Podcasts about Prope

Send us a textWhat happens when mortgage rates soar to over 7% amid a tense presidential election season? Discover surprising market trends as we explore why pending home sales are defying expectations with a 4.5% increase, despite a notable pause among first-time buyers and an 8% dip in mortgage applications. Whether you're feeling cautious or ready to make a move, we'll dissect the complex factors at play, uncovering the impact on buyers, sellers, and investors alike. With the typical homebuyer's mortgage payment climbing to $2,593, the stakes have never been higher.Shifting gears, we investigate the cooling trend in multifamily developments across the U.S., with a 15.7% decrease in housing starts. While the Northeast faces a steep decline, single-family homes are experiencing a modest uptick. Unpack the variations across major cities like New York, Dallas, and Houston, and learn how these dynamics might offer unique opportunities in a fluctuating market. Jay Parsons joins us to highlight the nuanced factors influencing construction, from local regulations to supply chain hurdles. Tune in for insights that could reshape your next big real estate move and keep you ahead in an unpredictable landscape.Introducing the 60-Day Deal Finder!Visit: www.wealthyAF.aiUse the Coupon Code: WEALTHYAF for 20%  off!This episode is brought to you by Premier Ridge Capital.Sign Up for our Newsletter and get our FREE E-Book where you'll learn everything you need to know about creating financial freedom through multifamily syndication.Visit www.premierridgecapital.com now! This episode is brought to you by Premier Ridge Capital.Build Generational Wealth As A Passive Investor In Multifamily Real Estate Syndication!Visit www.premierridgecapital.com to find out more.Support the show

Seigneur nous avons besoin de ta Grace --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/God-is-able-ministries/support

Our programs can help turn frustrated buyers into confident ones.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationWe now have more homes on the market, which means buyers have more choices. However, that also means that there's a lot of activity. Many people are thinking about making a move but are afraid that they may not find something soon enough. We have Buy Before You Sell programs that can help you buy a home first and then sell your old home. We've partnered with companies that will buy the property, have you move in, sell your old home, and then have you buy the new home from them with very little to no additional cost.Many buyers are having a hard time competing in this market because they don't have the cash to compete with all the cash buyers. We have a solution for that too. We can turn you into a cash buyer and then get financing after you've secured the property. Regardless of the situation, there are many options available. To learn more about your options or ask any questions, reach out to us by phone or email. We look forward to hearing from you.

Right now is the time to act before interest rates get too high.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationCan you believe it's already April? With as many homes as we're selling, you could easily mistake this for May. The market's very active. Buyers are looking to get in, and sellers are looking to get out before interest rates get too high. That will start to slow down the market, so whether you're looking to buy or sell, this is the time to do so.There are great opportunities if you have the right agent. We know how to find properties that other agents can't, and we will make sure we get them at a good price. If you're selling your home, we'll make sure you don't leave anything on the table.Whether you have any real estate plans or not, you may know someone who does. Please let them know about us so we can help them. It'll make you look like a hero! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us by phone or email. We look forward to hearing from you.

We look forward to sharing our buying and selling strategies with you.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationWe're two months into 2022, and we're super excited because there's a lot going on in the market. You probably made goals for this year, and hopefully, some of them included real estate.Regardless of what your real estate-related goals are, we're here to help. It doesn't matter if you want to move now or later in the year. We can help you prepare the house and get access to funds for improvements. We want to share new strategies with you, like buying before selling or becoming a cash buyer without cash. We're happy to share all those strategies with you and help in any way we can. I hope you have a great 2022.If you have any questions, visit our website and don't hesitate to contact us via phone or email. We look forward to hearing from you.

Here's a great example of why you should buy a home sooner than later.Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price EvaluationDoes it make sense to buy in today's market? I've been hearing this question a lot lately, and I wanted to offer insight into why my answer is a resounding, “Yes!”I recently saw a colleague of mine post about a house they sold in 2012 for $360,000; it's a gorgeous home. The exact same house, with just a few updates, just sold for $692,000. That's $330,000 worth of appreciation in just about 10 years. Now, the home didn't increase in value by $30,000 every year. In the last few years, home prices have grown exponentially. Most of that value came within the last 12 to 18 months. The house might have gone from $450,000 to $692,000 during that time. I didn't see this coming, and I don't think anyone in their right mind would have thought the real estate market would be rebounding like this amidst a global pandemic."In the last few years, home prices have grown exponentially." So does it make sense to buy in this market? Absolutely; real estate is a fantastic long-term investment. I guarantee that $692,000 home is going to sell for over a million dollars one day. The question is, do you want to be involved in a great investment like that?If you have any real estate-related questions for me, don't hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

Here's what you should know if you're planning to make a move in 2022.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationAs we're now into the first quarter of 2022, many people are thinking about their plans for the new year. If your plans involve a possible move in the spring, now is the time to get started—don't wait until spring arrives to begin the process. Never wait until the last minute to get ready for a move.As a buyer, you have plenty of options that you may not be aware of: buying with cash, buying and selling simultaneously, buying before you sell, and more. As a seller, you could get an instant offer or improve your home before selling with funds we lend you so that you sell for more. There are an array of strategies we can employ, whether you're a buyer or seller, to ensure the best moving process for you. Just let us know how we can help you. Reach out to us via phone or email so we can help with your move or if you have any questions. We'd love to speak with you.

Here's why Zillow shuttered their home-buying program at the end of 2021Something happened at the end of 2021 that you might not have heard about. Many people visit one platform when they look for available properties. The name of that platform is Zillow, and for the last few years, they have been not only marketing homes but also buying them.Zillow would make an offer on a property without seeing it, close that transaction, and send someone out to renovate it. They were buying and rehabbing houses all over the country, but at the end of 2021, they shut down that program.At the end of the day, nothing can replace a seasoned agent.It's funny because clients used to bring up Zillow's estimate at listing appointments. To me, those numbers felt like they were as much as 25% over or 35% below the actual price. It was interesting when Zillow announced that they would start buying properties based on these estimates. After a couple of years of trying this, it turns out Zillow was losing money on almost every house they bought. They obviously hadn't gone the right way with their algorithm. At the end of the day, nothing can replace a seasoned agent who knows the market, lives in the area, and works in it every day.On top of that, every market is different, and every market changes. It can depend on what's in the newspaper that day or what announcements were recently made. There are just too many pieces for an algorithm to put it all together. It was interesting to see if Zillow could succeed, but they couldn't, and that's why you still need to depend on your local experts.If you have any questions, or if you truly want to know what your home is worth, please call or email me. I'd be happy to do a home valuation for you. Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation

From our team to your family, we want to wish you a happy holiday season.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationHappy holidays to you!The holiday season has officially arrived. We hope you enjoy this wonderful time of year and make some fantastic memories.We wanted to take a moment to thank you for your continued support. We love helping people make their real estate dreams come true, so thank you for working with us and supporting our business.This may be a busy time of year, but we are always here to help you and answer any questions you may have. Give us a call or send an email; we'd love to help you.In case we don't hear from you until 2022, have a happy New Year!

Here's our Thanksgiving message of gratitude to all of you this year.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationThe 2021 holiday season has officially begun! We hope you are as excited as we are. We'd like to take a moment to express our gratitude to all of you this Thanksgiving. We have met some truly wonderful people, and we're proud to have helped so many reach their real estate goals over the years. We're thankful for all of you, and we hope you have a fantastic holiday with your family. If you have any real estate questions, don't hesitate to reach out via phone or email. We look forward to hearing from you.

Kolik druhů propečení existuje? Jaké jsou jejich správné názvy? Jak se měří vnitřní teplota masa? Exkluzivně pro stanici Český rozhlas Dvojka připravil Roman Paulus.

Here is why this time of year is a great time to be selling your home.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationMany people believe that it's not a great time of year to be selling a home. That's simply not true. Everyone who sold their homes in August and September will be getting into homes in October and November. More homes come off the market, and fewer homes come on the market, which means there's less competition. If you or someone you know has been thinking about selling their home, this is an opportune time to do it.If you're thinking about making a move, give us a call. We'll talk about whether or not this is the right time for you to sell and what you can do to maximize the price that you get for your home. We appreciate your referrals and support. If we can help you now or at any time in the future, please reach out to us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Do you know someone who would be a good fit for our team?Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationThe real estate market is going strong, and our team is expanding as a result. We're searching for licensed agents or individuals who are looking to get licensed. Nobody knows us better than you, so we wanted to ask a quick favor: Do you know of anyone who would be a great asset to our team that's either in real estate or interested in a real estate career? If so, please share this message with them. If you have any questions or real estate needs we can assist with, don't hesitate to reach out via phone or email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

This time on SEGA Talk we dive deep into Yuji Naka’s studio PROPE, his departure from SEGA and the creation of his first independent title: Let’s Tap! So get your fingers ready to tap and let’s get into it… Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories … Continued

Description This semester, you'll produce a weekly podcast. See below the requirements for completing your podcast. Podcast Requirements Speak a minimum of 8-10 minutes and no longer than 60 minute Option 1: The topic of the podcast can be anything that links to anything we have discussed in class. Your discussion might relate to different topics and/or can be a reflection (expressing what you think). Option 2: If you plan to create a serial podcast, then you may choose one topic to develop the entire semester. For those who had me in Prope, you may continue the same topic by creating new podcasts to further develop what you discussed last year. Include a hook, introduction (podcast name, tagline, your name, date, and key points of the episode), body (choose two-four key points), and conclusion (thank the audience, closing statement and/or what to expect in future episodes). Find an example of a podcast that serves as a model in how you present your intro and outro. Upload episodes between Thursday to Sunday of each week. Each of your episodes should draw on information (content) taken from other podcasts. The information taken from these sources should be included in your episode: 1) description of what was said, 2) your interpretation or feelings about the information (or how it relates to the key point of your episode), and 3) reference where you got the information (who said it). Avoid reading any text during your podcast episode. Using background music is optional. If you do use background music make sure to choose only music which is under the public domain (attribution not required) or a creative commons license (attribution required). Register Podcast Add your name and OneDrive URL to Teams folder where episodes (accepted audio files) will be uploaded each week. Optional: If you decide to publish a public podcast (e.g., https://anchor.fm), create an Anchor account (or any other podcast host of your choice) and include your public URL along in addition to your OneDrive URL mentioned above. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/benjamin-l-stewart/message

Who you hire as your representation matters now more than ever.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationIn this crazy real estate market, I see many buyers and sellers struggling to find success. One of the reasons they're struggling is that they're dealing with agents who don't have the experience to help them accomplish their goals. There's a misconception that the market is so good that it doesn't matter who you hire. That couldn't be farther from the truth.When it comes to negotiating, positioning a property, creating an auction effect on your home, and helping clients buy a home, experience makes all the difference in the world. We've been successfully helping sellers sell their homes for top dollar and buyers successfully purchase a home amid multiple-offer situations. If you or someone you know is thinking of buying or selling a home, do them a favor and make sure they're working with someone who has the experience to get the job done well.Our team has the necessary experience to help you win, so if you need any help or have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'd love to help you.

Hamburger už dávno není hanlivé slovo. Stále častěji si na nich pochutnáváme i doma. Základem je dobré hovězí maso s obsahem tuku kolem 30 %. Základem je pouze sůl a pepř a správné propečení. Exkluzivně pro stanici Český rozhlas Dvojka připravil Roman Paulus.

Here's how we can help you find solutions in this hectic market.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationThere are a lot of people out there who would like to make a move in this market, but they're nervous about being able to secure a new home. They know their current home will sell quickly, but then what? The good news is there are strategies you can use to find success.One of them is our “Buy Before You Move” program. We can help you buy the home you want, then sell your home. This solves financial and logistical challenges. There are many strategies that experienced teams like ours can put into play to help people make a move in this fast-paced market.If you have any real estate-related questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We have the solutions and we'd love to share our wisdom. We look forward to hearing from you.

My experiences with appraisals not meeting the contract price.Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price EvaluationWhen you sell your house and the appraisal does not meet the contract price, what do you do? This has happened to me two or three times in the last month, despite only happening to me five other times in the last 16 years. For it to happen three times in the last month is a big deal. The great news was that I still closed all three transactions. One of the properties sold for around $195,000, although the appraisal came in at $185,000. The seller actually purchased that home from us two years before the close date for $150,000, so they made quite a bit of money. When the appraisal came in $10,000 under, we went back, renegotiated the contract, and ended up only moving about $5,000 total. I had another deal that came in $40,000 under the appraised value. I called the buyer and asked them how they would like to handle it. They said, “We love the house and we want it. We really don't care what the appraisal says. We have the funds to pay the difference.” So we went to closing with an appraisal lower than the contract price and the buyer was still thrilled with the transaction."These are the kind of sticky situations that you run into when selling your house."Those were two great situations for the buyer and the seller. Everybody was happy, but what happens if the appraisal comes in under contract price and the buyer doesn't want to move forward? You have a couple of other options. In today's market, I'd be fine with that happening if it was my property. I would put it right back on the market and probably sell it for a little bit more depending on what was going on in your area. These are the kind of sticky situations that you can run into when selling your house. I've seen more people out there sell their house as a FSBO listing during these times because they think it's going to be incredibly easy in a seller's market. It's one thing to sell a house, but it's another thing entirely to close the house. When it comes to buying and selling homes, our team's here for you. We've closed over 3,000 transactions in the last 16 years, and we'll do whatever it takes to make sure you're taken care of. If you're looking to buy or sell a home, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'll be happy to help you.

Here are some tips and strategies to help you make offers in this market.Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price EvaluationToday I'm talking about how buyers in this market can navigate multiple-offer situations. So you're a buyer looking for a home, and maybe you work Monday through Friday, 8 p.m. to 5 p.m., and your agent texts you at 10 p.m. saying the perfect house just hit the market. If you've been a buyer for a little while in this market, you've probably gotten to that house at 6 a.m. only to find that it's already sold. We're seeing buyers getting burned out from things like this. How do you handle that?I always want to inspect a house before putting an offer on it. Any Arkansas real estate association contract is going to have an inspection period. If a good house hits the market at 10 a.m. but you can't get there until 5:30 p.m., go ahead and write the offer at whatever price you're comfortable with. It may get rejected or thrown out, but at least you're on the hunt."We're seeing buyers getting burned out from things like this."Write the offer contingent upon your inspection. Having an inspection doesn't mean you have to find something majorly wrong with the house to walk away from that contract. Your inspection can be you walking in and saying that the bedroom's too small, the layout doesn't work, or the kitchen's just not exactly what you wanted. The inspection contingency is a strategy that we have used in the past, and it works out very well, especially in a hot market like today.Another trick we have is when you write an offer, be flexible on the closing date. If you can tell a seller that once we close you'll give them X more days to move out, that won't cost you any money, and it will make your offer look so much better. If you have kids, write a letter to the seller about how you can see your kids playing in the backyard and all those memories being made. A heartfelt letter will go a long way with an offer as well.If you have any real estate questions, reach out to me and let me know; my cell phone number is (870) 919-4968. If you're thinking about buying or selling, I'm here to help. Have a blessed day, and we'll talk soon.

[Following is an automated transcript of Week 1115 podcast aired 2021-05-29] Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] We've got these semiconductor shortages. What that means is various types of chips are just not available and it's been hurting us all the way across our economy. And that's where we're going to start the day with today. Semiconductors. [00:00:15] Man, this has been so bad, these semiconductor shortages, because what it means is we just cannot get the types of devices that we want because those raw components just aren't available. I was talking with a gentleman earlier this week and he was telling me how he has a special little app that tells him when there is a Sony PS five available for sale anywhere online. [00:00:45] It's gotten that bad. First of all, Why does he want a PS five so bad? I've never owned one or an X-Box or any of those gaming consoles? Since the original Nintendo, we had a we as well. Cause we had all the exercise stuff that went along with the week. But anyways, that's a different story entirely. [00:01:04] I'm sure a lot of you guys play a lot of video games, but. There really are not Sony  available. And we're finding much the same problem in even the car industry where some of these major manufacturers here in the U S have had to shut down lines. They've had, gone from three shifts down to a single shift every day. [00:01:30] And in some cases it's gotten even worse where vehicle manufacturers are only. Making vehicles of few times a week. It is incredible. What's been happening and there a number of reasons for it. This isn't just one reason, but it does bring up the real problem we could have with our critical infrastructure. [00:01:53] How critical is it that we have computers that can run our businesses, drive our cars, and fly our airplanes. I think it's pretty darn critical when you get right down to it. Yeah. You can probably get an extra year out of that computer, if you really need to many times that computer's just plain broken, you just can't use it. [00:02:15] So you do need to replace it. But in reality, we've gotten a little bit soft. We are not making most of the chips here in the U S anymore. Yes, it's us technology. But most of this is in Southeast Asia, particularly in Taiwan. And do you remember what's happening with Taiwan with the threats from China? [00:02:38] China is flying over Taiwan right now with military jets in Taiwanese air space, because China has never officially recognized that Taiwan is independent from the people's Republic of China. And do you know how socialists are? They're just going to go ahead and take that land. What would happen if they did. [00:03:00] Remember China really wants to get their hands on our top chip technology because that helps them in the military. It helps them with all of these facial recognition systems they have in China, the social credit systems that they have in China, by the way, all built primarily by us companies and sold to China to track their people. [00:03:23] Including the nasty things have been happening with the Wiggers over there. It's just absolutely incredible as well as Christian communities and others in China. So all of this tech has stuff they want to get their hands on. If they were to invade Taiwan, what would happen? The Biden administration. [00:03:40] There they've been a little soft on this. Unlike president Trump, who said, yeah, the Trump administration, we're not going to tolerate any of this. And the Trump administration shipped all kinds of military systems to Taiwan, so they could potentially defend themselves because we don't really want to get drawn into a hot war, but. [00:04:00] Oh, if they had taken over Taiwan, they would now have access to the U S technology on chip making. Now let me explain what that means from a technology standpoint, the chips that we have are.  into a wafer of silicone. I'm going to try and keep this pretty simple. And then, and that silicone is grown. Cause you think of a crystal or maybe think of a still-life tight or it's like titers to leg might that you'd find in a cave. [00:04:34] Those crystals are grown. They're humanly grown, and obviously you don't want any defects in them. So it's very hard to do to grow them. And we need those crystals for all kinds of things, including these solar panels that some people are so hot to trot about. I, Hey, I love the idea. Don't get me wrong. [00:04:52] It's just right now, again, with solar panels, like so many other things, don't think you're green because you. Are or putting up solar panels. You're not right. There's certainly other advantages to it, but you're not being green by doing that. But what really matters is how much power does that chip use in order to do a certain number of computations? [00:05:17] And how much heat is given off by the chip. Think again about the old Edison light bulbs that we've had and still have in some places and those Edison light bulbs, by the way, one of the original ones still burning in New York city and the fire department after over a hundred years, that one light bulb just incredible. [00:05:37] But think about that Edison light bulb, it gives off light. Sure. But it also gives off heat. And the same thing is true with. Anything electronic the movement of the electricity through that conductor or semiconductor create heat. Heat is a waste. That's part of the problem with Edison bulbs. It'd be one thing if they were giving off just straight light, the, but so much of that energy is used to generate heat that we don't want. [00:06:06] And then we have to dissipate that heat somehow, but that's another story. The same thing is true. When we're talking about these chips, the chips have a resistance to them. In fact, that's what a semiconductor does. It provide some resistance, so that resistance is going to. Do what create heat. So you feel your laptop when you're running it and so hot to get over time, the laptops have gotten faster and have actually created less heat, certainly poorer computational unit. [00:06:44] They created a lot less heat. What we're looking at now is if we can make these chips even smaller. We can decrease the amount of electricity they need, because it doesn't have electricity. It doesn't have to flow as far through the conductors or semiconductors inside these chips. So that's what the race has been over the years. [00:07:09] The race has been how small can we make them? And by making them smaller, You're doing a couple of things. You're making them faster because electricity has to travel less distance. Even though electricity is really fast. When you're talking about a billion transistors inside one of these chips or more, you are traveling through a whole lot of conductor and semiconductor. [00:07:32] So you can make that chip faster by making it smaller and you can reduce the amount of power it needs, because you're not going to be giving off as much power via heat and heat generation. And that's important for everything, but particularly important for our mobile devices. Look at your apple watch or your iPhone or your laptop or your desktop. [00:07:56] All of them need to consume less and less electricity as time goes on. So what we're talking about now are just teeny tiny measurement. We're talking about nanometers. So if you go online, you look up nano meter. Which is a foul. Yeah, there you go. 10 to the negative nine meters. It's a billionth of a meter. [00:08:21] Isn't that something looking it up right now, sell it a 1E-9.000000000. Give or take, and it's a unit of measurement that is being used now in chips and chip designs. And we're seeing these faster and faster chips getting down into the five nanometer process that is incredibly small, incredibly. [00:08:49] Fast potentially, but likely incredibly fast and uses a lot less electricity right now. We're seeing seven nanometers out of Taiwan and we're working on five nanometer, but we have such a shortage of chips right now that they're bringing some of these old 15 nanometer. Chip fabs online, even 22 nanometer. [00:09:14] I'm looking right now online at some of these old chip fabricators that are being brought online and China really wants to get their hands on some of this technology, because at this point anyways, they really can't get to the seven nanoliter chips. China right now. I think is pretty much limited to 14 nanometer. [00:09:39] So we're still, I had in that race, but because they're being made in Taiwan, these chips that we're using here in the us using us technology, and because we had the lockdown in Taiwan and pretty much worldwide, the whole supply chain got interrupted and these big car manufacturers just. Shut off the orders. [00:10:01] So there's no reason for the manufacturers to continue to make these things are a little reason for them to make them for the car industry in the current street, he thought we can just turn it back on and we'll have the chips. And of course they didn't, but it's also been compounded by the conditions in Taiwan right now. [00:10:19] Because the Taiwanese centers for disease control this week raised it's epidemic warning level and is strengthening their containment measures and making things even worse. Taiwan is in the midst of a severe drought. So they are. Rationing water in Taiwan. They're looking at cutoffs of two days a week. [00:10:42] And water reduction plans are expected to decrease supply to all major manufacturers by as much as 15%. So there you go. In a nutshell, that's why we care. Nanometers and we're talking about chips. That's why we need to start making them back here in the U S. And the good news, apple and others are doing exactly that. [00:11:03] Starting to bring some of this technology back from Taiwan, into the U S and I think that's going to help keep us safer in the long run [00:11:12]All electric vehicles are I think very cool. And some people give me a hard time because I am not a fan of it. [00:11:20] If you think you're being green, because you're not. And I went through the whole science behind that the life cycle of an electric vehicle is much more. Dangerous and hazardous and polluting in the environment. Then even a diesel truck is just to give you an idea of small truck. So that's, let's put that aside, but in reality, these things I think are potentially the future. [00:11:50] Now there's a lot of things we've got to take care of, for instance. Our electric grid is not set up for electric cars. Our electric grid is not set up for us to have windmills in our backyard or to have solar panels on our roofs. It's set up to have a main power station of some sort, whether it's nuclear, which by the way is green or whether it might be. [00:12:17] Be coal or natural gas or wood or trash. That's what the grid is set up for. So we have some problems there and there's another big problem. And that has to do with how much power one of these vehicles can hold, because I don't know about you, but having a, what is it? The brand new car that came out a Fiat or somebody and his electric vehicle and its range is 78 miles. [00:12:46]In some places that might be okay, but progress. The problem is I'll write, let's say I'll put up with stopping every hour to recharge these cars, unless it's a rapid recharger, you're going to be there for an hour and a half or more. And even with the rapid recharger, you're going to be there for a least 20 minutes. [00:13:07] Now Tesla had some innovative ideas on how to deal with that. Like the, I don't know if you ever saw it a battery pack, so you'd pull into the station and it would just trade battery packs for you. The idea was it's right in the center. GM has this concept of the roller skate, where the entire car really is built into this frame. [00:13:29] That kind of looks like roller skate. And then on top of that, Goes your car and there's some thinking maybe we can make it so that you can just swap out your rollerskate. Make it nice and simple and hopefully relatively inexpensive, but we still don't see the range on the vehicles. And as of yet, we haven't seen any huge forays by any of the big auto makers. [00:13:54] Of course, Nissan had it to leaf, which. Pretty well accepted GM had their entry. And I chuckled because it was in a lot of ways. It was a joke. And of course they're up with better stuff here in the future, but I want to play a little bit here. I'm going to play about 25 seconds worth of an ad. [00:14:12] And then we're going to talk about it a bit. [00:14:16] Unknown: [00:14:16] It's got a targeted 775 pound feet of torque. It's targeted to go from zero to 60 in the mid four second range. It's a driving experience. That's pure unfiltered exhilaration from the moment you hit the accelerator. Oh, and it's an F-150 introducing the all electric F-150 [00:14:40] Craig Peterson: [00:14:40] lightning. [00:14:41] So you noticed there were no mentions in there of no birds were harmed in January generating electricity here. And of course, a little tongue in cheek because of course birds are harmed in generate electricity, particularly windmill, but anyways, they're not going for the eco greeny. They're not going for the Prius driver. [00:15:01] You remember the stats on the Prius where they surveyed the drivers of Prius's. This was probably five. Maybe a little more years ago. And the number one reason they found people drove a Prius. 70% of the time in fact, was they drove a Prius because of what they thought other people would think of them. [00:15:23] So there they are driving this car that they're driving it for one reason, because they, I think it's going to make other people think that they're just fantastic people. I obviously I disagree with that. I think that's little bit of a problem, but what is what they're doing here with that Ford commercial is they are working on mainstreaming. [00:15:46] Yes. Electric vehicles. Can you imagine this a 700 plus foot point foot pound torque in a sub $40,000 truck? It's just amazing. And you can even use the batteries that are in this truck. Of course, there's a lot of batteries in that truck to run power tools while you're out at a work site. Which I think is a great idea. [00:16:12] And you can even use it to power your house. They have a special adapter you can use to hook up to your house so that you can get up to three days. They say of electricity in your house. If the power goes out, No mention in here of, any of these greeny things, right? Oh, none of oases talking points are in that ad. [00:16:37] At least I didn't hear him on, did you guys hear them, but this is going to be amazing. This of course is Ford's best-selling vehicle, the F-150 and I drove one for years. It was very handy with the horses and chickens and everything here. And I'm looking forward to this thing coming out. I don't think I'm going to buy one, by the way. [00:16:58] They've also got this Mustang mark II, which is this electric Mustang thingy. And then they have an electric transit van. And the reason I don't think I'm going to buy one is it just doesn't have the range. Now you can get better equipped lightening trucks in that sub $40,000 one. You can also go ahead and get bigger batteries. [00:17:22] You can do a whole bunch of things, but this range is a combined output here, a 426 horsepower estimated range of 230 miles. And the extended range of this F-150 lightning is going to get an even. Bigger horsepower rating, 563 horsepower and an estimated range of 300 miles. And 775 foot pounds of torque, which is just stump polling. [00:17:56] It's absolutely amazing. So I don't know about you. I'm not in the mode for pain, 60 ish grand for an electric truck that is only going to take me 230 miles. That, but maybe that's me. And then looking further into the stats on this thing, it can do a bunch of towing. It can have a 77, a hundred pounds of towing. [00:18:22] You can get Reduce cargo, excuse me, reduce cargo course. If you're getting the bigger battery and looking at an illustration of the F-150 lightening, what they're doing is similar to what GM had proposed way back with the roller skate. The entire drive train is underneath the truck. And it's just like an old frame. [00:18:44] You remember, trucks used to have frames now? The F-150 is, I think still do have frames underneath, but the whole bottom of the truck is one piece. If you will, obviously there's little pieces to it, but one major component and then the cab and bed and everything else just sits right on top of it. [00:19:03] It's amazing. Now with this truck, if you connected to 150 kilowatt fast charger, you're going to get 41 miles in 10 minutes. So how long does it take you fill up with gas? Probably about 10 minutes. How long is it good for? It was my car 400, 500 miles in this case that 10 minute stop. At the fuel station is going to get you 41 miles. [00:19:29] And if you can find the, just the 50 kilowatt fast charger, it's going to take you 91 minutes to get 41 miles of range. It's not there yet, but it's very obvious that Ford is aiming for the truck driver. And more particularly if I was a construction guy and I was taking my truck out and I needed to plug in tools and I don't have to drive very far. [00:19:56] I look seriously at that new F-150 lightning. [00:20:00]President Biden .  I've got an article in my newsletter this week about what he's been doing when it comes to the hackers, China, is it Russia? What's going on? He's been blaming. It looks like. Russia for some of the hacks that China has actually been carrying out, but no matter what the bottom line is, we are getting hacked and this is a very big problem. [00:20:28] We have to modernize our technology strategy. Because this ideological divide between these authoritan or authoritarians, whether it's a dictatorship like the socialists have in China, where you have chairman Mao, who is chairman for life now, or Putin. President Putin, who is president for life over in Russia. [00:20:53]It's absolutely amazing. They are coming after us. And so is North Korea, of course, again, socialist dictator for life over there as well, Iran not so socialist, but a very fascist in many ways, which is typically a form of socialism anyways. We need to be able to protect ourselves. It's a real problem, frankly. [00:21:18] 1947 world war two was over and George Kennan, R yeah. Kennan introduced this concept of containment and that containment concept was used throughout the entire cold war. And of course you probably know what that is. At least, excuse me. I hope you do. But today we don't have that cold war anymore. [00:21:45] What is it that we have? Why would China be attacking this? We know, for instance, a China comes after our intellectual property and they w they come after it because it helps them militarily. If they know what we're doing, what we're ordering. What's going on that we know they come after us as well, because they want to cause some havoc. [00:22:11] There's no question about that. Some of these other smaller countries come after us because they need the hard currency. Ultimately they want to trade in those Bitcoin for us dollars, which of course can be spent here. But. This whole system that we have right now is really on the brink of a new economy. [00:22:34] Look at the technology we've been using. Look at the number of people that have been working from home. We're sitting on the edge of three simultaneous bubbles. Right now we have the housing bubble. We have the stock market bubble and we have the cryptocurrency bubble and we've seen downs in all of those just over the last week or so. [00:22:56]We'll see what happens, but there's no denying that they're bubbles are home values adjusted for inflation, have not been higher than the last 100 years as an example. So there's a lot for us to look at. And when these bad guys are under the same types of financial pressures we are under, because, collapses tend to be worldwide. [00:23:21] What are they going to do? What's ultimately going to happen? Here is what president Biden thinks should happen with these two executive orders that came out really It, it has to do with federal government supply chains. And that is people who obviously are selling to the feds. And I want you to think mostly about department of defense here, and we deal with the department of defense contractors and tightening them up. [00:23:50] But in getting them to the point they should be at. And there's a lot to be concerned about it from that standpoint, but they have been releasing some details over the last few months, really. They started in April this year, and they're saying that because of the supply chain problem that we had with solar winds, they are now. [00:24:15] Pushing out some rules that require the people who sell to the federal government to keep a certain level of cybersecurity. We've talked a little bit before about CMMC, which is. Again, it's a cyber security maturity model that's out there and they are requiring certain federal contractors to meet that. [00:24:40] We've also talked about some of the NIST standards, which is the national Institute of science and technology. In fact, we talked about their password standard and how a year and a half or so ago, they changed the way we need to do passwords. And if you don't know what that is, have a look at my. A special report on passwords. [00:25:02] And I go through that in some detail, but there's an executive order on American supply chains that came out in February and it's leaning pretty heavily on these newer emerging technologies, including secure access to semiconductors. And we talked about them earlier in the show today, the high capacity batteries. [00:25:24] Because again, if we're not innovating. In the, you name it. But in end in the automotive field, we're going to fall behind what's important automotive. We just talked about it. Last segment here. Batteries. So it's covering batteries and materials that are used to create them. So they both of these orders address the need for us to really work closely together with our allies economically, as well as national security. [00:25:55] But that's exactly what we've been doing. Isn't it? What it really boils down to in my mind is democracy versus authoritarianism. It was so funny that they called president Trump and authoritarian a decade, her right. He was liking to Hitler constantly. I thought if you brought him up, you automatically lost the argument. [00:26:18] But in reality, now we're seeing more of a hands-on from the federal government more authoritarianism. And I got a question whether or not that's what we really want. Do we need a digital politic. This guiding doctrine, that places digital considerations at the forefront of our national strategy. Is this something that should be handled by the state or the businesses involved? [00:26:47]We've seen all kinds of mixed. Pros and cons to each one of those strategies over the years, we know government controls, centralized government control, ultimately causes serious problems serious as in the deaths of over a hundred million people in the last century alone. So I'm not sure that's the best idea. [00:27:09] And I have to say work. I With defense contractors, even not really a defense contractor, someone that makes something that's sold to a defense contractor. Having a one size fits all cybersecurity policy, a cybersecurity czar, and these executive orders pushing everything down does not make sense. It doesn't make sense for a real small company that makes a wiring harness to have to meet the same. [00:27:38]Cyber security requirements as a big BAE systems, they don't have the time. They don't have the money. It can cost a million dollars over the course of three years for even a small company to meet these federal standards that are required. If you take a contract from the federal government or from one of these contractors. [00:28:04] So you are a subcontractor, all of those requirements that are put on that huge military contractor, all of those requirements get pushed down to you. So this just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I'm very concerned about it. There's a bipartisan bill. That's moving right now called the democracy technology partnership act. [00:28:26] And they're trying to get some collaboration and innovation amongst democracies. I think it's good now that there are rules in place that have changed, that allows competitors to talk with each other when it comes to cyber security. [00:28:43]Internet Explorer was Microsoft's first major foray into the internet browsing world internet browsing didn't really take off until almost the mid nineties. And it was really cool. I remember when I first started using. Web browsing and websites and building them with NCSA mosaic. Oh my gosh. Those were the days heady days back then. [00:29:09] And we were just thinking about everything that could happen, how great it would be. And there were no hackers to speak of online. You didn't have to worry about drive by downloads or so many of the other problems that we have today. And Microsoft took that NCSA mosaic browser code base and created something. [00:29:33] They called internet Explorer. Now the history of internet Explorer, frankly. Is rather interesting when you get right down to it. Internet Explorer. Yeah. It's been around for a long time, but in genetics, Explorer was one of the worst browsers out there for a very long time. It was just terrible. [00:29:57] And one of the things that Microsoft did that really got. With the whole internet community upset with them is they built it right into their operating system. Absolutely. They used the code here from again, mosaic, which was this early commercial web browser back in 2003. It, the whole project started in 1994. [00:30:25]I'm looking right now, Wikipedia. I remember these things happening. It's just nuts to think about how far it's gone, but they took internet Explorer and they bolted it into the operating system. So the operating system now supposedly was dependent on internet Explorer. Now it's an interesting concept to think about if all they have to do is maintain a user interface. [00:30:51] That's web based for the operating system. That's really cool. Microsoft internet Explorer is some 5 million lines of code that is a lot of programming to maintain. And then on top of that, of course you have all of the user interface code that's sitting there in the operating system. So I think this is my suspicion. [00:31:12] What Microsoft is trying to do is make their life a little bit easier. But by doing that by hard wiring in internet Explorer, into the operating system, they ended up making it so that other companies like the Firefox guys, Mozilla, they could not run independently on inch, on a windows. And a third party, like Dell could not decide, Hey, I don't want to use internet Explorer because Google's paying me to install Google Chrome. [00:31:43] So I want to put Chrome on windows. So you just couldn't do any of that. So they got a whole bunch of flack. The industry came after them and because of that, so did the department of justice. And the United States versus Microsoft case, very fundamental. And it was absolutely, it was essential, I think because Microsoft never would have done anything about this, but they developed Microsoft this thing called ActiveX technology, which is a security nightmare and remains one to this very day where you could effectively as a website. [00:32:25] Tell the internet Explorer to do almost anything you wanted to do. And there were bugs after bugs. I don't have a count. It might be interesting to see what the actual count would be, but it was, it had to be in the thousands of bugs that were fixed security bugs that were fixed and internet Explorer because of active X and because of some of these other things. [00:32:48] So it's just been absolutely terrible. One of the questions I get asked most often to this day. What do we do when we don't want to use internet Explorer or more commonly, what is the best browser to use while I'm online? And the answer to that kind of varies. It depends, right? That's the answer, but as a general rule using Firefox is a good idea. [00:33:20] Now, one of the things I like about Firefox for an individual or for a, an extremely small business, like a small office home office, where you're not tying into a corporate network at all. One of the things that's really good is Firefox. Uses a version of DNS, which is the main name, service. It's what your computer uses in order to find websites online, Firefox uses a version of DNS that is. [00:33:50] Encrypted and protected so that your internet service provider cannot see the website names you're looking up and cannot intercept it. And that's the bigger thing. You don't want it to be intercepted because one of the major hacks, and this is affected millions of people. Homed and businesses. [00:34:10] One of the major hacks is let's just go in. We can hack the router and then we'll change the router DNS settings so that it uses our DNS and our DNS by the way is great because it redirects you. If you think you want to go to bank of America, it takes you to bank of America dot China. Okay. A fake site, not a real site. [00:34:31] And you may not even know. You may not even be able to tell unless you look really closely. So that is a big plus for Firefox as well as it has all kinds of anti-trafficking technology. Anti-malware technology built right in, they've just done a bang up job. The reason I do not like it for bigger businesses is that same. [00:34:54] Feature that DNS feature because what we do when we go into a business, and one of the things we do is we change their DNS servers to use some commercial DNS servers that we have from Cisco that get updated minute by minute for the sole purpose of trying to stop the bad guys. And they're very good at it. [00:35:16] It stopped being ransomware just by DNS. If you're using Firefox inside one of these networks, the problem is Firefox is going to try and hide the DNS request. So it was not so much as I care that they're being hidden, except that might be going to a malicious site. It said, I can't see any of them. [00:35:36] And I cannot tell your web browser or your computer not to go to that website because that particular site or that particular internet server is actually malicious. So there's the two sides for Firefox. So if you're a regular little home user, get Firefox, it's free. It's a great little browser. If you are a business, you can still use Firefox with things like Cisco's umbrella. [00:36:04] But what you need to do is turn off the DNS over HTTPS or TLS in which gets a little advanced. You can probably find it. If you'd duck, duck, go search it online. And that'll get you the answers you need. So turn that off so that all of your DNS requests are going through the filter, whatever it might be. [00:36:24] A Barracuda has a DNS filter. I don't like Barracuda. Don't think I'm endorsing them, but it's better to use the Barracuda DNS filter. If that's all you have, then nothing. Let me tell ya. And then there are also free DNS servers that are going to be fantastic for you to check them out. I talked about them this last week. [00:36:44] I got a lot of emails, open dns.com open ope, N D N S the letters, DNS domain name service, or. Dynamic name server or whatever you want. How are you going to remember it? Open dns.com and there it's easy enough. You just set it up on your ad drought or, and you're off and running. So that's my general favorite. [00:37:10] If you want something that's more secure, you can take a look at our friend, the epic browser, epi C. It has been very good in the past, and I assume it's going to continue to be pretty good in the future. Microsoft's newest ed edge browser. I think there's been three different browsers. They call ed just under what Microsoft, they call them all the same thing, even though it's entirely different code basis. And what were there? Seven different versions of windows that were entirely different? I was just, ah, drives me crazy. The current version of the edge browser from Microsoft is based on Google's Chrome browser. So keep that in mind, if you're using edge, Microsoft is looking over your shoulder. [00:37:55] Google may be looking over your shoulder as well. A little bit. The edge browser also uses Google chromium base, but they've gone through and Labatt itemized it pretty seriously. If you're on a Mac, you can even do this on a windows computer. The fastest browser, generally speaking is safari, which is an apple product and it's available for free S a F a R. [00:38:18] I. And it also like most apple products doesn't like you being tracked. And so it has a lot of anti-trafficking stuff. Built-in. And it also not this too. The safari browser has a whole bunch of anti-malware stuff built in. So whether you're using iOS on your iPhone or I panned or Mac iOS or windows, you can get safari. [00:38:46] And I had recommended that. So Fari frankly, is the browser I use for a little bit more secure stuff. And then I also use opera, the opera O P E R a browser. You might want to have a look at it as well, but if you're looking for ease of use and compatibility, I think you're probably about right. Sticking with the Firefox browser. [00:39:09] I do use that. So I actually use all of these browsers in different circumstances. I also use the brave browser and others. I just don't want to confuse you guys. Firefox stick with Firefox and you're probably going to be pretty well off on rare occasions. Firefox is not going to work for you. And in that case, you might consider a Google Chrome or the edge browser. [00:39:34] If you're using a cloud-based to service a website that is obviously a website for something you're doing. And it does not work with Firefox. It might not even work with the default on the Microsoft edge browser. And that's because that website might've been poorly coded, had not written right. And requires the old Microsoft engineer Explorer. [00:40:04] If so you can turn on compatibility mode so that the edge browser will act just like the insecure bug ridden internet Explorer, but try and force the vendor to upgrade their site so that it works with modern browsers rather than having to stick with that old piece of software. That's dangerous as can be internet Explorer. [00:40:29]I have always been fascinated by it ever since I saw people who were communicating, using computers and it, I always thought it just. It would be so wonderful if we could help people out, particularly people who are locked in who have a brain that's functioning fully, and yet their body isn't cooperating, they can't communicate, or they can't communicate well. [00:40:54] And of course, that comes to mind. Of course, one of the greatest scientific minds of our generation, Stephen Hawkins, who was in a wheelchair, he was unable to move. And later in life, other than just a little bit with his face and mouth, and he used that to communicate. And it's just an incredible thing. I can't imagine being in a position like that. [00:41:19] So when I see these technological advances that help people out, even in a minor way, I am just overjoyed, really overjoyed. So we've got to, I want to talk about right now. One is a brain implant that ARS Technica is John Timmer was talking about here about a week ago. And he was talking about robotic arms. [00:41:42] Now you might've seen them before. There's various types of robotic arms and they have different types of functionality depending. Right. Well, one of the problems that we've had with robotic arms is how much force can you put on them? I, again, I remember the first time I saw someone who had lost, uh, the forearm and of course the hand and he had on one of those kind of captain hook things, appliances with a rubber band on it to close it. [00:42:13] And he was able to pull one of the muscles in his arms in order to open it and close it. I thought, well, that's really cool. Those have advanced now, and there are projects with 3d printers. I forget the name of the company. I had them on my radio show. Maybe a decade ago now been awhile and they were selling 3d printers. [00:42:34] And when you bought their printer, they would give you the plans to make a specific artificial prosthesis for. Child that couldn't afford one. So it might be for a leg or an arm or so I guess something else. And you bought the printer, they would provide you with the material that you needed as well as the design specifically for that person. [00:43:01] And that you could print it up. It might take a couple of days and you ship it off. And many of these kids were in Africa. There are some here in the us, and of course in Russia, and this was, I thought an amazing project. It was just so cool again, because they're helping these kids get a little bit of mobility. [00:43:21] Then we came out with some of these robotic arms that can be controlled through your brain. I don't know if you've seen these. Arms, there's been also some major advancement in just thinking about moving a cursor on a computer screen and the computer can track your brain enough to be able to move that cursor around. [00:43:46] And basically what you're doing is you've lost a limb or you've lost mobility. You think about moving your hand or a leg, and usually it's your arm and your hand. And that can be picked up. Of course, that's per person, that's programmable per person. Then they figure out what the pattern is in your brain. [00:44:06] And then they tie it all in so that now you can control a cursor on a computer, which means you can communicate. Robotic arms a little bit different because what you have now is something that can reach out. These things have all of the joint and the flexibility and functionality of a regular hand, except for. [00:44:30] The feedback loop and that's been really important. How do you know if you are actually touching something? How do you know if you're squeezing it too hard? Like that egg and early robotic arms? It was very visual. So you watch that arm and you'd see, okay. It now has a grip on that ball or that pencil or whatever you pick it up and you all visual. [00:44:58] And so you're able to pick it up and you know that you've got it. Maybe you don't know how hard you're holding it, but that's okay. You had to track the arm visually as you moved it around and estimate really when you had that grip, that was strong enough on the object by looking at it. And obviously that's just an incredible improvement over a missing limb or potentially paralysis, but it's not very intuitive. [00:45:25] And the question is how do you make things intuitive for the brain when they're obviously foreign? We're going to talk about an extra thumb here in a minute too, but this is just absolutely phenomenal. It's called propyl. Yeah. Prope re O ception proprioception. And it's a sense that we have, this has been difficult to reconstruct that ties the sense of touch and pressure and. [00:45:55] Knowing where something is. So you can close your eyes. And on the side of the road, when the police offers is there and close your eyes, hold your arm out and touch your nose. Right. Hopefully you can do that. I'm doing that right now, here in the studio. I'm touching my notes with my eyes closed with my arm, starting out fully extended. [00:46:16] That's the sense we're talking about. That's very, very difficult. How do you build that in? Because we've been able to build in a little bit of sense of touch feedback for these arms, a little bit of pressure feedback, but we haven't been able to really understand how the brain processes, all this information that's sent by these sensory nerve cells in the hand, in order to let you know where it is. [00:46:42] And what it's doing. So for this new research at team and planted two electrode arrays into the part of the brain that specifically handles information coming from the skin, and they're able to activate these electrode and produce the sensation of something, interacting with the Palm of the hand, as well as the finger. [00:47:04] So they've made a whole lot of progress here, and this is very cool. They were able to tie it into a robotic arm. They got a study together, got some funding for it. And they got a participant who had been paralyzed from the neck down. And this doesn't save as male or female, but. Default gender right in English. [00:47:29] As he sold, say, he'd been controlling this robotic arm for about two years by using brain implant in the motor control region of the brain. And he could successfully use the arm even without sensation. He'd gotten pretty good at it. Uh, so for these experiments, they had some different tests because they wanted additional, tactile feedback. [00:47:53] They wanted to be able to somehow tie into this perception that your body has, of where your body parts are. Have you ever tried to tickle yourself? Usually it doesn't work. Right. But a third person or a second person tickling you may, it's definitely going to work. That's all party, these same systems. So they come up with a whole bunch of tests. [00:48:16] I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on the tests, but they did say that having a sense of. Touch and the ability to understand where that arm and hand were in space, dramatically improve performance. And that makes sense. Hold on a sense to me, it w it really increased or decreased actually the time it took to pick up something to move something, to drop it in every case. [00:48:43] So. I am pretty darn excited about this, and I hope it's going to be able to help a lot of people very, very soon. This is the university of Pittsburgh medical center, by the way, that's been conducting these experiments. Now there's another one I want to talk about. And I thought this was really cool. I saw this about a couple of weeks ago. [00:49:02] I think it was, and this is a robotic extra thumb. What they did is they placed a robotic thumb on a hand underneath the little finger. So if you're looking at your hand right now, I got my left hand out in front of me. I've got my thumb here on the far left side. I've got my four fingers pointing up and on the right hand side opposite where your real thumb is, they put. [00:49:30] An extra thumb, like a robotic thumb that can, can bend up and down and a little other lateral movements. This study, I think was phenomenal. And there were 36 people that were part of the experiment. This was at Danielle Clode, university, college, London, and her colleagues. Uh, and it's, it's phenomenal. So when we get back, I'm going to play a little bit of audio. [00:49:57] That is from a story over there in the UK about this. I'm going to tell you a little bit more about this thumb and the. Impact to the hat on the brain. One of the things I think it was fascinating to me anyways, was it did change the brain in unexpected ways, basically the brains of these people. And this was determined by cat scans and watching the activity when they were moving their hand, the brains were changed. [00:50:27] Two, if you will, uh, look at the hands and as more of a single unit than individual units. I thought that was really fascinating and that extra thumb became part of the brains understanding of the hand. So this is the kind of thing we can be looking forward to. Now, this one is it's kind of cool. It's kind of fun. [00:50:53] We're going to find a lot of different uses for, and it's part of what's fun is what they did in the experiments. So we'll talk about that as well. Hey, I want to point out if you have questions about cyber security, I might have the answers for you and you'll get those answers in the form of some stuff. [00:51:13] Special reports. I wrote, if you subscribed to my email list, just go to Craig peterson.com/subscribe, and I'll make sure I send them all to you and get you on the right track. [00:51:25]this is augmenting a human and I think this is the future. We are going to be augmented. And how many movies have been made about that movies where they're saying model? Yeah, we'll just tie basically Google into your brain and have Google site into your brain. [00:51:41] That have as a thought. And you'll get a response from Google, which I think is scary. Look at Google now and how they're tracking you. Imagine if they get a copy of every one of your thoughts, but things like this that make us super human. I think are going to become more mainstream. So Google, for instance, had the Google glass, you might remember that these glasses type things that you wore, Apple's done some work on something similar. [00:52:11] And the idea is they can project in front of you an artificial reality. Maybe that our official reality is just telling you to turn left, to get to grandma's house or where the best food in town is. Or maybe you're playing a game. All of which are cool. This that's going to happen. This is really something that is going to happen. [00:52:30] And it's going to talk to you with a set of speakers that are right on those glasses. And it's going to be, I think, potentially amazing not reading your brain, but helping you to navigate a, read an audio book to you, do all kinds of things, and you can already get Alexa. Which is, of course Amazon's digital assistant in a lot of different configurations from your car all the way on out through these little mobile devices. [00:52:59] In this case, we're talking about a third thumb and that third or second thumb, I should say, it's really a third one because you have two hands, right? Two thumbs, but a second thumb on one hand. And the pictures I'm looking at from the experiment had it on the right hand. I don't think it really matters, but it's opposite your normal thumb. [00:53:20] It's not a fancy thing. It doesn't look human. It's close to the wrist. W on your hand, but it still is on your hand and you control this thumb and how it moves based on why our wireless sensors that are on your big toes. So you wiggle the toe and you can move the thumb in different directions and also have it clench the grip. [00:53:49] And these experimenters gave the thumb to people for about five days and the participants were. Told to use the thumb in regular, old things in the world. So they use it in the labs, of course, and they wanted the participants to really push the envelope about what was possible. And they didn't want the lab to just think of all of the different experiments they wanted the participants to think of things. [00:54:17] Maybe they hadn't thought of. So I'm looking at a video that's really cool people think of this guys. You can hold a cup of coffee and stir it all with the same hand, because you use that third thumb to grab onto the coffee and then your right thumb and forefinger. In order to stir the coffee. I think that's cool. [00:54:42] There were other people did things like bloom bubbles, right? You hold the little bottle of the bubble soap, water. And in the fake thumb. And then again, use your fingers to hold the little thing that you are blowing into. So it's really cool. And it did change the brain. What this showed us, I think more than anything else was our brains are capable of controlling limbs and dependence pended, GS dependencies. [00:55:14] Yeah, appendages. There you go. That, that you don't normally have, and it leads him into think about cats here in the Northeast. I don't know if you've ever noticed cats with a thumb. Have you ever noticed that it's really a Northeast phenomenon? And apparently the captains of these old boats loved these cats because they could go on the ship and chase the rats and kill the rat and hold on really well in the heavy weather and even climb up on the ropes because I had a thumb, we had a cat like that. [00:55:52] And it wasn't the brightest cat one, a Fox caught it when it was in our yard one time, but that cat could pick things up off the floor and using the thumb. Now, cats don't normally have a thumb, but some of these cats here in the Northeast, they have a thumb. It's a real thumb. They really can pick things up. [00:56:12] So they, this experiment proved that we can, as humans control an appendage, like an extra thumb. So let's play a little bit here about what happened a little bit of the report. The [00:56:26] Unknown: [00:56:26] additional thumb could cradle a cup of coffee while the same hands, four fingers held a spoon to stare in milk. While some participants use the thumb to peel a banana, blow bubbles, or even play the guitar to understand how the extra thumb effected people's brains. [00:56:40] The researchers gave them an MRI scan before and after the experiments. [00:56:45] Craig Peterson: [00:56:45] Is that cool or what. And you can find more online. I duck goat it, you can just duck, duck go a robotic extra thumb, and you'll be able to find the video and more reports on it, but we will see what ends up happening. With our appendages what are we going to be attaching to our bodies in the future? [00:57:07] We know we are going to be using those glasses like Google glass. We'll see what it ends up looking is it going to project right? Enjoy your eyes. What's going to happen here. We're seeing heads up displays in our cars where the speed you're going, the maps, et cetera, are projected right on. [00:57:25] The windshield. So you don't have to move your head a big direction, in order to see what's going on. So lots of stuff. And we're starting to understand the brain a little bit better when it comes to some of this stuff, dark side. My gosh a little bit of, a little bit about the dark web, because you guys are the best and brightest, right? [00:57:47] So the dark web of course, is that part of the internet that was created to keep things secret. No, not totally secret, but the identities of people posting things on the dark web are hard to determine. And it is in fact, something that is maintained by our military and was developed in order to allow people in other countries to communicate effectively with the CIA, with the military, et cetera, without. [00:58:19] Being caught by their government. So the dark web is a pretty secure place, but because of that, it's a place where people go to conduct illicit transactions. This is the place where the. The major site that was out there that it's called silk road was man, I can't remember how many billions of dollars they say went through the silk road website, but they were selling everything you can think of for drugs or drug running, a gun running some of these military weapons. [00:58:58] you name it? I don't even want to talk about some of the stuff that was being sold there on that website. Now there's other websites and taken over, but we caught that guy by the way. And all the transactions were in between. Coin. So those people that think that Bitcoin is somehow impossible to track you are wrong. [00:59:19] And those who think that the dark web is a place where you can go and really be anonymous. Again, you are wrong. More technically we're talking about something called the onion network, the Tor browser, and it is an interesting thing. So when we get back. We're going to talk about a court case, a really weird court case involving the dark web. [00:59:47] You've heard before about trust amongst thieves, this kind of throws it entirely out the window, shall we say [00:59:56]You might've heard of DarkSide. I mentioned them here on the show before. DarkSide is a bad guy, right? It's a group of people that got together who had been experts at ransomware. And so what they ended up doing is deciding, Hey, we want to make a business. We're going to do ransomware. And because we're so good at it, we're going to sell ransomware as a service. [01:00:28] And this ransomware is a service. All they did was they would take a cut of what you made off of their ransomware. They do things like provide tech support. So you ran some poor guy, some poor, small business, and that small business now is, a really hurting and you say Pay up sucker. [01:00:50] It's going to be whatever it is. I think most of the time for very small businesses, about $40,000 and you need to buy Bitcoin and you can't how to have a lot. I don't know. Why do I buy Bitcoin? So you contact. To the DarkSide, a webs support site, and guess what they do at that point? They can help you. [01:01:13] Okay. So go to this site. This is what you're going to see. Click on this. They have little user guides. They will help you when you're encrypted. Do you just give them the key and they'll tell you, okay. So use this key and this software to decrypt it. Just like a real business bottom line. They disappeared. [01:01:32] You might've heard about this. Of course, DarkSide attacked the colonial pipeline. And if you live in the Southeast United States, you were hit perk too. Darn hard by this, because that shut down over a thousand gas stations, they ran out of gasoline because it was not getting shipped via the pipeline. So off they went and a DarkSide said there, I think there's a little too much heat here. [01:02:03] At least that's what we were thinking. Initially DarkSide was trying to avoid prosecution. And so they shut down their website. Where was the website? Obviously? Wasn't out there for you on DarkSide.com. No, it was on the dark web while they shut down. And apparently they were not paying out these people that they were providing ransomware services to. [01:02:32] Isn't that kind of interesting. So Russian speaking person, you use the handle darks up for DarkSide support had XSS dot IIS. Guess what that is. Yeah, a recruiting site for these bad guys. Now, you're not going to be able to get there. If you're not on the dark web, you shouldn't be able to get there just in general, but he was trying to recruit him affiliates for DarkSide and DarkSide was the new ransomware as a service kid in town. [01:03:05]And it was looking for business partners until a partner could come along and say I have a hundred million email addresses or. I'm going to go after a company X like colonial pipeline. And so they become an affiliate of DarkSide. And as an affiliate, now they can send out the ransomware, try and get somebody at colonial to click on it. [01:03:29] And then once inside then DarkSide takes over and they go ahead and download important files from the machines that are compromised. That's part of the one-two punch that they were doing. And the punch that we saw that happened on Metro PD down in Washington, DC, where the bad guys got in down there and threatened to not decrypt stuff unless a paid up. [01:03:57]And then secondarily, you said. Since you're not paying that ransom, pay us this ransom and you have so many days, or we're going to start releasing information from the private police records. And they actually did end up releasing some of that information. All of that sort of stuff is part of the ransomware as a service. [01:04:16]This is interesting and DarkSide has made a bunch of money. There's some newly released figures from a company called chain analysis and they track cryptocurrency. Trading. Yeah. Guess what? It's not completely private. So chain analysis said the DarkSide netted at least $60 million in its first seven months. [01:04:44] That's a small fortune. Actually that's a pretty big fortune 46 million of it. Came in the first three months of 2021 and Darkseid made another $10 million this month with about 5 million coming from colonial pipeline. You probably heard about that. Colonial paid the ransom. And I saw an interview with the CEO of colonial, who said we didn't know if we'd be able to recover. [01:05:13] And it's basically, it's a small business, my words, small price to pay to know we can get back in business. So they made the 5 million from colonial and 4.4 million from the chemical distribution company known as Brenntag. And then last week, DarkSide went dark. And I mentioned that on the show as well. [01:05:37] And this guy, dark sub said that his group had lost control of the infrastructure and it Bitcoin. Does that mean that maybe Interpol the S somebody shut them down because. We have verified that there was a huge transaction where all of the money was taken out of their bit coin account. Okay, so the servers can the access to anymore the hosting panels to see panels been blocked and the hosting support service isn't providing any information, except quote, you ready for this at the request of law enforcement authorities. [01:06:25] Okay. Yeah. And within a couple hours of the seizure funds from the payment server were withdrawn to an unknown account. And Darkseid hasn't been heard from since now DarkSide is supposed to be paying affiliates 75% of ransoms that are less than $500,000. And that cut rises to 90% for ransoms higher than $5 million. [01:06:55] So DarkSide gets the money, right? Cause they're doing this whole thing. It's a service it's service provided to the bad guys out there, but apparently these affiliates have not been paid. Apparently the ransomware as a service provider of  did not honor its commitment and the affiliates, these bad guys, I feel so sorry for them. [01:07:22] Not they've been asking to be reimbursed from a deposit about a million dollars. The DarkSide was required to make with this website X access, which is one of these sites on the dark web, where they are setting up these deals. Okay. So there's three posts on the site. Where there are plaintiffs who have filed charges against the defendant against DarkSide. [01:07:53] So here you go, honor. Amongst thieves, DarkSide did not honor its financial commitments. It did not pay the bad guys. The ransomed people. Like they were supposed to they've disappeared and apparently their servers have been seized and all have DarkSides, holdings have been taken. All right. Interesting. [01:08:19] That's what you get DarkSide disrupted gasoline supply for the huge swaths of the U S about two weeks ago. And no doubt, the FBI brought full force of its might onto DarkSide. And I also know personally that historically the secret service has gotten involved too. [01:08:40]Electric vehicles. We've talked about a lot. I had a lot of fun talking about, of course, that great Ford electric vehicle in the first hour of today's show. [01:08:52] And they've got some cool looking cars, but they're coming out of everywhere. Now. You've got Italy with a few manufacturers that are now right. Pushing out the cars GM of course has had them for quite a while. The volt Nissan has had theirs. Ford has a couple, including the Mustang, the new electronic Mustang. [01:09:14] There is some good things to say about them. I love the technology myself. I prefer to have something that can go a long distance. I can't really have two or three cars right now. And they might make a nice little car. If I was commuting just a few miles or maybe if it was cheap enough, I would use it to run to the grocery store. [01:09:37] But looking at the cost of these vehicles like that, that Ford pickup truck fully maxed out, fully loaded. I looked it up. During the break it's $90,000. That's crazy money. And even though it starts at 40,000, well $39,999 95 cents. Even though it's a $40,000 start. That's a lot of money to pay for a car is especially with these batteries, there's next generation stuff coming out. [01:10:09] That's going to be just phenomenal. That's what I'm waiting for, but here's part of the problem. We're looking at electric vehicles and there's so many things to talk about, but electric vehicles do not pay the taxes that are used to construct our roads and maintain our bridges and our roads. [01:10:30] There is a per mile tax that is added on by the federal government and by the state governments. But it isn't computed as a per mile tax. It's computed as an add on to the price of gasoline and the price of diesel. What they're doing is they figure okay your fuel mileage may vary. And they had a big hit, of course, when fuel injectors came into cars, because they basically doubled the fuel mileage, but they say, okay, so the average car is getting 20 or maybe 25 miles a gallon and his pain anywhere from about 50 cents to a buck, a gallon in. [01:11:14] Road taxes and those road taxes are supposed to be used to build new roads, maintain existing roads and bridges by the states and by the feds. And again, that's a topic for another conversation. So how about electric cars? They're not buying gasoline, they're not buying diesel. So those vehicles are really putting a major dent in the road budget for the feds and the state government. [01:11:46] We've got states like California, Massachusetts, and New York who want to completely phase out any fossil fuel vehicles by 2035 and Washington state plans to follow the California rules and phase out sale of gas powered cars by 2035. But there's a huge hitch in those plans. How do you have these electric vehicles, including that Ford F-150 lightning hit the road? [01:12:18] Because gas sales will continue to decline along with the revenue from taxing them. It's a very big deal. So what do you do while there are some bills that have been moving in? All of those states had just named, including Massachusetts, where they're saying we need to charge people. Per mile when they're driving within our state, how do you do that? [01:12:48] Charging per mile means, how many miles they're traveling? You could certainly set up something like easy pass that covers the major highways, but the major highways are not where everyone's always driving. Think of the state routes we're on all of the time that have no toll ability. And of course, all of the side roads, how do you tax it while there are things that say maybe we use an easy pass type thing only on the bigger roads and we're charging by the mile. [01:13:21] That's just going to drive people off of those bigger roads that are meant for traffic onto the side streets. I've seen that happen before in my own town. There are other things that are being proposed that include having the car report on miles driven within a state. So the car would have to have GPS information would know when it has crossed state lines and then keep. [01:13:51] Tabs on how many miles it drove in the state and [01:13:55] then [01:13:56] Craig Peterson: [01:13:56] report that to the tax authority for you to be charged. How would that be to have at the end of the year, right? This additional tax burden based on how many miles you drove. Yeah, that would be a lot of fun. And then there are other proposals while we'll just look at all of the vehicles that are registered in our state. [01:14:16] So again, in mass it would be when you go in for that mandatory vehicle check every year at your birthday, we will read. Your car's mileage every year and we'll discharge you by the mile. They don't care if you drove up and down to Florida most of the year or out to Texas, or most of the year back and forth to California from mass. [01:14:40]All of that would be charged against you. So there are a lot of debates going on to try and figure it out. How can we make this work? The feds have a gas tax that hasn't changed since 1993. So the federal gas tax is 18. 0.40 cents per gallon. And then you have the state taxes and most states have increased their fuel taxes since 2010 to beginning to, to bring in more money and fix the roads. [01:15:15] But this is going to be difficult. Some states, including California, Hawaii, Minnesota, Oregon, Utah, and Virginia have implemented road, user fees. A lot of questions there. It's so easy to collect a gas tax. It's hidden away in the price of the gasoline. Are they just going to put an extra tax on electricity and say, the average home is using so many kilowatts for their cars and do it that way. [01:15:43] We really don't know. We just don't know. And our roads I think, are going to suffer until we figure that whole thing out. We've talked about some of these big hacks. And I was talking with a client this week about the whole solar winds hack. And where did it come from and what did they do? The solar winds hack. [01:16:07] It looks like came in through Microsoft exchange server. There are a lot of patches out there for exchange server. If you don't have it. Pay close attention, try and figure that whole thing out. Okay. It this is a very big deal, but these reasons, cyber security instances in incident are really a reminder to all of us that public and private sector entities are being attacked from nation state actors and these big cybercriminals, like what we were just talking about. [01:16:44] Here's our big question, who was behind the solar winds hack. Remember we talked about it here. The reports coming out of the federal government in the U S were, that was Russian intelligence was to be hunted it's Poot and blame Puente. Oh no. It's a Russian. Hacker gang, nothing to do with Putin. [01:17:06]Maybe Putin was, giving them a little bit of a nod, it was a Russian hacker guy, gang. Things have changed a little bit. They announced here, but Microsoft being there. Microsoft announced in March that a detected multiple zero day exploits being used to attack the exchange se

How do you prepare your home for sale in today’s market?Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price EvaluationHomes have been selling with multiple offers, many of them getting well over their asking prices. Truth be told, I don’t know how long these market conditions will last, but I don’t see them slowing down anytime soon. That said, it’s still a good idea to get your home ready for the market. Buyers may be hungry for properties, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll make offers on homes they deem in poor condition. Walk around your home and look for any cosmetic issues that need to be addressed. Cosmetic issues could include paint, floors, countertops, and so on. Be sure to touch up any scratches or scuffs."It may take some time for subcontractors to get around to the small jobs."You should know, however, that subcontractors in our area are very busy, so if you don’t have any major renovation plans, it may take some time for them to get around to the small jobs. I also can’t tell you exactly how much you’ll be able to recoup in this market, but you’ll probably be able to price your home at a number you’re comfortable with and still leave enough money on the table for your buyer to go in and make the changes they want.If you’re in the market to sell a home or have questions about specific ways to prepare your home for the market, please reach out to us. We’re here to help.

What are you going to do after you sell your house? Do you have a plan?Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationWe got a referral call the other day from a client, and this is what he told me: “Chris, we're thinking about selling our home. We feel like the market's reaching a peak or is close to a peak and we think we want to wait and then buy back in when the market goes down.”In theory, that sounds like a great concept and I agree with them. I do think the market is reaching a peak. For anyone thinking about making a move, the key thing to consider is not so much what you do right now when you sell your home but what you do after you sell it. Are you going to take the money and move out of state? Are you going to take the money and reinvest it? Are you going to put it in the bank and wait for the market to soften up? It’s hard to time markets, but we know that markets run in cycles. The cycle we've been in has lasted almost eight years.If you're thinking about making a move or wondering what to do with your property, you don't have to make a decision. What you do need to do is contact us so we can help you think through all the options and help you decide what's best for you. That's why we're here. Have a great day.

Here’s my advice on how to handle multiple offers in this market.Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price EvaluationWhether you’re listing your home in Northeast Arkansas or anywhere else in the U.S., there’s one trend I keep seeing over and over: If the home is clean, neat, and ready to sell, most of the time it’ll get multiple offers. What’s the best way to handle multiple offers, though?For starters, hopefully your listing agent lets other agents know that there are multiple offers on the table. Sometimes this scares other buyers off because they don’t want to get into a bidding war. However, we’ve found that after these same buyers have lost out on a house or two (or three), they’re willing to step up to the plate because they understand they’ll have to engage in a bidding war if they want a house in this market. "When you have multiple offers, why not play them against each other?"That said, my team and I use the ‘highest and best’ method when handling multiple offers. Let’s say one of our sellers gets three offers for their home: one for $10,000 over asking price, one for $11,000 over asking price, and one for $12,000 over asking price. Let’s also imagine that one of these offers is an excellent offer—an offer the seller might even be willing to accept. When you have multiple offers, though, why not play those offers against each other?In this case, we’d contact each agent, tell them we have multiple offers on the table, and give them notice that we’ll go over all the offers at, say, 5 p.m. If they want to leave their offers as they are, that’s fine, but now they know there are multiple offers on the table, and there’s a good chance the seller won’t counter any of them. They’ll probably just accept one of them because they’re all at or above list price. Now their client has the opportunity to put their best foot forward. Three to six months ago, if a buyer would’ve written an offer for a property, they probably would’ve gotten a counteroffer detailing which terms the seller would accept. Nowadays, the seller doesn’t have to do that. You can basically say that you have other offers and need the highest and best brought to you by a certain time. At that point, you can go over the offers and pick whichever one suits your needs. If you’d like to know more about juggling multiple offers, know what your home is worth in this market, or are thinking of buying a home, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.

The Heller team has switched to a different brokerage company.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationWe have a little announcement: The Heller The Home Seller team has been affiliated with Keller Williams Realty for over a decade, but we're now switching to a different brokerage company. The good news is we’re the same team with the same great service. We're always here for you.Our new brokerage is called Movoto, they run one of the largest real estate portals in the country. That will supply us with a constant source of buyers for our properties and a great additional way to market our sellers’ properties. It's a win for you and a win for us. Heller The Home Seller and our team are here for you and all your real estate needs. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Homebuyers should check these three items off their to-do lists. Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price EvaluationIf you’re a buyer in today’s crazy market, there are three things you need to do as soon as possible if you want to be ready:1. Get pre-qualified. If you’re financing your home purchase, you need to have a letter from a bank that says you’re approved to buy a house for X amount, or else sellers perceive your offer as being riskier to accept.2. Get proof of funds. If you’re paying in cash, be sure to provide proof of funds, and mention in your offer that you’re buying without any financing contingencies to put yourself in an even stronger position. "Make sure that the agent you choose has experience in this fast-paced market."3. Work with a superstar real estate agent (like me!). While people can go online to get information about the properties they’re interested in as well as whatever information the listing agent wants them to know, you can’t find out all the down-and-dirty stuff that goes on behind the scenes. There are many things about a property that you might need to know; a superstar agent will know to ask about the seller’s property disclosure, utilities, bills of insurance, HOA requirements, and so on. You also need to make sure that the agent you choose has experience in this fast-paced market. It’s important that they’ve been through the ups and downs of the market so they know how to adjust to shifting circumstances.Don’t hesitate to reach out to me for any questions you have or help you need. I’d be happy to help you navigate this market so that you can get a great deal on your next home and move on to a new stage in life.

Here’s how we’re helping both buyers and sellers win in this hectic market.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationA lot of people who are contacting us have the desire to make a move, but they’re concerned or fearful about being able to find a new home. Extremely low inventory and strong demand are dominating our market.On the selling side, we’ve been able to create an auction-like effect on our properties, which is causing them to sell for more than they normally would. On the buyer side, you need an agent who knows how to win in a multiple-offer situation and can find properties that aren’t on the market yet. These are two things that we do at a very high level. If you or someone you know is thinking about buying or selling a home, give us a call so we can get these strategies in place for you. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Here’s what our low inventory means for buyers and sellers.Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price EvaluationWhat’s the latest news from our Jonesboro real estate market? The biggest challenge we’re facing is inventory. There aren’t enough homes on the market to meet demand. That meansif a home comes on the market that you’re interested in and fits all your criteria, you need to jump on it. You have to get after it, because if you don’t, someone else will. If you’re a seller, this means you can probably ask whatever you want in terms of price. Due to this lack of inventory, we’re seeing houses sell for more money than I’ve ever seen before. Another reason resale home prices are surging is that lumber prices for new construction homes have gone through the roof. In fact, just about everything you see on a new construction home has increased in price dramatically. If new construction homes cost between $140 and $150 per square foot, sellers who perhaps paid $120 per square foot for their current homes can now ask for $125 to $130 per square foot. “       I always used to say that real life is not like HGTV, but guess what? Now it is.” This obviously isn’t great news for buyers, but the silver lining is that you can lock in a ridiculously low interest rate right now. It seems like I’ve been talking about this for the past 15 years. Every time we think rates can’t possibly get any lower, they do. We’re seeing 15- and 30-year fixed rates as low as 2.9%, 2.5%, and even 2.1%. Although you’ll have to pay more for a home, some of the cost is offset by how low your monthly mortgage payment will be. In addition to being ready to jump on the next suitable listing, have your pre-qualification letter in-hand when you visit it because there’s an agent in front of you and an agent behind you showing that home. We recently listed a couple of homes that literally had lines outside their doors mere hours after going live on the market. I never thought I’d see that here in Jonesboro. I always used to say that real life is not like HGTV, but guess what? Now it is. As always, make sure you get in touch with a great real estate agent so they can guide you through the home-buying process. If you’d like to know what your home is worth or have questions about our Jonesboro market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.

Here’s what keeps us going after three decades in the real estate business.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationJust the other day, someone asked me why we still do what we do after 33 years in the business. The answer is simple: We love helping people. We help them with buying, selling, investing, maintaining, getting the best interest rates—anything that has to do with real estate. It’s not just what we do, it’s our passion. So when you have any real estate-related need or know of someone who does, please think of us. After three decades of helping families make smart decisions, here’s one thing I can say for a fact: The right agent makes all the difference in the world. We have a lot of happy customers out there that will tell you the same. Thanks for all your support, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us by phone or email if you have any questions. We’re here to be your go-to resource.

Whether you’re a buyer or seller, we can help you.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationWe’re in a crazy, unusual real estate market right now. We have very low inventory and very high demand. Part of the reason we have high demand is that interest rates are extremely low and many people haven’t been able to buy homes due to low inventory. What are we doing to help people looking to buy or sell a home?On the buyer side, we’ve been successful in helping people find off-market properties. This is key because once a property goes live on the market, you might have to compete against other buyers for it. There are specific things we can do to locate properties before they go on the market. On the seller side, the biggest problem we’re seeing is that agents are making a lot of mistakes in how they’re pricing properties. This is the type of market where you should be getting top dollar for your home. If you have the right pricing and marketing strategies, you’ll do just that. If you or anyone you know is looking to buy or sell in this market, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to assist in all your real estate needs.

If your 2021 goals relate to your home in any way, we’re ready to help.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationAs we enter a new year, a lot of people are making plans and setting goals. Whether your goals involve owning an investment property, refinancing, buying a second home, moving up, moving down, remodeling, or whatever else it may be, think of us as a real estate resource. Regardless of what you’re doing in 2021, if it involves your home, we’re here to help. To hear my full message, watch this short video.

I have two messages to express as we barrel toward the new year.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationAt this time of year, there are two messages I’d like to convey to you. First, thank you! We’re grateful for your continued support. 2021 will be our business’s 33rd year, and we couldn’t have done it without all our fantastic clients like you. We appreciate your business.Second, this has been a difficult year for many people because of everything going on in the world, but we’re here to help with anything you need. We’re happy to be a resource for you.“2021 will be our business’s 33rd year.”As we move into the new year, the real estate market will continue to be very dynamic. There’s still a shortage of inventory, interest rates are extremely low, and we’re seeing many people take advantage of these conditions. Have a joyful holiday season! Whether you or someone you know is buying or selling, please consider us. If you ever have any questions or real estate needs, please call (800) 800-2978 or email us. We would love to help you.

Reflection on Luke 19:11 by Fr. Risco Batbual SVD.

Here’s why it’s a great time to buy or sell during the holiday season.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationAt this time of year, people start thinking about other things besides real estate; we focus more on the holidays, family, and friends. The typical belief is that during this time of year people should hold off on their real estate plans until after the new year.However, if you’re considering selling, I recommend doing so before the year ends. This is an excellent time of year to sell. Many people start taking homes off the market this time of year, and fewer houses are listed. So if you’re selling, there’s less competition. We also know that those looking to buy are purchasing at all times of the year. Many who sold their properties in September or October need to buy in November or December. If you’re thinking about buying a home, this is also a stellar time. Many buyers wait until the beginning of the year, so you’ll have less competition. Also, those selling this time of year are motivated, and these things mean you’ll have more leverage.If you’re contemplating buying or selling, have a real estate need, or want to know more about what’s happening in the market, don’t hesitate to call or email us. We’re here for you. Have a happy holiday season!

GAMES LIST: F-Zero GX Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- F 2nd Let's Tap 52 episodes must mean Season 1's time is up, so let's show it out with a bang. Coming up is 3 hours of music from 3 highly praised SEGA soundtracks and plenty of talk about them too! We also reveal to you the series champions of King of Requesters and Code Breakers, as well as dishing out individual prizes to those who won this week's competitions.

Take a look at just how hot our market is.Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price EvaluationToday I was going to show off some really awesome listings that recently became available on the market, but as it turns out, they all flew off the market before we even got a chance to publish this blog post! That just goes to show you how hot this market truly is. Here are a couple of examples of the types of homes that buyers have been snatching up right and left:1. 805 Smithfield, Jonesboro, AR 72401—$299,000. This 4-bed, 3.5-bath home is newly constructed and sold for a great price.2. 5109 Deerfield Dr., Jonesboro, AR 72404—$174,900. This 3-bed, 2-bath home has brand-new flooring in the main living area and the hallways. Being priced under $175,000, there was no way that it would stay on the market for long! “     Buyers in the market need to make sure they’re acting quickly.” We also had a group of new construction homes located in The Orchard, a development we talked about a few weeks ago on our blog. This is a brand-new, master plan development full of craftsman-style homes located in the Valleyview school district. These one-level homes range from $199,000 to $225,000, and there were a ton of builder incentives on them. Since homes are flying off the shelves, buyers in the market need to make sure they’re acting quickly and writing strong offers that will stand out amid their competition. Here are a few tips to help you craft an eye-catching offer:1. Make your best offer first. Don’t write unrealistic offers for which the home couldn’t appraise. In this market, you can’t afford to haggle because the seller will likely move on to one of their numerous other offers.2. Have a solid pre-approval letter. A pre-approval means the lender has already collected your paperwork, is ready to submit it to underwriting, and the only other thing you need is an appraisal. A fully pre-approved offer is almost as good as cash.3. Make an above-average earnest money deposit. The earnest money deposit is usually about 1% of the purchase price, but if you deposit more, that’s a good way to stand out among the competition. Remember: Earnest money is a signal of good faith that tells the seller you’re committed to making a win-win deal. If you’re interested in taking a look at any property in the Northeast Arkansas area, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Additionally, you can also reach out to us if you’d like your own home featured in one of our listings videos. Contact us for a free home evaluation and we’ll get your home in front of as many buyers’ eyes as possible. Hope to hear from you soon!

Here’s how sellers can really take advantage of today’s market.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationIn the San Diego real estate market, there are very few homes for sale. If you’ve been thinking about selling your home, this is an ideal market to do so in. You need an agent or team that understands the market, knows the inventory, and has access to a network of off-market properties to help make things easier and get you top dollar. Even if you don’t have any plans to sell, your home will continue to appreciate. To learn more, watch our video above.If you have questions about this market or about real estate in general, feel free to reach out via phone or email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Here’s what to expect when closing on a home during COVID-19.Want to Buy a Home? Search All HomesWant to Sell a Home? Receive a Home Value ReportSelling your home during the health crisis may seem a bit daunting, so if you have found a buyer and accepted an offer, congratulations; you’re almost there! All that’s left is to close the deal. However, the coronavirus has unfortunately thrown a few wrenches into the closing process too. These are the four things sellers should expect when closing amid COVID-19:1. Delays. Lenders have been swamped with processing refinancing applications due to the historically low interest rates, and social distancing and sheltering in place are complicating home inspections, appraisals, and final walk-throughs. This means that each step may take longer than usual.2. Changes in appraisals. Customarily, lenders require those buyers receiving a mortgage to get an appraisal, but to keep sellers safe, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been instructed to allow exterior or desktop appraisals during the health crisis. This is good news, but these procedures could also take longer.“These guidelines are meant to protect everyone.”3. Changes in walk-throughs. Social distancing makes in-person walk-throughs less common, with some being done virtually.4. Delays in closings. Social distancing may also delay closings because some of the title company’s offices are closed, and in-person gatherings of 10 people or more are prohibited. Rather than having everyone gathered in one room, various parties might sit in separate rooms and pass papers back and forth.Keep in mind that most changes in the process are beyond anyone’s control. These guidelines are meant to protect everyone from unnecessary exposure risks.All of us here at the Tami Holmes Team would be glad to assist you in navigating the home closing process amid the coronavirus. We’ve successfully sold hundreds of houses during this difficult time.If you have any questions about closings or real estate in general, please call or email us. We would love to help you.

Don’t spend extra time and money when preparing your home for sale.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationToday’s topic has always been a cause for concern for sellers and likely always will be: How should they prepare their home for sale? Should they do this, should they not do that, should they just give an allowance in the contract? In general, having a house that looks as presentable and appealing as possible will not only make it more saleable, but it will also help you get the highest price. The biggest mistake I see people make is that they focus on things that may have bothered them or they wanted to change while living there and think that will appeal to buyers. However, frequently that’s just not true. Let us take a look at your property; we’ll be honest with you. We’ll tell you what you should and shouldn’t do before you sell. We’ll tell you which things will net you three or four dollars later on for every dollar you put into them now. We’ll explain the things that aren’t going to get you a higher price or a more appealing property and aren't worth the time or money. For the last 30 years, we’ve worked with many service providers that can help you do the things your home needs. Whether it’s flooring, painting, tile, landscaping, plumbing, etc., we know who the best vendors are for those tasks. We know who has the best rates, and we’ll tell you who we use in our houses.“Let us take a look at your property; we’ll be honest with you.”Whether it’s you or someone you know considering preparing their property for sale, reach out to us so we can help you get top dollar. If you have any questions about this or real estate in general, call or email us. We would love to help you.

The market is hot right now for buyers and sellers.Want to Buy a Home? Search All HomesWant to Sell a Home? Receive a Home Value ReportAre you eager to sell your home? The market is flooded with buyers eager to buy it.According to the latest Freddie Mac quarterly forecast, mortgage interest rates fell to historically low levels during the spring and are projected to remain low. This means there is a huge incentive for well-prepared buyers to strike now. Homeowners looking for eager buyers can take advantage of this opportunity to sell as well.Not only are mortgage rates low, but there’s also a very positive outlook on interest rates going forward, as a drop to 3.2% could be possible in 2021. Thanks to these low interest rates, buyers keep driving the housing market forward. The rebound in the economy has been uneven, but one segment that’s been exhibiting strength is the housing market.Even though buyers are ready to purchase, it’s hard for many of them to find a home to buy. Mortgage rates aren’t the only thing hovering near all-time lows—available homes for sale have dropped off. With housing inventory as scarce as it is (down 20% year over year), keeping buyers in the mood to buy may be tough if they can’t find a home to buy.“The rebound in the economy has been uneven,but one segment that’s been exhibitingstrength is the housing market.”What does this mean for buyers? Competition is hot, so getting pre-approved now will help you gain a competitive advantage and accelerate the home buying process so that you’re ready to go when you find that perfect home. Furthermore, working quickly and efficiently with a trusted real estate professional (like The Tami Holmes Team) will help put you in a position to act quickly.What does this mean for sellers? The motivation for buyers to purchase a house is as high as ever, so listing now before other sellers come onto the market in your area will put your home on the top of many buyers’ lists. With all of the safety guidelines and precautions in place regarding the showing of your home, confidence is also on your side.The bottom line is that whether you’re looking to buy or sell, there is great motivation to enter the housing market. If you reach out to us today, one of our team’s experts will help you every step of the way.If you have any other real estate questions, feel free to reach out to us as well. We’re here to help.

Here’s what’s been happening in our real estate market through June.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationIt’s now the middle of the year, and 2020 has already thrown us a ton of curveballs. We’ve also seen a lot of change in the real estate market. We now have more properties under contract than we did at this time last year. This means that, despite this year’s unusual conditions, people are moving and buying homes. Inventory levels are still lower than they were at this time in 2019. This is an excellent time to sell your house because there’s less competition. Buyers can benefit because we’re still at historically low interest rates. If you or anyone you know is considering making any type of move, this is the time to take advantage of our great market. Remember: Another factor that’s always crucial is which real estate agent you hire to help you. If you know anyone who could use our help with their move, we’d love to be of service. We hope you’re all keeping safe and healthy. If you need anything or have questions about real estate, call or email us. We’d love to speak with you.

There are two ways to sell your home, and we offer both.Looking for a San Diego home? Click here for a full home search  Selling Your San Diego home? Get a free home price evaluationMany people have asked us questions about instant offers. There are companies out there who will give you an instant offer on your home, meaning you’ll have an offer to sell your house without putting it on the market, preparing it for sale, or having strangers walking through your home. The benefit is knowing when your house will sell and for how much. For some people, fewer interruptions or more convenience is what’s necessary. However, having your property on the market and exposed to many buyers often yields a higher price. We can give you options. If you want to sell your home and get the most money possible, we certainly know how to do that. If you want a convenient sale, to know the price, and when it’ll sell, we can offer that too through our instant offer program. No matter what your situation, we can help. If you or anyone you know is looking to make a move and wants options, that’s what our team is here to offer. Call or email us if you have any questions about our instant offer program or real estate in general. Don’t hesitate to let us know what you need; we’re always here for you.

Recently, I appeared on the “Real Estate Rundown” show with Bill Griffith to talk about home affordability and mortgages. What’s happening with mortgages? How much can a person afford when they want to buy a house? To determine how much you can afford when getting qualified for a loan, we look at two factors: How much you can personally afford, and your monthly payment limit. Clients will often use those numbers to decide how much they can afford by comparing them to what they currently pay in rent. We’ll also look at how much you have available to put down; after combining these factors, we can usually come up with a loan product that you’ll qualify for and which will hopefully match your monthly payment goals. “With VA loans, now you can get up to $1 million with zero down as long as you qualify.” After looking at your qualifications, income, assets, and credit, we’ll then take that and determine which loan product fits you best. We’ll even spell out the pros and cons of each one to help you make a better decision. There have been a few changes that are relevant to the discussion of which loans are the best fit. The VA loan, for example, changed their maximum spending limit with zero money down this year. In 2019, the maximum lending limit with zero down in San Diego was $690,000; now you can get up to $1 million with zero down as long as you qualify. If you want to know more about your options or you have any questions, give us a call at (169) 333-2556 or visit our website at www.DreamHomesTeamSanDiego.com.

Keep your home running smoothly with these four spring maintenance tips.Want to Buy a Home? Search All HomesWant to Sell a Home? Receive a Home Value ReportSpring is a great time to tackle a few projects around your house, and since most of us are still sheltering in place, there’s no better time than now to get started. When it comes to keeping your home running smoothly, a little preventive maintenance goes a long way.Here are four such maintenance tips, as outlined by this Anita Ginsburg article on RISMedia:1. Replace all of the filters in your home. Many people remember to replace their furnace filters—which will save you from having to deal with major issues down the road—but did you also know you’re supposed to change the filters in your water purifier, washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher? This can lengthen the lifespan of all of these appliances.2. Service the HVAC system. Most of these systems are very efficient, but they must be properly maintained or they will use up an excessive amount of electricity. You might also consider hiring an HVAC contractor to have your system professionally serviced. They can carry out tasks like checking the fluid levels, cleaning the coils, and resetting the thermostat.“Most people are surprised to hear that doorsand windows should be regularly resealed.”3. Remove debris from your gutters. If they get clogged with leaves and other debris, it can cause water to pool over your roof, which can then cause mold, rot, or other serious issues. To clean your gutters, you can either remove the leaves and debris by hand or use a power washer.4. Seal the windows and doors. Most people are surprised to hear that doors and windows should be regularly resealed, and caulk can start to crack after it’s been exposed to extreme temperatures and direct sunlight for a long time. This cracking allows cool air inside your home to escape. This project doesn’t require special tools, and it should only take you a few hours to complete.These four tips are simple enough that most homeowners can do them themselves. Following up on them will save you quite a bit of time and money in the long run, and you’ll reduce the risk of having to deal with a major problem in the future. So get outside, enjoy the weather, and keep your home in good working order!Most importantly, stay safe and healthy. Remember, if you have questions about this or any real estate topic or are thinking of selling your home soon, don’t hesitate to give our team a call. We’d love to offer our expert advice.

Here’s the latest news for the San Diego real estate market. Now that we’re in June, I want to give you a quick update on what’s going on in the real estate world. Numbers have been slowly coming back in San Diego County. We were down nearly 30% in terms of listings and sales a few months back, but the last three weeks have shot us back up closer to where we should be. We’ve seen 428 closings over the last seven days, and nearly 800 pending sales each week. The biggest thing is that we need people to get back to work safely.

I’m letting the data speak for itself as I address fears of a housing crash. The next time someone brings up their concerns about COVID-19 triggering another housing crash like what we experienced in 2008, you can ease their nerves with these five facts:  1. Supply. In 2007, when the housing market started to crash, there was 8.2 months’ worth of inventory nationwide. Today in our Charlotte market, the average days on market for all price points is around 45 to 60 days. We simply don’t have a crazy amount of homes competing against each other, and we also aren’t seeing nearly as many foreclosures.  2. Affordability. In 2006, 25.4% of peoples’ income went toward their monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home. Today, mortgages are hardly as burdensome on the American family as they once were—only an average of 15.5% of a family’s income is going toward payments on a median-priced home.  3. Equity. In 2005 through 2007, people treated their homes like an ATM machine, taking out equity to buy boats, take extravagant vacations, or launch a lofty remodeling project. During those years, we totaled $824,000,000,000 in equity lines out on properties (yikes, talk about a red flag). From 2017 through 2019, we’ve only totaled less than half of that, with $232,000,000,000 out on properties—people have gotten wiser with their assets.  4. Appreciation. From 2000 to 2005, we witnessed an insane and unsustainable jump in home price growth across the nation. Around 2004, we saw double-digit increases! From 2014 to 2019, however, we saw moderate, steady growth. As of late, appreciation simply hasn’t been ballooning wildly, which is a good sign.  5. Lending. Looking back on 2006 through 2008, it seemed as though anyone with a pulse could qualify for a stated income mortgage. Lending practices were irresponsibly lax. In today’s market, however, it is extremely tough to get a loan; if you’ve recently applied, you know that the parameters for qualifying are much, much tighter than they were leading up to the ‘08 housing crash.  Now, I understand that unemployment is up drastically, but a lot of those numbers will be curtailed once the economy starts to reopen. Historically speaking, the housing market has actually been able to withstand most recessions; the Great Recession just happened to be an instance where factors in the housing market specifically led the entire economy downward. Thankfully, there’s plenty of reason to believe this current situation won’t lead to that same result.  If you have questions about anything I discussed, or are interested in buying or selling soon, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I’d love to hear from you!

This morning I created Prope es tu Domine, Op. 59 for solo organ. It is dedicated to concert organist and pianist Thierry Mechler. This piece a free paraphrase of the Gregorian chant Introit for the Monday before Christmas. To make it more colorful, I changed the mode and transposed the theme a few times. It will sound nice with the dialogue between the Vox Humana and the pedal stops on your organ. PDF score. 2 pages. Duration - 2 minutes. Basic level. Check it out here: https://secrets-of-organ-playing.myshopify.com/products/prope-es-tu-domine-op-59-2018-for-solo-organ-by-vidas-pinkevicius When you create, miracles happen!

On this week's Global House Party, Producer Matt goes four to the floor with an hour of big House music vibes. Music from Major Boys, Gershon Jackson, The Shapeshifters, Random Soul, PROPE, and many more. Full track listings of the last 3 shows available at djbook.co/radio. Listen to the show LIVE each and every Friday from 6pm at sumoradio.uk/live and on Voice FM (UK), and Radio One Mallorca (Spain). Get in touch with the show and get your shouts out, tweet your message to @Ridney or @MattAuckland. Host: Producer Matt (Matt Auckland). Producer: Matt Auckland. Brought to you by Sumo Radio & The DJ Book