I love my IPhone! - 03/31/09 09:53 AM
Recently I made the jump and decided to purchase an IPhone. I had been using Verizon and was pleased with their coverage, but I was thoroughly unimpressed by the latest Blackberry Storm. Also, its lack of WiFi was a big issue as we travel abroad often and I need an economical way to check my e-mail.
After looking at the alternatives, the IPhone stood above the others and so we purchased one. The very next day I was in a rather boring meeting and decided to check my e-mail. I noticed that I had an important e-mail from Texas and I … (6 comments)
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What do you think about floor plans in listings? - 03/30/09 04:11 PM
Some time ago, my husband approached me with an idea. The idea was to add floor plans to my listings. The presumption is that buyers would appreciate this information and it would give them valuable details about the house.
I approached my broker with the idea and she was more skeptical. The issue, she said, is that a burgler or other criminal could use the floor plan to commit a crime. Then, the owner of the property could sue the agent and the broker. I didn't pursue the issue much further.
Recently my husband has noticed some more discussions on other … (14 comments)
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ActiveRain Comments Etiquette - 03/27/09 03:29 PM
After participating in ActiveRain for some time, I thought I would write a list of things to watch out for when writing comments. Too often I see people miss these and I hope this list helps.
Always read the post before commenting, not just the other comments. Very often comments take tangents and if you fail to read the actual post, your comment will look very out of place.
Offensive comments are never called for. I delete them, so if you are outright offensive you'll just waste your time writing the comment.
Think before critiquing. For instance, if the blogger says … (60 comments)
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Are we raising a generation of dried toast? - 03/27/09 10:00 AM
As a parent of two kids, recently I was incensed at a commentary on CNN entitled Parents, Your Kids aren't that Special which lashed out at parents who bring misbehaving kids to a restaurant, annoying the other patrons.
This and another episode bring me back to one of my favorite lines from the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" where Gus states that his daughter's fiance's parents are like "dried toast" in explaining how they were completely unexciting and boring people. I still laugh at this statement, but find it sad that it rings a number of bells at truth.
We … (8 comments)
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So which house would you buy? - 03/25/09 10:16 AM
Given the choice, which house would you prefer to buy?
House #1
House #2
In case it is not obvious, these shots are of the exact same house and even the same rooms. Of course, the first set of shots were not used for the listing, but I have seen countless shots similar to them on the MLS.
So do you still think pictures don't help sell a house?
… (16 comments)
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Owning a home is a privilege, not an entitlement - 03/24/09 11:29 AM
Recently I have heard a number of stories from other agents about individuals who could not qualify for loans under the new tightened standards. In almost all of these cases the buyers were putting only a few percent down on the house and had poor credit scores. Several of these buyers were furious that they could not obtain funding and in one case the buyer called a representative at the bank and chewed him out - saying the current mortgage crisis is due to people like him.
Let me say this bluntly.
Owning a home is a privilege, not an entitlement.
… (6 comments)
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Negotiating lesson from my 5 year old - 03/23/09 09:57 AM
Last week, I went out with my five year old door knocking to raise money for his school. I expected that he would be the 'cute face' that would encourage our neighbors to donate to his school's walkathon but little did I know that I was about to get a lesson myself.
At first he was a bit nervous. "What will I say?", he asked. My response was to say "I'm raising money for my school. Anything will help." He repeated the phrase over and over and over to himself, eerily just like Mike Ferry's would teach us How to learn scripts.
… (5 comments)
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Bank Owned in Kirkland. Must see! this won't last long! - 03/21/09 11:08 AM
… (2 comments)
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I am so glad I live in America! - 03/20/09 09:57 AM
Recently our synagogue set out to hire a new cantor after the old one retired. For those not familiar with the job, a cantor is the person who sings the prayers every Saturday and during special holidays. It requires a great deal of discipline and learning and there aren't that many around.
After a long search, we found a cantor from Israel and moved him and his wife to the United States. They lived here for several months and then desired to visit their family in Israel. On coming back to the United States, his wife (who had been living in the United States) … (2 comments)
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Preapproval letters for REO properties - 03/19/09 10:31 AM
Today I will discuss one of the most glaring issues - the preapproval letter. The truth is many banks don't care if you have personal letters from the World Bank President indicating that you are the wealthiest person on the planet.
If you want to have any hope that they will accept your offer, you need to be approved with thier lender. This does not mean that you need to finance with that bank. You can submit your offer before being approved by the owning bank, but the bank will not accept your offer until they have approved you themselves, which means you need to supply … (2 comments)
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Can I say I told you so? - 03/18/09 11:02 AM
Some time ago, I wrote a blog about the Dubai real estate market. In my blog, which was live on November 18th, I mentioned that Dubai was the next place to see a severe downturn in its market. Recently there has been an increase in articles discussing that this has actually occurred in Dubai. In particular, in the last three months some parts of Dubai have seen a 30% decrease in prices.
Granted, the crash was already occurring when I blogged about it, but this had been on my mind some time before I finally wrote about it. It certainly was … (3 comments)
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Why renting sucks - 03/17/09 09:58 AM
Several years ago one of our friends was getting married. I of course quizzed him about it and learned that they had been living together for the last seven years. They didn't get married earlier because the finances just didn't make sense. They estimated that they saved a significant amount of money by not marrying. The only reason they finally decided to get married is they wanted to have kids and felt that getting married made things simpler.
So let me get this straight. Marriage is now strictly a financial and legal decision? Next thing I'll hear is that people do … (12 comments)
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Would you qualify an agent on the other side of your transaction? - 03/16/09 10:56 AM
Recently while talking with a seller for a listing that had been canceled near one I had recently sold, I was rather taken back at a comment when I mentioned that I sell homes that I list.
Well, at that price you definitely will.
I have heard this quite a bit lately. The secret to selling a house lies solely in the price. If you price a property well, buyers will come and the house will sell. However, from my experience that simply isn't true.
Many times I have looked through listings and suddenly came across something - how could it … (4 comments)
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Life is too short. Enjoy it - 03/13/09 12:30 PM
I had a dream last night that I was driving and talking on the phone. Next thing I know I got in a car accident and was on my way to heaven. I saw the light standing by the gate I grabbed on to the gate and started crying that I don't want to die yet. I just want to go back and see my kids just one more time. I want to see my family I want to tell them I love them.
When I woke up I realized that:
"Work will not take care of us when we are sick. … (15 comments)
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An example of a great agent! - 03/13/09 12:01 PM
As I have already mentioned, I recently closed on a very frustrating property. The property had fallen through four times. After the property had fallen through for the fourth time, I had a back up offer ready to go.
The property was very attractively priced and received multiple offers every time it went back on the market. In this instance, there were three very serious buyers. I will call them A, B, and C. I called them in the afternoon to let them know the property was available. I told them what we needed and told them I needed it now. … (2 comments)
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So do you need an agent to buy a house? - 03/12/09 11:31 AM
Recently I dealt with buyers who contacted me to see a house, then decided to represent themselves. They felt that their interests would be better served by having their attorney write up the purchase and sale agreement.
The house had multiple offers, but I felt the more the merrier and told their attorney what addenda to add and other information that I needed. He wrote up the contract and sent it over.
Interestingly, although we had multiple offers, all of them were for less than full price. All of the other offers also had agents on their side. These sellers put … (3 comments)
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What to look for before the housing rebound - 03/11/09 11:23 AM
After thinking things over a bit, I have a decent theory about how we will know when the real estate market has bottomed. I hope that I am correct about this.
The real estate market, like any other market, is governed by the laws of supply and demand. Currently the supply is very high due to the number of foreclosures and short sales out there. However, demand is very low due to the economy and job market. Therefore, prices are continuing to fall.
When will this stop? There are only two things that can cause house prices to improve. Demand can … (6 comments)
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I sold a house through ActiveRain! You rock AR!!! - 03/10/09 11:52 AM
Recently I sold one of the most difficult properties I have ever had to deal with. The house was amazing and priced perfectly. It attracted buyers and offers like a magnet and each time it came on the market we received multiple offers. However, it seemed that every buyer we reached a mutual agreement with was a flake.
The last two buyers (including the one that finally closed on the house) came through ActiveRain. They saw my listing here and contacted me privately. The first set of buyers decided to not use an agent and wound up backing out after getting … (7 comments)
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My tax professional says I don't need to take professional pictures - 03/09/09 12:04 PM
While driving up to our tax professional's house last week, I noticed an empty for sale sign next to the property. It was obvious that the property was up for sale at one point, but did not sell. I did not ask her about the listing as her son is a real estate agent and obviously listed the property himself.
While doing our taxes, I asked our tax professional whether we could deduct the new camera we had bought. The camera is a professional SLR that my husband uses to take pictures of my listings. At the time we were debating … (11 comments)
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Is it right to just let someone foreclose a house to save money? - 03/06/09 10:29 AM
Recently I was chatting with a friend about his experience moving here from California. There, they had purchased a home for approximately $450,000 - putting down around $50,000 when they purchased the property. To their delight, some time after they purchased the home it went up to around $600,000 in value. However, when the market declined their neighborhood was hit hard.
With high unemployment and the worsening economy, he decided to take a new job elsewhere. Luckily, he found a good position here in Seattle and decided to make the move. The problem was, when they looked at the value of … (2 comments)
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An interesting day of open houses - 03/05/09 10:53 AM
This Sunday, my husband, kids and I decided to take a look at a number of open houses near our neighborhood. They certainly were not difficult to come by, and all but one of the houses had been on the market for at least a month. Also in my opinion all but one of the houses were also overpriced.
As revealing as the houses themselves were, some of the discussions I had with realtors or things I overheard were all the more interesting.
In one home, I overheard the realtor saying the following to some possible buyers.
If we had priced … (3 comments)
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Some things I would like to see improved on ActiveRain - 03/04/09 10:09 AM
After blogging on ActiveRain for some time and maintaining a Wordpress blog at the same time, I feel that ActiveRain is behind the times in several areas. Now before you rip this blog to peaces please read it first. These features might exist and I might not now about them if so please advice.
Blogging ease. I have yet to see a system that allows you to write blogs easily on line. I currently use Windows Live Writer to write my blogs, but have been unable to find a way to get it to write directly to ActiveRain. Instead, I have … (15 comments)
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The role of video in real estate - 03/03/09 11:03 AM
As some of you know, my husband photographs my listings for me. Although photography is not his main profession, he has been published in magazines and sells his photos and generally does a good job on my listings - though I sometimes disagree with him over his lighting choices.
He is constantly upgrading his equipment and recently bought a new camera that can take video as well as photos. He therefore asked me if I'd like to include video in some of my listings. Of course, I'm no dummy and realize that will probably include some extra equipment but I did … (4 comments)
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Host listing in Kirkland coming up! - 03/02/09 09:55 AM
As many of you know, I work with a bank to list their foreclosed properties. When I list these properties, I price them significantly below the competition and they always receive offers quickly. Therefore, those who do not get to the property in the first weekend are usually shut out as an offer has already been accepted.
Therefore, I have decided that certain properties I will preannounce here. If you are interested in the property or have buyers who may be interested, send me a private e-mail and I will let you know the instant it is available.
The next property … (0 comments)
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