Marie Story-Broker Associate Pinecrest (Miami), FL

Pinecrest FL might soon have it's first "Dog Park"! The Village Council is considering turning the Veterans Wayside Park on US1 and 112 Street into a dog friendly park like Palmetto Bay did with their Wayside Park on US1 and 161 Street.

I think it would be a terrific idea since dogs aren't allowed in any of our other parks here in Pinecrest. I sadly don't have my beloved Bichon Frise, April, anymore, but I certainly would enjoy stopping by and visiting with some four legged friends.

When looking for an agent to sell your property you need to do your homework. The majority of agents are self employed and they are all very different from each other. Being self employed, they run their own business, even if they work under the same brokerage company. Unless you have received a trusted recommendation or are already knowledgeable with a particular agent, you need to interview at least two agents. Here are some questions you should ask of them and yourself:

1. How long have you been practicing real estate? Are you a full-time agent? This well let you know if real estate is their profession or it's a part-time endeavor. How educated in her field is she, what titles and designations does she hold? How available will she be to me? What degree of personal service can I expect from you? Ex. Do you show your listings or do you send an assistant or other agent?

2. Does he specialize in the area where my property is located? If an agent says "I practice all over Miami (or any other large city)", I'd be careful. Miami is a big city, how well can he know all the schools, all the traffic patterns, what values are doing in that particular area, which agents practice in the area, etc?

3. How will she market my property? How tech savvy is she? Show me. The majority of Buyers go to the internet first, how well will I be exposed there? Does she have a top notch web site - do all the links work? How easy can a Buyer get in touch with her?

You are inviting this agent into your home and into an important phase of your life, so in my opinion, the following "gut" questions are extremely important:

4. Do I feel comfortable; am I at ease with him? You will be working closely with your agent; can you speak freely with him or her? Is this a person of integrity, will I be treated honestly? When I ask questions does he give me a straight answer?

I hope these questions help you in your decision. When you choose a competent professional, she will work very hard to make sure that your transaction proceeds as smoothly as possible.

Between 2004 and 2007 some builders were using "Chinese Drywall" in the construction of new homes. This drywall has been found to emit sulfide gases that can corrode electrical wiring, components of air-conditioning systems and other household appliances. It is extremely expensive to correct and it is questionable if a home owner's policy will cover it. Currently I am not aware of what this gas can or has been doing to a person's health living in one of these homes. But if it's doing this to these systems I just can't imagine what it can do to someone's lungs.

If a homeowner knows that his property has Chinese Drywall he, and his real estate agent, must disclose it to any potential Buyer. The reason I write this today is because it has come to my knowledge that not all homeowners and agents are disclosing this and unsuspecting Buyers are buying these homes.

Let's say that a house is put on the market and goes under contract. The Buyer has an inspection done and the inspection reveals Chinese Drywall. This condition is not acceptable to the Buyer and the Buyer withdraws his offer. Now at this point, both the Seller and real estate agent know the house has Chinese Drywall. The house gets put back on the market with no disclosure of this condition; hoping that the next Buyer doesn't have an inspection made; after all the house looks so nice, just painted, new air conditioning system, etc, and at a terrific price!

Now when this unsuspecting Buyer buys this house and some time down the road the condition becomes evident, it will be hard for him to prove that the Seller and the real estate agent had knowledge of the Chinese Drywall.

So how do I know all this; a home inspector told me! He said to me that he'll inspect a house, find Chinese Drywall, the contract falls through and some time later he'll drive by the house and children are playing outside. He said that that makes him feel so bad because he is almost sure that those Buyers didn't get the house inspected and that the Seller didn't disclose his knowledge of the Chinese Drywall.

What should we all take away from this; if you are buying a home built between 2004 and 2007 please get it inspected. You might not smell or see anything suspicious but you still need an inspector to get up in the attic and inspect that drywall, look at the electrical system, get into the air conditioning system. Folks, the $400.000 or so that the inspection will cost you can save you a ton of misery.

This has nothing to do with real estate but I couldn't help but share this with you. In one of my realtor magazines I read about this USB flash drive to back up my hard drive. You just plug it into a USB port, press the button on the flash drive and that's it. Well I went to the company's (SanDisk) website and it said, "Introducing the first USB flash drive with a backup button. No wires. No fuss. Just an easier way to protect your favorite photos, videos, songs and more-so you'll always have them with you.

Well I ordered a 16GB flash drive from Buy.com for $45.04, shipping included. It arrived today! Well it true - I plugged it in clicked OK/Next and that was it. About an hour later, while I still worked on the computer, I was backed up. I plugged the flash drive into my laptop (I just couldn't trust it yet) and sure enough everything was there.

We all know we need to be backing up our files but we just don't. I have found out that with computers it's not a question of "if it's going to crash" it's a question of "when is it going to crash".

This has been an exceptional year for mangoes here in Miami-Dade county. As I drive through Pinecrest I so enjoy looking at all the trees just loaded with mangoes.

For all you mango lovers - on July 11th and 12th, Fairchild Gardens will be having it's annual Mango Festival. The festival features mango trees, lectures, auction, food and a children's program.

I have attended several times and it's just such a nice family outing.

For more information click here:

http://www.fairchildgarden.org/livingcollections/tropicalfruitprogram/Fairchilds17thAnnualInternationalMangoFestival/