Bob Haywood, www.BobHaywood.com

Last week was the Tulsa State Fair. This Ostrich was in the children's area. At first, he was wide awake, but pretty soon he was...

Going

Going

Gone!

Everytime I tried to move around to get a picture with his eyes completely closed, they'd pop back open again. He did eventually fall asleep which brings up the question, "How does an Ostrich sleep while holding up his head?"

For complete market reports in the Greater Tulsa area or to buy or sell your next home, contact Bob Haywood at 918-272-7272 or visit www.BobHaywood.com.

All pictures are personal property and cannot be reused without permission from Bob Haywood.

Admit it. You think of Oklahoma as a place where there are teepee's and Buffalo roaming the range, right? This may have been true at one time, but did you know that Oklahoma actually has more lake surface water per square foot than most other states?

This picture was taken from the front yard of one of our agent's listings near Oologah (pronounced OO LA GAH) Lake. You can see that we're more than just the waving wheat wind the wind comes sweeping down the plains!

For complete market reports or to buy or sell a home or property in the Greater Tulsa or Owasso, Oklahoma area, contact Bob Haywood at 918-272-7272. Or visit www.BobHaywood.com.

Open house scheduled for 9908 North 120th East Avenue in Bailey Ranch Estates, Owasso Oklahoma!

MLS #924317

OPEN HOUSE - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2009 FROM 2-4 P.M.

This three bedroom, two full bathroom, three car garage beautiful home is located at 9908 North 120th East Avenue in Owasso, Oklahoma in the Bailey Ranch Estates neighborhood. It was built in 2000 and offers 2269 square feet in an open floor plan.

Bailey Ranch Estates offers a community pool, several park areas and paved walking trails throughout. It also has several ponds where you can enjoy the scenery or walk on the paved trails!

Several features of the home include the large kitchen, an open formal dining room, kitchen dining area and a wonderful covered back porch that was a later addition by the home owners.

To find the home in the Bailey Ranch Estates neighborhood, use this helpful map. Turn drive to the house, go North on Garnett from 96th Street in Owasso. Turn right on 100th Street and follow the road all the way to 120th East Avenue. Turn right onto 120th. The house will be on the right side of the street.

That's a few of the highlights. For a more complete listing and description of this incredible home, visit my original blog by clicking below.

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1218081/welcome-home-to-9908-north-120th-east-avenue-in-bailey-ranch-estates-owasso-oklahoma-

Home Owners Association

Home Owners Associations exist for one purpose: to protect your homes' value. To find out about the HOA rules and restrictions, be sure to visit the Bailey Ranch Estates HOA page at http://www.baileyranchhoa.com/index.html

In Conclusion...

You can see that this wonderful home is located in a great neighborhood. And that's really what you're looking for when you're investing in your family, isn't it? Not just a house, but a home. And a place where neighbors call each other friends. That's what you'll love about living in Bailey Ranch Estates in Owasso, Oklahoma.

You'll find all that and more when you make this wonderful house at 9908 North 120th East Avenue in Owasso OK your new home.

For a personal showing contact Bob Haywood at 918-272-7272 or visit www.BobHaywood.com

DexRex: A Must Have Program for those who Text Message

Do you use text messaging to talk to your clients? How about for negotiating deals with other Realtors? Maybe you text your kids to keep up with their busy lives.

If so, consider this...how are you keeping a paper trail of the conversations you have with people, especially in regards to real estate (or ex spouses!).

Remember, having a paper trail of who said what is the most important part of transactions...just in case things go sideways.

Fear not! DexRex.com is here to help you out!

Dexrex installs easily on your Blackberry smart phone and also on your computer. I do not know if it works with the Iphone or not. You have to install it on both your phone and your computer for it to work properly.

Once installed, it works behind the scenes on your phone. But on your computer you have what is called an extension.

To see what this is, mouse over the Dexrex icon, then right click with your mouse and choose the "Show Extensions Console" option.

But let's say that you don't use a screen name for communicating with people. Let's say that you just use your phone number like I do. In that case, you use DexRex.com online.

When you open the website, you'll be able to sign in. Be sure to include your country code before your phone number or you will be very frustrated. The country code for America is "1".

Once you are logged in, you can see your most recent text message. I sent myself a test message. Now it shows up in my DexRex console as my last message sent. Notice that this is the HOME page.

Click on the Conversations page and you'll see a list of the people you have been having text message conversations with.

Now, are you ready for the real power of the DexRex program? Just click on anyone in your Buddy List and all your conversations with them will pop up, organized by date! Print them off and you've got your paper trail! How cool is that!

You can even filter your conversations. This is handy when you forget the day or time someone texted you and you need to remember that specific conversation. You can also filter phone numbers, email address and forwarded texts.

Oh, there's one other thing I forgot to mention that is very important.

THIS PROGRAM IS FREE!

Do Your Homework before You Buy that Next Home!

So you've found a great house to buy and you love it. You got a great price. You love the location. The inspections went great and everything is set to go.

But then one of the neighbors tells you that something unpleasant happened in the house several years ago. Maybe someone passed away in the house. Or perhaps the house flooded a couple of times before the city fixed the water issues in the neighborhood. And now there is no disclosure on the house because it was bought out of foreclosure.

And maybe nobody told you about the issues. Your real estate professional may not have known, especially if there was no disclosure involved. And any damage may have been repaired so well that an inspector might not see previous issues. Remember, inspectors can't see behind sheet rock. Or how about this? Maybe a sex offender lives in the neighborhood!

One thing I always recommend to my buyers and sellers is to do a Google search of the property by street address before buying or selling a home. There's a couple of reasons why you want to do this.

The first is that you will probably be able to see the Google maps view of the home.

However, use caution here. Most of the Google maps pictures in our area were taken during the winter after an ice storm. The pictures make the greater Tulsa area look terrible. There are piles of branches in yards and brown grass everywhere. On the good side though, you can see the home in another time frame. Just remember, the Google picture is a snapshot view captured in a moment in time.

Remember also that the view that comes up, might not be the house. Sometimes Google pictures are not entirely accurate to the address. You might have to move up and down the street to find the correct house.

The second reason you should do a Google search by street address is because you might find that the listing agent has written a blog about the property.

Saavy agents have discovered blogging as a powerful way to market homes. When you search for the home by address or by neighborhood or subdivision name, the blog (if there is one) will come up in the top search results.

Why is this of any interest to you?

Because you can learn about the neighborhood, any amenities in the neighborhood, the history of the neighborhood and often pick up more detailed information about the home than just a listing might offer.

For a good example of two homes I have blogged about, click on the following links:

15605 East 94th Street North, Owasso, Oklahoma

9908 North 120th East Avenue, Owasso, Oklahoma

Much of the information I learned about the home in Paradise Valley came from an original home owner and his wife who were willing to visit with me. The information about Bailey Ranch Estates came from me because I know the neighborhood well. And now, whenever anyone does a Google search of the neighborhoods in Owasso, Ok, guess what comes up in the top rankings? Yep, my blog about these great properties!

So remember, don't only do a street address Google search...also do a search for the name of the neighborhood or subdivision.

The third reason you should do your homework via a Google search is because you might learn something about the home that nobody who is involved in the transaction knows.

For example, here is a screen shot of a heartbreaking blog written by a lady who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. I whited out personal information to protect her privacy, but she is choosing to write openly about her battle against this terrible disease. She may or may not choose to talk about where she lives, but sometimes people do.

A friend of mine who is a real estate agent had this happen once. He had a listing where the family had lived while one of the spouses was fighting a disease. The other spouse had put up some pictures and articles about their terrible battle that eventually took the person's life.

After the house was under contract, the buyer did their homework and found the article and pictures and the address of the home. In that case, the buyer decided not to purchase the house because they had lost a family member to a terrible disease also. It was much better that they found out prior to closing on the house than afterwards.

The lesson here is do your homework.

And the lesson here for sellers is to remember that anything you put out on the internet will be there for others to see. If you don't want certain information out there, don't put it on the web.

Is all this information accumulation good and kosher and above board? It is if someone willingly puts it on the internet, which is a public forum.

So doing your homework in your home search efforts can be very worth while. You may find nothing out about that home you want to buy. You might find out you're getting a wonderful home with a great history and you might find out also that there is some information you need to know ahead of time!

For complete market reports and to understand the home buying and selling market in the Owasso and Greater Tulsa, Oklahoma area, contact Bob Haywood at 918-272-7272 or visit my website at 918-272-7272.