Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. One of the biggest decisions you will ever face will be choosing where your family lives. Thats why its so important to be working with a Real Estate Agent whom you can trust. Using some of the latest technology available we can set up an advanced search using the criteria you set to find homes that will suit your needs. I promise to work with you every step of the way to ensure that the transaction goes as smoothly as possible. Why go it alone? If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email. Search Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate! Read my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog! Buy Eau ... 11/29/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. Almost everyone was excited as Black Friday came and then just as fast, faded away. I am sure many people spent quite a lot of time and money. But how many people went shopping without a plan? It would probably be unheard of to just go randomly from store to store hoping to catch a deal without doing your homework first to know where you can find the best deals. Why should Real Estate be any different? Working without an Agent is like going into Black Friday with no plan. Let's make plans together and find the best values before we just go look at houses randomly. I can set you up with a personalized search to make sure that we find the best home that ... 11/29/2008

Search open houses in Eau Claire, Altoona, Chippewa Falls Wisconsin at Your Chippewa Valley Home I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. Searching for open houses in Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, Altoona Wisconsin and the Chippewa Valley? Check out my website! You have access to every open house from every agent who submits their open house info to our MLS. Now you can find out the time and date before having to wait until Saturday and Sunday! Now you can make a schedule to go see the houses before the weekend. Lets face it. No one has a blank slate of time when it comes to the weekend. Everyone is busy with their families and friends. Sometimes after working a long week you just want to relax. Well now you can just take it easy and access the open house dat... 11/20/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate with Agent and Realtor® Shane O'Gorman I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog I have had quite a few people contact me lately about selling their homes. While this is typical it does show there are motivated seller's out there in Eau Claire Wisconsin and the Chippewa Valley. On top of that I have had a rather large amount of phone calls inquiring about different properties in our area. I think things are going well despite what the media seems to imply. If you want relevant, local, and current information about our market give me a call. If you are interested in selling your home and want a fair estimate of the marketability of your home give me a call. If you are looking to invest in Real Estate this is a great opportunity... 11/17/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate with Agent and Realtor® Shane O'Gorman I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog Finding your next home doesn't have to be a headache. You can use my website to search for MLS listings in the area and find the perfect home for you and your family. You can also find open houses in Eau Claire Wisconsin and the entire Chippewa Valley. My website is also integrated with Book-A-Showing which allows you to search for homes online and when you find one you like setting up an appointment to go look is as easy as the click of a mouse! Shouldn't all websites be that convenient? Why do they make you fill out a form just to search for some homes? Welcome to Your Chippewa Valley Home the area's fastest growing agent owned website in the ar... 11/17/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Realtor® I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. Not everyone who practices Real Estate is a Realtor®. What this means is that I am a member of the National Association of Realtors ( NAR ). It also means that we have many more rules and regulations to abide by than just a person that has a Real Estate license. It also generally means that we have gone much further in our professional training by taking additional courses to make sure that we are always on top of new things. In addition to that the NAR and the Wisconsin Realtor's Association ( WRA ) offer additional training such as the e-Pro designation. Being a nationally accredited e-Pro® Realtor® means that I have gone beyond the typical training to embrace technology and all of the... 11/17/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. The South Side of Eau Claire Wisconsin is a very popular part of town for Real Estate. There might be many reasons for this. I know that often times when I ask people why they are interested in this area they reply that it is close to shopping. The Oakwood mall is located on the south east side of Eau Claire Wisconsin and has easy access with Highway 53 and I-94 near by. There are also many great restaurants and shops in the vicinity. There are also quite a few grocery stores nestled in the area including Mega, Copps and Festival. I live on the south side and I know my wife and I really enjoy the convenience of always being so near the shopping areas. ... 11/17/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. The East Hill of Eau Claire Wisconsin is very popular neighborhood. One of the reasons for this is some of the very unique homes that are located there. Some might argue that it is one of the better neighborhoods to live in the city of Eau Claire. I have lived there personally several times while living in the area. I don't know how you rate one neighborhood over another because I think Eau Claire Wisconsin is such a great place to live in general. If you are looking to buy or sell your home in the East Hill give me a call today. I have experience living and working in this area. Check out this great 2 bedroom home for sale. Fully remodeled and updated... 11/17/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. Houses are selling. I said it. Believe it or not our market is actually doing ok. Sure its not as fast paced as some markets and its not as slow as some markets either. But homes are selling. There have been some lessons learned by every Real Estate Agent in our area. Tried and true methods are effective and still work. Pricing came to be one of the more critical factors in determining whether a house was sold or not. Trying to convey this message to our clients was crucial. It seems like hardly anyone was ready but we are making it. We worked together and got the job done. The market might stay like this for some time. Maybe prices will have to come d... 11/15/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. I think there has been a lot of confusion lately with everything in the news. One thing is certain, that Real Estate is local. What is going on here in Eau Claire Wisconsin and the Chippewa Valley is not necessarily the same as what is going on in California. But how is the average person supposed to know? I agree it can be difficult to find good, relevant information. Its hard to pick through all of the numbers and statistics to finally come to the conclusion that they were greatly skewed in order to make a quick headline. Often articles are written with such generalizations that it seems the problem is everywhere and really widespread but they are actually talking about a smal... 11/14/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. Sure everyone has seen the headlines but does the average consumer really know what the market is like in their area? What sources do they have to learn about the market? I know that going to a knowledgeable Real Estate Agent would probably be your best move. I really don't see any other sources for this sort of information on our market. The major websites that supposedly offer local market conditions are basically useless. They rely on data that is just plain out of date. You need current, reliable information if you are going to be making a decision about buying a home in Eau Claire Wisconsin or the Chippewa Valley. If you want information about buying or selling Real Estate ... 11/14/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. I have seen too many people arguing that you don't need Antivirus software if you are careful. Well this is a pretty ignorant argument. It may have been the case when viruses only came in .exe form and all you had to do to protect yourself was simply not to click on it. Well since those days are long gone and viruses can take almost any shape or form going unprotected on the internet is about as smart as digging through medical waste with your bare hands. Contrary to popular belief viruses also exist on webpages and you don't have to click a thing! They are embedded and your browser just “clicks” on them when it downloads them to your computer. See the problem is that most peopl... 11/14/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. I promised earlier today that I would write a blog about spam and what is being done to stop it. If you have an email account and who doesn't then you probably are pretty sick of getting spam. First we had junk mail to try to stop it and the spammers just got trickier and trickier. The more we struggled the harder they worked against us. It was sort of like “Chinese” hand cuffs.. if you pull hard then they pull harder against you. Well I have written a few stories showing how serious of a problem is. There are a few sites reporting on this issue. One article showed just how much spam it takes to actually make some money. Now you can see why they literally have to send so many sp... 11/14/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. Well Twitter may or may not be news to you. If you are part of the social networking bandwagon then you may have heard of it but you might not even be a Twit or Twitterer? (Some humor is ok right?) Anyways it certainly is all the rave lately and for some more than just a craze. Many have been able to incorporate this into their business models. I for one have used it and so far it seems effective. I can post into my blog on Active Rain and then have it sent to Twitter which sends it to my Facebook profile. I guess its a good way to stay in front of your customers and clients and show them you are busy. Personally I see it as more than a toy and hope that everyone can realize its... 11/14/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. It may seem from some of my recent blog posts that I am pushing a pro-Obama agenda but trust me I am very critical of our leaders and I will never hesitate to criticize what they do. Although it might be too early to say whether any of this stuff comes about, presidents do tend to have problems passing into law what they say on the campaign trail, I for one remain hopeful that we do have some changes. If you follow my blog at all I think the internet is great and I love technology. But there are some serious issues with how ISP's handle our privacy and so far there has been a trend to sell out this information. If you don't know what net neutrality is you might not even know tha... 11/14/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. Every year virus makers try to keep their software hip and relevant. They try to take advantage of whatever is popular in the news or culture. Often times it seems to merely poke fun at our society with silly names. The main way that these people trick the unknowing is through social engineering. There are some rather tricky methods and although they have changed the tactics slightly by using the campaign and Obama victory, the main tactics are the same. Deception and tricking people into clicking on links or opening files they shouldn't. Although this would all be prevented if people used good anti virus software (here is a link!!!) What are they doing different this time? “One... 11/14/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. I came across this article the other day and I was greatly concerned. I wont lie. I don't like nuclear fission. It is messy and poses great potential risk. There is still no way to clean up the spent fuel and as such I don't see why we would be pursuing this technology. It certainly seems to have a great potential for disaster. Chernobyl anyone? I don't want to see a giant dome of concrete in my lifetime thats for sure. Well that doesn't seem to have stopped one ambitious company that not only wants to pursue fission technology, they want to miniaturize it and make it more readily available. I know that smaller, more controlled reactions are much safer and this certainly is safe... 11/14/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent After spending hundreds of dollars each month on gasoline over this past summer I am quite delighted to see the newer pricing. What is especially disheartening for me is that I actually live about two minutes from my office and am very careful about conserving gas. You might ask why drive at all when you live that close but unfortunately my job demands it. So I am sure it has been big news to see gas prices drop so much lately in our area and all over the country. According to a recent story oil has actually dropped below $57 a barrel. One thing I will point out is that oil was well over double this and yet now that it is halved again gasoline prices have not been halved. It is a myth that oil prices reflect gasoli... 11/14/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. There has been a recent boom in the number of FHA, federally insured loans to homeowners. This has offered help to areas hardest hit by current financial conditions but “The FHA’s surge in business, which includes many loans to high-risk borrowers who put just 3 percent down in markets where real estate prices are in decline, raises questions about a potential hit to taxpayers in the future.” FHA says there is no cause for alarm and they currently have a lot of money in reserves to insure the loans. Of course concentrating money into a more central location can be cause for alarm. If trends continue its possible that even more loans could be insured by the government but whether... 11/14/2008

Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Blog. Every so many years the perfect combination of ingredients comes together for the perfect storm. The same holds true for Real Estate, interest rates drop and home sales drop resulting in lower prices. Recently a third ingredient has been added to this mix with the stock market taking quite a hit. While some might argue that investing in stocks is a good idea, I also think it goes with substantial risk. Now every investment poses inherent risk but some are less than others. In the case of Real Estate investing in Eau Claire Wisconsin and the Chippewa Valley you would be hard pressed to find cases in which a long term investment in Real Estate would be a bad idea. Now when you tal... 11/14/2008