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Trying to find away to think outside the box? Simply do not climb into the box!

Here is a selection of some of Real Estate and Internet Marketing syndicated news feeds!

Reliberation.com

12/31/09, Final Day of Reliberation »»

12/30/09, Good BYE again, RELIB »»

12/25/09, It's been swell »»

12/17/09, How to World Real Estate Blogging! »»

12/15/09, Now Its Time To Say Goodbye To All Our Family »»

12/14/09, Contact Info... »»

12/10/09, Very sad to see RELIB go... »»

12/8/09, Hello, friends »»

12/6/09, SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM PUERTO RICO »»

12/4/09, Maybe this is part of the problem »»

12/3/09, Say it isn't SO...The Ending of Reliberation »»

12/3/09, Say it isn't SO...New Friends found...soon gone »»

12/2/09, My Favorite Reliberation Memories »»

12/1/09, Goodbye Reliberation »»

11/30/09, EagleOpenHouses.com »»

11/26/09, Domain Names and Trademark Infringement. »»

11/23/09, The Perfect Holiday gift for Your Real Estate Agent!! »»

11/21/09, My website is worth #%@*!(^)!!!! »»

11/20/09, Inherited Property in the Bahamas »»

11/19/09, Ninja Selling Webinars »»

11/18/09, Realtor.com's "Search Assist" product -- any one using it? Results? »»

11/15/09, Hello All »»

11/14/09, Don't count calories, or chloresterol--just enjoy »»

11/14/09, Problem Solving For Dummies »»

11/14/09, What Is Taken So Long To Get The Deal Done "The Office Chair" »»

Inman Blog

1/19/10, Google ads compare mortgage rates »»

1/19/10, Making fun of real estate listings »»

1/19/10, NabeWise wins 'Shoot-Out' »»

1/19/10, The 'real-place,' real-time continuum »»

1/19/10, Re-evaluating broker value »»

1/19/10, FTC orders MLS changes despite appeal »»

1/19/10, HAMP debt-to-income ratio drops to 31% »»

1/18/10, 'Long, slow burn' in foreclosure properties »»

1/18/10, Shoot-Out winner announced Tuesday »»

1/18/10, 'End of the personal computer era' »»

1/18/10, FHA lifts 90-day waiting period »»

1/18/10, Back-to-basics business strategies »»

1/18/10, Let's name it BillySoft? »»

1/18/10, Ditching short sales »»

1/18/10, Mortgage brokers jump ship »»

RISMedia

1/20/10, Today’s News at a Glance »»

1/20/10, Top 9 Reverse Mortgage Myths – Separating Fact from Fiction »»

1/20/10, NAR Pulse: This Week’s Top Stories from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS »»

1/20/10, Murphy’s Law and the Real Estate Agent »»

1/20/10, Housing Sustains Its Year-End Pick-Up »»

1/20/10, Get Everyone Involved and Invested »»

1/20/10, Sound Advice for Stretching Your Dollar in a Tight Economy »»

1/20/10, How to Create and Deliver a Dynamic Listing Presentation »»

1/20/10, Gene Fennelly Affiliates with Allison James Estates and Homes »»

1/20/10, Hispanic Real Estate Trade Group Announces New Membership Program, Website and Social Network »»

1/20/10, Regional News: Jordan Baris Realtors Taps Deborah Brennan to Lead Expansion in Morris County, NJ »»

1/20/10, National 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Remains Below 5.00% for Second Straight Week »»

1/20/10, Today’s News at a Glance »»

1/20/10, Can Loan Modifications Cause Trouble Down the Road? »»

1/20/10, Banker’s Testimony NSF (Non Sufficient Facts) »»

1/20/10, HUD Takes Action to Speed Resale of Foreclosed Properties to New Owners »»

1/20/10, Mortgage Modifications Double in December 2009 »»

1/20/10, ‘Weekend Effect’ Makes People Happier Regardless of Their Job »»

1/20/10, Tips For Using Office 2007 »»

1/20/10, Internal Revenue Service Releases New Home Buyer Credit Form »»

RealTown

1/11/10, File formats »»

1/11/10, Klein Named to Inman "Influence" List for 5th Straight Year »»

InternetCrusade and Point2 Technologies Inc. chief executive officer Saul Klein has been named to the prestigious INMAN News’ ‘100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders’ list for the fifth consecutive year.

Klein, a 35-year industry veteran known for his pioneering work and leadership in the evangelization and advance of technology and the Internet in real estate, is listed in the Technology category of the INMAN special report for 2009.

“I am humbled to be included in this group of dedicated individuals, many of whom I have known for years and all of whom I hold in the highest regard. It is personally gratifying to be recognized for believing in an idea and pursuing it with passion,” said Klein, Chief Executive Officer of both InternetCrusade and Point2 Technologies. “The real estate industry has only begun to tap the power of the Internet and I am fortunate to have been able to play a role, and grateful to my many friends and colleagues who have worked with me over the years.”

With technology playing an increasing role in consumers’ home searches and the business of real estate in general, the achievers named to the Technology category were selected on the merit of having ‘built tech tools and offered online services to make the industry more productive, efficient and effective in reaching consumers and serving their needs.’ The category also recognizes ‘industry leaders who are changing the way real estate professionals conduct business.’

The INMAN News ‘Top 100’ lists ‘the industry’s best and brightest who have risen to the challenge posed by a battered economy and housing hardships on an immense scale. The list also includes those individuals from outside of the real estate industry whose actions influence the business of buying and selling homes. These leaders embody leadership, innovation, ingenuity, power and persistence.’

Amongst his many lifetime accomplishments in real estate, Klein served as president of the San Diego Association of REALTORS®, and is creator of the e-PRO® Technology Certification program of the National Association of REALTORS®. Klein is also president and co-founder of InternetCrusade (www.InternetCrusade.com) as well as the real estate profession’s oldest and largest online community, RealTown (www.RealTown.com) which is home to the RealTalk community with nearly 1 million posts since it began in 1995.

The e-PRO Technology Certification Course was red-released late last year with a new Web 2.0 platform and an additional Web 2.0 and Social Media Course. Go to http://eProNAR.com to see a course overview.

The special INMAN 100 report for 2009 covers seven categories, with an added "notables" section, namely brokerage; technology; trade organizations and multiple listing services; government; media, economists, academics and consultants; and mortgage and ancillary services.

The full INMAN News report can be accessed at http://www.inman.com/news/2009/12/30/the-inman-100-most-influential-leaders.

Media Contacts:

InternetCrusade

Rich Hudson

Director of PR/Marketing

Associate Publisher, RealTown.com

1-866-377-0627

Rich@InternetCrusade.com

Point2 Technologies Inc.

Roger Noujeim

Vice President of Public Relations
Toll Free: 1-888-955-7900 (U.S. and Canada)
E. rnoujeim@point2.com

1/10/10, R.E. Marketing Strategies: Create Your 2010 Success Blueprint »»

Many people want to create success for the New Year not realizing that in order to do that, they need to have inside of them a blueprint for success.

What does that mean specifically? Actually, having a blueprint for success means two things. The first thing is that it means you have to have a clear vision of what it is you want to create. The more powerful your vision and the more you can feel your vision, the stronger it is.

So for example, if you want your business to make $500,000 in 2010, and you’d like to work maybe 30 hours a week or less, and you’d like to work with your ideal clients, then create a mission statement to that effect.

I would recommend start off with the words, “I am so happy and grateful that I am making $500,000 or more in 2010, I’m working 30 hours a week or less, and I am working with my ideal clients doing work I love.” Once you say that, then put it on an index card where you can read it out loud every day.

The next thing you do is you step into the visualization and you really feel what it feels like.

So for example, you step into it and feel what does it feel like to be making $500,000 a year. You can imagine what you would do with that added income. Perhaps you could visualize yourself spending part of it and saving part of it, or giving part of it to charity.

Make your vision very vivid. Not like a snapshot, but like a just a moving picture of seeing yourself doing all of these things you want to do with this added income.

Perhaps you’re already making $500,000, so for you perhaps in 2010 the big stretch would be $800,000, $900,000 or beyond, whatever is a stretch for you. Pick a figure that’s realistic and yet optimistic at the same time.

Once you’ve got that vision statement, you simply need to feel it.

You need to feel what it feels like to have that income. Feel what it feels like to be working your ideal number of hours per week. Feel what it feels like to be working with your ideal clients. Experience the joy and the fun of being of service to these clients. The more you breathe into it the more you’ll be able to feel it.

The key is to do this frequently.

Every morning look at your vision statement, read it out loud with feeling, and take a few extra moments to really feel it before going to sleep. Your subconscious mind is very receptive. Put it by your nightstand and right before you go to sleep look at it, read it, and feel it. Let this sink into your subconscious mind that this is your vision. This is your intention for the new year. It's very powerful to have a vision statement.

The second thing to do to create a success blueprint is you need to be sure that you’ve cleared your self‑limiting beliefs.

Here’s the process that I recommend to do that. Get out a piece of paper and create a T diagram. Draw a horizontal line across the page and draw a vertical line down the page so you have two columns. The left hand column is called Your Self Limiting Beliefs. The right hand column is called Your Empowered Beliefs. This next part requires that you become like a loving detective and search inside yourself as to what self‑limiting beliefs you would need to reprogram in order to reach your goal, in order to really manifest that vision statement.

Some examples of self‑limiting beliefs that stop people, (and the biggest one right now) is “I can’t reach my financial goals because of the economy.”

So that statement is a self‑limiting belief that belongs in your left hand column. Another one that’s very common that people have is “I’m not good enough” or “I don’t have what it takes to succeed.” Over the years of coaching clients, real estate agents in particular, I’ve heard many self‑limiting beliefs that create an anti‑success blueprint.

“I’m not good enough.” “ I’m not smart enough. “I’m not experienced enough.”

I had a client named JoAnn who, when she first came to me, was broke and scared.

She was in debt. She had been a real estate agent for a while and she was feeling stuck. She was at a low point in her life. After I helped her create her vision statement, we went to work to find out what self‑limiting beliefs she was carrying on the subconscious level that were stopping her from success. And we found out that she had several. If any of these are true for you, put them in your left hand column. For example, “I’m not good enough” goes in the left hand column.

Her parents did not encourage her to succeed.

Her parents did not instill a success blueprint in her, rather they have her the impression that she should just get married and that a man would take care of her. So she did not have the support she needed to say, “I will be successful.”

In addition to that, she was told as a child over and over again, “don’t bother people.”

“ Don’t talk to strangers.” “If you call somebody up you’re bothering them.” And of course as a real estate professional, one of her jobs is to call people up. Sometimes she had to call people she didn’t even know. She wasn’t aware of it, but these beliefs were blocking her from her success.

She had tried many different kinds of coaching.

She had tried accountability coaching. She even knew about the Law of Attraction, but couldn’t implement the Law of Attraction because of her self‑limiting beliefs. In the period of time that we worked together, which was 24 sessions, she was able to change those self‑limiting beliefs.

So in the left hand column she had written “I’m not good enough”.

In the right hand column she wrote, “I am more than good enough”. In the left hand column, “Women aren’t as valuable as men”, right hand column, “Women are just as valuable as men”, left hand column, “Don’t talk to strangers”, right hand column ‑ what was the right hand column for that one? “People are happy to hear from me”.

What happened after JoAnn cleared her self‑limited beliefs, and put her empowered beliefs in place was that she created her ideal professional life.

Currently she’s making $35,000 a month and happily only has to work five hours a day working with her ideal clients. I give you this example to illustrate the dramatic importance of knowing what your self‑limiting beliefs are and clearing them out of the way.

Recently I was working with a client who had been scripted or programmed when she was a child with a lot of anti‑success beliefs such as “I can’t be visible.”

“I can’t draw attention to myself.” “I’m not supposed to succeed.”

So if any of those resonate for you as you’re reading this article, put those in your left hand column and realize that you’re not stuck with them.

They’re not facts, they’re just beliefs, and do not judge yourself for having them, because at one point in your life these beliefs were survival strategies. Get as many down in the left hand column as you can. Take some guesses.

Once you’ve done that, go to the right hand column and for every self‑limiting belief you’ve written, write down your empowered belief.

So if your self‑limiting belief says, “I can’t be visible” then write down “It’s now safe to be visible.” If your self‑limiting belief is “I’m not supposed to succeed” then write down “I am highly worthy of success and I’m supposed to succeed.” “I’m supposed to live my dreams.”

What you do after that is you want to totally release the left hand column, and one of the best methods to do that is called the Burn Technique.

Simply cut the paper in half, burn the left hand column. Let it go in a ritual, and as it’s burning just say good-bye to all of the self‑limiting beliefs that you no longer need.

In the right hand column, I would recommend taking each of those empowering beliefs and putting each of them on an index card and then saying those empowered beliefs every day out loud with feeling to reprogram your self‑conscious mind.

If the negative beliefs start to creep up again, simply use the power of your mind to interrupt those beliefs. Just say, “Stop.” Take a deep breath and put in an empowered belief. In this way you are maximizing your possibility of a Success Blueprint for the year 2010.

Just to summarize, be sure to create your vision statement with feeling and be sure after that that you dig down and bring to the surface any possible self‑limiting beliefs that could be getting in your way.

Be sure you burn those, and then implant or install your new positive Empowered Beliefs and enjoy creating your Success Blueprint for the year 2010.

Dr. Maya Bailey, author of, Law of Attraction for Success Minded Professionals, integrates 20 years of experience as a psychologist and 12 years as a business coach with her expertise in the Law of Attraction. Her powerful work creates a success formula for success minded professionals ready to double and triple their incomes. Get Dr. Maya's free report, 7 Simple Strategies For More Clients in 90 Days, by visiting www.90DaystoMoreClients.com.

1/10/10, RE: Blackberry or iphone whats best for Realtors »»

1/10/10, Active Sync For Pictures on a Storage Card »»

1/10/10, Customers to REALTORS: Open Houses Suck »»

According to research by the National Association of REALTORS, buyers habits are changing when it comes to real estate. The report, recently released by NAR, asked more than 100,000 consumers to rank the usefulness of information sources to their efforts to learn more about the marketplace.

The good news was that for the first time in years, the real estate agent edged-out the internet for top-spot as “very useful” (81% vs 77%). The bad news is that, by a factor of 4, most buyers think open houses suck.

Within the margin of error, the agent-vs-internet top-spot is essentially a tie. That’s good, because the agent-as-most-useful had been on a steady decline for the last decade. Landing on-par with the internet is mostly good news, depending upon how you interpret it. On one hand, it could mean that today’s agents are providing excellent information and service when buyers contact them. On the other hand, it could mean that REALTORS have been putting steadily worse information online, to the point that the consumer feels their online listing content is so poor, they might as well just contact the agent (and get it over with).

That would be unfortunate.

If we compare the data year-over-year, some of the results seem ponderously unchanged. For example, the 2008 survey indicated that 46% of buyers felt yard signs were “very useful” compared to 42% in the 2009 survey: considering the data margin, it seems strange that usefulness of yard signs in the era of foreclosures-on-every-corner remained about the same. Not to mention most yard signs today still don’t feature text-message options to attract and inform Gen Y buyers.

Makes you wonder.

Then there’s the surge in usefulness in two categories that is noteworthy: Billboards went from near-bottom 9th rank to 4th ranked usefulness this year. So did television, which was in the last spot in 2008, but earned the middle spot this year. Most observers would think we’d think these rises as unbelievable, since neither seems like a growing medium to reach modern consumers. But their rise is mostly due to steep falls in other categories:

Home book magazines dropped from 27% “very useful” to 90% “not useful.”
Newspaper ads went from 29% very useful to 98% “somewhat to not useful.”

Now if only REALTORS would show their sellers this data, they might get on with actually selling more homes and raising margins in 2010. But don’t bet on it.

The research number that worries me the most – and brings into question how agents took top-spot this year – is the data regarding the usefulness of open houses.

In the 2007-2008 time period, buyers ranked open houses as “very useful” 40% of the time; They said 92% of the time they were “very to somewhat” useful. But in the last 12 month study, buyers only ranked open houses very useful 10% of the time. barely 35% of the time did buyers feel that open houses were “very to somewhat useful.”

So, basically, buyers think open houses suck.

The real estate industry should be shocked and worried. Alas, more REALTORS seem focused on how much free money it can get from Uncle Sam, to fund FHA loans, so more people can put even less of their own money down on homes they’ll be defaulting on at a soaring rate in the future. Once again, something’s rotting on the inside, whileall eyes are focused elsewhere. Let’s hope nobody tells their clients – the sellers.

Why might it be that buyers find open houses so useless? The data doesn’t say, but I have a few suspicions:

REALTORS themselves consistently badmouth open houses. Perhaps they have created a self-fulfilling situation from their own attitudes. Ask any agent what they think about open houses and you’ll find no lack of complaints. Neighbors are nosy (thus, routinely ignored). Agents have convinced themselves that consumers don’t want to be “sold,” justification for standing around saying little to nothing. And rarely do you hear the words “Would you like to make an offer?” from the mouth of the agent (nor their surrogate assistant) at these sales-less selling events.
If they aren’t soundly ignored, then most buyers are intimidated by the open house experience. Too many agents have been taught the “Gunslinger” theory of objection handling. “Go ahead, punk. Make my day!” so they can “overcome the objection” like a quick-draw contest. Gen Y is completely freaked out by this environment, because when they grew up, everyone got a trophy! They can’t possibly out-draw Top Agent Betty Barracuda, so they rapidly walk through keeping their opinions to themselves. Even Gen X sees no reason to engage in a shootout with someone who won’t really answer their questions unless they register or sign a representation contract. There are plenty of other houses to see without the hassle, like the For Sale by Owner (ie., Bank) down the street.
Open houses are still done on Saturdays and Sundays – because that’s when most Baby Boomer agents have free time. But Sundays aren’t free time for the typical buyer, made up of Gen X and Gen Y’ers. Their weekends are busy with personal life, kids, or simply sleeping after a 60-hour work week. Visiting houses isn’t a priority. So maybe open houses are useless because they are held on the wrong days at the wrong time. For the consumer, that is.
Managers have no idea any of this is happening, because the last time a manager went to an open house to coach their agents was probably….. um….never. The sales event has been essentially unsupervised for years – and remains unimproved, or worse, degraded. This year’s consumer data proves it. Without proper management or coaching, agents struggling with the few modern consumers who do stop by won’t spontaneously improve their outcomes all by themselves.

It begs the question as to whether consumers would prefer visiting a car showroom to a Sunday open house.

Either real estate is a sales business, or it’s not. Either the sales event has to be convenient and conducive to the buyer’s preferences, or they won’t show up. Either the agent is going to be useful, or they will not. When four out of the top five “very useful” sources of information this year were not a human being, the industry should stop and ask why. As for the fifth most useful place buyers used to find a home – open houses – it actually had a human being present. But in less than 12 months, consumers ranked it four-times lower in usefulness than the year before.

In the mind of consumers, open houses suck. Not even a recession can account for this.

1/9/10, Exporting specific Outlook contacts into BlackBerry »»

1/9/10, How to type the R above Realtor & ePro »»

1/9/10, Re: RE: Blackberry or iphone whats best for Realtors »»

1/9/10, “The Ponz” Tells His Side of the Story »»

We’re finally out of the 21^st Century’s Aughts, during which we ought to have behaved better.

We’re close to entering the Century’s adolescence. Its teen years are as likely to be as troublesome as its predecessors. In both the 1800s and 1900s, Teen wars were fought over which balance of power would prevail.

These rumbles every 100 years changed both the nations shedding blood and a number of outfits that were just hanging out, chewing their own political toothpicks.

The 20^th Century showed that people don’t like to be oppressed. Sooner or later, many of its dictatorships collapsed, lost wars of aggression or were overthrown by the political opponents their policies created.

China is my pick for the dictatorship that’s most likely to fall apart from the inside out and get involved in a balance-of-power struggle during the coming decade. Runner-ups are North Korea, Iran and Cuba.

As much as anything else, images of American pop culture and prosperity undercut current dictatorships. They represent freedom. Amazon and the Internet may prove to be better ways to effect “regime change” than military interventions.

Who, then, is more qualified to explain the allure of American wealth than Bernie “The Ponz” Madeup, who is currently serving 150 years in federal prison for, it is said, getting rich by doing wrongful things with the money of others.

The Ponz doesn’t come across as the biggest swindler in financial history. He looks like Uncle Morty who goes out for Sunday morning bagels. I was about to ask for a poppy seed with cream cheese when my keen journalistic senses returned.

Me: Why did you steal $65 billion from your clients?

Him: Let’s get our numbers straight. Sixty-five billion was said to have been missing from clients’ accounts, but the court-appointed trustee estimated that only $18 billion was involved in any real loss. And that number is just semantics. No money is ever lost in the sense of disappearing. Let’s say that the money’s ownership was rearranged.

I certainly didn’t put $65 billion in my own pocket. Most of it went to my clients.

Given enough time, all asset managers eventually lose money on some investments. They can trip up going long. I lost going…real short.

My methods produced steady above-market returns for my clients for almost three decades. I outperformed every other manager. I put the quants to shame.

Me: But you didn’t manage assets. You didn’t invest. You just took money coming in and paid it out after taking a cut. When the market tanked a year ago, you ran out of other people’s money to pay other people.

Him: Yeah, that 2008 crash hit me like everyone else. It’s unfortunate that my clients didn’t have the long-term investment horizon that I always recommended.

Me: You didn’t have any money in the market! You kept it in an account at Chase Manhattan Bank.

Him: More proof that I was a conservative, prudent money manager. I admit that I did put money to work, let’s say, outside the normal investment box. I created a new business model.

Me: Bernie, you weren’t in ‘business.’ You were running a scam.

Him: Scam, schmam. It’s a matter of opinion…in my opinion.

Me: Did you steal from your clients?

Him: Steal? That’s a loaded term. I paid myself and my staff well. But our compensation was right in line with other Wall Street firms. I wouldn’t call honest compensation “stealing.”

Me: You hot-footed money from one client to another. That’s fraud, theft.

Him: I see that you’re determined to make a hangman’s rope out of split hairs. The truth is I managed a disciplined reallocation of private-sector resources. Some have argued that I should have been more transparent. But then I would have had to reveal proprietary analytical tools that took me years to perfect.

Me: You sent your clients phony statements each month that you were buying and selling stocks in their accounts when you weren’t doing either. None of it was true.

Him: True, schmoo. I sent them real money. Isn’t that the American bottom line? No client ever asked me about how I made money for them. They were interested in performance, not philosophy.

Me: Bernie, you weren’t making money.

Him: Let me clue you in, kid. You make money on The Street in two ways. The hard way is to make it in the market. The easy way is to make it off your clients. My approach emphasized the second. I admit that I underweighted the first

Me: So you don’t think you’re a crook?

Him: Not in any ethical sense. Law is a creature of its time. I was ahead of mine, like many of our most famous entrepreneurs.

Me: Are you innocent?

Him: Largely, yes. But none of us are totally innocent.

Me: You pled guilty to every charge. Why are you in jail?

Him: The prosecutor needed a villain. He took me, and I gave myself willingly….

Me: …to spare your family who worked with you?

Him: Draw your own conclusion. The enemy was about to overrun our position. I stayed behind and sacrificed myself so that others might live. I have a selfless quality that the media have deliberately ignored.

Me: Why’d ya do it, Bernie?

Him: Money, of course. You can do more good with a lot of money than you can with a little money. But to be honest, the money was a means to several ends. It brought respect. I stopped being a nobody. People paid attention to me; they thought I was smart. I was honored. I was on boards. I gave to charities. I was T-Rex — The Street trembled where I walked. How cool was that? It was like a movie. It was fun.

Me: Do you think you’re a scapegoat?

Him: Sure. The politicians needed to put a face on the Wall Street mess last year. The public doesn’t understand credit default mumbo jumbo. But anyone can figure me out—a small hand in a large cookie jar.

I had nothing to do with subprime lending, derivatives or federal bailouts. Compare what happened to me with the guys on The Street who lost really big money. Nothing at all happened to them. And nothing’s changed, because Bernie Madeup took the fall. In my own small way, I’m a hero.

Me: Really.

Him: I am a good person to whom…bad things became attached. I think I’m best described as a rising tide who tried to lift too many boats at once.

Me: So you see yourself as a role model.

Him: An inspiration. I showed nobodies everywhere -- China, North Korea, you name it -- how to break the system that holds them back. Not long after I’m gone, you’ll see statues of me erected around the world. I’m as American as Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan. Bernie Madeup is as American as cherry pie. I am, The Ponz!

Me: Thanks for the interview.

Him: Now that we’re friends, I have something that should interest you. Put $100 in my commissary account, and I’ll double it in a week. We’ll split the profit. I’ll use my share to buy toiletries for the have-nots in The Hole. Leave your appreciating capital with me, and I’ll double it every week. You’ll get a statement at the end of the month showing every penny you own.

Me: Still at it?

Him: Talent always has its way.

Me: It’s a New Year.

Him: On the calendar, anyway.

Curtis Seltzer is a land consultant who works with buyers and helps sellers develop marketing plans. He is author of How To Be a DIRT-SMART Buyer of Country Property, available at where his columns are posted. He also writes weekly for and does commentary for Virginia public radio.www.LandThink.com www.curtis-seltzer.com

1/9/10, Enough already; let's WAVE. »»

1/9/10, Why Isn't Your Cape Coral Real Estate Selling? »»

You've listed your property. You've spent your weekends with people traipsing through your home. You've done everything you can and your Cape Coral real estate is still sitting on the market while others around you are selling. Why won't your home sell?

You've cleaned your home—you think. Let's examine a few areas many people overlook:
• Did you stuff all your stuff in cabinets thinking no one will be bold enough to open cabinets and look inside? Hum… maybe. Maybe not. Lots of people open drawers, cabinets, and definitely will look in closets, so don't stash all your stuff in closets. Besides being untidy it is likely that overstuffed closets will fall out in an avalanche when an unsuspecting buyer happens to peek.

• Are there dirty dishes stacked up, clothes in the laundry baskets, or used towels all over the bathroom? Just because you have to live in you Cape Coral real estate until you sell it doesn't mean it looks good to your buyers. The 'lived in' look only makes your home look comfortable when friends and family visit, not prospective buyers.

• Does your loving pet adore your visitors? Even the most well-behaved dog or cat may be a distraction. Not everybody is a pet lover, and even if they are they don't want to have to deal with your pets while viewing a home. Have your dogs and cats in their crates when buyers come to see your Cape Coral real estate listing.

• Is the lawnmower sitting on the patio, the pool skimmer lying on the lawn, the kid's bikes piled up in the driveway? The inside of your home isn't the only place that shouldn't look 'lived in' when you are showing your home to the public.

Little things mean a lot. Don't let those little nail holes, stray wires from a removed fixture, or coffee stains on the carpet go unheeded. Your buyer is not going to want to fix those things when they move in. And, it makes potential buyers think that if minor repairs haven't been taken care of, most likely, major repairs have been let go also. Take the time to do minor home fix ups and make your house look as inviting as possible.

If you'd like more tips like this, subscribe to my blog. You'll get a couple of new tips automatically emailed to you each week. Please visit my Web site at http://www.Lilorealtor.com

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1/8/10, Seller issues -- how would you handle? »»

Long story short I had a listing from last year that didn't start out as a short sale - was at 4% because that was the way the Keller Williams office worked- anyway - as we kept lowering price it was apparent this was going to become a short sale. I wasn't familiar and offered an expert to discuss it with her - seller and I were on such great terms (we even used to go out to lunch etc.) - that she said no I want you to do it - I got my CDPE and really got into it so that I can do the best job I can for her. Only offer that we got was a lowball they rejected and listing expired and they decided to rent. End of that listing.

We kept in touch, was invited to her kids bday parties, really good relations - late October they decided they want to list again. I came with the paperwork to sign,she had just undergone some procedure and was groggy - I went through the paperwork and told her I put the listing at 7% because banks will most likely reduce .... she rushed me out and I respected that and left.

I had 2 OHs which resulted in 8 offers, the highest & best was a cash deal, I submitted SS package 11/6 - there were 2 banks - and they were not in default. Buyers did their inspection wanted their credit - I worked with bank for this modification, mod to 2nd, got it approved and they closed 2 mos later 1/6 last Wednesday. You'd think she'd be happy - I recommended the best lawyer for her - this was not my 1st short sale I had 3 before her so I did a stellar job not only IMO but all the players in this deal.

She sends me a note on Sunday that she wants a copy of the listing agreement because she can't believe I duped her into signing 7% - that if she'd known that she wouldn't have gone with me - and that I don't deserve the 6% the bank is going to pay etc etc - basically character assassination - she was truly nasty. I responded professionally. I have not seen her, after closing I sent flowers and candy and not a response - she took me out of all her social networking... anyway -

It's bothering me obviously because she questions my integrity - I know clearly I had both of them sitting there that I told her it's their oversight - #1 she's been so hands-on in this deal - maybe that was a mistake in a short sale I should push back the seller it's really negotiations with the bank - she has no say at this point . I'm hoping that in time she'll see that I did right by her - I really can't understand her anger - everyone tells me forget it - but she can botch my name out there i do worry - anyway - blabbing - what would you do? have you had similar situation???

Thanks-

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