International Property Journal - News and information on global property markets

Google: Savior or Satan?

The Search Giant Could Change the Business. Is That Good or Bad?

By Kevin Brass
IPJ Editor

To real estate technology consultant and widely-read blogger Rob Hahn, Google’s move into real estate will shake the foundation of the industry.

“Google is probably the most significant influence of the next two or three years, in terms of how real estate is done,” said Hahn, managing partner of 7DSAssociates. “The impact will be very far-reaching.”

Hahn is not alone in his opinion. The search engine giant is the 800-pound gorilla in the room these days, provoking everything from elation to fear within the real estate industry. Depending on who you talk to, Google has the potential to smash the MLS, make brokers obsolete and destroy portals like Zillow and Rightmove.

For its part, Google insists it has no aspirations beyond improving its basic search business. In its promotional materials, Google clearly states it’s not a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and executives repeat over and over again that there is no “evil plan” in Mountain View to develop as a real estate company.

EB-5 Spells Opportunity

Visa Program Luring Foreign Investors, Buyers

By Kevin Brass

International Property Journal

After languishing in obscurity for 20 years, the EB-5 visa program is suddenly a hot commodity in the U.S. real estate business.

“There’s massive interest compared to a few years ago,” said Stephen Parnell of WhichEB5, a consultancy that started as a relocation service and now focuses almost exclusively on EB-5 visas.

While the name suggests the sequel to a bad sci-fi film, EB-5, in concept, is relatively simple. Foreign investors and their families are offered a fast track to permanent green cards if they invest in projects that create jobs.

IPJ Interview: Google's Sam Sebastian

Google’s director of business-to-business markets Sam Sebastian wants to set the record straight. In an interview with the IPJ, he talks about what the search giant is doing in real estate—and what it is not doing.

At the recent Inman conference, you said Google doesn’t have an “evil plan” for real estate. Can you give us a quick sense of how Google views the market?

No different than any other vertical we work in. The main goal is simply to ensure the user experience—whatever a user is typing into the Google query box—that we get to them and in front of them what they are probably looking for.

House Hunters International Wants to Make You a Star

Popular TV Series is Looking for Agents and Buyers to Participate in New Season

By Ted Edwards
International Property Journal

For the producers of House Hunters International, the program that helped make shopping for an overseas home a TV phenomenon in the U.S., the search for agents and buyers to participate in the show is a never-ending process.

Ideal candidates must speak English, feel comfortable with a camera recording their every move and, more than anything, have patience.

“The biggest misconception is that it will be 10 minutes,” said Holly Schwartz, producer for Los Angeles-based Pie Town Productions, which produces the show for HGTV. “As much fun as it is, it does take time.”

Pie Town is currently searching for agents and buyers for the next season. Although they are open to locations, the “wish list” includes Croatia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Holland, Hungary, Indonesia, Malta, Morocco, Spain, Sweden and “anywhere in the Caribbean,” Schwartz says.