"Singing in the Rain!"

     Actually this message is directed to anyone involved in any part of the real estate transaction in Washington State.  All agents, appraisers, loan officers, and inspectors should be concerned about several bills currently working their way through the House and Senate in the State of Washington that in one way or another relate to home inspectors that will affect the entire real estate transaction.  This will be the first in a series of posts designed to bring to your attention the major concerns around these bills.  While some of these bills may never even make it out of committee, all deserve a quick email to your Senator or your House representative to voice your concern.

    The first one I will discuss is Senate Bill 5644 that would change Home Inspector Licensing to require home inspectors to include “looking for mold.”  Since home inspectors are not generally qualified to identify mold, and are not likely to get trained to identify mold, this bill could literally bring every real estate transaction in the state to a halt or at least slow it down while a mold expert is brought in to test the house for mold. 

     Mold is the result of conducive conditions----in other words there are: roof leaks, plumbing leaks, foundation leaks, ventilation problems, drainage problems, and other building science issues that must be addressed to get rid of this one of the many results of these problems.  Home inspectors, while not specifically required to identify mold are already mandated by law to discover and report on conducive conditions, so adding the word “mold” into the law is unnecessary.  As long as there is considerable controversy over the effects of home-environmental mold on occupants of the home, blanket legislation regarding mold is not necessary to better protect the health & safety of Washington residents.

     No one would argue that particulate in the air, whether mold or dust or other contaminates, can affect anyone’s breathing, but these are “building science” issues not mold issues.  Knowledgeable home inspectors are trained (or at least should be trained) to identify conditions that contribute to poor indoor quality including conditions conducive to the growth of mold.  Any inspector that found conditions that they didn’t understand related to these issues would already be calling for further evaluation by the appropriate building science expert----calling for a mold expert to evaluate every real estate transaction would seem draconian to me.

     While calling for the “mold expert” would not be “required” by the current bill, can you imagine any inspector “signing off” on a house as being mold free?  I think not.  To paraphrase Chicken Man, “Its everywhere, its everywhere.” 

 

     If you click on this paragraph you will find the bill and its current status.  You will also find links to the sponsors where you can email them directly about this bill.  You can also find links to your own legislators that you can email as well.  Please take a moment to give them your opinion on this matter.

 

Other Important Bills:

Senate Bill 6433

Senate Bill 6434 

 

Charles Buell

 

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Click on the Rose to check out: AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group

PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.

DeCroe, is my "ethereal" home inspector assistant and occasionally flies into my blog and other people's blogs to offer assistance. To find out more about her beginnings just click on Raven.

We're Back!
Introducing the 2nd Edition of Virtual Real Estate BarCamp.

Our first event was such a success, we decided to parlay the momentum into the launch of another.

January 4th - 9am until 4pm PST
9 Hours, 28 Incredible Speakers, 1000s of Attendees!

It's Free!

What Is Virtual BarCamp?
How Do I Register?
Who Is Speaking (To be determined)
How Can I Sponsor?

In an effort to always improve, we have made some changes to the event format:

There will be 4 Webinar Rooms (previously there were just 3 rooms).
Presentations will be 45 minutes in length (previously they were 30 mins).
Total number of Speakers: 28 (we had 27 last event).
Each Webinar Room will have its own accompanying Live Chat Room (previously there was just one).
Session Topics will be chosen by our Registered Attendees (last time it was first come first serve).
Session Presenters will be selected by us (last time it was first come first serve).
Sessions will be recorded (we were unable to record last time).

We have boosted our goals for the event as well:

Registered Attendees: 3000 (previous: 1000, actual 1928)
In-Office Events: 100 (previous: 40, actual: 71)
In-Real-Life MeetUps: 50 (previous: 20, actual: n/a)
Number of Sponsors: 15 (previous: 10, actual: 13)

We have a new website: www.VirtualBarCamp.com

Just because we hold virtual, online events doesn’t mean that we can’t create an incredibly social community.  One of the best aspects of the BarCamp atmosphere is the ability to connect, network, meet and mingle.  We took this into great consideration as we planned out the architecture and user experience of our new website.

The tighter the community, the greater opportunity we all have to learn, network and teach. Get involved by involving others!

If you have any other suggestions on how we can improve on our first effort, please let us know!

 

I often say that social media can be overwhelming if you don't have a plan.  However, sometimes without specifics, this might not make sense.  So instead of blogging about the theory of planning, I am just going to lay out my personal plan.  This is just what works for me, I am sure others have very different strategies and I would be interested in hearing them. 

My goals:   1) Reach and educate real estate professionals about Zillow and internet advertising in general.   2) Keep in touch with my sphere of influence 3) Keep abreast of current real estate topics and 4) Keep abreast of local happening in my neighborhood. 

Target: Real Estate professionals and Locals

Twitter- This is turning into my favorite business tool because of my short reading and writing attention span.  95% of my tweets are business related and 5% personal.  I'll follow back anyone who is in the real estate industry.  I won't follow anyone that hasn't uploaded a picture or whose profile description isn't real estate related.  I use TweetDeck to sort out those who are particularly interesting to me and any direct messages or replies.  I also use TweetDeck to follow these keywords: Zillow, Wicker Park, and the combination of "anyone know" & "Chicago".  Finally use the service to follow the hash tags for any conventions that may be happening.  (One exception to this is I have a column in TweetDeck that I track Celebrity Tweets, guilty pleasure).  I have TweetDeck on constantly throughout the day and just consider it an extension of my email.  I believe the quality of the people you follow and who follows you is more important than sheer numbers.  I also use Twitter to broadcast my new blog posts. 

Facebook- I use Facebook mostly because I personally enjoy it.  If I never got business off of it, I would still use it because I enjoy knowing what people I don't regularly hear from are up to and seeing their pictures.  90% of my status updates are personal, about 10% are business or cause related.  I don't post anything I wouldn't want my mom to see (she is now a friend of mine!).  Since the "groups" function on Facebook is so easy to use, my policy is that I'll follow anyone that has uploaded a picture and some information about themselves and we have at least two mutual friends.  The "groups" function then makes sure I don't miss any of the people I really care to know about.  I have groups for: good friends, work friends, high school, college years, and family.  The main reason I'll 'friend' anyone is that I will use Facebook to broadcast new blog posts and I want to make sure I reach as far as possible.  (tip: don't auto post your blogs to facebook, go create a custom link and message).  On average, I check Facebook 5 times a day for about 5 minutes each time. 

LinkedIn- I probably could do more here, but I use the site in a very passive way, mainly as a Rolodex or resume.  I will only connect with people that I would feel confident giving a personal recommendation about.  In other words, I must actually know you.  I keep my profile as up to date and complete as possible.  I occasional will check my Inbox, but not regularly, as most of the stuff that comes thru this site isn't time sensitive.  I probably spend an hour a month on the site. 

Blogging- Blogging is my home base to get information out.  When I first started I thought- I want to reach real estate professionals, where are they hanging out online?  So having my blog hosted by Active Rain was an obvious choice.  With so many other professionals using the site, it was an automatic audience.  Writing for me doesn't come easy and it takes effort for me to post, which is why I don't post as much as I like.  My goal is twice a week.  I will also occasionally blog on the Zillow Corporate Blog, when there is something to say that affects the real estate community. I guess I average 3 hour a week here.

Commenting on Blogs- Google alerts here are priceless.  Whenever my name is mentioned in a blog post, I will leave a comment.  I also try to leave at least one comment a day within the Active Rain community.  This is an area I wish I was better at because I think commenting can be a huge play.  Without commenting on other people's blogs, authoring your own loses something I feel.  I guess I average about 2 hours a week leaving comments.

Reading Blogs- As blogs become more popular, there is so much more to read.  I have about 40 blogs to which I subscribe to their RSS feeds and new posts go straight into my Inbox in an RSS folder.  This way I don't have to constantly go to blogs to check for updates.  I can also catch up on my blog reading when I am on planes by setting these feeds up, as I can read them offline.  I will scan the featured blogs on ActiveRain daily and just do a few random searches each day.  Finally, I find myself more and more just reading blog posts that people Twitter about. Reading blogs takes up about 45 minutes of my day. 

Forums- Again, think about where the people you want to reach are hanging out online, and get there.  For me, this means Zillow Advice (obviously!).  In the Professional section of Zillow Advice, many professionals leave posts about things they need help with, so this needs monitoring if I am going to be of help.  I am also interested in what is happening locally, so I subscribe to get alerts whenever anyone leaves a post that is tagged to my neighborhood and Chicago in general.  I like to interact with these people as well.  The auto alerts are great because I can just click on an email, and give an answer that usually takes me about 2 minutes to type. 

YouTube- My goal this year was to get more into video and I am starting to creep into it.  At Zillow we have been working this year to create training videos for various parts of the site, we now have about 25 that are hosted by YouTube.  I then use all the tools mentioned here to get these out. 

Yelp - 100% personal.  I admit, I am more of a taker than a giver here.  I read reviews for just about any place I go to eat and professional service I use.  I try to do a review here about once a month, more because I feel guilty about not giving back because I use the site so much!

This post was a little long, but I hope it gives some meat around how I personally have crafted my social media plan.  There isn't a one size fits all this!  Sites that people have a lot of success with, that I don't use, for example FlickR and blip.fm and fan pages on Facebook.  Any other good tools out there? 

Like what you're reading?  Then subscribe to my blog and be notified when I post something new. 

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As promised below is an overview and comparison between the present Tax Credit and the New.  The information below was just given to us by Senator Dodd's Office.

Homebuyer Tax Credit Overview:

• First‐time homebuyers (those who have not owned a principal residence in the three years prior to the purchase date of their subsequent home) are eligible for a refundable tax credit of 10 percent of the purchase price of a principal residence up to $8,000 for homes bought between January 1 and December 1, 2009.
• If the home is sold within three years, the taxpayer must pay back the credit (called "recapture").
• Income limits for the current credit are $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for joint filers, phasing out completely after $95,000 for individuals and $170,000 for couples. Income limits are based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI).

Extended and Expanded Homebuyer Tax Credit:

• Extends the availability of the $8,000 first‐time homebuyer credit to taxpayers who have a principal residence under a binding contract before April 30, 2010, allowing 60 days to close.
• Creates a new $6,500 credit for move‐up buyers. Move up buyers are defined as people who haveLike the credit for first‐time buyers, lived in their current home for 5 or more consecutive years during the 8 year period ending on the date of purchase of the their subsequent principal residence. this credit is available to taxpayers who have principal residences under a binding contract before April 30, 2010, allowing 60 days to close. 
• Raises the income limits for both the first time and move‐up buyer to $125,000 for single filers, $225,000 for joint filers with a $20,000 phase‐out. The $20,000 phaseout means that no credit can be claimed by those with MAGI above $145,000 for single filers, $245,000 married joint filers.
• Both the first‐time and move‐up credit are available for principal residences with a purchase price up to $800,000. Purchase price is defined as the adjusted basis of the principle residence on the date such residence is purchased.
• Includes strong anti‐fraud provisions: 
  • Gives the Internal Revenue Service math error authority which they have requested when processing IRS form 5405. This would allow the IRS to correct certain errors during credit processing, and avoid the need for a post‐refund, labor intensive audit. 
  • Requires a copy of the settlement statement (HUD‐1) which would verify the date of purchase, the residence address, and the purchase price. 
  • Introduces an explicit age limitation, allowing no one under 18 to claim the credit
  • Excludes individuals who are claimed as dependents and married individuals who purchase the home from the family of their spouse from claiming the credit
• Eliminates the recapture requirement for military personnel and members of the Foreign Service and intelligence community who are forced to sell their homes within three years as a result of an official extended duty of service. In addition, these individuals have one additional year to qualify for the credit if they served for at least 90 days outside the U.S. in 2009 or 2010. 
• Purchases made in 2010 can be claimed on the 2009 tax return. 
• The score of $10.8 billion over 10 years is paid for by a seven year delay of the worldwide allocation of interest rule until 2017, not stimulus funds. 
• Effective after the date of enactment. 
• Homebuyers who were eligible for the first‐time homebuyer tax credit pre‐WHBAA will be able to continue to claim the credit. Homebuyers who qualify for the credit under the expanded terms will only be able to claim the credit if they close on their home purchase after the date of enactment of this bill (the binding contract can be signed before enactment).

Some of this, like any new Legislation, is going to take a few days to fully understand.  As further clarification is made available I will try to provide it.

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Info about the author:

George Souto is a Loan Officer who can assist you with all your FHA, CHFA, and Conventional mortgage needs in Connecticut. George resides in Middlesex County which includes Middletown, Middlefield, Durham, Cromwell, Portland, Higganum, Haddam, East Haddam, Chester, Deep River, and Essex. George can be contacted at (860) 573-1308 or gsouto@mccuemortgage.com

A few weeks ago Twitter announced that they now offered the ability to create Lists.  Personally, I still like TweepML better for this functionality for many of the reasons outlined in this TechCrunch article: Twitter Lists Competitors Respond: We Can All Get Along.

I went thru the list of people I follow on Twitter and compared that to people I enjoy reading on Active Rain.  I then came up with this list of people who are active in the Active Rain community, who I recommend following on Twitter.  Click on the link below and you can follow them all (or select a chosen few) in one click.  

Favorite Active Rain Twitter Tweeps

There are so many great Twitterers and Active Rain blog authors, I am sure I left off some people that should be included on this.  If you have a favorite person you follow on Twitter (and who is active on Active Rain), please put their Twitter handle in the comments of this post and maybe I'll add them to the list!

If you are just getting started with Twitter, these people are great to follow and see the many ways Twitter can be used effectively.

 

Like what you're reading?  Then subscribe to my blog and be notified when I post something new. 

Connect with me on:

          

My first thought was that this BEFORE ActiveRain and NOW contest would be a snap. Ha!!

Once I started actually thinking about it I realized my memory was going to be significantly challenged (that happens often). Of course I joined AR in August 2006 so I'm old in blog years - those who are newer may easily recollect their before-AR personas. But let's give it a shot with the few neurons I still have.

 BEFORE ACTIVERAIN I HAD NO FRIENDS.

Well, not quite - make that no real on-line friends. The shift from Internetless-friends to where I now have more than I would ever dare to try and list (not just the many casual connections but folks I call true friends) has been an amazing transformation, and one which I never would have anticipated.

And now I have personally met well over 100 AR folks from all over the country, many of them more than one time, and THAT, for me, is remarkable. Hmmm, I wonder if anyone is dating or even got married from having met via AR? Any spicy stories to share?

 

Two early AR gatherings of Friends in Southern California - Crystal Cove and Manhattan Beach 

 

Before ActiveRain I knew nothing...and Now I know everything.

Ok, that's writer's privilege here to exaggerate. I knew a fair amount about real estate and marketing before AR, but that knowledge has grown exponentially, with AR being the 24/7 on-line seminar that it is. In some ways I was a child embarking on an amazing journey of learning that continues today. I have learned more about on-line marketing, dealing with short sales and REOs, dressing up my website, social media, listing presentations, dealing with buyers and sellers, different types of technology and various gadgets, and endless other topics than in any series of classes, webinars or reading I have done. Truly AR is a remarkable brain trust. If you can't get an answer to a question from at least one of the 160,000+ members, well, then, perhaps there IS no answer. Imagine the power and influence we have with all that knowledge!!

 BEFORE ACTIVERAIN BLOG WAS A FOUR-LETTER WORD.

OK, blog is still a four letter word. But instead of being clueless, and fearful, about this four-letter word, thanks to AR I can actually write articles on a blog, talk with others about blogging, and even teach. AR has helped me know myself better- my likes and dislikes, my passions and interests, my values, my ethics, my emotions, my humor and sarcasm. I have a pretty good sense of my voice and what I like writing about, and discovered my creativity. Plus I think I have become more tolerant of other's perspectives, and, indeed, truly value the diversity that is ActiveRain. Nope, still don't like the bad behavior I see, which I ignore as best I can.

ActiveRain, and blogging in general, has helped me become a much better agent. I had barely lived in CA for a year when I started blogging and it has enabled me to become an area expert in many ways - housing, things to do, communities, restaurants, local happenings, to name a few - and to understand my market conditions by writing monthly market reports.

Being a source of information IS essential and I am now this in spades (so I'm told). Buyers and sellers find me on Google because of what I know and write about. How cool is that?

Before ActiveRain my business was coming from some print advertising, a few referrals (several through my broker) and luck. Having only been in CA for a year in a rapidly declining market with a zillion agents and no network when I moved here was challenging. AR has changed all that. Apart from my CRS referrals and some past clients back East, my business now comes predominantly from my blogging, including referrals in and outbound (do you know a better referral network than ActiveRain?!).

There has been a growing awareness on my part of what consumers are looking for and need in their real estate transactions in a market that is unlike any other - this has come not only from my own personal growth in my blogging, but perhaps more so from the many others who form the greatest social media network in the world that I have learned so much from and who so freely and generously share their knowledge and expertise. ActiveRain is an unbelievable gift. 

ActiveRain has led to teaching at several local real estate boards, talks at several RE Bar Camps and the Women's Council of REALTORS, a panel at the recent C.A.R. convention, a Los Angeles Times article, an Agent Interview in "Thrive: How REALTORS Can Succeed in a Down Market (2009)," and interviews for several REALTOR magazines including the The Residential Specialist (CRS) for January/February 2010.

What lies ahead? A time of tremendous growth and change, an opportunity to learn from the greatest collection of brain power in real estate I can imagine, and the knowledge that where I am now is nothing like where I will be in the future.

And I look forward to more friendships around the country and beyond.

THAT is Before ActiveRain and Now.