Happy St. Patrick's Day Whether you are Irish or not, we all deserve some luck, at least, one day of the year. So enjoy your corned beef and cabbage and that icky green beer. For you Buyers, today is the day you will find the Home of your Dreams. And Sellers, today is the day that elusive Buyer finally comes along.
Canada, Would You Please Relocate Oh my goodness! Canada, my friend, I hope that you did not take that the wrong way. I actually meant it as a complement. In fact, I enjoy having you as my neighbor. I, my family, and my friends have been to visit you many times and you have been very hospitable. Also, likewise, I have enjoyed the company of your citizens when they have come to visit me in my country. What I was actually hoping is that you might get yourself a summer home, or in your case if you would like to get away from the cold, a winter home. A winter home that is a bit farther south. There is a nice place just south of the United States. Well, I say nice, but in full disclosure, I must say that it is sort of a fixer upper. It's infested with miscreants. These varmints have ...
Bad Credit: No Job It's been a bad economy. What does that mean? Maybe you do not get that promotion that you were hoping to get, maybe your hours are reduced, maybe you take a pay cut, or maybe you lose your job all together. Now what? Normally, it might be as easy as getting another job, but a new twist has been thrown into the mix. You would like to put your work history, with your many skills and accomplishments, on your resume and get it out to all of your contacts. With the recession finally ending, it should not take long before you get another job. However, with limited income, and in some cases none at all, you had to stop paying some of your bills, which, unfortunately, hits your credit rating hard. But, so what, you will have a new job soon and will be caught up on your b...
Bedbugs!!!! Aaghh!!!! If you have had them, then you know the pain. First you will see a mark on your skin and think that it's just a pimple, then you will find a larger section of irritated skin and wonder how you got a rash, but eventually you will be itching all over your body. You will be reminded of that old song from the 50s by The Lambrettas about poison ivy. Late at night while you're sleeping, poison ivy (bedbugs) come creepin around . . . bedbugs lord will make you itch . . . But this is just the beginning. The next step, which for many has proven itself to be impossible, is getting rid of these tiny human blood suckers. Extermination One of the most effective pesticides for eradicating these tiny pesky creatures is DDT, which has been banned. This takes you to a set of dif...
Maryland: Transportation: Recovery Act Funds The U.S. Transportation Secretary announced funding for over $600 million in new Recovery Act transit projects on Friday, including more than $26 million in Maryland. Nationally, Recovery Act funds have supported the purchase of nearly 12,000 buses, vans and rail vehicles, the construction or renovation of more than 850 transit facilities, and the performance of more than $620 million in preventive maintenance, which has helped to save transit service and jobs, and enhance service reliability, according to Secretary LaHood. Maryland Grants: - Maryland Transit Administration (Baltimore) $2,874,205 Additional funds for MARC Public Address System - Maryland Transit Administration (Rural areas) $1,987,757 Purchase 3 replacement buses; 4 expansion...
Maryland: Elegant Single Family New Homes Danleigh Homes builds new homes of the highest quality and provides outstanding customer service. Building a quality home begins with superior, quality craftsmanship. At Danleigh Homes they feel very strongly about utilizing the best craftsmen in their trades. In addition, they provide their customers with a hassle free, ideal home building experience, in which you will feel happy with quality, value, and service. Trust is the key ingredient at Danleigh Homes. They realize that building a home is a major investment and they want it to be an enjoyable experience. Building a quality home ends with you, the happy and satisfied homeowner, who will love and enjoy the Danleigh Home, which was built just for you and your family. These elegant homes ca...
Mailings Are Not Dead This is the age of technology. Online marketing is the most effective way to get out the message. Social networks, Active Rain, Facebook, Twitter, and on and on. The days of sending post cards and other mailings are a thing of the past, something left to those agents who refuse to adapt to modern ways. Hold on a minute! Let's not move too fast. It may be that mass mailings are, actually, an effective tool even in today's fast paced electronic world. Just the other day, Congressman Frank Kratovil of Maryland sent out a mass mailing about his proposals for "Stopping Washington's Blank Check." Hey, that sounds like a great idea! He addresses: Cutting Government Spending Now; Earmark Reform; and Pay-As-You-Go Budgeting. These mail outs were sent to Democrats, of wh...
Resurrecting Television News Viewership of the network news broadcasts, both local and national/world, has been significantly decreasing over the years. Possible Reasons Why Many reasons have been given for this slow demise. A popular opinion is that the news is biased, generally with a liberal slant, and hence does not provide the full picture of any given story. Others believe that the news is all too often negative in content. The positive stories are hardly ever addressed. In recent times, even talk show host, Jay Leno, was being blamed for poor viewership. Now that's getting desperate. But, they could be able to save themselves from this apparently inevitable sad fate. A Possible Solution How? An idea was mentioned by someone just the other day, perhaps in jest, but nonetheless ...
Has Your Rent Gone Up In Value? We invest our money in various things. Some more popular investments are stocks and bonds. In the recent economy, many people have been suggesting gold as a very good investment. To us folks in the real estate business, we are very familiar with real estate as an investment. Real Estate Investments There are some who invest in real estate in a somewhat removed fashion similar to investing in stocks. That would be through a Real Estate Investment Trust. Others invest more directly, whereby they like to manage rental properties. They look for positive cash flow and long term appreciation. There are some who look for faster turnarounds who look for fixer upper properties. This requires a few extra skills related to building construction and renovation. ...
Do I Have To Care? There are certainly things about which I do care. Most people would probably think that those things are reasonable and about what most people would care. For instance, most people might care about the following: Where will I and my family live? How will we pay for it? Will we have enough money for the utilities so that we can stay warm in the winter and preserve our food throughout the year? Where will I work? Will I make enough money to support my family and myself? Will my children get a good education? Will I be able to send them to a good college? Can I adequately prepare them for life? Will there be sufficient food to keep our family healthy? Will there be sufficient clothing for all of the seasons? If we need health care, will we be able to get i...
Just a Few More Inches My neighbor just had his front yard re-landscaped, last year. Generally speaking it looks pretty nice, but there is one bush that was planted near the corner of his lot, which is, also, near the entrance, or exit, of my driveway. This plant is only a problem in that it partially blocks the view for anyone who is trying to pull their vehicle out of my driveway. During this winter, which had record breaking snowfalls, this blind spot was, also, a temporary problem as I inconspicuously put most of the shovel loads of snow from my driveway on this particular spot. Just kidding; I would never do that. As it turns out, a new solution to this problem has presented itself. The horrific earthquake in Chile, apparently has had worldwide consequences. Of particular note, i...
Earth's Answer To Global Warming Global warming, global cooling, global Earth, has had enough. "So you think that I am getting hot, do you? Not a problem, I can fix that." Yes, the mighty Earth has spoken. Earth had been quietly and patiently sitting there waiting for everyone to stop babbling about it, but the talk would not stop. "I'm right here; I can hear you." Finally, in one of Earth's most mightiful displays ever, it has shown that it will not sit idly by while people talk and talk without ever acknowledging Earth itself. "So you think that it is all about you man, do you?" "Rumble, rumble, rumble, . . . " An earthquake of staggering proportions hit the small country of Haiti. Death and destruction ensued, but man was not phased. Global warming, blah, blah, blah. "Extra rumble...
From R & D to Viable Products COLLEGE PARK, MD. - The federal government can stimulate the creation of jobs and businesses by streamlining its policies for bringing new technologies to market, says a report from the Association of University Research Parks (AURP). The report offers a 10-point plan and would be especially beneficial for high-tech states like Maryland, according to its author. "This is not only about money - it's also a matter of adjusting the policies and regulations that too often deter entrepreneurial researchers in our universities and federal labs from commercializing their work," says report author, Brian Darmody, president of the AURP and University of Maryland associate vice president for research and economic development. "Job creation in the United States will l...
That Smart FSBO Buyer: Part II The following post was re-blogged by another agent. The agent suggested that the actions of this agent were in violation of the Realtor Code of Ethics and that he had "colluded" with the seller on price. That agent chose not to make those remarks as comments to this blog, but in a separate blog, without informing the original blogger of the repost with its close to slanderous comments. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- That Smart FSBO Buyer That Smart FSBO Buyer I am working on a theory about the vulnerability of people. My house was on the market for sale. When I had my business "For Sale" sign in front of the house, I got few calls. I decided to try a "For Sale By Owner" (FSBO) sign and sure enough, in the fir...
Parents Used To Complain About Trailer Classrooms A community would grow and soon the local schools could not accommodate all of the students. The quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive solution was to add trailers to handle the growth. Of course, this would get the parents out and complaining about their children going to class in trailers. But now, entire schools are being made out of trailers and getting "green awards". Do not get alarmed. If you were not told that it was made of trailers, then you would probably not know it. Check out the article: Williams Scotsman's Green Charter School Project Earns High Marks The sustainable school campus completed by Baltimore-based Williams Scotsmanin Chula Vista, California has earned LEED Gold certification with the U.S. Green Building C...
Networking: Create a Sales Force There are several organizations which provide opportunities for professional business people to network. Many of these organizations are designed such that a group of business professionals from different businesses meet on a weekly basis to network. The most effective groups contain from 12 to 25 individuals. Anything smaller would not provide enough of a dynamic and anything larger would be unwieldy. There are keys to finding success within these types of groups: One must commit oneself to the group. They should put the meeting time on their calendar and consider it to be a sales call. If you need to schedule a meeting which is more directly related to your business, you should not haphazardly bump this meeting, but rather you should schedule aroun...
FSBO: Call Me "Who was it, honey?" "It was another one of those darn real estate agents wanting to list our house." "If this keeps up, we're going to have the phone disconnected." Apparently, Real Estate Agents have not been getting the word out to all people. It seems that it is an unknown fact, among a group of people who try to sell their houses by themselves, that Real Estate Agents work with both Sellers and Buyers. Consider this particular logic: Owners of a house decide that they would like to sell their house; Okay so far. They decide to take on the venture by themselves. They figure that it can not be too difficult. After all, they have had many a successful yard sale with lots of items, lots of prices, and lots of buyers. So it should not be too hard to sell just one ho...
FSBO: Saving Money? A homeowner wants to sell his or her house, but they decide that they would like to keep the costs low. They decide that they will try to sell it on their own and save money by not having to pay a commission. They go the route of the For Sale By Owner (FSBO). These homeowners have a misperception that the biggest cost in the transaction would be the real estate commission. Here are some reasons why this is a fallacy: Often the FSBO is priced too low. Obviously, the Sellers are losing the difference between their price and what they could have gotten. This is usually more than the commission would have been. The Seller does not easily have access to the data nor the training to evaluate the data to determine a reasonable price. Often the FSBO is priced too hig...
Panel of Experts Workshop Many real estate agents provide workshops. They may be for home buying, repairing credit, first time Buyers, home selling, or a few other popular topics. Most Buyers and Sellers are not completely familiar with the real estate process, especially first time Buyers. Even Buyers and Sellers on their second or third move may not be up to date on the latest happenings within the real estate industry or they may have forgotten much from their last transaction. A purchase only happens every five to seven years on average. A real estate agent is an excellent person to provide an education session for these Buyers and Sellers, because agents are intimately involved with all factors of the real estate process. However, as closely associated with each portion of the i...
That Smart FSBO Buyer I am working on a theory about the vulnerability of people. My house was on the market for sale. When I had my business "For Sale" sign in front of the house, I got few calls. I decided to try a "For Sale By Owner" (FSBO) sign and sure enough, in the first day I got five calls. A FSBO is what someone does to try to save money for themself, not for the buyer. I just listed a house for $595,000. The comparable sales indicate that $495,000 would be more appropriate, but the owner, says that a FSBO just sold for $625,000 right up the street. Some stupid buyer thought he was getting a good deal by going this route. Fortunate for the $525K guy, he is a long time client of mine, so I am willing to work with him on an overpriced listing. I am thinking of putting FSBO ...
