Last night was such a typical Vermont Northesat Kingdom evening it just has to be written about.  Our brass quintet was scheduled to play at the Old North Church in Danville.  This is a building on the historic register.  It has no electricity or plumbing but there is a new "two holer" back in the woods.  Light comes from kerosene lamps and heat is a wood stove.  On the last Sunday of the month from May to November they have an old fashioned hymn sing.  Since the theme for the night was patriotic we were to play mostly marches. During the afternoon a front blew through, dropped the temp by 20 degrees, and rained and hailed.  But we the dedicated musicians set off for our gig over the back roads canopied with bright spring green leaves glistening from the rain. Less than a mile from the church we were turned back by a road full of downed trees and volunteer firemnen with chain saws.  After some backtracking over roads with spectacular views we arrived at our destination.  It was "shiverie" and a little challenging for brass instruments but the crowd was enthusiastic.  There were attendees from the local area and as far away as Portland, Oregon.  Good old fashioned fun with no more expense than some gas to get there and a little excitement on the way.  Oh so Vermont.  Ok, I admit it -- a nostalgia attack.

My company has a fantastic website and it's only drawback is I have to pay a 25% referral fee when leads come from there.  Since the site has to be funded somehow this isn't unreasonable.  But I also have my own site and really need some advice.  I pay for SEO to be found in the "Northeast Kingdom" but I'm no where to be found in any of the first thirty pages--gave up looking after that.  Do all you really busy people find a personal site to be worth the money?  I would really appreciate any feedback before I "pull the plug".

On December 20 of last year I received an email from agentpages.us.com proporting to be working with NAR and REBAC to develop it's website.  It sounded like a good website and offer, of course, with many benefits.  So although I have a website and figure the more coverage the better, I signed up for one quarter.  The next day I get an email from REBAC telling me neither they nor NAR are involved in the website.  The only method of contact with the website was in the "contact me" section so I wrote telling them to cancel as they had misrepresented their product.  There was a three day right of recission and I wrote within that time.  There was no response to my email and lo and behold the charge shows up on my credit card bill.  On the bill was a phone number which I tried to call and, gee surprise, it was disconnected. Last week they again charged my credit card, again only one way to contact them was through email, which I did.  Again no response.

My hope is no one else was dumb enough to fall for this scam.  My only hope seems to be to cancel the credit card since they have my info.  The credit card company is working on it but the wheels turn slowly.

The current market and interest rates remind me of a son refering to a girl he met as a Poodle on Crack.

You all have so many brilliant ideas to share and I sit and wonder what the heck I know about.  But here's one you might not have had to encounter--yet.

Fleas!

My old partner and I were called to do a CMA on an apartment building.  There were two units, one empty and inhabited by an empty head.  As I go on ahead to check out the second floor of the empty apartment I hear my partner yell for me to come downstairs NOW.  So old and gimpy gets down the stairs as quickly as possible to find the place really isn't on fire.  She is outside and tells me the place is infested with fleas.  Well it took only a quick check to see we were also covered.  As we stand on the sidewalk nearly stripped to our underware beating off fleas we wonder if it is good that people are going by quickly and not looking or do we need lipo.  But then who would't speed past two strange women beating at each other.

After much frustration we (and our cars) were decontaminated.

So a little advice for those who also don'n work only with high end property  .  .  . always carry one of those sticky rollers that take lint off you clothes.  We really wished we had one, or two, that day.

Wyla Salo

Northeast Kingdom Connection

Lang McLaughry Spera

During a class by Roger Turcott at the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS he made a point I have had an issue with for a long time.  His rule is the Days on Market are from the last price reduction to contract but our MLS states the list price at time of close as the last reduced price.  This is so rarely the real case.  Reporting this way seems so unrealistic and a further challenge for appraisers.  Since I can't leave a stone like that unturned and since we had all been telling people DOM had increased significantly I ran some stats.  This is a very rural area so there aren't that many sales.  Low and behold the actual (Roger) DOM were half those stated in MLS.  So since Vermont is probably one of very few states that has not seen a decrease in pricing over the last year and the days on market have not changed significantly  .  .  . hmmmmm could it maybe be our listing prices!

We all vow to avoid overpriced listing yet somehow they creep in there.  Obviously listed by non ActiveRain people!

Wyla Salo

Lang McLaughry Spera

The Northest Kingdom Connection