WE’RE A DINOSAUR Nearly every loft development in Atlanta maintains a public-facing Web page where prospective home buyers and others interested in learning more about a particular loft community, can see which units are currently on the market and 'for sale', learn what sets thier community apart from others, the available amenities, etc. But ours does not – even though the Blog couldn’t find a single instance of a loft development our size that didn’t. And, as anyone that knows anything about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) could tell you, our domain name (glenirislofts.com) would all but guarantee a top – if not the top - ranking in Google’s search results for the search term ‘glen iris lofts’...if there were a publicly accessible page at that address with any meaningful content.
In this wired age, missing an opportunity to appear on page one of a Google search is a major fumble that should be addressed immediately. And it’s not just the homeowners with units currently for sale that would benefit, either. Greater exposure attracts more interest and more potential buyers, a fact that could only positively impact resale prices, and resale prices directly and profoundly impact the value of everyone else’s unit in the development. (Continued...)
There are a few readers who may be thinking to themselves, 'we have the GIL community intranet - isn't that the same thing? The answer to that question would be, 'No'. Let me take just a few seconds to explain why having our community intranet does not mean we have a public Web presence.
NOTE: DON'T CONFUSE 'INTRANET' WITH 'INTERNET' There are some readers who may already know the difference, but there's almost certainly some that don't, so I will make every effort to keep my clarification of the difference between the two terms brief.
What most refer to as the 'GIL community intranet' is a password protected web page accessible at intranet.glenirislofts.com - notice the 'intranet' portion of the address. That is what is called a 'subdomain' of our domain glenirislofts.com. The subdomain is distinctly different from our public Web site (glenirislofts.com) - and you land on totally different pages depending on whether or not you include the word 'intranet' (followed by a dot) before the address 'glenirislofts.com'.
WHAT WEB ADDRESS WOULD THE PUBLIC GO TO? The Web site we ought to have up and promoting our community and assisting people that may be searching for a home, should hosted at www.glenirislofts.com. The only problem is that there isn't any publicly available content at that address.
SEE FOR YOURSELF click on the image below to open a new browser window with the login...
page of our community intranet (www.intranet.glenirislofts.com) - then try to log in. You will succeed (presuming that you have previously been granted access).
**Note: if you have not yet requested access to the GIL Community Intranet, you may do so by sending your request to board@glenirislofts.com.
Next, click on the image below to be taken to our Internet (public) Web page. Although it appears to be just another way to log in to our community intranet, it isn't. Try to log in with the same information that you just used successfully to log in to the community intranet. You will get a message that there is a problem with your user name or password. Our public Web site is not another way to log in to our community intranet - it's a non-site - and one that's of no use to anybody and has no information about our community watsoever.
WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM Every GIL homeowner should take a moment now to send an e-mail to our Board (you may use this link to create a new e-mail in your default e-mail program if you wish: mailto:board@glenirislofts.com?subject=GIL needs a public Web page!) demanding that they make immediate use of what is probably one of the most valuable assets our Association owns (although they obviously don’t realize it) – the .com address of the exact name of our community!
Every day that passes with the ‘under construction’ message serving as our only message about ourselves to prospective buyers, is a missed opportunity to positively impact home values here at GIL. In fact, according to the National Association of Realtors, the number of home buyers who start their home search on the Internet now exceeds 80%, and nearly 95% use the Web as a resource during their selection process.
TECHO BLUNDER PART OF A DEEPER PROBLEM This blunder on the part of our primary Board leadership – or, more correctly, Kit, not to host a publicly available Web site to better market and promote the units in our community that may be for sale - and, as a result, benefitting everyone’s property value - ought to cause anyone who ever hopes to sell their unit, a fair amount of concern.
The Board minutes that are made available to homeowners don’t mention any discussion - at least that the Blog could find after more than five hours of sifting through a stack of ones that have been made available to homeowners, and even a few that haven’t - that was initiated or even entertained by a Board President on the subject of improving the value or marketability of homes here at GIL.
TECHO BLUNDER PART OF A DEEPER PROBLEM This blunder on the part of our primary Board leadership – or, more correctly, Kit, not to host a publicly available Web site to better market and promote the units in our community that may be for sale - and, as a result, benefitting everyone’s property value - ought to cause anyone who ever hopes to sell their unit, a fair amount of concern.
The Board minutes that are made available to homeowners don’t mention any discussion - at least that the Blog could find after more than five hours of sifting through a stack of ones that have been made available to homeowners, and even a few that haven’t - that was initiated or even entertained by a Board President on the subject of improving the value or marketability of homes here at GIL.
In instances when the subject was raised by someone else - by other Board members or homeowners, it appears to have been met with so little interest on the part of the Board leadership, one would have needed a stop-watch to measure the time elapsed before it was ‘on to the next topic!’. Despite the fact that Scott Reno, Jennifer Barry, David Sandler and, on occasion, a homeowner have rasied the issue at Board meetings at various points in the past, as most who live at GIL know, nobody has mastered the art of stonewalling and shutting a discussion down better than the Sutherlands. If they have decided that they don't want to talk about an issue, it just ain’t gonna happen.
The Sutherlands' disinterest in the subject of property values is may best be explained by a statement that they have both made many times - and to many people - that they 'intend for this to be the last home they own'.
Now, I'll confess that I don't have any idea what your intentions were when you purchased your home here at GIL, but, unless you intended it to be a purchase made for the very long haul - a haul so long that the resale value of your unit becomes the purview of your heirs, but never you - you might be financially better served by considering how important the value of your home is to you, before deciding who deserves your support for a position on our Board in the future. Because years of Board minutes seem to indicate that the one’s we've chosen so far - namely the Sutherlands – consider the matter so seldom and with such disinterest, it's a non-issue.
Mmm... is the value of your home a non-issue to you?
The Sutherlands' disinterest in the subject of property values is may best be explained by a statement that they have both made many times - and to many people - that they 'intend for this to be the last home they own'.
Now, I'll confess that I don't have any idea what your intentions were when you purchased your home here at GIL, but, unless you intended it to be a purchase made for the very long haul - a haul so long that the resale value of your unit becomes the purview of your heirs, but never you - you might be financially better served by considering how important the value of your home is to you, before deciding who deserves your support for a position on our Board in the future. Because years of Board minutes seem to indicate that the one’s we've chosen so far - namely the Sutherlands – consider the matter so seldom and with such disinterest, it's a non-issue.
Mmm... is the value of your home a non-issue to you?
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