According to the 2012 NAR (National Association of Realtors) profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, most buyers look to the local Multiple Listing Service website to view local listings prior to purchase. Next, they look at Realtor.com, the gorilla website in America, followed closely by agent's websites.

I just revamped my agent website at www.icrealestate.com with a great search feature making it easy to sort, view and print listings for sale or lease. I also put in links to sites I use in my daily real estate practice like traffic maps and the Johnson County GIS site. Go have a look, or I'll highlight this new website in a future post.
The NAR study puts company websites (pitty!) and other websites like Trulia last at 13% each. It was surprising that mobile and tablet apps were at 39%! I use the one for Realtor.com on my iPad for showing as it uses geocoding as a sort feature and I can find the homes closest to me.

Nancy Bird Addresses Commercial Round Table

Nancy Bird, Executive Director of the Iowa City Downtown District, rocked the house with a presentation at the Iowa City Association of Realtors Commercial Round Table meeting. The presentation was on January 8th at the Iowa City Area Association of Realtors office where Nancy gave a point by point presentation for the future success of the downtown Iowa City area, its culture and its businesses. She was excited, concise, forward thinking and inspired. Nancy and her staff have already begun a six point plan of action to revitalize and grow this district while keeping the special parts special. Nancy is focused on business success as the pulse of the district, but is very innovative, and dare I say fearless in her approach to achieve that goal. She is working closely with the Iowa City manager's office and the Iowa City planning department to suggest new ideas and coordinate her efforts. Stay tuned for great things from Nancy Bird!




Jeff Edberg chairs the Iowa City Area Association of Realtors Commercial Round Table committee. The Committee meets monthly for a lunch meeting to discuss and be informed on topics important to the commercial real estate practitioner. The group also shares leads, needs and wants with their peers to promote the open interchange of information and expert commercial real estate practice. Attendance is open and free to those who sign up with the association at icaar@icaar.org.

College Towns do Well in Recessions.

 

How can your city best weather an economic downturn? Based on research, make sure it has a university. As reported in New Geography’s College Towns: High Marks for Lifestyle, college towns consistently have unemployment rates below their state figures, and nationally as well. Columbus, Ohio (Ohio State University) stands at 8.9%, below the 11.2% state and 9.4% national rates. Manhattan, Kansas, (Kansas State University) rates at 4.6%, the second lowest small city rate in the nation, and Iowa City, Iowa, (University of Iowa) at 6.2% (pictured).
Why the resilience of university towns?
- For one, universities don’t typically suffer from massive layoffs of students. In fact, I’m sure we all know at least one person who had difficulty finding or keeping a job that considered returning to school. That provides a constant population of residents and consumers for local businesses, kind of like why toothpaste companies don’t suffer in economic downturns.
- Graduating students translate to educated candidates to start new businesses or infuse existing ones with fresh, innovative talent.
- Former graduates are returning to the towns they want to school in, according to Tom Wetzel, founder and president of the Retirement Living Information Center. If you’re retired or laid off, why not return to that sense of community and camaraderie you had in school, from intellectual pursuits to the big football game. Blacksburg, Virginia (Virginia Polytechnic and State University) and Davis, California (University of California) are favorite return destinations because of the strong sense of community and purpose they establish with their students.
Finally, college towns are full of creatives, and we’re headed to a more creative economy. Thus, college towns already possess many of the placemaking qualities that a creative economy needs to thrive - walkability, local independent businesses, human-scaled buildings, active public spaces…
Photo of Iowa City’s downtown pedestrian mall by Kables.  Reprinted from Cooltown Studios. http://www.cooltownstudios.com