Charlottesville Has a Ton of Great Blogs
Most of them are fed into CvilleBlogs, but the volume there is tremendous and hard to keep up with. We’re truly lucky to have such a vibrant, knowledge and diverse (blogging) community.
I found this blog, titled Discovering Urbanism, last week with this genesis, which shares a lot of my interests which focus on Charlottesville’s real estate and real estate market (location, location, location and “how do I get around?):
I started this blog about a year ago as a semi-public way for me to hash out my personal thoughts about urban form and community. An intellectual journal of sorts, available for others to correct and hopefully fine-tune. But before long I realized that the most interesting posts, as well as the ones that generated the most discussion, were those based in my particular city of Missoula. I discovered what should have been obvious all along: issues like transportation and zoning are pretty boring unless they are about the particular roads and lands that real people use. That’s where the action is. (ed note: bolding mine)
Thankfully the author has moved to Charlottesville and is documenting the Downtown Mall, Bike Maps, and much more.
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Thank you to the commenters on RealCentralVA
Thank you. Plain and simple.
You make this blog so much better, and I am grateful for the time the time, energy, thought and insight you provide here. The knowledge I gain from your comments istremendous, and I sincerely appreciate every one of you.
Duplicate content in the RE.NET
The demand for new and original (real estate) content is insatiable.
Duplicate content is making its way around the real estate blog world, and I am trying to determine if this is a necessarily “bad thing.” There are myriad discussions and opinions about duplicate content’s impact on search engine results. Google had a recent blog post specifically addressing duplicate content due to scrapers.
One of the key concepts of the real estate blogging space has been the original content and unique voices found at each different site; this originality seems to be waning a bit this year as the medium grows and the same content is published at different sites. It’s not spamming, but does it dilute the message and/or the content? Or does this dispersion broaden the reach? I don’t know yet.
Producing quality content consistently for different audiences is immensely challenging, but often times the same story will appeal to different audiences, and it’s important to reach those audiences. For example, and I’m not alone in my writing responsibilities, I write at a couple of places -
- RealCentralVA - a blog focused on the Charlottesville/Central Virginia real estate market and trends affecting same. Readers here tend to be (thankfully) more local - local buyers, sellers, consumers, media, Realtors, etc.
- Agent Genius, a national real estate magazine that discusses industry trends, news and opinion. I perceive this audience to be national real estate professionals, affiliated/related people and real estate industry voyeurs.
- VARBuzz, the blog of the Virginia Association of Realtors that focuses mostly on state-level real estate issues and general trends. The audience is primarily Virginia Realtors and Virginia real estate professionals.
Why write in so many places? Simple - and for the same reason I read each site - each forum speaks to a different audience, and the overlap of readership is perhaps (unless you’re a real estate dork like me) low.
One of the leading visionaries/thinkers in this space is Pat Kitano of TransparentRE. He has discussed Content Distribution, Blogging and Journalism, real estate blogs’ inherent “niche” qualities, and The Real Online Real Estate Magazines.
Change/education happens nationally and locally, and I want to be part of it, and part of that effort is to reach the maximum targeted audience possible.
If you’re wondering why my posting is light here from time to time, you may want to check these places, and maybe even subscribe to their feeds.
One day soon we may see exclusivity demanded by readers and publishers - and we may see syndication networks. Would that be a desirable evolution? I don’t know that yet either.
Naturally, I am posting this in two of the places I write - because each reaches different audiences. Going forward, I am going to strive to publish unique content once - at one location.
The original version of this article appeared at Agent Genius.
Social Media Explained and Expanded
Pat Kitano does it again with this excellent demonstration of social media’s value:
For example -
I can be contacted here in a variety of ways; below are a couple of the many.
(the closest thing to a resume I have to offer)
I’ll go ahead also and use this post as a shameless request for listeners/callers this Sunday on WNRN. A few of the topics we plan to discuss are -
-owners being upside-down when trying sell their house
-being uncomfortable buying in these times, even though it may be the best time around
-how much should a seller lower the sales price?
Friday Links - 06-27-2008
“A model for how to do rural development” - Bundoran Farm. Granted, with lots starting at $365k and going upward to $1.3 million, there is a very limited market. Bundoran Farm is a brilliant concept and implementation. It’s a shame that it costs so much to buy into what they are doing.
What is Neighborhood Friends? Very interesting.
The “steroids” come in the form of the features that should make NeighborhoodFriends.com attractive to the post-”Friends” set. A tie-in to Google Maps, for example, allows users to connect with neighbors who have also signed up for the site. And businesses and churches can create what amount to free web pages that advertise specials or serve as a conduit of information for church events or other happenings.
“What we’re trying to do is get communities back together again,” Rodes said. “Basically what we all do now is go home, get out of our cars, close the garage door, and most people, if they’re lucky, know who’s beside them, but they don’t know who’s two houses up. What we’re trying to do is connect people.
Downtown Charlottesville to be blanketed with wifi? (H/t cvillenews)
This is why I run data analyses manually - There is often more to the story than top-level computer generated data show. An automatically-generated analysis (via the Charlottesville MLS) of six representative properties in Albemarle County looks only at the difference between the Final Listing Price and the selling price, not the difference between the Original Listing Price and the selling price:
There’s data and then there’s data.
If you’re a real estate blogger, take five minutes to complete this survey.
If you’re a Realtor, please help one of our own; if you’re not, Charles Richey could still use your help.
An apology for the delay in promised posts. The Rent -v- Buy post is coming next week as well as the vacant houses and homeownership post.
Coming up this week on RealCentralVA - 16 June 2008
- One thing that didn’t make it in last week’s Daily Progress story
- (Hopefully) more on homeowner’s insurance and vacant houses - about 33% of the houses currently on the market in Central Virginia are vacant - so this is a very pertinent issue.
- A breakdown of the state of the Central Virginia (including Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Nelson - not Louisa) real estate market by price range.
- Duplicate content on real estate blogs - good, bad, indifferent?
- I’m sure going to try to do a market update for Waynesboro and Augusta.
Podcast of Tuesday’s Radio appearance
Here is the podcast of my appearance on Tuesday’s Charlottesville - Right Now! show on WINA. Every time I do radio, I am amazed at how fast the time goes by.
* Duncan’s analysis of the current housing market in Central Virginia.
* Tips on how to price your house to sell in the current market.
* Public transportation- The impact of the lack of public transportation on potential buyers in the area.
* The desirability of urban living and its effect on housing prices
Topics mentioned in addition to the items above -
- $4.00+ Gasoline - High Enough to Make you Move?
- Vacant houses and homeowners’ insurance
- The expansion and contraction (geographically) of the Central Virginia real estate market (including Waynesboro/Augusta)
- Real estate assessments, and why I think that they are irrelevant with regards to market value
- Renting homes that haven’t sold
- Lease purchases
- Fuel prices, power prices, water prices increasing - and its affect on affordability
- Sticky housing prices
Things I will write about next week due to the show -
- Breakdown of the Central Virginia market by price range
- Vacant houses and homeowners’ insurance - denial of claims, policies sold to builders, homeowners
To Craig - Thank you for your comments and for saying, “Jim is exactly right.” 
Thanks Coy and WINA for the opportunity.
Jim Duncan on WINA discussing the Charlottesville Virginia Real Estate market [34:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadMonday Reading 04-28-2008
227+ Comments and Counting - The Commission Based Fee Structure - It’s Bad for Buyers.
EcoTech Daily’s Daily Five - Jetson Green’s Sprawl Home Discounts, Big City LEED and Codes, + Future of Green Buildings is good knowledge
The unlucky .2% at the Foxfield Races - See some videos at cVillain
The Real Cost of Tackling Climate Change - hint: it’s more than you might think (it’s a cultural change more than anything else)
Today, the average residence in the U.S. uses about 10,500 kilowatt hours of electricity and emits 11.4 tons of CO2 per year (much more if you are Al Gore or John Edwards and live in a mansion). To stay within the magic number, average household emissions will have to fall to no more than 1.5 tons per year. In our current electricity infrastructure, this would mean using no more than about 2,500 KwH per year. This is not enough juice to run the average hot water heater.
You can forget refrigerators, microwaves, clothes dryers and flat screen TVs. Even a house tricked out with all the latest high-efficiency EnergyStar appliances and compact fluorescent lights won’t come close. The same daunting energy math applies to the industrial, commercial and transportation sectors as well. The clear implication is that we shall have to replace virtually the entire fossil fuel electricity infrastructure over the next four decades with CO2-free sources – a multitrillion dollar proposition, if it can be done at all.
In the Charlottesville region, there are currently 2,409 properties on the market - ~30% of these are vacant. Will crime follow?
That $600 “rebate”? That’s about one month of gas, thankyouverymuch.
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