Curbed Conquers the World

Just spotted this in the New York Times.

October 30, 2007
Not All Is Gloomy in Real Estate: A Blog Network Attracts Capital
By DAN MITCHELL
The residential real estate market may be troubled, but property-focused Web sites are still attracting visitors and investors.

Curbed.com, a popular real estate blog network with sites in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, has obtained $1.5 million in financing to expand into new cities and add staff members. According to Lockhart Steele, the network’s publisher, traffic is growing 10 percent a month and the site is drawing national advertisers.

Nick Denton, Mr. Steele’s boss when he was managing editor of the Gawker Media blog network, and Zach Nelson, chief executive of NetSuite, a maker of business software, are among the individual investors. Gawker Media also invested.

In some respects, sites like Curbed are insulated from the woes of the real estate market in a way that traditional sites may not be. “We’re not just about real estate,” Mr. Steele said. “People come to the site to talk about their neighborhoods and about life in the city.” This wide focus has helped Curbed draw advertisers like American Express and Volkswagen, Mr. Steele said.

At greater potential risk are national-focused sites like Zillow.com and Realtor.com that depend on an active market of buyers and sellers to thrive. Nonetheless, Zillow, which estimates home values, last month obtained $30 million in its latest round of financing, bringing the total to $87 million for the site, which was started less than two years ago. And its traffic in the third quarter was 20 percent higher than in the period a year earlier, according to Spencer Rascoff, Zillow’s vice president for marketing and chief financial officer.

It has also begun posting home listings provided by brokerage firms. The first of these to participate is ERA.

“The housing slowdown has actually increased people’s appetite and interest,” Mr. Rascoff said. “In a crazy market like this, both buyers and sellers are trying to get an edge.”

Advertising-supported sites seem, at least for now, to be on safer ground than those that rely heavily on “showcase listings” that sellers pay for.

“Any site that charges fees to brokers will be hurt the most,” said Steve Murray, editor of the newsletter Real Trends. Realtor.com, run by the National Association of Realtors, remains the top real estate destination on the Web, with more than five million unique visitors a month — down only slightly in the last six months, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. If the downturn lasts long enough, “everyone suffers,” said Brad Inman, founder and publisher of the real estate news service Inman News. During bad times, “there’s always an uptick first” in real estate advertising, he said. “Nobody’s free of the dark shadow of a down market.”

Still, Mr. Inman was one of the lead investors of Curbed.com, in part because Curbed “is not a direct real estate play,” he said. “I didn’t even think of it in context of the market.”

I want to congratulate Lockhart Steele on this great news. Curbed is the pioneer in the field of real estate blogging and I am happy to see that they are not only still around but they are expanding their operations. For all of you investors out there consider Curbed a value stock. They have only just begin to lay a smackdown of profitable proportions.

This news also serves a motivator to get off my duff and put some ideas I have for the Property Grunt to use. More on that later.

Ghost walk

Saturday was the final night of the New Bern Ghost walk and some members of my lunch Rotary volunteered to help at the Cedar Grove Cematary. There were 5 groups of actor's playing various roles with a common theme pertaining to the occupancy of New Bern by Union forces during the Civil War. The weather was perfect, the crowds were quite large, and everyone seemed to enjoy their evening stroll through a time in New Bern's history that has become somewhat blurred with time. Quite a bit of money was raised for the New Bern Historical society and me, I found it to be a haunting experience.

The Exchange

Recently I was approached by ta representative of Openhouse NYC with a proposal of content exchange. This is a pilot program which will go last for limited period. In exchange for a video segment, they will post a Property Grunt entry of my choice.

Personally I am quite flattered and jazzed with this new relationship. Open House NYC is one of the premiere shows focusing on New York City real estate and can be seen every Sunday morning at 8:30 AM. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship.

This particular video piece is about a subject that is close to my heart. Noise.

And it is probably the most thorough piece on how to deal with noise from the physical to legal options.

Roll Call: The Recession edition

Let the Roll Call begin.

Countrywide does the right thing. For themselves.

Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest home lender and loan servicer, announced yesterday that it would help borrowers restructure some $16 billion in mortgages to avoid foreclosure or financial stress associated with quickly rising adjustable-rate loans.

As many of you know, I am not the biggest fan of Countrywide and as far as I am concerned they really had no choice. First of all if they foreclosed on all those buyers they would end becoming one of the biggest landlords of distressed properties which is bad because they do not have the infrastructure to be property managers and brokers and would have to outsource those tasks which would cost them more money.

Another option would have been to sell the company and let it be someone else's quagmire but that option was eighty-sixed for obvious reasons.

The SEC has been watching them carefully ever since it was reported that Angelo R. Mozilo has been made some well timed sales of his company's stock. So they need as much good press as possible.


US Home sales have dropped again for September.

US existing home sales fell 8.0 percent in September as a persistent housing slump continued to weigh on the property market and the world's biggest economy, an industry group said Wednesday.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said in a monthly snapshot that sales of existing homes and apartments tumbled to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.04 million units in September from 5.48 million in August.

The drop was worse than expected. Most economists had only expected sales to decline to around 5.25 million.

As I have stated before, if you can, wait it out. Of course there are others who disagree and say this is the time to jump in and you are free to follow their path.

Some rich guy states the obvious.

Jim Rogers, the veteran investor who predicted the 1999 commodities rally, declared that the US economy was "in recession" as he said he would take flight from the dollar and switch his investments into currencies including the Chinese yuan.

Everyone is raving about China that they are the next big thing. However, I am not as bullish on China. Yes, they are experiencing hyper growth in their economy. But if you read the NYT's coverage on China, well let me put it this way. The candle that burns twice as bright burns out twice as fast. In the near future I plan on doing more entries on China and how much of an impact it will have on our future.


This article has been getting heavy rotation on the New York Time.


Buyers Pounce on Deals as Homes Go on the Block

In a down real estate market, they came to buy. They came early, they came in numbers and they came with bank checks for $5,000.

By 10 a.m. Saturday, more than 700 people filled a hall in the convention center here for what real estate agents say is the largest auction of foreclosed properties ever in Minnesota, with more than 300 houses or apartments for sale in two days. Opening bids ranged from $1,000 — for a three-bedroom house — to $729,000, for a five-bedroom house on 11.9 acres. The crowd was standing-room only, with more waiting to enter. Some were looking for homes, others for investments.

“It’s a symptom of the foreclosure crisis,” said Jim Davnie, a Democratic state representative in Minnesota. Mr. Davnie said he had concern that areas already hit by the foreclosure crisis would now be hit by investors buying properties to rent them out, “which makes neighborhoods less stable than owner-occupied housing.”

I am not a big fan of these auctions. They are only suitable for people who have insider knowledge about the property that is for sale and they are not ideal places for first time buyers. However from this article it appears that people are listening to their bank accounts rather than their emotions. Also these auctions play a key role in the recovery of this market. The quicker these distressed properties move, the quicker we will be able to get this economy back its feet.

WOLVERINES!

68 Bradhurst is another real estate blog but it is not by a broker, developer or renter but by a homeowner.

In the words of the blogger.

68 Bradhurst is a gossip site and publishes rumors, conjecture and opinions, as well as accurately reported factual information. The site may contain errors or inaccuracies. We give no assurance or guarantee regarding the accuracy, timeliness or applicability of any of the contents. Links to external or third party Web sites are provided solely for visitors' convenience. Links taken to other sites are done so at your own risk and 68 Bradhurst accepts no liability for any linked sites or their contents. 68 Bradhurst will try to correct all factual

This bloggers discusses the wacky hijinks that have occurred since moving in.

It ranges on the system of kickbacks

Chances for misappropriating building funds are not limited simply to fudging expenditures and writing questionable checks. Being on the board means interacting with vendors who supply many types of products and services necessary for your building's continuing operation - and therein lies another opportunity for malfeasance: bid-rigging and kickbacks.

To dealing with threats from the board.

A Threat

I received a letter last night around 6:30 pm from the building manager (it's Friday night, she should be off enjoying her weekend). I thought it was the $225 check for the phone jacks. Instead, it was a letter from the board threatening to take me to court. For what? I have no idea. Just another scare tactic, I think.

To me, a lawsuit-happy board bringing frivolous lawsuits against owners can be costly and drive common charges up for the building. Taking someone like me to court with a baseless claim is most likely gonna end up pissing other owners off in the end.

What's funny is they would rather go to court than to just answer some simple questions that I feel I have the right to ask. I just can't understand why they don't want to answer these questions:

1. They said extra security cameras were put in place. Where are the security cameras located?

2. What is Resident Pilot and how will it benefit me as a homeowner. How much does it cost? Were there any proposals from other vendors? If so, who?

It is all rather amusing to me. Maybe this blogger is a little nutty, but I think we'd all be mistaken for some type of pistachio if we were in that type of situation.

October in New Bern

In New Bern, October is a month of fun and festivals. We just got back from the Chili Festival which is always a fun filled event held in Havelock which is about a 20 minute drive from New Bern. Chef's from all over the state come in to see whose chili will be chosen number one by a panel of 12 judges. Many other types of food were prepared by various non profit organizations and sold to raise money for the charities they represent. Many performances, including Community and High School Bands, College choirs, professional wrestlers, and Civil War re-enactment soldiers entertained the thousands of visitors.

Also held this weekend was the Neuse River Run. This year's event had over 800 contestants who competed in 5 and 10 K runs/walks. The run begins in Bridgeston and proceeds to the Neuse River Bridge and finishes in downtown New Bern. All proceeds from the event go to 12 non profit organizations.

The Mum Fest was held in downtown New Bern last weekend. This annual event is rated one of the top 20 festivals in the South and grows each year with new vendors and performers. Click the link to learn more about the Mum Fest http://www.mumfest.com/

New Bern's Ghost Walk will be held October 26 and 27. This years Ghost walk will give you a chance to experience the Civil War Years in New Bern at the 17th annual New Bern at Night Ghostwalk. The Ghostwalk tour features historic homes, churches, and the town’s oldest cemetery, dating back to 1798. This year’s event transports you to the Civil War Years, with Confederate and Union soldiers, spies and other “spirits” that disclose their intriguing stories. Guides are available at each site to give the history of homes while the “ghosts” tell the story of the Battle of New Bern and share other tales of what the town was like during this turbulent era in American history when brother fought against brother.