Remembering How It All Started

The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America is the
masterpiece of American history. It speaks to all who love liberty. It
defines the tone of the early American colonists and their longing for
independence from tyranny, oppression, discriminnation, abuse of
natural rghts, and taxation without representation.
Hear these immortal words as they are who we are:

“We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

We cannot ponder this truth too often. It says fully that the Creator,
God, divine Mind, infinite good, the I am that I am, has made all of
us equal as sovereign individuals with rights that are given by this
Creator, not by other men or women,but that our rights are to be protected, secured by a government of men (or women).

I am very grateful that my father taught me early on, the importance of the Declaration of Independence, not just for Americans, but for everyone desiring the way of “liberty and justice for all.” When we internalize the ideas within this document, understand the context from which it was prepared, and focus on the applicability of the truths express, we become better citizens, and defenders of liberty, and rights.

This early American foundation stone allowed the success of many entrepreneurs in the land, and enabled the United States to have the best and most successful system of real estate with wide reaching home ownership in fee simple, with all the rights of ownership, than any other nation on earth. People from all over the world have come to buy real estate and take up home ownership. It has made the United States of America a rich land, an example to the world of what can be when the people recognize their rights as coming from something greater than anything on earth, greater than any human government, and that the people can speak up and discuss these rights, and fight to preserve them if necessary.  Laws and regulations were enacted to protect home ownership in the United States of America, and to make owning a home a practical, safe opportunity for so many. 

It has been and still is, relatively easy to buy a home in the United States, with its open society, and so many new and used homes on the market, including affordable prices for typical working people. So many have discovered the happiness of home ownership. I am reminded that the “pursuit of happiness” in early America often meant the pursuit of property.

Think of how wonderful that is, to have a government there to protect your life from criminals, oppressive laws, liberty to live where you want, in the kind of home you want, and the happiness of taking pride in owning a piece of the land with a house on it. If this has not been the American way, I don’t know what was. Even with more and more encroaching laws and regulations in our lives today, we still cherish home ownership, and have the continuing opportunities to pursue our dream of buying a home.

Kenneth Fach, REALTOR, ePRO
Weichert, REALTORS-Anchor
1607 Village Square Boulevard, Suite B 103
Tallahassee, FL 32309
Cell 850-339-5753  Blog: http://KennethFach.wordpress.com

Each office is independently owned and operated.

Safe and Protected Photo Storage

Everyone,  not just families, desire to take photos for memories, and for sharing. It is necessary to store the photos is a safe place, and an online photo album serves that purpose. Hide Photos is a product that conveniently, and safely stores your photos. To keep your private photos safe, visit http://hidephotos.com/ to know more about the product. You can hide your photos using http://hidephotos.com/. Yes, hide those photos from unwanted intrusions. The best part is that your photos are stored in an encrypted format. Encryption equals safety, and privacy.

Kenneth Fach is at Your Service

Reading my many blogs will help you know more about Kenneth Fach, and what he is about and what he believes in.

One important fact about me is that I am a liberty loving American, who admires, and honors the work and vision of America’s founding fathers, and what they stood for: liberty.

I lived the first 9 years of my life in southern California, and two years after that in New Mexico, I lived most of my life in northwest Florida, primarily in Pensacola, and later in Tallahassee, Florida, where I currently reside with my wife and son.

I graduated from Milton High School, Florida, earned two B.A. degrees from the University of West Florida, taught high school, lived in Paraguay, South America for over three years (the only one from that university to ever have lived in that country), taugth school in Greenwich, Connecticut for a couple years, went to graduate school at Florida State University, taught school some more, worked as a technology customer service representative, and got into real estate.

I come from a family of real estate investors, and other entrepreneurs. I grew up viewing properties in New Mexico, where grandpa owned big pieces of land,  was a land developer, and had a highly successful photography business. While growing up in northwest Florida, I helped relatives clear land bought for investment, and had the opportunity to view many new developments and new homes.  It was fun, and I experienced what real estate investors do, however, it was not until many years later that I decided that teaching was not what I wanted to do, and instead, helping people locate properties and sell properties was what I should do. I became passionate about real estate, and made the move to study formally at a licensed real estate school.  

I began practicing  real estate, officially, as an agent, in the middle of 2004,  in Pensacola, Florida. Then, after Hurricane Ivan struck and devastated my hometown, I returned to Tallahassee, where I had been living prior to 2004, and continued my real estate profession. 

Although, I have been in a customer service and teaching role for most of my adult life, I have not had greater joy with serving the public then as a real estate agent. I have helped buyers and sellers with serious life issues. Buying and selling a home, or a lot, is a serious life issue. It has given me immense pleasure to have been an agent for wonderful human beings.

Kenneth Fach, REALTOR, ePRO
Weichert, REALTORS-Anchor
1607 Village Square Blvd, Suite B 103
Tallahassee, FL 32309
Cell 850-339-5753, Blog: http://KennethFach.wordpress.com

Each office is independently owned and operated.

Finding a Value Range in Your Real Estate

Things work well in the free market. Let the market alone, and the market machine will move forward just fine. In real estate, the buyer is key. The buyer determines value, while the seller determines price.

When putting together a Comparative Market Analysis, real estate agents look at homes that are as similar as possible, and as close geographically, to the home to be put on the market. The principle guiding the right approach to this task is the Principle of Substitution.

The Principle of Substitution says that the lowest priced real estate, most similar, and in the same neighborhood, will determine a reasonable value of the home that will be on the market. This should be the seller’s favorite principle of determing the price for seller’s home. It is the market in action. Buyers will not want to pay more for a property, if a similar property is on the market for less, or a similar property sold for less in the past month. Things work out good when the market is allowed to function.

Often, in sellers markets, where homes for sale are scarce, sellers get greedy, and ignore the principle of substitution. This even occurs in buyers markets, but the difference is that the greed element has less force when there is an abundance of homes on the market, and buyers can pick and choose more easily from the inventory.

The Value Behind Real Estate

In a successful real estate transaction, we must consider the  buyer. Without the buyer, there is no executed real estate sales contract. There is no home sold. There is no happy seller. The buyer in a real estate transaction is the gold. All the work in selling a home, advertising it, finding interested folks to view the features of the home, completing documentation, means nothing without a ready and willing buyer. The buyer determines the value of a piece of real estate, not the seller. The seller’s role is to put a price on the property for sale.

On the selling side, it is easy to forget the role of the buyer. The seller is busy in the selling role, and all that is involved: paperwork, mortgage issues, looking for next home, cleaning and staging the home for visitors, and so much more. The seller has much going on. The seller forgets that the buyer is in a pivotal position. The seller needs to look at the buyer’s situation, work out a harmonious transaction, and work as a team with the buyer. It is not a seller dominated transaction. A real estate transaction include a team: buyer, seller, agent, mortgage lender, title company, home inspectors, perhaps an attorney, handyman, and whoever else needs to be involved. All have their role, and the lines of communication have to be opened. A standard of operation have to be met. Again, the crucial role is that of the buyer.

I think of the crucial role of Gold and Silver in historical times, and up to 1971, when the United States was taken off the Gold Standard, that kept the nation’s economics relatively stable for much of United States history. For over 100 years, gold was the backbone of United States currency. It controled government spending, it kept the economy in check. After we got off the standard of Gold, we suffered the worst inflation in American history, and since, there have booms and busts, which are not typical under gold-backed dollars, unless government policy creates spending beyond the gold reserve.

Real estate has its standard, it support, its gold. It is the buyer. With a buyer and seller, and the real estate market, we have gold in the making.

There is Gold in Tallahassee

There I has been a lot of talk about standards: a standard in customer service, a standard in accounting, a standard for our goals, a standard to follow in one’s career, a bible standard, a standard way of doing something, and yes, the gold standard.

For over 100 years the Unites States operated on a gold standard. Money could be redeemed in gold. Gold controlled government spending. Gold kept the nation economically under control and allowed for America’s early prosperity. For thousands od years gold was a standard currency in the world, but other metals were used as currency as well, chiefly, silver. Silver was also used as currency in the United States.

Then came the shocking switch to fiat money. That is paper money not backed by gold or silver. Then came the resulting debt, high inflation, government over spending at will (just print more paper) and greater taxation to pay for big government.

I long for the days in which we can return to a sound standard, such as the gold standard or bimetalism, in which two metals (gold and silver) form the money standard.

There are people in Tallahassee, Florida who are finding gold in the earth and holding on to it. The day of the dollars is coming closer unless we get back to soun4, solid money.