscape for a real estate agent. This new social media site is the Facebook for Residential Homes and Communities. It is a place for residents of local communities to interact and hang out together.
After a look around I decided to register for an account. Registration is completed via your Facebook account. Initially this caused me concern as it was not a seamless process. My thoughts are, what if I do not have a Facebook account( is this possible!) ? But then of course if you do not have a Facebook account you probably do not hang out online anyway.
After registration a homeowner can either:
- Join His Local Community
- Or create a New Community
The benefits of joining Home Elephant from a consumers viewpoint are:
- Get to know your neighbor
- Create an online community watch
- Keep updated on community activities via a Community Bulletin Board
- Comment on local events and happenings
Application for Realtors Include:
- Online visibility in your local community
- Contact Information for Residents in your farm area.
- Promote Open Houses on the events board
- Advertise Your Listings
- Create a Sounding Board: Present your ideas, concepts and market updates to your neighbors.
- Easy way to become involved with your local community area from the comfort of your home.
- Demonstrate your abilities to market online to potential sellers.
The concept of this site is easy to understand: this site offers social media for local communities. The clean look of the home page is appealing and the website is easy to navigate. I have searched Facebook today and it appears they are working on an application for a Fanpage. I suggest Home Elephant, used correctly, is a great tool in establishing yourself as “The Realtor” in your local community.
Sam DeBord, SeattleHome.com
Posted at 01:49h, 05 AprilI like the concept of helping people set up block watches, and at least knowing some of their neighbors’ names (we stay indoors a lot in the Seattle rain). The overall business model seems good.
Dislikes: The name. The facebook login. I’m required to link it to my FB account and it can post to my Wall. I don’t even know it works yet, and I’ve already given up the controls of my public profile to a company called HomeElephant? I’m not signing up until they allow another login.
Chandler Powell
Posted at 12:47h, 05 AprilSam, thanks for the input. I developed Home Elephant after my wife was assaulted by a drunk while out walking the dog-this happened when I was out of town on business. Thankfully, the situation turned out ok, but sitting in the Hotel room 1,000 miles away, feeling helpless and furious, I typed out an email to my neighbors to warn them, to realize that I only had 3 of their email addresses. Coding for Home Elephant began that night.
Anyway, your points are great! During our initial beta tests, we let people sign up via email and Facebook- those that signed up via email would put a fake name in, which kills any transparency- nobody wants to read or share an alert with “Jane Doe”. To bolster transparent communication, we decided to switch to Facebook only.
Your points on control are absolutely valid. The reason that we need permission for wall posts is that, in the case where a user wants to create a neighborhood alert and share it with their Facebook friends, they can opt to allow Home Elephant to post the alert to their wall.
Let me say this clearly, I despise spammers and people that exploit privacy for profit. Home Elephant will NEVER abuse nor violate a user’s privacy. If the Facebook permissions are a turn off for you (which I completely understand), I’ll figure out a way to change this.
Thanks again for your input Sam. If you have any other ideas or suggestions, feel free to email me- [email protected] Assuming that I can find another case of Red Bull, the iPhone app should be released this week!
Sam DeBord, SeattleHome.com
Posted at 14:31h, 05 AprilIs there a way to register through FB without initially having to grant Wall access? If a user wants to grant that later they can, but you can get verified logins without forcing all users in to a “push” notification type of account. This is above my expertise, so I don’t know if it’s possible. You could also allow OpenID logins, you’d still get verified users from Google, Yahoo, WordPress, etc. Sorry, it’s more work.
I had planned on setting up a neighborhood right away, and still may–its nice to get confirmation that there’s a real person behind the company. I’ll keep an eye on it.
Mdtscoates
Posted at 13:30h, 05 AprilI may have to look into this. I’m a realtor and live in the Clemente Ranch area. How many hits is the site currently generating?
Matthew Coates
http://mc.searcharizonarealestate.com
Wallypinkerton17
Posted at 13:46h, 05 AprilI love it Carolyn. Great site. I don’t see the worry about Facebook, as you give your profile data to any company that you connect with FB. The key here there is to use your controls within FB settings to limit what you can see.
I’ve already created my neighborhood and started inviting neighbors. As an elderly man, this is something I wish they had come out with years ago.
Ben Ump
Posted at 23:23h, 04 FebruaryI’m with Sam DeBord on this. While Facebook is a very useful site, I try to keep it at arms length. It is great for arranging parties and promoting my business, but I try to put as little personal information on there as possible. They don’t have a great history when it comes to privacy and with their new filtering methods (option to “promote” personal posts), it seems Facebook is becoming less free ($$).
I never link Facebook with other websites and I always log out of my account once I’m done.
-Ben Ump