Inspired Real Estate For Today

I just finished watching the New Season opening for American Idol with my kids.  (We taped it)  Minniapolis was the setting for future idol hopefuls to preen their skills before the judges.  As a converted Idol fan, courtesy of my teenagers, we were all in stitches with some of the contestants desperate antics and obvious delusion about their skill set and blatant lack of talent.

A comment that was reiterated frequently  by the judges was, "you don't sound like yourself" .  There were also an amazing number of hopeful contestants in Minneapolis who seemed to loose their voices; one going so far as to appear to be listening to music from an imaginary earpiece while mouthing the words with barely any recognizable vocalization.

Another frequent mistep was contestants who forgot their lines. Some merely mumbled, others made up new words and some just walked off the stage.  All in all, the pretenders took center stage in this carnival of absurdity.  One appearing wrapped in a bizzare combination of  plastic;  a sorry copy cat version of presumably Uncle Sam in the American flag with a Rocky Balboa twist....the over-sized red boxing gloves. 

It occured to me that sometimes the stage mirrors the truth we obscure in life.  In my limited experience with Blogging, I can identify with some of the mistakes of the non-winners.  So many hopefuls, eager for recognition forgot who they were; some of them even forgot who they were trying to be.  Although everyone professed to want to be the next Amerian Idol, an original, the saddest auditions were those where you felt you were watching a "dreadful " (A Simon Cowell favorite) rendition of a hopeless impersonator. 

It's sadly easy to do this in writing as well, especially within the context of creating content for a Blog.  It's tempting to think that you can try to imitate someone's style , language or even topic.  The problem is that because it's not really something that comes from one's core or passion, it transalates with a thin, faltering lack of conviction and lacks the ability to connect.  It's hard to dig deeper and sometimes scary to be transparent, but that's the essence of successful communication or auditions.  It seems to me that every Blog entry is like an audition.  It's not about being perfect, it's about being real.

BLOG UPDATE:  This blog was originally posted on 1/18/2007.  When it was originally written, it got a few comments.  I was surprised this evening to see that it has been resurrected, and not entirely sure of the mechanism or the how. But I am also thankful that this is another opportunity to address a very real & relevant issue to all of us in the Blogging Community.  Lola Audu, 2/25/2007

©2007 Audu Real Estate All right reserved

As a very new Blogger,  I was not anticipating this type of problem.  But as more of my posts became indexed on search engines, I began to notice links to sites that I did not recognize. Initially these links re-directed the search to my original post but more recently, I have noticed a more deceptive, malicious form of redirection.  Taking my title and even the initial first few phrases of my Blog Post, these thieves would then create a link which would re-direct my Blog Post to their own website or whatever they were trying to sell.  In my case...flip-this-house-.com and  oogleclick.com are using my on-line resume and teaching course schedule to re-direct searches to their websites.

I find this very disturbing.  There is no means of contacting a live person by telephone and the e-mail path is so convoluted  that I wonder if anyone would ever respond to my "cease & desist" order.  Fortunately, I am a member of Active Rain.  It occurred to me that this may have happened to someone else, so I did a search and literally put in the words: "hijacked blog".  To my utter amazement , an excellent post by the Harper Team popped up entitled "Help, Stop Your Posts From Being Hijacked". 

As a result of reading the Harper Team post, I now understand that there are at least 2 types of re-directs that can happen to a blog post on-line.  Both are SPAM by nature; one is a form of a back handed compliment and the other is outright THEFT of your idea, name, article, copyright, and legitimate search engine postion.  The former may or may not be worth the time to pursue, as the re-direct is still coming back to you as the original author. But when someone actually steals your content and puports it to be their own, it must be reported. 

To View an Example of  On-Line Out-right Theft vs a Simple Redirect on a Spam Blog, you can Click on this link to a Google Search for Blogs with my name Lola Audu.  The 4th entry with the Sticky About Lola is actually a Stolen Blog Post by flip-this-house-.com and also the 5th entry by oogle.com.  According to Oogle, my on-line resume will help you to figure out "What your real Value is" ....perhaps they can take a bit of their own advice by starting with the word  REAL and removing FALSE links.   It is important to check from time to time to see if this is being done with material you are posting.  It has been said that "evil thrives when good men do nothing".

Google does take this seriously. The Harper Team post has a link to the Google Spam Report to report offenders.  This type of activity pollutes the integrity of search engine results for everyone.

According to Google: " We work hard to return the most relevant results for every search we conduct. To that end, we encourage site managers to make their content straightforward and easily understood by users and search engines alike. Unfortunately, not all websites have users' best interests at heart. Trying to deceive (spam) our web crawler by means of hidden text, deceptive cloaking or doorway pages compromises the quality of our results and degrades the search experience for everyone." 

When you experience this scenario, take heart...it probably means you're good enough to warrant some attention.  After, you've calmed down, take the appropriate measures to correct the situation. This is an area in which we must all take personal responsibility. If you can find a number or e-mail, inform the Spammer that they need to cease and desisit from the inappriate use of you name and material.  Next, contact Google or your search engine administrator to report the problem.

I was heartened to see that Laurie Manny's Post in which she draws attention to a hijacked blog and that was originally mentioned in the Harper Team Blog has been deactivated. This works!

Here are links to some Excellent Posts on Active Rain that can assist you in dealing with these issues:

• Help, Stop Your Posts From Being Hijacked...by the Harper Team
• Excellent article by David Kyle, The Skinny on Blogging in Relation to SEO which gives BACKGROUND about why some of this type of activity is occuring.
• Stopping Spam...by Jacqulyn Richey
• Grand Theft Blog...by Maureen McCabe.  Also, the post following is highlighted in one of her comments.
• Help, I've Been Hijacked...interesting blog post by Kevin Boer of 3 Oceans Real Estate...he describes a situation in which during a transfer of domain names, someone was able to hijack his blog address.
• Top Ranking in Google GUARANTEED, Jay & Francy Thompson shed light on Scammers who use deceptive and sometimes costly techniques to do a lot of damage.
• This is an UPDATE to my original list of resources:  John Occhi's blog about creating a GOOGLE ALERT is another great tool to be aware of when keeping track of what is happening to your information on-line.  Thanks for the comment notification John.

These excellent resources are worth more than their weight in gold....Education like this is hard to find.  Thank you Active Rain Community.  Membership here has truly Rained In many Benefits!

Today, I witnessed a revealing interview on CNN with Richard Barton & Lloyd Frink, the brains behind the successful Expedia.com Travel site and more recently Zillow.com.   Barton referred to Zillows entry into the real estate market with it's on-line home evalutations, Zestimates and Make me a Move Price as "turning on the lights in a dark room".  "We're here to give home owners more control, more information and better education".

When questioned by the host of CNN Newsroom about the error rate for Zestimates, Barton passed the baton to Frink who indicated that the Zestimate is a starting point. He explained that if there were no updated home facts available or if the tax assessment did not reflect recent updates, the Zestimate could be "off".  In a related article entitle What's Your Home Really Worth?  Fortune Magazine senior editor Jeffery M. O'Brien, indicates that an on-going urgent priority for Zillow.com is improving the site's accuracy.

"Overall, Zillow has Zestimated the value of 57 percent of U.S. housing stock, but only 65 percent of that could be considered "accurate" - by its definition, within 10 percent of the actual selling price. And even that accuracy isn't equally distributed. For example, 85 percent of homes in Los Angeles have Zestimates, and two-thirds have been accurate. But only 53 percent of homes in metropolitan New York have Zestimates, and only half of those are accurate. In Louisiana, where one in 50 homes is listed on Zillow, the site is just about worthless".

Barton and Frink both vigorously denied trying to eliminate the services of the "middle man" aka Realtors in the real estate transaction in a similar fashion to the end result of the Expedia.com model which decimated the travel agent industry.  They  indicated that  they are working diigently to perfect their current model.  The pair agreed that people need professional assistance in selling their home; "we are just trying to create a new kind of marketplace".

O'Brien's article suggests that Zillow.com is really after another huge asset, the real estate advertising dollar.

"It's clearly in the company's short-term interest to maintain the current power structure. Brokers, agents and developers spend upwards of $8 billion in advertising a year. By 2010 a greater percentage of that money will go to the Internet than to newspapers, according to the media consultancy Borrell Associates. So Frink spends his time convincing the professionals that their ads on Zillow will attract new clients"

And what kind of marketplace might Zillow be intent on creating?  Right now in Zillow World, anyone can access information about a home listing AND anyone can change or manipulate it.  There is no consistent or coherent way to check to see if the information being used to update a home listing is accurate or if the individual doing the updating is in actual fact the seller.  Zillow.com claims its goal is to enhance transparancy in the real estate transaction.  Blurring the lines between truth and contrivance by allowing anyone to do anything without appropriate verification is similar to the age old parable of the fox guarding the hen house and promising not to have any chickens for dinner....ever! In my opinion the lights haven't been turned on...we've just fast tracked the descent into a bottomless black hole.

As the segment prepared to wind up, the camera focused on a listing on Zillow which was listed in the Local MLS for 3+Million dollars but had a Zestimate of just over 1.5 Million.  The home was located in Seattle, headquarters of Zillow.com.  The inevitable question about accurate pricing loomed large as the camera panned over to the two men in the Hot Seat.  How do you LOSE 2 MILLION DOLLARS ON-LINE IN HOME EQUITY?  Lloyd admitted that Zillow.com has an error rate of 7.2%, but this should be qualified.  As the Fortune article points out, the error rate of 7.2% must be framed within the context  of discrepancies in value projections of within 10% of the true home value for so called "on target Zestimates". So now we are really talking about a compounding of potential error. 

 Mark Lesswing, a senior vice president at NAR is quoted in the Fortune Magazine article. "Many realtors don't fear Zillow anymore. They use it as a way to show how their services are more valuable than something you can get for free on the Web."

As the show concluded the the host summarized the intervew  to the television audience with the following salient counsel "Don't cry if you don't find your home is worth what you think it is" .  I echo the sentiment...don't cry indeed my friend; for no one will see your tears within this present darkness. Now, it is possible with  just a Click to wipe out 2 Million Dollars of Equity in this brave new world on on-line fortune telling.

*Interested in Zillow estimates for the rich & famous, for whom presumably a few Million dollars Loss of Equity may not require any tear shedding, click and hold your breath here....

*For related discussion and comments on Active Rain Network about trends in 75 metropolitan areas in the 4th Quarter of 2006view this post entitled  Zillow Releases Raw Data behind 4th QTR Housing Reports.

© Audu Real Estate 2007 All rights reserved

This past week, I was talking to a real estate broker about the Open House he had scheduled.  After comparing notes about local market conditions, our discussion  focused on an article that had been recently published in the Grand Rapids Press about sellers in Grand Rapids, Michigan renting their homes because they were having difficulty selling them.  He said, " Lola, this crisis is everywhere.  I am doing an Open House today in a home that is in foreclosure and there are a total of 3 in MY neighborhood."

I understood.  Not so long ago, forclosures were confined to areas where there was less economic growth.  The suburbs seemed insulated from this scourge.  Not long ago, brokers debated whether it was appropriate to disclose if there was a financial crisis as that might prejudice the sale against the seller...even if the home was in the 6 month redemption period during which a seller might reclaim some equity if a sale could be generated.  Those days now seem to be a long, long, time ago.  Now, agents of our local board routinely see notifications in red lettering alterting them to the fact that a particular listing is in foreclosure or will require a short sale to close.

In a recent article by Newsweek magazine, entitled "Poor Among Plenty," authors Peg Tyre & Mathew Philips discuss an increasingly disturbing trend; 

 "Once prized as a leafy haven from the social ills of urban life, the suburbs are now grappling with a new outbreak of an old problem: poverty. Currently, 38 million Americans live below the poverty line, which the federal government defines as an annual income of $20,000 or less for a family of four. But for the first time in history, more of America's poor are living in the suburbs than the cities-1.2 million more, according to a 2005 survey."

The concerns of the middle class caught in this vice grip are aggravated by a number of factors, not the least being that the "new poor' don't fit the stereoptype of what we have come to expect of the impoverished.  They live in nice neighborhoods, have cars and appear to be living normal suburban lives. The suburbs are not places where you find soup kitchens or pawn shops.  The new poor are often living right alongside their affluent neighbors.

Increasingly, folks with good manufacturing jobs in West Michigan are finding that it no longer takes 2 jobs to make it, you might be required to have three or four to keep your head above water.  It is no longer uncommon to meet with someone and have them share that they are in deep financial crisis.  One of my clients recently asked me a rhetorical question, she said " Lola, how can 2 people working 2 jobs not be able to keep their house?"  It's a question that doesn't have any simple answers. 

Read Part 2 of The Tipping Point...Coping with Crisis....

© Audu Real Estate 2007  All rights reserved

To read part 1 of The Tipping Point...When Poverty Moves to the Burbs...

In 2002, Malcolm Gladwell published a bestselling book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Gladwell's book popularized this term into a oft repeated cliche. 

However, the original term was coined in the 1960's by a sociologist Morton Grodzins who was studying integration trends  and white flight in suburban neighborhoods.  Grodzin defined the"tipping point" as the dramatic point at which something unique becomes common.

Today, another type of tipping point is upsetting the balance in many suburban communities.  Poverty has come knocking and for the first time in history, there is more poverty in the suburbs than in the cities.  A related Newsweek article indicates "currently, 38 million Americans live below the poverty line, which the federal government defines as an annual income of $20,000 or less for a family of four. But for the first time in history, more of America's poor are living in the suburbs than the cities-1.2 million more, according to a 2005 survey."

The situation in the Midwest is exacerbated by the economic crisis spawned from massive job losses in the manufacturing sector and automobile industy.  The effect has been widespread.  It's never possible to prevent all possible adverse situations, but there are some things we can do to minimize or avoid substantial loss.  These practical suggestions can be implemented at any time.

1.  Live within your means.  This is difficult but necessary.  If you don't have the cash to buy it, maybe it doesn't need to be bought.  Carrying cash in your wallet rather than plastic is a good way to get a handle on what you are actually spending.  You also won't have the additional drag of paying for your meal for the next 6 months!

2. If you're in a adjustable mortgage loan which is set to adjust soon, re-finance NOW.  Get into a loan program which will have a set payment amount.  Worrying about whether your payment will be increasing or decreasing is more excitement than is necessary in stressful times. 

3. Begin  a Savings Account or increase your contribution to the one you have.  America's Saving Rate has dropped to below Zero.  Coupled with money being taken out through home equity loans, there is very little cushion for the unexpected.  You may wonder how to save.  There are a number of creative ways to save money, sometimes by doing things differently. This wiki article on Saving Money is an excellent place to start.

4.  Talk!  Yes, talk to your family and significant others.  A common reaction to pain is to shy away from what we perceive to be the source.  Your family and those whom you love are also caught in the same trap.  Choose to involve them as on-going part of the solution.  Talking about what is going on, even with children in an appropriate way gives an opportunity for everyone to be involved in creating solutions.  When everyone is on the same page, it''s easier to go in the same direction and reach a mutually beneficial destination.

5.  Set Goals.  This may seem counter-intuitive, but it is even more vitally necessary in the midst of a crisis.  If you set goals and never looked at them, this is the time to look at them and perhaps revise them.  Developing a Budget plan is very important. Getting out of a mess is easier if you have a plan.  It doesn't have to be a complicated plan.  It can begin with simple steps to save an amount to be put aside for savings or to pay off a balance on a credit card.  Goal setting should also include regular reviews to check your progress.  Goal setting helps you to step out of the blame cycle and start taking deliberate steps to resolve the crisis.

These little suggestions are small, but significant ways that each of us can tip things in our favor as opposed to being tipped over.

© Audu Real Estate 2007  All rights reserved

Yes, I've been wanting to do this for awhile.  Don't act so surprised to discover my voice, you 're talking all the time, now it's time for you to listen to what I have to say.  I'm aware that you have decided to leave me and move on.  Hey, I'm taking it a little hard right now, but that's OK.  There's a time for everything. 

Although change is never easy, I hold no hard feelings Heaven knows we have shared many special  moments and memories.  I've been there when you were up and I've hung in there with you when you've been down. We've celebrated  victories and shared some tough stuff in defeat.  I've been around the block a few times; this isn't my first time on the market, but that fact doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye. 

Now, let's get down to business.  Like I said, I know you've decided to move and having done this before, I thought you might benefit from some tips.  First, please  don't make this any harder than it has to be.  After all, I'm the one who will have strange people trampling through me, critiquing my figure,... I mean structure and personality.  These strangers don't know I hear them when they make disparaging comments or pry into areas which are well, should I say kinda private.  I'm going to be the one jabbed and poked by inspectors and who knows who else.  Sooooo....let's be smart about how we go about this.

Please do me a favor and do your homework.  There's no reason to be uninformed about how much I'm worth.  Yes, I know I'm priceless...but honey it's almost over and we must both move on.  There are many FREE services from real estate professionals which you can take advantage of, but remember you get what you pay for.  Don't bore me with interminable interviews, decide on your top selections, get your recommendations and then do the job right with someone who knows what they're doing and can provide evidence to support their results.

Next, clean me up!  You & I hang out all the time, and we're comfortable together.  But, this is company and I like to look good.  I'm still pretty vain, that hasn't changed much since you first saw me and fell in love at first sight.  I'd prefer YOU be critical with me than have strangers pick me apart.  Please get up close and very personal.  Where am I showing signs of wear and tear?  I'm a great lady, but a nip, tuck, or pick me up coat of paint will do wonders for my ah...personality.  Don't forget to clear all the clutter  and junk which has stuffed up my airspace big time over our years together.  Give me room to breathe, after all even houses have their moments if you know what I mean.

Fix the stuff we both know needs attending to.  And for goodness sakes, be honest about my history.  Don't make me an unwilling partner to any lying shenanigans!  Don't forget to spruce me up outside as well.  After all, I can only make one great first impression.  Yes, this is important to me...need I say it again...the vanity thing, surely you understand.

I'd also appreciate if you'd take some time to talk with me before you leave.  I love hearing about the good times that were shared within my walls.  I may not understand why you feel it necessary to leave, but I accept your decision.  They say houses don't talk, but we hold many things entombed within our walls. Remembering our times together helps me prepare to meet the new homeowners.  I want them to feel my welcome when they enter the door.  I want to fill their lives with love and laughter in the way I did yours.  You can help make this transition easier by taking down mementos of our special times together for you know that I will always be in your heart.  However, my new owners will need to create their own special moments within my space, so give them a clean slate to work with.

Lastly, know that I will always love you.  I hold your presence warm, tight and safe within my inner sanctum.  Even as I open my arms to once again welcome others who I hope will treat me well, your echos will still meander through the memories of my mind.  I'll find ways to share them; sometimes in unexpected fashion, but be assured most of your secrets will ALWAYS remain safe with me.

With  regards,

Your Home

© Audu Real Estate 2007

You do not take a person who, for years has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line in a race and then say 'you're free to compete with all the others' and still believe that you have been completely fair". 

President Lyndon Johnson 1965.

This past November, citizens of the State of Michigan voted to adopt Proposal 2.  The exact wording on the ballot was "A proposal to ammend the state's constitution to ban  affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity, or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes". 

The passage of this proposal created a precedent which effectively upended decades of progress which our nation has sought to redress in the in the sordid legacy of Jim Crow laws, the Dred Scott Case, and the rights of women to vote.

The wording and undergirding support for this ballot proposal was similar to the wording of ballots in Washington State and California in 1998 and 1996 which crippled and severely devastated programs to assist minorities and women.  For Michigan, a state that had been suffering largely a 1 state recession while most of the country enjoyed an economic boom, this was another jolt to the sensibilities of progressive minded people.  The wording was carefully designed to distort the true intent and nature of the proposal.  In fact in some of the districts in the Grand Rapids metropolitan area which had high Hispanic and minority populations there were paradoxically  high voter margins for the proposal. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in a detailed Focus paper indicted the proposal as "unjust for Michigan".

Well, this is not the first time we've had CRAZY laws take effect in Michigan....

While some of these laws have been over-turned they were actually law in the state at one time. There was a time when...

•  In Detroit, Michigan, it was illegal to sleep in a bathtub
• In Rochester, Michigan, anyone bathing in public must have his or her bathing suit inspected by a police officer
• It is legal for a robber to file a lawsuit against you if they get hurt in your house. 
• Any person over the age of 12 may have a license for a handgun as long as they have not committed a felony.
• In Detroit, it is illegal to loiter in the city morgue
• A Michigan law stated that a wife's hair belonged to her husband and she wasn't allowed to cut her hair without his permission

For a complete list of Crazy Laws from different states visit crazytopics.blogspot.com

In retrospect, most of the laws listed above were ultimately deemed to be inappropriate and lacking in moral authority.  As the true intent and nature of Proposal 2 becomes clearly evident, the good citizens of the State of Michigan will once again be called upon to make a choice about our future.  Do we want to move boldly forward and embrace changes and challenges which will require courage and inclusion or will we retreat by refusing to promote equality, justice and opportunity for segments of our society which have been historically marginalized. 

During the month of February, our nation commemorates the contributions of African Americans during Black History Month.  The Reverend Martin Luther King's quote once again resonates to the people of Michigan and indeed all truth loving Americans.

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.

• Address given by Dr. Martin Luther King in Birmingham, Alabama 

image courtesy of Wikimedia.com  Photo is in the public domain as copyright has expired

© Audu Real Estate 2007

Yesterday, there was some disturbing news on the ABC News evening broadcast.  Charlie Gibson reported that the Army Corps of Engineers had identified 146 levees nationwide that it said posed an unacceptable risk of failing in a major flood.  The deficiencies were mostly due to poor maintenance and were going to force a number of communities from Connecticut to California to invest millions of dollars in repairs.  A Sacramento, CA man was interviewed who indicated that he had been informed that his flood insurance rate was going to quadruple.

In a related article by USA Today, the Corps and FEMA were quoted as saying "We've been lax as a nation in our operation and maintenance of these levees, and it's time to tighten up". said Larry Larson, director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, an organization for officials who run flood-control systems.  "You're talking about risking a lot of lives if one of these fails".

My interest peaked.  I wondered where these levees were located and if any were in my state.  Apparently, initial release of this information was somewhat muted and only indicated the total number in each state.  Small comfort if your state was on the list, but you had no idea where this potential tragedy could occur next.  USA Today had to file a request for the list under the Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the actual targeted levees.

In 2001, I traveled to New Orleans, sponsored by my local Board as a Director.  We spent almost a week in this curiously, engaging city.  The National Association of Realtors (NAR) conference was largely held at the Convention Center and we walked and toured the downtown area and surrounding communities extensively.  So, the sights that unfolded after Hurricane Katrina and the accompanying specter of the breaking of the levees was heartbreaking to see.  I had been in those areas, had eaten at local restaurants.  New Orleans was one of the most hospitable large cities I have ever visited.  The sight of "MOM's, a popular local eatery which served traditional Cajun dishes, surrounded by water with employees living in trailers was bizarre and extreme.

*Picture of Ms. Meridith huddled outside the New Orelans Convention Center in the wake of Katrina & subsequent flooding.

Why is this important to Local Homeowners?

According to the USA Today article, local officials are concerned that some cities may not be able to afford the recommended upgrades.  Here in Michigan, we are dealing with a huge Budget shortfall this year.  Secondly, if the repairs are NOT made within the 1 year grace period, millions of homeowners may suddenly find that their property has been reclassified to be in a flood plain and be required to carry expensive flood insurance.  Lastly, as Katrina demonstrated this can be a very dangerous situation.  Lots of water is wonderful when it is contained appropriately but unchecked, even small waves of water can wreck havoc not unlike the damage and upheaval from any major assault or terrorist attack.

 To check which communities in approximately 30 states are affected, you may check for a status update on this list.

According to the ABC broadcast, Hartford, Connecticut was able to raise a bond issue to cover the initial 5 million in repairs, but they expect to have to spend quite a bit more to get the job done correctly.  Is your community informed and ready?

So, what did I find out about my State of Michigan.  Well, thankfully none of the levees were located in the West Michigan area.  However, Michigan had 4 levees in need of urgent attention in our largest, most populous city of Detroit, Michigan.  The specter of  that type of potential devastation in a state which is struggling to recover from recession like symptoms is not pretty.

*I did find some discrepancies in the number of levees in need of repair.  This on-line article on Boston.com indicates the number to be 122.  It also highlights the kinds of problems which are in need of repair.

*Picture of Ms. Meridith at the New Orleans Convention Center is courtesy of Voice of America and is a part of the public domain.

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© Audu Real Estate 2007