May. 15, 2008 - A Rose By Any Other Name

Sometimes I tend to forget that all real estate is local and that the same thing has different names in different locals.  Also, the same thing might be referred to by different names in different circles.  Therefore when I posed the question "What exactly is a Community Association?" I seem to have caused some confusion.  Let me try to straighten that out.

The term Community Association is probably the most common moniker.  It is the term I use.  It is also the term used by The Community Association Institute and The Florida Bureau of Condominiums.  I am sure it is widely used by others as well.

If you are speaking to someone from The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws you would hear them referring to a Community Association as a Common-Interest Community or CIC for short.

Then there is The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants who likes to refer to a Community Association as a Common Interest Realty Association or CIRA.

Once you get way out west The California Department of Real Estate refers to a Community Association as a Common Interest Development or CID.

Now that I have cleared that up, what do you call a Community Association?

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

May. 14, 2008 - What Exactly Is A Community Association?

I have long maintained that if you don't know what you are selling you should not be selling it.  The same thing goes for buyers, if you don't know what you are buying you should not be buying it.  There is a saving grace for buyers however, and that is a knowledgeable REALTOR®. 

If you, as a buyer, are considering moving into a Condominium, a Co-operative or a community with a Home Owners Association, you are considering moving into a Community Association and you need to ask your REALTOR® exactly what that means.  If he or she alludes to the fact that it is anything other than a group of owners who are bound together for the purpose of providing a communal basis of preserving, maintaining, and enhancing their homes and property you need to move on to another REALTOR®.  It doesn't have to be those exact words, but whatever they say should embrace the same spirit.  It is a group of owners whose property brings them together with a common cause.

You should also be told that there are three important points to consider.  When you buy into a Community Association membership in the Association is not optional.  You will be bound by certain documents that govern the Community Association.  The assessments that are levied in order to operate and maintain the Community Association are mandatory.  In other words, you are going to have to abide by the governing documents of the Community Association so you had better review them and make sure they are something you can live with before you make an offer to purchase.  Once the purchase of the property has closed you are an assessment paying member of the Association and that should be a beautiful and harmonious thing.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

May. 13, 2008 - Ain't Wasting Time No More

You may construe from the title of this entry that I think blogging is a waste of time, especially since I have not posted in a while.  Or perhaps you think that I feel as if the real estate lifestyle is a waste of time these days.  If either one of those thoughts have entered your mind you are way wrong.  While many other agents are flocking to classes and seminars on foreclosure and short sales I have been getting an education of a different sort.

I have been going a few rounds with The Florida Real Estate Commission trying to convince them that as an Illinois resident they should consider granting me permission to take the Florida Brokers License Exam.  I have sent so many of my "baby boomer" clients off to the Sunshine State it's not funny.  Don't get me wrong, referral fees are fine, but I am a hands on kind of guy.  Besides, as often as I find myself in Florida I figure I should make at least some of my trips tax deductible.

I really respect the fact that The State of Florida is so stringent when it comes to approving those folks that it would license.  That is very good for the consumer however, it has been rough on me.  It seems that whatever I had to prove to The State of Illinois regarding my good moral character has to be proven to Florida three times over.  Not to worry though my friends, I will prevail.

The other "education" I have been pursuing has resulted in me becoming a CMCA®.  For those of you not familiar with that acronym it stands for Certified Manager of Community Associations.  It is held and highly respected in the Property Management field.  As I am sure you may have noticed in the past, I have often ranted about some REALTORS® being less than astute when it comes to dealing with properties in Condominiums, Co-ops and Home Owner Associations.  Since I believe that Property Management (not to be confused with Asset Management) is an important part of "the real estate lifestyle" I will leave the foreclosures and short sales to those who can stand to deal in human misery and try to keep my focus on the kind of things that attracted me to this lifestyle to begin with, the enrichment of my clients and the enhancement of their property values.  

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Feb. 6, 2008 - And The Survey Said.................

Jan. 31, 2008 - The State Of The Business

Jan. 5, 2008 - What's It Worth?

Jan. 4, 2008 - Loss Mitigation

First and foremost, since I have ignored my blog for about a month, let me take this opportunity to say that I hope your Holidays (whatever it is you celebrate) were everything you were hoping they would be.  Fortunately I am back here in time to wish you health, happiness and prosperity in 2008.

On Christmas Eve some dastardly evil doer stole the table out of the lobby of the Condominium in which I live.  Since I am the President of the Board of Directors it fell to me to file the police report.  Des Plaines Police Officer Mike Meyers (honest) showed up and asked the usual questions. "Any signs of forced entry"?  "No sir".  "Anybody report any suspicious characters on the premises"?  "No sir".

There was no forced entry because no one has to force their way in.  As much as you harp on the fact that there are rules and regulations that need to be adhered to when you live in a Condominium environment, many people apparently think that they do not apply to them.  There is a reason you are asked to wait until the garage door closes behind you before you pull off.  There is a reason you are required to greet the delivery man, the pizza man and anybody else you don't personally know in the lobby.  That reason is security, loss mitigation if you will.

Thieves are wily enough without a member of the association giving them free access to the building.  They have been know to follow the mailman into the building or come in the garage door while the waste hauler is rolling the dumpster to the garbage truck.  There isn't too much you can do about that.

That's why, as a part of Condominium living, you, the resident of a Condominium, have to do everything in your power to help secure your environment.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Dec. 7, 2007 - Feeling The Crunch?

I posted yesterday that I would be doing some verifying and evaluating. If I found anything that I thought might be beneficial to anyone who was headed into foreclosure troubles, I promised I would post it. My research has yielded a lot more than I expected. I found a site for a nonprofit organization, the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, that not only speaks to helping people who are facing foreclosure, it also has links to other nonprofits that help people who are overburdened with credit card debt.

My research also uncovered some statistics from a 2007 survey by default counselors in the Chicago area. According to the survey 45% of the defaults and foreclosures can be attributed to JOB LOSS. That's right, job loss. ARM resets account for 28% and fraudulent loans account for only 9%. All real estate facts are local and those numbers could be different in other areas of the country.

I realize that that adds up to only 82%, and I really don't know what the other 18% is caused by, but the interesting thing here is that if you listen to the news media on a daily basis, you get the impression that every foreclosure is caused by sub-prime lending. It scares me that the average person gets only the spin that the media wants to put on a subject. I understand that in a 30 second segment they can not read a three page press release, but come on, don't just pick out and regurgitate the scariest couple of words.

I suppose I am breaking the cardinal rule in the sneaky salesman's handbook by giving you a link to a place where you can find some relief if you are feeling the credit crunch. I have been to seminars and training sessions where they pound home the fact that I am only supposed to give you just enough information to make you want to call me for more. That way I can share a tidbit of information with you that will make me look like the smartest man in the world. It also gets me access to your contact information so I can periodically hound you to use me as your REALTOR® if you ever have a real estate need. I figure that if your in trouble financially right now, you sure don't need me ringing your telephone or filling your inbox. You have enough people doing that. My guess is that if anyone should ever benefit from the information I dispense, I'll hear from them sooner or later.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Dec. 6, 2007 - I Hate My New Category

Nov. 20, 2007 - A New Form Of Poacher

Nov. 14, 2007 - The Winning Hand

Don't you just love those situations where everybody wins? It's even better when you are the person who pulls it all together.

My last post was about playing the hand your dealt. Actually it was a teaser post that was leading up to this one. I just had to make sure that the deal I was brokering would work out. Work out it did and I am sooooooo proud. I mean, if you can't boast and brag in your own blog them why bother?

So here we are faced with an slowly declining market. Most of the REALTORS® I know, including myself, have a pretty good inventory of listings. That's because the buyers seem to be hiding out somewhere waiting for the market to bottom out. They listen to the regurgitated crap that the shallow thinkers are blathering about not buying on the downward slide because you will probably lose your life savings. Because of this the market times on our great inventory of listings is slowly building up making us look bad.

When one of my clients changed jobs and had to move out of town, I suggested that he put the possibility of leasing with an option to buy on his listing and also list the home as a rental under a separate MLS number. I pointed out that the average rents in the area were high enough to cover his carrying expenses on the house and he would even be able to pocket a few dollars a month. He agreed.

Because Internet marketing really does work, I got a call one day from someone who had seen the rental listing on a website. With two children, a boy and a girl, they needed more room and were looking to rent a detached single family home so they could get out their cramped little two bedroom apartment. We made an appointment.

As I was showing them the home it became pretty clear to me that the only reason they were renters was because their debt to income ratio was just a bit to tight. They would have no trouble making the mortgage sized monthly rent payment and if it was this time last year they probably could have gotten qualified for a loan irregardless. They had ample funds to buy out their lease at their current apartment complex, pay the security deposit and the first months rent, and still have some monies left that, according to their budget, they were saving for a future down payment. They even laid out the plan of action they had already implemented as far as paying down their debt was concerned. I mentioned that they looked like really good candidates for a lease with an option to purchase. They agreed.

The long and short of it is that they liked the place, liked me, and liked the idea of having a percentage of their rent paying down the purchase price of the house. The owner liked the fact that the proposal called for them to pay more per month than he was asking, they were willing to use their saved future down payment funds to secure the option to purchase, credited to the purchase price of the house of course, and the fact that they offered to pay the full list price of the house minus the agreed upon portion of the monthly rental, the security deposit and the monies used to secure the option.

And so, the consent to dual agency was signed, the lease was signed and the option to purchase agreement was signed. They will be moving in tomorrow. Everybody got what they wanted, including me. I now have another set of happy past clients because we all played the hand we were dealt.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Nov. 1, 2007 - Playing The Hand You Are Dealt

I keep hearing people say we are in desperate times and desperate times call for desperate measures. The buzz on the street, according to the media that is, is that the entire country is headed for financial ruin. The Chicken Little's of this world are having a field day. When it comes time to pay Association dues and MLS fees dozens of fair weather real estate agents are quitting the business. Hundreds of others who can still afford to try and stay in business for a while longer, without doing a deal, are allowing the johnny come lately guru's of foreclosures and short sales to entice them to free "seminars" where they proceed to spend the last of last years profits on "the course".

I say keep it up kids. I want you all desperately chasing the distressed sellers. It puts a big grin on my face knowing that, at least in my market, those poor unfortunates are still a small segment of the market. Just like in a hotter market where some agents believe they are going to make a living off of expired listings, only to find that twenty five other guys beat them to the door, the poor distressed seller of today has to put up a force field to ward off the invading hoard of new guru trained "experts". If these poor distressed people really knew what was happening they would have to double up on their Prozac.

Personally I am finding that a majority of the people in today's market are simply bruised, not totally beaten. Those are the folks I choose to deal with. Those are the people who are going to appreciate what I do for them and tell their family and friends about what a wonderful REALTOR® I am. When I can take a person with a little less than stellar credit history and help them put a roof over their head by creating a win win situation for buyer and seller alike, I sleep like a baby. Creating win win situations is what makes me who I am.

How do I do it? By creating terms and then going the extra mile. I play the hand that I'm dealt.

Still confused? Maybe I should have a teaser seminar where I can proceed to sell you my secrets.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Oct. 17, 2007 - The Government To The Rescue

You may or may not know this, but if you should happen to lose your home for any reason and you come up short of what you owe your lender, you will be taxed on the amount of the debt that was forgiven. You can go over that sentence again if you wish, but you read it right the first time. The current tax code is written as such that if a lender forgives a portion of your mortgage debt they have to supply the IRS with a Form 1099 telling the tax man how much they let you off the hook for.

Believe you me, in these trying times there are plenty of people in trouble. The news media is talking about it every day. Adjustable rate mortgages resetting, homes mortgaged to the hilt with equity loans and lines of credit, one hundred percent financing with interest only loans that can't be refinanced due to property value fluctuations and on and on and on. To people in these situation, this "Phantom Tax" is a real slap in the face.

These situations came about in several ways. Some of it was every day bad occurrences like job loss, divorce, illness, etc. Some of it was bad guidance from bad Real Estate Agents. Some of it was fast talking mumbo jumbo from get it done at any cost lenders. Mostly it was just financially under educated people who wanted what they wanted and they wanted it now. Damn the torpedoes.

I regress, however, because what I am really talking about here is The Mortgage Cancellation Tax Relief Act, H. R. 3648. This piece of legislation will effectively wipe out the "Phantom Tax". That's a good thing too, because a person who couldn't pay their mortgage and just got their lenders hooks out of them sure doesn't need the IRS replacing their burden.

So if you or someone near and dear to you is staring into the face of foreclosure I suggest you cozy on up to your elected officials and remind them to get H. R. 3648 onto the Presidents desk for his signature so that the "Phantom Tax" will disappear from the IRS Tax Code. Then call a good, reputable REALTOR® (not the one who gave you bad advice in the first place) and get this thing nipped in the bud.

Sep. 25, 2007 - Buying Into A Little Government

The other day, when I was visiting one of the many forums I read daily, a real estate agent asked a question about a Condominium Association that changed the rental rules for the association.  The agent's clients had asked the question.  That prompted the agent to ask other agents.  I was in one of my replying moods and it went like this:

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Sep. 14, 2007 - For Sale Or Rent

Do you remember the old Roger Whatshisname tune that goes "Trailers for sale or rent"?  Well in today's market some perfectly good home sellers have raised the bar and are singing that tune about their perfectly good houses.  Some perfectly good REALTORS® are singing along with Roger as well: "Dang me, dang me, they oughta take a rope and hang me".  Rental listing are practically a free services as far as the REALTOR® is concerned but the fact is, if you are truly going to serve your clients best interest, and put them first, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.

It doesn't do anyone any good to let a perfectly good house sit on the market, empty and unloved.  After all of the homework and analysis has been done you can pretty well determine that no one is buying houses in a certain market.  In a subdivision of similar homes it's pretty easy to see that price and condition are not the reasons houses are not selling.  Even with price reductions, staging and repairs, they sit there racking up market time.  Not just some of them, but all of them.

Could it be the location?  I doubt it.  The particular home I am talking about is in one of the most desirable school districts in the Northwest Suburbs.  It's not for lack of marketing either.  Buyers are just not active at this time.

And so, 7914 Kingsbury Drive in Hanover Park is now for sale or rent.  Not only have the terms been extended to include Lease/Purchase and Rent with Option, it is also available as a straight rental.  For just $1,450 a month some lucky family can sign a one year lease and live the good life in this beautiful 3 bedroom 1.1 bath tri-level.  Take a look at the virtual tour and call me.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Sep. 12, 2007 - Illinois To The Rescue

The good news is that The State of Illinois Department of Human Services will be handing out $1,700,000 in $2,000 increments to help some lucky first time home buyers buy houses.  The bad news is that only 850 people will be able to get that money.  It's not a windfall either.  Moderate income folks are going to have to save some of their own money once they are accepted into the program.  You will have to go through some credit counseling as well.  As far as I can tell the whole thing is going to take about eighteen months.

The program is called Assets Illinois.  If you, or anyone you know, have been dreaming of home ownership and could use a little boost from the government, just follow that link.  Once there you can get all of the details of the plan and you will be able to download the required application to get started.  Since only 850 folks are going to be empowered with a $2,000 grant and since it is going to take eighteen months to get the money, I wouldn't be dragging my feet.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Sep. 6, 2007 - Hey, Remember Me

I know what your thinking.  "Where the heck have you been Gene Molloy?"  Or maybe not.

Just in case you have been wondering I will give you a bit of a run down.  First and foremost I have been pulling out all of the stops trying to sell my listing in Hanover Park.  The average market time on the houses that are selling in the area is 120+ days.  I am about 48 days into the listing, so we are nowhere near that, but then I have always thought of myself as "better than average".

In my little corner of the world the market is slower than the freight trains in Des Plaines.  No one seems to want to budge, either.  I have been running around with a buyer client friend of mine, complete with his own money, who is looking for an investment in Addison and the sellers keep turning down perfectly good offers.  They aren't exactly full price offers, but they aren't bad either.

All of those "the sky is falling" media reports have scared people into paralysis.  Many of the "buyers" who are running around think that there is easy equity to bought by looking exclusively at distressed properties.  They have the Mr. Potter mentality.  "I'll pay 25 cents on the dollar for your shares, George Bailey."  What they haven't seemed to figure out yet (I wonder what kind of agents they are using) is that the guy on the other end who is sitting in some bank in God knows where probably IS Mr. Potter.

So, since my little corner of the world has gone dormant for now I have been hatching ideas as to how I might expand my horizons.  I have gotten a very grandiose idea and I have taken the first steps in implementing it.  I am not going to divulge too much just yet, but I can give you a teaser.  I still intend to stay in Real Estate and it involves interstate commerce.  When I have more of the requirements in place I will tell you more.  Until then feel free to hazard a few guesses.    

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Aug. 29, 2007 - On The Coat Tails Of My Blog

It seems that someone calling themselves "for sale by owner" has decided to ride the coat tails of my blog for a little free advertising.  He, she, or it, has linked their name to a for sale by owner web site.  Since I have been too busy to blog much lately I figured I would point these postings out to you.  They aren't too awful very bad and they will give you a reason to reread some of my old missives.  Besides, why should a guy like me be afraid of a FSBO site.  Once a seller fails to sell that way, I'm always glad to take the listing.

The postings you want to look at are, "You Want What?", "You Knew This Was Coming", "When Not To Use A Home Inspector", and "Bang For The Buck".

Now I really don't care if you want to actually put links on my blog "for sale by owner".  Chances are, if you put enough of them, when people do a search for "for sale by owner", my blog postings will come up as well, and that's a good thing.  However, since I am a highly skilled, full service, professional, that knows how to get the job done, I really don't think you would want to go head to head with me for a listing.  My suggestion to you would be to simply start your own blog.  Who knows, you might be able to do with the $34.95 listing what Earl Schieb did with the $34.95 paint job, make a totally useless product nationally famous. 

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Aug. 7, 2007 - It Was A Real Good Lunch

As many of you know, this "real estate blog" does not always stick to the topic of real estate as such.  Every now and then I get moved enough by some off topic event that I feel the need to share.  In a market as slow as this one I have my nose to the grindstone for my clients, trying to get their home sold and so I have blogging low on the priority list.  This time it was yesterdays lunch that inspired me to take the time to pay attention to my blog.

Well OK, it wasn't the lunch itself that inspired me, I had an Italian Sub with everything but mayo at Potbelly's in Metropolitan Square.  It was the entertainment that got me raved up.  When I walked in there was a slight sort of man wearing a pork-pie hat sitting in the window playing a Pink Floyd tune on an acoustic guitar.  I had noticed him there one time before playing something that the lunch time troubadours don't usually play.  Some deep cut or another, I don't remember.  What I do remember is that he was just finishing up his lunch time gig and he vanished really quickly before I had a chance to talk to him. 

Any way, I didn't have a chance to speak to him this time either, but he, or should I say his music, sure did speak to me.  He went on to do Neil Young's "Southern Man", "Five O'clock World" by whoever the heck it was that did that and some other foot tappin' ditties that had me humming along.  He put his own style on everything he did and I must say I was very impressed.  I find that there are those out there that can cover one or two artists really well but aren't versatile enough to run the gambit on an entire era.  This guy certainly is.

Who is this guy who could stir the musical soul of a crusty old curmudgeon like myself?  His name is Noel Rivera.  His business card gives him the title of "Guitarist/Vocalist".  His tag line is "BEST OLDIES AND ROCK N' ROLL".  The truth be told, his tag line hits the nail on the head.  He is really damn good.  I am going to find out what his schedule is and pass it along as soon as possible.  If you have the opportunity to catch his act you should take it, you will be giving yourself a real treat.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Aug. 2, 2007 - Slow And Unsure

So I do all of this groovy stuff in order to market a listing.  It makes me soooooooo happy, because that is what I do.  That will get the word out to the public, now I need to rally the troops.  Wing off some just listed stuff to the other REALTORS® and we'll be all set. 

I throw a Brokers open and offer a bribe of pizza and soft drinks so I can get every agent for miles around to attend.  I indicate that if you are the kind of person that needs something a little stronger to wash the pizza down you are more than welcome to bring your own personal flask.  If I'm lucky, Chicago Agent Magazine will send a photographer sometime between 11:00 and 2:00 to record the event.   Couple all of that with the opportunity to come face to face with Gene Molloy himself and I figure we have ourselves a real Tuesday afternoon wang dang doodle.

Can you imagine my suprise when the clock struck 11:00 and I was all alone in my lovely listing?  Not to worry, I tell myself, everybody must be sleeping in this morning.  They will be arriving soon.  Low and behold, the clock stuck high noon and I was still all by myself.  At 1:00 I started to worry about looking foolish serving cold pizza when the last minute rush of hungry REALTORS® came in.  By 1:50 I had everything cleaned up and put away.  At 1:55 a married REALTOR® couple I had never met before rang the bell.  Too bad they arrived so late.  We could have had a party.

The open house I held last Saturday was not to much better.  My first first visitor was a Hanover Park Police Officer who had one of my open house signs in his hand.  It turned out to be the one from Barrington Road.  He said I had placed it too close to the public way.  He said I needed to put it about a foot further in from the roadside.  He effectively cut off any drive by traffic I could hope to attract from busy Barrington Road.  Now I'm not alluding to anything here, but there was a Century 21 open house sign right where mine used to be when I was leaving that evening.  The exact same place I have put my sign during many other open houses.  Go figure.

The only other person that showed up was in fact a prosective buyer.  Her son is a REALTOR® and he has her Townhouse listed.  She indicated that whenever she got a contract on her Townhouse she would be ready to make on offer on something.  She was sure doing her research.

I called a few of my associates this week.  I was thinking that maybe I was loosing my touch.  I was feeling washed up.  Fortunately, they are all telling the same story.  Nobody is out shopping.  They too are spending lonely weekends in empty open houses.  I guess I'm not so all alone after all.

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.