Real Estate and Reston, VA: January 2008

I just read an interesting on-line article about the FBI's investigation of the subprime mortgage industry. I have included a link, in case you are interested:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/IndustryInfo/story?id=4210595

What was most compelling was to read through the article and then to read the article  comments.  The bulk of the comments were about trying to determine who is to 'blame' in the whole situation.

There are a lot of people who made a lot of money with the sub-prime products.  There are a lot of people who will suffer a great deal of damage trying to recover from their bad financial decisions to use these products--uninformed or deliberate.  But it does leave me wondering why no one has spoken about the fact that there are actually some valid cases where a subprime mortgage product and an informed party  can be a good combination?  A risky loan made to a consumer who understands the loan product, and is willing to live with the terms,  fills an economic need.

I am not advocating that we should return to the use of subprime loans to avoid dotting our 'i's and crossing our 't's , but I would like to see a little bit more information about the statistics of the subprime mortgages that HAVE NOT become foreclosures or short sales. 

Any thoughts? Any experiences you would like to share?  This is all part of my New Years Resolution to try to be positive in the face of the media negativity!

I have talked to a number of agents (all with different firms and who work in different markets) who have held open houses over the past two weekends. Without exception, all have reported an increase in traffic from open houses held before the holidays.  Personally, I have seen formerly reluctant clients making offers on homes.  This is huge.  Over the past several months, even well qualified buyers seemed content to 'wait it out' and no one was really out looking. Now they are not only looking, but actually writing offers!

I feel like we might be seeing the beginning or our Spring Market... 

Yesterday afternoon turned out to be a snow-day here in Northern Virginia; all of my kids were home and no one was going anywhere. I made a cup of coffee and sat down to ActiveRain.

I was pleasantly surprised to run across two really great posts about getting the economy and real estate markets moving and I wanted to share these.

The first was by Al Maxwell of Atlanta, GA.  He provided a really great discussion about why consumers should 'move up,' even if it looks like they will lose equity by selling their current home. I  provide the link below, because I think that we as consumers need to start looking at the big picture--and stop living our lives in the shadow of the media panic. 

The link to Al's post is:http://activerain.com/blogsview/343277/May-be-time-to

The second was a post by Lance Winslow of Malibu, CA.  His contention is that by shoring up consumer confidence folks will be more comfortable spending money, which will in turn make a positive impact on the economy.

The link to Lance's post is:http://activerain.com/blogsview/342772/Grassroots-Campaign-to-Shore

Besides the government giving us 'spending money,' the ideas in these posts present ways to get the economy moving again.  It is time for all of us to stop reacting to the media and start the economy back on the road to health!

After almost 3 weeks of New Years Resolutions, many of us are losing our motivation to get (and stay) in shape. I think keeping our bodies healthy is a critical to our other successes in life.  I do not own a gym or teach exercise classes--I just think it is really important.

Here are a couple of my personal ideas to help you make exercise a way of life:

1. Tackle it in 10 minute increments.  You can do anything for 10 minutes.  After careful planning and purchasing, I have set up a mini-gym in my basement. I have an eliptical, a recumbant bike (easier on my back), and a treadmill. If you do each one for 10 minutes you have been exercising for 30 minutes!
2. Escalate your workout. If you buy in to the 10 minutes, try increasing your speed every 2 minutes.  It is even easier to do something for 2 minutes than for 10.  And the benefits are greater!
3. Add some music. I have a small television (with cable) so that I can watch VH1 and MTV.  Not only does it keep me moving, but I have seen more music videos than my teenagers...music is a neutral topic, so my exercise sessions give me some things to talk about with my kids!  Radio, MP3 player, Walkman all work well, too.  Just make sure you have fast tempo music.
4. Get out and Walk. You don't need a fancy set up, just walk!  I always walk 1/2 an hour (or more) from my house--because I have to walk back.  All of the sudden, I have added an hour of exercise to my day, gotten away from my work and spent some time outside.
5. Weights and mats. As you add more time to your work out, put in 10 minutes for weights.  Bicep curls are easy, and you would be surprised how many exercises you can find in magazines and online to help you. Just remember to keep your form to avoid injuries.
6. It is not all or nothing! I think sometimes we feel like we either go to the gym daily or we are not 'exercisers.' Nothing is that cut and dried!  You need to figure out what works for YOU and implement it.

This morning I was heading upstairs to get dressed for the day and realized that I had an extra 30 minutes.  I did not feel like exercising, but just did not give myself the option of skipping it.  You know what? I feel  a lot better!

If your budget does not allow for fancy exercise equipemnt, here are a couple of idea:

• Check out CraigsList.com  and see if people in your area are selling equipment
• If your area has Freecycle.com, things are FREE!!  You just have to make arrangments to pick it up.
• Ask your friends...people get tired of the treadmill in their bedroom and want to get rid of it. Sometimes it just takes the offer to move it to make it yours!
• Buy an exercise stand for the bike that sits dormant in the garage...all of the sudden you have a stationary bike!

Good luck with your exercise program in 2008!

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If you are looking for something to do--and to save money while doing it--this week is 'Restaurant Week' in Washington D.C.  During this week 170 restaurants offer fixed price dining options: 3-course lunches for $20, and 3-course dinners for $30.08.

It is possible to make reservations for this event through opentable.com.  Because not all restaurants offer both lunch and dinner options, be sure to confirm that they are participating and that they are offering their fixed price meal at the time of your reservation.

This is a great opportunity to try some restaurants that you might other wise consider too pricey.  Have fun!

I have read and seen many opinions about the efforts to allow Reston to become a town.

Having grownup here (yes, if you can believe it), I have seen the evolution of Reston from a small concept 'place'--the original tag phrase was, "A place called Reston"--to the urbanized destination that it is today.  I consider my self a Restonian, through and through.

Honestly, I am not so sure where I stand on this issue.  I would love to see some dialog both for and against the proposals.  So much of our information is filtered through the media and their definition of newsworthiness.  If you have some information you would like to share about why this is a good, or bad, thing, I invite you to share.

Is anybody else struggling with MRIS's implementation of the SAFEMLS code? 

For those of you who are not members of the MRIS MLS system, effective 1/1/08 we have a token that issues a unique  code that we must enter each and every time we log on to the MLS system.  Right now, this token lives by my home office computer where I will not lose it or misplace it.

The agents who have been breaking the rules, by sharing a single MRIS membership, will now have to share a token.  Since I suspect many of these agents also share a license and other fees/memberships/subscriptions, this seems like a really large  way to deal with a problem that involves a limited number of agents. How about cracking down on these agents?

As we are captive consumers to the MRIS system, we have no choice but to accept the new policy and enter a unique key each time we log on to the system.  One of the advantages of working from a home office was that I could log on and off many times during the day--obviously this is not affected, but just made more cumbersome.  As part of the security upgrade, the system does not allow my computer to retain my login ID and password in memory. Now each login requires all 3 items to be typed in each time I log on to the system. Since I don't intend to carry this key with me...what are the chances that I will always be at home when I need to log on to the system?  I used to love the freedom that I had to log on from a client's home or even the library. The wireless MRIS application on my PDA will be rendered useless unless I carry this around with me every second.

Just like I have to make a point to carry the DisplayKEY for those agents who are have not (too lazy?) upgraded their lock-boxes, now I will need to make a point to carry the token with me.

I thought technology was supposed to make our lives easier?

I realize that we are a week in to the New Year and this is my first entry of the year. What is up with that?  As you might have guessed, my resolutions for the year included things like, 'get to the gym more often,' and 'clean out the scary storage room.'  I also have some big ones: complete the course work for and get my Brokerage license (before my RE license has to be renewed in April!).  Unlike many folks, I find the resolutions helpful since they require me to set goals and create plans to meet them.

Sitting here, I realize, however, that I left out some resolutions that need to be made--and fulfilled!  I need to be more committed to the business tasks that I want to do regularly.  I want to  increase my on-line visibility.  I want to reach out more consistently to my clients.  I want to refine my marketing (and associated expenses).  What I really want, and need, to do is refine and implement the changes to my business plan.

So here is another resolution:  This month I will review, modify and update my business plan. During the first quarter I will implement changes accordingly and through the remainder of the year I will do my business accordingly, adjusting as necessary to remain profitable and successful.

Happy New Year!