Okay, this is way-cool. My favorite geek, Drew Meyers, shared his latest tech toy on the 
Geek Estate Blog.
It wasn’t immediately obvious to me how I might apply the embeddable spreadsheet feature of Google’s EditGrid, but I have this primal need to try everything at least once. Drew, being the good company man he is, would much rather I share Zillow’s first quarter market report for San Diego. I just may do that soon, but today I will instead share a little project in which we have been knee-deep for the past month.
At a recent Scripps Ranch Community Planning Group meeting, the chair suggested that it would be nice to have a comprehensive list of homeowners associations (HOAs) and management companies for the many neighborhoods comprising Scripps Ranch. His thought was that in the event of future emergencies (think fires), a single go-to resource for contact information would be helpful. So, with the help of our underpaid (as in, “not paid”) high school intern, Jeremy Haywood, we set about compiling the information. The result is the following spreadsheet, presented in two pages. The first indicates whether or not each neighborhood has an HOA and/or Mello Roos assessment, and the second lists the HOA management companies and phone numbers.
We (that would be the “royal we,” think “Jeremy”) are almost finished mapping this information using GoogleMaps. Knowing that you are all now tingly with anticipation, rest assured we will be sharing the visual version of our spreadsheet when it is finished. In the meantime, I am off to think up something else I can put in an embeddable spreadsheet that is not Zillow’s first quarter market report. I just love messin’ with Drew.
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{ 1 trackback }
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Drew Meyers from Zillow
05.08.08 at 9:42 am
Since my goal was to get you to post the San Diego sheet using the Edit Grid application, I was only half successful. I suppose I’ll have to devise some new tactics next time. But you’re in luck — I can’t hold it against you that you chose to use editgrid to highlight data other than Zillow’s Q1 report
Utah SEO
05.08.08 at 2:42 pm
This is a really nifty little tool… thanks for sharing
Kris Berg
05.08.08 at 3:00 pm
Drew says, “You’re welcome.”
Drew Meyers from Zillow
05.08.08 at 3:33 pm
What, don’t ya think I can fend for myself Kris?
You’re welcome Utah SEO!!
Lisa Sanderson
05.09.08 at 8:09 am
Hey, that’s my idea! After reading Drew’s kewl tip I immediately began a spreadsheet with HOAs & developments in my area to blog about. Mine will have links to their websites as most here are self-managed…but same idea. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Jeremy, so it could be awhile til it’s done. But it is great to see the toolie in action! Nice job!!
Kris Berg
05.09.08 at 8:38 am
Lisa - My spreadsheet actuall had all of the web site links. I just deleted that column due to width constraints here. The final version with companion mash-up will ultimately live on our web site and will include that info. Great minds…
Milan Cole - Portland Real Estate
05.11.08 at 2:09 pm
That’s a neat application… I wonder if it imports excel spreadsheets? I’ll have to go try it out.
Kris Berg
05.11.08 at 3:52 pm
Milan - This was/is an excel spreadsheet which I imported.
Sean Erickson
05.22.08 at 12:28 pm
What does the HOA fees pay for? does it cover removal of brush from the area?
Steve Berg
05.22.08 at 4:36 pm
Sean - HOA fees can cover a variety of expenses/activities, mostly with regard to maintenance of the common areas such as project entry landscaping and signage, community pool/spa maintenance, landscaped parkways, etc. In some cases it does include brush management. It depends, in part, upon whether the areas needing brush management are part of the “common area” of a project or if it is City (or County) maintained. In San Diego County with all of the different jurisdictions it can be any of the above or a combination.
David Lee
05.23.08 at 8:03 pm
Hi, thanks for using EditGrid embeddable widgets! Just to clarify, EditGrid is not “Google’s EditGrid”. We are not part of Google.
To make the display of your spreadsheet even nicer, you may want to merge A1 and B1 so that the title span 2 cells.
If you have any suggestion, let us know in our forum (forum.editgrid.com). We keep working with our user to make EditGrid a better product.
Kris Berg
05.24.08 at 7:34 am
David,
Thank you for the clarification. It really isn’t my error, though; I believe my keyboard now inserts the word “Google” preceding most anything.
Great product.