Joe Leksich

"When Are You Going To Mow THAT Lawn?" AARRRGGG

Joe Leksich — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:31:00 GMT

Here in Indiana, it is FINALLY warming up! The trees are full of leaves, the flowers are blooming, the grass is green and GROWING.

Lately, I find myself dealing mainly in distressed sales. Foreclosures and Short Sales make up a majority of my listing. In both cases, the lawns have a habit of going unmowed. Well, this week I have had a barrage of phone calls concerning my listings. Unfortunately they are not the productive money making phone calls I like to receive. No, these are the phone calls where you just want to YELL obscenities in the phone at the party on the other end.

Twice this week I have had people call me about properties that bare my name to complain that the lawns have gone unattended. One property is in a Short Sale I am dealing with. It is in a upper end neighborhood where everyone keeps their yards looking nice. Well the owner had sold the home on contract and the tenants defaulted and now the owner is in default with the bank. They are in the foreclosure process. The owner no longer lives in town and has no money to have the property maintained. So, the lawn is 8" tall and the "President of the Association" has decided to make it his mission to call me and harass me about the lawn. His first call I missed so he left me a detailed message about how the lawn was 6" tall and that the city would be citing the property soon if it was not cut.
This really struck my wrong, so when his next call came and I picked up I let him have it. He starts in again that he is the "President of the Association" and that the lawn needs to be cut and would like to know what I am going to do about it.
I interrupt him to let him know that: "Just because my name and number are the easiest name and number for you to get ahold of, does NOT make the the correct person to call to complain about the lawn!" I go on about how the property is in foreclosure and that the owner does not have the money to keep the property up and that we have an offer on it and hopefully soon there will be someone there to take care of the home. But in the meantime, the OWNER is the correct person for him to call with his complaints.

Just a few days later, I receive an email with a new listing from a bank I work with. So I go over to the home, which is also in a upper end neighborhood, and scope out the situation. The home is vacant and the lawn is seriously overgrown. The grass is 10" tall and there are thistles in the landscape taller than most of the landscape.
I go through the home and post signs on the entrance doors stating that the home is a foreclosure and I am in charge of marketing and selling the home. And that if there is an emergency with the home to please contact me.
As I am touring the home, I hear someone calling out "Hello." As I turn around, there is a neighbor in the home. He introduces himself and we discuss the situation regarding the home. As expected he ask me about the lawn and I inform him that the bank will start to maintain the property now that they have possession and that the grass should be cut within the next few days. He thanks me for my time and leaves.
As I pull out of the driveway, I see 2 nosy neighbors walk across the street to read the sign I posted on the front door. That evening, I receive another phone call from another neighbor. This one is an older man with to much time on his hands. He tells me who he is and that he is a neighboring home to the foreclosure I am working on. As expected, he ask me "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO MOW THAT LAWN? IF IT IS NOT DONE SOON, I AM GOING TO HAVE TO CALL THE CITY!" I go into my speil about how the bank will take care of it in a few days and that they will then mow it every other week.
Well, I guess that was not good enough for him and he decided to start to complain to me how unacceptable it is that they (the bank) let the home get this way and not mow the lawn on a regular basis.
At this time, I have just had it with neighbors calling me about lawns. I cut him off and bluntly tell him that "The bank has just taken over possession of the home and that it was the previous owners responsibility to maintain the home. If he has a problem with that he needs to take it up with them." Needless to say, that pretty much ended our conversation. I reassured him that the lawn would be cut as I hung up.

Now I know I have not handled these neighbors the best way possible, but at some point you just get fed up. I know they look at these homes and wonder what is going on. They are annoyed that they take such good care of their homes and this home looks SO BAD. BUT just because my name and number is easy to access doesn't make me the correct person to complain to.

So, I would love to hear how you handle these lovely neighbors. The good. The bad. And the ugly stories are welcome.

Politics and Blogging!

Joe Leksich — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:28:00 GMT

We have just gotten a new mayor elected to Fort Wayne and it has got my wheels spinning. There has been a lot of activity in Fort Wayne politics in the last year and it has really got me going. In my opinion, I see Fort Wayne wasting a LOT of the tax payers money and jeopardizing the future of Fort Wayne.

So, that brings me to this post. Is it a suicide mission to blog about Politics on my Real Estate Blog? I know that controversy can drive traffic to my blog, but is it worth the cost?? I really want to blog my 2 cents about the way things are going in Fort Wayne and the projects that are underway, but is this going to cause more harm to my real estate career than good? Does anyone post about political issues on their real estate blogs? How do people take them?

Just to be clear here. I am not looking to bash my city, but I do want to state my opinion on the projects underway (which I do not support).

Short Sales Part 1

Joe Leksich — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:27:00 GMT

Below is the blog I posted on my website. I have been doing a lot of prospecting for short sale leads and my latest effort was a follow up letter to the local mortgage brokers. I encourage them to send me leads of homeowners who have come to them to refinance their home because they no longer can afford the payments and so on. I let them know that the leads that they can not qualify to refinance are great leads for me to talk to about short sales.
In an effort to make my blog more interactive, I encourage them to visit my website and go to my blog to learn more about short sales and post any questions or comments they have. Since short sales are very detailed I decided to break it up into a few parts. I thought it would be a good idea to share my post with everyone here too, so here is part 1.

What is a Short Sale?

A short sale is when the net proceeds from the sale of a home are not enough to cover the sellers mortgage. The bank accepts the net proceeds which is the money left after the sellers closing cost that have been paid. Those cost include: real estate taxes, deed, title fees, survey, and real estate commissions. Another cost that can be included in the short sale is the delinquent interest on the loan, late fees and attorney fees. If you are delinquent on your mortgage, these fees add up very quickly and raise the payoff of your mortgage.

Example:

Mortgage                            $120,000
Sales Price                         $100,000
Closing Cost                       $   7,000
                                          -------------
Deficient Balance                 $ 27,000

The deficient balance is what the bank takes as a loss at the sale of the sellers home. So why does the bank willingly take $93,000 payoff for the $120,000 that is owed? Simply put, Banks Deal In Money NOT Real Estate. They do not want to foreclose on the homeowner. Foreclosure is expensive for the bank and quite frequently they will have to sell the home for less than what the home could have been sold for in a short sale.

Who is a Short Sale for?

There are lots of reasons to consider a short sale, but the most important thing to remember is that you MUST be able to prove a legitimate financial hardship in order to qualify. With that said, short sales are for people who no longer can afford their home.

Loss of employment and no longer able to keep up on your mortgage
Refinanced your home to pay off consumer debt and no longer can afford the higher payment
Bought at the top of the market and now your home is worth less than what you paid and you can not afford to bring money to closing
Have an adjustable rate that has adjusted and the payment is no longer affordable
You have fallen behind and can not catch up on your payments

There are many reasons you might consider a short sale. Everyone has their own unique situation and each situation needs to be carefully looked over. We have dealt with many families in many situations to help them determine if a short sale is their best option. We have the experience and knowledge to carefully examine your situation and explain your options. Maybe we can help you find a way to keep your home. If that is not an option, we can show you how a short sale works and what the pros and cons are.

In my next post, we will discus the pros and cons of a short sale. I will also explain the process of a short sale and what documentation will be required from the homeowner.

Realtor.com YOUR FIRED

Joe Leksich — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 19:38:00 GMT

My subscription with Realtor.com is up and they have been calling me wanting me to send them $1200 for another year. I have told them that I am not interested in re-upping my membership with them this year. I told them that the value of their service does not support the cost. I said that I do not get good leads (or many) from the service and that it is not worth the money I give them. He tells me that Realtor.com is NOT a lead generation website but they are a tool for getting listings! (Hmm wonder where they got that idea from?)

I inform them that I am not going to give them any money for the enhanced listings because I get much better leads on my own website and a lot more traffic. So here comes the new sales pitch. "Would you be interested in a banner ad for Allen county? This would send traffic to your website." In my usual non-blunt blow off, I tell him he can send me info on it and I will review it.

He emails me and I forget to look over it. Low and behold, he calls me yet again! I think we are not the only ones slow, apparently they are feeling it too. He wants to start his sales pitch and tell me how wonderful Realtor.com is. I interrupt him and ask him how much it is to get a banner ad. He tells me that for a banner ad, that would be shown 10% of the time on on Allen county searches would cost me twenty four fifty. I'm thinking $24.50 a month?? Twenty Four Thousand??? So I ask him again what the cost it. "$2450 for a years membership" he tells me. I explain to him that that is WAY to much money and there is no way I will spend that kind of money on a banner ad. I tell him that I think Realtor.com is way out of line and that their services are not worth the cost. I thank him for his call and hang up.

Wow, what a rip off. It goes from me telling him NO I am not interested in spending $1200 a year for enhanced listings to now wanting me to spend TWICE that for a banner ad! I think they have lost their mind. I have nothing but good to say about my P2A site and how awesome it is that my Yahoo and Google rankings keep going up. Why should I spend $2400 a year to have a banner ad when my P2A site is $50 a month?? Yahoo and Google don't charge a thing and if I do my job right, I can have 1st page ranking with them!

So, BEWARE of where your hard earned money is spent. Think twice next time you are asked to spend more than a couple of hundred of dollars on an advertisement. Make sure you ask other Realtors you know if they get good results from their ad. Also, try and negotiate. Everything in this world is negotiable.

If I am out of business in the next 6 months then we know that it was Realtor.com that kept closings in my pipeline.

Help Me Write A Blog

Joe Leksich — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:40:00 GMT

I am working on a Short Sale blog for my personal website. I have been soliciting business from mortgage brokers for short sales. In my newest letter I am sending out, I am telling them they can go to my website and check out my Short Sale blog for more info. I ask that if they have any questions they can post it there.

I have also have been sending out postcards to homeowners soliciting Short Sales. I would also like this blog to be a place they can get more info.

So, how can you help me.

* I need to know what kind of information would be useful on a blog about short sales.
* If you were to send me business on a short sale, what would you want to know?
* If you were behind on your mortgage and received my post card, what kind of info would you want to know?

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated.

How NOT To Solicit Expired Listings!!

Joe Leksich — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:49:00 GMT

My sister is a Realtor and she and her ex husband have a few of their rental properties for sale. On the MLS listing sheet she is shown as the listing agent and her ex is shown as the owner (their last names are the same). She has made proper disclosure with the remarks that "Agent is related to seller".

One of the properties expired and her ex received a letter in the mail soliciting the expired listing! In this letter the Realtor enclosed a copy of the MLS sheet that shows in the agent remarks, "Agent is related to seller" and also includes a copy of tax records showing the owners name as my sisters ex. To make it even better is the letter that is included. I wish I could scan it up and post in on there, but I don't know how, so I will type it AS IT IS WRITTEN.

This letter is photocopied on the agent's letterhead. The copier must be running out of toner because there are lines running through the letter where you can hardly read it due to the lack of toner. I hope you are getting the picture... Anyways, here it goes.

Hello again,

It saddens us and should sadden all Realtors when a listing expires and does not sell in a timely manner. By re-examining the pricing and condition of you home based on today's market, since the market has changed in our area, I believe we can get the job done.

Buyers today need to be helped to your home more than ever. My knowledge in finance will guide a buyer to your home with a contract and possible sale.

In making a listing becomes a sale there are many facets. The home must be presented well in today's market. In marketing your home we need good teamwork. Our team and you are working together to find that right buyer for your home. Good marketing will stimulate good buyers and desire.

In choosing a Realtor I will work in your employment to the best of my ability and service you since we are a team. Service to the homeowner is what I do as a Realtor to make a listing become a sale, then final closing, and a check.

Please contact me to give you the details of my marketing plan on your home.

Respectfully Yours,

xxxxxxxxx

"Good Marketing will stimulate good buyers and desires" If this letter shows how this Realtor markets himself, I would hate to see how he markets a house!

"...service you since we are a team. Service to the homeowner is what I do...." I don't even want to go there.

"Buyer today need to be helped to your home more than ever." They must have a large handicap population in Bay City

So next time you create a new letter or marketing piece, PLEASE make sure you give it to someone else to read. Make sure it makes sense and has proper grammar!

Make Sure Your Marketing Materials Project The Image You Want!

Here are a couple of suggestions to make sure your marketing goes to the client the best it can:

Spell check! AND then reread it to make sure you did not put a different word in place of the one you really wanted. Spell Check does not fix that mistake!
Read your letter backward. This way you do not get caught up in what you know it is supposed to say.
Give your marketing piece to your partner, secretary or someone you trust. Have them read it and make sure it makes sense. Ask them to make suggestions on how you can improve it.
Ask a past client to give their opinion. Would they respond to this marketing piece?
Re Evaluate your marketing piece after it has been in circulation for a few weeks. Are you getting any response? If not, ReWrite or Tweak it.

Yellow Page Advertising! What a SCAM

Joe Leksich — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:35:00 GMT

I want to survey everyone and see who has bought yellow page advertising and what kind of results you have gotten from it. There are 3 directories in Fort Wayne and I advertise in 2 of them. 1 of them, Verizon, I only have a line ad in bold that cost me $33 a month. This I can deal with.

3 years ago I signed up for the Best Book on a 10 year contract for a 1/3 page color ad. They told me how wonderful it would be and how I would get all this biz from it. Well, I got suckered into $7,500 a year for this ad. In the three years I have had the ad, I have gotten a few calls a year and only ONE sale. I have learned that people DO NOT pick a Realtor from the phone book.

So, I would love to here everyone else's experience on yellow page advertising. What is the cost, how long of a contract, and what was the outcome?

Must Have Form For Short Sales

Joe Leksich — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:17:00 GMT

After doing some digging around on the internet this morning, I came across a new form that will be included in all my Short Sale presentations from now on. I might turn this into something they have to sign acknowledging that they received information regarding their tax liabilities doing a short sale.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1099c.pdf

1099C -Cancellation of Debt

If you do not know what this is about you MUST learn. 1099C is the form that the lender is REQUIRED to turn in to the IRS when they cancel debt on a mortgage in a short sale. This is also referred to as "Unearned Income Tax" The IRS will tax the borrower on the amount of loss the lender takes in the sale of their home.

Example

Sales Price                            $100,000
                                   -
Seller Closing Cost Est.           $   7,500
                                            ------------
Net to lender                          $92,500

Payoff to lender                     $125,000
                                          ---------------
Deficient Balance                         $32,500

The lender will turn in a 1099C to the IRS for $32,500! That means the seller will be responsible to pay tax on this dollar amount!!

Deficient Balance (unearned income)       $32,500
Made up tax rate                               x          15%
                                                          ------------
Tax due by BROKE seller                        $4,875

Talk about getting kicked while you are down! Please make sure your clients understand the tax consequences of doing a short sale.

Also, there is current legislation out trying to change the tax law to eliminate the 1099C for short sales! Let you congressman know you support this bill.

Day of Good Deeds

Joe Leksich — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:39:00 GMT

I was on Yahoo this morning and found this article

Here

It talks about this website:

http://mygooddeed.org/

I thought this was a phenomenal idea and how great it is that there are people out there willing to do good deeds for strangers. Check it out and sign up.

Remember

Joe Leksich — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 05:13:00 GMT

As the anniversary of September 11^th 2001 is upon us, I find myself with a mix of emotions. The first emotion is one of horror, thinking about the atrocities that were done against our great nation. Another emotion is one of pride, remembering how people from all walks of life banded together to support our nation.

The morning of the attack my mother called to tell me to turn on the TV, “Something big is happening!” I flipped on the TV and found that every channel I turned to showed same frightening picture of smoke pouring out of the World Trade Center Towers. For hours I was glued to these awful images, watching in disbelief as they play over and over again the images of the planes crashing into the towers. When we thought it couldn’t possibly be any worse, the towers fell as did our hearts.

Knowing that life would go on, I made my way to work at the restaurant my family owned in Syracuse, Pat’s Chicago Dogs. When I arrived, there was no escaping the reality of the morning’s events. My mother had bought a TV to bring to work so that we could listen to the reporters describe the terrorist attacks and try to reason why anyone might do this to us. I knew I did not want to sit around and listen to this any longer. I went out to the restaurant marquee and brought out the letter to put up “God Bless Our Nation.”

Living in a small town, it did not take long for the rest of the business’s to follow suite and placing words of support on their signs and hanging flags. If you have ever wondered why people love living in a small town, this is one of the best reasons I can give you. Everyone in Syracuse took the time to display their support for the people who had lost their lives and for the United States of America. Although we were thousands of miles away, we wanted to do whatever small thing we could.

As I ventured out of my small town in the following days, I noticed something special. Every highway I drove down, every street I took, every corner I rounded it was there. People everywhere were flying their flags high with pride for our great nation. Every car had a bumper sticker of an American flag or message of support for New York City, Washington DC and Philadelphia. People everywhere were showing their PRIDE and support for THEIR nation.

This was the first national disaster I had experienced in my life at that point, and I was taken back and struck with awe. I was amazed at how strangers banded together to show the world that we are a Nation of One - that when some terrorist try’s to break us and take away our freedom, that we will show our strength.

The terrorist thought that if they made a blow to our Nation, it would be a blow

to our hearts and our way of life. That we would cower down in fear of them. Boy were they wrong. The terrorist attack of September 11^th, 2001 was the worst thing I can ever remember happening to our great Nation, but it was also a great reminder of who we can be! We are Americans! We are the Greatest Nation in the World! We Are Free! And there is no terrorist who can take that from us.

With all that said, I just want to make sure I do something to show my support of our Nation to recognize this somber anniversary. I ask that if you have an American flag, you fly it with PRIDE in front of your home or business. Take this opportunity to show your support of our Nation and our troops who are on foreign lands fighting for YOUR FREEDOM. Let us show the World again how we the people, can come together as one in support of our Nation on the anniversary of September 11^th 2001.

Google or Yahoo? Yahoo or Google? Where do most your your website hits come from??

Joe Leksich — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:22:00 GMT

The world of SEO is so horribly confusing to me. I hear this rumor and that rumor about how to make my website better. Blog here, blog there. Link this, link that. Reciprocal link.... Make sure you repeat your selling area on your home page...
Wow My Head Is Spinning

I must say, I am very happy with my P2A site. I had spend thousands of dollars having a website built for me and it was a HUGE bust. I hated to give it up because I spent so much money, but I finally gave in and signed up with P2A. There are lots of great tools even I can figure out. I keep watching my P2A ranking go up and up and now I am at #3 in my state. I don't really know what that means but hope it is good!

So I have been Googling "Fort Wayne Homes For Sale" and then I go to Yahoo and search the same. Well I like Yahoo. I am #2 for "Fort Wayne Homes For Sale" Don't know what I did, but it was something right!!! But no Google, that is a whole other story. So why is it searching the EXACT SAME PHRASE with Google, I find myself on page 1,294,023 (just kidding) but I am no where near the first few pages.

Is there a way to have good ranking on Yahoo and Google? Should I be praying to the SEO Gods or emptying my pockets to the SEO geeks?

I No More. It's All About You

Joe Leksich — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:43:00 GMT

There has been a lot of I talk around here lately.

"I am the #1 agent in the area"
"I am a Multi Million Dollar Producer"
"I sell 1,000 homes a year"
and on and on and on

I have been doing a lot of listening lately trying to get everyones perspective on the "I" way of selling. In todays market does proving that you are the best, you are better than everyone else and you sell $xxx in homes per year really get you the buyers and sellers? Or is the "I" way of selling a thing of the past??
Last week I asked some people to look at my profile on www.reotrans.com and give me their opinions to why I have had 96 views but no activity from it. One response hit me. It said there are to many "I's" in my profile. I was telling what "I" had accomplished and who "I" am and why they should choose "I".
Well I choose to rewrite my profile without the "I"s It has not made any difference yet, but we shall see.

Trying to be a little more observant of what other Realtors are doing to move away from the "I" mentality, I have notice a few cool ideas. My favorite is stolen from Vance: "We're not #1, You Are!" I think that is just great. Or vary it a bit and do: "We're May Not Be #1, But You Are #1 With Us!" There is an agent in my town, Fort Wayne, that her slogan is "Your #1 With Me" She is the #1 agent in my town but does she spout the "I" way of selling/marketing? No! She goes with the client is #1.

So how do we leave the old mindset behind and adopt this new way of doing business? How do we let the client know that we are here for them. That their best interest are our best interest. Even tougher yet, how do we do this and be Sincere? How do we not sound canned? How do we stand apart from everyone else doing the same thing?

Unfortunately "I" do not have the answers. I look to my peers, my fellow Relibers to come up with some great answers that we can all use. So, how do we advertise/promote ourselves as "Client Focused" instead of "I" Focused. Here are my suggestions:

Stolen from Vance "We're not #1, You Are!"

"House Hunting? Joe's here for You!"

"You Best Interest Are My Best Interest! We Work For YOU!"

The Importance of Context

Joe Leksich — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:21:00 GMT

So I have a funny story to tell. I will keep it short and not include all of it.

So I had an accepted offer Friday on one of my listings. They agent emails me the acceptance and a receipt for the earnest money. The earnest money is supposed to be held by the listing office (my office) and he told me he would get it to me. Monday he calls and tells me they are doing the inspection Tuesday. Tuesday comes and goes (oh yeah, this is the house that the roof leaked the day before inspection) and I hear nothing. Wednesday I call looking for the inspection response. Tells me it is coming. Thursday no response. Tells me its coming. Friday the S hits the fan. They want to do a mutual release. I am very frustrated they do not even want to give us an opportunity to fix the defects. Meantime my broker finds out they never turned the earnest money over to us in the 2 day time frame they are supposed to do it. She calls their broker and gives them a hard time. Tells them she needs proof of the EM ever existed. (so I think they are made at me now)

I have my clients sign the mutual release and I scan it up and email it to the agent. I put the address in the subject and did not put anything in the remarks. Only my signature showed up:

With Great Enthusiasm,

Joe Leksich
(260.....

Visit my website at www.JoeRealEstateFW.com

So later I get a email from him that I was copied on. It is sent to my broker. He writes:

"Below you will see the unprofessional sarcastic written comments of one of the Agents/Brokers representing #1 Advantage Realtors. I am sure this is not how the Agents/Brokers are trained to communicate to other Agents/Brokers in the real estate community. Joe Leksich did not need to express such unprofessional comments"

Once I scrolled down I realized he was referring to my signature on my email "With Great Enthusiasm" After laughing about it, I do see how he took this out of context. Defiantly was not intentional "unprofessional sarcastic written comment" but I got a good laugh out of it.

So next time you read a email, blog or letter please keep in mind that you might not be seeing the whole picture. It is easy to interpret the written word very differently from the way the person who wrote it meant.

When it Rains it Pours!

Joe Leksich — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:27:00 GMT

We have definitely got a lot of rain here in Indiana over the past week. I am anxious for the sun to come back out so that I can enjoy what is left of summer and maybe spend a few weekends on the lake.

I was so happy last week. I finally got an offer on one of my "Listings From HELL". I have had this home on the market for 13 months and prior to having the listing it was on the market with 2 other agents for around 3 years!

Well I got an offer on it last week and by Friday we had agreed upon everything. So the buyers agent schedules the inspection for Tuesday. My sellers go back over to the home (which is vacant) to light the pilot lights and make sure everything looks good for the inspection. Well like I said it has been raining cats and dogs here for a week. So they go upstairs and low and behold there is water on the ceiling. They proceed to the attic and determine that there are leaks all over the west side of the roof!

Well it is 9:45pm Monday night and guess who is on their list to call? Yeah you got it right, ME! I am sitting down with my wife enjoying a movie and my phone starts to vibrate. My wife gives me that look as I go for the phone to see who is calling. Since it is after any reasonable hour to take a RE call I put it on mute and resume watching our movie. 15 minutes go buy and my phone vibrates again. Yep its the same number as last time. Once again I push the mute button. As soon as I put the phone down AGAIN it rings. Them again. Now I am wondering what on earth could be so important that they need to bug their real estate agent at 10:00pm. So I pick up my phone and listen to my voice mail. It is the sellers wife and she sounds like she is going to burst into tears and that I need to call them ASAP.

Since it has been raining for days on end I figured the basement flooded. Or maybe someone broke in to steal the copper plumbing. So I call them back and she answers the phone all flustered and immediately puts her husband on. He proceeds to tell me that the roof is leaking all over the house! And the home inspection is tomorrow! What are we going to do?.....

I reassure them it is no big deal and we will handle it with the buyers in the morning. I advise him to call a roofer and his insurance and see if he can claim storm damage. I also told him to go tarp the roof. He thought I was nuts because he is not getting on that roof! We compromised and he put buckets under the leaks.

Well the issue still exist and they are still stressed about it. From my conversations with the buyers agent, they are not to worried about it as long as the sellers remedy the problem.

I had to remind my seller that Murphy's Law took effect upon his house and that everything will be fine. So, I would love to hear everyones story about how Murphy has tried to ruin a deal for you.

Americas Got Pride! The Newest Reality Show.

Joe Leksich — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:13:00 GMT

I was listening to the Glen Beck Show on the AM dial yesterday and Glen was gone so they had a guy Joe (something) standing in for him. Joe was ranting and raving about a journalist in PA who had written a headlining article in the paper "America Needs Another September 11th." He discussed how he thought at first it was just a great attention grabbing headline, but after he read through the article, there was nothing to the effect that "no we don't need anther September 11th, we just need for everyone to ban together like they did after 9/11/01 and show their pride for their country." Instead the author goes on to name potential targets! Needless to say Joe was very disgusted by this article.

Well, this made me think. It is a shame how we, Americans, have lost a lot of that pride we had in the months after 9/11/01. Another thing that we have lost is our sense of humanity. After the attacks on 9/11 people were much friendlier. You would take the time to help an old lady cross the street. You would be more patient with the moron driver in front of you doing 10 below the speed limit. You would help the kid in front of you at the convenience story who was a dollar short for his purchase. I could go on all day long with examples. But my point is that we as human beings have lost some of the humility that came along with 9/11. We have gotten back into our daily routines and our busy life's. We have started to forget!

Another part to this is our Soldiers over seas. After the attacks, we couldn't wait for our President to ship them over there and show these terrorist that they CAN NOT take away Americas pride for our nation! We wanted to show them why we are called the United States of America! United we stood after the attacks and United our soldiers traveled over seas to avenge the death and destruction these cowards caused our great Nation.
Yet 6 years down the road, many are disgusted with our President for having our soldiers still over seas where their life's are at risk. 6 years later and the support of our soldiers has declined. 6 years and the blanket of American Flags that covered our cars, homes and business has diminished.

6 years has gone by from the horrific attacks of 9/11/01 and I am still Proud to be an AMERICAN. I am still Proud of my country. I still show my support of my country and our troops. I still have an American Flag that hangs high by the front door to my house and my office. My car still has an American Flag attached to the window. I still wear my American Flag pin. Just because time has passed and the pain of our lose is all but a dim light of existence does not give us a reason to stop Showing our Pride for our Country and stop showing our Support of our Troops!

With the 6th anniversary of the 9/11/01, I ask you to SHOW ME YOUR PRIDE! We as individuals have a tremendous power to change the world by taking one small step at a time. When 9/11/07 comes around, I want the world to see that we are still Proud to be Americans and that we Support or Troops!
I know this is a lofty goal, but we as Realtors have a lot of ability to make things happen. We are Leaders and WE need to set an example for the rest of our countrymen.

Last year I sent out a letter to my database of clients, friends & family. This letter was a recollection of my experience of 9/11/01. I sent along with my letter a American Flag sticker to put in car windows. I asked all my SOI to please help me show support to our great Nation. To show support of our soldiers of seas. If you would like a copy of this letter please give me your email and I will send it to you.
This year, I would like to do something on 9/11/07 to show my support and ask my SOI to show theirs. I need your help to come up with some outstanding ideas on how we can change the world. I love the movie Pay it Forward and think the idea of Pay it Forward is so phenomenal.

So, what can we do this 9/11/07? A collaborative letter that we all work on to send out to our SOI? A collaborative article of our experiences of how 9/11/01 changed our lives and how we want to show our support, that we could submit to the newspapers? A Blog that we name "Americas Got Pride" where people can post random acts of kindness?
Please help me in the great endeavor to come up with a powerful idea that we can use to show the world how Americas Got Pride!