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Here’s a tidbit gleaned from a recent publication of the Grapevine:

A FAR survey of 1,800 single family residences in an equal amount of homes from high, medium, and low income in the Fresno Clovis area found that 43 out of 1,800 homes had active notices of default. Translation:

97.5 % of the Fresno/Clovis homes are NOT in default

Which means the GLASS IS MORE THAN HALF FULL!

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Attention Realtors! When posting your pics to the MLS make sure they are least 400 X 300 pixels in size (MLS format size). It’s ok if they’re larger because the system will automatically resize them. But if you upload them at this size …

(actual size of the pic taken from the Fresno MLS)

people viewing them won’t know what they are looking at
Looks to me like the this might be a contributing factor to the home being on the market over 200 days. Also looks like the seller is offering nearly $20,000 commission to have a Realtor market their property.
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Selling real estate in Fresno? What is your Realtor doing for you?

Looking to Buy real estate in Fresno - SEARCH THE FRESNO MLS

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Anyone who knows anything about the Fresno Ca real estate market knows that we have substantial supply of lender owner properties for sale. Here is one listed by Lazarus Realty that just had a substantial price reduction. The ask price was 118,500 and was recently reduced by the lender to $95,900.

If you would like to preview this home or make an offer on it - Call me @ 559-301-1647

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Here’s a great little video that Freddie Mac put on YouTube to help people avoid mortgage fraud. Unfortunately they don’t allow it to be embedded - Here’s the LINK. More information is available on their website.

Be careful, there is all sorts of fraudsters and phishers out there. The most recent one I’ve seen is invitations to Yahoo groups that dont even exist. Awhile back I almost fell for an email that said I failed to make a payment on Ebay. Since I had recently done some ebay transactions I thought it was legit.

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I said in a previous blog that I would begin inserting some information about Green Living and I think the timing couldn’t be better. I was reading some articles the other day about the Smart Car and was thinking if the cost of energy continues to climb people WILL be driving those things. I think that Americans wont conserve unless they HAVE to, and the current energy crisis might be just what we need to get us to shift gears to greener living.

So, in this post I want to introduce you to TINY HOUSES and radically different concept of living. Check out this video of minimalist living.

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As per my previous post, I have begun another blog here.

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When you blog, you can’t help but to ask yourself this question. The answer, if you happen to be reading this is: YOU

I recently read that if I want to attract people that are in the market to buy and sell homes to my blog then I shouldn’t be blogging about my latest photos, altercations with mechanics, or how to save money on prescription drugs. Makes sense to me. I’ll try to keep this blog focused on real estate. Chances are though, I’ll want to blog about those other things, so I may have another blog @ randymcatee.com .

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We all want to save money so when the AC when out on our Honda Odyssey I called the dealer and was told diagnosis would run $106.00. So I called a local mechanic in the neighborhood and he told me he would charge $30.00 to run a diagnostic.

Well, he had me at $30.00 so off I went. I watched him hook it up and run some tests and he seemed a bit befuddled.  He asked me if I could leave it so he could run some more tests. I went by his shop in the late afternoon and he explained that I needed a couple of valves and doohicky that’s in front of the radiator and something inside under the dash. He explained to me the perils of dirty oil in the AC system, the dangers of pressure being to high, etc.  He asked me to leave it overnite and told me he would give me a price for repairs in the a.m. My wife and I discussed it that evening and she questioned whether or not the guy knew what he was doing. I told her I wasn’t sure, but let’s see what he says in the morning.

So, in the morning he calls me and tells me he has ordered the parts from the dealer and they will arrive in a day or two ( and that I am looking at $1200.00 total to repair the AC!

I told him to right there. I asked him to just change the oil and charge me for the diagnostic on the air and I told him I would be down soon to pick up the car.

Now in case you dont know, California has a lot of laws regarding Automobile Repair Service and if you aren’t familiar with them you can visit this website for more information. Its against the law for a mechanic order parts without first having your signed or explicit verbal permission beforehand.

So I picked the car up and went to the Honda dealership. The service guy there asks me what I need and I tell him the AC went out and I need a diagnosis. He sits me down in his office and writes up a work order for $198.00 to do a diagnostic. I ask him why its $198.00 and he tells me they do this and that and replace the freon. I tell him I’m not low on freon and the freon in there is fine but I think there’s an electrical issue that needs to be addressed. He asks me how I KNOW my freon is full and I tell him I already had a diagnostic run on it, then I add that the gal I spoke to on the phone told me the diagnositic test would be $106.00 not $198.00 so he asks me who it was, gets a little huffy and tells me he needs to speak to the service manager. Finally he comes back and tells me he can do the diagnostic for $106.00

I left the vehicle and shortly thereafter he called me and told me it was a relay that needed to be replaced, they had the part, it would cost an addition $124.00 So there you have it. You really have to advocate for yourself whether you’re seeing your doctor or your mechanic. AND - you need to be careful that you’re not losing money trying to save it - i.e. going to the discount mechanic whose initial charge is substantially lower but after that you get BURNT!

Just so you know - I took my receipt from the Honda dealership and went back to the other mechanic and showed it to him. I told him that I believed he should refund my $30.00 for his diagnosis since it was for a bunch of parts that had nothing to do with the problem and his estimate was over 5 times that of the dealership. He obliged.

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For many years I have been a member of Kaiser Permanente and as the years wear on the premiums and what I pay for service and drugs increases. This year the premium for my wife and I was raised to $826.00 and I opted to switch over to an HSA which has reduced our premium to around $500.00 but conversely raises our co-pays and maximum amount we pay per person on an annual basis.

With this program we pay the first $250.00 of our drugs before we begin to get our discount. Under this program I simply assumed I was getting a decent price on the drugs I’m prescribed. Recently a non-Kaiser physician told me that Kaiser’s prices on drugs were high and that I should shop elswhere and compare. So I did, and lo and behold, I was blown away by the price difference. On the one drug I shopped I paid $21.00 at Kaiser for 30 pills; for the same drug at WalMart I paid $13.64 for 240! Go Figure.

I have never been a fan of Walmart but you MUST check out their prices on prescription drugs. I just hope that I dont encounter any problems with my care providers at Kaiser when I insist that they write out my prescription rather than just email them down to their pharmacy. Unfortunatley I just had my blood pressure medication refilled at Kaiser and they ding me about a $100.00 or so on that med alone. Although I havent priced it at Walmart I am confident that their price would be around $12.00 for the same.

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Awhile back I posted the first portrait I took. Tonight I completed my first digital collage. I assembled the images I captured when I visited the Review (subject of a former blog) but for those who dont know, the Review is a coffee house in Fresno’s Tower District. Here it is:

Please remember that all my images are copyrighted and not to be used without my express written permission.

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