Trust me, I'm a professional

Well, its official.  I can smell fall in the air. Its still summer and I plan to enjoy the boat for at least another month.... But fall is coming.  Michigan is absolutely gorgeous in the fall.  It's personally my favorite time of the year.  Fall colors, Big 10 football and the Michigan phenomenon...

Today I was processing (my fancy word for opening) my mail.  I was totally taken back from a bill that I received.  In February I was interviewing landscape designers and landscaping companies.  I met with one particular woman, a landscaping designer, who designed the yard for a customer of mine....

Who's been in this situation....You're at a party and you find out that one of your friends just bought a new home.  As the anger builds inside you, you have to bite your lip and take the high road.  You congratulate them on the house and say something like "I can't wait to see it".  Let's face i...

I was hungry and I didn't even know it.  The past week of being a member of AR has been great.  I sent my sappy I love Active Rain blog out yesterday, and I meant every word I wrote.    What I've realized is that I've been starving.  Starving for an outside catalyst to motivate me professionally....

Time for me to fess up.  I don't have a web site.... I don't even belong to Realtor.com.  I can't specifically say why... I just don't.  I'm not even afraid of technology!  I've had the Treo phone for 3 years now.  I have my IPOD hardwired to the factory head of my car.  Heck, I even met my husba...

In an effort to really understand the state of affairs in my local market, Birmingham/Bloomfield Hills, I decided to do some research of my own.  I performed a search in our MLS.  I looked at how many homes & condos sold in 2005 in (JUST) Birmingham, Michigan.  After crunching numbers I've deduce...

This makes me nuts!  In the Birmingham/Bloomfield market, after a transaction closes, many sales get logged into the MLS with a sales price of $ONE DOLLAR$.  OK, I can kind of see why some people would want this information kept privately.  Maybe they didn't get what they had hoped they'd get for...

I was reading a blog entry by Kristal Kraft today entitled You Can't take the truth.  It got me thinking about how some buyers have completely unrealistic expectations of the market.  There's the "low baller"...this person wants to offer 25% less than asking price regardless of how accurately pri...

There's a new phenomenon here in the Birmingham / Bloomfield Hills market.   Well, maybe it's not new..... and maybe it's just a phenomenon to me.  Either way, it's shocking none the less!   The past 2 years, the majority of my business is listings.  Obviously, open houses come with the territory...

I propose the following scenario:You have a chance to take a listing.  A home that comps out say at $735k - $750k.  You've done all the market research and a CMA.  You propose a listing price of $779k.  You present your research to the sellers, and they decide to hire you for the job.  Here's the...