Apartments.com aids Chicago homeless
Kevin Doyle, SVP, GM Apartments.com presents check to Ed Shurna, exec director, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
An Apartments.com spokesperson just told us that in its hometown of Chicago, Ill. more than 100,000 people were homeless in 2011, and in the US 3.5 million are homeless. So, Apartments.com solicited nationwide participation and greater attention through its “Raising Awareness. Taking Action: A Campaign to Help End Homelessness” Facebook initiative.
As part of the campaign, Apartments.com promised to donate $1 to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless for every new “LIKE” it received on Facebook from November 1, 2011 – December 31, 2011. February 2 Apartments.com SVP and GM Kevin Doyle presented a check for $15,000 to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. Continue reading
RentGeek reads your mind, filters apartments
Here’s a nifty business model for a property-listing site that we haven’t seen before. RentGeek, a Canadian startup, filters the apartments and homes it presents by asking you to fill in an online questionnaire. We gave it a spin in Vancouver.
RentGeek asked for our age, gender, marital status, number of kids, income (we skipped that one), type of property we’re interested in, how we get around (this being Vancouver, “car sharing” was an option), pets, where we eat (at home or in restaurants), whether we work out or do yoga (we made ourselves sound a little buffer than maybe we actually are), what kind of coffee we drink, what we do on Friday nights (clubbing it or movie at home?) and, of course, how much we are willing to spend.
We were then presented with three communities, each with a Google Map and recommended properties. You can see how your survey affected the rankings; review a demographic breakdown according to the 2006 Canadian census; and check out a number of “hip” reviews of the neighborhoods by locals (we tried to chat with them, but RentGeek is not a real estate/dating site, at least not yet).
All in all, the experience was easy and we left with the feeling that RentGeek kind of did read our minds, even if it was all just algorithms. It’s certainly a model worth considering stateside.
Jobsite Group becomes Evenbase
Evenbase is the new name for A & N Media’s stable of recruitment sites and technology providers – a collection previously known as the Jobsite Group. The move is part of building a B2B entity with global aspirations and according to Strategy Development Director Felix Wetzel the Jobsite name is being played down as part of “transforming from a job board business to a recruitment business.”
Wetzel explains that the new name minimizes confusion between the B2C job board offer and the group’s wider strategy. There is a hint here as to what that is since Wetzel notes that the new name “avoids being limited by geography, sector or topicality” suggesting that Evenbase’s sights are set on markets beyond the U.K.
The Evenbase stable includes Jobsite but also niche and vertical job boards such as Oilcareers, NHS Jobs and multi-posting software provider Broadbean all of which will be organized as four business units each with a Managing Director. Those units are Job Boards (MD Mike Wall), Business Solutions (under Heather Wozniak), Software (based on Broadbean and run by Dan Martin and Kelly Robinson), and New Ventures (MD Ray Duggins).
All of these units will report to Keith Potts who moves from Group MD to CEO of Evenbase, a role change that will see his priorities shift from operations to strategy.
Canadian real estate facts and figures from CAAMP
The Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (or CAAMP) has published its “Annual State of the Residential Mortgage Market” report. The document includes some interesting facts and figures about the Canadian real estate industry. A sample:
- There are about 13.6 million occupied homes in Canada. Of these, 9.6 million are owner-occupied, including 5.8 million with mortgages and 3.8 million without mortgages.
- The total value of owner-occupied housing in Canada is estimated at $3 trillion.
- Mortgages and lines of credit for these homes amount to $982 billion. That means Canadians have about $2 trillion in home equity, equal to 68 per cent of the total value of housing.
- Two per cent of homeowners (about 150,000 to 170,000) may have negative equity in their homes.
- Twelve percent of mortgage borrowers said they would have some problems if interest rates rose by even less than one percent.
- The average dwelling value (as estimated by the occupants) is $316,000.
The full report can be downloaded here.
Print fights back in Stuttgart
By Christo Volschenk
On Feb. 4 Stuttgart, Germany’s 8th biggest city, will be a weekly, printed classifieds paper richer, the publisher Zeitungsgruppe Stuttgart, announced today. Apart from local news, the paper will contain sections with auto, jobs and real estate classified ads.
The new paper, called Stuttgarter Wochenende, will appear on Saturdays. Zeitungsgruppe Stuttgart also publishes the daily papers Stuttgarter Nachrichten and Stuttgarter Zeitung and the weekly classifieds paper Stuttgarter Wochenblatt, which appears on Wednesdays.
Read the full announcement (in German) here.
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