As is the tradition, I have scoured the internet in order to find the cutting edge…
I think these clips aired on the same episode of Top Gear. I don’t know what to say… you just have to watch… both.
Category Archives: garage
It’s Sunday and I’m almost speechless
- Sunday, 23 March 2008 22:08
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 0 Comments
Step back, I’m trying to save lives here!
- Saturday, 22 March 2008 21:38
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 0 Comments
I ran across a story from the LA Times.
It seems that in LA there is a problem with people and their garages. Despite the fact that homes with 2 and 3 and more car garages is increasing, households with 3 or more cars are increasing pretty fast too. And there is a bigger problem… People are filling their garages with their junk, not their cars.
Ok, that isn’t the real problem. The real problem is that people are getting territorial over their parking spots on the street. Even to the point of shooting their neighbors for parking in the street in front of their home… seriously.
There are a few answers for this terrible dilemma…
- Get rid of some of the junk. The article points out something true and humorous… having a $50,000 car sitting in the street while having junk not worthy of Ebay taking up the valuable inside space.
- Get rid of some of your cars… ok, I’m kidding.
- Get a bigger garage. You can build it, or you can find a house that already has one. (Surprise… I can help with that).
So, you thought I was in this real estate thing for selfish purposes… but now you can see that I am saving lives… one big garage at a time.
;^ )
It is better than mediation!
Five best tools for an Auto Enthusiast
- Wednesday, 12 March 2008 22:36
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 0 Comments
Ok, these are digital tools… All of them are right here. in front of you right now. You probably use a few of them…
1. Ebay. Pretty obvious, right. Regardless of what you are looking to find, there is a good chance it is being sold either new or used on Ebay. Cars, tools, decor… even whole garages and homes (ok, for the homes, give me a call…)
2. Craigslist. A lot of people are using this. If you aren’t familiar, it is like the old “nickel ad” papers… without the nickels. The ads are free to post and free to surf. Searching can be tough, though. Craigslist is killing newspaper classifieds. And a nifty search tool is crgslst… until it gets shut down. They have a multi-city search tool. But, similar sites have been shut down by Craig before.
3. Hemmings Motor News. HMN has been THE place for everything car since the earth cooled. Seriously. When I was in the restoration business forever ago, I had one of the First Class subscriptions so I could get the book faster. Now, with the internet, everyone can get the ads faster.
4. Your local car clubs. Ok, this isn’t strictly a single tool, but a plethora of tools. Regardless of the particular type of vehicles you favor, there are local and regional clubs. Not only are the people that have an incredible depth of technical knowledge… there are always people that may have what you want, and you might have what they want… Trade away.
5. RSS Feeds. Oooo. Did I catch you with that one? Most of these sites, and many of the other sites you might also scour regularly have RSS feeds. By subscribing to the RSS feed, you get new information as it is updated. So, if you have a search set up for 65 Mustang Parts on Ebay or HMN, when an ad that meets those criteria shows up… you get it. Instead of going out to search all of the time, let the search come to you.
Bonus. Google. This is almost a no-brainer. But, it is odd how often I hear people looking for something odd and they haven’t Googled it. I mean a “Long-Tail” Google search. If you are looking for Ford GT-40 Heads for sale, Google it. (I got 20,000 hits…) There is a fair chance that you got to my blog the first time from a Google search. In fact, the most popular ones involves two of these three words: Cool, Garage, Homes.
Right behind that is Gwinnett County Homes. Still working on getting that one higher in the results.
Thanks for stopping by. When you are ready to find a cool garage home, let me know. I have actually built quite a network of car friendly agents across the country.
Niche Marketing… or not?
- Saturday, 08 March 2008 20:57
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 0 Comments
I used to work in the retail world. I managed a store. We did a bit less than $2m/year. It was part of a mid-sized chain. We were quite focused on our specific niche. We sold a particular type of product.
(Am I being too vague here?)
A couple of years before I left, we were purchased by a bigger specialty retailer. They specialized in the same niche we specialized in… On the surface, it didn’t seem like it would be a big deal for our clientèle… but it was.
Instead of concentrating on our niche and demonstrating that we were THE experts in our field, they expanded the product lines. No longer were we to be identified as a niche company. We should be more things to more people.
No longer were the sales people to be the most knowledgeable about one thing. It wasn’t about knowing the market for the niche. It was now about knowing a bit less about more.
My Dad often told me something. It has stuck with me for a long time:
A specialist knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing.
A generalist knows less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about everything.
A specialist retailer has to carefully balance expertise with market breadth. As does a real estate agent.
WalMart doesn’t staff with experts on anything (at least on the floor… unless it is just luck). Bob’s Left-handed Pen Emporium doesn’t have much of a market… of course, with the internet there is room for Bob.
Look around at the choices for real estate agents. There are a lot of generalists.
Inexpensively increase the value of your…
- Friday, 07 March 2008 23:31
- Written by Lane Bailey
- 2 Comments
Garage!
Seriously. I see articles and posts about increasing the value of your house through inexpensive kitchen upgrades, bathroom make-overs and landscape tune-ups… but everyone ignores the garage.
We live in and for the garage!
So, here are a few ideas to spruce up the garage. They are relatively cheap, and will make the garage look much better.