Ann Arbor, Saline, Milan, MI. Condos and homes for sale, from 124,900 to 439,900.
If you don’t see anything, here visit my Search Ann Arbor Houses site, where you will find over 5,000 homes to buy with Google Satellite Images, Google Maps, Virtual Tours.
Today I was helping a friend and FHA Mortgage Lender in New Jersey, Jeff Belonger, learn how to read blogs in a RSS feed. Over the last year, I started subscribing to more and more blogs and my email was going crazy.
I would want to read what my favorite bloggers were saying, and not miss out; yet business clients would contact me and those emails would get all mixed together. A night-mare. So I decided to us a RSS feed. I personally like the Google feed reader but you can subscribe in the multitude that are available.
What is RSS?
According to Wikipedia, it stands for Really Simple Syndication. It in a nut shell,RSS makes it easier to keep up with your friends web-logs or blogs automatically without going out to their sites everyday or subscribing to their posts by email.
I’m sure you have seen this symbol. 
It means subscribe in a RSS Feed.
I sent this video out to my office last year and a light bulb went off in the agents as they realized how really simple this would be. (no pun intended)
This video was created by Lee Lefever from the Common Craft Blog. Now I subscribe to Lee’s blog so I don’t miss out on any of videos where he turns complex ideas into easy explanations.
Now if I just had a Really Simple way to get my boys to take the garbage out. (()sigh)))
Today, I received an email from Jeff Turner, Jeff is the owner of Real Estate Shows, the company I use to create all my virtual tours for on every home I list in the Ann Arbor Real Estate market. Jeff is always on top of gadgets and cool technology tools to help promote your business.
Today, he sent us information on a new product called Eyejot. It is a very simple way to send out a video with your email messages. I’m sure we’ve all had short email messages mis-interpreted wrong, now the people you are emailing, whether family or friends can also see and hear your message.
PC Magazine said it is a “piece of cake” to use.
The good news, this is free. All you need is a web-cam and you are ready to go. Eyejot works on all the platforms and browsers.
I have several sellers who have moved from Ann Arbor, wouldn’t this be a great way to communicate with them? Wouldn’t this be a terrific way to send out the virtual tours I create to other Realtors? Wouldn’t this be a great way to notify people of an OPEN HOUSE?
The possibilities are endless.
Of course EyeJot doesn’t just have to be used for business, you can also send your families email videos. Now, how happy will that make grandmothers?
Here’s a couple of videos to check out for possible uses of Eyejot.
One other cool feature of EyeJot is the ability to add an bookmarklet to your browser and send a video of the web page you are looking at. 
Any idea’s on how you will use this cool new technology feature?
Over the holidays, I bought my daughter the book, Bo’s Lasting Lessons, by Bo Schembechler and John Bacon. She being a avid football fan, I knew she would like it.
Hummm, turns out I loved the book. Yea, the history of Michigan football is all there and that is fun to read. But, the lessons on leadership are unbelievable. Regardless of what field or career in life you have chosen this book with take you up a notch in learning how to be an effective leader.
The majority of everyone Bo coached over his years at Michigan went on to become leaders in whatever career they chose. John Bacon hounded Bo for 10 years to get the book written, because John felt Bo had a message to get out to everyone about leadership. Yes, he did John you were right, he did.
I’ve always heard, from people all my life, “do what you love to do and the money will follow”. Bo Schembechler was a man of passion, he loved what he did. He makes that quote come alive. From the time he was a Graduate Assistant Coach for Woody Hayes, not making a dime and getting coffee, picking up laundry and anything else the coaches asked him to do, he did it with his whole heart and never complained. Here he was at 22, doing what he loved to do and not making a dime from coaching. You’ll have to read the book to find out what he did learn during the years of being Woody’s gofer.
One of the most interesting things I learned in the book, and did not know, having not grown up a Michigander, was Bo’s love for Woody Hayes. When we moved to Michigan 26 years ago, the rivilary was already under way. So I assumed that Bo and Woody absolutely hated each other. Not so. The Michigan vs. Ohio State rivilary is full of fun and yes, hate. But, Bo loved Woody and had the utmost respect for him. He credits him with being the greatest teacher and hardest worker he had ever seen.
One day, I was reading the book at the Saline Rec Center while on the elliptical machine. I had tears streaming down my eyes. Now I’m sure people were thinking, what is Missy crying about reading a book on football. Little did they know… The last chapter of the book is titled If I Could Have One Week. After first wanting all his family home and near him, this is what he said,
“Next, I wouldn’t ask to coach another game. No. Give me one more week of coaching in preparation for the Ohio State game. And make it against the great Wayne Woodrow Hayes. Just give me a week-from our film session on Sunday to my pre-game speech on Saturday-to get our guys ready for that game against the old general on the other side of the field. That would be it.” “I’d sit on the corner of my bed in the hotel room and I’d just go, ahhhh.”
You see, to Bo being a leader was all about the preparation.
Review to be continued….
You can order the book on Amazon here. A great read, while it’s too cold to go out in Ann Arbor, MI.
One of my past clients, child, Zak Wigel is coordinating an event to raise money for Autism. Motivated by the negative stereo-type of video games they have started an Outreach called Gamers Outreach.
In December 2006, Zak Wigel, walked into Saline Community Education Department and requested to use the gym to set up a Halo Tournament to raise money. He wanted to host a video gaming tournament to host a Halo Tournament. They got approved months in advance to use the gym. Zak put in $600.00 of his own money. After months of planning, two weeks before the tournament, in March, Zak was told to CANCEL THE TOURNAMENT!!
Read the entire history of how Gamers for Charity evolved. You can also listen to the podcast, it is a fascinating story. After making the Ann Arbor News and circulating on the internet with over 1800 diggs and 200 comments, they made history.
The purpose of this post is to announce a new tournament where they are raising money for Autism. The next tournament will be held at Eastern Michigan University on February 29th through March 2nd. You can register on line at mpcon.org.
Directions to the event at EMU are: 900 Oakwood Street in Ypsilanti, MI. 
48197
All the monies raised will go the Autism Foundation of Washtenaw County. Gamers for Giving and the Gamers Outreach have a goal to raise over $7500.00 for the Autism Foundation. With over 500 people expected to attend, let’s cheer them on in this noble endeavor.
If you would like to be involved by chaperoning, donating, getting the word out, you can reach them at volunteer@gamersoutreach.org
*Zak, as your parents Realtor, I am so proud of you, what a fantastic entrepreneur you are, I can see this exploding all over the country.*
Recently I was nominated for the Realtor of Year from the Real Estate Staging Association. What an honor to get nominated for this award.
I am a firm believer in a home being in perfect condition before it comes on the market. In Ann Arbor and all of Washtenaw County when I am working with a seller, if they are moving and leaving there house vacant, I require (yes I said require) that their home be staged before they move.
A vacant house is a sad, cold, lonely house. Most buyers will fall in love with a house before they buy it. The Missy Caulk TEAM wants to give our sellers every opportunity to get their home SOLD. Staging a home before it comes on the market is critical to make it stand out among the competition.
I work primarily with Denise Sloan at Show Case My Home in Ann Arbor, MI. Denise is an Accredited Staging Professional who is fantastic on knowing what to do to make the house look and feel like a “home”.
Not sure what to think about the difference in a staged home or a vacant one, take a look at two real estate shows, one staged and one not., same house.
Which house would you make an appointment to see?
The voting ends tomorrow, so if you like what you see you can vote for me at RESA here.
*How’s that for shameless self promotion?*
Meticulously maintained condo for sale in sale in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Located in the Georgetown Community, only minutes to shopping, Briarwood and U.of M. medical complexes.
Rare THREE bedrooms,quiet cul-de-sac,with a nice wooded view. Includes all newer appliances with washer and dryer.
Priced to sell at $124,900. Subject to Short sale means it is subject to bank approval to sell below what is owed on the condo.
Not what you’re looking for? You can begin your condo search on-line, with Google maps, Google earth, multiple photos and virtual tours.
Call the Missy Caulk TEAM for a showing @ 734–216–2822
One of the blogs I follow is the Common Craft blog. They use a very simple format to understand more complex issues on the web. Today they produced one on sharing photo’s on the web.
Some of the places you can share your photos for FREE are Flickr, and Photo Bucket. Just log on and set up an account and then point all your friends and relatives there.
As of today, there are 78 groups on Ann Arbor in flickr. One group alone has over 8005 photos.
Enjoy this video from Common Craft on the NEW, safe way to share photos with family, friends and co-workers. If you have a Yahoo account, you just sign into Flickr with your yahoo ID. and start sharing. You can make your photos private or public.
Even with the media, in an uproar, Ann Arbor and the Washtenaw County still had a year where houses got bought and sold. In 2007,Property in Washtenaw County sold for 89% of asking price, with the average days on the market being 86 days.
There was an increase in listings, as they were up by 18% and a drop in closings of only 8%. However, that means that one in every 5 houses did sell. Some is this can be attributed to the relocation of Pfizer. The homes that sold were those priced the most competitively and were in the best condition. Pfizer homes were priced to sell.
In a buyers market, inventory is high, the market is more competitive and buyers have their choice of homes to purchase so they are what I like to say, “very unforgiving”.
Year the date the average list price was down 4.5% compared to 2006.
The average sale price was down 6.5% compared to 2006.
Now for the good news:
1) There were 231 closings in December and that is up from December 2006 by 11.5%
2) 30% less homes were listed in December of 2007 than December 2006. That is great news, even though new listings over the entire year was up 17.5%.
Take a look at the following chart to see historically what is happening in the Washtenaw County area. 
Homes will continue to sell in 2008, just make sure your home is priced right. List with a realtor that will tell you the truth about the market conditions and the inventory in your township absorption rate in your community. Ann Arbor is doing much better than other townships in Washtenaw.
“What’s that smell?”
“I smell a cat?”
“A smoker lives here”.
These are some of the first questions out of a buyers mouth when they enter a home in Ann Arbor, they are viewing as a possible purchase.
Be careful of odors in your home. If your family room smells stuffy and stale, or if your cat or dog has left a distinctive odor in the hallway, take action by eliminating the source of the odor rather than merely treating the effects.
Smells have a powerful effect on the way people react to a house, and no amount of room freshener or vanilla on the light bulbs can mask a serious odor problem.
In fact, such remedies may draw attention to the problem. We have seen homes in Ann Arbor with an odor problem languish unsold on the market for months or sell for significantly less than comparable homes in the neighborhood.
I once had to tell a client who had lived there all her life and smoked that we needed to have then entire house painted and carpet replaced. I didn’t like to do that, but better to hear if from me first, since I knew what the feedback would be and how long it would take to sell.
If you are getting ready to put your home on the market, make sure it smells good. Buying a home is an emotional decision and a bad odor can turn a perspective buyer off.
Bad odors = lower price, longer marketing time.
Fresh and clean odors= higher price, shorter marketing time.
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