Transparent solar panels may be here sooner than you think.

Accordingly to Slash Gear, a team at Michigan State University has developed "a transparent luminescent solar concentrator which looks clear to the eye but can still harvest energy from wavelengths of light invisible to humans". Unfortunately, the team has not achieved panels that are efficient enough for use on your home just yet, but it seems that great strides are being achieved relatively quickly.

So, before you say yes to solar panels being placed on your roof, maybe you should just wait a few years to redo your sunroom with transparent solar panels and generate some power in the process.

Donald Bell of CNET goes through simple smart home upgrades that are must haves for those techies in the real estate world.

If you haven't yet read up on Project Tango, you should.

This technology will enable 3D scanning of indoor environments with your cell phone or better yet, Google Glass, in the very near future.

Imagine a world where you put on your Google Glasses and its Apps suggest furniture that fits the space and thereafter places visuals of the furniture before your eyes.

Will you need an interior designer in the future?

As we always say to real estate brokers at our School, we are out of the days when you could simply match clients to earn money as a professional and we are now part of a value-add industry.

Perhaps, you will still need an interior designer in the future, but their job will have a different purpose.

Only the future can tell.

Zillow just announced that StreetEasy is now a completely free service and no longer has its $10 per month fee for advanced search features.

Plus, StreetEasy now has a terrific new website - so, go check it out!

Now users can get access to past sale prices, building permit applications, tax abatements and much more.

There has been a lot said about AirBnB these days. It's been called a disruptive technology (a compliment in the technology world) as a result of its leveraging the international sharing culture in real estate, by Gigaom, Fastcompany, and Techcrunch, among others. Yet, it has also been labeled as an illegal hotel site, which doesn't sufficiently warn its customers that their participation may be illegal as a violation of local transient laws. The latter appears to be the sentiments of New York State, as evidenced by the recent subpoena issued by the state's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, seeking data on AirBnB's hosts. In response, AirBnB seems to be crafting a public relations campaign defending its business model by proposing that legislation be introduced at the state level requiring its users to pay taxes incident to their rentals. 

On May 14, 2012 we predicted that crowdfunding would be implemented to create the next real estate tycoon.

Now, GroundBreaker has launched and the future is now. As the site states "Our real estate fundraising platform is now available to entrepreneurs of all sizes. We make it possible for you to efficiently fundraise from your extended network or the world".

So, entrepreneurs, its time to leverage the digital world to make brick and mortar rise!

Check out the future of light switches, bRight Switch system.

Here is what the company has to say about their product on the site:

"What if your lighting system could automatically learn what you want, turning on the lights without you having to lift a finger?

What if you could make the switch in the kitchen also turn on the light in the living room, and you didn’t have to call an electrician?

What if, wherever you are, you could plug in your phone without first hunting down the charger?

What if, instead of a wall switch, there was a full-color touch screen smart device packed that could be color coordinated with your room, provide security, intercom, wake up alarm, Internet phone and more?"

Here is a Gadgetreview article on the switch.

Remember, housing utilizing the internet of things sells.

Hot Logic appliances offer the ultimate slow cooker as reported by CNET's Brian Krepshaw.

Check it out.



Now that's a kitchen.

In our recent push for real estate professionals to know what is out there in smart technology for the house, we direct your attention to a door lock that uses bluetooth "to let you unlock your door by touching it".

Check out a great article on NFC-powered door locks and open a door into the future.

ConsumerReports.org has an article called "Dryers get better at letting you know lint is blocking the vent", which discusses a technology that can prevent fires.

According to the article, lint is a "cause of an average of 4,400 reported dryer fires a year".

Technology that saves lives is here - check it out.

Brought to you by DuPont, the future of housing is coming in countertops that charge.

As housing becomes more integrated into the internet of things, traditional materials will give way to those with higher functionality. In fact, companies such as Cisco see the internet of everything as the future of their business and worth billions in revenues.

So, before you replace that next countertop, think about its potential functionality beyond serving as a table top.