I received a letter in the mail today from a company called Equity Management Services. It tells me of a late relative with the same surname as me (what are the chances of that!) who died in 1999 and this company has been making every effort to track down any member of his family or next of kin. Guess who that might be?
The letter continues by saying…
My intention is to transfer this sum of $15.5M in the aforementioned account to a safe account overseas. I am therefore proposing that you quietly partner with me and provide an account of set up a new one that will serve the purpose of receiving this fund. For your assistance in this venture, I am ready to part with 30% of the entire funds to you.
Well, if you haven’t caught on yet, THIS IS A SCAM. I see a great deal of these types of scams (see Nigerian Scams
Receiving this letter got me thinking about how I deal with unwanted mail. Whenever I receive any junk mail in my mailbox, I immediately do what i can to stop it from coming again. Today, I receive very unwanted solicitations in my mailbox.
Here are some resources that may not stop someone from sending you a Nigerian Letter, but at least these tools should be able to help you stop the majority of junk mail flooing your mailbox:
CatalogChoice.org – Catalog Choice is the free service that lets you opt-out of unwanted catalogs.
GreenDimes.com – This service was pretty cool. The sign up is easy and I was amazed that I the amount of mailing and marketing lists I was on. Green Dimes says that they can help eliminate 90% of your unwanted mail.
41Pounds.org – This environmentally friendly non-profit has a $41 for a five-year antI-junk-mail plan.
Hope you find these sites useful.
P.S. As I had mentioned earlier, nowadays I receive very few junk mail solicitations, however in the past, I would receive a ton of junk mail. I learned a great and useful tip on what to do with the unwanted junk mail and how to support our United States Postal Office
(USPS) at the same time: effexor xr 150mg stimulating or calming
Step 1: Take everything that was included in the solicitation, including the envelope, and place them all into the “postage paid return” envelope.
Step 2: Mail it back to sender.
Step 3: Feel good that you have less trash to throw away and you helped the USPS with some additional revenue.
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Nobody’s perfect, especially when it comes to pricing properties in today’s still-unsettled market.
That’s a lesson I and my sellers were reminded of when a recent sale in Mountain View came to a screeching halt because of a low appraisal. The property was townhouse near downtown Mountain View listed for $725,000 in an area in which a similar, bank-owned unit had recently sold for $660,000. When I met with the sellers, I suggested a price of $675,000 based on my analysis of recent sales, including the bank-owned unit. The sellers wanted to list their home with me, but the other two agents they’d interviewed had suggested much higher asking prices than I had. I was reluctant to take the listing at $725,000, but I agreed to give it a try.
All was going well. The photos Bless the Child download
and marketing were so strong that prospective buyers were calling off the Internet to see our “model” unit”, and the sellers received an offer for $715,000. But the smooth sale hit rocky waters when the property wouldn’t appraise for the $715,000 contract price. The buyer walked.
With the market in flux, appraisers are strictly adhering to recent sales, and the most recent sale in the downtown Mountain View area was of the bank-owned property for $660,000. That brought down the value of all the neighboring units. The sellers worked with me to come up with a new pricing strategy relisting the property at $680,000 and the sellers got three offers, eventually accepting one at their full $680,000 price.
I take some responsibility for the choppy ride during that sale. Every agent is having a hard time determining the right sales price to recommend to sellers, and I’m no different. I simply made a mistake in allowing myself to be persuaded to list this Mountain View townhouse at the higher price when I had comparable sales that pointed to a lower price. I didn’t help my clients or myself with that decision.
There’s a lesson in this saga for sellers, too. Look at the hard facts—including comparable sales—your agent presents. Remember that appraisers are scrutinizing sales closely, and they’re not budging from recent sales. So if your agent shows you recent comparable sales that don’t support the price at which you’d like to list your property, consider rethinking your price. Or be prepared if a transaction capsizes.The Brothers Solomon video
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You’ve heard it said a million times: “That photo doesn’t do it justice.”
“It” can be a landscape, a flower, a car—even a home. That’s why it’s critical to ensure that photos of your property do your home justice. I have all my listings professionally photographed because I want as many people as possible eyeballing them. Professional photographers know how to present spaces in the most flattering light—literally and figuratively—and use wide-angle lenses so that viewers get a sense of an entire room.
Here’s an example of how much photos matter. One of my listings was a townhouse situated in the Mountain View Gardens development off of Tyrella Avenue. This townhouse was built in the early 1970s and though it was maintained quite well, the floor plan was slightly dated. With smart staging and the use of wide-angle lenses, the photos have drawn callers asking when they could see our “model home.”
A recent sale also proves the point. I was working with a couple relocating from Toronto. The husband had already moved to corporate housing in the Bay Area and was doing the legwork of looking for a home for his family. He found one he was sold on near Ponderosa Elementary School, so we e-mailed photos of the property to his wife. Based on the photos, she liked the home, too.
I drafted a contract so that when she came to town, we could schedule a showing to confirm the couple’s choice and then submit an offer. In person, however, the wife waffled. The photos hadn’t prepared her for the true condition of the home, and she asked to see more properties. The couple
ended up buying another home in Sunnyvale’s Ponderosa Park neighborhood that they’d earlier eliminated from their search on the basis of a less-savvy agent’s unflattering photos. That couple learned a lesson all buyers should keep in mind: Never fall in love with a home—or eliminate one from your search—based solely on photos.
The lesson for sellers is that buyers’ first impression of your home isn’t something you can ever get back. Be sure to choose an agent who makes sure that first impression doesn’t disappoint. 150 zantac
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