Kate Elim, Lake Anna Real Estate Specialist: January 2011

21200 Ward's Forest Ave. BEAVERDAM, VA Like new country home on 2.5 acres surrounded by larger lots. Rural setting within commuting distance to I-95. 3BR/3BA Single Family House $275,000 Year Built 2006 Sq Footage 2,500 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms 3 full, 0 partial Floors 2 Parking 2 Car garage Lot Size 2.5 acres HOA/Maint $17 per month   Description This lovely home sits on 2.5 acres in a pleasant country setting within commuting distance to I-95. Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Quantico and just minutes from LAKE ANNA. The 3BR, 3BA home has everything. Large screen porch, living room, and family room for entertaining and relaxing. More than enough space in lower level for a recreation room plus a media room. Lower level room currently used as an office (with outside entrance) can easily be divided into two separate rooms (two doorways from hall are installed). Rooms are all nice size with plenty of windows and high ceilings making it light and bright throughout. Property Features Central A/C Central heat High/Vaulted ceiling Walk-in closet Hardwood floor Family room Living room Office/Den Dining room Breakfast nook Dishwasher Refrigerator Stove/Oven Microwave Basement Washer Dryer Laundry area - inside Balcony, Deck, or Patio Yard   Other Special Features Screen porch 14 x 14 Spacious unfinished area in lower level Large den downstairs can be easily divided   Additional Photos Photo 1 Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5 Contact Info Kate Elim Dockside Realty (540) 226-1964 For sale by agent/broker Equal Opportunity Housing

As this is something that would need to be subsequently revealed it is very unlikely that the seller will refuse to correct the problem.  

If the buyer decided they did not want to move forward with the contract, the seller and seller's agent would need to make the information concerning the presence of radon known to other potential buyers and agents.

Via Debi Boucher - "Realtor Showcase" Real Estate Photography/Virtual Tours ( Real Estate Showcase Photography):

 

'Soft' Water Photography

In order to capture the 'soft' water effect, you have to slow down your shutter speed. When you do, you allow more light into the sensor, so it is necessary to adjust your aperture as well, or you will have a seriously blown out photograph.

Here are some tips to capturing this effect.

Use a tripod if at all possible. Slower shutter speeds require a stable camera.

Put your camera in manual mode, decrease your shutter speed just enough to get the effect, and adjust the aperture until you get the light right.

Remember with aperture, the lowest number lets the most light in (i.e. f4), and with the highest number (i.e. f22), less light reaches the sensor. (Just remember, it's the opposite of what you think makes sense!)

 

The first two shots were taken at 1/20th of a second, and with the aperture set at f22 on a cloudy day.

 

This shot was taken at 1/10 of a second, and the aperture was set at f32.

 

 

 

 

DBoucher Photography Nature and Wildlife

Real Estate Showcase Slideshows

Slideshow and Web Presentations

Photos and content by Debi Boucher, DBoucher Photography, all rights reserved, may not be reproduced without express written permission. 

DBoucher Photography

Via ActiveRain Corp.:

 

It is with great pride and much humility that we announce ActiveRain has reached 200,000 members!

As of Monday January 17th, 2011 our membership number has gone over the 200,000 mark. The journey to get to this point wouldn't have been possible without the amazing support of our members. We've always been big dreamers, but nowhere in our wildest dreams did we imagine the impact this community would have on our own lives and on the lives, and businesses, of the members who choose to participate here.

It's our members that have made ActiveRain the foremost place on the internet to get information about the real estate industry. It's our members that have made ActiveRain the greatest community of professionals on the internet today. It's our members that have chosen to passionately share their love for the industry from which they derive a living. It's our members who have freely shared with one and other the secrets to their success. It's our member that have chosen to educate and connect with millions of consumers a month.

Much like many of you, we've traveled to the far corners of the internet, and never have we seen a more caring and engaged group of people online. The support and kindness extended by our members has literally changed the way we view our industry. The members of this community are a special breed of professional and we will never be able to thank you enough for helping us achieve this milestone.

Our journey to get to 200,000 members has been all about our members!

We are going to be hosting a little party on Twitter at the hashtag #AR200K. We'll be tweeting special messages under that hashtag and giving away some prizes for our membership. If you haven't taken the time to figure out Twitter, it may be worth looking into today so you can follow along at the hashtag #AR200K. We will be giving away ActiveRain shirts, some community sponsorships, and a few free Rainmaker accounts.

In addition to winning something cool via Twitter, we'd also like to extend a special one day invitation to our members to get a free community sponsorship. You'll have to follow the directions exactly, but they are pretty simple:

1. Send an email to activerain200k@activerain.com.
2. In the email include a link to the community you would like to sponsor for free. Obviously it can't be previously sponsored by someone else (and make sure it's a community please, and not a link to a city page as those can not be sponsored)
3. Include your user name.
4. In the title line of the email use: 200K Community Sponsorship

This is a one day only promotion and emails will be accepted at that email address until 11:59pm Pacific Time, Monday January 17th. Your community will be added to your account by Friday, January 21st. That day you should check the 'my community sponsorships' link on the left hand side of your 'my home' page. (Is not applicable to communities you already sponsor). If two people ask for the same community, preference will be given to the first email received.

Thank you so much everyone and we look forward to our next 200,000 members and hope that you will continue to help us spread the word about ActiveRain.

 

Via Myrl Jeffcoat (Real Living Great West Real Estate):

Since the frightening days of September 2008, many folks have wondered about events that lead up to Wall Street collapse, which necessitated extraordinary measures and enormous bailouts, to stabilize the economy and keep it from falling entirely off a cliff.

There is a fascinating documentary titled, "Inside the Meltdown" as presented on Frontline and PBS.  This presentation is an excellent accounting of hour by hour developments associated with the handling of the financial meltdown, and decisions made by Paulson, Bernanke and Congress, as events unfolded while trying to quell the systemic disaster in its tracks. 

On September 18^th 2008, the astonished leadership of the U.S. Congress was told in a private session by Federal Reserve Chairman, Bernanke, that the American economy was in grave danger of a complete meltdown within a matter of days.

Especially interesting to me was the unfolding of events that led to the bailout (packaged as a J.P. Morgan Chase buyout) of Bear Stearns, while later allowing Lehman Brothers to bite the dust.  

Essentially the country was forced into a position of tossing the principle of "moral hazard" out the door, because the problem had become systemic financially - both in this country and globally.

Some of you may have seen this video before.  For those who haven't and want a better understanding of the events, here is the link to "Inside the Meltdown"... It is streamed from PBS, and can be watched at your leisure.  I highly recommend this for your viewing!  Prepare to be astonished!

Click Here to View "Inside the Meltdown" video

Real Living Great West Real Estate
(916) 635-0420
http://www.myrljeffcoat.com

 

 

Via David Krushinsky (Mortgage Professional - Phoenix, AZ - NMLS 202115):

Growing up, I usually did enough to get good grades and never worked too hard at school.  When I was in high school, my English teacher required our class to write a term paper at the end of my junior year.  Our assignment was due at the end of the semester and of course I waited until the last week to cram it in.  Rather than do all the work myself, I went to the public library and copied "word for word" straight out of the Encyclopedia Britannica for my entire report.  I thought I was being pretty smart by changing a few words here and there, so my teacher wouldn't catch me.   

At the end of the semester; my teacher, Mrs. Goltz, was passing out the results of our term papers.  Wow!!!  I shocked and surprised to see that I received a D minus on my paper.  As I glanced further down the paper, I noticed a bunch of red ink with a note stating my paper was plagiarized.  Uh oh!!!  How did she know????  I felt like I was about two inches tall and could literally feel my face starting to get warm and turn red.  I knew she knew that I had plagiarized my entire report, but was hoping I wouldn't get thrown out of school.  My life was flashing before my eyes.

I never said a word about my assignment to her and received a C in my English class that semester.  I told myself this would be the last time I would plagiarize from someone else.   

About a week ago I wrote a post titled "Phoenix FHA Mortgage Myths".  The post was featured because it had some really good content contained within the post.   Earlier that day, I had spoken with a friend, Mark Madsen, whom I regard to be very knowledgeable when it comes to blogging to generate mortgage leads.  Mark let me know that everyday there are numerous searches for FHA vs. Conventional financing being done by consumers.  Through my employer, AmeriFirst Financial, Inc.,  I teach CE Classes for real estate agents.  One of the classes I teach has a handout titled," FHA Myths Exposed and Explained".  I figured this material would be great to get some good content to help my blogging and possibly generate some leads.  

Although many of my articles are original, occasionally I do "cut-n-paste" underwriting guidelines in my articles.  However, I never copy word for word from another person's work.  This case was the exception to the rule.  I was busy and a good post takes me 3-4 solid hours of researching, getting pictures, back linking, proof-reading and publishing.  I copied the article into a Word document and modified some of the content for my long-tailed keyword - adding in Phoenix close to FHA, etc.  I also changed some of the content to fit my criteria.  The article was published and within a few minutes was actually featured.

When I write articles, I write them to generate consumer responses.  However, it's always cool to have your article featured to almost 200,000 members.  Many of the other Loan Officers in my office are also members of Active Rain, so everyone was congratulating me for a featured post.   

The next day I received a phone call from one of the staff members from Active Rain.  She wanted me to call her ASAP.  She also emailed me about the article.  When we spoke, she asked if I had copied the article from another site.  Another member from Active Rain had recognized the article and notified the staff of the plagiarism.  You can view the article here - FHA Myths Exposed and Explained.  I was away from my computer and told her that I didn't copy the article from that site.  Humbly, I did let her know that I used content from one of our CE classes because I thought it was our content designed for this class.  She let me know that because it was too hard to tell what content was original, I had the choice to leave the article up.  Once I actually looked at the article, I decided it was clearly the same.  Since then, I have changed much of the content within the article and have re-learned a valuable lesson from high school.  Even if you think your teacher, colleagues or clients won't know you've plagiarized - they will.  Thanks to the Active Rain staff and members for making me a better person. 

About the Author

My name is David Krushinsky and I am a Phoenix mortgage specialist that is truly passionate about my profession and the result is that nearly 100% of my business is by referral from satisfied clients, trusted financial advisors and the most experienced REALTOR®'s in the Phoenix area.
Questions? Call 480.339.1566 or Visit My Website