Top 3 blogs on the web...

Okay, now I'm frustrated. Obviously I've been blogging to myself over the past several weeks. I know I'm new at this but this is my 4th post and I've had no comments. Granted I'm not sure if people have visited and just not left a comment, but if you do visit could you at least say hello so I know that I'm not just talking to myself. The title of this post is 'top 3 blogs on the web'. I'm not bragging. I'm just trying to attract attention. I've been doing some research about blogging and someone said to start with 'top 3...' anything and I should get attention. So, help, I'm starving for attention.
I also found out that a blog that has too many directions is confusing. Stay focused on one topic. If I want to write about something else start another blog. Do you agree? (assuming you are out there)
My focus was to be real estate oriented since I am a residential appraiser and agent. But I am working on a website for my real estate activities and I will have a blog page on that.
What then? My other big interest has been alternative energy and/or 'going green.' So I will vent about that and do some more research about the subject to provided interesting facts or topics which we can discuss.
So remember, I'm all alone out here. I don't want to have to go to a social networking site to meet people. Drop by, say hello, or let me know what you want to blog about, I'm just sayin'......Allen

Do You Know What Your Home is Worth?

Well the election is finally over and some of us are happy, others not so much. We can finally go back to what is really on our minds---"the economy stupid". Yes that is primarily what the national referendum was all about anyway. The general economy appears grim, the job outlook appears grim, the outlook for retail sales looks grim(there goes my birthday present!). And what is on the mind of must of us besides our 401k's is what is our home worth now?
As a residential appraiser in New York I can say that the east coast has not been hit as hard as other parts of the country such as California, the southwest, Las Vegas and Florida. Don't get me wrong we are in a declining market also but it is more moderate and you really have to examine the statistics for each neighborhood to see how things are going. So many times as I examine the comparable sales for a report I notice that sellers make the mistake of thinking 'my home is worth more than that' or 'my home is worth more than my neighbor who sold last month' and they stay on the market at an inflated price just to accept a lower offer a year later. With so much information available on the internet or through a local broker you would think that some of this information would be taken seriously. But with the home being such an emotional attachment that is not often the case. And what is even more heartbreaking is when someone has an adjustable rate mortgage which resets, the monthly payment goes through the roof and the home owner can no longer afford to to stay in the home. But they do sometimes stay, hoping that things will change. The only thing that changes is the value of the home in a negative direction. Then what may happen is they are in an 'upside down' position which means that the amount they owe the bank is more than the house is worth. So much of this is going on right now that you can virtually feel the pain of our fellow citizens. Going 'upside down' generally invites a short sale. A short sale is where the owner decides to sell at almost any price and hopes that the bank will accept the proceeds which are 'short' of what is actually owed. Very often the bank will accept such a sale to avoid having to foreclose on the property. But generally this is done only if the seller can prove that they cannot afford to make up the deficiency.
Most of this anguish could have been avoided if the 'upside down' home owner had not taken a mortgage they could have afforded in the beginning---even though this meant renting for a while longer. Or if the person selling a home had been realistic in pricing their home when first listed. Most unrealistic sellers eventually wind up netting less for their home. This could have been avoided by getting an unbiased third party opinion from a certified appraiser. A pre-listing appraisal lets the client know just what the home is worth at that point in time. While an appraisal report should include current market conditions and a general market trend it does not predict the future. With an appraisal in hand you can get your local Realtor to look into that misty crystal ball. Your local Realtor is right there to help analyze the market trends and tell you what to list your house for. If you live in New York, specifically Queens County(NYC) or Nassau County(Long Island) and think an appraisal of your home would be helpful you can contact me at 516-791-3846 or e-mail me at allen.bauman@gmail.com. It could save you a lot of grief and money.....i'm just sayin'.

I've included a short survey to help me find out what people are thinking about home values. I would appreciate you clicking below and participating, thanks---Allen

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228H4B46MM3

i'm just saying.....

It's almost over!!!!!!!!

Of course I'm talking about the election campaign. I used to love this stuff and since there were no incumbents running I thought this one would be very interesting. Obama has lots of people excited and more interested than in most elections. McCain upped the anty when he chose that 'mavericky' girl Sarah Palin. What was he thinking??? It was a stupid Dan Quail type of move. Oh well as I said earlier it's almost over.

The best thing I've gotten out of this campaign was to see the start of a new energy initiative from the grass roots level---if you can call T. Boone Pickens a grass roots kind of guy. He has presented the Pickens Plan for energy self sufficiency. He's using his own money to fund the movement and seems to have some savvy tech people working on his sites and blogs. He's even traveling around the country and having town hall meetings to explain the plan and get feedback from the general public. If you are unfamiliar with the Pickens Plan I highly recommend that you go to his website and learn about it and even get involved on whatever level you want. Right now my only participation is to sign petitions to my representatives and e-mail my friends and relatives to join the "army". That's the Pickens Plan Army. He's trying to get 1.5 million people to sign the petitions and has done a great job virally since he's up to about 1.3 million.

This is a great opportunity to get Obama and McCain to produce their own energy plan or adopt the Pickens Plan. Pickens' plan is just common sense and a significant part of it can be acted upon immediately. For example, the first step would be to use natural gas as a fuel for cars. We have tons of it right here in the USA and the technology exists to make it practical. Since retrofitting gas stations with natural gas would take around 10 years he suggests starting with trucks and truck fleets. Trucks account for a large portion of gasoline usage. But they can either be retrofitted for natural gas or be mandated to use natural gas on new trucks. Truck company's can fill their fleets with it and truck stops can extend the geography for long haul truckers. While this is going on entrepeneurs such as Pickens or anyone else with balls can start working on solar cell farms and wind farms.

The Plan is practical and straight forward, it just gets me really excited. But again we need to put political pressure on our representatives and the new administration to help smooth the way with incentives. Pickens is 80 years old. He appears to be in good shape but he needs massive backup to get this movement going. Google search the Pickens Plan and see if you don't agree with me and want to get involved either with your computer or locally on your own. We can make this happen, I really believe it.......I'm just saying....let me know what you think!

Introduction

This is my first post. Actually it is my first blog! I've been looking at blogs on line for a while but they just seemed to intimidating to start. And I don't just mean saying something which can be hard enough, but technologically speaking I'm no Steve Jobs(I hope I got his name right).
I even had trouble setting up this page and my profile, so guess what, I'll be asking some of you for help pretty soon.

Most of you out there have probably seen the movie Network and know the famous line "i'm fed up and i'm not going to take it any more". Well that's about where I am. This country has gotten so screwed up over the past eight years and more that I needed to say something or explode. I'm not going to get into everything right now since as the title says this is just my introduction. But I will be ranting about politics, the environment, energy--prices and sources, the economy, real estate(I'm a NYS certified residential appraiser if anyone has questions), the war(all of them), and anything else that aggravates me, or interests me at that moment. I hope to hear back from many of you so that we can exchange idea's or just duke it out verbally.

If anyone out there has idea's about how I can improve my enjoyment of this forum, or any other, I would appreciate the help. So I'm just going to leave it like this so I don't wear out my welcome and end it with my tag line------ I'm just saying......