Charlottesville has its own Bubble Blog!

I don’t know how I missed Real C’Ville for so long (they’ve been up since May 2008), but here they are – offering candid commentary on the market and most interestingly, different houses on the market:

This house is on pretty Oxford Place, the one-way horseshoe street that jogs off and back to lovely Oxford Road, in the Rugby area. Just by looking at the pic, and knowing the neighborhood, and realizing we’ve been in a Bubble, the price doesn’t seem to be anything to blink at. Right?

Except: What the hell is going on across the street?

We don’t know. As you drive down Oxford Place, almost immediately to your left it’s like you’re in Belmont or Woolen Mills, back in the day: there’s overgrown foliage obscuring an abandoned house and dead cars w/tags expired in 2003. The place is so abandoned that we can’t even see a number on the house–we can’t even look it up.

Candid insight on houses? Who do they think they are? FranklyMLS? The above commentary, combined with photos of the neighborhood is right in line with what buyers want when they are searching online.

One additional thought – I can understand the desire for anonymity, but why no comments?

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8 Comments

  1. Dave Phillips June 9, 2008 at 12:07

    I had not heard of this site either. Since I’m quoted on it a few times already, I hope they open it up for comments. Looks like some good content, but without allowing other points of view, the site is kinda worthless to me.

    Reply
  2. Jim Duncan June 10, 2008 at 06:05

    C’ville Bubble –

    Thanks so much for the comment. I’ve subscribed.

    Reply
  3. J.R. Jackson June 10, 2008 at 09:39

    I must admit, I enjoy reading the Real C’ville blog. However, I don’t think the “about” section adequately addresses their lack of comment functionality and it takes away from the credibility of the site from my perspective. The appearance that it gives off is one of insecurity – i.e. the bloggers don’t feel comfortable in engaging in public debates about their opinions, even in spite of their anonymity.
    It’s to Jim’s credit that he opens this site up to the public for an active dialogue, and clearly he has more at risk in doing so than do anonymous authors who are not directly involved in the real estate industry.
    I’ve been a bear on the housing market locally for as long as anyone, and I’m not a real estate professional. But I’d rather read the opinions of folks like Jim and Dave Philips than those of anonymous people who apparently don’t have the stones to see their work get challenged, even if their opinion more closely dovetails with my own.

    Reply
  4. Dave Phillips June 10, 2008 at 14:14

    Wow, I must say that the explanation for not allowing comments is very weak. I will consider this blog to lack credibility as long as no comments are allowed. Are they scared of getting their fellings hurt because someone disagrees with them/him/her?

    I responded to a recent post that quoted me on CAARBlog last night http://www.davidrphillips.com/?p=144 . If they would just read my comment they would see that comments enrich the info on thier site. It is a shame to lose a seemingly valuable contributor to the local real estate discussion, but I can not take seriously a site that does not allow comments. No offense intended, but I wish you’d reconsider. It is the only way you will become relevent (in my opinion).

    Reply
  5. Matt Sommer June 10, 2008 at 16:34

    Agreed… a blog without comments is just no fun, and if you want to take up issues as important as these you need to have the guts to put your name on the line.

    Reply
  6. Jay Thompson June 13, 2008 at 10:23

    Interesting blog. Nicely done in fact.

    Sad that they don’t allow comments. The reasoning is incredibly weak = “because you can comment somewhere else” (paraphrasing)

    With that logic, why have the blog at all? “Other people” already do it….

    Seth Godin doesn’t have comments. He can get away with that because he’s Seth Godin. But to block them because there are other places to comment is pretty much absurd.

    Reply
  7. Pingback: Real Cville - now taking comments | Real Central VA

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