We, as Realtors, sometimes fall into using jargon, lingo, verbiage, etc. that is relevant to us as professionals, but is not truly relevant to our customers, who are the consumers. One of those words is "Inventory". Inventory often refers to how much of a certain product a store has to sell, for example.  For Home Depot, their inventory of  a certain product, like glass tile backsplashes, needs to be at a certain level  for a number of reasons: Customer demand drives how much inventory a store stocks.  Low customer demand (think lawnmowers in winter) means low to zero inventory. High customer demand (HD TV's right now) means high inventory at varied price points must be available in the store to bring the customer to the store. Inventory is based on supply and demand, which goes back to... 02/15/2011

Last night was my weekly class at the Jacksonville Beach Police Department, and we learned about the Community Response Team, which is the team used for investigating "quality of life crimes.  This covers a wide variety including: prostitution (which I was actually unaware we had prostitutes in Jax Beach), narcotics, underage operations, etc. You get the picture. The primary strategy is the "Broken Windows" strategy, a premise used by NY Transit Police in 1985 that had the transit police focus on the "smaller" crimes, such as subway fare evasion, public drinking, public urination and the squeegee men with the thought process that by tackling some of these, they could offset the advancement of major crimes. It worked - and now my CRT works with major crime investigations, help track the ... 02/11/2011

Here are the 2011 stats and 2010 for comparison - 2011 13  Homes Sold Lowest price: $51,500 ($69,000 - 2010 Year In Full) Highest price: $1,250,000 ($2,400,000 - 2010 Year In Full) Shortest Days on Market: 40 (0 - 2010 Year In Full) Longest Days on Market: 764 (731 - 2010 Year In Full) 2010 8 homes sold Lowest price: $87,500 ($74,900 - 2009 Year In Full) Highest price: $450,000 ($3,200,000 - 2009 Year In Full) Shortest Days on Market: 2 (0 - 2009 Year In Full) Longest Days on Market: 534 (843 - 2009 Year In Full) WOO HOO! Sales are up 63% January over January, a terrific statement about our local real estate market. The media has a tendency to report on a regional, statewide or national basis, and the challenge for us is we get "pulled" into the rest of the state, which is not always ac... 02/09/2011

An early post for you to plan a bit: Jacksonville Beach will be collecting household hazardous waste on 5/14/11.  This is the ONLY date scheduled for 2011, so you may want to start collecting and make a note of the date; I will remind closer to the date. The collection site is the Jax Beach Public Works Department at 1460 Shetter Avenue, Jacksonville Beach, from 8:30a-3pm This is a great reminder if you getting ready to move or just cleaning out the garage. And, you do not have to live in Atlantic Beach to bring your waste to this collection. Types of Household Hazardous Waste include:   Paint  Paint Thinners & Paint Strippers  Rechargeable Batteries  Photographic Chemicals  Thermometers & Thermostats  Drain Cleaners  Pool Chemicals  Aerosol Cans  Pesticides  Antifreeze  Fertilizer  Aci... 02/05/2011

The City Council had planned to more permanently implement paid parking as a way to better manage our public parking in the entertainment district of Jacksonville Beach, FL. Apparently, the cost of the implementation was not presented (this is my understanding, I was not present at any of the meetings) when the plan was approved. Even though the costs would be essentially amortized over a long period of time, I'm not certain this is a great expenditure at this time - maybe the City Council should consider a lot by lot implementation plan instead? You can read the full artlcle here: http://jacksonville.com/community/shorelines/2011-02-05/story/jacksonville-beach-paid-parking-plan-could-cost-more-500000   02/05/2011

As some of you may recall, I am participating in the Citizen's Police Academy in Jacksonville Beach, which started 1/13 and runs until 4/7/11. Each week covers a different topic in our 3 hours, and last night we covered Tasers, and transportation. I had a vague idea of how a taser actually worked, but we did live demos on a CPR dummy (creepy) and then a group demo, where all linked arms to "feel" the buzz without the full impact. One brave (?) volunteer even was Tazed to the full extent for the full 5 seconds - it was fascinating, and accurately demonstrates how a person is incapacitated by the low (surprisingly low) voltage. The transportation was cool too - we are the ONLY local beaches community to have police officers use Segways to manuever around our entertainment district, and we... 02/04/2011

We all have friends, and we all have varying levels of friendship; some are "go to" friends who you can call when you need help. I had a car issue yesterday, and thankfully, the issue presented on my way back from the gym in the morning, when traffic was light. It was actually a day when I could be WITHOUT a car for the day, as I was conducting political candidate interviews for the local association, and I was in one location for the majority of the day, a relative anomaly in my daily schedule. A fellow Realtor friend, who had the same schedule for the day was able to pick me up at my mechanic's and drive me to our location. Another friend was able to pick me up and bring me home (after dinner) and pick me up this morning, to take me to Enterprise for my cute little red Chevy rental th... 02/03/2011

We had some incredibly heavy fog this morning, actually heavier than I can recall in a very long time. Driving was more of an art today, as you had to anticipate where the lights and school zones were, as visibility was about 1/10 of a mile. Here are some pictures I took on my way back from the gym this morning:    And here is 3rd Street, at 16th South, looking South at Hugenot Park:  02/01/2011

This wonderful local hospital is just a few blocks from my house - I could walk there if necessary, which is a nice perk of my neighborhood (the fire station is just a bit closer, so I am uber safe!). This surgery center is quite a boon for our beaches community: patients needing minimally invasive surgery (defined as those not needing an over night stay) now do not need to travel to a surgery center on the other side of the Intracoastal Waterway (or as the locals call it, the "Ditch"). You can visit the surgery center's website here: http://www.carethatamazes.com/specialties/surgery-center.html   01/29/2011

As you may know from my post a few weeks ago, I am participating in the CPA in Jacksonville Beach, FL. I missed last week due to the Florida Realtors conference in Orlando, so tonight was my second night and everyone else's third night. We covered so many items tonight, it was amazing!  From the threat escalation pyramid, to officer safety, to videos of the stupid and dangerous things people do that endanger our police officers, it was a totally eye-opeining evening. Watching the videos of cops pulling people over and other escapades were both hysterical and so very sad - our citizen population, all over the country apparently has a pretty high esteem of themselves. The funniest was of a guy being pulled over in a SKYJACK driving on a ROAD with a CASE OF BEER on his seat....and he didn'... 01/27/2011

I admit it: I have a reality show addiction that my long-term relationship with Tivo enables. So, I no longer have to be home to catch my fave shows, and yes, Jersey Shore is one of them. Why? I'm from New Jersey! I am a PROUD AND LOUD JERSEY GIRL! Not from "down the shore" (and, yes, that is what we say in the local dialect). I'm from "up north" in Bergen County. Having just come home from Florida Realtors conference, I just wanted some down time, and catch up on some reality TV, and I just wondered if there are people who think the Jersey Shore is a REAL depiction of the Jersey Shore, and/or residents of New Jersey. I'm here to say a resounding NO!  Although I didn't spent much time down the shore (it took way long to get there), but I have been to the Jersey Shore (disclaimer: it's b... 01/23/2011

Here are the 2010 stats and 2009 for comparison - 2010 205  Homes Sold Lowest price: $69,000 Highest price: $2,400,000      Shortest Days on Market: 0 Longest Days on Market: 731 2009 183 homes sold Lowest price: $74,900 Highest price: $3,200,000 Shortest Days on Market: 0 Longest Days on Market: 843 Sales are up a bit over last year, 12% be exact, which in this case equals 22 homes. It's very positive in my opinion to see homes sales are up in Jacksonville Beach; Atlantic Beach was up 8% year over year, too.   The low end has decreased 8% year over year, and that is one of the smallest decreases I've seen in my reporting to date. Jacksonville Beach is the largest of the beaches communities, and has more housing as a result; as reminder, this data does not include condos, these numbers ... 01/11/2011

This is something I have signed up for, starting next Thursday and continuing through early April. I can't wait to see the way my local police department operates, and get to know my local law enforcement!   Other local Realtors have participated, and they loved it I'll be posting about my experience (of course!) as i go through the class. It is going to be so informative, and COOL! You can read more here: http://jacksonville.com/community/shorelines/2011-01-08/story/jacksonville-beach-offers-citizen-police-academy-residents   01/08/2011

I have blogged this week about creating new habits for the New Year, and it is actually fairly easy to do with some simple steps. Obviously you have to identify what habits you want to change or encourage, and commit to those, then, you can employ some of these steps I've already blogged about; you can read post 1 here: http://actvra.in/tn post 2 here: http://actvra.in/zg The latest addition to this series is how to achieve your new habits by using visualization.  Visualize yourself performing the bad habit, and then visualize yourself pushing aside the bad habit and performing the alternative.  End this visualization sequence with an image of yourself in a highly positive state.  Repeat for a few times so you "re-set" your self image of you and your progress.  You can use this techniqu... 01/05/2011

Monday I blogged about Creating New Habits, and the concept was to "set yourself up to win". Read that blog here: http://actvra.in/tn One of the toughest hurdles for creating new habits is what to do in place of the habit you are trying to eliminate.  When I quit smoking years ago, I needed to replace my bad habit with a new, healthier one. I was accustomed to smoking as I drove to my advertising agency job, about 30 minutes. Instead of smoking, I chose a Granny Smith apple to eat on the way: a nice tart taste.  This occupied the same hand, and required I use my mouth. At the job, I used to have a smoke break in the morning and one in the afternoon. On one, I would get a skinny latte and stand downstairs for 5-7 minutes; on the other, I got a low-fat frozen yogurt. These substitutions h... 01/04/2011

I did my normal routine  this morning: up at 5:30am, gym at 6:30am, and then sunrise shots on the beach at 7am (ish). I think I may take the time to bring the Flip video out to do a more documentary approach of the sun actually rising, but I hope you can be happy with this series until then:               01/04/2011

As the New Year, 2011, unfolds, many of us are still perfecting or defining what our 2011 goals and resolutions will be, including new habits we want to acquire and old habits we want to dispense with. A habit, as defined by Dictionary.com, is: an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. My personal reference point on this particular topic is the 30 blogs in 30 days challenge, which inspired me to get re-connected to ActiveRain.  The bonus of additional points certainly was an incentive, however, I still had to blog daily for 30 days, which seemed insurmountable at the time. I met the challenge, and now, find I cannot start my day without commenting on 10 blogs, and writing a daily blog post - sometimes I even write TWO blog posts per day! Thi... 01/03/2011

I got up early yesterday, feeling fine, and headed to the beach to get sunrise shots. The clouds were not cooperating one little bit, so I was patient, greeting other early morning beach goers with "Happy New Year", while I waited for the sun to make an appearance. Patience pays off; here is my New Year's Day sunrise shot:       01/02/2011

We all have interests outside real estate, and for me, I'm fascinated with Numerology as well as astrology (for another post). There is a long held belief that certain dates have more imminent success attached to them, whether it means personal/relationship success or profession success. Oprah has chosen 1/11/11 as her launch date for her new network (although I'm not stating Oprah believes in Numerology), and I know there was a big rush for marriages on 9/9/99, in Asian cultures, as the repetition of that particular number is believed to bring luck.  You can read more here: http://www.numerology.com/content/numerology-jan-1-2011 And, as  always, we all really make our own luck, but the universe can help us make progress no doubt! Wishing everyone a safe, happy, healthy and prosperous N... 12/31/2010

It's in my profile that I'm the quirky female owner of several furry felines (aka: crazy cat lady), and so I occasionally wake up to find "gifts" on my doormat. The irony of this message, however, I felt had to be shared, since it was so poignant, and so wrong on so many different levels. Oh, and for the record, this is exactly how it was placed, I did not move anything to make it more photogenic. 12/29/2010