PC Magazine (www.pcmag.com), bills itself as the “most important technology publication in the world” with, and has a readership of more than 6.6 million highly engaged technology buyers and readers.

Their readership is smack-dab in the sweet spot of the Gen X demographic. their audience is 78% male, 59% of whom are married,46% of the readers have children at home and the average household income is in excess of $90,000.00. Additionally, over half of their readership is college educated.

I don’t know about you but that’s a market I want to be catering to! So you may ask, why is any of this important to you as a real estate agent? Well beyond the obvious demographic analysis clearly showing this is a more than viable niche to positively exploit and seek to reach out to, PC Magazine has published a list of what they have deemed to be the eight Best Real Estate Web Sites.

If you want to take a peek into the mind of the tech savvy Gen X prospective homebuyer, this list is worth taking a look at.

The list is a breakdown of sources that the tech savvy buyer can peruse at their leisure to shop for a home. The article specifically tells readers that they do NOT have to rely on Realtor.com for information any longer and that their “is a wealth of other online resources available on the Web.”The author of the article is a woman who recently went through the home buying process and she says that “property information and photos aren’t going to help a buyer make an adequate decision.

Buyers should be able to chat with other buyers, see a property on an interactive map, and track neighborhoods and schools.”In an effort to inform her readers how to incorporate a Web 2.0 technology approach to a home buying search, she mentions eight websites that will be beneficial to the readers of PC Magazine to implement and utilize Web 2.0 to its fullest capacity.

I think you will find these sites that have been selected quite interesting.

1. Cyberhomes
http://www.cyberhomes.com

Description: Operated by Fidelity National Financial, Cyberhomes is a place for obtaining property facts, value estimates, local and national changes in the housing market, and finding homes with its database of more than 100 million property, ownership, sales, and mortgage records. Refine your searches by price, number of bedrooms, and other characteristics. A search for San Diego, CA produced 100 homes for sale.

Interesting Features: Widgets to track homes, neighborhoods, and schools. A personalized real estate dashboard that displays the content a user wants to see. The ability to search for foreclosure properties. View home-value estimates, housing density, and other topics as a “heatmap.” Find schools with a specific rating in an area with a certain median value. Read informative articles on buying, selling, owning, and moving, and check out the helpful glossary of real estate terms.

2. FizBer.com
http://www.fizber.com
Description: Almost a year-old, Fizber.com is a for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) site that redefines the real estate Web space with its various Web 2.0 features. At first glance, users can search for homes, buy yard signs, receive a home appraisal, read up on mortgages and budgeting, and even check what the climate is like in another town or city. After using the home-search function, a handy tab feature lets you easily and quickly see homes for sales, homes recently sold, foreclosure properties, and places for rent. Even more, clicking on a particular property lets you view local schools, neighborhood facts, trends, job scores, and more. A search for San Diego returned 2,324 homes.

Interesting Features: Provides both Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth integration. There are six customized real estate widgets that can be introduced into a user’s blog or Web site, including Search Box, iGoogle, and Home Values. Each FSBO seller can start a free blog. The site places its listings in over 70 other FSBO and social network Web sites. iPhone users can view the site easily and quickly. Sellers can upload an audio narration to the site to give buyers an interactive way to listen to standard home descriptions. Watch video tours of for-sale homes on YouTube with FizBer Video.

3. FrontDoor (beta)
http://www.frontdoor.com
Description: Scripps Network and HGTV, the home and lifestyle TV network, recently launched a beta version of FrontDoor: a one-stop shop for home searching, home finance advice, videos, and useful online tools and calculators. It lists over 1.5 million homes. Searching for homes in San Diego returned over 2,500 results. Tailor your results by price range, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, square footage, amenities, and other criteria. Gradually, FrontDoor will begin to expand its community by letting users provide their insight and experiences with living in specific neighborhoods.

Interesting Features: Google Maps integration. Displays “hot” properties. Each listing offers information on the area’s population, median household income, education, median home values, and quality of life. Helpful online tools, such as a mortgage calculator, tax estimator, rent-versus-buy tool, and more.

4. HotPads.com
http://hotpads.com
Description: Washington, D.C.-based HotPads launched in 2005 and now offers more than 2 million for-sale homes and over 130,000 rentals. The company designed a map-based search, where users can search for available homes, see where the properties are located on the map, and even view points of interest nearby. The map can be switched to aerial view, with the integration of both Microsoft Virtual Earth and Google Maps. A search for San Diego kicked back 6,492 for-sale homes.

Interesting Features: The Foreclosure Heat Maps visually illustrate the housing crisis while giving buyers an easy way to see foreclosures by county and state through the use of color coding. Each listing contains demographic and housing stats from Wikipedia articles about the searched areas. Save searches, sign up for e-mail alerts, and get RSS feeds of listings that match your preferences. Facebook users can share for-sale home listings with their friends, thanks to the HotPads Facebook Application.

5. HousingMaps
http://www.housingmaps.com
Description: Software engineer Paul Rademacher’s HousingMaps is a simple-to-use Google Maps mashup (and arguably the first Google Maps mashup) with listings from Craigslist. View places for rent, homes for sale, rooms, and sublets in the U.S. and Canada by city and price. Currently, the site offers listings from metro areas only, including Dallas, Raleigh, and Los Angeles.

Interesting Features: Listings can be filtered further by providing keywords, or whether or not users want to see photos-only listings.

6. Propertyqube (beta)
http://www.propertyqube.com
Description: Finding a home and researching an area doesn’t have to involve just facts and figures. Propertyqube is a social community that connects prospective buyers with property professionals and other home buyers. Search for foreclosures as well as homes to rent, buy, and sublet. Listings are powered by Google Base. A search for properties for sale in San Diego returned 4,781 results.

Interesting Features: Google Maps integration. Displays upcoming local events for every property listing, such as food markets and concerts. Ask questions or look up answers on green living, market conditions, and other categories. Start a community blog and have other Propertyqube members vote on your blog posts. Brush up on your real estate knowledge with the site’s extensive glossary on terms like “abnormal sale” and “nonconforming loan.”

7. Trulia
http://www.trulia.com
Description: Trulia is a residential real estate search engine with over 60 million property pages, as well as reports on current market trends, neighborhood insights, and more. The site was founded in 2005 and recently added street-level views of homes listed on the site, thanks to Google Maps Street View technology. Search listings by price, property type, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, and square footage. Searching for available homes in San Diego generated 12,812 listings. In addition, search results now include foreclosures.

Interesting Features: For each property search, Trulia researches local market activity, price trends, local schools (with parent ratings), most popular neighborhoods, crime statistics, and more. Graphs feature how a home compares with other homes. Request to be e-mailed when new listings match your search preferences. With Trulia Voices, users can receive free advice from buyers, brokers, sellers, and locals.

8. Zillow.com
http://www.zillow.com
Description: Zillow launched in early 2006, and it has become one of the most popular free real estate services on the Web. The company has partnered with 282 newspapers to extend its local listings, with over 1.7 million current listings. A search for homes in San Diego returned 4,167 results with a detailed map powered by Microsoft Virtual Earth.

Interesting Features: Users can easily identify the most popular homes, recently sold homes, and homes for sale via the color codes on the map. The Real Estate Guide, written by and for Zillow.com users, offers knowledge and expertise on home types and styles, financing, how to find a bargain, and more. Zillow’s “Dueling Digs” encourages users to vote for their favorite home photos on the site and to find inspiration for their next remodel. See the homes formerly owned by celebrities in the Famous Unique Homes section. Get custom mortgage quotes. Various mortgage calculators.

website information above courtesy of PC Magazine

Obviously much has been spoken about Trulia and Zillow in the real estate blogosphere, but as a working agent, did you know about the other six sites listed? Notice the common features that these sites are offering. How many of these features are you implementing on your blog or website.

Google map integration, video, heatmaps, audio narrations, mobile phone integration, and more. Much of this technology can be delivered on your individual blog. There is much talk in the real estate industry about moving to a mode of being adept at technology and social marketing. Unfortunately it’s a catch-up process with too many real estate agents not accepting where the business is headed and not enough brokers ushering in the change.

It is becoming more and more apparent with each passing day where the real estate industry is headed. Reading articles like the one in PC Magazine, which is well off the beaten path for most Realtors gives you insight into the mind of today’s consumer. The National Association of Realtors is a reactionary organization and if agents are relying on the NAR for guidance they will be lost.

This could not be more underscored by taking the time, no wasting the time, to view the hopelessly bad Realtor Confidential series on implementing technology. The consumer is more advanced than the average Realtor. It does not seem the NAR understands this and the rank and file real estate agent is, on average, very slow to respond and react to the challenges of today’s technologically advanced consumer.

What are the ramifications of such slow reaction? Well the author of the PC Magazine also recommends a few more “useful” websites for her readers to check out.

First on the list of other sites that should be checked out? Housing Panic!

Whoa…if I were a Realtor, I would be doing everything in my power to educate today’s consumer by being as technologically advanced as I could. One website I don’t think you want consumers obtaining real estate industry information from is the flame throwing, agent-villifying, website of Housing Panic.

What the author calls “witty commentary” is truly not that what you want the consumer digesting.