Just this week a couple of tech geeks (I say that with the utmost love and respect) launched a site devoted to organizing mainstream media real estate news with related social media back-stories from blogs, in an effort to change how we find real estate news and information.
Founded by Anthony Barba & Joseph Ferrara, who I interviewed last week, The Clozing.com was designed to “marry mainstream media news to social media news,” said Ferrara. The idea came from a study he read in the AP. “I wanted to aggregate real estate news and organize it to help save people save time”.
“Forget the feed reader, go to the closing”
The site is updated every hour or so right now, and shows twenty stories on its front page, with up to two related blog stories following the mainstream news items. It seems that Mr. Ferrara (founder of Sellsius) isn’t a huge fan of hunting through various feeds to find interesting and relevant information. “Hopefully this site will make feed-readers go the way of the dinosaurs. I hate mine, so hopefully this changes the game” he exclaims triumphantly.
Anthony Barba, the site’s other co-founder and founder of iliketotallyloveit.com, had his own thoughts to share on the site. “Its not another google mashup – it something good something different . . . thank god there’s not another listing service out there for real estate professionals.” Said Barba, who is not one to parse words, “there’s finally some innovation in real estate!”
My Thoughts
You should know that the site is a work in progress, and definitely has a long way to go, but it seems like they are off to a decent start. I wanted to write about it because it is a new concept in the space, and because I am confident that these two will have the site humming along soon. Clearly the guys realize that there are some issues remaining, leaving in the site announcements the note: “The site’s a bit buggy, so please bear with us.”
I believe the biggest challenge for the site is in perfecting its news filtering. I’ve done some work playing with filtering myself, and I know that it is a challenge, but I’m sure they’re up to the task. They acknowledged that this would be their biggest hurdle, which tells me that they’re on the ball. Just for fun, here are a few headlines that popped up on the front page, that I’m assuming didn’t belong:
- T cars crash, injuring 10
- Sweet kid’ gunned down
- Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno” is “pushin’ der limits”
While interviewing Joe and Anthony, we also spoke about some of the plans for the future of the site and they have some great ideas. As I’m one for keeping my word, I’ll hold on to what I believe was shared in confidence.
So . . . stop by, check it out, share some feedback with the fellas, then check back again soon to see how things have improved.
Good luck, guys!
Article Author:
Joshua DorkinJoshua has written 539 articles for us.
Visit Joshua's Website: http://www.biggerpockets.com/
BiggerPockets.com was founded by Joshua Reed Dorkin in August 2004. An entrepreneur, web designer, real estate investor, and one-time realtor, Joshua was not satisfied by the online offerings of other real estate sites out there, and decided to build one himself. Mr. Dorkin's vision for BiggerPockets has helped to propel it into becoming one of the top real estate destinations online. His vision for the site and its future has brought national press attention to both Mr. Dorkin and to BiggerPockets.
Joshua Dorkin
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I guess, short of having to set up and sort through a host of feeds, it seems like a good resource. However, when I scrolled down to the bottom of the first page, you could not go to the next page of slightly older news. I suppose they have some bugs to get out of it.
Thanks for the encouragement, Josh. Yes, when you ask a computer program to filter news a certain way, it can through one ear and out the other. (The computer was severely reprimanded.) Being serious for a moment, we hope to improve the filtering process or remove feeds that do not provide consistent relevant business or real estate news.
Yes, we have some tweaks & bugs to work out and thanks to Better Homes & Gardens sponsoring us we have that opportunity. (love their blog)
@Richard – Wow, you are another reader that wants more and older news….interesting.
@Josh – Great talking with you. Lets stay in touch as Real Estate is changing so fast (Technology/Economy) and you’re on to something. BTW I’m not the original founder of iliketotallyloveit.com…I’m the Geschäftsführer & Partner. I don’t want to take all the bows for the original idea.
@Joe – You can thank Mr. Mike Daly (Redfin) for giving me your phone number 20 years ago when I was 16.
Anthony Barba’s last blog post: Reporters Stand For Obama, Not Bush
Thanks for all of your comments guys.
Anthony & Joseph – It was great chatting with you as usual, and as I said before, I’m available to help if you need it. It is nice to have you guys offer your follow ups to the post.
@Anthony – Sorry about offering you the promotion at iliketotallyloveit.com. Next time I’ll demote you instead