Jul. 26, 2006 - It's Official?

Sorry to tell you this Mr. and Mrs. Seller but a whole bunch of people are officially pronouncing it a buyers market.  Take a look at what Chris Isidore CNNMoney.Com's Senior Writer had say about it. How about today's RISMedia Newsletter? Then there is the headline from today's Chicago Tribune about the story by Mary Umberger, a Tribune staff reporter. It goes on and on. Everywhere you turn they are telling buyers that it's their turn. What's a poor seller to do?

The talk going around on a couple of the national real estate agent forums I subscribe to is that you have to bury St. Joseph in your yard. That's right folks, just plunk old St. Joseph head first into the ground, say the St. Joseph prayer and the buyers will come a runnin', cash in hand ready to take your house off of your hands.

They haven't said much about condominiums. Knowing condos like I do, I imagine that if the association found you digging around in the yard you'd be in for a violation warning at least, and probably a fine if you refused to exhume old St. Joe and repair the turf. Of course there may be some alternative form of magic or incantations or voodoo or animal sacrifice or something that will work, they haven't seemed to get that thread started yet. If they come up with anything, I'll let you know

Me personally, I'm still in favor of you turning to a good Realtor®, like myself, who will help you price your house correctly, suggest things you can do to make your house more appealing to prospective buyers, give you an honest evaluation on market time and market it like it was the mansion of dreams, that every buyer needs to see. But that's just my opinion. Some of the nations best educated real estate professionals seem to have different ideas, so be careful who you let into your house.

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.

Jul. 18, 2006 - I'm Easy To Reach

I just don't understand it.  I hear it quiet often, "I've been trying to get a hold of you, but I can't seem to catch up with you".  Yeah, right.

Do you want to talk to me in person?  My phone number is plastered all over the place. It's (847) 440-7920. Don't worry about me not being there, my electronic receptionist will find me, wherever I am, even if I'm out of town. Yes, you will have to tell my electronic receptionist who you are and maybe I can't immediately take your call, but she will record your message.  Not only will she record your message, but she will notify me via phone AND she will put your message in wav file format and deliver it to my e-mail in box.  So you see, I don't even have to check my voice mail, it follows me around.

But maybe you are the shy type and don't want to speak to me live and in person just yet.  That's OK too.  I check my e-mail just about hourly.  If I was on the "check the e-mail once a day plan" I would be dealing with well over 500 e-mails each time I logged in. That's the price you pay when you e-mail address is all over your business cards, web sites, post cards, etc.  If you would like to go hunting for it you could go to http://GeneMolloy.Com or http://GeneMolloy.Info or http://GeneMolloy.Net and hit the e-mail me link. You can e-mail me from this blog.  Of course if you are a straight to the point kind of person that doesn't want to go looking for an alternative way of send me me an e-mail you could just put Gene@GeneMolloy.Net into your address book. How easy is that?

Say what?  You don't use e-mail?  The United States Postal Service delivers my snail mail to the following address:                                              Gene Molloy

                                                               Charles Rutenberg Realty

                                                                1349 E. Washington Street  #505

                                                                 Des Plaines, IL.  60016

You can send testimonials, Christmas cards, hate mail, etc. to that address.  Please just don't tell me can't seem to get a hold of me. 

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.

Jul. 11, 2006 - Cruising The Neighborhood

So Mr. and Mrs. Buyer, your Realtor® has been e-mailing you all the latest listings in your price range. Of course you know your price range because said Realtor® has had you preapproved and you know what you can spend. You really like the look of some of the homes, but the problem is that you are not very familiar with the neighborhoods in which the homes are located. Where are the schools? How far is shopping from these places? What about main arterial streets and transportation? Your Realtor® tells you to jump in the car and cruise the neighborhood, which isn't a bad idea, as long as you don't get lost. Since you really don't know where things are located, how can you be expected to find them, right?

I am a firm believer that a picture is worth a thousand words. Not just a flat MapQuest kind of picture either. Whenever my clients find themselves in this scenario I suggest Google Earth. You can come zooming in out of the virtual sky and swoop right down on the neighborhood. You can get close enough to your subject property that you can tell if the sellers have been meticulously maintaining the lawn or not. You'll have no problem locating the places you want to know about and you won't get lost. Besides, with the price of gas these days, cruising the neighborhood from you computer is a heck of a lot cheaper than jumping in the car and getting lost.

So tell me................how's your Realtor® treating you?

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.

Jul. 10, 2006 - Look Out Jack...........Genie's Back

When we where about to leave for Florida I really wanted to say good bye to all of my faithful readers and tell you I was going on vacation, but I had to put up a new listing and tie up the loose ends on my existing ones. As you know, I have been pretty busy. I have actually been back for about a week now, but I had to try and tend to more loose business ends before I could come out to play.

On the way to Treasure Island, where we had a condo on the Gulf, we stopped to visit a couple of friends of ours who live in The Villages. We had seen the DVD they send out about two or three years ago and I wasn't really very impressed, I kind of thought it seemed like Disneyland for Seniors on Steroids. But let me tell you something, when we stopped to visit Alex and Mary Jeanne Reich, our friends that live there, we were absolutely blown away. We have to check back in January or February to make sure it's not to cool in the day time. If it checks out, I think we will seriously consider moving there in a couple of years.

We had the distinct pleasure of bumping into Macho Man Randy Savage in Gruppers Grill on Treasure Island. I knew he looked familiar, and I thought maybe he was maybe the bouncer from The Rusty Spoke here in Chicago or something like that. After making some small talk and chit chat, I realized I was in the presence of WWF greatness. We had a real nice talk and as we about to leave I apologized for busting into his space. His final words to me were "Hey man, no sweat, we're all just beach people here".

The Illinois State Police welcomed me back to Illinois with a speeding ticket. We came out of Kentucky (speed limit 70) doing 80 on cruise control. As soon as I crossed the Ohio River I spotted the trooper on the over pass, cancelled the cruise control and dropped down to 65. Too late. There were about seven squads on the other side of the over pass, lights flashing. The sneaky snakes were having a field day with their speed trap. Oh well.

OK, I gotta go. See ya real soon, OK?

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.