Real-estate blogs bring us close to home
With property assessments rising faster than the temperature in Eastern Washington and North Idaho, we’re obsessing over real estate more than usual these days.
After mining Zillow.com for the “zestimated” values of every house on the block, feed your need for deed by homing in on real-estate blogs. Whether they’re written by industry types (such as agents and appraisers), journalists or enthusiasts, the best ones are savvy and entertaining.
Start with the addictive price estimator’s own Zillow Blog, where Seattle-based staffers post everything from appreciations of their fast-appreciating childhood dwellings to pictures of the nation’s highest-priced home (a Saudi prince is attempting to unload his Aspen pile for a cool $135 million).
Colorado compounds not your style? Real-estate blogs provide insider perspectives on places you might actually live – or buy a vacation home. For instance, Leavenworth Washington Real Estate features advice from Geordie Romer, a Windermere agent serving the Bavarian-themed town.
“In purchasing a vacation property you need to make the decision,” Romer wrote recently, “is this an income-producing property or a vacation property for me and my family? Rarely can a property be both.”
Spokane real-estate blogs are scarce as $10,000 mansions, although Mike Kruskopf of Keller Williams Realty posts at the aptly titled Ramblings of a Crazed Real Estate Professional. From an entry advising sellers to tidy up: “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into a home with a buyer and seen nothing but a freaking mess, dark, dingy and a funk in the air that would gag a maggot.”
On the West Side, several bloggers cover the high-flying housing market. Open House, the Tacoma News Tribune’s most popular blog behind its Seahawks page, explores state real-estate trends and even features Spokane items. Veteran business reporter Barbara Clements says she’s got a soft spot for the city because her mom grew up here.
Since unlocking the door to Open House in February, Clements’ most popular posts have been about a rich guy who tore down a perfectly good mansion and insurance companies that denied coverage to homeowners with traditionally aggressive dogs.
Seattle Bubble is a real-estate blog with teeth. It focuses on signs of a hard landing for the housing market. Tim Ellis, a twentysomething electrical engineer, started blogging about a bubble after encountering what he viewed as unrealistically high prices while house hunting last year.
But unlike the proprietor of Housing Panic, who seems almost gleeful about a crash, “I try to keep a fairly level head about the subject,” Ellis said via e-mail. “I don’t really get why some bubble bloggers seem so excited about the very real potential for a serious economic downturn. It’s certainly not a prospect that thrills me, considering that any economic pain is likely to be felt across the board, which includes me.”
Some real-estate sites offer pointers about specific aspects of home ownership, such as the Do-It-Yourself Landlord’s Blog. Others will land you a fun read, such as the Curbed blogs covering Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco – not to mention Get Lots While You’re Young … Real Estate and Sex!
Meanwhile, Infamous New York Real Estate chronicles such scandal-linked addresses as Manhattan’s 35 W. 64th St., where bootlegger Jack “Legs” Diamond took five slugs from a mob rival in 1930 – and lived.
But he probably lost his damage deposit.
Guilty pleasure
You’ll find dozens of real-estate blog links at Grow-a-Brain, growabrain.typepad.com. But although it’s billed as “the original real estate blog” and run by California Realtor Hanan Levin, the site has logged more than 5 million page views since 2003 mainly on the strength of its daily roundup of interesting links on themes ranging from unusual restaurants to oddball ice sculptures.