Owasso, OK

I love showing houses.  Opening each front door is like a surprise.  What will we find inside?  An older couple home with yesterday's furnishings?  A young family home with children's stuff around?  A home with a new baby and all the cute (and cool) new baby stuff?  And, of course, the foreclosed homes that are always...shall we say...interesting?

Yesterday we walked into all of the above.  Then we walked into a home where we found this.  Can you figure out what it is?

No? 

Here's a hint.  Tracks.  Bugs.  Waste.  Dark.

Still no?

Okay here goes.

This is roach excrement, left behind by a colony that had invaded this now empty house.  Thankfully, my buyers were the kind of people who looked at it and went (very calmly), "Guess there's been roaches here."

Needless to say, they didn't buy that house!

Originally Posted at: My Owasso Home

When I pulled up to the house, my heart fell.  The grass was waist high and the weeds were even higher.  Glancing at the structure, I could tell that it had been a beautiful home at one time.  But today it was only a shell of its' former life.  "What had happened here?" I wondered as I waded through what had been a front lawn to open the door.  It's What I Wonder When I Show An Empty House.

In this particular case, it had been a divorce that had set the wheels in motion and that had brought me and my buyers to this day.  That, combined with the national housing crisis, had left this house empty and abandoned.  What would I find inside?  A trashed and destroyed memory of what once was?  Or a perfectly clean, stark, whitewashed picture...designed to cover up the recent history?  I knew it wouldn't be the latter.  It never is.  The only question when the house is a foreclosure or divorce situation is "How bad will it be?"  This is What I Wonder When I Show An Empty House.

Upon entering the house, I was relieved.  It was clean and there were no holes in the walls.  Whoever was last to move out didn't take their frustration, anger or rage out on the walls.  The kitchen was missing the stove, but the dishwasher remained.  And there were no broken windows anywhere, which was surprising since this home was somewhat isolated in the country.  The master bedroom checked out okay as did the master bathroom. 

It was when I went upstairs that the reality of what had been sunk in.  There I found the kid's rooms.  One was the purple room, which you usually see.  One was the boy's room, with a sailboat theme.  And the other one was the princess room.  It had a castle on one wall, a brick wall paper border and the child's name high up on one wall.  Who was this family?  What were the kids like?  Are they okay today?  Was there love and laughter here?  Or was it more frustration, fear and loathing?  I may be strange, but this is the kind of thing I Wonder When I Show An Empty House. 

The upgraded lighting fixtures and cloth cord cover on the dusty entry chandalier tell me that somebody who lived here once cared.  They were detail oriented and worked hard to make this house beautiful.  So what went wrong in their lives that has now caused this home to be void of the dreams that once filled it?  This is what I wonder as I look around. 

I suppose you're not supposed to be philosophical when showing houses, but I guess I can't help it.  The fact that empty houses represent what once was makes me consider what now is...for the people who once called this house their home and for the people who are now looking at it as their potential home.  And it makes me consider the same thing for my own home too.  And it gives me the resolve to make sure that I do what must be done to ensure that what now is (in my life) never becomes what once was.

Because if it ever does, someone else might be walking though my empty house someday wondering some of the very same things I wonder.

Photo copyright Bob Haywood.

Originally Posted at: My Owasso Home

It's kind of funny, but I'm the only person in our office who has T-Mobile as my mobile phone carrier. So when the office manager has to text me, she has to use some kind of special program because T-Mobile doesn't work with the program she uses for everyone else.

Fascinating right? Well stay tuned because this is important. From what I understand, T-Mobile is still the only cell phone company that will allow you to use your smart phone as a modem for your laptop. What that means is that you can tether your smart phone to your laptop and be on the Internet anywhere, anytime. No need for an air-card and additional expenses!

For those of you who are wondering. Tethering = hooking up your smart phone with a cable to your laptop so you can use it as a modem.

I was at an open house this past year and had not set up my Blackberry to be able to use it as a modem for my laptop yet. So I called T-Mobile and they emailed me the following directions. The process differs for each smart phone, so be sure to read your instruction manual. You can also visit with the folks at the store, but know this. You may bump into a salesperson there who doesn't know how to do what you want. And, of course, the Internet has tons of information too.

So, here is how you set up your Blackberry, using T-Mobile, as a modem for your laptop computer.

Modem Setup

On the computer click Start and Control Panel.

1. Click on All Control Panel Items.
2. Click on Phone and Modem Options.
Note: If Windows asks for an area code, enter the local area code and click OK.
3. Click on the Modems Tab.
4. Highlight the Standard Modem and click Properties.
5. Click the Change Settings button and then click on the Advanced Tab.
6. In the Extra Initialization Command box typeat+cgdcont=1,"IP","epc.tmobile.com"
Note: Try using wap.voicestream.com if epc.tmobile.com does not work.
7. Click OK twice to get back to the Control Panel.

Connection Setup

On the computer click Start and Control Panel.

1. Click on All Control Panel Items.
2. Click on Network and Sharing Center.
3. Click on Set up a new connection or network.
4. Click on Set up a dial-up connection.
5. Click on Standard Modem.
6. In the Phone Number field, enter *99#
7. Leave theUsername and Password fields blank.
8. Set the Connection Name to T-Mobile
9. Make sure the Blackberry Desktop Manager is running and shows Connected.
10. Click Connect.
11. If the connection fails select Set up connection anyway.
12. If it connects verify by browsing the web.
13. If it asks you for a location Choose HOME.

Setup a desktop shortcut

Go back to Start, Control Panel.

1. Click on Network and Sharing Center.
2. Click on Change adapter settings.
3. Right click on the T-mobile connection and select Create Shortcut.
4. Click Yes when asked 'Windows cannot create a shortcut here. Do you want it on your desktop?'

I now have an HTC phone and can do the same thing as the Blackberry. And there are no extra charges! And there are no extra data download charges if you download lots of data. I love that because that means I can work on blogs and other Internet marketing at slow open houses without incurring huge phone bills!

I'm not saying that T-Mobile is the best cell phone company out there, but the fact that I can have a smart phone and use it as a modem for under $100 per month makes me very happy in these strange Real Estate times that we live in!

If you have a smartphone, make sure you know how to use it as a modem and make sure you know what additional charges you might incur. Being able to jump on the Internet and show someone comps or houses in the MLS when you have no Internet access makes this a necessary and worthy tool to have in your Real Estate bag of tricks!

Picture by Bob Haywood!

Originally Posted at: My Owasso Home

I bought a new kitchen faucet the other day. Yeah, yeah, I know. Doesn't knock you off your seat, right? It didn't me either...until I was actually shopping for the faucet at the home improvement store.

After I got over the sticker shock, I began looking around. I had certain things I was looking for. While these involved color and height, it also involved brand. We have 25 year old Delta faucets in our house and they still work great! Last weekend I had to change out washers in two of the faucets that had begun to drip. The parts were under $10 for both faucets and the project was extremely easy. I was pleased.

So, needless to say, after such a fine performance, I was inclined to buy a Delta faucet. But my selection process narrowed down to two. A Delta and another brand that looked really nice and was less expensive. But I had never heard of this other brand. And I've had bad experiences with "off" brands in the past. It seems like to me that "off brand" stuff just doesn't last very long. I keep thinking about the off brand bread that Diane buys sometimes. You have to eat it on fast forward in order to get as many slices gone as you can before it molds!

So I turned over the box and sure enough, it was made in China. I picked the Delta faucet and saw that it was made in the USA. Ever since the China drywall mess, home products made in developing countries kind of scare me now. I have what is probably an irrational fear. I don't want to install a faucet made in some third world country only to find out later that the stuff inside the faucet causes cancer.

You probably think I'm very prejudiced against China, but I'm really not. I'm just cautious. And for good reason. You see, this past Tuesday I did the funeral of a man who died of Mesithelimoa. He had been a welder of metal doorframes for most his working years. When he would lay the doorframes down on the ground to weld them together, he would use a mat that was made of asbestos. Today we know that exposure to asbestos can cause cancer. One suspects that exposure to the mat over time or possible exposure to buildings with asbestos siding and/or asbestos insulation eventually caused this horrible disease to develop in him. The loss to the family is heartbreaking.

So China is not alone in manufacturing potentially dangerous products. It seems like to me that it is in the early days of a country's getting going or of a new product development that the potential for problems is the highest. Ask any Realtor about lead based paint. That stuff was used all over the place in our country in the last 50+ years. Today we know that lead based paint is dangerous. In fact, you have to have proper training to remove it now.

The lesson here is not, "Don't buy China stuff," but rather be careful what you buy. We cannot protect ourselves from every unknown danger in the world, but we can be smarter consumers. Read the label. Consider the production source. And then consider price verses value verses health.

In this case, I think I'll take regulation.

Kid in tub photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/familymwr/4929686071/