Daphne, AL

Patient goes into her doctor's office.

"Doc, not feeling so good," she says with a sniffle.

"Tell me what's going on," the doc says flipping open his chart as he rolls his stool closer.

"Well, .. (sniff) my head's all stuffed up. My nose is running. I've got a hacking cough and my neck hurts."

"Let's take a look," the doc says, and proceeds to go through his examination with his tongue depressor, stethoscope, etc.

Once he finishes, he swings around to his laptop and punches the keys.

He pulls out his prescription pad and rips off a couple of sheets.

---

Realtor goes into her seller's home.

"Need to sell this house and move it quickly," seller says with authority.

"Tell me what's going on," the Realtor says, pulling her note pad.

"Well, I've gotten a new job and I know the real estate market is tough, but I'm not going to give it away."

Realtor takes a look around the house, pulls out her laptop and proceeds to come up with a price for the seller.

----

Next week, patient goes back to her doctor.

"Doc, I'm still not better."

"What's up?" the doctor asks.

"Well, I decided to go the home-remedy route: drink a lot of hot liquids, a hot toddy at night, chicken soup. Mentholated rub. Stuff like that. It's what worked for my grandmother. But I'm not better."

"Did you take your medicine ... what I prescribed?" the doctor asks.

The patient shrugs.

"Okay, let's get you fixed up," the doc says, nodding toward the framed sign on the wall: "Patients who don't take their medicine tend to get sicker."

---

Six months later, Realtor goes to the sellers' house.

"This house needs to sell," the seller says with desperation.

Realtor pulls out her laptop and the comps appear.

"I'm afraid the market has deteriorated," she says. "The house down the street didn't sell because the appraisal was $10,000 less than the contract price and the deal fell through."

The seller wipes his hands over his face.

"I should have listened to you in the beginning."

---

The point here is when you go to the doctor and ask for expert advice, you follow doctor's orders.

Why is it when you go to a Realtor and ask how to price your home, you ignore the professional?

So many sellers believe their house will be the one that beats the odds, the one that will sell for last year's price.

Why risk your financial health when you wouldn't risk your physical health?

Inspired by my broker Paige Thatcher, RE/Max By The Bay

See. Ida was a true annoyance. I knew she would be and I am thankful that she was an annoyance and not a full fledged November hurricane. She was a little blustery, a lot of rain and quick to leave an visit someone else. Today? Beautiful outside. See for yourselves. I was really hoping some of her blusteriness would help me with my yard work and blow some, well a lot really, of the dying leaves away. But no. She couldn't even do that.

View from my front door. Yes this really is today, November 11. See all that green? Tis like I said on Pat's beautiful photograph of the red tree: we rely on you guys up north to share fall colors with us. We generally go from green to brown here on the gulf coast of Alabama.

Limbs I trimmed from my unruly Azaleas on Sunday, but didn't have the time to pick up. And leaves to blow into a pile and pick up. But these limbs and leaves were there when she blew through and they are still there now. Hmpf. Thanks for the assist, Ida.

All in all we are grateful. But I personally would have been much more grateful if she had actually cleared my yard and driveway of leaves for me.

We experience these hurricanes regularly, but this one is just annoying. Why now? Grrrrr. I digress.

Once a Hurricane enters the gulf, the Gulf of Mexico, it is anybody's guess where it will make landfall. We find ourselves checking all sorts of weather pages on the Internet, waiting for updates from the weather channel, or interruptions to regular programming from our local stations. Anything. Any information that we can use, we are after.

I found a site several years ago that is the best at collecting all the information that is available and then some. The gentleman who runs the page is from New England, and he posts a discussion on tropical developments, all summer long. He makes sense. He is accurate. And he posts some of the most beautiful maps I have ever seen. I am such a color junkie, that I like to go over and look at the maps and - ooh la la - I just enjoy looking., They don't make a lick of sense, but they are beautiful.

If you are here with me along the Gulf Coast, and you want some in depth information, do yourself a favor and bookmark that page. You'll really appreciate the quick access to weather news you can use. And if you aren't here with me, you might want to check out of the webcams he has posted - just to get a peek at what might be happening in the path of a storm. Cool stuff. Useful stuff. Especially now, when we are biting our nails - again.

The upcoming expiration of the first-time homebuyer tax credit likely lead to a reduction in home sales in October on the Eastern Shore of the Mobile, Alabama, metro area.

Home sales fell from 87 in September to 59 in October in Spanish Fort, Daphne and Fairhope.

The first-time homebuyer tax credit of $8,000 was set to expire Nov. 30 and buyers apparently wanted to make that deadline with plenty of time to spare. Other buyers may have been waiting to see what would happen next.

At this writing, the U.S. Senate is poised to extend that credit through April 2010 and expand it to people with a $6,500 credit to people who have owned their home at least 5 of the last 8 years (income limits apply). With Senate passage, the bill is expected to be expedited through the house and to President Obama's desk for signing.

Pending sales have improved slightly from 128 at the first of September to 140.

Here are the stats for the Eastern Shore:
Total houses for sale: 1,235
Spanish Fort: 150
Daphne: 400
Fairhope: 560
Lake Forest: 125

Pending sales
Total: 140 (38% new construction)
Spanish Fort: 24 (including 15 new homes)
Daphne: 60 (including 32 new homes)
Fairhope: 37 (including 6 new homes
Lake Forest: 19 (none new)


Closed sales for October 2009
Total: 59
Average sales price: $204,107, down from $233,867 in September and $263,997 in August.
Median sales price: $179,900, down from $184,900in September.
List to sale percentage: 96.82%, an improvement over 96.19% in September
Spanish Fort: 6
Daphne: 21
Fairhope: 24
Lake Forest: 8

(Data from the Baldwin County Multiple Listing Service)

If I can help you with any of your home needs, please feel free to call or email.

Janet English

251 591-2411

Busy, busy, busy, that's where. I have had tons of Real Estate work to do since my return from the field trip early this month. And on the way home, I picked up my new little foster family. Since they are growing, I am beginning to have some extra moments, once again, so I though this would be a good time to introduce them to the world. They have taken all and then some, of my mornings, lunches and evenings, but they are well worth it. They are rescue kittens with their mother, who is a very, very good mother. For at least four weeks, I walked with her saying, "Please take me to the babies. Please show me the babies. Where are those babies?" And then, she brought us the babies.

Without further ado, meet Angel-Baby, who finally, finally brought her babies to us to care for.

What a sweet cat this is. She is calm and quiet, and grateful. She loves her new digs.

This is Crinkle on the left and Silverado on the right. Sweet kittens, they are, but are afraid of real quick movements, still. They are getting there. Just this morning Silverado climbed my leg...granted she was after a little green mouse I was holding, but still - progress is progress. Crinkle, well Crinkle is a big boy, but a scaredy cat. All that girth and no...., well, backbone. Yes, that's it, backbone. He's coming around.

This is E.F. Kitten. Because, when E.F. Kitten talks, everybody listens. Most likely to get into trouble. Most likely to cuddle up to me, too.

And finally, we have Piper. What an adorable little minx Piper is. Piper is most likely to find the teeniest, tiniest hiding place in the world.

Even though, given my druthers, I would not encounter kitty litter first thing in the morning, it has been such a heartwarming adventure to foster this precious family. Now that they are older, I am beginning to have more spare time, more time to come home to Active Rain.

And I know, I owe you all pictures of DeSoto Falls. I'm getting there. In the meantime, between Real Estate and fostering, my times is still a little limited. (See above!)