The XBroker: January 2007

This started as a comment but....

As someone who as been a part of some ugly controversy within this community and openly accused of unfounded and damaging actions, I would like to offer the following suggestions/ make the following comments:

 

 

• AR is primarily a social community that happens to be full of real estate professionals.  The dynamic is what it is. 
• Since AR is a community, it should be governed by it's members for it's members in a 100% open fashion. 

• If members cannot, or will not privately work their issues out, a (members only) private Group area should be created. 

Within this Group, whoever is openly accused of unacceptable behavior, frequent complaints, etc and the accuser should let it all out and work it out here...or not work it out and agree to disagree... 

Let the greater community members be judge and jury...issues will flesh themselves out in a much more practical and efficient fashion...in a much more private setting, away from consumer eyeballs.  

This should also curb any undesirable behaviors since they are more likely to be addressed publicly in early stages, before the flames can get fanned in the back boiler rooms.   

 

• Handling problems in the current cryptic fashion is going to drive out (purposely or not) some of the best contributors and professionals from AR for the wrong reasons, a side effect that benefits no one, especially AR.  

AR is a reflection of society as a whole, it's a melting pot with all types of personality.  Not all personalities mesh well. Trying to objectively balance harmony amongst all 13,000+ members from the top down is essentially an exercise in futility... and dangerous.

Some type of forum with open and direct discussion between the adversarial parties, governed in great part by the community, is needed...

Growing Pains....*Ouch* 

 

 

 

OK, Ive finally caught up enough to post about my local stomping grounds, Greensboro North Carolina.

Greensboro is located in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina, smack in the middle of the state.  Real resonable real estate, great weather, low cost of living are just a few reasons to consider Greensboro NC as a home or an investment.  

Like Country livin?  it's a 10 minute drive.  Prefer the downtown loft in the middle of a bustling and cultured city center?  That lifestyle's here too....

I'm going to use links to Neighboroo (Thanks Travis) and redisplay the normally boring demographic data layout into a pretty color coordinated map mash-up.

 

PEOPLE & LIFE:

The Population is booming.

Lifestyle. There has been a steady and heavy influx of 20 and 30 somethings from states north, south, and west of the Triad over the past 10 years and it doesn't appear to be slowing. Most of the people I know are from anywhere except NC. It is definately a Gen-X and quickly becoming a Gen-Y town.

Since I've moved here, there has been a 'revival' of downtown Greensboro, going from after hours ghost town to robust nightlife. There literally is something for everyone in about a 10 block radius:
Dance clubs, jazz bars, watering holes, eloquent restaurants, art galleries, coffee shops, boutiques, all inhabit what used to be boarded up buildings, and the growth continues with large residential condo's and town homes pre-selling before they come out of the ground.

Income
The Triad has undergone a serious industrial metamorphosis since the early 90's. Once a bastion for textiles and other manufacturing industries, the area has quickly and efficiently evolved into a distribution and operations enclave for a host of Fortune 500 companies like Dell, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Fed-Ex. If you have a decent skill set and/or a college education, there is a job for you in the Triad.
Banking, Medicine, mid-level management for companies like the ones above, are the hottest job markets in the area.

Jobs
Speaking personally, it is a fertile ground for entrepreneurs, with a relatively low cost of living and under serviced niches.
$60K+ Avg Income
6% Unemployment Rate
15% Job Growth predicted over the next 5 years.

Education
Primary Education:
Prepare to send your kids to private schools, good news is there are alot of them. The NC public school system leaves alot to be desired, ranking well into the lower half of the United States. Schools are constantly under built which just seems to result in a bunch finger pointing as to whose fault it is, with no real solution. Good news is there is now a lottery in NC generating about $1M in daily funds for education in the state. Overall the education budget created by the lottery is $425M. New schools are coming out of the ground.

Secondary Education:
Amongst the best in the Nation. Along a 100 mile stretch of I-40 lies some top notch Universities and State Colleges:

 

• NC State
• University of North Carolina
• Duke University
• Wake Forest University
  

 

HOUSING:
Avg Median Price is appx $182K, and you get a nice house for this price! $300K will have one living very comfortably.

Trulia provides a nice interface to see some listing information and other property information available for the Greensboro area.

Development is booming as well...

 

ENVIRONMENT:
Greensboro's climate has a little Florida and a little New York. The foliage reminds me of upstate and western New York. The humidity reminds me of Florida.

Temperatures average 28F in the winter and 89F in the summer. You get a well rounded 4 seasons, with a beautiful fall. North Carolina is a very green state, lots of trees, their color change begins in September and carries through October.

Summary:

Temperate climate, great infrastructure (well built roads and new belt lines), and a low cost of living make Greensboro a great place to live and work. It lacks a true big city atmosphere, like traffic jams and a professional sports team, but Charlotte (The Carolina Panthers and The Charlotte Bobcats) and Raleigh (The Carolina Hurricanes) are an hour or less away.

Speaking of location, Greensboro is 3 hrs away from the beautiful beaches of Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, and only 2.5 hours from the Appalachian mountain chain which contains the Blue Ridge Parkway, a breathtaking scenic drive littered with small towns and winery's quite a few thousand feet above sea-level.

I kept the post information dense, and didn't bother to use the typical descriptors 'cozy, quaint, charming' blah blah.  Already hitting on the main points of Greensboro, I'd be happy to open the floor via the comment thread to address any specifics about the area.  

Any deeper questions? Don't hesitate to contact me!

Its been awhile since I posted on some of the gnarly cool stuff I have seen from other bloggers in this Real Estate 2.X space…so here are 5 topics that inspired me to write:

Dan Green (The Mortgage Reports) has launched a new service called Bring the Blog.

<--Gnarls Barkley (I was listening to the radio when I wrote this, and it inspired my title...)

 

Apparently Dan was having some writers block, so he decided to do something about it. Coming from a tech background before he ventured into his successful mortgage career, Dan turned to his roots and created an automated blogging platform that allows the user to create content or have it piped in from selected 3rd party sources. Very cool for the busy real estate blogger.

• FortiusOne has about the gnarliest looking map mash-up to date. I got a chance to see their product at Inman in NY, and while they are still in the information aggregation stages, their interface looks like something from N.O.R.A.D. Hella Cool.
  

• Speaking of map mash-ups, they are a core piece to most all of the new independent property listing aggregators out there. Zillow was the ‘first’ to really mash property information into a map interface with the coolness, now there are a handful of great real estate related sites who use the technology to help consumers disseminate through a wealth of information quickly without having to read 10 pages of text.

Neigboroo, Trulia, Propsmart, Redfin and Obeo are some of the other early movers…Travis’ site and service should not be overlooked, he’s another techie who fell into the real estate market. We need more Travis’ and Dan Greens….

• Some New sites/people recently added to my blogroll (which means I read this stuff):

• Brian Brady…The Worlds Most Opinionated Mortgage Broker. Brian has escaleted to one of the top bloggers in the mortgage industry…I met him on Active Rain, our relationship had some turbulent times, but we persevered and now couldn’t be happier ;)

The Property Monger..Had the privilege of blog swapping with Jon. His sight (and pix) makes me laugh. I bet he’s a riot to hang out with at a bar during a Yankees Red Sox game. I see he’s been posting for the wave of ‘Localized Content‘ that has generated alot of buzz in the past few weeks.

ARDELL…The single name phenom from the Rain City Guide has her own personal blog. I wish the name Jeff would illicit such recognition for me.

RealtyThoughts. Tightly written and timely content. I’ve found their core product e-appraisal to be more accurate than Zillow…

CondoDomain…These guys service a niche within a niche and do it very well…

 

 

• Video Killed the Traditional Listing Star. WellcomeMat has made quite a bit of headway into the Video Listing Service provider, with much of the credit going to Phil who gravitated to the bloggers at Inman and recently started his own blog. WellcomeMatt is another example of a niche techie who found his way into the center of the real estate services space. They’ve got a top quality product with a short learning curve and is priced to be very affordable. Phil’s work is prominently displayed on Sellsiuis, see: The Allan Dalton vs Glenn Kellman features…

Arrived in Manhattan about 5pm yesterday, checked into The Hilton Garden Inn, in Times Square and looked out my window...directly into someone elses office :(    The room itself is pretty sweet with a flat screen TV and a real Herman-Miller chair....

Ahhh The Big Apple. Although I am a native NY'er, it's only my 4th time in the 'city' and am still amazed and the constant buzz. 4am or 4pm. it doesn't matter, this city truly never sleeps.

Shortly after arriving my phone rang, John and Mary McKnight were already settled in and looking to take in some sights and food. After some walking we decided on Rosie O'Gradys (highly recommended, great food with a nice atmosphere). We filled our tummy's and decided to venture on to the Hudson Hotel, where a group of bloggers had agreed to meet.

What should have taken about a 10 min walk turned into a 30 minute trek. Once in the hotel, it took us another 15 mins to find the bar. The three of us decided that we would fail miserably on that TV show where you have to find clues around a city..? I forget the name, but you know what i mean, we were navigationaly challenged...Eventually we found our destination, which was full of character and more 'atmosphere'. I love 'atmosphere'.

JF and Rudy of Sellsius, Joel of FOREM, and Stephen Fells of Agency Logic were already there, quickly followed by Jon and Matt of Active Rain, as a mix of others shuffled in. Thx to JF and Rudy for the first round! After some schmoozing we walked over to another bar in the Hudson with a lively atmosphere...I bought a round for like 6 people and the tab was almost as much as dinner :-0

It was great to meet all the people I 'read' on a daily basis...everyone was incredibly nice, much as I had imagined. A few people told me I wasn't the person they had expected, based on my writings and willingness to 'fight' the comment battles. I took this as a compliment ;)

It's funny how our respective blogs had taken on a life of their own, as it was easier to identify the crew based on their blogging handle rather than their actual name...i.e. 'Hey, Im Jeff Corbett!'...'Who?'...'The XBroker'...'Ohhhh, Nice to meet you!'...

Pat Kitano admitted he introduced himself to someone he thought was me, before I walked up and introduced myself :) Pat was the first blogger to write about and link to my site, so I was stoked to meet him.
I only got a chance to talk to a few people with any depth but thoroughly enjoyed the time. The night ended about 11:30 with Joel, Erik, and myself catching a cab back to our respective hotels.

Went to Inman today and caroused the vendor booths (Blogging Systems had the nicest set-up IMHO), otherwise I didn't stay long. Plan on being there tomorrow for Seth Godins speech...He is a marketing Deity...