This was an interesting find. When you are pulling apart a house that was built in 1889, you are likely to find some interesting things.  I must admit, there haven’t been too many with this latest project.  However, the plumbers had reading material in the upper bathroom and left a section of newspaper behind.  I was hoping to find some advertising from companies that are still around today, but there weren’t any that I recognized.  One interesting ad is for Zimmerman lumber. As it turns out, one of the family members (George J. Zimmerman) was the former mayor of the City of Buffalo.

Zimmerman Lumber Ad from 1919

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Lancaster NY Map 1892

It is interesting to see the factories that dotted that town of Lancaster way back when.  The railroad, and the waterway allowed for transport of goods.  Take a look at the high resolution version.   You can view the high resolution image by clicking on the thumbnail below.

Lancaster NY Map from 1892

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2 Pack a Backpack

Channel 2 and the Boys and Girls Clubs will be at six Wal-Mart locations across Western New York from 7am to 9pm on August 24th collecting school supplies.

2 Pack A Backpack Locations

• Wal-Mart SuperCenter, 5033 Transit Road, Clarence, NY
• Wal-Mart 100 Thruway Mall, Cheektowaga
• Wal-Mart 4255 McKinley Parkway, Hamburg
• Wal-Mart 2055 Niagara Falls Blvd., Amherst
• Wal-Mart 555 Porter Road, Niagara Falls
• Wal-Mart 5783 S. Transit Rd., Lockport
• Wal-Mart 10401 Bennett Rd.,Fredonia

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One of the most useful functions, in my opinion, is the overlay of lot lines. This will show you the shape of a parcel of land or property in the county. This is especially useful when you are shopping for real estate and the listing agent doesn’t have that information available for you. You can use the flood plain overlay, a wetland map overlay and a number of other overlays such as school districts, and municipalities.

Do you prefer to view maps like you can at Google, with an aerial photo from a satellite? You can. In the left hand column, click on the selection to show the “2002 orthophotography” and click “refresh map”. You can use the “Pan” tool to drag the map.

Erie County Internet Mapping Project

The tools within the application take some getting used to, that is why I am linking to the help page as a start. Once there, click on the link that reads “Internet Mapping System”.

A couple of quick notes.

1. Pop up blockers will probably interfere with some functions. You should turn them off, or hold your ‘ctrl’ key while clicking on links within the map.
2. This works properly in IE (Internet Explorer web browser), but not in Firefox.

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As a web user, there is nothing more frustrating than landing on a page that gives me an error telling me that the page can’t be found. Well, recent changes at the Buffalo Niagara Homes site will have that happening with any property that was linked prior to the change. When you are making changes on a web site, especially one that many other parties rely on (Realtors), you should make the transition as smooth as possible. There is a rather simple method used to forward any old links. It is seamless to the visitor and should be a first step.

How about a bookmark this listing? Isn’t the growth area on the web social? Sharing of links and bookmarking is a key component of that. BNH eliminated the simple ability to share a listing with a friend, spouse, Realtor, etc. You can e-mail it, but that is much more intrusive (captures the user data). Make it simple. When you do a search and click on a listing, they are passing the information specific to the property in a way that hides it when you bookmark the page. How about adding the feature?

One other thing… How about presets values for minimum price and maximum price that are more reasonable. Are you basing this upon your own search data? Why don’t you start at “no minimum” and “no maximum” for price and give your users a little credit. They are smart enough to figure out how to modify form fields. If they aren’t, you are losing them anyway. Lock them in at $100,000-$150,000 and they will go away thinking you don’t have listings in their $300,000 price range. For the people who you don’t think can change some form fields, you are sending them away. I would bet they could navigate ‘next page’ if they can’t change a form field. Show them everything. Why don’t you give this a run for a week or two and then base your preset values on actual search data that you are capturing. If you are already doing this, my apologies.

Just trying to provide some feedback that I would imagine that BuffaloNiagaraHomes.com isn’t interested in.

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I will be publishing the results after the ads have run. I am going to do a couple of test cases, and frankly, I hope that there is something to measure.

As it turns out, you need to be a member to advertise with the Lancaster Chamber. Not sure about Amherst or Clarence, but if this works, I’ll let you know.

I joined the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. The membership was reasonable at $135 per year. If you are a new business (the corporation that I joined as is less than 6 months old) then the cost is only $62.50. Linda Stapleton walked through everything with me on the phone and was very helpful in answering any questions that I had.

For those web savvy folks, don’t forget about the link to your site that comes with the membership (from: http://www.laccny.org). The value of that should cover part of the cost (at least in theory).

I’ll add a follow up to this in a few weeks. Bookmark this and check back.

UPDATED 3/7/2007: As I mentioned above, I am posting about the ad that run in the chamber e-mail newsletter.
I advertised an office for rent in the Zesto. There were 0 inquiries from the 2 week run. Not much more to say.

I will be advertising via their print newsletter and with an insert in the mailing. As with the Zesto, I will post the results.

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They do a comparison of our government and 4 others. Wait until you see the results. The amount of bloat is rather clear.

http://www.onebuffalo.com/CityComp.asp

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However, commercial real estate listings aren’t as easy. There is a commercial search at the Buffalo Niagara Homes site, but there is a great deal of commercial property that isn’t listed in that database. I am not sure of the reason why, but I am assuming that it has something to do with the cost to list (just a guess). To make your WNY commercial real estate search easier, I have compiled a list of local web sites where you can find listings. You will see some overlap here, but if you are looking hard, and don’t want to hit the roads just yet, this list should help you.

Some of the sites below will link you to Loopnet. You will be able to view all of the broker’s listings without having to pay the membership fee.

Commercial Real Estate Search (In no particular order)

• Buffalo Niagara Homes – Commercial Property Search
• Hunt Commercial
• RealtyUSA Commercial
• Recckio Real Estate
• MJ Peterson Commercial
• Pyramid Brokerage
• Saperston Real Estate
• Hastings Cohn Real Estate
• CB Richard Ellis
• Cityfeet Commercial Real Estate

A paid option is to search via LoopNet. You will be able to view a limited recordset with a free membership. The paid membership isn’t cheap, but you can subscribe for a short period. If you do end up locating a property, you will consider the cost as a pretty nominal expense.

If you are a commercial real estate broker in the Buffalo area, contact me to request your free listing on this site. You can contact me by adding a comment using the form below. I will add your web site to this page.

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They do a very good job of covering stories and providing an editorial about the subject matter.

They also have a rather active local message board. The forum is broken into topics and townships and is probably one of the more active local boards that you will find. I have been reading the site for a couple of years now and have noticed that some of the folks that post regularly are certainly in the know with regards to local real estate development. Much of what they have said has come to fruition. In fact, I wish that I had believed it a couple of years back when I was going to purchase a Transit Road property. Live and learn, hindsight, etc…

Check them out at Speakupwny.com

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