First Wednesdays is a social gathering of internet Entrepreneurs, Coders, Designers, Bloggers and Marketers.

We meet the first Wednesday of each month at South Street Brewery at 7pm.

NEXT MEETING: April 1st | 7pm | South Street Brewery

WHAT TO EXPECT: A bar.  There is no agenda.  Come for as long or as little as you want.  Say hi and hang out.  We’ll be the people standing around in the back area (opposite the bar)

WHY? We’ve noticed a growth in internet startups, twitter followers, blogs, design studios, social media players and independent developers lately.  This is an attempt to get all those people in one room with a drink in their hand for networking, swapping ideas and developing plans for world domination.

Come out and help make it happen.

The Miller Girls are done promoting in Charlottesville. Thursday nights you could typically find the Miller Lite girls handing out drink tickets at some of Charlottesville’s restaurants to promote Miller Lite. The girls, typically dressed in black, are no longer promoting the Miller brand in Charlottesville. Their jobs have been cut. Coors no longer wants to use Team Enterprises as their marketing company and has dropped the whole program. On facebook, Team Enterprises employs more than 500 girls, they also work branding Bacardi, SoBe, Dunkin Donuts, and Comcast cable, but the MillerCoors girls of Charlottesville have been dropped.

Update: See comments below. The Miller Girls in Charlottesville will be back.

In a recent article from the Daily Progress: “There is excessive inventory in the townhouse and condominium market.” The amount of townhouses and condominiums for sale in Charlottesville has jumped from 438 in the fall of 2007 to 621 currently available. I can understand why buying a condo was attractive and why builders continued to build so many of them all over Charlottesville. Even though I’m only renting mine, not dealing with a yard, enjoying the clubhouse, gym, computer room is really convenient while allowing me to live really close to work and downtown. The problem is that since they are popping up all over the place right now in Charlottesville, there is no reason to buy an older, used one, when buying a new attractive one is more glamorous.

I have several friends in this situation, where they haven’t made upgrades to their condos, and the normal wear and tear of their home detract buyers. Upgrades are necessary! Think tile, countertops, cabinets, flooring, fixtures, all these new things are more attractive then just looking at the same plain condo, just facing a different direction. When I picked my condo I liked it because they emphasized the clubhouse(perfect for engagement parties, babyshowers, dinner parties, hanging out), my landlord spent more time showcasing the clubhouse then I did inspecting the condo, bad idea on my part, very smart on theirs. They kept emphasizing only one set of stairs between me and the clubhouse, I remember them saying: “it’s like a second living room,” “we go in the morning and drink coffee on the deck”. My landlord was so funny she admitted to working out in the clubhouse while her newborn slept because the baby monitor would work because the clubhouse was so close…therefore I thought I’d be making a lot of use of the workout room??? I feel so silly to admit that now.

So, if you are in the market for a townhouse or condo because you are a first time homebuyer or because you want to simplify or a change of scenery, I’ll tell you about more things about my condo that I overlooked.

1.) The cabinets are too small to fit my dishes, normal sized plates have to be titled to fit into the kitchen cabinets.

2.) The drawers are too small to fit a silverware organizer, my spoons, forks and knives just sit in the drawer instead of neatly in my silverware organizer(sounds dumb but it annoys me.) I have to put the silverware in the drawers JUST right for me to even be able to get the drawer closed.

3.) No lights were included in the condo, no ceiling lights, no chandeliers, no bedroom light. Move in day I walked in, flipped the switch and the whole place remained dark. There was one light in the bathroom.

4.) The microwave was not included. I didn’t realize that I use the microwave so much. It’s cheap to buy a new one, but something I overlooked.

So in case you are thinking about selling your condo/townhouse or you’re in the market for one, think of how your home is going to line up in comparison to the rest in your neighborhood?

When it seems like everyone is talking about the Real Estate Market and feeling more anxiety about being a homeowner, one New York builder is proving you can transform any home into your dream home. Charles Petersheim was living in New York City until 9/11 when he decided to relocate to Sullivan County outside New York City and took a job fixing up barns. When the job ended Petersheim began designing farmhouses with a variety of salvaged and new materials. The team installs fireplaces, wide-plank floors, shaker style cabinets, and huge porches. He has expanded from just remodeling barns and he now builds homes and cabins that are built with history but made with sound construction.

My favorite part of looking at real estate online are the pictures. They make the difference, the descriptions are so blown out of proportion that the pictures tell the real story of the home. The more pictures the better, hire someone to take the pictures if you need to because it will be a main selling point. I don’t scan through real estate listings to read the descriptions, I want to see the bathrooms, closet space, deck, porch, bay window, master bedroom, winding staircase, attic, everything, it’s like walking through the house, and people enjoy that. Even if I’m not in the market to buy a home I like to see the creativity other people used in their home. When taking the pictures for your home it’s important to know how to make the lighting enhance the room’s features and choosing the location in the room to showcase it’s impressive qualities.

Some examples I found in the MLS of some pictures that need work:

	The backyard actually looks beautiful, but the camera glare distracted me. Open the door when you take a picture of the backyard.
	Are the shoes trying to make you feel like you’re home? And the bag of garbage by the door??? This picture makes me uncomfortable, I can not picture myself living here, it’s very awkward.
	What is this showcasing? Maybe they were thinking…if you buy our home we’ll let you keep our newly installed banister??

The Wall Street Journal is running an interesting article entitled: The Generation Gap in Real Estate. According to the article, which sites recent studies, the average age of home buyers vs agents is growing (agents are getting older). Of course, this wouldn’t be a problem except for the differing views and experiences with technology between generations.

From the article:

…Gen X and Gen Y buyers don’t want the hand-holding of the typical agent/home-buyer relationship. Many of these consumers prefer to do their own house hunting and research online, and some are skipping buyer agents all together to complete the entire home search and home purchase on their own.

This is exactly the issue CurbPlaces is trying to address. Our goal is twofold: (1) To create the most power and easy-to-use website where consumers can explore real estate on their own and (2) To empower and enable agents to take advantage of this changing paradigm. Create a CurbPlaces account to see how this can work.

There are good thoughts over at VARBuzz.com regarding this changing relationship as well.

What have your experiences been? Has anyone recently attempted to buy or sell a home and felt the technology options offered to them limited? Where is the internet taking real estate?

[Photo Credit]