I bought a condo
I wrote this post a while ago but was waiting for the urbnlivn thing to get soft launchable before posting…
The other week I bought a one bedroom west facing view condo on the fifth floor at The Meritage, a new development several blocks south of my apartment.
This came as a shock to several of my friends because since moving to Seattle I’ve been a big believer in the imminent bursting of the Seattle real estate bubble. See interest rates were going up, incomes at the local tech companies have been flat, zoning changes have resulted in more supply, rental prices are low, foreclosures are raising… However, while sales have slowed, the market is still hot, properties have continued to appreciate, the local tech companies have continued to expand, some believe prices will go even higher, interest rates are likely plateauing,…
I definitely should have bought two years ago. But better late than never, right? (I swear I never said that when buying Pets.com stock at it’s peak!).
Now during my real estate investigation I got frustrated about a few things. For one the hot sites just provide listings but no analysis. I want a site that allows me to look at the average cost per square foot (min, max, median) and track that over time. Also other data points like # of new listings, average length of time on the market, closing prices… Looking at Redfin and Zillow both have a lot of work to do in the area of real estate analytics. Speaking of Seattle’s two hot real estate states, I use Redfin almost exclusively (in conjunction with a RSS subscription to a key word feed on Craigslist), while Zillow is useless for me because it only seems to work for single family dwellings.
My other frustration was with the quality of agents at pre-sale centers. Generally, they’re awful. They don’t ask you any questions or try to understand what you’re looking for. Instead they’re busy trying to sell you something that might not even be appropriate; they’re worse than used car salesmen. The agents also have this crazy obession with guarding the prices of the units forcing you to ask about every unit that you might be interested in.
It’d also be nice if there was a new construction portal that did a good job of aggregating pre-sale information giving you the ability to see what was on the market, what was coming up, and what had already come and gone (for historical pricing information). None of the current sites seem to offer this, which is why I built Urbnlivn.
Comments(11)Innovation
NY Times has an interesting article on one company’s method of determining which projects to pursue, Here’s an idea: Let everyone have ideas:
they focus on an internal market where any employee can propose that the company acquire a new technology, enter a new business or make an efficiency improvement. These proposals become stocks, complete with ticker symbols, discussion lists and e-mail alerts. Employees buy or sell the stocks, and prices change to reflect the sentiments of the company’s engineers, computer scientists and project managers - as well as its marketers, accountants and even the receptionist.
This is an interesting idea. I like the idea of empowering employees through concensus based decision making. However, when you have a company as large as Microsoft I feel a benevolent dictatorship is required for guiding the strategic direction of any medium to large sized projects.
John you should have gone to Argentina
Yesterday John headed off to Tunisia (I had to look it up on a map..). While out with him this weekend we grilled home on questions about where he was going and why. What baffled us was that he didn’t know what they ate there. For someone who takes eating so seriously we were a little surprised. The conversation then turned to where should you vacation if you’re in the same demographic the we are (young, male, love BBQ’ing meat). The conclusion was Brazil. We figured they’d probably have a really good meat situation. However, after reading this blog entry, Argentina On Two Steaks A Day, my next vacation might be there. Or maybe a burger tour in LA.
Urbnlivn
I got so frustrated that there was no list of new condo construction in Seattle that I built my own and in true web 2.0 style named it Urbnlivn.
And for the record, I hate developing in Javascript. I don’t know how all these web 2.0 kids tolerate it. I’ve been pulling my hair out for weeks now trying to understand why my code doesn’t work.
Happy hour on the Hill
Capitol Hill Happy Hours. Linda’s works out best for us since none of us typically get home before 7pm.
Maple Music Should Not Have Ads
Maple Music, a Canadian music etailer, has ads on their site and it bugs me.
Purchased
Today I was browsing an online music service that I’m trying out and noticed that The Tragically Hip had a new album out. After further investigation it turns out it wasn’t just an album, it was a whole box set titled, Hipeponymous. I bought it without hesitation even though I seem to rarely purchase music. Why? They bundled a bunch of items that I can’t get through pirate channels. This box set not only contains two CDs of remastered tracks, but also contains two DVDs and a 48 page booklet.
If artists/labels are still concerned about piracy then they should consider similar bundling efforts that result in a product that isn’t easily reproduced and distributed by online ‘pirates’.
2005/2006 Hockey season is over
The 2005/2006 hockey season came to an end last night.
Silver Blades, my division 4 team, faired well. We came second in the playoffs; I scored more goals in the playoffs than the regular season. This new stick is certainly worth it :).
Red Army, my division 5 team, while finishing on top of the division in regular season play, got eliminated after two losses in the playoffs; everyone was super disappointed (we lost the second game in a shot out!)
To bridge the gap between fall/winter season and the summer season the majority of players on Red Army are going to ‘HES’ (Hockey Education System) for a five week, twice a week, hockey training camp. This should hopefully whip us hacks into superstars enabling us to dominate division 5 this summer.
For kicks, my lifetime hockey stats.
In other hockey news, the Seattle T-Birds (WHL) lost to Portland in overtime during game 7 of their first round playoffs. Grr!