Shareholder Representative Service recently published a nice short piece on things one should consider before becoming a shareholder representative.

You can find it here: http://www.shareholderrep.com/Tips.pdf

Bottom line, consider the responsibility very carefully.

For those of you who use Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO), I’ve recently become aware of a policy that is quite disconcerting:  I believe that their reviews are more geared for making property owners look good than to be useful, transparent and truthful to potential renters.

My fiance and I recently rented a place from the website in Yountville, CA.  The landlord used his good reviews on the site to convince that we’d be very happy with our selection of his house.  Unfortunately the house was rat infested and the landlord was hard to deal with, didn’t want to fix the problem and then fought paying us our money back.

While life is too short to sue for the money, it isn’t too short for me to write review.  I wrote this review of the property:

First, VRBO informed me that the post would be reviewed by the editors at VRBO to make sure the post conformed to their “standards” (whatever that meant).  Then it took a week to post and when they did,  I noticed that the the listing of the rental place was taken off the site.

Today, the listing is back without my review included. [Note, as of 1/23, the listing has put reviews back on the listing including mine.] So bottom line, VRBO is giving a heads up to their property owners about bad reviews and is allowing them to unpost and repost (with the same web link!) without any ramifications for screwing one of their renters.

Shame on you VRBO.  Your credibility is totally shot now.

I’m constantly amazed by the amount of scams that I see on the Internet, through email / mail and on AM Radio. Today, however, I may have seen the best one yet.

This looks totally official. And it’s priced so high, it’s actually somewhat believable that it’s real. But it’s not. They are charging $1000+ to put your Trademark on the Internet. I also love the Washington DC address to give a further air of credibility.

And if you check out the website, you’ll be further humored to find that it’s a Liechtenstein-based company which if you have a dispute, you consent to travel to their home turf to fight it. I hear that Liechtenstein is beautiful this time of year…

Opened up Internet Explorer today to find this as my homepage. Gotta love April Fools Day. (Thanks to Ross for the fun).

It’s Friday and y’all know that you are itching for a little bit of time away from your significant other.  Sure, you care for them dearly, but every once in a while it’s great to get out with your friends and let loose.

In my efforts to improve the efficiency of our legal system and to aid in domestic harmony, I present to you the following:

1. An application  for a night out with the boys (away from wife, fiancée, girlfriend); and
2. An application for a night out with the girls (away from husband, fiancée, boyfriend).

Both forms are below and downloadable for your convenience.  Enjoy.

Husband’s Night Out

Wife’s Night Out

Episode 5 is live featuring yours truly, but even better Soul Patch as part of the soundtrack!