PropertyManagementMaven

WOW!  I am so proud of the Property Management group members * http://activerain.com/groups/PropertyManagement * who assisted in recruiting new members over the last month as we now have 400 members.

Thank you everyone for your insightful and timely posts as well as your comments and for your encouragement of other AR members to join us!!!

Five SE state Toyota dealers have pulled their commercials off of their local ABC TV affiliates in response to the coverage of the Toyota safety issues by ABC News' investigative reporter Brian Ross.

The ad agency represents 173 dealers and it advised ABC stations last week that the ad shift was due in large part to the "excessive stories on the Toyota safety issues".  The agency reports that the same dealers made alternative commercial time buys to non-ABC affiliates in the same coverage markets.

The ad shift was made last week according to the VP of 22Squared, the Atlanta ad agency in charge of the ad buys.  Marcia Owens-Reder indicates that she tried to talk the dealers out of the move; however it was ultimately their decision and she sent an e-mail to the effected stations last week.

Reder said she "tried" to talk the dealers out of the move. "We have counseled the client on the pros and cons of this, and ultimately it was their decision to make," read an e-mail sent to the stations from the agency last week.

The Southeast Toyota represents dealers in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina. According to its website, Southeast Toyota dealers sell 20 percent of all Toyotas sold in the United States.

After wrecks in practice, fighting illness and NEVER having been in the car, Kevin Harvick WINS the Budweiser Shootout for the second straight year in a row.....only the 4th time this has happened in the history of the event.

Meanwhile, back at the BIG SHOW, HMS puts 2 cars on the front row for the 500 * Mark Martin #5 and Dale Earhnardt Jr’s #88 and three “need to qualify” cars get in Bill Elliott, Joe Nemecheck and Scott Speed.

The rest of the grid for the race will come from the top finishers of the DUEL races on Thursday!!!

Earlier, at probably the MOST WATCHED ARCA race of all time, Danica started 12 and finished 7th and had a GREAT day getting bumped, going through the grass and HAVING FUN!!!

What GREAT stuff you can find when snowed in with TOO MUCH SUGAR!!!

8:30P Friday night and my cel phone rings....Caller ID shows a call from Lousiana * I answer and it is a woman indicating interest in a property I have listed on my website that will be available June 1..she is in town NOW, needs to rent a home before she leaves town on Monday and wants to see the town home Sat or Sunday.

I attempted to let her know that * in case she had not noticed * we have 8 inches of snow on the ground and may well have 12 more before mid-day Sunday.  Not only is the townhouse currently occupied and I am not bothering the residents with showing it in the middle of a SNOW STORM, I am NOT driving out to show the property, I do not show occupied properties on the weekend NOR do I show properties to people who have not completed an application. She reiterated that she needs to see the home so she can fly home on Monday.

Somehow I was not communicating that not only was I not getting in my car to go show her the property, it is unlikely she is going to be able to get out to view properties and her flying out on Monday is very iffy!!!

Piss Poor Planning on Her Part does not Make an Emergency on My Part!!!

Following in the racing shoes of Janet Guthrie, Danica Patrick will assist in making motor sports history when she starts the ARCA (formerly the ARCA ReMax) series race this afternoon at 4:30P at Daytona.  Guthrie was originally an aerospace engineer and started in the old Sports Car Club of America series and later ran in the 1977 Indy 500 where she finished 29th.  She then ran in the NASCAR Winston Cup series and won a race at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

A quote from Guthrie's autobiography * A Life at Full Throttle*  "There has been a big change in reaction to me. The hostility has cooled down quite a bit. I think the worst is over. The initial reaction to me was one of a lack of respect. What you really need is endurance. And some tests show women have more endurance than men. But that is not the point. I'm not trying to establish the superiority of one sex over another. I'm a good driver but no superwoman. What I'm trying to emphasize is that a driver is primarily a person, not a man or a woman, and a great deal of driving is mental. You can not afford to get angry behind the wheel. A good driver needs emotional detachment, concentration , good judgment, and desire."--Guthrie on the subject of women competing in NASCAR

Today's ARCA race will have 5 other women drivers in addition to Patrick who will be running a 12 race schedule for Dale Earnhardt Jr's JR Motorsports team this year.  Patrick will start #12 on the grid in her GoDADDY #7 Chevrolet.

USPS announced that they were suspending mail delivery to NoVA, DC and parts of MD on Saturday.  Their spokesperson announced that the continued blizzard conditions in the area has made this decision necessary.

Additionally, approximately 150,000 to 180,000 customers in WVA, VA and PA have lost electricity due to downed power lines blamed on ice and the weight of the snow accummulation,

Emergency agencies are asking that people with 4WD volunteer to get doctors and medical personnel in to area hospitals.

According to Wikipedia * The United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto. Often falsely cited as such, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"is an inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City, derived from a quote from Herodotus' Histories (8.98), referring to the ancient courier service of the Persian Empire: