NaVloPoMo Day 6 – Word of the Day: Christmas

November 13, 2011 by Kristin LaVanway · Leave a Comment 

Don’t get me wrong, I like the notion of a season of sharing, peace on earth, joy to the world, all that stuff…but do we really need to celebrate for 4 months…huh??

NaVloPoMo5 – Word of the Day: Brothers

November 13, 2011 by Kristin LaVanway · Leave a Comment 


By day, a real estate agent, by night (well by day too for that matter) a the house mom for a small fraternity of four. Kicking back on my Mo-Day marveling at the marvels of brothers.

NaVloPoMo4 – Word of the Day: Health Insurance

November 13, 2011 by Kristin LaVanway · Leave a Comment 

As a self-employed single mom, I have struggled to maintain health insurance for me and my family. I recently got a new health insurance policy and was quite surprised to find that I could get better benefits, a lower deductible and pay half the cost I was paying before.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed in March 23, 2010, has provided some huge changes in health insurance. My policy calls out specific areas affected by the law, including the limitation of lifetime benefit limits, waiting periods in certain cases, access to health insurance for minors and dependents and even the availability of insurance for pre-existing conditions. More information available at WWW.Healthcare.gov

If you are in the same boat, I urge to visit this site and visits a site like ehealthinsurance.com and see if there are some options for you out there that you never thought you had. Trust me – you will sleep a lot better at night.

NaVloPoMo3 Word of the Day: Eleven(11)

November 13, 2011 by Kristin LaVanway · Leave a Comment 

Word of the day is 11 or 11-11-11 to be exact. The inside scoop in the very symmetric and symbolic date…

To join in the meditation magic, visit http://globalloveproject.com/11-11-11/ and scroll towards the bottom for details

NaVloPoMo2 – Word of the Day: Obligation

November 13, 2011 by Kristin LaVanway · Leave a Comment 


According to know-it-all Wikipedia: An obligation is a requirement to take some course of action, whether legal or moral.

There are also obligations of etiquette, social obligations, and possibly in terms of politics, where obligations are requirements which must be fulfilled. These are generally legal obligations, which can incur a penalty for unfulfilment, although certain people are obliged to carry out certain actions for other reasons as well, whether as a tradition or for social reasons.

Obligations vary from person to person: for example, a person holding a political office will generally have far more obligations than an average adult citizen, who themselves will have more obligations than a child.[citation needed] Obligations are generally granted in return for an increase in an individual’s rights or power.

So when does the discovery of a smelly, toxic refrigerator invoke an obligation?

National Vlog Posting Month (a few days late)

November 8, 2011 by Kristin LaVanway · Leave a Comment 


Thx to YouTuber Clintus McGintus (visit his site at http://www.youtube.com/user/Clintus#p/u/2/Gk5vHoy3Agw) for the heads up on NaVloPoMo1. Shooting a vid a day for a month – super psyched…see them posted at my “fun site” at http://www.http://hereinphoenix.com/. It’s going to fun to play around for a month :) …posting a short video everyday with (little to) no editing.

Landlord! Take My House Please!

June 27, 2011 by Kristin LaVanway · 2 Comments 

I hate moving! But the worst part of this move was not loading the moving van, packing, unpacking, or even the fact that it’s a hot Arizona summer (the season I always move). No, the worst part of this move is turning the house back over to the landlord and realizing that he is planning to squeeze me for that security deposit.

Despite the fact that we have spent over $700 cleaning and sprucing, the landlord’s representative, “Janet”, nit-picksevery little thing she can in the final walk-through inspection. Not only do I get to forfeit whatever “accounting” decides to deduct for dead light bulbs, a dead fly, a piece of paper that blew into the yard, and even water drops left by the approved carpet cleaner – yeah the one we were not only told to use but told we to produce a receipt to prove we used them.

Lucky me, I pay $50 for a “re-inspection” since the house didn’t pass muster and has to be re-inspected.

Please, Mr. Landlord, I just want to be done with this house. This place has bad karma.

Who Needs Cable When You’ve Got a Real Estate License

February 28, 2011 by Kristin LaVanway · 2 Comments 

Trust me…the entertainment value of real estate is gravely underestimated!!

Short Sale Buyers – Special Forces

February 28, 2011 by Kristin LaVanway · Leave a Comment 


Buying a short sale is not for namby pambies

The East Valley Team is taking a stand. When a buyer submits an offer on a short sale – it is hazardous to everyone’s health (financially speaking) if they do not intent to execute that contract fully.

Gone are the days of putting lots of short sale offers in to see what sticks, Banks are digging and making the process much harder so the message from the East Valley Team is this: You better be serious if you put an offer in on one of our short sale listings.

Real Estate Negotiation 101

February 24, 2011 by Kristin LaVanway · Leave a Comment 


Negotiating real estate deals just ain’t the same anymore
Is it just me? It just doesn’t seem like it’s much fun any more to negotiate a real estate transaction. Short sales, REO’s and homeowners who have have watched all the equity drain from the homes have taken all the pleasure out of the process.

Remember the good old days, sitting around a table, playfully bantering counter offers around until everyone was happy? What do we have now?? Waiting months and months for that 50-50 chance that the short sale will be approved…working with the overworked REO lister, if you are lucky or the REO robot if you are not…or maybe it’s an equity sale with a seller that just saw the equity drain from his home faster than a pony keg at a frat party.

Welcome to Real Estate Negotiating 101.

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