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I am currently in Hunstville, Ontario (Muskoka region) and I have about 15 minutes before I need to head out for dinner. So this is not going to be a long post.
I did, however, want to share with you a new real estate app that I learned about today called SQFT. (Thanks Evgeny.) They were just featured in TechCrunch and their mission is to make it easier and cheaper for people to buy and sell homes using just their smartphone. They’re calling themselves the first DIY real estate portal in America.
As a homeowner, you create the listing yourself and then it gets syndicated out to hundreds of other websites (including the big players like MLS, Zillow, and Trulia).
You’re still technically working with “independently operated licensed real estate agents”, but the app itself handles setting up the showings and even the offer negotiations. Their hope is that they can reduce real estate commissions to < 2%.
This is a space that I’ve been following closely for a number of years now and seems to be really heating up. Opendoor.com is another online real estate platform that I’ve written about a few times. And in my view, they are the furthest out front.
My realtor friends don’t like it when I say this, but I think we’re going to see a lot of changes in this space in the near future.
Sometimes I like to start my mornings off by grabbing a coffee and walking down Jarvis Street to Sugar Beach and the lake.
I’ll find a Muskoka chair (Adirondack chair for you Americans) and position it underneath one of the iconic pink umbrellas. I mostly like to look out at the lake, but I also like the shade so that I can see the screen on my phone in case my Type A tendencies kick in and I want to check emails or mess around on Twitter.
Oftentimes when I’m there–even early in the morning–there will already be other people at the beach. One time I came at 730am and a lady was there tanning in a bikini. I admired her dedication.
Sometimes I need these moments. I like that sobering feeling you get when you take a time out from the everyday to just sit and think. It helps put things into perspective. And you could argue that great cities provide those kinds of spaces.
But how valuable are those spaces? Can you put a price tag on it? Is it worth $1M? How about $14.1M, including $12,000 for each pink umbrella?
Image: blogTO
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