Making the Goal of Home Ownership Easy

‘Going Home… Renting to Home Ownership in 10 Easy Steps’

On March 1st, I published my fourth book entitled: ‘Going Home… Renting to Home Ownership in 10 Easy steps which addresses the problems faced by so many prospective would-be home buyers in society.  It answers the questions of ‘How do I become a home owner?’ and ‘Where do I begin?’.  It also covers an issue in detail that is important
House
to so many: ‘How do I overcome my rocky credit history and become a home owner?’

In ‘Going Home… Renting to Home Ownership in 10 Easy Steps I cover how to find your credit report,Going Home... Renting to Home Ownership in 10 Easy Steps understand it and also repair it as needed.  It goes into this aspect of the home buying process in detail because so many new prospective home buyers tend to get hung up and derailed on that point.

However, the book is so much more than just a ‘How do I fix my credit’ book.  It covers how to find a Realtor to help you, how to find a lender and what types of loan programs are popular.  It also covers how to find your dream home, and at the same time shop for a home that aligns with your loan program requirements.  Going Home… Renting to Home Ownership in 10 Easy Steps also goes into how to narrow down your selection, and what can be expected when you write and negotiate an offer.

The book also goes into what to expect at a closing, and what can be expected from you.  It also covers what you should prioritize when you become a home owner in those first few days of home ownership.  Becoming a home owner is a journey that anyone can take, and I have attempted to make this a book that covers each step, even if some take longer than others.

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Winter Visions

In Southwest Michigan we are frequently subjected to snow storms during this time of year.  Last week I was driving through one rural area, and the intensity of the storm I was driving into began to increase.  At one point along the road, I happened upon an Amish buggy with their lights on.  It is not common to see them all lit up, and I thought the setting was quite beautiful so I was lucky enough to have my camera nearby and took this photo.

Amish Winter

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Get my New eBook for FREE! The Art of Sales Management

My newest eBook: The Art of Sales Management: Lessons Learned on the Fly is being made available for free for three days on Amazon, starting today.  You can go there from February 23rd through February 25th, 2013 and download a free copy.  This book was in the make for fifteen years, and it is my largest effort to date.

I hope you will spread the word about this free promotion, and tell your friends.  If you would like to get your copy, simply click on the image of the book below and it will take you to Amazon.

Cover concept FinalA

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‘The Art of Sales Management’ = My New eBook

Cover concept FinalAMy newest eBook is now available on Amazon.  It my third book overall, and it is by far the largest project I have done so far.  It is called: The Art of Sales Management: Lessons Learned on the Fly.  It covers my years as a sales manager in Georgia, and taps into sales experiences since then spanning four decades.  It was an idea for a book that I first considered fifteen years ago, and finally got around to writing.  The book is completely different from my other Real Estate books in that it addresses the training of sales people, and managing techniques.

I wrote the book to be lighthearted in nature, and it is an attempt to get sales managers to see the fun side of managing the greatest people one could ever manage.  Sales people are by far in the most challenging profession there is, as they have to compete day to day for the consumers dollars with whatever product they are selling.  They experience the ups and downs like no other profession, with daily losses and huge successes, and everything in between.  It takes a special person who can endure the vagaries of such a life.

This book is a breath catch for me in itself.  It is my first personal book that I have sought to write for a very long time.  My other two books were more technical, even though I have updated themjpg_vector-baseball since their first releases with new layouts, etc.  The Art of Sales Management however is a book that combines my love of sports and aligns it with the day to day life of a salesperson, and the lessons one learns as a manager.  It covers a lot of information that is not often covered elsewhere, such as how to conduct sales meetings that get successes.  How to expand your seasoned core of people, and how to resolve commission disputes amicably.

There are many dynamics to this book, and I hope you will take an interest in it and tell your friends about it as well.  If you would like to get yourself a copy, please click on the image of the book and go to Amazon today.

Categories: Books, Humor, Idealism, Inspiration, Sporting Events, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Crossing the Winter Threshold Into Forever

When you are a kid, you look forward to snow.  You do not mind the cold, you like that it is slippery and that you can compact it into balls and toss it at your sister.  Having lived my childhood in a warmer climate in Arizona, winter snow was Wintera concept in a far away land, just over the threshold of forever.  It was a place that lucky kids got to experience, and we did not.  The best we could hope for in terms of a snow day was the occasional monsoon season that caused a few closings due to flooding.  Still, one could not really enjoy a rain storm as much as one does a snow day.

I moved to Michigan in 1999, after living in Georgia for fifteen years.  I did experience snow in Georgia, but in that environment, even a mere two inches will shut down the city.  The airlines will shut down because the do not have the equipment to plow the runways, not like Chicago, New York and Detroit.

So when I moved to Michigan and experienced the heavy snowfall the following year in the winter of 2000 to 2001, it was mind blowing. There were huge drifts of snow everywhere, and mountains of snow in parking lots that became those bitter gray gooey piles that seem to sit there all season until it warms above 50 degrees.

Today as a long time resident of Michigan, it is funny to me to look back at my reaction to those early days of living here, and compare it to my reaction to snowfall now.  However, the little kid in me still has me look out my front door into the elements.  I think about crossing that winter threshold into forever and play like the child I was in Arizona.  How I would love to walk through that doorway like those tales of Narnia, and go back in time once again.

Categories: Beauty, Experiences, Michigan, Philosophy, Winter | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

English Deer in the Country

When I was in England last year, I went for a morning walk around the grounds of the hotel I was staying at.  There were over 200 deer on this property, and one quite often saw them bounding across the path when you were out on the grounds. Below is a photo of one such deer that I capture with a photo while out walking.  They had different features than the deer I was used to seeing in the U.S., and a slightly different coloring.

English Deer

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Walking in the Woods

A few years ago I created a lot of videos about my adventures in the woods.  This video posted here is one I created about walking the trails of the Fort Custer Recreation Area near Augusta, Michigan.  It was a wonderful afternoon, following a slight rain fall which made the woods so green.

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Can You Find the Squirrel?

There is a squirrel hiding in this park populated by geese, trying to fit in and not be recognized. Can you see him? Did anyone notice he was there?  By the way, our squirrels in Battle Creek are jet black.  Supposedly imported from elsewhere.

Hint: Think 'fuzzy' in the foreground.

Hint: Think ‘fuzzy’ in the foreground.

Categories: Animals, Beauty, Humor, Michigan, Winter | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Ducks on an Icy Pond

I was driving by a small park near downtown Battle Creek, Michigan the other day and I saw there were still ducks, geese and swan out on the pond.  I pulled into the parking area for a few minutes, and took a few shots with my camera.  Seeing the ducks all collected on the ice near the water was very interesting, and colorful.

It also looks a bit surreal to see the contrast between the ones on the ice, and the ones swimming just beyond with almost a seamless transition of the water.  They did not seem to be bothered by the ice, as they are covered with their down feathers.  The scene made for an interesting spectacle of our feathered friends.

Ducks on the Icy pond

Ducks on the ice

Categories: Animals, Beauty, Experiences, Seasons, Winter | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Choose Your Doggie

If you ever get a chance, go visit a dog show.  I never thought this would be something on my list of things to do, but awhile back I took my little brother with Big Brothers and Big Sisters out to do something on a Saturday afternoon, and we found ourselves at a dog show in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  It was a lot of fun to walk around and see so many different breeds of dogs in one place.

If you were going to really choose a dog for yourself, this might be a place to go to ask questions about breeds, etc.  I was able to find so many answers to questions about dogs that I had at this event, and I learned a lot about the different breeds.  Here is a video that I show from the event.

Categories: Animals, Experiences, Inspiration, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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