Kicking Myself Into September - 08/31/07 04:45 PM
This has been a summer of distractions. My house is in the middle of a renovation project that has been a major source of irritation. I took a couple of weeks off to rest on Cape Cod, then I came home to face a family crisis. So, now things are starting … (12 comments)
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Better Safe! - 08/31/07 01:35 PM
There is an Editor's Note in the latest issue of Realtor Magazine that I thought was a little odd. It was all about Realtor Safety Week, September 9th through the 15th. It discusses all the lurking bad guys out there who want to rob, rape or maim or murder us and … (13 comments)
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PUPPY ENVY! - 08/30/07 03:20 PM
Last November, an adorable fluff ball joined my household.My expectation was that he would be one of those adorably cute little creatures who could ride around in the car with me, come into the office, and sit in on my business card photo session. OK, so exploiting your pet is a … (8 comments)
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Changing Directions - 08/30/07 02:00 PM
One of my favorite cousins and clients is a handsome young Secret Service agent. An important part of his defensive driving training was learning to do a 180 degree turn in every imaginable vehicle, from a Hummer to a stretch limousine. And I've been thinking that this is a good skill … (6 comments)
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The Thrill of the Chase - 08/28/07 11:58 PM
The other day, a favorite colleague asked me to help her price a house. She would be competing against two other top agents. She was psyched!
So we drove over to the house in a less than chic DC neighborhood. The seller had purchased it two years ago, and was a fixxer … (6 comments)
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The Sears Houses of Chevy Chase - 08/26/07 10:58 PM
Between 1908 and 1940, Sears Roebuck is said to have sold about 100,000 homes from their catalogue. They came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and Rosemary Thornton’s book, The Houses That Sears Built, gives lots of details on how they were built and how to spot one.They became popular … (8 comments)
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It's NEVER the Other Agent! - 08/26/07 09:54 PM
For about five of my twenty-four years in real estate, I was lucky enough to work with an amazing broker named Charlie Krogman, another one of my patron saints of real estate (yes, he is now St. Charlie). It was the mid-1980s, and Charlie was wise, a character and a legend … (7 comments)
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I Want an I-Phone! I Don't Want AT&T! There's Hope! - 08/26/07 08:55 AM
The other day, I was in the car with the radio tuned to my local NPR station. They were doing their financial market segment, and interviewed the adorable teenage boy I forgot to have!This kid spent his summer trying to figure out how to make an I-Phone work on his family's … (6 comments)
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Wow! I Can't Have That Conversation With My Mom! - 08/25/07 01:43 PM
At a recent Open House, a really nice woman came in, spent a long time looking the place over, and then struck up a conversation.
"So, is this a racially mixed neighborhood?" she asked.
I explained to her that I answered that question, I could wind up in the slammer with a revoked … (14 comments)
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Saints Preserve Us! - 08/25/07 08:44 AM
St Joseph is the widely recognized patron saint of real estate agents. Many of my colleagues and my own clients have planted his statue, head down, in next to a for sale sign so he will help the house sell.
Ah, but there is another saint who I’ve found to be … (25 comments)
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Has Anyone Else Tried Blackle? - 08/24/07 10:51 PM
My very tech-savvy across-the-street neighbor invited me to our weekly block Cocktail Club meeting and had some exciting news - especially for laptop users. Google has a new search service called "Blackle". It works the same way that Google does except that the page is black instead of white. This saves … (9 comments)
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I Got My 1st AR Lead, and It's Vanished From My Blackberry! Help! Please! - 08/22/07 05:10 PM
Is there anyone out there who knows how to recover erased messages from a Blackberry's email?
Early this morning, I was going through my email, and there was a nice note from someone who said he had seen my profile on Active Rain. He has a house in one of my favorite … (12 comments)
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New Construction and Earnest Money - 08/21/07 11:28 PM
Almost all of the homes I sell are really old. Here in Washington, built in 1952 is almost new construction. But lately I've had some buyers for the outer suburbs (even exurbs) who are looking at new homes - actually new holes in the ground.
So, here is my concern.
Let's say they … (13 comments)
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Do Your Virtual Tours Play That Eerie Background Music? - 08/20/07 11:44 AM
Earlier this morning, I clicked on a colleague’s virtual tour. Like many tours these days, it had background music. Now, I am an occasional professional musician and have pretty eclectic but strong tastes. But no matter how diverse one’s musical tastes might be, my bet is that most people would find … (13 comments)
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The Kindnesss of Strangers - 08/19/07 10:30 PM
This afternoon, my Arlington buyers were on the streets visiting the few houses they have not seen in their price range. And I wanted to run out to preview a couple of places that were not open but had last minute price reductions. As I was leaving the first house on … (9 comments)
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What I Love About Active Rain - 08/18/07 11:49 PM
I started to blog in late 2005, and have enjoyed it a lot since the day I started. My other blog has gotten me a lot of exposure in the media, and it's helped me connect with buyers and sellers I might not have met otherwise. But it hasn't taught me … (9 comments)
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I "Heart" Open Houses - 08/18/07 11:26 PM
There are lots of posts I see from agents who are complaining that their Open Houses are a waste of time. Maybe I just had a great How-to-Hold-an-Open-House mentor as a new agent, but wow! I've always found them to be useful in both exposing my listings and meeting buyers.Over the … (7 comments)
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Washington Neighborhood Tour: Cleveland Park - 08/18/07 10:59 PM
Cleveland Park started off as a place for summer homes, so wealthy residents of Washington could escape from the horrendous heat and humidity - not to mention August outbreaks of typhoid fever!It gets its name from President Grover Cleveland, who was one of its earliest renovators. He bought an old stone … (4 comments)
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You Don't Have to Comment Just for the Points! - 08/17/07 11:48 PM
It's past midnight on the east coast, and I should be asleep. But I'm not. I'm working up to eligibility for membership in Bloggers Anonymous.
A while ago, I posted my 10 comment of the day, and ironically, it was on Brian Block's post, That Elusive 10th Comment of the Day.
Then something … (18 comments)
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For All of You In Bloomington, IL - 08/16/07 11:20 PM
Tomorrow morning (Friday, August 17th) I'm being interviewed on the Ron Ross Show. It is on WJBC (1230 on your AM dial) out of Bloomington, IL. We're going to be talking about some of the advice for buyers and sellers found in The Irreverent Guide to Real Estate. I'll probably add … (3 comments)
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The Miricle of St Anthony and the Black Cherry Pearl Lexus - 08/16/07 09:28 PM
I started today feeling bad. It was my car. The police had me convinced that it was somewhere between my house and a chop shop. A colleague cited a report in the Washington Post about a ring of baddies after navigation systems. And I started to think about the things in … (5 comments)
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The Good Client - 08/13/07 07:59 PM
Every real estate advice column gives you advice on how to find a great agent. And that’s important. Even more important, however, is learning how to be a great client – how to empower your agent to provide truly awesome, amazing service. So here are some pointers:
Start with a great agent, … (1 comments)
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A Book MeMe! - 08/12/07 11:34 AM
When I was a baby, a guy knocked on the door selling “Journeys Through Bookland”, an eleven-volume set of the classics for toddlers to teens, from nursery rhymes, to Aesop’ s Fables, to every classic fit for a young person’s consumption. My mom bought a set.The Kennedy children got used to … (5 comments)
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In Praise of Indoor Plumbing! - 08/11/07 02:26 PM
On June 10, I wrote my first blog post, The Joys of Home Ownership, about a domestic disaster involving a burst pipe in the floor of the second floor bathrooms in my house. Today, 60 days after this post, which was about 60 days after the incident, I still do not … (3 comments)
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So, How's Real Estate? - 08/10/07 11:51 PM
I just googled Tom Hopkins. I wanted to see if he was still doing seminars. He is! But, I'll have to travel pretty far if I want to go to one. And it just might be worth the trip!Hopkins is the first trainer I encountered. And it was just what I needed … (4 comments)
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So, Did You Major in Real Estate? - 08/10/07 11:09 PM
Years ago, I attended a party where I knew almost no one. Standing there with a white wine spritzer in my hand, I overheard a woman bragging about her brilliant daughter who was working on her masters degree in Baroque Art History.
Without introducing myself, I just turned to her and … (5 comments)
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Urban Surprise! - 08/10/07 10:26 PM
My house is a couple of miles north of the White House, pretty close to downtown Washington. The neighborhood, known as Crestwood, was built between about 1900 and 1940, and it's always been pretty dense - as most in-town neighborhoods are.
It's surrounded on three sides by Rock Creek Park, a … (2 comments)
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Women and Heart Attack Syptoms - Not What You'd Expect! - 08/09/07 11:06 AM
A friend of mine sent this to me yesterday – and I think it’s been making its way around the Internet. As a super Type-A, I took it seriously. I had read that heart attach symptoms are very different in women than men, but I hadn’t ever read a description of … (3 comments)
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Don't Ask; Don't Tell? - 08/05/07 01:37 PM
I work in three jurisdictions – Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. And each takes a slightly different approach to how sellers provide information about their properties to prospective buyers – or not. And I would love some of the agents with law degrees to chime in on this one.In … (3 comments)
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Designed to Sell! - 08/04/07 08:54 AM
I can't believe The Irreverent Guide to Real Estate says nothing about the House and Garden channel on cable television. Of course, when I wrote the book, I didn't have cable. Now that I do, I've become a big fan of "Designed to Sell", and in my next edition, I'll have … (6 comments)
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The House Whisperer! - 08/04/07 08:42 AM
It was one of those transactions. You know, where the earth moved under the house, and from all the evidence, it was still moving a bit. And, as the home inspector describe the apparent problem to the buyers, I could see this deal sprouting wings and flying south! But then he … (4 comments)
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So Just What Is A "Cape Cod" House? - 08/04/07 07:51 AM
OK, the MLS category called "Cape Cod" is usually filled with cute little brick houses with two dormer windows on the second floor. Well, for the last week and a day on Cape Cod, I've been in search of that house. And it isn't here.
First, I've yet to see a brick … (6 comments)
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Just Ask Angie! - 08/04/07 07:38 AM
It seems like I’m always getting phone calls from friends and clients asking for recommendations – names of various contractors to repair plumbing,electrical, floors or whatever. And each time, I’m a little bit terrified. I do know a lot of good workers, but I’ve seen great contractors go bad, sometimes very … (0 comments)
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Recharging Batteries - 08/04/07 06:50 AM
This is Friday, and if it were my typical vacation, I’d be packing my bags to go home after one week away from Life on the Streets of Washington, DC real estate. But this is not my typical vacation. For the first time since getting licensed back in 1983, I am … (8 comments)
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