Events are excellent for building your brand and connecting with your customers. But for all the time, effort and money you put into planning and executing an event, wouldn’t it be nice if the buzz started well before and continued well beyond the actual event time?
This is something Ben Hindman discovered when he ran events for Thrillist — he had to reinvent the wheel every time he planned an event. He knew there was room in the marketplace for a better events tool, so he and co-founder Brett Boskoff designed and developed the tool that Hindman needed.
“As we started using Splash more and more, it just became clear that the world needed this,” says Hindman.
The result is Splash, a tool that lets brands and individuals alike build online communities around events. Hindman does away with one-and-done events, aiming to extend the lifespan of the event via compelling design and useful (read: not spammy) social integrations.
In the past year, the company has gone from servicing 15 event planners to 60,000 planners. Since its March 2012 launch, Splash has powered more than 70,000 events and captured 2.5 million RSVPs. The site is redefining how people think of your typical event, too — Splash is powering New York City’s Talking Transition, a socially enabled activation that’s sourcing feedback from New Yorkers for elected Mayor Bill De Blasio.
With a lean team of 10, the company recently experienced its first month in the black, raking in revenues from ticketing fees (2% + $1 per ticket), premium upgrades, and enterprise sales to clients including MLB, Spotify, Facebook, Google and Vespa. (The company also had $240,000 of seed funding in May 2012.)
http://mashable.com/2013/12/06/
Most homeowners and builders believe that attics should be vented. If you walk down to your local lumberyard and lean on the counter, the employees and nearby customers will offer a variety of opinions about why attics need to be vented. Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely that the statements you hear will be true.
Here are the four most common reasons people suggest to explain the practice of venting attics:
Although attic ventilation is sometimes able to contribute in a very small way to addressing the problems on this list, there are much better solutions to all four problems than ventilation.
If you plan to install insulation on your attic floor, then most building codes require that your house be equipped with soffit vents.
The standard code formula requires 1 square foot of net free ventilation area for every 300 square feet of attic floor area, assuming that half of the ventilation openings are located in the soffit, and half along the ridge. If a roof has only soffit vents and no ridge vents, most codes require 1 square foot of net free ventilation area for every 150 square feet of attic floor area.
Buying your first home is an exciting process, but it can also be a nerve-racking experience. You invest a lot of time and energy seeking out the right home in the right neighborhood. Then the real challenge begins: financing it.
Getting a mortgage loan requires you to have enough money in the bank to pay all of the costs associated with closing the loan, plus enough left over to convince the lender that you can actually afford to pay a monthly mortgage payment.
One strategy some home buyers employ is to seek out home buying credits that provide funds to help people get into their dream homes. Here’s a look at some of the most common, along with information about how to find them.
The Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC) is available to first-time home buyers in certain states. It provides up to $8,000 in tax credits to people who have not owned a home in the previous three years, meet certain income criteria and use their new home as their primary residence.
Each state has its own rules about when it offers the MCC and who can qualify. Check with your local housing authority to see if it’s available to you.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offers significant credits to law enforcement officers, school teachers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians who purchase single-family homes in areas targeted for revitalization.
The Good Neighbor Next Door Program makes homes (usually in urban areas) available for up to 50 percent off the list prices. Buyers must agree to live in the home for at least three years. Learn more at HUD’s website.
http://www.zillow.com/blog/2013-12-05/how-to-find-home-buying-credits/
Metro Phoenix is outperforming most of the country in terms of home-prices, but employment is underwhelming and new-home permits are far below average.
That was the overall conclusion of the National Association of Home Builders/First American Leading Markets Index, which released a report today comparing current economic and housing conditions in about 360 metro areas with the last period of normalcy before the Great Recession.
Overall, the Valley’s economic and housing activity is running at 79 percent of normal growth, landing it in the No. 250 slot and lagging the nationwide average of 84 percent.
That overall figure is an average of three categories — home prices, new-home permits and employment — based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Freddie Mac and the U.S. Census Bureau.
The index considers the last “normal” period for home prices and permitting as between 2000 and 2003, while the base comparison for employment is 2007. Each of the metro areas’ average permit, price and employment levels over the past 12 months are divided by their annual average over the last period of normal growth.
In Phoenix, home prices are exceeding 2000-03 levels by 24 percent, But current permitting levels are only one quarter of what they were during that normal period. Valley employment growth is running at 87 percent of previous norms.
Nationwide, 54 metro areas returned to or exceeded their last normal levels of economic and housing activity, excluding Phoenix.
“This index shows that most housing markets across the nation are continuing a slow, gradual climb back to normal levels,” said NAHB Chairman Rick Judson said in a prepared statement.
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2013/12/05/phoenix-housing-markets-recovery.html?s=print
It was a way to remove FEMA subsidies from flood insurance, but now, an act passed by congress and now in effect nationwide, is threatening to cripple local real estate markets.
A week ago, WTRF introduced you to two home buyers, who like thousands, are struggling with the cost of a new flood insurance policy. Now, another homeowner says the problem is so massive that he’s not about to sit and watch his neighbors lose their homes.
Greg Kloeppner says he is not optimistic they could find a buyer for his home. He wants to even the playing field and slash residential property values by 90 percent, and commercial and industrial properties by half to make up for the increasing cost of flood insurance.
Toronto’s housing market continues to defy skeptics, Calgary’s is upward and onward, Vancouver has “sprung back to life” and Montreal remains a relative bargain, says a BMO Capital Markets assessment of “a year of pleasant surprises” on Canada’s real estate front.
In fact, the market has “pulled up sharply” from last year’s downturn and “is cruising at an above-normal altitude,” says BMO senior economist Sal Guatieri in a cross-country checkup on four key housing markets.
But with close to 60,000 new condos under construction and developers offering more incentives, such as free furniture and waived maintenance fees, in the face of a dramatic sales slowdown, price gains should slow in 2014, says Guatieri.
While there is mounting concern that far too many new units will be coming on the market, the report says the shortage of new detached homes, and their high prices, will force more buyers into condos and they should absorb the new supply.
Prices remain at a more reasonable four times median family income and demand remains extraordinarily high because of the number of immigrants and young people heading west looking for work.
“We continue to expect detached house prices to decline moderately in the medium term,” says Guatieri.
Condos remain the most affordable option, eating up 29 per cent of median family income, now that prices have fallen to essentially where they stood six years ago, says the report.
That makes the median price of a two-storey detached home in Montreal just $382,000, compared to $565,000 in Toronto and just over $1 million in Vancouver.
http://www.thestar.com/business/2013/12/05/2013_a_year_of_pleasant_surprises_for_housing_market.html
Looking for eight bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and 23,000-square feet in Houston?
For a cool $6.3 million you may be able to take it off the bank’s hands since it repossessed a house fitting this description in April.
According to RealtyTrac, foreclosures on ultra-high-end homes — those with a value over $5 million — are up 61% over last year, defying the trend in the overall market that has seen foreclosure activity down 23% through October.
Panoramic ocean views, stunning architecture and landscaping — even putting greens — are some of the hallmarks of these luxury properties.
And although they account for a tiny part of the market — less than 200 total in 2013 so far — they can cost a foreclosing lender a sizable amount.
However, as Emmett Laffey, CEO of Laffey Fine Home International in New York City, said, “Any foreclosure properties in this kind of ultra-luxury market get purchased very quickly since there is one thing all super-rich buyers want — an outstanding deal on a real estate transaction, and in most cases foreclosures of this magnitude come with several million dollars of built-in value.”
According to RealtyTrac the top market for foreclosures in the $5 million-plus range is in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area, followed by Los Angeles.
Rounding out the top five list are Atlanta, Ga.; Orlando, Fla.; and the New York City/Northern New Jersey area. Although Los Angeles made the top-five list, foreclosure activity in California as a whole is down compared to last year.
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/28215-ultra-high-end-foreclosures-up-61-in-2013
With the current federal tax credits and some local utilities offering incentives, tapping into solar power is more affordable and pays off sooner than it did four years ago. Before you bring a solar energy expert out to your house, take some time to check your site yourself. Evaluating your home for solar is simple: Just follow these four easy steps.
Check your paperwork. To be eligible for the solar incentives from the government and/or utility companies, the person who owns the system (you) must own the property where the solar array will be installed. The utility account for the property must be in your name as well.
Check the orientation. Southern-facing roofs are optimal; west-facing is the next best. Do none of your roofs face the best directions? Fear not. There are solutions. Many people use pole mounts and racked panels to maximize their solar production.
Check your view. Even a little shading can create a big problem. There are systems designed to deal effectively with some shading but there is a limit. There are ways to deal with shading challenges. Obvious solutions are mounting panels to poles or racks. For one Olympia, Wash., family the best place for their system was in their backyard. So, they built a pergola and used the photovoltaic panels as shading.
More dramatic (and often less desirable) solutions to shading would be removing trees that cause shading. A good solar installer will be able to give you a reasonable estimate of how effective tree removal would be before you break out the chainsaw.
Check your structure. Outside: If solar panels will be installed on your roof, you need to take a good look at the roof itself. If the roofing is due to be replaced in the next 10 years, get it replaced before you have solar installed. To save money, roofers can replace just the area where solar panels are being installed. The rest of the roof can be replaced down the line.
Your roof and its supporting structure needs to be in good condition. Solar panels’ additional weight is minimal, but damaged and/or aging roofs require a different approach. If your roof is sagging, bowing or crumbling, getting your home safe and solid should be the highest priority.
Inside: Your home’s wiring needs to be up-to-date. The panels’ electric requirements are pretty low, but it’s best to make sure your home’s system is able to handle the additional needs.
There’s a movement afoot among Multiple Listing Service (MLS) executives and brokers to take measures to protect, control and monetize the data surrounding listings. A key component of this strategy is the consumer-facing MLS website (MLS public portal).
In a 2009 study of MLS public listings websites, Matt Cohen, technology chief for Clareity Consulting, said: “I have been an advocate for MLS websites that provide real estate listings information to the public since 1996. Such websites have always made sense as a hedge against industry outsiders that want to intercept the consumer on their way to the real estate professional, selling expensive advertising, charging referral fees and/or reducing the broker’s capability to provide a one-stop shop for services ancillary to the real estate transaction.”
In 2009, Clareity Consulting studied every MLS listing website in the U.S. and found most severely lacking in features and deficient in other criteria. Clareity updated their study in 2011 and 2013, addressing the main features of a well-designed MLS public website:
1. Finding Properties – There’s no good reason not to provide a visual display where listings are shown on a map as criteria are changed.
2. Search Filters/Content – To remain competitive, more MLSs will allow for local display of pending or sold listings and/or display that information via public records.
3. Open House – Approximately 70 percent of sites have some kind of open house search.
4. Individual Property Details – The simplest implementations of property maps are links to Google Maps. And when it comes to photos, the advantages of having many pictures rather than one should be obvious. Nonetheless, 9 percent of top MLS listing websites show one picture.
