I recently gathered several bids for some work for a listing that i hope to have on the market in January. On the floor coverings bid, as with the other contractors on other jobs, i previewed approximate costs on the phone and got the ballpark figures i was looking for. The floor guy come out,
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12/03/2007
In case you missed the 7:30 am (PST) broadcast, Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson, described in a fair amount of detail a mortgage bail out plan for those ARMs that are causing so many foreclosures and financial unrest. The proposed solution will not impact those that are handling their pa
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12/03/2007
CCAR (Contra Costa County of Professional Realtors) sponsored a panel of speakers that addressed the world of short sales this morning and here are several of the take away messages that i want to share:1. Approx. 30% of listings in our county are short sales.2. Closing rate is 2-8 times lower
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11/30/2007
I recently had the good fortune to meet with Brad Andersohn. It was truly an amazing learning experience for me. The primary topics at hand were constructing my business plan for 2008 and growing my business into the future.Brad has written a full suite of software products that directly and intu
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11/30/2007
The National Association of Realtors is regularly communicating with us to do our part in being more vocal with our Washington representatives. Specifically, legislation to make FHA single family mortgages and loans more competitive and viable again has been a major initiative of the NAR. Alth
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11/28/2007
After many hours of discussions with clients and fellow agents it is becoming more and more clear that we are setting up for a market reversal that will be leaving many of us (and our clients) at the starting gate and not at the closing table. The Fed is poised to cut rates on December 11th wit
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11/28/2007
This post is a followup to Adam Waldman's post this morning. I would like to strongly recommend Wendy Cutrufelli to all of you. She is a certified mortgage Planning Specialist at Countrywide in Walnut Creek CA and is the best i have ever met. She will assist with difficult deals, help with cr
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11/26/2007
Recent gyrations of the stock market seem to resemble the vicissitudes of the stock market. With the stock market dropping hundreds of points in a single trading day, it is starting to get some negative press like the real estate market has been getting over the past year or so. The key point t
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11/19/2007
Having asked many buyers, sellers, agents and brokers their opinions of the most important skills to be a successful Realtor, as you might expect, i have received a wide range of answers including - good people skills, attention to detail, knowledgeable about the market, good listening skills, pe
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11/17/2007
The article below is a succinct statement of the real price changes that have occurred around the country over the past several years. It does a good job in keeping recent price action in perspective. We need to share this dose of reality with our buyers and sellers. The erosion of equity that
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11/15/2007