“Homes and schools: There's a map for that - San Diego Union-Tribune” plus 1 more |
| Homes and schools: There's a map for that - San Diego Union-Tribune Posted: 13 Dec 2010 03:18 PM PST Monday, December 13, 2010 at 3:16 p.m.  Maponics.com Within the attendance boundary of Rancho Bernardo High School, potential homebuyers can see what's for sale. Next to price and size, homebuyers look at location. And somewhere down the list of many factors they consider is schools -- whether they're highly rated, overcrowded, within walking distance or a bus ride away. Until now, buyers had to rely on their own detective work to track down which school goes with which house. Sometimes their real estate agent had attendance maps available or else had the phone numbers and websites at the ready. Now, in a mashup of thousands of databases -- some with listings, others with school district boundaries -- Vermont-based Maponics has developed interactive maps that show both and licensed its software to the National Association of Realtors. The service will go live early next year. "After the top few things people are concerned about when they are looking to a buy a home is the school district and attendance area," said Maponics spokesman Steve DuScheid. He provided one local example to illustrate how the searching work when it becomes available to agents and the public. Within the attendance of Rancho Bernardo High School, little home icons appear showing what's for sale within that school's official attendance area. You can click on each icon and see the basics of the house and follow up if you're interested. Currently, potential buyers can find the same information but not as easily. They search what's for sale on innumerable websites. And they can log on to school district websites and drill down to the place where they can plug in an address and see what school the house is attached to. But Maponics may be the only prominent company that melds the two in a seamless, easy-to-navigate search. The company has developed maps for about 60 percent of the nation's public schools. "I see that as a tremendous resource to Realtors and obviously being able to provide that to the client," said Mark Marquez, president of the San Diego Association of Realtors. However, Sharon Raffer, communications director of the Poway Unified School District, which includes RB High, said the online information only goes so far. It does not alert shoppers to the fact that when a school reaches its maximum enrollment in her district, students are assigned to another school that is not so crowded. In districts with charter schools and magnet schools, the boundaries are irrelevant. But regardless, Marquez said the basic school/home link is important, even to households with no school-age children. "Schools impact home value," he said. However, there are cases where the highest ranked school is not within the highest-priced neighborhood. And, of course, it's a well-known fact that some of the best teachers are in the worst schools and some of the best schools have a few less-than-wonderful teachers. And, of course, it's possible to buy a rundown house within walking distance of a fabulous school. DuScheid said when the new service, free to Realtors, becomes available early next year, agents and brokers will be able to link their listings with the Maponics attendance maps. Other general realty websites, such as realtor.com, also will offer the service. He said his company relies on school districts to supply the ever-changing boundary information. The company currently covers 25 of San Diego's 43 school districts. But he acknowledged that buyers still should check with districts and schools to confirm the information that appears on the maps. "That's always true," he said. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| A Holiday Tipping Guide - New York Times Blogs Posted: 13 Dec 2010 10:17 AM PST With the holidays comes holiday tipping. As the etiquette expert Peter Post pointed out in an Ask an Expert series late last year on holiday tipping, the first rule is to tip only what you can afford to tip. Thus, the first step of holiday tipping is to figure out who you want to tip. Then, you should figure out how much you want to give in total and divide that amount among your list. Still, it's nice sometimes to have a cheat sheet. So with the holiday season upon us, here's some advice on how much to give to certain people. Share your holiday tip practices and suggestions in the comments section below. Housekeepers/maids: The norm is to tip an amount equal to one cleaning, Mr. Post recommended in last year's Ask an Expert. Building personnel: Last year, Mr. Post shared specific recommendations for tipping various building workers, from doormen to superintendents. The Alpha Consumer blogger Kimberly Palmer recommended giving each building doorman at least $20, and up to $100, in a recent post on "The New Rules for End-of-Year Tipping." To determine the appropriate amount, she recommended asking longtime residents what the norm is in the building. Hairdressers: According to Mr. Post, if you tip the hairstylist each visit, then a holiday tip of $25 to $50 is fine. If you don't tip the stylist each time, then tip up to the value of a styling. Postal carriers: You can't give postal carriers monetary gifts. Instead, you can only legally give snacks and beverages or perishable gifts that are not part of a meal and small gifts that have little intrinsic value (travel mugs, hand warmers, etc.) and are clearly no more than $20 in value. Garbage collectors: If the trash company allows it, Mr. Post recommended giving either cash or a gift in the range of $10 to $30. Pet sitter/dog walker: The blogger Frugal Dad recently recommended giving those that go above and beyond the call of duty about the "equivalent of what you would pay for three visits." Newspaper delivery person: Call the company to find out the name of your delivery person and then give a gift of $10 to $20, Ms. Palmer recommended. Others, however, recommend sticking with $20. Other helpful sites: If you just want to make sure you give an average amount to various people on your list, check out the results of Consumer Reports' recent holiday tipping survey, which show the wide range of tipping practices as well as an average amount for each type of person tipped. Kiplinger.com, meanwhile, also recently released a helpful holiday tipping quiz and guide, and EmilyPost.com has some helpful guidelines as well. Who do you give holiday tips to and how much do you give? (In an upcoming post, we'll cover guidelines for everyday tipping). This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Maps Guides - Bing News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment