Planning Summer Vacations: As we head into late spring and then into summer, a lot of people are planning vacations. There are a lot of options and choices when taking a trip and planning it can sometimes cause people to give up. After several requests I added a Vacation Links section to my website. You can get links to many popular U.S. destinations and even book a plane ticket or a cruise. You can access it from the Community Links page, the Services & Businesses page, the Site Map, or via the footer links at the bottom of almost every page of this website. You can also access it directly at www.VacationLinksUSA.com.

Forbes Ranks Top 25 Tourist Attractions: Forbes Traveler recently ranked the top 25 most visited tourist attractions in the United States based on the number of visitors annually. I was pleased to see that most of these destinations can be found in the Vacation Links section of my website so I included most of the “hot spots”.

Utah Is In The Top 25! I was also pleased to see that out of all of the tourist sites in the nation, Utah had a site in the top 25. Temple Square in Salt Lake City was number 15. The report indicated that it is not just a site for religious purposes with Christmas lights being a major draw to a large demographic of people from every state in the U.S. as well as 83 different countries. I was surprised that none of the national parks in Utah made the list but I suppose that they are an undiscovered secret.

Listed in order (based on the number of annual visitors), the top 25 most visited tourist sites in the United States of America are:

1. Times Square, New York City, New York
2. Las Vegas Strip, Nevada
3. National Mall and Memorial Parks, Washington D.C.
4. Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, Massachusetts
5. Disneyworld’s Magic Kingdom, Orlando, Florida
6. Disneyland, Anaheim, California
7. Fisherman’s Wharf/Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, California
8. Niagra Falls, New York
9. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee/North Carolina
10. Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois
11. Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Arizona/Nevada
12. Universal Studios Orlando, Orlando Florida
13. SeaWorld Florida, Orlando Florida
14. San Antonio River Walk, San Antonio Texas
15. Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah
16. Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Pennsylvania/New Jersey
17. Universal Studios Hollywood, California
18. Metropolitan Museum, New York City, New York
19. Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
20. Grand Canyon, Arizona
21. Busch Gardens Africa, Tampa Bay, Florida
22. Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts
23. SeaWorld San Diego, San Diego California
24. American Museum of Natural History, New York City, New York
25. Atlantic City Boardwalk, New Jersey

Conclusion: I have been to twelve of the tourist destinations mentioned on this list but there are some I have not visited. In fact most of the ones that I have not visited are attractions I have never even heard of. It is making me realize I need to find out more about them since they must be so popular for a reason. I hope you are able to find time and money to take a vacation (despite gas prices) and visit the beauty and fun that can be found in our country. The Vacation Links section of my website is a great resource to help you plan your trip.

Costco recently partnered with Bert Sperling of BestPlaces.net to put together a list of the best places in the United States to live, work and play that are near Costco Wholesale Warehouse locations. They evaluated a large number of factors including housing, economy, crime, recreation, arts, culture, climate and health. They were looking to balance affordability and quality of life.

The news is good, Utah County (the Provo/Orem area) rated NUMBER ONE in the nation!

I don’t find it to be a surprise at all that we ranked number one in this study, our community has a lot to offer. Utah County is a desirable place to live and that is reflected in our housing market, economy etc. While we have our share of ups and downs, we are still doing better than most of the country.

I am a HUGE fan of Costco and Utah County is a community that boasts TWO Costco warehouse locations! For more information about the resources that helped make Utah County the number one most liveable area go to the Community Links and Services/Businesses sections of my website.

This is another blog post in my series based on the NAR 2007 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. This report is the most current and up to date information available. The topic today is relating to the difficult tasks associated with For Sale By Owner (FSBO).

Obviously as a real estate agent, I believe that it is best for someone who needs to sell a home to list with a REALTOR®. I am of the opinion that selling a home For Sale By Owner (FSBO) is a HUGE mistake!

Home sellers who chose to sell their home For Sale By Owner (FSBO) were asked to list the most difficult tasks associated with selling. The list was not surprising to me.

In order of importance/difficulty, FSBO sellers listed the following as the most difficult tasks:

1. Understanding and performing paperwork
2. Preparing and fixing up the home for sale
3. Getting the price right
4. Selling within the length of time planned
5. Attracting potential buyers
6. Having enough time to devote to all aspects of the sale
7. Helping buyer obtain financing

There is so much more to selling a home than some sellers seem to realize. It isn’t just about finding a buyer, there are legal contracts and required disclosures. There are also negotiations on price, terms and repairs. Getting a home from being listed to closing is a very long and complicated process. Don’t take any chances with FSBO. When you are ready to sell your home, call or email me.

For more information go to the Information for Sellers section of my website and the Tips for Sellers catergory of this blog.

I wrote about the new Indiana Jones Movie in March. I am very excited about this movie and I know that I am not alone. Many believe that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is going to be one of the hottest movies of the summer!

Tickets: In my March blog post about this movie I hinted that I was going to try to get my hands on some tickets for opening weekend but I made no promises. I am pleased to announce that I did secure several sets of tickets and that you have an opportunity to win a pair.

The tickets are for an opening day showing at the American Fork Cinemark Theater  for the 7:30 p.m. showing on Friday May 23, 2008.

If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, then you need to watch the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Even if you are not interested in this newest Indy movie, you can always get movie showtimes and even buy tickets online via the Community Links section of my website.

Enter to Win*: The first person to email me at IndyTickets@hRodas.com  the FULL name of this movie in the subject line and include name, address and phone number in the body of the email, will automatically win at least four tickets to the showing mentioned above. I have SEVERAL tickets and so others who send an email to IndyTickets@hRodas.com with the FULL name of this movie in the subject line and name, address and phone number in the body of the email will be entered into a drawing to win two tickets. There will be at least 5 pairs of tickets (10 tickets) given away so there are several chances. See Restrictions Below.

*Restrictions: This offer is limited to Utah residents who currently live in either Salt Lake County or Utah County. In addition, the following are NOT eligible to enter or win: Real Estate agents, their family members, any staff member employed by a real estate agent or real estate brokerage or their family members. Loan officers, lenders, loan processors, or employee of a lending institution or any of their family members. Any employee of a title company or their family members. Any appraiser or employee of an appraisal company and their family members. Any Home Inspector or family member of a home inspector. Any employee of any association/board of REALTORS® and any of their family members. No purchase or real estate transaction is required to participate.

A lot of REALTORS® in our area are using a showing service to schedule showing appointments. The basic concept is that a buyer’s agent can call this service to schedule appointments rather than the listing agent. The idea is that the listing agent doesn’t have to take the time to answer his/her phone and the operators at the showing service can schedule appointments. Obviously there is a fee that the agents must pay to use this.

The idea made sense to me from a business perspective. It would save sellers agents time, and in theory make it easier for buyer’s agents to schedule showings.

Well I have to say that as I have called this service to schedule appointments that I really don’t like it. If I have questions about the house, these operators cannot answer them. They are not even in Utah. I called to schedule an appointment recently and found the whole experience very frustrating. They scheduled the showing for the window of time that I had asked for, but then called me back to cancel. They told me that they could not contact the seller for permission to show the home. They eventually called me back a few hours later to tell me we could still show the home. So I rescheduled with my client. When we got to the home it was vacant with a key box. There was no reason to make me jump through such hoops for a vacant home. If I had been able to contact the listing agent directly, this could have been avoided.

I went to the website of the showing service to read their take on what they offer to agents. They list benefits for listing agents that include that they don’t have to talk to the seller to change showing instructions, that they don’t have to talk to the buyer’s agents etc.

I have to say that I do not believe that making it so that listing agents don’t have to talk to their clients is a good thing. I don’t think making it harder for a buyer’s agent to talk to the seller’s agent helps either party.

There has to be a way to offer this useful service and not lose good communication, rapport and the personal touch that some of us still like to include in our businesses. While the concept of saving time is a good one, the implementation does not always work well in my opinion. Making what used to be personal contact into nothing but sterile uninformed conversation isn’t going to always work. While it surely helps some listing agents, it doesn’t always help those who are working with buyers.

My personal view on my business is to offer the personal touch not only to my clients but to other agents as much as possible. This still has to be balanced with effective management of time. Answering the phone myself (whenever possible) when other agents call, helps me to sell them on the home and answer questions they may have. I am not saying that this showing service has no place. I can see the value of having it when I am out of town, or if I have a lot of listings. I just think there has to be a way to offer convenience and efficiency without sacrificing service. I am not sure how to find some middle ground with this service.

What do you think?