The City of Seattle has recently adopted a new ordinance that requires all real estate professionals (including brokers and property managers) within the city limits to prominently display a fair housing poster in their place of business. The poster is available at http://www.seattle.gov/civilrights/outreach.htm under the link for “Housing Issues.
[photopress:galen_ward.jpg,full,alignright]Nathan of nPost just did a great interview with Galen on Shackprices… Lots of gold including some indication of Galen’s vision for the future for Shackprices!
What is your long-term plan for ShackPrices?
I would really like ShackPrices to be a national real-estate search website. Our goal is to make it for anyone in America to search for a home. The plan is national coverage, more features, and a better site for people to search for a home with.
Don’t stop with this quote… Go read the whole thing! 🙂
After last month’s Mash-up 101 – Virtual Earth and RedFin’s recent switch to Virtual Earth, it’s time for another mash-up class. Last time, we created a simple aerial Virtual Earth map (centered above the Seattle Space Needle).
This time, we will create a simple road map (that is bigger and centered above the continental US) which has pushpins for the Seahawks road to SuperBowl XLI. So first of all, we need to change our map view, like so.
| function loadmap() { var vemap = new VEMap(’VEMap’); var vepoint = new VELatLong(40, -100); vemap.LoadMap(vepoint, 4, ‘r’); } |
You’ll notice that the vepoint object has a different latitude & longitude this time. I just picked some random point above the middle of the US that looked good. The point in question is a few miles north of Norton, Kansas (which is located halfway between the middle of the US and the middle of nowhere). I also called vemap.LoadMap method with different parameters this time. The first parameter is the center point of the map (but you already figured that out). The second parameter is the zoom level. Valid values are from 1-19. A 1 will zoom out to the entire earth, while a value of 19 will zoom in to house/street level. Since we just want the continental US, we’ll use a zoom level of 4. The last parameter is the map type. ‘a’ is an aerial map, ‘r’ is a road map, and ‘h’ is a hybrid map. You can also use ‘o’ for oblique (aka bird’s eye view), if you are zoomed in near street level.
Now, we need to add a simple pushpin for the location of the SuperBowl XLI. To create a simple pushpin, we need to add the following code to our loadmap function like so…
| var veMiami = new VELatLong(25.9577745, -80.2391839); var veMiamiPin = new VEPushpin(‘SuperBowl’, veMiami); vemap.AddPushpin(veMiamiPin); |
In the above code fragment, the veMiami object contains the location of Dolphins Stadium in Miami (nothing new there). The second & third lines are the interesting ones. In the second line, the VEPushpin object takes a least 2 parameters. The first parameter is a unique ID and the second parameter is the location of the pushpin (Dolphins Stadium in this case). Now that we’ve created our pushpin, we need to add it to our map via the AddPushpin call.
You should now see a red thumbtack on a map (unless you are using Firefox 2). Unfortunately, there’s a minor bug in current version of the VE map control that causes it to use the wrong drawing code on Firefox 2. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix described on Via Virtual Earth. (Which is a site I highly recommend you visit if your serious about Virtual Earth development). Anyway, assuming you’ve gotten your thumb tack to show up, it’s time for a complex pushpin. This time we’re going to put a Seahawk logo at Qwest Field with an HTML popup balloon. Time for more code…
| var veSeattle = new VELatLong(47.5950437, -122.3327744); var veSeattleDetails = “<img xsrc=’thumbnail.jpg’><br>In a game for the ages, <a xhref=’http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/recap?gid=20070106026′>Seattle beats Dallas</a> on fumbled snap by Tony Romo for a 19 yd field goal and a game saving tackle by big play Babs.”; var veSeattlePin = new VEPushpin(‘Seahawks’, veSeattle, ‘http://espn.go.com/i/teamlogos/nfl/sml/trans/sea.gif’, ‘Seattle 21, Dallas 20’, veSeattleDetails); vemap.AddPushpin(veSeattlePin); |
In the first line, we create a VELatLong object for the location of Qwest Field. The second line, contains the HTML that we want to appear in our pushpin’s pop-up balloon (the above picture of Tony Romo and a brief description of the play of the game). The third line creates the pushpin, except this time we have more parameters. The third parameter is the url to the icon of the pushpin (aka the seahawks logo). The fourth parameter is the title of our pop-up balloon, and the last parameter is the HTML for the details section of our balloon. Finally, we add the pin to the map. Assuming it all works you should see something like this…
[photopress:mashup2.gif,full,centered]
Otherwise, goto http://www.annaluther.com/mashup2.html to see what a working version of this example looks like (Firefox work-arounds and all). See ya next time.
I will start with a caveat. I am a owner in a real estate development company and I am not primarily shopping homes for clients, but instead buying properties to develop and build. That being said, you may think I have nothing but critiques for any other real estate company… not true! Dustin and I have been playing with mapping applications in regards to real estate for a long time. This is actually the way I was introduced to RCG.
Way back then we (LTD, not Dustin) were attempting to integrate what was not being done… Aerial parcel mapping of real estate listings. Around that time Redfin launched a pretty slick product. As a visitor of Redfin my only complaint was the size of the viewable space. There was no site out there that utilized the whole page like Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. The size and detail of the photos (at least in the PNW) were great and although not that recent at the time, much better than using what else was out there.
My biggest gripe with Redfin has been their use of space, most notably the size of their map. In my eyes you could get an idea of the neighborhood, but not a great idea without knowing the area already. Virtual Earth’s full size maps on the other hand were and are great. NWMLS made us change the name of the map because of the words MLS in the URL. MLSMAPSONLINE (image to the right) used the full size maps and parcel data much like Redfin, except we choose to use an opaque layer over a part of the map to maximize the user experience. We stopped working on that product when Zillow launched and we realized it would take too much $$$$$ to stay in the game.
Anyway as I said I am a guilty of using Redfin. When John L Scott did a great job when they launched their new site using Virtual Earth. A great job, but were still missing many of the features that made Redfin great. Redfin was much faster than the NWMLS for a simple search and easy to drag the map to increase the prospective area. I still never understood why they used such a small area for the map, but then again, they were my competition so I wasn’t that worried about the problem.
Then I heard they launched a new version using Virtual Earth. I was so excited when I caught word I quickly ran to my mouse and was ready for the thrill, but I was quickly let down when I saw they kept the same map size and page orientation.
Here is the image from Redfin
Here is the image from Shackprices
It would be great if when using Redfin you could see how the house sat on the lot, what size is the front yard, where the driveway is, in this pick the massive amount of trees in the front and rear yards, etc. I am sure the parcel box will be changed right away, but I am surprised about the map size and location of the content. There is plenty of room on the monitor, so I am confused. MLSMapsOnline used the vertical orientation, so I know it can be done.
In then end, this blog is not about a critique, but instead a nudge nudge.
[photopress:hotpads.jpg,full,alignright]Thanks to John Cook post on Real estate timeline debuts, I found the greatest site for Apartments, Rentals, Sublets and Roommates I have seen. HotPads.com provides users with the ability to find dwellings based on Density, Per Capita and Median Age/Renters/Rent. They even use census data to color code their maps based on this data. For the property owner they create listings on HotPads is free and easy! If you are a landlord, they eve send your listings to Oodle and Google Base.
HotPads currently uses census data to color code our map based on a few different statistics:
Here are some examples from Seattle: Seattle, WA
Per Capita Income
[photopress:wa_seattle_perCapitaIncome.jpg,thumb,centered]
Household Income
[photopress:wa_seattle_householdIncome.jpg,thumb,centered]
Median Age
[photopress:wa_seattle_age.jpg,thumb,centered]
Percent Renters
[photopress:wa_seattle_percentRenters.jpg,thumb,centered]
Median Rent
[photopress:wa_seattle_rent.jpg,thumb,centered]
Even though rail stations are not available in the Rain City yet, with HotPads maps you can see various points of interest that might help you decide where to live:
[photopress:hotpads2.jpg,full,centered]
Points are added to the map with their nifty icons:
Colleges
[photopress:university.png,full,centered]
Schools
[photopress:schoolhouse.png,full,centered]
Train and Subway Stations
[photopress:trainStation.png,full,centered]
They are currently listing the following rail systems:
As John Cook pointed out (looks like Galen has added Shackprices‘ GREAT search to the list), their Real estate timeline is pretty cool too:
[photopress:hotpadstime.jpg,full,centered]
(Editor’s Note: Today is another great day as I get to introduce Matt Goyer as the newest contributor to RCG. I’ve been following Matt’s Urbnlivn website for quite a while and I’ve always been impressed. With urbnlivn, Matt has managed to collect, organize and republish an incredible amount of local condo knowledge. However, if you decide you need more than condo information from Matt, then check out his personal blog, his more general real estate blog, or his contributions on the Redfin’s blog. While I don’t want to pigeonhole Matt into only talking condos, our current plan is to have him synthesize the great condo research he does on Urbanlivn and bring it to RCG on a regular basis. Matt can be reached at mail *at* mattgoyer *dot* com or by leaving a comment below!)
Relative to all of December it was a busy week this past week for new condo construction in Seattle. What made the first week of the new year so busy was three new events on the calendar and lots of action on the MLS.
Three new events
January 9 at 7pm, the POWHat, a community association, is hosting a discussion about proposed condo on Pine. This is the development that started the death of Pine/Pike meme and has been written about in The Stranger, The Seattle Weekly as well as The Seattle PI. Written about not because the developers paid to get in the Saturday New Homes section but written about because it is replacing the independent bars and restaurants which the condo’s marketing people love to tout as the reason why you should move to Capitol Hill. So I’m looking forward to seeing what is replacing the Cha-Cha, Bimbo’s Burritos, the Bus Stop, and Kincora because without those four institutions it’s going to be hard to market this project.
January 18 at at 6pm, Trace Lofts will host their buyers preview. We’re all looking forward to unraveling the mystery that is Trace Lofts. At least no one is upset about this development, yet.
January 19 at 5pm is Decatur Condominiums grand opening gala. Decatur is a conversion originally designed by the Space Needle’s architect. Now the invitation doesn’t mention whether this gala will be black tie or not. I’m assuming no since, I don’t own a tux and the units are supposedly all under $500,000 (people who make less than six figures likely don’t down their own tuxes, right?).
Active week on the MLS
At the beginning of last year most new condo developments shied away from the MLS. But then in the fall as the market slowed more developments listed their inventory hoping to attract more attention. Then towards then end of the year we started seeing price reductions and buyers bonuses; presumably to move inventory before year end. Now that the new year has started prices are increasing and I’m sure we’ll see fewer buyer bonuses.
To start us off, Noma first increased the prices on the 3 units it had on the MLS and then listed the rest of their inventory which is 19 units. They now have 22 listings on the MLS ranging in price from $222,950 to $539,950. I imagine they’re a little frustrated watching Canal’s success.
Olive 8, the development which added 3 floors, had 10 price increases ranging from $20,000 to $50,000. What is odd is that the increases range from 1.5% to 5% and seem fairly random.
9 units from Press 2 were listed. Press is a two phase development originally built as apartments. The first phase was an occupied apartment and has since been converted, phase two was never occupied and renovated.
4 units from Trio came online. Trio is unarguably Seattle’s biggest condo failure with only 28 units sold of 113 in over a year. Glad to see they’re coming to their senses and making their units more accessible to all the users of the MLS. Hopefully this gets them a little more attention in the New Year.
If you’re interested in following the day to day activity in the Seattle condo market be sure to check out Urbnlivn or check back here next week for my weekly updates.
(Editor’s Note: I’m very excited to introduce Jillayne Schlicke as the latest contributor to RCG! You might recognize her from the interesting comments she’s been leaving on RCG recently or from her contributions to the Seattle Real Estate Professionals blog. In addition to playing an active role in the blogoshere, she runs BPI Consulting Education and Training which provides consulting in ethics, compliance, conflict resolution, and communications, and provides continuing education to the professions including the professionals within the mortgage lending and real estate industries. Please feel free to contact her at jillayne@bpiconsulting.net or simply leave a comment below!)
I was out of town over Christmas and picked up a USA Today from the hotel lobby. In the Friday, Dec 22nd edition there’s an article called “Buying Your First Home Can be Intense
After reading Dustin’s Blog Posts on a Map?, RedFin’s big coding contest, and the lack of “more interesting things” to blog about (Sorry, I can only whine about the MLS before I start repeating myself), I’ve decided to show folks how to create a simple Real Estate mash-up. I want to upgrade Zearch to the latest Virtual Earth technology (I’m still using version 2, but the current version is version 4) during the Christmas break, so I figured I might as well share the knowledge I’ll be gaining from that experience.
Mash-up 101: Virtual Earth
Prequisites: Basic Computer Literacy, HTML 101
Hello class, welcome to Mash-up 101. In today’s session we will learn how create web page that contains a Virtual Earth map control. It’s easier than you might think!
First you need to fire up your favorite text editor (Professionally, I usually use SlickEdit 11 or Visual Studio 2005, but I’ll use the world famous Notepad text editor for today’s class). Then and create an empty web page and save it to your desktop.
| <html> <head> <title>Mash-up 101: Virtual Earth</title> </head> <body> This is my first <b>Virtual Earth</b> mash-up. </body> </html> |
HTML (which stands for hypertext markup language). HTML is the language used for creating web pages (it what you see, when you click View Source in your favorite web browser). All those funny <html>, <head>,<title>, <body>, and <b> things you typed in are HTML tags. When a web browser loads a web page, it reads the tags to determine how a web page should appear and behave. If the following is over your head, you should to take HTML 101 before you read any further.
OK, now that we have a simple page, we need to create our map control. First we need add a <div> tag that will be the container for our map when we are finished and we need to add a <script> tag which will download the map control’s code onto the page. Next we need to add an event handler to the <body> tag so the browser will call our code and create the <script> block that contains it.
| <html> <head> <title>Mash-up 101: Virtual Earth</title> <script src="http://dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/v4/mapcontrol.js" ></script> </head> <body onload="loadmap()"> <script> function loadmap() { alert("Are you ready for some mash-ups?"); } </script> <div id="VEMap" style="position: relative; border: solid 1px black; width: 600; height: 400"></div> This is my first <b>Virtual Earth</b> mash-up. </body> </html> |
Now, you have a boring page with an empty rectangle that pops up an alert! Big deal you say? Well, hang on sports fans, here comes the cool part. Pay attention now.
We now need to change our loapmap function so it will create a map of our choosing. The following Javascript code will create an aerial map around the Space Needle.
var vemap = new VEMap(‘VEMap’);
var vepoint = new VELatLong(47.62, -122.349);
vemap.LoadMap(vepoint, 17, ‘a’);
The first line of code creates a Virtual Earth map control. The second line of code defines a latitude & longitude (in this case, a couple yards south of the Space Needle). The last line of code tells the map control to create a map view that is an aerial map, a 100 yards or so above the Space Needle. Put it all together, and you’re code should look something like this…
| <html> <head> <title>Mash-up 101: Virtual Earth</title> <script src="http://dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/v4/mapcontrol.js" ></script> </head> <body onload="loadmap()"> <script> function loadmap() { var vemap = new VEMap('VEMap'); var vepoint = new VELatLong(47.62, -122.349); vemap.LoadMap(vepoint, 17, 'a'); } </script> <div id="VEMap" style="position: relative; border: solid 1px black; width: 600; height: 400"></div> This is my first <b>Virtual Earth</b> mash-up. </body> </html> |
Word of warning, WordPress is a lousy HTML code editor. It changes and breaks things after you save them. (Or at least Dustin’s deployment of it on RCG does). Anyway, if you have trouble getting things to work make sure you replace all the forward, backward quotation marks with the standard quotation marks or apostrophies. Otherwise, goto http://www.annaluther.com/mashup.html to see what a working version of this example looks like.
Assuming there’s a demand for another class, future classes will cover the joys of pushpins, how to create a Google Maps mash-up or other more advanced topics.
Since I know there is more than a little bit of interest among RCG readers with regard to Realtor.com, I thought I’d point people to this video interview I just posted with Phil Dawley (Move’s Chief Technical Officer) and also one of the first employees. (direct link to video)
BTW, I’m up for more of these interviews, so please feel free to suggest people/topics/questions…
(Thanks goes to Robbie for setting this up!)