Bill France was an amazing man.  Full of talent, dreams and always ready to encourage others.  He moved to Daytona Beach during the depression with just $100. in his pocket and a dream of racing. 

Years ago I read a message that Bill France, Sr. wrote to a friend.  It's a quote that I use to guide me in life as well as run my company.

The quote :

"On the plains of hesitation lie the bleached bones of millions who when within the grasp of victory sat and waited and waiting died." - Bill France Sr.

Those words have made me NOT wait.  Not wait to start a family, not wait to take a chance, not wait until I had the money, not wait to change my life or my direction, just NOT WAIT!

I was 26 years old and a single mother when I started in real estate.  I left a job that had become non challenging and uninteresting to me.  And I started at the very bottom.  I became a secretary (and I was well over qualified for the position).  I took night classes and sometimes even carried my 3 year old daughter with me with a coloring book and a box of crayons) to class.  I got my license in 1994.  I had my first closing just two months later.  In 1995 my broker told me of his intentions to retire and sell his company.  I didn't want just ANY boss.  So I went in debt up my eyeballs and purchased Lane Realty. In 1997 on the very first day I legally qualified to sit for my state broker exam I took it and aced it.  I loved being in control of my own life and destiny.  I loved the freedom of being able to schedule work around the important things in my daughter's life... dance recitals, softball games, prom day, birthdays.  Besides I also had the ability to take her to work.  She has seen MANY houses on Lake Sinclair and at about 7 years old she started answering the phone and taking messages and working in my office.  I've raised a great kid with an excellent work ethic.

I didn't hesitate to give away my heart when I met my soul mate either.  In 1998 I met my husband.  4 years later we married.  And I didn't hesitate in making his family become part of my family.  I didn't try to get their approval I just assumed I had it and became part of his family instantly.

I didn't hesitate when his youngest son, who has MD, asked to move into our house.  I accepted him as my own, invited the challenges and moved forward. A few years after than when the diagnosis of schizophrenia came I handled that too.

I didn't hesitate to go further into debt to build a new office 5 years ago when the media was telling all of us the "bubble" was going to burst anytime.  I have NOT missed a mortgage payment yet.

I walk with the LORD beside me and faith feeds the hungry and clothes the cold.

• I didn't hesitate to move into new technology and the internet with my advertising 14 years ago.
• I don't hesitate to change to my schedule to work with buyers.
• I don't hesitate to tell sellers the facts and not what I think they want to hear.
• I don't hesitate to take the day off to be with my family when needed.

At the end of my life (even if that were to happen to be today) I would leave this world knowing several things.

1. Jesus is my savior and I'm going to sit face to face with God.
2. I am proud of my daughter
3. My parents taught me how to love unconditionally and I was blessed when God placed me in their care.
4. My husband is the love of my life and I'm truly blessed we found one another.
5. God allowed me a hand in raising two children that I didn't give birth to, but am blessed to know and love.

So without knowing how many lives he would touch by that message Bill France, Sr. jotted down on the back of a business card when he was encouraging one of his friends he changed the world.  He changed me and every life I touch and so on and so on.

Don't hesitate!  Jump in with both feet, go for it.  Don't wait and die waiting.

Approved short sale, no lengthy wait time for bank approval. 

3 Bedroom, 2 Bath Master bedroom opens to large lake front deck that's great for grilling.  Seawall & dock at the lake.  Open greatroom with fireplace, open to dining area and kitchen.

Lot has very gentle slope to lake, good water depth and excellent location very convenient to shopping just minutes from 441.  Nice view of lake from house and dock.  Located on cove, but very close to larger part of lake.    Many recent updates made to this home. 

Currently occupied by tenants so an appointment will be needed, but call today to schedule your appointment and we'll be happy to set it for you.  This is a great buy at $219,900.

For more details & photos Go to www.Lake-Sinclair.com

Growing family and need more room?  Empty nester and need less room?  Want a boathouse and dock?  Sunporch?  Whatever your housing need I can help. 

Spring is just around the corner (typing that made me feel better, it's cold today) and that's the start of the hot selling season on Lake Sinclair.  I listed a new cute 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath ranch on the water in Baldwin County today.  I'll post that house tomorrow and let you see the details.  I also got details on a new listing I'll try to "sneak preview" for you in the next few days.  It's HUGE, two master suites, and in total 4 Bedrooms and 3.5 baths.  Great location, water, view and virtually all new including new windows, flooring, paint, tile, hardwoods, carpet, appliances, cabinets and deck. 

If you know what kind of Lake house you are looking to find, call me and I'll help you find it.  Need help finding a great lender and I can help with that too.  Lake Sinclair is a wonderful lake and there are many homes for sale right now at some great prices.  When you are a buyer client with Lane Realty we offer a CMA before you make an offer. We can help you be in YOUR lake home before the Memorial Day weekend if we start looking soon.  Call today for an appointment. 

Do you want to do something great for a Purple Heart Recipient? Bob Paschal does and he does.  You can help him or get in contact with him if you know a purple heart recipient you'd like to get to participate in a pheasant shoot.  Bob stopped by my office today for a visit and I helped him out just a little.  He wanted help with a letter to mail out to seek sponsorship for these Veterans.  You see Bob runs a foundation dedicated to helping this young veterans.  Why?  Well because he's walked a few thousand miles in their shoes.

Bob, center of photo served 5 tours in Korea and Vietnam.  Today while visiting at my office he shared that sometimes he never even knew where he would be flying on his next mission.  Today he does know what his mission is and I know it's my and My Donald's missions to do what we can to support our wounded service members as well.  So today I put together some address labels and a saved a flier in .pdf for Bob to go and get printed to mail out in hopes of getting some sponsorships.

The pheasant shoot will be in October and you can help too.  Bob's organization "Americans Helping Wounded Veterans" is dedicated to helping those who have been wounded in service to our country while protecting our freedoms. I hope to get to actually go this fall to meet some of the veterans who participate. Not long ago I attended a benefit concert.  I was actually honored to meet a medal of Hon or recipient at that concert. 

If you know of a purple heart recipient contact Bob Paschal at 478-836-5816 to find out how they can participate.  He'd love to meet them and share this wonderful experience.  He's been doing this for years and years.  If you'd like to help you can certainly do so by mailing a donation (any size donation is wonderful and welcome) to Americans Helping Wounded Veterans P.O. Box 531 Roberta,  GA 31078.  I'm going to share with you some photos from the 2011 hunt that I hope will inspire you to donate.  I can't think of a great cause that makes a difference in our daily lives... for all of us.

Please, if you would consider helping sponsor a purple heart recipient who has sacrificed SO much to protect our freedoms.  Help give them this opportunity to have this weekend together, to be together and have a little fun.  Thanks for your consideration. 

If you are selling a manufactured home in the state of Georgia, there are now specific laws in place on how to handle the DMV title to your manufactured home.  These laws have been in place since 2002, but some purchases made since that time were not handled properly.  MANY transactions closed without transfer of title prior to 2002.

I had a recent experience where my seller owned a manufactured doublewide on Lake Sinclair and what the title search uncovered was shocking.  One half of the doublewide was in the name of owner # 1 of property, one half was in the name of # 3 owner and my seller was owner # 7. 

Since owner # 1 was deceased and owner # 3 could not be located, this presented a bit of a problem.  When the person who's name the title is currently in cannot be located, the only solution is a bonded/insured title.  This takes just a few steps and the cost depends on the value the state of Georgia places on the home based on it's make, model and size.  It usually runs between $300 and $1,000.

The insurance company will usually mail the paperwork to my office and then we have a deputy sheriff meet us at the home with the T-22b forms to verify serial numbers.  That paperwork along with a check for the bonded title amount is sent back to the insurance company.  Then they mail back to the seller or my office (whichever is more convenient to my seller) and the seller then has to take paperwork to the court house to be filed and usually within about 10 days the state will mail a new title to be transferred and retired at the time of closing.  Once a title to a manufactured home is retired it is no longer an issue.

There are times when the previous owner can be located, but does not actually have the title.  It's "lost" misplaced, discarded.  If the previous owner will cooperate, money can be saved by ordering a duplicate title.  The person who's name the title is in must go to the court house where the property is located and show proof of identity and for $8.00 can order a duplicate title that can be transferred into current owners name for an additional $18.00.

I have driven out of town and picked up previous owners to come to the courthouse to take care of this and had duplicate title mailed to my office and then driven it back to out of town previous owners for signature.  The signed duplicate title can then be transfered into current owners name.

We also recently had a title that still showed a lien from a loan that had been paid off and we had to get the former loan holder to fill out a form to get the lien removed from the new title.

In my experience in real estate in an area where we have many manufactured homes I have encountered this issue many times.  It is now part of my listing check list when dealing with a manufactured home, because sometimes it takes weeks to locate people and get all the paperwork done.

If you own a manufactured home, find out before you decide to sell it if your title is in your name.  In fact you can retire it and not have to deal with it when you sell at all if it is in your name and not being held by your lender. 

If you don't know where your title is or if in fact it is even in your name you can call the tag office in the county where your manufactured home is located and give them the serial number (which is located inside the home "usually") and they can tell you the information of current name? any liens?

Additional information is available on the Georgia Department of Revenue web site.

If you are listing your manufactured home, you want to make sure that you are listing with an agent who is experienced in handling these types of issues so your transaction can go smoothly.

I've had my own bad experience with large corporations.  Share Gail's story everywhere and let's help get her computer back.  Please put all comments on Gail's post and share her message on facebook and twitter.

Last evening while watching television with my husband my cell rang.  It was just before 8 p.m. and I answered the call to hear the familiar "you've got a zillow call" and I waited to hear the connection and said hello again.  What followed is a story with a happy ending.

For the sake of privacy for parties involved I used an address in my neighborhood, NOT the actual one, but when the caller put in an address of a home NOT for sale he got results that looked like this:

He didn't know me, I didn't know him and he was not looking to buy or sell a home.  He was desperate for information about the relative that lived in the address he typed into the Zillow search.  The person he was looking for was an elderly widow lady he is related to and he lives in a mid-western state.  He had called the number he had for her and found her phone had been disconnected.  So he reached out to me when he found my photo and phone number next to her address on Zillow.

I don't know what YOU think the chances are of me working in a zip code that at last census count had 40,000 people of me knowing the person he was looking for, but it just so happens that I did.  In fact, one of my agents that has been retired for 8 or so years sold this lady her home before her husband died.  In fact, just days before he died.  He never got to spend a night in his new home.  But this lady, who purchased this home 1998 still lived there.  So mid day today I drove out to her home and delivered the message and phone number from her relative.  I didn't get to see her, she had company when I  stopped by.  Her son who now lives with her took the message and promised me he'd have her call the relative later in the day.  I called the relative and let him know I'd stopped by and left his name and number with the son and that her land line had been disconnected because she had a cell phone and felt no need for two lines.

This evening I got another call.  It wasn't on the Zillow contact number.  It was on my home land line.  He was thanking me for the call he'd just received from his relative.  So while I didn't "make a sale" from the call I got last night on Zillow... I made a friend.  I told him that if he ever needed anything from me again to keep my number and call again. 

I'm a very faithful person and I know that sometimes God puts people and things in our lives and paths for a greater purpose even if we don't know it at the time.  And if I hadn't made those 6 sales from being on Zillow last year and if I didn't already have my first contract of 2012 from a Zillow lead, and only got that ONE call from last night I would still be a satisfied zillow premium agent.  I think I got some good karma juju today.

So amongst all the people who are whining and withdrawing from syndication... go ahead.  I'm happy about what I did today and I know at least two other people who are happy about it too.  Zillow has value for us.

Yesterday my Donald was off work.  He did laundry, but he did leave an ink pen in his uniform shirt pocket. Ooops. (Thank goodness he didn't put MY clothes in with his uniforms)   I tried lots of things before I found "the" thing I knew would work.  We spayed with Oxi Clean laundry spray.  Nope, Ink still there.  Tried alchohol (rubbing not drinking), nope ink still there.  Dawn, no luck, Tide... didn't touch it.  So I kept digging under my bathroom vanity until I found "IT".  It is hairspray.  I don't use hairspray.  I bet this tiny little can I found is at least 20 years old.  But I sprayed, I scrubbed with a brush and I let it soak about ten minutes and sprayed again then laundred as usual and the uniform shirt is saved.  Hairspray isn't just a good movie and broadway production, "IT" is the getter out of all things ink in fabric.

And I thought for anyone with a droid I would also share a FREE download that I love.  You see this year will be year 20 of seeing a tornado up close and personal when I was driving toward it to get home and saw it hit the ground in my neighborhood.  So I'm a bit weather paranoid, so I was too excited when I found Radar Now. Sorry iphone and blackberry users it's only for droids, but I know you must have something similar.  But if you have an Android go and download radar now.  In bad weather you can see the local to where your phone is radar at one touch of a button.  Cool huh?  So now when those thunder

And at our annual office gathering this year one of my agents brought "something"  it was delish.  I haven't made it yet, but I got her to share the recipe (which she of course altered from the original because that's what we southern women do).

• 2 cups of whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons of sugar (more if you like sweeter)
• 15 oreos crushed
• 4 bannanas (sliced)
• 8 oz can of crushed pineapple
• 1 cup of sliced fresh strawberries
• 2 tablespoons of chocolate syrup
• 2 tablespoons of choped pecans, toasted

Whip the cream with sugar until peaks form

Fill a large glass bowl with half the cookie crumbs, cover with half the bananas, half the strawberries, half the pineapple and half the whipped cream.  Repeat and drizzle with chocolate syrup and scatter with toasted pecan pieces. 

It is wonderful.

I call it Nancy's Something.  Because she just kept saying she was bringing deviled eggs and "something"  It's easy, fast and sure to please.

So now I'd like to invite you to share in the comments:  What's something that you think we'd like to try or could benefit from knowing?  Please feel free to leave appropriate links in the comments.  It can be real estate related or NOT.