When I travel I notice buildings and appreciate their architecture…in a very general way. I don’t spend time memorizing names of architectural details, styles or periods but I do like to look at and do care about preserving cool buildings. With this in mind I came across Ourbania: We’re built by buildings, a community of architecture, real estate and construction enthusiasts.
This site combines several communities: commercial real estate folks and architect/urban enthusiasts photograph and upload beautiful buildings throughout the world. The buildings are tagged so users like me can come along and see what is listed for future travels. For example, I’m off to Philadelphia and I thought I’d see what was posted. Not much there yet. As you can see Germans and Europeans have been the biggest users of the site so far–reflecting the owners homeland. Now that I am a “citizen” maybe I’ll post a few buildings while in Philly.
Although, Ourbania says that all buildings worldwide can become urban items, no matter whether they’re historical places or future projects, they are also dedicated to commercial real estate. After reading an interview with CEO Stefan von den Driesch it seems that it’s too early to tell whether this will be a hub for commercial real estate folk or a fun blend of regular folks and those using it for commercial reasons.
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I check Zillow at least once a month, wondering if my house has gone up or down in value. I also check all the recent sales around my house to see how the market is doing. Now, there is a game for people like me, the real estate obsessed, called Realius. I found out about this new game in the latest issue of Newsweek, which describes Realius as the real estate version of fantasy football. Of course, I asked myself, “How in the world could a real estate game be anything like fantasy football?!?” This question was enough to pique my interest — I had to investigate.
First I created a login and user name. Next I was prompted to pick a location (only California communities).
According to Realius the object of the game is to “accrue points and win prizes” (although I could not find a list of prizes anywhere). To play Realius: look at the pictures of a house, the description, a map, and recent sales in the area, then guess the value. Points are earned by guessing the Realius price (the Realius price is the average of other players’ guesses).
I have to say I was hooked from the beginning (this house), because I hit the price on the nose! Yes, I’m obviously obsessed with real estate (and no, that price you see above, $440,000, is NOT my guess). I’m excited to see how this game develops, because I think it’s fun, but I still can’t figure out how it is anything like fantasy football!
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Trulia calls itself a real estate search engine, but they make so much interesting information available I’m not sure where to begin. The searching itself is much better than any MLS search I’ve ever tried. Few things tick me off more than a search engine that allows me to set preferences and then intentionally ignores my choices. “What’s that? You want to see 2-bedroom houses priced between 150K and 250K? Well, perhaps I can interest you in this 389K McMansion….” Trulia’s search features allow me to easily sort by zip code, set the price range, square footage, and other features I’m interested in, and see where the homes are on a map. It respects the limits I set, shows me listings from many real estate agencies, and makes it really easy to click through to the original listing on the agency’s site to see more photos, etc..
Improved searching, however, is not all that Trulia has to offer. The site makes use of recent sales history to help buyers see how the houses they’re looking at compare to similar houses that are currently on the market as well as similar homes that have recently sold. Real Estate Guides include information on everything from a city’s average price per square foot over time to percentage of students in the school district who met or exceeded state testing standards. There is also a section called Trulia Voices for questions and answers, with many answers coming from real estate agents. Perhaps most interesting though are the “Heat Maps.”
Trulia’s Heat Maps allow you to see at a glance how home prices vary in a region, state, or even accros the entire United States. In some heavily populated areas like Brooklyn, NY there are even neighborhood-level heat maps.
I’m currently just a home browser, so I’m sure I don’t fully appreciate all the features the site has to offer, but even if you’re not house hunting you’ll find useful and interesting information about your neighborhood on Trulia.
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There is no question I love information. I remember visual representations of information far longer than anything I read. For example, if you gave me a magazine article that explained in great detail the ups and downs of the real estate market over the past 100 years, I’d be lucky if I remembered 5% of the information after three days. Provide me with a graph and it’s much more likely I’ll be able to recall what I saw. However, show me a fun video, and I’ll remember it for weeks to come!
I found this rollercoaster video of the real estate market at information aesthetics, a blog about visual representations of information. The rollercoaster video was created using Atari’s Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 – who knew Atari could create such informative displays of information! As you watch the video, notice the dates in the bottom right hand corner starting with 1890.
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The biggest investment most Americans will make is their home. Now that I own a home, I find myself visiting Zillow frequently. Not only to see what my home is worth, but to see what that house sold for down the street, down the block, or a mile away. Home prices are updated on a regular basis, and you can see the price fluctuation of homes over the past 30 days (supposedly my house has gone up $15,000 in one month!). If you live in an older home, you might find some of the facts about your house are incorrect (which will make you wonder if the previous owners filed the right paperwork when they added on that master bedroom). If the information is incorrect, you can create an owner’s estimate which will give you a more accurate idea of your house’s value.
Zillow recently added some new features including the ability to post your home for sale and the “Make Me Move” pricing feature.
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