THE BYTE

Welcome to the BYTE, where we serve up the latest home and tech news from the last week for you to sink your teeth into.
This week we’re taking a BYTE out of some companies trying to change buying/selling/staging of homes, a major site’s look at the next 12 months, a possible energy disruption, different mapping techniques, and an exciting new site. Dig in!

Generally

Trying Something New
There are several new companies and programs that are hitting the housing market and trying to shake up the industry. CoBuy, lets you buy homes with friends; Opendoor, which takes care of the selling part of a house; roOomy, fills empty spaces with augmented reality furniture through your phone.

Be Ready
With so many different industries being disrupted, it is crucial to watch new companies that are doing things differently. CoBuy makes it simple for couples who aren’t married or friends that want to live together to pool their resources easily to buy a house together. It currently only covers greater Seattle but this could spread quickly. Opendoor takes the hassle out of selling your home by purchasing outright then shoppers are able to use keypads to go look at homes whenever they want. Bonus features are a 30-day buyback when purchasing a house if you don’t like it and a 2 year warranty on electrical systems and major appliances. RoOomy is an app that uses a PokemonGo style approach by using your phone camera to fill empty houses/apartments with customizable furniture to really see what home might look like.

New companies in the housing market, CoBuy http://ow.ly/BZKI306PYsO, Opendoor http://ow.ly/ebb8306PYZK, RoOomy…
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2017

Realtor.com Looks Through Its Crystal Ball
Realtor.com has released its predictions for the next year, which for those keeping track is 26 days away. Their 5 predictions are that millennials and boomers are going to move markets, with millennials looking toward the favorable prices of the Midwest, price appreciation will slow down, there will be fewer homes which means fast-moving markets, and the west will dominate the housing market. For a deeper dive into their data look here.

Realtor.com predicts what 2017 has in store for us http://ow.ly/U44S306PZ4F
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Take Notes

Can You Feel The Sparks
If you think you’re the only one frustrated with electric bills, you aren’t alone and PowerPeers is here to help. PowerPeers, currently only in the Netherlands, works kind of like a solar panel ride-share-ish type company. The idea is that your neighbor has solar panels and produces more electricity than they can use so you simply buy the energy they aren’t using directly from them. Utility companies not included. The company was founded to try and give sustainable energy to those that don’t have the money for their own panels.

People in the Netherlands can now buy solar power from their neighbors http://ow.ly/hqdn306PZ9K
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Map It Up
AppleMaps is trying to compete with GoogleMaps by using drones to better map out their program and collect data. However, Apple’s thoughts may be a little high in the sky as they need some serious FAA approval to roll this out and collect enough data. As everywhere on planet earth is becoming mapped, the Faroe Islands, Where?, are taking a different approach and replacing GoogleMaps street view with GoogleMaps sheep view. That’s right. Sheep view.

Apple wants to use drones to better their maps http://ow.ly/TpDD306PZyv and other people use sheep http://ow.ly/unLR306PZBO
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Coolest New Site On The Web
Or at least we think so. BDX has launched a brand spanking new website. It is interactive and full of really great content, videos, pictures, stats, testimonials, and much more. This is definitely not a site you are going to want to miss out on

Check out BDX's new website! http://ow.ly/v1XV306PZD8
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Totally Unrelated
Time Keeps On Slipping
In case you wanted to see how the world landscape has changed since 1984, Google’s new time lapses has you covered.

Super cool time lapses from Google http://ow.ly/wuz2306PZFL
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