Pat Kennedy - Your Washington, DC Real Estate Connection

Please Welcome Nadia Nejaime To Active Rain

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:17:06 -0500

Yesterday, Nadia Nejaime, of DC Living Real Estate, wrote her first post on Active Rain.

Now, Nadia is totally special. She is so great to work with that I wrote a post about her called The Good Agent, on my pre-Active Rain blog, about how much she impressed me during a recent transaction. That was almost three years ago.

Nadia is a broker with a law degree, I'm sure she will share a lot of knowledge and wisdom in her blog. And I'm hoping that she becomes totally addicted and starts to post a lot, because I can't wait to read more of her stuff!

So, go visit Nadia and join me in saying welcome aboard! And blog on, Nadia!

Wordless Wednesday: Onion Domes

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:03:13 -0500

© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certianly say yes, and ask only that you provide a link back to my original content as well as an acknowledgment. The same thing applies to any other material you see posted here on Active Rain or on any of my other blogs.

"Social Networking": Many Ways To Skin That Cat!

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:59:59 -0500

This is for all of you young whipper snappers out there who think that anyone over 50 is going to eat your dust because you do social networking!

I'm going to tell you a story with one of those "Respect Your Elders" messages - you can learn from them! Um, from us!

There was an amazing agent at my old company who had social networking down!

She was a geezer agent. Her obituary said that she was 79 when she died. But she had to have been at least 90. She was a pretty woman who wore Chanel suits to the poshest office in Washington, and she was clueless about how to use a copying machine, let alone a computer, digital camera or any bit of technology other than her very basic cell phone (and all it did was allow her to make and receive calls - no text messages or Email). And she sold about $50million a year in real estate, because she totally got social networking.

At an office meeting, she gave what was my first training session on social networking. She went to parties. Lots of parties. And she networked. She was the queen of schmooze, and she would follow up the next day and the next week and the next month, calling people back (she preferred a regular old phone to her primitive cell) and putting together amazing transactions.

The night before she died, she had ratified a contract on an $8 million dollar property, and I understand she was on both sides of the transaction.

Now, all I'm saying is that we didn't invent social networking. It didn't begin with Active Rain, Facebook, or Twitter. And what this lovely old lady agent taught me was that the most important element of social networking is the social part of it. Oh, and she also taught everyone who watched her about how important it is to follow up. She, of course, used a telephone rather than Tweets, email or text messages. I like to use a combination of the three.

It's important to supplement Active Rain, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever else you use with all kinds of social network contact with other human beings, at church, at neighborhood or PTA meetings, the Lions Club, RE Bar Camps, at parties and anyplace else where people who might want to buy or sell houses might hang out - or agents who can refer them to you. You need to use every bit of the new technology at your fingertips, as well as the old fashioned telephone.

And never ever forget that real estate is a contact sport! You need to get them off your computer screen, out of your virtual space, and into your automobile.

The Return Of The Ugly House

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:47:36 -0500

Several times during the last week, I've gone through homes that are ugly and/or inhabited by total slobs or compulsive hoarders (albeit of very pretty things).

All three houses had "good bones", built before 1920 and with no improvements made in 40 or more years. One looked like Granny's house and had been hastily empied out after Granny went either to heaven or a nursing home - then nothing else was done. The other looks like a young family bought an old fixxer upper, had a bunch of children, and forgot to fix up - or to clean up. The third was very dated, but had a whole lot of glitzy furniture and oriental rugs, art work on every square inch of wall space, and several rooms crammed with so much stuff that I thought an E-Bay addict must live there.

One house smelled like an all night poker game (tobacco) and the other reeked of wet basement. E-Bay Addict house actually did pass the "Sniff Test".

And all of these homes were on the market well over $1million dollars. They were not all that bad. All of them had lots of potential. But the idea of preparing these homes for the market seems to have escaped the agents and the owners.

Two of the agents are total professionals who are known for whipping their sellers and their homes into shape, and I imagine they were following orders from their sellers. The third agent is someone I don't know.

So now it will be interesting to track what happens. Will someone snap them up? Will they languish on the market.

Hmmmmm. Think I'll sign off and call my friend Henry. He might be looking for a project to take on.

Speechless Sunday - Canamara

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:31:08 -0500

How To Read A Real Estate Ad

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:14:43 -0500

Whether it's Craig's List, your local paper's classifieds or the Multiple Listing Service information, there is a special language to real estate.

So as you head out to tomorrow's Open Houses, here are some tips to use your time wisely. When the description starts out with the bold print, the not bold print is what it really means:

Bring Your Imagination: the place has not been staged and looks like ordinary people live there.

Bring Your Decorator: Martha Stewart would not approve. It has carnivorous wallpaper, shag wall-to-wall, and cat claw marks on the grasscloth.

Bring Your Architect: the back half of the house is about to cave in.

Room for Expansion: the place is tiny.

Adorable: the place is really tiny.

Olde World Charm: it has prehistoric electrical and bathrooms.

Original Owner: the kitchen was absolute state of the art in 1940, the year the house was built.

Georgetown Garden: the back yard is the size of an oriental prayer rug.

Indoor Pool: wet basement.

Nicest House in the Neighborhood: it's over-improved.

Urban View: refers to a condo with all windows facing a brick wall.

Or, you could work with a buyer broker who really knows the market where you are looking and who can take you to the good stuff, eliminating the wrecks that are ugly, overpriced or smell like kitty litter.

Washington's Cleveland Park: Market Report

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:01:46 -0500

Cleveland Park is a neighborhood of great architectural diversity. There are small row houses that sell in the high $600's and historic mansions with price tags in the $4.5 million range. Some are on tiny lots, with just enough room for the house and a postage stamp garden. Others have expansive lawns and gardens. And so far this year, the demand has been for the smaller homes at a relatively low price point.

The list of homes currently for sale includes two in excess of $4,000,000. And they are bringing the averages up. The highest selling price year to date is lower than that, at $2,407,000.

Here are the figures:

Currently For Sale: 15 homes (current asking price)
Low: $715,000
High: $4,500,000
Average: $1,993,467

Under Contract: 8 homes (asking price at contract)
Low: $699,000
High: $2,950,000
Average: $1,343,438

Sold since 1/1/2009 15 homes sold (asking price at contract)
Low: $863,000 (selling price)
High: $2,407,000
Average: $1,122,800

Average original asking price for sold properties: $1,219,190

Homeowner Warranties: The Devil Is In The Details!

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:41:00 -0500

There have been a bunch of times when I've included a homeowner's warranty to get a transaction done. And I'm constantly amazed at what I'm finding in the fine print!

Now, I am one of those nutty people who actually read fine print, at least some of the time. Most people do not. But if you are either purchasing a warranty as part of a listing agreement or including one as part of a sales contract, here are some important questions you should be able to answer:

How much are service call deductibles? If the dishwasher is acting weird, how much will you have to pay out of pocket for someone to show up and determine whether it should be repaired or replaced?
What does the agreement say about pre-existing conditions? If the dishwasher is really, really old and past it's prime and breaks down the first time you turn it on, is it covered at all?
What about stuff like the Jacuzzi in the master bath, or the ice maker in the fridge? And the septic system? Sometimes a lot of items that are typically problematic are excluded altogether, unless you pay a bunch extra.
What about structural elements of the home? A few warranty companies, for example, will include the roof. Most do not.
If you are the seller, does it cover items that show up on the buyer's home inspector's report? And does it cover your heat and central air conditioning systems? Some leave these items out of the seller's coverage.

I've found that many of my buyers break things that were operating well at settlement, just because they don't quite understand how to use the systems or appliances in their new homes. And for this reason alone, a home owner's warranty can provide some additional peace of mind for today's somewhat edgy buyers.

Some of the major warranty providers in this area (and I'm not advocating any of these companies) are American Home Shield, Nationwide Home Warranty, Choice Home Warranty, and Home Warranties of America.

And, while a warranty can be a good idea, it's also a good idea to do some serious comparative shopping.

Posh Washington: The Watergate

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:14:19 -0500

The next time you fly into Washington's Reagan National Airport, look to your left as the plane comes in for a landing. There you will see the Watergate, a complex that includes a hotel, office building and coop apartments.

It was built in the late 1960's, and has been home to many members of Congress, diplomats, cabinet secretaries, and an infamous White House intern.

The apartments are spacious and most of the 600 units have large balconies. They also have spectacular views, usually of either the Potomac River or the Washington Monument.

If you are a music lover, you can walk over the the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and hear the National Symphony, or enjoy a night at the Opera or ballet.

For the convenience of the residents, there is a retail level in the basement with a Safeway, liquor store, bakery and a drug store.

When touring apartments in the Watergate, you never know what you will find. There are still a few units with original kitchens and baths, but most have been updated to some degree Many have had walls added or removed, and some units have been combined to form huge spaces.

There are currently 36 units listed for sale on MRIS.

1-bedrooms: 11 for sale, ranging in price from $375,000 for a 7th floor 1045 square foot unit with a city view to $1,895,000 for a 15th floor penthouse with 2230 square feet of space, a large terrace and an incredible river view.

2-bedrooms: 12 for sale, ranging from $450,000 for a 10th floor 1384 square foot unit, to a high of $4,500,000 for an 11th floor unit with 2915 square feet and a view of the Potomac River and Georgetown.

3-bedrooms: 8 units from $799,000 for a 2136 square foot unit on the 8th floor at the point of the building, with both river and city views (offered in "as is" condition), to a 10th floor unit with wonderful views and a thorough renovation.

4-bedrooms: 4 units for sale $999,000 for a 2850 duplex on the 7th floor in "as is" condition, to $2,000,000 for another 7th floor duplex, 3675 square feet, that has been renovated.

If you would like more information on the Watergate, please email me or call at 202-549-5167.

No Sales Meetings?

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:27:53 -0500

Yesterday I was thinking about a colleague who moved to a new real estate brokerage a few years back and was telling us what a great place it was. And one of the things he loved the most was that there were no weekly business meetings.

And that's a good thing?

Our meetings are Tuesday mornings, and I rarely miss one. But I have to say that my broker makes them interesting.

It starts with the agenda she passes out, always with a funny little quote. Today's?

"Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." That would be words of wisdom from Mike Tyson! Guess he's a guy who's had to tweak his business plan from time to time!

And there are almost always enough success stories that if I'm not one of them, I know it's me and not our local market.

There are often guests who update us on everything from green renovations to how to stay out of jail for harassing some poor slob appraiser who comes in way too low on one of our sales. We cover updates on changes in the ground rules for doing our jobs, things about our local and national economy that impact sales, and upcoming training, both in house and sessions offered by title companies and national trainers.

And as new challenges come up in the process of getting a house from under contract to settled, we share our war stories and goof ups so our colleagues might learn from our experiences.

These meetings are not mandatory - it's hard for any broker to make them mandatory for independent contractors. But our meetings are interesting enough to attract almost all of the agents in the office.

I, for one, would not find no meetings to be a plus in any office where I worked. And I probably wouldn't work someplace where the meetings were a bore or a snore.

Wordless Wednesday - Jolie Fleurs

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:31:50 -0500

Mine! All mine! © 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certianly say yes, and ask only that you provide a link back to my original content as well as an acknowledgment. The same thing applies to any other material you see posted here on Active Rain or on any of my other blogs.

Ladies Who Lunch!

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:34:30 -0500

Yesterday, Chris Ann Cleland found her way to downtown Washington, DC, and we took advantage of the chance to meet for lunch. We had tapas in Chinatown at a little place across the street from the National Museum of Crime and Punishment (yes, we have museums for just about everything in this town).

Over the years, I've had the chance to meet many of my blog buddies in person, and if you are new to Active Rain and haven't tried it, I really suggest that you do!

I've subscribed to Chris Ann's blog for a while now and have enjoyed reading it. But after meeting her in person, it's even more fun!

In the DC/Baltimore area, we get together at the drop of a hat! As newbie bloggers, Brian Block, Cindy Jones and I met with Margaret Woda for a wonderful lunch. Then there was Inman Connect in New York, NAR conferences, and bloggers visiting their kids here in DC. Of course, there are lots of Active Rain folks at the RE Bar Camps! And when I go to New York, I try to spend some fun time with Mitchell Hall.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you are going to a city where any of your favorite bloggers live, drop them an email and get together.

It's really, really fun!

Speechless Sunday? Well, A Day Late!

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:57:46 -0500

This was in the lobby of 3303 Water Street in Georgetown. It's made of bright red ropes and is amazingly comfortable.

"Designed to Sell": It Only Works When The Price Is Right

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:29:21 -0500

If you've ever seen "Designed to Sell", the HGTV hit, there's a moment at the end when, after the first Open House, the sellers are gleefully picking through multiple offers - or they are saying that they are going to hold out for the right one.

Today, I showed a house where the sellers were hold outs.

Now, I wasn't blown away by the staging in this house to begin with. And I was stunned when the seller told me that HGTV had done the living room, dining room and master bedroom. It was just OK. Lots of browns and tans - colors that don't appeal to a lot of people.

But that's sort of not the point I'm trying to make. The house has been around for a while, and it's not about the staging.

It's the price, stupid! At $525,000, the house was overpriced by about $100,000.

So to all of the sellers out there, it's really important to put your house on the market looking its absolute best. It's also important to put a number out there that is related to actual value of the house!

Sometimes It's OK For The Seller To Be Home For The Showing!

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:31:50 -0500

Yesterday, I showed a lovely granny house in Chevy Chase, a close-in DC suburb. It's a large, stately home with pillars that reminded me of a lovely antebellum Gone With The Wind sort of place. The 1920's vintage home was well taken care of and sort of reeked of years of love, happy family holidays, wedding receptions, and decades of memories. It was almost like you could tell this house had taken wonderful care of the people it sheltered.

And granny was there!

Normally, it's best for the sellers to be far away when their homes are shown. But sometimes you have to make exceptions if there is a new baby or little old lady in the house. And this time, the listing agent made sure it was OK.

This seller was utterly charming. After introductions, she and her agent moved to the well-tended rose garden while we went through the house.

She was warm, welcoming and then scarce.

I don't know if this will be the house that my buyers actually buy. It's wonderful in so many ways, but near a very busy street. And while it's been lovingly maintained, it does need some renovations. But I'm sort of rooting for it.

And hoping that maybe granny will convey!

Wordless Wednesday - This One's For TLW

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:52:12 -0500

Patience? A Virtue?

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:57:24 -0500

When I am sitting on an unratified contract on another agent's listing, patience is not a virtue that I tend to manifest.

Now I work in an allegedly declining market, but that doesn't mean that the buyers call the shots - at least not when the house is at a very low price, in excellent condition and staged to be an outrageous flirt with every buyer who walks through the door!

We wrote a good, solid offer that, while not totally perfect from the sellers' perspective, was at consistent with recent comps. And there is one other offer that came in last night. And the listing agent is not presenting the offers until sometime today, meaning even more could come in!

And last night, I was in a state of high anxiety!

In the meantime, I think my own anxiety is rubbing off on my buyers, who almost withdrew their offer! And in this market, I think it's wise to react to this kind of situation differently that what might have seemed appropriate back in 2005. This was my advice:

Look at the comparable sales information.
Make your best offer based on the market data.
If another offer comes in, try to be rational in your response. If you have made an offer that you think is fair, and if you don't want to up the ante, you might lose the house, but you might also avoid making an emotional decision and overpay for the place.
Don't allow yourself to get too attached to the house while you're waiting for an answer from the listing agent and the sellers.
Remember that there will always be another house.

So any minute the listing agent is supposed to call and let me know what happened. And while I'd like to win this one, I have found two more places that look pretty amazing to show my buyers this afternoon.

I Saw A Really, Really Gorgeous House Today - But.....

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:36:42 -0500

This house was totally amazing! It was marry for money gorgeous. It was marry old and ugly for money gorgeous!

But there was this one little thing!

The house was wearing a scent that I call Eau de Kitty Litter! It did not pass the sniff test.

Not to be judgmental or anything. OK, I am being judgmental! But I am planning to put my house on the market, and it has not only tow pussy cats in residence, but also Willie the Labradoodle who sometimes smells a bit funky. And Yikes!

Oh, well, maybe I'll just have one of those buyer specific houses that will appeal only to folks with no sense of smell whatsoever!

Speechless Sunday: The Rosedale Roses

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:29:15 -0500

Pat's Favorite Newbie Of The Week

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:45:14 -0500

In February of this year, Hannah Williams, aka "Helpful Hannah" wrote her first blog post on Active Rain. And you know what? She really is pretty helpful!

During this past week, I learned something from two of her posts.

The first, HelpfulHannahs Free Video tip on ZILLOW has some really useful information on how we can use Zillow to market ourselves free! In this day and age when every marketing dollar really counts, free is good. It's really good!

The second she posted this afternoon, using the Seesmic desktop tool with Twitter. If I read more posts like this one, I might actually get Twitter one of these days!

Hannah has had some fun Wordless Wednesday posts, including a favorite of mine, Wordless Wednesday:Delaire Landing We Are Family.

After I started reading her blog, I realized that I actually saw Hannah at RE Bar Camp in Philadelphia, and darn it! I didn't go up and introduce myself!

That was not a good time to be shy!

Anyway, Hannah, your blog really is helpful and a fun read! So thanks and keep it up!

Walking In On Naked People!

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:43:52 -0500

When you list a house that you are living in, it's really, really important to get the showing instructions clear. Really, really clear!

There have been many posts written here on Active Rain about how important it is to make our listings user-friendly for buyer agents who want to preview or show them. Agents are less likely to show a house with complicated arrangements needed to get the front door open. Fewer people looking at the house translates into reduced exposure to the marketplace, which in turn means longer time on the market and a lower selling price.

When the property is vacant, that's no problem. We just hang a lock box on the front door. But when you're living there, you need some reasonable way to know when people are going to be going through the place.

So typically, on an occupied house, the instructions are call owner first, leave a message with the time and date. Well, with cell phones and all, this is what that scenario can look like.

You come home early from work. You are exhausted. You peel off your clothes and hop into the tub.

Then your phone rings, but you don't hear it over the motor that's pumping bubbles into your relaxing Jacuzzi! It's an agent calling from the curb to let you know she's coming in with some clients. And you become another one of those funny stories with which we regale our friends and colleagues!

Oops!

Now, here's what I suggest. Have an extra lock put on your door - even if it's one of those chain locks. When you're home, use it! That way, you might get home from work and find strangers in your house. And that is acceptable. But what you avoid is having people come in when you are totally indisposed. And that is not acceptable!

I'm not saying, by the way, that I think agents should call from the curb. We try to give advaced notice when we plan to show a house or apartment. But most of us, when it's a choice between showing a house or not, err on the side of showing on short notice and hoping for the best.

When A Colleague Calls For Showing Feedback

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:52:56 -0500

Yesterday, I got a call from the listing agent of a place I showed last week - someone I didn't know at all. He was polite, started off by apologizing for not following up immediately and described the house to jog my increasingly unreliable memory.

And it turned out that I loved his listing. My buyers liked it a lot. It was easy to see, showed very well and was, I thought, the best house we saw that day. We actually had a very pleasant conversation and he told me that of all the agents he called, I was the only one who was nice to him!

Huh?

Now, I can think of a lot of reasons to be nice.

This guy may be a fairly new agent, and he'll probably remember the agents who were nice to him at the beginning. Lord knows, I do and it's been over 25 years!
My guys really did like his listing, and if I do wind up writing on it, I would like to have made a first impression that conjures up warm feeling from the listing agent! It'll make things easier, a lot easier, if the two agents like and respect each other.
It's just as easy to be pleasant as it is to be bitchy, well most of the time anyway.

This is the kind of little encounter where you build whatever kind of reputation you have with your community of colleagues. And I always try to vote for behaving nicely!

Arnold's Lilies

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:16:10 -0500

Arnold is my next door neighbor. He's what some of us might call an old hippie - his old car boasts bumper stickers like "Love Animals, Don't Eat Them" and "If You Don't Go Within, You Go Without - Meditate!". He's a wonderful neighbor to all of the single women on the block, as he possesses significant handyman skills.

Arnold was literally born in the house next door, and when he was a little boy, he planted some lily bulbs in his front yard and in the little garden strip between our houses.

When I first moved into my house back in 1982, his front yard was still full of lilies. And every June, his yard and our shared garden strip were wall-to-wall bright orange lilies.

A few years later, he decided that after several decades in the house, he wanted grass, and he dug up all the bulbs in the front yard (almost all of them). I took advantage of the empty strip to plant some flowers and herbs.

And then, the lilies came back - at least in the shared garden strip. And I'm not going to do any thing to disturb them.

Every June for a couple of weeks, they are just amazing! And this happens to be their time this year! So I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Wordless Wednesday

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:18:38 -0500

If you are considering either buying or selling a home in the metropolitan Washington, DC area, please call me at 202-549-5167, and I would be honored to help you.

Two Years In The Rain!

Patricia Kennedy (Evers & Company Realtors) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:31:13 -0500

Two years ago today, I tripped over Active Rain.

I started off by looking around the place, and stumbled across some puzzling posts.

I'm going to sell me a house!!!! by Broker Bryant caught my attention, and then, of course, I clicked the link to, um, just what is a TLW? And I discovered How About A Little Patsy Cline With That Whine...Roar!

Is this site for real? Is there any serious real estate talk on Active Rain? Well, yes. And before I continue, I must admit that I have learned so much from Broker Bryants serious posts, especially on short sales. But I digress.

Next I found Lenn Harly's REAL ESTATE IN LOUDOUN COUNTY VIRGINIA IS A BUYERS' MARKET, Then I read one of her featured posts (at the time, I didn't quite understand the significance of the coveted gold star at the bottom of the post) EVERY DOG GET'S ONE BITE - Buyers and Sellers Often Learn the Hard Way and quickly decided that there were, indeed, some "serious" bloggers here.

So after looking around a bit more, I joined and wrote my first post, The Joys of Home Ownership, where I met Margaret Woda in the comments section. Then, a few hours later, I posted Condo Envy, about a friend and neighbor who was living in a glamorous condo rental near Logan Circle while her house was being restored after a devastating fire. And it got ZERO COMMENTS! Still today, ZERO! If you want to score points with Pat you can click the link and leave a comment. Any comment will do!

A lot of the time, I felt like I was writing for myself and my dog, Willie the Labradoodle! It took until late August to finally get a real feature on a post called New Construction and Earnest Money, I'd been showing a lot of new homes, some still expensive holes in the ground, to some favorite clients, and I started getting nervous about a feeling that the market was about to undergo a huge shift.

Over the next few weeks and months, I discovered some bloggers who have become wonderful friends. I remember our first meet up with Margaret Woda, Brian Block, Cindy Jones and me in Arlington. And I liked these people as much as I liked their posts! Since then, there have been bunches of face to face meetings, parties, Inman, RE Bar Camps, NAR gatherings and basically any excuse to get together with bloggers!

And during the two years I've been blogging, I've learned so much from my colleagues! If I had to do a short sale, I think I could after reading about the subject right here. It's also been great for my business, not only by helping me adopt better practices, but also from the network of excellent agents all over the country where I can sent and receive referrals. And my writing is getting better - and writing skills are so important to our business!

So, I'm totally addicted to this place! And I'm looking forward to continued fun and learning!