Site Down, Service Outage
by Osman Parvez For a few hours this morning our blog was down. As you probably know, we use Google's Blogspot service and apparently many blogs shared in the misery of today's service outage. If you happened to visit the blog this morning and found an error page, please accept my apologies. FYI - Blogspot generally provides a very fast, efficient service but we're also exploring options to bring the blog "in house." When we do it, the blog will likely function as the home/landing page for realtyunique.com (our primary site). Because there's many pros and cons to making that [...]
Room for Improvement
by Osman Parvez Since first writing about the housing bubble in 2004 for The Windwalker Report, I've been saying (1) there is strong evidence for a bubble and (2) the markets experiencing the greatest appreciation were most susceptible to the downside risk. My opinion hasn't changed. By now you've no doubt heard that in some parts of the country, the housing bubble is finally deflating. In those areas, inventories are very high, sales have slowed, and foreclosures loom. Speculators have exited and those who bought in 2005 to flip, but lack the ability to hold comfortably, are starting to sweat. [...]
My “Best Of” Boulder
by Osman Parvez I finally got around to creating a "Best Of" archive of blog posts and research reports, including The Realty Unique Report, in depth research I put together last year. There's also an example of fix and flips in Boulder from my research last winter. Click HERE to visit the archive. It's also linked in the right menu under "Best Of" articles. If you have any suggestions for "Best Of" material from this blog to include in this archive, please let me know. I'll be adding to it in the coming weeks. ---- Like this analysis? Subscribe [...]
Blogs are Conversations
by Osman Parvez Why blog? I've pondered this question before and I still feel strongly about my earlier response. Yet sometimes people ask me this question and seem puzzled by my response . When I found the Economist pondering the question too, I knew it time to revisit the issue. The Economist, in The Invisible Hand on the Keyboard (Aug 3rd, 2006), noted "Like millions of others, economists from circles of academia and public policy spend hours each day writing for nothing" and "Time spent on the internet could otherwise be spent on traditional publishing or collecting consulting fees. " [...]
Dare to Bare
by Osman Parvez Comments, that is. A few weeks ago I opened up the comment system on this blog. Anyone can now post a comment. You can also be anonymous, if you'd prefer and no registration is required. Previously, comments on this blog were moderated and wouldn't appear until I approved them. I wanted to avoid spam and inappropriate/rude messages from being posted. Then I realized that this was also inhibiting readers from saying what they wanted. So I decided that as long as I responded professionally to whatever was posted, having an open comment system could only create more [...]
Discussion: The Bubble and Boulder Colorado
by Osman Parvez The housing bubble is a hot topic and I know a lot of people are worried about it. As a followup to my recent post, A Boulder Bubble?, I'm hosting a Skypecast (discussion) this Wednesday at 7:00pm. You're invited! Here's a link to the Skypecast, The Bubble and Boulder Colorado. If you aren't a subscriber to Skype, it will guide you to creating an account. After that, it's free. Any questions? Image:Skype ---- Like this analysis? Subscribe to our client research report. Want to get blog updates via email? Click HERE. [...]
Meebo Update
by Osman Parvez First the good news. Meebo was a very interesting little experiment on the blog. If you have a blog or website yourself and want direct feedback from your readers, I highly recommend it. During the week or so I've had meebo up, I had a number of random visitors send me instant messages. Our chats were filled with surprisingly good info. One visitor let me know that he found my posts extremely useful in the recent purchase of a home in Lafayette. Knowing that buyers and sellers are finding this site a useful resource is proof of [...]
Goodbye Google – You’re Being Evil
You know, I used to like Google. by Osman Parvez The first time I heard of Google was 1998 and I was in grad school working on a class project. My partner on the project, David Officer (a Canadian with a sharp sense of humor) asked me if I had tried Google yet. "Tried... what?" I asked "Google, it's a wicked new way to search. Much better than Yahoo or Webcrawler." So I tried it. And David was right, very right. Since then, Google has been a regular part of my computer use. And as services have been added, I've [...]
Meebo – A New Widget
by Osman Parvez You may notice a new widget on my blog (on the menu on the right). It's called Meebo and allowed me to setup instant messaging on the site. The service is still in development stages so it could be buggy, but I thought it was worth giving a whirl. Feel free to try it out! ---- Like this analysis? Subscribe to our client research report. Want to get blog updates via email? Click HERE. Ready to buy or sell? Schedule an appointment or call 303.746.6896. You can also like our Facebook [...]
Wanted: YOU
by Osman Parvez We're approaching the 1 year anniversary of this blog and I think it's time to expand this endeavor. If you're in a real estate related field in Colorado, consider this your invitation. Over the past few weeks I've interviewed potential partners to discuss the opportunity and would like to meet a few more. Real estate investors, insurance agents, lenders, appraisers, home inspectors, roofers, plumbers, analysts, or other real estate related professionals - if you enjoy writing and are interested in blogging as way to further your profession, please contact me. You can also call me directly at [...]
For Sale: Acoustic Cafe
by Osman Parvez Nederland's Acoustic Coffeehouse for Sale It's official. The Acoustic Cafe in Nederland has placed itself for sale. After struggling over the last few years and closing for a short period, the assets of the business including its name, equipment, and leasehold will be sold this Sunday April 30th. Founded by Tom Plant and Dawn Dennison in 1994, the Acoustic Cafe was created to bring some of the best bluegrass, old-time and folk back to the mountains. Owners since 2001, Chris and JP O'Brien purchased the Acoustic Coffeehouse to carry on the tradition. Recently renovated, it's now ready [...]
Worth Reading
by Osman Parvez Take a look down the right side of this page and you'll see a khaki box with a bunch of new links called "Worth Reading." If you're viewing this via email or a feed reader, visit the blog directly first. ---- Like this analysis? Subscribe to our client research report. Want to get blog updates via email? Click HERE. Ready to buy or sell? Schedule an appointment or call 303.746.6896. You can also like our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter.As always, your referrals are deeply appreciated. -- The [...]
It’s Bubblicious
by Osman Parvez No doubt, if you read this blog you may also be reading all sorts of information online. The housing bubble continues to be a hot topic in real estate, and many industry participants are finally acknowledging that certain markets (particularly in coastal metro areas) are overvalued. As everyone knows, fear sells and the bubble blogs tend to draw tremendous traffic. They also usually have lots of ads and often move towards exaggeration and spectacle to draw visitors (like the tabloids). The Bubble Blogs can be wildly entertaining, however if you are thinking about buying or selling here [...]
Blog Update
by Osman Parvez This may not qualify as big news, but we've just installed a substantial update to the blog template. Among other improvements, the comment feature is now fully functional. The look/feel is nearly identical to the previous template but the code is entirely different. There are a couple of additional tweaks forthcoming, but most are relatively minor. Oh, I should mention that a few weeks ago this blog was temporarily locked while Google reviewed its contents. Google gave us the thumbs-up and we are now white listed (100% spam free). If you have any thoughts as to how [...]
Blogs and Marketing
by Osman Parvez Here's a fellow blogger who does a nice job talking about the value of real estate blogs, why we blog, and some (seemingly obvious dos and don'ts. In particular, he focuses on why a blog is not a good place to advertise a listing. Here's a quote: However, the real kicker is that while there are some great ways to display a home listing on the internet, a blog entry is not one of them. Compared with the stuff you can do with a simple website creation tool like Microsoft Frontpage, let alone more advanced website creation [...]
