JimBob2232

While i am by NO MEANS a fan of real estate agents (I have fired at least 10 of them in my day), in order to use them correctly, you need to know the games they play, know when they can help you, and when you need them to step aside and you take the role. As is outlined here, it is an enourmous effort to sell a house by FSBO. Especially in today market. To do it correctly yourself, you need to spend lots of time (and money) marketing your property, showing your property, and (if you are less knowledegble), negotiating and filing out forms. Buying a house is even more time consuming. There are TENS of THOUSANDS of houses on the market in may municipalities. Of those, many may meet your criteria. You have to spend ALOT of time (and gas money) bouncing back and forth looking at these THOUSANDS of houses. So..how do you use a realtor correctly? 1) Find one who is well established in the industry. One who works for a large firm in your area, and one who is a great networker. Every agent SHOULD know what their clients are selling and what is in their "inventory", but do they also know what other clients of other realtors are looking to buy? When I list a property with an agent, I want them to already be thinking "Gee..Susan has a buyer who is looking for a house just like this one...better let her know". The new agents dont *typically* have this ability, but the good ones do. 2) Make THEM use THEIR gas. Good Agents view LOTS of properties. Good Agents drive buy a new sign and say, "let me check it out". Good agents will bring you new listings before they hit the MLS because they see signs first (or they hear about them through the office..see #1). Make them use their gas to scout out your future home. When you see a property on the MLS you might like, ask them to go check it out, take some pictures and send it over to you. They SHOULD be happy to do this. Afterall, its one more house they have now seen...and if its not right for you, it might be right for another one of their clients. And besides, they would be thrilled to show it to you if you were there...whats really the difference? 3) Understand that although you have selected a good realtor, there are MANY bad realtors out there. If you are selling a house, give a BONUS to a buying agent. Bad realtors (and even some good ones) will go through properties they are presenting to a client and look at at the commission split. 3%/3% is pretty common in my area, so if you are flipping through and see a 4%/2% or 3%/2% you MAY throw it in the trash. I suggest, before dropping the sales price more than 1%, try giving an extra 1% bonus to the BUYING agent. 3%/4%. Now that same bad agent (who is often VERY capable of finding you a buyer), sees the dollar signs, and will start brining every tom dick and sally through your home. They may not buy it either, but the more people who know what you have out there, the better you will be. 4)Offer Bonuses. Similar to #3. A Bonus to the listing agent for selling the property in <60 days will increase the marketing and promotion of the property. Likewise, a bonus to the buying agent will cause your property to be shown more often and help BOTH agents get their bonus. 5) Do not use the Agents recommendations for home inspectors/ mortgage brokers or settlement agencies unless you KNOW what you are doing. And if you do KNOW what you are doing, you probably have your own guys in mind anyway. The reason for this is simple, but most agents will disagree with me. Say you are a home inspector, John Doe the realtor, gives you 50 homes to inspect a year. He is a good networker as well and tells everyone in his office about you and many of them use you as well. You have a legal obligation to do your job, but you know if you start failing too many properties, or present borderline issues with great concern to the buyer, causing them to back out of the deal, John Doe isnt going to be too eager to keep bringing you business (and he is your largest client). Its a fine ethical line...but its a tough one to walk. Similar things go with Mortgage brokers and settlement agencies. Now, dont get me wrong, there times and situations where using the realtors team is a good idea (especially when you KNOW things are going to have to be done a little under the radar) Unfortunately the last 5 years have created a BOOM of real estate agents. It has created ALOT of LAZY real estate agents. This downturn in the housing market is actually good...as they are now being weeded out. Just watch out for #1...but a good real estate agent is worth his or her weight in gold (or Gas).

The problem with the republican party is that they are not conservative. Conservatism wins every single time. The American people are conservatives in their hearts and minds, but the republican party has not gone down that road since Reagan.

2 months salary is a halfway decent rule if you dont make alot of money...but if you make 120k/year, that ring is going to cost you 20k! Not only is that ridiculous, it will be gaudy as hell.

I would imagine he would do some kind of comedy routine as well.... http://youtube.com/watch?v=KCv2cgIlnHA

....I'm an engineer....

Perenthesis Exponents Multiplication Devision Addition Subraction

Well.... A couple things. 1) I know alot of people shell out some money every year to keep this board rolling. Although I have not been one of these in the past (this will change next time around), I would question whether they would appreciate some of their money being paid out to a charity not of their choosing (by paying 150% of the profits vice 100% of the profits). 2) This is a Buffalo Bills board. Tim Russert was one of the biggest bills fans around. Perhaps the profits should be donated to Hunters Hope (or some other bills related charity). I really dont think its in bad taste at all. I would even support a portion of the profits to go and support this board...but I may be in the minority there.

Yeah, I use kayak alot, but its not what I am looking for. Someone with some more technical smarts than me should start this service. Think about it. You and your spouse mesh vacation schedules and come up with The week of November 8th as your annual vacation. Normally you pick a location and figure out how to get there cheapest. Wouldnt it be nicer to be able to say "For $1,000 we can go to vegas. For $1100 we can go to the florida keys, For $3,000 we can go to London, etc." You can then look at prices and decide where you want to go based on what is in your budget instead of the other way around. Southwest Ding is close, but it only gives you short-term airfare deals.

Ding looks to be pretty good, but only encompases southwest. Any other similar searches for other airlines?

I am trying to find a webpage where I can put in a departure airport and a date of departure and it will show me a list of cities I can go on that date and the cheapest fares. For instance, I want to say "Leave JFK on 1-Nov-08 and return on 8-Nov-08" and have the search return the following: Boston $199 Charlotte $250 Denver $300 Atlanta $225 London $750 etc. etc. Anyone know of a service which will do this? Thank you.

Three Words....CHROISE

...Which is unfortunatly less time than bills fans have been saying that....

Ugh. I HATE when I hear this argument. Some of you people JUST DONT GET IT. To have a contract, BOTH sides agree. Part of NFL contracts is a clause that states that the MANAGEMENT can TERMINATE the agreement at any time and NOT pay the player anymore. (See Shawn Alexander). This means that contracts are NOT guaranteed. Because of this, the union has added a clause into the contract which states that the PLAYER can REFUSE TO PLAY and DEMAND renegotiation at any time should he feel he is not being properly accommodated financially. Its a two-way street. Neither side HAS to live up to their contractual obligations because the contract itself gives them the right not to. I should also mention you do NOT see this in baseball. Why? Because contracts ARE guaranteed. We can have this conversation on which method is better all day long...but I would assume most of us on this board are happy we are not still paying Drew Bledsoe and Mike Williams... (note, read up on Mo Vaughn's contract with the Mets if you want to see how bad guaranteed contracts could be for a franchise..ESPECIALLY Buffalo)

Don't worry, they have signs up in their stores that say things like: "I caught my wife in bed with 5 Guys" "I love the taste of 5 Guys in my mouth" Its part of the intrigue! And a WONDERFUL place. One bit of advice though...split the fries with a friend. DONT TRY to eat one serving of fries yourself!

IMO spinoffs are unsuccessful because they are unbelievable. You cant just insert the same character into a completely different environment with none of his compadres and have it be believable. See Joey. Had the Joey spinoff had him stay in New York, brought along the "Friends" crew, and then slowly, one by one, had them move away and a new group of "Friends" come in...it would have worked.

Yep. Good for him. While he is likely making a couple hundred grand a year right now, he has to realize he is not an elite player, and could be out of the NFL at any time. He isnt making enough to retire and sit on the beach. He needs to plan for all courses of his life. Congrats to him!

No. The Vikings signed him. Sorry for the confusion

Vikings- LB J Leman, Illionis (Will update post as i find them)

HE IS MCLOVIN

How are the Hornets #3? Arent they struggling to get fans in the gate? Isnt there talk of them moving to OK City?

Sounds good. I would sure like to have Kyle Brady on the Bills.

Ugh, I hate this mentality with a passion. With the way NFL contracts work, YOU ARE NOT GUARENTEED your contract you sign. If you sign an 7 year 80M contract with a 10M signing bonus and 10M/year salary...after year 1 you can be cut and walk away with only 20M of your 80M contract. You say "STFU and Play". Why do we demand a player STFU and play, but not demand owners "STFU and PAY"? Did they also not sign the 7 year 80M contract? Since contracts are NOT guaranteed and the owners have the right to cancel the contract at ANY time...players feel (and I would opine rightfully so) that they have the right to better themselves and their family by raising hell (i.e. sit out) when they feel they can get more guaranteed money in their contracts. I'd do it if I was a player, and I wont criticize a REAL player for doing it. That said....changing topics.... I think Cincinnati is playing hard ball here. When on his game (and not pouting), CJ is one of the top 5 WRs in the game. Attitude aside, his talent is worth 2 first round picks. I think Cincinnati feels that by proving to him they WILL NOT trade him, they can convince him to show up and work hard and be "greatful" for what he has and where he is. Basically they are saying "A CJ on the field, and not causing problems, is worth more than the WAS offer". and this was their way of telling him to "STFU and Play"

Wow. Talk about throwing draft boards out the window. If you are a team (i.e. Jets) who are looking at taking a RB in the first round or two, you need to seriously evaluate the benefit SA would provide you. VERY interesting

Here is my take: The three most important games for us to win this year are the 3 close games where it comes down to the last 5 minutes of play. THOSE will be the biggest wins, regardless of the opponent.

Please tell me...what team in the league is a non-contender?