DPL Homes is now dpatricklewis.com

by dpatricklewis

You may have noticed that instead of reaching dplhomes.com you are now being redirected to dpatricklewis.com. The reasons for this are many but the largest ones being that I now own my name, it was not available a few years ago, and I didn’t want to have another blog to manage.

So there you have it, dplhomes.com is now dpatricklewis.com. It is hereby made official.

Don’t forget to re-subscribe via RSS or email and check back often.

I expect nothing but awesomeness.

See you there.

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Scottsdale Camp – Why you should go.

by dpatricklewis

Scottsdale Camp is being organized by Tyler Hurst and myself and will be held at Sky Song (click here for a map) in Scottsdale on April 24th from 1:30pm to 6pm with a special screening of the movie Lemonade at 1pm and a Q&A with the Director after the screening.  Lemonade is a movie by Erik Proulx, it’s a short film about him and a bunch of inspired people who saw unemployment as an opportunity, not a hardship.

So why should you go?

I think Tyler said it best in his post:

…it needs to happen. Residents of Phoenix, Glendale, Tempe, Gilbert and Chandler get it, the businesses they frequent mostly get it and their employers are starting to turn on to it. But Scottsdale seems to be a bit behind the curve.

So let’s catch them up. Scottsdale Camp is an afternoon of teaching, sharing and learning from the actual practitioners. Speakers and topics were chosen to specifically target the theories that our geek conferences tend to specialize in.

If you’re a Scottsdale small business, if you shop at Scottsdale small businesses or if you like to see Scottsdale small businesses succeed, come help us out. We’re looking for smart people that want to learn AND teach.

That is the vision in a nutshell, provide Scottsdale businesses and residents with the tools they need to build stronger communities.

Register here!

See you there!

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One more thing…

by dpatricklewis

At the end of the very successful and well attended (500+) Real Estate Bar Camp Phoenix 2010, Jay Thompson stood before the crowd and thanked, very graciously, Calie Waterhouse, Nick Bastian and myself for our volunteer efforts. Jay also gave each of us a $25 dollar gift card as an extra bonus. A very thoughtful gesture on his part, to say the least.

All of that was well and good until I realized that I had missed the opportunity to thank the one person that didn’t get thanked in person.  And that is Jay Thompson.

So I am taking this opportunity to remedy that situation.

Jay did an outstanding job again this year in leading the volunteers to a successful REBCPhx. He has also done a lot for me personally, whether he knows it or not he has inspired me and countless others to be better and do better in our industry. He has been an outstanding friend and colleague and I am proud to call him as much. I want to publicly thank him for all he does all year round.

So I am going to say thank you to Jay in a way that I think honors him and what he has done for me. In addition to this post, I am going to add to my $25 gift card from Jay and give $100 to DanKeitz.com.

If you don’t know, Dan Keitz is a friend of Jay’s that has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy). Jay set him up with a website and has been raising money for him. You can read Jay’s post about him here and visit his website here.

While I have never personally met Dan, Jay has shared a few stories about how fun and generous Dan is and Jay’s word is good enough for me.

I hope you will consider doing the same.

Thanks again Jay, for everything.

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Chaparral Park post on Around Scottsdale

by dpatricklewis

I just wrote a post over at Around Scottsdale about Chaparral Park and its amenities.

One of the 11 community parks that the City of Scottsdale has and part of its Indian Bend Wash park system is the 100 acre Chaparral Park.  Located between Chaparral and McDonald roads just east of Hayden road, it is full of family friendly features such as:Mtn views

  • 4 acre dog park (3 acres is grass)
  • 10 acre lake for urban fishing
  • 6 lighted ball fields
  • 3 lighted soccer fields
  • aquatic center
  • Xeriscape Demonstration Garden
  • multiple picnic areas and ramada’s
  • covered playground
  • community center with 2 small classrooms

It really is an impressive place. To read the whole post, see some great photos of the park and find out more information, click here.

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Remote Desktop Solution

by dpatricklewis

Having a mobile office can have its pros and cons, one of the cons is not having every single file or document with you or on your laptop/netbook at all times. Unfortunately, I have a lot of experience with this scenario and have been forced to find a solution. So, I thought I would share.

What I found was Team Viewer 5, it is an excellent free solution to my problem. I simply have Team Viewer installed on both computers, initiate a session, usually from my netbook to my home computer and either drop the files I need in my Dropbox (also installed on both computers) or use the browser to upload them to Google Docs. This way I have access to them via the cloud or I can download them to my netbook.

By the way, if you are not using Dropbox or Google Docs and you have a mobile office, you really need to look into them, great tools for the toolbox.

Another nice feature is that you can enable, chat, VOIP or video chat during the sessions as well. So, it has many uses for collaboration and sharing as well as remote access.

Side note: It is also a great help in assisting your technologically challenged parents when they want to know where the “Any” key is.

There is only one caveat to the free price tag, you cannot use it for commercial purposes. In other words you cannot use it for your home technical support business without paying Team Viewer their due. So, play fair.

If you have found another solution, please feel free to share in the comments.

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Wisestamp for your business. Seriously.

February 11, 2010

Have you been looking for an easy, diverse and customizable auto signature for your Gmail, Yahoo, AOL or Hotmail web mail?  Maybe one you could display your social media profiles, RSS feeds, fan pages and blog posts in.  Are you a Firefox, Chrome, Flock or Thunderbird user? If so, I have been using a great [...]

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Home Buyer Tax Credit Passed by Congress

November 6, 2009

If you haven’t heard by now the Congress has extended and expanded the homebuyer tax credit.  Both the House and the Senate passed an Unemployment Insurance Extension bill that includes an amendment that extends and expands the homebuyer tax credit.  The bill is expected to be signed into law by President Obama today. Is anything [...]

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You Can't Refinance: Now What?

September 8, 2009

You can’t refinance due to loan to value problems, but it doesn’t mean you can’t still save money on your monthly mortgage payment.

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Energy Tax Credits for Homeowners

August 6, 2009

Did you know you can get an Energy Tax Credit for making energy efficient improvements to your primary residence? As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 there are energy tax credits available specifically for homeowners in Sections 1121 and 1122. Section 1121 states: The new law increases the energy tax credit [...]

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A Lesson in Poor Customer Service

July 28, 2009

By now you may have heard about the woman that is being sued for $50,000 in a libel case by Horizon Realty Group in Chicago for a tweet.  If not, here are the basics. On May 12th Amanda Bonnen, her account has been deleted, sent out a tweet that read in part “Who said sleeping [...]

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