If you were suddenly wiped out financially, what would you do? In the Fall of 2008, a lot of Americans had the chance to face that question. Let me tell you a personal story. In the 90s, I started a successful real estate investment company, but I also did other things that interested me. Duri
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09/29/2012
Yesterday, I blogged about a rental we recently took on. In that blog, I talked about some of the repair issues we've been handling for our rental clients. One of the things I've had to do is change five doors that were damaged by the previous tenants (before we took on the rental). Whenever yo
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09/29/2012
I do get entertained by having two companies. On the one side, as an electrical contractor, I get a lot of calls from Realtors who don't know me as a real estate broker. I almost never tell them I'm a broker until we have thoroughly discussed our electrical business. It's fun watching how Real
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09/28/2012
I'm seeing a strange phenomenon in the local market that makes me ask, "Are you kidding me?. I've had two people try to bribe me or give me kickbacks recently. The first one was an investor who wanted me to give him early access to an REO I was about to list. He offered me an additional $10,00
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09/27/2012
One of my favorite techniques for marketing a property is to put a "Coming Soon" sign in front of the property a few weeks prior to the listing. This works best on REOs or short sales in high traffic areas. This is a property that is coming, but for one reason or another it isn't quite ready to
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09/24/2012
I've been working with a wonderful couple since early June of this year. We ended up together after they had a failed short sale contract on what they thought was the house of their dreams. The deal fell through, and their hearts sank with it. Some deals turn dreams into nightmares. Well, tomo
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09/24/2012
I'm not a big fan of hanging drywall, but I do it fairly well. This weekend brought me to the final phases of remodeling a bathroom, hanging the final pieces of drywall. I guess if you could peer deep into my subconscious you'd see a guy who doesn't like the tediousness of cutting around all of
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09/22/2012
Returning to college as a young professional can be tough at best and nearly impossible at worst, but it doesn't have to be a struggle. Strayer University has programs to meet every attendees needs. I entered my MBA as a 40 something in the late nineties. I attended Regent University and Frost
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09/22/2012
I saw a great video today of a pig saving a goat who was struggling in a pond. It was great, and it made me think of a life principle. Sometimes in life people struggle. Some people are so focused on what they see as the solution that they can't see the pig treading water nearby. An open mind
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09/21/2012
I spent the day at the Inman Agent Reboot in Bethesda, MD. One of the unexpected pluses of the event was that I had the privilege of meeting Richard Iarossi. It was a great day filled with so many ideas that it will take a while to digest and implement the ones I can use, but I was excited to g
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09/19/2012
