May. 15, 2009 - First time home buying seminar – Location, Location, Location - Eau Claire Chippewa Falls Altoona

First time home buying seminar – Location, Location, Location - Eau Claire Chippewa Falls Altoona

This is a simple enough step in the buying process. Basically where do you want to live? We need to narrow down the location to specific areas because there are so many homes for sale in Eau Claire Altoona and Chippewa Falls Wisconsin. If we can narrow down the search even a little it means a shorter time looking as well less homes to sort through. Eau Claire is divided into a few areas in our MLS system – West – North – South – and Eau Claire schools but outside the city limits. I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Real Estate Blog.

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If you have something to say please leave a comment.
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)
 

May. 15, 2009 - First time home buying seminar – Preapproval Letter - Eau Claire Chippewa Falls Altoona

First time home buying seminar – Preapproval Letter - Eau Claire Chippewa Falls Altoona

Another important aspect of the buying process is to get a preapproval letter from your lender. Basically it’s just a simple letter that says you have been prequalified for a loan with that institution. A lot of real estate agents in our area like to see these letters so that they know that you are a truly qualified buyer. Just ask and the lender should have no problem getting a copy of this letter to you. I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Real Estate Blog.

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)
 

May. 15, 2009 - First time home buying seminar – Choosing a Lender - Eau Claire Chippewa Falls Altoona

 http://www.yourchippewavalleyhome.com/realestate/2009/05/15/time-home-buying-seminar-%e2%80%93-choosing/

First time home buying seminar – Choosing a Lender - Eau Claire Chippewa Falls Altoona

Another important thing to consider when buying a home is picking a lender you feel comfortable working with. You are going to be working closely with this person and it’s important that you are a good match. Another thing to point out is that not every lending institution is the same. Some offer different loan packages and rates. Some have different prices as well and just like anything it’s important to shop around for the best prices. If you are turned down at one lender that does not mean that you will be turned down at every lender! Some do not offer FHA packages and there are a variety of loans available depending on where you look. If you need help feel free to call me anytime.

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 15, 2009 - First time home buyers seminar Part 1 Speak with a lender Eau Claire Altoona Chippewa Falls

First time home buying seminar Part 1 Speak With Your Lender

What you need to know about buying a home in Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, or Altoona Wisconsin. The first step is to speak with a lender so we know what price range to work in as well as to make sure that you are qualified to purchase. Even if you are not approved for a loan at this time the lender should be able to help you work on your credit scores so that you would be qualified in the future. The lending world has changed a bit and even if you think you might be qualified it’s important to determine this for sure. Not to mention home prices have changed as well as interest rates and what price range you think you might be looking in might not be exactly what you can afford. I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Real Estate Blog.

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment. If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)
 

 

May. 11, 2009 - How to Build a Compost Bin -- Green Living Eau Claire Wisconsin Style!

I originally posted this in my Eau Claire Community Blog.

If you live in Eau Claire Wisconsin and you have a lot of trees in your yard taking care of all the leaves can be quite a chore. My wife and I have been trying to green things up so to speak and we thought one of the ways that we could cut down on waste was with what many call yard waste. We just thought this was a little thing we could do and instead having the leaves hauled all off somewhere we could compost them. We also thought this was a great way to get rid of some food scraps as well. So we took a trip to Menards to get some supplies. At first I thought it might be rather expensive to build our compost bin but after taking a look at the materials available I quickly realized we could do it on the cheap.

We only wanted a 2 bin compartment. If you want to make it 3 bins then simply add 2 more posts. Each bin is for the different stages compost goes through. If you look at the pictures you can see we start our first stage in a plastic garbage bin. The heat from the sun bakes what is inside and basically cooks everything. We put holes in the bin to let water and air inside. This speeds up the process.

This is what you will need:

• 6 Posts - You want to find treated wood. I know that treated wood is not really green but there wasn’t any choice at Menards. It’s either that or wood that will fall apart after a few years and I didn’t want that either. You might be able to find some green alternatives in a store near you. I was also trying to do this cheap so maybe there is a more expensive green solution. I chose 6 foot posts so that if I dug a 1.5 foot hole it would be about 4.5 feet high.
• Rabbit Fence – This came in a 50’ section which was more than enough for our needs. I thought I could save the rest for when we actually get a garden!
• A shovel – This is used to dig holes J
• Staple Gun – This was what I used to attach the fencing to the posts. This worked rather well.

The total cost of supplies was around $40. The reason we went with rabbit fence was not only to keep out rabbits but you want as much surface area exposed to the elements as possible. If you built a compost bin out of wood you are basically closing off the 4 sides and not composting the material as fast as if it were exposed. Not to mention the fence was really cheap.

Before you start digging holes call Digger’s Hotline! In Wisconsin CALL 811 or (800) 242-8511 | (877) 500-9592 (emergency only)

1. Ok I assume they have been to your house and marked off any power lines so you now have an area where you can safely build this. I wanted to build a 4 X 4 bin on each side. I would build it a bit bigger than you might think. It’s easier to not fill it up as much than it is to expand it later. It’s also easier to work the materials and move stuff around if you have more space.
2. Now you want to mark off where each post is going to go. 4 x 4 x 4 long and 4 x 4 wide. The holes look something like this: X  X  X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         X  X  X
3. Now dig your holes. It depends on how high you want the posts to be. I thought around 4.5’ was a good height. You want to go at least a foot into the ground so that the posts are sturdy. I didn’t want to create cement footings in case I need to move it or something. If you dig about 1.5 feet into the ground that should hold things in place.

4. Once you have the holes dug start putting posts into the holes. Fill the hole back up with some dirt to hold things in place. I didn’t want to pack the dirt in too tight until I was done with placing each post. Once they are all in place you can start packing the dirt around each post. You really want to step on the dirt hard and put as much back where it was. The tighter you can get this the stronger the bin will be. The wire will help hold things in place as well.


5. Now that the posts are sturdy start pulling the wire around the bin. If you don’t have anyone to help you just get it started by stapling the wire to the first post. This is going to be your anchor so make sure these staples are in place and you do enough that the wire isn’t going to slip out. Don’t forget that rabbit fence only goes one way! Make sure you put the smallest holes on the bottom. Once you have a good, secure fit on the first post then you can pull the wire around. It’s rather stiff and wants to pull back on you so if you can just get it to hold still for a moment it will make it easier to work with. If someone can hold the one side it should help.


6. Now work your way around. You want the wire to be snug on each post to keep out animals. They might dig underneath but for now just make sure the fence goes all the way to the ground. Pull it tight before you staple to the 2^nd post. Make sure you pull it tight on each post before you attach the fence. When you do pull it might start pulling the posts a bit depending on how secure you put them into the ground. It’s ok that it’s a bit loose because once you get the fence secure it shouldn’t move around too much. What I did here was have the fence go around the first 4x4 section and then cut the wire. I left the side open so this will act as a gate later. Then on the backside of the fence I reattach the roll of rabbit fence and start moving the wire around the 2^nd section of the compost bin. Then I pulled it around the front to create a 2^nd gate.


7. For the front of the bins you are going to want a gate. This again is to keep out animals but also so that the compost material doesn’t slide out the front too much. If you notice the picture I had an old ladder that wasn’t much good anymore. In fact I have been trying to figure out what to do with it after finding it in our attic. So I took a few pieces of it and made sort of a stake for the front. I wrapped the ends of the wire around it and kept a piece of loose wire at the top. This acts as a latch. I just pull the stake across the front to close it like a door and then twist the loose wire at the top and it actually keeps it closed. I would think a long stick would work great for this. I think you can see what I mean from the pictures.

8. Your bin is complete. Now you want to fill the bin. One more thing you might want to consider is to put a 6” circular section of rabbit fence in the middle of each heap. What this does is let’s air down the middle of the compost bin and speeds up the process. You don’t see one in the picture because I forgot! I will add it later and see if I can take a picture of what it looks like. It’s like a little chimney in the middle if that makes any sense.

9. Enjoy a New Glarus Spotted Cow. It was a hot day and we spent most of the day outside. It only took about 45 minutes to build the bin but moving that much material inside took a few hours. A wheel barrow and a pitch fork come in handy for this type of yard work.

I hope this guide was useful. I am no green expert and this was my first attempt at building a compost bin. It was rather easy to do and I think it’s the little things that each person can do that helps clean up our environment. I can’t wait for our dirt to be ready so we can get our garden expanded. Its more or less some bushes at this point! J 

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 6, 2009 - Is Your Eau Claire Real Estate Agent Truly Marketing Your Home?

http://www.yourchippewavalleyhome.com/realestate/2009/05/06/eau-claire-real-estate-agent-marketing/

This might seem like an easy enough question with a simple enough answer. You would probably say yes almost immediately, after all they said they were marketing your home so you probably just assume that they are. In fact they are marketing your home when they put the sign in the yard. They are marketing the home to anyone who happens to drive by. They are also marketing the home when they put it in the MLS system. Once the listing of your home is there it’s easy for anyone with MLS access to see your home and with a mouse click or a phone call come and see it. They might even do an open house for you and when they do the open house is probably advertised in the weekend paper. The open house might even appear online if they bother to even make this available on their website that is if they even have a website.

Now that their marketing system is complete what’s next? Well so far they have simply managed to put your home on a level playing field with every other MLS listing! I can tell you from experience that this might get your home sold. The key word here is might because it also might not get your home sold. If you really think about this “marketing plan” it’s not really much of a marketing plan. It’s just the most basic marketing any agent can and will do for you. Sure some won’t do open houses so I guess that puts your listing with that agent at an even greater deficit compared to those agents or agencies that do host open houses, but ask your Eau Claire real estate agent what they are doing specifically to market your home. I have a feeling they will come up with something but it’s probably not a straight answer. 

To be fair much of the marketing plan they aren’t discussing with you is advertising for their specific company. Much of our advertising budget is spent on this type of advertising and it works well. We are a very successful real estate company and we sell a lot of homes. This can be directly attributed to our overall marketing efforts. Very few companies spend as much money as we do and the numbers speak for themselves. But asking your agent to specifically market your home is probably not going to happen.

Why?

Well it’s a combination of a few things that basically makes it impossible for them to market your home. First of all most agents don’t know much about marketing. This isn’t something you are just born knowing how to do and most agents come from various backgrounds that have absolutely no specific marketing training. So marketing isn’t just going to happen magically and it’s something that they probably just don’t know how to do. Sure they will still sell homes because people have heard of their company and just listing it can sometimes get a home sold regardless of what the specific agent does. That’s because in order for someone to buy that specific house they have to buy it through that agent. But because of the lack of marketing potential buyers often buy something else!

The other problem associated with marketing is that traditional marketing is expensive. An ad in the paper can be hundreds of dollars and only appears for a short time. Real estate magazine ads are equally expensive and can easily be overlooked. What about mass mail marketing? This is extremely expensive as well. To target a large number of people you could spend thousands of dollars. None of these methods are cost effective. If you look at the average commission and start doing any of these things there is quickly nothing left. That’s one half of the coin as to why most agents don’t use these techniques.

The other half of the coin is that they just don’t work! If they did work, regardless of cost, more agents would use these methods simply because of the sheer volume of sales. Instead the actual number of people who call about a home after seeing an ad like this or getting a mailer approaches 1% or less (guesstimate). That’s the number who actually bother to call but out of that there are far less that want any more information other than price. Chances are the people who read the ad or got the flyer aren’t even in the market for a home, that’s right you are blasting a large number of people with advertising but it’s not focused and it’s not in the right target market. That’s why it doesn’t work!

So what happens is your agent is left with a choice, stick the sign in the yard and just wait for something to happen or spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars hoping that just by sheer chance they get someone to buy the house. But this directly affects their bottom line and most agents are not going to risk selling a house for absolutely no profit. After all they are a business and what business can afford to stay open if they are not making any money?

So what does this mean for you trying to sell your house in Eau Claire, Altoona or Chippewa Falls?

If you hired a traditional agent and they are a pretty good agent then you probably have an ok chance to sell your house. Eventually it will sell because the price will be driven so low that someone would have to be crazy not to buy it. If it’s the only house in that particular area then people don’t have a choice but to buy your house.

But wouldn’t it be nice to know that your agent is working hard to specifically sell your house?

Wouldn’t it be nice to see ads for your home all over the place?

*Try to do that infomercial voice in your head here*

“Hold on just a minute Shane! You just said that marketing is expensive and ineffective!”

Traditional marketing is extremely expensive and hardly effective. But there are non-traditional ways that are quickly becoming “the thing” to do. If you would like to see a demonstration of how I can market your home in a way that no other agent in our area is capable of simply give me a call or email me today. In today’s market you want a competitive advantage. You don’t want a level playing field when it comes to your house.
 

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 6, 2009 - RSS is Dead

I just read an interesting article about RSS feeds. If you don’t know what they are then you are too late to the party because they are dying a quick death thanks to Twitter and other similar applications. It used to be something that you desperately wanted people to subscribe to, after all if they liked what you wrote enough they might save it as a feed and then hopefully return to your site or blog or whatever it is that was feeding them information. But I can admit I never really liked RSS. While it was simple enough to use and convenient I guess I just preferred going to all the sites that I found interesting. To me it was like saving every site you stumble across as a favorite. Soon your favorites are cluttered and full and your actual favorites, the ones you return to on a regular basis are a tiny percentage of how many you actually have saved. Sure it’s nice to go through the list once in a while to see a site you might have forgotten about but how often do you find yourself doing this? I remember trying to desperately to save my favorites list from computer to computer because over the years I had found so many neat and obscure sites. But what I found interesting back then probably isn’t so interesting now, that is unless you still love all your base belong to us…

So I can see RSS dying. It just doesn’t have the feel of a Tweet. It doesn’t seem as fresh. It’s not as open. Well just read the article and see if you agree.

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 6, 2009 - http://www.google.com/contacts

I believe yesterday Google rolled out a new feature that has a world of promise and yet seems so insignificant on the surface; Google Contacts. There has been this feature built into Gmail that lets you import your contacts from Outlook and well that’s about all it did. Now Google has decided to separate the two so that Contacts is its own entity.

This also has some other interesting social networking aspects or at least it will in the future. Your contact list will soon become your social circle as more and more people adopt Google services and applications. The goal here is of course total domination in everything we do and use on the internet which seems to be what Google always was going for. Evil plans aside it seems useful to me.

What else would be nice is a way to sync all your stuff together. Currently Google offers a way to sync your calendars between Outlook and Gmail but it also lets you two way sync your stuff between computers using Outlook which is what I use it for. I have been waiting for contacts sync for years because of Outlooks shortcomings in this area. Why on earth is it so hard to sync all your mail, contacts and calendars between two computers using outlook? (Let alone 3 computers in my situation!!!!) Well with the calendar sync I managed to kill a few birds but if they full integrate contact sync then I am almost set. But seriously Microsoft how freakin’ hard would it be to use an internet connection to sync this crap natively? Someday I won’t have 11,000 emails on my laptop because the ones I delete on my office PC will delete off my laptop. (Honestly that day may never come with how slow Microsoft is) But in my lifetime I would seriously like to see these 3 things seamlessly sync between computers. That’s the joy of using Gmail and Google products, while you need internet access (currently until Gears is more widespread), the applications act as a central location so any changes made there are made to the main account. How hard is that Microsoft?

You can check out this app that says it will drop a Beta release that syncs contacts. I signed up.

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 5, 2009 - Google Adds Some Neat-o Features to Gmail

Google has rolled out some new features for Gmail recently. I'm not sure if you have to be using their “labs” application in order to see these new features or if it’s a Gmail wide release. Sometimes they sort of beta test things for a while or a long while before they release it fully to the public and vice versa sometimes they release stuff to the public to beta test to all eternity like Gmail itself. ( DOH!!)

One of the new features is adding a search function for Google within Gmail and that makes sense since you might be working in one platform and want to use the functions of another.

There is also a new search suggest feature that seems rather useful.

Also here’s a top ten list of Google products in case you were wondering which are the most popular.

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 5, 2009 - Google Books – a Behind the Scenes Quickie

There has been a lot of fuss about Google scanning every text known to mankind and trying to get them indexed. Good, bad or just plain ugly it doesn’t seem like there is going to be anything stopping Google from achieving its goals of indexing the world. (Yes I mean that literally)

In the meantime maybe we can take a look at its death rays for a moment errr I mean its scanner.

You can check out the story here. 

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 5, 2009 - Google Latitude – Put Your Butt on a Google Map and Blog Your Location

I don't think I am ready for everyone in the world knowing where I am at any given moment. In fact I think that's the last thing I would want. But everyone in the world knowing where they can get real estate services in Eau Claire Wisconsin is definitely something I want. So I guess location services such as Google Latitude might seem like the devil but might actually be something quite useful for getting your butt on the map so to speak. I keep telling people about this kind of stuff because I think somehow I can envision where the heck Google is going with all this stuff.

 

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 5, 2009 - Facebook Goes SMS on Your Butts!

It was only a matter of time before Facebook really started with SMS. I don’t know why there was a perception that somehow only Twitter could have this sort of functionality but really that’s short sighted. Of course Facebook can add this and of course they were going to. You might say they were late to the starting block but they certainly showed up for the race. In a way it could be the tortoise and the hair since Facebook has an enourmous lead on Twitter regardless of the Oprah effect.

Anyways Facebook is adding some SMS functions and it looks good. You can now send text messages as updates and also receive updates to your phone. I am sure that will be popular. If you combine that with “real time” searching Twitter may or may not end up in a world of hurt.

 

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 5, 2009 - Facebook Live in 10,9,8…

That’s why it’s interesting to watch the big dogs, that is larger social networks try to incorporate some of these ideas. What might happen is that the more established networks, with even larger internet populations, sort of do an Amish shun on the likes of Twitter. Whether Facebook can actually knock out Twitter remains to be seen but when they do become closer in capabilities it very well might mean the death of someone or something.  

You can check out this story on what Facebook is doing to go Live!  

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 5, 2009 - Looking for a way to Sync Microsoft Office and Google Docs? Check This out!

I think this application might be something that a lot of people have been looking for. For instance Google Docs is a great service but on its own it’s not that great. It does what it does well but it’s not really a replacement for Word or other Office applications…yet. But a new app promises to add more functionality to both. If I understand how it works correctly you can work on a document, word, excel or PowerPoint at the moment, and then upload these to the cloud to be shared on Google Docs. For me this would be a great way to work between computers. I regularly use 3 computers each day and to have all my files shared between them is very important. I often work on something at the office and if I don’t consciously remember to inter-share the files it can be a pain when I sit down to work on them at home. I think this would go a long way to solving many such problems.

For now this service is a beta program and you can go here to sign up for it.

I sent my request in yesterday and still no word yet. I am assuming it might take a bit. Sometimes these companies are quick to get invites out and sometimes it takes weeks or months or never. (Shaking my fist at Google Voice!!)

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 2, 2009 - Looking to Trade or Find a Taken Twitter Name? Oh Yes Twitter Name Squatting! Tweexchange

If you own a website or are at least familiar with the battles than can ensue over domain names then you probably have heard the term squatting. It’s when someone takes a bunch of names and basically sits on them until someone else is forced to pay a pretty penny for the name. It used to be primarily around domain names. As they first hit the internet the more tech savvy or at least the ones who knew there was gold in them their names decided to buy them all up, especially names associated with products or brand names. Twitter being no different has started to see people coughing up to get particular names. Now there is even a place to trade or buy them.

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 2, 2009 - Grow Your Blog Through Your Readers?

 There is a very good article over at Tech Crunch that I think every blogger should read if they are interested in having more readers, not only that there are some great suggestions on how your readers can get more out of your blog and how you can get more out of them. This is a very interesting read with some great ideas here.

Some of the things that stick out to me are of course analytics because without knowing who is reading your blog and what it’s hard to get direction and speaking of direction some other great ideas are to poll your readers and also to get feedback from them in a variety of other ways. Another interesting suggestion is to be a good commenter on other blogs. Why not? If you make valuable comments it only goes to show that you probably can write a pretty good blog as well. This is something that I have always stressed as well. When I first started blogging I only saw the value in potential clients or customers reading what I wrote but I quickly realized that it might be my fellow agents and peers comments that are even more valuable. Why? Because it serves to validate what it is I am saying! If others in my industry agree with what I say then it certainly makes me out to be the pro!

Speaking of asking questions, what do you think of my blog?

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 2, 2009 - Short Sales vs Foreclosure -- Eau Claire - Chippewa Falls - Altoona Wisconsin

If you are in any sort of financial trouble and are facing a possible foreclosure it is very important that you understand there are alternatives to the foreclosure process. A foreclosure should be avoided at all costs and simply quitting making your payments is not a solution out of your problems. I understand that job loss and a variety of other factors can quickly spell trouble. I also understand that not everyone knows the options available to them. It is imperative that you speak with your lender about possible alternatives before you get further into a situation that there is only one way out of.

If you are looking for a competent professional with experience handling short sales and foreclosures please contact me immediately. You don’t want to wait. The further you get into trouble the closer you get to foreclosure. The sooner you contact me, the sooner we can get you out of this situation.

It is a very important decision as to who you want helping you. Very few real estate agents in our area have experience working with short sales or foreclosures. Experience in this area is crucial. You want to find an agent who you are confident will be able to bring you the strongest offer in the shortest period of time to prevent foreclosure. You don’t want an agent who just sticks a sign in the yard waiting for an offer to come. With so many other homes competing on the market this just won’t happen. You don’t want to rely on luck. You need an agent who will help negotiate with your lender a strong price that will attract a buyer in a short period of time. If the home lingers on the market for a long period of time this is bringing you ever closer to foreclosure.

Once you have an offer or multiple offers you need an agent who can help negotiate the best offer on your behalf and quickly present this to the lender for approval. This is the time in which an inexperienced agent can bring disaster to the short sale process. Without a firm understanding with the buyer and having specifically negotiated a larger period of time to work with the lender for approval, the deal can quickly fall apart. I have seen many offers fall to pieces because the listing agent is not aware of everything they need to do to see the short sale through. Buyers will not wait around if there are many unexpected delays and they are often unexpected simply because the agent has no experience dealing with them. It is the listing agent’s job to see that your interests are being looked out for from the moment the first offer is received until the deal is closed. It can be very disheartening to see an offer fall to pieces at the last minute because of inexperience and you don’t want to risk going into foreclosure. You don’t want to have to keep making house payments you can’t afford simply because your agent does not have the experience necessary to see that the short sale process is a quick one.

You can either call me at 715-894-1001 or email me Shane@EauClaireRealty.com. I can help you and your family avoid the stress and financial hardship associated with foreclosure.

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)

May. 2, 2009 - Eau Claire Open Houses Online - Chippewa Falls – Altoona

Now you can search for Eau Claire Open Houses online on my website.  Find out what open houses are available before the weekend so you can plan your schedule.

• Fast
• Free
• Convenient
• Easy scheduling
• Advance notice

Did I mention this service is free? Why wait until Saturday or Sunday morning to plan out your weekend? No more last minute planning!

Not every real estate company in the area does open houses so don’t keep waiting for it to happen. If you don’t want to wait until the weekend or you are just too busy to go to open houses during the time they are scheduled I would be happy to get you an appointment to see any MLS listing in the area. Just let me know. You can either call me at 715-894-1001 or email me Shane@EauClaireRealty.com. Otherwise just use my website and you can click on any listing and book a showing directly from there.

I have expanded the open house search on my website. Now featuring a quick search by area.

Eau Claire Area Open Houses
 

Quick Open House Search – Just Click on the Areas Below

Eau Claire North Side Eau Claire South Side Eau Claire West Side All Eau Claire Schools
Altoona Schools Eau Claire & Altoona Schools Fall Creek Elk Mound - Colfax Eleva – Strum Chippewa Falls Schools

Looking for Eau Claire Homes For Sale?

If you have something to say please leave a comment.
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!
(In case you do not agree with something I said or feel that my blog or my beliefs could be construed as libelous I hereby declare that my entire blog is meant as a joke. I consider myself to be a comedian and everything I say or have said should be considered comedy. I want nothing I say to be taken seriously and if you do take it seriously take a break. If you do not think what I said is funny then that is your opinion. But for anyone who wants to sue me everything I said or say is meant purely as satire.The only thing that is not a joke is this disclaimer.)