One thing I have noticed throughout my mothers’ years in Real Estate, is it seems to be a common thing for agents to type out the street name and their remarks in all capital letters, as someone who has grown up in the Internet age, still remembering dial-up and before that, Bulletin Board Services that were run on computers out of people’s homes, capital letters as far as Internet etiquette is concerned is seen as yelling, and for some is hard on the eyes. I understand that that is the traditional thing to do, however in this day and age, when all your listings are on the Internet, wouldn’t you want them to be easier to read?

I have also noticed, that, where it comes to certain street names, sometimes words like “lane” appear to have more than one way to abbreviate. Wouldn’t it be easier for people to find the listings, if it were all the same way? “Ln” is what I use, though I have seen some use “La”. Whichever I don’t think it matters, but again, it is easier to standardize on something, such as the abbreviations for directions, so that the perspective customers can find the listings more easily.

Your friendly neighborhood IT guy that has grown up in the Internet age,

Matt

Hey, I am Matt, Magnolia’s friendly neighborhood IT guy. Also the one responsible for making sure my mom’s blog posts get up on the site.  She’s a very busy person and doesn’t always have time to write anything, so she asked me to write too. I’m a somewhat experienced blogger, so I figured why not.

I hope everyone’s holidays were great, regardless of which one you celebrate, Christmas,
Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, whatever it happens to be. Also New Years Eve is just around the corner, I got a new frier so I am going to probably fry pickles, that’s one of my favorite things to do is fry pickles.

Anyway, more from me later, gotta get back to work!

Matt

Jacksonville Florida news from a real estate broker

 I am blessed to live a block and a half from our fabulous Jacksonville beach!  This morning, on a very early bike ride, watching the sun come up, I felt so thankful to be standing there watching such a masterpiece of sky, color, clouds and ocean.  Thankful.

It is the perfect time to be Thankful as we begin the week following Thanksgiving and begin our quick and fast weeks before Christmas.  My resolution is to savor the moment with the constant presence and thought of the reason we celebrate.  The birth of Our Lord.

Yes, I am Christian.  Yes, this season is very special to me for that reason.  I am blessed that I have been given that knowledge.  But,I also know that God is beyond my comprehension and that He touches his children in many, many ways, with many special beliefs and knowledge that are as varied as He is magnificent.  I am honored to share, learn and appreciate all those beliefs.  My prayer is that all people learn to appreciate and enjoy the differences that we are blessed with.

 This is the perfect season for those of us in this challenging real estate market to remember to be thankful for all those who have entrusted their business to us this past year.  It is also a wonderful time to begin afresh… a new year, a new commitment to service, education, professionalism and above all – an appreciation of those that will offer us an opportunity to do business in the coming year.

 I can feel the excitement of a new year building.  I am optimistic that confidence in our economy will begin to grow.  This is not necessarily for any other reason than the human spirit and believe that any challenge can be overcome.  Many of our Magnolia Properties agents have been very successful in 2009 – but they are consistently working, improving themselves, making contacts and realizing that every single customer is precious, valuable and worth 100% dedication.   Real estate is the main foundation of our lives, our economy, our environment.  It is home:  where we begin and where we end and all the events that happen in our lives revolve around “home”.  The value of home has no price tag.  As the advertisement that is so popular says “Priceless”.

 God Bless, I am thankful for all that have chosen Magnolia Properties, as clients, customers and agents.  I am thankful for all the other companies who provide us with listings to show and customers to buy our listings.   I am thankful for a new day and a new year.

Eileen

Real estate news..well at least well estate oriented news or maybe news from a realtor anyway in Jacksonville florida

I haven’t written as much this week as was my goal. I haven’t done as much of any thing of my goals as I had planned this week. It was one of those weeks that seems to have gone by in quite more of a blurr than most though the older I gett the “blurrier” the weeks get…time goes by more and more quickly.

I think that is because when we are children, one month is one twelve of our year…that year may be only l/5 of our life at that time….then one tenth then one twentieth. Now it is one 54th. One 54th of something is much smaller relative to the same thing at a one fifth size…does that make sense?

Well anyway, as my mother turns 82 this week, I have been thinking about this. The average us life span is 78.3. or so I have read. In other parts of the world the age span is much longer. I have also read that genetics have already determined about 25% of why we life as long as we do, but that there is a much great er reason to impact our own life span with our choices.

Well, it seems that the biggest impact we can have on our life spans is control our stress and choose activity, not necessarily exercise. Exercise should be moderate and 30 to 60 minutes (more toward 60 of cardio a day is the new AMA suggested amount of time) but that above that several hours a day should be spent walking, gardening, house work, physical activity….and lowering our stress.
Well, stressfully speaking, just thinking about 60 minutes of cardio is pretty stressful not to mention finding the time to do that….and several hours of gardening and biking…well after work, dishes, laundry, phone calls, a blog…well maybe the middle of the night but then I would be stressed about not sleeping…

Or then when do we work…or get our work done…

The article says in Sardinia, 208 per 100,000 live to be 100. Many work has shepherds and hike miles a day. In Okinawa they also live long lives because they spend hours in the garden –(no stressful closing problems there that s for sure!)….

Now I have to add more stress to my life in realizing that I am cutting it short because of this life style I am living if I cant figure out several hours of exercise, gardening and sheephearding type activity every day….

I wonder what a realtor’s life span is…?

Jacksonville Florida good News for Real Estate…

Can you believe it!  It looks as though it is in print…a little here and a little there…economists are saying that we are on the way out of this recession!  Today I read that 80% of economists are saying that the recession is on its way “over”.  How nice it is to start seeing some good news in print.  I truly believe so much of our economy is based on the way we believe the future looks, how we secure we feel about our future….

The stock market seems to be going up   The “Realtor” in me, you notice, says “seems”.  Someone recently told me:  “I wish you would give me a straight answer!”..with an annoyed tone of voice…

I was taken aback…straight answer…??? She went on to say..”You always say, as far as I know, in my opinion today….the last time I researched it – the info at my disposal indicated…”…

I guess those of us in our industry are very cautious about the information we give our customers, friends, clients, anyone who may depend on that information – or at least we should be…so, as I was saying…..

It appears that many articles I have seen lately seem to indicate that there are some experts who believe that we may be  experiencing some encouraging signs in our overall economy – whew, this cautiously describing information can be exhausting, cant it?…

Anyway… I think it is “Good News”…possibly.

Eileen Blocker Milam, Broker – that I know for certain.

New from Jacksonville for Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Brokers

I do believe “things’ are looking up in Jacksonville, Florida. We have record numbers of closings the last two weeks. Record numbers of closings for the last two years would be the clarification. Of course, the tax credit helps that and the time frame of that is drawing to a close BUT…and the But is a big one, new contracts seem to be keeping the same pace regardless of the near ending of the ability to obtain the tax credit.

THAT IS A GOOD SIGN – NO THAT COULD BE A GREAT SIGN. I think I will take that at face value – A GREAT SIGN!

I decided some time ago, that I would stop reading bad news, stop listing to bad news…stop allowing myself to process bad news. Well, that certainly has freed up some time…but it has helped me look for the good in everything.
Tell someone something good. Today. I mean it. They have a great hairdo. The weather is lovely. Your friend has lost weight! You admire the job they did. You liked that particular flyer, listing, handling of a problem.
Stay Happy and that is a job….stay healthy. Ride your bike, walk, take the stairs. Cut back on sugar, fat and bad things. When you feel good you look good. You become more positive and it shows. “Show up” every day.
Lets all get going. And believe that good things are happening. I am and I will. By the way, I love your new “do”…and gee… I think you look a little thinner….
God Bless You! And me! And all we do business with…
Eileen

News in Jacksonville – Outstanding Real Estate Service

I am so proud of our agents who are awarded Five Star Service Awards –
This award is very meaningful because it is awarded by customers who voted for these agents – and

The client research effort is survey based sent to 13,000 surveys sent to homebuyers in the Jacksonville areas and 250 mortgage and title company offices. Five of our Magnolia agents received this prestigious award.

Each respondeant was asked to evaluate not only the real estate agents they knew through their own experience but were asked to evaluate agents they had contact with regarding integrity, market knowledge, negotiation, communication and overall service. Only original surveys were considered and accepted as valid. Safeguards were built in to this process to ensure accuracy and validity.

I am very proud of these agents. This honor represents less than 7% of all actively licensed real estate agents in the Jacksonville area and five of these agents are with our office. Something for our entire company to be proud of.

Sandra Holdren

Madelyn Rubin

Dwight Cenac

Windy Keene

You have made us all proud of your work in our profession. The last few years, real estate agents have not always enjoyed the best of reputations –as much due to anxiety and stress as our economy as suffered. Those that have worked through the tough times have helped maintain our profession and its core values. Thank you and God Bless.

While there is talk of Obama backing an extension of a tax credit… lets all hope so. Actually I hope he does not extend it…but waits a few months and issues a new tax credit. I would like to see a tax credit beginning January 1, 2010 – a New Years gift to all of us in real estate – say a 15,000 tax credit to all home buyers that purchase in 2010. Not just first time home buyers’ – but all home buyers – wouldn’t that stimulate all aspects of our economy – real estate – mortgages – building – development – home goods – filtering down to employment, jobs, employee benefits, clothing, the list goes on and on…just the shot in the arm we all need.

I also think that just extending the credit we have right now might bring on a few fall throughs in the current sales – meaning that some buyers might start to have second thoughts on the contracts they have written – wondering if they made decisions too quickly.
I would love to know what you think. Would you lose some homebuyers if the current deadline was extended? What do you think of the new year’s credit offering and how do you think it would affect the economy as a whole?

How many contracts did you write because of the tax credit that you would not have written without the credit?

I would love to know.

Jacksonville Florida News and Reminders  - little things become big things

Another day in the life of a broker and the some of the thoughts that come to mind today that I would like t share today are:

Please help your fellow agent, be respectful of setting appointments and time frames for their sellers, the agents time schedules and your buyers.  I got a call from one of my agents today who was very frustrated.  One of our own agents had scheduled a showing on property that required advanced notice and the listing agent.

The listing agent was showing property on Saturday when she got a call from the agent with the appointment for Sunday wanting to move the appoint to shortly that same afternoon.  The showing agent wanted the listing agent to come and let her in even though she was with customers…- inappropriate for both the customers the listing agent had in her car at the moment and for the sellers of the listing.  When this was explained, it was accepted that the appointment would remain for the next day as originally scheduled and the day continued ….until the next day.  Just prior to the showing appointment, a call came moving the appointment until a little later.  Then again a little later.  By the end of the afternoon, the appointment was cancelled all together.

Well, the listing agent spent the entire afternoon “on call”.  The seller spent the entire afternoon away from the home after cleaning it for a much anticipated showing.  The agent that was supposed to show it, apparently changed plans on the potential buyer as well.                

No one felt good about the day, the plans or the respect anyone had for their efforts for their day.  Now, I happen to know the agent involved very well.  I am sure that there was a very good reason for the discrepancy and I am sure a true crisis was involved.  But, I also know, that everyone would have felt a lot better that, instead of trying to pull it off,  she honestly presented the issue and the probability that she couldnot make the appointment and even asked if the listing agent could “cover “ for her, and not make it but that the showing happened as planned for all the others or re scheduled for another day.

Rather than biting off more than we can chew, perhaps admitting out limitations and asking for help is the best answer….for everyone….not a weakness or a deficiency.

A good reminder for all of us and each of us.  Sometimes we need help…or sometimes we have to say we canit do it then…or just say we are “blowing it”…

Well,…on to another day….

Real estate Trends in Jacksonville Florida and around the State:

A new real estate “buzz word” for the year has entered our professional and is becoming to become commonplace and well understood:

“Strategic defaults”

Strategic Defaults is joining the ranks of Short Sale (who heard of the term short sale five years ago or even three years ago) pre-foreclosure sale, and the other terms that have not only defined and described our current real estate market but have become the “sale and pepper” to almost every adult cocktail party conversation in the last 18 months.

Now you will hear the term “strategically defaulting”.. almost like a new fad, like a financial planning of sorts.  Homeowners are planning their default on their mortgage, like part of their financial preservation plan, and incorporating a path of traditionally paying their mortgage payments on time and in full to just not paying another payment.  These homeowners have determined that continuing their path of financial obligation and responsibility does not make financial sense in a negatively impacted housing market that seems a long way of any kind of recovery.  Most of these homeowners historically have great credit scores but also have pretty big balances.  There seems to be question as to whether staying a few hundred thousand in the hole or ruining their credit for a few years makes financial sense and some seem to have made the decision that recovering from the credit score is less painful than the financial hole they have found themselves in. 

What challenging times!    I am almost afraid to see what our next “fad” will be…. Maybe the droopy pants with boxer shorts hanging out isnt  so bad after all!