1) Does tax credit help or hurt home sales? – Only with the main stream media can something be good one day, then literally the next day be bad.

2) Season’s Readings – 10 jolts from 2009 to jump start your 2010 – I could have been lazy and just used this as my top 10.

3)  What Did You Do in 2009 That Made A Huge Difference? – What did you do this year, if looking for ideas for next year you can follow these ideas.

4) New vs Old Good Faith Estimate Continued… – There series on the new GFE’s is continued here, one week to launch.

5) It’s a Wrap…the New vs Old Good Faith Estimate – And the series is finished here. There will be a test when we return from break.

6) Current Political Climate Prompts Regulatory Reform in the Mortgage Industry – The lending industry is going to be a lot more interesting to watch than the real estate industry in 2010. If some of these changes are made it is going to end up being all big banks making loans and no competition.

7) Bring The Blog Video Tour | Mortgage And Real Estate Blog Content For Busy Professionals – When I first heard about this I thought it was a joke, but not so sure anymore.

8) Generating Leads in the Online World – Want to generate leads, get people reading your stuff? Add value and make it entertaining.

9) Would You Hire a Friend to Sell Your House? – This is always an interesting conversation, but honestly who is not going to hire their friend?

10) My car is not a real estate office. In 2010, my car is going to become a wi-fi-enabled mobile real property exchange and conference room. – Mobile is the best way to operate a real estate business today.

1) How bad will foreclosures hurt your credit? – What I find most interesting about this is how things effect your FICO score different based on where your FICO score starts.

2) Carpeting – It’s time to add it as a disclosure topic to the AAR seller property disclosure statement – Lorti makes a great case on why carpet and other flooring should be added as something the seller discloses to the buyer.

3) The move-up buyer’s gameplan – So much attention has been given to the first-time homebuyer market because of the $8000 tax credit. With the addition of the $6500 move-up buyer credit we could see more people looking to get a bigger house with today’s deflated prices.

4) Climategate posts – With the news this week that climate scientist were fudging the numbers to make the data say what they want on climate change, here are two posts on the effects of the climate change debate and real estate. Climategate & you: The real estate edition and a video Will fraudulent climate changed revelations effect housing?

5) How to safely text and email while driving – What does this have to do with real estate? Nothing, unless you are a real estate agent who spends as much time as me a day in the car and finds yourself wandering daily because of texting and emailing.

6) 640 is the new 580 – 580, 620 now 640, minimum FICO scores continue to rise for a mortgage.

7) President Obama Calling Lenders to the Carpet Today – Obama is expected to try to shame banks into moving faster on saving houses from foreclosure (they are talking about you Bank of America). My take is just stop giving them my money (TARP) and if they don’t want to approve loan mods or short sales and would rather make the poor economic choice of foreclosure let them sink.

8) A question that needs to be asked more often… – When deciding how long you are going to live in your home are you considering the variable of what interest rates may be then?

9) Should we put our home on the market during the holidays or wait until spring? – One thing is for sure, anyone looking at your house during the holiday season is very likely a serious buyer.

10) Evaluating professionals: Imperfect solution for an imperfect world – Agent ratings, always a fun and popular topic.

1) What exactly is title insurance? – Title guru Bill Risser explains title insurance in a way the general public can understand it.

2) $8000 tax credit tax fraud – Where there is free handouts there will be fraud. Close to 100,000 people have claimed the tax credit when they were not eligible.

3) How short sales affect your credit and other ramifications – Is a short sale going to have an impact on your credit score?  You bet.  How much? Well that depends.

4) Who are the voices in commercial real estate? – In commercial real estate and all you can find is residential blogs? This guide will help.

5) Homeowner confidence out of whack – But can you blame them? – Homeowners are optimistic about the value of their homes over the next six months, and only half of homeowners think their value dropped in the last year. During the last year 74% of homes dropped in value.

6) Want up to 350% more traffic? Add photos – If you want people to take a look at your listings, put up photos, and it appears by Zillow’s research the more photos the better for traffic.

7) Understanding the Internet buyer, NAR 2009 – Interesting video on Internet buyers, but watch out it will crash your Firefox browser, works fine in Chrome.

8 ) I am pretty sure this is how appraisals are performed now – We recently had one house, two appraisals, two different appraisers and the valued were 24% off. Yea, I’m thinking there may be something to this post.

9) How to plow deep while sluggards sleep – Ken Brand takes a look at 2010 and how you can jump start the year right now. Be prepared now for next year, low interest rates, low prices, extended tax credit all lead to potential. One of the keys is know what questions may come up at holiday parties and be ready.

10) How real estate investors really get done – Attn: newbies – If you are new to investing this blog is a must read, and here is a good place to start.

1) RPR Madness! NAR unleashes national property database with Cyberhomes – Let the debate begin. A national style MLS with more bells and whistles. The first two posts here are worth reading in full, this first one is more of a neutral to glass half full take.

2) The coming civil war in real estate: The RPR saga begins – And now for the other side of the coin. Yes it is long, but worth the read for every real estate agent.

3) Why the extended homebuyer tax credit is a slap in the face – Is it a slap in the face to those who rushed to get a house before the credit expired? I am not in favor of the extension, but not for this logic. I don’t think anyone should be buying a house just to get a tax credit anyways. Changes in laws always happen and their is always someone effected like this.

4) NAR frequently asked questions homebuyer tax credit changes – Good list of some questions you may be getting soon or may have if you are a buyer.

5) Where do we stand? Extended buyer’s tax credit politics – Should we support something because it helps us personally even though it may hurt the country in the long run?

6) Twitter goodies widgets – The latest WordPress widget recommendation from Dave Smith.

7) 2010: A major test for commercial – Seems to be the theme of the month, watch out for commercial next year.

8 ) If you are infamous or invisible you are doomed! – What are you famous for? If it is the wrong thing you need to start working on changing it.

9) How to manage your leads more efficiently – So you have a new fancy website that is getting you lots of leads, now what?

10) San Diego real estate 1 of 10 cities improving by Forbes – So is your city on the list? Phoenix is!

Video 38: The $8000 first-time homebuyer tax credit has officially been extended and expanded as we discussed yesterday it would be. Here is a chart that shows you some details. Would love to hear your thoughts, you can leave a comment or e-mail me Dean Ouellette.

1) What do you think about social media? – When I first got involved a little over a year ago I saw social media as the way to take my business to the next level. Now I agree with Matt here, although I think it is still a great tool and one that will and is helping, I now no longer see it as the answer, but one of a few tools that helps me reach my goals.

2) 8 items homeowners need to get a loan approval in no time flat – Be ready when you go to get prequalified for a loan. Save yourself time and headaches.

3) Fannie Mae announces deed for lease program – Fannie Mae is going to be offering a program for home owners to give a deed in lieu of foreclosure, then lease the home back. Not sure I think this is the greatest idea of all time.

4) Gary Vaynerchuk live at Tom Ferry’s real estate training event – Gary is da man, if you don’t want to be motivated and learn to crush it, then move on.

5) Investors, tax credit and 90 day seasoning – Ardell is always informative and this is an issue that has a lot of confusion around it.

6) Lead response times – This one struck home, very interesting information.  How long does it take you to get back to a lead?

7) Get real with unrealistic sellers overpriced listings gibe buyers bargaining chip – Rhonda always tells it like it is. Great points you may not consider when taking a listing you know is overpriced.

8 ) 15 features of Google Wave | Step by step – I know a lot of us have been complaining about Wave on Twitter.. .so here is some good info to use.

9) There’s going to be a whole lot of rubber-necking going on… – Redfin continues to kill it with what they are doing online.

10) Here are a few of my favorite links on the tax credit extension
Jay Thompson on the extension
Steve Lines on the extension
Lenore Wilkas on the extension
Dean Ouellette on the extension
Greg Swann on the extension
Ted Mackel on the extension
AArdell DellaLoggia on the extension

1) First-time Homebuyers Tax Credit extension passes the Senate – So of the dozens of posts on this subject why did I pick this one to highlight, first he got the facts right that it has not passed yet, still needs approval by the House and the President’s signature, but also because he included the text of the actual bill!

2) Of Gettysburg, open houses and tax credits – Tying in history of Gettysburg, pricing houses to high and open houses the way only PapaGrande can do.

3) Loan modifications, 5 things the Government is not doing but should – It is an interesting ready, interesting as in it amazes me that some people still think a lot more government intervention is a good thing. Isn’t it a large part of government’s fault for forcing lenders to loosen the purse strings that we are in this mess? #3 and #4 may have some merit, but 1, 2 and 5? I think it was Mark Twain who said “Thank God I don’t get all the government I pay for.”

4) Real estate iPhone apps gaining traction – When are people going to wake up and realize there are more Blackberry devices out there than iPhones. Give us our apps too.

5) Commercial real estate outlook: Between a rock and a hard place – Could things really be worse in the commercial side than residential over the next 5 years?

6) Escrow trenches: Nutty funding conditions – Oh so glad to see someone talking about one of my pet-peeves, the bizarre funding condition coming up at the last minute these days.

7) Better Homes and Gardens takes real estate iPhone Apps beyond listings – See #4, but really, this app sounds really interesting and would love to see it in action, can’t wait for it to come to the Blackberry, if it ever does.

8 ) The great unknown in buying foreclosure properties – While it makes some good points, buying a foreclosure is not as risky as it sounds. You still get the home inspection even though it is “as-is” just make sure you get yourself an agent who has worked a lot of foreclosure deals this year to help guide you through the process.

9) Happy sandwich day (and some stuff about the escrow process) – Some of this stuff is California specific, but most of it will give you a good idea about the escrow process.

10) Ian Watt speaking at Tom Ferry’s Realtor even in San Diego – The man, the myth the legend.

1) Don’t fall into the trap – Good planning is where it’s at – It is that time of year where as business owners and managers we should be thinking about our goals and objectives for 2010. There are some good tips here, not to get started on mine.

2) Turn off the Real Estate Muzak and demand perfection – I never thought I could learn anything from Michael Jackson that would help my real estate career. Marc Davison shows me I was wrong.

3) A ReTechulous real estate office website live chat approach – I have a live chat on my site, but will be updating it now that I have read this with a the Gmail approach.

4) Do your leads in your database have value? – I have hundreds of leads in my database, and in the past week I started going through all of them get a real pulse for them. This post hits on exactly what I have been doing, and in less than a week I have already seen a change in my business.

5) Luxury real estate branding: Connecting through emotional branding – a good illustration on how branding can move an emotional chord in someone and if you miss that emotion, your branding may fail.

6) Congress poised to keep homebuyers’ tax credit – Despite my repeated objections to extending the program it is looking more and more everyday like the $8000 first-time homebuyer tax credit will be extended. Guess Congress doesn’t watch my videos.

7) 5 reasons every agent needs a Facebook page – I have been working on my Facebook presence of late by checking out what Mike Mueller is doing, some of his customization work is amazing and makes you feel like you are not even on Facebook. The video at the bottom is very helpful.

8 ) Forget everything you know about social media and Google – The new Google Social Search should be effecting the way you use social media.

9) Newsweek: Foreclosures spread to middle class – Reading the whole Newsweek story it is interesting to see one persons perspective on the foreclosure crisis starting with bad loans, then unemployment in wave two and now speculation we will be moving into a third wave of adjustable rate mortgages coming due.

10) Staging with storage – Whether it is the kid’s toys or dad’s much larger toys, they need to be kept organized when you are selling your house.

1) Can we create home buyers with tax incentives? – Teresa Boardman believes we cannot create new buyers with a tax credit. I hope she is right. I would hate to think someone is making a big financial decision because the taxpayers are giving them an $8,000 tax credit.

2) My new business cards are for you AND me! – Daniel has a really interesting idea on his new business cards.

3) The housing market bottomed 9 months ago, based on data – Sure supply is down and demand is up which leads to higher prices, the only question is will it remain that way or are housing prices being manipulated by banks? While no one knows for sure right now, time will tell.

4) How long will it take to close my loan? – Anyone working with buyers recently knows the answer to this question is a long time. And if you are working with Chase it seems like it is a long time plus a few weeks.

5) How to make use of Twitter lists – Want some really good tips on using the new list feature in Twitter? This is your post! Right now I am still not a fan of lists because I have to go to the Twitter website to use them. I can do the same thing in Tweetdeck, just not share it.

6) FTC says MLS cannot exclude discount broker listings from feed to public websites – I’m not so sure about this decision. I kind of hope they take the case to U.S. District Court. Not making an opinion on discount brokers, but is not Realcomp a private company providing a service in which they can make the ground rules in which you can be included?

7) A little effort can go a long way – Great advice on a place you can save money on your monthly bill without trying to time the market with the interest rate.

8 ) 55% of commercial loans due by 2014 are under water – Think the residential real estate market has been bad? Wait to you see what happens to the commercial market in the next few years. Those who know a lot more about commercial real estate than I do have been telling me this for months.

9) Pending home sales index up for 8th consecutive month – Remember one thing, all real estate is local, your market may vary and talk to a good real estate agent in your area to see what the local market is like.

10) Distractions in the real estate business – Distractions and a lack of focus, once again Tom Ferry hits it out of the park. Looks like I know what I need to work on this week…

1) How long do mortgage rates quotes last? – It’s a problem I hear with buyers often, they are given a quote then the next day the rate is different. I think lenders need to do a better job explaining to buyers when they do give them quotes.

2) What happens in escrow? – You can read all the details on what is involved in the escrow process or you can jump to the end and have have it explained like he explained it to his 6-year old.

3) I love my dogs but… I also had a bad experience with a cat getting out at a showing a few months ago. Homeowners, agents please make sure you notify people of pets in the house.

4) Broker to Congress: Don’t extend the credit (just keep rates low) – Now here is one I can appreciate, don’t give away more or my money and drive us further into debt, just do what you can to keep rates low.

5) National Association announces 2010 buyer MLS system – This is not a real story, but the idea actually has some merit. It would be an interesting idea to look at going forward.

6) Zemanta blogging with training wheels – but worse – If you are a geek like me Zemanta may have been one of the things on your long list to try. This may save me some time.

7) The net effect of government intrusions in the real estate market is to create a standing wave of foreclosures amid steadily-declining home values – Greg as always writes a thought provoking column and uses his unique style to explain it. And again, as much as I may not want to, I have to agree with him. The staggering part? The National Association of Realtors reports that 59% of all new home loans this year were underwritten by the Federal Housing Authority, the Veterans Administration or the U.S. Department of Agriculture. So basically the federal government owns 59% of the houses purchases this year.

8) A word with the Broker – Technology policies and monitoring tips – Every Broker should read this one, doing to much or not enough are both bad options.

9) Search engine optimization tip – word separators – If you are a blogger read on… if you are not, go to number 10.

10) Just one successful way to use Facebook – A Facebook agent who uses Facebook to keep in touch with her community, but not promote she is an agent.