Sorry it’s taken me all day to write here today, but I’ve been with a friend at the hospital.  She’s fine, but it’s sure good to be home!  I wish all buyers were as anxious as this cat to get into a home!  Heh.

Combining households seems like a far-fetched idea to me.  Yet, I combined houses with my mother-in-law 14 years ago yesterday.  Long story short, we needed her and she needed us.  There have been regrets for sure (lack of privacy, she always takes my husband's side in arguments, etc.), but overall we've managed to get by.

Today I'm listing a home for a friend of mine whose mother-in-law is also moving in with them.  They're selling a lot of furniture and other belongings, although I've encouraged them to try to afford a place to store the items instead.

They're combining because of this extraordinarily difficult economy.  They are job poor - that is the work they do find doesn't pay enough to maintain two households.  This combination is the best solution for them to keep a roof over everyone's head.

I think we'll be seeing a lot more of it in the months and years to come.

School is out today in my part of Tennessee which meant I stole an extra hour of sleep this morning. Three cheers for snow that might or might not be coming!  There was a mix of sleet and snow on the way to work, but the roads are clear.  However, in Kentucky and Indiana where my family live it's a war zone.

I called Mom this morning who sounded close to tears since power was out in a 100-mile radius and their generator was almost out of gas.  She told me about all the trees that were down and said this has been the worst storm she and Dad have ever lived through since they married 50 years ago.  My brother in Elizabethtown, Kentucky said they have three inches of ice, but still have power.  My brother in New Hampshire told me they're expecting two feet of snow, but no ice.

In Santa Claus, Indiana, the Holiday World amusement park has some live web cams.  I pulled this picture off one of their cameras.

I will update more photos as I receive them. Do you have ice or snow pictures to send?

UPDATE 10:15 a.m.:  Photos from Elizabethtown, Ky.  This first one is Highway 31W… notice the trees bent and snapped.

Brother's backyard.

UPDATE 10:57 a.m.:  From Century 21 agent Leslie Haywood-Moore in Martin, Tennessee, we see more ice and snow.  This is Leslie's neighborhood.

Leslie said this limb came crashing down at 5:00 a.m.

Finally, snow is king on her deck!

Update 12:57 p.m.:  From my brother in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He said the top of the tree in the middle snapped off.

I think I see a tree or limb across his neighbor's fence in this photo.

My brother just uploaded photos from Dawson Springs, Kentucky of the ice storm so far.  It's bad.

At our weekly meeting earlier this morning, a couple of fellas came over from Lowe's to talk about the Realtor program they offer in partnership with the National Association of Realtors (NAR).  The program is designed to keep agents in touch with their buyers and sellers through a campaign fully funded by Lowe's in which mailings are sent monthly or quarterly - depending on what you choose. In return, Lowe's pulls in more customers from the 10 percent off coupons they send.  I think it's a win-win-win for everyone with the possible exception of competing home stores.

After the gentlemen left, the conversation turned to how fantastic it is when you go into a Lowe's store and the associates walk you all the way to the product you're trying to locate.  This naturally led us to compare other businesses and one agent shared an experience she had with a store that's also a partner with NAR.

As agents, we're supposed to receive 10 percent discounts on certain supplies we might need to run our businesses.  When the agent tried to get the discount, she was told in no uncertain terms that our company had to have a company credit card for the discount to apply (which is untrue - you just have to use the credit card that you've registered for the purchase).

After not receiving the discount, she was told to speak to the guy "over there" and she was pointed in his direction.  She approached him, he spoke, but he wouldn't look at her.  She finally asked, "Excuse me. Are you talking to me?"

This district-manager type person glared at her and she saw he had an earpiece on.

She waited a few moments for him to end the call and then he turned to her, "This is NOT my store. You'll need to talk to her!"  And he pointed to someone else.

She replied, "It's not my store either." She walked out and then told our entire office about the experience. 

That, my friend, is exactly how you do not treat customers.  A little bit of effort certainly goes a long way - whether you're dealing with buyers, sellers, people wanting a pack of gum, a light bulb, a ream of paper, shelves… anything.  Show some courtesy and act like you care.  Find a way to get the job done without causing pain and you'll be one of the best customer service representatives ever.

This is kind of off-the-cuff, but it seems to be a reality of any place of business that involves offices.  The office you land in is status symbol.  Don't believe me?  How many bosses are there who are out in the cubicles.  How many don't have a window when their employees do?  Zero.  Actually I heard of one company several years ago that only had cubicles, but I don't remember where it was or what they did.

In real estate, it's the same thing.  Since I've been at my company, four offices - four offices in five years.  I started out in a cube, then shared an office with another agent that was located across from a bathroom.  FLUSH.  All day.  I finally was offered an office downstairs and believe me … when you move downstairs you're hot stuff. I suffered in that downstairs office - a 9×9'ish square for about a year.  It had no window and the lights in the hallway were usually burnt out.  I felt like I'd lived in the dead winter of Alaska for five straight years with the light deprivation.

As a result of that lonely year, I made the move back upstairs a little over a year ago.  I turned my back on the status symbol of having a downstairs office in favor of human contact, more space, and - yes - a window.  Now I'm moving again.  Fifth office in five years.  This time my broker said I earned the big downstairs window office, so I spent yesterday painting.  It's the same green (called rejuvenation) as the one upstairs, but it does have a happy window.  And it's big so I'll have plenty of room for my filing cabinets, bookcase, guest chairs, etc.  I started to turn it down, but my husband told me to consider my clients. 

"Yes, let's go talk in my office, " I say to the man who had bypass surgery, "It's upstairs."

I'm a little nervous about the move, but I think this time it's the right thing to do.  We'll only have about six people left upstairs, so I have a feeling if the market doesn't improve soon there will be room for everyone to come down.

Wish me luck.

"IT LIVES…" was my first thought this morning when I finally awoke from my nasty-cold-chills-cough stupor that has enveloped me for the past four days.  It's awful how a little germ can beat you, stalk you, and shake you to your toes.

During a moment of lucidity, my friend Jag wrote there are two syllables every home owner hates:  bro and ken.  Together = broken. Poor Jag has had a broken heater, a roof leak, and now new neighbors whose movers tore up their yard with the moving truck.  Oh yes… there have been even more things broken, leaving Jag to dream,

Given the fact that we're about to have 300 feet of front yard dug up to replace our water line, I'm feeling Jag's pain. Home ownership is not cheap, for sure.

I apologize for not posting yesterday - a momentous day in American history for sure.  And today's post will be right up to par with yesterday's.  I had my flu shot this year, but I'm thinking sometimes bad colds can be as bad as the flu.  With running eyes and nose, sore throat and aching bones, I'm just checking in to say that hopefully I'll be able to write something with more depth tomorrow.

Meanwhile my schedule for today (when I'm vertical):

How Clean is Your House - BBC America. It always makes me feel better about my own house.
MSNBC Live, CNN, Headline News. Random points throughout the afternoon.
Coneheads.  HBOFW whatever FW means.  Mibs!
LOST.  7pm - 10pm.  Oh yeah.  It's back.

Hope you don't catch whatever this is that I have.  Until tomorrow when hopefully I'll again write about real estate…  ahh choo.

I know I watch way too much TV, but I do sometimes learn from them. Again I was up all night, but it was not due to insomnia but rather thanks to either the barbecue I ate for dinner or maybe I had a little package of peanut butter crackers (but they weren't Austin or Keebler crackers!). We won't go into more detail than that, but suffice to say I watched more house-hunting shows, first-time homebuyers, and am now tuned in to House Hunters International.

I can't watch the shows in my bedroom because it seems every time they break to or come back from commercial, the little ding-dong doorbell sound wakes my husband.  And since he's the one who has to make the daily commute for an office job, I don't like to disturb him.  So I'm sitting in the living room hearing "Ding Dong" every 7 minutes and I had to laugh…

… the reason they do this is clearly because of time constraints but when each program shows that buyers look only at THREE houses… well that's just not very realistic.  On rare occasion, I've shown buyers limited homes, but we usually look at five or ten.  In other instances, we look at dozens but I've never ever shown a buyer just three and they make a decision.

It truly is great if an agent meets with their buyer and has a very clear picture of what they want in a home: big yard, fence, three bedrooms, two baths, open kitchen, bonus room, master down, walk-in closet, fancy trim work, marble counters, etc.  I really don't believe there's ever a perfect house for a buyer unless they build it themselves (but then they have to deal with other issues) but we can get close as long as the buyer is reasonable.  Not three houses close, though.  Five to seven is ideal, but if it takes dozens of homes to really satisfy a buyer and they are a serious buyer, then I'm in it for them.

I *love* this video that was linked by Rob Cook of River Banks to Corn Fields, a Dubuque, Iowa real estate blogger.

Have a good weekend and try to stay warm!