Big Rapids Real Estate Blog

August 17th, 2011 the Mecosta County Area Chamber of Commerce will be hosting our monthly networking event, "Business After Hours" at the downtown branch of Fifth Third Bank. Starts around 5:30 pm and last a couple hours. Great opportunity for business to business networking. Beings they are my n...

Just when I thought I had heard it all I was schooled again by an out of town lender. Buyers were attempting to purchase a home using FHA financing. Credit scores were fine so appraisal was ordered. Appraisal came back with a couple repairs but nothing serious. Buyers actually did repairs and app...

  Wednesday night, August 3rd, 2011 Free Wheelin' will perform at the Big Rapids Band Shell located behind the Middle School. Starts about 7pm and last about an hour and a half. These guys are amazing and one of a series of free concerts every Wednesday night. If you are anywhere near Big Rapids ...

Seems like lately I have ran into more agents working against the sale of their listing than working to sell it. Some are borderline incompetence, while others are just either oversights or probably should haves. Here is my top ten list of how you can help your client NOT sell their home. Don't T...

In my attempt to keep up with the times I sifted through a lot of companies the offer real estate apps for mobile phones. Most offered some things I liked but the issue I ran into was they would work on one type of phone but not the other. Finally I stumbled across Smarter Agent who so far has be...

When I received a call on a listing this weekend I was all sorts of happy....until it slowly unfolded and I heard what Paul Harvey refers to as "The Rest of the Story". The caller was asking for info on a cottage on a nearby lake and as always, I asked if they were working with anyone. Kinda, was...

The 11th Annual Tour De S.I.N.S. is about to get underway once again.  This year we've made a couple of changes.  The Tour is a little later this year (July 28-31) and is being combined with the heretofore much smaller gathering known as "Russfest".  So, the Chicago-based crew will feature some n...

Trying to keep up with the new technology is a full time job. My company was in the process of having new t-shirts screen printed when I cam across the Kodak / ActiveRain June Mobile Marketing Challenge and decided it was time to venture into this area. Our Screen Printer is Kelgraphic's in Cadil...

Not many words in our vocabulary frustrate me more than the word "Pending". Don't get me wrong, I like what it means but it has way to many interpretations for any true meeting of the minds. Whenever I hear a listing I want to show is Pending my first thought is "Really...why is listed as Active?...

You know the scenario...you call on a hot property your client really wants to see but you are told "Sorry, we have an accepted offer on that one", but don't worry, they will call you if anything changes. Twice in the last few months this has happened. Both times the deal fell apart and neither t...