North Phoenix Agent Blog

Create a word picture of the content of your blog at Wordle. Like a tag cloud but with colors, and it’s editable. Here’s mine.

The largest bank failure in 24 years was announced over an hour ago, and I had to dig through 6 pages of the AZ Central website to find their story on it. But first, I was accosted by 1/4 screen sized images of a ’shirtless Mormon’ who’s in hot water with church leadership (apprently for being photographed shirtless) and an elated shopper buying an iPhone.

Today I bid a tearful farewell to my beloved Treo 755p. We had such a short time together, just a few months. I’m really going to miss her.

If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t posted in several days, it’s partly to do with the death of my Treo - which boasts phone, camera, calculator, dayplanner, email, web browser, contact manager, Google mapping feautures and lockbox software - in other words, my life.

It went wonky on Friday evening, returned to life briefly on Saturday and died completely late Saturday evening. I spent much of Sunday in my local Verizon Wireless store and on the phone to tech support, trying to revive her. By Sunday evening my poor Treo had deteriorated to the point where the only working button was the ON power button (but not OFF), the ENTER button and the incoming call feature. On the other bright side, I do have insurance on the phone. So they’re shipping me a new one today.

Also on the bright side, the Verizon service guy from my local store wants to buy a condo or townhouse. He asked me to ballpark the monthly mortgage payment on a purchase price of $170,000. I reached for my holstered phone to run a few numbers on the calculator. My holster was empty and the Verizon guy was holding my broken baby, fiddling with it and pushing buttons while it squeaked and beeped forlornly.

This left me feeling literally (and momentarily) panicky. I had that sinking feeling I get when I think I’ve forgotten my car keys, or left the stove on. I also had a microsecond’s burst of feeling maternal and protective, like “hey don’t hurt my baby!”  Which is of course absurd, but also illustrates the point - I’ve become completely dependent on my PDA and feel lost and exposed without it.

I wonder if this is how gentlemen in the 16th & 17th centuries felt when made to remove their swords? Or how modern day military personnel feel when back in civilian life, walking around without a gun on their hip?

It’s official - I’m now a member of The Butterworth Group at Thompson’s Realty.  I’m really excited about the opportunity to join the growing family at Thompson’s! Jay & Francy are both superior Realtors and terrific people. Chris Butterworth is a buzz of energy and an inspiration to me.

I wholeheartedly endorse the Butterworth philosophy:

Lasting success can only come from working hard and treating everyone with genuine respect. . . I just don’t think you can take short cuts and expect to have good results.

And I couldn’t agree more with the Thompson’s motto: 

The Power of Technology with a Personal Touch - Thompson’s Realty delivers the ultimate in customer support and satisfaction.

I’ve spent every day of my 3+ years in real estate striving to improve, to serve my clients needs more completely and effectively. I think being a member of The Butterworth Group at Thompson’s Realty can only improve my results!

Having said all that, I think I’ll take this opportunity to improve my blog too, with a little theme switch.  Trying to simplify and this theme called Simpla seems just the thing.

From the cockpit of my Jeep, yesterday, at 3:30 pm. Yikes!

Just fun tonight, because my writing muse deserted me.

If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn’t it  follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys  deranged,  models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners  depressed?

It’s Ansel Adams‘ birthday. This has only a slight bearing on real estate, but I’m posting one of his quotes anyway. “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” See Athol Kay’s very funny blog full of Bad MLS Photos here.

Happy Valentine’s Day all. Whether you’re betting on a new love this year, enjoying the rewards of a longtime relationship, or you’ve taken your cards off the table, I hope your day is a happy one!

Happy New Year everybody!

What will 2008 hold? Wiser minds than mine have  already weighed in on this topic. Surely Paris Hilton will be in the news, along with both the Misses Spears. I’m betting Paris will finally marry, if only to supplement the paltry $5 million her grandfather left her. Jeesh! I wish somebody would leave me ONLY $5 mil.

For the rest of us mere mortals, expect rising gas prices, a falling dollar, continued unrest in the Middle East, stagflation in the US, and a decrease in your year-end bonus at the office. Not very original predictions, but I’m going for the easy out here.

Housing? I’m betting we get the metro Phoenix market rightsized by the end of 2008. The rest of the country might have to wait until 2009 or ‘10.

Think I’m right? Keep reading and sign up for a feed so you never miss a post. Think I’m wrong? Start your own blog and see how difficult it is to come up with something witty to say every day.

Huge thanks to Agent21 who answered my in-post question on December 18, 2007 about how home builders make it on such tight profit margins. What a great busload of info you provided! I appreciate it. I’ll keep reading yours if you keep reading mine! 

Totally off topic, but I’m overwhelmed by the number of passwords and passcodes I’ve got to keep track of.  I’m sure I’m not alone. Modern life means we’re all walking around with multiple passwords in our memory banks. I just counted - I’ve got 46 passwords. How ’bout you? Anybody reading have a good idea for streamlining (or even just keeping track of) your passwords?

Sorry for the abrupt change in the look of this blog. Suddenly a couple of days ago the widgets in my sidebar fell off (that sounds painful, doesn’t it?). In English it means that my broker’s logo, the RSS feed button, the calendar & archive areas — they up and disappeared. I found them, finally, camping out waaaay at the bottom of the blog. Hiding, they were <Yoda voice>.

The quickest way I could figure out to fix it was to change the look of the blog. Hope y’all like it.

Well, I’m a darn fine Realtor and really excellent at translating legalese into everyday English. And I’m super at negotiating around tough spots in contracts, making everybody feel they ‘won’.

But I’m pretty lousy at prospecting for new clients. 90% or 95% of my deals come from my direct mails to my neighborhood or from referrals through past clients. And after 3 years in the biz, that’s not a large enough pool of business to survive on.

So I’m temporarily shutting down the blog while I take a few weeks to figure out how to pay the bills. Cause those mortgage lenders get a little testy when you’re late.

I’ll be back!

Starting a new blog has just made me aware of all the things I don’t know. Between widgets and text blocks and feed buttons and whatnot, I’m having nightmares about my blog.

I’m working on making the feed button easier to use. Bear with me. If you’re a blog newbie like me, go to Google.com/reader. Sign up for a reader account. Once you’ve got it, click the button on the left that says “Add a Subscription” and paste my blog address into their subscription space. Easy. You’re done. Now you’ll get an automatic update every time I post some new, brilliant, utterly unique thoughts on my blog.

The blog will go quiet for 2 days while I’m vacationing and contemplating the meaning of Labor Day. Which, of course, requires lots of picnicking and beverages. Enjoy your holiday!