Feng Shui This | Abducting Mom

Feng Shui This | Real Estate Prediction for 2012

Water Dragon Anyone?

"I'm Mayhem, and I'm Your Worst Nightmare!"

"I'm Mayhem, and I'm Your Worst Nightmare!"

I like small children.

I surf the internet looking for them.

I don't have to bother with social networking sites.

I can use the MLS.

I know if it's a boy or a girl.

I know approximately how old they are.

I know their address.

 

I KNOW THEIR NAME!!!

 

I know they might respond to me if I call them by their name.

 

I'm Mayhem, and I'm your worst nightmare!

 

 

 

 

Parents, if your house is for sale, PLEASE remove any and all references to specific information regarding your children.  This may include name banners, awards, certificates, report cards, signs, etc.  Don't give Mayhem a chance with with your children!

Real Estate Agents:  Please encourage your listing clients to remove name signs such as the one above.  While charming, they could put a child at risk.  If the client won't comply, refrain from posting such photos.

This is one important piece of advice I give all my Connecticut Home Staging clients, and one that I would think all agents would too.  However, every day I see new listings posted on the MLS with this kind of blatant "invitation".  Let's keep the children's safety in mind!

 

Julia Vigneron Maher, Nestings Home Staging & Model Home Design:  Award-Winning Staging for Model, Vacant and Occupied Homes in Fairfield County, CT (including Fairfield, Southport, Westport, Trumbull, Monroe, Newtown, Stratford, Easton, Weston, Wilton, Norwalk, Darien, Stamford, Greenwich) and Connecticut.

203.257.7395

nestings@snet.net

Nestings Portfolio

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ActiveRain's New URL Shortener

How many times have you tried to link your ActiveRain post on Twitter or another site only to get the response that the url is too long?  Well Happy Holidays, ActiveRain has a gift for you.

Once you have written and posted a blog post you now have the option of generating a shorter url. 

Simply go back into your post and click Generate short URL.  Take a look at the screen shot below:

I hope many of you find this useful and take advantage of the new url. Here is what Lenn's shortened URL looks like once we generate the shorter URL for the post in the screen shot above.

The shortened URL for this post is http://actvra.in/45. As you can see, the shorter structure uses the actvra.in domain.

In order to see how many times someone has clicked on that shortened URL, you can go to the 'statistics' area of your 'my home' page in order to track performance. It will show you how many times each shortened URL has been clicked.

And an added bonus to deal with the continual onslaught of spam......

Let's call it a stocking stuffer.  To help with the spam you may see occassionally, we've now made it so only logged in members can leave links in comments.  Our hope is that it cuts the spam down drastically.  Fingers crossed!

Happy Holidays!!!

Kerrie Greenhalgh

Feng Shui This | Dump Trucks and Backhoes

Bump Keys Can Open Your Doors in 3 Seconds or Less. Are You Bump Key Proof?

A few years ago my locksmith retired leaving me wondering who would be the next candidate to work with our company.  Then I got to thinking about all the times I needed someone immediately, right now and not a week from Thursday.  My locksmith was pretty good about accommodating my REO schedule, but it took a while to get him in the flow with that kind of fast paced schedule.

So, I decided I'd just do it myself.  I know, Realtors shouldn't be involved in the "arms reach" portions of REOs, but what I found is that if I do it free, REO companies don't seem to have any issues with it.  If I could open my own doors, I could move quicker when time came to take over an REO.  So, that's what I did.

First, I learned how to pick locks.  It's not terribly hard.  I already knew how to change the lock-set, but gaining access was always the challenge, and then I found something stunning.  There is another technique that doesn't require you to pick a lock.  It's called a bump key (video).  With a bump key, I can be in a house in less than 3 seconds and no one would ever know I was there. 

The bump key is a key.  It looks like most keys except that instead of a series of unusual shaped highs and lows it has a series of equal mountains and valleys.  You insert the key into the lock about 90% of the way.  With a little pressure toward the unlocking direction, you tap the back of the key.  The key moves into the lock causing the pins to bounce up, and the slight pressure forces them to stay up and bingo, the lock is open.

It took me about 5 minutes to make my first key.  That's all.  So, when you change the locks on your house install new high security bump key proof locks.  Please encourage your home-buyers to do the same. They are built with heavier springs which will not bounce when the key is tapped.  Thieves have been using bump keys for decades, but now the general public is aware of them because of You-Tube and other web-based sites.  Make the change.  It will help you sleep better, and it will frustrate would-be thieves. 

(Disclaimer:  All grammatical mistakes, punctuation breakdowns and misspellings are purely for your amusement and entertainment.  Feel free to cackle.)

Did I commit fraud on my mortgage application?"

Did I commit fraud on my mortgage application?

I was having my weekly meeting with a circle of Realtors this morning and some discussions were going around with regard to potential buyer fraud during the course of the transaction.  After our meeting, I forwarded this blog post to all of the agents who were involved in this discussion.  Because of the timing, I thought what better time to repost this here. 

 

Did I commit fraud on my mortgage application?

 

It came to my attention recently that it appears many folks possibly aren't being coached or taught properly as to what you, as the borrower should be, and more importantly, should NOT be doing, before, during and after the mortgage application process.  In this post, let's get into some important information with regard to potential fraud on a mortgage application.

It's  important for borrowers to understand that any change they make to their current credit, financial, or employment picture could very well have a negative effect on their ability to secure the financing they are seeking.  I'm sure the last thing that any borrower wants to hear is that several weeks into the lending process, their loan was declined due to lending policies and protocol they weren't even aware of.

In light of this, I'd like to offer the following in hopes this will save anguish and grief to those who may be seeking to obtain a new mortgage loan and want to avoid any potential fraud with regard to the mortgage application.

 

I just recently spoke with a potential client who was unable to secure financing with the lender she had been working with for the past few months because in this case, her employment status had changed.  Just weeks before the close of escrow date on the purchase, it was learned that this borrower had gone from being a salaried wage earner, to now being self employed.  You may ask yourself, "So, what's the big deal?  If there's still a job, why can't the bank still lend the money?"  The answer to that may not be as simple as one would think.

 

In this case, the client remained in the same line of work.  So simple, right?  Actually, no.  The typical rule of thumb when lending to a self employed individual is that the lender will want to evaluate two years worth of tax returns in order to determine income eligibility.  So in the above case, because this client just recently put themselves on a self employed status, of course, there aren't tax returns available to determine what newly self employed earnings even exist.  Again, you may ask yourself "I don't understand the problem.  If the client is in the same line of work, and they've been doing that job for a significant period of time, why won't the bank lend the money?"  Well, let's look at it this way.

Let's say you are a baker for a local grocery store in their bakery department.  At the beginning of your loan application you provided your mortgage lender with current pay check stubs and your W-2's for the previous two years.  So, sometime during the mortgage approval process you think to yourself, "heck, I'm one of the best bakers here at the bakery, I bet I can make more money selling my cakes and cookies on my own rather than just working for the bakery department!"  While you may be the best cookie and cake baker out there, merely having the skills to bake a cake, doesn't necessarily mean one has the ability to run their own business.  There are licensing requirements, food safety and health issues, and all of those things would currently be on the shoulders of the grocery store.  That is their liability issue, not yours as the employee.  So, from a lender's point of view, they have no way of knowing or verifying how well this business is going to succeed, since there is no documented history of it.  Make sense?

 

So, with regard to the actual client I cited.  After they understood the "why" obtaining financing would be most impossible due to the newly self employed status, I offered suggestions as to how we could possibly proceed in still obtaining a loan approval, providing they went back into a W-2 status.  The lender would require a very good letter of explanation regarding this.  In this case, unfortunately, the client wasn't willing to proceed as per my suggestion.  Instead, they gave me reason to believe (verbal information they provided to me over the phone) that documents could in essence be "manipulated" to indicate they were still salaried.  They wanted no one to be the wiser they were really self employed.

 

So, several problems occurred because of this.  Falsifying of any credit documents or providing misleading or false information on the mortgage application can be flagged as fraud.  Regular pre-closing and post-closing audits are conducted on mortgage files.  Should an audit determine fraud on the mortgage application was involved, not only could the lender call the note "due and payable", but parties involved in the transaction could face prosecution.

Consumers should also be aware of that many lending and bank institutions' employees are required to report any suspicious activity through the SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) or similar, reporting system.

I believe it's the goal of all lending institutions and their employees to make the mortgage process as easy and seamless for all parties involved, and I believe the best way to achieve that is for the borrower to be educated in what's involved.  In addition, I feel it's important for the lending professional to successfully coach their clients as to potential pitfalls that may occur during the process, or even after the transaction has closed. 

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Realtor. Will Work For Food.

I was in my accountant's office a while back and I noticed cartoon on his bulletin board that showed an accountant on the phone.  A friend had called and said, "You don't mind if I ask a few questions do you?  It will only take a minute."  In the second frame the accountant responded with, "No, not at all, if you don't mind if I send a little bill."

I had a friend call the other day and ask if I could help him get his house rented.  He followed up the question with, "And, I'll be sure to give you something for your trouble." 

For a moment, I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.  In my Twilight Zone head I had a monotone monologue running that sounded like, "I have a plenty of money.  Real estate is only my hobby.  I do it to make other people happy.  It's fun.  I am so glad I was able to spend all of that time in school, all of that money on licenses, insurance, continuing education, signs, business cards, software, computers, smart-phones, cars and fuel in order to freely meet the needs of my friends, family and colleagues."  NOT!

Friends, you don't have to be arrogant or condescending when you get those types of calls, but you need to be clear and straight.  My "not so Twilight Zone head" always says, "This is my job.  When I work, I get paid for my job.  Now, may I help you?" 

If you give away your services freely people will freely demand them, and when you finally request payment they will be offended and mad.  So, start out professionally and set the expectation of payment from the beginning.  Make sure they know that this is how you make a living, and then do a great job.  The truth is, "I do work for food!" And, so do you.

 

6 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog

6 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog

As bloggers we know that there are massive amounts of ways to drive traffic to your blog.  In my opinion, the most important is relevant content that's both personal and creative.  Personal allows your potential clients to get to know the real you while creative offers solutions to their everyday challenges or concerns.

However, there does come a time when we're looking to expand our blog reach and need to dive into additional options.  While the six I've outlined below may be something you've tried already, my hope is to plant a few new seeds that could grow into long term traffic solutions for your blog.

1.  Comment on Blogs

The goal is not to drop by, plug your business and move on.  The goal is to build relationships and forge connections with other bloggers by offering insightful and educational comments.  Just think about the possibilities.  If you offer advice that a potential client finds useful, it's likely they will visit your site to learn more about you and your business.

2.  Use Social Bookmarking

Submit your articles (rss feeds) to various social bookmarking sites.  Here are just a few:

• Delicious
• Digg
• Squidoo Lenses - Once you've created your Squidoo lens, you will want to ping your lens at http://squidutils.com/
• Stumbleupon
• HubPages
• Tagfoot
• Netvouz

You also need to add a social bookmarking plugin to your blog.  There are several popular options for Wordpress including:

• Bookmarkify
• Sociable
• SexyBookmarks

My bookmark plugin of choice is Add to Any.

3.  Submit your site to Directories

• Abcblogdirectory
• Blogburst
• BlogCatalog
• Bloggeries
• Getblogs
• Globeofblogs
• Goblog4i
• Ontoplist
• Technorati
• Topblogarea
• Topsiteswebdirectory

4.  Submit your blog to Search Engines

• RSS feed to Yahoo! - Add your RSS feed to Yahoo! This will include it into their feed directory as well as your ‘My Yahoo!' account.
• MSN Live Blog Search
• Google Blog Search - Make sure that Google Blog search knows about your blog by adding it here. Very quick,easy and beneficial.
• Bloglines - Add all of your RSS feeds to Bloglines.

5.  Use Feedburner -

Once you've completed the steps above, ping your blog to Technorati and allow your visitors to subscribe to your feed through Feedburner.  To "ping" is a way of sending an alert to a website(s) and notifying them that you have updated the content on your site/blog.  This process can be quite tedious if you're submitting from one site to the next.  Quickly send updates to multiple sites with Ping-O-Matic.

6.  Write better articles and more often!  Content, content, content

Writing superior content can be one of the easiest ways to drive traffic to your blog and build a loyal following.  Compiling a list of great content not only substantiates you as an authority in your field, but also in your local market.

However, it's not just about quality.  It's also about quantity.  You will quickly lose subscribers if you're not posting on a consistent basis and adding fresh content several times per week.

Put you (your heart and soul) into each post and the traffic will come.  Being anonymous can be convenient at times, but to generate loyal blog followers they will need to connect with your voice by hearing what's important to you. Find your voice and you'll find loyal and raving fans willing to share the love of your blog with others.

 

6 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog was written by Rebekah Radice.

 

Rebekah Radice | Mortgage Loan Originator

T: 719.387.1368 | Email: rebekah@rebekahradice.com | Website: http://rebekahradice.com |CO & NMLS Licensee: LMB100010938 & 288596 | Benchmark Mortgage dba Ark-La-Tek Financial Services, LLC | 12 E. Kiowa |Colorado Springs, CO 80903

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