Sign of (Realtor) Neglect

How can you tell if your Realtor is attentive?

Put it this way: there are plenty of ways to tell if they aren't.

Starting with, the "For Sale" sign and/or sign riders (indicating Open House times, the Listing Agent's name, etc.) in front of the property are dangling in the wind for more than a day or two -- and there hasn't been any bad weather recently.

Turkey's and FSBO's: Practice Makes Perfect

51 Weeks to Thanksgiving, 2011!

Working off what seems like a couple tons of Thanksgiving leftovers, it occurs to me that novice Turkey preparers like myself and FSBO's ("For Sale by Owner's") have a lot in common.

Namely, we're not any good because we do it so seldom.

"Wait Till Next Year"

Fresh off my 2010 Thanksgiving efforts, I'm convinced that I've now learned from my mistakes, and will be much better next year (discovery #1: my quirky oven cooks a turkey much faster than the canned directions suggest).

However, "next year" is awfully far away.

By then, I'll probably have misplaced all my carefully gathered notes -- and will start up the learning curve all over again.

Geek Chic -- Realtor Version

Color-Coordinated Post-it Notes

Yeah, I know it's geeky to walk around with pens and Post-it notes in my shirt breast pocket.

But realistically, that's the only way to keep track of details while talking to clients on the fly (and keeping notes for the stray blog post) all day.

To minimize the "geek factor," I make a point of making sure my Post-it notes are color-coordinated.

So, today, my Post-it's are blue, to go with my blue, button-down shirt.

"Bubbling Up"

Mortgage Rates, Gas Prices on the Move

One of the signs that's something afoot in the financial markets -- as it is now -- is that interest rates re-set several times in one day.

(More typically, they re-set every few days.)

Although the increments have all been small, that's been happening all week in the credit markets.

Think of the re-sets -- all up, by the way -- as a series of 2.0 and 3.0 seismic (financial) tremors.

Meanwhile, local gas prices, which had been unchanged seemingly for weeks locally at around $2.89 a gallon, suddenly rose twice in the last two days to $3 (or more).