Christopher Bonta,Realtor/ Integrity and Honesty

Earlier this evening I needed to go on line and check my messages. As usual I had to remove one of my son's from the Internet (no easy task as many of you parents know) he was playing Rune Scape and was quite involved in whatever it was he was doing. Once he switched places with me my son decided to sit next to his "old man" and watch me while I checked my messages and this was when things got interesting.

I deleted most of what was on there and then proceeded to open up a message from a fellow Realtor. The message was short, saying how I should read this great article that had appeared in the Union Leader (this is New Hampshire's largest paper). I opened up the PDF and scanned the contents of the article. It was a nice piece on why Buyer's should decide to purchase now, rather than later. After scanning it for a few moments I closed it, saying out loud that I would read this "good article" later and maybe even consider passing it on to others to read, and this is when the moment happened!

I noticed out of the corner of my eye, that my son was looking at me as if I had two heads. I turned to him and asked, "Hey Sean what's up?". He did not immediately answer, instead he started to fidget after all he had Dad's complete attention. I then smiled at him and asked him again why he was looking at me so funny, to this he replied "are you going to actually read that article later?". Now this really intrigued me, why is my son asking me something like that?I took the bait and answered him, " Sean I'm going to read that later, because I think it is probably a good article about what is going on in today's market, is there a problem with that?". He then said to me, " Dad that article is almost 3 months old! do you think it has any relevence to what's going on now?" This just stopped me dead in my tracks, I had scanned the article, but I never looked at the date it was written. I checked the article again and sure enough, it was from September 13, 2008! I was stunned by this, first because I could not believe someone would e-mail me an article from 3 months ago, but second I was stunned at how my son had reacted.

The lesson I learned from my son was this, information to today's young people really does need to be instantaneous if its even a few days old, it is no good. My son showed Me how the typical Generation X,Y and Millennium child view things. He was really stunned when he thought that I found a 3 month old article relevant, once he realized that I had not seen the date he was immensely relieved that I was not that out of touch with the world!

Thanks Sean

Baby Boomers like me have pretty much had it all when it comes to life, since there are over 88 millionof us. We have pretty much dictated everything from politics, fashion, to life style since the mid 1970's and as a generation we are growing even stronger as we get older. Retirement homes are now becoming upscale resort places for us to retire and pretty much get what ever we want.

So, as a baby boomer what do we have to complain about? It would seem pretty obvious that we should be relishing our status in society. There is unfortunately an almost unspoken aspect for our generation to have to deal with and that is, we are the Squeeze Generation.

What is this phenomena I am speaking about, if your over 45 most likely you and your spouse/ partner ( I hate the term significant other) have your parents still living. This can mean 4 people over the age of 75 and as they are getting older they are starting to rely on you and your spouse/partner. In my case my mother (76) moved in with my wife and me 4 years ago, since she was lonely and my Dad had passed some 13 years before. Now by the grace of God, this move in happened at that time, because within 6 months of her move in she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Now I am not complaining, but here is where the Squeeze part comes in, my wife and I have 3 kids ages 14,12 and 8, talk about a full schedule.

On top of this, my wife's parents are both still alive and her Dad has advanced Emphysema! My wife does her part traveling to visit her parents and do what she can for her parents, and we have to juggle all of the responsibilities we have between the two of us. In fact, today I just returned from spending 2 hours with my Mom while she had her eyes scanned and tested for cataract surgeryshe will be having in January. We have to attend school meetings, IEP meetings, school concerts, attend to home work, take Mom/ Dad to the doctor (her side), take my Mom to all her appointments. With all this, we are suppose to work and make a living for our family to live.

I think you now understand why I titled this post the way I did, I certainly feel squeezed how about you!!!

Thanksgiving is that time of year for me to reflect what I am most thankful for. The Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving to give thanks for the bounty they had harvested and as a way their community to come together. Today we come together as family and friends to celebrate this tradition, so in this spirit here is what I am thankful for:

1) I have a wonderful wife, three boys, my mother and two dogs living with me in a nice house in a wonderful neighborhood.

2) We all have our health.

3) We have great friends who we care about and who care about us.

4) I love my job and enjoy helping people.

5) I've reconnected with a nephew I lost contact with and he is over my house for this Thanksgiving.

6) I'm almost 46 and still have all my own hair!!

There are more things that I could probably list, but these five items are the things I'm mostly thankful for, so what are you thankful for?

When you decide to purchase a property one of the last things you think about is signing a Contract with a Realtor to assist you in your property search, the fact is it should be your first thought. When making the decision to buy, you need someone with experience with Writing up a Contract, Determining Property Value, Negotiating the Contract, assisting you with the Home Inspection and many, many other things that will come up.

The idea of going it alone and purchasing a property with out the assistance of a Realtor that you have hired to represent you can be very costly to you in the long run. If you decide to "just use any Realtor" to show you property, you are not getting any Fiduciary Representation from them, in short they don't work for you or your interests. The Agent who is working with you as a Transactional Broker or Non-Agent has only one thing that they legally have to follow and that is, they must treat you "honestly and fairly". This means that they need to be honest with you and tell you up front that they cannot provide for you the services stated above, they are their to just open the door and let you view the property. The Agent is also only suppose to write up the Contract for you with the terms you want and no input by them, they cannot negotiate it or advise you. At the time of Home Inspection the Agent should not even be at the inspection, since their showing up would imply "Buyer Agency" after all they are not suppose to be representing anyone there or advising you.

Many Buyers have asked over the years the same question, " Why do I need to hire you?, if you won't advise me, negotiate the contract for me etc.. then I will just go and get another Agent who will". My response has typically been to tell them that if they decide to work with an Agent who provides all the services a Buyer Agent gives, without a Contract, then they are working with someone who either does not know Agency Law or The Code of Ethics or they due and have decided to not adhere to either one. I tell the Customer that working with an Agent who does not know Agency Law or the Code of Ethics is like hiring a lawyer or doctor who doesn't know the basics of their own profession. If the Agent is very competent and is fully aware of Agency Law and the Code and is choosing to ignore the Law and Code, then what does that say about them as a Realtor? What may the Agent decide to withhold from you while the deal is going on, do they have to advise you fully when writing up the Contract, do they owe you all their negotiating abilities, will they keep your personal information confidential during the deal? Ask yourself do you want to take the chance with what is probably going to be one of your largest financial decisions in your life!

When picking a Realtor, understand what you are getting from them, ask questions and don't be afraid to question what you are being told. Every good and qualified Agent that I know will be more than happy to take the time and answer all your questions, to your full satisfaction.

In my real estate career I bring over 10 years of experience to the table, I work to represent my Client giving 100% to them. My job is to give you my advise, experience and knowledge and to help you navigate the wonderful and frustrating world of real estate. My job does not end when you purchase your home, it just begins because I will be there even after the closing keeping in touch with you and reminding you that I am always just a phone call away.

We probably will be hit with a lot of posts today about voting and even for who we should vote for. I am not a supporter of trying to force anyone to vote for one side or not, but I am a supporter of voting.

Year in and year out I hear all the people I know, see on TV, radio and the Internet complain about how our Country is being run or not run. The problem I have with this is that over 70% of America fails to vote when its an election year, even on local levels turn out for a Town election is horrible! Apathy is one of the great banes that hangs over America's head and I am hoping that this year will be different.

I intend on going out to vote in about 1 hour and I will be taking my 73 yr old mother, who is not in the best health, with me, she would not miss voting for any reason since she is the World War II generation and actually lived in occupied France during the war (that's another story). My parents drilled into my head the importance of voting and I have never missed an election since I was 18.

I strongly urge all who read this post to go out and vote, even if you have to waite in line. Exercising your Constitutional right is fantastic, and when all is said and done you can sit down and listen to all those people who never voted complain and know that you at least did, which would give you the right to complain or support the next administration!