My son is participating in the Lego Mindstorm robot contest.  It’s been a pretty steep learning curve trying to not only understand how the Mindstorm works, but then trying to teach him how to program the darn thing.   First he tried a GUI based procedural system and then gave up and so I’m trying to teach him C.  The good news is that there are a number of ways to try to solve the problem of following a line, and he’s trying them all.  I’m a little worried about what happens when the line breaks, but I’m sure he’ll figure it out.  I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

-Peter

I’ve been pretty busy - I decided to raise the price on the house to $400K so that it shows up on the first page of the Utah MLS search.  It seems to be working because we’re getting more showings.  I think that we’re going to end up at the same price, but trying to second guess the buyer and lower it to closer to the expected sale price really didn’t work.  In this market, buyers are expecting to talk the seller down, and if it’s already at a lower price, there must be something wrong with it.  Who can figure?

We are doing some upgrades though… Granite on Friday, Floor Refinishing next wee, and new appliances in two weeks.  After all of that, maybe I should stay… nah… I gave my word and they’re depending on me.

www.pghouse.info
-Peter

As I mentioned, I’m selling my home.  I’ve listed it for about $375K because I think it’s worth $400K but I want it to sell.  I’m worried that people coming from out of state or even out of area are missing it because they’re looking for houses in the $400 - 450K range or the $350-400K range.  So here’s the question:

In this day of SEO and saturation, am I hurting myself because I’m in the middle of the range, thus requiring potential buyers to sift though lots of houses from either end?  Do you search from the top or bottom of a price range?  Would I be better served moving the price up to $399,999 or $400,000 so that I’m at least at the top of one search?  I’m really not trying to get more money, I’m trying to get in front of more eyeballs so that I can get sold, packed up and move to California. Thoughts?

Further reading:
www.pghouse.info
Utah MLS Listing
I’m on page 17 of a county wide search (164 of 435)

A couple of days ago, Fred (A VC) wrote a quick post about coding up ideas instead of power-pointing them.  It got me thinking back to my days at Excite@Home…

I remember sitting in a meeting with Phil Windley and Steve Fulling and one of the developers was going on and on about the way that he thought the project should move forward.  The more he talked, the more complicated and expensive it got.  When he was done, another developer presented another solution and there was code behind it.  It worked, and between the two, I could see going down that path.  I don’t remember what happened, or even which project it was, but what I do remember is the first guy started taking shots at the second guy’s idea and somebody said… “Stop it!  Ideas don’t matter unless they’re backed by working code.”  That has always stuck with me.

I’ve accepted a position closer to my parents in Southern California which means that unless I want to earn some serious frequent flier miles at my expense (which i don’t), I’m going to be moving.  Unfortunately for me that means that the nerd house is going on the market.  (The whole house is a technology cocoon)  It’s also a Maker house with a sweet workshop - great for tinkering, metal work, wood work, scrap booking, or whatever your “thing” is.  If you or anyone you know is looking for a home in northern Utah county (Pleasant Grove), let me know and I’ll try to hook you up with what I honestly believe is the best house for the money in the area.  I’m also quite motivated.  Seriously, It’s the variable for which I have no solution, so you could probably rob me blind and we would both be happy.

-Peter