Condo Blog - A Non-Corporate Blog From CondoDomain HQ

A group of brokers is protesting the process through which the Real Estate Board of New York trade group approved a public home-search Web portal, and is calling for more discussions and a general vote of all brokerage-company members.

In a petition that the brokers’ group plans to submit to REBNY this week, the group states that the portal “appears to serve only the interests of the largest member firms” and that the decision to launch the portal “was neither transparent nor democratic.”

Also, the petition calls upon the REBNY board to “immediately cease plans to implement this portal and instead seek further discussions with the members, after which the proposed plan would be approved or rejected by a majority vote of all member firms.”

In a public announcement Nov. 1, REBNY officials announced plans to develop “a Web-based, user-friendly searchable database of residential properties in New York City.”

The announced portal represents a shift for a real estate market that has been slow to embrace the online display and sharing of property listings.

Steven Spinola, REBNY president, stated in the announcement, “Those looking for a home in New York City will soon have one tool that enables them to search and browse listings in the most comprehensive database of residential properties on the market. Accurate and current exclusive listings of the most active and professional firms in the city will be available.”  Continued…
Source: Inman News

RealEstate.com has launched a new online property search site for the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Now in beta form, the site will be expanded nationwide next year, the company announced.RealEstate.com, owned and operated by LendingTree LLC, has real estate brokerage operations in several states, including Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Washington. LendingTree links consumers with lending and real estate services and operates a lead-generation program that matches consumers with real estate agents.

The new site, at http://beta.re.com, “is heavily focused on listings,” the company announced, and is intended to ease the home-search process.

“The new RealEstate.com beta design gives customers what they’ve told us they want, which is free access to home listings without having to register their contact information,” Kimberly Gorsuch-Bradbury, senior vice president and general manager of RealEstate.com, said in a statement

Source: Inman News

——————————————-

Screen shots looking awfully like Trulia….our Search pals out in San Francisco!

The nation’s benchmark mortgage rate is at a 10-month low.

The average 30-year, fixed-rate home loan is going for 6.18 percent, down from 6.24 percent last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac reported Wednesday after conducting its weekly nationwide survey.

The new rate is the lowest since the week ending Jan. 26, when it averaged 6.12 percent.

Home-loan rates have dropped for two weeks in a row, a development that economists attribute to easing inflation pressures. Inflation is calming down amid stabilizing energy prices, slower overall economic activity and the housing slump.

Source:   By Bloomberg, AP and Staff Reports

Hot condo and real estate news around the U.S. this week. Visit some of the links below for more information. New condo development plans, marketing approaches, condo sales closeouts and other interesting news. For more information visit the source for new condos - condoDomain.com

Atlanta Condos : Developer’s go-slow approach baffles
Austin Condos : Best September ever for Austin real estate
Baltimore Condos : Delaware Real Estate – Living On The Water
Boston Condos : Greater Boston Real Estate: Momentum Continues
Charlotte Condos : Charlotte Real Estate firm uses back-door to expose listings on …
Chicago Condos : Realtors’ group says it’s time for ‘career adjustment’
Dallas Condos : Collectors may shift to car condos
Denver Condos : Investor wants Denver real estate
Detroit Condos : Hope springs from Herman Gardens
Ft. Lauderdale Condos : Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Denver and Miami Top List of Nation’s 10 …
Hoboken Condos : A Trickle, Not a Flood, of Moves to New Jersey
Honolulu Condos : Oahu residential sales to top 13,000
Houston Condos : Houston real estate posts best October ever
Jersey City Condos : Is a transit village coming to your town?
Las Vegas Condos : Condos change face of downtown
Los Angeles Condos : McCourt sells last two valuable waterfront sites
Miami Condos : Fontana condos overlook a pool
Minneapolis Condos : A downtown with legs
Naples Condos : Naples Council re-examining downtown density code
New York Condos : Buy Manhattan Real Estate Now, Before the Class of ‘06 Does
Orlando Condos : FAR: Orlando housing sales down, median price up in 3Q
Palm Beach Condos : It was quite a year, snowbirds, so let’s review what you missed
Philadelphia Condos : Revitalizing Bristol business district
Phoenix Condos : Lack of hotel rooms challenges downtown
Portland Condos : Restoring Halprin’s landmark parks
Providencev : Developing people as well as houses
San Antonio Condos : Planners think big
San Diego Condos : Condo controversy heats up
San Francisco Condos : High-rise condos sprouting Luxury residences in San Francisco are …
Seattle Condos : Seattle Condos – A Growing Urban Environment Welcomes More …
St. Louis Lofts : Real estate agent revels in the boom in downtown St. Louis living
Tampa Condos : Knight rides to rescue of Trump Tower
Washington D.C. Condos : The Stadium Zone
Toronto Condos : October home sales increase: Builders

Source: Multiple Sources, Links Included

Very cool!  Hip location (right behind the new Ritz Towers off Washington Street), a block off the park, right in the middle of everything….yadayadayada.  Going to be a home run new condo development in Midtown Boston!!!

Prices from the mid $2’s (Yup, I mean $200k not $2 million!) and all the way up to $700,000.  Great property, location, and price point not to mention a nice selection of upgrades!

Ten West Street Condos to be a great success in 2007.  Tracy Campion of RM Bradley is marketing the property.  You can find more information on the slick Black-and-White website: www.TenWestStreet.com

Generally, we have an on-site sales office open to walk-ins Monday through Friday 10AM to
4PM and Sundays 12PM to 2PM.  You can also call our sales line at
617.372.6305 (Tell them you heard of them from The Condo Blog) if you would like to schedule an appointment outside ofthose hours.

Source: condoDomain Travel Team | Ten West Street Condo Website

by way of 3 Oceans Real Estate… 

(Too Good of a Post…so we just took it! - Thx, Kevin!)

In my previous post on Internet disintermediation, I argued that real estate is primarily a relationship business, and that the only real estate professionals who should fear the Internet are those who really, really suck at the whole client relationship thing.  For the rest of us, the Internet represents a big challenge, yes, but also a huge opportunity.

The Internet, in fact, is arguably the best relationship-building tool to enter the business in a long time, far better than carting pumpkins around at Thanksgiving, sending out fridge magnets, plastering our high school prom mugshots on shopping carts, or buying full-color ads in the local paper.  The only better relationship-building tools I can think of than the Internet are the really personal, high-touch ones, such as taking clients out for a meal, calling them on the phone, or sending them birthday cards.

The Internet excels as a relationship-building tool for at least four reasons, which — tadah! — all begin with the letter “T”!

1. Target
2. Tracking
3. Tweaking
4. Timing

The main purpose of much of our advertising efforts in this industry is to lay the groundwork for potential client relationships.  We want our prospective customers to see us in different contexts, to get to know us, to recognize our names and faces.  When they drop by our open house, we want them to say, “Oh!  You’re the dude that mails those helpful cards!” or, “Hey — I thought I recognized you.  Aren’t you the Realtor that’s always advertising in the paper?”  If we can establish at least an ephemeral relationship, we stand a better chance of getting the business.  Consistent advertising in numerous settings increases our brand awareness.

And that’s precisely why the Internet is such a great tool.  Let’s look at the three points above.

1. Target:  Advertising in the local newspaper reaches primarily a local audience — and that’s a good thing, because real estate is primarily a local business.  But there are prospective clients out there who happen not to get or read the local paper.  Perhaps they live across the country and are planning on moving.  They’re not going to find you in the local paper, but they may well do so on the Internet.  And if they do find you on the Internet, it’s often because they were specifically looking for real estate content.  My logs show that though there are occasional visitors who randomly stumble on my site (such as a recent one who was searching on MSN for “how to balance your checkbook powerpoint“), most of them come by to learn more about real estate, for example “Alan Dalton Zillow NAR” and “November 2006 real estate market values Silicon Valley.”  My presence on the Internet simultaneously reaches a broader, and yet a more focussed audience.
2. Tracking:  Quick!  Tell me how many people read your ad in last Sunday’s paper!  How long did they look at it?  30 seconds? 2 seconds?  Was there a part of the ad that attracted their attention more than another?  In the offline world, we have only very rough estimates of these metrics, like the circulation figures of the paper in which you advertised.  With the right tools, on the Internet you can slice and dice your audience’s interest nearly any way you like.  You’re getting a lot of readership for the articles you write on current market conditions?  Keep cranking them out! Nobody’s reading your regular recipe contributions?  Ditch ‘em!
3. Tweaking:  Do people respond better to an ad which describes your listing as, “Magnificent” or “Splendid?”  Do they seem to prefer from-the-street photos, or inside ones?  Even if you could easily get this information in the offline world, it would take you at least one advertising cycle to tweak the message accordingly.  Online, once you get audience feedback, you can change your message in minutes.
4. Timing:  Once your ad has run in the local paper, that’s it!  You’re not going to get much more exposure from that particular run.  That’s probably a big reason for the enduring popularity of real estate advertising gimmicks like putting pictures on buses and sending out fridge magnets:  these tools have a longer shelf life than newspaper advertising.  The same is true on the Internet:  unless you get sandboxed, search engines archive your content long after you’ve forgotten about it.  An article you wrote 18 months ago might pop up as a top entry on somebody’s Google search today.

So there ya have it…the Internet is our friend, not our enemy.  Far from cutting us out of the action, the Internet enables us to become better at building the relationships that are so critical to becoming successful.

Source:  3 Oceans Real Estate

Remember the original condoDomain intro.  We came across it this afternoon when cleaning our database.

Watch the Condo Intro  - We did have a pretty cool intro!  Should we bring it back?

Ok, we are out of here for the day.

Everyone have a very happy Thanksgiving!

The Condo Turkey 

Playing with Google today and we came across their new co-op search engine program. So we decided to make our own Condo Search Engine !

Check it out…pretty cool. Right now it crawls www.condoDomain.com, www.CondoCenter.com, www.USCondex.com, in our opintion the 3 best condo websites out there!

Source: condoDomain Search Team

Warming Up….

and fooling around…

Visit Tony and John on LinkedIn!

And Don’t forget to contribute to The Condo Run, a charity run set up to benefit the homeless in Boston!!!

[Condo Run Getting Big - BostonREB.com]

Imran Haq was happy living a Spartan existence in his downtown condo. He had no dining table (he ate his meals on a red stool next to the granite kitchen counter) and his primary living space was a small brown couch and coffee table. His bare-bones bedroom had no art and a nondescript beige comforter was tossed over his bed.
Haq, 28, put it down to being a man “and not very interested in decorating.” But he adds in his defence that he decorated the 560-square-foot condo in conservative colours to complement the stainless-steel kitchen appliances. But when the financial adviser, who is now studying full-time for an online business degree, made a major life change — getting engaged and planning a move to California after his August wedding — he decided to put his condo up for sale.

Haq had lived in his one-bedroom unit with den at DNA Phase II at King St. W. near Shaw St. only since July. His realtor, Brent Park of Re/Max Condos Plus Corp. at Harbour Square on Queens Quay, suggested to Haq that the suite needed some sprucing up before it went on market.

Park called in a professional stager — someone who knows how to make a suite or house look its very best and appeal to a large group of buyers.The professional staging of rooms — placing furniture with regard to smart traffic flow, using soft colours, attractive window treatments, lighting and artwork — is commonly used to sell houses.  Continued…
Source: The Toronto Star

Where do I spend my advertising dollar when marketing my new condo or home? Well, the answer is both…but what percentage? Its actually close to 50/50 says Harmon Homes out of Las Vegas.

Real estate professionals can reach the maximum amount of their target audience by customizing their advertising approach through print and Internet means. Print advertising alone leaves 122 million Generation X and Y consumers from seeing your listings, while online advertising alone leaves 157 million Traditionalists and Baby Boomers from being reached by your listings.

“Real estate professionals must stress the importance of advertising in mediums reaching the most of your target audience.”

To better reach more home buyers, try these steps in your print and Internet advertising:

1. Keep your contact information visible. Always include your e-mail address
and phone number in all your listings, and keep it consistent. Potential home buyers need to know how to contact you; they will lose interest if they have trouble finding it.

2. Include your Web site address in your ad. Including your Web site in your ad will bring more traffic to your Web site and give the home buyer easy access to more information. If they are interested in one of your homes, chances are they will want to see more. Also, when advertising online, make the Web site address a click-thru link that sends the home buyer directly to your page.

3. Include multiple photos when it is available. Home buyers want to see the specifics of the home. Providing home buyers with photos will give them an exact idea of what the house looks like, inside and out.

4. Take advantage of print and Internet advertising. Put your listings where they reach all home buyers, in all demographics. There are four distinct generational groups, all with substantial presence in the real estate market, and all with definite buying power—the Traditionalists (Age 61+), The Baby Boomers (Ages 42-60), Generation X (Ages 26-41) and Generation Y (Ages 5-25). The generational differences are based on the media preferences they use to receive information and services, including real estate.

Source: RISMedia

Condo Run We are #1.
Make sure to support us today!

Our friend John Hitchcox and Design pay Philippe Starck has done it once again up in Toronto this time!

The Project: Seventy 5 Portland

Condos in Toronto are springing up faster than mushrooms. But developer Peter Freed, of Freed Developments Ltd., had seen Starck’s work on other condo projects in the U.S. and was bowled over by his sense of fun; he figured the ultra-cool designer could give him an edge. So he commissioned Starck to design the indoor lobby, outdoor courtyard, model suites and floor plans for Seventy5 Portland Street, in the downtown King West district. “I felt the neighbourhood was ready, and wanted to differentiate it from the competition,” says 37-year-old Freed. It is Starck’s first project in Canada.

For his debut, Starck offers up a whimsical play on scale in the public areas, and modern, clean design elsewhere. The courtyard’s centrepiece is a 30-metre-long table of Alice in Wonderland proportions, running into the interior lobby. (This, Starck says, is part of his vision that a condo building should be more than a collection of separate units.) The building will incorporate two looks: “minimal,” in whites complemented by colourful lighting; and “natural,” in earthier tones and materials. Seventy5 Portland, a modernist structure of glass and concrete, designed by Toronto-based Core Architects, is set to break ground in spring 2007.

Source: Canada Business Online | Toronto Condos

Thanks to Sellsius we have a really cool picture to kick off the holiday weekend.

Question: What comes first the building or the crane?

Source: by way of Sellsius

John Sobecky found his condominium on the Internet, financed the sale over the phone and spent only three hours on the walkthrough, inspection and closing.

“I never even met the listing broker or the mortgage broker,” he said.

A recent National Association of Realtors survey showed that 80 percent of home buyers used the Internet to search for a home in 2006 compared with 2 percent a decade earlier. Web sites are replacing paper listings, and in the newest technological twist, some real estate agents offer podcasts of their properties as well.

Broker Rudy Mayer began turning his listings into downloadable audio and video files about a year ago and recently upgraded to high definition. The podcasts are downloaded automatically to the iPods or mp3 players of anyone who’s subscribed to his site so potential buyers can view or listen to them anytime.

Not long ago, he got a call from a man in Paris who saw a $650,000 home listed on the Web site. The man flew in on a Saturday and bought the house the same day.

“I probably get 75 percent of my customers from the Web site,” said Mayer, of the ERA Masiello Group. “You don’t get any walk-ins anymore. That’s gone.

“If I didn’t have my Web site, I’d probably be dead in the water.”

Brian Moses, sales trainer and recruiter for RE/MAX Properties in Nashua, gets more than 50 percent of his business from the Internet. He said the Internet is the future of the real estate business.

“We’re going to have real estate training that you can download to your iPod or mp3 players,” Moses said. “In the early days, I used to have to get on a plane and fly to California to get trained.”

Making transactions smoother and quicker is important in a slow real estate market, experts say. Existing home sales fell 1.9 percent nationwide in September, while a 1.1 percent drop in private residential construction spending led to a drop in total construction spending to $1.2 trillion.

Source:  Boston Globe

The Condo Run Boston is getting close. Today, John (John A Keith, The Boston Real Estate Blogger) went for a warm up jog to get ready for The Condo Run in two weeks.

For those of you who are just hearing about The Condo Run for the first time…

The Condo Run will be run and hosted by Tony Longo, Founder of condoDomain.com and John A. Keith, The Boston Real Estate Blogger. The route is approximately 10 miles through almost every neighborhood in downtown Boston starting in the Back Bay, cruising through the South End, Midtown, Ladder District, Leather District, Seaport, Waterfront, North End and finally ending up the Charlestown Navy Yard. The run will highlight 20 of the top real estate condominium developments in downtown Boston.

“We have been so fortunate to live and work in such a great city. Everyday we see new luxury condo homes and gorgeous residential properties here in the downtown marketplace. The Condo Run is a reminder that not everyone is as fortunate to live in a beautiful, warm & clean apartment here downtown. We plan to make an impact for the homeless this year.” Sponsor Us Today

The Cause
All proceeds of the event will go the two main homeless shelters in downtown Boston, The Pine Street Inn and the St. Francis House.

The Pine Street Inn provides outreach services, meals, overnight shelter, job training, and counseling for 1200 homeless men and women, each day. Increasingly, the emphasis at Pine Street is on creating permanent, affordable housing that offers on-site counseling and support services.

St. Francis House believes that homelessness is an experience, not an identity. The largest day shelter in New England, it provides over 800 poor and homeless men and women a day with everything from meals and clothing to counseling, job training, and housing.

Thank you all for everyone who has already given a generous donation especially around the holiday season. Look for our interactive presentation and movie in the coming weeks. Be well and make sure to visit our sponsors! www.TheCondoRun.com

Contribute Today

Condo markets continue to heat up across the world.  condoDomain.com a national condominium search site shows 50% increase in traffic over the past 2 months.  GlobalCondoCenter.com, a global condo search platform shows similar trends.

As the condo market heats up across North America and the rest of the world, condominium developers hone down new lifestyles developments customized to specific demographics.  From first time home buyers, move up buyers and empty nesters are getting specific choices of new condo ownership these day.  From Lock and Leave lifestyles and maintenance free condo-hotel second homes, it’s never been easier to purchase a new condominium.

So why is the condo market heated?  Right now there is a major play because of demographic trends.  Empty nesters are coming of age and they are looking for that active, maintenance free lifestyle.  These down-sizers are selling their big homes and moving back or closer to the city where they can buy a beautiful brand new high-rise condominium and have all the services and amenities at their fingertips.  This mass movement is what is driving the condo market right now.  In addition to this trend, mortgage rates that are still extraordinarily low, have allowed first time buyers to buy at younger ages.

Every market also has its own niche.  Popular condo markets like Boston, San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, etc all have ancillary reasons for their condo boom, both domestic and international. In Boston for example, it is extremely difficult to get building permits to build new construction.  Most unused commercial buildings have already been converted to luxury condos, which leaves only new construction as an answer.  Slow building permits and strict guidelines is what boosts Boston prices to be among some of the nations highest and when some might be considered scared to own in this market, its actually one of the safest real estate bets out there.

The Condo Boom trend will continue.  With these new lifestyle engineered buildings, it is becoming a way of living not to just one demographic but to all.  People are working more hours and need more services and the condo lifestyle is the answer.

Blogs, Blogs Everywhere.  Technorati estimates about 55 million of them!

Good article this a.m. on MortgageNewsDaily.com

“We found blogs that were truly devoted to marketing. One, run by a developer focused on each of the seven developments he is currently trying to sell. Others promote the owner as a real estate guru, encouraging questions from readers while touting his expertise and his listings. A blog from an agent in Northern Virginia focuses on wooing the real estate junkie, with numerous tables on sales, housing starts, and mortgage applications in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Many provided links to cultural, government, and services web sites as well as maps for newcomers to the area.”

“But blogs can be dangerous. It is very possible to get carried away with the brand identity shtick, especially if the principal blogger is fascinated by his own opinions and ego. One agent in a western state was totally consumed, as was his blog, by tales of his ever-so-clever seven children. Yeach! Another, in the Midwest, pictured himself as another Greenspan. The verdict? Almost as unintelligible; not nearly as smart.”

Thanks to Sellsius Blog we found this neat application they call GeoGreetings.

Visit the Condo Blog Geogreeting.

Get your own GeoGreeting created from buildings around the world here.

Source:  GeoGreeting by way of Sellsius

The South Side Tower Condos are hot-to-trot.  South Side Tower is the focus of the exciting and eclectic new Grand View Pointe development by The Lawrence Group. Thirteen new condominiums and commercial space in the historic South Side National Bank Building transform the high-energy intersection at Grand and Gravois into a lively urban address. South Side Tower is located in Tower Grove South and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Welcome to the latest stop in the Grand neighborhoods of South St. Louis.

Visit the South Side Tower Condos Today or type www.SouthSideTower.net
Source:  The Lawrence Group, St. Louis

Not really condo related today…but we all kicked off our day today to the new Rocky Movie Trailer. Adriannn…
The greatest underdog story of our time is back for one final round of the Academy Award-winning Rocky franchise, former heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa steps out of retirement and back into the ring, pitting himself against a new rival in a dramatically different era.

Watch Rocky Balboa Trailer Now more on the Rocky Balboa Movie

Look at Sylvester Stallone House in Beverly Hills

Live on the BallPark! McGowan|Walsh has created the baseball fan’s ultimate dream, to live right on the ball park! The BallPark Lofts is located right next door to the all new St. Louis Cardinals Stadium (Busch Stadium).
Ballpark Lofts will be closest condominium development to the new Cardinals Ballpark and soon to be developed Ballpark Village, and will be right on the edge of the new proposed Chouteau Lake. In addition, we are also talking to several potential restaurants which are looking to locate in the first floor of your new building.

There will be 68 condominiums located on floors 3 to 6, with a mixture of spacious one and two bedroom units and several parking options to choose from. Your beautiful new home will feature exposed brick walls and timber ceilings; new energy efficient thermal windows; energy efficient heating and cooling systems; granite counter tops and high end appliances, including a washer and dryer; and European styled kitchens and baths with designer cabinets and plumbing fixtures.

PRIORITY PRICING STILL AVAILABLE: From the $140’s.

For more information on St. Louis Lofts visit www.stlballparklofts.com

InmanNews pointed out today that a shared, “intergalactic” real estate information database, with extensive records for every property on the planet, may serve multiple listing services of the future, according to a paper prepared by a National Association of Realtors advisory group.

Is this what Zillow had in mind from the very beginning???

The group, composed of brokerage-company representatives, real estate consultants and Realtor association staff and leadership, was tasked with wiping the slate clean in conceptualizing a futuristic MLS and to “specifically disregard what we have today,” said Loring, who spoke Saturday at a National Association of Realtors annual meeting.

It will be intersting to see how this proceeds and to see the reaction from the 900+ MLS databases from around the U.S.

Source:  Inman News

Watch Repton Place The Movie here.

Repton Place are brand new luxury condos being built in the beautiful setting of Watertown, MA. In the heart of thriving Watertown, you’ll find the luxury condominiums and lush green spaces of Repton Place. Repton Place sits just outside bustling Watertown Square, home to some of the Boston area’s great restaurants. Close to major highways and public transportation, Repton Place offers easy and fast access to downtown Boston, Cambridge, and the rest of the metro Boston area.
Repton Place Details
Units: 179
Stories: 4
Price Point: TBA
Occupancy: December ‘07 (est)

Contact Information:
E-mail. jlaurano@otisahearn.com
Web. www.reptonplace.com