In my downtime, I have turned to keeping busy - I'm doing such things as:

Taking free classes down at our Board. 

I am involved in several 12-step programs - so, I've been hitting more meetings.

I'm learning to do more social networking - everytime there is a class or webinar - you'll find me there. 

Exercising every day - and

Spending time with my hubby - in fact - this is one of the reasons for this post - I'm wondering if anyone has seen the movie "State of Play"?  What did you think of it?

I hope you have a wonderful Thursday!

I am so done with trying to get Hewlett-Packard to do the right thing and replace a defective 7310 All-in-One printer with a known problem.  I'm not quite sure why they don't have more the mentality of DisneyWorld - treat the customer right and it'll come back to you 10-fold.   I'm just the little guy here. 

Instead of replacing the printer, I get this email from an HP case manager - it read in part: my offer to you is as follows:  Replace your defective unit with a L7680 remanufactured unit  at $143.99 with free express shipping.  The offer is only valid until close of business day - 07/04/09. 

I ask you - why would I pay $143.99 for another printer when HP should just do the right thing?  I'm done with their products.

How many of you out there have personally tried door knocking recently and actually gotten someone to answer the door?  Or, is door knocking a thing of the past?  If you have actually gotten someone to answer the door, what types of real estate materials did you hand out?  What has been your success ratio in converting these individuals to a closed sale?  My husband and I are having a discussion on this, and he suggested I poll the AR community.  Thanks!

How to quickly open the ClipBook Viewer

I've often wondered when I cut and paste something, and a screen pop-ups and ask "Allow Access" to the Clipboard, exactly where the Clipboard is.  I finally found out how to make a Short-cut so that you can actually see the Clipboard. 

The Clipboard is a temporary holding area.  You can actually see the information that you have copied to the Clipboard by using the the ClipBook Viewer.   For some reason, the Clipbook Viewer is not listed in the Start Menu of MS XP, so if you want quick access you just create a shortcut.

To open the ClipBook View

1.  Right-click on the desktop, point to New, and then click Shortcut.

2.  Type %windir%\system32\clipbrd.exe in the location field.

3.  Click Next to continue.

4.  Type a Name for this Shortcut - I used "Clipboard".

5.   Then click Finish to create the Shortcut.

I wish someone had told me about this - I spent a while trying to find out what I had actually put in my Clipboard.   I'm sure a lot of folks know about this - but, I thought I'd pass it along for folks that don't.

I can't believe that I have lived all these years and did not know this------so, I thought I would share what a client sent me.

Don't any of you tell me you knew this and didn't share it!!!!

 

Was this something we were supposed to learn from our Mom's?????
I can't believe it's been there all this time.  
   
I  had to go into the kitchen and check this out for  myself.
Whoever looks at the end of your aluminum foil box?  
You know when you try to pull some foil out and  the roll comes out of the box.
Then you have to  put the roll back in the box and start over.
The darn roll always comes out at the wrong  time.
Well, I would like to share this with you.
Yesterday I went to throw out an empty Reynolds foil box and for some reason I turned it,  
and looked at the end of the box. And written on the end it said, Press here to lock end.
Right  there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place.
How long has this little locking  tab been there?
I then looked at a generic brand of aluminum foil and it had one, too.
I then  looked at a box of Saran wrap and it had one too!
I can't count the number of times the Saran wrap roll has jumped out,
when I was trying  to cover something up.
I'm sharing this with my friends.
I hope I'm not the only person that didn't know about this .  
I know you're going to go and check your boxes, so go ahead!

Okay, we did it right this year - we had black-eyed peas and collards on New Year's Day and had leftovers last night.  I know it's going to be a good year this year - we added the collards.  I'd never had them before, so I asked someone in the grocery store how to fix them.  They were quite good.

It's so great to have 2008 behind us.  It wasn't a great year like we'd initially thought we'd have - Real Estate sales were down; but there were plenty of things to be grateful for:  we have our health, a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs; the girls are doing well in school; our granddaughter is doing great.  We've had plenty of time to get things situated for a fabulous 2009. 

Is there any great advice from ya'll out there on what you're planning to do different this year?  I'd love to hear.

It seems that my brain is always focused on real estate, especially now with the economy the way it is; trying to keep in front of my past clients.  I send out Activity sheets every 6 months to past clients.  Then I follow-up with a phone call to see if they have any questions.  So, I'm all thinking about real estate; the client answers the phone and says something like....I haven't seen it yet, I just got back into town.  Well, then we start talking, and I find out there's been a death in the family, or, the had to put their dog down, or they've lost their job or whatever.  Then, I feel about a 1/2" tall - all I'm thinking about is real estate and they're having life issues.  This is very interesting to me and it just serves to remind me that life happens and maybe real estate is not all that I should be focusing on.  I've had this happen twice over the last week.  Interesting......

Any of ya'll had similar situations?

I have a question that maybe some of you can help with - when and how often do you ask a past client for a referral?  Do you come straight out and ask for it? Do you beat around the bush? How do you do it?

My husband and I have debated this for the last 10 years.  We feel that if someone were to call us and just out of the blue ask us if we knew of someone that was in need of a Realtor, that we would be offended - like they didn't want to talk with us, they just wanted to get information about someone else.

I generally beat around the bush toward the end of the conversation and say something like, "do you see yourself making a move in the next 6 months? Who do you know that may be in need of my services?"

Any better way to do this?

Hi all...it's been a while since I've been on AR - lots of things have been going on.  We made the decision to leave RE/MAX after being with them since 1993 and opened our own little real estate firm.  It was something that we've thought about for a long time; and the time just seemed right.   We're very excited about our decision.  Things are certainly looking up!

If anyone out there has made a similar decision, I'd love to hear some feedback.  What good things did you do?  What things could have been done better?  How's it working for you now?

Thanks for any input you can provide!

Have a nice Memorial Day! 

In a market where a seller is lucky to get an offer, I find that inspections can throw a huge wrench in the works.  I normally present the Summary sheet to my seller and I suggest that he consider fixing whatever the buyer wants fixed.  I explain to the seller that all repairs are negotiable, but that the buyer could walk if not satisfied with the outcome.  For the most part, I allow the seller to make the decision.

How do you handle inspections?