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Contests
Each month AR runs numerous contests as a way for our members to engage in activities
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Saving Money on Home Renovations is Easier Than You Think - 03/31/09 10:06 AM
Whether your home is located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, or Anywhere, USA, REALTORS agree that bathroom and kitchen updates will not only improve the salability of your home... they will also give you the most bang for the buck. According to the Cost vs. Value Report 2008, bathroom and kitchen renovations return more than 75 cents on the dollar. But that's assuming you're paying their estimated price of nearly $16,000 for a mid-range bathroom and more than $56,000 for a mid-range kitchen. If you're a do-it-yourselfer, the cost is simply the supplies needed to do the job. Your investment … (11 comments)
Maryland's Lady Terps Advance to Elite Eight - 03/29/09 08:16 PM
If you live in Maryland, chances are you're a Terps Fan. Moving to the area? Buy yourself a red tee shirt so you can help fill the stands with red!
We've been Terps football fans and season ticket holders for a number of years, and this year the Lady Terps have really grown on us. If you watched the Sports Highlights last night (Saturday), you may have seen a segment on NCAA Women's Basketball and the one-woman show of Marissa Coleman as she scored 42 points in the 78-74 victory over Vanderbilt in the Sweet Sixteen. She willed and worked … (13 comments)
Write for Buyers, and Sellers Will Come - 03/26/09 07:02 PM
If you list you'll last. Who among us hasn't received or given that advice... or both? I've tried every trick in the book during my 30+ years in real estate to attract more sellers and nothing else has ever produced more seller leads than blogging does.
But the posts I write to and for home sellers are not what attracts them. Not a single homeowner contacted me after I wrote an eight week series targeted to home sellers. To my surprise, it has been posts written for buyers' eyes that have provided me with a number of listings. It … (120 comments)
Parental Rights Success! When The People Speak... - 03/25/09 06:57 AM
Gotta love ActiveRain and people like Katerina who keep us informed about issues the media doesn't bother reporting. Be sure to click through on the links Katerina provides - I found out my Congressman, John Sarbanes of Maryland, is NOT a co-sponsor of this bill and contacted him after reading more about this threat to our American way of life. Read on...
Via Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes (International Properties and Investments, Inc.): This is the result of raising your voice, emailing and writing your Representatives our US House of Representatives. Sometimes we feel like our one tiny … (2 comments)
Sports or Business - The Responsibility of Being Good - 03/24/09 08:29 AM
The headline which read The Responsibility of Being Good on the front page of The Diamondback this morning is referring to an article about Marissa Coleman, the 6'1" half of the senior duo of Marissa and Kristi Toliver on the University of Maryland's ACC Championship women's basketball team. This article addresses the "extra" effort it requires to become (and stay) good - something she learned from her father. That headline triggered for me a flashback to last week when I received a note from an Active-Rainer in my office at Long and Foster, Uma Bruegman. She was thanking me for … (18 comments)
Why Buy a Home in This Down Market? - 03/21/09 02:15 PM
Buying a home is still the right option for most people. In fact, this may be the best time in years for renters (or military personnel living in government housing) to make that move to home ownership because home prices are more affordable than they've been in years. Not only that, interest rates are lower than they've been in decades. You don't want to let this opportunity get away, especially if you plan to live in the same area for a few years. There's so much media focus on falling home values that all the other benefits of home ownership are … (20 comments)
To List or Not to List? That is the Question - 03/17/09 11:23 AM
When a consumer finds your blog and contacts you about listing their home, it's always a compliment. But sometimes that consumer owns property outside the immediate area of your office and focus area. How would you handle this situation?
Over the years, I've known many agents who would say "No, refer it to another agent!" And so, I ask, "Where do you come down in this debate?" For me, it boils down to this: "Can I help these sellers achieve their goals while achieving mine?" If I can't do both, I'll refer the lead.
I'm faced with this question right … (11 comments)
Housing Relief for Military Families - 03/13/09 07:59 AM
Military families stationed at Fort Meade, Andrews AFB, the U.S. Naval Academy and other military installations in the Crofton area and throughout the D.C.-Baltimore region will be glad to learn they may now be eligible for relief to their housing woes, compliments of the recent stimulus package. It comes in an expansion to the Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP). administered by the Army Corps of Engineers. The program was intended initially to assist military homeowners affected by base closings under BRAC 2005. It has since been extended to help those affected by the credit and foreclosure debacle, and now it will also help … (17 comments)
He Who Has the Most Paper Wins - 03/12/09 07:20 AM
When it comes to risk management, I have a simple rule: "He who has the most paper wins." In other words, keep GREAT records - either paper OR digital. What matters is that you have access to information about who spoke to whom when, and what was said in each and every communication regarding any client with whom you work (and anyone else involved in the case). Easier said than done, of course, in the rush to get from Point A to Point B, whether it's one business appointment to another or a run to pick up the carpool. Even if … (68 comments)
Crofton Real Estate Update - February 2009 - 03/10/09 10:27 PM
This roller coaster reminds me a lot of the real estate market in Crofton. The ups and downs are making me downright dizzy! In a nutshell, the market was better in February than it was a month earlier, in January. But it was worse than February a year ago. This was true in nearly every area that I've been tracking data since 2005.
This time last year, there was some consolation in the fact that the average sold price was still above the 2005 level - in fact 5% higher. Anyone who bought their Crofton home after 2005 was … (12 comments)
Real Estate Activity is Picking Up in Crofton Maryland - 03/09/09 08:03 PM
As I was meeting today with buyers in one conference room at Long & Foster in Crofton, ActiveRainers Rich Iarossi and Uma Bruegman were in the other conference rooms with clients. Do you think it was coincidence? I would have been pleased to see all this activity under any circumstances, but it did make me smile that all the agents working with clients in my office this afternoon were ActiveRainers. I suspect it proves something - 'not sure exactly what. Maybe real estate activity is picking up in Crofton Maryland... ... or perhaps this blogging thiing really works! … (11 comments)
ActiveRain People are the Best! - 03/08/09 11:45 PM
If you're new to ActiveRain, you're in for a treat. This week will mark 2 years since my first ActiveRain post, and I could not have imagined how many doors that would open for me. A Crofton home seller contacted me through ActiveRain a few days after my first post. I really thought it was a scam initially, but I met with the caller at her home and found this was a legitimate seller who was impressed by my knowledge of the Crofton market. That did it... I was sold on ActiveRain! Consumers who have found me through ActiveRain over … (25 comments)
If you're relocating to the D.C. - Baltimore area and waterfront living appeals to you, check out Anne Arundel County, Maryland. We have 533 miles of shoreline on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries including the Severn River, South River, Magothy River and countless streams, creeks, inlets, and coves. In fact, nearly 30% of Anne Arundel County IS water, according to Wikipedia.
(CLICK HERE to see my real estate show about waterfront property in Anne Arundel County)
I took these photos while showing property in Anne Arundel County during recent months. As you can … (7 comments)
Remember when you were a teenager and couldn't wait to move out of your parents house? You may have been one of those people who wouldn't even consider a college close to home because you wanted space, lots of space, between you and your parents. The last thing that ever crossed your mind was THEM moving into your dream home with you, your sweetheart and your children. (...or you moving your whole family in with them, OH MY!) A lifetime of Thanksgiving dinners and other family dramas has re-enforced your love of … (63 comments)
This evening I decided to "play" real estate, not "do" real estate. In other words, I put on my customer hat and put away my real estate agent hat.
We've toyed with the idea of relocating to another area of the country ever since my husband retired three years ago. We're not what you would call "highly motivated" but we're more motivated now than we were a year ago, before lifelong savings and investments started to tank with the economy. Tonight I focused on South Carolina, where we lived in the 70's … (23 comments)
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss - 03/02/09 06:46 AM
Crofton kids have two reasons to celebrate today - it's not only a snow holiday from school, it's Dr. Seuss's 105th birthday. No doubt they'll want to go out and play in the snow but, when they come in to warm up, celebrate the occasion with Dr. Seuss crafts projects, counting 105 pennies or doing 105 jumping jacks, coloring these downloadable pages and maybe even enlisting their help to make a birthday cake. (There's a Dr. Seuss Parade at Crofton Library on Wednesday, so be sure to read the details below.) FocusOnCrofton.com reports that March is a busy month for … (16 comments)
Crofton in Photos - Swann Park - 03/01/09 07:43 PM
Our grandchildren love to visit Back Lake Park when we're watching them. It's located about a block from our house on Swinburne Avenue, adjacent to the 12th hole of Crofton Country Club. It always bring back memories for us to watch them throwing sticks into the pond or playing on the slide because we brought their dad and his siblings to the same park when they were small. The equipment has been replaced and the park been renamed after Tom and Barbara Swann, but it's not much different than it was three decades ago. When you live in Crofton MD, … (6 comments)
A Google Analytics Newbie Analyzes Her February Report - 03/01/09 01:05 PM
As a Newbie on Google Analytics, I still don't have my feet grounded and don't know exactly which information is the most important. I’m most fascinated to see what the sources are for visitors to my local blog, FocusOnCrofton.com, and suspect that will impact what and how I write in the future. While it doesn’t surprise me that most of my visitors come from search engines, it is a surprise to see that referrals from ActiveRain number fewer than 70 (just one of several “referring sites”) in spite of the fact that I have links to it on many of my posts. Probably … (25 comments)
Real Estate and community information for home buyers and sellers, military transferees, and rookie agents in the greater Crofton area, including Bowie, Davidsonville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Odenton, and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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Whether your home is located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, or Anywhere, USA, REALTORS agree that bathroom and kitchen updates will not only improve the salability of your home... they will also give you the most bang for the buck. 
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