If you haven't noticed I have changed the navigation menu on my website, please refresh your web browser to see it. I think this reflects on what I am focusing on right now: real estate. However, whenever I have time, I will continue to update PC Hot Deals and SOHO Resources section to make the website even more useful to visitors. As you might have noticed, the navigation menu at the bottom of each page remains the same for easy access to other sections of the website. I like to thank all regular and new visitors to my website. And for those who've used the website and made purchase from affiliate websites, I really appreciate your patronage and support. Have a great weekend.

I just read this deeply moving and sad story. Jian Yu is only 30 years old and is diagnosed with Acute Leukemia. His girl friend still decided to marry him after learning about this horrible news. Jian is in need of bone marrow donation from people. Here is the website: http://jian4yu2.homelinux.org/home.html. Please pass it on to your friends.

According to California Association of Realtors, the median price of an existing home in California in January increased 20.7% and sales increased 5.3% as compared to the same period a year ago.
The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during January 2004 was $405,720, a 20.7 percent increase over the revised $336,210 median for January 2003, C.A.R. reported. The January 2004 median price increased 0.5 percent compared to a revised $403,570 median price in December.

At the national level, Existing-home sales nationwide increased 2 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.04 million units compared to 5.92 million units for the same period a year earlier, NAR reported today.

The national median existing-home price was $168,700 in January, up 5.4 percent from January 2003 when the median price was $160,000. Housing inventory levels declined 4.3 percent at the end of January with 2.20 million existing homes available for sale, representing a 4.4-month supply at the current sales pace, according to the report.

I just registered a new domain name: KennyIsMyRealtor.com. I got this idea from another agent. I might create a dedicated real estate website using this domain name. Right now I just set it up to be automatically forwarded to my current website: sohosos.com. Do you have any suggestions and comments on my current website? Should I keep it as is? Don't forget, you can post comments by clicking on "Comment" at the end of each message.

I have to admit that I rarely watch TV these days, so when I heard about William Hung and his famous "She Bangs" singing on a radio talk show, I really wanted to see just what he looks like. Well, I finally got the chance today and read the story and watched portion of AMERICAN IDOL video online. I thought his singing was bad, but I was very surprise about his looks too. Anyway, now I understand why so many people admire and support him. If you don't know who William Hung is, here is a great article in Chinese and in English, including part of his audition video:

http://www.wenxuecity.com/BBSView.php?SubID=news&MsgID=9914 and a dedicated website made by his fans: http://www.williamhung.net/default.php


"It is the surprise of the century.", a very good surpise may I add.

Are you interested in Feng Shui? You don't know what Feng Shui is? Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art of fortune telling and making your living environment works in your favor. Last month when I was crossing the The San Francisco Bay Bridge, about half way on the bridge there is a short tunnel, above the tunnel entrance I saw a big banner: "Feng Shui Your communities, Ride Bart To Work". Bart is one the San Francisco Bay Area public transit systems. The slogan seems a bit awkward to me because Feng Shui is a noun, but nonetheless, it still makes sense. Anyway, I found an interesting Feng Shui article and like to share it with you. In the future I will try to find and post more articles about Feng Shui, I think it's an amazing subject to learn about.

The Chi of New Homes ... Feng Shui-ness and Destiny
by Edward B. Toupin

When my wife and I were searching for a new Las Vegas home in 2002, we wanted it to have a solid foundation based on Feng Shui principles. My wife researched the essentials and we decided to build a home that met our needs and supported good Chi. The internal layout of the furniture was a slow process because we want to ensure that everything "was energy (Chi) efficient". We even went so far as to pick a plot of land that had a curvy street in front and located on a hill with a view of a "city of money". With all of the work we did in building the structure and embellishing the interior, the house feels fantastic and the energy feeds us and moves us forward!
This positive experience tickled my curiosity and I decided to assemble some of our observations, based on our initial house hunting and, later, my interest and research. In the Las Vegas area, I focused on Feng Shui "compatibility" based on empty new-builds. All of the homes were built within the last five years and were unoccupied. I acquired a few pictures and compared the structures and placement of built-in components (i.e., doors, windows, and potential placement of furniture as necessitated by the structure) to several books and resources I have available on Feng Shui. In the end, I noticed some consistencies with regard to the class of individual for which the homes were built.
Since we are newbies to Feng Shui, I submitted the research to a few Feng Shui experts to see if we were "in the ballpark". Some of the conclusions I came up with and discussed with these experts were:
* For homes within the Upper class of society, the structures were built to support power and money.
* For homes within the Upper-Middle class of society, the structures were built to support employment and consumption.
* For homes within the Lower to Middle class of society, the structures were built to support production.
* For homes within the Retirement class of society, the structures were built to support endings and isolation from society (e.g., foot of bed facing an external door).
This all seemed interesting in that the type of home built seemed to fit within a particular need or desire for a given societal class. It also seems to be that people purchase a home that supports the issues and lessons on which they are embarking. This approach is a hidden, and ingenious, psychological "marketing gimmick" for builders. Indeed, most people will always go toward that which is the most comfortable.
Of course, one cannot specifically reference outcome by class regarding the selection of the home structure. However, it seems that the architecture of today reflects the mind set of the country as a whole. While, in the long run, many choose the best house they can afford for their family, comfort, and lifestyle; however, most are unconscious of the effects of the space while focusing on the structural illusion.

--- About the Author ---
Edward B. Toupin is an author, life-strategy coach, counselor, Reiki Master, technical writer, and PhD Candidate living in Las Vegas, NV. Among other things, he authors books, articles, and screenplays on topics ranging from career success through life organization and fulfillment. Check out some of his recent print and electronic books as well as his articles covering various life-changing topics!
For more information, e-mail Edward at etoupin@toupin.com or visit his site at http://www.make-life-great.com or http://www.toupin.com!
Copyright (c) 2004 Edward B. Toupin

Cool promotions at Macy's:

I have just noticed there is one thing still missing from my website. If you have visited other real estate agents & brokers' websites, you might have noticed already. I am talking about putting up a picture of myself. Actually I don't feel that confident of putting my picture on the website. I don't think I am ugly, but I am not Tom Cruz either. But if my picture will increase my credibility, then what the heck, I guess I will post it on the website too. But the problem is I haven't taken a picture for a long while, I don't have any professional dressed and biz card ready picture available. However, I will try to get this done asap, hopefully sometime next week. :-)

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Here are some

Things to Know About Kissing

Fun smooching facts and stats.

• A passionate kiss uses up 6.4 calories per minute.
  
• During a kiss, as many as 278 colonies of bacteria are exchanged.
  
• The average American woman has kissed 79 men before she is married.
  
• The longest kiss was by Mark and Roberta Griswold of Allen Park, Michigan, who kissed continuously for 29 hours at the "Breath Savers Longest Kiss Challenge" in New York City from March 24 to 25, 1998.
  

Click here to shop BHG.com for Mind, Body, Spirit products and more!

© Copyright 2004 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Now you can comment on my weblog. Just click on the Comment's link at the end of my post and you can add your comments. Just a little friendly reminder, if you have something bad to say, express it, but please no foul language here or I will have to delete your comments and ban your ip address. :-)

Yesterday I showed a duplex house to a potential client. He is very interested in investing in real estate. Before visiting the house I gave the listing agent a call for showing instructions but the agent didn't to reply until this morning. We decided to go over there anyway. The property is located in a rather narrow and crowed street. The houses in the area are mostly old and the area is considered not a great neighborhood. So, my client didn't make any offer. To my surprise, when the listing agent called me back, she told me the house is already under contract however the seller will consider backup offers.
I am not a real estate investing expert yet, but I believe that duplex is a good investment. The selling price is $280,000. Each unit has two bed rooms and the rent is $800 each. As I see it, this is how the rich people are getting richer. They invest in income producing properties. $280,000 is really not much money for those who have the dough, especially for those people in the San Francisco Bay area who pay double and even triple the amount for similar houses. Anyway, the investor will get two returns on his investment. First is the appreciation of the property. As I mentioned elsewhere on my website, even a modest 5% appreciation will yield a very good return on the investment. The second is the cash flow generated by rents. $1600 a month is not bad for this duplex. Just imagine you own three or four of this kind of income producing properties... Anyway, if you are interested in learning how to invest in real estate, I strongly suggest you to get started with this free online course by Bill FitzPatrick which I also mention and have the link on my website. You can also find more real estate resource and links on my website.
To be honest, wanting to learn more about real estate investing is one of the reasons I want be a real estate agent and a loan officer. If you have any question or need help in investing in real estate, please feel free to contact me. And if you are a savvy real estate investor, I like to learn from you too. Let's grow and prosper together.

You've just got to see this great site I've come across, it's called Drivers' Revenge™ and is an absolute scream. It's free to use and allows you to put the details of idiot drivers and what they did to upset you on the Worldwide Web!

Talk about getting your own back!!!

So the next time some Roadhog, Baboon almost drives you off the road simply take their registration number and exact your revenge. Have a look now...

http://www.driversrevenge.com

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Well, I did it. I published the revised website. Not much difference in design, because when it comes to design, I am really bad. If not for the template I purchased before, the layout could have been a lot worse. Anyway, I hope you will like my website for its contents, not for fancy designs. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how I can serve you better.

After working hard the last few days, I finally finished updating & revising my website. However there is still some final touch up to do before I will upload the files to the web server. I will put my real estate service introduction on the homepage. I will put up a weekly list of homes for sale in Sacramento. I can also email anyone who is interested in buying a house in Sacramento a list of homes that matches his or her preferences. Even if you are not buying or selling homes in Sacramento, I can still help you by referring you a qualified full time real estate agent in your local neighborhood. Of course, I will still keep updating other pages like Hot PC Deals and SOHO Resources. I hope you will like the revised website and I will really appreciate it if you can let me know of any broken links and typos. Thanks.