On Monday, 2/15, Good Morning America talked about what they, with the help of zillow.com, believe are the 10 best cities and towns in America to negotiate the biggest discount off the asking price of a house for sale.  Here is their 10 ten:  1.  Naples, FL  2.  Cape Cod, MA  3.  Charleston, SC  4.  Merced, CA  5.  Chicago, IL  6.  Atlantic City, NJ  7. Cleveland, OH  8.  NY, NY  9.  Flagstaff, AZ  10. Pittsburgh, PA  The full story is on abcnews.com website. 

It never ceases to amaze me how every single transaction is different.  I know, we are dealing with different people and different homes and different days and so on but something new seems to appear with almost every transaction.  It certainly is what makes this profession the most interesting and the most fun and sometimes the most frustrating too.  My husband will tell me to get out of the office, shut down the computer, but I'd rather be working on real estate than watching tv ... can't wait to see what the next adventure in a home sale will be!

A couple of weeks ago we got 2 feet of snow in one storm.  It was really beautiful.  I took a couple of pictures walking around my neighborhood.  2 are houses I sold and one is a current summer rental.  Think it would help to promote my summer rental if I put this shot up?

It takes a little bit of time, but I have found online that there are quite a few rebate programs out there for making your home more energy efficient.  There also may be tax credits.  One source is www.energystar.gov  Even something simple like a programmable thermostat, you can get $25 back for, up to 2 per home.  You have to go to one site if your home is heated by natural gas and a different site if it is heated by propane or oil.  Most of the utility companies have links on their sites as well.

I am such a lucky person!  I have 3 awesome kids, a great husband, and a career I love.  I am thankful every day to live on Cape Cod in a beautiful home filled with laughter and love.  It is so nice to help all these people buy and sell their homes here...to move on to their next dream.  Sure, there are deals that fall apart and problems that are difficult to solve, but, all in all, life is good and I am blessed.  And I just wanted to share that.

I'm trying to decide which direction to take my video tours or virtual tours.  I used to use real estate shows and was very happy with them.  I thought I would take it more to the level of a virtual tour so I bought my FLIP which I also love but feel like my tours don't look that great.  I found animoto.com which was cool when doing family videos to music but there is an annual fee for making real estate videos.  I checked out the webiste previsite.com but would have to buy their camera.  I am looking to my AR friends...what do you use/like/cost/etc.  Any advice would be great and I would be grateful.  Thanks.

This data comes from the assessed town values from The Town of Bourne website and the selling prices of homes comes from our local MLS (multiple listing service).  In 6 months in Bourne, MA, from 12/29/08 to 5/29/09, there were 54 properties sold.  Just 10 sold over the town assessment.  The rest sold under the towns assessment - and, in some cases, significantly under.  I know this is not an exact science but we had new town assessments that came out last Fall and they were lowered for most properties (except for waterfront properties it appeared).  I thought that current sales prices might be pretty close to the latest town assessments.  They weren't.  I know it doesn't really 'mean' anything, but since the Buyers are looking at assessed values, and in the interest of keeping my Sellers informed, I thought I would look at the data and I certainly did find it an eye opener.

1.  The volume of traffic increases.

2. My favorite ice cream shops open...Betty Anne's and Whistle Stop.

3.  My kids go bridge jumping.

4.  Our neighborhood association holds it's opening meeting and I see neighbors I haven't seen all year.

5.  My summer rentals start and I meet some nice new people.

6.  We take the boat out for a ride and stop at the beach for a while.

7.  I have to go to Christmas Tree Shops for more suntan lotion and beach chairs.

8.  My houses for sale get more showings because people start thinking if they are going to buy a Cape house, they should have it for the summer.

9.  I can sit on my front porch and read the paper, or watch the birds build a nest or just sit there enjoying the nice weather.

10.  The sunny days make everyone happy and appreciate this beautiful part of the world!

On January 24, 2009 I received an offer on a property on Cape Cod.  We closed on it yesterday, May 14, 2009.  Considering all the stories and tales of long sales, this doesn't seem that bad.  If you ask the Buyer and Seller, they'd probably tell you it was not fun and took way too long.  There were many tedious moments and I am glad it is over.  We did use a short sale mediator and I do believe she helped.  It was huge to have her gathering the paperwork and working with the Seller on that end.  She handled all the communications with the bank.  The one thing we didn't get at the end, and the Seller and his Atty were not happy about it...was a statement from the mortgage holder that the lien would be released upon their receipt of the proceeds from the short sale.  We believe it is their intention to consider the loan paid off in full, but they wouldn't give us a lien release or put it in writing.  I am curious if other realtors are getting this from lenders.  I still say the lenders need to find a better and speedier way to complete these short sales.

The sun is out, it's warm, my husband left me daffodils on my desk at home this morning, I am going to see my son in 'Little Shop of Horrors' at Roger Williams University tonight, my daughter's Stonehill College Rugby team is playing in the National Championship in California next week and I am going, my youngest is a high school junior and wants to be a pilot or a genetic engineer, I had 3 showings today and submitted one offer.  Life is good, good, good!!!Sto