ARDELL's Seattle Area Real Estate Blog

What is an REBarcamp? - What's the next level?

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:57:53 -0500

It is important to note that the real estate industry did not "invent" barcamps. Just like twitter and facebook and blogging, real estate peeps and tweeps enter the existing scene, and modify it as needed to meet their objectives. There have been recent discussions about the word "bar" being in the name, so it is important to note that this stems from the word "fubar", which is and has been a common "placeholder name" for an unknown quantity in Computer Programming. Barcamps are a spinnoff of "Foo Camp" and there are "wordcamps" and "mindcamps" and the potential for future "camps" is endless.

They are "camps" because technically you are supposed to "camp out" for longer periods of time until you exhaust the views on the topic at hand. Seattle Mind Camp will run for 24 hours straight, but most REBarcamps are all day events with an informal gathering afterward...often at a "bar"...but that is not where the "bar" in barcamp comes from.

A "bar" is a placeholder for new information to be inserted (by many).

The best analogy I can think of is in "Good Will Hunting" where the professors posted an equation that they had taken as far as they could, and posted it in the hallway. They then invited any and all to work with it further...and the janitor (Matt Damon) was the one who surprisingly completed the problem at hand.

THAT is "a barcamp". It is a place where you bring your passion, your unsolved mysteries, your questions and your "would be" answers, to test and share, and for all to leave with more than they came in with. Not a place to come and "get" from those "in the know".

My hope is that one day REBarcamps will expand to the point where there are as many people NOT in the real estate industry attending, as there are people IN it attending. Because THAT would be a barcamp that invites a bit of "hacking" and even "cracking" the information appropriately. Hackers take the information and move it forward to a new level...expansion. Crackers gather information and use it to break into and chip away at a "secure system". While this is generally viewed as "a bad thing", in the real estate industry we need to bring together both hackers and crackers.

I have attended a few REbarcamps, and often the attendees treat it as a place to come and "get" vs. a place to come and "give". They also view it as a place to come and learn about how to make more money. I'm not sure if there is a right ad wrong to that. But clearly we need to break barcamps into two groups or tribes. One for people who want to use the internet to make more money...and others who want to help the internet be a better place to get information on an everyday basis for people who are not in the industry.

One of my clients once said that most real estate agents use new technology to perpetuate old bullshit. Only a few agents use new technology to provide efficencies to consumers, and help them understand THEIR side of the equation.

1) Do you use facebook and twitter and blogging to give info...or to sell something?

2) Do you go to a barcamp to find out how to get more "leads" and make more "deals"?

3) Do you go to a barcamp to figure out how to take the same things you have been doing for years to a new audience...vs "a new level"?

We are talking about the internet becoming a place to get more and more info to make intelligent and well informed decisions. Now let's add "Who you mean "WE", kemosabe?" A kemosabe is a trusted scout who is often at the same time a "faithful friend". Barcamps...Wordcamps...Mindcamps, all, require a willingness for "the scouts" to share and guide freely and LEARN. It is time to define "what works" in terms of what works best for buyers and sellers of homes, and not "what works" for industry insiders. (A side observatiion...those who come to figure out how to "sell"...usually get "sold" something.)

Lately REbarcamps have even become popularity contests. Who and how many came? I'd much rather have a barcamp of 30 people. 10 tech people, 10 REindustry people, and 10 consumers who help teach us where we are lacking, and possibly on the wrong track, vs 600 'how can we make more money using the internet" people.

So the REAL question is not "What IS an REbarcamp?"...but what SHOULD it be, looking out 5 years. They (or at least half of them) should not be about how WE can save more, make more and use the internet better...they should be about how consumers can save more, make more and use the internet better. Think about that...and leave the words "deal" and "lead" at the door the next time you "attend" an REbarcamp. Have a CONSUMER focused...how can we make everthing better for THEM barcamp.

So my challenge to you might be...be the person at an REbarcamp who may not be doing...what everyone else is doing.

Every Song the Beatles Gave Away

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:29:24 -0500

On a lighter note :) I'd like to share this cool compilation in Kim's collection. If I can find the actual songs on blip.fm as I go, I will link it through to the actual song.

All of these songs were written by Lennon & McCartney, except Sour Milk Sea and Badge both written by George Harrison.

1963

HELLO LITTLE GIRL - Gerry and The Pacemakers

I'LL BE ON MY WAY - Billy J. Kramer

BAD TO ME - Billy J. Kramer

TIP OF MY TONGUE - Tommy Quickly

LOVE OF THE LOVED - Cilla Black

I'LL KEEP YOU SATISFIED - Billy J. Kramer

I'M IN LOVE - The Fourmost

1964

A WORLD WITHOUT LOVE - Peter and Gordon

ONE AND ONE IS TWO - Shannon

NOBODY I KNOW - Peter and Gordon

LIKE DREAMERS DO - The Applejacks

FROM A WINDOW - Billy J. Kramer

IT'S FOR YOU - Cila Black

I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN - Peter & Gordon

1965

THAT MEANS A LOT - P. J. Broby

1966

WOMAN - Peter & Gordon

1967

WE LOVE YOU - The Rolling Stones

LOVE IN THE OPEN AIR - George Martin Orchestra

CATCALL - Chris Barber Band

1968

SOUR MILK SEA - Jackie Lomax

STEP INSIDE LOVE - Cilla Black

THIMGUMYBOB - Black Dyke Mills Band

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - Mary Hopkin

1969

BADGE - Cream

COME AND GET IT - Badfinger

GOODBYE - Mary Hopkin

PENINA - Carlos Mendez

PENINA - Jotta Here

Are you giving "Realtors" a bad name?

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:04:56 -0500

Like most of you, I received an email today highlighting the post "Give us your commission or else..."

1) Do not get involved with REO or Short Sale properties, if you do not understand the concept of "short".

2) If you are going to write a post about how everyone should give til it hurts [except YOU] have the good sense to make it a Members Only post.

3) To whomever chooses the posts that go into the highlighted list via newsletter...don't pretend you are a friend to the industry, and then highlight posts that pander to the negative realities of this industry.

Anytime an agent puts their own best interest ahead of their client's best interest...it is a very sad day in real estate. For everyone to suffer due to an agent's inability to "begin with the end in mind" is a travesty, and an injustice to all the parties who worked so hard up to this point only to have the agent scrap the whole transaction due to selfishness.

To then BRAG about how you stopped the transaction! God almighty...stop slapping that person on the back for "digging in their heels" and causing all parties to be damaged by the agent's greed. Give the transaction to another agent, before you take zero and take everyone down with you!

I cannot believe that any good person on earth would view taking everyone down the tube to failure as a good thing!

RE-DEFINE SUCCESS! THE ONLY MEANINGFUL SUCCESS IS THE SUCCESS OF YOUR CLIENT!

EVERYONE LOSES...IS NEVER A GOOD DAY...NEVER. EVERYONE LOSES BECAUSE EVERYONE GAVE TIL IT HURT...EXCEPT THE AGENT WHO BANISHED EVERYONE'S HOPES FOR A SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME? A VERY, VERY SAD DAY....

...and then they wonder why people hate Realtors...who don't have the good sense they were born with...

No feeling of regret to all the other parties damaged by this one agent's act of complete selfishness...not to mention that ANY real estate professional would have been able to see that outcome coming from day ONE!

I repeat...DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH "SHORT" SALES, IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF THE WORD "SHORT"!

Photo Editing with Picasa 3

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:18:41 -0500

My new laptop came with Picasa 3 as the photo editor. I've always used HP Image Zone, but decided it was time to try something new. But for some reason I can't find a photo resizing tool in Picasa 3, and I resize a lot!

I just tried DrPic.com as suggested on twitter...but I can only save the resized photo as a url. Funny, when all I could do was browse, everyone wanted a url. Now that I have a url...there's only a browse button on twitpic and facebook. So I'm posting the url here so I can hopefully grab the photo.

Worth a try...

Nope...If anyone knows how to resize a photo in Picasa 3...or if you know Picasa three isn't worth a crap and I should just stop using it :) - please let me know.

Thanks!

Someday My Prince Will Come

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:57:04 -0500

A Vlog :) In preparation for a series of vlogs on real estate, I'm trying to get video out of my flip video and into a blog post.

This is my grandaugher Xochitl and Mike. Don't miss the big finish...that's assuming I am able to get the video up and playing. Crossing my fingers.

A vlog :)

Someday My Prince Will Come from Ardell DellaLoggia on Vimeo.

For 1st time or "move up" homebuyers

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:44:12 -0500

Most people buying real estate are either:

1) first time buyers who rented before they purchased

2) move up buyers who grew out of their first home.

Both types of homebuyers, should put much time into the process of buying and moving up. In fact, they should plan for that event before they rent their first apartment, or buy their first home.

"Dont Spend Your House Money on Coffee" is a post designed to help people plan ahead, and spend the least amount on current housing expense, unless they are buying a home they can see themselves living in for their whole lives.

Setting your long term goals before you do something that hinders achieving them, is a very, very good idea.

Are your Twitter tweets redundant?

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:30:31 -0500

Had a great meetup with Dustin Luther at Hennessey's in Hermosa Beach. He said he often is asked the question "Why doesn't ARDELL follow me on Twitter? Is it because I am not an interesting follow?"

There are so many people who blog on Active Rain that I would like to follow, but I find the redundancy so annoying.

Just posted on ActiveRain:

I expect that's an autofeed, but if you follow 100 people or more who blog on ActiveRain, the redundacy of "Just posted on ActiveRain" grows exponentially to the point where my whole screen is filled with "Just Posted on ActiveRain" tweets.

Sometimes "less is best" and posting your best stuff to Twitter, instead of every single post, and remembering to actually TALK to people on Twitter, will put the "social" back into Social Media.

Until then...I must admit...sometimes I hit "unfollow" the minute I see "Just Posted to ActiveRain". Not because I don't like the people who blog here...but because the redundancy drives me up the wall and pushes me away.

Not that you should necessarily care what I think... but passing that on FWIW regarding others who may feel the same way.

I had a Red Bull and other "bucket list" items

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:13:59 -0500

I just returned from a trip to The Beach Cities in Los Angeles California. While I was there visiting my children. It was my youngest daughter Andrea's 21st birthday. Here she is with her boyfriend Ryan, she in "the birthday tiara".

Between turning 55 in June and my youngest turning 21, I started my quest of doing a few things I've been wanting to do, but just haven't gotten around to doing.

I'm a little young for a bucket list. I'm starting with the small stuff :)

I had my first mojito with Dustin Luther who popped a photo of it on to Twitter just as I was ready to take my first sip using his TwitPic application via his cell phone.

Didn't get around to my first "put cucumbers on your eyes". I'll have to google how long I need to keep them on there for whatever good they may do. If anyone does the cucumbers on the eyes thing, would apprecaite some tips on how to do that and if it is worthwhile.

I had my eyebrows waxed. Something I've never done and always wanted to try. The took took much off one and now they don't match one another :(

...and...I had my first ever Red Bull!

I'm seriously thinking of taking a morning walk to the 7-11 in beautiful Downtown Kirkland WA and drinking a Red Bull before starting my day today. I'm such a high energy person already, that I was afraid of going into "high gear". I actually waited until I had some "supervision" in case I started spinning around in circles and my brain exploded.

Happy to report...had my first Red Bull...and I didn't self distruct :)

ARDELL DellaLoggia - Universal Profile/Landing Page

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:43:01 -0600

ARDELL DellaLoggia

I Blog about Seattle Real Estate and industry issues at Rain City Guide

I Blog about Seattle Area Real Estate including Eastside Real Estate on my blog.

I represent buyers and sellers of real estate in the Seattle Area

Front page news "above the fold" Seattle PI 2/10/09

One of the Top 10 Female Real Estate Bloggers in 2006

One of the Top 25 Most Influential Real Estate Industry Bloggers in 2007 per Inman News

Wrote one of the The Magnificent 7 Real Estate Blog Posts of 2008

From Anthony Carr - Realty Times"

"Broker and blogger Ardell DellaLoggia, reads the home sales statistics

like a stock broker reads the daily Wall Street returns."

Quoted in:

Seattle Weekly

Business Week

Wall Street Journal

On the Dave Ross show 2/10/09 at 10:15

On the Tom Kelly Real Estate radio show, Seattle - twice

On Inman TV via YouTube "you're not the commercial; you're the show"

ARDELL on Zillow.com

ARDELL on Trulia Voices

You can follow me on Twitter @ARDELLd

Greg Swann at Bloodhoundblog has this to say: "ARDELL DellaLoggia, who writes on her own weblog and on Rain City Guide gets most, possibly all, of her new business from real estate weblogging. How does she do it? With an empathy that seems to me to be infinitely maternal. It's when she's talking about true justice for the consumer that she forges client relationships. It's not so much what she says, nor even the way she says it. What matters is that her readers believe that she believes in the high standard of customer service she upholds.

ARDELL is sui generis, non plus ultra, as fundamentally convinced of her internal rectitude as St. Jeanne d'Arc. If you regard what she is doing as schtick, a performance, you won't be able to pull it off. ARDELL glows from the inside out, and so must you to follow your own sword into Holy War. ARDELL connects, emotionally, even viscerally, and she can make clients out of her readers before they get to the second paragraph.

Are You Fulfilling Your Destiny?

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:25:32 -0600

This is a Destiny Reading for one of my Twitter Friends. I come from some gypsy lineage (tiny bit of Mongolian blood from my mother's side) with a knack for Tarot Reading, etc... I didn't pay a lot of attention to it until my children were losing focus on the meaning of life in their pre-teen and teen years :). I often had a house full of young girls who only worried about which boy liked them this week, so I started doing Destiny Readings. It created a major transformation among the young women, my daughters and their friends, to think they had a personal real Destiny to fulfill. Their self image was no longer about who liked them...how they acted...what they wore...what they looked like...

It's a combination of Chinese Astrology, Tarot, Birthday Analysis and Destiny Era charts...all rolled into one. A bit of intuition/talent blends them together into one basic "Destiny" and primary purpose. I do believe there is one big thing we come here to "complete". And if you don't look for it...you will leave this earth without having done it and will keep coming back until the job is done. Of course I am also very grounded in the Catholic Faith and Judaeo/Christian teachings. I don't view any one way as the ONLY way, and I roll everything into one until it blends into a world of great compassion and understanding.

It's never a bad thing to FOCUS on something, so whether you believe that THIS is truly your Destiny...it really doesn't matter. Improving focus on accomplishment is always a good thing.

The Destiny of this person is so very different from my own, that it has taken me a bit of time to blend into a primary purpose. Your purpose is usually the OPPOSITE of what you do naturally and comfortably, day in and day out. You may have heard the saying "What you RESIST...PERSISTS." If you are an introvert, as example, your Destiny is likely about interaction outside of your personal world. If you are an extrovert, then the reverse is likely true.

Sad to say that while generally speaking for this person, Spring and Summer are normally the best times to progress toward her ultimate destiny (vs. Fall and Winter), 2009 is the WORST year since 1997, and will not get a lot better until 2011 and 2012. On the bright side, that imposes less urgency to change in the near future :)

It is not surprising that her WORK has nothing at all to do with her destiny. Her work encompasses a wide territory and many people on a daily basis. Her Destiny is VERY PERSONAL. She is here to work on herself. She is not here to invent or create something for others, She is here to find contentment with her inner self.

In this Year of the Ox, that will be an exceptional struggle. She will be pulled to areas that create self doubt and to some extent, even self loathing. For some that could create a year of great personal advancement IF they fight through it...but this person is not likely going to fight through it, so she needs to do a few things in 2009:

1) Surround yourself with people who truly like you for Who You Are.

2) Avoid people who put you down in any way shape or form...just move away from them, hang up on them, refuse to engage with them, tune them out and nod if you must and get away from them as soon as humanly possible.

3) Declutter the area you spend most of your time in. Remove anything that does not make you smile and add things that do make you smile, and keep them there and in the same place for a full year. Don't keep changing your space. Make it most comfortable and leave it alone until your birthday in 2010.

4) Expect the tendency to undervalue yourself to be the strongest this year...and fight it by ignoring it. Anytime you feel you didn't do "good enough", take a walk or better yet, indulge in an "escapist" activity like an uplifting movie that refocuses your thoughts. Don't try to reverse the feeling by "doing" (which is your natural tendency)...move away from it.

YOUR PRIMARY AND ULTIMATE DESTINY is to disassociate your feelings of self worth from your work. But that is difficult because you are work driven, and the more you stay in the driver's seat and refuse to be a passenger of life, the worse it gets.

YOUR PRIMARY TALENTS ARE NOT IN THE AREA OF FINANCE. Understand that you are not meant to be good at that which you are not good at, and don't perceive those things as "your weaknesses". Of the many things you can be good it...you are not meant to be good at all of them for a reason.

You feel a strong sense of needing to do something important for others...but the reality is, you are meant to be content with yourself. All the other things will COME to you, when you find yourself, contentment with yourself, maximum self esteem...all the things you seek you will actually drive away, until you come to a full understanding of your self and know that ultimately it is not what you DO, but Who You Are, that is most important.

To Thine Own Self Be True...the rest will fall into place once you ALWAYS honor only yourself. Your sense of duty, ethics and fairness, which are very strong...will cause you to think this cannot be true...but it is also why it IS true.

Oddly, many on your Kharmic Path will try to fulfill their need to improve self-worth with "the need to be needed" by many, and at all times. To make the most progress, make sure your non-work times of which there are few, are filled with non-work people and non-work activities. On the bright side, becasue you don't indulge in pleasures enough...when you do...the pleasure from the activity is magnified.

If there was ever a year to balance work with relaxation...this is it! If you don't...you will be much worse for the wear by the first new moon of 2010.

The #1 thing many are doing 'wrong" on Twitter

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:57:40 -0600

Hi,

I'm @ARDELLd on Twitter.

The number one thing I see many doing incorrectly on Twitter is hitting "reply" to a person, but not on the "correct" comment stream.

Remember that many, many people using social media are watching vs. talking. When your followers see a reply from you to someone else, they will click on the "reply to" to follow the conversation/thread all the way back to the beginning.

It is sufficient for you to reply to ANY Tweet, if your only objective is to reach the person you are talking to. BUT if you reply to that person using the Tweet you are referencing, it will be much easier for the person AND others reading and watching, to follow along with the whole thread of the conversation.

Test your outgoing replies and see if what you are answering relates to the message referenced at the end of your Tweet. At least 35% of the time, it does not.

Andrea Revenant of Tattoo Asylum in Venice Beach CA

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:38:06 -0600

Andrea is my youngest daughter.

Admirer's Eye by Bhupendra Khanal

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:57:32 -0600

Admiration of a beautiful lady...whom I did not love.

It is a liking
liking with no love
no want of getting
or the regret of missing
it is an admirer's eye
not a lover's eye
neither an opportunistic eye
nor an inflated eye
just the admirer of the beauty
and the admirer of the smile

The smile so lovely
so natural is the look
eyes staring at me
and a heavenly smile.
it looks...
it looks so nice
nicer than nice
the white shiny teeth
and the flashing smile
big eyes
the floating eyebrow
and the curved cheeks.

All is so beautiful
she's really so beautiful;
I admire it as of its best
best of its kind
her smile so heavenly
of the smiling lady
the look so daring
of the charming lady

Really the beauty is truth
I admire it today
Yes, the beauty is truth
looking at this exciting lass
and looking at her smile
today i felt the reality
reality as an admirer
with no love...no jealousy
with no wants and no need
beauty is always a truth
and as beauty as the truth
and as truth as the beauty
Its the smile, the natural smile
and so is she, the charming beautiful lady.

Why People Don't Need Real Estate Agents

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:03:26 -0600

I apologize for making you go someplace else to read this post. But it's long and it took a lot of time and Google doesn't like it when I cut and paste from one site to another.

I think it is an important read for every agent and anyone who has anything to do with mls systems and how they function.

Thank you for taking the time. Open Letter to NWMLS and Local Agents

Who wants an EMPTY INBOX? Not me!!!

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:11:31 -0600

Someone did a class at Inman Connect awhile back on "Inbox Zero". My first thought was, that's a dumb idea. I hope I NEVER have an empty Inbox. I didn't go to the class :)

Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to FILL my inbox with one email from every important person in my life, so I can hit Reply to and get in touch with everyone I know in the first two weeks of the new year. Past clients, current clients, future clients in my prospect folder, family, friends, FULL!

I WANT A FULL LIFE AND I WANT A FULL INBOX!

AN EMPTY INBOX IS LIKE THE PHONE NOT RINGING!!! I HAD ENOUGH OF THAT IN 2008!

2009? Give me a FULL Inbox!

You get 12 "do overs" every year. Thank the moon.

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:55:13 -0600

Long before...well, just about anything, the visual influence of the moon's cycle was used as a planning tool for people of many cultures. It was everyone's "monthly planner".

It is now 2009 and we have a little over 20 days until The First New Moon of the New Year. That is what Chinese New Year is...the first new moon of the new year.

For Christians, the concept of "an empty vessell" is the equivalent of "the new moon" in the cycle. It's the time you empty the old, the stale, the rotted, the dusty and you make way for new ideas and concepts. It's when you plant a seed for something new to grow.

While everyone and their mother talks about New Year's Resolutions and the beginning of The Year of the Ox on January 26th, we all know what happens. By February everyone's back to same old, same old for a WHOLE YEAR! But if you grasp the concept of the rough month cycle of the moon, you have 12 chances for a "do over". We all need our "do overs" because life is too short to get only one shot a year to set goals.

Take your life into 12 priorities. Health, Family, Volunteerism, Adventure, Spiritual Renewal...just some examples. The problem with setting goals and resolutions on only one day of the year, is we tend to skip something important, and focus mostly on ourselves and our work. But if you give yourself TWELVE NEW DAYS in the 12 new moons, you can set a plan in motion 12 times in a year for 12 different aspects of your life.

Take a really hard look at that chart. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU? Maybe you want to start YOUR cycle when the moon is FULL. How many people really want empty these days? Not many.

Maybe you want to start your cyle when "the glass is half full"! Yeah, that's the ticket! Room for new without throwing away all my good stuff that I want to keep. What do the Chinese know or the Native Americans, for that matter. I wouldn't trade their life for mine in a million years! Yeah...let's reinvent the Almanac, let's be rebels...Let's start a revolution!

...and let's do that again and again. Happy New Moon! Happy Full Moon! Happy...Happy!

Inman Connect NYC New York City 2009

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:06:50 -0600

If you are going to Inman Blogger's Connect in New York City NYC next week, there will be a prize for the most Kevin Tomlinson sightings.

If you see this guy:

OR, just in case he's going incognito in his jeans with holes in them and baseball cap, you may get a card from him that looks like this:

Just leave a comment on this post OR BETTER YET

SEND A QUICK TWITTER TO @ArdellD

To be eligible for the prize, you must send the Twitter to me direct, as I don't have time to sort through all of the billions of general Tweets.

Keep your eyes open. He's a sly one. Find the best party that's serving sushi...he'll be there. Or...the hottest party...he'll be there.

Last Minute Ornaments for Christmas Tree or Chanukah Bush

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:59:58 -0600

I have given out some of these ideas to people in financial distress, or families who just got snowed in and couldn't get out to buy Christmas Ornaments this year. The younger you are, the more you may need "fillers" in the early years as you grow your collection of ornaments.

These are all very low cost ideas you can make between now and tonight using things you may have around the house.

The above is a simple hand made fan that you can sit right on the tree without a hook. This one is many years old and is made from left over scraps of foil wrapping paper. It's double sided with two pieces of paper glued together, so it is heavier and colored on both sides.

You can use any wrapping paper, or even copy paper that you paint green and red stripes on. Get creative!

If you have plain ornaments that were economical, and the tree just looks a little to "plain", try painting a few stripes in different colors on the plain ornament.

This one was done on colored cross stitch cloth, but you can create the same affect pretty quickly with any colored cloth. Great idea for people who like safe ornaments that won't break.

If you just opened your ornaments and find some that have peeled or as my Mom would say "have seen better days", you can usually wash off the color altogether and paint them. Sometimes they will be clear underneath like this one. Sometimes they will be silver underneath. Either way, a little paint and glitter on the washed off ball will look better than one that with peeled off color. Fun idea for the kids to get creative with as well.

These are really, really old. My sister and I doctored these up with some glitter and paint twenty years ago, and they were at least 20 years old then! LOL. On the right you can see the satin balls with sequins and pinned beads. If you have plain satin balls, letting the children who are old enough to handle pins make their own special ball is something they will treasure years later.

I made this one from glass back when I was a teenager, but you can make something similar out of cardboard. I painted two different pictures (the paint is on the inside) and put a piece of tinfoil in the middle and glued them together. Opague paint on the faces and background, stained glass paint where you want the foil to sparkle from the lights. A wrapped present, a toy soldier, many different designs that don't involve face painting :). I'm surprised these are still around after 30+ years. A piece of gold brick-a-brac glued to the edge.

Andrea, who is now 20, made this in kindergarten. A child's block with the initial of their first name and some felt and puffs glued on. One of my most prized possessions :) Could be a little too late to put this one together by tonight without the materials. But I wish I had one for each of my children, so here's an idea for future Christmas craft.

This star is cut from thin styrofoam, but you can use cardboard and glitter.

Now the the Chunukah Bush ideas. Easy. Just make the fans out of Blue and Silver foil paper. Make the Star a six-pointed star with blue glitter on the circle and gold or silver glitter for the star. Or paint. Whatever you have around. The little felt man can be made of blue and gold or silver or blue and white.

My Mom was Jewish and we were all raised Catholic. My Mom worked in a Pizza Parlor when we were kids and a man came to pick up his Pizza with his very young child who hadn't seen a Christmas Tree. My Mom knew the man and knew he was Jewish. The little boy pointed at the Christmas Tree my Mom had in the store and asked his father what it was. He seemed a little stuck for an answer, so my Mom quickly said "It's a Chanukah Bush!" to the man's great relief.

Never disappoint a child. Make a Chanukah Bush.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

SEARS, Santa and Stuffed Pandas

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 12:35:18 -0600

I don't know how old I was, but I do know the stuffed panda was a lot bigger than I was. So I must have been pretty young.

I will forever appreciate the perspective I gained from growing up poor in a very large family of 7 children.

Santa always brought our tree AFTER we went to bed on Christmas Eve. I later learned that my parents always went out to get a tree just as the Tree Sellers were packing up to go home on Christmas Eve. They were able to get a screaming good deal at that time. If they hadn't found a way to buy one at a fraction of the cost in that manner, we couldn't afford to have one. I guess my older brothers and sister knew that, but I've always been more of a believer than a skeptic. I also believed all the kids who had trees before Santa brought them on Christmas Eve had not been as good as I was, and so their parents had to buy their tree, while mine was a true "Santa Tree" because I was a good girl. I expect my parents encouraged that belief and I was just the most gullible. My brother would never believe that...because he really wasn't "good" all year like I was.

We would put up the platform and the trains that run around under the tree before bed. Then Santa would come while we slept and put the tree up on the platform by Christmas morning along with the presents.

Most kids find out there is no Santa from other kids. My Mom had to tell me there was no Santa. Thinking back on that Christmas Eve Night, I'm sure it was as hard for her to tell me that, as it was for us many years later to tell my 7 year old sister that Daddy had died the night before. No one wants to look their small child in the eye and explain there will be no Santa or presents tonight.

It was "A White Christmas" and for whatever reason, my parents had ordered all of our presents from SEARS. Maybe it was the first time they had to use a credit card for the presents, or maybe it was the same logic of catching the just before Christmas sales. In any case, the presents had not arrived by Christmas Eve due to heavy snow for days before Christmas.

Finally, around 5 o'clock p.m., by Mom had to tell us the presents would be coming in a big Sears truck...or not. We all sat on the top floor (we had a storefront "home" in Philly and lived above my Dad's record store). At first we were all looking and praying for the Sears truck. I think the original story was that Santa's sleigh was stuck and Sears was helping Santa out by getting the toys to all the kids on Christmas Eve. Maybe my parents said Santa was sick, I'm not sure. But Sears had to help with the delivery.

We sat looking out the window for hours and hours. "I think I see it coming!" "Where?" "No, look left!...no...just a truck. It doesn't say SEARS on it, and it's not stopping at our house :(" Soon we started playing that car game where you pick a color and whoever picks the color that equals the most cars that pass by, wins. Knowing me, I probably picked purple and lost. I'm always picking "the dark horse".

I don't remember going to bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head that night. In fact, I don't remember going to bed at all. I think I fell asleep still looking for the Sears truck, until my Dad carried me off to bed in his arms. That was gift enough for me. I adored my Dad, and even used to go to sleep on the top of my dresser at times, so he would have to lift me up and carry me to my bed. Competing with 6 other children for attention can breed creative thinking.

I don't remember Christmas morning at all. What I do remember was how extraordinarily happy we were when SEARS gave us a "double credit" for all the things my Mom had ordered! SEARS invited us to come to the store and spend it. If my Mom had ordered $100 worth of presents, then we had a credit of $200! AND we got to pick ONE thing ourselves! My Mom picked the other things we NEEDED, like clothes and socks and stuff. We each got to pick one toy.

I still remember the store clerk crying as he saw me coming up to the check out. I didn't know why he was crying. I didn't often see grown men crying in those days...never really. It was one of those smiling through tears kind of crying. I had picked a big stuffed panda that was twice as big as I was. I still remember struggling with taking him with me everywhere, even after we got home. I have a clear memory of trying to take him upstairs to bed with me...no easy feat.

Watershed Events, those terrible things that turn into our most happy memories, are always the best. Perhaps it's my perspective of finding the silver lining for each cloud, that has made so many watershed events in my life. "ARDELL living in ARDELL's World", as they say. Still, I thank whomever instilled in me the ability to find the silver lining...most every time.

I want to thank Jim Kukral and his SEAR's Contest for inspiring me to write this post. I have no idea what the rules are for the contest, so I'm sure I didn't follow them :) But seeing the kids pictured in the post, shopping for their presents at SEARS, reminded me of that special Christmas Season, so very long ago.

P.S. Coldwell Banker was owned by SEARS when I started there at the beginning of my real estate career in 1990.

Seattle Real Estate Market of 2009

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:36:43 -0600

There is no doubt that the Seattle Area Real Estate Market will be better in 2009.

For Agents: There will clearly be at least one month in 2009...that is better than November of 2008.

For Buyers: No matter where or what you buy, it will be a better deal than if you had bought it in June of 2007

For Sellers: If you have owned your home for 10 years and haven't pulled out your equity and squandered it...you WILL walk away with a substantial profit.

For Agents: If you made it through 2008...you will clearly make it through 2009, even if you don't do anything better than you did it in 2008.

For Buyers: Your interest rate will be better than if you had bought in June of 2008

For Sellers: You are more likely to find a good, tech savvy agent in 2009 than you could have found at any other time in history.

For Agents: Don't waste your Spring Bounce period...it gets shorter every year...but it WILL come and go. So don't plan to go on vacation when it gets here in 2009

For Buyers: Do not, do not, settle for something you can't stay in for 10 years. Buy something that makes you happy...or don't buy at all

For Sellers: There's no time like the present. The price you get in 2009 is likely to be the best price you will be able to get in the next 3-5 years. Not a good time to "wait" for the market to get better if you can't wait indefinitely. Best case scenario is flat.

There's something good in 2009 about to happen for most anyone. Are you ready?

Moving to Seattle - Understand the Mindset

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:08:07 -0600

Below is a fabulous video used as a Commercial for the Washington State Lottery. In other areas you might expect to see someone buying a big expensive house and car. Not in Washington. While I think the commercial is about the person winning the lottery being "able to fly" as a result of having more money, I choose to interpret it as someone winning the lottery might use the money in this way. To help a penguin or a chicken experience flying for the first time, and for once in their life.

If you are thinking about moving to Seattle, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the caring nature of Seattle's Citizenry. You would be hard pressed to find another area where you can meet so many caring neighbors. It's an excellent quality of life if you reach out and get involved.

Enjoy the video. I LOVE it and just wanted to share it with as many people as possible.

The tag line "whose world could you change?" speaks volumes about the mindset of people here. Less selfish. More helpful to others...and yes, you can change the World from Seattle, one person at a time.

Mike Santoro - Awesome Seattle Photos

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:00:31 -0600

Mike Santoro, my daughter Tina and my grand daughter Xochitl are in town from L.A. for Thanksgiving, and Mike is getting some absolutely awesome photos from my Master Bedroom Balcony.

The below shot shows the space needle to the left in the horizon. These photos are taken across Lake Washington from 10th Avenue in Kirkland.

Let's Fix the Sub-Prime Crisis

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:01:31 -0500

Read this story about Joe Sixpack and the Subprime Crisis. Then come back here and tell me who is to blame in that story.

Was it Joe...who by the end of the story becomes "Joe Sixpack"? Was it the Realtor? Was it the Lender? Was it the diappearance of the lenders who were supposed to do the re-fi in two years? Maybe it was the purchase of the puppy that broke the camel's back.

I'm sure you can all relate to this story and how it just crept along to where we are now...hard to find the villains in it. But we're all experienced professionals, so let's give it a try.

I look forward to reading your comments.

Obama or McCain One will be YOUR President

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:54:55 -0500

Well I guess it could be someone else, but not likely.

I want you to take a minute and think about this from the standpoint of your children. Are you sending mixed messages? Are you expecting them to respect authority, and yet setting them up for failure?

If you hate one of these candidates and are very vocal about that in your home. What do you think will happen if the one you hate is elected? Are you teaching your children to hate "The President of the United States"?

Please, please be very carefuly what you are teaching our youth and future leaders. Respecting the office and not the person is a very difficult concept for a child to grasp. Don't badmouth politicians on one day and then expect your children to respect their Country and its leaders the next day. That is too hypocritical for a child to come to terms with.

My "MOM" soapbox for the day :)

Would you like to be on Flip This House?

ARDELL DellaLoggia (Sound Realty) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:45:39 -0500

You may not be in an area where they are choosing to film at present, but they may not find enough qualified people in CA and WA to fill a season. So it's worth sending in an application even if they use you for a future season.

Right now they are looking for people from Seattle who have done 10 to 12 flip projects. I think those 10 to 12 projects can be spread out over more than one year.

If you are interested, send an email to flipthishouse.casting@gmail.com

DEADLINE FOR THIS SEASON IS OCTOBER 1, 2008