We have received a lot of emails since launching our Michigan lake property article. Most everyone has enjoyed reading it. That makes us happy! We are going to be launching three (3) new Cabin Life articles soon as well. Lots of good reading to come!
Archive for May, 2007
Good Read
Friday, May 25th, 2007New Prime Property!
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
We just added this beautiful Lake home for sale on Deer Lake to our Prime Property section. Deer Lake is an exceptionally beautiful lake just outside of Grand Rapids, MN in Deer River Minnesota. Priced at $699,000 – this is a great opportunity to own a place on one of Northern Minnesota’s greatest jewels. 200 feet of sugar sand beach and 2 acres of heaven on a 4,000 acre Lake! You have to check this one out!
Trulia – Congratulations from LakePlace.com!
Thursday, May 24th, 2007Trulia announced that they have landed another $10M in venture capital today. And its not your average $10,000,000. The series C round was led by Sequoia Capital – the firm behind Apple, Google, YouTube, and many other BIG winners.
Trulia has been lighting up the contracts over the past 3-6 months. Signing many of the heavyweights (Cendant Realogy included). Personally, I have been very surprised by some of their successes (meaning the companies they have signed up). I thought that Zillow would have a big lead on these guys and gals, but it looks like the underdog may be landing the more powerful blows in this bout.
Zillow recently announced that they will be taking a page from Trulia’s play book, and focus on broker property feed deals – confirming the Trulia business model (kind of).
On another note, I read that Trulia is receiving 1.5 million visitors per month. For the record – LakePlace.com has a little less of a budget – and not quite as many resources – but when you compare apples to apples, LakePlace.com may just be the pound for pound champ in online real estate. -=)
Needle In A Haystack
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007Got a phone call today from a person looking to sell her beautiful Madeline Island lake homes (she has 3 of them). She was disappointed to here that we do not work with FSBO listings on LakePlace.com – we are full-service-plus (the first full-service-plus brokerage in the country that we are aware of). She wants to give it a try on her own – and we can certainly appreciate that. I told her that she may want to try LakeHouse.com and FSBO.com – and please keep us in mind if anything changes. Here is one of our seller FAQ’s for your review:
I think I can sell my property myself why should I use LakePlace.com?
If your lake property is your primary residence, and you have a knack for marketing and sales, you may want to give it a shot. Selling your property yourself can save you money, but it is not for everyone. If your lake/river property is a secondary residence, you may find yourself driving up to the lake quite a bit (if your marketing plan is successful) to show your property to “interested†buyers. It is not uncommon to show a property 10 times, 20 times, or more before an actual buyer emerges. It is extremely difficult to sell a secondary residence on your own.
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If you decide to go it alone, we wish you the best of luck – but we hope you will keep us in mind if your situation changes!
New Article Posted
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007We love Michigan We just posted a new article covering Michigan lake property. If you are interested in MI lake homes, cottages or lake lots – check out the new article – we think you will like it. We cover a range of topics and a large area including Lake Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.
Does this mean that we have something up our sleeve? Well, Michigan is a pretty large state and I am pretty sure I could not fit it through my cuff – but time will tell -=)
Hope you like the new article – let us know!
New Listing – Prime Property #6!
Friday, May 18th, 2007LakePlace.com presents 1468 20th Ave., Alden Twp, Wisconsin.
 
 
This beautiful Wisconsin lake home is offered by LakePlace.com at $369,500. Situated on a park like setting, the property boasts 2.5 acres and 200 feet of sandy lakeshore.
Just 45 minutes from the Twin Cities – this is your chance to escape to a year-round/every day vacation. 3+ bedrooms, 2 baths, 4 (yes 4) patios, and enough garage space (4+ stalls) for all of your toys. Visit the listing, look at the images, and let us know if you would like to take a tour. It could be the one you have been waiting for.
LakeHouse.com – Congratulations from LakePlace.com!
Friday, May 18th, 2007
Just a quick post. I wanted to congratulate LakeHouse.com on their 10 year anniversary (belated). Kirk and Wren have been running Lakehouse for the past 10 years (that’s about 40 Internet years!) with integrity and professionalism.
We have had some differences over the years, but that is to be expected. Wren and Kirk are a class act and we have the highest admiration and respect for them and what they have done.
If you are looking for lake property in “the other 48 states,” – you have to checkout LakeHouse.com – no other site comes close.
Congratulations on 10 years of helping lakeshore buyers and sellers come together!
We’ve Got Brand
Thursday, May 17th, 2007A funny thing happened over the course of 4 years…LakePlace.com morphed from just a website into a website and a brand name. Sure, anyone can make that assertion about their business, but the proof is in the pudding, right? Well, here it is:
Search Term: LakePlace.com
LakePlace.com has two competitors bidding on the search term “LakePlace.com.” These are competitive websites trying to trick or attract people searching on Google for LakePlace.com. (Many Internet users type a URL directly into the Google search box when they are looking for a website rather than typing it directly into their browser).
You can look at this from a couple of view points. It is somewhat flattering to see that other companies think so highly of you that they would bid on your trademarked name…and on the other hand, it is disappointing to see the levels business will sink to, just to get a visitor to their website.
My advice to companies that do this type of thing: If you work hard and provide a great product, people might just start visiting your website without the need to trick them.
Here is what Google has to say about this practice: Google Trademark Policy
For fun, I decided to look up some other brand names (companies we look up to) to see if they are encountering the same type of problem…here are the results:
1. Search Term: Zillow.com
Zillow has a couple of businesses (in one search, they actually had four) using their brand name to trigger an advertisment…
2. Search Term: EdinaRealty.com
Edina Realty also has some competitors bidding on their business name. A while back, Edina Realty sued a company for this practice. The lawsuit did go to court, but last I heard, it was settled out of court. The case was a little different because the competitor was actually using the words “Edina Realty” in the triggered advertisement.
3. Search Term: Redfin.com
This one kind of surprised me. I would have thought that some other discount outfits would have bid on the Redfin name. For those of you unfamiliar with Redfin, they were recently featured in a controversial 60 Minutes segment.
At LakePlace.com, we like to compare our statistics (visits, pageviews, revenue, costs) to Redfin (privately held) because their model is similar to ours…well, their business model is not similar to ours – in that LakePlace.com’s mission is to help both real estate professionals and buyers/sellers (where as Redfin competes will real estate professionals), but both companies have placed all of the eggs in the Internet basket…and that is a big thing to have in common.
Redfin makes a practice of publishing their internal numbers from time to time – and we thank them for that -=)
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lakeplace.com, zillow, edina realty, redfin, google adwords, trademark
New Listing – Prime Property!
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
LakePlace.com is proud to offer this wonderful Northern Wisconsin resort for sale. The resort features a lakefront owners home and three small cabins situated on Beautiful Lake Nokomis. The sand beach is unbelievable. You do not see these kind of opportunities very often. Visit the listing, check out all of the pictures, and contact us if you would like to schedule a viewing.
Imitation a form of Flattery?
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007I was cruising the web today, doing my due diligence, when I ran across this:
I thought to myself…”This looks familiar.”
Here is the map we have been using on LakePlace.com for years…
And here is the variation we switched to a couple of months ago:
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – but this seems unethical at best.
What do you think?
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