Doug Jones's (dougj) Blog

7/12/23.  The Wall Street Journal today has a front page article Fed Hikes Don't Go Far Enough For Some Investors. In the article there is a quote from an analyst  "When you're looking at where deals are pricing, it is simply not that onerous to borrowers". This analyst wants the Fed to raise rat...

Like 99% of the people in America I always have multiple projects going on. In my case, some succeed and some don't. That is probably a matter of focus and enthusiasm toward the project. For a real life example let's say I am doing Project  A, B, and C. I noticed that Project A was going great fo...

"How can I prepare my home to maximize my listing price? This was a question sent to me this morning from someone I have done business with. I am in California and the person asking the question is in California and the Capital Gain has hit many by surprise so I even address that issue.The answer...

Todays Wall Street Journal has an article "Death Cleaning" Trend Pushes Aside Tidying Up.  That caught my attention because over the past three years I have sold 8 houses where the owner(s) had passed away and the Gentle Death Cleaning process was undertaken by the children in most cases. Of thos...

This was written for www.salesmagicsuccess.com August 2022.If your sales and/or income is down maybe its time to challenge your thinking. Zig Ziglar said “You are what you are and you are where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You change what you are and you change where you are b...

Interest rates went up and housing prices in the San Jose area went down resulting in a big drop (almost to 0) in business. During the low interest rate time frame I was so busy that I did not have time to market at all. So what to do now? I played ping pong in my Mind considering closing the sho...

When a buyer makes an offer there are three things that are important to add to the offer contract. 1. A well written and thorough pre Approval Letter2. Proof of funds for the required down payment and reserves if required3. Proof of funds for an on time Ernest Money Deposit deliveryAnd the contr...

It used to be that I did not go anywhere in the San Jose area that someone would say, "Saw you were interviewed by the Mercury News", "Saw you on the TV News last night", "Saw your TV Show last week" or " I picked up a book Top 10 Traits of Silicon Valley Dynamos and you were mentioned.".  I woul...

Sometimes it seems I live in the late 20's during the Depression, and, I sometimes live in a closed Mind. I had done real estate for years and not only had never staged a home but was vocally anti-staging. (what a loser) Then I listed a very beautiful home but had difficulty selling the home beca...

My customer called me and was upset. I had run a credit report on her the night before with her permission and since the time of the report she had more than 50 calls from mortgage lenders. And, she said many were rude. I had forgotten that the credit bureaus sell the information to banks and len...