August isn't even here yet.  I wrote about periodic traffic behavior a few days ago and used August Horoscopes as an example.  Since then, the traffic has continued to grow wildly.  If you take a look down below you can compare the traffic graph from that day to the one from today and see that this monthly pattern is growing each month and now that it has been recognized, it can be planned for.  Watch for seasonal patterns in your business and add them to your long term calendar so you can plan for them a month of two in advance.

Is anybody interested in the August 2008 Horoscopes? This has been incredibly popular for the last couple of days on East Valley Living

August Horoscopes

Even if you don't care at all about Horoscopes, Astrology or the Zodiac, you should still pay attention to this post because of the implications that "periodic phenomenon" have on what you do care about, the real estate, mortgage and title businesses that you are running and working in.

It appears that near the beginning of the month, the people who are looking for their horoscope for the next month begin to search. 2008 August Horoscopes are up in the Astrology section at the Phoenix Arizona News Site

 

Compare this graph to the one two posts below.

 

My friend Anders Berg signed up on Active Rain recently and I thought he would be posting articles about how his company Swedeclean could help you clean out your vacant rentals and get them ready for the next tenant to move in, care and cleaning of your tile and grout, and other things related to his business and yours. I bugged him for quite a while to post something and today I got a note from him saying he had finally posted a blog article.

I went to see what sage advice he had written about carpet maintenance or getting crayon off of walls and much to my surprise, this is what he had to say for his first post - Please welcome him to Active Rain.

Thank you,

Ahwatukee's best kept secret

Is anybody interested in the August 2008 Horoscopes? This has been incredibly popular for the last couple of days on East Valley Living

August Horoscopes

Even if you don't care at all about Horoscopes, Astrology or the Zodiac, you should still pay attention to this post because of the implications that "periodic phenomenon" have on what you do care about, the real estate, mortgage and title businesses that you are running and working in.

It appears that near the beginning of the month, the people who are looking for their horoscope for the next month begin to search. 2008 August Horoscopes are up in the Astrology section at the Phoenix Arizona News Site

You can see that happening in this daily traffic graph.

 

There are lots of other topics that have this kind of periodic behavior. For the real estate business, think about things like housing reports, new home sales reports, resale market numbers, mortgage rates and other reports that come out periodically. If you are reporting on and blogging about those topics ahead of the reports being available, you may find that you get a flurry of activity right before and at the time when the numbers come out.

Read More August 2008 Horoscopes at

August Horoscopes

And read the June 2008 and July 2008 Horoscope are here:

July Horoscopes

June Horoscopes

Water Bottles for the Homeless Phoenix Area Hydration Stations Chandler, AZ — With temperatures over 100 degrees everyday it’s natural for us to carry water bottles. But what about the people who cannot buy water for themselves? Regardless of how they got into this position, many people are homeless and need assistance, especially during these hot summer months. The Salvation Army in Phoenix has created Hydration Stations to serve the area’s homeless population and ensure their access to cold water as the valley gets deeper into the summer months. Bill Austin

WaMu reported today that they lost $3.3 Billion in the second quarter of 2008.  They increased their loan loss reserves by almost $4 billion to $8.46 billion and expects 2008 to be "a peak year for provisionioning" meaning - they expect to lose a record amount on bad loans this year.  

Chief Executive Officer Kerry Killinger. "Our recent $7.2 billion capital raise, combined with the other proactive steps we have taken this quarter to strengthen our banking franchise and further expense reductions, continue to move us toward achieving these goals."

Killinger also said that the company now expects to realize annualized cost savings of approximately $1 billion which will contribute to improved pretax, pre-provision earnings. "We remain confident that we have sufficient capital to successfully manage our way through this challenging period," Killinger added.

 

This is a follow-up as requested to this article: WAMU Earnings

Carnival Of The Recipes

The Greatest Hits Edition of the Carnival Of The Recipes is up!

Some favorites:

From the hostess  Pasta Bianco by Jamie Oliver.

World Famous Recipes gives us a looong list of Cookie Recipes plus Pancake Recipe

Diabetic Recipes has a diabetic solution for Herb Roasted Chicken.

Phoenix Arizona has  Meatloaf Recipes

Chicken Recipes has  Chicken Fried Steak.

Famous Recipes lists an interesting one - Beaten Cream Pie!

And that concludes this edition of The Carnival Of The Recipes

Please submit your entry for the next Carnival, using this handy submission form!

Another Patent: Wireless intelligent real estate sign and electronic lock box
United States Patent 6624742

Abstract:

An intelligent real estate system including an intelligent real estate sign having embedded processing functionality and a wireless communication device capable of receiving wireless electronic queries and programming instructions and for communicating with local and remote information sources about a real estate property and with controlling agents for reporting status. Further included is an electronic lock box controlling access to the real estate property and having an embedded wireless communication device capable of receiving messages and control signals from the real estate sign and from a property owner/occupant and/or real estate agents for reporting status. An earth battery may also be included, at least partially contained within the real estate sign and supplying power to the real estate sign.


What is claimed is:

1. A real estate sign for a real estate property to interactively communicate with a portable transceiver, the real estate sign comprising a wireless communication system attached to the real estate sign wirelessly receiving a query relating to the real estate property from the portable transceiver and wirelessly transmitting property information relating to the real estate property to the portable transceiver.

2. The real estate sign according to claim 1, further comprising an earth battery powering the real estate sign and the wireless communication system.

3. The real estate sign according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication system communicates via a short-range wireless electromagnetic signal.

4. The real estate sign according to claim 1, wherein the portable receiver may be a client configured device or a controlling agent configured device.

5. The real estate sign according to claim 4, wherein the real estate sign is networked with a remote real estate agent office and the client configured device or the controlling agent configured device is capable of interactively communicating with the remote real estate agent office via the real estate sign.

6. The real estate sign according to claim 5, wherein the wireless communication system transmits property information relating to the real estate property to the client configured device when the client configured device is within a predetermined proximity of the real estate sign and the real estate sign detects the presence of the client configured device.

7. The real estate sign according to claim 1, wherein the real estate sign can be shared by multiple properties.

8. The real estate sign according to claim 5, wherein the controlling agent configured device is capable of controlling access to the real estate property via the real estate sign.

9. An apparatus comprising: a real estate sign corresponding to a real estate property having a wireless communication system embedded therein wirelessly communicating information about the piece of property; and an electronic lock box receiving information from said real estate sign and controlling access to the real estate property.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein said electronic lock box is hermetically sealed.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the electronic lock box is capable of receiving requests and transmitting information about the real estate property to a transmiting/receiving device located within a predetermined proximity of the electronic lock box.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the real estate sign includes a display displaying the information about the real estate property.

13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the information about the real estate property includes at least one of the group comprising a price of the real estate property, a square footage of the real estate property, a virtual tour of the real estate property, a number of bedrooms within the real estate property and an availability of the real estate property.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the electronic lock box is capable of holding at least one key therein.

15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the transmitting/receiving device is one of a client configured device and a controlling agent device, the client configured device capable of requesting information about the real estate property from the electronic lock box or the real estate sign, transmitting queries about the real estate property to either the electronic lock box or the real estate sign, transmitting client information to the electronic lock box or the real estate sign, transmitting client information to a remote real estate office via the electronic lock box or the real estate sign, viewing information received from either the electronic lock box or the real estate sign or recording voice or text messages in the electronic lock box or real estate sign.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the controlling agent device is capable of performing all client configured device functions and is further capable of at least enabling, programming and disabling the real estate sign and the electronic lock box, overriding access restrictions of the real estate sign and the electronic lock box, viewing information stored by the real estate sign and the electronic lock box, downloading information stored by the real estate sign and the electronic lock box, interacting with other premises electronic equipment, and maintaining the electronic lock box and the real estate sign.

17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the electronic lock box comprises at least one of the group consisting of a memory, a proximity device reader, a display, a clock and an alarm.

18. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the electronic lock box is capable of storing at least one of a group comprising a time of a visit to the real estate property, a duration of the visit to the real estate property, an identity of a person who visited the real estate property and comments and/or suggestions from the person who visited the real estate property.

19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the electronic lock box can communicate via network to a controlling real estate office, the controlling real estate office transmitting a control signal to the electronic lock box to permit access to the real estate property.

20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the electronic lock box is capable of recording an attempt to gain access to the real estate property.

21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the electronic lock box can restrict access to the real estate property based upon communicated entry rules.

22. A real estate system comprising: a real estate sign having a wireless communication system embedded therein located within a predetermined distance from a real estate property; an electronic lock box having a wireless communication system wirelessly communicating with the real estate sign and controlling access to real estate property; and a transmitting receiving device, wherein the transmitting receiving device can transmit information to/from the real estate sign or the electronic lock box about the real estate property.

23. The apparatus according to claim 22, further comprising an antenna attached to the real estate sign and connected to the wireless communication system.

24. A method of marketing a real estate property comprising: providing a real estate sign within a predetermined proximity of the real estate property; receiving, by the real estate sign, queries about the real estate property from a transmitting/receiving device; and transmitting information about the real estate property from the real estate sign to the transmitting/receiving device.

Bill Austin

Phoenix Real Estate

Funny Jokes - Guilty or not guilty?

Guilty or Not Guilty??? You be the Judge!

Defense Attorney: Will you please state your age?
Little Old Lady: I am 86 years old.

DA: Will you tell us, in your own words, what happened the night of April 1st?
LoL:  There I was, sitting there in my swing on my front porch on a warm spring evening, When a young man comes creeping up on the porch and sat down beside me.
DA: Did you know him?
LoL: No, but he sure was friendly.
DA: What happened after he sat down?
LoL:He started to rub my thigh.

DA: Did you stop him?
LoL: No, I didn’t stop him.
DA: Why not?
LoL: It felt good. Nobody had done that since my Albert died some 30 years ago.
DA: What happened next?
LoL: He began to rub my breasts.
DA: Did you stop him then?
LoL: No, I did not stop him.
DA: Why not?
LoL: His rubbing made me feel all alive and excited. I haven’t felt that good in years!

DA: What happened next?
LoL:  Well, by then, I was feeling so “spicy” that I just lay down and told him “Take me, young man. Take me now!”
DA: Did he take you?
LoL: No! He just yelled, “April Fool!” And that’s when I shot him.

Very Funny Jokes

James Wexler asked for Good News

... and I replied.

"... outside of Phoenix in Scottsdale, AZ. ..."

No, no, no James - Scottsdale is the CENTER (the heart) of the greater Phoenix Arizona area.

The universe revolves around us.

Good news - Affordability is up and continues to rise.  More qualified buyers will appear every day.

Good news - New busineses are being started and existing businesses are growing and expanding.  Those that are closing, shrinking and stagnating may get all the press but the ones that want to grow are the ones I hear from every day.  Nervous Nellies and naysayers need not apply.  We are making our own personal economy up here in North Scottsdale and times are good.

Keep saying it - over and over - "We make our own personal economy."

Thank you,

Bill Austin
East Valley Living
Blog Marketing