Maryland and Virginia Real Estate and Homes Blog

Homes in Maryland are priced to sell in 2009.  They come in all prices, styles and types.

The market report below represents one story homes in Maryland in Calvert, Charles, Carroll, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, St. Mary’s, Prince George’s counties.

Contact us to see homes in your area of choice.  Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988.

Inspired by a thoughtful post by Jacob Clayton, it’s time for an attitude change about copyright infringement.

Folks who have had their copyright protected content (any original writing, image, photo, video, etc.) copied and published by another person, usually have pretty typical reactions:

Shock!

Sick to the stomach!

Disbelief!

Anger!

WE ARE NOT FLATTERED!  Are these the emotions of a person who has just been flattered?  If you find that any property has been stolen, do you feel flattered???  I don’t.  Telling me that I should feel flattered when my property has been stolen is to demean the value of my published content.  Our content has valua.  It is, after all, our advertisements to the public that bring us contacts leading to commissions. 

OUR CONTENT HAS REAL VALUE.  Perhaps many believe that our content has lettle value because we do it ourselves.  If we pay a web site design company $10,000 to create a web site for us, we know that web site content has value.  However, there appears to be a belief that, since we have designed, written, provided content to the web site ourselves, that it has less value.  Not so.  Copyright infringement damages can be very costly to the offender.  I have successfully collected anywhere from $750 to $41,000 from persons who used my copyright protected web site content on their web pages.  I also have a judgment for $60,000 from another.  At this time, I am in court with another and am ready to file on another.  Over the past 3 years, I’ve collected over $200,000 in copyright infringement damages.  That is real money.  If I had felt flattered, I would not have pursued these cases.  I was shocked, sick to the stomach, in disbelief and angry, so I protect my copyrights vigorously, as provided by the law, see: 

(c) Statutory Damages. -

(1) Except as provided by clause (2) of this subsection, the copyright owner may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work, for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally, in a sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just. For the purposes of this subsection, all the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work.  More. . . .

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS ILLEGAL.  Over the years since first advertising my real estate services on the Internet, I’ve discovered my original and copyright protected content on the web sites of others no less than 20 times.  I can tell you, when I see my property on another agent or broker’s web site I DO NOT FEEL FLATTERED.  I pursue each and every case discovered.  My first reaction is “shock”.  Then the emotions slowly turn to a feeling of “sick to the stomach”.   Eventually, the shock and sick to the stomach feelings turn into “anger”.   Throughout the discovery, the “disbelief”that a competitor or other entity would steal the content of another for personal or commercial gain in violation of the law. 

IF YOU ARE CAUGHT WITH MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ON YOUR WEB SITE, IGNORING ME WILL COST YOU!   One thing is constant.  When receiving a Cease and Desist and Demand for Damages letter from my attorney, the reaction is almost routine.  First the offender removes my copyright protected content from their web site.  Then they ignore us.  BIG MISTAKE.  The longer they think that I’ll just go away, the more it will cost them.  The attorney’s letter didn’t say, “Remove Lenn’s content from your web site and we’ll go away.”  It’s already too late for that.  The damage is done.  You have already benefitted from the illegal use of my intellectual property and you will pay for that use.  My attorney is very good and very expensive.  The longer the offender delays settlement, the higher the legal fees to me and the higher the demand to the offender.  As the case proceeds, the more obsticles placed in the way of settlement, the higher the demand. If the case gets to a judge, damages are very, very high. 

OUR EMOTIONS ARE NATURAL.  When discovering my property on another person’s web site, my reaction of shock, sick to the stomach, disbelief and anger will not be dismissed by telling me that I should be flattered.  When discovering that the article we agonized to write, or the image we worked hard to create, or the photo that we took the time to take and publish has been used by another who expended little energy, no creativity and no actual work beyond a simple “cut and paste”, our emotions are not a feeling of having been flattered.  It is a primal feeling of. . . . . . .

Shock!

Sick to the stomach!

Disbelief!

Anger!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more light reading on copyright, see:  http://activerain.com/blogs/lennharley/tags/copyright

                               *  *  *  *  HARD CORE REAL ESTATE TALK  *  *  *  *

AVOIDING CONTRACT FAILURES is important for home buyers.  If you have a contract of sale on a home in Maryland or Northern Virginia, make sure that the financing is in place and that your loan officer is doing their job. 

DON’T LOSE YOUR DREAM HOME because of poor financing letters.

We regularly read about contracts that “fall apart” because the buyer cannot get financing.  Homefinders agents will make sure that you, our home buyer, are aware of the critical dates in your contract. 

Make sure that your loan officer understands that they need to get the mortgage financing process completed sooner rather than later.

Experienced buyer’s agents in MD and VA know that a missed deadline in the contract can cause a home buyer to lose a home. 

Use a Financial Statement!   Agents need to learn to read the numbers!!

Homefinders.com agents know how to read a financial statement.  We will alert you early on if there are matters in your financial profile that need to be addressed BEFORE you submit a contract offer.

We use a simple Financial Statement.  We use a simple calculator.  We look at our buyers assets and liabilities and “qualify” our buyers or buyers who write contracts on our listings. 

We do not rely on loan officers to qualify.  Qualifying a prospective home buyer  isn’t rocket science.  This is a simple calculation.  We’re not qualifying buyers for credit and we rely on trusted loan officers to do that.  We use qualifying ratios to determine price range.  However, the agent needs to do two calculations.  One for the ratio of mortgage payment/income and one for all debt/income. 

FRONT RATIO/BACK RATIO.  We use ratios of 30% for an estimated PITI/gross monthly income and All Debt/monthly gross income.   30% of your income is an average for home buyers to spend on housing.  Many buyers prefer to pay less.  Some are willing to spend more. 

30/40%.  The concept was learned in real estate school.  It is further perfected in our CE classes for Real estate finance.  It’s important and separates the agents who consistantly have successful closings from the agents who simply write a lot of contracts. 

Step 1.  Provide the buyer with a Financial Statement Form.

Step 2.  Run a qualifying loan amount based on 30% of Gross Monthly Income.

Step 3.  Add the down payment, if any, for the estimated price range.

Step 4.  Run a qualifying 40% of gross monthly income for all debt.

HOMEFINDERS.COM agents and brokers know how to qualify and back it up with help from qualified loan officers, if there are any questions about credit. 

When writing an offer, the first document is the Financial Statement handed to the buyer to complete while the agent runs an Estimated Closing Cost.  Those two documents alone will determine whether or not the offer should even be made.  The Financial Statement is going to give the agent information to qualify a buyer and the Estimated Buyer’s Closing Costs is going to put in writing the cost to close.  Often buyers are surprised by these numbers.  Sure, if the buyer’s have made loan application they should have received a Good Faith Estimate from the loan officer.  Yet, every week we read of buyers who are “disqualified” at the last minute. 

This is just good business practice.  The cost of a failed contract is enourmous to the buyer and seller, not to mention the agents and brokers.  Failed contracts are almost completely avoidable. 

LOUDOUN COUNTY NEW HOME BUILDERS KNOW THAT THEY MUST COMPETE WITH THE LOW PRICES FOR SHORT SALES AND FORECLOSED PROPERTIES IN LOUDOUN COUNTY. 

HOME BUYERS DON’T HAVE TO SETTLE FOR SHORT SALE OR BANK OWNED PROPERTIES.  Short Sales and foreclosures in Northern Virginia offer good prices.  However, short sale listings, while priced well offer no assurance that the seller can transfer title.  Home buyers who need a home don’t always have the time to wait for short sales to close.  Foreclosures are rarely in top condition and while there are often good buys on the market for bank owned listings, buyers who are not interested in “as is” sales for homes that need repair may not find a home to suit in foreclosed homes.  Short Sales and Bank Owned homes for sale offer do not come with warranties.

NEW HOMES OFFER HOMES in HAMILTON THAT ARE READY FOR IMMEDIATE OCCUPANCY AND IN TOP CONDITION WITH FULL WARRANTIES on the structure, appliances, heating, cooling, roof, and the property will be in TOP condition.  Yes, you can have a home inspection on a new home. 

BUILDERS ARE COMPETING THROUGH PRICE, CONDITION AND WARRANTY.  Successful Loudoun County builders have discounted home prices and continued to build homes to sell.  Home builders know that Loudoun County is a dynamic location for job opportunities in the high tech fields.  Proximity to Dulles Airport, the Dulles Greenway, MARC Train and highly ranked public schools make Loudoun County one of the most popular areas in the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Northern Virginia for new homes. 

WE TOURED NEW HOMES  IN HAMILTON THAT ARE READY FOR IMMEDIATE OCCUPANCY.  Today we visited one of our favorite new home communities in Hamilton today looking for special opportunities for our home buyers.  Below are three special homes offered at spectacular prices.  These homes are complete with luxury features and are ready for immediate occupancy.  Hamilton is just 4 miles west of Leesburg Virginia and 3 miles from the Dulles Greenway and 10 minutes from MARC Train.   

Click the “Discounted Price” below to see photos and descriptions of homes.

         HOME IN HAMILTON VIRGINIA - THIS BUILDER OFFERS SUPERIOR QUALITY CONSTRUCTION

Ask about the Homefinders.com New Homes REBATE. 

Map and Facts about Hamilton Virginia.

Courtesy, Lenn Harley, Broker, Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988, E-mail.