Our local news/entertainment magazine had a heartwarming story about Zillow and their “Make Me Move” feature. Some guy was able to sell his house for significantly more than it was worth. Capitol Hill Triangle seems to think it was poor form not to disclose that the seller was an ex-Zillow employee. And […]

Evening Magazine video
Because of UnusualLife.com, I get frequent inquiries from television producers and magazine editors about unusual homes, and 3 of the houses I’ve written about were featured this week on Evening Magazine.

This castle house is located in Winthrop, WA in the Methow Valley.
The custom home is designed to look like […]

In February of 2008, the Oregon Legislature passed SB1080, a bill that prevents illegal immigrants from obtaining an Oregon driver’s license. This bill was passed to prevent driver’s license fraud, as well as to comply with the first steps necessary for homeland security regulations.
Basically this bill requires that prior to issuing, renewing or replacing a […]

While reading Real Estate Webmasters forums, I came across a fellow named Ron Park from Tuscon who was enamoured with the Redfin site, so he hired a tech company in India to try to re-create Redfin’s mapping technology and cababilities. He wanted a Redfin clone for the Tuscon real estate market, and it’s […]

Google has taken the beta label off a project that is significantly younger than Gmail, which remains in beta. Google Website Optimizer has been available to AdWords customers for the past year, but now the company is making it available to anyone who wants to test out different web site layouts.
Basically, the tool lets you […]

Considering how bad the market is supposed to be, I sure am busy. I haven’t had time to write even though I’ve been trying to keep up with the news.
Did you hear that LendingTree has told its customers that former employees helped unauthorized mortgage lenders hack into its systems and steal customer […]

A day doesn’t go by when I’m not contacted by a real estate agent or a new blogger who wants to exchange links. I even get requests to add a link by webmasters of sites that have nothing to do with real estate. Knowing how Google views such reciprocal links, I’m tempted to […]

My favorite toy on the Coldwell Banker website is the Home Price Comparison Index.
Just enter the market value of your current home and the location, along with 3 other comparable cities, and you can see what your home would sell for in those other places.
For instance, if you live in a $1M home in Seattle, […]

HousingPANIC has come up with a list of nominees for most f*cked up builder, lender, real estate agent and others working in the monumental Real Estate Industrial Complex.
Sadly, I was not nominated in any of the categories.
But it’s not too late! I’ve never won anything in my life. Please […]

I wrote an article for this months issue of MAKE Magazine (http://www.makezine.com/) about folk artist Martin Sanchez and the environment he created out of found objects (including a beer-bottle chapel) and I’m going to be featuring some of those photos with commentary this Thursday 4/10 at See Sound Lounge on 1st and Blanchard in Belltown […]