Archive for the 'Real Estate' Category

July 26th, 2007

Tessellar - World Wide Home Construction Blog

If you would like to take a few minutes to read about a different culture and industry, then I urge you to have a look at the Tessellar Blog. Here you will find the author Mazlin Ghazali writing from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysa about houses and neighborhoods around the world. He is curious about people and places and interested in finding out how to create better homes for more people. You can never read enough about improving the lives of others in this world, and I find this site a fascinating difference from some of the other blogs I have seen. He offers a link to his alternative site: http://www.tslr.info where you can find more information on Tessellation planning if you are interested. If not, have a look at some of his recent posts to see what he is talking about: Growing up in a Xhosa Village, The Yanomamo: ‘shabono’ and ‘waiteri’, Communist condo, Building the Iban Longhouse, Hakka Clan Houses, Roots, Everybody Needs a Home, Slum-Like Tokyo, Are Architects living on Past Glory?, and Unlikely homes.

Mud House Bangadesh The blog is about as standard as it gets for a blog making it very easy to navigate. Posts are right marginalized with black text on white background and orange header as borders. The posts contain a series of relevant pictures in each post which are all very well done and appropriate in both size and quantity. They also lend true flavor to every post, and in a blog like this they are critical elements. There is a left navigation system where you will find favorite blogs, a blog comments and discussions menu, pictures, squidoo lens, copyright information, and a blog archive. At first glance, it seems that the recent posts menu is missing from the blog, but if you scroll through the top navigation system you will find a recent posts menu on every link in that menu. In the top menu, you can find the links to the blog, Home, Theory, Research, Practice, School, Library, and an FAQ’s page. These seem to be a categories menu of sorts for the blog as they are all located on the blogspot domain.

I will give this one a 3.3 for now, it is fairly new so I would expect in a few months time it would probably get a higher mark. The blog scores well for uniqueness, appearance, and content. Navigation will bring the mark down a little as the search for the recent posts menu threw me off a little, but if this menu is placed on the main page in the left navigation bar I can’t see it being a continual issue. The blog’s discussion menu in the left navigation bar shows that it also has a nice readership already, which is great to see in such a young blog. Activity is a little sparse, with 7 posts in June and 16 in July. The improvement in July is a good indicator of the blog’s growth, so as mentioned I would expect to see more activity as the blog goes on. The author is clearly passionate about this work, and writes beautifully about it. The content is informative and well researched, and if it stays at this level, I anticipate this blog doing very well on content alone. Overall I think this is a great blog that many will find informative, but being only a couple of months old, it is difficult to say much more than that. However, if the topic interests you, bookmark it and keep an eye on it. This one should do very well down the line.

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- Chrissie

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July 5th, 2007

Chicago Real Estate - Bloggeries Review

If you are in the Chicago area, or coming to the Chicago area, then you may need some help looking for a place to live. If this is the case you should check out what is probably one of the most comprehensive real estate websites on the Internet – Chicago Real Estate Blog. The team here specializes in Chicago area residential real estate in the City of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. You will find here that nothing is left behind, as the site includes single family homes, townhouses, and condos. There is real estate information here on all suburbs in Chicago including Algonquin, Arlington Heights, Barrington, Bartlett, Palatine, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Wheeling, and so much more. The site itself is extremely comprehensive, as you will see from some of the recent posts: More than food, the Taste of Chicago; Is it time to invest in Real Estate?; Old Orchard Condos; Spring Hill Condos Selling Fast; and Take a moment to remember. Travel around the main site and you will find buyers and sellers links, a link to search for homes, and a FREE Chicagoland MLS search tool. The site also offers a host of relocation services for each of the Chicago suburbs, so if you are new to the area, you will already have a host of resources at your fingertips.

Navigation on this site is very simple. There is a top navigation bar that includes the home page, blog, buyers link, sellers link, search for homes link, and a contact page. The posts and content on the main page are left marginalized and there is a right navigation bar. On the blog, the right bar contains a categories menu that contains Condos, Festivals and Events, Real Estate Investing, and Uncategeorized links. The right bar also includes and entire menu each for relocation and real estate information on each of the Chicago Suburbs. I really like the personal feel of this blog, the entire website is clearly devoted to making the lives of the readers easier. If you are a seller, they guarantee your house will sell in 60 days, and buyers are guaranteed a $5000 savings right off the start. They also offer not only real estate information on each suburb, but individual city information as well. To further that end, if you are looking for specific Chicago information that isn’t available on the website, they invite you to contact them and let them know.

I am going with a 4 for this one. I kept thinking while reading this that if I was moving to Chicago, I know who I would call. This has to be one of the most comprehensive real estate resources I have seen to date. There is nothing here that would not appeal to a prospective buyer or seller. The content is rich and informative, and the navigation is extremely straightforward. The only thing I would suggest is to get that blog a little more active, daily content or content every other day would certainly help. Perhaps a listing of the day if they are short of ideas for the blog. An active blog is what will keep readers coming, but otherwise I can’t see any other issues that would impede this blog from becoming tremendously successful.

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- Chrissie

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