So very excited to have the actual facebook for my iPad! It will make life so much easier! Well, I’m not sure about life, but it will certainly make fb a lot easier on my iPad! None of the other apps really worked that well and I finally gave up and just made a shortcut to my online fb to use – that was much better. Well, I think I am going to really like the new app. Much easier to use. Let me know what you think too. Please post your thoughts.

Also, just a tip… I had trouble getting it on my iPad because it kept saying it was already there. Well, it just happens that it is actually the same app that we downloaded for the iphone and I just had to go into the apps and select it in the iphone apps and where it usually says downloaded (grayed out)… it said “update” and of course I was very happy to do so. Once I did that, it worked just great!

Don’t forget – let me know what your thoughts are too!

Well, now back to topic… the real estate market has certainly seen great improvement over the past several weeks!  We are definitely into the buying and selling season and you can tell by the number of listings that are beginning to sell and appointments for showings.  Consumer confidence seems to have returned to Oklahoma.

I would like to share one of our new listings with you today.  It is a fabulous home located in the Creek Bend neighborhood.  It is close to I-35 making it a very easy commute for work in the city.  This 4 bedroom home with 3 full bathrooms, a powder room, Formal living, family room as well as upstairs game-room and a beautiful office is not only beautiful inside but outside as well.  This yard is just gorgeous and well landscaped.  Here is the link to check it out  http://www.NeviusTeam.com/453536  It is priced at $420,000

Here are few pictures – if you happen to be interested, just give us a call – it is very easy to show.

1017 Gulmor Dr

Gourmet Kitchen with huge walk-in pantry

Back view of home with nice large covered patio

Hopefully you saw something you liked and now you should go to http://www.NeviusTeam.com and check out all of our great listings.

Remember, it truly is a great time to buy or sell your home.  The interest rates continue to stay very low.  No one knows just how long we will see these wonderful interest rates so please, if you are thinking about a move, now is the time.  Don’t miss out on these rates.

Call us and we will sit down and discuss your specific needs and see if this just might be the right time for you to buy or sell a home.

Have a great week!

The Nevius Team

405-830-8500

moreinfo@neviusteam.com

……watch for more great listings coming soon

QR codes have been around for a while but are just starting to catch on.  With the flood of smart phones and apps, we are seeing more and more people use them for fun, work, shopping and much more.  I have had  several apps on my phone that can read or scan the codes (more on those scan apps later)  for quite a while now and have not really used them much.   I originally downloaded them for fun.  Also, they used them quite a bit at our national convention this past November but I’m not sure just how many people really did it while we were there.  In fact, I have to confess, I scanned one and it took me to their sales page and that didn’t seem to be really all that useful and they just wasted my time.  So, as a result, I didn’t scan many more while we were there.  Shame on me! I’m the one that missed out.

It wasn’t until just lately, (nearly 4 months later) that I got interested in them again.  I have researched and experimented with them a bit and found that they are something that I can put on my flyer’s (I’m in real estate – just in case you didn’t know that!) and all our techy clients can scan them and see the visual tour of the listing right then on their phone.  I have discovered that if you are going to use a QR code, then it needs to be useful and take you somewhere you really want to go!  In my business, I think the tour is the best landing place right now and until I can come up with a better use – that is where I will be using mine.

Now of course, you might just be interested to know that some of them will take you to coupons and/or discounts;  video of a product demonstration;  to customer review; a map of a company or restaurant or tourist site;  —- my personal favorite… a trailer for a video or movie!;  a news segment;  to another mobile app???; or a place to compare prices on products that you are interested in.

As a realtor, I think I could use QR codes on sign riders, in the newspaper ads, videos that our team might do on helpful hints for our clients???; the homepage of my blog (which I intend to do right away!) and on my virtual tours (Yea for my visual tour provider – they already allow us to do that in an easy to use format and I have been taking advantage of that just lately)   I think I will add it to my email signature too?

What are your thoughts on using QR codes?  How to you think you would use them.  I would really like to know.  That’s right… leave a comment.

Oh, and I shouldn’t forget to give you the names of apps that work.  Here are the top three I have found that work on various types of scans.  They are easy to use and I can recommend them to most everyone.  The first on I ever used was:

Shop Savvy – currently 1.99 at the app store.  Here is what they say about it:  Find the right product at the best price! New release. Now the fastest, most accurate and most comprehensive scanner around. It won’t find everything in the world, but it is close.

Red Laser – FREE at the app store and here is how it is described:  RedLaser ―― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning.

And now, my personal favorite:

Yep – here’s my favorite and it is called ScanLife and it is also FREE.  Here is what they say about it:  ScanLife turns your camera phone into a all-in-one bar code reader – one of the only apps that can scan QR Codes and UPC Codes found on products.

OK now you know how to read QR Codes but would you like to make your own to use on your website, flyers or most anywhere you like???

Here is the site I use.  For your very own QR Code Generator – go to:  http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

Type in your website address and pick your size and click GENERATE – that’s all there is to it.  Now you can make your own and put them all over the place – you can even tatoo it on your forehead if you like.  Have fun!

Don’t forget to leave some comments or tweet my blog for others. NeviusTeam.wordpress.com

Be sure to tell us how you might be using QR codes  - till next time…..

Are you not completely sure what number goes in which box on what form (and why)? I know I don’t!

Little known fact: You can get free help from the IRS:

The IRS Website, www.irs.gov has most forms and publications available for download. The site also includes information on the latest tax laws, as well as, frequently asked tax questions.

You may also be able to prepare and file your return electronically, for free, from the www.irs.gov Website.

By Phone:

• TeleTax (recorded messages on tax topics) – 1-800-829-4477
• Forms and Publications – 1-800-TAX-FORM (1-800-829-3676)
• Help Line for Individuals – 1-800-829-1040
• Help Line for Businesses – 1-800-829-4933
• TTY/TDD Line – 1-800-829-4059

In Person:

IRS offices all over the country offer free tax help. To find the office nearest you, check www.irs.gov. You can also get free help from Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) or Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE). To find the location of these services, check your local newspaper, IRS office, www.irs.gov, or 1-800-829-1040.

Your tax return may be a bit more involved if you purchased a home (especially for the first time home buyer) this year, so go ahead and be sure you get some professional advice before you complete your return to be sure you are getting the maximum tax benefit of your home purchase.

Just a side note: I’m not sure why anyone would want to tackle this on their own, so my advice is to at least seek help from free sources if you do your own or…. do like I do and fork over the money and have a professional do yours! It’s worth it!

That’s it for TAX TIME!

Now don’t let this happen to you! Get some help and get it done right!

Eco Friendly: For our future

Have you asked yourself how eco-friendly you are in your day-to-day life? The truth is, you don’t have to take extreme measures to make a significant difference in the world. Even small measures add up when you think green.

If every household replaced just one roll of regular paper towels with 100% recycled ones, more than 500,000 trees would be saved.

If everyone used composting to reuse trash, the average personwould reduce waste from 1,500 ppounds to 375 pounds annually.

If every shopper brought reusable bags with them instead of using plastic, more than 500 billion plastic bags would be eliminated per year worldwide.

If every American used rechargeable batteries, 1 billion kilowatt-hours of power would be saved per year.

If every home installed faucet aerators, more than 250 million gallons of water would be conserved every day.

Just the Facts:

If every family in the U.S. planted just one tree, more than a billion pounds of greenhouse gas would be removed from the atmosphere every year by the new trees. For information on the purchasing and growing of trees, visit the National Arbor Day Foundation at www.arborday.org or call 1-888-448-7337.

When you are ready to look at saving money on purchasing a home, be sure to call The Nevius Team. We are the experts and we will not only save you money and get you the best deal, we will guide you through the process of getting a very low cost loan – Now is the time to buy with rates at all time lows! Give us a call 405-830-8500 today.

Here are a few helpful hints when working with a twitter account.  You may find them helpful too!

Brought to you by Lowe’s Daily news – Tuesday, October 26, 2010

LowesRealtorBenefits.com LowesMoving.com Lowes.com RISMedia.com Thursday, Oct 28th, 2010 Brought to you by  and sponsored by

Have you ever wondered just exactly who is running for what in your next election? Well, if you are an iphone, ipod touch or ipad user, wonder no more!  I found this app today and I think it will be very helpful!  Just download, find your polling place, the election calendar, register to vote (this may be a bit late for the upcoming election) and best of all find out about the candidates and who is running against who!

AT&T has launched a free new app designed to encourage and help voters get to the polls this midterm election season.

VoterHub

VoterHub debuted Saturday with an array of features that includes an online voter registration form.  However, given that many states require registration 20 to 30 days in advance of election, that particular function might be late for many users.  Other features might prove more immeidately useful.  Voters can find out where their polls are and learn about their state’s procedures for advance or absentee voting.  Users can also find brief bios on candidates for Congress, governor and local legislative races (although the information, where available, is limited to resume-type data instead of political positions), and take a closer look at their state’s election calendar.

VoterHub is compatible with any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch running iOS 3.1 or later.

(Posted on Oct 19, 2010 9:49 am by Joel Mathis, Macworld.com)

I love this one and I think you will too!

If you have a favorite app that you would like to see promoted here, just let me know!

This year was especially exciting for me because my husband of 39 years was given what I think to be the highest honor an Oklahoma realtor can receive.  He was selected the 2010 Oklahoma Realtor of the Year and was awarded a plaque, a very beautiful pin for his lapel and most of all the honor of serving as this year’s Realtor of the Year for the entire state.  They played a great video for him after it was announced and several of his family members as well as his local broker and her husband came as a surprise to him to see him receive this award.  Our beautiful grandchildren even got to participate in the video and that was especially touching!

I am so proud of Dennis as he has served on his local board for many years as well as at the state and national level.  He has always felt that it as especially important to give back to a profession that has been so good to him.  If you have a minute and would like to wish him well, please go ahead and give him a call!  He would love to hear from you.  His number is 405-830-8500.

http://www.youtube.com/v/jb5wQefT9RQ?version=3

More pics from that day!

Here are a few tips to improve your credit score:

• Having no credit cards can be as bad as having too many.  Even if you’re someone who’s more comfortable paying in cash, obtain and use at least one credit cared to prove you can maintain and manage a line of credit
• Since good credit is partially based on length of credit history, avoid closing out long-term credit cards, even if you haven’t used them in years.  Instead, simply destroy the card.
• Avoid opening all of the department store credit cards you’re offered.  Even if you get that 10% or 20% discount, you may pay far more with marks on your credit history, especially if you’re opening too many in a short period of time.
• Keep on top of your credit history by requesting your score periodically.  You can request your credit report for free every 12 months without negatively effecting your score.  Check all three major reporting companies at www.annualcreditreport.com, a government-sponsored site.

Thursday’s bond market has opened in negative territory with no important economic being released this morning. The stock markets are showing gains with the Dow up 40 points and the Nasdaq up 2 points. The bond market is currently down 5/32, but we will likely see little change in this morning’s mortgage rates due to strength in bonds late yesterday.

Today’s only relevant data came from the Labor Department, who announced that 457,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week. This was below forecasts of 464,000, meaning this can be considered negative for bonds. However, this data is not considered to be important to mortgage rates and has had little influence on this morning’s trading.

Both of yesterday’s afternoon events were favorable for bonds and mortgage pricing. The 5-year Treasury Note auction went very well, indicating that investor demand for U.S. securities remains strong. That is good news for mortgage rates becaus e that interest should carryover to mortgage-related securities also. The second of the two relevant sales is taking place today with 7-year Notes being sold. These are a little longer term than yesterday’s securities, which is closer to mortgage bond terms, so another strong sale should lead to improved mortgage rates this afternoon.

The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report was released yesterday afternoon. It did not give us any negative surprises about economic growth. Most regions had reported modest growth with a couple showing negative activity. The concerns about the economy, such as unemployment and housing, remained considerable in many of the regions. This was all good news for bonds because this information will be relied on heavily when the Fed meets August 10th for their next FOMC meeting.

There are three releases scheduled for release tomorrow morning, including one of the most important reports we regularly see. T hat one is the preliminary reading of the 2nd Quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is considered to be the best indicator of economic activity. It is the sum of all goods and services produced in the U.S. and usually has a great deal of influence on the financial markets. There are two revisions approximately one month apart, but the preliminary posting carries the most importance. Current forecasts are estimating that the economy grew at a 2.5% annual rate during the second quarter. A faster pace will probably hurt bond prices, leading to higher mortgage rates tomorrow. But a smaller than expected reading would likely fuel a bond market rally and lead to lower mortgage pricing.

The second report of the day is the 2nd Quarter Employment Cost Index (ECI) that measures employers’ costs for wages and benefits. It is considered to be an important measurement of wage inflation and can impact the bond market and mortgage rates if it varies much from forecasts. If it shows a rapid increase, raising inflation concerns, the bond market may drop and mortgage rates rise. It is expected to reveal an increase of 0.5%, but the GDP reading likely will have more of an influence on the markets and mortgage rates.

Tomorrow’s third piece of data is the revision to July’s University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment that will help us measure consumer optimism about their own financial situations. As with Tuesday’s CCI release, this data is considered important because rising consumer confidence usually translates into higher levels of spending. This adds fuel to the economic recovery and is looked at as bad news for bonds. Tomorrow’s release is an update to the preliminary reading we saw two weeks ago, so unless we see a drastic revision to the preliminary estimate, I think the markets will probably shrug this news off. It is expected to be revised to 67.5.

If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would…. Lock if my closing was taking place within 7 days… Float if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days… Float if my closing was taking place between 21 and 60 days… Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from now… This is only my opinion of what I would do if I were financing a home. It is only an opinion and cannot be guaranteed to be in the best interest of all/any other borrowers.

©Mortgage Commentary 2010