mike | Shared With: Everyone - Aug 19 2008 | seattle, reviews, judys book, yelp
Another approach to the local review services - non-profit "Consumers' Checkbook" sells a magazing subscription with peer reviews on home services for various local markets (including Seattle).
They charge $30 for a two year subscription, which gives you a quarterly(?) magazine sent to your home, and access to the online site.
But they forgo all SEO opportunities putting their site behind a subscriber-only firewall. Seems like a dumb idea to me.
Quoted: Reports on over 3,800 Puget Sound area firms, compiled from 180,000 consumer ratings.
Quoted: This nonprofit website rates local service firms and provides unbiased consumer ratings and information on local auto repair shops, home repair services, health care providers, and more.
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - Oct 05 2006 | seattle, yelp, social, review
Just got $10M from Benchmark.
Quoted: Yelp is a fun and easy way to find, recommend and talk about what's great - and not so great - in San Francisco and beyond. Members share their favorite recommendations - everything from the latest restaurants and shops, to the best hair salons and spas, to doctors and yoga instructors.
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seattle
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This is a very interesting loan product from BECU and has the potential of being one of the best 1st time mortgages for buyers that qualify.
It is called the "Helper" (HLPR) loan. Basically, it's aimed at 1st time buyers buying their first home, but it should also be useful for people who have already sold their homes and are looking for another.
There are income restrictions, credit restrictions and other guidelines, but this particular HLPR product (there are several others, see BECU's site) purports to have an ARM rate that is about 1% lower than the "going" rate. Based on my experience, their fees are also lower than most of the major banks.
This type of loan is great for someone that is looking at short-term ownership of a property. I spoke with several industry pros and they all believe that BECU is probably not making any money - perhaps even losing money - on this loan, but may be using it to bring borrowers into other BECU products that may be profitable.
BECU has had a reputation of being difficult to work with in the past and very slow to respond. It seems that now, though, they've cleaned up their act. They've got 24-hour mortgage reps and a lot of the process has been stream-lined and placed online. This loan is not for everyone, though, and it may not apply to every purchase. In particular, borrowers may have difficulty obtaining loans on new or conversion condos that are not FNMA approved. I spoke with several BECU reps and their answers were all over the board about this.
More info on the site.
1 FaverViewed: 30 Times - sudha - 8 days ago1 FaverViewed: 4 Times
- shiwani - 9 days ago1 FaverViewed: 3 Times
social
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Hm, not very reassuring...
1 FaverViewed: 7 TimesQuoted: If Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg can't figure out his social networking site's privacy settings after they were ripped open earlier this month, what hope is there for the rest of us?
- Sloane - 12 days ago12 FaversViewed: 3 Times
- freshmaker13 - Nov 25 20091 FaverViewed: 5 Times
