We LOVE hearing from our clients:
Dear Valerie:
I am writing to thank you for your outstanding service in listing and marketing my house,
and also to openly recommend your services to others. My experience with you and
Flagstaff Top Producers was both professional and pleasant from the start. We have all
heard that customer service is a thing of the past, but not in your company.
One of the deciding factors in my choosing you as a real estate agent was your positive
attitude and obvious willingness to put every effort into selling my house, even given the
staggering decline in the market.. You never bought into the doom and gloom
atmosphere. Other Realtors I met with concentrated on the impossibility of selling homes
other than at a foreclosure sale. Instead, you used a professional photographer to take
pictures of the house, researched the market, put the property on internet listings,
produced attractive handout material, made calls to potential clients, invited other Realtors to view the house and then continued to make ,calls and show the house. I know from your efforts that you were as diligent in marketing my house as you would have been in the most promising markets. My house had the best chance of selling in your hands.
I also believe that your aggressive marketing and frequent reports, which I forwarded to
Wachovia, were a factor in Wachovia's agreement to pursue a deed-in-lieu of
foreclosure, allowing me to avoid the negative impact of foreclosure on my credit rating.
Although deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure have been almost entirely replaced by short sales,
Wachovia knew that together we had done everything possible to preserve and market the property.
You didn't make a commission to reward you for your hard work, but you did earn my
respect.. Thank you!
Warm Regards,
Sherry Golden
Thanks so much for your feedback Sherry!
Labels: attitude, customer service, feedback, marketing
Create a home inventory before disaster strikes to make filing an insurance claim a smoother process.Bottom of Form
Don't rely on your memory to keep track of your possessions. Create an inventory so you can know what's missing if you ever need to file a claim. Image: Jupiterimages/Getty Images
Experiencing a theft, flood, fire, or other casualty loss is devastating enough. Now imagine trying to list from memory for your insurance claim every single item that was damaged or destroyed. The task becomes less daunting if you create a home inventory in advance and keep it in a safe place.
Creating a home inventory can be done with pencil and paper alone, but a digital camera and camcorder make the job easier. Set aside enough time to review your insurance policies, dig up receipts, document your possessions, and figure out where you’ll store your records. One day should be sufficient.
A home inventory is essential
From appliances, plates, and glasses to collectibles, rugs, and furniture, the average home is packed with an array of items collected over the years. And while you may be able to list many of them in a pinch, chances are you’d miss some important possessions if you ever needed to reconstruct your home’s contents from memory, says Mark Goldwich, founder of GoldStar Adjusters, a Jacksonville, Fla., claims adjusting firm.
“Home inventories are a must no matter what the value of the home’s items are,” says Goldwich. “If you’re going to insure your property and pay for that insurance, you really should be able to document the ownership and the value of the items that you’re insuring. If you don’t have proof of the items you owned, it makes filing your claim much more difficult.”
Your job doesn’t end once you’ve compiled a home inventory, a detailed list of everything in your household. Be sure to compare estimated values to your policy’s coverage to ensure that you’ll be able to replace your belongings in case of damage or theft, says Goldwich, who is the author of “Uncovered: What Really Happens After the Storm, Flood, Earthquake or Fire.” In some cases, he says, you can purchase additional coverage if the value of your possessions exceeds the limits on your homeowners, flood, or other disaster policy.
Take photos and video of possessions
Jack Hungelmann, author of “Insurance for Dummies,” says a picture can be worth more than just a thousand words—it can add up to thousands in cash if you ever need to file an insurance claim. Hungelmann recommends using a digital camcorder or camera to take pictures of each room to document your belongings. “I recommend that people open up their cupboards and drawers. Be sure you have a record of all the things you own,” he says.
Goldwich says that creating such a home inventory might seem daunting, but digital video—you can pick up a decent camcorder for about $150—can make the task much easier.
Homeowners can literally walk from room to room and record narrative descriptions of items. You should note whether something is an antique, for example, or if it has other qualities that make it especially valuable such as the size of a television screen or the type of stones in a piece of jewelry. Get close-up shots of serial numbers on electronics, power tools, and the like.
Filling in a printed checklist with serial numbers, brands, quantities, and estimated values will prove indispensible if an insurance claim ever needs to be filed. The adjuster will likely ask for such a list, and you can use the video or photos as proof of ownership.
Keep your home inventory safe
Of course, such documentation is useless if it’s destroyed in a natural disaster, consumed by fire, or stolen along with your personal computer. Hungelmann says that using digital media allows you to store the files on online backup services like Carbonite.com or iBackup.com in case your home is destroyed.
If you’d like to save the $10 or more per month these services typically cost, you could also save the files on a USB drive that’s kept in a safe-deposit box, at a relative’s home, or in your emergency bag. The bag should include essentials your family needs in case you’re forced to flee on short notice.
It’s also a good idea to keep a file with receipts and any appraisals of valuable items you own. Store these documents off-site as well. Goldwich says that the more documentation you have to prove what you owned and what it was worth, the easier the claims process will be.
By: Gwen Moran (houselogic.com)
Labels: claims, fire, flood, Insurance, inventory, safe, theft
A few simple tricks can save you a bundle
Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are much more efficient than incandescent bulbs and last six to 10 times longer.
When Mom told you to turn out the lights, she was thinking of saving energy dollars, not rolling blackouts and bankrupt utility companies. Rarely have Moms words of wisdom been as fitting as they are now and not just in California. Electricity rates are going up everywhere.
Besides switching off lights, there are several other painless methods to conserve energy and save money on your electric bills.
Plug ins
- Look for those electronic devices, especially those with digital time and date displays that are infrequently used such as alarm clocks, TVs and VCRs in a guest room and unplug them.
- Unplug devices used to recharge electronics/batteries when they're not being used.
- Transformers consume energy. Consider unplugging devices like calculators that are not in use.
Appliances
- Wait until you can fill up your dishwasher before running it. And if you have a heated-dry option, switch it off. Prop open the door a bit after the cycle to air dry your load.
- If you have an electric cooktop, turn the burners off a few minutes before the allotted cooking time. The heating element will stay hot long enough to finish the cooking without using more electricity.
Refrigerators
- Refrigerators use more power than any other appliance in the home and deserve special attention. Although rushing out to buy a new refrigerator may not be in your budget, it is important to know that new models are more efficient and use as little as half the electricity of older units.
- Full refrigerators run more efficiently than ones that are only partially full. So buy more food and save some energy.
- If you have two refrigerators, or an additional freezer, decide if the extra expense is really worth it. Cram as much as you can into your primary refrigerator or consider disposing of two older refrigerators and replacing them with one larger, newer and more efficient model.
- Make sure the refrigerator door seals are tight. Test them by closing the door over a piece of paper or a dollar bill so it is half in and half out of the refrigerator. If you can pull the paper or bill out easily, the latch may need adjustment or the seal may need replacing.
- Place food and liquids in airtight containers. Uncovered foods release moisture and make the compressor work harder.
- Move the refrigerator away from the wall and vacuum its condenser coils yearly unless you have a no-clean condenser model. Refrigerators will run for shorter periods with clean coils.
- Maintain a consistent temperature in the refrigerator and freezer. Recommended temperatures are 37 to 40F for the fresh food compartment of the refrigerator and 5F for the freezer section. If you have a separate freezer for long-term storage, it should be kept at 0F.
Lighting
- Its obvious, but true: Turn off lights that are not being used. Consider installing timers or photo cells on some lights. And instead of constantly nagging the kids, try occupancy sensors that turn on and off automatically when someone enters or leaves a room.
- Rather than brightly lighting an entire room, focus the light where you need it. For example, use fluorescent under-cabinet lighting for kitchen sinks and countertops
- Consider dimmer switches and three-way lamps. These provide low light levels when bright lights are not necessary.
- Use linear fluorescent and energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in fixtures throughout your home to provide high-quality and high-efficiency lighting. Fluorescent lamps are much more efficient than incandescent bulbs and last six to ten times longer. Although fluorescent and compact fluorescent lamps are more expensive than incandescent bulbs, they pay for themselves by saving energy over their lifetime.
Labels: bills, CFL, electric, energy, save money
