Date Archives November 2011

Energy Efficiency Goes Mainstream thanks to Best Buy

in Green on

I’ll wager that Best Buy isn’t entering the Home Energy market out of altruism.

Retailer giant Best Buy is launching a modest push into home energy products, planning to sell gadgets that can help home owners cut their energy consumption, and have lower energy bills. Best Buy will sell the gear via dedicated sections of three of its brick and mortar stores and also through a new Home Energy portal on its website.

Regardless of their motives, this is good news.

Years ago, I discussed how people were going green to save green.

And in 2009:

From TallWall (thanks to @G2Architecture):

Myth 2: Green consumers’ main motivation when reducing their energy use is to save the planet.

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The Charlottesville Bubblers Interview the Charlottesville Brokers

in General Real Estate on

I’ve made no secret about my affinity for the Charlottesville Bubble Bloggers since they began. Heck, I interviewed them in August of 2008. Part One and Part Two

They’ve interviewed me, Michael Guthrie with Roy Wheeler and Greg Slater and have asked some outstanding questions, the answers to which I’m looking forward to (I’ll post mine here in a couple days).

This is Part One of their series, and these are the questions they asked.

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DIA and NGIC need for Public Transportation

in General Real Estate on

From today’s DP:

Outside of the master plan, the DIA is working on developing effective public transportation and carpooling plans for its employees. The plans are in their infancy, Strycula said, but there is a meeting planned to get feedback from DIA commuters.

“One of the things we’re going to do in two weeks is we’re going to run a commuter fair to let employees know what’s out there and what public transport options are,” he said.

As a way to encourage the use of public transportation and a reduction of single-occupancy vehicle use, Rivanna Station Chief Phil Roberts told the board the Department of Defense builds most of its buildings with parking lots that are only 60 percent of the building’s capacity.

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DS + Zillow = A whole Host of Questions

in Technology on

Warning: this post is not within the real of purely local real estate blogging …

Second, when I saw this news I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. One of the reasons I have so loved Diverse Solutions on my site is that they gave me what I believed to be the best tool out there to search for homes in my market. In part, I’ve been competing with Zillow (not really, they’re huge. I’m tiny) But really, I have been. Now they’re together? Zillow, who makes money (as all of the third parties do) selling agents on upsells for $X per month?

1. Is this the next step in the evolution of Zillow becoming/replacing/supplanting the MLS? Maybe. Maybe not.

2a. Presumably, if I keep using Diverse Solutions to power my real estate search page, I’ll have to update my site’s privacy policy saying that Zillow is likely to start farming my users’ information. That will suck.

4. Listings, and listing data are a commodity . Everyone has them. I’ve benefited by google indexing the MLS listings found on my site, but I’ve never depended on it. I generate unique, relevant, and occasionally good content. Anyone can get listing data.

6. See #4. Those depending on real estate search for their SEO are now SOL. It’s the evolution/consolidation of the tech space, and that’s ok. Real estate is about real estate representation – used with technology appropriately. Technology without competent representation and interpretation is merely cool tech.

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Lake Anna Nuclear Plant set to Reopen Soon

in General Real Estate Louisa on

The earthquake on 23 August of this year shut down the Lake Anna nuclear plant. And it’s still offline.

After a public hearing last night, NRC says start up “could be authorized as soon as next week.” They can provide no specific date. #NorthAnna

Tammy Purcell wrote a very well researched story last week about the history of the Lake Anna nuclear plant; it’s highly recommended reading.

Tammy’s been providing much of my knowledge regarding the plant, via Twitter.

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