by: Pat Kitano on 2007-05-05 @ 3.25:57 pm

Gena Riede recently brought some attention to MyHouseKey.org. It's time for a little press release and update...

Mission - a Hyperlocal Blogger Cooperative

MyHouseKey.org is a non-commercial hyperlocal "blogger's cooperative" site that a group of us real estate bloggers decided to set up in late 2006. Its mission is to provide a hyperlocal venue where bloggers could author articles about their cities and neighborhoods. The intent has always been to connect our bloggers with consumers (more specifically, first time home buyers and sellers) searching for local information. Sound familiar? MyHouseKey.org beta launched in January 2, 2007 at about the same time as Localism, and for a few weeks I believe these sites were the only hyperlocal real estate-oriented sites up.

Within a span of FOUR months - various hyperlocal real estate oriented sites launched after MyHouseKey... here's a short list:

Newly launched hyperlocal real estate site Mission
Localism Connect consumer with real estate agent via local content publication
My-Currency.com (related article here ) User-generated AVM resource
Street Advisor User-generated "street"/community data
YourStreet User-generated content by neighborhood - focusing on their real estate markets
Super Listing Site Jim Kimmon's beta entree into user-generated content + listings services


Positioning - a Hyperlocal Blog existing solely for the Benefit of Bloggers

MyHouseKey is an .org. No entity or individual "owns" MHK, and we expected to manage MHK by committees (or better wording, by community) of bloggers. Our original and continued intent has been to (1) provide a venue for hyperlocal content as a supplement lead and traffic source connecting consumers with bloggers, (2) provide a venue for the testing of the latest widget gadgetry, (3) provide a venue for the testing of any technology or marketing ideas for the benefit of our member bloggers. We assumed our community of bloggers would self regulate any ideas that would potentially create commercial conflicts of interest, similar to how Active Rain provides a similar checks and balances.

Management - think of MyHouseKey as a volunteer organization

We thought MyHouseKey was a great idea at the time - managed by volunteer bloggers and "sponsored" now by RSSPieces. who developed the multiuser blog platform and has dedicated their precious resources to the project. We expected MHK, like Active Rain, to be self running as a blogsite, and for the most part that has been true. Props should also be given to Kevin Boer, who performed a lot of the backend work, our other initial committee members - the Sellsius guys, Mike Simonsen and Greg Swann,  and, one more time, especially RSSPieces. Also a heavy dose of appreciation to all our beta posters, who have been quite supportive along this journey.

History - MHK has been a test so far

We started beta testing MHK in January 2007 by saying Happy New Year to about 50 bloggers and asking them to check out MHK, post a few articles if they wanted to and gear up for a more official launch later. (The original invitation letter is posted at Gena's AR site). After the beta launch, several platform problems appeared and, the committee decided to migrate the MHK platform to RSSPieces in early February. The work of data migration was more complex than expected - an example is the reassigning of authorships. Since MHK was managed by only a few volunteers, the project frankly went into backburner status. Today, with work on only a few more authorship issues, MHK can be up and running once more.

Future

So much has happened to Real Estate 2.0 in the span of only four months between January 2 and May 5... it's mind boggling that hyperlocal content has already seeped into blogger consciousness as a given, as status quo... this was not the case even only five months ago.

Please contact me if you're interested in a membership to post articles - we'll get you a login and password. Also chime in on what you think may be the best direction for MHK, or ideas you may have. After all, our core mission has been to serve the real estate blogging community and you could easily be a leader if you have an idea that resonates...

Pardons

We know there are more tiny bugs out there on MHK, our apologies... let us know and we'll fix them...

digg me Reddit newsvine del.icio.us Technorati
More Information

Meta Data

Theme Tags

myhousekey





by: Pat Kitano on 2007-02-07 @ 8.32:40 pm

I was in the South Mountain area yesterday researching some houses I'm preparing to do a story on. I'm amazed at the growth down here!

You can see from the arrows in the photos pointing to all the houses that have been built. More are being built on the top of this mountain and even more on the other side. I'll do a full story on South Mountain soon.

What struck me most was the growth and what growth actually looks like. If you expand the photo, you'll notice a commercial construction site at the bottom right. This was one of many sites I'm sure will serve the growing South Mountain population.

Full article...

digg me Reddit newsvine del.icio.us Technorati
More Information

Meta Data





by: Pat Kitano on 2007-02-07 @ 1.42:30 pm

Leo the Reluctant Real Estate agent shows you the ins and outs of San Francisco real estate...

digg me Reddit newsvine del.icio.us Technorati
More Information

Meta Data

Theme Tags

san francisco

,

video





by: Pat Kitano on 2007-02-04 @ 7.41:32 pm

The real estate market in Atlanta is moving faster and you still buy your dream home at a low cost. The weather is great and the job market is booming. It is a great place to live, try it, you won't be disappointed.

digg me Reddit newsvine del.icio.us Technorati
More Information

Meta Data

Theme Tags

atlanta

,

ga





by: Pat Kitano on 2007-01-29 @ 2.36:07 pm
 The real estate market is still very strong in Georgia.  We did experience a slow down in 2006 but that is mostly due to the fact that we had an extremely good market in 2005.  In fact, we were over the top!  Georgia is a place where people want to move to.  Our climate is great, we have very affordable housing and we are only 5 hours from the beach.  North Atlanta is a young family community, the average house price range is $350,000 to millions.  Buckhead and Mid-town are both great places for nightlife and great dining.   Lake Lanier is a great lake for boating and fishing. It is less than an hour away from Atlanta.
digg me Reddit newsvine del.icio.us Technorati
More Information

Meta Data





by: Pat Kitano on 2007-01-29 @ 1.43:35 pm
colin bosaColin Bosa, President of Bosa Properties Ltd. has agreed to answer some questions about the 2007 real estate market. Bosa Properties is a larger real estate developer in Vancouver, British Columbia and has been a huge force in creating new neighbourhood. www.bosaproperties.com Q. How did you get into the real estate business? A. I was fortunate to be exposed to the real estate business at a very young age. I can remember listening to my father and my uncles talk about the projects they were working on. I could sit and listen to them for hours I knew then that real estate would always be apart of my life. I started working my summer job at the age of 11. I, along with my cousins would work on site, sweeping, and cleaning up suites, and over the years progressed to carpenter, and then helping out the superintendents. After graduating from BCIT I joined the family business full time, first spending a couple of years in the construction department mostly doing estimation. I got my start in development after that, when I developed some houses on Parksville. Read the rest of the interview over at the Ubertor Real Estate Blog
digg me Reddit newsvine del.icio.us Technorati
More Information

Meta Data





by: Pat Kitano on 2007-01-19 @ 1.23:03 pm
I am happy to join this community and introduce myself and the Land of Enchantment–at least my little portion of it. if you want information about the rest of the state I will gladly refer you to the great folks in one of our other EXIT Realty offices.  Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Bernaillio, Cuba, Bosque Farms and the surrounding communities offer stunning Northern New Mexico views, amazingly affordable prices and friendly, growing communities. Albuquerque offers metropolitan sophistication and lots of diversity. All of the Eight Northern Pueblos are within a two hour drive. We do have lots of desert, but for the most part, it is high desert with cool evenings and mild winters. We also have majestic mountains, casinos and ski resorts. Talk about diversity! Like to eat? You can try Fry Bread at the Gathering of Nations, compare New Mexican with Mexican food, or if you prefer Thai or Sushi we can do that too. You will want to try pinon flavored coffee and green chile chicken stew. If you are interested in a mansion on the hill with a million dollar price tag we can accomodate you. If you prefer something more modest like a half acre with a three bedroom two bath home we have lots of those, many in the $150,000 to $250,000 range. We have mature neighborhoods with lots of trees ( my specialty) or brand new ones just waiting for your touch. If you want to build your dream house we have very affordable lots here in Rio Rancho, most of them a half acre at unbelievably low prices.
digg me Reddit newsvine del.icio.us Technorati
More Information

Meta Data





Flagler Real Estate
Like what you have been reading here?
Subscribe for free today.