st louis real estate thoughts: Got Me Some Ink! St. Louis Post Dispatch Runs One Of My Commentaries!
- 11/21/07 05:51 AM
I'll be honest, I love blogging. It's fun, it has SEO advantages and it gives me a forum to get stuff off of my chest. The one thing that it doesn't do for me (yet) is get my message out to a bunch of people. If my web site is the equivalent to having a bill board in the middle of a corn field, then my blogs are generally the equivalent to being a tree in the middle of the forest!
It's hard to stand out and to get your message through when there are so many other folks out there writing … (1 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: Man Found Frozen In South St. Louis
- 11/20/07 08:47 AM
A few days ago I wrote a post where I asked if people thought that the media plays a story straight. The over whelming response was, "No, the media does not play it straight with the public."
Frankly, I wasn't surprised. I had seen a perfect example of how the media plays things when my father passed away 21 years ago. I found out that he had died when the local NBC affiliate led their local evening news broadcast with the teaser, "Man Found Frozen in South St. Louis".
Having just sat down to watch the news, I waited while they broke for … (7 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: Buying A Home In St. Louis - Does It Make Sense Right Now?
- 11/19/07 06:11 AM
Over the last couple of weeks I've had the opportunity to talk with several people who are in no way connected with the St Louis real estate market or the St Louis mortgage markets. These were everyday people, one guy worked for the phone company. Another lady works as a recruiter for a local college here. Yet another was a supervisor on an automobile assembly line.
The one thing that these folks had in common was that they all asked me about the current slump in housing. The assembly line supervisor asked me directly if now was a good time to buy … (2 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: Poll Question: Does The US Media Play It Straight With The Public?
- 11/17/07 02:02 PM
The reason that I ask this question is that I've been following HR3915 fairly closely as it went through the House Financial Services Committee and have read up fairly well on how this whole sub-prime mortgage fiasco has come about. In following this bill and reading up on this mess, I've done quite a bit of reading, as well as watching news and business news reports on the "crises"! In all of this reading and watching, I've only heard an occasional murmur about the roll that Wall Street has played in this mess.
While Barney Frank, who if you watch as he … (17 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: The St Louis Real Estate Market, Where's The Bottom At?
- 11/15/07 08:26 AM
Over the last year or so we've all watched the real estate market faltering. Many, especially those in the media looking for a compelling headline, have referred to the housing market's woes as, "the real estate bubble bursting". Well, I'll admit, I started scratching my head a couple of years ago wondering when the real estate bull market was going to lose steam.
I first started to wonder when my girlfriend was considering taking a job outside of San Diego and we went to look at homes within a 20 mile radius of where her work would be. Our first search set … (1 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: Finally! The Real Update With Photos Of Kathy and I's Rehab Project!
- 11/08/07 04:43 AM
Alright, all excuses aside I'm finally ready to give an update on Kathy and I's rehab project. The last time I wrote about are project I mentioned that we had completed a few of our smaller projects and will wonders never cease, we actually got both cars into the garage! YEAH!
As you can see, our garage ended up serving as a staging area for the entire project. One of my goals before we left on our twice delayed vacation was to be able to get the garage cleaned out enough to get both of our cars in it prior to … (2 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: What A Move!
- 10/31/07 05:19 AM
Hello again from the world of drywall dust and busted knuckles! As many of you probably know, I've been rehabbing a home that my girlfriend Kathy and I recently moved into. On top of attempting to keep my business moving forward and getting all of our various projects completed we suffered about a two week setback when my mother passed and I got a call from my niece who was on the lam from her parents.
My niece called me when she was being booted out of a flop house that her and her friend were crashing in. I won't bore you … (2 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men!
- 10/10/07 07:07 AM
Wow! Life can be a roller coaster sometimes! Some of you have probably noticed my absence from Activerain over the past 2 months. I dropped in to let you know that I was rehabbing a house that my girlfriend and I purchased and have updated you all on the progress. My last posting mentioned that we were in the final stages.
Well, as things will sometimes do, things got out of hand. Kathy, my girlfriend who was facing 1 hour + commutes from our other home was eager to make the move, so we moved before everything was complete. No biggie because … (6 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: Almost To The Point Of Being Able To Blog Again!
- 09/18/07 04:39 AM
Hi Everybody! I took the morning off this morning and slept in! God, did that feel good! Anyway, I just wanted to drop a quick note to let everybody know that I'm alive and making progress.
To those of you who don't know, my girlfriend Kathy and I purchased a home about 6 weeks ago that we are rehabbing. So far we've:
Tore out a wall over a stair way that contained a closet.
Ripped up the carpet and linoleum.
Removed the billion or so staples that were holding the linoleum down.
Ripped up the 27 sub floors that were under the kitchen floor (everybody … (9 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: Just A Note To Explain My Absence.
- 09/05/07 01:38 PM
Hi Everybody! I haven't been blogging on AR for a bit and just wanted to drop you guys a note to let you know what I've been up to instead of blogging.
As some of you know, at least the ones who read my post about buying a home that I am rehabbing , I just bought a home and am rehabbing it with my girlfriend Kathy.
The home is located in Florissant, Missouri, which is about on the other side of the planet from where I now live in Oakville, Missouri. Actually, it's about 32 miles away. The reason that we … (11 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: Has Anybody Noticed The Price Increase on Mid-Grade and Premium Gasoline?
- 08/31/07 04:54 AM
I drive a car that requires at least mid-grade gasoline in order to run properly. For years I've been forced to pay an extra .10 a gallon for the higher octane mid-grade. A few weeks ago, "Quick-Trip" (a convenience chain that has quite a few stations here in St. Louis and elsewhere) started charging .15 per gallon more for the mid grade and an additional .15 per gallon for premium. Now, quite a few stations have jumped their prices on mid-grade and premium gasoline.
I'm curious what this is all about? "Casey's" another convenience chain that has a couple of stores here … (5 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: ADD And The Real Estate Professional!
- 08/29/07 04:34 AM
I walked into a book store the other day as I was waiting for new tires to be put on one of my vehicles and started to peruse the books on the clearance rack. I flipped through several random titles before I picked up a book called, "Driven To Distraction" by Edward M. Hollowell, M.D. and John J. Ratey, M.D..
The book is about recognizing and coping with "Attention Deficit Disorder" which is a neurological disorder that it's estimated that as many as 5% of the population suffers from.
"It's characterized by eacy distractibility, low tolerance for frustration or boredom, a greater … (12 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: St. Louis Realtor Is Proud To Be A "Salesman"
- 04/15/07 11:16 AM
I just read a post by a guy named Kevin Tomlinson "I-am-a-Horrible Salesman". In it he speaks of how he hates to be "sold" to, which is something that I think that a lot of us can identify with. However, after reading his post, I think that he might not be all that bad a salesperson at all. I commented on his post that I think that he and a lot of folks are under a mistaken idea that sales people are pushy and/or obnoxious.
While this is true of a lot of people who sell things for a living, they tend … (1 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: Realtor - St. Louis optimizes their website II
- 04/14/07 04:07 PM
SRRRRRRRCCCCCCHHHHH!! That's the sound of screaming breaks as I slam on them in regards to my SEO. My last post (http://activerain.com/blogsview/72206/Realtor-St-Louis-optimizes)on this topic talked about what I was doing to get my web site to show up on the search engines. On it I complained that it was hard not to get confused with contrasting information from different sources.
Well, after spending hours working on linking my site to other sites and exchanging reciprocal links (a SEO approach that was recommended by several people) I found out from some other very reputable people that not only will it not help, that it … (0 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: Marketing To Different Groups
- 04/13/07 07:46 AM
Yesterday I had to go shopping with my girlfriend. She's interviewing for a new job and needed a new outfit for the interview because she's been working out and watching what she ate and damn it, she deserved a new outfit....or two.
So, here I was "helping" her while she tried on various articles of clothing. Rather than just stand there, I decided to see if I could find another outfit for her to try on. I figured that it would save some time (I can feel the eyes of the women reading this rolling).
I looked around for the spot where they … (6 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: You Can't Regulate Stupidity!
- 04/13/07 07:03 AM
Yesterday on NPR I heard a story about a housing advocacy group in Ohio who was dedicating a large amount of money to help bailout people facing foreclosure. In that report a lady cried that her "Mortgage Broker" lied to her and that was why she was in trouble.
Well, I wasn't there and I can't tell you if what she is saying is true, but I can tell you that it's federal law that she was disclosed to. She should have received a truth in lending statement which she would have had to sign and a Good Faith Estimate, which she … (20 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: FSBO Market As Fragmented As Ever - Maybe more so!
- 04/12/07 07:06 AM
You probably have read on line or seen on television the stories about how the internet is doing away with the need for real estate agents. I know that I have. I'm seriously thinking about finding out who it is that does FSBO.com's pr work and hiring them! They seem to be the Johnny Cash of the real estate world, they've been everywhere man!
That said, I've been working on my web site as some of you know from my posts and one thing that I've noticed is that, while it is easier to look for homes online now and people are … (4 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: Mortgage Guy In St. Louis Wishes For The Old Days!
- 04/11/07 08:22 AM
I Remember Back In 86!
When I first got into the mortgage business back in 86', mortgage banking was a somewhat unheard of profession. If I told somebody at a cocktail party what I did, they got a blank look on their face and said, "Huh?" or maybe, "Oh, so you work for a bank?" or something to that effect.
Now, if I tell somebody that I'm a mortgage banker they say, "Oh yeah, my cousin Guido, who just got out of prison, does that!"
Another fact is that when I first got into the business there were maybe 300 to 400 places where … (3 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: When Does Politically Correct Become Censorship?
- 04/10/07 06:31 AM
Too Risque For Activerain?
I posted a blog yesterday http://activerain.com/blogsview/72632/St-Louis-Realtor-Confused on how to get comments on my posts. The post featured a somewhat disturbing photo of an extremely large woman laying on top of an apparently skinny man (you can only see the bottom of his legs under the woman). The woman is clothed in her underwear and the photo, while admittedly disconcerting, is in no way obscene.
The post actually generated a few comments, none of which were critical of my use of that photo. I then got an email from a person who I assume is connected with … (2 comments)
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st louis real estate thoughts: St. Louis Realtor Confused! How Do You Get More Comments, part two!
- 04/09/07 07:46 AM
I'm Confused!
I recently wrote a post that asked how a blogger could get more people to read and comment on their post. I also asked what went into a post being featured here on Activerain. The comments that I got back were very helpful and well intentioned. They basically said that a post needed to be well-written, well-researched, informative, easy to read, entertaining and relevant.
I was like, cool! Well, the next day I was reading some blogs on AR and I came across a couple that were disparaging of mortgage brokers. Furthermore, from the content of the post and from … (4 comments)
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I'll be honest, I love blogging. It's fun, it has SEO advantages and it gives me a forum to get stuff off of my chest. The one thing that it doesn't do for me (yet) is get my message out to a bunch of people. If my web site is the equivalent to having a bill board in the middle of a corn field, then my blogs are generally the equivalent to being a tree in the middle of the forest!
;)
;)
