Great Advice from Your Local Home Improvement Store - 01/30/08 06:09 PM
Every so often I get a great one page flyer from Lowe's - the home improvement store.  It's all about getting you home ready or getting you home nice or just puttering around.
It's a quick read and mostly right on the money. 
This one is about getting organized and de-cluttering, which is always a good thing, especially if you're thinking of selling your home. 
If you would like to download and print the flyer -- Click Here
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Customer Service the way it should be... - 01/30/08 08:23 AM
I just came away from two customer service experiences that were so positive I just had to blog about them.  It just served as a reminder that, done right, great customer service makes me feel so warm and fuzzy and with such positive feelings toward the provider that I will gladly become a raving fan, screaming advocate or whatever the buzzword du jour is for someone spreading good word-of-mouth.
The first experience was with Medco which is the Federal Government's current mail-order pharmacy.  My wife is a Fed (thank God) which means I get to take advantage of her health insurance. I … (3 comments)

"Short" Sales, the Media and You - 01/29/08 09:54 PM
I just finished watching a show on CNBC called The Millionaire Inside: Debt Makeover and I was astonished at the real estate advice the Money Mentors were offering.
Granted.  The debtors (two couples and two singles) were in deep debt and had pretty poor credit scores as a result. However, there seemed to be pretty consistent counsel to sell their home in a "short sale" as part of the plan to get out of debt.  In fact, the Money Mentors made this suggestion so quickly that it made me wonder if they realized that "short sales" weren't that easy and would … (2 comments)

Housing Statistics for College Park and Berwyn Heights, MD - 01/24/08 08:27 PM
Here are the housing statistics for December 2007 in the City of College Park and Town of Berywn Heights, MD.  As you can tell, it's a little better than Prince George's County as a whole but still not a pretty picture with the number of sales significantly down and the Days on Market significantly higher.
It ain't pretty.
 
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How to be Number 1 on the AR Hit Parade - 01/22/08 05:28 AM
I'm relatively new to Active Rain and I have to admit that I'm not tuned into all the tricks and hacks in order to get to the top of the list.  Heck, I'm not even really sure how to get a nice little HTML signature file to show up at the bottom of my blog posts like some Bloggers can.  
However, I ran across a post the other day that let me know how to sky rocket my points and work my way up the proverbial ladder to the tippy top of my area lists  Who knows?  Maybe if I follow … (11 comments)

Preparing Your Home to Sell -- Setting the Stage - 01/19/08 09:51 AM
In my previous posts about getting your home ready for sale I emphasized the importance of --
1.  Being Priced Competitively
2.  The Benefits of Location
3. The Overall Condition of Your Home 
4.  Curb Appeal
5.  Making Repairs and de-cluttering and
6.  How Long it Might Take Your Home to Sell 
Now, it's time to put the finishing touches on your home so that when prospective buyers come by to visit, the first thing they'll think is, "WOW!". 
In many cases, a home has been updated over the years and current owners have a great kitchen, fabulous baths and clean,open spaces for family rooms, living rooms and … (1 comments)

Housing Trends in Prince George's County -- Up or Down? - 01/18/08 04:14 PM
Our local Multiple Listing Service (known as MRIS) provides a ton more in services than just listing your home. It also provides accurate data regarding housing sales. Below is a general overview of the situation in Prince George's County. It ain't pretty.
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Making Your Home Attractive to Buyers - 01/12/08 10:27 PM
Now that you've decided to put your home on the market and make the outside look great (curb appeal) and you've priced your home competitively so that you will attract the most buyers possible it's time to make the inside look great.
In the age of the Internet and with lots of people online looking at homes it is more important than ever to make sure your home looks like a page from a magazine.  I know this is particularly hard if you have kids and/or pets but making your home look clean and attractive will help you sell your home … (1 comments)

Realtors and their cars - 01/05/08 10:12 PM
Way back in October (is that way back?) I posted something called Realtors and their Photos asking the question posed from a great guy at Adaptive Blue about why Realtors have their photos on thier business cards.
This post is about cars and I'll come to the point in a minute.
When I first began my career in real estate I was at a little social gathering - I think it was a cook-out - attended by some friends from my church community.  One guy, in particular was from my parents generation and his first word of advice to me after I announced … (5 comments)

Discussion of the DC Metro Area Housing Market on WAMU -- 88.5 FM - 01/03/08 12:21 PM
I just finished listening to almost an hour of discussion on the Kojo Nnamdi Show about the housing market in the DC Metro area.  Fascinating stuff. 
There was a lot of talk about the outer Virginia suburbs (Loudon and Prince William Counties) but there was a healthy dose of discussion about the ARMs that are about to re-set, living close-in to DC vs farther away, and a few call-ins from people who had great success stories about selling their homes in a relatively short period of time.
Guess what?  The people who called in to say they sold their homes quickly (one used … (1 comments)

Preparing Your Home to Sell -- Curb Appeal - 01/02/08 07:36 AM
A big part of what home owners can control when putting their home on the market is the over all condition of their home.  Certainly, curb appeal -- how your home looks when you drive up to it -- is very important.  The grass should be nicely mowed and any gardening or landscaping should look as nice as possible.  Any major items should be stored away.  These include things like toys, trash cans and recycling bins, tools and other big things that take away from the overall appearance of the house.
It's important to have good curb appeal for two reasons: … (2 comments)