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Obesity, Car Crashes and Perspectives

I had an interesting phone call from a lady I meant a little while ago. She was discussing her home (normal conversation) and just before we get ready to say goodbye she makes a comment that just hit me. She was trying to compliment me, but I was awestruck .

The comment was something along this line. "Tammy, I just wanted to let you know how proud I am of you for losing all that weight. It's tough when us females get older and you have done so well." To which I reply, "Thank you and yes, I know" or something along those lines.

Honestly, at that point my mind was racing. I'm trying to figure out exactly what she's talking about. Remember, I met her only once and it was this year. No, I haven't lost that much weight. In fact, even though I'm not obese, I probably weigh more than I ever have. (I just wear the right clothes to hide that fact!)

Ding, ding, ding. Oh yeah, the light bulb is going off now. I gave her an old business card that I thought was fantastic but looking closely at it with it's pose, I guess she could assume that I was much "bigger" at that time. Funny, how my perspective was that it was great and she saw something else.

iSN'T THAT HOW PERSPECTIVE WORKS ANYWAY?

We can see things one way and someone else can see them from a totally opposite viewpoint to which none is the wiser. Which bring me to the real estate market. There is a lot of people doing a lot of complaining about the market (consumers, mortgage people, realtors) and oh yeah, there is me! I was so falling into the trap of DOOM and GLOOM that I could hardly stand myself. I know that people around me felt it too.

CAR CRASHES

Just like you, I've had some rough weeks. Last week, was by far one of the toughest. Looking back now that it's over, it's no big deal but at the time, it sucked! If any of you follow me on facebook, you would know that I've been looking for a used car. I had some bad luck where the back end of my car was hit by another car. (I had the blinking yellow, they had the blinking red). Regardless, it did so much damage to the car that it was totaled and I was looking for another car. (BTW, everyone was fine which is a blessing!) That was on Thursday.

On Monday, after bringing my husband to work so that I could use the minivan (5:30 a.m. is very early in the morning J), I go to some appointments, take some pictures of a new house I just listed and head back into town on 131N to pick up hubby from work. Going 70 mph, I blow out the back tire of the minivan on the expressway. Again, I'm fine but my main car wasn't. Had a really nice trucker help me put on the spare and off I go again.

Tuesday, I try to register my daughter at a new school and find out that they don't have all the forms that they need including birth certificates, report cards etc... and by the way, it all has to be in by tomorrow which is the day that the only car is going to get new tires and a thorough inspection. I'm calmly trying to get everyone to work together but I'm running into so many roadblocks. Everything I touched last week was blocked... it seriously was like beating my head against a brick wall. Oh yeah, to top it all off... my dog ran away too. Life sucked! I seriously was doing a lot of complaining about everything and then let me just give you my thoughts on the real estate market. As you can guess, I had my opinion about everything and nothing was good!

FUNNY HOW LIFE CAN CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

So, why am I telling you about my crappy week.

Michigan Lakefront Property... Always a Good Deal!

So today, I have my sad face on. I'm so sad to see summer leave. I believe that this year in Michigan has been one of the best summer seasons we have had and we still continue to have the good ole' hot weather that I love. I have to tell everyone, I've actually lived other places than Michigan. I lived in Seattle for 7 years and absolutely loved it there but I love it here too. I was thinking yesterday as to why I love the Michigan summers so much. Realistically, it's because of the camping, hanging out with friends and my favorite the times spent at our cottage in Cedar Springs.

I LOVE the beach! What better area to live in than Michigan where there are 11,000 lakes to choose from. That number alone is amazing! We have so many options that are just a short distance away and some of the best beaches I've ever seen. Now, the coast was gorgeous but the Michigan sand is this beautiful yellow sand and the coast is gray and rocky. You can actually go swimming in the lakes, the oceans on the other hand are quite cold and not much fun to swim in. Again, I loved both places to live but love the Michigan summers and all the fun that I have with my family and friends.

Lakefront Property in Michigan

michigan lakefront property I have a few buyers that are currently looking for a great deal on lakefront property. My theory for real estate is that lakefront property is ALWAYS a good buy. In fact, lakefront property is one of my favorite properties to look at with buyers and am very excited when they find a property that fits them because I know of all the memories they are going to create for themselves with that property.

The Market Is What It Is...

I learned this saying from a conference I attended and I absolutely love it. Life is what it is. For real estate, the market is what it is.

Everyone knows it's a buyer's market. Everyone is trying to negotiate and get the best deal. And for some, homes are staying on the market a lot longer than what everyone had hoped for due to the competition of how many homes are actually up for sale.

As a Realtor, we stay current with market trends and hope to avoid the pitfalls. Since we don't have a crystal ball, it can be hard to predict what will happen next. Here's what we can do. We can give advice to put the home seller in the best position possible to sell their home in the shortest amount of time and for the most money.

Today, I watched a video from CBS news that I believe was very accurate in it's advice. So if you don't believe what I've told you in the past... I encourage you to watch what the news media is saying about the marketplace.

Here's the video link: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2954593n

References: CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/

Other related articles: http://www.seegrhomes.com/myblog/willmyhousesellbyfall.html

The More Things Change, The More Things Stay the Same...Is it True for Grand Rapids?

7/01/08

Lately, I've been having this saying go through my head and I've struggled with really understanding the meaning of it. "The more things change, the more things stay the same." I even did a google search on the meaning of this phrase but the articles that were written on it had nothing to do with that phrase.

I guess I get the jist of it. My interpretation is that things really don't change. Maybe I just don't understand this saying at all. If this is what it means than I would disagree.

September... School Starts, Lots of Changes

September is a great month. A time of many changes. For a lot of people, the kids are going back to school... definitely a change in routine. Each year, the kids go to a different grade... wow, the kids are really growing up and their not as young as they used to be (neither are we, unfortunately!) and of course, there is the buying of all the school supplies and clothes for school... the change is that everything costs more and there is no $$change.

Celebration on The Grand... Grand Rapids in General has Changed

Thinking back in the past, September was a good month. It was in September some 16 years ago (yikes, I'm dating myself) that Mike (my husband) proposed to me. Obviously, one never forgets being proposed to, but mine happened to be in front of a lot of people down at the Celebration on the Grand. I remember that night because Mike seemed "out of sorts" and all our friends were acting strange. I knew that once Mike went up on stage and asked for me to come up... that this was IT. Honestly, I would have rather ran away. Not because I was going to say NO or because I was scared of commitment but I definitely was scared of being on stage. To this day, I'm not a big fan of being on stage in front of tons of people. I prefer leading groups around a coffee table or the one-to-one scenarios. Long story short, I said yes and we've been married 15 years. (For those of you trying to figure out how old I am, I married very young :))

(Celebration on the Grand starts September 6-8, 2007 click here for the schedule of events!)

Change Can Be Good

Grand Rapids MI 1/2 Year Real Estate Market Stats!