“The lenders I work with are great. They get my loans done, customers love them and I really only have one complaint…

I wish they would blog.“

Craving Technical Mortgage Talk?

I have heard the above statement more than once from a Realtor – and usually I just smile, shrug and say something like “yeah, that is weird… just let me know if you ever need a guest post!”

The truth is that for some reason, being a loan officer and blogging seem to be a combination that only a few people have managed to balance, no matter what geographic market they work in. And of the loan officers that do end up writing about mortgage stuff, many of them don’t write enough about <insert your favorite mortgage-related technical topic> and just end up writing about funny stories that have happened to them.

I know, I probably fall into that camp – but sometimes writing about mortgages is kind of, well… boring.

So I thought I would let you know who the perfect loan officer blogger is for anyone who needs technical-mortgage-related information downloaded daily into their brain… only he isn’t a loan officer – he is the Director of Capital Markets at RPM Mortgage and his name is Rob Chrisman.

Rob simply provides the best daily commentary on what is going on in the mortgage market that there is. He has been helping me sound educated for about a year and a half just by adding me to his email list and he was probably the secret-behind-the-curtain for many loan officers long before I heard about him.

So if you can’t get your loan officer to talk technical to you… now you can get your daily dose of mortgage expert from the best in the business.

Shhh, don’t tell anyone – let’s keep this little secret to ourselves so other people think we are smart.

About the Author: Justin McHood is a mortgage broker with VanDyk Mortgage Corporation. You can find him at Arizona Mortgage Team, on the Zillow’s Mortgages Unzipped Blog, and at most East Valley Friday Nights gatherings. He’s the one in the blue shirt.

Often a well constructed chart speaks volumes and is way better than prose…

This beauty is from a blog called Innocent Bystanders. I love this blog. It’s an eclectic and sometimes irreverent collection of stuff from a bunch of folks who claim not to be bloggers, but commenters. Seems to have a very active community and is entertaining (and educational) to read.  I’m sure there are folks out there that would find some things there offensive. Personally, I’m basically unoffendable and any blog that has a commenter named “Nancy Pelosi on a Peyote Bender” is worth reading.

I name it my Site of the Week Month Quarter Whenever I Get Around to Picking One.

Hat tip to Matt Heaton (@timu_matt) of Timu.com

We get lots of questions on crime statistics.

There are a plethora of sites across the web to find information on crime, but recently I discovered CrimeReports.com, which seems to be one of the better sites around for gleaning all sorts of information related to crime, traffic accidents, pedestrian stops, you name it – whatever the police are called out for, you can find it on CrimeReports.com (even deaths, which seems kind of creepy).

That is if your local police department subscribes to the service.

The site reports they currently have about 400 jurisdictions signed up, with more on the way. In Arizona, only Gilbert, Lake Havasu City, Show Low and Snowflake-Taylor are participating. (Yes, there really are towns in Arizona called Show Low and Snowflake.) California looks to be well covered. If you are residing in North Dakota or Vermont, you are out of luck for now.

Local Police Departments feed reports directly to the site, which are then displayed on a Google map with icons representing different crime categories. The user can zoom in and out of the map, and pick and chose different categories and date ranges to display.

Here’s a screen shot for Gilbert, AZ:

Clicking on each icon will reveal limited information about the “event” (of note, for privacy reasons no personally identifying information is displayed).

You can also sign up for an account (free) and set up alerts that will notify you of whatever crime types you select. I set one up using my address and told the system to send me weekly updates for anything reported within a mile of my home.

Pretty cool stuff.

How did I find out about this site / service?

Yep, that would be where some truck made an illegal left turn into Francy’s car to the tune of $3,123 and nine days in the body shop… Fortunately no one other than the Altima was hurt.

If the area you are thinking about buying a home in has a participating law enforcement agency, then CrimeReports.com is a nifty little site for investigating all sorts of stuff about your neighborhoods of interest.

I just love these cool little “indie” sites that pop up every now and then.

I found CenPho.TV via Twitter a few weeks ago. They’ve got a weekly video webcast about things to do and what’s happening in Central Phoenix (hence the name).

Hosts Jacqui Johnson and Dave Brookhouser give you all the scoop on downtown Phoenix restaurants, news, things to do, concerts and more. “Show notes” for each episode contain written summaries of the shows and hyper-links to related sites mentioned in the episodes.

There’s even a nifty little Google event calendar so you can quickly zoom into a specific days activities.

Every week, Jacqui delivers the news and events, and Dave gives us the “Rawk Shows” — info on local and national music shows. Follow them on Twitter for even more timely updates. You can also subscribe via iTunes and YouTube.

I like these guys. They’re personable and the videos are well produced — good audio and none of the shaky Blair Witch like effect you see on some of these things. The out takes at the end of some of the shows are great — hope those stay!

You’ll get more relevant downtown Phoenix happenings in 5 minutes of CenPho.TV than you’ll find in a months worth of mainstream media. Go forth and watch!

Last week at PodCamp AZ 2008, I was lucky enough to win a drawing for some free web graphics.

Being graphically challenged to the point that I can’t draw stick figures with a ruler, winning this prize was perfect. I had been wanting to swap out my old 125×125 Search for Homes and Ask the Broker buttons because they looked too “ad like” in my (and others) opinion.

Enter Becky Crockett at PodcastDesigns.com. Based in Phoenix, Becky does graphics, and does them very well. One can get custom buttons, ads, banners, album art for podcasts, business cards, logos, and more very quickly at very reasonable rates.

I think she did a great job on the new Search and Ask buttons. Becky took a little input (very little) from me and applied her creativity and talent. With a 24 hour turn around, and almost instant revisions, she was a pleasure to work with.

You can find Becky at PodcastDesigns.com, or connect directly via email at admin[AT]podcastdesigns.com.

Last week at Ignite Phoenix, I heard a presentation about a new web site, DateDesigner.com.

No, it’s not a place to find a date. That’s up to you. But if you are looking for a place to go on a date, then look no further.

You may be thinking this is only for the young single types. Well think again. Husbands out there, just ask your wife if she’d like to go on a date with you, sans kids (or even with them). I’ll betcha some big bucks her answer will be a resounding YES. (Ladies, try it out on your husbands. Men are people too and they want to go out with you. Really.) Every couple needs a “date night” now and then. And dinner at Applebee’s and a movie from Blockbuster isn’t a date folks, it’s what old married couples do because they’ve forgotten how to date.

So slide on over to DateDesigner. Find a real date for you and your sweetie.

You can search for dating places, build dates, and share them with others. Venue reviews are pulled from Yelp, locations are mapped via google. Dates are categorized into groupings such as fun, simple, romantic, adventurous, family friendly, even “over 55” and “under 21” (the latter never to be used by my daughter).

Navigation is simple, and the site is uncluttered. It’s good stuff!

I had the pleasure of meeting Beau Frusetta, the concept man and developer of DateDesigner.com at Ignite, and ran into him again over the weekend at PodCamp AZ 2008. Here’s a short video about DateDesigner in Beau’s own words. 

While meandering through a Twitter stream, I took an unmarked left-turn and wound up on CrappyGraphs.com. It’s a very different blog run by Brian Shaler, a Phoenix area “web developer, marketing specialist, writer,
speaker, social media aficionado, visual statistician, photographer,
and exceptional jumper”. 

CrappyGraphs has nothing to do with real estate (though it could have real estate statistics applications. . .)

If however, you’ve got a little geek and/or engineer in you, there are some hilarious graphs to be found. I spent way too many years in Corporate America viewing umpteen thousand line graphs and really bad Venn Diagrams. I wish CrappyGraphs had been around then.

You can even make your own CrappyGraph! (warning: it is addicting, so be careful!)

Here’s one I just created, moments after deleting the daily hundred or so spam comments that this blog seems to collect:

Go ahead, give it a whirl!

OK, so “Site of the Week” should be renamed to “Site of the Undetermined Period of Time”. But that is really neither here nor there.

I just got off the phone with Melana Yanos, a Staff Writer for NuWire Investor. Before she contacted me, I’d never heard of them.

I was pleasantly surprised when I visited their web site. It is jammed full of information on “the news, trends and opportunities in the alternative investment marketplace” (from their About page).

What are “alternative investments”? According to NuWire:

An alternative investment is any investment that falls outside the realm of traditional stocks, bonds and mutual funds. The most common alternative investment is single family real estate. However, there are many other alternative investment options.

(such as Lending, Small Business, Commodities and others. See this page for more)

The site is well organized, easy to move around in and more importantly has well-written, in-depth articles covering a multitude of topics. They also run four blogs:

InvestorCentric: provides readers with timely, reliable snapshots of investor relevant news.

CommonCensus: takes a look at demographic trends and provides commentary and analysis on how they might affect investors and the economy.

The Brink Tank: created with investors in mind in order to inform readers of the most recent and interesting ideas, people, technology and resources available to investors.

Marketing2Investors: provides tips, thoughts and commentary on ways to better locate, serve and organically grow your base of investor clients.

Whether you are a real estate agent/broker, an investor, or just want to learn and understand more about real estate (and other) investment avenues, NuWireInvestor is a great place to stop and learn.

Five Stars. Highly recommended!

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One look at my waist line and the 240ish pounds I lug around should tell you at least one thing about me… I love to eat.

I’ve reviewed a few restaurants here — Yupha’s Thai Kitchen, Joe’s Farm Grill, Rustler’s Rooste and the original Heart Attack Grill. (by the way, I just visited the third incarnation of the Heart Attack Grill, and the burgers were awful.)

My paltry restaurant reviews pale in comparison to the work Seth Chadwick does at the Feasting in Phoenix blog.

From the Feasting in Phoenix FAQ:

Why should I read this blog?

If you are looking for straight-forward, honest, pull-no-punches reviews of restaurants around the Phoenix-metro area (and some other places around the U.S.), then you should read this blog.

And he’s right. Seth does a masterful job, reviewing restaurants in and around the Valley. Detailed, good pictures of the dishes, and well written in a personal tone. Seth describes the restaurant, the atmosphere, the service, pricing and the food. He usually also includes the thoughts of others in his party. And he reviews a wide spectrum of eateries.

Categories of all sorts of cuisines as well as locations make it easy to find a review of what you may be looking for. And if you have no idea what you’re craving, just browse. The photos alone will have you salivating.

The next time you’re thinking, “Where should we go to eat?” go to Feasting in Phoenix.

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This will only be of interest to local Phoenix area real estate agents, but it’s worth interrupting your normally scheduled programming. Apologies to non-agents, sometimes these things pop up!

NewARMLS.com is a new “blogsite” (think combination blog / website) that has been brought online to facilitate the transition from the Tempo MLS system to the shiny new and upcoming flexmls web from FBS Data systems (and more!)

What will you find on NewARMLS.com?

Best to let them cover it:

What will you find here?

The information you need to know is organized into departments.  Some of these allow you to enter comments or ask questions.

• Helpdesk - contains information about how to use the system.  You can also send questions using the website question form or click on our email address to use your own email system
• Training - contains schedule information about upcoming training on the new system.  When we’re ready to start booking classes, a link to the registration system will be added.  We are also adding video tutorials to let you learn on-line at your own pace.
• Compliance - while not directly related to the conversion, current issues, rules interpretations, and usage guidelines will be posted here.  Again, you can ask questions online.
• flexmls Web - Here is the information about the new MLS system.  As the conversion progresses, we will add more screen shots and videos showing how the system works.
• Ask the CEO - Comments and commentary from the CEO of ARMLS. This is an interactive page where you can ask questions, post comments, and express your opinions about the conversion process. 
• News - Other important information about things that will be happening during the transition period but not necessarily about the new flexmls Web system.

Very cool. And very progressive for an organization that has in the past been… let’s just say, not quite so on the cutting edge.

Thanks Bob Bemis (ARMLS CEO) and team! It looks fantastic. My only early suggestion is live on the edge, don’t moderate those comments so strictly! (My guess is some are a bit leery of “open comments”, but it’s one of the best ways to open up those communication lines. I’ve has a comment stuck in moderation for over 14 hours now. Yeah, it’s the weekend, but the Internet doesn’t sleep… One possible compromise, find a few people that you can trust to release comments — at least innocuous ones. Sort of how some Internet forums have user moderators. I can think of quite a few that would be willing to volunteer.)

And thanks to Jonathan Dalton for putting the platform together.

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