Foreclosures and Short Sales with Kevin Mikrut -Episode #78

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MIddleton, Wisconsin is #1 - Bill and Cathy Helped!

17 July 2007 - Middleton, Wisconsin

It's people like Bill and Cathy that make Middleton, Wisconsin the Best Place to Live in America.

CNNMoney.com came out with their annual list of the best places this week and this modest suburb of Madison took first prize. Middleton is attracting the kind of people that want to live in a place with access. reasonable real estate prices, low crime, and a positive outlook. In the published interview, residents cited the tightknit community as to why this community rose to the top of an impressive heap.

A tightknit community? How do you get one of those? Well, let's get back to Bill and Cathy. These are the kind of people you want in your neighborhood. Bill coaches or assists in three community youth league sports. He's on committees and supports their games. He does business - their business, not his - locally with as many people as he can. He knows his neighbors, their kids, and can talk to them about jobs, family, and nothing at all very comfortably.

Bill and Cathy both volunteer at their son's school, providing support ranging from lunchroom work to field trip chaperones. Cathy is active in local committee and church groups. They vote, ride bikes, and help their neighbors shovel snow during the long Wisconsin winter. They are the good citizens of Middleton - They didn't move to the #1 community in America - they helped create it.

So why is this relevant to my blog and you? Bill is Bill Quigley, my business partner and friend. We maintain a small office in Middleton and Bill is the brains behind the problem-solving we do for our Robbins & Lloyd Mortgage clients. He's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet and is the neighbor you've always wanted. And behind every great man...well that means Cathy is his equal in every way.


Congratulations to Bill and Cathy Quigley for living in America's best place - and congratulations to Middleton for finding them. They are a small part of a big deal, like the tiny jewels in a Rolex watch that make it so precise - and so very precious.

Art Blanchet

Your Home-Your Money

Canadian Mortgage Professional Magazine Interviews Bill Quigley and Art Blanchet of YHYM

20 June 2007 - Madison, Wisconsin

Well, they like us in Canada anyway - but we weren't their first choice. We forgive them.

A few weeks back Bill Quigley and I were interviewed by Vanessa Chris from Canadian Mortgage Professional Magazine about YHYM for an article they were writing on the use of technology in the mortgage industry. As Vanessa researched the Canadian cyber waves for her article, she soon realized there weren't any Canadian Podcasters up there, so reluctantly searched neighboring states and found us - and Your Home-Your Money - in Wisconsin. Close enough. (Good thing she chose us over anyone else - I was ready to trump the competition by playing the "race" card - my MOM was born in Canada!)

The print article, entitled, "Digital marketing: The wave of the future," came out in May. The online version is available here at http://tinyurl.com/37t8k7 as of this week.

Our section of the article deals with the use of podcasting, blogging, and broadcast radio as marketing tools. Podcasts can be listened to as live streaming audio via computer or telephone. Radio can be streamed, heard via airwaves, or now as podcasts via the host station. Both forms of podcasts are downloadable to computers and to cell-phones (we don't push this) and MP3 players for portable listening.

Blogs, websites, and eZines can promote all media. Video is emerging for us soon - you've seen some of our sorry-looking experiments. Here is how we promote and utilize our digital media locally:

• We gain credibility by providing information to the public/marketplace via sound and digital media.
  
• We market to that public via commercials, targeted surface mail, and email.
  
• We invite Guests who make contributions of information to the public via sound and digital media
  
• We invite Guest database and cross-promote to build credibility for both parties.
  
• We market to mutual databases and offer special services or discounts to both databases. Expenses can be shared or kept separate - with an eye on RESPA guidelines.


• We invite mutual databases and broadcast listeners to hear archivedpodcasts. These are marketed via digital means via blogs, websites, and email.


• We continue with a Second Guest and can then share three databases - directly or indirectly.
  
• And so on.

The article puts this together better in a nice interview format. We recorded the interview - with permission - which is like an uncut version of the final story - we'll share that, too. As a point of interest, CMP has shared the article with an affiliated partner in Australia (Mortgage Professional Australia) where it will get that "Down Under" twist. Add this to a couple of quotes in Blogger and Podcaster Magazine (thanks to TalkShoe) - plus a few Podcast Industry audio interviews - and we are having a wee bit of fun and getting a touch of fame. Now if there were only money...

If you follow our blogs at all, you'll see we are fans of Scott Bilker and Tom Domin. Why? We like what they do as professionals and consumer-advocates (Scott advises about consumer credit and Tom provides low-cost marketing materials to mortgage pros) and want to be associated with them. Having something to offer in the way of support and promotion allows us to control our relationships as professionals - we ARE judged by the company we keep.

Well, that's the skinny on our moment in the spotlight (or maybe just a flash-light in our case). Just thought we'd share - and possibly inspire. We will help those willing to learn what little we know - perhaps another GROUP (oh no!?!) is in order...

Thanks for reading and listening. With a little effort on our part, you'll soon be watching, too.

Thanks to Vanessa Chris and Canadian Mortgage Professional for a sweet article!

Art Blanchet

Bill Quigley

Your Home-Your Money

Hey, how 'bout them Mets!!

OK, so nobody liked my last blog (not a comment) - well I wasn't too fond of it either. But I had to use my right as an American and brag a little - with a wise lesson included - in case my Mom ever buys a computer.

Who am I kidding - she only learned the popcorn button on the microwave last week! I did it for me. I confess. And it felt GOOD!

Now, there are many blogs floating around (mental image registered) that are screaming about NEGATIVES. So, I decided to change the subject. I love the New York Mets (but not as much as the Yankees, mostly due to cool Joe Torre). Well, I don't really love the Mets - it's more a geography-based "like" of the Mets, but I love the line, Hey, how 'bout them Mets!! that has appeared in TV and movies whenever someone was in an awkward situation and wanted a distraction or subject change.

Now don't get me wrong - the Mets (Metropolitan Baseball Club) are a team I've been following for over 40 (did I say that?) years. In my adolescence I would listen from my bedroom in Upstate New York to the Mets' night games as I drifted off to a restless sleep on a very, warm muggy, still August night (couldn't use HOT August night - I'd be in the clutches of Neal Diamond's attorneys). OK (again). It was HOT! There was no "drift." I laid there in my sweat, flipping my pillow to the "cool" side about every ten minutes listening to a rookie named Nolan Ryan walk batter after batter in the ninth inning to swipe defeat from the jaws of victory.

I remember feeling so sorry for the hapless speedballer that one night a single tear slipped down my cheek to further moisten my already sloshy feather pillow. Now, in retrospect, I might concede it was probably another drop of sweat. Man it was HOT!

Well, I'm through here. Just a respite from the negatives of the world. I use Hey, how 'bout them Mets!! to distract me - you can use it or get your own. Works for me.

Art Blanchet

YHYM

STAGING For DOLLARS - with SHELL BRODNAX

Live on 16 June 2007 from Madison, Wisconsin

STAGING INTERVIEW - Listening Info...

You have been invited by Bill Quigley and Art Blanchet to join in a live TalkShoe simulcast with TalkShoe from Madison 1670-the Pulse. Recorded audio is also available for listening.

Listen to or Join the Talkcast: YOUR HOME - YOUR MONEY
(join within 15 minutes of start time or anytime after)

Phone number: (724) 444-7444

• Talkcast Name: YOUR HOME-YOUR MONEY - the Real Scoop!


• Host: Bill and Art - mailto:info@yourhome-yourmoney.com


• Next episode: #72 - STAGING for DOLLARS - with Shell Brodnax, Sat, June 16, 2007 10:00 AM EDT

Tis the season to be Selling...and there's lots of competition in home sales this year. One underused weapon in your Home Selling Arsenal is staging - which is the art of presenting your home in its best light. To help us out we've invited Staging Marketing and Business Coach Shell Brodnax of the Staging Career Center to share ideas and tips about how to stage your home for maximum selling impact.

Shell also founded RESA - the Real Estate Staging Association - and knows her stuff. Join us in this live feed from WTDY, Madison 1670 - The Pulse.

• Phone number: (724) 444-7444


• Talkcast ID: 1009


• PIN: The phone number or 10-digit PIN you signed up with
  


• Other future episodes:
  
  
  
  
  • #73 - The Evil Empire - Those Nasty Online Lenders, Sat, June 23, 2007 10:00 AM EDT

DeForest Family Home - Life in the Slow Lane!

13 June 2007 - Madison, Wisconsin

Terrific home in DeForest, Wisconsin is ready for you. Solid 2X6 construction, split plan upstairs and a fourth bedroom and third full bath below. Wide open sloping backyard can be accessed from finished walk-out basement or from a raised deck. Front yard and drive are flat for the NBA aspirants - Neighborhood Basketball Association.

Super DeFo schools are close by as and nice part-time jobs for your teens are a short walk away. Need to travel? A two-minute drive to the interstate will get you to Wisconsin Dells in 40 minutes or to Madison's Capitol dome and colorful State Street in 25. Flying? Take the "back way" to Madison's newly-remodeled airport and be parked and running through the concourse in a quarter-hour. A boater or fisherman? Lake Wisconsin is a 20 minute scenic drive. Need more water and a romantic getaway? Niagara Falls is a short twelve hour drive to the east.
The home has a nice big living room, a generous kitchen, and beaucoup cabinets. Double sinks in the master bath allow one person to get ready as another showers behind a closed door adjacent. Ahhhh...privacy.

Back deck allows you to look down on your fellow man and faces south - plenty of sunshine streaming in from that spacious area. Appliances and fridge included, plus water softener and the Peace of Mind-generating one year Home Owner's Warranty. Window coverings stay (who wants to start from scratch?). Pull down attic storage give storage above and there's plenty below in the utility room and two totally-oversized closets. Nice, big downstairs family room and that mysterios bonus room - use it for exercise, a music room, or den.

Any interest? - call Linda Laitinen from Keller-Williams Premiere Realty Team. She'll hook you up the right way. Tell her you got the word on Blogger.

Thanks.

Art Blanchet

Your Home-Your Money

Shop Your Lender BEFORE You SIgn - 12 Easy Steps to Saving Your Credit and Identity

6 June 2007 - Madison, Wisconsin

Got a mortgage loan? Not sure it's the best deal? Think there's smoke and mirrors? You are not alone. But how do you scan the mortgage landscape without having your credit dinged to oblivion - or get lenders calling you the next two years (which is NOT an exaggeration!)?

Listen here as we relate a realife adventure of a client and friend as we explain how to compare-shop lenders and keep the credit unscathed. "Peter" followed these instructions (12 Steps) exactly and only gained, gained, gained.

Reality Radio at its useful best! We help when we can.

Art Blanchet

Bill Quigley

Your Home-Your Money.com

Jenni the Bill Collector - by Scott Bilker

2 June 2007

Debt Collectors - ya gotta love 'em. Some people pay their bills for no other reason than to avoid dealing with these misanthrops, the Ambassadors of Animosity. Scott Bilker from DebtSmart shares this story about Jenni the Bill Collector from his website - we'll share with you and then the follow-up, too Comments from Scott are in italics.

We don't know if "Jenni" is representative of Bill Collectors in general, but read the article - she sure represented herself as a human quite poorly.

Thanks Scott!

Bii Quigley and Art Blanchet

Your Home-Your Money

__________________________________________________________________
Jenni the Bill Collector

by Scott Bilker

I received a letter from Jenni about Chris Peruzzi's article, Bad Customer Service. Turns out that Jenni is a bill collector. I found her comments to be quite interesting in that you can get an insight into the thinking of the typical bill/debt collector. I included my remarks for added entertainment.

Jenni: "I am a bill collector. What a lot of people forget is that what we do is our job."
I don't think anyone forgets that it's her 'job.' Jenni's collection victims also have jobs.

Jenni: "We do not come to your office and cuss you out because you wanted an 8:00 meeting. Under the FDCPA (fair debt collection practices act) we are legally allowed to call from 8:00 am until 9:00 pm your local time."
Of course Jenni didn't come to our office and cuss. It sounds like she would, if she could, which is why the law limits their contact.

Jenni: "But where I work, we start calling at 7:00 am our time. Do you think that I really want to be pleasant at that time?"
Does Jenni think the people she's calling are going to be pleasant at that time?

Jenni: "One of my biggest problems is that we are constantly mistaken for telemarketers/customer service. We are far from that. Our job is not to make you happy, but to make our client happy."
Well Jenni, obviously you're not making us happy, so don't be so surprised when people hang up on you!

Jenni: "We don't always know what is going on though. That is why we call. We were hired to find out why there is a past due bill with you and our client. Give us a break. You do your job, and we will do ours."
I don't think Jenni knows why she's hired. Her job is to collect, not to 'find out why.' That's why the job title is Debt Collector not Debt Investigator.

Jenni: "Also, remember this; we want to get it cleared up just as badly as you do. So allow us to help you dispute things properly if you feel that there is something wrong with the bill. Hanging up and cussing us out does not make us want to help you."
Jenni assumes that people want her 'help' to clear things up. She doesn't want to help, she wants to collect.

Jenni: "Do you really want something on your credit that could have been avoided?"
More than likely, something is already on the person's credit report because the account is in collection. It cannot be avoided at this point.

Jenni: "You are an adult. So act like one. If you don't want us to call at 8:00 am, politely tell us to call you after noon. We will be more than happy to. And don't insult our intellegence."
If Jenni could spell 'intelligence' it would make it more difficult for people to insult her. The best advice to get Jenni to stop calling is to politely ask for her address and then send a letter demanding that her company cease calling.

Jenni: "I am a 20 year old college student working my way thru just like anyone else. At least I have the manners and maturity to handle things like an adult. Think about that one."
I thought about it, and I think Jenni doesn't understand the situations that real adults, not adults by age, have on their plate. Situations like multiple jobs, children, mortgage payments...life!

BRAT FEST - Madsion's Summer Kick-off

25-29 May 2007 Madison, Wisconsin

Gas prices are up! Memorial Day is here! Summer begins in America, heralded by the World's Largest Brat Fest!

Little did I know when I moved to Wisconsin a half-decade ago that I'd be participating the event that makes even the greediest cardiologist flinch! BRAT FEST!

This memorial day weekend join us in Madison Wisconsin as we celebrate the consumption of artery-clogging foodstuffs that helped make this nation great - well, great big and fat!

When I moved to WI in spring 2002 I'd never even heard of Bratwurst. One day while at my sister's, my brother-in-law asks if I'd like a "brat" (a what?). OK. It was hot and it had that fat-taste our tongues just can't refuse. Next day, nice weather - we're grilling. Same question - brat? (I guess so). After about a week of this I began to see a pattern - this food (pronounced "braht" with the soft "ah") is a staple here! Welcome to Wisconsin.

My first Brat Fest was in May of that year - what a blast! So ever since that Day of Decadence I've been supporting Boy Scout Troop 90 (in my own brat-eating way) and grilling brats by the hundreds as I join the line-up of 40-plus commercial grills and listen to the Johnsonville diesel roaring from the semi containing the World's Largest Grill (everything is World's Largest here!).

Brat Fest was a twice per year routine until 2005 - now it's the summer kickoff. Troop 90 is one of dozens and dozens of charity orgs that share in the profits - the Metcalf family splits the profits among the hundreds of volunteers' groups and they (The Metcalfs-organizing family of madmen and madwomen) get to clean up the mess and prepare for the NEXT year of rides, games, music, food, and summer fun!

Our goal this year: Break the Record of 189,432 Brats consumed. Or really just to have fun. My goal - to get back to grilling brats - last year I was on Hot Dog Duty - boiled hundreds of those puppies (5 to a pound of the Oscar Mayer brand - local Madison company) for kids and The Timid. But I'm a purist and want back into the Manly Art of Grilling. Whatever they need...rain or shine!

Brat Fest is now at the Alliant Energy Center on Willow Island. Come on down or shop for BratGear on the web. FREE admission, FREE parking, FREE entertainment, and I'll give FREE mortgage advice if you can find me - I'll be the guy in the yellow Bratfest shirt...

Art Blanchet

Bill Quigley

Your Home - Your Brat Fest!

25-29 May 2007 Madison, Wisconsin

Gas prices are up! Memorial Day is here! Summer begins in America, heralded by the World's Largest Brat Fest!

Little did I know when I moved to Wisconsin a half-decade ago that I'd be participating the event that makes even the greediest cardiologist flinch! BRAT FEST!

This memorial day weekend join us in Madison Wisconsin as we celebrate the consumption of artery-clogging foodstuffs that helped make this nation great - well, great big and fat!

When I moved to WI in spring 2002 I'd never even heard of Bratwurst. One day while at my sister's, my brother-in-law asks if I'd like a "brat" (a what?). OK. It was hot and it had that fat-taste our tongues just can't refuse. Next day, nice weather - we're grilling. Same question - brat? (I guess so). After about a week of this I began to see a pattern - this food (pronounced "braht" with the soft "ah") is a staple here! Welcome to Wisconsin.

My first Brat Fest was in May of that year - what a blast! So ever since that Day of Decadence I've been supporting Boy Scout Troop 90 (in my own brat-eating way) and grilling brats by the hundreds as I join the line-up of 40-plus commercial grills and listen to the Johnsonville diesel roaring from the semi containing the World's Largest Grill (everything is World's Largest here!).

Brat Fest was a twice per year routine until 2005 - now it's the summer kickoff. Troop 90 is one of dozens and dozens of charity orgs that share in the profits - the Metcalf family splits the profits among the hundreds of volunteers' groups and they (The Metcalfs-organizing family of madmen and madwomen) get to clean up the mess and prepare for the NEXT year of rides, games, music, food, and summer fun!

Our goal this year: Break the Record of 189,432 Brats consumed. Or really just to have fun. My goal - to get back to grilling brats - last year I was on Hot Dog Duty - boiled hundreds of those puppies (5 to a pound of the Oscar Mayer brand - local Madison company) for kids and The Timid. But I'm a purist and want back into the Manly Art of Grilling. Whatever they need...rain or shine!

Brat Fest is now at the Alliant Energy Center on Willow Island. Come on down or shop for BratGear on the web. FREE admission, FREE parking, FREE entertainment, and I'll give FREE mortgage advice if you can find me - I'll be the guy in the yellow Bratfest shirt...

Art Blanchet

Bill Quigley

Your Home - Your Brat Fest!

Identity Theft at the Pump - Robbed Twice

22 May 2007 - Madison, Wisconsin

It's bad enough we're paying over $3.50 per gallon for gas (and Exxon's profits are up 50%), but we're being robbed at the pump in other ways - Identity Theft! Things are getting ugly.

Our friend Scott Bilker (http://www.debtsmart.com/index.html) had this posted on his website. It's from from Sheriff Ken Jenne of the Broward Sheriff’s Office (Florida) and it's an eye-opener.

Scott is dedicated to helping people control their credit card and consumer debt and has written three books on the subject. He also posts articles and news daily and is worth a periodic visit. We've had him twice on our weekly radio show - Your Home-Your Money - and he's been all over TV and radio and in print. His is one credible son of a gun.

Check out this slick crime spree going on in Florida - and probably elsewhere. Gone in Four Seconds. Four seconds! Imagine the time it takes to regain your security and identity AFTER the crime.

Identity Theft takes many forms now - you just saw the "direct" approach. Consumers from Florida to Wisconsin, and all over the U.S., need to be diligent to avoid being a victim. Even getting gas! Four seconds of prevention is worth months of cure!

As Sergeant Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues used to say, " Hey, let's be careful out there."

Art Blanchet

Bill Quigley

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