A Griffith Listing

Real Estate Services by Jon Griffith

Adding to the Madness

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A recent conversation between me and a good friend at a great coffee shop near down town Phoenix has sparked my interest in looking at the social benefits versus the social detriments of Facebook.  I’m by no means an authority on human behavior, but I am interested in a few things as is he.

Addicted to Facebook

I too am addicted to Facebook.  It’s been a great place to re-connect with people I have lost track of.  I can see what they’re up to, how many kids they have, where they work, where they go on vacation.  In the course of one year, I have reconnected with over 200 people that had some sort of influence over my life either recently, or in the distant past, some significant, and some not.

Brandon Stark, (scouterblue.blogspot.com), writes:

We have created an Open-Door policy to our lives. We exploit ourselves…posting all the details of our lives on our carefully crafted page, giving people no reason to interact by other means. In many ways it eliminates the need for real relationship.

Too Much Information

For me, the truth of the matter is, I don’t want to know that much detail without having the opportunity to sit with you and connect, for real.  As I update my status, staring at the wall trying to think of something nebulous to spew across the system, I can only wonder whether or not I’ve forgotten that 100+ people that I normally wouldn’t say anything to are going to read it.  When I post my status, my initial thought is that those who I see weekly, those who I hold valuable to me for one on one quality time, they are the ones who have become the object of my silly status updates.  The rest of the “friends” that I have on Facebook are so far distant, so far removed by a long, lonely gap of inactivity over many years that what comes out of my mind becomes of no use to them at all, yet they still see it, and they still know what I’m up to.

Reliving the Past

At first I thought Facebook was a great place to gather your friends.  Then I started to chalk it up to a place where I can quickly catch up on where people are, simply to satisfy that curiosity, to answer that occasional “I wonder where they are” question.  In the past, that question typically went unanswered as we quickly reminisced about the past in a few seconds, and then filed it away for another day.  And you know what?  We were okay with it.  Now, the answer to that question has become, “I’ll find them on Facebook and then I’ll really know.”

Yes, you’ll really know.  You’ll soon really know how cluttered your life can become with the plethora of social networking that has become the “norm.”

Social Outcast!

“You mean, you’re not on Facebook?  What’s wrong with you.  It’s the greatest thing since…”

Since what?  It’s only 5 years old and it dominates our every social situation.  Just like anything else on this planet that we experience, there’s a good twist to it, and a bad twist to it.  If used productively and wisely, the twist you experience might just be a good thing.  But don’t let it twist you out of control.

On Blogging for the Right Audience

The very fact that the word blogging has become a verb drives me as mad as the word ‘texted.’  Texted isn’t just a new word, it’s poor english.  However, I’ll use it, because our language is alive, organic, and ever changing.  Blogging is writing.  Writing is something people can do or cannot do.  If you can’t write, don’t blog.  But, if you happen to enjoy writing, then stick to it and spend time creating meaningful information for the world to see.  If you’re too personal, you’ll lose the average reader as they probably don’t care about the fact that your cousin visited last night and made the best sweet potato pie you’ve ever had.  However, if you write about the experience in a manner by which every reader can find value, or at least every reader who is interested in the general topic, then you may find success in publishing.  Otherwise, why in the world would you publish such personal information in a public location?

Is it a Virus, Infection, or well what!

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There’s a certain threshold in a given area regarding how much you should upgrade your home and how much it will make a difference in the competition. It would not make sense to put a $5000.00 stove in a $200,000 condomimium, etc. That’s just one example. So, when a prospective tenant or buyer is looking for a place to buy or rent, there’s also a threshold to their perception of value, and when something seems out of place, it won’t matter to them that you have the nicest property in the area, when it comes to considering the rent or price.

Most upgrades will increase the ability to sell or rent your home over the next door neighbors, but it won’t guarantee that you’ll be able to draw a premium based solely on those upgrades, especially if the area in which you’re renting or buying doesn’t warrant such upgrades.

For potential rental properties, if you ever find yourself saying, “I can’t drop the rent that low because my mortgage is more than that,” then it’s time to think about the cost of carrying a vacant property.

Let’s say your mortgage payment is $1500/month and your home can draw $1200/month in rent. That’s a loss of $300.00/month when it’s rented. If it’s not rented, it’s costing you $1500.00/month.  If you rent it for $1200/month for one year, you’ll lose only $3600.00.  Let’s see, $3600 divided by $1500 is 2.4.

You choose.  You can be realistic about your asking price and get the property rented and lose $3600 in 12 months, or you could hope and pray you get someone to rent your house at your inflated price and lose $3600 in 2.4 months.  Hmmm… 12 months versus 2.4 months.

If this is your way of thinking, it’s just not realistic and you may need to be innoculated from the virus, infection, or well whatever it is that’s keeping you from seeing the real market conditions.

Remember, time is money and the entire nation is getting a swift lesson in loss mitigation.  Most of us are in a “collection” mindset.  We want the full payment and we want it now, and we waste all of our time trying to hunt it down.  The best method is to mitigate your loss by getting something going…anything.

Audrey On the Run

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Audrey is a part of our community of friends.  She recently returned from a 2-year stint in Japan and decided to turn right around and head on out again for another year overseas.  This time, Switzerland.  RICCOLA!

Like clockwork, she sent out a newsletter to let us know what was going on.  Today I received her first newsletter:

Let me ’splain. No, is take too long. Let me sum up. After nearly four months of searching (open-mindedly, but fruitlessly) for jobs in the United States, and in the Phoenix area in particular, I decided to try something different. To solidify the French I studied in college (and lost a fair bit of during my 2-year stint in Japan), and also to fulfill my longtime dream of living and working in French-speaking Switzerland, I accepted an au pair position in Geneva two weeks before Christmas. I arrived here on January 22, and plan to stay until the middle of December.

I love where I live and—still, most every day I walk outside—whether it’s for a run down to the Old City (past the United Nations and the World Intellectual Property Organization) or to a neighborhood tea room/bakery for coffee with a friend, I can hardly believe I get to live here. The children I care for (a girl of 4, a boy of almost 3, and an 8-month old baby girl) are creative and active, and relatively wellbehaved, and I get along quite well with the parents as well. Also, I learn something new about childraising or housekeeping nearly every day, which—though humbling—is certainly stimulating.

Though we see the sun less than half the time, and it’s already snowed twice in the two weeks since I’ve been here, I don’t find the weather distressing. It’s actually rather refreshing, especially when I’m the first one to make footprints in the snow on a quiet morning. And I find the big chess sets in the park at the Place Neuve even more charming than ever, when dusted with a sugar-coating of white.

Hoping you’re enjoying life’s adventures too, whatever and wherever they happen to be. -Audrey

Rant of the Week: Techno Trail of Dust

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In an age where it’s nearly impossible to keep up with the changing technology, it becomes absolutely critical to the success of many businesses to be the first in the door with a new tool, process, trick…you name it. If you fail to join the technology revolution, you will be left behind with a bronze shield fending of laser guided photon plasma beams.  It is equally important if you are not a pioneer of changing technology to adopt it in order to remain competitive.

Every day thousands of documents are created that need to be verified, signed, stamped with blood. Signed documents make the world go ’round.

Rant #1: E-mail attachments are old news.

Sending messages through e-mail is a great way to quickly communicate a request. Sending attachments through e-mail is a disaster. The initial purpose of e-mail was to carry a very small message electronically to one or multiple recipients. The transport that carries the e-mail could be likened to a Yugo, or more appropriately, a Smart Car. Someone’s brilliance entered the picture (believe me, it seemed brilliant at first) and introduced a way to attach files to the e-mail. Immediately abused, this method, to illustrate it properly, was like attaching a cargo trailer to the hitch of a Smart Car with 50,000 pounds of pewter flatware, dishes, and goblets. To this day, sending attachments is still a horrible way to deliver large files over the internet.

The best way to accomplish sending large files is to create a central location where multiple people can go to retrieve the file at any time. When you send a huge attachment to 20 people in your e-mail list, you’re sending multiple copies, clogging up your outbound e-mail highway, eating up space and time on everyone’s system.

Try changing your way of thinking. Instead of sending the information through e-mail, upload it to your website or a file sharing site. Imagine if Hewlett Packard were to send out drivers for printers in e-mail. It would cost them a fortune and would make the lives of thousands of e-mail server administrators hellish.

Rant #2: Stop Printing What you Can Sign Digitally

Docusign is an absolutely brilliant tool that allows you to send anything you have on your screen through a printer driver to a digital signature website. The recipient clicks a few tabs on the document and the document is stored online permanently for you to access at any time.

Handwritten signatures expose you more than you know.  Did you know that you can scan a document with a hand-written signature, extract the signature using a photo-editing program, and insert that signature on just about any legal document you wish, then pass it off as legitimate?  It’s so easy to do (I’ve never done it, of course.)

Digitally signing a document builds multiple layers of security to prove that the person who signed the document is the person that was actually supposed to sign the document.

Not only will you find it more secure, you’ll also find it saves you time.  One example of how you can utilize Docusign would be in signing a document that was sent to you as an e-mail attachment (yuck.)  Okay, so we’re not going to be able to change over night, but we can get better.  When you receive that document, rather than printing it, signing it, scanning it, and re-attaching it, simply print it to Docusign, mark where it needs to be signed, click to sign it, and download the signed copy.  Then, send that copy to whomever needs it.  It can all be done without leaving the same spot.

It’s time to get with the times.  If you’re unfamiliar with these methods, then you’re already behind, and you might want to consider reading up on what’s what in the world of technology.

The Compounding Problem of Credit Card Debt

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Dave or Susie

I won’t go into a dissertation on debt and the economy, but I will respond to an article that I read recently that posed the question, “Is Dave Ramsey’s way better, or Susie Ormond’s way better.”  The question of the best way to pay down credit card debt seems like a pointless argument as there really is only one way to pay down debt.  Just pay it down.

I have been listening to Dave Ramsey’s advice on managing money, and while I agree with everything he preaches, there’s a lack of practical application, and no possible way to address each and every problem out there in a few seconds on the radio.  It is a “broad” transmission, after all.  I have never listened to Susie Ormond, so I can’t say anything about her.

The $1000.00 Example

Credit card debt in this country is massive, and it starts with each individual’s spending habits.  Before I continue, I’ll lay out a little analysis of what credit card debt actually  means to you, if you have it.  If you don’t, stay that way.

Let’s take $1000.00 for instance.  When you purchase an item for $1000.00 using a credit card (firstly, understand you’re much more likely to purchase something if you have a credit card…retailers bank on it, literally) you’re not actually spending $1000.00.  You’re spending a) $1000.00 that you don’t have yet, b) more than $1000.00 after interest adds up and c) the depreciation in value of the item you purchase.  So how much are you actually spending?  That depends on your interest rate.  Let’s say it’s only 15% annualy.  Take 15% and divide it by 365 days and you get .0004109 % per day.  Now multiply that number by 30 days and you get .01232 % per month.  Multiply that times your balance and you have the following.

The $1000.00 you borrowed grows in one month to $1012.32.  Your minimum payment for the month is probably $15.00 on a $1000.00 balance (check your card agreement) which means that if you pay the minimum payment every month, you will pay the credit card company $1112.15 for a $1000.00 purchase for a total of $2112.15 and it will take you 11 1/2 years to pay it off.  That does not take into account the decline in value of whatever it is that you purchased if it holds any value at all.

But I Rationalized My Purchase

Sure you did.  Just like they planned.  They know that you’ll say something like, “I’ll pay it off before the end of the month.”  Thank bank on that, because it’s likely you won’t pay it off, and your payment due dates do not correspond with the end of the month.  Don’t rationalize your purchases.  If you have the cash to pay off the purchase, then just use the cash.  Those incentive programs that they offer you, like the “no payments for 12 months” programs are designed to push you to rationalize your way into deeper debt.

“No Payments for 12 Months”

So what’s so bad about that?  Well, firstly, in order to take advantage of these programs, you have to go into debt, which is not a very smart decision.  It may seem great at the time, but if you’re someone with no discipline to pay the credit card off prior to the expiration date (the exact day) then you’ll be surprised at the end of the promotion period to see all of the interest for the entire 12 months slapped onto your bill.  These programs are expected to attract the purchases of people who would normally not spend anything at that time.  Think about all of the trips to the hardware store you’ve made that resulted in you thinking you needed more than you came to get.  If you find yourself short of self control in this area, get rid of the credit cards.  You’ll be surprised at how less often you browse the malls and retail stores just looking for an excuse to spend money you don’t have.

So I’m in Debt, What Do I Do?

Dave Ramsey lays it out quite simply.  Look at all of your credit card statements.  Put them in order of importance from the lowest balance, to the highest balance.  Determine how much of your budget you can afford to pay towards your credit cards, pay the minimum payments on all of your cards, and focus the balance of your remaining budgeted payment to the card with the lowest balance.  Other methods involve knocking out more than one card at a time, and this may work for you, but I have found in my life that working with one card at a time helps me reach shorter term goals more often, which gives me a sense of accomplishment, and therefore adds to the positivity that I need in my life to not feel so enslaved by the lenders.

If you aren’t familiar with Dave Ramsey, I highly recommend listening to his radio show or subscribing to his podcast.  You can hear his show on his website as well.  They post the show every day he’s on the air.  Listening to the success stories will help you know that you can move forward in your life and get out of debt.

Dirty Dirty Brandon

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Please excuse me if you find this inappropriate, but life itself can seem inappropriate and therefore worth sharing with the rest of the world.  Last night at our not so regularly scheduled poker game, I was introduced to a white elephant gift that I must share with you.

Please forgive me, but I cracked up when I “read” it…as Brandon explained to me that he “played earlier and, well, you should try it.”

I suppose a picture is worth a thousand words.