Let's Twitter

You know over the last two weeks I have been using twitter. At first I thought this was a useless app. But after using it you get addicted and start following friends, news, Government, Demi Moore :-), etc. I tweet all the time to my friends and just over a week or so I picked up almost 20 followers, why who knows.

It struck me today that this can be a useful tool for home inspectors. If we all signed up we can send a tweet of a problem while you are on site and someone could answer it. It would also work well with Realtors if they had a question. You can install these little apps on your phone, palm desktop etc. There are other apps that work with it like twirl. It's a little pop up window on my desktop letting me know if something is written by people I follow. It also lets you reply right there so you don't have to sign in on a browser.

It is also a useful tool for adding tweets to update comments on Plaxo, My Space, Face Book, etc. all from a little app on my desktop or phone.

Who knows you could get a big following................ and increase your business!



Mike

www.houseinspections.com

Corrupt Government

It pulls my short hairs when I read the Raleigh News. We had a drought for awhile not long ago. They where putting restrictions on water usage. Businesses had to install water conservative fixtures etc. Now that everyone has cut back they want to raise the water rates because not enough water is being used. They want to raise the rate another 17% over the already 15% they are adding this year.

Am I the only one out there that is pissed.

Mike Schulz
www.houseinspections.com

Usefull Tools

We all want great ranking when someone searches for whatever we may be selling. This is hard to accomplish and takes a lot of time. Here is a tool you may already be using that is helpful for determining how your website is performing. http://www.google.com/analytics/

Another great tool to check your ranking is http://www.yourpagerank.info/
The above will help you determine how your site is performing and give you ideas on how to make it better.

Mike
www.houseinspections.com

Copied from a uknown source

Absolutely the funniest joke ever......ON US !!! Let it sink in. Quietly we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody out there have any memory of the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY ..... during the Carter Administration?
Anybody?
Anything?
No? Didn't think so ! Bottom line .. we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency ... the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember.
Ready??????? It was very simple .. and at the time everybody thought it very appropriate... The 'Department of Energy' was instituted on 8- 04-1977 TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
Hey, pretty efficient, huh????? AND NOW IT'S 2008, 31 YEARS LATER ... AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS NECESSARY DEPARTMENT IS AT$24.2 BILLION A YEAR and IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE! THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY 'WHAT WAS I THINKING?'
Ah, yes, good ole bureaucracy.. And NOW we are going to turn the Banking System, health care & the Auto Industry over to them?
God Help Us !!!

Things I find at an Inspection

It's funny some of things I find. I wish I would of started a scrap book years ago. Some people don't understand the importance of a inspection. Things I find could save them thousands. At this link this is just a small sample of items that I just started collecting. I will add to them time to time.

Facebook





Mike





http://www.houseinspections.com/

Hard Times

Recent weeks in Raleigh, NC the real estate market has picked up. I have been staying pretty busy but still doing only a little over half from last year. I hate to say though that the influx of governments money (our tax dollars) will only be short lived and is just a band aid on a mortal wound. The layoff's are still continuing and some large companies are on there second to third round of layoffs. This will only add more foreclosed homes into the market that is already overwhelmed.

The government will not to be able to spend there way out of this road to disaster and it's going to be a few years before turning around. We have not hit bottom. I believe 09 will be worse then 08.
I believe you should start saving for these hard times and I personally am not contributing to my retirement account this year. I have lost over half mu retirement and I don't believe the market is going to get better in the short run. I might as well throw the money out the window then put it in the market right now.I don't want to sound like doom and gloom but we need to face that we are in for a hard correction.

Lost Data

Just recently I lost a hard drive and had to have the data recovered. I just did not back up like I should. On a Forum someone suggest syncbac. I downloaded the free software and it is simple to use and backs up automatically.
http://download.cnet.com/SyncBack-Freeware/3000-2242_4-10413802.html

I just tell it what folders I want to back up and where too. I have a laptop, desktop and two external hard drives. When I change something in that folder it will sync all my devices. It works in the back ground and you never have to worry about backing up again.
This is a must have!