Homes For Sale – Wylie, TX – 3002 Jacob

Homes For Sale - Wylie, TX - 3002 Jacob

4 Bedrooms | 3 Baths | 3-Car Garage | .61 Acre Creek Lot | 2942 SF

Homes For Sale – Wylie, TX – Beautiful home on creek lot with over half an acre. Extensive landscaping in front and mature trees lining the back. Gorgeous views from master retreat. Master bath has garden tub, separate shower, dual vanities, and his and hers closets. Island kitchen with skylight has breakfast bar, tile backsplash, and lots of counter space. Designer touches include crown molding, rounded corners, and upgraded brushed nickel fixtures. Move in ready. Must see! 

Click here for current status, pricing, and photos.

Source: NTREIS | Photo Credit – Tom Branch

NAR Commends Offering Home Buyer Tax Credit Extension, Urges Quick Passage

NAR has expressed thanks on behalf of America’s homebuyers to three Senators for introducing a measure to extend the present home buyer tax credit closing deadline to September 30. They are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The measure was offered as an amendment to H.R. 4213, a tax extension bill now in the Senate.

NAR estimates the number of home buyers who have qualified for the tax credit and met the contract deadline of April 30, but who would not be able to close their transaction by the June 30 deadline, could go as high as 180,000. REALTORS have reported as many as one-third of qualified applicants have been notified by lenders that their mortgages will not close before June 30 due to the sheer volume of applications in the pipeline.

NAR President, Vicki Cox Golder, said she wants to make this clear: “This amendment does not extend the deadline for home buyers to qualify for the tax credit; it extends the deadline for closing the transaction, from June 30 to September 30. Since these applications were already in the pipeline and figured into the program’s cost, the extension of the closing deadline should not incur any further government costs.”

Source:  Collin County Association of REALTOR®s

 

High Dynamic Range Photography

According to Wikipedia, “In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.”

Those of you who follow my blog know I’ve wanted to try High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography for some time. 

The opportunity presented itself today when I was photographing a new listing.  The home sits on a wooded creek lot and the views from the windows of the master bedroom are a great selling point. 

This photo is properly composed to capture the interior of the bedroom.  Note how the windows are blown out with the bright light coming into the room.

I then shot a series of photographs of the same room varying the aperture. Here are those photos:

I then used Photomatix to create the HDR photograph and did the tone mapping.  The HDR photo was then dropped into Photoshop for final adjustments.

While I’m not 100 percent satisfied with the result, It is a move in the right direction.

 

Homes For Sale – Garland, TX – 3310 Western

Homes For Sale - Garland, TX - 3310 Western

3 Bedrooms | 2 Baths | 1373 SF

Homes For Sale – Garland, TX – Great investment opportunity!  Corner home on large lot with mature trees, covered back porch, and wood fence.  One living area with faux paint, crown molding and cozy electric fireplace.  Second living has a vintage wood burning stove.  Large dining area overlooks grassy back yard.  Gas stove and newer dishwasher in the kitchen with red brick accents.

Click here for current statusm pricing, and photos.

Source: NTREIS | Photo Credit – Tom Branch

Important Deadline Information for Texas Seller-Financers

One of the unexpected effects of the SAFE Act was a requirement for people providing seller financing to be licensed Mortgage Loan Originators. 

Texas Savings and Mortgage Lending Commissioner Foster has extended the deadline for seller – financers to become licensed as Mortgage Company Residential Mortgage Loan Originators and be in compliance with the SAFE Act until August 31, 2010.

Click here for more information.

 

Looks like Copy Machines are Something Else for Us to Worry About

 

Via Jim & Maria Hart ~ Charleston, SC Real Estate (AgentOwned Realty):

Do you remember the last thing you had copied, either for yourself or someone else? 

You probably do.  It could have been someone’s driver’s license for your client file, a HUD statement, an earnest money check, tax returns for a mortgage broker, or a contract.  How about your insurance card at the doctor’s office or your social security card for a job you just accepted?

These are just a small sample of what we copy on a daily basis.  But did you know that the copy machine keeps a digital image of every single thing that it copies??  They’re all stored on its hard drive, ready and waiting to be re-viewed by whomever looks for them.

I don’t know about you, but to me, that it S-C-A-R-Y

My uncle sent me this YouTube video the other day which explains everything clearer that I can.  It’s a piece that CBS News did on April 25, 2010.  It is a couple minutes long, but you’ll be glad you checked it out.  Or maybe not.

 

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We proudly serve and sell real estate in and around all of Charleston, SC.  If you are thinking about purchasing or selling your home in Charleston, Johns Island, James Island, Folly Beach, Kiawah Island, Seabrook Island, West Ashley, Mount Pleasant, Isle of Palms, Sullivans Island, North Charleston, Hanahan, Summerville, Goose Creek or other surrounding areas, and more importantly, want to work with a local area expert, contact us at your earliest convenience.

 

Jim and Maria Hart logo

Jim and Maria Hart
Realtors®/ AgentOwned Realty
(843) 364-9845
hart@agentowned.com

 

Copyright © 2010 by Jim and Maria Hart (AgentOwned Realty).

 

 

Eight Personal Qualities for Success – Part 4

This is Part Four of a series covering the Eight Personal Qualities for Success.

In Part Three I covered, Self Responsibility and Be Committed. In Part Four, I’ll discuss, The Extra Mile, Control Your Time, and Persistence and Determination


The Extra Mile

The sixth personal quality necessary to achieve outstanding success in business is that you must be willing to go the extra mile. It’s the “Under Promise, Over Deliver” concept, and can be summed up in the following statement:

“If you are always willing to do more than what you get paid for, the day will come when you will be paid for more than what you actually do.”

Robert Cialdini, in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, discusses what he calls the Law of Reciprocity. Basically it says that when you do something for someone else, there’s an unstated obligation for them to want to do something for you in return.

So when you go the extra mile for your customers or clients, you’ve just set the stage for that law to take effect. But it’s only on that “extra mile” that it works. When you give what might be considered “normal” service, or “adequate” service or even “good” service, you haven’t earned the right to expect that law to work for you.

In fact, even performing “knock-out” service often isn’t enough to gain you an advantage. We’ve all come to expect that from any number of businesses.
 
You’ve really got to do something special in order to gain an advantage in today’s highly competitive marketplace. Then, and only then, can you expect to create that nearly compelling desire in your customer to want to reciprocate. This simple truth says it all:

“There’s no traffic jam on the extra mile.”

Control Your Time

The seventh quality is that you must master and take control of your time. Time is an expendable commodity. Each one of us has the same 24 hours in each day. When those hours are gone, they cannot be replaced. They are gone forever, never to be recaptured.
 
You must treat your time as precious, and guard it wisely and selfishly. Don’t let anyone disrupt you or take you away from the focus you have on your goals.

People who don’t have goals are used by people who do. If you let others draw you away from your goals, you are simply saying that their goals are more important than your own.
 
If you are serious about business success – really serious, then this is one of the most important and critical areas to defend.

Persistence and Determination

Number eight, is to develop persistence and determination. From time to time you will encounter set backs or reach plateaus where it seems like nothing is going right.

Your competitors lower their prices, run massive ad campaigns and unheard of promotions, and the next thing you know your customers and clients begin doing business with them.

Business is walking out the back door faster than it’s coming in the front door. Your volume is beginning to drop, and you become concerned. You seem to be spending more time in a defensive posture than you do in servicing your existing customers, and you’re losing. Now is not the time to give up. Now is the time to dig in and begin to play offensively.

Now is the time to be determined not to lose your good customers – the ones you worked so hard to get. Your strategy should be to keep in touch with them and continue providing exceptional service.
 
Nearly every business is cyclical. Eventually things will change. While you can’t be competitive on price all the time, you can be competitive on the service you give, and the empathy you have for your customers and their problems.

We’ll talk more about how to do that in a later blog, but for now, just resolve in advance that no matter what, you’ll never give up.