An offbeat look at the juxtaposition of technology with real estate
Created by noreenseeb on Jun 6, 2008
Last updated: 03/10/10 at 11:10 PM
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The best things about Thanksgiving are the leftovers. Here’s mine–some thoughts I collected while breaking the wishbone.
If all the material things
were worn and obsolete,
if there were no
big houses or cars or technologies,
we’d still have plenty to be thankful for…
as long as we have each other.
Because when it’s all said and done,
family is all that really matters.
Everyone [...]
http://noreenseebacher.com/2009/11/19/the-best-things-about-thanksgiving/
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/pelhamny/
I created a Facebook page because I realized it was the most annoying thing I could do to my kids. Kids don’t want their parents on a social network they consider their own, and grow especially uncomfortable when their classmates send friend requests to their parents.
Since I’m too old for spring break and too tired [...]
http://noreenseebacher.com/2009/07/12/facebook/
If I could have the superpower of my choice, I’d take the ability to fly. But based on my impulsivity, I’d probably fly too close to the sun, like the Greek god Icarus. So I’d be better off with my second choice…invisibility.
There’s something intriguing about wandering anonymously through the day, going wherever you want, doing [...]
http://noreenseebacher.com/2009/06/02/fall-2/
In the not so distant past, hard to sell properties ended on the rental market. Now they’re more likely to endat auction. Just last month, two New York City real estate executives launched Bid on the City to auction residential and commercial properties.
The founders, Albert Feinstein and Vlad Sapozhnikov, have high hopes for the site. [...]
http://noreenseebacher.com/2009/05/21/noreenseebacher-5/
In the not so distant past, hard to sell properties ended on the rental market. Now they’re more likely to endat auction. Just last month, two New York City real estate executives launched Bid on the City to auction residential and commercial properties.
The founders, Albert Feinstein and Vlad Sapozhnikov, have high hopes for the site. [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/noreenseebacher-5/
The National Multi Housing Council is turning to technology to fight stereotypes about apartments and the people who live in them. It created this PowerPoint, based on a keynote speech NMHC President Doug Bibby made before the Federal Reserve Board of Governors last month.
The NMHC calls it a “powerful advocacy tool” designed to make four [...]
http://noreenseebacher.com/2009/05/14/noreen-seebacher-20/
The National Multi Housing Council is turning to technology to fight stereotypes about apartments and the people who live in them. It created this PowerPoint, based on a keynote speech NMHC President Doug Bibby made before the Federal Reserve Board of Governors last month.
The NMHC calls it a “powerful advocacy tool” designed to make four [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/noreen-seebacher-20/
If you want to buy or lease real estate, find a broker. But if you just want to get a full picture of the real estate in a specific geographic area, then find the census enumerator that worked the block.
Enumerators walk from property to property, block by block, verifying addresses and sorting residential from commercial [...]
http://noreenseebacher.com/2009/05/08/noreenseebacher-4/
If you want to buy or lease real estate, find a broker. But if you just want to get a full picture of the real estate in a specific geographic area, then find the census enumerator that worked the block.
Enumerators walk from property to property, block by block, verifying addresses and sorting residential from commercial [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/noreenseebacher-4/
Humans aren’t rational. So why should financial theories assume that they are? That’s the question writer Chelsea Wald posed in Crazy Money, in the Dec. 12, 2008 issue of Science. It’s a reasonable question, she explains.
Even the experts seem bewildered by the current economic crisis. Quantitative analysts (quants)–the whiz-kid financial engineers whose algorithms have dominated Wall Street trading in [...]
http://noreenseebacher.com/2009/04/26/noreen-seebacher-19/
Humans aren’t rational. So why should financial theories assume that they are? That’s the question writer Chelsea Wald posed in Crazy Money, in the Dec. 12, 2008 issue of Science. It’s a reasonable question, she explains.
Even the experts seem bewildered by the current economic crisis. Quantitative analysts (quants)–the whiz-kid financial engineers whose algorithms have dominated Wall Street trading in [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/noreen-seebacher-19/
Commercial real estate professionals love their smartphones...and so, apparently, do spammers.
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/stopping-phone-mobile-spam/
Commercial real estate professionals love their smartphones...and so, apparently, do spammers.
http://noreenseebacher.com/2009/04/06/stopping-phone-mobile-spam/
Technology has changed the way properties are bought and sold. But it’s also created a world of opportunity for fraud and scams. Just recently, the National Association of Realtors warned that its name is being used as part of a property rental scheme.
Rental property is offered to consumers, who are led to believe that NAR [...]
http://noreenseebacher.com/2009/03/30/noreenseebacher-3/
Technology has changed the way properties are bought and sold. But it’s also created a world of opportunity for fraud and scams. Just recently, the National Association of Realtors warned that its name is being used as part of a property rental scheme.
Rental property is offered to consumers, who are led to believe that NAR [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/noreenseebacher-3/
"This is not science fiction, nor is it Hollywood imagineering. Every single thing here is something that could be real."
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/a-glimpse-of-the-future/
"This is not science fiction, nor is it Hollywood imagineering. Every single thing here is something that could be real."
http://noreenseebacher.com/2009/03/20/a-glimpse-of-the-future/
A lot of factors affect commercial real estate. Just consider the potential impact of the ones in this video from a Sony executive conference in Rome last year–then answer, “How do I prepare for the next ten years?”
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/interesting-thoughts/
Trace Trajano, a Procter and Gamble engineer and real estate investor, has a novel way of dealing with the recession. He simply refuses to accept it. “A lot of it is a mindset, so if you think there’s a recession, then there is,” he argues.
Trajano has created a website called refusetojoinrecession.com. He describes it as [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/willing-away-the-recession/
Public Broadcasting’s Nightly Business Report and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania just ranked the top 30 innovations of the past 30 years. The list includes the Internet, of course, along with personal computers, mobile phones and e-mail. But some of the other items on the list may surprise you.
“The pace of innovation [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/30-years-30-life-changing-innovations/
Commercial real estate managers are under intense pressure to increase corporate profit margins. It’s a challenging task:
To achieve this goal, they have to maintain high occupancy levels, invest in the right markets at the right time, deliver projects on time and on budget, and control operational costs - all while strategically planning growth or diversification.
It’s even [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/doing-more-with-less/
At the peak of the real estate market several years ago, I watched in disbelief as a subprime mortgage lender leased hundreds of square feet of office space in suburban New York City. The property owners seemed thrilled with the deals. So were the real estate brokers. And everyone judiciously avoided the one obvious question: [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/due-diligence/
Technology gives us speed, convenience and depth of information. But is faster and easier always an advantage-and does too much data offer anything more than a base for self-fulfilling expectations?
We’re inundated with bad news and even worse forecasts. Consider this uplifting assessment of the commercial real estate industry, posted recently on the Internet by Paul [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/noreen-seebacher-18/
Real estate has a heartbeat. And sometimes you hear it, even when you don't want to.
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/noreen-seebacher-17/
I fantasize about the ability to save the countless hours that I lose to technology.
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/noreen-seebacher-16/
There’s a website that boasts it’s so simple that “even a broker can use it.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek way to reassure CRE professionals about the ease of using the web-based application. But the message is only partly in jest.
A surprising number of smart, successful, well-educated people are still paralyzed by technology. Like a newborn in [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/noreen-seebacher-15/
Technology makes it quicker, easier and more convenient to do many tasks. Unfortunately, it hasn’t erased human error or the complications of simple mistakes.
Take electronic fund transfers, for instance–a common component of modern work and life. At their best, they’re fast and efficient, benefiting everyone from a commercial real estate broker juggling a potentially volatile [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/noreen-seebacher-14/
The best things about Thanksgiving are the leftovers. Here’s mine–some thoughts I collected while breaking the wishbone.
If all the material things
were worn and obsolete,
if there were no
big houses or cars or technologies,
we’d still have plenty to be thankful for…
as long as we have each other.
Because when it’s all said and done,
family is all that really matters.
Everyone [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/noreen-seebacher-13/
The best things about Thanksgiving are the leftovers. Here’s mine–some thoughts I collected while breaking the wishbone.
If all the material things
were worn and obsolete,
if there were no
big houses or cars or technologies,
we’d still have plenty to be thankful for…
as long as we have each other.
Because when it’s all said and done,
family is all that really matters.
Everyone [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/my-wish/
Hefty collections of digital images and video may fade faster than the relatively few photographs that haunt those born before 1980.
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/noreen-seebacher-12/
If you had asked me 18 months ago what I expected to learn from the Presidential election, I might have said something silly - like more information about the issues. Instead, I learned more than I expected about technology and its potential impact on virtually everything.
In the waning days of the campaign, I spent a [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/noreen-seebacher-11/
Long after I lost my faith in (most) people, I continued to trust technology. It just seemed easier to believe in something grounded in logic and precision-untouched by the whims of human emotion.
As Webster University philosopher Bruce Umbaugh explains,
It’s nice (sometimes) to think technology will save us and make the world perfect.
It’s even nice [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/noreen-seebacher-10/
I have a degree in journalism, not economics. So while that makes me potentially qualified to run for vice president, it doesn’t make me an expert on the banking crisis. But I know enough to know this: Technology wasn’t the problem.
Just two years ago, Bill King, the publisher of Bank Director magazine, wrote:
New information technologies [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/noreen-seebacher-9/
Technology makes it easy to work from home. In fact, with barely any effort, I can avoid leaving home at all, for work or anything else. I can interface virtually, shop online, digitally connect, living and working in near isolation. But like a meal that satisfies my hunger but not my soul, leaving me longing for something I can’t define, sometimes technology [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/noreenseebacher-2/
I created a Facebook page because I realized it was the most annoying thing I could do to my kids. Kids don’t want their parents on a social network they consider their own, and grow especially uncomfortable when their send friend requests to their parents.
Since I’m too old for spring break and too tired [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/noreen-seebacher-8/
Someday I’ll tell my grandchildren how it was once possible to call in sick for work just so you could spend the day at the beach…and never worry the lie would be uncovered by a picture message, Twitter post or video clip on YouTube. In fairness, I’ll probably also feel compelled to explain that we [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/noreen-seebacher-7/
Once we wondered whether it was better to have loved and lost, rather than never to have loved at all. Now, in this age of technology, we may be more likely to wonder if it’s better to accept a next generation iPhone from an employer or continue to pay a couple hundred dollars a [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/noreen-seebacher-6/
Once we wondered whether it was better to have loved and lost, rather than never to have loved at all. Now, in this age of technology, we may be more likely to wonder if it’s better to accept a next generation iPhone from an employer or continue to pay a couple hundred dollars a [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/noreen-seebacher-6/
Most of us have a love-hate relationship with technology. It’s great when it works, but just when we start to get used to it, it stops. Usually without warning…leaving us hopelessly struggling to recover whatever it was we planned to back-up the night before, but didn’t.
Still, despite it’s failures and freezes, its over complications and [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/noreen-seebacher-5/
According to every GPS device I’ve ever encountered, my house is located half way down the block–four houses away from its actual corner location. And while I realize every satellite navigation system has a margin of error, this mistake is peculiar because it remains consistent from system to system.
Maybe I bought the wrong house, and [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/noreen-seebacher-4/
In the past few years, house hunters and real estate investors used the presence of retail chains as a barometer of a neighborhood’s relative value.
Growth-oriented chains like Starbucks and Home Depot do significant amounts of economic and demographic research before moving to new locations. So their decision to locate a store in a given city [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/noreen-seebache/
Technology gives us virtual tours, street-view maps and a sense of a place before we leave home. But it can’t replicate the most significant driver of real estate decisions-that intangible, instinctive and emotional reaction to a space. You know-the one that makes you want to stay or go the minute you walk through a [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/07/08/noreen-seebacher-3/
Remember Twitter? Some say the service just got more useful to the small business crowd.
WebProNews has launched a new tool for Twitter called Twellow that allows you to search and browse Twitter members based on their interests and bios. In other words, if you want to find some other small business people to follow, you can simply [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/noreenseebacher/
Remember Twitter? Some say the service just got more useful to the small business crowd.
WebProNews has launched a new tool for Twitter called Twellow that allows you to search and browse Twitter members based on their interests and bios. In other words, if you want to find some other small business people to follow, you can simply [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/noreenseebacher/
Do I really care what so many people are saying? One out of every 10 US adults publishes a blog, according to a new study by Interpublic’s Universal McCann unit. Eighteen to 34-year-olds are even more prolific: one in five has a blog.
And while I’m sure Ben Franklin would be pleased that technology has finally put [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/noreen-seebacher-2/
If you read more books than blogs, this is for you. So stay with me for a minute, even if you get nervous when I talk about Dipity, Remember the Milk or Twiddla. One of the anomalies of web-based applications is the disconnect between the name and the purpose. A lot of new and existing applications with significant business [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/noreen-seebacher/
…or Mixing Business with Pleasure
If you read more books than blogs, this is for you. So stay with me for a minute, even if you get nervous when I talk about Dipity, Remember the Milk or Twiddla. One of the anomalies of web-based applications is the disconnect between the name and the purpose. A lot of new and existing [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/noreen-seebacher/
…or Mixing Business with Pleasure
If you read more books than blogs, this is for you. So stay with me for a minute, even if you get nervous when I talk about Dipity, Remember the Milk or Twiddla. One of the anomalies of web-based applications is the disconnect between the name and the purpose. A lot of new and existing [...]
http://globestrealtybytes.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/noreen-seebacher/
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