THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE
As he snuck me into the back, I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. “Now remember Greg,” he said, “You know I can’t sell you this one. It’s for the showroom floor.” For months I’d only seen photos in magazines. Now I could savor the real thing. As he pulled the cover off, I […]
The Closest Distance
“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” -Mark Twain The word “humor” (humour in Commonwealth English) dates back to the ancient Greeks. The term comes from “humoral medicine,” founded on the idea that “the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours, controls human health and emotion.” “Funny” […]
When Your Wife Says So
You’re at home about to fall asleep when suddenly you hear the faint shuffle of footsteps downstairs. You’re single. No pets. No kids. No boyfriend. Nobody has a key to your home, so it must be an intruder. You reach for your cell phone on the nightstand, but it’s not there…it’s charging downstairs. Your good sense tells you […]
It’s The Story That Counts
“A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order.” -Jean-Luc Godard My three-year-old daughter was learning to roast a marshmallow. Her first two attempts ended in flames. Both times I took the scorched marshmallow off the stick and threw it into the fire. The third time I […]
Will The Real Estate Glass Get Cut In Half?
Two years ago I wrote an article called The End Of Real Estate. It was a month after two of America’s most aggressive law firms filed a class action lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors and the nation’s largest MLS systems (including Phoenix) on behalf of Chicago home seller Christopher Moehrl. Side Note: The MLS (Multiple Listing Service) […]
Fear Is Our Imagination It’s Really Not Real
Have you seen the movie, The Edge? Super-smart billionaire Charles Morse (Anthony Hopkins) and fashion photographer, Bob Greene (Alec Baldwin) endure a harrowing quest for survival in the treacherous Alaskan wilderness. It’s a tale of fear, suffering, duplicity, backstabbing, infidelity, and avoiding being mauled by a man-eating grizzly. If you enjoy trying to extract underlying messages from […]
Pull The Goalie
It’s a cold and rainy night in Atlanta. Terri is home alone with her kids when she hears a knock on the door. She answers it to find a good looking, well-dressed man who says he just had a car accident and would like to use her phone to call a tow truck because his […]
Chubby vs Ramsey
Driving home the other night I had KTAR on the radio because I listen to Jayme West and Jim Sharpe going to the office each morning. The Dave Ramsey show was on. A couple being interviewed by phone asked Ramsey something like, “We’ve been renting a home and love it. Our landlord just offered us the opportunity to […]
Buying Bernsen’s
Last year I wrote an article that opened, “It can be difficult to buy a house without much money.” This year a more accurate line would be…”It can be difficult to buy a house with only money.” The current shortage of homes for sale (60% lower than last March) got me thinking about a story of creativity I shared last […]
10 Crucial Tips For Buying A Home In Today’s Crazy Market
Last Wednesday I was interviewed on KTAR radio about the current state of the housing market. I was asked: How low is the current inventory of homes for sale? Are we in a housing bubble with prices ready to drop? KTAR replayed the interview throughout the day, talking about the challenge homebuyers face in today’s ultra competitive, absurdly […]