I consider myself very fortunate. I’m happily married with a very successful real estate career that is growing rapidly in a tough market.

Prior to beginning my real estate career, I was a restaurant manager looking to find a career where I could actually pursue something that I cared about and had passion for. I was already buying, rehabbing and selling homes so it was a natural transition to move into the listing and sales side of the business. Furthermore, working on those houses helped to provide a foundation that was more beneficial to selling real estate than any class that I ever took in college.

In October of 2003, my wife, Samantha, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Three days after the diagnoses, my wife looked at me and said “let’s buy a house”. It was the spirit that “not even cancer can stop us from realizing our dream” that still inspires me today to dream, work, strive and believe that nothing can stop the human spirit that has the strength to believe in themselves in the face of what can be the worst possible set of circumstances anyone can face – their own death.

Three years later, our daughter was born – the beauty and miracle that many take for granted was to us, almost a miracle. The chances that we could have a child were slim and many thought not possible. But the cancer battle and newborn child left us in less than great shape financially and the time I had spent caring for my wife emptied my pipeline of business and I was wondering if real estate was going to be a viable option for me and my family.

That’s when I made a fundamental paradigm shift into the online world – the “new” way of real estate, so to speak. Continue reading this post

One of the keys to Real Estate or almost anything else, in my opinion, is lifelong learning.

I hear a lot of criticism of the various designations that REALTORS attain. Much of life is in the journey and not the destination, so when I see Realtors with “alphabet soup” past their names – I think that they must have been on a good journey!

Will the alphabet soup mean that they are good Realtors? Probably not, but it will tell you that they are willing to invest in themselves and their profession.
I will grant to you that people have different ways of investing in learning but the designations are one tangible sign that a particular Realtor is interested in becoming better at their profession. Just like a college degree does not ensure that a graduate is competent but does signify a certain level of willingness, ability, and perseverance.

All that said, my wife and I spent last week working on our CRS designation (Certified Residential Specialist) in Key Largo, Florida. Continue reading this post

Nowadays, with the internet and email being such a large part of our business and life, written communication is more important than ever. Whenever I am writing an email or letter, or any other type of document I always think back to my Business Communications class that I took in college. I hated the class at the time, but looking back many years later, I now think that it was the best and most useful class that I took.

The professor always stressed the importance of writing from the “you” point of view—meaning the reader’s point of view, not your own. Whenever I would write something along these lines: “I can do this…” or ” I am …” or anything that started with “I”, my professor would always give me back my paper with a big “So What!” written all over it. In other words the other person doesn’t care about you—they want to know how they will benefit.

To put this in a real estate perspective, so often we see ads from Realtors that say “I’m number 1” or “I sold 300 homes last year.”

So What! What are you going to do to get my house sold? Continue reading this post

There is almost nothing more rewarding in the business of real estate then making the call to first time home buyers to tell them their offer has been accepted. In today’s market, calling sellers and telling them their house is sold can also provide an “I’m so glad I’m a Realtor feeling”.

Unfortunately, delivering bad news is also part of the job and I’ve been delivering it in large doses of late.

Despite the local facts and statistics, national print media headlines and on air reporting by the talking heads, many sellers believe their home is worth more than it is. It is my job, as the friendly local Realtor, to be welcomed into a seller’s home, burst their bubble, and otherwise ruin their perfect day.

Delivering bad news doesn’t come easy and is a learned skill. Having been through 3 market corrections over 3 decades, I have had a fair amount of practice in delivering bad news. I once had a seller burst into tears and although I appear tough, it was an effort to remain professional and not start bawling right along with her.

Hey, I don’t like this market either. Sniffle.

This week I’ve had the opportunity to take the wind out of the sails of two future sellers. As I delivered my CMA at possible listing #1, Mrs. Seller just stared and never said one word. Mr. Seller escorted me out Continue reading this post

The Gospel According to NAR

I had read the Gospel according to NAR (National Association of Realtors)—77% of buyers use the internet to search for homes.

The NARstat is sacred dogma, incessantly chanted by mainstream media and the bloggerati. It provides the philosophical foundation for the agent congregation putting their listings on all manner of real estate websites, especially Realtor.com, the largest real estate church on the net.

The NARstat requires agents do penance and upgrade to the revered “featured listing” pews. To question the holy NARstat would be a blasphemy akin to questioning the earth’s roundness (actually, the earth is an oblate spheroid, but I digress.)

The NARstat also justifies, to a large extent, the agent’s participation and marketing in the new Web 2.0 world where the Google keyword prayer box promises to bring roaming client pilgrims to the agent’s blog or their Truzilfacespace profile—leading to blessed business and salvation for all. But, are we worshipping a false god at the Tower of Google?

The Internet Reformation

Last summer, I took a little RV cross-country trip with Rudy, my partner at the time. We set out to spread the Word of Web 2.0 to the masses, who we suspected were unbelieving techno-pagans. Our odyssey took us to over 30 cities—places like Boston, Philly, D.C., NYC, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, St. Pete, Chicago, St. Paul, Denver, Phoenix, San Diego, Sacramento, Reno, Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Boise, San Francisco -— and all the Waffle Houses in between.

We interviewed real folks young and old, owners and renters—to discover how and where they looked for the places they call home. After 5 weeks on the road and 10,000 miles logged on this beautiful country’s highways and byways, it was I who began to question my internet marketing faith. Continue reading this post

This week has been a week of baling wire and duct tape trying to keep deals together. Patience! Oh, what a wonderful virtue.

Patience to deal with the shifting numbers that inch closer to Yes!, patience with personalities that run the gamut of kind and understanding to rude and arrogant, patience with real estate agents who are slow to respond, patience with lenders who change the rules at a drop of the hat, patience with attorneys who hire temps, patience with home sellers who think their homes are made of gold—why do we do this?

Because that is what we are paid to do, have patience and keep deals together.

For all the do-it-your-self home buyers and sellers doing it themselves for the first time—BEWARE! there are dangers ahead.

How can deals go south?

Financing problems, cold feet, inspection problems, newly disclosed information, buyer buys a Harley before closing, on and on and on, but we must have patience.
Take a deep breath and look at the situation—break it down—then look for a solution.

Sometimes the situation calls for a little Continue reading this post