We Would Have Settled For a Toaster Oven
The developer of Brookline’s first LEED-certified residential building, 99 Winchester St., is offering a very special deal to help promote the three remaining units for sale (there are five total). If a buyer goes under agreement before May 31, the developer will throw in (channel Bob Barker with us now) … a brand new CAR!
And not just any car, either. The offer is for a brand new, 51 miles-per-gallon Toyota Prius.
Now, we’re talking about condos that start at $1,195,000. A 2009 Prius starts at $22,000. So The Teller thinks a tip of the hat is in order for building owner Harold Simansky and the brokers at the Brookline Coldwell Banker office for this little stroke of marketing.
The condos are just down the street from Coolidge Corner. The building has geothermal heat (requiring no fossil fuels), the best insulation money can buy, and sustainable materials galore (think Brazilian walnut and bamboo).
So instead of dropping the price on these lavish, LEED-certified, luxury condos, why not just throw in a hybrid to complete the package? Brilliant.
Somehow, ‘I Told You So’ Doesn’t Seem To Cover It
One of the biggest perks (read: the only perk) of The Teller is that publishers occasionally send us books they are promoting. One such book, titled "Too Big To Fail: The Hazards of Bank Bailouts" came across The Teller’s desk last week. At first it elicited eye rolls and groans all around, with expectations that is was just another hind-sighted rehash of the now infamous crash of ’08.
Much to our surprise, the book was originally written in 2004. It has been reissued in paperback with a preface detailing just how right the authors, Gary H. Stern and Ron J. Feldman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, actually were, and what should happen next.
It turns out that old adage about judging book covers holds true.
The Cassandras Stern and Feldman wrote of concerns about the interconnectedness (they call it "spillover") of huge banks, and proposed a framework to shut down failing financial institution in way that other companies weren’t dragged down with them. They liken their system to the type of scram shutdowns that happen when nuclear reactors fail, ensuring the surroundings aren’t contaminated.
That would suggest that Wall Street is currently something like Chernobyl.
Stern and Feldman also strongly suggest shying away from bank bailouts, because the knowledge that the government will just save ailing banks "encourages people to take risks they shouldn’t."
That sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Whoa, America Is HUGE!
Earlier this month, Coldwell Banker announced the launch of a new interactive real estate video service, called On Location, via its channel on YouTube, www.youtube.com/coldwellbanker.
Now, The Teller gets skeptical (that is, even more skeptical) when huge companies like Coldwell Banker try to get involved with Web 2.0 stuff, like YouTube, MySpace or Facebook. The results can be disastrous, or at the very best, useless.
However Coldwell Banker has actually done an admirable job of making a useful, and dare we say, interesting site.
The YouTube collaboration allows users to view videos of listings all across the country, as well of profiles of agents. There are instructional videos for first-time home buyers, with content created by This Old House, the Associated Press and CNN. The site recognizes your IP location, so users from Massachusetts will instantly be brought to Bay State listings and agents.
What really caught The Teller’s eye are the community profiles posted all across the country. It turns out the United States of America is, well, enormous.
Perhaps you’ve heard the slanderous lies that we here in the Hub (of the Universe) are a little self-centered. Nonsense.
But you can’t help but to be a little awed by the differences across this great country we call our own. The Teller suggests you watch the community profile for Concord, to serve as a baseline for our little experiment. Then check out the profile for Salton Sea, Calif.
Whoa.
Have a look at Fargo, N.D., to see what the largest city in that state looks like, (strikingly like Pittsfield.) And if you have time, try Lincoln City, Ore., the video of which starts with, "It’s one of the best places to fly a kite in America," and features the shortest river in the world, which flows only 120 feet.
If The Teller’s editor wasn’t behind us, tapping his foot impatiently, we could spend an entire afternoon just looking at America’s vast diversity and landscape. Kudos to Coldwell Banker for getting their YouTube channel right. Well done.
