What an incredible year it’s been! The birth of our beautiful daughter Malone, moving to Washington, celebrating 2 amazing years of marriage with my wife, starting out my career as a C-17 pilot and meeting some great new friends. Oh yeah, and then there’s this blog.

I started writing on a consistent basis just over a year ago with the sole purpose of passing on various lessons in skilled living to anyone that might be interested. I’m not going to lie, at times the daily grind of blogging can be a bit challenging, but overall, the experience has been wonderful. Connecting with readers, making new relationships, and learning to put ideas into words have all made blogging something I’d recommend to anyone.

Here’s a quick snapshot of Schaefer’s Blog in 2008:

• Total Visitors – 131,785

• Total Pageviews – 236,546

• Comments – 686

• Subscribers – 641 (started the year with 11)

• Google Page Rank – 4

Thank you to all of you who have subscribed, commented, told friends and been a part of the community. I’ll do my best to make sure 2009 is even better. And with that, here are the top 10 posts for Schaefer’s Blog in 2008 as voted by you and your pageviews:

1) 7 Ways to Remember What You Read – the immense benefits of reading are only as great as one’s ability to remember and process the information. Nothing is more frustrating than reading a great book and not being able to recall any of the major points a year or even a month later.

2)  The Lost Art of the Push-Up – As much as I hated it, the push-up helped mold me and keep me in incredible shape. In the process, it also found its way into my heart as an exercise that while not flashy, gets results.

3)  The Holy Trinity of Fitness – Keeping in theme with classic exercises that don’t require thousands of dollars of equipment or gym memberships I present 3 exercises that will give you an incredible workout and get you in great shape if done consistently.

4)  Whatever Happened to Personal Responsibility: A Rant – at the end of the day it’s about taking a coat when it looks like it’s chilly outside.  You can choose not to, it’s true, but don’t whine when you get cold.  Life’s about choices.

5)  Change is a Community Project – Change does not happen in isolation, change happens in the midst of quality human relationships.

6)  5 Things to Remember While Traveling the World – I have now been to 6 of the 7 continents, with hopes to travel to Antarctica in the next few years. Some of my trips have been short, others long, but all of them have combined to give me a much better idea of what it takes to be a skilled world traveler.

7)   7 Common First Time Home Buyer Mistakes – Now that we’ve finally found a home I wanted to look at some pitfalls for first-time home buyers. Some we narrowly avoided, others we fell right into, but they are valuable things to think about when facing this milestone.

8)  The Greatest Buying Opportunity of Our Time – When the market is going down in flames, seasoned investors see incredible buying opportunities where novices see only doom and gloom.

9)  How to Kill an Organization: 5 Barriers to Kaizen – The philosophy of kaizen is something that is of great benefit not only to businesses, but churches, non-profits and civic groups as well. It seems like a no-brainer, yet few organizations really practice it. Why? Here are some thoughts.

10)  20 Things to Do In Your 20’s – The twenties are also foundational years for us and should not be wasted or lived unintentionally. With the help of some friends and mentors, the following are some of the best things we could think of to do in order to make the most of your twenties.

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Anyone who has caught a glimpse of the news over the past year has heard of the black cloud hanging over the American housing market in regard to the sub prime mortgage mess. Record numbers of home buyers defaulting on their loans has had a tremendous ripple effect on everyone from lending companies to major banks, and the U.S. real estate market has shown the strain. Prices have retreated and supply has grown as lenders have tightened down their lending policies and mass foreclosures have become common place. As the saga continues the question is whether 2008 will be the year to buy a house? This question has become personally relevant as my wife and I prepare to purchase our first home sometime next Spring depending on where the Air Force decides to send us after Pilot Training.

After a little research the answer is mixed at best. For one, as real estate agents are often fond of saying, “real estate is local.” Some markets are expected to continue their decline in 2008 at double digit rates while others, mainly those catering to vacation home buyers, may already be close to bottoming out. A recent CNNMoney.com article provided the following table listing those areas predicted to be hit worst by continuing declines in housing prices.

Secondly, the answer to whether or not to buy in ‘08 hinges on how long you plan on keeping your house after the purchase. While opinions on the time frame for a market turnaround are incredibly diverse, almost everyone agrees that in a few years the crisis should be over. Meaning, if you buy a house tomorrow, as long as you’re not trying to flip it in the next year or two, you should be fine.

Keeping these things in mind the best thing for a potential buyer to do is scout the area and put their “House-Flipping for Dummies” book at the back of the shelf for the time being. Barbara Corcoran, the real estate contributor to CNBC, MSNBC and NBC’s TODAY show explains, “Give yourself a crash course on home prices in your area by visiting the open houses of homes similar to the one you’ve got your eye on. Then, get three competitive brokers to give you a cost estimate of what the home is worth. Once you’re armed with information, you can put in an educated offer. A nice place to start is 15 percent below the asking price, if it’s properly priced, or 15 percent below what you believe the value is if it’s not.”

Here are some good sites that can also help you research the local markets by providing tons of great information on the prices of recently sold homes, for sale listing, neighborhood information, trends, etc.:

1) Zillow.com

2) Trulia.com

3) Redfin.com

As Marelize and I go on our own little journey through the world of the first-time home purchase next Spring I will be sure to keep you updated on the process.

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