Speechless Sunday - Cherry Blossom in the Warm Laundry For the most complete information on the Owasso and Greater Tulsa Oklahoma housing market, be sure to check out www.BobHaywood.com  The information, content and pictures in this blog are the property of Bob Haywood.  You must obtain written permission from Bob Haywood if you would like to use any of this content.  Opinions expressed are those of Bob Haywood and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of other brokers, associates or home owners.  Blogs may be used in their entirety using the reblog feature within Active Rain. When you're thinking of a great place to live, think Owasso, Oklahoma!  Owasso means end of the trail! 09/13/2009

Let's Get Non-Techie!  Here's a great non technical way to connect with people! I love that Social Media thing.  Give me Facebook and some Tweets and let me text my "peeps" and a blog or two a day and I'm a happy camper.  Business is good using these tools...even in the recession.  (Disclaimer...I live in Oklahoma...business slowed down here but never really died). Ah, but many protest, "You forget that not everyone who is successful in business uses Social Media," they say. And they are correct.  I get my butt kicked everyday by agents in the Tulsa area who outsell me...sometimes a 100 to 1 (that's an inside joke, right there!) One guy who does a great job with Social Media of a different sort is my neighbor and friend, John Tooley. John has established a presence at a couple of local ... 09/05/2009

Mr. and Mrs. Consumer, before you buy that foreclosure, please read this! The Facts:Time:  10:00 p.m.Place:  Title Company, Owasso, OklahomaParticipants:  First time home buyers, Realtor, Closer(s)Purpose:  Final closing on foreclosed trailor Yes, you read the facts right.  We were sitting at a closing table at ten o'clock last night, finally signing papers on a foreclosed, double wide trailer sitting on 2.5 acres.  This was a month past the original closing date, by the way. Was it a good deal?  Price wise, yes.  It sold at $70,000.  Not bad for 1500 square feet in a flipped double wide with that much property.  It also included the fridge, washer, dryer, stove and dishwasher.  All were practically new. But if you think getting a steal of a deal on a foreclosure property is easy, at le... 09/01/2009

Welcome Home to 9908 North 120th East Avenue in Bailey Ranch Estates, Owasso Oklahoma! MLS #924317 If you're looking for a great house and you want it to be in a wonderful neighborhood, then come in and take a tour of this 2269 square foot home in Bailey Ranch Estates in Owasso.  Bailey Ranch Estates is a neighborhood that offers a community pool, several park areas and paved walking trails throughout.  It also has several ponds where you can enjoy the scenery or try your luck at catching the big one! This home was built in 2000 by Boos Builders and is priced to sell at only $196,000.  It offers lots of open floor space, large bedrooms, plenty of storage room, decorator colors, a large kitchen, formal dining room, kitchen dining area and a wonderful covered back porch that was a later a... 08/31/2009

For the most complete information on the Owasso and Greater Tulsa Oklahoma housing market, be sure to check out www.BobHaywood.com  The information, content and pictures in this blog are the property of Bob Haywood.  You must obtain written permission from Bob Haywood if you would like to use any of this content.  Opinions expressed are those of Bob Haywood and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of other brokers, associates or home owners.  Blogs may be used in their entirety using the reblog feature within Active Rain. When you're thinking of a great place to live, think Owasso, Oklahoma!  Owasso means end of the trail! 08/30/2009

Welcome to Andolini's Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant in Owasso Oklahoma. If you haven't been to Andolini's in Owasso, Oklahoma, you don't know what you're missing!  Andolini's the only authentic New Jersey style handmade pizza restaurant in Owasso.  And it's one of those places where the story of how the restaurant came into being is almost as good as the food, which by the way, is all made from scratch. I sat down the other day with Mike Bausch, owner and founder of Andolini's to find out why he decided to open a pizza restaurant in Owasso.  Now the back story here that you should know is that I had heard the story from Mike's dad, the Colonel.  I had met the elder Mr. Bausch when I was working with him and his wife to sell a house here in our town.  Sure enough, as I listened to Mike... 08/29/2009

Blackberry or IPhone or both?  Recently I wrote a blog about buying a new Iphone 3G versus a Blackberry 8900.  I really wanted to go witht Iphone.  I mean, they are so very cool, right?  But I had been using a Blackberry Pearl and had been pretty happy with it. So off I went to the store to check out getting into a new Iphone 3G.  Hello.  Can you say over $170 per month for unlimited everything.  OUCH.  I want one, but not THAT bad.  So I ended up going with the new Blackberry Curve 8900.  It costs me under $100 per month for unlimited everything.  Big savings. So I like my new Blackberry, but I'm kind of bummed over the Iphone costs, right?  Well, I have found great solution.  It's call the IBerry Theme for the Blackberry.  Yep, you guessed it, the IBerry Theme mimicks the Iphone theme... 08/27/2009

For the most complete information on the Owasso and Greater Tulsa Oklahoma housing market, be sure to check out www.BobHaywood.com  The information, content and pictures in this Bob Haywood blog are the property of Bob Haywood.  You must obtain written permission from Bob Haywood if you would like to use any of this content.  Opinions expressed are those of Bob Haywood and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of other brokers, associates or business owners.  Blogs may be used in their entirety using the reblog feature within Active Rain. 08/26/2009

Welcome to El Fogon, an Amazing Authentic Mexican Restaurant in Owasso, Oklahoma. If you haven't visited the El Fogon Mexican restaurant at 11515 N Garnett Road in Owasso, then you're missing out on one of Owasso's best dining experiences! Opened in March of 2006 by Vidal Palacios and his wife Gabriela and their daughter Ellie, El Fogon is a real life success story that began way back in 1986 when the family immigrated to California.  Like many others, they were looking for opportunity and a better life.  And they found it there, eventually settling in the Stockton, California area where they opened their first authentic Mexican restaurant.  After being in business for 10 years, they wanted to own their own building .  This was before the recession hit and property values were still at ... 08/24/2009

Selling Your Home Successfully in the greater Tulsa, Oklahoma area, isn't hard when you know what you're doing! Today, it's time to talk about wood rot.  In Oklahoma, wood rot is an ongoing maintenance issue.  This is because we typically use wood and Masonite and other kinds of siding materials in home construction.  These types of materials are susceptible to damage from water and moisture.  When it comes time to sell your home, you will be responsible for any damaged wood rot or termite damage to the structure.  Let's take a look at various places where wood rot occurs. Here's a picture of a porch support post that is in good shape.  No problems here! Now, compare that to this one.  You can see that the bottom is rotting away due to moisture damage.  This will have to be replaced acc... 08/22/2009

Selling Your Home Successfully in the greater Tulsa, Oklahoma area, isn't hard when you know what you're doing! Successful sellers understand that carpet and floor coverings are important when you want to get top dollar for your home.  Let's take a look at a couple of examples of carpet situations. This is the carpet in our son's room.  He just graduated high school this past May.  You can see that as a teenager, he was pretty hard on the carpet.  It didn't look like that when he moved into the room!  Notice the stains. Now, lets compare that to carpet in a new construction home.  Even with the sun shining brightly on the carpet, it is beautiful.  This carpet is called frieze (pronounced freh zey).  Here's the same carpet in different lighting conditions and rooms.  The first picture is... 08/21/2009

Selling Your Home Successfully in the greater Tulsa, Oklahoma area, isn't hard when you know what you're doing! Today I want to talk to you about wallpaper.  Ah yes, wallpaper.  Still popular today to some degree, but when it comes to selling your home...definitely a must go item. My opinion is that replacing wallpaper in your home will help you to be more successful when it comes time to sell.  The reasons I hold this opinion are... 1. I hear clients remark time and again, "Oh, there's wallpaper in here."  What they're really saying is, "Ugh, we'll have to remove that if we buy this house."  And most people typically are not looking for a house where they're going to have to move in and roll up their sleeves and remove wallpaper.  Now admittedly, some people will be okay with doing som... 08/20/2009

Selling Your Home Successfully in the greater Tulsa, Oklahoma area, isn't hard when you know what you're doing! Making your home "pop" by using curb appeal. In part three of this continuing series, I want to focus on how to make a home stand out when it is located in a neighborhood where many of the houses resemble each other.  This happens when new neighborhoods develop, but only a few builders build the houses located there.  What you have when that happens is a situation that looks something like this. These are great houses in a highly desirable neighborhood in Owasso, Oklahoma.  However, they kind of look the same, don't they?  Since they offer pretty much the same options to buyers, how do you get your home to stand out from the rest?  It begins when your potential buyer pulls up ... 08/18/2009

Selling Your Home Successfully in the greater Tulsa, Oklahoma area, isn't hard when you know what you're doing! In this second part of my series, I want to focus on older homes, specifically in the Owasso, Oklahoma area.  However, these tips will largely apply to any older home when it comes to updating and selling.  I live in a house that is 17 years old.  The homes in my neighborhood are about the same age also.  They are typically one story, Ranch style homes.  They were well built homes with big rooms, lots of brick and large kitchens.  Some of the features typically include rough hewn wood beams in the vaulted living room ceiling, the old gold colored drawer pulls, door hinges and door handles and usually, a honey oak stain finish on the woodwork and doors.  Here's a picture of my ... 08/17/2009

Summertime...and the livin is easy... Ah what a great song by the famous Ella Fitzgerald.  Here in Oklahoma, the crepe myrtles are at the height of their bloom and summer is almost over.  And so is the recession...possibly.  And so is the $8000 tax credit! Don't let summertime and all the good stuff in the housing market pass you by.  For market reports and advice on buying and selling your next home, contact Bob Haywood.  Contact info... www.BobHaywood.com918-272-7272 (Call or text!) Oklahoma!  It's a great place to live! 08/16/2009

Say hello to Amy White with CityScape Mortgage in Owasso, Oklahoma, a great place to get your next home loan!Amy White has been in the mortgage business since January 2005.  She likes to say that the business chose her.  That's because after she and her husband had bought five homes in seven years, she had had it with much of the poor customer service they had experienced in securing their financing. "By the time we were purchasing our last couple of homes," said Amy, "I had researched the process of what it takes to get a loan and I found that it just wasn't that difficult."  But it was the customer service that kept eating at her.  It just wasn't there, at least not the way she thought it should be.  So she decided to jump into the business in order to make a difference. Not a bad ide... 08/14/2009

Welcome to the John Tooley Farmer's Insurance Agency in Owasso, Oklahoma where the insurance isn't just for the farmers, it's for everyone! John Tooley began his insurance business endeavor with Farmer's Insurance in January 2007 after having been in the telecom industry for 10 years.  And why would he do that?  Why would he move from a large corporation to the uncertainties of owning and operating a small insurance business?  Simply put, he did it for his kids.  "I would get up every morning and go off to work and I'd work hard," John said, "but when I'd get home at night, my kids would have no idea what I had done idea.  I wanted to do something generational...something where my kids can come into my office and I can show them the inner workings of a business so that they can only kno... 08/12/2009

This is my dog Teddy Bear.  She's one of those pets that came home with my daughter when she was in high school.  "Oh daddy," she said, "Isn't the puppy SOOOOOO cute!"  And then it was how she would take care of the dog and yadda, yadda, yadda.  Of course, we already knew who would take care of the dog, but that didn't matter because the puppy was so cute we couldn't say no. After my daughter and her boyfriend (who helped her get the dog) broke up, she didn't have much interest left in Teddy Bear.  But I didn't care because I had already stolen her as my own.  She's just a mixed breed dog, but to me, she's the best (dog) friend I've ever had.  In fact, Teddy Bear converted me from being a cat person to a dog person!  Even as I write this right now, she is lying at my feet.  She's a gre... 08/11/2009

This picture is of the old purple martin birdhouse in our backyard.  I thought it might make a fun picture!  Since the birds are already gone for this year, I couldn't catch one peaking out, but I thought that would have been cool too.  This house has been in our yard for several years.  It got knocked down by the wind this past year and really took a beating.  We put it back together as best we could, but it doesn't look as good as it used to!  Believe it or not, the martins came and used it again this year! 08/09/2009

Ahhh the business of life.  Especially now that school is about to begin.  It can get crazy some days can't it? Moms and dads are on the run with jobs and sports and kid's practices. Volunteers have tons of contacts to make and lots of organization to keep up with. In the world of real estate, we find ourselves often on the run...  Phone calls are coming in left and right.We have lots of calls to return.This person wants information about these houses.That person wants to put an offer in on that certain house. Then your husband or wife calls and wants you to run by the grocery store on the way home...if you're gonna make it home before 8 tonight... Some days you don't even get all your phone calls returned because you run out of day before you get everything done.  It can be difficult t... 08/08/2009