MyNewPlace Blog

Two weeks ago, we posted an article about MyNewPlace's inclusion in a newly launched feature on LinkedIn, a business oriented social networking site. This week, we are happy to announce that MyNewPlace is now on Facebook, the broadly popular social network where almost 70 million users (according to Wikipedia) share comments, photos, articles and information about themselves.

The MyNewPlace Facebook page is a company page, which is very similar to an individual's page, except for a few differences. For example, you can become a ‘fan' of MyNewPlace, which is the same as becoming another person's friend. Once you are a fan of MyNewPlace, you can interact with us much in the same way you would a friend.

With our new company page, we hope to reach out to MyNewPlace users who are also Facebook members. Leave us comments, ask us questions and give us feedback. We will try to be as attentive as possible and hope to connect with renters trying to find an apartment, roommates looking for an apartment guide and property managers who have questions about our website.

For example, if you are having trouble finding an apartment in San Diego that meets your needs, let us know. If you have a question about renters insurance, give us a shout. If you are a landlord and want to vent about common problems with your renters, let it all out.

We'll be feeding our blog up to our new Facebook page, posting photos from our company parties and even posting videos, when we are afforded the opportunity. So far, our only video is from a Flight of the Conchords performance at the big Omniture Summit, which was held in Salt Lake City about a month ago.

We hope to get to know renters and property managers better using our new Facebook page, as well as share a little bit about what goes on here at MyNewPlace, so be sure to swing on by and check us out!

This morning we saw that our friends over at the HotPads Blog had posted an article about connecting with their company on LinkedIn, using a newly released feature. We were happy to see that MyNewPlace had also been selected as one of the 160,000 companies to be included on their new release.

LinkedIn, the popular social networking site that focuses on connecting business professionals, within and across industries, recently released a beta version of a new feature called Company Profiles. According to their blog post, which goes into some detail on the matter, each Company Profile is comprised of data that each LinkedIn member provides.

By showcasing the people that are working at each of these companies, it really helps to break the monolithic image that can sometimes be associated with corporations. There are actual people behind those mirrored skyscraper windows, which is comforting.

The information that LinkedIn is able to provide is unique because each company is represented by the attributes of its employees. LinkedIn is able to display interesting demographic information such as common universities, median age, what companies its employees have worked at before and after and common job titles.

Other features include recent hires, job listings, popular profiles as well as traditional information supplemented by BusinessWeek. Below is a screenshot of the MyNewPlace Company Profile as it is displayed to me:

I have found LinkedIn to be a great site, but usually only useful during a job search. It looks as though they are trying to increase multifunctionality on their site.

Has anyone had good experiences using LinkedIn to find or look for a job? Have you found other uses for the site? Has it become an online rolodex? Hit us back in the comments.

A couple of weeks ago, a few of us from MyNewPlace had the chance to attend the Omniture Summit in Salt Lake City.

Although most of you probably haven't heard of Omniture, you've all undoubtedly interacted with websites using their products. Omniture's SiteCatalyst suite is the online marketing package of choice for many businesses, both large and small, to determine what works and what doesn't on their websites. So if you've browsed Apple or read the New York Times online, then some of that activity has been captured (anonymously, I swear) by SiteCatalyst.

The conference was a few days of intense immersion in all things Omniture, with the company's green logos, swag, and bowls of perfectly matched green apples making it a very complete branding experience. Since I'm fairly new to web analytics and very new to Omniture, it was a great way to get up to speed, learn about interesting features, and interact with some Omniture folks directly. It's admittedly a little funny to watch 2,000 people burst into spontaneous applause while a CTO talks about new product features, but SiteCatalyst does seem like a great tool that can help us continue to improve the site and your experience finding an apartment.

In addition to a large number of breakout sessions, there were several keynotes, including marketing guru Seth Godin and Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong (because, let's be honest, no conference is complete without at least a cameo from Lance Armstrong). There was also lots of opportunity for play, most notably during Friday's ski day and Wednesday night's big party at The Depot, a venue they rented out and filled with food, drinks, and lots of music.

And, as wonderful as all of Omniture's products are, my highlight and perhaps biggest incentive for attending the conference was the special performance by Flight of the Conchords, who played an hour-long set at The Depot for a mix of obsessed enthusiasts and curious newbies. My rudimentary camera work follows. Enjoy.

After a prolonged silence, the MyNewPlace blog is back in business. 

Over a million people a month use our site for their apartment and home rental search – ranging from young families to seniors, urban hipsters to suburban professionals, and from college students to visiting professors. We consider it an honor to be allowed to be part of the process of finding a place to live for so many people as they navigate through major transitions in their lives.

We are hoping that our blog quickly morphs from a monologue to a multitudinous dialogue, that it provides valuable, occasionally entertaining, information related to searching for, and living in rental properties, and that a community of folks with shared interests emerges.

We have a whole host of stuff that we plan to write about – ranging from rental trends and fashions, to economic research, to site how-to’s, to personal rent and roommate stories. When possible, we’ll add local perspectives. We’re looking to you and your feedback to help keep us on track and on points of interest.

One question I’m often asked is: is the mortgage melt-down going to lead to lower rents or higher rents? We receive lots of real estate and rental industry research, and actually read a fair amount of it. That said, it’s hard for this non-economist to see a clear relation between the ongoing real estate downturn and movement in rental rates nationally. Marcus Millichap recently published their annual national apartment report that states the “asking rents” will rise an average of 4% in 2008. However, actual rents are likely to rise at a lower rate and certain markets where speculative home and condo buying was particularly high (think: many parts of Florida,  areas in Southern California and Arizona, etc.) are clearly much softer than the national average. Why? Because in those soft markets a flood of condos have come back on the market as rental units and are effectively increasing rental housing supply faster than the increases in demand.

What’s that all mean for the normal renter? Do pay attention to the broader real estate trends in your area, but for the most part don’t expect big bargains. The location of the property, condition of the building, and amenities will continue to drive pricing and relative bargains. When using sites like MyNewPlace, focus on what amentities you really care about and the max rent that you’re comfortable with and use those filters to refine your search. Happy hunting!

We're pleased to announce that two MyNewPlacer's, VP of  Technology Ken Cluff and Data Integration Engineer Gabriele Cressman, have been recognized by the NMHC’s MITS Project for their contributions to developing apartment industry data exchange standards.

The MITS (Multifamily Information and Transactions Standard)  project ( http://www.mitsproject.org ) is an industry-wide effort by the apartment sector to develop common data standards and XML protocols to facilitate data and systems integration. The MITS standards are freely available as an industry resource.

We've been an active participant in the MITS project since our inception and employ the MITS standards for data exchange with many of our clients. In presenting the award the MITS committee specifically acknowledged Gabi's contributions to core components of the MITS standard and the custom extension mechanism.

“The exchange of apartment data via the MITS standard helps us provide the freshest, most up to date listings to the consumers visiting our site,” commented Ken. “The consumers are happy, the apartment owners are happy, and because we’re leveraging an XML data standard rather than doing custom integrations from scratch, even our technology team is happy.”

We found out this morning that BusinessWeek named MyNewPlace Best of Web in the Real Estate category. The winners are named based on the votes of BusinessWeek.com readers (like you). Best of all, we got there based on your write-in votes!

You can read more about the BusinessWeek Best of the Web on BusinessWeek.com. To see who else made the list in the Real Estate category, go here:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/bestof2006/results/realestate.html

Thank you!

We're very pleased to announce that at tonight's Inman Innovator Awards, MyNewPlace won the 2006 award for "Most Innovative Rental or New Home Online Service." According to the Inman Innovator site,, Inman News has recognized companies who have demonstrated extraordinary levels of innovation through the use of technology or the Internet that enhance the real estate transaction for consumers, positively impact the real estate industry and redefine key business models within the market. Thank you to Brad Inman and the folks at Inman news for the honor. Heck, we're just getting started. There is going to be a write-up in the Inman News tomorrow and probably a press release or two flying around. I'll post an update on this blog with links when those things are available.

A lot of companies say they are customer-focused, but the reality is that very few are. Customer-focus is something that has to come from the top and become part of the DNA of a company.

Our friends at Realty DataTrust, with whom we launched our new Check Availability feature for reserving apartments online, interviewed our CEO, John Helm, for the current issue of their Apartment Marketing Internet Video Newsletter. Watch as John tells you what we've learned about apartment hunters and property owners/managers and how we've acted upon it.

Can't view this video? Use one of these links:
Normal Quality Video (256kb/s) | High Quality (768kb/s)

Read the full issue of the Apartment Marketing Internet Video Newsletter

John Gartner, who writes for MarketingShift, posted a Q&A with John this past Monday. It's a good read about why John got back into the online apartment space for a second time, our business plan, and how to effectively communicate with customers.

On that last point, I can personally attest to the fact that John personally wrote his answers for MarketingShift. If you want to get the straight scoop in John's own words, click over.

On April 1 we moved in to our new offices at 425 Bush Street. We're still in the process of getting settled into the new digs (you know how moving goes), but thought we would give you a little tour. Our new building… is a great old building right in between the serious business of the Financial District and the great shopping and eating of Union Square. Speaking of food…the food is better in our new 'hood. For one thing, as you can see we traded the McDonald's we used to be above for a Subway. The smell of fresh based bread every day is much better. Best of all, we're located right next door to Claude Lane… …which, in addition to the fabulous Cafe Claude and a very Parisian cafe feel, was also seen in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Read this for proof. On the inside, we not only have more space, we have more conference rooms (as any of you know who work in offices, there is never enough meeting space!). We have the "Fishbowl"… …(so named because the glass walls on both sides make it a *very* public meeting space) as well as couple of smaller conference rooms. We can now sequester the servers into a room of their own where the jet engine volume of noise they produce can be put behind a closed door! Now, the internal guts of our Internet operation can truly be "internal". We're getting settled pretty quickly. Some of use have even peronsalized our offices and made ourselves right at home: And, best of all (for us women at least), we have our own bathrooms.