Staging: How to Convince a Homeowner

You just landed a wonderful listing. Congratulations! It’s a tough market right now, but the home is in a good neighborhood and with just a little work it may be sold in a couple weeks.

Then you actually start working with the client. This client is motivated to sell the house, but is completely unwilling to raise a hand to help you stage, show or sell the home.

They want to move because they already have a new house. They don’t want to organize, paint or be bothered with “the old house” and they don’t believe it matters. Your suggestions are meeting with resistance and you get the distinct impression that your recommendation that they paint the dark blue entryway a lighter color is… well… rude.

You don’t want to upset the client, but you can’t engage them in the project. You need them to be cooperative. How do you achieve that goal?

In three easy steps… Continue reading

Motion Releases New LE-1700 Model Tablet PC

Ok, I’m salivating. This new Motion tablet has it all. First, I’m a power-user, my little LE-1600 is often screaming “mercy!” from my multi-tasking ways — but this new duo-core model offers an upgrade to 4Gigs of memory. That’s enough to keep even me quiet for a few months. Continue reading

Best Offerings from Finger Eleven’s new Album Them vs.You vs. Me

After the concert, I’ve listened to the new Finger Eleven album several times. It’s all pretty darn good, but three of the songs really shine:

1. Change the world (Acoustic Mix) – The acoustic version outshines the standard, IMHO.

2. Paralyzer – (only a few songs make me want to get up and dance, but this one keeps me tapping, nodding and feeling the urge to move)

3. Talking to walls – I just like it.
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My Conversion from Outlook 2007 to Open-Source

I wanted to convert my use of Outlook 2007 to an open source option. The problem was determining which one to select.

Problems with Outlook 2007

Outlook 2007 is so blasted slow, I nearly pulled my hair out nearly every day. My “trial” version expires Saturday, so I’m busy converting my stuff over to an open source alternative that will easily follow me when I discard the Windows operating system for a Linux model.

I’m tired of using Microsoft products. I despise what they have decided to do with Vista and the more I read, the more determined I become not just to avoid Vista, but to avoid all Microsoft products as much as possible.

Rather than buying a program to do the conversion from OL2007 to opensource, I was convinced I could find a way (even if it’s a multi-step process) to make this conversion myself. I wanted to share my findings with those of you interested in going on the same path, and hope that I save you time, research effort and frustration in the process.

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