RECENT BLOG POSTS
I was going through my personal emails today, and I was clicking through a few interesting blogs that appeared in the daily Active Rain "Daily Drop" email. As I reached the last blog and scrolled down a bit further to make sure I saw them all, I was surprised by this: There it was! A big pictur...
05/13/2011
I hear a lot of investors say they look for rental properties where the monthly rent will be at least 1% of the purchase price. In case you are bad at math - if they buy a $100k home, they want to be able to rent it for $1,000/month. When I first got into the business for rental properties, I d...
05/12/2011
3
Comments
How much house can you afford has always been a tricky question to answer. The easy answer is whatever the lender will lend you, but that should only be a very small part of the equation. Your monthly housing expenses include many pieces, not just the mortgage, but also taxes, home owners’ associ...
05/09/2011
11
Comments
I posted on my blog on Friday afternoon about my inability to separate my work from my personal life. I got a couple of great responses, which I was excited about. Then I got a few more. I thought it was strange that I was getting so many responses when I normally only get 1-3 comments. Then ...
05/08/2011
1
Comments
I often hear real estate agents liken themselves to doctors and lawyers in discussions about our value as professionals. I see a lot of value in the services I provide, but I’m NO doctor! I did attend four years of college and earned a BA in Psychology, but I didn’t go to four years of medical sc...
05/07/2011
51
Comments
Since I left my big box real estate company last year, I have been working from my home full time. I have a lovely home office upstairs that I haven’t used for the last six months, instead choosing to completely cover the kitchen room table in papers and equipment. Finally, after being fed up wit...
05/06/2011
2
Comments
I’m curious about perceptions in other parts of the country. Here in Raleigh, NC, a slab foundation is considered “cheap,” and since all concrete cracks eventually, I have never been a fan. Then I started showing homes to a friend from California who has also spent considerable time in Arizona. S...
05/05/2011
9
Comments
I am considering going through the classes to get my GRI. My first real estate teacher likened this to getting your graduate degree in real estate, which I will disagree with, but I do wonder if it holds any value at all. It’s an expensive series of courses, and I’m sure I will learn some tidbits...
05/04/2011
A law went in to effect at the beginning of 2010 in NC that all residential rental properties must have a carbon monoxide detector on each floor of the home if it uses fossil fuels or has an attached garage. That means if ANY of the following are true, you must install these devices: 1. The home ...
05/03/2011
I’ve written in my To Do list for the next 31 days – “AR Blog.” If I write it down as a daily task, it’s much more likely to be accomplished. I started adding to my list of blog ideas on Thursday when I had a little free time to kill. On Saturday, I held an open house for a rental listing, and st...
05/01/2011