Oscar winning actor Robert De Niro, who already owns several restaurants and hotels, has announced plans for The Nobu Hotel Condo in the Financial District.

Plans call for a 62 story glass tower housing 77 condos and 128 hotel rooms (mini-bars stocked with green tea and sake!), with the condo units located on the forty-first floor thru penthouse levels.

The eco-friendly building will include a health club with spa, indoor pool, and an outdoor sun terrace which will be available to both residents and hotel guests. Additionally, the Japanese themed condo-hotel and spa complex will house a Nobu restaurant which will provide room service for guests and residents.

The project will be the second in the chain, and is scheduled to open within the next three years at 45 Broad Street; the first will open this summer in Herzliya along the Mediterranean. Since there is little information currently available on this project we’ll be sure to let you know the moment the dedicated website launches.

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PRESS RELEASE
Fourth-largest U.S. residential real estate firm signs up for Zillow®
Listings Feed program

SEATTLE and AUSTIN, Texas, May 8  /PRNewswire/ — Zillow.com and Keller
Williams Realty Inc. today announced a partnership which enables Keller
Williams to automatically feed the listings of the company’s 73,000
associates to Zillow.com on a daily basis, joining the Zillow Listings Feed
program, which launched in November 2007.

(LOGO:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060503/ZILLOWLOGO)

Each listing Keller Williams feeds to Zillow includes a description of the
property with multiple photos and contact information for the listing agent,
including links back to the Keller Williams Web site where Zillow users can
find more information and connect with a Keller Williams sales associate to
guide them through the home buying and selling process.

“We’re thrilled to have such a widely recognized and respected brand
participating in our listings feed program,” said Jorrit Van der Meulen,
Zillow’s vice president of partner relations.  “Keller Williams is one of the
largest residential real estate firms in the U.S., which makes this
partnership a natural fit, as Zillow is one of the largest real estate Web
sites, drawing more than five million monthly visitors.”

“Our agent-centric business model means we are committed to providing our
agents with the best marketing platforms possible,” said Cary Sylvester,
director of technology with the Keller Williams Realty International Service
Center. “The Zillow Listings Feed program is a tremendous marketing
opportunity for our agents and their sellers. Add to that the fact that
two-thirds of Zillow’s five million users are in the market to buy or sell
now, or plan to within the next one to two years, and our agents are tapping
into an audience that needs them.”

“We’re also proud to say that because of our ‘My Listings, My Leads’ lead
routing philosophy, all the leads generated from our agents’ listings on
Zillow will go directly to the listing agent for free,” added Sylvester.

The Zillow Listings Feed program allows participating listings providers to
automatically gain free marketing exposure for their listings on one of the
most-visited real estate sites in the country, while providing Zillow’s users
with a more robust search experience.  Real estate brokerages post for-sale
listings directly to the site in a bulk feed, giving the homes a virtual
for-sale sign at no cost.

For enhanced exposure, individual agents can create a free profile page with
photos, contact information and more details about the agent, linked directly
from each listing.  For more information on Zillow Listings Feeds, visit
http://www.zillowfeeds.com/.  For more information about Keller Williams
Realty, visit http://www.kw.com/.

About Keller Williams Realty, Inc.

Founded in 1983, Keller Williams Realty Inc. is the fourth-largest real
estate franchise operation in North America, with over 650 offices and 73,000
associates in the United States and Canada. The company, which began
franchising in 1990, has an agent-centric culture that emphasizes access to
leading-edge education and promotes an economic model that rewards associates
as stakeholders and partners. For more information, visit Keller Williams
Realty online at http://www.kw.com/.

About Zillow.com

Zillow.com is an online real estate community where homeowners, buyers,
sellers, real estate agents and mortgage professionals find and share vital
information about homes, for free. Launched in early 2006 with Zestimate®
values and data on millions of U.S. homes, Zillow has since opened the site
to community input, data and dialogue.  One of the most-visited U.S. real
estate Web sites, Zillow’s goal is to help people become smarter about real
estate in every stage of the home ownership process — buying, selling,
remodeling and financing. The company is headquartered in Seattle and has
advertising sales offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los
Angeles.

Zillow.com, Zillow and Zestimate are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc.

GarageTown USA AZ is offering garage “condos” for sale at multiple locations in the Phoenix Valley and there’s no shortage of investors. Director of Sales and Marketing Stefanie McDaniel notes, “We launched our first community in August at Chandler’s Stellar Airpark and sold out immediately”. Unlike traditional storage rentals, buyers purchase units with 16’ ceilings and average 2,000 sq ft of interior space. Internet, air conditioning and more options are available. Tenants utilize space for RV’s, boats and toys. Due to a high concentration of car enthusiasts in Arizona, 85% of the Chandler location houses classic cars and vintage race cars.

Continued… 

Watch on YouTube here.

Let us know what you think of our new video! Its a quick 2 minute fast-paced piece we through together in hope to convey to our audience who we are and what we do.  Comments are appreciated so feel free to post them to the public here…or if there really bad…send them to my email! Enjoy!

*** Remember CondoDomain is currently only operating as a Brokerage in Boston, MA - visit the new site at www.Boston.CondoDomain.com ***

- Cast -

Anthony Longo, Founder & CEO, CondoDomain.com

Tony Goldman, Developer, President of Goldman Properties

Derek Webley, Our very first client!

Special Thanks to:

Jessica Anthony, Team Memeber here@ CondoDomain for an outstanding job on the V.O.

Edgartown Ventures for special effects & post production

This house, located near the intersection of Ave T and Van Sicklen is believed to be Brooklyn ’s smallest house. Occupying what used to be a driveway, it’s a one bedroom, one bathroom home that sits on a parcel of land 7.25 feet (2.2 meters) wide and 113.67 feet (34.6 meters) long and has an interior area of just under 300 square feet.

… is actually not in Brooklyn. In fact, it’s located at 128 Day Avenue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and even has its own Web site.

There appears to be some confusion swirling around the World Wide Web.

This “Little House” has generated significant buzz on the Internet and in the media because of its unusual size — it’s essentially built in a narrow driveway (laneway). Ellen DeGeneres even made a phone call during her talk show to inquire about its availability.

The 312-square foot home was recently on the market for a little more than $170,000. Proof that big good things often come in small packages.

To check out a video tour of the home click here.

Check out more details on the Foreclosure.com blog.

The second-home market is in a slump. But one type of vacation property is still showing signs of life: condos.

A study estimates that sales of vacation homes in 2007 fell 31%, to 740,000, from 2006. But sales of condos dipped only slightly — down 2.8% — while sales of detached homes dropped 38%. The upshot is that condos cornered a substantially larger share of the vacation-home market last year: 29%, up from 21% in 2006. Condos are selling better than single-family vacation houses for a number of reasons. They don’t require their owners to maintain lawns, trim shrubs, paint the exteriors or replace roofs — increasingly important concerns to an aging population. Condo communities also tend to offer amenities such as pools and clubhouses. And condos usually are cheaper to buy, and easier to resell, than houses.

Continue on Wall Street Journal 

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REBNY reports $1.6 million average price for Manhattan

he average price rose 28 percent for all New York City homes, according to a market report released today, while the sales volume dropped 22 percent.

Produced by the Real Estate Board of New York trade association, the ResidentialNYC.com report revealed that the average price of Manhattan residential property jumped 41 percent year-over-year in the first quarter to $1.6 million and Manhattan sales dropped 6 percent. REBNY has about 12,000 members that work in a wide range of real estate-related fields.

This report follows the release earlier this month of real estate broker-sponsored first-quarter Manhattan market reports that detailed price gains and sales drops in the first quarter.

Inman News has reported that despite the continued Manhattan market price gains, some real estate professionals say the sales slowdown and other market trends indicate that the tide may be turning on the area’s red-hot real estate run-up.

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Continued….  (via Inman News)

We love our clients! This a.m. Christian one of our Boston Condo Team Members got an email with a buyer he went out with on Friday. We love feedback like this…keep it coming!
Listening to the Stones - I Can’t Get No ….Satisfactionnnnnnnn

Redfin roles out Redfin Select catering to a more hands on buyer.

Redfin, a real estate brokerage company that offers deep rebates to buyers, is testing out a new service option in the Seattle area that allows buyers to participate in an unlimited amount of tours while reducing the company’s rebate rate.

Under the company’s standard plan, called Redfin Direct, prospective buyers receive two agent-led home tours free of charge and pay $250 for additional home tours. These consumers receive a refund of two-thirds of the commission that is paid to Redfin in a home-sale transaction.

The new Redfin Select plan offers a 50 percent commission refund but does not charge a per-tour fee. Participants in this service plan are limited to two tours per week.

Customers can choose to switch from the Direct to the Select plans after the first two free tours.

Traditional full-service real estate companies typically do not charge a fee to take buyers on tours of for-sale properties, though these companies also do not typically offer to refund a large amount of their commission to buyers.

More from Inman News

Read on Redfin Blog 

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Leonardo DiCaprio, a staunch environmentalist, just bought a luxe eco-friendly New York City pad, according to New York magazine.

Called the Riverhouse, the 264-unit condominium high-rise comes complete with programmable thermostats, a 24-hour fresh-filtered air-systems a gray and black water treatment facility, rooftop green landscaping and free bike storage.

The building offers a children’s playroom, indoor 50′ lap pool, media café, fitness center (with yoga studio), indoor children’s Light House, landscaped Riverhouse terrace and a dog spa.

DiCaprio is currently in Boston filming Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and with Michelle Williams.

More on NY Condos 

Below are stats from Jan 1, 2008 until today for people surfing on CondoDomain.com for a new condo!  Interesting stuff.  Now this data is nationwide…but lets take a look at it.

Our urban niche has pulled in the following.

1.  70% are Young Professionals & Established Professionals - no surprise here.

2.  80% looking for a primary residence.

3.  67% looking for services (high rise and or low rise living)  not brownstone or boutique buildings.

4.  77% looking under $450,000 price point.

All awesome data and much of the reason we started the all new Online Buyers Brokerage model NOW LIVE on - www.Boston.CondoDomain.com.  It will be interesting to see how this data looks like from the new web 2.0 website versus the old 1.0 CondoDomain site.  Stay tuned…

…to Iggys House Brokerage Services.

As confirmed to us in an email blast…it looks like the BuySide brand is stepping out and Iggy’s House is stepping in to serve as both the Buy-Side Brokerage Services and the Flat Fee MLS Sell-Side Brokerage service.  It makes sense…they had to pick one brand and just run with it.

“Our services have not changed, just our name.  We still share with buyers 75% of the commission we receive from the seller.  As a reminder, our buyers have received on average over $11,000.”

Iggy’s house was filing to do an IPO back in October…anyone have any updates on this?

By way of our “Nantucket Connection” - Brian-Logan Reid
BrightSale is a UK based online estate agent which utilises the latest technology to help it’s users sell their host faster at a lower price than traditional estate agents. Charging a fixed fee of just 0.5% BrightSale offers it’s customers a significant saving when compared to traditional high street estate agents. Guided by a team of expert property negotiators at the companies head office in London, BrightSale’s customers can truly take control of their property sale in ways that traditional agents have typically restricted. It’s fast, cost effective and has a greater reach than traditional estate agents. Advertising your property with BrightSale Online Estate Agents will mean that more than 20 million people could see your property every month.

Sound familiar…hmm…maybe something new is becoming the norm now?

You havent seen anything yet till you see this!

STEVE-O from Jackass absolutely goes nutty in his Hollywood Condo. Steve-O’s nuclear war with his neighbor finally caught up with him. The O man is in the pokey after being popped for alleged vandalism, as TMZ first reported.

On his own website, the “Jackass” star has been proudly documenting the violence.

We’ve been told a neighbor’s the one who made a citizen’s arrest this AM after Steve allegedly punched holes in the walls of their building.

On a serious note…this is all just another great reason to hire a great real estate broker who knows the building and knows who lives there !!!!

From the author of ‘theFrontSteps blog’:

“The time has come to unveil the latest creation, www.theFrontSteps.org. We hope you like it, and we hope you participate. We even give props to SocketSite. We’re calling it “A Social Network for real estate obsessed San Franciscans”. Go check it out at www.theFrontSteps.ORG

Check out this video produced by WCI. Its got a clear message to something so simple we often overlook it.

The message that “Look & See” offers a whole lot more options than “Wait & See.” As we all know when it comes to the law of Supply & Demand, it is far better to be ahead of the curve than lagging behind. You want to be a day early or a day late? Watch The Video

Yahoo! Founding CEO Tim Koogle combines business with pleasure in his latest endeavor, luxury real estate in Mexico. The first seven Beach Villas at El Banco, Koogle’s premium 100-acre, low-density community near Punta de Mita, Mexico, are now for sale for over $6,200,000 each.

Each one-of-a-kind luxurious home offers expansive views of the Bay of Banderas, Marietas Islands, Sierra Madre Mountains, and El Banco’s long stretch of white-sand beach. The Beach Villas bring El Banco’s signature style to life – casual indoor-outdoor living that takes advantage of the area’s nearly perfect year-round weather combined with the elegance of Old World Mexico. The features of the Beach Villas include: a minimum of four bedroom suites, gourmet kitchens, elegant pools, spa-like bathrooms, multiple outdoor living spaces, high-tech amenities, and caretaker apartments.

“Having worked on great technology brands for much of my career, building something as tangible as a luxury real estate development is terrifically satisfying. My love of design, training as an engineer, and history as a businessman have all come into play in developing El Banco. It is my intention to create a place that others will, hopefully, enjoy for years to come,” said Koogle.

The first phase of the Beach Villas includes seven homes, two are completed and fully-furnished, and the additional five are ready for construction.

More… 

Ok, by now, even the non-techies in this evolving real estate industry has at least heard of Pay-Per-Click, but does it work seems to be the question of the day?  I read an article the other day stating that click fraud was at an all time high and it looks like it is no where near the top at the pace that it is climbing.

Personally, I don’t think I ever click on that PPC stuff.  Do you? It just seems that reputable good quality sites have found a way to rise to the top organically and the PPC stuff is for the newbies trying to get some exposure…but is it worth it at an ever rising PPC rate?  Right now, if you want to own the #1  PPC spot for Boston Real Estate or Boston Condos, you are going to be paying some serious “cash per click,” upwards of $15-$30 … and they can get to your site and decide they don’t even like  you….jease!  I guess if your spending that kind of money, you should at least have a great landing page or website for them to fall on.

Anyway this blog post was more of a question than a statement.  Anyone have the latest on Pay Per Click or Click Fraud in our Real Estate vertical?

I-Agent Realty Inc. (www.i-agent.com), The DC metropolitan area’s only full-service online real estate company, today released the findings of its recent study comparing total home buyer savings through I-Agent.com vs. a leading competitor. During the six month period ending December 31, 2007, I-Agent.com clients saved $43,596 on average compared to $27,790 through its leading competitor.

On average, I-Agent Realtors were able to negotiate a final sales price 5.2 percent below the listing price compared to three percent negotiated savings through a leading competitor. I-Agent average list price during this period was $605,513.10.  In addition to superior price negotiations, I-Agent gives customers a two percent rebate on their final purchase price, thus saving 7.2 percent overall. Findings are based on published MLS data.

I-Agent Realtors are able to focus on customer service instead of sales, with each backed by more than 50 successful transactions over the past two years; this experience provides an added advantage during seller negotiations.

“We’re thrilled to introduce exceptional savings for our clients.  We strive to continually provide a level of customer service that exceeds client expectations,” states Carlos Reyes, I-Agent Realty’s Principle Broker. “Not only did our home buyers save, on average, more than $43,000, but I-Agent has also streamlined the entire home buying process, saving our customers thousands of dollars on Settlement and Lender fees.”

Unlike other Online Real Estate companies, I-Agent Realty provides comprehensive service via local agents. JC Choi, a past client of I-Agent Realty, states: “Contrary to expectations from using an online service, I-Agent worked diligently, meticulously and professionally to make sure I was happy.  Every person I dealt with … was friendly, professional, and courteous.”

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Also make sure to visit our DC Condo website for new construction condos

And

If your looking in Boston, make sure to see our new Flat Fee Brokerage model similar to I-Agent in DC.