Now you have an online tool to make your property photos look better before uploading them to RentVine using Adobe Photoshop Express.

Even if you just need to rotate that one photo, this program appears to have a ton of power.

This is both cool and scary.

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Move the above image around with your mouse. The image below is from the RentVine listing.

This is a rental from my site. So if I was a renter and I wanted to discount some possible ways people could con me, I would use this tool to see if the photo of the house matches the address that Google Street View has.

I originally wanted an open forum for discussion.  But, because of some issues which have arisen recently, I am now holding comments for review before they appear on the blog.

Yahoo’s email filters kick out a lot of valid emails. From what I have been reading this is been going on for over a year, but it seems to have gotten worse in the past week.

My server sends out alerts each morning to those who have signed up letting them know about new rentals in their area.

But lately those emails come back to me 3 hours later first with a 451 (temp deferred) and then 421 on the last attempt telling me that my email server has given up.

I have been trying many changes to my alert email and sometimes it will go through and sometimes not.

In my latest test tonight it appears that Yahoo does not like links within the plain text emails. This kind of sucks because I want to link to the new rentals. It also appears that Yahoo does not like HTML email.

I have done all the that Yahoo requests, such as DomainKeys, DKIM, SPF - I filled out their questionnaire to get on their white list. I have not heard from them and it sounds like most people never do.

Yahoo is the only one that does this, all the others work fine.

If you have a Yahoo email account you might not be getting all your emails. But I have not given up - I am still trying.

Update: I am pretty sure I have it fixed now (bad domainKey and DKIM). I will have to wait until tomorrow morning to see if it really works when the mass email goes out. I would like to thank Chris Lang for helping me out with my email delivery issues. Now if I can just figure out how to get on Yahoo’s whitelist email list.

Update 2: Yahoo loves me again! See below comments.

Yes, I am a bonehead today! I know I sometimes call Rentals.com a bonehead outfit but today I get that distinction.

If you see that one of your comments is gone from the past couple of days it is not because I do not like you or I am doing some censorship - it is because I am a bonehead extraordinaire!

I deleted part of my database and for the past few hours I have been restoring it.

The backup from yesterday is not happy with me.

Update: all fixed.

From a tip from Mike, check out the calculator on FreeRentUpdates.com.

I wish I was on the list of sites.

It is kind of like RentMarketer but just for pricing.

I switched this RentVine.com site over to a dedicated server yesterday (from a shared server).

I ran all my speed tests this morning and on average most pages on the site load 3 times faster.

Actually the shared server was pretty fast before but the new server is even faster.

For example a typical state page used to take 47 milliseconds to load, now it take 15 milliseconds.

How does this relate to Rentals.com? Well, RentVine loads in milliseconds where Rentals.com takes seconds - 8 seconds in my last test!

Yes, I blow the doors off of Rentals.com.

[Sorry not related to rentals]

The Lost episode that aired tonight took yet another turn in direction. Just when you think you have it figured out they turn the whole show around through a “quantum foam wormhole”.

Tonight’s show felt like I was reading Michael Crichton’s Timeline (which is a great book). Desmond travels back and forth in time just like in the book.

Are the Lost writers playing with us again or did this show just answer a ton of questions?

Who knows, but I love this show!

If you have not watch the show from the first season - forget it, don’t even try picking it up now unless you rent all the seasons.

Well after 3 years being on a shared hosting plan (just $15 a month) I am switching the RentVine site over to a dedicated box (much more than $15 a month).

The shared hosting plan on CrystalTech was very good, but I have finally out grown it and need more headroom on my server.

I have done a ton of testing but I am still nervous about the change over. I will be crossing my figures that the change over goes well.

If you see anything wrong this weekend please let me know.

Update: If you are reading this then you are looking at the new server.

From Paylease.com’s latest newsletter email:

FREE Property listings search on www.paylease.com and www.yourwebsite.com for existing client base

I grew up in Connecticut so I have been a big Giants fan as long as I can remember.

That was a really exciting game. The one play that was amazing was on the Giants winning drive - the one handed helmet catch just before Manning managed to avoid 4 tackles.

I had to call my Dad and brother after the game was over.

I am celebrating my 2nd year working for myself today. RentVine is coming up on its 3rd birthday.

Quiting my job (Acoustical Consultant) is my best accomplishment thus far. I love the freedom of working for myself, and the fact that I decide what I want to work on and not “some boss”.