Michael Bubbo's Discussions

First off, congrats to Zillow for launching yet another useful feature to their site! "Discussions" should prove to be a very productive tool for all Real Estate Professionals.Second, to get things started, take a moment to introduce yourself and let's try to get some connections going.I am a Realtor® from Nothern California and a supporter of new types of ways to communicate with the consumer, like here at Zillow.com, allowing for more information about buying and selling properties. Knowledge is power -- by helping both the consumer and each other, as professionals in this field, we can empower everyone to make the right decisions and be happy with the results!

I'm lucky enough to have both Home Depot and Lowes within 10 miles and have had great experiences with each. On the other hand, I have had clients' have both good and bad experiences with both companies (especially due to subcontracted work, like Andy mentioned).As a Realtor® in California, we get a lot of direct contact from Lowes with special promotions and benefits to offer our clients; whereas we don't with Home Depot. It might be a great idea for Home Depot to get on board with the California Association of Realtors, if they haven't considered it yet, as I don't know anyone who wouldn't appreciate a HD Gift Card from their local Realtors®!(btw, Hi Andy!)

It looks like "Discussions" works along the lines of a standard forum... would be a great benefit to be able to Search the topics and content. (Let me know if this is already an available feature and I'm just not seeing it!)

When someone makes a Reply to one of my Topics or posts, will the site automatically inform me via e-mail that a response has been posted? This would be a very valuable benefit (although having the ability to turn the feature on and off would be nice)... as it would be easy to follow-up on discussions without having to sift through all the Topics.Easy to look through all the topics now... as the feature just went live. I'm just thinking down the line, when the topics and reponses become very deep.

If a talented programmer with time on their hands is up for the challenge -- it would be great to see some type of implementation of the Zillow API to be used directly in Wordpress templates (i.e. Sidebar Widget).Even better if some of the information from the new Neighborhoods Feature could be integrated into a widget, as most Real Estate Professionals' blogs are localized and even neighborhood-centric.(I'm not that talented programmer, just a Realtor® who would love to see it happen. Please let me know if someone accomplishes this feat!)

Very good plugin, thanks Drew!

Trying it with Google Reader, now. I am assuming that without any RSS button nearby, the 'thread' would be the root of this discussion we are having here...http://www.zillow.com/forum/site/ViewThread.htm?tid=28If that is correct, then I should see this very response pop up in Google Reader. Here it goes!

Didn't seem to work. What URL should I be using, Brian?

Under the main Real Estate subject, there should not only be Buy & Sell, Remodel, and other RE Professionals... but what about Mortgage / Refinance? I know most of my clients have more questions about Mortgage than I can shake a stick at.Might be good to have a central forum location for those types of questions and allow Mortgage folk to help out with answers, too.

Thanks Brian, the URL that IE shows me after I click that button is just what Google Reader was looking for.Still a great idea to have a little RSS button near the specific topic for easy subscription. Nice. =)