Home Loans & Stuff >> The Arizona Home Loan Lady

Once Again, WaMu Screws Me

Arizona Home Loan — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:23:20 -0500

Okay my last post was about WaMu and the way they intentionally target people who may be living hand-to-mouth -- those that tend to bounce checks. Feel free to read it here. I don't mean to bore my readers with more of the same stuff, but I've got a little more. This will be the last time I write about this lousy bank...I hope to be rid of them forever.

After they charged me hundreds of dollars (over $300 so far) for bounced checks, I vowed to close my account. In fact, I intended to do it the day I wrote my last post. However, I had some outgoing payments coming from the WaMu account, and I just wanted to wait until the next billing cycle.

Here's what the jerks did to me this time:

The first time they nailed me with bounced check fees, it was because they put a hold on a direct wire transfer from my Bank of America account. That's right: I made my initial deposit with a wire transfer. It might as well have been cash. Why put a hold on it? So they could charge me all kinds of bounced check fees, that's why!

My next deposit was a direct deposit from the IRS. It was about $1500.

Altogether, I had about $2600, including the $1500 that was freshly deposited from our government. Anybody ever hear of putting a hold on a government check? Heck, the pawn shops will cash government checks on the spot. Apparently, pawn shops have a better check cashing policy than WaMu does.

I needed to put some money into my Bank of America checking account, to cover some checks. So I wrote myself a $1500 check against the $2600 in my WaMu account. Again, every cent in my WaMu account is from some sort of wire transfer or direct deposit.

As you can see below, WaMu did not pay on my $1500 check-- although I had plenty to cover it-- and I incurred 5 bounced check fees from Bank of America.

That came to $125. Bank of America charges $25 for a bounced check; Washington Mutual-- with their "one free bounced check per year"-- charges $34.

Above is a condensed version of my Bank of America statement. Due to Washington Mutual's bogus policy, I went into the red by $907 and I was charged for 5 overdrafts.

So what was a girl to do?

I called Bank of America on June 20th and told them exactly what happened. I explained how WaMu screwed me and put a hold on wire transfered funds.

What did Bank of America do?

On June 23rd, Bank of America reversed all five bounced check fees, even though-- as far as they were concerned, I was in the "red." They were polite, courteous, and more than willing to help.

WaMu on the other hand... Well, when I called them, they referred to their commercial and told me they would waive one fee per year. I said, "Considering the ridiculous circumstances, is that really the best you can do?"

She assured me that WaMu would only give me back $34 of the hundreds they stole from me.

But guess what? I have yet to see the $34 credit. WaMu has not even given me the "one ISF fee waived per year" that they advertise.

In all my life, this is the worst banking experience I have had. Oh, and as a mortgage broker, I can also tell you that their are many, many banks with lower rates than WaMu. I wouldn't even consider them if I were in the market for a mortgage.

Predatory Banking on a Smaller, Friendlier Scale

Arizona Home Loan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:28:11 -0500

This is an opinion piece, take as you wish, but I think Washington Mutual is predatory on what economists would call a micro level. (They may be predatory in other ways as well, but I experienced it on a very "micro" level.)

While I'm at it, I also think they have lousy customer service and could care less about improving. (We'll see how they respond to this post.) Over the years, while working as an Arizona mortgage broker, I have had many clients tell me that they've had negative experiences with WaMu, both on the mortgage side and with smaller issues, such as credit and checking accounts. I never thought too much about it, even though Washinton Mutual seemed to come up more regularly than other banks.

I never thought much of it, that is, until I opened a checking account three weeks ago.

I have my primary checking account with Bank of America, and I honestly do not recall ever bouncing a check with B of A or ever incurring a fee for insufficient funds...let us say for at least as long as I've been married (7 years). I know I did it a few times in college, but that's pretty much it.

I've incurred over $200 in bounced check charges since I opened my account with WaMu earlier in May. I also opened it with a starting deposit of two thousand dollars.

How did this happen? I have no idea. But I can tell you this much: WaMu ain't coughing up they money they took from me. I just have to close my account and accept it and move on. Do that a few million times, and WaMu is in the money. Nice quarter fellas!

Wamu's Predatory Advertising: Trapping The Hand-To-Mouth Crowd

I was watching television a few weeks ago when a Washington Mutual commercial aired. You may have seen it; it is aired pretty often. Basically, WaMu presents a spokesman who brags that Washington Mutual will waive one bounced check fee per year. Behind him are "angry" bankers who are upset about the awesome deal he is offering.

That's it. That's the entire theme of the commercial. Washington Mutual was bragging about reversing one bounced check fee per year for their beloved clients. At first I thought it was weird, but after my husband mumbled "predatory" under his breath, I realized that the commercial was predatory in the most basic definition of the word.

The whole purpose of that commercial was to get people to sign up for a free checking account at Washington Mutual, but not just any people-- they want people who bounce checks. Think about it, the only demographic the commercial appeals to is the demographic that bounces checks. The commercial didn't appeal to me at all, because I haven't paid an ISF fee in years. It pretty much went in one ear and out the other. But if getting one bounced check fee per year is enough to make you change banks, and matters just that much, WaMu wants you.

It doesn't really seem like a desired demographic, does it? But they know they are going to milk those people for so much more. They give you $34 for one reversal, and you pay for six more that year. (I don't actually know the average amount of bounced checks per year.)

How They Ripped Me Off

I needed to open a new checking account. WaMu is the bank on the corner and it seemed as good as any. I opened my account with a $2000 wire transfer. That is, I supplied my Bank of America routing and account numbers for what is normally an instant transaction.

Instead, Washington Mutual put a three-day hold on my TRANSFER. This was not a personal check, this was not even a payroll check; this was a transfer from my Bank of America account. Even better than a paper cashier's check as far as I knew.

Because that is incredibly stupid and makes no sense, I wrote six checks against the account. Although I showed a "balance" in my account, WaMu bounced all six, for a total of $204. I've even bounced more since then, with equally ridiculous explanations.

Yes, I have closed my account. And remember:

Be especially wary and cautious of those businesses that advertise to those who may be less fortunate in our society. (Payroll cashing, title loans, payroll loans, Washington Mutual Free Checking)

Usually, most always, they are bad news on every level.

Just How Sleazy Was the Subprime Market?

Arizona Home Loan — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:35:33 -0500

I received the ad below, via email, just a few weeks before the subprime market crashed, not too long ago actually. This is actually a typical ad from a subprime lender, and every mortgage broker on AR has dozens of these in their trash folder. Now please take note: This is not an offer for loan services and my company does not offer the loan advertised below. I just thought I would share...and show my Realtor friends the kind of stuff that mortgage brokers were offered by banks...and probably tried to pass on to your clients at some point.

Check it:

The lender was Wilmington Finance. I removed their phone numbers from this ad, but I did give them a call today. Guess what? They no longer offer this loan. In fact, they stopped offering this loan just shortly after they announced it.

I know hindsight is 20/20, but no lie: The subprime market never sat well with me. I don't even know how to describe it exactly. It just kind of made me feel dirty. I never did them myself. I'm an A-paper girl. Bad credit? I'll get you in with FHA. Ruin your life? I'd really rather not.

Now let's look at this ad a little closer:

Right across the top, you'll see "90% LTV with a 525 FICO." I don't know how to say this nicely, but this is just ridiculous. The FHA, which is extremely lenient, offers loans with a score as low as 550. If you have a 525, take a year and work on building your credit. (You'd be surprised what a year of good behavior can do.) It will be so much better for you in the end. Nobody deserves this mortgage.

When people have credit scores of 550, it is common- almost guaranteed-- that they will have collections on their credit report. FHA requires that the collections be paid prior to funding, or out of escrow at the closing table. Wilmington Finance? No such requirement. Just set 'em up and they'll knock 'em down.

The ad even says that they will take borrowers who have paid their current mortgage 30 days late up to two times! Isn't that just amazing? (On the ad, that's what 2 X 30 means.)

Next you will notice that this loan is a 2/28 ARM. Which means the loan is fixed for 2 years and then adjusts in year 3 and every year thereafter. Why is that bad?

Because you will also notice that this loan allows for 50% DTI (or debt-to-income ratio). That means that if you earn $60K per year or $5K per month, they will allow you to have total bills (mortgage + car + credit cards, etc.) that amount to $2500 per month. That is, 50% of your gross income.

Trouble is, after taxes, you are taking less than $4000 home. Do you contribute to your 401K? Or maybe you pay for your health insurance? You could, realistically, only be "taking home"...well...let's just say $3500 if you have to pay for your own insurance.

That leaves you $1000 from which to live. Now what is going to happen when your rate actually goes up in 2 years? What if-- God forbid-- you lost your job and you had to take one that pays less? You could refinance... Oh wait, no you can't-- this loan has a horrible prepayment penalty.

Gas will cost you at least $200 per month; your car insurance is another $100; maybe a couple hundred for groceries?

Bottom line: This mortgage sets the borrower up for failure.

So what are people doing? Foreclosing in record numbers. Gee whiz, I'm totally shocked. This loan seems so logical.

I won't even get into the fact that this company also offers an interest-only version.

Pardon my brashness, but whomever set this loan program up just might be a certified moron. It's practically criminal, it's so stupid.

Now, I worry if mortgage brokers will exist five years from now. All because my colleagues chose to put people in mortgages like this.

A Cool Little Thing to Try-- Animate Your Portrait

Arizona Home Loan — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:35:28 -0500

*** This works best in Internet Explorer. Not so great in Firefox. ***

Good morning! It is a beautiful in Arizona right now-- 67 degrees with a light breeze. I should be outside. But I made something last night and I thought I would share.

My husband and I have a digital camera that also records little movies. We do have a video camera, but we find the camera to be easier.

This is because when you plug the camera (via USB cord) into your computer, the movies are already divided into their own convenient .avi files. This takes away the editing step that one has to do with a video tape.

But by all means, you can do this with a video camera as well.

I'm rambling. Time to write about what I made! You've probably noticed it by now, in the top left corner of the page.

My husband and I were taking pictures and we thought, "why not try to animate our portraits?" (If somebody else is already doing this; we're sorry; we really thought of it on our own!)

This is our first time, and it looks a little rough, but I am hoping to make one that is much better.

So do you want to know how to do it? Unfortunately, you need to buy an inexpensive software program called GIF Construction Kit Professional. The program is only $25 and it actually has a drop down menu in which you can choose "AVI to GIF".

The software is intuitive and easy to use. (And no, I'm not getting paid for this in any way.)

If you don't want to buy the software, but you have a camera that takes short movies, email me your movie and I will convert it to a .gif for a $5 donation to SOMAD.org, a breast cancer charity. Email me for information regarding this. All donations are tax-deductible.

Have fun! And if you try it, please email me a copy so I can see how others do! And just refresh your browser to see the animation again. My next one will be much better!

The Economics of Rude Clients

Arizona Home Loan — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:10:00 -0500

I'll just give a quick note to my friends, regarding why I haven't been around, regarding my fight with breast cancer. I will post an update soon. Things have been kind of crazy and I'm not sure how to write a post. I'm completely bald again. So there's that. But I will post something with more detail soon.

Simply Not A Good Fit

Today I received a rude email from a potential client, but I think I handled it properly.

In this man's communication, he wrote that he had emailed me on Wednesday regarding Arizona mortgage rates. Unfortunately, I had never received this email. However, because I hadn't responded yet, he assumed that my posted rates-- which is what he emailed me about in the first place-- must be a lie. So in all caps, (representing "yelling"), he writes:

"IF YOU CAN'T DO IT, WHY IS IT ON YOUR SITE?!?!?"

I hadn't responded to him on Wednesday, so naturally he wants to accuse me of lying. I went through my spam folder and I found his email from Wednesday. I was actually the CC: on the email and then he addressed the main "TO:" box to himself. So, because I wasn't the "primary" on the email, Norton thought, for some reason, that it was spam. Sure it stinks, but these errors happen very infrequently. And who addresses an email from the CC: box anyway? You're just asking for trouble. If you want a copy, CC yourself for goodness sakes.

But either way, this guy is sending me an aggressive, accusatory email because his misunderstood perception was that I was a cheat and there was absolutely no chance that something else happened. I must be a crook.

Well, I'm sick of people who treat me like a crook, just because I work in finance. I am an honest, ethical person and am proud to say that none of my clients has ever been treated unethically. There has never, ever been a complaint to the Better Business Bureau about us. They only show records for the past three years, but I wish they would post for the past ten years. Every year has been without a single customer complaint to the BBB. I honestly cannot remember ever having an angry client or potential client.

Oh, and something else: I never post bait and switch rates and I really hate the practice. It's quite a shame that it's the rule, rather than the exception at many internet "mortgage guide" sites.

Okay, so back to the guy... Sorry I ranted.

I told him that I was sorry that his email ended up in my spam folder. I then wrote that the next time he has such a pressing issue (he told me he needed financing ASAP), the telephone is the general best bet.

Then I told him to go ahead and find another mortgage broker and that I didn't think I would be a good fit with him, based on his angry email. I told him I don't like people who accuse me of lying, especially people who don't know me. I basically told him off and then told him to hit the road. It felt good. (Regarding the legality, for those of you who think I broke the law: I did give my attorney a quick call about this. If you want to hear what he said, email me.)

Too harsh? I'd like to know your opinions, even though I don't think I'll change my mind. Any email with one of these things in it: "?!?!?!" is an email I don't need to read. It's an economic decision really. It could be a question on an economics exam: "Exactly how much abuse can you handle for X dollars of commission?" Hint: Be sure to include a gas surcharge kids!

And to those who might think to advise me to make this post private-- no way. I am happy to make my new policy available to potential clients.

(To the potential clients reading: You will find that I am extremely easy to work with; I never cheat my clients and I won't ever lie to you. All I ask is to be treated with a tiny degree of respect. Like you would expect to be treated yourself... I'm sure you understand. Thank you!)

Vonage Telephone Service? You'd Better Think Twice.

Arizona Home Loan — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:00:11 -0500

For the past four days, I've been pulling my hair out in frustration. Yesterday, my husband became so enraged and frazzled, he poured himself a drink after a lengthy period of sobriety. (Thankfully, he came to his senses and poured it back down the drain.) My home phone has been down, I've had no email or internet, and my office phones are a mess.

This is all due to the failure of my Cox high-speed internet connection (cable modem). I never realized just how dependent I was on this evil little box and the company that controls it. I could have strangled the customer service reps at Cox... But I am getting ahead of myself; let me back up a bit.

Here's how it all went down:

I thought I'd save some money and get Vonage telephone service. You've seen the ads right? $24.95 per month with free long distance to the U.S. and Canada-- sounds great! So I canceled my home phone service with Qwest, and got ready to start saving a bunch of money.

The Vonage phone service was fine; the connection is clear; everything was as was promised.

So, because Vonage seemed to work so nicely, I decided to set them up as the alternative lines for the office. What I mean is, my main telephone number is (877) 551-8188. That is a standard Qwest land line.

Anyway, when calls come through and that main line is occupied-- which is practically 100% of the working day-- the incoming call hunts for another open line...just like any office.

Except, I decided that all of the hunted lines would be of the Vonage variety. So the office consists of only one "real" telephone line and a bunch of Vonage lines to be hunted. I'd save a small fortune I thought.

This, of course, was idiotic on my part. You do get what you pay for folks; I can attest to that right now.

Vonage depends on the internet and late Friday afternoon, my internet went down. It actually never dawned on me that if I lost internet connectivity, I would lose my phones as well.

Cox told us the best they could do was get a repairman out on Tuesday, which is today.

Monday is the busiest day of the week and tends to be very stressful as far as the telephones go. Yesterday, the main line would ring, but that was it. No more than one incoming call at a time. That was very strange, but I couldn't pay too much attention to it, because I was so frustrated without email. Many of my clients communicate with me via email...so I kept hitting "refresh" hoping I could somehow will the connection to come alive.

Of course, I was getting lots of calls and they all had nowhere to go. Some clients got busy signals, others told me the phone just rang and rang. Very professional.

So that's it. That's my Vonage horror story. I hope it helps anyone who was on the fence about signing up for this new service.

Horton Hears from Hypoglycemia

Arizona Home Loan — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:28:44 -0500

First a few quick words about copyright: The, um, er, breakfast (?) photo to the left is the property of the International House of Pancakes. In most cases, you cannot download and use artwork from IHOP or anybody else's site for that matter. However, this post is a "review" and a "critique" and that makes our use of this art perfectly legal, no permission necessary.

It's why Hollywood can make spoofs of entire movies and not be obligated to pay any royalties to the spoofees.

Okay, now that the copyright thing is out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks. Let us please get serious-- just for a moment-- about IHOP's new "Who Cakes", celebrating the new film Horton Hears a Who.

Should it eat even be legal to serve this heaping pile of sugar to an innocent child?!? A child who really knows no better? Aren't we supposed to protect the poor innocents?

Okay, I will admit that I have not tried the Who Cakes. So I am not acting completely fair right now.

In all truthfulness, they just might be delicious. The pancakes are dressed with two opaque sauces-- one pink, one blue-- in the style of classical French sauce-making of course. Although I can't say for certain, I would guess both sauces to be a simple confectioner's sugar icing and differentiated from one another only by the food colorings. Hmmmmm..... Pretty good idea, I think. Maybe the next time I make pancakes, I'll try the icing thing. Ooooh! Delicious! Like cinnamon roll pancakes. And icing is so much less expensive than syrup! Just powdered sugar and water. If you want to be super fancy, you can add a dropper of vanilla to your icing syrup.

But wait. It actually gets worse. What's that on top? Is that a lollipop? Are you kidding me? Well, I certainly hope it's the kind of lollipop that's stuffed with chewing gum or a Tootsie Roll.(TM) It seems a shame to go through all that trouble and miss a last-minute detail like the stuffed-with-more-candy lollipop. The devil is in the details you know. I know that I would be up in arms if I ate all of my icing-covered, fried-dough breakfast-- just like a good girl is supposed to do-- and then didn't have a Tootsie(TM) stuffed lolly as an after breakfast treat.

Thanks patient reader, for allowing me this forum to screw around and write a post about about nothing. Sometimes, I like the posts about nothing most of all. We don't need to be serious all of the time, do we? However, with home prices and interest rates as they are-- soon, we should all be too busy to write fanciful posts about nothing.

Cubs Tickets, Today

Arizona Home Loan — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:55:46 -0500

I just found out that I cannot use my Cubs /Royals tickets for Surprise Stadium.

I realize that it is 9:50am and the game starts at 1:05PM today. However, this game is sold out and the tickets I have are killer. Seriously. Right behind home plate.

If you want 'em, and you can get hold of me fast enough to make it to the game-- let me know. They are yours. No charge for ActiveRainers of course. Call me at 480-250-4901 before noon.

Consider Arizona in March

Arizona Home Loan — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:51:48 -0600

I know this is going to make some of you jealous (sorry), but I have killer tickets-- right behind home plate and just a couple rows back for the Texas Rangers vs. the Angels of Anaheim tomorrow. It's a 1:00PM game (gotta bring that darn cell phone) and the weather should be breezy and in the low 80's. I'm so excited, I'm bouncing in my chair.

Are you kidding me? Does it get any better? It is only the month of March (or Feb 29th in a leap year) that I get to have a dog and a beer right in the middle of my business day, when I should be working. But what is baseball without a dog and a beer? Tomorrow will be a great day.

On Saturday, the day after tomorrow, I managed to get three more killer seats for the Angels vs. the Chicago Cubs. I'm going to take my two favorite men-- my husband and my father. Should be a great game.

Actually, I bought all of my games at Ticketmaster.com as soon as they went on sale, because I love to sit right behind home plate. People that just "show up" on game day tend to get lawn seats.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with those lawn seats-- you can set out a blanket and catch homers out there. Also, the tickets are only $5.

Anyway, I am not just writing this to brag about the fact that I will see 12 - 15 games in March, with all kinds of match-ups... I've got Giants tickets; I've got Brewers tickets; I've got... Oh there I go again.

The actual reason I write this post is because, for those of you looking for a nice little getaway-- especially those of you in the states close by-- you should really consider Arizona in March. Think about it: You can go to a baseball game of your choosing every single day. It's Spring Training time folks, and I really feel sorry for the 48 states that don't have it. The weather is absolutely perfect. The players are friendly, loose, relaxed. As I watch Vladimir Guerrero warm up in the box...I can hear the chatter between him and the other players. It's like watching a game on Kevin Costner's Field of Dreams. Small intimate ballparks, completely open to the gorgeous weather.

Really, if you need a getaway, think Arizona in March. Stay for a week; see a different game every day. If you tell me you're coming, we'll meet up for a dog-and-a-beer.

Just Saying Hello

Arizona Home Loan — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:19:27 -0600

Wow. I really had no idea I had been gone so long. I haven't written a blog post in quite a while, if anyone has noticed. I stopped chemo for the cancer in my lungs in late December. Then, I developed a cough in mid-January.

It was pretty bad and it was getting worse every day; I am still coughing terribly. I try not to freak out, but I was pretty freaked out. My husband took me to the Mayo Clinic and announced that there "is cancer in her [expletive deleted] lungs!!!" He likes to take a positive attitude.

Turns out, I have pneumonia. No big deal. Ha! Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it? I screamed "kick ass!" into the phone when the receptionist called with the results. She is probably still freaked out about the girl who was so happy to have pneumonia. So that's where I've been.

I planned on writing a great search engine tip today, but I stopped halfway through and deleted it. There are two techniques that I use that I find to be extremely effective and I've never written about them here. I do have one or two SEO clients per month (strictly word of mouth), and I use these techniques for them.

But I'm not stingy! The problem is that I hold a number one position (Google) for a very important search phrase, using one of these two techniques.

As I was typing this, I thought: What if the nine mortgage brokers beneath me-- for this particular phrase-- read my blog? What if I go ahead and help someone who ends up knocking me down a few Google pegs?

I wonder what y'all think about this idea? Is it smart for mortgage brokers or Realtors to write about their best SEO techniques when their competition could be reading and learning? Would that be some cruel irony?

Yes, that's a picture of Billy Mumy. I don't know why I put it up. Probably because I love Lost in Space. Why isn't Lost in Space on T.V. anymore? And don't you dare say it's no good...

Title Your Pages for Google Success! ~ Part 2

Arizona Home Loan — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:10:24 -0600

Good afternoon! First of all, (in case the title didn't give it away), this is a continuation from an earlier post: Title Your Pages for Google Success ~ Part 1. These posts are about titling your "main site"- not your ActiveRain site.

Sorry that it's been a while since I've posted. For my regular readers, you probably will remember that I am currently going through chemotherapy and it's really been draining. I get it every single Friday... Today is Thursday, so I figured I would finish this post before I go in tomorrow. See how important my fellow ActiveRainers are? You lucky devils.

Just a quick wrap-up from the last post on Page Titles:

1. Lead with your strongest phrase. If you want to be number one for "Arizona Mortgage", then your page title should start with the words Arizona Mortgage, not "Welcome to my website."

2. Don't put your name in your page title. You are essentially diluting your title with words that could be keywords. Your name just isn't important enough to be on your main page title. (Sorry.)

And we continue:

When you name your pages, think about phrases. Think about phrases that people are searching for and put them in whole, in your title. Don't just jam a bunch of keywords in your title. It doesn't work.

For example, here is a decent page title:

Oakland County Real Estate >> Troy MI Real Estate

That's pretty much it. If you primarily did business in Troy, MI-- this would be a great page title. You've got two phrases that people search for and they are complete and non-fragmented.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: "Sure, my main office is in Troy, but I also service Sterling Heights, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield, and Auburn Hills!"

So many Realtors make this mistake when titling their pages:

* Troy Real Estate, Birmingham, Sterling Heights, Auburn Hills, Bloomfield Homes For Sale, Houses *

Huh? For those of you that aren't from Oakland County MI, you would probably pass over this title yourself-- not knowing what any of it means. Google is the same way. It's a mess!

That is a very convoluted title, yet so many of us do it. We want to grab every city we can and then jumble it on our main index page...and that only serves to make the page appear as a "jack-of-all-trades and a master of NONE."

Let's say I search for "Birmingham MI Real Estate". You would hope to attract the person that is searching for this phrase right? But where-- in our title-- is "Birmingham Real Estate"?

Nowhere. We've got the word "Birmingham", but it's all by itself. Google would rather deliver a page that is very clearly about Birmingham MI Real Estate. The title we used

* Troy Real Estate, Birmingham, Sterling Heights, Auburn Hills, Bloomfield Homes For Sale, Houses *

The title above might attract Google for the phrase "Troy Real Estate", but probably not. There is somebody else out there whose title simply concentrates on Troy. You see?

(In fact, I just did a search-- after I wrote what I wrote above-- and the first three results in Google only mention Troy Real Estate in their title-- not six cities like so many of us do.)

So how should you title your pages?

Pick a main phrase to lead off all of your page titles. Something like "Oakland County Real Estate" or maybe "Michigan Real Estate."

Then, title your main page like so:

Michigan Real Estate >> Troy MI Real Estate and Homes For Sale

(By the way, that's about the longest title you would ever want. Keep it concise.)

Now, create another page for Birmingham and title it like this:

Michigan Real Estate >> Birmingham MI Real Estate

...and so on and so on.

You do NOT have to jam everything into your main title. Keep it short and sweet. Don't believe me? Here is a great example.

Here is a search for Arizona Mortgage. You will see that I am number two right now with AZWM.com

I only mention Arizona in my title. I don't mention the other states I am licensed in.

Now here is a search for Colorado Mortgage. My site has a page-- dedicated to Colorado-- and that shows up number three in Google.

So if I can use one site (www.azwm.com) to attract Google for multiple states, you can do it for multiple cities, using my technique. Make each page in your site clearly and distinctively about one city and you will do far, far better than trying to jam 10 cities onto your main page. That's confusing to people and to Google.

Good luck!

P.S.-- The best way to learn how Google works is to conduct lots of searches. I recommend that you click on both of my searches above, so you can see my Arizona and Colorado results and how I titled those pages.

Title Your Pages for Google Success! ~ Part 1

Arizona Home Loan — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 19:04:42 -0600

I have written about page titles before, but I really think I need to do it again, and this time, be a little more detailed in how I explain it. Many people missed my "titling" post the first time around, or just did not understand fully.

This article will be about titling the pages on your main website (not your ActiveRain blog). And just to be sure everyone knows, the page title is the thing that shows up in the blue bar at the top of your browser window.

This post should help you move upwards in Google right away; no joke! All you have to do is to really try and understand the common sense in what I will try and convey. Wait for that "Ah ha!"moment- and then go!

As usual, I am not going to try and outsmart Google, but only help Google understand what my site is about, so that Google can deliver quality information to Google's users.

Now really think about that. We all use Google because it does, in fact, deliver quality information to us. So let us help Google to understand our pages better, so Google knows that it can turn to us when it needs to deliver a site regarding Boise real estate, for example.

1. Absolutely, positively lead with your strongest search term- 3 to 5 words. That means that if you want to be known for Mercer County Real Estate, then "Mercer County Real Estate" should be the first four words of your main page title, period. Make your intent crystal clear.

Does this not make perfect sense? Here is a page title with a bad lead-in:

Welcome to Karen George's Website! Your Home for Phoenix Arizona Real Estate.

As a human being, when I look at a couple of sentences, used as a title, I feel the first group of words are the most important and so does Google. Like "Coca-Cola, it's the real thing" or "Burger King, we do it your way." So lead in hard. In the above example, the last four words of the title actually should have been the first four words.

2. In fact, while it's on my mind: Don't put your name in your page title at all. There is no need for your name to be in your main page's title-- absolutely no reason whatsoever. If you want to be sure that people can find you in Google, using your name as a search term, then you can have a "contact me" page and have your name in THAT title. But for heaven's sake, not on your main page. Not when you only have a few words to describe and target your desired market segment.

Your index page-- the main page that people land on when they visit-- is supposed to tell us what your site is all about... You've only got a few words, so use only the most powerful words you can find for your purpose.

Click this link...it will open in a new window. Here is a search for an Arizona Mortgage. AZWM.com is my website. It should be the first result in Google, (unless something has changed since I wrote this). Now please notice my page title starts with my strong phrase-- Arizona Mortgage.

Notice I don't put my name (Karen George) in there at all. If you are worried that people are searching for you and won't be able to find you: Let me put your fears to rest. Here is a search for Karen George Arizona, and I take the first four positions. And, of course, my name isn't in any of the page titles that are shown in the results. If you put your name in your main page title, you are taking two valuable words and throwing them in the toilet.

If your title is 8 words, and two of the words are your first and last names, then 25% of your title (2 of 8 words) does not promote your business at all. What a waste!

Notice that my title (on azwm.com) is only 6 words long-- short and to the point.

So far, we've covered a strong lead-in and taking your name out of the page title.

In the next installment, I will cover two more strong titling points. Wouldn't you love to be number one for Michigan Realtor and then also number one for the 7 or 8 cities in your county also? It can be done. I will show you how. Stay tuned!

I am So Important!

Arizona Home Loan — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:37:19 -0600

Look at this email I received today. Does anybody ever respond to these things...ever? I just can't imagine. I get about 5 or 6 of these per day. This guy was actually smart enough to put "Att. Karen George" in his email. Most of them just ask that I trust them- even though they don't know my name.

Most of these scammers come from Nigeria, for whatever reason. Here's a neat site devoted to all of these ridiculous spam-scams that we all get in the mail: Scam-o-Rama

And if you want to get a laugh, here's the one I got through my ActiveRain profile today. That's a first!

From: Col. Gaba Lajaja,
Director, Directorate of Military
Intelligent.(D.M.I)

Att: Karen George,

I start by introducing my good self, I am Col.
Gaba Lajaja the Director, Directorate of Military Intelligent.
(D.M.I.) I got your contact information through a very good friend
of mine (Business Tycoon) who told me of your good reputation.

However, I did not disclose any thing about
what I want to do with you. In view of his
recommendation, I decided to contact you via
email for a mutual and long lasting
relationship I will want this deal that am
about to disclose to you to be kept absolutely
secret. In my Department in the Nigerian Army,
the Federal Government allocated to my
department some amount of money amounting
USD87million for the purchase of some military
equipment, computers and other logistics, but
as the Director/Head of the Department I want
to use this great opportunity to cut out some
amount of money worth USD17million to be
transferred into your company or your personal
account. I hope you understand my point. I
decided to use your account so that it can not
be traced after my retirement.

Meanwhile, the above funds USD17million is
already audited and signed out as used fund
for the purpose it was meant for.
For your involvement in this DEAL I have
mapped out 20% percent of the total sum for
you I will give you other detailed information
on how we will go about the transaction.
Please reply to indicate your interest. For
Confidentiality please contact me on my
personal email address:

Awaiting your prompt response.

Yours Faithfully,

Col. Gaba Lajaja.
Director of D.M.I
Apapa,Lagos

Are You a Cannibal? Cannibalism in Online Marketing

Arizona Home Loan — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:20:22 -0600

Do You Own More Than One Website? (ActiveRain doesn't count.)

Yes? Then this is for you!

Okay, a little marketing 101 to start off: When Crest decides that they want a larger market share of the toothpaste market, they try and come up with a new product to attract additional market share.

So they come up with Crest Tartar-Control. Personally, I think this is the dumbest thing in the world, because... Well, why in the heck would anybody want to buy regular Crest when there is a tartar-control version available right next to it? Do some people want tartar? It's stupefying when you think about it.

So Crest doesn't get any additional market share; instead, they cannibalize their own brand. That is to say, they spend a bunch of money trying to get new buyers, and meanwhile, all they succeeded in doing was getting some people to switch from regular Crest. Tartar -control Crest is a cannibal.

From Answers.com: In marketing, cannibalization refers to a reduction in the sales volume, sales revenue, or market share of one product as a result of the introduction of a new product by the same producer.

How This Applies To Realtors with Multiple Sites:

Although everything about the Google algorithm is "secret", most search engine experts agree that Google looks at who owns a site and where it is hosted on this big blue marble.

Makes sense, right?

So again, when Google indexes your page, they also index the name of the page owner and the domain host's I.P. address, using a service called WhoIs.

If you visit WhoIs.net you can put in your own website address and see your name, address, probably your home phone number... All kinds of neat stuff. Try it on any domain you'd like. You can get the email address of the big cheese in charge, direct phone numbers, even the name of their hosting company.

So, if you have 4 sites about Orange County Real Estate, all registered to you, and all hosted by the same company (which means it is extremely probable that all of your sites have the same host IP address) --- do you really think Google doesn't know this?

If you have 4 sites about Denver Real Estate and all are registered by the same guy or gal and hosted with the same hosting company, you will not do as well in Google if you just had one super-site. After all, you know you need unique content for each site... So you must be dividing your energies, right?

Remember: The Google algorithm is far too sophisticated to be outsmarted by even the smartest Realtor or mortgage broker.

1. If you have multiple domain names, register them under different names. Not fake names. Just "give them away" to all of your (married) sisters. It will keep you from being identified as a search engine spammer.

2. Host each domain name with a different company. This will mean that you will have four websites-- all with different IP addresses. Do you really think Google is impressed that there are 5 Phoenix mortgage websites, all hosted with a Phoenix company (goDaddy.com), all registered with GoDaddy.com and all owned by the same guy? That is a great way to be identified as a black-hatter.

3. But the best advice of all: Retire all but your best website. Keep a blog on ActiveRain and have one website under your name, about a particular topic, in the Google index. I only have one site: www.azwm.com and the last time I checked, I was number one for Arizona mortgage in Google. I don't have more than one website for National Wholesale Mortgage.

I hope this makes sense. Any questions?

October Is Over and I am Sad

Arizona Home Loan — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:35:39 -0500

Let me apologize in advance to my friends in Denver, CO-- but I was rooting for the Sox this time, just like I was in 2004. I just love those Red Sox!

I won't go on and on and on about them... But- come on!- what was with that crazy look that Kevin Youkilis displayed every time he stepped up to the plate? He looked like a madman possessed. It was a riveting offense. Manny Ramirez, in all his enormity, looked like he was having beers while waiting to step up. Just totally relaxed and totally confident.

In game one, Colorado's starting pitcher, Jeff Francis... Well, I actually felt bad for the guy-- and I'm not being condescending. The close-ups on his face showed all of the stress (and sweat) of pitching to the baseball heroes that he knew he was pitching to.

I think the Rockies were just plain shocked and scared into losing. The weathered veterans from Boston made those rook Colorado pitchers crack up-- right there in front of God and everyone else. It was a meltdown. But you know what? The Rockies are a classy bunch of guys and before the sweep, I actually thought this was going to be a 6 or 7 game series. I thought the Sox would win, but I'll admit right now: Never in four, I thought.

Anyway, I could gush about the boys of summer all day long, but that probably isn't appropriate. I feel like it's in the same class as "politics." Don't discuss baseball with just anybody. I realize some people hate the Sox and actually like the Yankees, so (now that I wrote almost everything I wanted to write), I'll move on.

Thinking about baseball today, actually wishing that Colorado had stopped the bleeding so I could watch more baseball...I decided to see if there were any good baseball-to-real estate analogies on ActiveRain. Or baseball-to-anything analogies. Come to think of it, they don't even have to be analogies. Just good articles about baseball on ActiveRain. How's that?

If I missed anyone, you have my apologies.

Chicago Cubs and Active Rain: Great little lesson about the importance of blogging about things other than real estate at times. The importance of being yourself. Short read; good lesson.

Joke - Baseball Heaven?: Is there baseball in heaven? There must be! A little joke...

Baseball Rules!: Here is one of those analogies I was looking for. Mona Lisa Matthews compares baseball to being a Realtor and life in general.

Real Estate and Baseball - Are you in the game?: An all-around well-done post. I think her best point is "Build It And They Will Come," but that's just one excellent point among many.

Clearwater, Florida ~ Home to Baseball with a Bite: My friend Cyndee Haydon writes about her Clearwater, Florida farm team. I realize that this seems to apply only to Clearwater, FL-- but not quite. I wanted to include something about farm teams, because they are a great way to get cheap advertising. Look into it; you'll be glad you did.

Coming soon: My experience with sponsoring a Little League team in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Do Not Click Here Please: PRIVATE POST

Arizona Home Loan — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:59:22 -0500

If you clicked on this post, than I can only assume that you are a member of my super-secret club. Clearly, those who are not in my club should know better than to have clicked their way here. Shame! The title clearly indicates that you were not supposed to click here.

No, I haven't lost my mind and of course-- I hate to admit this-- but there is no super-secret club. (So don't feel bad if you didn't get an invitation.)

Clicks and Views

When you are logged in and at your "Home" on ActiveRain, you will notice a link on the bottom-left side of the page entitled "Statistics."

If you've explored there before, you would have seen all of your posts listed-- from most recent to oldest-- matched with the number of comments from your guests on each post, the "Views", and the "Clicks".

The "Views" column displays how many times your article was seen as a link, attached with your photo. Like, you viewed my article link-- Do Not Click Here Please-- and then, being very naughty, you clicked it. So for your visit here, I scored one view and one click. In a perfect world, everybody that viewed your post would also click it, and you would have an equal number of Views and Clicks.

So does everybody understand that "views" are not views of your article? I didn't know that when I first signed on. I had to email ActiveRain and ask for an explanation, so if you are anything like me...there you go.

Views and Clicks can tell you a story.

If you stare at those statistics long enough you should see a pattern. The better your title, the better your view-to-click ratio. For the mortgage brokers reading, you can call it the VTC Ratio. (We mortgage brokers love our acronyms.)

For example, one of my badly titled posts is The Importance of Privatization. What does that mean anyway? It's such a terrible title.

Side bar: It's actually a really useful post. If you have more than one website (ActiveRain does not count), you really should read that post.

But I digress, the title stinks. So I had 1221 views and 252 clicks.

Only 20.6% of the people that saw it chose to click it; again, because the title stinks. Did I mention the title?

Yesterday, I wrote a post entitled I Did A Bad Thing Today. Much better title, yes? Everyone wants to read this-- my good friends and people who don't normally read me at all. Something juicy maybe. What bad thing did she do? People want to know! So far, that post has had 1190 views and 850 clicks. So 71.4% of the people that viewed it, clicked it. It helps that it was featured, but I suspect I would have had a better-than-average ratio on this one anyway.

Look carefully at your statistics and look at what your best titles are. The title really is everything. Once you suck 'em in with a good title, maybe they will subscribe to your blog- and that's a good thing. (For newbies, the "subscribe" button on ActiveRain is on the top right side of the blog, above the bloggers picture.)

I can't wait to see what the percentage of clicks on this title will be!

By the way, Jason Crouch wrote a post with a very similar title recently. Honestly, I did not see it previous to titling this post! Here is a link to Jason's post: Please Don't Read This Post! He is an excellent writer and a great guy.

I Did A Bad Thing Today

Arizona Home Loan — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:33:09 -0500

This morning, my husband Michael and I had breakfast at one of the local greasy spoons. At the booth next to ours, there were two teenagers. I was facing them, my husband had his back to them.

The one that was facing me wore very dark, but sporty, sunglasses the entire time he ate. Like typical teenagers, there was a lot of joking and carrying on while they ate breakfast.

Anyway, not that I consider myself a bastion of etiquette-- I found it rather rude that this "kid" would sit in a restaurant and eat with his sunglasses on.

Was he just being precocious? Was he stoned and trying to hide his red eyes? He sure was giggly enough.

I feel like manners are becoming less and less important as time goes on. This was just another example of a kid whose parents did not teach him to remove his sunglasses when at the dining table. Or so I thought.

The teenagers finished eating before we did and when the bill came, the one wearing the sunglasses finally removed them so he could see the bill clearly.

As it turns out the poor kid had one lazy eye. It was very conspicuous. He was wearing sunglasses out of shame or embarrassment or both. Bless his heart! (as they say in Atlanta) It was at that precise moment that I also realized that his "stoned giggling" was actually just a very engaging smile and likable laugh. All at once, I had a complete shift in my perception of this individual.

Tears came to my eyes, because I was ashamed of what I had felt prior to him removing his sunglasses. I judged the poor kid because of his appearance. I judged the proverbial book by it's cover. I was so ashamed; I felt just awful and still do. Isn't it hard enough to "fit in" as a teenager-- much less with a physical abnormality? That poor kid!

Meanwhile, when I was going through chemotherapy / radiation last year, I used to get so upset when people would stare at my bald head and, since I look far too young and healthy to have cancer, assumed that I was a "skinhead" or "punk"-- or member of whatever other group that the looky-loos didn't like. (For my regular readers-- yes, I am still going through chemo right now, but this particular drug doesn't cause hair loss.)

The reason I wrote this is because, in reality, we all know that we shouldn't judge people based on appearances. Most of us were taught this at a young age with the old "don't judge a book by it's cover" adage. Every once in a while though, we screw up...and I did it today. I write this in hopes that this will be just another example for people to file away in their brains; just another little anecdote to remind us to be kind to our fellow man.

Candace Robinson recently wrote a post about this same thing. She has a fantastic video from YouTube on her post as well. Check out: Find Your Courage, Challenge Your Fears!

I hope I never do what I did this morning again.

Become a Famous Realtor and Crush Your Competition

Arizona Home Loan — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:32:24 -0500

This is probably the best marketing tip I will ever post. In fact, I even hesitate to post it, because it's just so darn good...I wouldn't want my competition using it. Fortunately, this takes a lot of hard work and time, and I figure only one or two people who read this will actually do it.

Write a Book About Real Estate and advertise yourself as "the author of Winning Big with Arizona Real Estate." Of course, insert your own state in the title. Or make up a better title. You get the point!

It's really not as hard as it sounds. In fact, with all of the blogging going on here, if we just focus half of our energy on writing a 175 page book- you could be a published Real Estate author in no time at all. Don't believe me? Please keep reading.

When people are flipping through a Homes & Land or surfing the web, who do you think they will choose as their Realtor? The one that has some cool initials behind their name or the author of Winning Big with Arizona Real Estate?

I know what you are thinking, so let me try and convince you:

I don't think I can do this!

First of all, everyone has a book inside of them. It doesn't even have to be about real estate; although that would be ideal. As far as being a good writer-- nobody is really good at writing and that's why the greatest authors in the world use editors.

Find a Freelance Editor...

If you Google "freelance book editor", you will find people-- oftentimes published authors themselves-- that will go over your text with a fine toothed comb. He or she will fix any spelling or grammatical errors and turn your "rough draft" into a publishable manuscript. Here is a good editor that I've found -- her name is Laura Orsini.

How Can I Get Published?

I've read that for every book that is published, there are 10,000 that have been rejected. Stinks right? That's perfectly alright, because nowadays we can "self publish."

Once your manuscript is perfected, you can self-publish your book with great ease. You can find companies that will publish 10 copies of your book for about $6.50 per copy (here), or you can spend $1300 and get a full hardcover package from iUniverse.

Personally, I would go with iUniverse, because for $1300, they provide you with one hardcover copy (for yourself), twenty paperbacks, editorial services, cover design, distribution to Amazon.com, listing in Google book search, and a marketing tool kit. They put the little barcode on the back with the ISBN number and everything. Just because you paid to publish it, doesn't mean it's not a real book. It will be on Amazon.com for goodness sakes!

In all seriousness...

...you could work on your book for an hour per day. You will be able to write 175 pages (a good benchmark) in 6 months. Again, all it takes is your commitment.

You will crush other Realtors in your area, as you are the only one who is a published real estate author.

Think about it! Consider it. The time and money you put into this will be rewarded ten-fold.

The Process

Get a general idea of what you want to write about. Then, come up with about 10 - 12 chapters. Write them down and write a few paragraphs under each chapter heading- just to give yourself an idea of what that chapter will include. Each chapter should be 15 - 18 pages long.

Now plop down in front of the keyboard and start writing! If you need "filler" material, just quote other authors-- just be sure to credit him or her with endnotes or footnotes. You don't need anyone's permission to do this; you just need to properly credit the original author. Don't know how to footnote? That's okay, just have your editor do it.

Tell yourself that you will write one chapter per week (15 - 17 pages), and in 10 weeks, you are done!

Of course, this is a little more than an "hour per day" as I said earlier, but this is a feasible goal to set. Next, start marketing yourself as a Realtor and a published expert. It puts you so far above your competition, it's almost ridiculous. Offer a free copy of your book for anyone that get's prequalified for a mortgage...or whatever your requirements are. Just make sure you push the heck out of that book. Let potential clients know that they will be dealing directly with you, the author. I know I would call you.

Create Your Own Font! Win Friends, Impress Clients!

Arizona Home Loan — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:28:45 -0500

I just read a post by Jeff Turner a few minutes ago. While Jeff's writing is always good, the thing that really caught my eye was a graphic he created. (Digital photography and art is just one of Jeff's many talents.)

Anyway, Jeff had a graphic that had some printing on it and it really caught my eye, because it wasn't your standard "Times New Roman" or "Arial" font. Isn't everyone sick of reading the same old fonts day after day? (Like this blog-- "Arial"-- yuck.)

Jeff's font just looked like really cool handwriting. The picture of "Tom's Handwriting" above, is a messy version of a handwriting font, but you get the point.

Now, "handwriting fonts" are no big deal in and of themselves; they've been around for a while. I'm sure many of you have been tricked into opening junk mail because the front of the envelope appreared to be "hand addressed." In fact, a couple of years ago, I sent out about 5,000 letters to people that "needed to refinance" and I used a handwriting font on the front of the envelopes. I swear, all of the other mortgage brokers in Arizona stole my idea after that, but that's another story...

It was pretty effective and a neat experiment in direct mail technique. I had a much larger percentage of call-backs and sales conversions. If you would like to try using handwriting fonts for the purpose of marketing (or whatever), I would suggest Googling "free handwriting fonts" or maybe checking out this page:

http://www.free-fonts.com/handwriting_fonts.html

But I wanted to share a pretty neat custom font service with ActiveRainers. I think this is just super neat and super cheap at only-- get this-- Nine Bucks! ($9.00 US) This is really the way to go as far as handwriting fonts go-- your very own!

Visit Fontifier.com right now. (No, I have no business interest and I don't think they could afford to pay a commission for only $9 per customer.)

1. Print out the Fontifier template sheet.

2. Write all of your characters on the template.

3. Scan the template and upload it.

4. Preview your font online and buy it for only $9.00!

5. Now download your font, put it in your "fonts" folder and it will be ready for use by Microsoft Word (or any other program). Your very own handwriting as a choice in your fonts pull-down menu!

If you are like me and send out 1000 holiday cards every year, this makes your cards look so much more personal than "Times New Roman" and a postage meter.

Oh yeah-- regarding postage meters-- I would combine your personalized handwriting font with a genuine, old-fashioned stamp as well. Makes all the difference in the world when seperating junk mail from the good stuff.

Good luck!

A Must-Read for Microsoft Outlook Users

Arizona Home Loan — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:07:42 -0500

This is a particularly embarassing post for me to write. I should have known better. I can't believe the mess I am in.

I went to business school; my major was Management Information Systems or M.I.S. This is your basic business management degree, with a whole bunch of business-related computer courses thrown in. In other words, I can't write video game code, but I can manage a business using computers to full efficiency. At least, that's what I am supposed to be qualified for.

So that's why this post is particularly embarassing.

This is a post about backing things up. Most of you are going to roll your eyes at this point and think-- rightfully so-- that backing up data is about as basic as you can possibly get.

Well, I back-up all of my client files regularly. I have all of my mortgage loans stored on my own C-drive and then backed up to two separate hard drives. I am absolutely anal-retentive about backing important data up. As I mentioned, I have three copies of everything in my business database.

However, I completely neglected my...uh..."unimportant data."

Earlier this week, I was having some problems with my computer and...make a long story short...I dropped my hard drive on the floor, from about 5 feet up. In short, the hard drive is now unreadable. (Yes, I did take it to a data recovery place; no luck.)

Did I lose business data? Or loan files? Or personal tax returns? Nah! I backed all that stuff up.

What I did lose, was hundreds of emails, emailed receipts, my address book and basically-- everything that was in my Outlook program. I never thought about backing up my inbox, with those hundreds of emails that I keep. So I didn't lose any "important" business-type data, but people that emailed me a few days ago are never going to get a response.

Also, I regularly use the "search" function in Outlook to find an email that is buried or maybe in my "deleted items" folder. I just didn't realize how reliant I was on Outlook. I really screwed myself with this.

If you don't use Microsoft Outlook, I would suggest Googling your own email program to find out how to do this, and I would do it fairly often. I have never had a C: drive completely fail before, but clearly it can happen and especially if you drop it. Ugh.

How To Back Up Every Email and Contact in Outlook:

Outlook stores all of it's data in a .pst file, which stands for "personal file folder." I don't know why you need to know that, but there you go.

1. On the File menu, click "Import And Export".

2. Click Export To File, and then click Next.

3. Choose Personal Folder File (.pst) , and then click Next.

4. Click the folder that you want to export the .pst file to, and then click Next.

5. Click the Browse button, and then select the location to save the .pst file. (I always save back-up files like this in very obvious places, like "My Documents."

6. In the File Name box, type a descriptive file name for the .pst file, and then click "OK". (I would humbly suggest that if you are backing up today- for example- you title the file something like Outlook_Backup_10_05_07.pst That way, if you collect a few of these over time, you can easily see which one is your most recent.)

7. Click Finish and then save a duplicate copy of your PST file somewhere. CD's are so cheap nowadays, it'd probably be worth burning a CD once a week.

That's it. It's so simple and so obvious. I just know that most of us aren't very diligent about backing up our email, but if you were exchanging emails with a brand new client just a couple of days ago...and you lost your hard drive today, you might be in trouble. Just like I am. I'm backing up my email every day from now on. I can spare the 2 minutes.

If you use Outlook Express, rather than plain old Outlook, here is an article about backing up O.E.

Think you have Health Insurance? Think Again.

Arizona Home Loan — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:10:48 -0500

My good friends on ActiveRain have privately (via email) asked me to post an update on my current battle with Stage IV breast cancer...and where I am at with that.

To tell everybody the truth, I feel bad using ActiveRain to post about this topic-- not because I feel that this forum should be about "real estate only" as some do-- but because I have another blog on this subject.

Because I planned on posting once on this topic, which I did, and asked people to visit my other blog at http://www.fighting-breast-cancer.com/ I didn't really want this to take the place of my marketing-related posts here on ActiveRain.

(By the way, my other blog just became number one in Google for the phrase "fighting breast cancer", and on page one for several other phrases I was targeting. I am getting thousands of hits! Thank you!)

However, I figured I would share a little story that will apply to everyone, whether you care less about my fight with breast cancer or not. It's about medical insurance and how I'm convinced that the Devil runs my own insurance company. (Which through the National Association for Self Employed Insurance [NASE] and it's called MegaLife, underwritten by CCN. Just for the record.)

As some of you know, ActiveRainers, who heard about my plight with medical bills and insurance problems have been trying to raise money to help me with medical bills that are absolutely extraordinary. Check out Paula Henry's wonderful post, for one. (She lists more on her site.) Jay Thomas, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy ... What wonderful, caring people ActiveRainers are! George Tallabus, Desiree Daniels, Frank Rubi, Chris Griffith...I can go on and on. Again, I thank you all!

But yesterday (Sept. 25) I got some good news and some terrible news all in the same day.

First of all, for my friends, the good news: They thought that I may have brain cancer (again), so I got an MRI yesterday. I had some symptoms that could indicate a brain lesion and last October, I had 9 tumors in my brain. So they've been on the lookout for that. Anyway, yesterday, the doctor said the results were "amazing" and "fantastic" and he doesn't feel the need to scan me every two months anymore. He said he'll see my in four months, just to be safe. He said he is almost certain my brain has been "sterilized" from cancer with radiation.

So that's the good news!

Of course, I am still going through chemo right now for the cancer I have in my lungs. I have four rounds under my belt and four to go- every Friday.

Okay, I promised that this post would be useful to all readers, not just my friends. So here's the bad news, and it applies to every single person on ActiveRain.

Chemotherapy ranges in price from $5,000 per treatment (injection) to $20,000.

The chemo I get right now costs $6,000 per shot. Since I need 8 rounds, it costs $48,000...this time.

Well check this out! Has anyone ever heard of a maximum allowable lifetime benefit? From what I learned yesterday, my insurance policy has a "maximum allowable lifetime chemotherapy benefit" of $150,000. Sounds good, right? Or maybe you have no idea? Like me...

The first time I battled cancer, 2 and a half years ago, I got 8 rounds of the expensive stuff at $17,500 a pop. Eight rounds multiplied by $17.5K is $140,000.

I didn't even know it then, but I had already used up 93% of my "total lifetime chemotherapy benefit" back in 2005. Ugh!

From now on, including the $48,000 that I need to come up with for my current round of treatment, I will be paying for all chemotherapy from my own pocket. Ain't that something!

Please believe me when I say that I am not looking for sympathy or money (George and Desiree)-- but I hope that everyone of you will take a look at your health insurance policies and examine your "lifetime allowable benefit" for every disease or problem you could potentially face.

Use me as an example. $150,000 is not an acceptable "lifetime allowable maximum" if you have cancer or M.S. or God forbid, anything else that requires expensive treatment.

Call your agent and have them raise those benefits with a "rider" if they don't look acceptible to you. I write this because this is not something that any of us ever tend to think about.

What is your maximum allowable chemotherapy benefit? You have no idea, right? Furthermore, do you know how much chemo costs?

Please, please take my advice and look into your maximums. If they seem too low-- fix them. It's worth the extra $20 per month for the "rider." And take care of yourselves for goodness sakes!

GeoZoodle.com Widgets: What Is My I.P. Address?

Arizona Home Loan — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:01:00 -0500

Your Browser is incompatible to view this image. Sorry!

As some of you know, I've been working on a I.P-based, geo-targeted advertising system. Once it actually works 100%, I will launch the site http://www.geozoodle.com/. Currently, I am looking at a conservative launch date of January 1st, but I could be done as soon as next week.

This post is pretty technical, and I really don't expect anyone to read it, unless you are interested in my GeoZoodle widgets (like the one at the top of this post). If you are a technical-type person, you'll probably enjoy this post. For everyone else, expect your eyes to glaze over very soon.

Right now, there is nothing at GeoZoodle. I figure why launch the site, if it isn't working 100% correctly?

However, I did know that it was working about 95% correctly, so I offered some "widgets" to ActiveRainers. Primarily, that welcome mat that you see on the right side of my blog. You can still get the code to the Welcome Mat if you simply email widget3@geozoodle.com (don't worry about sending a message; you'll get an auto-reply).

It's pretty cool if you are in the 95% who see the proper state displayed on the mat.

However, I've received about 5 emails from people for whom GeoZoodle doesn't "work". Or, in other words, it doesn't display the proper city or state. Many of you have expressed concerns that there may be something wrong with your computer.

There is nothing wrong with your computer. And for my cowardly detractors (who bad-mouth me in other forums), there is nothing wrong with my code. I would think, before speaking in ignorance about me, you would know how to program in PHP yourself and had an understanding of this. If you had an understanding, you would know that there is no bug and the site "works" just fine.

The code is short, simple and 100% bug free.

So why doesn't the GeoZoodle widget work for some of you? Are some of you seeing the wrong state at the top of this post? Or maybe on my right-side welcome mat?

--- This next part is pretty boring; if you are happy with your widget, you probably don't want to bother. ---

Just to set your minds at ease, here is how GeoZoodle (or any online geographic targeting system works):

First, I get your I.P. address as soon as you visit this page. It's very simple to do; it's literally only one line of code. Just Google "code for get I.P" or something and you can see it for yourself.

Next, there is a database stored on GeoZoodle. This is not a database that I created, but one that I purchased from a well-known data provider. Picture the database as an Excel Spreadsheet...an enormous Excel spreadsheet that contains over 3,000,000 rows.

Once I get your I.P., I take the "dots" out, so that I can make it into a real number. For those of you that know what an I.P looks like, it's not a "real" number... Aw heck, I'll just show you your I.P. address; it's so simple. This is your very own, unique-to-your-computer I.P. address:

Your Browser is incompatible to view this image. Sorry!

Now, with one simple line of code, I remove the "dots" in your I.P. In this database (again, picture an enormous Excel Spreadsheet), it has rows and rows of data. A row of data looks like this:

[start IP] [end IP] [city] [state_or_region] [country] [zip_code]

So, once I have your I.P., I just issue a command to the database that looks something like this:

Select the row of data, where my user's IP address lands between "start IP" and "end IP". Now, display the user's city and state based on the "row" it finds with the I.P.

So the million dollar question: Why doesn't GeoZoodle work properly for some users?

Simply put: Because creating a database that contains every city in the entire world is an arduous task, at best. The data mining company that I purchased the database from is updating it each and every day. For the rest of my life, I will get monthly updates to the database, which means GeoZoodle will become more and more accurate each month.

However, I am not that patient. I am currently working on a method to update the database myself. (This is actually more complex than it sounds.) I don't intend to wait around for the database company to slowly update it. They could be working on I.P. addresses in Vietnam right now, for all I know. (Remember, this is a world-wide database.)

For those of you that want GeoZoodle widgets and real estate solutions for your site, know that this will be working very, very soon. I have some phenomenal ideas to help agents and loan officers and I will unveil the finished product no later than the first of the new year.

Thanks for reading this post! I hope you are still awake!

Stop Identity Theft Cold: Freeze Your Credit

Arizona Home Loan — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:20:09 -0500

There was an article about "stopping identity theft" in the latest issue of Newsweek. As much as I work with credit reports as a mortgage broker, I was not aware that you could do this.

Freeze your credit.

Freezing your credit report is relatively new. In fact, you can only do it in 39 states right now, plus the District of Columbia. To find out if your state participates (and what the procedures for your particular state are) visit Consumers Union.

In a nutshell: you simply "freeze" your credit so that identity thieves can not open new credit in your name. Until you lift the freeze, nobody-- not even you-- can file for new credit with your social security number.

This would be ideal for me.

1.) I have no intention of messing with my mortgage right now or anytime soon. I have a good, fixed interest rate and I have no plan to refinance right now.

2.) I have all of the credit cards that I could need. In fact, I have way too many credit cards.

3.) We (my husband and I) still owe about 1 - 2 years of payments on each of our cars. Once those are paid off, we plan on driving them to the ground. (Neither my husband nor myself have "car egos".)

4.) In addition to what was stated above, I just realized I haven't applied for any new credit in over a year. I haven't been using my credit at all. What if somebody else had wanted to? I probably wouldn't have noticed for a while! They would have already purchased the dirt bike and left town; I would be several months late before they tracked me down!

You can "unfreeze" any time you want. I think it would benefit anybody (who isn't currently seeking a loan or lease) to freeze their credit report while it sits, unused. Stop identity thieves cold! (Yes, pun intended.)

The freeze will not change your credit score.

Do you have enough credit cards at this time? No plans to refinance or buy a car for a while? Gail Hillebrand of Consumers Union recommends that every consumer considers this option. Again, here is the link...go for it:

http://www.consumersunion.org/securityfreeze.htm

Geographically Target Marketing for Clients - and a Great New Widget

Arizona Home Loan — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:32:25 -0500

Today, I want to talk about-- what I think-- is going to be huge in the next few years. It's called "Geo-Targeted Marketing." You might as well get on the bandwagon now, before your competition does.

The "Geo" is short for Geography of course, and we can "target" our clients based on their I.P. address. (In case any of you don't know what an I.P. address is: It is basically an address specific to your own computer, like your computer's serial number on the web.)

Anyway, I have an idea for Realtors and Mortgage Companies and Home Stagers and whomever else would like something like this.

What if you had a message that displayed on your website, and this message greeted people no matter where they come from?

For example, if people visited your Boise Idaho Real Estate site and they were from Idaho, you could display a message that states:

Welcome Idahoans!

But if that person is not from Idaho, you could say:

Welcome Michigander! We are your Idaho Relocation Specialists.

Don't you think that would get people's attention?

Well, I've develped a little system that is about 70% accurate with cities (nothing I can do about that- long story) and about 95% accurate with states or provinces...and of course, 100% accurate with countries. With time, it will become more accurate. This is fairly new technology (and I am jumping all over it).

Do you see that little "welcome mat" widget on the side of my blog? It should have your state name on it. Here it is again:

Would you like it? No problem, free of charge to all ActiveRainers, of course. If you want the code, just send an email to widget3@geozoodle.com. It's an automated account, so don't worry about subject or typing a message; no human is going to read your email.

When you get the code, if you want the widget to appear on your sidebar, just follow these instructions:

1. Go to your ActiveRain "home".

2. Click on "My Settings"

3. A new page will open and you will see a couple of text boxes, paste the code you recieve right at the top of the text box that is called "Blog Description."

4. Enjoy.

Here's another one that is 468 X 90, which is the shape of your standard banner ad:

Of course, this won't work in your sidebar, it's too wide. You could put in on your actual website though, just like a banner ad. Or you could put it at the top of your blog posts...

If you want the code for the "banner style" Geo-Widget, free of charge of course, just email kog@kogmarketing.com

To put in in a post:

1. Type your post and save it. Make sure you are finished and you don't need to update your blog or edit it again for any reason. Final draft people.

2. After it's saved, click edit.

3. Now click the "HTML" tab at the top of your post and copy and paste the code you recieve right at the top of your post.

That's it!

For those of you that want custom solutions, the sky is pretty much the limit. Please contact me via my ActiveRain contact form if you are interested in something less generic and custom tailored to your personal needs. Thank you and enjoy!

Welcoming Visitors to Your Site and Keeping Them There

Arizona Home Loan — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:29:07 -0500

Widget Temporarily Unavailable. Sorry.

What do you think about that, eh? Pretty neat?

Getting people to visit your site often means very little. You've got to "wow" them. Oftentimes- and this is unfortunate- web surfers go from page to page to page, until they find one that strikes them as "professional" enough. Really, I don't know what people are looking for exactly...but I do know that once they arrive at my site, I want them to feel welcome and be impressed.

Now, don't you think that the welcome mat above would get your visitor's attention? If people visited your real estate site and they saw a welcome mat that showed their current city and state, don't you think they might want to stick around?

[ Disclaimer: If you are reading this from a work computer, there is a possibility that the city and MAYBE even the state is incorrect. This is because corporate offices often go through a "proxy server" to protect it's machines from viruses. If your office is using a proxy server, you may see the wrong city and state above. ]

As my regular readers know, I've been feeling a little under the weather lately, but before I became sick a few months back, I was working on a new site called GeoZoodle. You don't have to visit GeoZoodle, because there is nothing there right now. However, I intend on making several free "widgets" such as the welcome mat above. Maybe something to put in the column alongside your blog? Over there? ------------>

I would like to know what ActiveRainers think about this.

Imagine a picture of your face, with a "talk" bubble coming out.

It could show the Realtor (on his or her website) welcoming visitors from cities...

I could write some custom code for individual Realtors (mortgage companies, whatever) that pertained to your specific business...

Let's say I did this for a Colorado real estate company. We could do something like this:

--------------

If the visitor is from Colorado, then display,

Welcome to our friends from CITY, Colorado!

If the visitor is from any other state, then display,

Thinking of relocating from VISITOR'S_STATE ? We are your Colorado Relocation Experts!

-------------

Do you see what I mean? The best type of marketing is "target marketing"-- no matter if you use television, print, radio, or the internet. Stay tuned for more on this target-marketing concept. Please feel free to leave suggestions and comments. I will consider all comments and hopefully build something that every ActiveRainer can use.