Boundaries 101 - 09/27/07 07:27 PM
I was recently reading Desiree's blog Do you have Boundaries...Tell the Truth? and was surprised by the many people who agreed with her and struggled with setting boundaries.
I worked as a child and family therapist prior to becoming a real estate agent and boundaries are essential for emotional survival in that job.  I thought I would share some of the things I learned there, to hopefully help some of you here.
1.  Write down on a piece of paper what your priorities are 1-5.  You need to make sure EVERY day that you hit one of those priorities in your schedule at … (0 comments)

Questions for Hiring an Real Estate Agent. - 09/11/07 05:05 PM
There have been some recent posts about questions to ask a real estate agent.  There were the "Quirky Questions" posed by one AR blog that were truly different.  In a recent blog, a lender talked about her expereince with different types of agents.  Worth taking a look. 
Discovering The Truth Behind Realtor Marketing - The Fabulous versus The Prolific
 As someone that has an alternative business model, I thought about the types of questions I encourage my prospects to ask, and that I have in my listing presentation so they can see how I am different.
I encourage all prospects to ask … (2 comments)

Fiduciary duties to your client vs. duties to the human race - 09/07/07 02:30 PM
As I was catching up on my local news after trying to recover from the holiday weekend, and getting my kids off to start school, I came across this article and was deeply disturbed on so many levels.
Statesman Journal Article
Pedophiles have always been an issue for real estate agents.  In Oregon, it is not required to disclose this information to prospective buyers when you are the listing agent.  We do have our Sex Offender Registry out here, so people can look up, where, in theory, they live.  Buyers can look this up at any time.  We all have those people in … (5 comments)

Community Profile-Keizer Oregon - 09/05/07 06:23 PM
Until 1982, Keizer was an unincorporated area of Marion County called Salem-Keizer. In 1982 the city was incorporated (after a seventh attempt) and became known as Keizer. The city of Keizer currently has a population of 34,010. Keizer is the "Iris Capital of the World" and has an annual Iris festival. Keizer Stadium is home to the Volcanos, which is a minor league baseball team affiliated with the San Francisco Giants. The City of Keizer has 17 community and neighborhood parks and in the summer of 1999, a 20,000 square foot skate park was opened. In the 1990's Keizer had explosive … (0 comments)

If you know a mountain goat that needs a house... - 09/04/07 11:15 PM
This weekend I was out with some buyers looking at homes. After looking at the 70 choices that met their criteria, we narrowed it down to 13 that they most wanted to see  The last house that we looked at was built by a fairly large local builder, who often has unusual floor plans.  This house was no exception:  it was essentially on 4 levels as there were 4 staircases in the home with about a 1/2 staircase each.  Not sure what the architect and builder were thinking on this one.
As all good agents do, the listing agent called me today for feedback about … (6 comments)

Salem Oregon Market News - 09/03/07 08:59 PM
 
"Mortgage turbulence on its way"
 screams the front page of our local Statesman Journal newspaper.
Subprime loans while common in other parts of the country, were much less common here in Oregon.  After the first quarter of 2007, Salem had the lowest level of foreclosed properties according to the article.  Sounds good...
until you read the rest of the article...
As predicted by some other articles, 2008 is going to be the worst year for those ARMs and Salem is no exception.  The article referred to the coming "tsunami" that will occur here in Oregon.  They expect that 1/5 of the subprime loans taken out … (0 comments)

Delusional Thinking-New Construction in Salem Oregon - 09/01/07 09:41 PM
I was out today with some buyers who are relocating to Salem Oregon. They want a new (2006) or newer built home.  After narrowing down their choices to 13, we forged ahead with our day.  After walking through several nice homes, we came to a home that we had seen before and to our amazement the builder had raised the price $10,000.  What??
What you need to know is that in Salem builders are motivated to sell their homes.  EVERY OTHER builder is dropping their price by $30,000, and this one raises his price.  Now granted he added backyard landscaping since the … (1 comments)

 
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Melina Tomson, M.S. Principal Broker/Owner

Salem, OR

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Tomson Burnham, llc Licensed in the State of Oregon

Office Phone: (503) 371-6515

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Neighborhood real estate at its best delivered to you by a Principal Broker licensed in the state of Oregon. Get a peek into my inner data geek with my extensive Salem Oregon real estate trending graphs, or stick around to see if my sarcastic wit rears its ugly head. Either way, read, hopefully enjoy and find it helpful, then you know the drill...call/email/tweet me for help with your real estate needs.


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