Facebook Likes and an iPad
August 31, 2010 – 9:24 amThe free iPad drawing will happen at the end of next month. The Facebook "Like" growth rate so far is below.Be sure to enter by seleting "Like" on our home page as well as our Facebook Page.
The free iPad drawing will happen at the end of next month. The Facebook "Like" growth rate so far is below.Be sure to enter by seleting "Like" on our home page as well as our Facebook Page.
Google Invests in 480 Low Income Rental Units
August 30, 2010 – 5:19 pmGoogle will be investing $86 Million into a low income housing fund that will be managed by U.S. Bank. The fund will provide a major source of funding for the construction and operation of 480 affordable rental housing units for low income families and senior citizens in seven communities throughout the West and Midwest.Brent Callinicos, Google vice president and treasurer said, “In recent years there has been a void in affordable housing investment. Our investment with USBCDC allows us to further our goal of providing relief to people who otherwise may not have access to quality housing.”Many of the complexes include a range of one to four-bedroom apartments, and offer a shared laundry facility and community gathering area. In addition to this USBCDC sponsored fund, Google also recently invested in two other low-income housing projects for senior citizens, one in the San Francisco Bay community of Sunnyvale, and the other in the ...
How to Prorate Rent
August 20, 2010 – 12:25 pmFreeRentalSite has a nifty prorate calculator that allows owners the ability to prorate the rent if a tenant is not in the property for the entire month. Check it out below:Apartments and Homes for Rent
Real Estate Stats in Any City
August 13, 2010 – 9:18 amWolframalpha has a very unique widget builder for virtually any statistical query within the Wolframalpha database. For example, we built this widget below in 5 minutes. It shows the real estate stats for any city within the US.
The Social Network Movies
August 12, 2010 – 6:41 pmI was sitting at the movie theater last week and one the previews for a new movie appeared on the screen. It is called "The Social Network", the story about Facebook. I actually may go see it. You can also view the future "Twitter" movie. It is pretty funny.
Real Estate Market Data - Stability?
August 9, 2010 – 6:59 pmThe Chief Economist of Zillow, Stan Humphries, wrote an interesting post today entitled, "June Data Shows Markets Continuing to Limp Toward Stability; Hoping We Won’t Fall Back Down the Stairs After Losing Our Crutches". In it he writes that for 48 consecutive months, the home values of homes nationally have declined.One could predict that if this trend continues we may be out of the housing recession. However, June data still represents the homes that were under contract in April and were eligible for the Federal home buyer tax credit.Zillow has seen home sales prices fall as existing homes sales in May and June were down 2.2% and 5.1% respectively, on a monthly basis. Pending sales have fallen as well, down 30% and 2.6% on a monthly basis in May and June. "Falling home sales will have a negative impact on home value trends but the magnitude of this impact isn’t yet ...
Scary Employment Chart
August 6, 2010 – 11:04 amThe July employment numbers were released today and they are disappointing. The labor department reported that private business added 71,000 new net jobs in July and the federal government laid off 143,000 temporary workers.BusinessInsider has a chart that explains the percent job losses relative to peak employment month in post WWII recessions.
Google to Compete with Comcast?
July 14, 2010 – 10:56 amIn February, Google announced that it planned to build experimental, ultra high-speed broadband networks for homes across the nation. They plan on delivering Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today.It is conceivable that Google could eventually compete with Comcast and other service providers. Here are some reasons why. With more bandwidth and faster internet speeds, Google will be able to stream TV and video across the Internet without delay or limitations. The network would allow for more targeted ads for TV, Video and Games. These targeted ads could subsidize the cost of monthly Internet, TV and Phone service. Google has the resources and ability to provide a network at very large scale More competition is better for the userWhat do you think?
Celebrity San Diego Homes - Mitt Romney
June 29, 2010 – 2:24 pmThe RealeStalker has the top celebrity homes in San Diego. One in particular is a $12,000,000 house that was purchased by Mitt Romney, the 70th Governor of Massachusetts.BUYERS: Mitt and Ann RomneyLOCATION:Dunemere Drive, La Jolla, CAPRICE: $12,000,000
Social Media - 93% of Residents Have Never Visited an Apartment Social Media Page
June 29, 2010 – 12:50 pmA recent survey, from J Turner Research (JTR), found that 93 percent of apartment residents have never visited an apartment community’s page on a social networking Web site. Nearly one quarter of all respondents (24%) said they do not visit any social networking Web sites. The findings are based on responses from 15,964 apartment residents collected between January 1, 2010 and June 13, 2010.Other Social Networking Findings: One quarter of respondents (25%) ranked communication with the community via social networks as “Not Important at All.” Only seven percent ranked it as “Very Important,” though 37 percent provided favorable feedback. More than half of respondents (52%) said they check their community’s page to “Learn about Community Events or Activities.” 20 percent visited the page to “Provide Positive Feedback Regarding Some Aspect of the Community” and only six percent stated they visited to “Provide Negative Feedback.” Eight percent logged on to “Ask a Question about a Maintenance ...
Delivering Happiness - A Path to Passion, Profits and Purpose
June 14, 2010 – 3:37 pmI just finished reading Tony Hsieh's book called "Delivering Happiness - A Path to Passion, Profits and Purpose."Some things I didn't know before reading Tony's book At Harvard, Tony ran the local BBQ. He drove miles to buy McDonalds hamburger patties and resold them for 4 times the going rate Tony sold his first company to Microsoft for $265 million (2 years earlier he turned down an offer to be bought for $1 million Tony personally gave up $8 million from Microsoft because he didn't stay with them for 12 months. The Rave Scene has a strong culture. PLUR ("Peace Love Unity Respect") .This transformed Tony's way of thinking Tony gave up everything to gain something. Tony was willing to risk ALL of his personal money to get Zappos through the tough times Tony had a party at his place and an unknown woman told him, "Envision, create and believe in your own universe, and the universe will ...
Realtor.com - Where are your rental listings?
June 2, 2010 – 6:04 pmI can't believe one of the largest real estate sites in the World has very few rental listings. I searched for rentals in Denver, CO and got this message:
Rental Mobile Search on Any Mobile Device
June 2, 2010 – 12:10 pmWhen it comes to rental mobile applications and applications in general, the main problem for users is they must physically download the application to their phone. This is time consuming and annoying.The solution to this problem is developing a mobile site that is mobile device agnostic. It will function on any device that has an Internet connection. Enter, rentbits.com mobile apartment and rental home search.Here is how it works: Go to rentbits.com on your phone's browser Enter location or allow the phone to detect your location Enter other pricing, type options if you prefer Begin searchingrentbits.com receives approximately 5% of all traffic from mobile devices.Screen shots below:
Google’s Economic Impact on the US
May 26, 2010 – 5:33 pmIn 2009, Google generated over $54 billion in economic activity in the US. In Colorado alone, created $880 Million in economic activity for Colorado businesses.Here’s a video from Chief Economist, Hal Varian, and Claire Hughes Johnson, Vice President, Global Online Sales with more background on where we get the numbers: (Fast forward to 1:35 seconds for the data)
Real Estate Search on Your TV
May 20, 2010 – 6:19 pmGoogle TV - Search anything from the comfort of your couchThere are over 4,000,000 TV watchers in the World. Google is trying to solve the problem of TV channel fragmentation with the new Google TV. Imagine the advertising and user functionality potential.In the very near future, you will be able to search real estate based on your tv viewing habits. Food Channel? Larger kitchens. Sesame Street? safe neighborhoods near elementary school. Poker channel? Game room. The possibilities are endless.
Life At Google
May 12, 2010 – 3:27 pmOne of the many things I miss while I was at Google is something called AtGoogleTalks. Once a month or so, Google invites a politician, author, celebrity, public figure, etc. to give a talk at Google. Below is the most recent AtGoogleTalks with Conan O'brian. It is about 45 minutes long but absolutely hilarious. Enjoy![youtube]u7TwqpWiY5s[/youtube]
6 Myths about Apartment Rental Sites
May 10, 2010 – 8:57 pmIn an April 2010 UNITS article, “Are ILSs still Relavant,” Paul Bergeron III discusses the relevancy of apartment rental sites and their business models. I recommend reading the entire article as it highlights multi-family executives and their thoughts on using ILS’s (Internet Listing Services) and whether or not ILSs drive more leads and leases to their communities. Within the article, Paul asked the ILSs to name one myth about apartment marketing and explain why that belief was not accurate. These are below: MyNewPlaceMyth: Communities must pay ILSs for leads they can essentially find elsewhere for free or significantly less money. Reality: If a cost-per-lead analysis is conducted across a community’s marketing program, the ILS category will deliver the greatest value for the money and time invested. When apartment communities advertise, regardless of the medium, they are effectively paying to generate prospective leads. Whether they are listing their phone number ...
RealPage.com files for $150 Million IPO
May 7, 2010 – 4:10 pmOn April 29th, RealPage, Inc, an on demand software solutions provider for the rental housing industry, filed its registration statement with the SEC.In 2009, RealPage revenues rose approximately 26% in 2009 with revenues of $140 million and net income of $28 million.(Click on image below to consolidated financial data)Net income for 2009 included a discrete tax benefit of approximately $26.0 million as a result of a reduction of their net deferred tax assets valuation allowance.Operating income was approximately $6.9 million in 2009.Real Page built most of their business through acquisitions. 1999 - M/PF Research 2000 - ChannelTECH 2002 - YieldStar 2002 - Realhound.com 2003 - Resident Rewards 2005 - The Pleco Group 2007 - LeasingDesk Insurance Services 2008 - WebRoomz 2008 - OpsTechnology 2009 - Evergreen Solutions 2009 - PropertyWare 2010 - Domin-8This is all very good news for the industry and the market in general. The IPO market is improving. Most recently, within the local market, Reply.com, filed to go public.
Where are you Redfin?
April 27, 2010 – 4:14 pmRedfin, the profitable real estate broker, is currently not in Colorado. Mr Kelman, please expedite. If you don't know what Redfin does, see video below:
Test Your Real Estate Knowledge - Game
April 22, 2010 – 8:52 pmAnswer 7 questions in 70 seconds. Can you beat the high score?
AIM Attendees - Want to stay in a NY Penthouse?
April 22, 2010 – 10:41 amIf you are going to the AIM Conference next week you have a very good chance of winning a weekend in a luxury penthouse in NY city. (Sorry no AIM sponsors or vendors are eligible to win). Only 170 possible entries will be made available.The master bedroom overlooks West 48th while the second bedroom and expansive entertaining areas look onto the activity of Broadway.Enter to win today! The Winner will be announced next week at the AIM conference.
Top 10 Things Apartment Websites Can Do To Increase Traffic
April 16, 2010 – 3:21 pmMany property managers and REITs, are looking for ways to drive more traffic directly back to their apartment sites. One effective way to do this is to optimize the site to show higher in search engines. Also, known as SEO - (Search Engine Optimization). Below are 10 things you can do to help increase your sites rankings: Start an Informational Blog The best thing a site can do is develop high quality content that other sites will link to. The easiest way to do this is to consistently write great content on a blog. With the democratization of the web, this tells the search engines that your site is relevant and trusted. Your Domain It is best to put your blog on your own domain. For example, www.mycompany.com/blog. Some sites use a sub-domain, for example, www.blog.mycompany.com but the former is the best to use since it is technically the same domain as your apartment site. Blogging ...
rentbits.com Fastest Moving Real Estate Site - March
April 16, 2010 – 10:57 amThe HitWise numbers for March (pdf) are out and rentbits.com is on the list again for one of the fastest growing real estate sites in the US.rentbits jumped 23 places to number 51 on the top real estate sites in the United States.The growth has been strong for 2010 and Compete.com has rentbits close to 250K uniques per month. Internal unique data is approximatley 500K unique visitors per month.
RentWiki.com Raises Multi-Million Dollar Round
April 14, 2010 – 11:30 amRentWiki.com, an apartment social search engine, has secured a multi-million dollar financing round from Antares Capital. Prior funding investments totaled $2.43M from internal and strategic investors including major REITs. This brings total funding to over $4 Million. "We have an excellent track record of investing in smart, successful businesses,” explained Randy Poliner, Antares Capital partner and new addition to RentWiki’s board of directors. “We’re selective in the companies we invest in and they typically have very strong management teams and solid business models. RentWiki is no exception.” "Our business has reached the point where we have proven the model. Consumers love the social content that Rentwiki offers and clients have embraced our cost effective pay-per-lead model. This funding round gives us the opportunity to invest more heavily in the traffic we need to drive more quality leads to our clients as well as expand our consumer content," said Robert Turnbull, president of ...
rentbits.com Google Commercial
April 11, 2010 – 9:21 amCan you find us? It's not what you do, it's where you do it. Search On...
#AptChat Fridays For the Multifamily Industry
April 10, 2010 – 1:00 amThe most creative use of Twitter for the apartment industry I have seen so far is a weekly chat called #aptchat. Lisa Trosien and Mike Whaling started #aptchat this year and it is starting to take off. Every Friday, at 4:00 EST anyone can enter the discussion by following and adding #aptchat to their response tweets. Take a look at the historical content below. 2010 January January 8 — The Numbers on Craigslist January 15 — Craigslist for Apartments, Part II January 22 — Get More Out of Your Property Tours January 29 — Managing ‘Fixed Costs’ at Your Property February February 5 — Blogging for Your Apartment Community February 12 — Revenue Management Software February 19 — Marketing Trends for Student Housing February 26 — Free-For-All Friday! March March 5 — Social Media Policies March 12 — All Things Amenities March 19 — Shopping Your Leasing Team March 26 — Takeaways from the Optimization Summit
Trulia Launches Rental Search
April 7, 2010 – 10:40 amToday, Trulia announced the launch of their rental search product.They also announced the ability for users to rate neighborhoods and local areas:
