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

With the market we are in I have noticed a wider than normal gap between Realtors who are successful this year and the ones who are not.

I think there are probably several reasons for this with one being that people considering selling their home know it is a tough market and for this reason want to list with a successful Realtor.

The question comes to mind – WHY are some Realtors more successful in this market?
I was listing homes in a new subdivision for a builder yesterday and I think he pointed out a key reason for the success of some and not others. He said that he had noticed a key difference between Realtors in this market. Some had decided that we were in a really bad market and the best thing to do was keep your head down and just wait until the bad market was over and then get back to work. He said another group acknowledged that there was a bad market BUT they were determined to push through and find innovative ways to market homes.

This Builder said that he was listing his subdivision with us Continue reading this post