John Walters

St Tammany Parish is located on the northshore of lake pontchartrain, north of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. The Eastern part of the parish consist's of the city of Slidell and Pearl River. The Western side consist's of Mandeville, Covington and Madisonville. The town of Lacombe is in the middle. I really don't know if they are considered west or east.

The following economic number were released by the U.S. Economic Bureau.

East St. Tammany zip codes

Population 117,615

Average Family Income 75,660

Median Home Value 144,933

10% of people living below the poverty level

West St. Tammany zip codes

Population 115,550

Household Income 103,486

Median Home Value 223,428

Poverty level 6%

Here i was enjoying a day of fishing finally. After moving twice in the past two weeks I had a day to relax and enjoy life a little. Wouldn't you know it, the appraiser calls on a home I have under contract. Her wants to go this morning at nine o'clock. I have to tell him the owners don't want anyone in their house without them or myself present. He insists that it has to be this morning. I asked him why he didn't call me last night so i could change my plans. He doesn't have an answer.

We finally decide to meet late in the afternoon. Once again I passively tell him he should have called me the night before. I know he didn't get the notice to appraise the house at 8:30 in the morning he called. I keep it diplomatic because I want the appraisal to meet the contract price.

Anyone out there please call the agent, homeowner, etc. the day before if you know about an appointment. I think you owe it to your fellow associates, ect.

Just wondering if any states have started using Chinese Drywall disclosures yet. I know Louisiana hasn't as of yet, but I'm sure it is coming. I haven't encountered this problem myself. I would love to hear your horror stories on this and what didyou do to remedy the situation.

By the way there is a meeting tonight at Mandeville City Hall. Senators Julie Quinn and A.G. Crowe will be there to try and answer questions. Here is a recent news link to the story and meeting tonight.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I wonder how many sellers and agents have thought about this slogan in the last two years? Well this time someone actually put it in writing. I know many agents have been busy recently but how long will this last? Hopefully we won't see many more of these type signs.

I received an offer on one of my listings this weekend thank God. Right now I can use all the business one can get. I called the agent on the offer with the sellers counteroffer. She listened and repeated to me every thing I told her. She calls back about ten minutes later and asks me to go over the particulars again. Of course me being the nice guy am glad to repeat them to her. She told me everything was a littl fuzzy to her right now. Seems she had an MRI that morning and was given sedation because she is highly claustrophobic. Who says you can't do this business while loaded. I had a big laugh with this one.