Melinda Peterson Grants Pass Southern Oregon Real Estate Cafe

The Realtor ABC's of Thanksgiving

T is for the trust you earn each day
H is for the heart you pour into your work
A is for all the time you devote to others
N is for your excellent negotiation skills
K is for kindness and the thoughtful deeds you do
S is for smiling, even when you don't feel like it
G is for gratitude, all blessings great and small
I is for ideas, let your creative juices flow
V is for the value you add to every deal
I is for the infinite wisdom you possess

N is for playing nice with your fellow Realtors
G is for Grants Pass Oregon Real Estate

A Brief History of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is now a favorite American holiday...but did you know it took awhile to catch on as an annual tradition?

According to scholars, the first known Thanksgiving took place on September 8, 1565 in Saint Augustine, Florida when Spanish settlers held a Mass of Thanksgiving after arriving safely in the New World. English settlers in the Virginia Colony held a similar day of thanks in 1619. Two years after that, the colonists at Plymouth Plantation celebrated the most famous Thanksgiving, during 1621.

It wasn't until October 3, 1789, that it actually became a holiday, when then President George Washington proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving...but just for that year. In 1795, Washington again proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving, and President John Adams also declared Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799.

After a decade and a half without the celebration taking place at all, President James Madison renewed the tradition in 1814, and even went so far as to declare the holiday twice in 1815!

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln finally proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of Thanksgiving that should take place every year. Years later, President Franklin Roosevelt stated that Thanksgiving should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month - as opposed to landing on the occasional fifth Thursday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Evolution of the Virtual Culture.

An interesting commentary was recently written by James A. Crumbaugh III, CEO of Allison James Estates and Homes, and published by RIS Media. Here is what James had to say about the evolution of the virtual culture.

I recently returned from the NAR National Convention in San Diego, California, a convention that had a feel of celebration. I believe that's because every one of the 19,000 attendees is a survivor of the past three years of the worst economic and real estate crisis this country has seen in 80 years.

For me, the experience was one of confirmation of what I believe to be the future of the real estate industry-Internet-based real estate. The business model, like ours, is a national Internet-based Real Estate Brokerage, where the Realtors work out of their home offices, and as a result, the broker has no brick and mortar expense. In return, the Realtor keeps 100% of his or her commission and just pays the broker a small association fee each month, thereby creating a profit for the broker, rather than an expense.

Two years ago, when we first rolled out our business model in Washington D.C. at the Midyear NAR Convention, the word "virtual" was absolute poison. Brokers and Realtors would come to our booth and literally run when they heard the word virtual. What a change just two years has made.

This year at the NAR National Convention in San Diego, the word virtual was the most exciting idea being discussed. Brokers wanted to learn how to create a virtual environment for the Realtors and brokers successfully. I suspect in the coming year we will see hundreds of brokerages recreating themselves under a virtual banner.

Even the Realtors this year jumped all over the virtual business model. We encountered thousands of Realtors who realized that they can now command 100% of their commissions, and that is now the accepted standard.

Furthermore, what we heard from every Realtor is the reason they don't go to an office, and the reason they don't care about an office environment is boiled down to one word: distraction.

The top producers think that when they go into an office environment, they become distracted from being productive. We heard this comment universally from almost every Realtor. Realtors' insight into their most fruitful working conditions has been an unanticipated end result of this business model.

So, after this year's convention, I feel that Internet-based real estate was not only accepted by both the brokers and Realtors, but that brokers, such as myself, were no longer the strange broker that lived out there in some mysterious virtual never-land.

The virtual culture is not only the future of the industry, but a huge favor to all the brokers who are struggling to keep their doors open, now that even brand new Realtors expect to keep 100% of their commissions.

This new business model has legs, and it will continue to expand and grow. It will, in the process, make the brokers of our industry financially healthy once again. It will also allow the Realtors to truly be independent contractors who are allowed to keep all of what they have earned.

The virtual culture is a win-win-win for the broker, the Realtor and the consumer.

Article compliments of RIS Media

How To Stage Your Home For a Quick Sale. You don't have to invest a ton of money to make your home more appealing to potential buyers - a few tips and tricks might just do the trick.

You Will Need

• Flowers
• Storage space
• Pillows
• Time to tidy up
• Good coffee
• Frozen cookie dough

Step 1: Start outdoors

For homebuyers, the first impression starts before they even get out of the car, so make your front yard and walkway as appealing as possible. Plant some flowers, rake any leaves, remove weeds, paint the fence and porch-make sure everything is in tiptop condition.

Step 2: Clear the clutter

Put away knickknacks and any odds and ends that wouldn't be in a model home. If you're in a hurry, just stick them in your car, inside desk drawers, or in other places the buyers won't look.

Step 3: Let the sun shine in

Open up your blinds and curtains; light makes a room look bigger.

Appealing aromas like coffee beans and freshly baked cookies make people feel at home and put them in a good mood. So put on a pot of good coffee and pop a roll of cookie dough in the oven.

Step 4: Pare down

Put extra furniture in storage and clear the kitchen counter of appliances like the microwave oven and toaster. Besides making your house look bigger, it will help prospective buyers picture their own belongings in your home.

Step 5: Throw around pillows

Steal a page from the home décor magazines: add throw pillows to make rooms look warm, comfortable, and inviting. And put soft, fluffy comforters on the beds, even if it's summer.

Step 6: Make it less personal

Remove family photos and your kids' artwork from the fridge. Homebuyers like to imagine what it would be like to live in the house; your photographs subconsciously prevent them from doing that.

Step 7: Splurge on fresh flowers

Put fresh flowers throughout the home. The sight and scent of flowers are proven mood boosters, which will help buyers look more favorably upon your home.

Industry surveys show that staging your home can make it sell three months sooner, and for 3% more!

Foreclosure Filings Rose 5 Percent in 3rd Quarter of 2009. Foreclosure filings, including default notices, auctions and bank repossessions, rose 5 percent in 3rd quarter, from the previous quarter and 23 percent from a year ago, according to Realty Trac's quarterly Metro Foreclosure Market Report. One in every 136 households with a mortgage loan, or 937,000 properties, received a foreclosure filing between July and September.

"Rising unemployment and a new variety of mortgage resets continue to gradually shift the nation's foreclosure epicenters in the third quarter away from the hot spots of the last two years and toward some metro areas that had avoided the brunt of the first foreclosure wave," says RealtyTrac's CEO, James J. Saccacio.

Las Vegas had the highest third-quarter foreclosure rate in the country with 5.13 percent, or one out of 20 housing units, nearly seven times the national average. Some 40,408 Las Vegas properties received a foreclosure filing during the quarter, up 9 percent from the previous quarter and 54 percent from the third quarter of 2008.

Merced, Calif., had the second-highest foreclosure rate with one in every 27 properties receiving a foreclosure filing, followed by Caper Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., where one in every 28 households received a foreclosure filing. Several cities that had not been part of the initial foreclosure wave posted the biggest year-over-year increases during the third quarter: Boise City, Idaho; Salt Lake City; and Provo-Orem, Utah.

Article compliments of Realty Trac