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Friday, July 1, 2011
Real Estate Agent Fights Off Attempted Rapist
A Cobb County real estate agent fought off a man armed with a gun who attempted to rape her, Cobb County, Georgia police said.
More and more stories of attacks on real estate agents doing open houses, showing properties to strangers, meeting strangers in vacant properties and land.
We tell our children to be aware, be careful of strangers and people we don’t know. Yet, real estate agents do this each and every day, and it is becoming an increasingly dangerous situation for some of us in the industry.
As a broker, I encourage safety, safety, safety. Rules will keep you safe, perhaps even save lives.
1. Always make a copy of a potential client or customer’s driver’s license and / or other photo documentation and leave it at the front desk with the receptionist or broker.
2. Never take a buyer client or customer without pre-qualifying them with a lender, period. If the potential buyer refuses to qualify, there is a problem. Red flags, anyone.
3. If your not comfortable, follow your instincts and give the buyer to another or take a friend or fellow realtor, give a referral fee and keep safe. Never avoid that inner voice or prompting, inner warnings will save your life. If you have a bad feeling, don’t go out alone.
4. Women should never do an open house alone, period. More attacks on women, rapes and robberies happen in open houses where no one is around but the realtor and strangers who frequent them. We are in a dangerous world, adapt and survive.
5. Realtors should look into arming yourselves, whatever is legal and will prevent attacks should be considered. Tasers, Pepper Spray, even a handgun which is legal in most states for the time being. If more people would realize that realtors are prepared, armed and protected, less and less attacks would occur.
The word should be "Realtors Armed And Dangerous."
Keep safe my fellow brokers and realtors, have a blessed New Year in 2012.
Sometimes I think about how we come to a candidate like John McCain for President who represented Republicans in the last election of 2008 in which Obama took office because of such a weak candidate.
We all held our nose and voted, but many Conservatives refused to do that and stayed home causing the most liberal senator to be elected President of the United States of America.
People were appalled how the liberals took over the House and Senate in the same year, giving Obama a “Super Majority” giving him virtually a “write your own ticket” Presidency producing Obamacare and a five trillion dollar deficit in just three years in office.
Massive spending President Obama lived up to the liberal agenda, spend America into oblivion and pass it on to the next generation to figure it all out. The liberal media machine never reports on the super majority for the first two years of Obama’s presidency,
Super Majority means they needed not one Republican vote to pass anything Obama wanted, yet for the lack of leadership in Obama, he only managed to pass Obamacare despite 75% of Americans against it.
Obama also managed to pass all the spending bills, Obamacare had over 2000 pages of entitlement and lobbyist payouts, causing the bill to cost taxpayers trillions – not billions but trillions – also putting an tremendous burden on business owners – virtually putting a stop on new hires – hence the high unemployment and jobless numbers since Obamacare was passed into law. Now in 2012, we have another Presidential race underway,
Republican candidates debating on who is the best candidate to represent the GOP Party. Instead of demonstrating character, they proceed on attacking one another on frivolous claims of marriage infidelity and who is the most Conservative.
Do we want another four years of Obama, can we survive another four years of President Obama and his radical liberal agenda?
I will support any Republican candidate who is nominated despite the attack ads that many of the candidates are resorting to, with the hope of destroying each other and the winner take all ideology.
Any of the Republican candidates, in my opinion, would make a better President than what we now have in the White House.
Let’s debate on issues, not on the policy of personal destruction.
We have enough of that from the left.
The American voters are speaking out concerning who they think can go against President Obama and beat him in the next President election in 2012.
Voters rate Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney evenly according to the new Rassmussen Polling when asked who would be the strongest GOP candidate to run against Obama and actually beat him in 2012.
Interestingly enough, no one gave Newt Gingrich a chance a few months ago. His whole staff quit on him when he announced his new strategy, they weren’t on board. Too bad.
Newt is smarter than the pundits, I watch the morning shows and see the faces of those so called “Conservative” voices like Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe on MSNBC, he says if Newt gets the nomination he will look for another candidate.
Not like anyone is watching his show, it doesn’t even hit the radar for ratings. Joe claims he is still a Conservative, but after listening to him recently there is no way. He is a sell out, and I can’t listen to him give advice to Republicans when he is on MSNBC – hello!
Saturday’s ABC/Republican Party of Iowa Debate turned out to be an attack on the frontrunner Newt Gingrich. Newt handled all the attacks well, as the most experienced person in the room.
Mitt Romney tried to point out the differences between himself and Newt, came up with lunar explorations for some reason.
Michele Bachmann rants that she is the most consistent in the room, I like her but she is getting on my last nerve. I think I understand now why she doesn’t reach all of Americans with her, “I am fighting Obama but losing…
Ron Paul looked like the crazed Congressman as usual, conspiracy theorists would continue to support the bean counter.
Rick Perry did well, and he looked Presidential but lacks the experience to lead this country out of the train wreck of the Obama machine.
Rick Santorum? Can anyone ask him to leave already? He just makes me angry when he speaks for some reason. Is he the spoiler in the room? Perhaps, but when a person has no chance he should bow out gracefully and support the person he praised for teaching him his Conservative values…Newt Gingrich!
There are no perfect people in the room, even though politicians like to portray themselves as the perfect family person, we all have those images in our minds. The politician holding the baby in his or her arms, kissing the wife…Sorry Al Gore, that was a disgusting showboat performance. It looked like he couldn’t find his wife’s lips if he tried..… divorce anyone?
Everyone is seeing Newt is the most experience and the most educated to handle the present crisis of lack of leadership in Washington.
We don’t want the perfect, the most likeable, even the most beautiful person in the room.
Now we want substance, not rhetoric.
“The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn’t want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”
Doesn’t that sound like a quote from Newt Gingrich or some other Conservative , even a Libertarian? It is some political rhetoric that begs a response.
It was written in the year of 106 BC by Cicero – a Roman author, speaker and politician about the trouble of the Roman Empire.
History really does repeat itself, perhaps because human nature always wants to spend more than we have, live off of someone or some government entity, and “purchase” loyalty from other nations.
None of the above have ever worked in any form of government or by its citizens. Rome found that out, and America will find this out or face the same consequences.
 The latest Rasmussen poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers has Newt Gingrich in first at 32 percent.
Frank Luntz focus group guru interviewed about thirty Iowa women and Newt has the majority of the women vote who actually think he will be the next President of the United States.
The women vote - Newt Gingrich is gaining ground and becoming the front runner. Watch out for the liberal slanderers and character destroyers, but Newt has been there before.
He has experience to lead the country into the future, and actually create an atmosphere for job creation.
I think the CEO's of America who were fooled into believing Barak Obama had the "change" in mind for American progress got a rude awakening with the election of the most liberal and most inexperienced President in history.
Zero growth, zero jobs, home equity at an all time low, American spirit brought to the lowest since Jimmy Carter.
America needs an experienced President who knows foreign affairs and the economy, and actually knows how to work with Congress to get things done. He has accomplished that when he was Speaker of the House.
He worked together with then President Bill Clinton, even though that disagreed on key policy matters, they worked together to lead the country into prosperity.
Newt will lead us to victory.
Recently, I have been "searching" for a new search engine. Yahoo and Google and Bing drive me crazy with all the filters they have on us. Google and Yahoo and Bing say they do not track you, but they do. Don't be fooled. When you type in what you want to search - they filter it according to your search habits - you know, your browing history. I don't appreciate that. I want to know everything, not just what interests me. I want truth, I want information - is that so difficult?
I don't want just what the search engines think will interest me. What has this world come to? Just providing me information that the robots on the search engines want me to know - that's crazy. That is the future - but not mine.
Duck Duck Go Search Engine claims they do not track your web history.
Let us see - I will keep you posted.
The point is that you can not always get the full truth from the internet. Professional comments and opinions mean something still, seek a professional especially in real estate if you want to know the truth about today's real estate market and environment.Via Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL. FunCoast Realty, 386-405-4408:
It is a fascinating world. Before, the media was all Big Thing. We read the newspapers and watched TV. It was all produced by big companies with huge budgets and enormous professional stuff.
Internet has changed that. Now, there was World Wide Web and it cost you pennies or nothing to disseminate your ideas. So, the new media emerged. It is blogging. First, blogging was done by the same media professionals, they simply got a different instrument, and they started venturing out. And then millions and millions rushed into blogging.
When before we relied on someone to produce and deliver the news, now you go to the site and you can read what people are saying about this business, or the service, or the products, or… whatever. We now do not have to rely on advertisers... Hey, who used this device (product, service), and what do you think about it?
Reputations can be shattered by poor reviews on the Net… When I find an offer on the internet, which sounds very good, I Google to check the vendor out, and it helped me avoid frustrations.
Did we all gain? It all depends. Because if you look at local restaurant reviews based on what patrons write about them, you can hardly trust them. The new media created new lies, whether intentional, or because of lack of knowledge, lack of professional knowledge and skills…
And for restaurant reviews I would prefer a professional food critic. Yes, it can be on the internet, but I want to delegate the research to someone who knows what they are doing, so I can go and enjoy, and not explore the place and find out that the reviewer had no taste buds whatsoever…
The new media brought us to the forefront. Now we can say whatever we want. But do we always want to listen to us?
Really?
Photo via Flickr Creative Commons by br1dotcom
Very interesting that Bank Of America and Wells Fargo are starting the incentive programs after all the stubborn practices they have put in place over the years. Perhaps, they are learning that it is in their best interest to get the shadow inventory off the market.
Via Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Homes For Sale (International Properties and Investments, Inc.):
Florida Leads The Nation For Homeowners Who DO NOT PAY Their Mortgage Payments
More than half of all the Florida homeowners who are in some stage of the foreclosure process havenot made a mortgage payment in 24 months- two years- or more. This latest statistic was for September 2011. In January of 2010 only 19% of the homeowners had not made a mortgage payment in two years or more. 
84% of Florida homeowners in foreclosure have not made their mortgage payment in over 18 months, that is 1.5 years.
The estimated time from the lender filing a foreclosure summons and complaint to the sale of that property ordered by the courts is about 676 days.
The Florida courts have over 350,000 foreclosures to deal with.
Even though the court system is slow here in Florida because of the bottleneck- homeowners need to stay diligent in keeping pressure on the Florida Congress not to accept bills from the bank lobbyists to get rid of our right to a court hearing for defenses against foreclosure.
Some of these proponants to getting rid of more of our property rights claim that the longer these properties do not go through the foreclosure process the more the properties deteriorate. This is simply not true. Many of the homes are being lived in and taken care of. More than 90% of ALL the short sales we have listed and sold over the years have been in great shape and the owners keep up their lawns and their homes.
It is also expensive to file a foreclosure in our court system here in Florida. The banks know this and are hesitant to even file foreclosure paperwork with the clerk of the court in a lot of situations. As long as the homes are being occupied, that is good for the banks.
This is why Bank of America started a pilot program JUST here in FLORIDA for homeowners that is like "Cash For Keys" but it is used as an incentive for the homeowner to do a short sale. The incentive can be up to $35,000 with some lenders and many others up to $20,000 at the closing of a short sale if the homeowner promises to keep up the property and leave it in good condition for the buyer.
Of course we know that this has always been the best option- a Florida Short Sale- for homeowners and the lenders- the servicers and the note owners ( investors). Unfortunately the banks knowing that short sales are better for their bottom lines over foreclosure in a lot of instances they are still do not have experienced personel to handle the work load and how are educated enough about real estate to make for a smooth transaction.
While on the one side you have people saying we need to get this going so we can get through all these foreclosures and people not paying their house payments you have the other side of the story.
For the homeowners who are in their situation because of unemployment there is not much benefit to the economy their non payments are producing however those people who are strategically NOT making their mortgage payments are spending those mortgage payments in the local ecnonomy according to some Florida economists. They are saying that instead of handing their money over to the banks they are spending it at the stores, for food, for gas, for other things and that keeps the money locally here.
If you or someone you know is behind in their payments consider a Florida short sale. Contact Nestor or Katerina Gasset at 561-753-0135 today for your private confidential interview to go over your short sale options.
Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS, ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
International Properties & Investments, Inc
Call us today at 561-753-0135 to get your house sold.
The Real Estate Pro for Linkedin is a turnkey application for real estate professionals and those looking to stay connected with their local real estate marketplace. As a professional it's an easy way to highlight your listings and completed deals, stay in touch with existing connections, and build new business contacts.Via Praful Thakkar - Real Estate Consultant Andover Homes For Sale North Andover (Keller Williams Realty):
I bumped into a new(?) App on LinkedIn - Real Estate Pro.
Let me first thank Pat Moyer, one of the active and successful member of Online Dominance program. She mentioned about this new app on LinkedIn. (After Facebook and iPhone, Apps seems to be used very frequently and now LinkedIn has few apps, too!)
I could not wait to research about this new app and did create my account on Rofo and did post one listing with my basic (free for 30 days?) membership. And since I know this app for just couple of hours, I do appreciate additional information on this, how we can benefit from this and in turn, benefit our clients.
What is Real Estate Pro? (Click on the YouTube video link below)
Here is the description of this app:
The Real Estate Pro for Linkedin is a turnkey application for real estate professionals and those looking to stay connected with their local real estate marketplace. As a professional it's an easy way to highlight your listings and completed deals, stay in touch with existing connections, and build new business contacts.
After creating and activating your account on Rofo, adding a listing is relatively easy process which you can either do it by yourself or assign it to a virtual assistant. (With so many ways to market on Internet, I guess, we will have to start hiring VAs for such tasks.)
Similar to facebook listing pages (create a page for your listings through RealBird), these added listings can be promoted on your LinkedIn profile as well as you can promote yourself as a real estate professional on LinkedIn.
Real Estate Pro is added to your Linkedin homepage. This is an easy way to access and update the app when you are signed in.
By no means, this is NOT an ad or marketing gimmick from Rofo. I am a Realtor(r) and part of ActiveRain community. I felt that this new development on LinkedIn will be very helpful to many of us who believe in promote the listings on Internet and marketing on Social Media websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Thanks, once again, to Pat Moyer, for introducing me to this new app.
I hope at least you'll try Real Estate Pro app's basic version (and Pro version is not expensive, either.)
Praful Thakkar
   
Your Real Estate Consultant at ReMax Partners
44 Park St, Andover MA 01810
mobile: 508-314-1640
www.ePraful.com
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Nicholas Goglucci, The Listing Whisperer
Pompano Beach,
FL
More about me…
South Florida Real Estate & Development, Inc.
Address: 2519 N Ocean Blvd , Suite 205, Boca Raton, FL, 33431
Office Phone: (954) 650-7800
Cell Phone: (954) 650-7800
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