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Ask HN: Idea Sunday

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Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#511

Post by busterarm »

avalaunch wrote: post #450
busterarm wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Property management companies take care of this for rental units. Why not just find a good one that operates in your area and pitch the idea to them? Normally they operate for a percentage of rents but I'm sure you could find one who would do it for flat rate. Your problem with the insurance company thing is you might have to give them Power of Attorney (which you really don't want to do) to make insurance claims on…

For some reason I cannot edit my comment so I'll reply again. I've been researching property management companies in Cincinnati (where I live) and I've come to a few conclusions: 1. There are no good property management companies in Cincinnati. At least, there are no highly reviewed property management companies - only those with negative reviews or no reviews at all. 2. Owners looking to rent their homes might be a…

Seeing as though I live in Hilton Head, I'm probably in the ideal market to try a scheme like this (#2).

There are a ton of remote homeowners renting out their property here without using a property manager or without using a good one. Unfortunately the homeowners I mention here tend to be extremely greedy people and don't have property managers because they don't want to pay anyone. They do things like advertise their units have cable TV and free wifi and have the cheapest, worst tier of service and constantly call the cable provider every month trying to get credits for fictional outages.

There's probably some money to be made here but I'm not sure I'd want to be the cog that keeps their greed-machine running.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#512

Post by nfriedly »

nfriedly wrote: post #380
monk_e_boy wrote: post #51

Web filter. I love F1 and there is a race today, so I can't look at 99% of the internet as they will show the result. I will watch the race later when the kids have gone to bed. This problem is so big that i have to avoid facebook becaue they also show trending news. So a filter that filters F1 or any selectable sports news. Then when i turn it off after watching the race the filter shows me a list of what news it fo…

I'm working on this right now - see http://myproxy.bloko.me:1337/#url=http%3A%2F%2Fsports.yahoo.... for a quick demo. It's kind of janky at the moment, but it's improving fast.

BTW, I just switched things over to port 80, so that link is now http://myproxy.bloko.me/#url=http%3A%2F%2Fsports.yahoo.com%2...

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#513

Post by wsinger »

avalaunch wrote: post #174

A major pain point in my life is house maintenance and repair. I really miss having a (good) landlord. That's what I want - a single point of contact to manage the upkeep of and fix any issues related to my home. There's so much friction in the process of finding the various contractors needed to keep a home in good order. First you have to search on craigslist, angieslist, or google for contractors that service your…

i would say the major problem is the business model:

relying on subcontracting means your company/service will be judged based on the quality/service performance of 100's of subcontractors and their employees, putting your business at risk once you want to scale.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#514

Post by [deleted] »

wittjeff wrote: post #356
keithwarren wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love this because bootstrapping the concept is far simpler than an infrastructure build out, this is a super-service which can start out by sub-contracting all the individual services. I am game, when do we start! update: Some further thoughts on cost. Looking at what I pay for my home (some of these I use, some I have had quoted; I also factored a monthly cost out of some of these which are quarterly). My home is…

I think the main weakness in this business model, which is the same one with condos, is that people don't like to think about the really expensive things that they don't need to pay for regularly. When you need a new furnace/roof/fence/siding/driveway/etc., it's a multiple-$K hit. If you haven't budgeted for it (and I think most people don't), then the tendency will be to put it off for another year or three. I would…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#515

Post by notduncansmith »

NoodleIncident wrote: post #114
pubby wrote: post #39

A twitter/imageboard system where it takes 2 weeks for messages to appear once posted. The idea being that messages still relevant in 2 weeks are important and interesting ones.

I had a similar idea a while ago. Basically: a reddit/HN clone, but at any given time only one article can be commented on. That article is replaced every day or every hour (whatever interval makes sense) with the highest-upvoted submission that doesn't have comments yet. The goal would be to encourage deeper discussion of matters, rather than fleeting posts. I have no idea if tree-style comments would be better than…

Update: I built this. http://threadaday.github.io/

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#516

Post by 2511 »

s369610 wrote: post #458

Idea: ShowMeThere (needs better name, camanywhere?) An phone/web app that allows you to click on a place in google maps and request a "cammer" for x minutes, you pay $x and anyone running the software on their phone that is near that location can accept the offer and start streaming video from their phone to you, allowing you to have a kind of "live" street view. There is UI for the payer to click on arrows to inform…

like this idea. Though it looks like Ustream is already doing it. Also the challenges with the app: How to ensure that the video was actually shot on that particular location. What if the "cammer" turns off location settings?

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#518

Post by kidlogic »

lesterbuck wrote: post #502
kidlogic wrote: post #444

Yelp for Manufacturing - help hardware startups determine which manufacturer fits their needs and remove the question of whether or not they're working with someone qualified

This is actually a serious problem, and really solving it would be very, very profitable. For an example of the issues involved, listen to the Mixergy interview by the founders of TouchFire, and iPad keyboard. They describe the baroque method of hiring a manufacturing consultant so you don't get eaten alive by a bad Chinese manufacturer. http://mixergy.com/steven-isaac-touchfire-interview/ Let me know if you would li…

shot contact over linkedin + twitter. Let's chat!

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#519

Post by 2511 »

personlurking wrote: post #19

Just going to throw this one out there. I live in Lisbon, it's tourist-central (I'm from SF and I've never seen so many tourists). Since I see a ton of lost people every single day there should be a way to digitally leave comments on things and places and a free one-stop shop to find such info (like Wikitravel). This info, although having a central repository, should be pushed out to an app that connects to one's pho…

I always wonder. How do you get people to use these kind of apps? How do you cold start this? For people to use this, you need content. For content, you need people. Chicken and egg.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#520

Post by ape4 »

endeavour wrote: post #101
ape4 wrote: post #49

zipcar/uber: A service that delivers a car you drive to where you are when you want it. Maybe you call up an hour before or via an app. And/or the opposite: you have driven somewhere can don't want the car anymore - eg drinking.

Taxi?

Taxis are great for some situations but not others. 1. Say you are working late (the train service has closed) and know you'll leave in the next 3 hours. Order a car to be delivered to your parking lot and just get into it whenever your finish work. 2. How about the dreaded: other people offering you a ride since you don't have a car. You would be very happy to take a taxi but they insist. No problem; order up a car and its waiting for you when you leave the meeting and nobody will have to take "help you out".
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