I am frequently amused at the ways visitors reach this blog. A few of the recent strings that stand out:how much below asking price to offer real estate – it depends. Make sure your Realtor does a CMA.charlottesville va bad neighborhood – Call the Charlottesville Police Department. Their online incident section is way out of datewhat do i need to listen to podcasts in my caar Do they mean “my car” or mycaar? Either way, my podcasts are here.virginia real estate self representation making an offer to buy a- techrealtor negative perceptions integrity – With the vast number of Realtors and the low standards for entry, this is bound to happen. charlottesville daily progress crap paper – funny.homedepot ecooptionsnar ceo mls consolidation – let the grassroots begin!housing comps waynesboro va – A sign of the changing marketwaynesboro towncenter plans – Aargh. Another towncenter?how to find a house if you know the mls number in virginia Go here.
Browsing Category Blogging
A shorter title for this blog?
Based on this little exchange – (not linking to avoid pingbacks :)) – http://www.cvillenews.com/2006/03/31/blog-round-up-5/#comments I think I’m going to change the title to simply realcentralva.com rather than “Central VA real estate news, trends and opinions” and leave the tagline “Tracking the Charlottesville and Central VA real estate market and more” or something to that effect – any thoughts anybody?
Morning reading 04-04-06
dysfunctional layout of their physical environment — the separation of land uses; the physical disconnect between houses, offices and stores built in pods; the stringing of those pods along feeder and arterial roads — that they take it for granted…. What is a “successful” blog?A smart growth book and review.There is more to the debate over sprawl than just anti-Wal-Mart hysteria and anger over traffic…. The decentralizing trends in living and working patterns, first in suburbs and later in exurbs, have been deeply problematic for the Democratic party and the American left. So have the decentralizing patterns of the American economy in the last several decades, and the ongoing decentralization of information and media.Same with framing an argument as “left -v- right.”… That’s why I read both sides as often as possible and read between the lines. New math on homes.Calculating what to pay for your home.You look at the “comps,” of course. A real estate agent will tell you what comparable houses in the neighborhood sold for. Web sites like Zillow.com or HomeValues.com value homes the same way.
Trends, changes and crap
The Washington Post has a potentially excellent series on Emerging Trends, touching on many facets of the changing market. From one of these articles:”It’s not what the market will bear anymore,” said Walter Molony of the National Association of Realtors. “It’s a question of what is a fair price.”Bloggers exempted from campaign laws.Don’t clog up the blogosphere with your crap…. Those putting “serially-posted advertisements” out there are doing a disservice to those who take time and ownership of what they write and also to themselves…. never say never.From Inman:Once you find the home you want to buy, discuss making an offer on it with your Realtor. Making your offer contingent upon the sale of your current home is the most common method of doing this, and while this isn’t a popular method to use in a hot market, it is very common in normal and slower markets. The market is normal at the moment, and I recently negotiated one of these contingency offers for clients of mine.Making offers contingent on the sale of one’s property used to be unheard of. Now, it is becoming more common – so much so that I now consider it a viable option in some cases.
Competition is a good thing
At last year’s Blogger’s Conference, one of the bloggers told me that he would follow my blog, because he was curious to see how successful a business blog could be. What a year it’s been.In the Charlottesville area, there are now at least four (including mine) real estate-centric blogs. Each has a different spin on the real estate market.It’s funny how my daughter magically plays better when she plays against better competition. I am hoping that this will be the same.
A sure-fire way to marginalize open discourse on blogs
Courtesy of NJ Assemblyman Peter Biondi:2. The operator of any interactive computer service or an Internet service provider shall establish, maintain and enforce a policy to require any information content provider who posts written messages on a public forum website either to be identified by a legal name and address, or to register a legal name and address with the operator of the interactive computer service or the Internet service provider through which the information content provider gains access to the interactive computer service or Internet, as appropriate.So I would have to maintain this information and turn it over to the government when requested? I am no legal scholar, and don’t even play one on TV, but this strikes me as someone waaay overstepping the boundaries of government’s purposes. I would hope that Virginia would never even consider legislation like this.
The 4 P’s
The Four P’s of blog marketing – Passionate – Write about issues that are near and dear to your heartPurposeful – Make sure you keep the end in mind; why are you blogging?Present – Keep an eye on what’s topical todayPositional – Take a stand on an issue and follow itThanks to the Micro Persuasion for the story. Concise and well-said.