Power, quality of life and broadbandWe live in publicWhat real people use on the webDo real estate agents have a secret agenda? Um, some do.
Date Archives November 2006
Good customer service from bluehost
I (and thousands of others) received the following email from the CEO of Bluehost.com, I am writing today to give you some important information regarding your Bluehost.com account…. First, to mail all our users with our current system takes approximately 18 hours (We coulddo faster, but then many emails would be denied by large ISPs because too many emails come form a single source too quickly), andsecond because it was causing such a severe problem with all our servers that it simply couldn’t be delayed…. You should now see a SUBSTANTIAL improvement in almost all areas of your site including mail issues, script execution time,and overall responsiveness of your hosting experience.Next week we will provide a link to a user monitoring service that will allow you to monitor your server (From our perspective) tosee basically what we see, and know if issues you are experiencing originate on our end or if some other factor is involved. Wehave more speed improvements being worked on aggressively right now and in the near future those details will be made available aswell.I know this email is lengthy, and I congratulate those that made it this far 🙂 I just wanted you to know that I care about whathappens to your sites, and not just because you pay me to care.
How to differentiate one’s blog?
I don’t have a better word to represent what this is, but I feel that “blog” just might be the most over-used word of the year.The Tomato folks query whether one should focus on national or local real estate blogging…. This was my comment:To be clear on my intentions – I started my blog with not as a reason to draw in business, but as a vehicle to fill what I perceived to be a void in the local real estate market commentary…. Those who read blogs appreciate candor; they know it when they see it and will keep coming back if they find it.I have two real estate search sites – but they do not get nearly the traffic my blog gets, nor do they serve to establish anything other than “hey, another Realtor with a website.” Putting myself out there – my personality, my skills, my opinions does differentiate me from the others – sometimes that differentiation is good, sometimes probably not so good.
As the market slows
Today’s article by Courtney Stuart is one of the more well-written, non-fear-mongering articles I have seen about the local real estate market. It didn’t hurt that in addition to the commentary by local Realtors, they have realistic commentary by George Overstreet, Associate Dean for Center Development and Research at the University of Virginia.To those who suspect that agents are just feeding the public a line to keep their own heads above water, George Overstreet, associate dean at UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce and an expert in real estate investment, says that’s not the case.”People think we’re in some sort of bubble, so they’re on the sidelines,” says Overstreet, “but interest rates are still down, and the demand has shifted back to the left. So prices have dropped.”Also, The HooK have added a comment system to their site. I tell you, they continue to innovate and adapt better than any of the other local media outlets!
Why watch the big builders?
The only ones who currently have local presences are K Hovnavian who are building Four Seasons in Greene County and Ryan Homes who are building everywhere.The national trends are far too macro-oriented to directly apply locally, but they may offer insight into what direction our local market might go. For example, national builders building in Northern Virginia were offering incentives such as plasma televisions, new cars and mortgage buy-downs long (~3-6 months) before those types of incentives appeared in the Charlottesville market.In short, the large builders are a bellweather for what may happen…. Politically and economically the Central Virginia region tracks NoVa to a certain degree, if only because we are experiencing growth…. When I was working Earlysville for Tim Kaine, many of the new residents were from liberal areas of the country.
It’s official
CharlAlbemarle is no longer a “red state.”Charlottesville (Democratic)Albemarle (Democratic)Fluvanna (Republican)Nelson (Democratic)Waynesboro (Republican)Augusta (Republican)Greene (Republican)This is a huge shift, in my opinion. Will the growth backlash seen in Northern Virginia make its way to our region in 2007?
NAR’s campaign and the Minnesota Association of Realtors
This new letter from the Minnesota Association of Realtors and the new advertising campaign from the National Association of Realtors have one thing in common – credibility.The MNAR’s first letter asking some Realtors whether they would be better served in other careers generated quality discussion, on both sides…. I disagreed with the campaign.Sandy Mattingly states at the Matrix:NAR is a national organization, so almost anything that it says nationally runs against the all-real-estate-is-local axiom…. However, they are doing more harm than good to our reputations as trusted professionals.Yesterday morning on CNBC, NAR’s president Tom Stevens and Roubini Global Economics’ Nouriel Roubini faced off. One said the market’s great the other said recession was upon us. Guess which one said which?This morning, Toll Brothers (huge national builder not yet in the Charlottesville market) announced lower-than-expected earnings.”We expect the cancellation rate to remain elevated while home prices decline and the time [needed] to sell a home lengthens,” he added.People appreciate and respect candor.