FROM OUR READERS:Letters

Eighteen Years Later, Advice Holds Up

In our “Speaking of Real Estate” blog, editor in chief Stacey Moncrieff pointed readers to an article she’d written in 1990 on succeeding in a slow market. (Click here to read the blog entry.) A reader responded:

Thank you for this great article. I’ve forwarded it to my broker and operations manager. I lived in Louisiana during the mid-’80s bust. I lost one house to foreclosure and held onto a rental house for another 10 years until the value finally exceeded the payoff amount. Thank goodness the rent covered most of the mortgage payment. This article should help many find nuggets of wisdom and useful options.

—Judy Aselton, Century 21 Professional Realty Group, Blue Ridge, Ga.

Kudos for Hoofing It

My wife and I are avid walkers (“The Benefits of Hoofing It,” January 2008, page 6). In fact, it’s our goal to walk around the world, figuratively, at least. We mark down our mileage daily, averaging close to 1,000 miles a year, and keep track of it on a globe. We started our project 16 years ago and are now more than 15,000 miles along our journey (currently along the northeast coast of Africa).

As a real estate professional, I have found walking to be a wonderful way to maintain a familiarity with our market areas. You see and notice so much more than by simply dashing from address to address. And, just as with the neighborly front porch, it helps you to keep in touch with your own friends and neighbors. I have even been known to walk prospects to showings. While walking is certainly not appropriate for all markets or individuals, prospects who chose to walk with me seemed to appreciate the experience. They were surprised by how much ­better they came to know the community.

In our electronic age, when we expect life to run at the speed of light, sometimes it’s actually more productive to slow down a little and enjoy the trip.

Sure, walking may improve health, save money, and perhaps even save the planet some day by reducing the use of fossil fuels, but it might do even more: We could find ourselves happier and more productive today.

—Bob DuBois, DuBois Realty, La Junta, Col.

Disclosing a Death

The question in the February 2008 Ethics column (“Murder, He Said. Do You Tell the Buyers?” page 14 ) was whether a practitioner should disclose the fact there had been a murder in a listed house. Columnist Bruce Aydt gives a technical answer based on individual states’ disclosure requirements, but from an ethical standpoint, I remember what my first broker taught me 21 years ago: If you have to ask the question whether or not to disclose something, you know the answer: yes.

Or another way to look at the question is if I were the buyer, would that be a material fact I would want to know about? The answer is obvious.

—Jeff Katz, CRS®, GRI, Assist-2-Sell Coastal Homes, Eureka, Calif.

Correction: REALTOR® magazine’s article “Green: Easy Does It” (February 2008, page 40) incorrectly stated that replacing five incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs could save as much as 3,000 kilowatts of energy a day. The correct savings estimate is 0.3 kilowatts of energy a day. We regret the error and thank the readers who brought it to our attention.