importantly have you seen his tiny house?! He lives, and according to him THRIVES, in a 96 square foot house that he built for himself. WHAT?!

You read me right – NINETY SIX square feet. As he says the plumbing is rough, the bathroom is challenging, and it’s tough to make the bed, but otherwise, the significant downsizing is well worth it. How significant is the downsizing? Tiny House Man Shafer grew up in 4000 square feet. He knows what he’s missing, and he says he misses nothing.

My immediate reaction was LUNATIC! Where do you….?  How do you….? Why would you…..?

Then I heard a friend’s (annoying) voice tell me I am projecting my perspective onto Shafer. I opened my mind and listened to what the Tiny House Man had to say.

The average home emits 18 tons of greenhouse gases – A tiny house is significantly more green.

Houses have been growing in size for the last 50 years, creating waste and stress – Bigger mortgages and less free time to care for and enjoy our sprawling pads. Insert any economy and real estate concerns here.

Quality over Quantity – Shafer says he couldn’t afford to put the quality materials and features in a house of more conventional size, so he decided to instead sacrifice the space.

Value – A tiny house costs more per square foot to build than a conventional home, but ends up less at the end, of course. And according to Shafer’s statistics, a 1200 SF house appreciates at a higher rate than one over 2000 SF. This is pretty consistent with what we see in traditional house pricing.

And this is what he said that REALLY got me. (The words are right, but I might not have the “quote” exactly right.) …

Excess is burden not luxury.

Now that Shafer’s married he has built a larger tiny house for his family. He believes that everyone needs their own private space and although his own needs are bare minimum, hence the rough plumbing,  he designs tiny houses based on individual needs. Do you think you could live tiny?

LANSING – Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today announced that the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), along with banks, credit unions and nonprofit counseling agencies, will launch a statewide program to help eligible Michigan homeowners avoid foreclosure by participating in the state’s new $154.5 million Helping Hardest-Hit Homeowners Fund.

Whoa! I am loving the Governor right now! This money is part of the $1.5 billion that President Obama announced back in February would be used to fund "innovative measures to assist families in the states that have been hit hardest by the aftermath of the housing bubble."

Despite the controversy surrounding the whos, hows, and whys of the foreclosure boom, many hard working responsible home owners have been victimized. Those are the folks being targeted by this new program.

Those who may be eligible include Michigan homeowners who are currently receiving unemployment compensation, homeowners who have fallen behind in their mortgage payments or taxes due to a temporary layoff or medical emergency, and homeowners who can no longer afford their mortgage payments due to lower household income.

This is good news for all of us. Just like the big businesses whose failure would negatively impact everybody, regardless of how we felt about their financial success – the success of homeowners in keeping their homes is crucial to the repair of our economy and the wellness of our neighbors and communities.

And KUDOS to those in charge for hatching this great plan right on the heels of the Home Buyer Credit closing extension! It almost feels like someone in charge is sensible and CARES doesn’t it?

Applications just started being taken this week so keep in mind this is a new program. It’s likely to be slow and frustrating but apparently MSHDA is hiring extra help to assist in the processing of the applications. So if you are having difficulty making your payments, call your mortgage servicer right away to see if you qualify for the program. And tell everyone you know about it. It’s easy to complain and grumble about government. "Where’s MY bail out?!" Well, here’s another piece of it. It’s up to YOU (me, him, her, us) to place the call and make it happen.

Now back to Adam Lambert… I was fired for attending the concert. Do you think that’s fair?  I saw many of you, my crazy fun buyers past and present, at the show which was very cool. I’ll just keep showing up to work and see if anyone notices. Shhhh. Don’t tell.

What’s our name? CHANGINGstreets.com. Not STAYTHESAME.com! Right? Right! We’re constantly evolving – not just changing WITH the market but AHEAD of the market. The same is true for our website. I get it – you loved our old one. So did we. But it wasn’t working for us anymore. We were limited with what we could do for you and we don’t like limits. Or being told what we can and cannot do for you. The new website gives us more freedom and gives you more services. It’s GOOD I promise!

Here’s the deal – my favorite feature of the old website was being able to simply plug in an address or partial address into the search box and being able to quickly find info on a specific property. Guess what I found out – that was your favorite feature too. Buyers, Realtors, and Loan Officers are all yelling at me. My own family is yelling at me! “I can’t find anything! I miss that search box!”

To them I say, “Hellloooo. It’s right there under your nose.”

So there’s your homepage right? Click ADVANCED SEARCH. In about the middle of that page is a little box that says “address/zip”. Plug in the address and voila! The improvement in this case, new site vs. old, is that NOW in addition to school district and area, you can search by MAP and SUBDIVISION! That’s huge!

I remember one day walking into Target and EVERYTHING was different. I was ticked! I knew Target like the back of my hand and shopped blind folded on auto pilot. The new layout made me think and I hated it. That was years ago and now I love it! I got used to the new arrangement and things make sense to me there. Oh no doubt they will eventually change again and I’ll be irritated all over again. But we will get used to it and understand it in the long run.

So stop yelling at me y’all! If there were no change, you wouldn’t be able to look at a map on our website and see all the houses for sale in a certain area. And you wouldn’t be able to buy milk and refrigerated items at Target.

What do you miss about the old site? What would you change about the new one if you had the chance?

Improvising and home ownership go hand in hand. Two weeks ago my dryer died a loud screeching death. It was very sad for me because I knew it meant goodbye to the tax return. Again. ABC gave me a wonderful deal on an American Made (holla!) front loading, energy efficient, fast and silent set that has given the Dyson competition for my domestic affection. But before the tax return was returned and the appliances of my eye could be purchased… I was washing unmentionables in the sink and telling my kids, "oh no, you can wear it again. No on will notice that pizza sauce on your belly. If they do, just tell them you had a bloody nose on the way to school." I spent $60 at the Laundromat. Sickening.  But what are you gonna do?

Appliances, though are an easy fix in comparison to everything else in your house that could go wrong without proper maintenance. And not to freak you out, but if you don’t constantly update and maintain your house a little at a time, you are going to be looking at some expenses much higher than $1200 for a Whirlpool Duet pair.  Here. I found this cool home maintenance checklist at Bob Vila’s place in case you didn’t get one with your home inspection. Or if you’re like me, perhaps misplaced it. With Spring just around the corner it’s time to give your house some extra attention.

Aren’t we good at improvising, Ladies? In a previous forum discussing breakfast saves when the pantry turned up empty overnight, I heard some great solutions.  Chocolate milk pours into my kids breakfast bowls about once every three months when the skim milk is out. But my favorite I’ve heard came from a Mom who said she served ice cream and toast to her kids one morning for breakfast because of its similarity to milk! Ha! I think that’s awesome. I mean if it happened every day I might be concerned, but she wanted to make sure her kids got some calcium and vitamin D before school and she did what she had to.

Every day we wake up to the potential of something going wrong in the household. Please tell me what your creativity has spawned that got you out of a household jam. I won’t tell anyone…

*thanks dir.coolclips.com for the cool pic!

The number of units sold in Maui for May 2010 made a strong jump from May of 2009.  However, as we mentioned before, the Hawaii market has seen a rise in foreclosures which means many of these homes being sold are at significantly reduced prices.

Typically in a recovery phase of any real estate market, the number of sales increases before the prices start to come up. That only makes sense since the low prices from bank owned foreclosures and aggressive, motivated sellers is what causes the resurgence is home buying.  In Maui’s case that added up to a 49% increase in the number of single family homes sold, with a 9% decrease in the median sales price.

What does this mean for Maui Buyers and Sellers?

If you’re a seller and you don’t really NEED to sell – now is not the time to be on the market. Unless you are willing and able to compete with the low price and high quality that is abundant in the market right now, you need to be realistic about your very low chances of selling.  On the flipside, properties priced and presented properly are looking at only about 132 days on the market.  That figure includes a high number of short sales whose extended negotiation and closing times make that days on market average look even longer than it is.

For buyers it means BUY NOW.  The inventory is abundant, high quality, and priced nice.  But as the amount of property sold continues to rise, eventually so will the interest rates and prices and we’ll be kicking ourselves saying, “Can you believe what we could have gotten that for 2 years ago?!”

The home buyer tax credit has been a great program that inspired a lot of home buyers to take the plunge, and breathed life back into the housing market.  Statistics will show you that numbers are up which is awesome across the board, but that’s not all.

In addition to the increase in buyers and contracts being written, it has been great to see a return of regular buyers and sellers. For the longest time it seemed that all I was working with were investors, banks, and grouchy people. I became one of the grouchy people, in fact.  I know that as an agent my job is to facilitate sales and get paid for it. But the part that gets me EXCITED about my job is the people.  Assisting them in finding their dream homes  and sharing in their enthusiasm as they do so.  Up until now there hasn’t been as much of that and I have missed it!

So anyway! A lot of buyers followed the rules, met the deadlines and qualified for the tax credit. Here’s the problem.  The banks – the lenders and the sellers – are all back logged. We the buyers are ready to close but as the June 30th closing deadline approached, it was looking like the about 180,000 qualified buyers were going to lose their benefit while waiting in line for the turn to come up.

To be very honest, there has been so much going on in this market (in the world in general, come to think of it!) that hasn’t  made sense and didn’t seem fair, that it didn’t even occur to me there might be an extension.  We were all just fretting and working our tails off to help everything along. Thanks to the Senate’s passing of the extension yesterday, there will be a decrease in headaches being treated and wine being consumed between now and the original June 30 deadline.  Qualified buyers whose contracts were signed by April 30th now have until September 30th to get those puppies closed! Yeah!

Believe me, with deals pending for 4, 5, 6 months already, no one’s going to hear this news and start slacking. We’re ready to button them up.  But it will be with less stress and more joy,  knowing that the odds of the deal ending with a smiles, hugs, and handshakes just increased!

Contemplating my trip last week to Mackinac Island I really had prepped myself for some sadness. Like all the stores that have closed down in Courtland Center, I was sure I was going to see some signs of failing commerce. I didn’t really expect to see the windows boarded up at Ryba’s Fudge Shop, but I knew there’d be something. I was wrong. What I found was all new residential housing going up! Big beautiful estates and charming upscale neighborhoods. The clear cutting of the trees disturbed me, I admit, but those feelings were trumped by joy that money was being invested in Michigan by investors and spent by buyers scooping those properties up. People are getting comfy with their money again and not afraid to spend it.

This isn’t just happening in Michigan, though, nationally we’re seeing increased consumer spending and dips in foreclosure. I said “nationally” but guess what state actually saw an increase in foreclosures last month. HAWAII! I know, can you believe it?

So I talked to my friend Bob who has been involved in Hawaii real estate for over thirty years and he explained that it takes awhile for trends to make it to the Islands, and that they are just now experiencing what the rest of us are finally starting to recover from.

“In 30 years I believe this is the fifth downturn I’ve gone thru here in Hawaii.  When a recession hits, Hawaii is the last to feel it and the last to recover – economic changes always seem to move westward.  So for foreign Buyers and Buyers on the mainland, this is good news because they can start to experience the recovery on the mainland and still be able to take advantage of our lower market values here.”

Makes sense. As our ability to spend is rising, so are the prices of the homes for sale. But in Hawaii, and other areas just now starting to decline, the prices are actually going lower, making it a good time to invest in those areas.

With interest rates in Hawaii at 4.71% for a 30 year mortgage and foreclosures there on the rise, there are incredible opportunities for second homes and investment properties to be had. Can you think of a better place than Hawaii to invest in a vacation home?

If you would like more information on the Hawaii market you can call Bob McCollor @ 808.283.8137 or browse the inventory here.

As it turned out, chaperoning the school trip to Mackinac Island pretty much means that no needs of your own will be met as you scurry to make sure that the children in your charge are making curfew, eating properly, maintaining some level of hygeine, attending all the mandatory activities, finding the items on the scavenger hunt, and not falling ass over tea cup over handle bars riding a bike down the steep hill clearly marked “bike riding prohibited, too dangerous, must walk.”

Can I say “ass over teacup here?” It’s a saying, I’m not really cursing. We’ll see what happens.

Anyway, let’s just say, there was no time or energy to rock on the porch, blogging & sipping iced tea like I imagined there would be. BUT after a day of recovery from 3 days of bike riding up hill, a night of $3 margaritas at Bar Louie, and by chance catching Comedy Central’s bleeped out presentation of IDIOCRACY – I am reminded and jazzed all over again by the goings on with the mortgage artists formerly known as COUNTRYWIDE.

Let me start by saying that Countrywide Home Lending has always cheezed me, and I didn’t always even know why.  Every time that dude came on running his mouth in the commercials, making all those promises I literally yelled at the TV, such is how severly the whole operation rubbed me the wrong way. Things didn’t add up, but it was impossible to convince buyers of that fact once Countrywide got a hold of them. When I heard that Countrywide was facing bankruptcy a few years back, I wasn’t surprised at all. I didn’t really think “Aha!” I wasn’t bitter yet at that point and out for blood. We didn’t really know what hit us yet… or that we had even been hit really. So Bank of America scooped them up and this seemed like a good thing. SINCE THEN plenty of crap has hit the fan. In the name of our own good, we’ve been forced to bail out those whose blood we sought, the very heads we wanted served up on a silver platter. Or maybe a paper plate would be more fitting, economy considered. No need to rehash the whole ugly last few years but I think we can all agree that have sat back, feeling helpless, as BIG business got away with it all. Those fools are still taking lavish trips and ridiculous bonuses. Us fools are still losing our homes.

WELL! The fiddler is finally getting paid – to the tune of $108,000,000! Woohoo! 

Now this is different than the $600,000,000 that Bank of America settled to pay out to investors a while back. This latest stipend goes right to “us the people.” Those of us that got directly burned by Countrywide, that is. I. LOVE. THIS. Here’s why.

I’m not vengeful. I won’t see any of this money, nor will anyone that I know, that I know of.  This 108m will not fix the economy, nor likely the problems of the people receiving it since it is probably only based on the money snatched from them and not the damages they suffered over the years since.  But it does send a message and regardless of who plugs their ears, everyone up and down MAINSTREET (haven’t heard that in a while have we?) can sigh a little “I told you so” and raise their heads up a bit thanks to FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz.

Liebowitz announced that Countrywide mortgage DECEIVED its customers, behaved callously and charged astronomical and illegal fees to consumers already in trouble – well this was not news to us of course, but it sure is satisfying to hear it verified by the Federal Trade Commission.

Oh sure there were silly home buyers who over bought and deliberately set out to get all they could, but most were just excited to be home owners. And there are those who will continue to try and lay blame for the housing crisis on that scenario, but the fact is, banks like Countrywide intentionally and calculatedly made a ton of money giving out risky loans, then double dipped and made even more when the loans went bad. THEN said it was our own fault for being stupid. Well, we may have been the first to go down, but with lawsuits on banks continuing to be won, and bank BIG wigs facing their days in court, it’s good to see justice being served as the consequences of the collected stupidity are reaching out to all who had a hand in this mess.

Come to think of it, we’re all really ass over teacup in this together right now aren’t we?

It is now illegal to text while driving in the state of Michigan. This boils my blood. Maybe not so much at the law but at the NEED for this law.

Text messaging causes distraction while driving which can lead to impaired driving, mistakes, crashes, and death. All true.

On occasion somebody’s going to do something stupid/absent minded/make a bad judgment call and use something improperly. Food, for instance, is misused every day. People die every day from complications associated with over eating. Are we going to tell people what they can and cannot eat? Too much of a stretch? What about eating while driving? I bet there is a statistic for accidents caused by driving one handed with food in the other or frazzled moms blowing on fries and passing out the food out of the McDonald’s bag to a car load of kids. So do we ban eating and driving? Ever spilled your coffee on your lap while driving? That’s a pretty big distraction. What about smoking and driving? Taking your eyes of the road to light the cigarette, flick it, again – driving one handed. Those are all big distractions. You know what? So is fiddling with the radio. We should just stop manufacturers from installing car stereos. So we’re super safe.

I have texted while driving without thinking of it any more seriously than glancing at the map or the gps.Awareness has taught me otherwise and I no longer answer quick messages while driving. I pull over if something needs my attention. And I’ll send a quick “confirmed!” or something similar at a red light. As adults and experienced drivers we should be able to handle managing our own cell phone usage! Teens and novice drivers should have restrictions. 

Anyway, it is what it is, and we now have this texting ban. I’m sure we’re all safer in the big picture. What has me the most cheezed though is that there are some who are trying to get cell phones completely banned from driving. I believe our friends in North Carolina already have that piece of nonsense in place. Stupid Oprah of all people is getting folks fired up. Now Ohpry, when’s the last time you had to drive yourself OR make a phone call to handle any appointments or obligations of your own? This isn’t an all or nothing issue. The logical solution lies somewhere in the middle.

Do you have any idea how much I drive and how much my phone rings and chirps and beeps, as a real estate agent? I would never get any peaceful time with my family if I waited until I was not driving to answer all my calls. I realize there is hands free and they will probably not mess with that, but it doesn’t change the fact that call phone bans are stupid. 

That’s my opinion. What’s yours?

Apparently I was able to focus once I got on a roll. You’ll have to come back later to read my Country Wide Mortgage got burned for deceiving people celebration post! It’s much more upbeat!

Vodka has been used practically since the beginning of time, not only to comfort early man on the dance floor, but in medicinal ways as well. Socially, vodka has never lost its popularity. That’s probably because not much has changed from the social skills of early man to that of modern man. Medicine, however has come a long way, leaving the health and practical benefits of scentless liquor behind as “secrets” of our treasured older generations.  But I was thinking… with costs of medicines so high and the chemicals in household products becoming so dangerous… maybe it’s time to focus more on the liquor cabinet than the medicine cabinet! There is a group on Facebook called “Moms who Need Wine” that is up to almost 200,000 members. So I know a lot of you are intrigued right now. These are just a few of my favorite uses for vodka around the house, but not in a glass.

CLEAN CAULKING ALONG TUB AND SHOWER Put some vodka in a spray bottle, squirt on caulking and let sit for 5 minutes before washing away. The alcohol in the vodka cleans mold, too!  We’re talking bottom shelf vodka here… goes without saying right? Honest to goodness if I get any complaints from husbands whose wives use the Gray Goose to remediate mold I will have to slap somebody.

RELIEVE POISON IVY Vodka washes away the urishiol oil to clear up poison ivy.  I actually tried this one out this weekend when my husband got his annual spot of ivy on his hand. He said it felt better instantly.

KILL BUGS Use that same spray bottle of vodka to shoot bees and wasps dead!  I was just talking with my sisters in law this weekend about how we all chase bugs around the house and spray them with household cleaners to stun them until someone else can kill them and dispose of them later. Good to know we can shoot them with some Popov and take care of the matter ourselves… no chasing, no crunching.

CLOTHING ODOR KILLER Since vodka kills odor causing bacteria, you can spritz it on everything from your clothes to your feet to keep smelling fresh. It will also remove stubborn smoke scents from clothes. Simply spray the garment and leave it to dry. The vodka leaves no stain or smell behind.

CLEANS CHROME, PORCELAIN, GLASS – Use that spray bottle of vodka like Windex to make your hard surfaces sparkle while killing bacteria and mildew.

PRESERVE FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS – A couple drops of vodka and some sugar in the water of your fresh floral arrangements will keep them blooming longer.

BAND AID REMOVAL – Saturate that bandage with vodka for quick easy and painless removal!

SOOTHE TOOTHACHE AND EARACHE – This is pretty old school but rub a little vodka on your gums or swish it around to soothe a toothache (numbs the pain) or drop some in your ear for an earache. (kills the bacteria that causes the pain).

BEAUTY – When I became a mom, my beauty budget decreased so it was goodbye to Estee Lauder and hello wrinkles and big pores. Coincidentally my vodka budget  (and need)INCREASED! If only I’d known then what I know now. Vodka can be used as a facial astringent to clean and tighten pores, as well as mixed with your shampoo to clean the scalp and make your hair shine. Watch out pores! The tightening begins tomorrow!

My Facebook page has been compared to pubs and described as “vodka soaked,” and I’ve been advised to not link it to this website - so finding out and writing about how useful vodka is around the house was especially fun for me.  But really, why use vodka instead of the manufactured products we’ve become accustomed to using in its place? For me, there is always vodka on hand, but when ivy strikes or I see a spot of mildew in the bathroom I might not always have the store bought solution on hand. In cases like that the vodka is convenient and saves me from having to spend money on a whole bottle of whatever. Further points are given to vodka for its green nature vs. the harsh chemicals in bleach and other household cleaners.