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Matching entries from Dan Melson's Website
Excerpt from The End Of Childhood
It never begins dramatically. It started on an ordinary day, when I'd been doing the perfectly ordinary thing of gathering evidence for a hearing. The case I was investigating had to do with the tort of infringement. In this case...
Excerpt from The End Of Childhood (Politics of Empire Book 3)
"Nothing in the Game of Houses is certain and nothing is forever. The only guarantee is we all die someday." I still remember the first time I heard that - Scimtar himself said it to me while training me as...
Excerpt from The End Of Childhood
The End of Childhood is the third novel of Politics of Empire, the story of Grace raising her family during the build-up to the war between the Empire and the fractal demons. There will be one more novel in the...
Excerpt from The End of Childhood
It never begins dramatically. It started on an ordinary day, when I'd been doing the perfectly ordinary thing of gathering evidence for a hearing. The case I was investigating had to do with the tort of infringement. In this case...
Excerpt from The End of Childhood
It never begins dramatically. It started on an ordinary day, when I'd been doing the perfectly ordinary thing of gathering evidence for a hearing. The case I was investigating had to do with the tort of infringement. In this case...
Blurb and Excerpt: The End Of Childhood
The die is cast. The Empire has caught the fractal demons marshalling troops for assault, and there is no avoiding the decisive Armageddon between humanity and the fractal demons. Both sides have their strengths and there is no certainty about...
Excerpt from The End of Childhood First Draft
"Nothing in the Game of Houses is certain and nothing is forever. The only guarantee is we all die someday." I still remember the first time I heard that - Scimtar himself said it to me while training me as...
General Consumer Articles: Week in Review September 22-28, 2008
Newly Written Articles Earnest Money: Copy of a Check or Proof Of Funds? talks about which I'd rather have, and why. The Return of Portfolio Lending discusses the plusses and minuses of lenders that underwrite to their own standards,...
General Consumer Articles: Week in Review September 8-14, 2008
Almost forgot my weekly round up of consumer articles I've written Newly Written Articles Negotiation Requires More Than Dueling Ultimatums, talking about the exchange of ultimatums faxes that often passes for negotiation today. Personal Loans For A Real Estate...
New Consumer Article September 8, 2008
Today's new consumer article is Negotiation Requires More Than Dueling Ultimatums, which discusses and suggests improvements to the common model of faxing over bare offers and counter-offers. I don't understand why anyone who wants a transaction to succeed would do...
General Consumer Articles: Week in Review August 31, 2008
Newly Written Articles Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate Rent to Own and Lease With Option to Buy, talking about a common alternative that allows sellers to market to people who would not otherwise be able to qualify, and...
New Consumer Article August 25th, 2008
Today's new consumer article is Negotiation Basics: On What to Offer and Whether to Offer, Which talks about the process of putting in an offer and negotiation, and what effects a couple of common things have upon the process....
General Consumer Articles: Week in Review August 24, 2008
Newly Written Articles Finding or Creating a "Green" or Eco-Friendly House talks about the basics of ecologically friendly dwellings Loan Qualification Standards: Qualifying Rate and Payment discusses the exact way in which debt to income ratio is computed with...
Demands Listing Agents Make That Aren't in Their Clients Best Interest
One of the things I see all the time is notations made on the listing that demotivate buyers agents, or give them a reason not to show the property. This practice has had a drastic fall off of late, with...
What Happens After You Buy A Vampire Property?
Dear Mr. Melson, I was wondering if you could offer some insight re: the other side of the equation: what to do *after* you've bought a vampire property. We bought one, quite by accident, despite a house inspection by...
Stupid Negotiating Tricks: Appeal to Pity (or Falling for Appeal to Pity)
A few days ago, another agent in my office got an offer and brought it to me for feedback. The listing was range priced over a $30k range, and priced correctly, so there was a lot of activity on it....
Vampire Properties
I just went out doing some general market scouting. Looked at ten properties, and at least three were of a sort that I've started calling "vampire properties." One more reason you want a good buyer's agent. Like a mythical vampire,...
Top Ten Reasons You Bought The Wrong House
About a month ago, I wrote Top Ten Reasons Your Home Isn't Selling. It was well received so I thought I'd take it from the buyer's perspective. Once again, I'll try to inject as much humor as I can....
Agents "Buying" Listings: Promising the Undeliverable and Hurting Their Clients
Quite a lot of the time when I view a property, I get requests for feedback. Usually it's an automated email. Other times, it's some office assistant who wants to fax me a form which will "only take a...
Why Do Purchase Escrows Fall Apart? (And Why Is It Happening More Often?)
There have always been real estate transactions that fall apart. The reasons why they fall apart are as varied as the people who enter into the transaction in the first place. Let's get back to the very basics for...
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