LaneBailey.com

Garage with a Detached Home

Contact Lane
  • What's YOUR Home Worth?

    Get a free Maximum Price Analysis to find out the current market value of your home.

    Read More
  • Custom Listings

    Sign up to get notified when new listingscome on the market that meet your specs.

    Read More
  • Browse Listings

    Take a look at what is currently on the market in the areas that interest you.

    Read More
  • 1

Author Archives: Lane Bailey

I’m an Active|Rain Ambassador… so Now What?

Ambassador by Nash Motors.
Image via Wikipedia

Well… I have a few ideas.  I already have a pretty full schedule of social networking events… and so now I get to add Active|Rain activities to it… and I’m really excited about that.

Actually, as soon as the training call that I missed comes online, I am going to listen to that, but I still have some ideas…

Let me back up a couple of years…

I joined Active|Rain back in June of 2007.  I was searching on Google for some marketing ideas and hit some A|R posts… and some on another network.  I joined both and surfed around them.  I was astounded by the depth of information I found.  There were some luminaries… Jeff Turner, Jay Thompson, Missy Caulk… dozens more.  These folks were sharing loads of incredible information.  And everyone was so welcoming.  Tim Maitski, I think he was in 2nd place behind Jim Crawford in GA, welcomed me on my first post.

I was still a member of both sites, and participating in both regularly… but the points system on A|R had hooked me into daily participation.  I wanted to be first in my county.  I was commenting regularly on blogs, and forging relationships.

The real clincher was going to the NAR Convention in Las Vegas that year.  In the Blogger’s Lounge I got to meet Jay Thompson…  And then A|R hosted a party at the Palms.  There I met Matt Heaton.  I also met Matt Fagioli and Patty Keller… also from here in Atlanta.  I was also fortunate enough to meet Sara Washburn (Jon’s wife) and Marlene Scheffer.  It was really cool to meet people that “lived in the computer”.  And that is still the highlight for me.  REtechSouth (Atlanta, twice), RE Bar Camps (San Francisco and Charlotte) and Inman (SF ’08) were also opportunities to meet folks I had known from A|R.  In every case it was a joy.

I think I have actually met, IRL (In Real Life), around 100 folks from A|R.  Some aren’t active on A|R anymore, but they are still my friends.  There are others I have talked with on the phone or exchanged emails with…  And in every case I have found the active members of the community to be helpful and very open with how they are successful.  This is an incredibly generous community.

So, here we are…

I’m really excited to help Active Rain grow the community.  I have learned so much and gained so many incredible resources because of my involvement here that this opportunity to pay it forward a little is wonderful.  There are some pretty cool and amazing people here.  I am fortunate to know some of them.  And now the fun part will be showing others how to grab some of the Rain the way I have been able to. This is a great place to learn, and when you are ready to go live, Google LOVES Active|Rain.  There are plenty of opportunities for consumer interactions… and LOTS of business building opportunities as well.

I can’t wait to welcome some more folks into the Rain, and show them how to embrace the growth…

from Lane’s Active|Rain blog

and did you figure out that the car is a Nash Ambassador?

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

FaceBook Fandemonium…

So, I have been a busy guy, setting up my FaceBook Fan pages…  I’d love for you to become a fan.  There are lots of cool things happening, and if you are a FaceBook member (and there are over 240,000,000 now), this might be a great way to keep up…

Lane Bailey on Facebook

Lilburn Dwellings on Facebook

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

HGTV House Hunters looking for buyers…

The Canadian HGTV logo
Image via Wikipedia

I just got an email from the production company that does House Hunters for HGTV.  They are calling for buyers that are ready to buy.  The specific quote is “in the late stages of buying.”  I would assume that would mean that they are looking for people that know what they want and will be ready to make an offer in just a few outings to view property.

There is a compensation package for the buyers, $1000 for those they select to follow.  And I think it might also be a lot of fun.

If you are a buyer, not currently working with an agent, and you think you will be buying in the next month or two, give me a call and let’s see if we can get on HGTV’s House Hunters.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Get out of your mortgage for FREE?!?

DENVER, COLORADO - FEBRUARY 19:  Financial adv...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Probably not…

But that doesn’t mean that people aren’t trying it… and it doesn’t mean that people aren’t getting in trouble for it.

Here is the way it works (and it all sounds so legit…):

  • Mr. and Mrs. Consumer buy a house and get a mortgage from MonsterMegaMortgageCompany (MMMC).
  • MMMC sells their mortgage to Investor Pool #1.
  • Then it is bundled and sold to IP#2… and #3 and #4 over a span of a few years.
  • Mr. & Mrs. Consumer start having problems, and despite everything they are facing foreclosure.
  • To try to get help they contact a “Foreclosure Mitigation” Law Firm that fights the foreclosure by filing a “missing title” lawsuit.
  • The law firm (or other entity) charges an up-front fee (maybe $2000) and then monthly fees (maybe $1000 or $1500)… as well as a contingency fee upon settlement of either 50% of the reduction or 75% or 80% of the value if the mortgage were completely eliminated.
  • After stringing along Mr. & Mrs. Consumer for a few months or longer (collecting fees), they fail to actually prosecute the case.
  • Mr. & Mrs. Consumer lose their home…

According to a few of the sources I looked at, their are no recorded examples of any suit of this type EVER being resolved in the consumer’s favor.

The basis of the lawsuit is that if the mortgage holder can’t produce the documents from the mortgage, it will be set aside and the consumer will own their property free and clear.  Sounds nice, huh?

Before getting sucked into something like this, here is a little more reading…

Source 1

Source 2

The State of California is going after one of the firms involved in this practice.  I would expect that there are similar cases in other states.

Times are tough…  scamsters know it, too

People being foreclosed on are all over the place.  They are vulnerable to people that approach them to “help.”  There are a variety of scams and plans that mostly just revolve around generating a profit for the “helper.”

Be careful!  There is help for many home owners that are in trouble… but the easy sounding solutions often aren’t what they are cracked up to be.  If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is…

I would love to lose my mortgage, too… but this isn’t the way…

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

BMW M3 gets better mileage than a Toyota Prius

2004-2007 Toyota Prius photographed in USA.
Image via Wikipedia

Shocking?

Sure, but let’s think about this.  The guys at Top Gear did a comparison… both cars were driven the same way.  And the BMW M3 did deliver better mileage than the Toyota Prius.

The way they tested was to drive the Toyota as fast around the track as it would go, and then match the speed with the M3.

Of course that means that the Toyota was driving hell-bent… and the M3 might as well have been going to get groceries.  And that is the difference.  Had the M3 been pushed, it wouldn’t have returned the mileage it did… of course, then the Toyota wouldn’t have been keep up.

But it just goes to show you that the driver and the techniques they use have a TREMENDOUS effect on the way a car performs… both for speed and efficiency.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Copyright © 2009 - 2019 Garage with a Detached Home | Gwinnett County GA. All Rights Reserved. Created by Blog Copyright.