Washington Post’s LoudounExtra.com “Experiment” Is Over

The Washington Post just announced that it’s shutting down LoudounExtra.com this week. The Post said that the “experiment with LoudounExtra.com as a separate site was not a sustainable model” and that it would move all of the content to the Loudoun community page on WashingtonPost.com.

LoudounExtra.com was the Washington Post’s attempt at hyperlocal journalism. The site provided some great, relevant content with great editors, writers and contributors on staff and in the field. But the site never quite found its niche.

It almost seems like LoudounExtra.com was trying to be everything to everyone. It wasn’t quite an online newspaper web site nor was it quite a hyperlocal blog site. It talked about “this”, which had to do with Loudoun, but it talked about “that” and everything that had to do with Loudoun. That, I believe, was its downfall.

With the fall of LoudounExtra.com, other online news sites and local newspapers, hyperlocal blogs, forums and good old  fashioned word-of-mouth will grow as the way local information is processed, shared and discussed.

The thing about blogs, forums and word-of-mouth is that they allow for a two-way conversation/discussion between 2 (or 200) people rather than a one-way “here is today’s news – read it and come back tomorrow for tomorrow’s news” style. And those two-way conversations and discussions take a “one or two topic only” approach rather than a “here’s something about everything” approach.

Nothing against newspapers and their online sites (I read a lot of them daily), but, at the local level, focused conversation and discussion is where it’s at. But maybe that’s just me…

It was a good run for LoudounExtra.com and sorry it had to come to an end for all those involved. I hope that the new platform provides different (and hopefully better) opportunities for the staff and contributors.

New Law Means it May Take a Month to Get a Sign Post Installed

Update: This is not necessarily a new law. What is new is Virginia’s seriousness about enforcing the law and actually imposing fines.

Virginia just passed the has begun enforcing it’s “Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act”, which requires that Realtors® and sign companies call the Virginia Utility Protection Service (aka Miss Utility) before putting up any sign that involves sticking something in the dirt (including typical spike signs).

How does this affect Virginia home sellers?

It means that the time to get a sign put in your front yard just went from a few days to well over a week, a potential delay in putting your home on the market.

Why so long?

Because Miss Utility is quoting 3 to 4 business days to mark the property (despite the law claiming it only needs 48 hours). Then, the sign company takes 2 to 3 business days to install the sign post. That equals 5 to 7 business days from start to finish.

And that time frame will soon increase dramatically. A total of 4059 new listings came on the market between 1/1/09 and 6/30/09 – in Loudoun County alone. Imagine what is going to happen now that almost every new listing in Virginia has to go through Miss Utility before putting a real estate sign in the ground. I’d be willing to bet that it will soon take up to a month before Miss Utility has a chance to make it out to mark your yard.

Who is allowed to call Miss Utility to mark the property?

Only the person/company actually installing the sign. The overwhelming majority of agents use a sign company to dig the hole and install the sign post in their seller clients’ yards. That means that only the sign company can call Miss Utility. The problem with that is, the sign company has no clue what your property looks like nor how it’s situated on the lot, where underground utilities are, etc., so they can not tell Miss Utility precisely where the sign will go nor where to mark the property. This could further delay the process and/or increase the cost.

Is there a way around it?

Home owners are exempt from the law, but I have yet to find a seller who is willing to dig up a hole and put a real estate sign in their front yard on their own. And don’t forget – whoever installs the sign post is probably going to be the person listed as “at fault” should an underground utility line be damage/broken.

The other loop hole is to use a “coat hanger” sign with “wires”, but that looks about as professional and appealing as a hand written “For Sale” sign hanging by a string from the tree in the front yard.

And no…you can’t claim that your dog dug the hole and the sign post just happened to end up in the hole somehow.

P.S. If Miss Utility finds out that the person/company who installed the sign didn’t call them first, it’s a $2,500 fine.

What’s the solution?

Allow either the homeowner or their listing agent to call Miss Utility to mark the property even if they’re not the one actually installing the sign. Miss Utility could easily be called a week or several weeks ahead of time so that when the sellers are ready to go on the market, the sign can be installed by the sign company within 2 to 3 days just like normal.

As far as the “safety concerns” cited by Virginia regarding this solution, I don’t buy it – once the property is marked, the sign company can easily see where Miss Utility marked the property and put the sign in safely.

Local and state Realtor® Associations (and others) are lobbying Virginia to come up with a solution. Until there is one, plan on at least 1 to 2 weeks to get a sign post in the ground.