Archives of real estate blog entries for September 2, 2006 (Page 3)

Blog posts


A converstation with a blogger - 09:16 AM
I had breakfast this morning with a furstrated blogger.  No one reads my blog, I try to get people interested but no one cares.
So I gave him some tips.  You see it never occured to him that no blogger or blog is an island.  He was missing the whole point of blogging.  I told him that he needs to find other bloggers who write about the same of similar topics.  He needs to comment on their blogs.  He needs to link to them, to start a converstation, to make friends.
I post this just incase there is another frustrated blogger out there.  … (3 comments)

Broker? Lender? Loan Officer? Broker Individual? Broker Company? - 11:49 AM
The language gets confusing, I know. Maintaining national mortgage licenses does also. Does the title even make a difference? You BET it does!
In Georgia, the state with which I am most familiar, anyone who has a clean criminal background (no crimes that would endanger borrowers) and gets hired by a mortgage company can be a Loan Office. It's a shame and as a Broker/Lender I've been petitioning for years to have ALL Loan Officers in my state licensed. Many should absolutely not be in the business.
To be a BROKER you have to have either a specified net worth or me bondable, … (2 comments)

Real Estate before the Technology Revolution - 03:20 PM
I've been selling real estate, it seems, since the dinosaurs roamed the earth.
And, for those of you youngsters, here are some of the things we had to do.
1) Phones. We had to actually dial the number! Then we upgraded to systems where we could punch in a number. Cell Phones? Well, the first "mobile" phone I had was connected to my car. It was big and expensive. I think it cost $1800 and we paid for fractions of a minute. This was around 1985 or so. Today, we carry tiny little phones that are capable of taking pictures, re-dialing numbers, keeping … (15 comments)

An Observation - 03:24 PM
Seems interesting (perhaps strange) that the top people in AR's list for DuPage County are all from Naperville.
Now, does this mean that we're more competitive? More aggressive? More wordy?
Curious, isn't it. Guess we don't agree with Money Magazine's assessment. We're not #2!
Or, maybe, we try harder?
… (0 comments)

Long Blogs - 02:14 PM
Is it just me or do the rest of you just scroll past the really looooooong blogs that we seem to be getting lately. I don't want to pick on anyone but it seems to be the Mtg. Brokers who are very long winded.
I am sure that there is some very good information in there somewhere but my attention span is just not long enough to wade thru them.
The problem will be though that everyone will break their long blogs up into many separate blogs and then they will get lots of extra points...oh well just my thought of the moment.
… (8 comments)

Bad Directions - 02:55 PM
I had a call on my listing in a small community outside of town several days ago. I had several long conversations with the prospects and finally made an appointment to meet them to view the property.
I asked if they knew exactly where the property was and since they were coming from a fair distance if they knew the best way to get there. They assured me that they knew how to find the property.
Fast forward and I am sitting at the property and they are 1/2 hour late. My cell phone has no coverage and I finally made a long … (3 comments)

Conservation Easements - 03:21 PM
If you are a tree hugger like me or know one you might suggest a "Conservation Easement". This is a contract set-up between a landowner and a land trust that places a permanent restriction on the use or development of the land. It is recorded in the courthouse on the real estate records and binds all future owners of the land.
The current landowner can set aside several acres for home sites for their present or future use. This easement does not prevent the land from being sold, passed on to the next generation or from being mortgaged.
There are substantial-possible tax benefits … (1 comments)

New Orleans, One of the dumbest Cities - 07:39 PM
Reading another blog about how smart people are Seattle and Austin, I realised how dumb we are. The truth is in the poor education system that we have allowed to exist. I am at a loss of how to help people that have no desire for an education. Its not for lack of money. The school board is more interested in contracts and jobs. The system got litterly washed out by Katrina. So we get to start over! We will see what happens? There are still some smart people here but we get out voted on most issues. How do we become smarter? … (5 comments)

Big LSU fan? Famous people who you may have sold a home to. - 11:16 PM
 This guy is a huge LSU fan? Can you name him? I was wondering if he had to buy an extra large home in Miami. This leads to a question if you have ever sold a home to a famous person. An agent in my office sold Mike Dika a home several years ago. He fell down the stairs his first nite there. His career as coach also went downhill from there.  … (14 comments)

I'm not Bryant Tutas - 10:18 PM
I was kidding around the other day......Go figure!  I made the comment that my next blog would be entitled as it is.  And Awaaaaayyyy WE GO!
I'm not Bryant Tutas.  For instance...his blogs actually get comments.  He is the master of the Blog and so many of us enjoy reading his stuff that we think....man that guy is good. 
But then who really is a Bryant Tutas.  I mean, Not Bryant Tutas, not originally.  Sure his parents probably named him Bryant and his last name is Tutas.  But then there is that whole Shakespeare thing about roses and names. 
If Bryant … (16 comments)

Have you ever had.... - 10:53 PM
... one of those clients that no matter what advice you give or suggestions offered, you ultimately end up on the receiving end of their fury?
Case in point... as the listing agent, I presented an offer to my client -- who seemed to have a hobby of collecting every computer part known to man and keeping them scattered throughout his home -- which he was thrilled to have finally received an offer... so was I.
At any rate, the offer had a closing date of August 31st... the date of the offer, August 9th. I asked him if he would like … (1 comments)

Home Inspector Leaves Plugs Not Working - Freezer Full of Food RUINED - 03:25 PM
Well, it had to happen sooner or later.  Everything had just been too easy lately and I knew my luck would have to change.  Today I am at a listing appointment when I noticed the seller from a house where I am representing the buyers called my cell.  As soon as I left my appointment I checked my messages ~ and sure enough it was NOT a happy message.
It seems that the home inspector pulled out some type of fuse in the electrical box during the home inspection last Tuesday.   The seller is a working single mom and had hoped to start packing … (6 comments)

A Consumers Guide To Mortgage Brokers And The Evil Yield Spread Premium - 12:04 PM
A Consumers Guide To Mortgage Brokers And The Evil Yield Spread Premium
Kick backs, hidden cost, back points, HUD (Housing and Urban Development) calls it "Yield Spread Premium" (YSP), money paid by the a lender to mortgage brokers outside of closing. Money paid by the lender to the broker because you got a higher mortgage interest rate. Mortgage brokers are suppose to show this on line 801 of their "Good Faith Estimate" and escrow will show it on the estimated and final closing statements (HUD- I) when closing a loan for a mortgage broker. You'll never see these "points" on a loan … (4 comments)

Marketing Specialist - 12:23 AM
I don't know whether to be discouraged or encouraged with my meeting with a marketing specialist.  The man was very direct in asking my opinion of the market and the sales trends in our area.  After I spewed statistics a bit, he confronted me with, "I don't want to hear that it's a buyer's market.  Homes are still selling.  You just have to do what the agents are doing whose listings are selling."  Hrumph.  Pardon me?!!!!  It smacked of Norman Vincent Peale's "Power of Positive Thinking".  So is my personal sales record this year the result of not doing what the … (2 comments)

The time has come...for a party - 02:59 AM
This blog came up while I was reading one of Brian Brady's blogs: 
I may be new here but it seems like there is a pretty consistent group of fun and interesting bloggers/commenters here on AR.  Everyone seems to get along and loves to share ideas for the most part (except for maybe a plagarism arguemnt or two).  So my question is, when will there be the 1st Annual AR Meet and Greet Convention?  We can all hang out for a day, exchange some cards and some stories, have a little food and a little drink, and just take it easy, like … (11 comments)

My first lender referral - 03:35 AM
My first lender referral:
Time: 2:24 PM Pacific 9/2/2006
Duration: 3 minutes, 24 seconds
This is a very exciting day. A lender I don't know wants to give me business.  I'm stoked.  I received a call from a lender today who is an associate of one of my clients.  She is the lender of a couple from my area who are looking to buy a ranchette.  I just so happen to have a ranchette for sale.  We exchanged contact info, she gave me the couple's contact info, I emailed them my listing along with some other information. Now I have a brand new client … (3 comments)

Protect yourself! - 06:40 AM
With all of the discussion of duplicate content and it's impact on Google, I want to remind everyone how important it is to protect your work.
Copyscape.com does a great job of search the web and find duplications from your web page or blog.  If you are using a template site, you may come up with a number of 'false positives', but it is still worth checking out.
How well does it work?  This morning I ran through the pages of a blog (someone else's - not mine), and found more than a dozen articles that had been copied.  
Should you find that your … (14 comments)

Blogging is a Building Block - 08:58 AM
I am having trouble coming up with a short answer to answer The Tomato’s question, “What has blogging done for me?”  Though I think he is looking for those sexy stories about how my phone hasn’t stopped ringing or I just listed a new condo building with 27 luxury units, I don’t have one.
But I do consider my blogging over the last 3 years to be full of successes. 
Google loves my blogs.  My Oakland County Real Estate blog was coming up higher than my company’s own site for the name of the company.  Who wouldn’t like that?  They’ve … (12 comments)

Duplicate Content - 10:26 AM
I am struggling with the duplicate content issue. Would I be penalized by Google and other search engines if I were to republish writings from ActiveRain to my website or other blog and vice versa? I am not speaking of the plagiarism issue that is raging here now (and rightly so), but rather the republicaton of one's own work. I have researched the issue and find lots of discussion:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=1886
http://searchengineoptimism.com/SEO_Tutorial/google-duplicate-content.html
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
http://www.seobook.com/archives/001230.shtml
Still don't know the answer and am hoping those more knowledgeable can shed some light.
TIA!
… (4 comments)

It had to Happen at A/R! - 06:58 AM
I`ve been awaiting this day. I knew it couldn`t last. The Spammers are advancing and their dressed as Mortgage Brokers who wish to prey on Realtors...
This is from Zack Miller: my name is Zack Miller. I have an interesting proposition for you. I help clients that sell their property, but have to carry back financing. This means a note is formed and the seller has to wait twenty to thirty years to see the return. So we cash out preexisting notes so the seller doesn't have to carry the paper anymore. He/she gets paid today and doesn't have the burden … (16 comments)

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