What is in a name? If it is a URL it seems like it's money. I have lots of domain names, but for my team I didn't have the initials of it and I wanted to hope that I could get it if it was available. Every permutation of it was gone. I felt like I violated the first law of your real estate URL, protect what is around it. So I saw that godaddy.com had a program where I could have them do an appraisal on what I wanted, and they would personally negotiate for me to buy it. Well, as a regular practitioner of virtual assistance I bit. Actually I was on a long hold with enom.com on a transfer out, and I had an idle computer to play with! I paid godaddy.com the $69.95. Here are the shocking results. Godaddy saif that the URL I wanted was valued at, wait for it, $8,670.00! Since I was willing t... 06/17/2009

I have been seeing post and comments about Google Alerts, and I have posted on it also. For one thing I track myself on Google. I can see how long it takes for Blog posts to be indexed, and I can see how my profile is being received on Google. The last week I have been seeing that signing up for www.naymz.com has been helping Joe Pryor on Google. Most importantly, I can keep up on important happenings and events in my town. Let me give you a list of what I learned today about my town, Oklahoma City, from Google alerts. In one day of alerts I learned  these are the economic developments this year. 1. The Devon Energy Tower, rendering to the left, starts construction in October.  Cost-$750 Million 2) Oklahoma City is doing street, parks and public space enhancements. Cost-$110 Million 3) ... 06/10/2009

Yes, there is a new iPhone and it is coming June 19th. The $299 phone is 32GB, and the $199 phone is 16GB. Besides the upgraded OS, it has an upgraded camera that has auto focus, and it is capable of doing video which was highly requested. They have also improved the email function. Starting today, the older 8GB phone has been reduced to $99. The other news from the Developers Conference is that the new operating system will be released on June 17th for the current iPhone owners. The Safari browser is also being upgraded. More news as it becomes available.   06/08/2009

Don't run away from REITs just yet; educate yourself; learn how to invest in real estate trusts and real estate mutual funds   Oklahoma City, OK - Due to the state of our economy, many people believe that anything related to real estate, the stock market and investing in general is not in their best interest.   While it is true that the market as well as real estate investments have been through a hard time over the past year, Earl E Bird, III, spokesperson for the ReitBuyer.com site believes there are great opportunities for investors today.   Earl said, "First, you have to face the reality. There were a number of real estate investing opportunities, stocks and funds out there that were a bad idea in recent years. Many companies, real estate investment firms and stock market analysts g... 06/08/2009

There has been way too many serious posts lately, mine included. It's Friday, I have over 8,000 songs on my iPod to match the tax credit, and a hook up in the car and I have the bloggin blues. I need a fix! The problem is choices, but I thought I would hone it down to a few emotional genres. Hope you like it and if you do I will do a jazz and a classsical one. After all Cole Porter is never out of style! Try these and crank it up! I'm in a Honky Tonk state of mind Can anybody deny that country can be like a tragic opera sometimes? But today I am in the mood for a shot and a beer, and some down and dirty music. Who you gonna call? Why Jerry Jeff Walker of course. Gettin By from !Viva Terlingua starts out with Hi buckeroos and goes down from there. Key lines are "just gettin by on gettin ... 06/05/2009

One of my favorite applications for the iPhone is BeamME Pro. I can give my full business profile plus picture, and I can beam it to another smart phone, an email, or a Twitter account. The Pro version has no advertising, so I would recommend the $4.99 price for this upgrade. Just to check it out you can try the free version. Now BeamME has released another application and this one is a separate charge of $5.99 called BeamME Pitch Document Sender. With this you can send a brochure, Word documents, PowerPoints, or a PDF to a smart phone, email address or a Twitter account. This is terrific for meeting someone at your listing and beaming them not only your contact information, but also a flyer on the house they just saw, or a PowerPoint presentation of your credentials. I know that the iP... 06/02/2009

It has been an interesting day. The company that used to represent 10% of national GDP filed for bankruptcy. We can only hope that from this crisis they emerge a smaller, smarter, and profitable company. It's also cause for me to remember when I had major personal crisis in my life like death of a parent, divorce, and cancer. I would like to say that every panic attack meltdown I have had resulted in a brilliant reorienting of my priorities, and that I emerged a wiser person. Sometimes yes and sometimes no, we are all human. But it got me to thinking about the monster crisis that is the real estate industry. How were my ethics and practices during those 6 or 7 years of craziness? I remember going to a San Francisco investors meeting in 2005, and in one day I sold 61 properties. If there... 06/01/2009

From the first contract I wrote in 1989 to today, one phrase is always somewhere as instructions, time is of the essence. In 1989 it meant that I hand wrote the contract, then got back into my car and gave the six copies to the listing Realtor. Then they would get in their car and drive to the seller, and go over the contract and sign if acceptable, or counter offer if not. When we go the terms agreed upon, then I would get my copies, and drive to the buyers to give them theirs, then drive to the title company, then the mortgage company to give them their originals. Fax copies were not acceptable yet. That was time is of the essence in 1989. Fast forward to 2009. I have electronic forms on line that I can fill out by computer, I can then email them to my buyer. If we both have Skype and... 05/31/2009

In December 2008, My brother and sister and I had to face the loss of our last parent, our mother. It is a sad time, and one of the hardest times is going through the possessions of parents and wondering what to do with them. For me, the memories were in the photographs not in the furniture. My siblings felt the same way and other than a few pieces for young nieces and nephews we were faced with lots of stuff to dispose of. Wanting to deal with it quickly we called estate sale specialists who came to the house to offer their services. For some reason, the fact that lots of people would be coming through the house bothered us. Mom was always proud of her house, and somewhat private. So what did we do? We found an auction house that specialized in estate sales. They come pick up all of th... 05/29/2009

Much discussion about how real estate is local has been on the main pages of Active Rain. A recent study by CNN/Money shows exactly that. Oklahoma City is an area of low unemployment, the 2nd lowest of major cities, a balanced home inventory level that in the first time buyer range shows 6 months or less absorption rate, and a diversified economy that is being aided by recent higher oil prices. 4% in one qurter is wonderful news for us. Check the list to see how your city is faring. One report does not make a trend, but reports by Bloomberg News and Forbes are very similar to the report just out about home appreciation in Oklahoma City. For my main specialty, selling investor property, rents have also risen this year 8%. If you are an out of state investor, Oklahoma is a very coservativ... 05/23/2009

Has it been that long? I graduated from high school is 1966, but I do remember High School English classes. I loved to write in high school. Mostly I wrote stories. Thank God that none of my high school attempts at poetry still exist. Keats I wasn't. But how to write an English theme has stuck with me to this very day. Actually the teacher depicted here was not like my teachers. At least that is the way I feel today. Back then I think my boyish attitude was that they were even meaner. I was glad that being rapped on the knuckles had gone out of style by then, but I digress... Here is what I was taught. When you decide on a subject, three things have to be decided on before you write the theme. First, You must write the first sentence. Think from great literature, "it was a dark and stor... 05/22/2009

I will not cast the first stone, I have cursed Zillow like many Realtors. I served on the Oklahoma City MLS Board, and we talked constantly about protecting our data, and that Zillow and Trulia were trying to become national MLS's. The end of the world is near! Soon we were all going to have to sell clothes are get back in the oil business. The second idea is not so bad now. Then I started doing viral marketing. So Three Wide, Vflyers, and my virtual tour program asked me, do you want this on Zillow and Trulia and I said yes. I may have had prejudice but I wasn't stupid. Everywhere on the internet was fine with me, and then my attitude really changed. I didn't make my MLS Board happy when I started defending Zillow, and said nature abhors a vacuum and these are astute business people. T... 05/19/2009

I have read so many aritcles, looked at posted blogs, and listened to people who constantly assess blame for the financial problems caused by the real estate bubble and the sub-prime loan fiasco. Some rant that we should let the greedy financial institutions fails, while others say don't rescue the homeowners, they are all greedy, wanted more than they could ever pay for, and deserve to be brought down. Many on Active Rain however have witnessed the devastation caused to families, especially if we work short sales. I just finished reading an article in the New York Times that is an excerpt from a forthcoming book. Edmund L. Andrews is an economics reporter for the New York Times, and author of the new book "Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown. It is a very human story about ... 05/17/2009

The 'LISTING OF THE WEEK', located at 11665 Marbella Dr, is one of our beautiful listings, and will be open to the public today and tomorrow from 2 to 5. Here are some pictures to whet your appetite: NEED DIRECTIONS??View Larger MapThis post was originally written and posted at our Edmond and Oklahoma City real estate blog. 05/16/2009

I want to post two articles I saw this morning on MSN Money. I will withold commentary and just let you read and see what you think. In honor of the new Star Trek Movie, I will paraphrase Bones McCoy, "Damnit Jim, I'm a Realtor, not an Nobel Prize winning economist! The first article is about letting immagrants purchase homes that these two men say can solve the crisis in two years. Click on this link to read the article. The second article involves governments buying and fixing up direlect homes like in Detroit. They searched the MLS and found homes selling for around $800! Fix up required. To read that solution click here. Have a safe and profitable weekend. I think I will go check out the Star Trek Movie. My girlfriend does not want to go, but I have watched every Oprah show this wee... 05/16/2009

Imagine that you have a home in an upper price range for your market. You want to call the Realtor to get an update on status of showings so you email and leave a voice mail message. Five days later you have had no reply. Would you think about firing that Realtor? I can't imagine anyone on AR doing that. But that is what CDPE, Certified Distress Property Expert designation is doing. First, RE/MAX arrange a special price at $299 instead of $599. My team short sale specialist  and I decided to get the DVD's insterad of watching it on the RE/MAX satellite network. We had until the end of April to finish, and we had to get the DVD's back before the end of the month also. It was a nice course, not earth shattering if you have been schooled in short sales, but i am a believer that anything ne... 05/15/2009

I have been trying to write this post all day. On December 27th, 2008 my borther and sister and I lost our Mom. I had gotten back from my cancer treatment in Houston to see her before she passed from this life, but her memory is still powerful. She was born in Sallisaw, Oklahoma on November 2nd, 1913. Her father was a U.S. marshal in Oklahoma Territory and later a grocery store owner. Her parents only had a basic grade school education, but she and her two sisters and a brother all got masters degrees. She married my Dad who came from parents with no education, and he and his 6 other siblings all got Masters degrees. Mom was that unique combination of country sensibility, and a smart intellect the country couldn't stop. One of the greatest gifts she gave me was the joy of reading. She w... 05/10/2009

I have been reading other Realtors post about the necessity of working more hours than the competition, and being totally focused on real estate, and I want to give a conflicting opinion. You don't have to be a Realtor to understand this. I was one of those Realtors who put in at least 60 hours a week, had sleepless nights where the stress was keeping me up for hours, and with a daily ration of constant coffee, I could keep going. It was all about the clients, but it was also about my needs to succeed. The above picture is me ringing the bell after two surgeries and radiation was finished at MD Anderson in Houston. I am not going to tell you that eliminating stress will keep you from having cancer. I will tell you that not only doesn't it help, it also puts you in denial about not just ... 05/07/2009

I grew up ready The Daily Oklahoman. Naturally I went to the funnies first. It started with Dick Tracy, then it went to Peanuts. Later I migrated to sports to see what Mickey Mantle did in the Yankees Game, and then checked to see what was playing at the Saturday matinee movies for 25 cents. Those days are about to go the way of the dinosaur. Fast forward from the 1950's to the 21st Century, and I check scores at www.espn.com, and I go online to get my movie times, and to buy an electronic ticket. I don't go to the "want ads", I go now to Craig's List. Is it any wonder that in Seattle, that the main newspaper is electronic only? Do you go to the weekend paper to see real estate listings? No, you may go to www.realtor.com, or Trulia, and at the end of this month you can access listings, ... 05/04/2009

Have you ever been in a three way conversation say with two engineers, and you stand there grinning like you know the difference between a transistor or a diode? Trust me it is not my field, and no one wants to feel stupid. So why do Realtors use words or phrases that is not the language of the street. Our job is to communicate well with our clients, and for us to take a very detailed transaction which buying or selling a property is, and making it seem simple to those who have entrusted us with a major purchase. Let me run through some examples. I won't use any strange Oklahoma phrases. HUD1. If a first time buyer calls and ask you what do you need to bring to closing don't use this word first. Tell them that you have received the settlement statement which has all the numbers and wher... 05/02/2009