Dec. 27, 2006 - Another Toy In The e-PROŽ Arsenal

As I am sure many of you know I hold the e-PRO® designation. For those of you who don't know what that is here is a little link. 

Because of all the kind and wonderful folks who gave me gift cards for my birthday and Christmas I was able to add another great tool to my business arsenal. I am now the proud owner of a Garmin® StreetPilot® c550. No more trying to read MapQuest directions while navigating in unfamiliar areas. No more wearing a blinking blue light on my left ear as I drive around. No more envying my friend Dennis who drives a Mercedes SUV with an in dash GPS.

This thing is great. It will find a route to whatever destination I ask it for as long as it's in the United States, Canada or Puerto Rico. It has traffic and weather alerts and will reroute me around any trouble spots. It has bluetooth and is compatible with my cell phone, turning my whole car into a rolling phone. One of the coolest things about that is, I can locate a point of interest (restaurant, shop, hotel/motel, etc.) and press call and it dials the place up because the points of interest are complete with phone numbers. Now I can call ahead with any questions I may have.

So, is this new tool/toy going to make me a better REALTOR®? I say yes, but that's just my not so humble opinion. I tell you what, give call and hire me to do a piece of work for you. That way we will know for sure.  

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Dec. 18, 2006 - Some More "Magic" For You

I don't know about you, but I am constantly having to send links to different places via e-mail. Many times when I want a client (that's who I mostly send links to) to get to certain page inside of a web site the URL is very long. That's because the page is buried so deep within the web site. When that happens I used to get replies to the e-mail complaining that the link did not work. That was because the link got broken inside the e-mail and as you know a URL must be correct to get you where you want to go. If not you end up with an error message in your browser or else on some web site you had no intention of visiting. Well my true and faithful readers, that no longer happens to me. I know about a bit of on line magic that has made the loooooong URL a thing of the past. You can check it out for yourselves at http://TinyURL.com .

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Dec. 6, 2006 - December Already?

It would seem that I have taken to doing monthly posts, would it not? That is not by design or intent, that is just one of those things. Remember when you were a child and someone (usually a parent) would ask you why you did or did not do a certain thing and the only legitimate answers you could give were either "Because" or "I don't know"? That is somewhat the case here.

I say somewhat the case because I have actually been doing things. I was doing my self study Broker School hours. Any of you who might be interested in that will be happy to know that I received an 84% on the final exam. Now I just need to take the actual State Exam, but I probably will not be doing that until after the Holidays. I want to do better that 84% on the State Exam, even though that is more than enough to pass, so I want to study a little more. It's an ego thing.

My last remaining listing of 2006 just went to contract on Monday. I have two deals in the pipeline that I need to shepard home, one buyer side, one seller side. Once those two close it looks as if I will be unemployed. If you have been waiting for a good time to get a hold of me to do some business for you, now is the time. You can get my undivided attention. Thank God "Real Estate Is My Lifestyle, Not My Job". If I had to depend on the next deal to pay the bills I guess I would have to go out and get a job.

If I sound depressed, it's probably because of the results of the elections last month. On the County level things are really a mess. Nepotism reigns supreme here in Cook County. The unfortunate part of the whole political picture here in Cook County is that County politics play out for the benefit King Richard M. Daley and the City of Chicago. Suburban Cook County is the odd man out. Even though The Suburbs voted largely in favor of the losers in this election, the City votes are enough to carry the cities chosen ones on to victory. I hope US Attorney Fitzgerald keeps a real sharp eye out for political monkey business now. I predict that there is going to be some really juicy shenanigans going on very soon.

There may be one bright spot in all of this. Maybe I will have some time now to tend to this blog, eh? 

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.