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Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday night. In this interview, Craig discusses some of the ideas and philosophies behind Craigslist, as well as explains why the Pentagon wants his help to better understand Al Qaeda.
I saw a post called "Crime Rates Per State" over on BlueRoof.com's blog that introduced a resource for finding the crime rates by state. Naturally, I decided to check out how D.C. compared to the rest of the country. The Disaster Center's chart
provides the crime rate (per 100,000) and overall rank for each of the
50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico in 9 categories of crime.
Washington, DC really dominated the other states of the nation in both 2004 & 2005 in terms of the crime rate per 100,000:
Violent Crime:
(2004) 1369.4 Rank= 1
(2005) 1459.0 Rank= 1
Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter:
(2004) 35.7 Rank= 1 
(2005) 35.4 Rank= 1 (Decrease!)
Forcible Rape
(2004) 40.1 Rank= 16
(2005) 30.2 Rank= 30
Robbery
(2004) 577.7 Rank= 1
(2005) 672.1 Rank= 1
Aggravated Assault
(2004) 715.9 Rank= 1
(2005) 721.3 Rank= 1
Property Crime
(2004) 4852.8 Rank= 2
(2005) 4747.0 Rank= 4
Burglary
(2004) 712.0 Rank= 21
(2005) 649.7 Rank= 26
Larceny-Theft
(2004) 2623.8 Rank= 22
(2005) 2694.9 Rank= 14
Motor Vehicle Theft
(2004) 1517.0 Rank= 1
(2005) 1402.3 Rank= 1 (Decrease!)
For more information on how to find out where all this crime is happening, check out my article "DC Police Release New 'Crime Maps'."
Well, on July 24th, I wrote a distressed call for help from our audience(which, at the time, included 9 people... all of whom were related to me) asking for help in designing some HotPads apparel. Well, I have finally gotten around to actually making some HotPads gear that is now available to the public.
To give you some ideas as to what you might want to buy for yourself or your loved ones, let me tell you what I am getting for my friends, family, and co-workers...
Team HotPads,
I got everyone a mouse pad because I am sick of using a magazine.
Doug Lewis,
I bought you this coffee mug so you can get your fill of caffeine in style.
Johnny,
I got you this stamp so you can mail stuff. I heard that postage is going up, so I guess I should have bought you more than 1. Oh well.
Doug Pope,
I bought you this muscle shirt to wear when you go to the gym (twice a day). It's silver, which I think is really neat!
George,
I got you this stein to drink from when writing blog posts.
Tim,
I got you these postcards to send to your family in Buffalo since there's always too much snow for you to actually go see them.
My New Nissan Xterra,
I got you a bumper sticker -- I promise that this is the only sticker that is going to come anywhere near you, my beautiful machine.
Mom,
I got you this great tote bag so you can carry an absurd amount of stuff while repping HotPads.
Dad,
All I got you was this stupid tie. I know you have lots of them, but this one is different, see? It's got the HotPads logo on it. Anyways, I hope you like it... I made it myself. You're just so hard to shop for. I'll get you something better for Christmas, I promise.
Matt, Kevin, and Everybody Else
I got you this HotPads t-shirt. It's really comfortable & looks great and I think you might actually wear it. 
HotPads has the perfect gift for any ocassion: Birthdays, Holidays, Anniversaries ... you name it!
There's a lot more HotPads paraphanalia available, so check out our store!
In the last post, "Contributing to Wikis: By Feed or By Hand," I mentioned that, while we were flattered to be included in InmanWiki, that others might not have been so ecstatic to have their content fed automatically to this central source.
In response to the article, Michael Price (of Mike's Corner) posted a very insightful and helpful comment that I wanted to highlight, as it provides a great solution to this problem.
There has a been a great deal of discussion regarding the integration of feeds on the Inman Wiki. I think anyone with a large blog or blogs that generate revenue from advertising would be adverse to having their feed re-purposed in another environment. There is a simple solution and I have implemented it for my blog on the Inman Wiki. If you have your feed "burnt" on feedburner, there is an option to create a "summary" feed. By turning this option on and using the feedburner address to your feed in the wiki, your blog will show a summary of each post with a comment to visit the actual blog to view the full content. Good for the Wiki, Good for the blog author. If you want more details on how to do it just shoot me an email, mprice@mlpodcast.com
I have noticed this before on my Google Reader and have always thought it was pretty cool -- the key is to provide enough good info in the preview to draw people to the original post. By turning this feature on, you can provide your content to the wiki, while maintaining your traffic and users... a pretty good compromise in my opinion.
In the world of wikis, it's both the quantity and quality of
information that is important, as the success of a wiki depends on
their ability to supply a large amount of information that is helpful,
informative, and useful. 
Because wikis rely on user-generated content, it is necessary for individuals
to share their insights to ensure that a wiki amasses enough material to survive. And, because wikis rely on user-generated content, it is even more important for real estate professionals, analysts, and industry "experts" to contribute their knowledge to ensure that a wiki amasses enough useful material to survive. Though I have discussed some of the negative aspects of wikis, I still maintain that the existence of wikis is a good thing, as they can provide different information that often proves more helpful than other sources, and encouraged people to become active in a wiki community.
And now you have no excuse not to. Thanks to the tip from Brad Inman, I learned that you can set up a RSS feed of your blog on the InmanWiki that automates the contribution process. To practice what I preach, I decided to look into setting up a feed for HotPads Daily.
After creating an account, I moved on to step 2: "do a quick search for your blog's name to make sure there isn't already a page created for it." To my surprise, there was already a page for HotPads Daily and a feed had already been created, complete with the entire archive of blog posts. I asked the other members of Team HotPads if they had already set up this feed, but nobody had. Well, that was easy...
But then I got to thinking about whether anybody would mind if someone else set up a RSS feed of their blog on a wiki. (Digression Alert) HotPads' blog neither earns any money nor has a very large following (though our readership has finally grown beyond family members), but many sites do. I wonder how big of an impact providing their material to a central source has on their individual blog's traffic. At the moment, I doubt they are taking too big of a hit, but as wikis become more prominent sources of information and gain a larger audience, I am curious to see if there will be any effects felt by the larger bloggers.
Clearly, many people are in favor of setting up a feed, as there are already over a 100 Real Estate blogs participating, including many of the biggest, most popular sites. However, even if you do not set up a feed, you can still contribute articles individually to both InmanWiki and Zillow's Real Estate Wiki (for more information on contributing to Zillow's wiki, check out their guidleines.)
I was listening to the radio last night, largely tuned out while concentrating on not crashing my car into a 4 ft snow embankment, when I heard something that caught my attention. It was an ad that went something like this (I tried desperately to find it, but failed):
National home sales are down, according to the National Association of Realtors. Put your skills to better use with a job that rocks. Clear Channel Communication is now hiring in sales and marketing...
There are 3 things that I find note-worthy about this ad:
1) I've never heard an ad so targeted at a particular industry's workers.
The
point of this message was to attract real estate professionals to the
radio industry, suggesting that they could earn more and be more
successful if they abandoned real estate.
2) The ad was targeted at real estate professionals, not any other industry's workers.
This
radio station's management obviously thought that a real estate
professional could easily transition into the radio world. They
believe that real estate-related abilities were suitable for radio and
that real estate professionals already had the skills and experiences
that they desired.
3) I was listening to DC101, "DC's Rock Station." 
Those who live in the DC area or are familiar with the radio station
might understand what I'm talking about. If I were listening to WMAL
"News Talk 630" or even Mix 107.3, I don't think that I would have been
caught so off guard by this message. But I wasn't, I was listening to
DC 101. I believe the main audience of this radio station is
teenagers, college kids, and young adults, as they play alternative and
rock music that generally makes older people want to bang their head
against a wall. That makes me wonder if they were trying to appeal to the younger, newer real estate professionals who have not seen the "good times" and are disillusioned by the slow market.
Real estate professionals and the entire industry are becoming the focus of many ads and debates. DC 101 clearly thought that many real estate professionals were dissatisfied with their jobs or income and that they might be tempted to leave their industry for a career in another one. I'd be interested to see how many Realtors, home-builders, and developers leave their jobs for one in radio sales and marketing, but I doubt I will ever find out. Nonetheless, the fact that DC 101 is even running this ad says a lot about their perceptions of the state of the real estate industry, as well as the professionals involved in it.
Kudos to Drew Meyers for picking up a report of the happiest nations in the world. The study, conducted by the University of Leicester, analyzed various factors associated with happiness to rank the overall happiness of a nation. They then created a heat map illustrating the relative happiness of all the countries across the globe.
According to this survey, the top 10 happiest countries are:
1. Denmark
2. Switzerland
3. Austria
4. Iceland
5. The Bahamas
6. Finland
7. Sweden
8. Bhutan
9. Brunei
10.Canada
and the 3 unhappiest (saddest?) nations of the world are all located in Africa:
176. Democratic Republic of the Congo
177. Zimbabwe
178. Burundi
I have highlighted the 10 happiest and 3 unhappiest nations, as well as a few other notable countries on their map. (I have a confession to make to my 8th grade geography teacher who made us memorize the world map: I had to look up where Burundi was...I'm sorry)
*Click the image for a larger view*
Drew makes a good point that money can't buy happiness, as the United States is only the 23rd happiest country, despite having the largest economy. (I guess military supremacy can't buy happiness either.) For more information on comparing the happiest countries with economic activity, check out the global economic activity heat map.
We are fortunate to have thousands of great rental housing listings on HotPads, but every now and then, a listing is created that warrants mention. Whether it's an unusual amenity, a great company website, or whatnot, I feel it is my responsibility to share with the blogging-public these great HotPads listings.
So today, I would like to introduce
Bini Island. 
Now, I know HotPads is a rental housing listing service, that does not provide For Sale housing and I know that HotPads is only available in the United States, but how can we turn down this listing?!?
Bini Island, located in Quezon Province, Philippines, is up for sale for USD 30,000. This 10,000 sqm "flying saucer island" is almost perfectly round, surrounded by white beaches and crystal clear water, and, best of all, lacks any pesky Mangrove trees. If you are worried about the drinking situation, fear not... fresh water is available on the next island over, which is less than a kilometer (.62 miles) away.
There's lots more information and photographs of the island, so check out the listing: Bini Island
For details on owning land as a non-Filipino citizen, check out this info on property ownership
The 30th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate is posted over at Pittsburgh Homes Daily.
The hosts decided to continue the Valentine's season even longer by awarding "Dinners Out," "A Dozen Roses," and a "Box of Chocolates."
The top pick of this week (and winner of a romantic dinner out) was Bloodhound Blog's Allen Butler with his SPAC Disease Reaches Pandemic Proportions. There's a great list of other articles to check out, so head on over to the Carnival results!
And remember, every Sunday, get your submissions in to be considered in the Carnival of Real Estate.
The recent rise of Web 2.0 indicates an evolution in the preferences, habits, and expectations of internet users that must be recognized, understood, and addressed by the real estate industry. As more people are searching online for housing information, the growing number of blogs, forums, podcasts, wikis, and social networking sites are transforming the way people search for and gather information online. Because real estate professionals must adapt their services to provide for the changing expectations of internet users, it is necessary to understand these new developments in online search, as internet users demand different types of information, provided by different people, from different sources, in different formats.
Different Information:
People are no longer willing to accept the information provided by experts, journalists, and officials as definitive and comprehensive sources of information. Instead, people are seeking a broader array of information that includes both personal observations and individual's insights, recognizing that formal sources of information provided
by officials, professionals, journals, and newspapers are not as
adept at illustrating the complexities of a topic or industry as individuals' insights, opinions, and theories.
Different Contributers:
When seeking a broader array of information, internet users are calling upon different groups of people to contribute their knowledge than those that have been primarily used in the past. They are inviting individuals, industry professionals, bloggers, and all others who can contribute to their understanding of a given topic. While, in the past, the reporting and presenting of real estate news was dominated by key real estate journalists, organizations, and governments, more and more people are now finding a voice and gaining an audience.
Different Sources:
As the pool of contributors has greatly expanded to include a larger number of people providing information, traditional sources of information like newspapers and encyclopedias have been supplemented by a growing number of alternative resources.
Blogs
Perhaps the most notable of these new repositories of information are blogs. The recent proliferation of real estate blogs has changed the face of the industry, as more discussions, debates, and insights are shared amongst the thousands of real estate blogs. This flow of information among real estate professionals, observers, and insiders present dramatically different information about the real estate industry and has greatly expanded the available information for real estate pros and Joes alike.
Wikis
Wikis are another example of these newly-popularized resources of information, as evidenced by Zillow's Real Estate Wiki and the InmanWiki. While encyclopedias provide primarily factual information authored by experts, wikis represent a collaborative effort in which individuals provide, edit, and manage the content of the site. While there are numerous issues that arise with this type of group activity, wikis are better suited to provide insight on topics and industries that deal with speculation, human actions, and individual circumstances.
Forums/Discussions
Finally, people are choosing to participate in discussion groups and forums to learn about a topic in a more direct interaction and exchange. These groups are especially useful when seeking personal opinions, experiences, or advance about a particular topic. Users can find discussion groups on any number of topics and can learn more from the first-hand experiences of others. For example, internet users can participate in forums that discuss particular neighborhoods or areas, Realtors and property managers, and even individual properties. The information available from these discussion groups differs drastically from all other sources can illuminate facets of a topic that are often neglected or omitted.
Different Formats
People are also searching for information that is presented in different formats. The rise of podcasts and video demonstrations demonstrate that people appreciate visual and audible forms of information to supplement plain text. Rather than reading instructions, many prefer to watch a video demonstration. Instead of pouring through newspapers, many prefer to listen to podcasts. And rather than reading a list of amenities, many would prefer to watch a virtual tour or video guide.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST: Real Estate Edition
These changes in internet users' preferences signal a new era in the age of information that is centered around the sharing, transparency, and availability of information. Internet users are no longer content with the traditional types of
information provided by experts, organizations, or governments that
present factual, "unbiased," and official information. They are
relying less on experts and officials to provide the information they
are seeking, aware of the tendency of these authors to use their
messages to persuade or convince the public. People are demanding a larger, more varied amount of information,
welcoming a broader pool of contributors, looking on alternative
sources, and seeking different information in different formats. Real estate professionals must understand and accept these
developments and adapt their services to provide for the changing expectations and demands of the internet user.
Failing to adapt to the changing environment will result in the loss of
customers to competitors who do understand the centrality of the
internet to their business plan. Darwin's "Survival of the Fittest" rings true for the real estate industry: those who adapt survive, those who don't, well... die. If that's too dramatic for you, let me put it in terms of reality television:
You will be the
"Weakest Link"...
You will not be the "Survivor"...
You will lose
the "Amazing Race"...
YOU WILL ACTUALLY BE "The Biggest Loser."*
*(OK, I admit it. I have no idea what the Biggest Loser is about, but it just fit so nicely)
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