Vermont

Knowledge is Your Power For The Freedom of a Worry- Free Home!

You have gone out looking at homes for a few weeks now. You have visited and looked over many neighborhoods at all times of the day and night. You've looked in to schools for your kids, Maybe you have even timed your commute to where you work from these areas. You have finally selected a home that fits the needs of you and your family. It's now time to think about maken the offer on the home,

You start thinking: Where do I start ? What exactly do I have to do ? What kind of legal commitment am I maken ? Can I negotiate the price and terms on this home ?

If you have really done all of your homework up to this point. Maken the offer is the culumination of all the background work you have done. There are steps you need to take to will help ensure that this part of the buying process moves along smoothly for you and your family, and protects your interests.

I have written three blog post's to help you with maken an offer on the home you like.

Do take the time to visit and read these three post's, you'll find them very helpful to you.

Link to Part 1 of 3 First Time Homebuyers Aceoss America

Link to Part 2 of First Time Homebuyers Across America

Link to Part 3 of First Time Homebuyers Across America

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

I hope you and your family always have a fun and safe day!

This posting and the contents that are written here are the intellectual property of Baker Home Inspection and Consulting. All views and opinions expressed here by Baker Home Inspection and Consulting, and those that are kind enough to leave a comment are just that.

Baker Home Inspection Blog is a part of the Active Rain Real Estate Network, which is a social community network made up mostly of Professionals in the Real Estate Industry.

These last few months I've read some interesting research summaries regarding buyer psychology. One little tidbit: In a market like we now have with an abundance of inventory and thus choices for the buyer--a buyer's market--buyers are actually more likely to be dissatisfied with their purchase then buyers buying in a seller's market. Why? Because the wealth of options in a buyer's market creates a paralysis of choices. With so many options, it is harder to chose just one. The choice they make, when they finally do pick one, allows buyers to reflect on their purchase and say "we should have gone with..." "if only we had purchased...." A seller's market offer buyer's far fewer choices and thus far fewer reasons to second-guess thier decisions. Consequently, they are more content with thier decision. A second interesting tidbit of buyer discontent: While the common reasoning says buy the smallest, least expensive house in the most desirable neighborhood which will allow buyers to build more equity than purchasing the largest home, buyers are usually more satisfied later by buying the nicest home in less desirable neighborhoods. Why? Because a home is more than a business decision. Though we don't admit it, and may not consciously believe it, we do compare ourselves with our neighbors--Veblen's keeping up with the Jones theory. We are less content being the small fish than being the big fish. Huh.

So VREIN was to purchase vtopenhouse.com from me for $250.00. Tonight after an interesting night at the Art Hop I arrive to my inbox with this in the VREIN newsletter:

The new site, VermontOpenHouses.com, will allow homebuyers to view schedules for open houses throughout Vermont. A range of user-friendly search options will also allow visitors to view detailed information about a home, print a route planner, and request information directly from the listing agent.

So I must assume that they no longer wish to purchase vtopenhouse.com. What surprises me is the lack of any communication to me one way or another. You'ld think that they could send along an email with, " Thanks Pike, but we've decided to go with another domain name," or "we've decided that vtopenhouse.com doesn't target our desired demographic," or whatever.

Instead they went elsewhere after verbally agreeing to purchase my domain name.

But that's okay. Cuz now I have the chance to go head to head with them and find out who can garner more hits from their advertising. If I lose? well, what do I lose?

On your marks VREIN, get set, go.

These photos are from my Labor Day Monday kayaking trip. A friend and I met for breakfast at one of my favorite breakfast places and were fortunate enough to even have outdoor seating. It was such a beautiful day to be alive and to be outdoors in beautiful, wonderful Vermont.

We paddled for 4 1/2 hours doing a loop and a half around the 743 acre reservoir. I'm not sure of the mileage, but it sure was a good workout as the afternoon got sort of windy and there were lots of waves. Kayaking on a reservoir is a lot different than kayaking on a river because you have to work harder versus moving with the current. The waves really added a nice element to the workout as the reservoir is situated between the mountains and gets some good winds. There were even a few times when waves lapped over the top of the kayak.

You can see some of the Pico ski trails in this photo. The tip of the sailboat is pointing right up at them.

What a beautiful day! Here I am...

Here is a picture of someone we passed who was out with his pooch for the afternoon - I want to do that with my dogs!

These photos are from my mountain biking excursion last Sunday at Killington. I took the gondola up to the top of the mountain a few times and rode my bike down. Sounds easy, you might say? NOT! Mountain biking down a 4,200 foot peak can be quite intense as you ride over very bumpy, very rocky areas. Some of the trails are so narrow that they are practically single track (not much wider than your tires). Some trails have steep drops off of a cliff face and some are so steep that you have to ride your brakes for hundreds of feet. I actually almost flipped over once - balancing on one wheel and it could have gone either way - shifting my weight back the slightest bit after hovering over one wheel for like three seconds brough me back to reality - WHEW! I did have one crash and still have the cuts on my legs to prove it.

By the way, I was dressed for warm weather in bike shorts, a short sleeve biking shirt, gloves and a helmet while several people came dressed up in full battle gear - full coverage body suits, helmets with face guards, shoulder, elbow and knee pads. I think I would have had more confidence if I was padded to the hilt. Maybe I will try this again in cooler weather and get a little crazy :)

This is East Fall - one of the trails I ski down during the winter. Yikes, it looks steep even in summer!

Here are examples of two of the trails. Note how rocky the one is and how skiny the other is. These were EASY trails. It was too dangerous for me to stop and take pictures on the more difficult trails!