Julie Press-Raese, LLC Realtor, ARB, CRS, GRI

This week has been interesting. If I thought it was tough out there...I didn't dream of this one.

I set up a showing on a property and took my buyer over.

When we got there, two young men were standing outside, near their parked car. I figured they were there to let me into the house, but they said to go ahead in as it was vacant. They weirdly watched us go into the home.

It was not vacant. It was a trashed mess (as they are many times and I can deal with that). All the lights were off and doors closed. I struggled with finding the light switches as there were clothing items hung over the switches. We didn't need to spend a lot of time there but wanted to look through all the rooms. So we made it to the doorway to the basement. Again, no light in the basement nor in the stairway. Once I found it and was half way down the steps I notice a 200 pound Rottweiler at the bottom of the stairs growling at me!! We quietly backed up and out of the basement and proceeded to quickly leave the home where we encounter the two young men just waiting watching us as we leave. These lovely young men purposely sent us in that mess to see what would happen! While I would have loved to tell them what I really thought, I didn't. We simply walked to our vehicles and left. My thought was if there were willing to risk my life in the house, they would probably not hesitate to do the same outside the house.

Moral of the story? Is any listing that important? I called the listing agent and told her to fire that listing! Good grief..I would not want that liability hanging over my head. People are really weird!

Other Moral of the story? Stay safe and be aware of your surroundings. I would never have thought someone would purposely do something like that...but they did. It ended ok this time. You just have to be very careful in this business!

Love thy neighbor as yourself, but choose your neighborhood. ~ Louise Beal

Isn't that the truth! There are some great neighborhoods to choose from. If you are coming from

most any city around the Janesville area you will find more house for your money. I truly

believe we may end up being more of a bedroom community where people live affordably but work in

the outlying areas. It's only a 40 minute drive to Madison or Rockford. In most any neighborhood

your have convenient access to I-90 to get to your destination.

The market is starting to heat up with first time buyers. Set up a time to meet with a good Realtor to

start the process. I sit down with buyers and really find out what they need and want. From there

I can show how buyers don't have to look at all 650 homes that are on the market in Janesville.

There is a good chance that a buyer can find exactly what they are looking for in the Janesville area

and pay the lowest price we've seen in years...and get $8000.00 back at the end of the year.

It doesn't get much better than that!

We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by. ~ Will Rogers

Yesterday on my way to work (it's only a 15 minute drive), I saw a man digging through the garbage

dumpster looking for acceptable items to take with him. I went by the local food pantry and saw the

line extending around the corner of people waiting for the pantry to open.

We live in a fairly protected area where we don't see a lot of what the rest of the world sees.

I can't help but to think this problem will worsen before it gets better.

So, my challenge to you today?? Be a hero. Have you thought about how easy it would be a hero

to someone else. Simply by taking a bag of groceries to your local pantry. You could be a hero.

If every one of us did this today...just think of how great the impact would be?

"I'm not out there sweating for three hours every day just to find out what it feels like to sweat" ~ Michael Jordan on his practice habits

If the market is truly heating up, the time is right to make sure you have been keeping up with your

client base. Now more than ever, they will need assistance to figure out what is a good deal and whet is

not. There seem to still be sellers who don't realize the market is down!

We need to make sure that the 1st time buyers, who are getting this $8000.00 credit are not

just buying a home to buy a home. You know what I mean.

It's the reason a buyer and seller should interview and question the motive of their REALTOR.

Keep up the positive info out there, call as many people as you can to give them the great news!

Do something nice for someone today!

It's Monday again and raining! But, that's ok. It was a wonderful weekend for weather and business.

There are a lot of people out looking, trying to find a good deal. I met several first time buyers who

were almost giddy about getting the $8000.00 tax credit. I'm glad to see the stimulus package may

be starting to work.

I'm going to make the most of the rain today..and call people to see how they are doing.

What if you were to reach out to someone today that you've not talked with for awhile.

Do you think you could make a difference for someone? Go ahead and try! It's what I'm going to do!