Sales are picking up in Tucson for single family homes under $240,000.  AR REALTOR Kevin Wood had a buyer referred by a business source from our BNI Chapter.  I stopped by Kevin's office (Realty Executives of Southern Arizona on Kolb) but Kevin hadn't yet arrived.

It was early morning, and I had my camera, so I looked for something to photograph. 

This is the time of year we love best here in the Old Pueblo.  Daytime high in the 80s, nights down in the 60s.  Flowers are in bloom, and the entrance to Realty Executives sported these purple flowers.

One lonesome bee (it isn't a honeybee) was checking me out, hovering like a helicopter six or eight feet away, darting off, and then coming back to the same spot.

I'm thinking the infra-red autofocus was in a spectrum he could see, because each time I focused the camera on him, he did an about-face and showed me his backside.  LOL

Still, I was happy with the result.  The bees are busy, and so are REALTORS and lenders in Tucson, AZ.

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

photos copyright Mike in Tucson

My Darlin' says I have a lot of nerve posting this photo. 

It's me.  Thirty years ago in upstate New York... 

1. Do you still have a business card photo from that ancient date? 
   
2. Are you brave enough to endure the LMAO's? 
   
3. Would ANYONE you know in the Rain be able to put your "today" photo together with your 1980 photo?

Oh, I know there are those out there who haven't changed the glamour photo on your business card in the last decade.  Some of you are right here in Tucson, working for...  Well, never mind.  I'd only get in trouble.

Anyhow, those of you who were in diapers in 1980 needn't comment.  Let's hear from those who were born before 1960.

Don't be shy.  And please do upload a photo.  Tell us where you were when it was taken.  LOL!

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

The Arizona Cowboy Symposium, "a western heritage event that preserves the tradition, heritage and memories of the rural American West," is coming to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds November 13-15, 2009.

Supporters of The Arizona Cowboy Symposium include Southwest Strings right here in Tucson, purveyor of quality instruments & accessories at exceptional prices, and Larrivee Guitars, beautifully crafted guitars endorsed by Doc Stovall. 

If (like me) you're fortunate enough to attend, here's what awaits us:

• 30 Western Acts on 4 stages
• Western Trade Show
• Western Swing Dances Friday and Saturday nights at 7:00 p.m.
• Antique Car Show
• Chili Cookoff

The Mission

The mission of the Arizona Cowboy Symposium Association is to perpetuate and preserve the heritage and values of the Old West and the American Cowboy, by producing the Arizona Cowboy Symposium, a western heritage event, and any other event that promotes and preserves the tradition, heritage, and memories of the rural American West. 

These events will bring to the public the art, music, prose and poetry of the American Cowboy and his legacy.

Through our endeavors [we will] establish and support the Brielle Boisvert Scholarship Fund for students who wish to continue their studies in music, literature or rural agricultural endeavors including, but not limited to, veterinarian science and ranch management and operation.

I expect to be there!  I'm hoping to see you.

 ___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, and I blog here on the Active Rain Real Estate Network just about every day.

I'm an internet-based mortgage lender who happens to reside in Tucson, Arizona.  Read my blog, and get to know me.  The internet allows me to perform at the highest level of trust and productivity for clients anywhere in the world. 
At the moment, we're completing purchase loans in less than 30 days for US Citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Click the Active Rain link below to see my guarantee of service.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE, LLC
a correspondent banker
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

I opened escrow for one of my FSBO clients yesterday at Stewart Title & Trust of Tucson, 3131 East Broadway Blvd.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled into the parking lot and found that the inmates had taken over the facility!

I looked around to see if maybe Sherrif Joe Arpaio from Maricopa (the man of pink-underwear-for-inmates fame) had come to Pima County, but I didn't see him.

These two inmates were not in the least camera-shy.  (Unusual for inmates...)

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

Some mornings it's downright hard to go to work.  This 3" male Costa's hummingbird can be pretty demanding, sitting on the tip of an Octopus Agave, glaring at the kitchen window, just waiting for his feeder to be filled.

That's not the expression of patience.  He knows who's in charge, and it's not me. 

Perhaps if I were shooting the photos with 35 mm film, I'd be more disciplined.  After all, each shot with film costs money. That's the beauty of digital photography.  I can keep on taking pictures as long as he will oblige by sticking around.  Too bad that I have a day job as a mortgage guy...

But we funded a VA purchase today, and my borrowers enjoy birds too.  They have a kitchen of their own now, with mountain views and as many as 20 different kinds of hummingbirds to attract.

Isn't life good!

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

photo copyright Mike in Tucson

New Jersey has tales of the "Jersey Devil."  New England's "Headless Horseman," from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, is famous for his pursuit of Ichabod Crane.

Our Halloween monster, the Stalking Saguaro of the Desert, wanders the edges of Tucson's desert, frequenting lonely stretches in search of little children wearing costumes and carrying pillowcases filled with candy...

Parents:  Don't leave your children alone tonight near the desert's edge.

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

photo copyright Mike in Tucson

"Put together a Bio and we'll feature & sell your photography." WOWSERS!  A dream come true!

The Relationship:  This is an Active Rain success story that started when a couple in Tennessee decided to relocate to Tucson. 

My phone rang, and a woman asked about qualifying for a mortgage to purchase a home.  Charissa had found me "on the internet."  (Thanks, Active Rain.  This is the only place she would have found me.)  "I read your blog," she said, "and you seem like someone I can trust."  (Thanks again, Active Rain.)

We accomplished Charissa's goal of prequalification, and during the process I asked if she had a REALTOR relationship in Tucson.

She did not, and was open to a referral. I referred her to (who else?) an Active Rainer!  (Thanks for making me a value-added lender, Active Rain!) 

Charissa's husband Lee, a furniture designer for more than 20 years, met the owner of BAKER'S FINE FURNISHINGS (2303 East Grant Road, Tucson, AZ) at a furniture show back east. 

One thing led to another, and Lee accepted a design position at Tucson's premier furniture store, Baker's Fine Furnishings.

Long story short, Lee & Charissa are now Tucson homeowners and friends with both their REALTOR and their lender. 

The Marketing:  You Rainers are a most encouraging community of creative bloggers. 

Joan Mirantz in NH has commented more than once that I've missed my calling. (I guess that's why I've never been asked to do a loan for one of her clients...)

Virginia's Lenn Harley has used at least two of my photos as the inspiration for her oil paintings. (So far, I haven't been able to get her to part with one.)

I put together a portfolio, framed five or six photos, and went to see Lee Goodrum, designer at Baker's Fine Furnishings.  And there's the bio up top.

Moral of the story:  It pays to use Active Rain as more than a platform for listings. 

Interaction is the key to widening circles of influence in social media.  The most unexpected blessings come about when we bloggers interact with one another on the Active Rain Real Estate Network!

___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

photos copyright Mike in Tucson

I looked out the sliding glass door, and these two eyes glowed at me out of the darkness.

Grab the camera.

Camera out of the case.

Flash on. ISO Sensitivity, 800.

The eyes disappeared, leaving only inky blackness.  Had it left?  Perhaps it only looked away?

Sneak the sliding door open quietly.

Step out on the ramada.

Camera on.

The eyes appeared again out of the darkness, immobile, fixed on me.

Zoom in on the subject.   Flash!

This mule deer doe was munching on my neighbor's rosebush.  She wasn't spooked by the flash nearly as much as I was spooked by those glowing eyes!

Tucson Estates 2 is perfect for a short term fall or winter vacation.  Located up against Tucson Mountain Park's 140,000 acres of accessible wilderness, we are visited by the most magnificent desert dwellers. 

Short term rental of furnished single family homes can be available for much less than the price of a resort, and hey... You already know someone in the neighborhood.

 ___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, and I blog here on the Active Rain Real Estate Network just about every day.

I'm an internet based mortgage lender who happens to reside in Tucson, Arizona.  Read my blog, and get to know me.  The internet allows me to perform at the highest level of trust and productivity for clients anywhere in the world.  At the moment, we're completing purchase loans in less than 30 days for US Citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Click the Active Rain link below to see my guarantee of service.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE, LLC
a correspondent banker
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

photo copyright Mike in Tucson

You CAN do it!  I did, and I was just as much a Newbie as you are now when I found the Active Rain Real Estate Network a couple of years ago.  My first post found its way onto this site in July of 2007. 

Since that time, I've blogged consistently, week in and week out, except for one month while my Darlin' was laid up.  It's the consistency, more than anything else, that's taken me to the top of Arizona's 5,880 + bloggers in the Rain. 

You CAN do it!  What you can't do is give up.  Someone I signed up told me they were quitting this week, after less than three months in the Rain.  That made me think about my own experience with Active Rain.

• It took four months of blogging before I got my first referral that turned into a closed transaction. 
  
• It took another three months before a second referral put money in my pocket. 

By the end of my first year blogging on Active Rain, I noticed a change in my business. 
People who would have never known me found me because I blog consistently on Active Rain. 

Here's what I do:  (1) I take a photo, and save it to my computer.  When I run out of ideas on subject matter, my photo folder never lets me down.  It gives me an idea.  (2) I turn the idea into a story, and post it on Active Rain.  (3)  I answer my phone when it rings. (EDIT: Here's a perfect example.)

Here are a few stories about how that's working out:

• March, 2008.  My phone rang, and someone I had never met, whose REALTOR wanted him to get pre-approved with HER lender, was on the line.  He was laughing, and he begged me not to hang up, because (he said) this wasn't a prank phone call.  "I'm on the internet looking for a lender in Tucson, and everywhere I look, I'm finding you, and these stories you write."  He hired me as his lender, and the home he bought had a contract price of $940,000.
• September, 2008.  My phone rang, and the woman on the other end had sold her home out of state and had taken a job in Tucson.  She wanted to buy a home, and went to the internet to see who she wanted to use for the mortgage.  "I found your blog, and you seem like someone I can trust."  We pre-approved her, and referred her to a REALTOR who sends me business. 
  
• October, 2008.  My phone rang.  The person on the other end found me on the internet...
• January, 2009.  My first "out-of-town" REALTOR referral came about when the REALTOR called me and asked "Can you do loans outside of Tucson?"  My response: "I can do loans out of the country!" 
  

Half of my business now comes from first, second and third generation referrals that I can tie back to the Active Rain Real Estate Network members, and people who accidentally find my blog. 

The key word, dear Newbie, is "consistently."

You can DO it!  Blog consistently, and a wide audience will come to know you and trust you.  Write what's on your heart. You don't have to write tutorials or really bright stuff.  (I'm not all that bright.)  I am, however, very competent at my job as a lender, and I'm trustworthy.  You won't find the words "competent" and "trustworthy" in my posts, because saying so don't make it so.  Trust takes time, and it comes from the reader, not from the blogger.

This post is getting wordy, so I'll quit. 

One last takeaway?  You CAN do it!  Need help or encouragement?  Email me.  I'll find time for you.

 ___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, and I blog here on the Active Rain Real Estate Network just about every day.

I'm an internet based mortgage lender who happens to reside in Tucson, Arizona.  Read my blog, and get to know me.  The internet allows me to perform at the highest level of trust and productivity for clients anywhere in the world.  At the moment, we're completing purchase loans in less than 30 days for US Citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Click the Active Rain link below to see my guarantee of service.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE, LLC
a correspondent banker
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

Cougar.  Mountain Lion.  Tigre'.  The Indians I grew up with in Suriname, South America never saw one of these North American cats.  The one they feared was the Jaguar.  They called it "Kai Kwi."

Don't come to Tucson without visiting the Arizona - Sonora Desert Museum.  It's one of the world's ten best zoos.  This magnificent cat isn't cooped up in a 20 x 20 cage with a concrete floor.  She's the beneficiary of some of the most forward thinking zookeepers on the planet.

My Darlin' and I live six miles from the "Desert Museum."  Most of that six miles consists of Tucson Mountain Park (surrounding our little neighborhood of Tucson Estates II) and Saguaro National Park West.

Talk about blessed!  Come visit, and let us share it with you.  If you like it here, I know some great REALTORS, and we can talk about a mortgage...  I'm good at that.

 ___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, and I blog here on the Active Rain Real Estate Network just about every day.

I'm an internet based mortgage lender who happens to reside in Tucson, Arizona.  Read my blog, and get to know me.  The internet allows me to perform at the highest level of trust and productivity for clients anywhere in the world.  At the moment, we're completing purchase loans in less than 30 days for US Citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Click the Active Rain link below to see my guarantee of service.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE, LLC
a correspondent banker
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090

photo copyright Mike in Tucson