Chris Ross

I have now discovered Twitter. It's a great place for networking and contacted new clients. I have already picked up a few out of town investors. Plus, I am following a few successful people that are in both the real estate and entrepreneur ventures.

http://twitter.com/callchrisross

I have seen my fair share of these so called Real Estate reality shows. From Flip this House, to Flipping out, & MillionDollar Listings. What concerns me about them is that they make everything look so easy. Real Estate is not as easy as it looks on TV. Theseguys buy these so called "steals" and then make tens of thousands of dollars on them. What they don't show is all the stuff going on in the background that ends up on the cutting room floor. So the next time you see one of these realty shows with an easy flip think twice before you think it's as easy as it is on TV.

I am hearing more and more the discussion of Bing making a dent into the world of Google. Now being a big Google user myself, I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. I am a big maps guy, love them, always have. I can honestly say that Bing maps are far superior to Google. Especially in a more rural area like Martinsburg. I read a interview that was giving by the CEO of Google that said that he was not worried about Bing, stating that Microsoft has tried to bring something new out every year to try and compete with them, to no av-ale. But if I where Google I would not count out the boys from the Pacific Northwest just yet. Even with Google and to a lesser extend Yahoo, dominating the search market, Bing is now a player in this game. It will be interested to see how this goes.

November 30th is the deadline......I have at least a dozen clients sitting on the fence right now. Rates are low....."For now".....who knows when they are going to take a sudden turn up. I have said this before. Anyone that is looking to buy knows is going to be laughing all the way to the bank with there deposits in just a few years. We are still in a very strong growth area. With the huge rush of people trying to close before the end of the year, I'm afraid that both rates and prices are going to take a dramatic shift up. So November 30th is the deadline. Don't be the one caught sitting one the fence. Find a good local Realtor and let them get to work for you.

I have been reading a lot of things regarding the spending in Washington these days. I think the more spending of infrastructure the better. The Federal Government has now given the Metro service in the D.C. area 900 Million dollars to start to take the rail from Tyson's Corner to Dulles Airport. Well couple that with the help that WV is getting with the extra money to help finish Route 9. Bringing the project all the way to the boarder of Virginia. I see no reason that we will not have continued growth in the Eastern Panhandle of WV, especially Berkeley County. Taking this in to mind, I don't know if we will ever seen a better time in our lifetime to buy a new home. With the prices at or near rock bottom and rates at historic lows, and then throw in the $8000 tax credit, it only makes sense to buy now. We will eventually come out of the down turn and when we do, the people who bought will the market was down are going to be laughing all the way to the bank.