Selling Reno And Sparks Real Estate Blog

There is so much concern and “Buzz” about Google shutting down Picnik.com, I decided to provide you with some alternative tools for editing and customizing your graphics, photos, and images.   While Picnik.com will be shutting down in April 2012, here are some other options you have available immediately.

FotoFlexer – Create some dazzling photo and image effects in your browser for FREE.  Use Animations, resizing, coloring, contrast and more.  Take a look at These 5 Demo’s for a quick tour of what FotoFlexer has to offer, you’ll love some of these cool features.  Smart Scissor is a favorite feature.

Pixlr – and for Picnik users, try Pixlr Express.  You’ll love the Editor, the Pixlr-o-matic, the Pixlr Grabber for Firefox and Chrome browsers, and the Pixlr Imm.io hosting, all of which are very robust and user friendly cool features.

LunaPic – This site will rock your world!  Lunapic offers more choices and options for photo editing and custom effects than some of the paid software applications I’ve purchased and used in the past.  Use vignettes, color bars, animated imaging, picture frames, retro color, collages, custom text, reflection animations, slide shows, and a ton more.  One of the most feature rich FREE online editors available.  You’re gonna love this site.

FreeOnlinePhotoEditor – A really simple and easy to use photo and image editor for those “quick fix and gotta go” graphics.  Very basic but simple and fast.  Some of the other online photo and image tools include:  OnlinePhotoTool.com: Online photo editor,  Automatically resize your images when sending it by email,  Create an Image from your RSS feed,  Create Image from your Tweet and Twitter account, and Create, save and email screenshots.

BeFunky -  Be Funky lets you do some pretty amazing things with your photos and graphics.  Most of the features and tools are focused on creating cool, fun, and funky effects and artwork.  The site’s name says it.  Some of the effects available would take hours to create in Photoshop or other high end and costly photo/image editors.

Definitely worthy of a visit and tour.

Photoshop.com – That’s right, you can use Photoshop online and for FREE.  You’ll need to register, but I promise it will be worth it.  The Photoshop tools are powerful and very easy to use.  Be prepared to spend a little time here, you’ll be amazed at what they have to offer and allow you to do online for free.  I’m not going to lie, this is one of my favorites and my personal replacement for Picnik.com closing down.

GIMP – GIMP is very similar to Adobe Photoshop except that GIMP is FREE.  It does require you to download the software but one huge benefit to that is it will never be bought and shut down on you.  It is a very powerful and feature intense program so unless you’re really experienced with editing and graphic design, or you have more time than it takes to close a short sale, you may want to stick with one of the others.

I personally like to use GIMP for graphic design more than image or photo editing.

Combine all these together and you’ll have more FREE editing tools and features than you’ll ever need or use and absolutely FREE.  Take a few moments to review each site, bookmark them, then give each one a try to see which one(s) best meet your photo and image editing needs.  Enjoy! 

 

 

          

 

Tutorials | Training | Mobile | Widgets

"May this blog be just one more planted seed of wisdom that helps you or your business blossom today!"

ActiveRain HINTS

This morning I was talking with someone about how I felt like a blind pig finding an acorn when I started on ActiveRain.  Someone told me about AR, I thought, "I'd like to blog someday," so I signed up for a year. 

Several months later, after having received a few emails from AR, I wrote my first blog post, and was so excited that I got four or five comments on it.  I kept wondering where in the world those people had seen it to comment on it.  I was in awe, but could never figure out how to do it again.  I often imagined it as a party behind closed doors, and I was standing in the entryway waiting for someone to open the doors so I could see what was going on.

Months would pass before I would write again.  Karli at ActiveRain called me one day last March and held my hand and talked me thru it, and it has been a whirlwind of writing since then.  Being creatures of habit, we do what we know.  Sometimes we will venture out and find new things, but for the most part, it is often an AHA moment when we stumble upon something we didn't know in our comfortable venue.

Often I will get phone calls from AR friends who will say, "Well, if you go (here) you can do (this)."  Kathy Streib has been the best at teaching me tricks that really aren't tricks, basics that probably everyone else knows.  But since I didn't know them, there may be a few others that don't know some of them either.  

The feel and look of ActiveRain is going to be changing (dramatically) soon, including our logo (so says our Fearless Leader).  We are going to have to learn new things to be able to navigate (I will not resist change, I will not resist change, I will not resist change).  So before that happens, I wanted to share some basics that I recently learned.  (Old timers will know these things . . . )

• When you want to comment on someone's post, hit the "END" button to get to the end of the comments.  This is helpful if it is a Featured post and you don't want to read all of the comments.  Conversely, you can get back to the top by hitting the "HOME" button on your keyboard
• To activate additional points on your posts, you need three comments from others and you need to respond with at least one comment
  
• Your comments that you make on other people's posts must be at least 50 CHARACTERS (not words) for you to receive your 25 points for the comment, up to 250 points per day (10 comments).  You may, of course, comment on as many as you would like per day, but only get points for 10
  
• Your blog POSTS must be at least 50 WORDS to get credit for the post
  
• The ActiveRain logo in the upper left corner of the page is a link to the Feature Board (am I the only one here who didn't know that?)
• If you click on "BLOGS" in the blue AR toolbar at the top, you get links to the people to whom you are subscribed down the right column.  BUT if you hit "MY SUBSCRIPTIONS" on the upper left side under "BLOG POSTS," then you get a three-line summary of the current post of the people you follow (again ~ DUH)
• The "CHANNELS" arrow in the blue tool bar allows you to study areas of expertise more thoroughly.  From Training to Tactics to Technology to Tools, there are wonderful things to be discovered there
• So now that I've been here for almost ten months, I won't even begin to tell you the convoluted trails I have followed to find people to whom to send referrals.  The little "STATES" button in the blue upper toolbar breaks down Agents by not only States, but also by Cities!  Double Duh!
• If you want your blog to stream down the middle of the page and not run from side-to-side across the page, making it more difficult to read (yes, Fearless Leader's blog is an example :) ~ all in good fun, Niki, all in good fun), then go to your Home Page, upper left corner under BLOGS > ActiveRain > (Customize) and insert any color or picture as your Background Image.  If you don't want fru-fru, just make the Background Image WHITE and it will at least narrow up your writing, making it easier to read
• Inviting others gets you lots of points when they join, and 10% of everything they make while they're here.  Towards the bottom of the Home Page on the left side is an "INVITE OTHERS" link.  Here's the kicker ~ be sure to use the LINK so that you get points when they sign up.  Joe Cuchiara got me involved, but because he told me about it over the phone and I didn't know to link to him, he is not reaping the rewards :( (Sorry, Joe, I've tried several times to rectify it!)
• Did you read a post today that you really liked?  At the very bottom of the post under where it says who the article was written by is a little link that says "BOOKMARK."  You can click that to save the post for future reference.  When you want to read your BOOKMARKS at a later date, the link is towards the bottom left of your Home Page entitled "BLOG BOOKMARKS"
• OH! And when you are writing your (at least 10) comments on posts each day, or in writing your own posts, in the upper part of your Comment Box where you have the options for making your writings BOLD or Italics or Underlined or Striking Through, on the RIGHT SIDE of that bar is a SPELL CHECK (ABC with a checkmark).  Who Knew???? :)
  

 I feel somewhat silly in even sharing some of these things, but I figured if I wasn't aware of them, this may help someone else.  And if you are looking for a safe haven to share real estate stories, life lessons, and learn new things, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to my blog. :) 

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you enjoyed reading this post,
CLICK ON THE HOUSE to
SUBSCRIBE to Mimi's Musings

If you are not completely satisfied
you may unsubscribe at any time
and get double your money back!

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you would like to Search for Homes for sale in Colorado Springs, CO, or for any of your other real estate needs, please contact your Colorado Springs Realtor

 

 

                                                                  

   

Selling homes throughout Colorado Springs, Old Colorado City,

Manitou Springs and surrounding areas with a

Specialty in Victorian and Vintage Homes in
Downtown Colorado Springs

 

 

How Much Will My Home Sell For?

Dear Liz,
We've been thinking about selling our home, but need to know how much our home will sell for to help make the decision.  Can you help us determine what to expect?  We'd love to take advantage of the low interest rates to buy a new home, but we're not sure we can afford to leave the home we have.
Thanks!
Joe Public

Dear Joe,
First of all, YES, we can help you determine the expected selling price of your home, and that assessment won't cost you anything but some of your time when we meet with you to review your home.  You're facing a common issue with many Warren County home sellers.  Either home values for your area have dropped, or you didn't have a large down payment and it hasn't been that long since you purchased so your equity build up is negligible.

Here's how the process typically works for determining your home's value.  When you first contact us, we're going to ask what features you've added to your home.   Knowing what is different about your home helps us increase the accuracy of our valuation.  You may have finished the basement, added hardwood floors, custom tiled your bathroom or any number of other things that impact valuation.

We're going to baseline your home first of all.  We'll go to MLS and see if your home has ever been on the market and the information available.  We'll also visit the Warren County auditor's site and pull public information on your home.  Now we recognize the auditor's site might not always be accurate (square footage for instance often isn't as reported).

We'll pull the MLS information for your community for the last 6 months to a year depending on how many homes have sold.  Obviously, the most recent and most similar carry the most weight.  We'll review the Pendings to see what is about to go Sold.  We won't know final price, but it will at least give us another input to what is happening right now.  We'll also review the Active homes on the market.  Are they like yours?  How long have they been on market?  Have they been adjusting price?

And lastly from MLS we'll look at the home sellers that quit the market.  They also provide a loud message as to what the market will and won't do.  Their price and product was rejected by the home buyers.  There's valuable information there.  We'll also review which homes are distressed properties (short sale and foreclosures).  Their influence on pricing is critical too.

For your development, we'll also extract the tax records since not every home that sells is in MLS.  For Sale by Owners and new construction typically won't be represented, and we need to account for ALL sales.  We'll add some data like price per square foot and the ratio of recent sales prices to current tax assessments. 

Now we're also going to factor in some bigger picture items.  Is there new construction for you to compete with?  In general, if buyers CAN buy new for the same price, they will unless they just don't have the time to wait. We're also going to consider the community trends.  Is that school district tax fight killing home values and causing a decline?  Or was there a recent announcement of 500 new jobs that will push demand for housing?  What's the overall reputation of your community? Whether Mason, Lebanon, Springboro, Franklin, Maineville or Waynesville, they ALL offer a different set of pros and cons.

As you can see, the preparation work is pretty extensive, but we're STILL not done!  To get the most accurate we can, we need to cross your threshold and see it in person.  The condition of your home is another key factor.  And lastly, we'll calibrate what we see in your home against what we first hand see in the market.  How do you compare to the other choices?

And now we can finally sit down at the table, review the data and give you our best estimate of your particular home's value, and it will be a range because despite all the data gathered, there's still some art to it.

Now you'll notice nowhere in this valuation did we ask what you WANT or what you NEED to get for you home.  Buyers are like honey badgers....they just don't care about what you want or need.  It is purely about THEIR needs.  If your price and product don't work for them, they WILL reject your home as a choice.  No amount of marketing and effort on our part can overcome that.

However, that's not to say we don't consider YOUR needs during our meeting.  If you're willing to provide us your mortgage balance, we'll input that into our custom net proceeds sheet and determine the price for breaking even (no check to you, but you're not paying to leave). 

Now if that break even price is ABOVE what the market will bear, you may have a tough decision to make about whether to sell or stay.  We can help provide you options if you still want to proceed.

And ultimately, YOU decide what you will and won't accept.  Sometimes sellers decide that being "done" is more important than getting extra dollars.

We hope this helps you understand why calling a local REALTOR® is better than clicking on some online valuation website.  If you're truly serious about selling your home, there's much more to the process than a mere computer can calculate.

Just give us a call if we can help!

Serving Warren County's residential real estate needs,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz

The Liz Spear Team
Elizabeth & William Spear
RE/MAX Elite:  Ask for us by name if you visit the office!
Two locations: Lebanon & Mason, OH
Office direct: 513-248-3660  Liz direct:  513-265-3004
Bill direct: 513-520-5305 Fax: 866-302-8418     

MailTo: Liz@LizSpear.com  Our Website: Warren County Ohio Homes

 

 

 

Buttons created at www.ButtonGenerator.com

Follow us on Social Media:

 

 

 

 

Social Media buttons courtesy of http://www.chethstudios.net

OUR SERVICE AREA: