said that the Internet search leader hopes its recently acquired advertising service DoubleClick will aid newspapers as they struggle to corral more online revenue.
“It’s a huge moral imperative to help here,” Schmidt said during a question-and-answer session at an event hosted in San Francisco by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Without providing specifics about how it might be accomplished, Schmidt said DoubleClick’s system for serving up online display ads could generate “significant” revenue online for newspapers.
There’s been much concern and controversy concerning the drop in relevance of newspaper real estate ads.
Seattle’s a two newspaper town but due to a Joint Operating Agreement, only the Seattle Times publishes a Sunday newspaper.
Real estate ads reign supreme on Sunday, but the section’s a mess with random ads scattered over a dozen or so pages. It’s impossible to find the property in the price range and neighborhood you want without reading every single page and filtering out the unsuitable properties.
The best solution I’ve seen so far is the “booklet” published by such papers as the Santa Barbara News-Press. It’s published by a company called Classified Concepts, and they make an incredible interface by selling . Visually and graphically, a buyer can see the house location in an easy-to-carry magazine format.
Though I respect the Fourth Estate and the honorable separation of the editorial and advertising departments, I am tired of journalists publishing press releases verbatim from real estate vendors.
The unthinking and unquestioning publication of press releases from alternative online real estate companies is ironic to say the least. Our local bricks-and-mortar real estate firms spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in newspaper advertising. Online firms, who NEVER advertise, get so much ink that you’d think the editors and reporters were on the payroll.
Reporting news is good. Endlesslessly pushing and promoting online companies that will NEVER BUY ADVERTISING is bad journalism and poor judgement.
Press Release Journalism?
With the passing of the same sex marriage law in California, the estimated 100,000 domestic partners in California will have the opportunity to join millions of other Americans in holy matrimony. While California braces for the onslaught of applications for marriage licenses from same sex couples due to the historic California Supreme Court decision to legalize same sex marriage, same sex marriage protesters and gay rights supporters are preparing for rallies across the state.
In the midst of the controversy to legalize gay marriage, San Diego real estate company is offering to for same sex couples married in California when purchasing a home, condo, or vacation home using their services.
“It’s more than showing appreciation for our customers,” Michelle Koert of Wellsford Realty said of their Pride Promotion. “We understand that domestic partners want all of the securities and happiness that investment in a home has to offer a couple. We encourage same sex couples from out of the area to purchase their vacation home in San Diego.
We used to call it “mattress money”. Money not in banks and not accounted for in usual ways, used to fund home purchases, usually by ethnic groups not likely to trust banks or safety deposit boxes.
Now Richard Branson of Virgin Air fame has tried to legitimize this practice with his new company .
Their website offers “” but is really only a servicing company for borrowers who have already arranged to borrow money from friends or relatives. Virgin Money makes their dough by servicing the loans.
“Full Closing with Escrow” includes escrow services in addition to a full closing. They formalize the loan, ensures that taxes and insurance are kept current, and transfers ownership to the buyer with an official closing in a flat fee of $2299 + $19 a month for each month one has the loan. Apparently, you go to them with the amount borrowed, the interest rate you’re paying and other terms of the loan already negotiated and they just handle the paperwork.
As you know, transactions between family and friends are increasingly being structured as private mortgages. In these situations, friends, family and home sellers act as a bank and finance part, or all, of the purchase.
Virgin Money provides proper loan documentation and professional repayment management that protects the emotional and financial interests of all parties involved, while still keeping wealth in the family. And, we handle the fun stuff like accounting, year-end reporting, and tracking down late or missing payments. Well, we think it’s fun.
In our MLS Purchase and Sale Agreements, we have a clause where the Buyer certifies that they are not relying on any contingent source of funds. When making one’s offer contingent upon a home loan, it’s usually not contingent on one from Aunt Sarah, but from a recognized commercial lender. Exactly how does one prove one is getting this loan? I suppose if they fund this private loan ahead of time and show proof of actual funds, that might fly. But I don’t want to be the first agent to try this….
And Virgin is a huge well-funded company, why would they dabble with these small potatoes? They’d have to have 100’s of new clients a month to compensate them for the trouble and liability.