Too Much Information!

As a followup to my blog about managing my information, contacts, websites and so on using Blogspot, Myspace, and Blue.us, I still feel overwhelmed with information.

With websites like Zillow, Windows Live Local, Redfin, Rain City Guide, there's so much information for someone in the real estate industry. And I've posted my thoughts on many of these before, below is a summary of what the sites feature.

Zillow - All you have to do is enter an address, and Zillow will give you an approximate value of that address (whether it's for sale or not)... then Zillow will give you the value of all the properties around you! The only problem is that you can't (as of yet) figure out what's for sale and what's not. I mean, it's nice to know that SOME homes in Bellevue are still only worth $300K, but nobody in that price range is currently selling their homes.

Windows Live Local - So far (since it's still in Beta mode), this website looks mainly like a really fancy Bird's Eye View map covering Seattle and the Eastside. It also features a car's eye view of downtown Seattle. So you can "drive" from place to place without leaving your computer. What I tend to do is do all my research on other websites, then I come here to check out the maps since the quality is much better than Zillow, Redfin, or Google Maps.

Redfin - I've been hearing about these guys for a while (I think I even get spam from them) but I just checked out their site and it's pretty innovative. All you do is enter an address (say, you wanted to live on Newport Way in Issaquah). Redfin will show you the map, and then will point to all the MLS listings available on the map (for now, I think it only works in Seattle... not sure though). It's really cool, although some destinations were inaccurate. The thing that's kinda scary to me (from a real estate agent's perspective) is that Redfin offers to give up to 2% back to a buyer "if" they meet certain requirements.

This is what worries me...
1. I've been in transactions where lenders aren't going to let buyers get "cash back" at closing. Most lenders are going to question why you need money back in the first place (They may think you can't afford the place). And anything over 1% is usually a red flag.
2. I've worked with "bad agents" forgetting paperwork and making bad offers. I can't imagine what type of offer would come directly from a homebuyer (unless of course they have plenty of experience buying homes).
3. The fact that some buyers are going to view the house with another agent and then go to Redfin.com to make an offer (without that agent) is probably going to cause legal headaches when it comes to who represents who.

Still, it would be tempting to try this out if I didn't already have access to the MLS.

Rain City Guide - One of the larger Seattle area real estate blogs I've seen. Lots of information on this site. Lots of regular contributors (agents and techies alike). Still, it just seems like there's too much going on. If I spend more than 2 minutes on there, I get dizzy. The front page seems to go on forever. As cutting edge as some of the features and search functions are (RSS feeds, nice!)... it almost seems like it's more than what's necessary to serve the needs of real estate clients. Oh well, the site seems more geared toward providing information anyway, so that's nice. I mean, I only get 10 hits a day on my own real estate website, but I get at least a call or email everyday from one of those 10. I couldn't imagine how overwhelmed I would be if I got as many visitors as they do (or course most visitors aren't going to Rain City Guide to look for an agent, but I digress).

Housing Maps.com - This is an innovative website. It takes all the listings from Craigslist (FSBO and MLS I believe) and places them onto Google Maps. Strangely enough, they're not affiliated with neither Google Maps nor Craigslist. Hey, I don't question it, I just use it.

My new automobile - 2001 Audi S4

I bid on a 2001 Audi S4 on ebay and ended up being the winner. It should get here next week. I'm pretty excited about it, and surprised that I got it for about $6K under blue book value.

It will be my first German car. I can't wait. I hear it's the Audi equivalent to a BMW M3, although not as quick. At least it has Quattro (4 wheel drive) so I can take it up to the pass.

I'm still not sure how long I will have it, but maybe I'll love it so much that I'll keep it for a while. More pics to follow.

Infinite networking potential

I'm so overwhelmed with information these days, I'm happy to say that I have Blogspot, Myspace, and Blue to help me stay organized.

Blogspot - Obviously to keep people updated with what's going on in my life. Although lately, my life has been mostly private matters between me and my clients. I haven't had too much free time so the blog updates have been few and far between. I've been finding more time for snowboarding, photography, rock climbing, taking Brian to the dog park and a few other things, so hopefully I'll be able to post those adventures on here.

Myspace - This is a good way to stay in touch with everybody. I've been finding many of my old friends from high school and college. I even find people that I have business relationships with. I'm surprised at how many people are actually on this site, but that's a good thing. It's a great networking tool. But I like it because I can see what my good friends have been up to.

Blue.us - This is a new website currently in Beta phase. It's a great resource for organizing all the data that you find on the internet (using "dots"). But not only that, it's a way to share information with friends and to arrange gatherings. Only about 600 members so far, but most of those happen to be friends or acquaintances of mine. Lets hope the site continues to grow and improve.

End of an era

*sigh*... for the first time since 2000, I rode on a non-Reaction Snowboard. This was at Crystal Mountain this past weekend where the snow was amazing and the crowds were fair (the waits were never ridiculous). However, it was quite windy at the top.

My old Reaction Snowboards have had probably 100 days of riding on most of them. I could tell they were losing their pop. The edges and base are in dire need of a tuneup. But instead of tuning them up, I figured I should get a new board and put the old ones on display (or use them for rails and low-snow-coverage days).

The new replacement board is a 2006 Nitro "Viva La" Resistance 155 cm. It was recommended by Sir Evan Schneider, long time friend and long time Boarderline employee. If he recommends it, you know it's good. I wanted a board for the park, that was light and powerful through turns and a tiny bit on the stiff side. This board is exactly all of those things.

I had a lot of fun on it. It was nice holding a really solid edge through turns and being able to get some "pop" when going off even the smallest jumps.

But I'll really miss riding a Reaction.

New camera toys for my Canon Rebel XT

I got some new lenses for my digital camera. So now I have plenty of things to use once spring snowboard season begins at the pass. I plan on doing a lot of videotaping and taking a lot of photos.

Now I have a wide angle for both my camcorder and camera. I'll be sure to post some sample images on here when I take a decent picture.

Another Zillow but not really

Windows Live Local featuring maps and Another Windows Live Local featuring downtown Seattle are pretty interesting.

These sites don't offer house prices like Zillow does, but the map resolutions are much better and seem to be updated more frequently.

The map featuring downtown Seattle actually shows the viewpoint from a car and you can go up and down all the streets. It's still in beta mode, so don't expect it to be completely reliable.

It's still really cool to see my old condo building and all the places I've eaten in downtown.