In a short devotional at church today, I told the congregation that I am a lucky woman, having hit the TRIFECTA of fathers, for I have been blessed by three wonderful Dads in my life--my Dad, my father-in-law, and my husband. We were never allowed to call my Dad "Father," because he said that there is only one Father and he is in Heaven.  Dad was the dominant force in our house. What seemed then like oppressive rule now seems like very wise and brave parenting. We never doubted that he would hold us accountable for our behavior, but we also never doubted that Dad would be on our side.  At one time, Dad actually held three jobs concurrently. A fulltime welder at a manufacturing facility, he also ran a paper route and was the owner-operator of two trucks that hauled hay in the summertime.... 06/19/2011

If most Americans were not buried under revolving credit, I believe they would be able to afford their house payments. Credit card companies charge rates that, in any other time in recorded history, would have been considered usury rates. And in any other time in history, that would have been a crime! From Dictionary.com: u·su·ry [yoo-zhuh-ree] -noun, plural -ries. 1. the lending or practice of lending money at an exorbitant interest. 2. an exorbitant amount or rate of interest, especially in excess of the legal rate. 3. Obsolete . interest paid for the use of money. What do you think? Have we all been lured into blaming the wrong credit mongers for our current crisis? Maybe we no longer have debtors' prisons, but we have certainly allowed the credit industry to place shackles on the ci... 06/18/2011

While we were taking photos, I even joked about the supposed ghost, referring to the resident Haint or Haints. My associate, a highly-educated, intelligent woman, cast a scornful look at me, "You summons them when you talk about them!" "Oh, OKAY!"  I said, somewhat sarcastically. "You mean that you believe the stories?"   "It's possible," she said as she walked away, dismissing the subject. Known as the Sherwood-Minton house, the property dates back to 1846, and it has long been rumored to be haunted. Built as a private residence, it has been used as a school, a dorm, a smallpox hospital, a stop on the underground railroad, and a Civil War soldier hospital. It also has sat vacant for long stretches of time on more than one occasion throughout its history. Now it is on the market followi... 06/05/2011

My words, my photo, my listing; but I did not place the ad on Craig's list, and the house is definitely NOT for rent.  Craig's List promptly removed the ad, when we reported it as a scam, and the local police called it an attempt at "theft by deceit." The police, however, say they do not have the resources to investigate an attempted crime. They did take a report in case someone does actually try to move into the house. The property is a foreclosure, and it is vacant. I learned about the Craig's List ad when a would-be renter noticed that he saw a photo of the same house for sale on one of our local real estate websites. My name and contact information were included with the listing, so he phoned me to ask about renting the house and to make an appointment to see it. "It's not for rent... 06/02/2011

Harold Camping didn't say the world is ending on May 21. He said the end is going to start on May 21, 2011, at 6 pm locally all over the world. If there's an earthquake anywhere today, he will take the credit. Of course, I'm not sure how he will explain his lack of being raptured when he is still on Planet Earth on Sunday morning. The sort of rolling destruction he predicted, which was to have taken place at 6 pm in each time zone and then circle the world as 6 pm local time marches around the world, is not happening. At least he is a relatively harmless former civil engineer, because he is not advocating mass suicide, as the Hale-Bopp Heaven's Gate cult did. From Wikipedia: Heaven's Gate was an American UFO religion based in San Diego, California, founded and led by Marshall Applewhite... 05/21/2011

I am a REALTOR®, working mostly with foreclosure properties. I am on the front lines of both selling and listing affordable homes. While there have certainly been mortgage issues in the past, I know that today's homebuyer with 5 to 10% down is a better risk than the foreclosed homeowners I meet when I am trying to get them to vacate foreclosed properties. Comparing that buyer with today's more-qualified buyer is not an accurate predictor of future foreclosure rates. Most of those people met virtually NO requirements when they purchased those homes with 100% or even 105% loans.  Forcing all buyers to have 20% down will keep many typical first-time owners out of the market, but it will also KEEP the current glut of foreclosed properties vacant and ON the market. Neither of those things wi... 05/20/2011

Scattered over the last two plus years are pieces I have written on how to swim with the sharks in the foreclosure market. Agents and buyers, alike, often struggle with parts of the process, so I am including links below to some of my "how to" entries. Facts about purchasing a HUD property that you may not know: The Buyer has to Turn on the Utilities? Registering and bidding on a HUD property: Illustrated guide to using HUDHomestore Time of day to make your client's bid: Timing DOES matter on BidSelect REO basics, including what the initials mean: Rio? As in Rio de Janeiro? Representation in bids and auctions (it's not eBay): Dear Online Bidder Printing the emailed contract when it has an electronic signature: Why does the signature disappear? Dewinterizing properties: NO. The Water wil... 05/19/2011

If your seller fears that having an electronic real estate box on their home may expose them to unscheduled showings, you can insure against that by programming a CBS code. CBS means Call Before Showing, and using a CBS code insures that an unwitting real estate agent will not invade an occupant's privacy without making an appointment first.  Ekeys will not work on a CBS protected lockbox, until AFTER the CBS code has been entered. Showing agents, then, are given that code when they make the appointment for the showing. An agent who just happens by the house will find that their ekey does not work. No more "dropping in" when they see the Supra box and then assume the home is empty. I know some agents who give the Supra box to the owner (or tenant) to be put outside the house only after ... 05/18/2011

Rand McNally is looking for the Best Small Towns in America through their Best of the Road Contest. You can help Cape Girardeau (or your town) be one of those lucky communities selected as "the best of the road." All you have to do is follow these easy steps.   Go to the BEST OF THE ROAD site, by clicking HERE.   Click on Register in the upper right corner of web page (shown here).   _____________________________________________________ Fill out the registration information. (I gave my year of birth as 1900, because it doesn't seem to me that they need to know my age). I am over 13 (that's the minimum age for voting on the webpage), though not as much as YOB of 1900 would indicate. What kind of junk email do you suppose a 111 year old will get? When you have completed registration, your... 05/17/2011

Homes priced under $175,000 will be featured today on the Wells Fargo Affordable Homes Tour. Get your home tour flyer in today's SE Missourian or stop at Beef O Brady's at 1pm. Register at each house you tour for a chance to win a 32 inch flat screen TV. Drawing participants must start and end at Beef O Brady's. For a complete list of homes on tour today (including the Affordable Homes Tour and all others), buyers can also look online at the following sites: Tour list on HouseviewOnline Tour list on SEMissourian It's a great time of the year to get into the real estate market, so map out your plan of attack and have fun. 05/15/2011

In a perfect world of real estate, Saturdays in May would be temperate and dry. Motivated buyers want to fill the day merrily going from house to house. Any agent who has made a full day of appointments will probably groan out loud when Saturday dawns wet and rainy. "What a perfect day to be sure the basement is dry,"is my mantra whenever I find myself faced with showing in the rain. Rain, whether it be of the drizzle variety that probably inspired ActiveRain's name or the downpours that seem to be stretching from winter into summer this year in Missouri, certainly does slow down a tour day, but it never hurts to put the best spin on it. A house with a still-dry basement after our recent deluge of over 20 inches of rain in under three weeks is one that surely can be deemed "dry." I had ... 05/14/2011

Providing comps with an offer IS TAKING THE OTHER AGENT TO TASK. An agent who comes armed with comps is delivering an insult and taking the risk of hurting the negotiations. She is saying that her judgment is better than the other agent's, that the other agent obviously did not already provide those comps to the client, that the buyer understands value better than the seller, and that the buyer agent's ability to get the deal done is better than that of the listing agent. Those implications are confrontational and not usually helpful at the start of a negotiation. My Buyers: We Would Like a Sit-Down with the Sellers by Donald Reich garnered numerous comments from agents who suggested that the buyer agents should offer to present comps with the offer as an alternative to having buyers at... 05/13/2011

I'm not sure why, exactly, you have decided to attempt to purchase a house online, as if it were an eBay item, but I'd like for you to consider the following: You WILL pay EXACTLY the same commission as you would if you used a local agent. That "5% buyer's premium" will not be decreased one penny if you go the self-service route. The commission is not optional, does not change, and is built-in during the bid process. You will have no local agent to help you with anything. If you want a local agent, just pick up the phone and call one BEFORE you make that bid online. Let the agent register as your agent and then make the bid for you. You do have an agent, actually. Your agent is the auction company, and the auction company will get that part of the commission that would have gone to a lo... 05/12/2011

I saw an ice cream truck this weekend; the temperatures are going to be in the 80s for three days in a row; local university students are taking finals this week; area 2011 proms are history; air conditioners are going on all over town, and the water park is getting ready to open... all signs that the best selling season is here! I am tired of the gloom and doom about the housing market, and I believe there are buyers out there who are, too. I remember hearing some sage advice when I was thinking of starting a family. "If you wait until you think you can afford them, you'll never have children." Thank goodness, my husband and I took the parenthood plunge. I don't know when the market will turn, for sure; but I do know that you can buy some pretty good houses right now for what you are p... 05/09/2011

The Birds Point - New Madrid Floodway has been protecting 133,000 acres of prime farmland for decades, but that will end tonight starting at 9 pm. Maj. General Michael Walsh, President of the Mississippi River Commission, says he has authorized the Corps to "operate the floodway project." In layman's terms that means the Corps of Engineers will blow holes in the levee to allow water from the Mississippi River to flow into the protected areas. The levee has been intentionally opened only one other time, in 1937 when the river level was 59.5 feet at Cairo, Il. The level is now over 61 feet and rising. Maj. General Walsh said that more than Cairo is at stake in the decision to activate the plan--it's the "entire system" of levies that the Corps is trying to manage and protect. Cairo is loc... 05/02/2011

Even state highways succumb to the Mighty Mississippi River during the flood of 2011. When the water first goes over the road, markers show the water's depth and allow drivers to travel over the low spots. Eventually, the water is too deep to be traversed and the road is barricaded as the markers disappear into the flood. Highway 177, known as Big Bend Road in town, is now closed at the north edge of Cape Girardeau city limits. Fighting the river, one homeowner at the edge of the flood water has a raised driveway that allows access to the house on a hill to the right of the photo. As the water level rises, more dirt and gravel are added to keep the ever-changing drive above the water's reach. Normally snaking between a golf course and the river, County Road 657 leads to a riverside park... 05/01/2011

  First Baptist Church of Cape Girardeau    If you are looking for an Easter Sunday service, please join us at 10:45 am  Location: Corner of Cape Rock Dr and Lexington Notes from Pastor Mike Shupert, First Baptist Church, Cape Girardeau, MO (applicable copyright privileges are his)   Good Friday Random Thoughts (or left-over nuggets from sermon preparation!): God made us for relationship.  Up-close, one-on-one relationship. He wants to be known, not just known about. Through his son, Jesus, he invites us to follow him, not simply study him. God has been reaching out to each of us (whether we like it or admit it or not) -tirelessly pursuing you-not because God is fact or doctrine or a lofty idea, but because he is Love. We follow the living Jesus. We are called, not to just to try to im... 04/22/2011

The poster thinks she knows how to get all the information she needs online: How long has this property been listed? How long has the property been vacant? Who is selling the property person or bank? Was this any form of a short sale or foreclosure? What is the last 3 sales in the subdivision $ and years? compared to this sale/asking price? What the questioner asked for is akin to a market analysis (before any of my regular readers jump to conclusions, I copied the poster’s words and punctuation exactly). The following is how I answered this poster: You should seriously consider signing up with a buyer's agent. I am not in your market, so maybe you will consider my advice to be non-threatening. The nature of your question already shows that you know you need market information that only... 03/11/2011

You missed a really good deal today, did ya? You were watching all the websites, and you have been driving by the house just waiting for it to become available. When you called a week ago, it was under contract, but then one of your websites said it was back on market. So you called the listing agent the next morning only to find that it is under contract. “What happened?” you demanded of the listing agent. “I know it was under contract, but myfavoritewebsite.com said it was back on market!” The property, it turns out, was back on market for six hours before going under contract again. You, dear Do-It-Yourselfer, fell victim to a common misconception: Everything is on the web, so I don’t need a REALTOR to help me watch the market. All of those websites that you watch so faithfully get i... 03/09/2011

Is it wishful thinking if I say that I believe the market is turning? Am I being a PollyAnna? At least one market analyst has hard facts that he believes signal a market turn: One analyst says trucking tonnage is up dramatically, and that is a sign of recovery: Donald Broughton, Avondale Partners managing director, talks about the trucking industry and how it indicates economic growth and decline. Broughton: Trucking is the Economy's Pulse - Fox Business Video - FoxBusiness.com And if nothing else, we can all make it a self-fulfilling prophesy in our own lives. Choose to be Optimistic, as Angela Lieb says in her blog. Americans are growing more confident, according to Fannie Mae's most recent housing survey, More Americans are Confident About Homeownership. I've had a pretty good week, ... 03/01/2011