judyo's Blog: In The Trenches

There are so many blogs and posts written about the REW conference but I had to add my own story.  I almost didn't go because I was so intimidated by the multiple methods of travel required - all explained at my fear of flying post.

Planes, Taxis, Ferries and Automobiles

I felt like a whiny little baby about my fear of traveling to Nanaimo.  Especially when I heard Michael Brown's story.  He had a longer flight than I did but he also had a 3 1/2 hour drive to the airport first and had to use extended parking.  My airport is less than 15 minutes away.  Boy, we sure take things for granted.

I arrived at Seattle first and waited for Michael.  We told each other what we were wearing although I was sure I'd recognize him from his pics on his website. …

I didn't start flying until I was around 45.  I took my first Valium ever for the flight and couldn't sleep well for weeks prior to the trip.  But it was a trip to Cancun as a Christmas present that I just couldn't turn down.  I am claustrophobic plus I just can't understand how planes can actually fly.  I won't scare myself too much with my other thoughts and feelings about flying so I'll stop here.

On my first flight we sat in the first seats as I thought I'd need the leg room (I'm 5'3" - I guess I thought it would offer a more open feeling although I've never sat there since).  I was eyeing the door and kept telling myself not to bolt.  I took deep breaths and the Valium started kicking in.  It was a very smooth flight with the exception of banging my…

I just gave a referral away that came to my website.  Why?  It was a couple looking for a rental.  There's not much commission money in rentals and I wanted this couple to be taken care of.  But they were looking in an area I don't work in, even though it is in the large MLS I am a member of. 

Sure, I could use the business but I'm sticking to my guns of how much travel time I'm willing to take, especially wth today's gas prices.  And I doubt these renters will find what they want in one trip.  In fact, they only gave me one address to view so I think this is just the beginning of their search.

I get a lot of out-of-area leads from my website, both buyers and sellers.  I've passed some of them on, mostly for a referral fee, but sometimes I just pass on…

I hate lugging things around.  I used to carry a tiny little purse that looked more like a wallet with a cord on it.  I shopped around for the lightest briefcase I could find (made out of some kind of microfiber).  And I was so excited when I got my 12" screen Toshiba laptop.

Compared to my Dell Inspiron it felt so light and seemed so compact.  I thought it would be the perfect travel laptop.  That is, until I carried it in my laptop backpack on a flight.  OK, there were some magazines and other stuff in the backpack, but suddenly that little laptop didn't feel so little anymore.

So I went on a quest to find a tiny laptop that was less than $2,000.  To make a long story short, I am now the proud owner of the first couple hundred (if that many) MSI Winds…

The sad story of ePerks suing Vlad Zablotskyy of Go-Beyond-MLS.com is growing throughout the Internet.  Vlad, a real estate blogger, was one of ePerks many paid reviewers.  Vlad gave them a positive review but his blog started receiving negative comments from real estate agents that felt they were burned by ePerks. 

After reading these comments and doing a little research, Vlad posted another review asking if "ePerks was a gem or a scam?" More comments came his way, many from the same ip.  Seemed like those were positive messages and it is assumed that these posts were from ePerks employees.

To make a long story short, ePerks sent Vlad a cease and desist letter and requested that he remove all negative comments.  In fact, they also asked him to remove…

I finally found a home for a pair of first-time buyers that took their time (they lost two homes they liked by waiting too long to make their offer - I wrote another post about this) until they finally purchased real estate in Tinley Park.  It was a very nice single family residence and in my opinion the nicest house they saw. 

We had the home inspection and I was very happy with the inspector we had.  He explained things very clearly and did not scare my buyer.  He explained maintenance and kept repeating what a nice house it was.  He did find two problems that the buyer asked the seller to repair.  I just found out today that the seller agreed to the repairs and everything is going forward.

However, during a phone conversation with my buyer after the…

In all the years I've been a REALTOR I don't remember having such a difficult time finding comparable listings when preparing a Comparative Market Analysis or CMA.  I've always used the same parameters such as area, style of home, bedrooms, baths, etc. and have gone back six months, which is how appraisers prepare their appraisals.

There has been so little activity in most areas of the Chicago suburbs that I'm having to go back 12 months and sometimes even longer to find comparable sold and closed listings.  Yet this information is not very accurate as prices continue to drop in most suburbs of Chicago.  No wonder we're still seeing overpriced properties in today's Seller's Market.

It makes it difficult to offer a good market value for today's sellers…

There is an older post on REW Forums that keeps getting added to in the Laid Back Chat section titled "What kind of car do you drive?"  One poster mentioned a word I had never heard of before, hypermiling.  It was mentioned in a post written by Larry Jensen who is known as NY RE Broker on the forums.  He actually used the term hype-miling so I had to look it up on the Internet.

What a new world I was introduced to!  This is a new sub-culture that I can only imagine is going to continue growing.  I wrote an entire piece about my experiences with it (and my studies) so you can read all about hypermiling on my main blog.

I am really trying to make this my "way of driving" now

As I mentioned on my other blog post, you need to keep practicing.  I'm getting…