HotPads Daily :: The Official Blog of HotPads.com

Friday Funday: The Holiday Edition

This has just about nothing to do with real estate, but it is a house and it's still unbelievably impressive.
 

(For more, see these "17 Jaw-Dropping Christmas Light Shows")

Sure beats our little HotPads T-ree:

Thanks to EKDAY for tweeting this.  See what good comes from following people on Twitter?  Follow HotPads on Twitter. 

Promote Your HotPads Listings on Other Sites

We've already introduced a way for you to share your listings with Twitter, but did you know that we give you the tools to quickly and easily promote them on other top site as well? 

We recognize that it is in your best interest to get your listing to as many portals as possible, so we make it easier by providing you with the resources that let you do just that.

Promoting Your Listings on Craigslist, Kijiji, Geebo, Your Site... Wherever

After you have created your rental or for sale listing on HotPads and activated it, we provide a tab that lets you promote your listing on other sites (this is also where you can promote your listing on twitter.)  Here, we generate the HTML code for the listing that you can easily copy and paste into other sites.

You can then preview this HTML code to see exactly what it will look like when you paste it into another site. 

If you are not happy with the wording or images, simply go back and edit your HotPads listing and save your changes. Your generated HTML code will be updated to reflect the edits that you have made.

If you haven't started already, Follow HotPads on Twitter!

If you haven't started already, Follow HotPads on Twitter!

Twitter Your HotPads' Listings

Twitter has really taken off and established itself as a useful social networking and information sharing tool.  We Twitterers here at HotPads recogize the site's utility and application to the real estate industry and have developed a way for you to promote your HotPads listings on Twitter.  

Promoting Your Listing on Twitter

After you have listed your apartment for rent or home for sale on HotPads, we give you the opportunity to promote your listings on other top sites (free).  

To promote your rental or for sale listing on twitter, just follow these 3 steps:

1. Create your listing on HotPads
2. Click "Post to Twitter"
3. Enter your Twitter account information

And your done!  

Your listing and a link to your property on HotPads will be displayed on your Twitter page! 

 

(Note: you have the opportunity to edit your twitter posting before you post it as an update to your twitter page)

If you haven't started already, Follow HotPads on Twitter!

Friday Funday: The Lazy Edition

Sometimes after a long, hard week even the minorest of things seems like it's just too much.  Case in point: it's lunch time now and rather than walk the 1/4 block to one of the busiest intersections in Washington, DC to feed myself, I have decided to just wait for dinner. 

Maybe you feel totally drained on this lovely friday as well and really want to find an apartment for rent or home for sale, but just don't have the effort to open a new tab, type http://www.hotpads.com and then push enter to do it. But maybe it's not just today- maybe it's every day- that the process seems too daunting.  

Well, I have a solution in the form of "LetMeGoogleThatForYou."  Simply bookmark this link and use it whenever you just don't feel like using the keyboard to type for yourself.  All you have to do is click the first result and you are ready to begin your housing search! (I know, I know, it's easier and makes more sense to just bookmark hotpads, but this is more FUN)

This picture of Bozzley was taken by Kevin Reiser, the one and only Dawg Dad and the official dog walker of the HotPads dog-gies.  If you are away at work all day and need a dog walker in Arlington, VA, check out his site.  Not only does he offer love and exercise at reasonable rates, he takes amazing, professional pictures of your dog for you to show off!  

Mall Now Open For Obama Inauguration

With millions of people expected to arrive in Washington, DC for the Inauguration of Barack Obama, the main question on everyone's mind has been: where are we going to put all these people?  

For housing, many people are turning to subleting for the inauguration, with many DC residents giving up their home in the attempt to meet the demand for places to stay.  However, housing is not the only issue that Washington, DC is facing.  Washington, DC must also contend with issues of food and transportation, as well.  And there is even a proposal to lift the closing time mandates on bars so the visitors can drink through the entire night.  

However, one issue that has been resolved is where these visitors are going to watch the inauguration.

The inaugural committee has announced that visitors to Washington, DC will be allowed to congregate on the Mall to watch the inauguration at the Capitol on large TV screens with sophisticated sound systems.  

For those unfamiliar with Washington,DC, the "National Mall" (known simply as "the Mall" [map of The Mall]) is a beautiful, open stretch of landscaped national park land that encompasses pretty much the entire area from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, roughly 2 miles long.

This deviates from past inaugurations, as the Mall has historically been blocked off for inaugural parade preparations.  The need for the expansion of the viewing area is clear though.  While only an estimated 100,000 people watched President Bush's inauguration, many millions are expected to show up for Obama's.

An additional result may be that many who had decided not to come to Washington, DC for the inauguration because they couldn't get their hands on tickets may change their minds.  If you are coming to DC for the inauguration and have not yet secured a place to stay, make sure that you find inaugural housing with our Inauguration Housing Search! (And if you have inaugural housing that you would like to rent, you can list inaugural housing on HotPads FREE!)

Top 10 Business Cities in 2008

MarketWatch has compiled their rankings for the best (and worst) business cities in the United States. They compiled the rankings by analyzing various numbers and indicators of the top 50 metropolitan areas in the United States.  (To see a complete explanation of their rankings, please check out their page "how we ranked our best metro areas for business.")

Washington, DC, home of the wonderful real estate listing service HotPads.com ranks number 4 in the country!  That is a 3 spot jump up from #7 last year, thanks in part to the addition of Pepco and the Washington Post Co. to the S&P 500.  Another interesting fact about Washington, DC is that the metro area added 11,000 new jobs this year, which is actually 5,000 more jobs than was expected.  

Top 10 Best Business Cities:

#10. San Francisco [Find San Francisco homes]

#9. Dallas, TX (tie) [Dallas apartments] 

#9. Nashville, TN (tie) [Nashville rentals]

#7. Columbus, OH [Columbus homes for rent]

#6. Charlotte, NC [find rental apartment in Charlotte]

#5. Richmond, VA [homes for rent in Richmond]

#4. Washington, DC [apartments in Washington, DC]

#3. Denver [Denver apartments]

#2. Boston [Boston real estate]

#1. Minneapolis- St.Paul [Find homes in Minneapolis]

Bottom 10 Business Cities:

An interesting fact about the bottom 10 business cities are that 60% of them are warm-weather cities. Market Watch cites the real estate crisis as upsetting many of these cities in California, Florida, and Texas.  

#41 San Antonio 

#42 (tie) Detroit

#42 (tie) Virginia Beach

#44 Los Angeles

#44 (tie) Tampa- St.Petersburg

#46 Rochester, NY

#47 Sacramento, CA

#48 Tucson, AZ

#49 Buffalo, NY

#50 New Orleans

MarketWatch's full report

Top 5 Tips for Creating an Inaugural Housing Ad

Every Thanksgiving, my family from all over the nation convenes in Pittsburgh, PA to enjoy great food and to catch up with each other.  As a "DC cousin" and political science major, I am definitely in charge of fielding all questions about politics.  What I thought was especially interesting this year was that there was much less discussion about the recent election as everyone was only interested in talking about how DC was possibly going to handle the influx of visitors during the Inauguration.  

After I showed them HotPads Inauguration Housing Search , everyone wanted advice for listing inaugural rentals to pass on to their friends living in Washington, DC.  

So, as promised, here are my:

Top 5 Tips for Creating an Inaugural Housing Ad on HotPads:

5. Create a detailed listing: When you are renting your DC home for the inauguration, it's important that you give as much information as possible. Remember, many people looking to rent a house for the inauguration are unfamiliar with Washington, DC, so you need to tell them as much as you can about both your home AND its neighborhood.

4. Be specific about your specifics: Even if you have decided to rent your home for the inauguration, chances are you have some specific restrictions in mind.  Make sure to specify the maximum number of people and minimum nights stays for your rental.  Also, specify whether pets are allowed or if smoking is permitted.  

3. Put "Inaugural" in the Listing Title: There are tons of sublets on HotPads and many are no longer available for inauguration weekend.  Make sure your property stands out by including "Inaugural Rental" or "Inauguration Housing" in the title of your listing.

2. DON'T display your actual address: Since you've created a detailed listing for your inaugural rental on Hot Pads, it's in your best interest to hide your actual address.  Though you need to include it when creating an inaugural housing listing so that we can position it properly on our map, you can choose to hide your exact address.  This allows you to protect yourself and your possessions from anybody interested in stealing your "Beautiful 50" plasma TV."

1. Be Realistic in your pricing: Everybody is incredulous at the prices being demanded and I get asked all the time whether "I can really rent my place out for $20,000 a night" during the inauguration.  The answer to that question is almost certainly no.  Be realistic in your pricing if you really want to rent your house for the Inauguration.  By demanding absurd rates, you will ensure that nobody will rent your house for the inauguration.

Here is more advice for inaugural landlords and resources for doing credit checks and other helpful tools for renting your inauguration housing.

List Your Inaugural Rental!

Looking for a place to stay during the inauguration?  We've got you covered:

Search for Inaugural Housing