Spoken Gently's Blog: All Categories

Well, we've decided to put our West Pasco water front home up for sale.  We are spending way too much time commuting back and forth from North Richland getting our 5 children to school and other activities.  North Richland here we come and we're leaving behind a Columbia river home with many upgrades.   Our 3500 sq ft home's starting price is $659,000.  Pictures of our home and river views can be seen here, and when clicked, a larger image opens in a new window:

That's almost 2 decades ago! Can it get any worse? I'm afraid it will. Today's MSNBC headline news:

"Construction of new homes plunged by a bigger-than-expected amount in September, as builders slashed production to the slowest pace since early 1991, when the country was in a deep recession. Friday’s housing report was yet another piece of evidence that the nation is struggling with a weak economy that, if the financial crisis is not solved, could dive into a sustained downturn. President Bush on Friday said in a speech that the credit markets — where many companies find funding for their operations — will take a while to thaw, but that Americans should be confident that it will."

The Tri Cities Washington economy is still strong, but I wonder how…

We started in Squidoo a few years ago mainly to add to our inbound linking portfolio. We are pushing 225 lenses now, not only in real estate related lenses, but lenses on many other topics. Our children have gotten involved and created some of their own! We have always donated all our Squidoo earnings to one charity or another. Given our dire economic times in most American communities, I thought I would post our recent earnings. Perhaps some could use the extra income to get through the winter months, or to contribute to their favorite charity:

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The above earnings are from Squidoo's matching of Google's adsense.…

CNN reports today that "An outraged sheriff in Illinois who refuses to evict "innocent" renters from foreclosed homes criticized mortgage companies Thursday and said the law should protect victims of the mortgage meltdown. Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart says too many renters are being evicted for landlords' problems, and he is suspending foreclosure evictions in Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago. The county had been on track to reach a record number of evictions, many because of mortgage foreclosures."

This is truly sad.  Until now, I thought of the mortgage debacle as a shared responsibility between folks buying homes they should not have been buying, and lenders lending money they should not have been lending.  At first…

Tri Cities Washington is ranking again! This time, the Tri Cities of Kennewick, Richland, and Pasco, Washington are 29th on the top 124 list of America's Best Small Cities list, up 40 spots from last year's position. The rankings are based on the metro area's ability to sustain employment and economic growth.  

Related: Milkin Institute's 2008 Best Performing Small Cities | Tri Cities Job Market Expected To Stay Strong

Hmm, that is what Colleen was told yesterday! I even gave this man this blog entry, and this Squidoo lens to read. Apparently, he read neither. Presumably, this potential client thought Colleen a pushover, lacking negotiating strength, and/or incompetent in some way in regards to client representation. Our client didn't know this about Colleen...

• When negotiating, Colleen has the most excellent 'poker face!' The client she represents may be in dire straights, desperate to sell or buy, but the other real estate agent would never know. Colleen represents her clients in a way only her clients and Colleen can appreciate, as 'the other side' never finds out what's in Colleen's hand until the negotiations are complete. In the past, and unfortunately for…

Today, the AP reports second quarter home prices drop the largest since the inception of Standard & Poor's Case/Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. The drop is 15.4 percent lower than last year. I'm reminded of this blog entry!

The Tri Cities Washington market, however, is maintaining property values. Actually, Washington state as a whole, isn't too bad either! Never a better time to buy property in the Tri Cities than now!

Related:

• Standard & Poor/Case Shiller Home Price Indices

• CNN Money - Home Prices Plummet To New Record Low
   

Colleen received her award today for earning River Realty's second quarter top producer. River Realty is a Pasco Washington office of about 18 agents brokered by Carrie Chambers. Amidst a team of great agents, Colleen, relatively new to the office, out-paced them all for the second quarter Top Producer award.

Colleen Lane Is All About Customer Service

Search engine optimization is bantered about often online, however, Colleen's clients are coming to her from referral. Colleen defies the typical sales person stereotype. Never a "closer," Colleen's #1 goal is to provide a great service to the client, hence, a customer base very loyal and often times purchasing several properties from Colleen. In fact, one of Colleen's recent clients had this to say when…