FAQ – THE THING

We have launched a new interactive market analysis tool called The Thing. It has been designed to be understood in relatively few clicks, but "what might be right for you may not be right for some" so we've built this brief FAQ (frequently asked questions) file to go over some things that may still not sit well even after a few attempts at working through The Thing. If you have feedback, we're definitely listening. Please email us at feedback@10research.com.

Otherwise, this is our attempt to route a few questions back toward deeper understanding. Let's start with a screenshot. Click the image if you want to blow it up in a new window to get a good look at it.

Browser

First off, avoid using your Internet browser's "Back" button or arrow. It will take you out of The Thing, and we don't want that now, do we? If you want to go to the first "page" of The Thing, click the Breakouts until they are all blue and choose Median Sales Price from the buttons at the bottom.

Area (left side of screen)

You can search the entire metropolitan area, counties, cities, suburbs, townships, ZIP codes and MLS districts. The default is the wide-angle metro view but don't let that stop your exploration!

Breakouts (left side of screen)

You can currently select up to two breakouts from the choices of Price Ranges, Foreclosures, Home Types and New Construction. We are making every effort to add additional breakouts like school districts and self-defined price ranges, among other options.

Print, Share, Email (bottom left)

Choose a button from the three given. You will be prompted to click things (a chart or multiple charts). When you click a chart, it will look like you've put a translucent sheet over it. This means you've selected it. Yay! Now go ahead and click as many charts as you want that are shown on the screen. They'll all print, share and email nicely.

If you decide that you don't want a chart after all, click it again, the sheet will be be removed, meaning you've unselected it. After you have the charts that you want to do stuff to, click a button on the lower left to make it print, PDF, share or email, depending on what option you chose.

Print and Email: You can print direct to your printer or to a PDF document. You can email to anyone.

Share: When you click Share you'll see this set of icons at the top:

From left to right, this is what each icon means:

Email: Yeah, we already have an email button, but email is also treated as sharing because, hey, email is the most basic form of social media.

Facebook: It's popular and getting more popularer. Hmm, that word sure looks funny. *shrug*

Twitter: Not as popular as Facebook, but the cool kids sure do dig it. 23 skidoo!

LinkedIn: Sharing professionally, no doubt.

WordPress: The rising blog behemoth and exceptional web hosting platform. In all likelihood, 10K will be muddin' around in Wordpress very soon.

Switzerland: No, it's not a direct share to your Swiss friends. It's just a plus sign that opens up your sharing whims to the likes of Delicious, StumbleUpon, Google Buzz or even something called Haber.gen.tr.

12 Months vs. Monthly (upper right side of screen)

Blue means selected, white means unselected.

12 Months: The default value is a view of the market for a rolling 12 months. That is to say from any given month, go back 12 months and total it up. The historical line graph will generally appear smoothed out.

Monthly: You can also select a month-over-month view of the market, so for June 2010, you would also see values for June 2009 and June 2008. The historical line graph will generally appear more choppy.

Enlarge a Chart (upper right of each individual chart)

It's an innocuous little symbol but also quite powerful. Click one and see what happens. Down with squinting! Down with eye strain! Up with visual ease! Up with simplicity!

Mouseover Values (lower historical line charts)

Let's look at a historical line chart from The Thing. For this exercise, we have selected the Median Sales Price metric at the bottom and the Home Types breakout on the left.

Now let's blow that sucker up so we can see something cool. When you put your mouse pointer on a line, it shows you the value for the point on the line at which you're mousing over. This is pretty slick.

Price Ranges with Median Sales Price (lower historical line charts)

You may have noticed that the lines go flat when you mix Price Ranges with Median Sales Price in a 12-month view. That's because this combination is essentially a median of a defined price range which will remain relatively static.

The Meaning Behind the Metrics (at the bottom)

Median Sales Price: The median sales price for all closed sales in a given month, sold properties only.

Percent of Original List Price: The average percentage found when dividing a property's sales price by the original list price, sold properties only.

Days on Market: The median number of days between when a property is first listed and when it is pended.

Months Supply: Compares the number of active listings available to the average monthly pending sales for the last 12 months.

Homes for Sale: The number of properties available for sale in active status at the end of the month.

New Listings: A count of the properties that have been newly listed on the market in a given month, regardless of what status they're currently in.

Pending Sales: A count of the properties that have offers accepted on them in a given month, regardless of whether or not the sale closes.

Closed Sales: A count of the properties that have had closed sales in a given month.