Archives of real estate blog entries for May 23, 2007

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Sellers Penalized for Negotiating - 04:21 PM
 
It's very common in the Twin Cities market for first time home buyers to ask sellers to pay for some of the buyer's closing costs. Today's buyers may have "A" credit, have a good job, and a good lender, but they have trouble coming up with enough money to pay all of the closing fees to get into the house.
Sellers who are wanting to negotiate in good faith with a potential buyer often raise the sale price of the home to compensate for contributing to the buyer's closing costs.
When the sale price of the home goes up, so does the commission. As a … (35 comments)

WHAT DOES THE CHAIRMAN OF THE MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOCIATION have to say? - 05:48 PM
MUST READ for any real estate agents, brokers, lenders, loan officers and mortgage company owners. 
Yesterday, Tuesday, May 22, 2007, while driving to show a new home site to a buyer, I was fortunate to hear a speech presented by John M. Robbins, CMB, Chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association today delivered at the National Press Club Newsmakers Lunch.  I encourage all Active Rain folks to read the full speech.I catch these speeches when I can because the National Press Club hosts some VERY interesting speakers and they are always interesting drive companions.  The speech delivered by Mr. Robbins was particularly … (42 comments)

Day Three of the AA Hostage Crisis.... - 03:04 PM
30,000+ Advanced Access real estate websites crashed on Monday. The sites wouldn't load, email was halted and agents were hobbled. An electirical outage and serious server issues forced AA to move their servers to another more stable location.
Late yesterday, my site finally came up, or at least the front page did. There was no MLS search functionality and the other links did not work. I called Advance Access customer support and was assured they were working as hard as they could to get everything back online, but could provide no timeframes.
I awoke early this morning, and tried once again to log on … (67 comments)

Hot Air Gives Me Inspiration...UNTIL TODAY!!! - 03:26 AM

I was all ready to write my next blog .  It was about how my best ideas come to me while I'm blow-drying my hair.  Maybe it's because it's just me and the hot air.  If the kids are fighting, I don't hear them.  If the phone is ringing, I don't hear it.  If chaos is all around me, I'm clueless.  It's just me, the hot air and my thoughts.  And that is usually where inspiration comes to me.  Ideas just pop into my head and the next blog subject is born. UNTIL TODAY......
Today, something remarkable happened....
Let me back up a little. … (44 comments)

What Makes a House a Home - Austin, Texas - 08:51 AM
         
                                    
Yes, you heard me right! Nothing is wrong with Your hearing. I  think What Makes a House a Home is "Mom's Chocolate Pie!"
What better than after a Family Dinner still sitting as a Family at the dining room table than Dad, Mom, and all the children sitting at the table each having a Big piece of Mom's Chocolate Pie. Everyone with a Smile on their face's! Everyone speaking about what took place during the day or about some event or place the Family is planning on going to! Big Old Smiles on everyone's face and as sweet as the chocolate in … (41 comments)

An Active Rain Love Story...Pay It Forward! - 07:22 AM
 
Being a member of Activerain in the early stages was quite frustrating to me!  I loved this new idea of blogging and placing my thoughts and ideas on-line.  Yes, I always wanted to be writer but sometimes the skills do not come so naturally, for me that was the case.
 See I have the imagination, I have the ideas but putting it all together to create a phenomenal read was what I needed help with.  My thoughts and ideas were jumbled up and took away from the way I wanted to express myself!  The way I wanted to present my message....To get … (42 comments)

Active Rain Week in Review 5/13/07 - 5/20/07 - 07:23 AM
I knew this would be a lot of work and I cringed when I hit the "send" button on my first e-mail to Neal Bloom about doing it.  I had no idea how much work this would be.  My poor husband thinks I'm gone forever, and I'm looking over my shoulder for divorce papers right now. 
No, really, he is supportive of my business and even of my involvement on Active Rain, but this week has tested his limits.  He's counting down until I post this baby, so here it goes.
I am amazed by the amount of thoughtful, helpful and supportive … (62 comments)

Blogging Ideas — How to Start a Local Real Estate Blog #7 - 04:14 PM
<!-- sphereit start --> So, you’ve begun your blog, and it has been online for a few weeks… now what? Where do you go from here?
Onwards and upwards. That initial excitement may be gone, and you may be wondering when your first lead will come, but don’t worry. Remember, blogging is a commitment. There are very few bloggers that become successful in the first few weeks. You have to build a strong reader base, and grow your content.
The interesting thing about blogging is that it really exercises your mind. You may have found that it takes alot longer than … (35 comments)

SEO Word Counter - 07:42 AM
For Search Engine Optimization knowing what words you are using and how many times that word is used is very useful. Using a word too many times can show up as spam if your overall page word count is not very high. If you don't use certain words or associated words then your associated word count might be bad for the subject you are talking about. Search engines won't be as likely to pick up on what subject or information you want a page to be known for if you don't use the right keywords.
I decided today to create a word … (43 comments)

Tuesday's Tip #16 - 02:14 AM
I saw a very creative way to finance a cash flow property today. The strange thing is that the one who came up with the idea in the deal was the seller. The property was in pretty good condition, but several things came back on the inspection needing to be fixed up. The buyer wasn’t in a position where he was willing to put 20% down (to avoid PMI) and fix everything that needed to be done. It was a simple amount of money, but enough to make the numbers too tight and therefore out of reach for him.
The buyer was … (13 comments)

Does Your State Require Full Disclosure? - 07:59 AM
Does Your State Require Full Disclosure?
It came as a shock to me when I heard one of the headline stories this morning on the local Fox news.  A simple overview of the story was that a family just found out that their new home was the scene of a triple murder and suicide that happened just over a year ago.  The previous owner, a surviving minor of one of the families that was murdered, sold the house without disclosing the home’s violent and deadly history.  A court-appointed personal representative of the estate of the minor obtained a court order preventing … (50 comments)

Free Postlets Beta & Vflyer: Posting on craigslist - 11:37 AM
Postlets Beta I just recently ran across this website postlets.  All you have to do is add photos, property info and features.  The Web based program automatically writes HTML code that you can cut and past in these free classified ad websites.  backpage.com  craigslist  edgeio  Google Base  HotPads  LiveDeal  Oodle  Propsmart  Vast
Free PostletsThe best part about it its free, easy, and convenient.  You don't have to write 10 different classifieds, you only have to write one.  Check out the one I did for my sandy point home.  This took me five minutes to fill out, now I can copy the code that … (57 comments)

Don't hang-up on me!! - 07:57 AM
… (63 comments)

The best posts never read - 10:55 AM
With so many members here on AR now, there are a lot of blog posts to read through.  Even with the moderators scanning through, there are some great posts that are bound to be missed. I'm going to put together a review type post of these hidden gems, but I'm going to need all the help I can get.
If you have put up a wonderfully informative, controversial, funny or well written post that got less than stellar views, please send me the url. I'm going to compile a list of them and (hopefully) have the post featured to give these … (37 comments)

Tell Me Again Why to Blog? - 05:58 PM
Have buddies that still aren't getting the message?  Need a little motivation yourself?  
I'm here for you.
Blogging gets your name and subject online over and over again.  Fresh pages daily make for great Google food.  Think of the ways people might be searching online that could lead them to you, and then WRITE THAT POST.  Give it a day or two, then check the search engines.  Are you finding yourself?  Tinker with your message to get where you want to be on the search engines, but always be true to yourself.  An obvious ad is a turnoff, but writing from your … (82 comments)

The Seller Let The Realtor Go...Now What? - 08:18 AM
Last month I was hired by a real estate agent to home stage a million dollar house in the area.  I completed the job just days before I got married and went on my honeymoon.  Let me tell you...this was one tough job, and boy did I need the vacation to recover!  But to my surprise, when I returned from my honeymoon, I received a call from the agent who hired me informing me that she was no longer representing the sellers.  She proceeded to tell me that the sellers have decided to move out of state, as planned, but may … (33 comments)

The future of Real Estate blogs - 01:28 AM

Blogs have been around in one form or another since 1996.  They started as a kind of online personal journal for geeks.  They have evolved and we now use them for business.  Blogs are still new in our industry and many of the top real estate blogs have not yet celebrated there first year in existence   Judging from the number of members here on active rain Vs. the number of members who post blogs  I will guess that only a small percentage of real estate professionals have embraced the idea of a real estate business blog.
People in our industry ask … (57 comments)


Blog posts


Memorial Day Posts - 08:41 AM
With Memorial Day approaching, we will do what we did on Mother's Day a recap of posts honoring the military on Monday.  There are several posts that are starting to appear.  If you want please cut and paste links in the comments so we can pull them all together...
If you just copy the title from the post that is what is here:
Remembering our hereos...Memorial Day ~ May 28th 
On Monday, when you feature, please move the Memorial Day post to the top.  After 4pm let it roll off the board. 
 
… (11 comments)

Visiting Eugene - 11:27 AM
If there are any Eugene, Oregon area Rainers that would like to get together and talk about real estate and ActiveRain please feel free to give me a call.  I'm visiting for the week.  You can reach me at 206-406-6849.
Thank you,
… (5 comments)

test - 11:46 AM

* J in the collumns stands for judging and A stands for voting. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th places are determined each week. For the judging points allotted are 100, 80, 65, 50, and 35 respectively. For voting points alloted are 15, 12, 9.75, 7.5, and 5.25 respectively (representing 15% of judging votes).
Judging for week 8 will be by David Gibbons of Zillow.
Judging for Week 7 was by Keith T. Garner of The Center for Real Estate Technology
Keith Garner is credited with bringing blogging to The NAR. Keith is the Managing Director for the Center … (0 comments)

An Active Rain Love Story...Pay It Forward! - 07:22 AM
 
Being a member of Activerain in the early stages was quite frustrating to me!  I loved this new idea of blogging and placing my thoughts and ideas on-line.  Yes, I always wanted to be writer but sometimes the skills do not come so naturally, for me that was the case.
 See I have the imagination, I have the ideas but putting it all together to create a phenomenal read was what I needed help with.  My thoughts and ideas were jumbled up and took away from the way I wanted to express myself!  The way I wanted to present my message....To get … (42 comments)

Blog Fog...... Does It Happen To You? (Edited) - 09:27 PM
Since blogging I have been pretty consistent and probably average at least 2 posts a week.  There are times when I can't think or the words are not coming to me!  Oh man, it hurts, it's painful..... IT'S "Blog Fog!"  Does this ever happen to you?
 
It happens something like this.........You sit in front of your computer every day attempting to post something of quality to only log out and attempt it again later.  Your attention span is similiar to a 2 year old's, instead of blogging you surf the net and find yourself on youtube laughing it up.  You log in.  You log out. 
The family asks,"What's wrong? Why aren't … (20 comments)

Congressmen Convicted of Crimes Still Get Their Tax-Funded Retirement - 03:13 PM

I was raised to be ethical.   Yup, I am an optomist and expect the best of people.  I also believe it is right to correct things when they are wrong.
Two days ago, I read this article from the June 2007 issue of the Reader's Digest by Michael Crowley in his "That's Outrageous!" column.   Congressmen Convicted of Crimes Still Get Their Tax-Funded Retirement
The article mentions that in 2005 "an attempt at reform never made it out of the House committee that would oversee a change in pension rules."  That committee's "chair that year:  Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio.  The same … (1 comments)

Retire in Style (to Loveland) - 03:39 PM
As many folks may already know, Loveland has been names several times in the last fews years as one of the best places to retire or re-invent yourself by numerous national magazine and publications.  With our aging (baby boomer) population, it seems that housing specifically geared for this generation is popping up all over the place. Loveland is no exceptions. More and more senior housing choices will soon be available to Loveland's boomers including Mirosol, a brand new 55+ housing community. Check it out: http://www.reporterherald.com/Top-Story.asp?ID=10536
… (0 comments)

Open Source, Freely Taking Over the World - 12:43 PM
1.  We support the democratization of local governments through the use of digg-style lawmaking.2.  We believe social media websites represent the future of participatory governing.3.  We believe traditional voting processes should be augmented with secure web-based voting systems.4.  We want to see open source software, formats and philosophies replace proprietary products such as the ruling Microsoft monopoly in public agencies.5.  We demand that all politicians keep regularly updated blogs, with open comment systems, to maintain contact with their constituents. (That one is my favorite!)6.  We want to see wiki-style collaborative writing of proposed laws and bills.7.  We demand that all governing … (6 comments)

Winner Of Extreme Real Estate Website Makeover - 03:23 PM
A Dedicated REALTOR®
It’s Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 and across the country, families are gathered around their television set to watch the newest episode of ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover.This week’s featured family is the Westbrook family of Lawton, Oklahoma.  The family is just seconds away from getting their first look at their new house and behind them, in a crowd of people, stands one large, glowing smile.  That smiling face belongs to Linda Jefferson, a local real estate agent who works exclusively with military families stationed in Lawton.  The reason she’s smiling is because of her complete dedication to the families … (3 comments)

The Blonde Goes Ice Fishing - 08:59 AM

A blonde wanted to go ice fishing. She'd seen many books on the subject, And finally getting all the necessary tools together, She made for the ice. After positioning her comfy footstool, She started to make a circular cut in the ice. Suddenly, from the sky, a voice boomed, "THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE." Startled, the blonde moved further down the ice, Poured a thermos of cappuccino, and began to cut yet another hole. Again from the heavens the voice bellowed, "THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE." The blonde, now worried, moved away, Clear down to the opposite … (4 comments)

Bald one liners - 10:32 AM
*Beauty is only skin deep...I guess that's why you have hair.                                                                                       *Most men use their testosterone to grow hair; bald men put it to better use                                                                 * Be careful when you rub it; I get taller. :)* With a body like this, who needs hair!* Do you want to rub it for good luck?* Yea, it is shiny, and if you look closely you can even see the reflection of your ugly puss!* I just grew through my hair!* My wife says that it's a solar panel for my love machine.* So, do you think that having hair makes … (5 comments)

Illinois Motorcycle events - 10:48 AM
… (1 comments)

Las Olas Fort Lauderdale - 04:26 PM
Las Olas homes and condos for sale are some of the most sought after real estate in the country. Situated just west of the Intracoastal Waterway and only minutes to the Atlantic Ocean, makes this esteemed waterfront community a must for serious boaters. Often referred to as the "Venice of America" because of the many waterways weaving through the area and leading out to the Atlantic Ocean, Las Olas, Fort Lauderdale is where luxury and waterfront living blend seamlessly together. Many athletes, entertainers and ceo's have made Las Olas their home or second home.
Las Olas Boulevard, the cental shopping … (0 comments)

The best posts never read - 10:55 AM
With so many members here on AR now, there are a lot of blog posts to read through.  Even with the moderators scanning through, there are some great posts that are bound to be missed. I'm going to put together a review type post of these hidden gems, but I'm going to need all the help I can get.
If you have put up a wonderfully informative, controversial, funny or well written post that got less than stellar views, please send me the url. I'm going to compile a list of them and (hopefully) have the post featured to give these … (37 comments)

Price To Earnings Ratio And The Symbols Of Basic Math - 06:53 AM
Much has been written about applying a "Price to Earnings Ratio" analysis to housing prices.  Here are a couple links with information to ponder. 
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/2003/07/01/344703/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_bubble
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PE_ratio
But that's not what I'm writing about here.
What struck me when I first looked at the formula written out -- is that whenever I see the mathematical operation of division expressed in this way, I have one devil of a time remembering which number gets divided into which number.  Top into bottom or bottom into top?  Me, the left brain analytical coulda-shoulda-been-an-engineer type. Does anyone else have that problem?  It's a basic concept useful for passing … (1 comments)

Cowboys in South Jersey - 06:59 AM
And Cowgirls Too!
This is the opening weekend for the Cowtown Rodeo in it's 52nd season.  The Cowtown Rodeo is located on Rt. 40 in Pilesgrove NJ, and is a professional rodeo which is held every Saturday night at 7:30 pm from May 26th through Sept. 29th, 2007.
Events include:
Bareback Bronc RidingSaddle Bronc RidingBrahma Bull RidingCalf RopingTeam RopingSteer WrestlingGirls Barrel Racing
Cost is $12 for adults, and $6 for children ages 12 and under.  If you are looking for something to do on a Saturday night this summer check it out!
http://www.cowtownrodeo.com/
-Brought to you by Roxanne Ardary, a real estate agent specializing in South Jersey residential … (0 comments)

Technology Reliance and What Happens When It Fails - 07:36 AM
How many of us are reliant on various companies that perform services that are vital to conducting our business every day?  Most likely all of us.  What happens when they fail? The impact can take a serious toll on your income, your client relations, and your ability to perform daily seemingly routine business funtions.
I have a top ranking website which is hosted by Advanced Access.  AA had a power failure of some sort this weekend and my site has been down for days.  It is one of my primary lead generation tools.  Do a search, my site is listed in google, but … (16 comments)

Push for National Real Estate Database - Are you concerned? - 09:05 AM
In Inman news this morning there was an article about a NAR group pushing for a national real estate database.  You can read the full article here http://www.inman.com/inmanstories.aspx?ID=63273
Are you concerned? I am.  Considering what exists today in Yahoo.. One company purchasing all rights for the leads generated by a search engine...  Could a national MLS database severely hurt individual agents marketing efforts?  Would that information be sold to the highest bidder?  What would the long term affects be on the smaller agencies? The internet today, and having an internet presence, is such an important aspect of obtaining a successful marketing plan. Would it allow the companies with the … (5 comments)

Allstate Floridan twists that knife just a little bit more - 07:12 AM
I was reading a story this morning in the Herald Tribune about how a Florida resident, Carl Taylor was contacted on a Saturday evening at dinner time from Allstate Floridian with a phone call letting him know that they were dropping him in November.
"I was so livid I could hardly stand it," said the Sarasota retiree. Why are they calling me on a Saturday to tell me that?  He cannot believe he learned about it with a phone call at dinner time on the weekend.  That's tactless, he said."
"The agents thought the clients would feel better if they got a call … (3 comments)

Florida drivers need to check your SunPass statements - 08:05 AM
A story reported on TampaBays10.com is a reminder to check your SunPass statements to verify if all of the charges are correct.  A Tampa Bay 10 photojournalist Kurt Beabes replenished his SunPass with $50 and then 2 days later it charged his card again with another $50.  Beabes went online, checked his account and saw several charges for axle adjustments.  He then called SunPass.
"SunPass said a lot of times when someone is riding through a toll plaza and somebody is riding the bumper, that person will get charged for both vehicles' tolls."
"10 News made a public records request to the SunPass agency and … (1 comments)

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