Mike Hendren, Your Castle Rock Realtor®

This is another one of my favorite Firefox add-ons. It is also free and very easy to install and use.

ScrapBook lets you save actual web pages (or complete sites) and then go back to that page at any time. Bookmarks that we all use do something similar except for two important differences:

1. Bookmarks can only take you back to the web address that you saved, so if the page has changed it may not still contain the information you want. Scrapbook saves the actual page so that particular info is always available. One of the things I use Scrapbook for is to save online receipts for things I purchase there and also software registration information.
2. The other BIG difference is that the pages you save to Scrapbook are always available - even if you're not connected to the internet. So, if your MLS charges by the minute like ours does, just save the listings you're interested in, log out of the MLS, and then go back and peruse the information at your leisure - for free!

It also does some other nice things like allowing you to highlight information on the page, organize in folders, and more - take a look - try it out.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/427

You may have heard that rates might go down to 4.0%. This may happen for some homeowners via the ARRA; but since no one knows what's going on, yet, I'm going out on a limb to tell you why I don't believe we will see 4% rates:

1. A total of $900 billion ($72 billion for economic aid) is going to be infused into our economy per the ARRA (American Recovery & Reinvestment Act). More money, less fear, more confidence = Rates go up.

We are truly in a pattern of low rates/historical rates, however you want to define it. I call it "the sweet spot".

If you have the opportunity to lower your rate by a point, increase cash flow/save money per month, lower your time in your mortgage, buy a home a rates below 5.5%, this is the sweet spot. Spread the word - now is the time. I gingerly say to my clients who are floating rates, "don't be greedy". I think it's a fair statement given the statistical data. Enjoy the opportunity, hop off the fence, and know that you've made a great decision regarding your financial future!

This informatin has been provided by Megan McDonald from Excel Home Lending.

For all of you who may (probably) use more than one computer, I highly recommend Firefox as a browser. Supposedly it's more secure than Internet Explorer, but even more importantly, it allows you to use many free add-ons which can enhance your browsing experience.

One of my favorite add-ons is Foxmarks. It is free and very easy to install and use. What it does is allow you to seamlessly sync your bookmarks between multiple computers and even multiple browsers (Available for Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari). I think it may be OS independent and I am sure it works on Macs and PCs.

Free - Easy - Useful - It just works. Try it out.

http://www.foxmarks.com/

I came upon a group of sayings attributed to the great baseball player, Yogi Berra, and even though I've heard almost all of them before, I still smile and even LOL sometimes when I read through them. So, hopefully I can put a smile on your faces, too, by sharing just a few of his unique uses of our language. Enjoy!

"Never answer an anonymous letter"

"Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel!"

"Ninety percent of this game is half mental." (I think this really applies to the real estate business :-)

At a dinner in an Italian restaurant, he was asked how many slices should be cut in his pizza, and he replied "You better make it four, I don't think I could eat eight".

Have a great Friday the Thirteenth!

One of our local mortgage companies reported that interest rates fell last week due to the rise in bond prices. As I'm sure you all know, interest rates and bond prices are inversely correlated. In other words, when prices go up, rates go down and vice versa.

Aparently the price change was enough to drive some interest rates down by about 5/8ths of a point.