Gregg Henson.com

Gregg Henson blog way-back machine!

I'm not completely positive, but I think my blog is one of the, if not THE oldest blog in Deroit.  I started it in 2000 so I am pretty sure I was one of the Detroit originals.

I was looking back at some posts from the past and came up with these from years past!

2003 The Mariucci era has Begun

2004 Hot McDonald's chicks

2005 Flight 93 memorial looks like Islamic symbol

2006 Lindsey Lohan's fire crotch

2007  What Happens when Lloyd Carr retires?

2008  I'm not telling you again!

Why the NHL is 3rd rate!

Check out my new column on why the NHL is a 3rd rate league at Motor City Sports!

Guest blog post by Mr. Livonia, read it or he will kill you.

The real estate market sucks, and we can't sell our house!

Yes, yes, yes! Everyone you know has a real estate horror story. Their home has been for sale for the last year. The realtor hasn't brought anybody to see it. The neighbor had to give the house away to sell it.  We've all heard them.......The tough real estate market.

Toni & TIna's Horror Stories!  We're not going to give it away........  In fact we're not even going to sell it!

I got a call from Toni asking me to sell their home in Westland.  They said they saw a lot of good deals out in the Brighton area and thought now would be a good time to make a move. So after running Comps (Comparable sales in the area of homes like theirs) the value of their home is around 130-140K. This is a shock to both Toni & Tina so they do what most people did when we were in a rising market.   Lets start at 154,900.00.  That's 20-25k above value. I even suggest we get an appraisal from a licenced appraiser ($300) to help them see true value, but they decline, "Why spend $300.00 when we'll see what we get".

So in the first week we get 1 viewing. and agent in the area goes through as they will to see what NEW has come on the market.  Her feed back reads "Needs a good cleaning and it should be priced in the 130-135 range"  WOW isn't that something, with all of the info realtors have available we came to the same conclusion. about 135ish.  This is October 2007.  Only 4 Showings. Fast forward to May 2008.  We get a showing and feedback tells us "We saw one around the corner, Nicer for 125K".  Toni & Tina say we're not going to give it away.  Well with the market dropping 18% over the last year, prices are dropping 1.5% per month.Toni & Tina are losing $1350.00 per month in equity, or about $12,150.00 since they listed their home.  The new value is about 125K.  They did lower the price though, they now sit at 139,90.00.  still with no showings.  "It's a tough real estate market"

Gary's success story.

Gary ended up with a home to sell do to a death in the family.  He asked me to take a look at it.  "What do you think it's worth, 175k"? he asked.  Him and I looked at some stuff for sale to compare, then he did get an appraisal. The appraisal cam in at 120-130.  So we set the price at 139,900.00. In 11 days we had 14 showings and ened up with 2 offers and sold it for close to the high end of the appraisal value.  11Days on the market!   "It's a tough real estate market"

Judy's success story.

Judy had a home to sell.  She didn't want to take care of her sister house she ended up with any longer.  We talked about pricing the home to sell now, not in the winter or next year. We looked at what sold in the area, (This tells us what people are willing to pay, they bough at a certain price)  Judy understood that NOW is the time to sell the house. In one month it will be worth less. The time you list is the best time to get an offer. (It's new and the people that have been looking want to see what's new on the market) If gas goes up people have less to spend on a house.  I the auto companies lay off more people we have less people to buy your house. Judy understand that these and alot of other factors affect the value of your home. Jusy said "Let's price it to sell, not price it to show"  Well we had 4 showings in the first 4 days with an offer at asking price in 6 days.  SOLD!

"It's a tough real estate market"

The tough real estate market is do in part buy the sellers themselves.  They are pricing homes the way we would in an increasing market.  They price to the high side hoping to get an offer. But in a declining market people don't look at homes that are over priced. (If you could afford to buy a Ford would you go to the Porsche dealer hoping they would come down?)  In Castle Gardens (5 mile and Newburgh) there are 5-7 homes for sale in the 150 to 160 range, 3br ranches, all about 1100-1200 sq ft.  (They are all the same).  But still there are homes in there that are priced at 189,900.00.  N0w these people are telling the stories at work about the how tough it is to sell a house right now. The value in the neighborhood is 150-160.  Why would someone pay 180 with all that is available for 150-160??  "It's a tough real estate market"

A Buyers story.

We have a young woman just out of school and her boyfriend ready to start their life together.  She just started a new job. The future looks bright. (Yes, in the Detroit area).  We look at homes 350-400k.  After looking at 10-12 houses we choose the perfect house. 10 acres, 2500 sq ft house.  The buyer putting 50K down (Yes, now you need actual money to buy a house). So we put an offer in on a Friday morning and wait in anticipation for an answer so we can start packing. Friday comes and goes with no answer.  We get a call Saturday afternoon saying they are considering our offer and will be back with a counter offer.  ALMOST 2 DAYS! On Sunday my buyer calls and says to pull that offer. They are tired of waiting and want to move on. They ask "Don't they want to sell the house"?  The other agent apologises for the wait but the seller wasn't sure what they wanted to do. That deal never happens.  The buyer goes on to buy a brand new house, and the seller sits with his house still for sale.  "It's a tough real estate market"

So you want to sell

Get an appraisal.  This will cost you about $300.00.  This is where you should be priced at RIGHT NOW.  Price it near true value and you will get showings and an offer near this price. It best to refuse three "low Ball" offers than not to get any offers at all.

Fall out of love with your house. People are buying a structure. Yours or the one down the street. You need to be the best, or the cheapest. No one cares you have "Heavy duty nails" or "Curtains" in the garage.  "My husband just made these shelves".  GOOD! They're just going to rip them out. No one cares.  What does matter is what else I can get for the same price.

But I have to get......   Your home is worth what the market says it is worth.  What you owe on it has nothing to do with it's value.  So don't use this as a pricing tool.  Find your homes true value and work with that.  (True value, not what YOU think it's worth) Figure out if you need to come to closing with money.  The longer you wait the more it will cost you.  REMEMBER prices are dropping 1.5 % per month.

If the right buyer comes along we can sell it!  When people put an offer on a home they are most likely borrowing money.  They go to their lending and there first thing the lender does is do an appraisal.  If the house doesn't appraise for the price offered they won't lend the money. So in our example above in "Castel Gardens" the values are 150-160. So even if an offer comes in at 175 it probably won't appraise out and the deal will fall apart. Or the buyer can come up with the extra money if YOUR house is the perfect house.  (Yes I said extra money.......they usually have trouble with the money they need to come up with let alone extra money).

As a realtor I am they busiest I've ever been. People need to sell and there are people buying.

If you need to sell your house you can. Price it to sell...NOW.......and you can beat the "Tough real estate market"

Just my toughts!   www.mrlivonia.com

Guest post by Chris Cojocar!

What's Wrong With Sports Talk Radio!

I used to love 10 to 15 years ago I could turn on WDFN and no matter who's show was on they were talking about sports.  Now whenever I turn on the fan or even 97.1 the ticket to listen to these so called sports talk shows it seems as if they are talking about everything but sports.

It has almost gotten to the point that it's like someone is reading me this months issue of maxim.  You'll get the scoop on celebrities, talk about the hottest chicks in hollywood, kwame laying pipe,etc.

I used to be an avid listener of WDFN but in all honesty I stopped thanks to Stoney and Wojo.  They are very, very talented at what they do, they just need to do more of it.  It was cute for about 2 seconds Wojo cracking about his passion for nutter butters, or their tournaments that used to be good.  Now all you ever hear is them talk about social events or hear that lame as siren that only the people at the fan think is funny (that joke played out 5 years ago).

Over the last 6 to 8 months I moved over to the ticket and found it pretty damn good but now they are starting to do some of the same things that the fan is doing and I firmly believe that this will hinder their chances at becoming the leader of detroit sports talk radio.

I wonder how all of this had started and my only logical conclusion and person to blame is ESPN.  Think about back in the day when they were up and comming.  All they ever talked about and reported were sport related issues.  They started to gain popularity from solid interviews and a great presentation of scores and highlights.  Then it seemed like the people in front of the camerea decided to spice it up a bit and throw out some catchy lines and goofy antics.  Chris Berman doing baseball tonight was tremendous back in the day.  Olberman and Patrick are still the best duo to ever host sportscenter.  Now you everyone of these yam bags throwing around ebonics and rapping as they go through the yankees and red sox highlights.  Let's face it, those are the only two teams in baseball that ESPN shows highlights for but thats a whole different topic.

So where do you turn.  After I gave up on the sports king I tuned in to their ESPN news.  Watching this station was like watching ESPN back in the day when they were trying to make it big with good, straight laced reporting.  Well that bubble burst a year or two ago when I heard the latin anchor roll every r off of his tounge for 10 straight minutes and the guy next to him during a tennis highlight shouted "not in my house dawg."

I believe our local "sports" radio stations have taken this to heart a little too much.  I realize how difficult it must be to fill up a 4 hour show 5 days a week with nothing but sports, especially this time of year, but guess what, that is what you signed up for.  I don't mind the occasional off beat topic or local thing but the majority of us tune to sports talk radio to listen to sports, not talk about nutter butters.

Guest post from blogger X!

How Much Should I Let It Bleed Before I Cut It Off? 

My wife and I want to move.

I want to move too.

So does my wife.

That's the current state of affairs when one person has changed jobs several times over the past year and the other works for an automotive manufacturer that's cutting heads.  But when your company paid you to move, bought your old house and paid the movers and you've since been in your home that you bought for well over $300k but has probably lost a third of its value what do you do?

I want to move.

I was listening to NPR and of all places, Iowa is booming.  They're in a state of growth and are actively pursuing young graduates to fill positions being created by a growing economy.  I never would have considered moving to a more 'southernly' Midwest state but things such as they are makes you begin creating mental lists as to what it is exactly that keeps you rooted to where you are.  I'm not saying Iowa, necessarily, but the idea of Iowa.  Hell, I like wide-open spaces.

So does my wife.

She's interested in San Francisco.  While California has its appeal, when we looked into it, San Fran and some of the surrounding areas have some of the highest costs of living in the country.  Whenever they talk about the highest gas prices its almost always someplace in Cali.

My wife and I want to move.  But what hope is there for us? 

The trouble is, even if we found a place mutually where we wouldn't mind going, how much of a nightmare would our current house become?  Do we continue to make payments in hopes of attracting someone to buy it?  How much money beyond the equity we put in that went down the toilet would we still have to pay off?  How long would it take to even sell the house?  The house directly across from ours is a mirror of our model and that house set empty for over a year before someone bought it.  The people there snuck out like thieves in the night.  It was auctioned sometime last year and even the realtor that bought it for thousands below its original asking price had to sit on it for a while.

If we do decide to cut-and-run what does that do to our credit?  How deep underground does that drive one credit-wise?  We've been sticking it out here and so far, we're all right, but we all know things can change overnight.  We both love our house, but quite frankly, every day it is coming closer to being the only thing we love about being in this state.  A new start could do so much for us and with what we've learned we wouldn't make half the mistakes we had in the past.

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Mobile blogging test

This is a mobile blog test. This is the first time I have ever blogged by phone.

Cool new tool on Gregghenson.com

I've added a new feature to the website, it's called "skribit."  In a nutshell skribit allows you to post and vote on which items you want me to write about.  I try to get to all your questions but sometimes I forget and sometimes I'm not sure if it is a popular question of just one person who cares.  The new widget, which you can see on the left of the page allows the community to vote on popular posting topics, give it a try and let's see what comes up as the most popular topics.

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RSS feeds hit 1500.

Last week my RSS feeds briefly reached 1500 daily subscribers.  Thank you.  Because of the way RSS feeds are reported and used, they fluctuate a bit, which explains why I am at 1434 today.  However, I still have over 1515 daily subscribers.  This is the amount of people who get automatic updates when I post on the site.  They can access the feed through an RSS reader or get updates via e-mail.  I get 5,000 daily unique visitors, so these means that there are 3500 who don't subscribe to the daily feed.

RSS feeds are important to bloggers because they give us another income source and a general idea of our blog's popularity.  RSS feeds, combined with unique visitors and page views are one of the ways we are judged by google in terms of search engine ranking and blog popularity.

I only started offering a feed 11 months ago, so the rapid growth of the blog is exciting and appreciated.

My goal is 2000 subscribers by July 1, SO, if you haven't already subscribed and like the blog, please enter your e-mail below.  I won't send you spam and you can unsubscribe at any time.  You will only receive an e-mail or feed when I update the site.

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Writers block!

Sorry I haven't posted much lately.  There are so many things going on in my life that the blog has taken a bit of a back seat.

Right now we have so much on our plate.  The Jungle Java is moving along, we are planning to open on June 1, 2008.  The Jungle Java is very time intensive.  We are closing on the SBA loan with Comerica, building the location out and preparing to return o Detroit to train for the launch.

In addition, I am busy with the Internet show with Michelle, it has taken on a life of its own, which means we are preparing more and putting a lot more energy into its production three days a week.  I am also lunching a show with Art Regner soon and need to train him on the technology we use to produce the show.  We are talking to some other former big name Detroit Hosts about providing shows for the web site, so my plate is pretty full.

In addition to all the cool stuff happening, I am helping a few people set up web sites and taking care of things around the house while Nicole teaches.  That means I have full-time stay at home duties until the Jungle Java opens.

I'll get back to my posting, but I need your help.  Tell me what you want me to blog!  I am brain dead as far as coming up with content for the blog. Please leave me some suggestions and I will be glad to post some personalized material.

How to start your own blog, reprint from October

I've gotten a few requests this week about starting your own blog, it is very easy.  Here is a post I wrote about it last October.  Start a blog. I have included a couple of my affiliate links if you decide to sign up.

First thing you need to do it buy the domain name.  One you own it, you are good to go.

E-mail me at Gregg 'at' Gregghenson 'dot' com for a step-by-step tutorial.

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