Hank Green from EcoGeek have tried the tool and posted this interesting review:
Optimal Home Location in Boston Magazine
Optimal Home Location tool have been featured in October 2008 issue of Boston Magazine.
Jason Feifer is writing:
“Not too long ago, I lived in Concord but worked in Gardner, had friends in Norwood and a girlfriend who commuted regularly to New Hampshire. The arrangement stretched me thin. The new site – www.OptimalHomeLocation.com – would have helped a great deal. Just type in where you work, play, live, and shop, and where your friends do the same, and it will tell you exactly where you should take up residence, if only as a way to make the road open – and its traffic – less of a hassle in your daily life.”
All about you.
Check out this rather popular video clip below, titled: “I am not a lead”. It has been viewed over 10,000 times.
I believe this is exactly what OptimalHomeLocation offers: a tool to help optimize and simplify your life. We do not accumulate and store any information, we do not sell you to anyone. We help you figure out what is best for you and your family. Minimal commute, gas savings, proximity to shopping malls, walking distance to a church or a synagogue, school ratings. It is all about YOU!
Click on the link below to view:
How to facilitate your home sale.
Do you have a good school, day care, assisted living facility or gym next to your house? You may consider posting an ad about your home sale on the bulletin board of this place. Or emailing all the parents from your kid’s class. Use of the www.OptimalHomeLocation.com tool shows that for most of the families optimal home location would be close to the place they visit most – school, day care or gym. For some of us it may not be logical. When we were looking for our first house, with two working adults and one child in the day care, we thought that middle of the triangle in-between all the addresses we visit throughout a day is more of a fair deal. We did not realize that we usually visit day care twice a day while our offices once. We have been looking across many different neighborhoods, until I mapped out all our commutes, created a set of equations and realized that we all would travel less if we live close to the day care. We nailed our house a couple of months later, and now everyone can do similar calculation using this great tool.
Most of the potential customers for you home-for-sale are people that already live in the area and frequently visit places in your neighborhood (schools, day care, supermarkets), or people that are planning to move to your area and one of the first places they frequently contact are schools. Look for private or public schools. Leave a note about your house-for-sale at the office, in case someone will be inquiring. Unfortunately there is no direct way right now (as far as I know) how schools and real estate offices can collaborate together. Too bad, since if we find a way, perhaps realtors can sponsor local schools while schools bring them their clients and relocating people would have just one stop.
Why commute is a key factor in your real estate decision.
We hate commuting. Recent survey by Princeton scientists reports that we rank commuting as our least favorite activity – disliked even more than house chores. However, we frequently forget and underestimate how much commuting affects our well-being.
Robert H. Frank, economics professor at Cornell University writes: “If we use an increase in our incomes…simply to buy bigger houses and more expensive cars, then we do not tend to end up being any happier than before. But if we use an increase in our incomes to buy more of certain inconspicuous goods – such as freedom from a long commute or a stressful job – then the evidence paints a very different picture.”
Another recent scientific study from Europe reports: “We found that people with longer commuting time report systematically lower subjective well-being. If your trip is an hour each way, you’d have to make forty per cent more in salary to be as ’satisfied’ with life as a noncommuter is…”
Daniel Gilbert, author of “Stumbling on Happiness” and a psychology professor at Harvard University reminds us: “You can’t adapt to commuting, because it’s entirely unpredictable. Driving in traffic is a different kind of hell every day.”
Still, most of us spend more than an hour a day in traffic. We drive to work, we drive to daycare, schools, after school activities, gyms, supermarkets and libraries. For most of the families with kids, the daily commute pattern is a complex web of who-when-where. Optimal Home Location tool can help by suggesting how to minimize commute of each family. It takes into account a specific commute pattern, and returns geographical area that would minimize the combined family commute. Reducing one’s commute by just 10 miles per day may mean 100 more enjoyable hours with your family, $500 savings per year and a little step toward greener planet.
Feng Shui perspective on Optimal Home Location
Henry Fong, a Feng Shui Consultant based in Malasia offers the following alternative advice on finding your Optimal Home Location:
“The ancient Chinese believe that the presence of Sheng Qi is crucial to our well being. Sheng Qi, or “living qi” is a type of invisible life force. Wherever we see plants and animals growing and flourishing, we know that it is present. Be on the lookout for good earthy soil and exuberant plant growth. On the contrary, avoid rocky terrains or one where even grass strains to grow!
Since “qi” can be blown away, you should not buy a house that it located at the top of a hill. ‘Qi’ cannot accumulate when houses are exposed to strong winds You should also avoid one that it located in a deep land locked valley as there is the danger of “qi” stagnating. Equally undesirable is the one that is located on the steep slopes. In addition to the danger of landslides, “qi”can’t amass on sharp slopes.
Look for one on gentle slopes that contain a hill or ground higher ground at the backside. It is desirable for the ground in the front of the dwelling to be lower. It would be great if it faces a clean river or lake. If not an open locale like a broad street or sports ground or even a wide road supposed to be enough.
Finally, the home is an abode to relax in and it is good to have it situated in a peaceful location. Do not buy a house that fronts a busy road or is very near a busy and noisy highway!“
Partnership with Zillow Inc.
We would like to announce our recent partnership with Zillow Inc. OptimalHomeLocation is making real time queries to Zillow’s census database to provide you with the area demographics data. As you move house icon on our map, you can see Property Tax, Median Home Values and percentage of Homes with Kids for any town or region on the map. When you use Create a Report button, demographics data for the current home icon location as well as all the locations entered in the Compare Commutes Tab are being requested from Zillow and printed in the comparison table at the bottom part of your report.
Recognizing the originality of our real estate approach, Zillow Inc. has listed OptimalHomeLocation in the Resources For Buyers section of their site.
The Modern Alternative – Boston Globe video
Video:
(Boston Globe) Sick of Capes and Colonials? We found where New England is hiding its mid-century modern houses. By Ann Silvio and D.C. Denison
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185086463/bclid1457734222/bctid1786938595
Friends of Modern Architecture Tour – Boston Area
Neighborhood tour of Brown’s Wood
Moccasin Hill and Laurel Drive…A House and History Tour.
In 1953 a group of like minded families
from the MIT community planned and constructed their own
houses on the wooded rocky land using
modern design principles and materials. It was a do it yourself
community where resources and responsibilities were
shared, 4 Houses will be on tour, 1 in original condition, to others
that have expanded over time.
Moccasin Hill and Laurel Drive…A House and History Tour.
In 1953 a group of like minded families
from the MIT community planned and constructed their own
houses on the wooded rocky land using
modern design principles and materials. It was a do it yourself
community where resources and responsibilities were
shared, 4 Houses will be on tour, 1 in original condition, to others
that have expanded over time.
Meet at 18 Moccasin Hill @ 3pm for a presentation, refreshments and the tour.Free to FOMA MEMBERS $20 dollars for non members.
RSVP by 9/17 by e-mail (fomalincoln@gmail.com)
