IMHO-In Mike's Humble Opinion

I am an absolute nut when it comes to sports.  More specifically I love team sports.  I may occasionally watch tennis, winter sports, Indy car racing, horse racing etc. but I am for the most part a fan of team sports.  I follow all of the major US based leagues (NHL, MLB, NFL, MLS, NBA) and I follow a specific team in each league (Washington Capitals, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Redskins, DC United, Washington Wizards).  There are some leagues I follow more closely than others (NHL, MLS, NFL) but I would undoubtedly be considered a geek by some with the knowledge I have of things in other leagues (MLB, NBA, college football).  To me sports is  reality television.

Due to my interest in sports I am going to do frequent comments on things going on in sports particularly those things that are local to our area.  I will begin by offering a few thoughts on various current happenings.

Baltimore Orioles-I have been disappointed with the Orioles to date.  While I am not surprised with the struggles of the young pitching staff I am surprised with the struggles at the plate.  They were supposed to be a formidable line-up from top to bottom this season but they are 22nd in batting average, 25th in on base percentage, and 21st in slugging percentage.  Their bats should be more productive than they have been so far.  

Washington Redskins-For the first time in a very long time I am optimistic about the direction the Redskins are headed.  Based on the draft, the talk that things are different now appear to have merit.  Instead of drafting the sexy player with the 10th pick they traded down and took a blue collar guy.  Further, trading the 10th pick ultimately resulted in the acquisition of four more picks than they originally had when the draft began.  Lastly, the majority of players they drafted were team captains in college.  This shows that they are going for qulaity people as well as talented athletes.

DC United-I don't know what to make of DC United thus far.  They have been extremely erratic.  Some would say this is to be expected due to the youth of the roster but this yo-yo is ridiculous.  One week they will look competent in victory (Toronto 3-0, Seattle 2-1) and then the next week they look as bad they were in recent seasons in defeat (New York 0-4, Houston 1-4). 
I thought the Boskovic injury would be very damaging to their season, but based on the Seattle and Dallas results I appear to be wrong.  I will reserve judgement on DCU for now as we will probably know a lot more about this team by this time next month.

Cheers!

Mike Thompson
DEC Appraisal Services  

A few not so deep thoughts:

1)Do you think Andrew Cuomo intended to have real estate brokers/agents valuing properties to the extent that they are when the Home Valuation Code of Conduct was passed.....................

2)One good by-product of the movement to Appraisal Management Companies within our industry is that our profession is now becoming more performance driven than resume driven.............

3)One very bad by-product of the movement to Appraisal Management Companies within our industry is that appraisers are working much more and getting paid much less.........................

4)Hard to bame the AMC's though.  They are just trying to make a profit like any other company...........................

5)Expect a shortage of real estate appraisers in the not too distant future.  Appraisers are expected to obtain more education and to do more work while getting paid less.  As a result, it is getting much harder to afford to stay in the industry.  Further, with the new lender guidelines it is next to impossible to do real estate appraiser trainee work.  As a result, appraisers are leaving and appraisers are not entering..............

I'm sure you're wondering what a drive-in theater has to do with real estate.  With the exception of an example of a historical commercial real estate property, it has absolutely nothing to do with real estate.  I just wanted to let everyone out there who yearns for a little piece of yesterday know about the last local drive-in movie theater. 

The drive-in, or Bengies as it is commonly known, is located on Eastern Boulevard in the Essex/Middle River area.  It is a family owned and operated theater that caters mainly to families.  They do not allow the usual excesses that were associated with drive-ins during the latter days of most of the drive-ins existence and they are very strict with adherence to their rules.  They usually have two to three movies per night and usually every movie on the program is a first run picture just as was done way back when.

I'm dating myself, but if you are old enough to remember going to drive-ins, then this is going to be a very nostalgic evening for you.  The minute your car enters the movie theater it is as if one has taken a trip back in time.  The giant outdoor screen, the rolling hills for vehicles, the playground in front of the screen, the snack bar, and the speaker stands are all immediately visible from your car.  However, although the speaker stands are still there, the sound for the movie is pumped through your FM radio.  The screen is the largest on the east coast and the snack stand is better then typical movie theater ones.  Adding to the nostalgic evening is a playing of our national anthem to commence the evening, drive-in commercials from days gone by (let's all go to the lobby....) and older cartoon or Three Stooges shorts for the little ones.   If you are like me and need to get away from the doldrums of this real estate market then please visit Bengies Drive-In Theater. 

Cheers!

Mike Thompson
DEC Appraisal Services