Ok so I have been lax at my blog posting and twittering. My excuse? I have been very busy, I had my first ever solo art show in November. I worked my arse off for 6 months getting a body of work together for this. You can see some shots from the show on my art blog. I am excited because now I have a body of work which means I can put some of my things in other galleries as well.

AND..Life takes it's twists and turns all at once. One thing led to another and in the fall of this year I found myself in school to be a real estate broker here in Arizona. Yep I jumped into school as I was finishing up my exhibition. Life was insane!

Oh! and I took on a job as manager for the Rancho Perilla Estates Master Association. This community desperately needed a new manager whom they could trust. Their situation was not good. Monies had been misappropriated, where to? No one knows. The electricity for the lights had been turned off etc.. Just oodles of issues to be reckoned with. Yeah, I took this on in the fall also.

NEXT I am preparing to open my own brokerage in January. I've got the license, I've got an office, and I am ramping up my motivation once again. There is much preparation needed to open my office. Name, Logo, learn how to make databases, decide what to offer other agents, write letters to all my clients asking them to come aboard.

MEANWHILE I am in San Carlos Mexico, my last few days of this trip. Preparing documents, finishing some art work, basking in the sunshine and teaching myself how to use databases. I may live here some day but I can't think about that now so that I can sufficiently ramp up my motivation to go back to Douglas and get this project rolling.

SO keep an eye on me and visit my new brokerage when I open in January :) Thanks.

These days this is a very common event. I'm sure there have been a kazillion attempts out there. My partner and broker has been purchasing properties for the past 5 years or so with the purpose of doing just that. I came on board with him a little over a year ago. I would go and check out a remodel he was working on. It was a lovely, but train-wrecked, Craftsman home. He was working on it when he had time and his crew was not having to do a property management task. I could see his visions and , of course , had my own opinions.

Well, I didn't work with him then, I had chosen a larger franchise office in Bisbee. I soon changed offices because it was too far away and came to work with Albert because he was creative and smart. The best negotiator I'd ever met and he was very generous with information and advice and I wasn't even working for him.

The home he was working on then turned out to be a showpiece. Really quite lovely. (sorry I have no photos, a family now lives there)

He recruited me with a day of driving around Douglas, showing me properties that he was working on or were waiting to be done. He filled me in on who owned what and where development was happening. I even spent a small part of that day instructing some of the work crew who needed to tear out flooring on another craftsman home.

Needless to say, I decided to work with Albert. Since then I have had a totally full plate. I have partnered up with him on a couple of the rehabs. We have worked on other projects for our investors also. So much has happened so quickly that I have not had time to properly document all the projects. And even worse I am not getting a complete photo diary because the finished projects are quickly rented or sold.

SO! I am committed today to choosing just a couple photos from some of the work done over the past year or so. I'd like to show the possibilities and share the experience.

I've done a terrible job at keeping track of where I put my photos, So I'll start with what I have found this morning. If today's writing doesn't get me through all of it, then I'll just accept that as fine...at least I will have done something.

820 15^th,

This is our latest project started just this month. I have a couple of early pictures but not before the crew cleaned the weeds and truckloads of trash from the yard. It's a nasty dirty place, but has solid walls and floors. The house is long and skinny with a wall down the center. To get from one side to the other you have to walk from the front to the back and around. The kitchen is near the back. Our plan is to create 2 apartments . The kitchen living areas will be toward the front with a hallway down the center starting about halfway. Bathrooms at the back with 2 entries, one from it's master and one from the hall. This creates 2 apartments with 2 beds and one bath.

As you can see it is going to be a lot of work. We are not committed to moving quickly on this one.

We will save the speed of return for projects that we are working on for our investors.

A remodel that we recently completed for an investor went like this;

Client purchased the foreclosure home through our real estate company at 50k, we remodeled within 7 weeks putting 20K worth of work into the home and have it now under a 6 month lease option for 125K.

We replaced most of the floor coverings, doors , much of the roof , did some updating in the kitchen, moved a wall to create closet space for the master and a small laundry area. We also had to replace the covering for the patio and paint the exterior. The walls were a bit beat up and we got some guys in there to work the sheet rock.

One really important thing I learned on this project was that replacing the doors with prehung doors, though the cost was a bit more, made the whole home feel more new.

Today I can only find a few of the in-process pics

Are you using twitter? Does it bring you clients.? Can it work to help people who go to your website or blog ask you quick questions?

I'm fairly addicted to twitter.

I like the idea of being human on twitter. Sometimes I have small bits of info to share and am really busy with not enough time to do a full blog article. I don't have to compose a perfect well written blog full of concise data. I can talk about things other than real estate. I believe this is helpful in life and for my business. This business for me is about relationships. Relationships are created by humans. So, It makes sense to me that twitter is a good avenue. I've been doing it for only a month or so. I checked it out a year ago and didn't understand it. I think because it wasn't complicated enough. Heh heh.

I see lots of what I would consider spammers. Plenty of real estate ones. It's as though some real estate twitter folks have prewritten blogs that they post en masse and send off a tinyurl en masse to twitterers. I don't want to be one of those.

I posted on my website a widget that shows what my last tweet was ...(well I am transitioning my website so it is only on the new pages) It would be cool if people were able to ask questions directly from that widget, but all they get to do is read. However they could go on and sign up at www.twitter.com

I've also been researching this weekend about the value of followers and following on twitter. http://scobleizer.com/2008/03/23/the-secret-to-twitter/

This gentleman's blog gives a reasonable and interesting view on the value of following and how that relates to listening. Listening is key if you are in sales so for me this has value. Do you prefer followers or following.....or a hub of both?

I'd like to hear what results or experiences you have had with twitter.

To follow me on twitter I am maryannead

peace,

Mary Ann

I'm up early completing my marketing materials for an event that the city of Douglas AZ is hosting. They are having an All Classes Reunion events have been going on and will continue throughout the weekend. There is a golf tournament tomorrow . During the reception after the golf tournament there is opportunity for real estate businesses and others to present to the attendees reasons to move home.

I'm preparing listing flyers, a video and reasons to move back or invest in Douglas Arizona, or Cochise county. Took quite some time but I figured out how to download our listings right from the mls to flyers that are a list with pictures of the listings.

Here is the schedule.

There is also a bike race this weekend.

And apparently...rain and wind from hurricane Norbert! What's up with that!? We live in the high desert. I'm fairly sure the Sierra Madre mountains will mellow it out.

There is the Two Flags Festival this weekend at Castro Park. Celebrating our sister cities here on the border with Mexico. Douglas and Agua Prieta. There will be vendors and entertainment.

Got lots to do to get ready for some fun. :)

Myth and Magic of Manufactured Homes.

Manufactured homes are great options for buyers who need an inexpensive option for a home and also for homes in rural places. A manufactured home can be completed in much less time than a site built. The quality of these homes has much improved since the “trailer” or ”mobile” phase. These homes can be ground set or on pedestals or walls. Either option might prove useful depending on the environment they are in. Raising one off the ground in an area that has occasional flooding might be just the answer to being able to live in a place that has a rainy season. Other people set theirs' closer to the ground resembling more of a ground-set patio home.

These homes can be moved and placed on lots that are just what your client wants. Conventional financing will be the way to try. Moving a home will limit financing...FHA will not finance one that has been just moved to another lot.

However with respect to placing a manufactured home on a remote location the prospects are great. Your home gets trucked in to the location and put together in much shorter time than if it was a site built. This saves quite a bit on costs and the difficulty of getting workers to come to your mountain hideaway. These homes can be set up with sustainable energy sources such as wind and solar power. They can also be insulated to high “R” factors.

Newer homes, not necessarily “brand new” have value. They are structurally sound and can be remodeled as have some of the homes I have for sale. We have one listed with ceramic tile flooring and another has parquet hardwood floors and beautiful porch additions. Manufactured homes from the late 1990's forward have improved features. The structures are now made from 2x4 framing as opposed to wimpy 1x3's. The outer walls are hardboard siding allowing for better insulation. However our office has only gotten one financed during the past year. It seems to be a struggle even for the most qualified buyers.

Consequently the pricing on these homes is plummeting as sellers are desperate to sell and move on. Most of my sellers are doing seller carry on these homes. They are getting $8000 to $10000 as down-payment. This much down-payment would normally get someone a loan. To make this more of a concern, with plummeting selling prices the appraisals rarely seem to work for traditional financing.

I guess I seem a bit frustrated with the situation of financing. However as always I'm working creatively to solve the issues.

peace without bandaids :)

On October 1st, from 10 am to 2 pm the Canadian Snowbirds are performing here in Douglas. ...Yes it is a Wednesday. I asked Robin " Why a show in the middle of the week?" She said that they have a very busy schedule and being our first time having them all they could give us was a weekday. She said they are amazing and it would be well worth some time in the middle of the day.

So,....... I looked around a bit and found in blogs and this news article from earlier this year that they are among the most amazing flight teams ever. If you want to do real estate business next Wednesday I suggest you find me at the air show!