Carl von Linné goes real estate

Imagine the following; you travel from Sweden to Dallas in the US to attend a real estate conference focusing on IT and you end up in a presentation about the famous Swedish botanist Carl von Linné. Surprised is an understatement!

However, there was two good reasons why this occurred;

1. First of all, the presentation was about the benefits of standards
Linné created what should became known as the Linné taxonomy, a system of scientific classification.

2. The speaker, Mark R. Linné, was a relative to Carl von Linné!

I've attended many presentations but a better storyline is hard to find. Finally, the presentation was indeed interesting and put an interesting point to standards. It also introduced me to the abbreviation AVM (Automated Valuation Models).

Realcomm I -- CoStar vs Google

At the Opening Session at the Realcomm two different ways of data gathering was displayed.

On the photo is Diane Paddison, Andrew Florence, John Hanke and Michael Joroff (MIT).

John Hanke, general manager of Google Earth (an founder of Keyhole), did a great presentation of Google Earth which included a display of Bombay city with all major buildings named out on the map (se below). The interesting part is that this informed has been put in place by the users 'the Google community. In other words, collaborative information gathering. Something that John was pushing to the real estate audience; "why not put in information about your buildings in the system and market it to the 100 million users?".

In contrast to the approach of having the users themselves putting in the data CoStar's founder and CEO Andrew Florance ran through their new retail solution.

Also that an impressive product, but you have to wonder, what if Google manager to have the industry to put in the same data into Google Earth for free?

One year later; the same topic

Today, the 18th of june, is the 1 year anniversary of this blog.
To celebrate(?) I put in a post about the same topic; Realcomm.

Realcomm has the mission "to provide a single place where industry leaders can come together to discuss, analyze and debate the latest innovations that are impacting the Commercial Real Estate industry". This conference is hosted in Dallas (USA) and starts on the 25th.

European dinner
If you are from Europe and going to the fair, why not gather with other EU members at a dinner on the 26th. Contact me or Andrew Wallet at Remit Consulting.

See you at Realcomm.

A promising start for Bostart.se

Two months ago a new Internet service with real estate  focus was launched in Sweden. The service, Bostart, aims to make it easier for the seller  of residential houses/flats to negotiate the brokage fee.

I'm happy to see that the service has attracted more than 100 brokage firms in the first months. The real estate industry, both residential and commercial, needs to be more efficient. This is, for sure, a service I'll use when it's time 'to upgrade' the state of living.

Further reading;
'Prispress på mäklararvode'    Vår Bostad, 2006-04-21   (In Swedish)

LoopNet - The first week on the List

Last week, the 7th of June, LoopNet went public (and raised $72 million) by offering 6 million shares at $12 per share. A proposed market cap of $485 million which is more than 10 times its current revenue run rate.

After the offering, the company expects to have 34.8 million shares outstanding. Executives and directors, who didn't sell any shares in the IPO, continue to own 43 percent of the company's stock.

The first day generated an increase of close 30% but hos gone back to around $15.

Revenue
LoopNet reported net income of $18.9 million on $31 million revenue in 2005.
Revenue has almost tripled in the past three years.

The company has been profitable since the second quarter of 2003. Its revenue in the first quarter rose 65 percent to $10.2 million, and net income rose 59 percent to $2.97 million, compared with the same period in 2005.

The company makes money mostly (80%) through premium subscriptions to the site. The remainder of the company's revenue comes from advertising revenue from the site and certain product licensing fees.

Number of users
The site has 1.2 million registered members, with 64,000 of them paying a monthly subscription rate of $39.95 to $49.95 for premium service. The site averages more than 590,000 visitors per month, according to ComScore/MediaMetrix. Thirty percent of the company's paid subscriber base is concentrated in California

Number of listed properties
At the end of March, LoopNet listed 360,000 properties totaling 2.8 billion square feet worth more than $296 billion.

The IPO Prospectus
Is found here.

Seeking Alpha has published to analysis on Loopnet;
"An in-depth look at LoopNet IPO"             12th June
"LoopNet IPO: Strong out of the gate"         9th June