Don't put off buying

A realtor in the San Diego area posted his comments on a national blog and here are four paragraphs of his comments.

My thinking is that if you need a home, you should buy it now. Why now? Interest rates are very low, inventory is up and so therefore, you can get a good deal.

Let's say you want to wait until prices go down further. If you are buying a home where you plan to stay put for a few years, the lower purchase price is not going to make any difference in the long run. I believe is not worth playing "Russian Roulette". I remember that when we bought our home when the market was up, I was very upset because I had to pay $ 10,000 more than the Bank's appraised value. After a few years and my home went up in value, I did not even remember what the appraisal fuss was all about.

For Buyers needing to buy, waiting could be a bad financial decision. They might end paying a higher interest rate and one point difference in rate could mean, that the home they were "eyeing" to purchase at a lower value, could become become unaffordable.

The rash of short sales and foreclosures in San Diego, even though is high, it is not going to drag prices down. The amount of short sales and foreclosures is very low compared with the existing amount of homes in any given area. Foreclosures do not represent market value. They are an abomination.

This is not a recommendation to buy but just a posting of one realtor's point of view.

Facebook Social Networking

Facebook was founded in a Harvard University dorm room less than four years ago. Now No. 2 in social networking sites, it has become the tech debutante of the year -- the hottest company inside the hottest Internet trend. Facebook allows thousands of programmers to add features that help its users update one another on their every move and thought.

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday won the right to invest in Facebook Inc. Microsoft is betting that online social networking is the marketing platform of the future, letting advertisers narrowly target their brands to people who group themselves around such affinities as the Lakers or French cooking.

Facebook, which employs fewer than 400 people, is the sixth-most-visited site on the Web, according to research firm ComScore Networks. The majority of its users are now overseas.

Animated GIF

We found a website, www.Gickr.com, that lets you instantly create animated GIF files. It is an online application that can be used for free. You upload up to 10 photos from a local hard drive or grab them from Flickr.

Give it a try.

Nokia's internet tablet

Nokia N810 Internet Tablet

Here's a full-featured internet device without a phone attached. The new Wi-Fi- and Bluetooth-enabled Nokia N810 Internet Tablet is expected to be available in November for only $480. The device has a 4.13-inch 800x480 screen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard to enable great web browsing, IM, and GPS functionality, with Skype, video chat, and music playback from an optional 10GB memory card rounding out the feature set.

It's an iPhone without the phone, only better.

Plan ahead for 2008

A recent posting at www.realblogging.com encouraged the need to remain engaged and stay focused and plan for 2008. What you do today will make or break your first quarter 2008. This is true whether the market is good or bad.

Read the entire article at http://www.realblogging.com/resist-urge-hibernate-winter-now-time-position-yourself-success-2008

Where are the visitors? Part 2

Another of the reasons that real estate websites lose visitors is my being focused on the website owner rather than on the website visitor.

This is manifested in at least a couple different ways:

"I am the best that there is" or "I am #1 in town". These comments may be true but it is very self-serving. Visitors are interested in what you can do for them. If you can state your value proposition, then you should do so. This will convey your real value to your visitors.

Greater usage of "I", "me", "we" rather than "you".

Avoid these misktakes.

Yahoo Search

Yahoo Inc. launched a new internet search technology on Tuesday. The new Yahoo Search introduces features like 'universal search', which automatically includes different content types in search results.

The service provides an attractive drop-down box called search assist that appears as users type, offering spelling fixes and search suggestions based on what's being typed. For example, start typing "Britney," and Yahoo will suggest Britney Spears news, song titles, videos, and performances.

Yahoo hopes the new interface will attract more Internet users and slow down Google's ever-widening lead in the US search market. In August, Google's share of the US Internet search market jumped by more than 30 percent year-over-year to 53.6 percent. On the other hand, Yahoo had a 20 percent share. Microsoft is in third place with about 11 percent.