Free FSBO Advertising -
Just in case you haven't noticed, I recently set up the For Sale By Owner (FSBO) page and just added the FSBO property listings page for FSBOs to advertise their properties on my website for free for 30 days. This service is absolutely free and Ms. Marina Belyaeva is the first person to take advantage of this offer and obviously she is very smart. According to surveys conducted by the National Association of Realtors, nearly 70% of buyers will start their initial home search on the Internet. It's important to expose your property to as many buyers as possible and the Internet is a great place to start.
Selling a house by yourself is a challenging task. Should you need professional representation and service, please feel free to contact me, because I specialize in selling homes fast and for top dollars for those who employ me.

Do you like donuts? I found a recipe you might like:

Krispy Kreme Inspired Baked Doughnuts
by Kori Puckett

A few weeks ago I went crazy with Krispy Kreme. At the time I was also being plagued by mosquitos, so in an attempt to take my mind off the little bloodsuckers, I decided to make my own doughnuts. And I came across a recipe for Baked Doughnuts.
Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Doughnuts are still King and Queen of the doughnut world as far as I'm concerned (and they're professionals, so why wouldn't they be?), but these doughnuts didn't turn out too bad...

You'll need:

1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup butter, melted

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet, or doughnut baking pan.
In a medium bowl, mix sugar, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and flour. Mix buttermilk, eggs, honey and butter in a separate medium bowl, and stir into the dry ingredients. Then spoon the mixture onto the prepared pan in doughnut shapes.
Bake the doughnuts for 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown.
You can sprinkle confectioners sugar on top of the doughnuts while they're warm or you can make your own glaze to dip them in. I had to have glazed doughnuts, so I boiled 1 cup of water and mixed in three cups of powdered sugar to make sure I'd have enough.
I hope you enjoy the recipe!
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Get Your Just Desserts twice monthly at: http://www.koripuckett.com/just-desserts. Tried and true dessert recipes from an average Jane who just loves experimenting with baking.

Being a Realtor is hard work. Many people think that easy money is being made by Realtors. Well, just like any other jobs or businesses, you will get what you put into your work, being a Realtor is not easy. Many times a promising lead ended up dead cold. Just like my last post, I got so excited in thinking about I have a good client prospect. After showing him several homes at night and the next day, his mortgage broker won't fax me his prequalification letter and the reason is that he has to co-sign with his friend and his friend decided to use another agent! There is not much he can do because of his insufficient credit score.
Anyway, It came to my early realization after becoming a Realtor that a transaction can go wrong or terminate at any stage of the process, especially working with buyers. I don't remember how many "free tours" of Sacramento I have given to buyers from the Bay Area. But I truly enjoy doing that even though most of them ended up not buying and I am content with the honest praises I received. I believe that in order to make it in the fiercely competitive real estate business, I need to treat every client prospect with the same enthusiasm, because you never know they may return someday when they truly have the need to buy or sell properties.

At about 5:30pm, I was getting ready for dinner and watch the CBS evening news. The news highlights sounded pretty interesting. Just when I was ready put my TV dinner into the microwave oven, my cell phone rung. It's from a prospective customer asking if I could show a home to him. He was at the front of the house already. It's one of the houses I pull from the MLS and sent him at around noon time. After quickly looking it up again on the computer, I found out the house is vacant, so it's an easy show. So, I told him to give me about 10-15 min. to get there.
When I arrived, there was another couple waiting outside and want to look at the house too. After obtaining the keys from the lockbox, I opened the door and showed them the house. My prospective client immediately expressed his interest in making an offer. I decided to give the listing agent a call to find out if the house is still available. Unfortunately, there were already seven offers on the house and the seller has already accepted one.
The house is located in the south Sacramento area close to Power Inn Road, built in 1979. It has three bedrooms & two bathrooms, sold As Is. The listing price is just a little over $280,000. And it's only on the market for four days! I guess any house with similar features under $300,000 are selling fast in Sacramento.
Anyway, I decided to go to one of our office on Elsie Avenue to look up similar properties for my client. We decided to look at one more house before calling it a day since it's already dark outside. The house is also vacant and there was no light in the house! I guess the owner cut off the main power to save electricity. Finally, I can use the flashlight feature of my cell phone! Well, my client seemed to like that house too and he wants me to show him the house again at lunch time tomorrow to have a better look. Let's hope that the house is still available tomorrow...

Usually New Hong Kong Wok on Freeport Blvd. is my favorite restaurant hand out, because I really enjoy Chinese food. Last night I had a chance to experience a different dining experience. My wife and I were invited to a dinner at Joe's Crab Shack in Old Sacramento. I visited Old Sac. many times but hadn't gotten a chance to eat in any of the restaurants there before.
The location of the restaurant is great, right next to the Sacramento River. After about 10 minutes waiting in the lounge, a waitress led us to our table. It's right next to the window, so through the window I can see the river, the draw bridge and the pyramid building across the river. The view is excellent. The restaurant is quite big and in retangular shape. There are decorating art works all over the place. A huge shark is hanging on the ceiling above, not far from our table. The menu has wide selection of sea food entrees. The food is great, but what make this restaurant different are the waiters and waitress. They are pretty young, at most probably 20 years old. For about every 15 to 20 minutes, they lined up and danced to the tunes of popular songs being played from the speakers. They also have a variety of ways to make everyone know and celebrate birthdays of guests.
In short, we had a great time last night, so great that I forgot the parking meter is only for 90 minutes. As you guessed it, I got a parking ticket! I think the parking enforcement hour up to 8pm is too long. Anyway, this little unpleasant surprise didn't ruin my night. I think it's still worth it. Give Joe's Crab Shack a try, and I think you will like it too.

"Brand new" house available for rent! I am helping a client to rent his house. It's still being built and will be ready to move in on April 15, 2005. It's located in a convenience location with easy access to I5. It's a 2 story house with 5 bedrooms & 3 baths. Please click here to find out more detail on this spacious and lovely house. If you or someone you know need a big house to rent, please contact me anytime. Thanks!