Article on getting others to read your blog I found

RISMEDIA, November 20, 2010—By Stephanie Andre - Having great content is, of course, the number one reason why people will read your blog. However, there are a number of things that will turn visitors off and have them looking elsewhere for real estate advice. Here are seven tips for creating and designing your blog:

1. Are your colors easy on the eyes?

People are not going to stick around to read a blog that strains their eyes. Pick some easy-to-read colors, like dark gray or black text on a white or off-white background. If that is too plain, at least use dark colored text on a very light background.

You can always dress up the look by putting more color in your heading and sidebar, or add some images.

2. Is your font easy to read?

Take a good look at your font. It may be cool, but is it easy to read? Many Web designers will tell you that the best fonts for the Web are Verdana, Georgia and Lucida Grande.

3. Can people figure out your navigation?

How many times have you visited a website, only to leave because, after the front page, you couldn't figure out how to find more content.

You might think your blog is easy to navigate, but you are used to it. Ask a friend to see if they can figure it out. You might be surprised. (Especially if that friend is not very Web savvy.)

4. Does it look like spam, with ads plastered everywhere?

You should see more content than ads!

5. Do the links stand out?

On some blogs, the links are only subtly different from the rest of the text. If I have to squint to figure out if it is a link, people are not going to read it.

6. Do your pages take a long time to load?

Check your actual page load time. People will not stick around long if navigation is slow. Try to get your page to load more quickly. Maybe you have too many widgets or your images are too large. Adding width and height attributes to images makes them load faster, too.

7. Does your page look funny in other browsers?

If you have Internet Explorer already, download Firefox and test there, too. If you always use Firefox, test in Explorer. Those should be the minimum you test, but test more if you can.

Also, change your screen resolution (can be done in your Control Panel in Windows) to see how your site looks in different resolutions.

Beautiful Hawaii, Laie PCC show with family

End to my first week and its been a good week.

Its Friday and although Friday hasn't quite had the same meaning for years I still use to wait for Fridays with anticipation because for the past 3 years it meant that I would be flying home.  Ahhh how great it is to be home.  Soooo happy.  I've cleaned places that haven't seen the light of day in years.  I've organized, straighten up and dusted things that I had totally neglected for far too long.  I've made dinner every night, taken a short lunch break each day to make myself a sandwich and have accomplished all my task set for the week for the business as well.  All my files are completed, all of last years clients returns have been printed out and organized.  Flyer's completed and ready for distribution.  Website worked on daily.  Things are all moving in the right direction.  December will be a busy month. 

The website continues to be a work in progress.  But I'm making good progress.  Roberts site is gaining in the search engines.  I've set up a blog, a twitter account and am looking for a newsletter to insert.  After all why recreate the wheel :).  I really would like to purchase a  new desk top within the next few weeks.  We've spent quite a bit of money this week.  That's one thing that is really hard for Robert.  He doesn't seem to have a good grasp on budgeting and has no problem running out to buy anything and everything.  I came up with the idea that during Tax season we should have RP Tax shirts that we wear when we are working with the different companies that he wants to work within.  Of course he wants to run out right now and buy them.  Unfortunately this is not a good idea. He on the other hand thinks well why not.  Well because on the list of things that need to be purchased that is low on the priority list.  This will be the largest source of contention for us.  Grrrr.

911 operator how can we help you?

Yes there has  been an accident in front of my house.  A black Range Rover has crashed into the city lamp post 10 feet in front of my house.  No it appears as a single car accident.  Yes I can see the driver.  But I think he's trying to drive away but he can't cause his car appears totaled.

Couple of minutes later a single police car pulls up and he looks in the car, the driver has left the scene.  We look down the street and there is a man walking down the street.  The officer jumps back into his car with his lights flashing and takes off after the man.  They get him.  3 other police cars pull up.  One walks over to me and asks are you the one that called it in.  Yes I am.  Did you see the accident?  Nope just heard it and woke up.  I walked up to the car and did see that there was only one person in the car.  It was a white male. But that's all I could tell you.

Get into the Groove, You've got to move

I think that was a Madonna song lyric.  I always did like Madonna.  OK so I've made a couple of commitments to myself. 

1. Although I may work from my home I will get up everyday and act as though I am going into the office.  I will get dressed, make my bed, comb my hair and brush my teeth.
2.  I will take my med's (diabetic junk) daily and not forget just because I am home being lazy.
3.  The TV will not go on before 4PM if at all during day light hours
4.  I will incorporate some sort of exercise program into my routine. 

OK there I've written it down.  So let it be written so let it be done.  (I think that's from either Ben Hur or the Ten Commandments movie) 

I woke up at 5 this morning as usual went straight to my computer and began working on the company website.  Lots of work to do there.  Robert started the site and I'm taking over so it will be a work in progress for some time.  After 2 hours of working on the site I had to walk away for a bit because I became frustrated with the slowness of Roberts computer so I let it sit for a minute and took a shower and got ready for the day. 

I'm back working online.  I am determined today to get all of the client filing done today and to work on the client data base.  Ahhh to be busy.  Wouldn't have it any other way.

Pictures

Greatgrandfather Frederick Kenison

Grandmother Jane Kenison Barber with My mother Vilma Barber Siaosi and her sister Catherine

Christmas list

My Neiman Marcus Christmas book has been sitting here for weeks and I've finally had the time to go through it and pick out the things I like so here it is amoung other goodies to add to my list this year.

I love this dress - $500 (which by the way is a GREAT DEAL)

Tory Burch bag $465 Black with gold accents

Brownie mix on sale

I love this time of the year.  Lots of baking and cooking going on.  I will be the first to admit though if there is something I can buy already mixed, put together or packaged I will buy it.  So here is the deal.  This week at Albertson;'s  brownies mix is on sale for 49 cents if you buy 10.  Thats a great deal since they are usually a dollar something.  And on top of that canned frosting is on sale for 99 cents which believe me this very rarely happens but the catch is you have to buy 10.  For me thats no problem cause I will go through that in no time.  So as you can imagine i'm heading over to Albertsons.  Nothing like brownies with chocolate frosting spread over it.  Makes a great treat.  If you buy one of those little silver pans in the baking sections that come with a lid its a great treat to take to a friend or work.

Faithful Mortgage Payments and Their Effect on the Economy

I read this article today in one of my Real Estate updates I follow and thought it said much for so many people....

Faithful Mortgage Payments and Their Effect on the Economy



[1]RISMEDIA, November 5, 2010—(MCT)—For almost two years, home foreclosures have swept the nation, spreading misery among once-buoyant families, spattering lenders with red ink and undermining efforts to restart the economy. But a bigger problem may turn out to be the millions of Americans who are still faithfully paying their mortgages, but on houses worth far less than before the bubble burst. It’s not that these homeowners will stop making their payments. It’s just the opposite—that they will keep doing it.

How could that be a source of future trouble? Because, with home prices stagnant in much of the country, payments on mortgages that are underwater could absorb billions of dollars that might be used for other forms of consumer spending—a drag on family finances, the housing market and the overall economy. And the drag could persist for years.

Of the estimated 15 million homeowners underwater, about 7.8 million owed at least 25% more than their properties were worth in the first quarter of this year, according to Moody’s Analytics’ calculations of Equifax credit records and government data.

More than four million borrowers, including 672,000 in California, 424,000 in Florida and 121,000 in Illinois—three of the biggest real estate markets—were underwater more than 50%. Their average negative equity: a whopping $107,000.

Many of these homeowners are paying much higher interest rates than the latest national average of 4.25%. They still have jobs and can afford to make the payments.

But they can’t refinance because they owe too much. That home equity line of credit isn’t going to happen. Even ordinary loans may be impossible to get. And selling the home at a huge loss is out of the question.

Nor can most underwater borrowers take advantage of the Treasury Department’s loan modification program, which generally requires a job loss or another kind of hardship. In other words, they’re stuck.

Heather Hines and her husband reflect this new reality. They owe $415,000 on a Santa Rosa, Calif., town house they bought in 2004 for $430,000. When the county appraised the three-bedroom home a few weeks ago, it was worth $246,000—even less than a year earlier.

The couple had planned to move to a larger home after their two grade-school children became teenagers, but now that looks impossible. Their house needs a new roof, but they’ve put off replacing it for more than a year.

“It’s hard to think of making that investment when you’re hundreds of thousands of dollars underwater,” said Hines, a city planner who, like her husband, is employed and has an advanced university degree. “It just feels hopeless. What are we supposed to do? It feels like we’re never going to see any equity in our home.”

Theoretically, the Hines family could walk away—stop making the mortgage payments that consume a big part of their income. But defaulting would ruin their credit and have other negative consequences. So, she said, they’ll keep paying and hoping for the best.

Unhappily for the rest of the country, that’s not the end of the problem: The Hineses’ financial bind will ripple throughout their community and the larger economy.  The real estate market depends on such homeowners being able to sell and move up; without them the trade-up market can’t grow.  Meantime, the Hineses will keep delaying that new roof, depriving a local roofer of business. They’re unlikely to redecorate or upgrade the kitchen either, as millions of families were doing before the recession—more potential losses for local businesses, not to mention the car dealers, clothing and consumer electronics stores and manufacturers of the products that the Hineses won’t buy.

Weighed down by the huge debt on their house, they will also be a lot more cautious about how they use credit cards. Big family getaways in the summer? Forget it, Hines said.  Multiply such sentiments by millions across the country and that translates into lackluster private spending, which accounts for 70% of the American economy.  “Families have not yet boosted their spending above the levels preceding the severe cuts they made during the recession,” William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said in a speech last month. “This frugality stands in stark contrast to the first year of recovery from previous deep recessions,” Dudley said.

In prior downturns, the housing industry and consumer spending powered the economy back to strength. Home building not only created construction and finance jobs, but also fueled manufacturing of glass and lumber, furniture and appliances, and a host of other goods and services. 

In normal times, the U.S. should be putting up about 1.7 million new houses annually, but this year it’s running at about 600,000, economist David Crowe of the National Home Builders Association said. He thinks it will be three years before home building returns to its potential.

Rather than going out on their own or starting families, young Americans are doubling up with friends and relatives, saving more and paying down debts. Older Americans are staying in their jobs longer, hoping that the single biggest asset for most of them—their homes—will recover in value.

But nobody expects a return of rapid real estate appreciation any time soon. If home prices were to rise at an annual rate of 3%, not an unlikely scenario, it would take the Hineses about 11 years to get to a point where their mortgage balance was even with their property value.

Refinancing the Hineses’ 6.5% interest loan could be a big help, saving them almost $600 a month. But lenders won’t even consider them.  And unless borrowers fall behind on their mortgage payments or face a high risk of defaulting, there’s little chance that lenders, even with federal incentives, would reduce their principal or lower their interest rates.  “They feel completely left out,” said Fred Arnold, past president of the California Association of Mortgage Professionals, referring to many underwater borrowers.  “If you stop payments, you have a much better chance of getting a modification,” Arnold said.  He contends that the federal government should set aside funds to help more borrowers refinance: “It would put immediate money into the economy.” But that’s not in the cards, especially with budget deficits weighing on Washington and the American public.  Eventually, economists suggested, a lack of options will push more underwater borrowers to walk away from their mortgages. But in the meantime, the stress on families, the housing market and the whole economy will continue.  Mike Saint-Just doesn’t see a lot of room to maneuver. In 2007, he put down $125,000 on a $230,000 one-bedroom condominium near Palm Springs, Calif. County tax authorities say it is now worth $87,000.  After tapping a home equity line of credit, Saint-Just owes $143,000—about two-thirds more than the value of his home.  Saint-Just draws a federal pension, enough to stay current on his loan but not much more. When he asked his lender about getting a new loan with lower rates, he said he was told he was too far underwater.  The loan officer “did say I could go into foreclosure and hope, maybe, they might do something. And they might not, in which case my credit would be ruined and I’d be out the door of the unit,” he said.

So Saint-Just keeps making his monthly payments and cutting back on nearly everything else. “It means dropping grocery stores and going to Wal-Mart, the 99 Cents store for food and generic items,” he said. With the winter coming, he’s preparing to dress warmly to save on heating. That may get Saint-Just through the cold weather, but it may leave the overall economy to shiver.

(c) 2010, Tribune Co.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.



you know I love purple



Isn't this just the cutes idea