I heard this story from a very experienced real estate agent. When she was just a new agent, she felt jealous of all these real estate agents in her office who proudly displayed all sorts of real estate awards and achievements. So she ordered herself this award for her desk with the inscription “Jen …, 5 Star Real Estate Agent”.

Well, it turns out I don’t have to do this.

Home buyers contact me via this website all the time. I regularly schedule appointments to show homes. Usually, we meet at the house that the buyer is interested in.

Occasionally it happens that the buyer gets lost and calls me for directions. What’s my first question? “Where are you at right now?”

When deciding on how much lower (if any) to offer on a bank-owned home that is listed for sale, the answer is similar.

Yes, I do spend way too much time at the computer… Searching for houses on the MLS, checking public records, reading news, keeping myself up to the date on all the real estate stuff… It takes time.

So I thought, while at it, I could make at least some use of the time. (As if I need another excuse to sit by the computer :) ).

By the time you get to reading this, you’ve probably noticed. Yesterday, I installed this live chat option on this blog. This means that whenever I’m online, there’s going to be a chat box available in the bottom right corner. This will give you an opportunity to get in touch with me immediately, while continuing to search for houses.

I thought it should be cool! Live chat with a real estate agent! Real estate agent? Cool? Neah, I guess “useful” or “convenient” would be the right words here.

Money Magazine has just published its annual ranking of best places to live in America. Mukilteo, WA is again in the Top 10!

I said “again” because Mukilteo ranked #10 two years ago. Now, it’s #9 on the 2011 list. That’s some consistency, I must say! Why would Mukilteo be a great city to live in?

Here are some of the reasons the Money Magazine provides why Mukilteo was chosen as one of the best places to live:

Every year about 12% of Americans move from one place to another. We, real estate agents, help people move all the time. Not literally, in most cases, but by helping to buy that new home.

People are excited to move into a new house, aren’t they?

A while back I shared a vivid example of how RealtyTrac pre-foreclosure listings on Trulia confuse home buyers.

Are you still interested in pre-foreclosure listings? Here’s another example. One of my buyers sent me this Arlington WA pre-foreclosure listing she found on Zillow:

Real Estate Buyers are Looking for Deals:

Are you looking for great real estate deals? I know you do.  My Homes Under 100K page on this blog gets tons of traffic.

So, I thought I would create a list of 10 cheapest homes for sale in Everett, WA.

Disclaimer:

To avoid possible confusions, here are a few  things to keep in mind:

• The list includes the most current homes listed for sale. It’s updated daily from the NWMLS. The homes are sorted starting with the lowest price listed.
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A while back I described my own mistake of choosing not to have a home inspection when buying a brand new house.

Currently, I’m working on closing another transaction on a HUD home in Marysville.

The buyer has some construction experience, so he opted out not to have a home inspected by a licensed professional. Instead, he did it by himself.

At first it looked like a smart move to save $300. But as it turned out it was not…

So you’ve decided to contact a real estate agent… Do you expect him to pick up the phone right away? If you leave a message or send and email, how soon do you expect a reply? At what point is it too late?

Home buyers contact me regularly via this website. I’ve also advertised my buyer’s agent services on other websites, such as Trulia and Zillow. I rarely see buyers surprised when I quickly reply to their inquiries.

On the contrary, in the age of Facebook and other social media tools, home buyers expect virtually “live” communication. I receive email on my Blackberry (yeah, I’m old school :) so, unless I’m busy with another buyer, I try to respond ASAP).

Earlier this month,

It seems to me that HUD homes have been the best deals around lately.  While working on my second HUD transaction in Marysville WA, I had to learn a lesson in spelling.

You may think that in the age of spellcheckers, the spelling is no longer an issue. Wrong!

The technicalities aside, HUD and their contractors have very stringent rules about spelling. If buyer’s name you submit in the online bidding system differs from the spelling in buyer’s documents, your bid will be cancelled!

The sales contract on a HUD home itself has to be filled out very meticulously. Having some teaching background, I thought it wouldn’t be a problem. Also, my first HUD contract was error-free (to the big surprise of the listing agent).

Thus, I was a bit surprised when I got  a 24 hour correction notice from HUD’s contractor PEMCO. Guess what the problem was…