Much like the Roman emperor who supposedly played his violin while his city burned, Congress has found just as a creative way to avoid responsibility, accountability or anything else closely resembling adult behavior. While Nero found a scapegoat in the form of Christians, Congress has found an enemy just as dangerous. the foe is AIG and the crime is paying contractual, if undeserved, bonuses. The trouble is that the bonuses were paid with taxpayer mmoney. Congress maintains that it's not the purview of a giant insurance company to steal money from taxpayers. That's specifically Congress' job. And like any Mafioso family whose territory has been breached, Congress retaliated. The sad part is, we may all be the losers. Since Congress wrote a provision into the buyout that bonuses would b... 03/23/2009

Have you been looking for a great home search?  The following link is just an incredible home search tool from Livonia Michigan Foreclosure houses, Northville Michigan Foreclosure homes for sale and so many other neighboring communities.  Real Estate, Foreclosures, Reo Properties home search link click here . For more Real Estate information including cities such as Westland, Garden City, Plymouth, Canton visit the www.RealEstateBusyBees.com website.  Spring is here and if your looking to buy or sell a home visit www.BobandTeena.com today for great information. If you have any questions email us anytime at info@BobandTeena.com Thank You and have a Great Day!! 03/20/2009

 Livonia real estate update As a Metro Detroit real estate agentone of my jobs is to help get your deal closed.  And one of the easiest ways to help make a real estate deal go smoother is to have an educated home buyer or seller.  One of the biggest misconceptions I feel today in the Metro Detroit real estate market is that you can lowball foreclosures at 20, 30, or 50% below list price.  Unfortunately if you do that you have a great chance of not getting the home you want.  We are sometimes seeing multiple offers on foreclosures. To illustrate my point here are all the Livonia foreclosures that have sold in the last month.  Out of the 25 Livonia foreclosures 10 of them sold at or above the list price.  9 Livonia homes sold within $3000 of the list price and 3 sold within $5,000 of list... 03/16/2009

Should you sell your Metro Detroit home and get out of town or should you wait it out until the market rebounds? The main question I have to ask is why you are selling?  Are you looking to move on with live after retiring?  Do you have to sell? Do you have any equity in the home? Would you consider renting out the house? Would you consider selling the house on a land contract? Are you moving because of a job? How long do you have to wait for the Detroit real estate market to come back? Is your home updated to today's standards? Or is it in need of updates? What kind of money are you looking to get out of the house? These are questions that you need to have answers for.  So your listing real estate agent will be able to help you achieve your goals and understand what you really want. My ... 03/13/2009

Not so funny really. And it was my drivers license that caused me the issue. I thought I'd share this so others won't do what I did. It was time to get my drivers license renewed. I went to the secretary of State, gave them all my information and was told there was an issue. It seems that I had an outstanding ticket. The kicker was that it was from Illinois. I hadn't lived in Illinois for almost 25 years. I certainly hadn't gotten a ticket the times I'd been back. I called the Secretary of state for Illinois and was told that this ticket was from a town called Hardin, which is a very small (tiny) little place situated between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Did I mention it was small? Well in 1985 I was trying to get home to Alton from a wedding in Quincy and was going a little fas... 03/11/2009

Well, if you're still bleary eyed from the lack of sleep with Daylight Savings Time, you may have missed the news that Congress passed the "Making Home Affordable Program" which was created to help as many as 7-9 million people who are making every effort to remain current on their mortgage payments. What do you mean you didn't know it was daylight savings time already? That could explain why your kid was late for school and you missed a big showing appointment. Bit I digress. There are basically two parts to the plan. One part is to help homeowners with good payment history, whose mortgage is owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. It hope to help these people take advantage of the lower interest rates, even if they don't have enough value in their home to refinance. The second part of the... 03/09/2009

Could this be true? Are things starting to pick up here in the "D"(that's Detroit Mi for those who haven't read my previous blogs). I don't want to get carried away with what may just be a blip but any good news is worth sharing. While I was looking at the Market stats for February, I noticed that the city of Detroit is down to around a 6 months inventory.That's way down form the 21 months we had in January of 08. Livonia Michigan, where I live and so a lot of my business is down to around 9 months of inventory. Once again, a positive sign since we were at 16 months a year ago. There may be a lot of reasons for the change. Most notably would be that we have gotten rid of a lot of the dross, the bank owned houses that were torn up and ready to be torn down. It could also be that seller a... 03/01/2009

Q. If you had a choice between buying a home owned by Fannie Mae or HUD, which one would you choose, all things being equal? A. What is most important is finding a home you're crazy about in an area you like that is mechanical sound. That said, however, the advantage of HUD is that they are offering a $2,500 owner occupant incentive which is applied toward your either your closing costs, tax prorations & repairs to the home. If all other things are equal, that's pretty nice incentive. When you couple that with the $8,000 tax credit given to first time buyers through the end of December, 2009 is a great time to jump into the housing market! 03/01/2009

n the face of the current economic climate, many people believe that anything related to real estate, the stock market and investing in general is poisoned water   Detroit, MI -- While it is true that the market as well as real estate investments have been through a hard time over the past year, there is always a silver lining to the clouds in the sky.   Earl E Bird III, spokesperson for REIT Buyer.com an online service for people to invest in real estate, was recently interviewed.  He discussed the real estate market and how investing in REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) is a good opportunity to invest in real estate without the liability exposure and head aches of being a landlord.     Earl said, "While it is true that REITs had a rough year, there are still some of them out there... 02/21/2009

There is going to be a informational meeting about Michigan flood zone maps and flood insurance for Wayne County MI tonight in the City of Livonia.  It is going to be held at: City of Livonia33000 Civic Center DriveLivonia, MI  481545th Floor - Community ResourcesThursday, February 19, 20094:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Did you know that **Devastating floods occur throughout the United States every year causing more than $2 Billion in damage ** You have a 26% chance of experiencing a flood during 30 year span compared to only a 9% chance of fire. ** Floods and flash floods occur in all 50 states.  Michigan just recently had some homes flooded in Macomb County. ** Financial losses due to flooding are usually not covered under most homeowners or business policies. Tonight you can locate your home ... 02/18/2009

Absent from Washington and President Obama is a mention of a Federal Initiative to convert the federal vehicle fleet to natural gas. This would mandate that to start with all federal vehicles, ie. postal, ect. be converted to run on natural gas. Later the states could follow, and than the local municipalities. We have plenty of natural gas reserves, and we could kick our habit of foreign oil dependence. This would stimulate the economy, create a new industry and create jobs. This is a no brainer! Why the silence from Washington? 02/15/2009

How often do you eat out? If you're like most Americans, the answer is more often than you'd like to admit. Check out Restaurant.com to purchase discount coupons for local restaurants. Purchase a $10 gift certificate for $3, or a $25 certificate for $10. Certain restrictions apply. Also check out RedPlum.com. Sponsored by Valassis (the company that provides the coupon inserts for Sunday's newspapers), the site provides amazing deals on grocery, entertainment, travel, clothing and more. 02/01/2009

My Monday Moanin' Market Update is getting later and later in the week. So without furthaer adieu, here it is. Here in the "D" we haven't had a lot of good news but last December brought glad tidings of great joy which shall be unto all men. No I'm not talking about Christmas. Crain's Detroit Business reported that the region posted 58, 592 sales in 2008 as compared with 49,197 in 2007. this is an increase of 19.1 percent.  Each month showed an increase when compared to the previous month. This is significant, especially if someone is loking for investment property. Oakland County increased sales by 47.6%, the City of Detroit posted a 45.9% gain while Wayne County had a 42.4% increase. Macomb County was the slowest with a gain of 24.3, still significant. Pending sales showed a 43 percen... 01/29/2009

When Should I list my Livonia Michigan Home? Good question and early every year a very common one as well.  Well first things first, if your considering selling your Livonia home then you should be well on your way to getting it ready for the "Spring Market" everyone always is talking about.  For more information on that topic visit Sell My Livonia Home Tips or www.LivoniaBusyBees.com .  Now common sense may tell us that overall when we have sub-zero temperatures, snow and sleet abound home buyers may not be out looking as much as they will be when the weather breaks.  So if you need to be ready for the spring market try this:  Find your Livonia Real Estate Agent now and see what they suggest your action plan should be.  You need to be listed and ready for showings for the spring market... 01/20/2009

As I sat down to write this post I had some good new to share. Here in "The D" sales were up last month. I was going to share the stats and what this could mean to the rest of the country. Then I turned on the T.V. As you might guess, Barak Obama was being inaugurated as the 44Th president of the United states of America. Blog forgotten I got wrapped up in the moment. I listened to the speech. I listen to the poet give her recitation (I must admit, I wasn't a big fan but what do I know about poetry). I listened to the Pastor who gave the benediction and even stood as the choir sang the National Anthem. Yes, I was in my living room..alone. It just seemed the right thing to do. I'll come clean right here. I didn't vote for President Obama. I disagree with much of his beliefs. I tend to le... 01/20/2009

Livonia real estate If you are looking in Livonia here are some of the bargains that are out there 3 bedroom, 1 bath brick ranch w basement.  925 square foot.  $50 a square foot 1306 square foot vinyl Cape cod, 3 bedroom, 2 baths, 2 car garage $28.33 a square foot Brick ranch 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 3 car garage, basement $48.77 a square foot 2438 Cape Cod, 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 baths, 2 car garage, and basement for $40.60 a square foot 4 Bedroom, 1 1/2 bathrooms,  1611 square foot colonial for $55 a square foot Livonia Mi has been ranked in the top ten as one of the nations safest cities.  With a good police force, good city services, a nice park system, and quality school systems Livonia is a good place to raise children and live whether you are a senior, a single person, or have a family. Feel... 01/18/2009

With all the hoopla of "The Secret"a couple of years back, it's no wonder that there are literally hundreds of writers, bloggers and "guru's" coming out of the woodwork to capitalize on the phenomenon. I may even work on a book myself. The thing to do know, it seems, is to declare that The Secret was incomplete. It was life 101. You need to continue on to higher learning. Of course, these teachers are the ones who have the next step or steps. One of these is a guy named James Arthur Ray and his newest tome is called ,"Harmonic Wealth: The secret of attracting the Life You Want" by Hyperion Press. In his new book Ray breaks our lives into 5 pillars. These pillars are financial, mental, relational, physical and spiritual. This is nothing new if you've heard Brian Buffini or Joe Stumpf or ... 01/16/2009

When I first started writing this blog I told myself I would only need to do Three days a week. I would do a Market Update on Monday, general blog of whatever was on my mind on Wednesday and a book review on Friday. Easy enough. I found I like it so much that i want to throw in an extra day. So here it is, and it's no charge, of course. I've always been a little taken aback by the language a lot of Real estate agents use. I've run into a lot of agent here in Livonia Mi that use bad or even foul language. I've always believed that as a sales professional, language is one of our most useful tools. I'm not trying to come off as an English teacher, which I'm not. Those of you who are or were will easily pick my blog apart for sentence structure, syntax, spelling (especially spelling) and al... 01/15/2009

Welcome to my blog about Livonia Michigan Houses for Sale.  Going into 2009 I am very excited for the potential home buyers in Livonia Michigan this year.  Inventory is still high (but does seem to be reducing) while pricing compared to a few years ago is very low.  Livonia offers a great selection of housing opportunities from executive style two story homes, starter houses, condominiums and most styles in between.  Feel free to visit my Livonia Michigan Real Estate web-page for more information on local housing and city information.  Today there is well over 600 available Livonia homes to start your searching with.  It is a great idea to narrow down your search criteria by price range, location, home style, etc.  I would also advise that you start to narrow down and pick who you think... 01/14/2009

'and a few other things too. Earlier this fall I made a resolution. I live in Michigan and I choose to live in Michigan, so this year, I wasn't going to gripe about the cold. Even more, I was going to do everything I could to enjoy it. I've never been much of a winter sports fan, except from my couch. I don't ski. ice fish or play hockey, almost sacrilege in Detroit. Still I was determined to make the best of 6 months of my life. I grew up across the Mississippi River from St Louis. While it's not Florida, it doesn't have the winters of the great white north. Let me tell you, this morning almost broke my resolve! I had to start the car a lot earlier to make sure the fluids would move. I had to stop my kids from walking out of the house half naked. Then it took me extra time to get to my... 01/14/2009