UrbanDigs.com Upgrades: What Would You Like?
A: Reader participation day! I'm about to put some $$$ into the site again to help make it more interactive for reader use, and to enhance the chart system so you guys get as much information as possible to identify trends with. But more importantly, I want to hear from you guys. How am I doing and what would you like to see to make this site better? Below are some of the ideas I am shooting for.
In no particular order:
1) TIME RANGE ON CHARTS - I have chart data going back to NOV 2007, but right now charts only have 3 time range options, with the max going back 6 months. I would like to enable the range options to include 1YR + MAX choices
2) TWEAK MOVING AVERAGE - The data for New Listings / Price Cuts / Contracts Signed is vulnerable to weekends that see very little if any updates, making the charts very spikey and hard to read. I had a weekly average rule placed on these but I dont think its enough. I think I will place a 4-WEEK MOVING AVERAGE on these charts? Thoughts? The goal is to smooth out data so that we can better interpret trends
3) LAST 5 COMMENTS - I feel the site needs to be more interactive. Say a discussion from two months ago, gets active again. Nobody on the main page will know. I think I should add a rectangle section to the right side of urbandigs showcasing the last 5 active comments with links out to the discussions that got them? Thoughts?
4) ADD DATES TO TALK REAL ESTATE FORUM - The talk forum is not performing great but I think it is because it is not properly advertised on the main page and because there are no dates. I think dates should be added to get a sense of when the comment was made, and perhaps similar to above, add a rectangle showcasing the last five talk threads that are active with links to them on right side of urbandigs? Thoughts?
5) TIMELINE SHOWING PREDICTIONS - Jeff thought it would be interesting if we did a timeline of our predictions, more for entertainment and to see how we did, by creating a visual of where we came from, where we think we are now, that could be updated as time goes on. This likely is more time consuming and costly, and Im not sure its worth it right now, but figured to ask you guys?
6) 10% / 15% / 20% BELOW ASK SECTION - For sellers to plug their own listings if they can prove that their asking price is BELOW a previous and recent comp! I will check and confirm, and if it complies, I will add to the section. I figure to reward sellers who accept this market for what it is, and make a place for readers to go to see what properties are priced to move given the market trends and the real time reports of down 15-25% that I discuss often here? Thoughts?
7) ANYTHING ELSE..........?????????
Thanks all!
Comments (24)
#3 is most important.
#6 might hold some promise, too.
Posted by Thisson | February 4, 2009 11:18 AM
1 would be great. 5 would be fun.
Posted by october | February 4, 2009 11:32 AM
interesting. I would say charts data was at top of list, but this is why I ask you guys.
Thanks Thisson! Anything I missed please dont hesitate to let me know. Maybe a better idea is out there.
Posted by Office - Noah | February 4, 2009 11:33 AM
#6 would be my favorite.
Posted by Sharon | February 4, 2009 11:46 AM
I'd like to continue seeing guest bloggers (Toes, Jeff B, etc) and I DO like to hear occasional bull mkt opinions, if only to mix it up. Part of the appeal of SE is the back and forth dialogue - assuming it does not go too far. For example, "the sky is not falling" piece by Toes, though TOTALLY off base and now laughable in hindsight, fostered a lot of thoughtful dialogue among UD followers.
Posted by daytonflyer | February 4, 2009 11:56 AM
post a box on the left side of the page listing the most recent comment topics. Similar to the right side of dealbreaker.com
Posted by patient09 | February 4, 2009 11:59 AM
patient09 - it would have to be on right side, but DEF need to add something to have LATEST COMMENTS or something that brings activity front & center.
Thanks
Posted by Office - Noah | February 4, 2009 12:26 PM
it would be nice to see some kind of good news or positive topic discussed once a week/biweekly/monthly....i read financial news/real etate news & blogs everyday and it is so depressing, it would be nice to see some glimmers of positivity out there!
Posted by MA | February 4, 2009 1:28 PM
MA - Ill take that to mean that you would like to see more contributors? I'll change tone towards the 'better', when the time is right, like I did around mid 2007 or so, for the 'worse'.
Posted by Office - Noah | February 4, 2009 1:36 PM
supplementing 6, perhaps allowing potential buyers to list what he/she is looking for, so long as he/she is being realistic
Posted by jn | February 4, 2009 1:38 PM
I think by far that #3 would be the biggest improvement, as it would marry the most relevant topics with the most pressing thoughts on the minds of readers. I'm not an expert but I think the result would be significantly greater traffic to UD. I think I'd make it the most recent 10 active comments, and if possible allow the visitor to view further back through the archive. Also a thought is you could treat 'Talk Real Estate' as if it were just another blog topic in the recent comments section. That way individual reader topics would have visibility equal to that of the main blog topics.
If #6 existed today I'd easily qualify for it with my property but I most likely would not post my listing there, as I have no protection from anti seller bias and cynical remarks in an open and unmoderated forum where buyers look for insight.
Posted by Seller | February 4, 2009 2:10 PM
thanks for excellent comments seller! good luck with your listing!
With the TALK RE idea, do you think it should be a daily blog post, based on most interesting topic in TALK section that day? Or less frequent?
Posted by Office - Noah | February 4, 2009 2:18 PM
I like the #6 feature plus a related feature, maybe on a weekly basis, where you show a few listings which you, Noah, consider good deals (if you can do that), i.e. something similar to your former "Great Deals" feature. Thanks.
Posted by Thomas | February 4, 2009 2:24 PM
Oh, and #5 would also be a great way to show off your credibility (as long as your crystal ball keeps working :-) ) - and increase your readership even further. I'm not sure why it would need to be extensive or costly. Just a timeline with links to articles and concise summaries would do the trick. For example:
"Bonus Bummer" - 1/29/09 : High end properties ($4M-5M+) will see the most severe corrections during '09 and '10.
"The Times They Are A-Changin" 1/23/09 : Number of real estate agents may shrink by 40% by end of 2010.
...
Posted by Seller | February 4, 2009 2:31 PM
"With the TALK RE idea, do you think it should be a daily blog post, based on most interesting topic in TALK section that day? Or less frequent?"
I don't think you need to make blog posts on the most interesting talk topics- that would require more time and maintenance on your part. What I meant was something like this:
Recent posts:
'Just How Big Was The NYC Housing Bubble?'
{date/time} {poster name} {first 100 chars of post}
'Talk Real Estate : {poster topic} '
{date/time} {poster name} {first 100 chars of post}
'Just How Big Was The NYC Housing Bubble?'
{date/time} {poster name} {first 100 chars of post}
'Developers (Finally) Reducing Prices, Not Just Negotiating Them'
{date/time} {poster name} {first 100 chars of post}
'Talk Real Estate : {poster topic}'
{date/time} {poster name} {first 100 chars of post}
etc.
That way the most interesting items would get visibility automatically.
Just a thought.
Posted by Seller | February 4, 2009 2:51 PM
In order of importance and value (in my opinion obviously):
3, 6, 2, 5
Another idea, would be to add a consumer confidence gauge.
A quick reader response on a scale of 1 - 10, on how they may feel the real estate market for NYC is doing today.
-renter
Posted by renter | February 4, 2009 2:59 PM
2 items would help a little
1) photo or illustrated picture of the author of article. Its still difficult to tell who wrote the blog article
2) a real message forum where we can discuss older topics that get pushed up. The general topics that are discussed here generally have a longer horizon than a few days
Posted by uwsider | February 4, 2009 3:03 PM
I think your last idea is the best one. Even better would be providing a forum where buyers can post "offers" and sellers can find the ones that match up with them.
Posted by Be | February 4, 2009 3:05 PM
Those are some great suggestions Noah. However, I dislike Be's idea of allowing buyers to make virtual offers because we all know that some wiseguy is going to make $1 offers and opening the door to silly games like that is not very productive for this website.
Posted by Donald | February 4, 2009 9:54 PM
more pics of you
Posted by Anonymous | February 5, 2009 2:03 AM
I think it would interesting to see new listings and contracts and closings historically broken up by $ price. so for example, you have information on deals smaller than $500k, between $500k and $1mm, between $1mm - $2mm, $3mm - $5mm, and $5mm+. this will show whether the rich continue to buy or if there is really more activity in the lower groupings as finacning is easier to get for conforming...
miller does something like this, but would be great info tohave. tx, and loveyour site.
Posted by Anonymous | February 5, 2009 10:40 AM
I read this in my RSS reader, not on the site. The formatting in the reader is always kind of messed up. So maybe you could fix that.
Posted by Karen | February 5, 2009 10:56 AM
Charts! I would LOVE to see #1, I think #2 is a good idea too. 5 would be fun as well. In fact, if users could also make predictions, that would be cool.
Posted by IWantSquareFeet | February 5, 2009 1:01 PM
Re: #3, I like the WSJ's "Most Popular" box, where you can see the most Read, Emailed, and Commented.
I also like the "tag/word clouds" idea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_cloud). Soapbox mentioned Worlde (http://soapbox.millersamuel.com/?p=769). Keep it real time, so we can see what are the hot topics and key words being used.
I'd also love links for adding a post to Facebook and LinkIn.
Posted by Bee Dub | February 25, 2009 3:15 PM