Good Thanksgiving Day Weekend Project: Making Your Address to Read

It is now the Holiday season officially? Is your heart racing out of panic yet? Mine is ... and with that remember your safety and health during these times to take extra precautions for emergency vehicles to find you or your family as quickly as possible.

Accidents do happen and all we can do is be prepared.

One big and EASY thing to do this weekend is to look at something you may not always think about .. curbside numbers. We would like to encourage you to take a look at your curbside numerals this weekend. Have they faded from the cold or just age? Can you read them clearly from a distance? Are your numbers on the side of your house clearly stated and not covered by limbs of trees or bushes?

Take a good look ... if an emergency was to take place at your home or a neighbors, could they (emergency vehicles: fire dept, police, ambulance) find your address easily? It should be clearly stated in FOUR inch lettering in either reflective paint or a high contrast color (preferably black). You cannot just rely on house numerals for quick ID.

This particular pertains to those who have ornate or script numerals on their house, it is imperative you have stenciled numbers on your curb in FRONT of YOUR house or easily read on a clearly marked mailbox. A stencil is still preferred over all, but best in conjunction with all three (for example if a vehicle was on the curb blocking the numbers stenciled on the ground, they could refer to a mailbox or your house?).
We don't have ours on our mailbox, but it is easy to read on our sidewalk thanks to a very kind neighbor. A small yet powerful gift.

I found this website very interesting and I hope you do too.
http://ar.essortment.com/emergencyunits_njf.htm

Take care and be proactive not reactive in your safety measures.

The fire

Steve's family has still been kept from their homes in San Diego (Poway, CA) as well as his sister and her family in Pauma Valley. To all of our friends and family down South you are in our prayers and thoughts. We hope the fire is taken care of as quickly as possible. Our positive vibes are with you. We love you Ostroms and Friends.

Donate to the Red Cross

Garage Sale=Brush up on Negotiation Skills

So we decided to have a garage sale. We were lying a little heavy on kid's stuff so we thought it was time and perhaps a good way to meet some new neighbhors. What an interesting day. Met a lot of great folks and met some serious negotiators. Phewy!

Garage Sale again, hmmm not sure about that, but it was a fun day. I couldn't believe how MANY people there were at three solid points throughout the day. Unbelievable. Was it the signage or was it the Craigslist post? Not sure. But I do know this, Sunday was a worthless day to have a garage sale after Saturday. Not a smart idea"-er" during Football season. And the most interesting phenomena the last minute vulture that arrives during the last posted hour or soon thereafter ... they know you are ready to be D-O-N-E. Oh they know you are vulerable. SURE I will give away the rollerblades you seem super nice, sure you can have the aquarium for $3. It was fun and people were so happy to get unexpected free treasures. Good times, but then it came to a screeching halt. Curtains, brand new? Five dollars, firm.

Never had I thought negotiating over brand new curtains would be so much work. One lady had the "walk-away" down to an art. I wouldn't budge. For some reason I couldn't budge on my curtains. Was it because I sensed this lady was a pro, perhaps? At one point it all became principal based. No way lady, no way, I simply cannot give up that dollar (what?!?!). No way for four!

Lady: "Well what if you threw in the duvet I will give you five."
Me: No
Lady: Okay I don't want any of it.
Me: Have a great day.

Lady: "Okay how about all of these clothes with the curtains for four dollars."

(wow this lady is tough).
"Nope. I have a friend I can give them to if I get that much. Sorry."
Lady: "Alright here is your five dollars."


I waited till she was out of view and then I did my best MaryLou Retton double back twist to a stuck landing. Wow what a battle. This is a condensed version. This all was in between a lot of pacing and back-and-forths. She even had a cute dog to almost distract me and give in. She was a pro. Oh what a cute dog, GIMME YOUR CURTAINS!

I had NO tough cookies, except for her, so it was a relatively easy day. But I did give away most of the stuff, because I figured it was better in a home where an item was used than collecting dust.

But I enjoyed that dollar so much that I made off my curtains and I went a little wild and bought myself a soda at Sam's club with that divine crunchy ice. Ahhh ... the thrill of victory.

We got rid of so much nice baby items and it went to homes where they would be recycled and loved again.


Unfortunately it was not a perfect day as my Redskins lost to FavRrrrreeee and the Green Bay Packers. As SpongeBob cleanly says, "Tartersauce!"

www.National-Open-House.com

Is your house on the market? Come be a part of the National Open House November 4th! Anyone can participate.

Tired of the negativity on the news? Rarely have we been hearing or seeing positive real estate experiences, but they do exist. Why don't you be a part of a positive experience and join up for our NATIONAL OPEN HOUSE. People from all across the nation are joining up. Again ANYONE is welcome to participate. And it is free. It is out of the good will of a group of REALTORS® and assistants.

Visit the website, ask your REALTOR® to sign up, FSBOs (For Sale By Owners) sign up. This is a Nationwide event. Steve and I want to have our hand in orchestrating a positive real estate experience, why don't you join us? Sign up today.

More updates coming to the site soon:
www.National-Open-House.com

She's ill: Not Lead Poisoned Paint, but GottaStuckaInDaBellyButtonitis

Forget the lead paint, what about hitting your head from near fainting at the thought of something coming out of your kid's belly button?

I am speaking in jest in regards to the lead paint of course, I do realize it is a serious issue, but there are so many things that hurt you and you have to be constantly on the prowl with little ones. Well I am still trying to eliminate those olly-Pay Ocket-pays from our house that were recalled, but I have, naturally missed a few abdomen clothed pieces and magnet shoes here and there. Luckily I have a 16 month old who can sniff out any small piece that may be lodged ANYWHERE. EEEK. You try to be a good parent, but nobody is perfect. I have combed my house for tiny pieces and obviously I missed one.

Okay so my littlest one and I were outside and I was sweeping and she was singing. Slowly wobbling towards the red wagon that holds so dear to her. On her wobbly way back, she turns to me and I near pass out when I look at her. Did she suffer a hernia? What in the heck is under her shirt? There's a belly-button sized projection sticking out from underneath her shirt. No that isn't a belly button? Omg what is that?
I am so paralyzed in all the possibilities I near didn't want to lift her shirt to find what I MIGHT find. My creative brain lends to many ideas some good some very bad.

I am sick to my stomach now thinking of what I might find, I lift her little shirt to check out the ole navel, GASP it is pink. WHy my brain didn't immediately register it as a piece of plastic, I don't know. I was scared to touch it, then I reach in and touch it ... AGGGGH it's hard. I say, okay be a big girl and just pull it out what if this is serious!??! I pull and it makes a uncork noise.

As though, nothing unusual had happened, my daughter saunters off back to the red wagon continuing on her yard duties. I examine it (see attached photo) and I still don't have the slightest clue which doll or body part it belongs to of my older child's. Why couldn't it have been white or purple? How did it fit so perfectly in her B.B. Why did it have to be pink? And why did that un-corking noise have to be so funny. This was a serious moment of fear. I make certain not to laugh out loud as I want to do and make this a funny behavior so I hide around the corner to bust out laughing. Kids are a lot of work, but they sure create the hardest laughs and biggest smiles inside and out. I love you my bambina #2.

BCCause it is the polite thing to do ...

I don't think it is cool to put down people that don't BCC mass emails, not everyone understands e-protocol for mass emails or even knows what that "slot" is for or has it "clicked" on their preferences to make it available on their email composer. I am not perfect either, on occasion I WANT people to know who I sent the email to for varying reasons (to let them know who I sent it to internally with friends and family particularly to avoid duplicates). Involving business and personal groups where they go past 5-8 people, I do my best to BCC. For those of you who don't have the slightest clue what I am typing about, it is Blind Carbon Copy via email. . I have had friends of friends casually take my email to add their mailing list, which is fine because the initial sender should exercise caution when intermingling friends and business. I actually don't mind personal emails so much being open and out, but you NEVER know when somebody my hit reply-all and burn you. Of course this is all hypothetical and I have NEVER had that happen to me (cough cough gag).

Perfect example of a public group emailing without BCC, and I will use pig-latin to disguise who I am speaking of, I enter the oseville-Ray hoto-Phay contest. I get the mass email to 20 or so participants "sorry you get the shiny 'good job on your photo but not' sticker." Which I have no problem with because I thought my photos were beautiful. BUT what I do have a problem with is the person who sent out the "shucks you lost" email sent it "to: everyone." WHAT?! I don't want my name listed out to everyone and strangers grabbing my email possibly? Partially for my ego and second just a big no-no to people you don't know and it involves business. A little email privacy and watch out for unwanted email hijacking! C'mon. Put it in the Monday Morning Meeting People.

Mortgage people, REALTORS®, representatives of various institutions and all people self-employed that have to send group emails for whatever reason, that is fine, but USE the bcc! For polite reasons and for emails getting high-jacked by spammers. I am going to do my best to get better at this, but I thought I would say to those who haven't a clue innocent or not.

That is all I have to say. You may surmise I received a ton of junk email today with 25 to 50+ name lists on way too emails to count today. I do realize the you may claim the irony of a emailing REALTOR® group, but PLEASE note I am not discouraging writing others, I am encouraging BCC for mass emails particularly in related fields.

I feel so much better now. Back to your lives.

Podcasts Baby

Realtor.com is a large forum that funnels nationwide information from listings of REALTORS®. They now have the option, on top of photos, virtual tour links are allowing videos to be uploaded, so we are not only doing the podcasts, we are uploading the same video to Realtor.com. What does this mean? Well if people are demanding that on a search, not everyone is participating in the video game and your home has ONE more LEG up on the competition.

There "videos," which are essentially what podcasts these are (little quicktime videos, but sometimes geared towards iTunes). Podcasts are getting thrown around and used for various purposes, but we use it to assemble photos of the home. It is NOT a virtual tour.

I think they look pretty sharp and we have had great feedback. Owners have been loving them.

And to all and their recent (and not-so recently) thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your referrals. We sincerely appreciate them. That is how our business thrives.

See the sample by clicking here ...

This link may not work for all IE (Internet Explorer) browsers a friendly reminder of the PC and Mac battle and quicktime settings. Go with Firefox instead of IE as your browser. ;-)
Hope you enjoy!