Have any of my fello active rainers made use of myspace?  If so, have you seen any busines as a result?  I am curious about what you are doing etc...  I have set one up but it seems like everyone thinks it is a spam bot or some fake thing.  If you get the chance, make friends with my spam bot! lol.

http://myspace.com/michianarealtor

The Chad was created by a comedian of sorts.  I saw this and thought it was a real-Realtor putting together his marketing package for an open house on video - but this guy is a little crazier than I am.  Just a little. 

 At any rate, how much does yoru open house marketing differ?  Seriously now, how much do you want to go out and do "THE CHAD"?

 Heres the link:

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=8535353s

This is a cause very important to me- Down Syndrome Awareness.  If you know me, you know I have 3 fantastic sons, Elijah 6, Ashton 4 (almost), and Ian 2.  Ian was born with Down Syndrome.  It was scary at first, it shouldn't have been.  Make yourself AWARE!!!!!  Down Syndrome does not define my son, nor should it define those folks you come into contact with in society with disabilities.  Have a conversation with a person with down syndrome - maybe you'll find enlightenment.  :)

Here is a link to the NEW National Down Syndrome Video on YOUTUBE.com called Dreams.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-_-P4t2jR1g

My boy Ian - The musician!  :-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oivendV9OKk

Good times more real estate humor!  This is pretty funny stuff relating to how silly newscasters can be relative to Realty news.  Smarmy Realtors, cheesy reporters, sounds like national news potential to me!

 I'd really like to put together a funny, informative real estate video that I can email to consumers each month but it seems like its hard enough just sending out my monthly eNewsletter!

Is it me or does it seem like things are sloooooowly starting to pick back up?  Buyers seem to be slowly reintroducing themselves into the marketplace but my goodness is it glacial! 

My current marketplace has seen several very tragic factors:

 the mortgage industry's crumbling, Notre Dame's terrible season, over-optimistic sellers, and under informed buyers.

 How is YOUR LOCAL market?

Do you like your Raccoon in the Chimney/Roof/Siding/Porch...during home inspections?

I recently had a listing sell and the home inspector peed their pants screaming out of the house after finding a ferocious Racoon nestled in the chimney.

He called me on my cell phone to bawl me out over the incident, I couldn't stop laughing - I think a little pee came out - which caused the inspector to laugh agrily at me (don't ask about pee- he went when the little turd racoon tried to eat him)!

MY TRIBUTE TO RACOONS!

Bring it on Home Inspector PUNK! -Raccoon Monster

Raccoon Greeting Home Inspector                                    Thumbnail of Raccoon Assailants

Then came the jack of all crimes: 

The Raccoon Violated My Dog!

Much debate has been stirring among both Prudential Real Estate Professionals as well as non Prudential Professionals about the true meaning of an "AGENT 24/7" as a result of the National firm's media blitz/frenzy/campaign/wumpusing/etc.

It is important to note that no agent in their right friggin' mind will cater to the never-ending needs of their beloved clients 24/7, but with that being said, it is/should be important to note that many of the tools that our (by our I mean Prudential's) fine firm is providing, both paid subscription (reasonable of course) and freebies (from our beloved frachise fees), tend to lead us in the direction/capability of providing services/communications to our clients when most agents are sleeping or returning from the pub.

Theses (Golem) services my precious givesies the client the (back to me) impression that we are really, truly working around the clock for the betterment of selling their home - and to me that is EXACTLY why I pay a franchise fee which seems to pay for some fairly awesome national exposure and Hollywood style commercials.

 Are you an agent 24/7 (regardless of firm) and if so how do you provide services when you're sleeping/pubbing/conversing/churching/etc.???

 Thanks ;)

 Jesse

I know that more and more of us have been hearing about Craigslist.com, if we haven't already.  The site has fast become a nationwide classifieds phenomenon. 

I was directed to start adding my listings some time ago but found the task to be soooo daunting it seemed that the time associated with posting all your listings over and over again, if need be (in my market - need be), was time consuming, tiring, boring, blah blah WAH WAH....I can keep going... I'll stop, for your sake.  ;)

It seems there are still many valuable uses of Craigslist by Realtors, and fellow Real Estate crazies, but I'm curious as to what  YOU find to be the best use of CL (Craigslist) as it has been dubbed by obsessive CL'ers (Craigslisters) (another term created by CL users as a result of the wildfire it has spawned).  Of course if you have any time in the CL game, you already knew of these commonly utilized terminologies, etc.

Without further ado, let's hear your thoughts...

I just read an article in our local paper regarding how well staging can help sell a home in an expedited manner.  Is it really a function of the home at the end of the day regardless of wether the home was staged by a professional interior designer?

 Have any of you used an interior design staging professional?  If so what were your experiences with the staging of homes you have marketed  in the past?

 If you are a fan of staging what would you look for in an interior designer?  What types of questions would you ask them?  How much do they generally charge for staging a home?

Has anyone seen or heard about the ridiculous tax situation we have going on in Indiana, more specifically St. Joseph County where tax rate is upwards of 5.5 % and reassessments are going the way of market value.  A home without tax exemptions with an assessed value of $50,000 would yield taxes of $2500 a year! 

The local government is likely to raise the tax rate along with the current reASSessments!  Since they started reassessing and raising the tax rate, South Bend has seen neighborhoods where the predominant ownership is non owner occupant go the way of 50% vacancy rates due to foreclosures and rent increases in order to make up for ungodly escrow payment increases for taxes.

 These events are taking place and our leadership is making no real effort to squash the real estate pandemic they have caused.  There was a bill passed by the Indiana Legislature to put a 2% rate cap on tax rates which was later raised to 3% due to many county protests.  The problem is that this only solves part of the problem - if you cap the rate and leave the assessment criteria alone, our local government will do what they have the power to do- raise assessed values to compensate for the impending rate decrease.  Either way, tax payers are screwed and paying out the reASSessment!