Stacey-Ann's Blog

Built around 1745, Belair Mansion was the home to Govenor Ogle.  It was also the location of Maryland's first thoroughbred racehorses.  The mansion has been restored and enlarged over the years.  

Located at 12207 Tulip Grove Dr, Bowie, MD it is very close to Rts 50, 450, & 301 and is just minutes from Bowie Town Center.  Self-guided tours are free of charge with only donations requested and are available Tuesday - Sunday from 12-4pm.

Looking for a fun day trip from DC?  Check out the North Beach area in Calvert County, MD.  

Located just 30 minutes South of the DC beltway North Beach provides a great alternatives to the Eastern Shore.

In North Beach there is a public beach, a boardwalk, antique shops and restaurants.

If you are a beach lover North Beach also provides an opportunity to own beach real estate while still being able to make the daily commute to the greater Washington, DC area.  North Beach provides real estate options ranging from under $100,000 to over $1 million.

Directions:

From the Beltway take exit 11A/Rt 4 South into Calvert County.  Turn right onto RT 260 which dead-ends at Chesapeake Beach.  Turn left at that light to continue into North Beach. 

I recently downloaded a neat I-phone application for real estate.  NearBuy uses your current location and lets you know all houses that are for sale near by.  This is a great tool when you are driving around with clients.  Its also a great tool when trying to figure out what homes in a neighborhood cost.  There is also a map function where you can find homes for sale using certain parameters.

The best part - its free!  I love those free apps!

I received a speeding ticket in the mail last week.  I would have liked to pretend it wasn't me but there were pictures of my bright red car from different angles and a close-up of the license plate.  I was going 46 in a 35 mile per hour zone.  My penalty - 40 bucks!  I cannot begin to tell you how much shopping I could do with $40.  It happened in the northbound lanes of New Hampshire Ave - I still can't quite figure out where.  Then I began to feel nervous, if I don't know where this happened could there be more tickets in the mail?  Today my worst fear was realized when once again a ticket arrived, same spot, this time I was going 50mph.  Another $40 fine.  Do you think these count as a business expense?  After all I was likely hustling to an appointment.  :-)  

Montgomery County is doing well on, this brings my total to 4 speeding tickets by mail in the past year.  I pray that other local jurisdictions do not adopt these dreaded speed cameras.

I am in charge of a charity yard sale this weekend.  This will take place in Charles County, Maryland.  Usually at the end of the sale we have quite a bit of inventory left over and would like to be able to donate what's left to a local charity.  Does anyone know of a local charity that will do a pickup of the remaining items?

Also, if you are interested in attending, bring the family to the Angie M. Houtz Memorial Family Fun Day on Saturday, May 16, 2009 12-5pm Charles County Fairgrounds.

If you have items you would like to donate to the yard sale please give me a call 240-481-3565 or send me an email stacey.baugh@longandfoster.com

Third Annual Angie M. Houtz Memorial Scholarship

Family Fun Day

Come join us for a day filled with fun for the entire family...  

Just $5 at the gate includes lots of activities!

Saturday, May 16 ▪ 12pm - 5pm

Charles County Fairgrounds ▪ La Plata, MD

• Hayrides
• Face Painting
• Food
• Moon-bounce
• Arts & Crafts                        
• Jumbo Slide
• Fire Trucks
• 50 Cent Games 
• Yard Sale
• And much more!

Visit www.angiehoutzfund.com for more information.

Sometimes in this crazy market we forget that we are in a people business.  With all these REO properties and email contacts we've lost the communcation between each other as professionals.

On my recent, difficult transaction I was grateful to be working with a team of professionals who remember that courtesy to each other is as important as courtesy to our clients.

Special thanks to Gemini Title for all their help during a tedious process.  Our specialist, Katrina Rowe, was patient with us and with all the changes and willing to squeeze us in when finally we got what we needed.  When a medical emergency stopped our closing mid-stream she rallied to find us a replacement.

The replacement, Jack Fleming, arrived at 8pm to get the job done. He was a pleasure to work with and his easy manner immediately diffused the tense situation.  The buyers were really appreciative of his willingness to help-out at the last minute.  I would happily use Gemini Title and Jack Fleming again!

Special thanks also to the listing agent, Simone Williams of Keller Williams who was an absolute joy to work with.  I feel as though I made a new friend over these past few months.

Working with professionals who value and appreciate each other makes all the difference in this job, especially when trying to negotiate difficult transactions.

I just checked my profile and realized that I am #20 in Maryland.  I am amazed at that.  There are 3369 bloggers on activerain in Maryland, so #20 is pretty good.  I am not usually one to celebrate point milestones but this seems worth celebrating.

I have not been as diligent lately with keeping up with my blogging but that unexpected surprise has given me renewed focus.  I am hoping to crack the Top 15 before too long. 

When I first started doing this and my profile was listed on the 100th page of real estate profiles I never even thought it was possible to see my profile on the first page (not to mention becoming the featured agent in my area). 

I look forward to seeing this work pay off in the form of good leads and referrals from this platform.

Last Saturday I was working on my computer when it suddenly said "Beginning Dump of Physical Memory".  At first I was not alarmed, I know I have seen that before on my computer at work.  I tried to re-boot and it initially seemed like all was fine but then there was an empty blue screen with a flashing cursor.  Then we got the dreadded "No bootable drives detected". and the computer began making these horrible clicking noises.  Turns out the hard-drive is a goner!

We are off this weekend to go investigate computers and decide what to get.  Any suggestions?