Cheap rentals for students in Canada.

A friend of mine is sending his daughter to Canada-Hamilton is the exact place. She is a fresher and going to Hamilton for higher studies. My friend wanted me to find a place for rent.

I suggested to him that he should check out http://www.gottarent.com/. It is real estate web site dedicated exclusive to the all the major Canadian cities that include Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

The sites promises to look for townhouses, condos and apartments for rent. When I contacted them, they emailed me that they are specialists in find cheap apartment for students in Canadian cities.

One can search their database by city, by postal code and also by the rental budget.

Real Estate people welcome Active Rain.

Active Rain is free online community for real estate people and its prime motive is to help them grow their business.

Isn't it a sweet gesture?

Now, shall we examine its features that help real estate businessmen to promote themselves?

All the real estate people can sign up for free.
Everyone is allowed to create their in depth profile with a link to their website or blog.
Also, one is allowed to create a blog within the Active Rain network.

More active members' profile page or their blog is submitted to Google by Active rain itself. Members are also allowed to form a group based on their interest and location. At present, there are about 3000 groups with in the Active rain network.

ActiveRain is a Bellevue, WA based technology/media company hybrid that operates the largest and most active social network in the real estate space.

Real Estate website of a different kind.

Have you heard of Adrian Liang? Nor do I till today. Now I wish I had known him for a long time. He is brilliantly creative and designed his real estate website in an innovative way.

How many websites in his niche have you seen with maps showing the locations of the properties on the home page itself?

Flyrig.com opens with a map of New York city and the properties for rent are shown in a clickable balloon.

FlyRig.com has broker reviews, searchable local interest information (such as restaurants, stores, and schools), and public transportation information combined together in a Google maps mashup. Users can rate brokers and comment on their listings, pointing out discrepancies between the description and actual unit, or providing additional information on local interest points.

Movable maps:
I have never visited New York city but I have heard of several landmarks and Brooklyn is one of them. I searched a for an apartment in Brooklyn and landed on a page half of which occupied with various listings of properties and the other half of that page (split vertically) showed a map that can be moved with the help of the mouse to view the exact location of the properties listed.

You do one thing; visit this page and you will know what I am talking about.

A search engine for realtors.

Ok, let me change my title slightly-A search engine for real estate. I know even an ordinary person like me need not be in the business of real estate to browse through a niche search search engine dedicated for real estate.

Trulia is my choice today.
Use this website to buy and sell real estate properties.

Then there is Trulia Voices, a place to ask questions on real estate and find them answered in 20 minutes-now that I would call as a real participation.

"What are the tax implications of buying real estate in California?"- is asked by Alameda just hours ago and it was answered by Chuck and Nancy as below:
"Property taxes are approximately assessed at .0121 X purchase price. City and county transfer taxes are added at the close of a transaction and vary by area."

I think the person who posed the question would not have found the answer satisfying and would have said so.

Real estate investors get together.

The web 2.0 technology might not have envisioned its contribution to the growth of social networks. The Internet is filling up fast with more niche social networks, shrinking the world further.

The Flipping Pad is a new social network for those involved in real estate. The main purpose of its creation is to help serious and full time Realtors to share and discuss real estate investing.

The specialty of the real estate industry is that it requires near nil investment in terms of money. Even then, if one is dedicated and has built a reputation as dependable among public, one can become a millionaire in short term.

A pad is a listing of a property by a member of Flipping Pad. At present, there are 72 pads.

This can be a good market place for buying and selling of properties. Their blog can be useful for new members but not in a big way as it is not updated frequently. Their forum is also not very active.

This website needs more marketing efforts from the webmaster.