Meet the Media

Meet Michele Lerner, author of “HOMEBUYING: Tough Times, First Time Any Time”. Michele’s work on personal finance and real estate topics has educated consumers, realtors and lenders for more than two decades. Sample chapters and articles are available on her website: www.MicheleLerner.com.
What’s your top story for today?
I usually work on several articles each day. Today I’m working on an insurance article related to CLUE reports, another article about how to decide when the time is right to buy a home and another on pricing your home to sell.
Tell us about your dream assignment.
I love to write about topics that protect consumers and save them money, such as ways to make sure you are handling home financing the right way. But since my topics for articles cover a wide realm of personal finance and real estate issues, I also enjoy doing longer research pieces on urban planning, such as one I wrote a couple of years ago about Chattanooga for Urban Land magazine.  
Describe the wackiest story you’ve written.
Recently I wrote an article about insurance and nuclear accidents for Insurance.com, following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. That was something I never expected to cover. In my earliest freelance writing days, I once wrote a special section about car detailing, which was pretty silly since I didn’t even own a car at the time.
What is your PR pet peeve?
Phone calls to follow up on a press release. I know this is a standard practice, but it drives me crazy to listen to a pitch over the phone when I am on deadline and when I have already seen the press release in an email.  I will always follow up on a press release that is relevant to something I am working on and I use them to come up with article ideas to pitch, too, so I don’t need a phone call.
Top trend in the industry you’re currently covering or are interested in.
At least half of my writing is related to real estate, so I hardly know where to begin to cover the current trends in that field. Number one, I guess, would be the changes coming in the mortgage business and the impact of those potential changes on buyers, sellers, lenders and Realtors.
Want to connect with Michele? Email her at  [email protected]
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Be sure to check back next time for another installation of “Meet the Media.”