Across California, as we process escrows for same-sex buyers and non-married couples over the age of 62 who are buying permanent residences or vacation homes, the topic of registered domestic partnerships arises. It’s important when choosing how to hold title to know how California law defines a Domestic Partnership, as outlined below. Buyers who meet these qualifications must register with the State of California to receive their Rights of Survivorship. Any other Domestic Partnership registration or out-of-state same-sex marriage will not be accepted by the State and can delay the escrow process.

California law states that in order to hold title as Community Property with or without  Rights of Survivorship you must be either Husband and Wife or Registered Domestic Partners. Why are Buyers interested in Rights of Survivorship? Rights of Survivorship defines co-owners as having equal possession and interest in the property, so if, for example, one of the partners were to pass away, the property simply transfers to the surviving partner.

Sometimes, same-sex couples, as well as opposite-sex couples who are not married and over 62, will begin the escrow process assuming that because they’re registered as Domestic Partners in their home state (or perhaps were married in Canada) that they qualify as Domestic Partners in California. This is false and can result in the buyers having to vest title as single persons.  It may be an option for the buyers to go through the process of registering as Domestic Partners with the State during escrow in order to hold title as community property, but this can run the risk of delaying escrow as there is time and hassle associated with appearing in court to file the appropriate papers, etc.  If buyers are aware of the facts surrounding Domestic Partnership ahead of time, they can register on their own time and save everyone involved stress and delays in order to take title as community property.

By clarifying California’s Domestic Partnership rules and regulations to your Buyers, you will help them create a lasting financial arrangement that properly and legally reflects their relationship.

To be registered Domestic Partners in California, both persons must:

• Have a common residence;
• Agree to be responsible for each other’s basic living expenses;
• Neither be married, nor a member of another domestic partnership;
• Not be related by blood;
• Be at least 18;
• a: Be members of the same sex, or
  b: If at least one is over age 62, be of opposite genders;
• File a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with the California Secretary of State wherein each partner must consent to California court jurisdiction if the couple seeks a dissolution or nullity of their relationship.

It’s also important to consider certain clarifications to these stipulations:

• Legislators limited domestic partnership for opposite-sex couples to only those where one partner is over aged 62 in order to protect benefits like Social Security.
• To be eligible for the rights and responsibilities of domestic partnership, under California law you must be registered with California’s statewide registry. The state of California does not recognize same-sex marriages performed in Canada or Domestic Partnerships registered in other states in the U.S., nor does it offer the benefits to couples registered as domestic partners by cities within California.

It is important to keep in mind that there are potential tax and other legal implications to how you take title in the purchase of property.  The implications are generally unique to the specific situation at hand and we at CV Escrow advise buyers and sellers to consult with their CPA and/or attorney for advice pertinent to their specific situation.

Every Tuesday, here at the CV Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the Realtor, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of Real Estate.

Have you ever noticed that little orange icon that appears on web pages and blogs everywhere?  (If you haven’t, after reading this post, you will – trust me!).  Are you curious what it is?  That icon is the symbol the cornerstone technology that has enabled the explosion of blogging and transformed how information is consumed in a web 2.0 world.  And, it is called RSS.  My personal journey into social media started the day I discovered RSS.  Understanding RSS is what allowed all kinds of doors to open for me in social media and the web 2.0 world.  My hope is that it will for you too.

The stage has been set for this post.  In previous weeks I have defined “blog”, and discussed in detail the concepts of web 2.0 and social media, and discussed how these pertain to real estate.  If these concepts are still new to you, it will be helpful to review my post on blogs as a basis for learning the power of RSS.

So then, what is RSS?

Most literally, RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication.   But, this is such a bland definition, and one that is generally irrelevant to understanding the true meaning of RSS.   Following are 3 different (outstanding) sources who have a slightly different take on how to describe and understand RSS.  Go with the one that resonates best for you:

If you are a visual learner, here is the Common Craft video explaining RSS in plain english and points out that RSS is “like Netflix compared to the video store”:

Interested in a straightforward, practical explanation of RSS?   A great working explanation of RSS is provided by ProBlogger Darren Rowse who explains RSS as:

RSS is a technology that is being used by millions of web users around the world to keep track of their favorite websites.

In the ‘old days’ of the web to keep track of updates on a website you had to ‘bookmark’ websites in your browser and manually return to them on a regular basis to see what had been added.

The problems with bookmarking

• You as the web surfer had to do all the work
• It can get complicated when you are trying to track many websites at once
• You miss information when you forget to check your bookmarks
• You end up seeing the same information over and over again on sites that don’t update very often

RSS Changes Everything

What if you could tell a website to let you know every time that they update? In a sense, this is what RSS does for you.

RSS flips things around a little and is a technology that provides you with a method of getting relevant and up to date information sent to you for you to read in your own time. It saves you time and helps you to get the information you want quickly after it was published.

I find the ’subscription’ description helpful. It’s like subscribing to a magazine that is delivered to you periodically but instead of it coming in your physical mail box each month when the magazine is published it is delivered to your ‘RSS Reader’ every time your favorite website updates.

Let me say right up front that I’m not the most technically savvy guy going around – but even I can use RSS. At first I found it a little strange to make the change from bookmarking to RSS but I found that when I started that I just couldn’t stop.

Still a little foggy on RSS?  Here is “The Oprah Way” of explaining RSS, courtesy of Stephanie Quilao who explains RSS “The Oprah Way” in her great, non-technical post (read her full article here):

So, to make RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place. How cool is that?

Suppose you have 50 sites and blogs that you like to visit regularly. Going to visit each website and blog everyday could take you hours. With RSS, you can “subscribe” to a website or blog, and get “fed” all the new headlines from all of these 50 sites and blogs in one list, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of hours. What a time saver!

So, how does this all relate to real estate?

Are you interested in offering creative ways to gain more exposure for your clients?  Or maybe you are you interested in simply expanding your knowledge base of what you can do for your clients.  How about syndicating your listings information out to the internet?  Maybe you just want to stay on top of what is going on, or learn from others.  As Keller Williams Simi Valley, California agent Ted Mackel points out in the following video, these are just some of the benefits that RSS has afforded his real estate business.  Ted created this video as part of a 2008 MyTechOpinion.com contest asking for submissions from real estate folks about which technology has impacted your business the most.  Take a look:

You too can benefit from the power of RSS.  As a first step, I suggest signing up for a Google account (if you don’t already have one) and sign up for their feed reader.  Then, every time you see that RSS logo out on the web on a site that interests you, add that site to your reader.  It will open all kinds of doors for you in this internet and social media world and help you to better serve your clients as social media becomes an ever increasing part of real estate.

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (www.CoachellaValleyEscrow.com) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

For years here in California, the Lennar Charitable Housing Endowment (part of the Lennar Family of Homebuilders) has been helping the transitionally homeless – those made homeless because of domestic violence, unemployment, a catastrophic illness – by supporting charities that help people get back on their feet.

Each time a Lennar home is purchased and resold, a mandatory fee of 1/20^th of one percent of the gross sale price is collected from the Buyer and paid to the Foundation.

Our local Lennar developments include:

• The Bridge @ Jefferson
• Escena
• Esperanza @ Desert River Estates
• Cala Rosa
• Vista Serena
• La Morada
• La Quinta del Oro
• Las Plumas
• San Milan @ Paradiso
• Tapestry @ Esplanade
• Terra Lago
• Cordoba
• Marquesa

How does this affect your escrow?

If you’re working with properties from these communities, it’s important that Realtors and Buyers know that the listing is a Lennar home so they can account for this fee during their escrow transaction.

Many times the original Buyer (whom we now know as the Seller) may not remember paying the endowment when they acquired the property from Lennar. When you take a listing on a Lennar home, the Seller must disclose to the potential Buyer that paying this fee is part of selling the property and that this fee will affect the new Buyer when they go to sell the property in the future.

Who pays the fee is negotiable, except when the property is first transferred from Lennar to the purchaser when the Buyer pays on the first sale out.

It’s important to disclose the endowment on the MLS when you take the listing. The agent representing the Buyer can take advantage of line items eight or nine on page two of the Residential Purchase Contract. If you get a contract that does not address the endowment, be sure to list it on the counter offer.

As Escrow Officers, our first clue concerning this endowment would be disclosed to us only through the Preliminary Title Report. Therefore, it could take some time before we discover the issue through title. Our responsibility as escrow holders is to obtain the proper demand through Lennar and pay the endowment at closing, just as we would a Trust Deed or any Lien that encumbers.

Remembering these important points will make your escrow with a Lennar property go smoothly and successfully:

• A mandatory fee of 1/20^th of one percent of the gross sale price is paid to the Lennar Foundation each time a Lennar home is purchased and resold.
• The Seller must disclose to the potential Buyer that paying this fee is part of selling the property. This fee will affect the new Buyer when they go to sell the property in the future.
• It’s important that Realtors and Buyers know if the listing is a Lennar home so they can account for this fee during their escrow transaction.
• The Buyer’s agent can take advantage of line items eight or nine on page two of the Residential Purchase Contract. If you get a contract that does not address the endowment, list it on the counter offer.
• Our responsibility as escrow holders is to obtain the proper demand through Lennar and pay the endowment at closing.

For more information about calculating a Lennar donation, or how escrow is affected by the Lennar Charitable Housing Foundation, please visit: http://www.lchf.org/escrow_title.htm

Every Tuesday, here at the CV Escrow website, we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the Realtor, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of Real Estate.

This week we are going to take a look at several Realtors who are succeeding by incorporating social media and web 2.0 principles into their real estate businesses. Social media provides an array of opportunities to develop relationships with clients – for some the diversity of options can seem overwhelming. With so many opportunities to apply web 2.0 practices to your business, the following agents have been selected as examples because they exploit one strategy particularly well. The lesson is to pick and choose what works best for you. Focus. By doing so, you too can grow your business by applying social media techniques. Let’s learn from others who are leading the way!

Video

Mike Lefebvre | Hallmark Sotheby’s International Realty – Suburban Boston, Massachusetts

Particularly outstanding is Mike’s use of video on his blog…specifically, this one which he submitted to www.MyTechOpinion.com answering the question “What technology has had the most impact on your real estate business”.

• Blog

Listing Information

Kris & Steve Berg | San Diego Castles Realty – San Diego, California

Both the website and blog do an excellent job of presenting dynamic information that consumers want, particularly in regards to listing information and market trends. On the home page of both their sites, the visitor is presented with a map showing active inventory in the San Diego market and the blog has the ability to let visitors search home listings from their cell phone.

• Blog: The San Diego Home Blog
• Website: www.SanDiegoCastles.com

Networking & Niche Marketing

Andy Kaufman| Keller Williams – Berkeley, California

Andy personifies the definition of networking in a web 2.0 world…and it isn’t only the social media networking he does. Supported by an informative, data rich blog, a niche focused on the foreclosure, REO, and investment market in the East Bay of California, the real power in Andy’s strategy comes in his outstanding use of blending social media and “in real life” (IRL) interactions to network for business. Andy is everywhere – networking at conferences that draw the real estate, the social media, and/or the technology scene – events such as the REOMAC conference, the REBarCamp Conferences (Andy is the founder of this successful series of social media conferences focused on Real Estate), and SXSW (South By Southwest). The power of his networking activities has resulted in no less than 7,000 followers on Twitter and 1,100+ friends on Facebook.

• Blog: MyEastBayAgent.com

Photos

Teresa Boardman | Saint Paul Home Realty – Saint Paul, Minnesota

Photos are Teresa’s thing, and her use of the social community Flickr for her real estate business, in conjunction with her blog, is an example for all. Photos are so paramount to her web presence they not only have their own navigation section on both her blog and website, but also to warrant an entire blog of their own. She also has thousands of photos representing the St. Paul area in her Flickr account and truly gives a consumer an outstanding feel for the area.

• Blog: StPaulRealEstateBlog.com
• St. Paul, MN Photo Blog: StPaulPhotos.com
• Website: www.TwasHere.com

Active Rain:

Rich Jacobson | Windermere Real Estate – Kitsap Peninsula, Washington

Active Rain is the largest real estate social network with over 170,000 members. And, if you are a member of Active Rain, you probably know the name Rich Jacobson. He is a Community Builder there and a brilliant example of how to utilize this great resource to not only promote yourself and your business, but to learn and participate in the social media real estate community. He also expresses his personality and interests by having a blog dedicated to his personal interest in Crabbing which results in a niche marketing effort based around a Pacific Northwest activity that he loves.

• Active Rain Blog: Rich Jacobson
• Website: KitsapLife.com
• Western Washington Real Estate Blog: Sound Bite Blog
• Personal Interest Blog on Crabbing: CrabbingInTheHood.com

Consumer Focused: Clear and Effective

Kristal Kraft | The Berkshire Group Realtors – Denver, Colorado

An excellent example an agent who combines her website and blogging efforts into one site online, Kristal’s blog is simply one section of her web presence and surrounded by a website which illustrates her professionalism, market knowledge, and answers the most pressing buyer and seller questions. No one tool overpowers others in this site – its success is more about an overall strategy of providing content that consumers care about and establishing herself as the trusted adviser in the consumers mind.

• Website/Blog: KristalSellsDenver.com

Please send us who you think is doing it right in real estate and social media and we can do a follow up post in the near future!

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (www.CoachellaValleyEscrow.com) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

In a recent post, the nuts-and-bolts differences between REO (Real Estate Owned) escrows and standard escrows were discussed.  This post is designed to highlight a significant psychological difference that can help you and your clients successfully navigate the REO terrain:  patience.

For a number of reasons, the process for an REO escrow can take longer than a standard escrow:

• The Seller of an REO is a Bank or Lending Institution who may have many properties in escrow at once. This means that what may seem like a simple response to a question can take days to be considered, much less answered.

• An accepted offer or contract may take several days to be uploaded onto the Seller’s online system where it will only then be listed as a “task” to open escrow.

• Banks must follow specific, strict procedures that can take longer than a standard escrow.

• Finally, the HUD process takes approximately five days after the Buyer has signed the loan.

Realtors: Realizing these differences and delays can help you keep your Buyer calm and confident while working through an REO escrow.

Buyers: Knowing it can take longer to work through an REO escrow can help make the process much less stressful.

When all parties understand how these differences add time to the process, they can sit tight and allow the escrow officers to focus their time on processing the transaction. Ultimately, your patience can lead to a successful (and less stressful) transaction for everyone.

Every Tuesday, here at the CV Escrow website we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the Realtor, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of Real Estate.

Are you on Facebook? If not, and you are a sphere of influence (or social) farmer, you probably should be. Facebook is a Web 2.0 site that is one of the greatest ways for Realtors to create a social networking strategy. Facebook currently has over 175 million users and makes it so easy to connect with people you already know from all parts of your life. It is a great way to let those who already know you, what you are currently up to (for example, that you are a Realtor and have a particular expertise in real estate in the Coachella Valley – think of the potential for referrals!). Find and connect with friends from high school, college, your company, or others in the industry, like CV Escrow. CV Escrow has a new “fan page” (Facebook terminology). By becoming a fan of CV Escrow on Facebook, you have an easy way to stay connected to all of the training and event opportunities that we offer and support. In addition, by connecting with CV Escrow on our fan page, you have a way to subtly remind your other Facebook friends that you are in real estate, as they will see you interacting with other professional organizations in the industry. So become a fan! Here is how:

Step 1:

Login to Facebook. (If you aren’t yet on Facebook, it is easy to create an account. Simply fill in the Sign Up section on the homepage and follow the directions to get started)

Step 2:

Search for “CV Escrow” in the Search box in the upper right hand corner of the Facebook screen .

You will get this as your search result:

Step 3:

Click “Become a Fan”

That is it! Once you click “Become a Fan” the wording will change to “You are a Fan” and you will be connected to CV Escrow on Facebook.

Step 4:

Check out our fan page. You can now click “View Page” and see the details of the CV Escrow fan page where we will keep current all of our training opportunities (stay tuned…a training session on Facebook for Realtors is coming soon!) and you can keep up with the latest events and announcements from CV Escrow. You can even send us a message on our fan page.

Just another great way to build your social network and establish yourself as a working Realtor who is keeping up with the latest trends and opportunities in the industry. We look forward to seeing you on our fan page!

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (www.CoachellaValleyEscrow.com) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

I am lucky enough to announce that a long-time representative of the escrow industry in the Coachella Valley, Joyce “Ms Dixie” Cooper, has decided to join us at CV Escrow.  Her assistant for the past ten years, Lois King, will also be joining our team.

From her first job out of high school in an escrow office, to owning and operating Dixie Escrow here in the Coachella Valley since the 1980s, Joyce has been helping buyers and sellers fulfill their real estate dreams for over 40 years. She believes, as all of us do here at CV Escrow, that the key to successful transactions is the knowledgeable, warm people who give everything a personal touch.

During her time in the industry, Joyce has helped perpetuate the high standards of our field as a Certified Senior Escrow Officer, a Director for the CEA (California Escrow Association), a three-time president of the Desert Escrow Association and an escrow instructor at both the College of the Desert and the Desert Cities Real Estate School.

Joyce’s sweet demeanor and drive to help people extends beyond her work in escrow and into the greater Coachella Valley community where she’s active in her church and the Soroptomists. We’re proud to have Joyce and Lois’s expertise and years of experience here at CV Escrow and ask that you please join me in welcoming them to our team!

Joyce Cooper
Escrow Officer
Phone:  760.568.2521
Email:  jcooper@coachellavalleyescrow.com

Every Tuesday, here at the CV Escrow website we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the Realtor, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of Real Estate.

You may have noticed that we’ve been providing some escrow education and answering a lot of great questions here on our blog (even though you may be getting this in your inbox, the article is still also part of the CV Escrow Blog and permanently archived/available there). Topics like Options for How to Hold Title – The Vesting Form Explained and What Day Should You Negotiate Close of Escrow? Although there is new topics/articles on our site every week, the old topics remain on the site and are available for you and your clients anytime. And, it is simple to share these articles via email with your clients. Here’s how:

Step 1:

Go to the site and find the post you are looking for.

Say you want to email the article Notary Choices When it Comes to Signing Your Escrow Documents to your Client. Go to the site and locate the post so that it appears in the main area on the left of the site:

Step 2:

Scroll to the bottom of the post and locate and click on the “Share This” icon.

Step 3:

Click on the Share This link and select the Email option under Send.

Step 4:

Fill in the form and select the Send button.

That’s it! Your client will now receive an email from you that links them to the post and includes your message.

It works for any of the posts we do. Share away!

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (www.CoachellaValleyEscrow.com) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.

The typical real estate escrow requires the buyer to sign 70 – 120 pages of documents, several of which require notarization.  The seller also will have to notarize, at the minimum, the grant deed.  Notarization, or the act of an uninvolved witness (the Notary) verifying that the signor (the buyer or seller) is indeed who they say they are, is an essential part of the escrow process.  And, if notarization is not properly done, it can cause delays which can impact the closing of the escrow.  When it comes to notarizing documents during escrow, clients can choose to go to the escrow office or hire an outside notary.

Option 1:  Notarize and sign at the escrow office

Escrow offices all have a notary on staff.  Therefore, a common option for notarizing documents is to have the parties go to the escrow office to sign documents.  With customer satisfaction as our highest priority, at CV Escrow we prefer that our clients physically come to our office to sign closing documents. This not only ensures that buyers and sellers feel they are receiving the highest level of service, but also we can personally correct any errors that may have been overlooked by the many parties involved in the transaction as well as answer any questions that may arise.

However, circumstances do not always allow for clients to sign at the escrow office (for example, in the case of an out of town buyer).  When this occurs, working with an outside notary is the alternate solution.

Option 2.  Notarize and sign with an outside notary

If you are to hire an outside notary, you have two options:  A Certified Document Signor or a Mobile Notary.

Both Certified Document Signors and Mobile Notaries are certified by the State of California to verify signatures.  However, a Certified Document Signor also undergoes regular continuing education training specific to real estate transactions.  They are familiar with the documents that are signed in the transaction.  Mobile Notaries are not required to have this specific training and as a result, are not always familiar with the documents that are being signed.

A Certified Document Signor will cost more, but clients should be aware that our most common reason for the delay of a transaction is due to the incorrect signing of closing documents. With the amount of paperwork that needs to be signed and notarized, it is easy to see how someone without the proper training could overlook a detail here or there.  As a result, Certified Document Signors are our preferred option if the client is not able to sign in person at the escrow office.  That said, it is possible to have an accurate and successful closing with a mobile notary.  The choice is really up to the client and will be impacted by many factors specific to the transaction.

So when choosing, ask yourself what is more valuable in a real estate transaction, your time or your money?  If time is not of paramount concern, a mobile notary may be a great choice for you.  If it is imperative you close on time, your risk of signing issues will decrease by going with a certified document signor.  And, if you have the ability to sign at your escrow office, you will run the lowest risk of delays.

Every Tuesday, here at the CV Escrow website we post Technology Tips designed to help you, the Realtor, grow your business, keep up to date on the latest technologies, and move you forward into the new era of Real Estate.

As I speak with Realtors I am reminded that technology is bringing to agents a whole new vocabulary. In my constant endeavor to discuss the opportunities that technology provides the modern Realtor, I have written on many basic technology terminology which Realtors need to understand in order to put together a strategy for success in today’s market. Terms such as: Web 2.0, Social Media, Social Networking, and Blog. Today I’m adding another terminology to the list – Widgets. Many have heard the term, but most don’t have an understanding of what a widget is or how a widget can help them. This post is designed to clarify a thing or two.

A widget is a piece of code that can be embedded within a web page. Basically, it is a mini-application provided by a 3^rd party that you choose to install on your website or blog. Why would a Realtor do this? Well, because there is lots of information out there that consumers want and this is a good way to give it to them. Many 3^rd party vendors are offering a no-maintenance way for you, the Realtor, to provide valuable information on your site. If you are interested in providing the consumer what they want on your website (and why wouldn’t you…this is how you get traffic and have people come back to your site), you should look into the myriad of real estate widgets that are available out there. Many of them are even free.

Lets look at a great application of widgets by a Realtor:

Heather Elias of Century 21 in Ashburn Virginia incorporates widgets into her website www.HeatherElias.com:

Heather has included a widget on the left hand side that provides consumers with a customized market snapshot. This is a widget that she uses from Top Producer that not only provides a customized, detailed market snap shot to visitors of her site, but also provides her leads. And, because it is provided by Top Producer, it is also maintained by Top Producer. Once Heather has added the widget to her site, there is nothing she needs to do to update it. The market information is kept current, and delivered, all by Top Producer on behalf of Heather. She just gets the lead when it comes in.

She carries over her effective use of widgets to her blog at www.locomusings.com:

As you can see, on the right hand column, she has repeated her use of the Top Producer widget which asks the compelling question “Are you Curious what your home is worth?”. She also has a Chat widget that invites the visitor to “Chat with Heather Elias”. At the moment of this screen capture, Heather was busy, but when she is online and available, visitors have the ability to simply type her a question and have her respond in real time. Talk about rapid feedback and being available to the consumer! There are several chat widgets that are out there such as the one provided by Meebo.

Another perspective and great article on additional widgets for the Real Estate world was authored by Nicole Nicolay of MyTechOpinion.com. In it, she points out that there are great real estate widgets out there that provide helpful information for visitors in a variety of categories such as Property Search, Home Valuation, Industry News, Information and Statistics, and Calculators. The article was written last year so things have evolved (for example, check out some of the neat free real estate widgets that Trulia now offers Realtors here), but her article still gives a great list of useful real estate widgets by functional category.

Think widgets might be for your website or blog? Great. Widget-away. BUT, a word of caution – plan your widgets carefully. There is a thing as too many widgets on a site! It is very easy to add too many widgets to your website and the result can not only be disruptive to the visual integrity of your site, but also cause your site to load slowly. I’d say a good rule of thumb is to add 1-3 widgets to your site. Heather Elias is an outstanding example of an effective use of widgets. Her use of widgets is useful to consumers, not overwhelming, and maintains the attractiveness of her site and blog.

So, widget sparingly and appropriately, and you too can effectively extend the value of your website and/or blog.

Interested in what you are reading? To automatically receive these Tuesday Technology Tips in your email box, subscribe to these articles at the top right corner of this site (www.CoachellaValleyEscrow.com) in the box titled “Subscribe via Email”.