The Pontiac Silverdome, I remember roller blading around the concourse on Tuesday nights, seeing the Rolling Stones with a really cool blind date, watching Barry Sanders in disbelief, seeing Magic Johnson take the title from my beloved Pistons with 50,000 other people, my Dad taking me to my first Pistons playoff game (against the New Jersey Nets )and hearing the PA announcer say Bernard King all night long.

Blah, blah. I am sure we all have Silverdome stories, hopefully new ones will emerge. The HUGE indoor stadium sold this week for $583,000. Yes thats right, five hundred, eighty three thousand. Less than a Lake Fenton Repo.

The new owner hopes to make it a facility for Professional soccer.

The same company that auctioned of the Silverdome will be auctioning off the Tech Center on S Saginaw St next month. Start rolling your quarters!

This is a fantastic story. Young man from Flint goes to Alabama to play for a man who left the players fathers alma-mater. Going to the SEC (which is sooo different than the big ten), going to college in a foreign country (if you are born and raised in Flint, like me, Alabama mize well be a foreign country), fighting for playing time last year as a freshman, and now being named the favorite to win college footballs biggest individual award and having a great shot at it's biggest team award.

I actually get goosebumps when I am on the road watching 'bama play and they say Mark Ingram from Flint MI!!! Makes the rust in blood tingle with hometown pride.

Every once in a while I peek out of my cave and find there are some really cool things happening around me. I am even starting to have a little fun selling houses again. Whether that's because I have become desensitized to the scenery of abandoned homes and the lingering ghosts of the families who once inhabited them, or because the scenery isn't quite so bleak- the market having gotten used to itself, I am not sure. Either way, I'm out there again, having fun, shopping houses and looking around in a way I had missed out on in the past.

"The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature."

You can read the whole post if you care to find it on mlive. Or you can google Rush Limbaugh to hear his genius idea to bulldoze Flint. But if you pull out just a few key phrases from the sampling above you sum up not only how our neighbors feel about us but more importantly, how many of us have come to view ourselves. "POOREST U.S. CITY", "RAZING ENTIRE DISTRICTS", and of course "SCHEME". Schemes and Flint go hand in hand, right? But that's a different post for somebody else. My point today is that we seemed to be wallowing for a while in our demise and self pity. (It couldn't have just been me, could it?) We were so busy complaining and projecting that some of us forgot to put some of that energy toward making things better!

Thank goodness some folks never stopped moving forward.

The 501 Bar & Grill...

Back to the Bricks was amazing...

And don't forget we've got our beloved Crim coming up this weekend...

Are these the streets of a miserable city without hope? No way! And coming up October 10th is the event that inspired me today. The Flint Zombie Walk. In a nutshell... you pay your $10 to participate in the 15 to 30 minute walk. You must be dressed as a zombie. There is a fabtab party afterward with cool prizes and such. All ages welcome. Proceeds go to the Eastern Michigan Foodbank.

I LOVE Halloween and zombies (and werewolves and vampires! hello Twilight!) and all things spooky so this got my attention. But I wonder, what else is going on that I don't know about? What other easy ways to contribute to community are the good motivated people of Genesee County spoon feeding me that I am not noticing? How about you? Are you participating or complaining? I'll tell you what. I'll keep a look out and let you know what I find.

This is an accounting as told to me by another agent in the office. I may have juiced it up a bit for fun, though. :-) It's a touchy topic and I should say up front that although the sales call was silly, and such situations often ignite heat under an agent's collar, this agent thought the buyer was "very nice" and only found the story remarkable because of the widespread lack of understanding when it comes to real estate agents and commissions. Let the embellished accounting begin...

So I was stretched out in the blazing sun on a hot park bench in front of the CHAOS ride at Cedar Point. Part of my family was in a two hour line for a dumb turn at going too high, too fast, too steep, and too short. The other part of my family was going round after round on the spinning, flipping, dizzying cars of the CHAOS. Equally dumb. With a rare weekend in front of me with all my buyers pending or in negotiation and deadlines for the moment met, we decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Cedar Point. And I was there to soak up my first batch of sun for the summer, read, write, and not think for two days, while the rest of my crew plummeted hundreds of feet in tiny cars toward the ground at high speeds. A perfect weekend. And then the phone rang.

Having put my daughter on the CHAOS for the seventh time in 40 minutes so that I could sound as professional as possible so I could return the call of my potential new buyer, amidst the screams and laughter of a theme park, I called Joe. Very pleasant and cordial. We talked about Cedar Point, the ChangingStreets.com website, the house he was interested in, and his home buying situation in general. I couldn't hear him so well and we kept interrupting one another, so I made it the goal just to make a plan for Monday to set up the showing and further discuss his needs.

Upon hanging up I reviewed my notes and replayed our conversation concentrating on the part that troubled me that I couldn't get clarified at the time.

"I'm with ABC REAL ESTATE".

"Oh my gosh you're an agent, I misunderstood. I'm so sorry."

"No. I'm just a buyer. But I want to work with YOU."
He then kind of continued to talk and change the conversation. Remember, my brain was only at half strength and the commotion around me was distracting. I decided to let it go until Monday. When I asked for clarification on Monday it went something like this:

"Well here's the thing. My ABC agent is my sister and my wife hates her. So I want you to show us some houses so we can find what we want then buy from my her."

There was amicable conversation beyond that as I explained why if he is going to buy from his sister he has to shop with his sister but I am still not sure he understood. He mentioned noticing that "all Realtors seem to want to get paid." Like that was an unusual thing! LOL. Now I've been in similar conversations where I immediately became incensed but not this one. He simply seemed to not understand. I am not sure if he did call his sister but that's what I advised before I hung up.

End of embellished true accounting of one agent's experience with buyer/agent agency issues. I have touched on this before but with less specific details. Do you think this plain example might help buyers understand things better? I'll throw in some SEO, Facebook it and Tweet it! Whatever it takes! How about you- Buyer or Agent, do you have any experience with this? Have a better idea how to raise awareness? Lay it on me. I'll work it.

There are a lot of questions when it comes to short sales. The following is an email I received yesterday as an FYI from the North Oakland County Association of Realtors. It is from someone who has experienced a short sale and how it has affected them:

Hey guys, I thought you might be interested to learn how going through the short sale impacted our credit reports. You are welcome to share the general information, but please do not share our names, nor our personal details. Prior to the layoff, and the short sale process, we were at, or very near 800 rating. The last report we pulled was probably a year prior, when we purchased a camper, and it was around 795. In April, we were running 60 days late on payments (for 2 months running), and had 1-90 day late listed (we are challenging this, as we were never 90 days late, but that is what was listed). But EVERYTHING else was current and no payments were missed. The reports show concern over Amount owed on Delinquent Accounts, and Amount Past Due. Now we have the short sale listed, and the delinquent accounts closed (both GMAC and BOA are listed as: Closed, Settlement Accepted on this Account). They are showing 3-90 days late on the BOA account (we are going to challenge this).

Yes, that is right, our credit score actually went up slightly after the short sale. The middle score in April was 644, and in August 658. Overall, missing payments, and short selling the home cost us 140 pts on our report. We are pursuing financing for a new home in Knoxville, and the biggest issue is the 90 day lates. It seems the settlement can be worked around fairly easily by a knowledgeable mortgage broker. I would suggest that a short sale is a good method to get away from a large burden, but try to avoid 90 day lates if at all possible, 60 days does not seem to be a problem, but 90 is an issue. I am told that even with a 90 day late, we can get financed 12 months after the late occurred, through an FHA loan.

I hope that is helpful, just information. If you have questions on a short sale contact Adam (810) 733-3374