Vicky Gkiza’s Blog

San Francisco’s mayor Gavin Newsom, recently unlocked city data, giving us access to everything from police records to restaurant inspection reports and even lists of every street tree planted in San Francisco (and when!).   It’s all part of the recently launched DataSF.org, and he wants our help with this effort.

In an effort to assist home buyers, sellers and residents, he’s now asking the Trulia Voices community:



When deciding where to live, what local infromation do you want at your fingertips?









His office will be tracking your input closely – so make your voice heard! Not only will your answers help the Mayor work towards a more transparent and open government, but it will also create new job opportunities as people come up with ideas on how they can best use this never before available information to create new products and services.

Hopefully other government officials will take the lead from the White House and Mayor Newsom to adopt this open government policy and allow the citizens to innovate away!

Annie Leibovitz must pay back a $24M loan by Tuesday (aka today) or she will lose not only her homes, but also the rights to her photos!


 Annie Leibovitz is one of the most famous photographers. Her work includes portraits of John Lennon, the famous Demi Moore pregnant photo for Vanity Fair, Angelina Jolie and many more. She is considered (and i agree) one of the most talented photographers of our time.


Now Annie Leibovitz is ordered to pay Art Capital group $24M by today. In 2008, Leibovitz used her properties and work as collateral to borrow $24M from Art Capital. Art Capital is now suing Leibovitz for breach of contract. If Leibovitz fails to pay back the amount owed by end of day today, she will lose two houses in Greenwich Village, NY and one property in Rhinebeck, NY in addition to the rights to her photos!

Fingers crossed that everything will be resolved in the best way for all!

A few weeks ago i met with some trulia bloggers to discuss blogging and real estate. It was an awesome discussion where we all learned quite a lot from each other. One key question that kept coming up was 'what are the most intersting topics to blog about so i can help consumers'.

Well, obviously in this market, with all the changes that are happening, there are plenty of topics to cover. However, looking at data that we gather at trulia (either via consumer feedback, or via  internal data analysis) here is what comes up as most popular/interesting:

• Current market conditions: Is your local market improving? How does it measure in comparison to last month? How does your town compare with towns near by etc. Back up your arguments with data and you have a blog that consumers are looking forward to read!
  
• New legislations: What are the implications of the health care reform on real estate? How can i qualify for the 8K tax credit? How does the FHA Home Modification Program can help me? You get the idea! All these legislations are complicated...Nobody wants to read the complete document, but everyone wants to be assured that they are not missing out on anything important. Well, you are the experts to provide this information!
  
  
• Local information: Any information that you can share about schools, crime rates, neighborhood developments are of major interest to consumers. I understand that there are some limitations on the amount/type of content you can share. Using your own judgment, i think there is good information that can be shared without crossing the line.

happy blogging!

All you have to do is:
1. Write good content: interesting, well articulated, relevant
2. Create a readership: tweet your posts, email them to your friends, share them with your facebook friends
3. Email us at blogoftheweek@trulia.com with the url of your blog!



For more info, check out this detailed blog post

It's been a few years now that I am fascninated with the Blue Bottle coffee phenomenon in San Francisco.

I discovered Blue Bottle about 3 years ago when i used to live in Hayes Valley. Right cross the street from my place there was (and still is) this garage, that once the door open you would see a little coffee stand. I thought it was a very interesting idea, so I tried the coffee immediately. It was really good, organic beans prepared with so much attention and care, that the result is close to perfection!

Before I knew it, Blue Bottle became SOOO popular. There were always people under my appartment, making it difficult to open the front door, let alone get in the garage. It was absolutely crazy: huge lines, people sitting at the pavement no matter the weather conditions just so they can have a bit of the blue bottle magic.

That was about the time when i stopped drinking blue bottle coffee....I always enjoyed their coffee, but never felt it is worth 30min or more wait to get just a cup of coffee. Don't get me wrong, I do buy Blue Bottle coffee for personal use at my home and always drop by if I am around in non peek hours...but does it worth 30min of my time?...not sure...

This weekend some friends were visiting from abroad and we went to the Ferry Building. Since I had plenty of time to hang out, i stayed 30min in line to get for me and my guests a taste of how coffee should always be!

With over 350,000 real estate professionals on Trulia, what a better place to start your search for the right real estate agent!
 
Using the new ‘Find a Pro’ functionality you can now find agents, brokers, lenders, appraisers, stagers, and many more real estate professionals in your location.



To make sure we match you with the best person, you are able to sort the results by:



1. Best match: Prioritizes professionals with complete profiles, and high quality contributions on Trulia Voices

2. Most activity: Prioritizes the Trulia Voices enthousiasts who spend days and nights spreading their knowledge and offering advice to consumers in need (available on march 19th)

3. Featured: Prioritizes the professionals who are Trulia Pro subscribers and among other benefits they have ‘special’ promotion on their listings

I was very surprised to see how many people are searching information about REO's on Trulia Voices: How to REO a home, how to find an agent for REO, where can i find REO listings. Just see below... I am wondering whether people even knew what REO meant a few years ago...what do you think?

REO
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