HotPads Daily :: The Official Blog of HotPads.com

Best Xmas Map App Ever!

If you want to give Santa fresh-baked cookies right before he slides down your chimney, one website allows you to clock his movements everywhere he goes this Christmas eve.

The NORAD Santa Tracker links Santa's position to Google Maps, and you can see even more with the Santa tracker tied to Google Earth.  The site also links to geocoded miniclips on YouTube that show you interesting highlights from Santa's fly-overs around the world.

We must admit that this is a much more complicated use of online maps than HotPads.com (since apartments and houses for sale don't actually move around.)  But you can look for a new rental house or condo year-round with us.  That's a gift that keeps on giving...

Happy Holidays from HotPads.com!

HotPads.com Launches Insurance Center

As with the recent addition of for-sale listings and our new Buy vs. Rent search tool, HotPads is always looking to provide more information to help you with your housing search.  Most people don't want to think about it, but shopping for and updating insurance plans is an integral part of the moving and home buying process.

So today we launched the new HotPads Insurance Center.  This online resource guide has articles and information on homeowners, renters, auto, life and flood insurance.

So check it out today, and consider it an early Christmas present from HotPads.

StreetAdvisor wants to give you the local 411

A new website looks to give home buyers and renters a look into the quality of life of neighborhoods on a street-by-street basis with contributions from the community itself.

What TripAdvisor.com is to travel, epinions.com is to products, and Yelp.com is to restaurant reviews, StreetAdvisor is to streets.  (Their words, not mine.)

Information is provided with a combination of five-star ratings, wiki-type articles and photo/video uploads.  Ratings are given in categories like nightlife, cell phone reception and cost of living.  Real estate junkies can put in recent sales data.

The information is different than what is provided on the HotPads area pages, since it's less "hard stats" and more "read my rant." (Or rave.)  The site is well put together, and the biggest drawback is the lack of content since it's so new.  There's a lot of competition here, but it may be one to watch.

Hungry for more, read their recent press release.

Fannie Mae CEO Forecasts Housing Slump through 2008; Fails to Factor in HotPads

Fannie Mae CEO Dan Mudd publicly predicted that average home prices will drop another 4% to 5% in 2008,  with no up tick coming until 2009 "at the earliest."  He does expect a rapid rebound once affordability returns to the housing market.

This dour outlook was probably calculated before the news broke about the new HotPads Buy vs. Rent search engine.

Now that renters can look for available listings and see what great homes are available to buy for the same monthly payment, you can expect a healthy shot of adrenaline to be injected into the housing market.  Until now, no other website has allowed users to browse all of their available housing options using their personal monthly housing budget as a filter.  See it for yourself here.

So credit crunch notwithstanding, renters can now see the deals available with drop in real estate and help speed our recovery faster than many analysts expected.  (A small, tasteful ceremony in the White House Rose Garden will be thanks enough.)

HotPads launches first Buy vs. Rent search engine

HotPads today launched the first Buy vs. Rent search engine.  What??

Everyone knows we are in the midst of a down housing market.  Things are getting difficult for both real estate professionals and owners.  The National Association of Realtors announced that the inventory of available homes rose to 10.8 months in October.  (link)

The real estate market is going to recover.  The question is, when?... And this is why these times can be difficult for those potential first-time buyers out there.

We are launching the first "Buy vs. Rent" search engine with the hope that it will provide to housing shoppers some of the information required to make sound financial decisions when deciding whether this is the right time to buy or rent.

So... how does it work?

There are now three search portals within HotPads; For Sale, For Rent, and Buy vs. Rent. When users click the Buy vs. Rent tab above the map, both For Sale and For Rent listings are returned in the search results on the map. For Sale listings have a monthly cost associated with them that take mortgage payments including interest rate, down payment, and term length into account. As users adjust their pricing criteria on the map, homes for sale and rent appear and disappear respectively. This allows users to see exactly what properties they can afford to buy and rent.

Users can adjust the mortgage terms so each Buy vs. Rent search is customizable to the individual. 

Of course there are other factors that should weigh into the "Buy vs. Rent" decision other than just the mortgage payments, like maintenance costs, property taxes, homeowner tax deductions, appreciation, closing costs etc.  But we wanted to keep the actual search results simple... and as un-subjective as possible.  So, we are also launching a "Buy vs. Rent" calculator in all of the listing that take all of the other considerations into account.  Here is a link to the calculator:  link .

Why do we think this "Buy vs. Rent" search engine is important?

This is the first time housing shoppers can see what they can afford to buy and what they can afford to rent... and using our map-based search engine, where.  Also, in a down market, first-time home buyers can help fuel a housing recovery.  First-time buyers do not have to risk an equity loss by selling their existing home so they are more free to take advantage of declining real estate prices.

We are always looking for input.  If you have any suggestions for improving the Buy vs. Rent portal or any other feature on HotPads we want to hear from you!  Please email us at info@hotpads.com.   

More information can be found at our press release here: link

HotPads.com on Center Stage in Web Marketing

This week alone we saw three different companies issue press releases that referenced their ability to engage housing shoppers through HotPads.  Long time HotPads partner Threewide, newcomer PropertyNut and Premier Realty Group on Florida's Treasure Coast recognize HotPads as a key player in online housing search.

A lot of this has to do with two key advantages of HotPads; One, our partners get a level of personal attention that doesn't exist at larger search sites.  And two, HotPads gives them the ability market both rental and for-sale listings on behalf of their clients while other sites only reach one type of housing shopper.

More importantly, it's also a reflection of the HotPads website audience, which tends to be younger and more web-savvy than visitors to traditional real estate classified sites.  This translates into an audience that is more open to doing real business on the web, not just browsing listings.

White Winter in Washington

Today was the first snowfall of the season here in Washington, DC, making the day of countless children throughout the area... not to mention our newest engineer, Keith.

Keith hails from Texas and has never seen snow before.

So, to celebrate "snow," he took some time out of his busy work schedule to borrow a pair of gardening gloves and build a snowman. 

After a couple of failed attempts at making snowballs and having them explode from over-pressure, Keith finally got the hang of it-- much to the delight of the curious onlookers. 

And I must say, I am quite impressed with the snowman Keith was able to make, given the measly 3/4" accumulation!

By the way, the snowman looks bigger in real life, Keith is just really tall and dwarfs his creation.

(Ok, so maybe it doesn't look that much bigger in real life, but Keith still is really tall...)

$44.3 Million Stolen from D.C. Property Tax Office

In the biggest real estate rip-off since Manhattan was bought for beads, employees at the Washington, D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue are accused of stealing more than $44 million dollars with bogus property tax refund checks in a scheme going back as far as 1999.

This story hasn't gotten the national attention it deserves, but has been tracked by HotPads since it first broke a few weeks ago.  Not necessarily because our home office is in D.C., or even for the real estate angle.  We've been keen on finding out what keen swag $44 million in cash can get you.

The alleged ringleader of the gang (former tax office middle manager Harriette Walters) owned more than 70 pairs of designer shoes, 122 luxury handbags, and a couple of Faberge eggs.  FABERGE EGGS!  When police raided the home of her neice (an codefendant) Jayrece Turnbull they found more accessories from Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Ferragamo, Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo.  Not to be left out, Versace was represented with a a 70-piece china set.

But now a gaggle of conspirators are behind bars, including the banker accused of laundering the dirty checks.   So once again, crime doesn't pay.  Like HotPads doesn't charge.  Free to list, free to search, and free on our our recognizance.

Help on its Way for Fearful Subprime Borrowers (and Lenders)

With the monthly payments on millions of subprime and interest-only loans set to rise in 2008, both the government and banking sector have been working to stave off more waves of defaults and foreclosures.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been holding talks with major players in the mortgage industry over the past several weeks to work out a program that would freeze the lower introductory rates (and mortgage payments) to keep them from going up over the next few years.  The plan is meant to target homeowners who are not in default on their loans at the current payment levels, but whose incomes would not support the higher payments caused by an interest rate adjustment.

Paulson recently announced that he is confident that the deal will go through.  One of the major points of contention is how long the freeze should last, with recommendations varying from as short as one to up to seven years.

Acceptance of the Paulson plan doesn't show a newfound altruism on the part of mortgage lenders.  It's very much in their best interest to keep good loans on the books and more properties of the foreclosure market.  That will give the housing market time to clear inventory, which should happen much faster now that HotPads.com offers for-sale listings nationwide.