Iowa City Real Estate Blog: June 2010

This cute ranch home is situated in the heart of Coralville within walking distance of schools, shopping, Morrison Park, the Aquatic Center and Coralville Library. It's also on the busline with an easy commute to the UI Hospitals and UIOWA.

You missed out on this one, but there are other homes in Coralville just waiting for their new owner... If you would like a complete list of homes for sale in Coralville just send me an email letting me know what you're looking for and I'll send you a complete list of homes meeting your criteria.

Or click here if you'd like to search for homes right now...

If you're interested in having me help you sell your home for the best price in the shortest time please call me anytime at 319-400-0268 or click here to send me your contact details.

If you thought last weekend was a great weekend for movies then you're in for a real treat this week! The most anticipated new release of the year is coming out today and according to those who are "in the know" it lives up to the hype and some! Toy Story 3 is what I'm talking about of course. In 3D no less... Really cute story line too. If you're like me you're probably wondering where they could go with Woody and Buzz. Well, let me just tell you the makers had the genius idea of telling the story of what happens to toys when their owners grow out of them... Expecting to land in the attic the toys get shipped off to Sunnycare Daycare and it's there the fun begins. Of course they've introduced some new characters into the mix to keep it interesting. Of course Woody doesn't stay put and goes on walkabout. Looks like they've figured out all the right buttons to press, doesn't it? I'm sure they have and I'm sure they'll be rewarded at the box office!


You can check the schedule at the Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre in Coralville and the Sycamore Mall Cinema in Iowa City...


Jonah Hex is the other new movie out today. Josh Brolin plays the disfigured gunslinger/bounty hunter on his biggest adventure yet. The reviews are somewhat lacking. (And I'm being polite). Maybe the villain of the piece, played by John Malkovich can save the day... I wouldn't hold your breath though. There are too many good movies out at the moment to imagine this one making any headway. (What do I know though, it's not my kind of movie in the first place - not a big fan of blood and gore movies).


That's the big screen covered. On the little screen things are starting to get interesting with the World Cup. France seems to be losing ground and on it's way out of the tournament. Spain, one of the favorites got off to a rocky start losing their first match. And I got up at 6.30 am this morning to watch Germany have one player get sent off the field + miss a penalty to lose to Serbia. To add insult to injury this is the first time they've lost in a group game in the World Cup since 1986! All I can say is that I could have done without the excitement that early in the morning and I hope our other two teams do better. England needs to kick it up a notch, as does the USA. By the end of the day we will know whether they've managed to do that... By next week we will have sorted out the riff raff and should be seeing some quality soccer football.


Here's the schedule. Time shown is South African time - 7 hours ahead of us. (With an icon to change the time zone too). and football... If you're wondering what all the fuss is about. Tune in. A major tournament like this feeds on itself and as excitement breeds more excitement the games get better and better. Don't take my word for it. Watch it and figure it out for yourself!

The World Cup is into it's 3rd day. Germany is playing thrashing Australia as I write this. If you caught my post on Friday you will know that we have been counting the days in our house for months for this mega sports event to arrive. It's finally here.

We all know that well used phrase a picture paints a thousand words, I'm thinking this just about sums up what the Weltmeisterschaft means to my son...

What a weekend... The A-Team and Karate Kid are the new movies out today. Nice little trip down memory lane for me. My sons grew up in the 80's. They were huge fans of The A-Team TV show and watched the Karate Kid video so many times I think they could recite the script! Now we have remakes of both... I'm sure there will be A LOT of young men in their late twenties rushing to the cinema this weekend as they remember the "good ol' times" growing up. Do I need to do a synopsis for either of these movies? I don't think so.... If you don't know what they're about, then you must have been living in a cave in the 80's!

You can check the schedule for movies at the Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre in Coralville and the Sycamore Mall Cinema in Iowa City...

Movies aside there is actually something even bigger than this kicking off today that will be seen in living rooms throughout the world. I'm talking about the World Cup, Weltmeisterschaft, Copa Mundial - Pick your language, it's all about football - The European kind that is! Almost 11 years ago when I moved to the US football was not exactly high on anyone's list of favorite sports and didn't get a whole lot of airplay on TV. In fact in 2002 when Brazil played Germany in the final my German born sons were forced to watch it in Spanish, because that was the only channel it was being shown on. That went over real well, as you can imagine! Times have changed since then I'm happy to say, although I'm kind of missing the euphoria that I remember running up to this event when I was living in Europe...

Fun times in our house of course. I'm a Brit, my two sons are German and we're in the U.S. The good thing is that with the knock out system there is no shortage of possible teams to root for! (Although with the U.S. and England in the same group that may end up being short lived). I don't need to tell you over the years I've taken a lot of heat from my sons for the fact that England just cannot seem to win against Germany in any of these major tournaments. Will they do it this time? Maybe. Germany's team has taken a couple of major hits and is playing without their Captain, Michael Ballack, so we have a chance. Don't hold your breath though, they'll probably mess it up if it comes to penalties!

We'll see... At any rate we're all set. We have our new 42" HDTV and are just waiting for the fun to start.... What do you say? Will you be watching England vs. U.S. on Saturday? Who do you think will make it to the final?

Here's the schedule. Time shown is South African time - 7 hours ahead of us. (With a helpful icon to change the time zone).

The Iowa Arts Festival is going on this weekend in Iowa City - These are some impressions through the eyes of my 6' 8" son. And no, before you ask, he does not play basketball! He gets asked that question A LOT... I can't think why... Don't we all know white men can't jump??

Anyway, getting back on topic. the Iowa Arts Festival, one of the highlights of our year, continues through tomorrow in downtown Iowa City. Sunday is Children's Day, offering lots of opportunities for kids to have fun with the arts. Head on down there. Between the culinary delights of the 19 (!) food vendors on culinary row, the music and an abundance of fine art work this is a wonderful family affair.

I don't suppose it will come as a surprise to anyone with a sense of humor to learn that surrounded by all that fine art work my son's favorite photo is the one with the cool dog...

I love the idea of buyers getting information as they drive by properties. I think flyers are great. I just think that for one reason or another they're not always the easiest thing to keep on top of, so I've been looking for a more efficient way of getting that information to buyers. This week I found it and I'm so convinced that it's a great idea that I felt the need to share it here on AR right away!

Text Message Marketing is what I'm talking about. Basically you upload your property information to a website, get an ID number that you put on a sign rider and presto buyers can text for information about that property and get it back to their cell in minutes. That of course is a very condensed version of the service. Here's an article by James Kimmons on About.com that does a much better job of explaining it.

There are much more expensive versions of this service. I of course chose to go with the most affordable option offered by home2cell.com This will be costing me about $3 per month, per listing. I can run to that. I sure as heck pay a whole lot more for gas right now! Texting is huge. I can't imagine that this won't work, although I have no experience yet. I'm waiting on my sign riders and once I have any kind of feedback I will let you know.

This much I do know. I will be the only agent in town doing this. I hope that not only buyers notice it, I hope sellers notice too and see that I'm serious about getting information out to the consumer! Watch this space. I'll let you know how it goes...

This is SO important that I thought this post from Janet Guibault worthy to reblog for my readers. I have always made my buyer clients aware that going on a spending spree prior to closing is not a good idea. There was always the chance that credit may be checked a second time prior to closing. That "chance" has now become a certainty. It's become more important than ever to buy that new furniture AFTER closing. Pay special attention to Janet's ten point list, there are some really great pointers there.