Glenda Cherry

A simple, 10-question quiz that most people (at least Realtors) will be able to pass easily. Okay, so I missed the one about the FICO score ... I didn't read the question correctly :-) But it's a good quiz to pass on to your buyers (especially first-timers) because it might encourage them to ask more questions about the home-buying process: Should You Buy a Home?

I think sometimes we assume that buyers know more than they really do about financing, title insurance, closing costs, etc. These quick, easy quizzes may open the door to questions early in the process instead of trying to stuff the information into their heads two days before closing. Check out a couple of the other quizzes on the Kiplinger site:

How Smart a Home Seller Are You?

How Smart a Home Buyer Are You?

Living outside Washington, DC, we often forget the beauty that is in our own back yards. A great example is the Virginia side of Great Falls, just a few minutes from my home. A few weeks ago, I got these pictures - missed the peak of color by about a week, I think - but it was beautiful, nonetheless.

This young guy has been a frequent visitor in the last few weeks. He likes to perch (on one foot) on the fence in our back yard. We don't usually see them up this close in our little corner of suburbia. He just sits there looking around for five or ten minutes, then takes off. He appears to be a young light-morph Red Tail Hawk. Gorgeous, isn't he? [Edit: I found out later he's actually a Cooper's Hawk.]

Every year in the Spring, we deal with the invasion of the sugar ants. Around this time of year, we start getting what I call the "lazy wasps" ... big waspy looking things that fly around as if they were drunk, bumping into everything. The cats think they're great fun, but I'm not real thrilled about them. Now we have something new: Stink Bugs!

I saw this odd looking bug on my kitchen counter and use a paper towel to sweep him toward the sink so I could wash him away. As soon as the towel touched him, I smelled an awful, acrid aroma. Wow, I thought, it must be a stink bug. I've never seen one in my house before. A couple of hours later, I heard a promo for the local news station talking about an upcoming story on the stink bug invasion.

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=77127&catid=158

Since then, I've found three more ... I've heard that if you see one, there are probably hundreds more! Apparently, Virginia is in the midst of the worst stink bug invasion in years. And there's no easy way to get rid of them - regular bug sprays are said not to work. Some people recommend vacuuming them, but I don't want my Dyson to reek!

On the bright side, I understand they're a good source of nutrition - full of protein, fat, minerals and vitamins. If the economy gets any worse ...

I was checking the Google stats on one of my web sites the other day, and found that someone went to my site after typing the following query into Google:  "what does "br fb hb" mean" (my web site came up number 8!).  It got me thinking about the consumers who try to decipher what we type into the limited space provided by our MLS for remarks.  While some of them might seem obvious to us, I can remember being a new agent scratching my head at some of them.  Here are some of the most common abbreviations found in the MLS remarks field:

If you have others, please let me know.  And if you've found one that you just can't figure out, post it here and let's see if the Active Rain community can come up with the answer.  Let the games begin!