The Audacity of Some People
Posted at 5:36 AM, Nov. 13, 2008
Now I know that there is a market out there that encourages buyers to take advantage of opportunities. Heck, there are several sellers who will entertain anything, but I think the key here is to identify which properties those might be. For example, properties that have had several price drops and seem to be market chasing. This would also include properties with extremely high market time.
However, what I do not think is acceptable is that there are buyers out there looking at homes WELL beyond their price range and figure every and any seller must be desperate. What I find worse is, what agent is putting these buyers in their cars without knowing what they truly can afford? I have had several showings in the last couple of weeks that involved buyers who could not qualify to purchase the listings they were looking at! We are not even talking in the ball park.
The best is, last night I received a verbal offer via an agent from his client who offered $120K less than the asking price. Now bear in mind, we are already very competitively priced and just dropped it $20K. As if trying to make it plausible, the agent said that this is all the buyer could afford. Which leads me to the big question, "WHY are you showing your client homes that are CLEARLY out of their price range????"
Can the garbage-pickers of buyers and agents kindly step aside? Apparently we have reached a time that I will need to pre-screen buyers AND their agents since those agents don't seem to be doing the job, or care for that matter.
Finding Your Place
Posted at 3:10 PM, Aug. 29, 2007
Many of us either has spent, or still searching for that place in our lives where our work has meaning. I remember in college during an externship at a half way house for women breaking out a well known book called “What Color Is Your Parachute?”. The purpose of the book was to help uncover what drives you.
I felt though, that this examination could go a bit deeper. Instead of a simplified category of skill sets, or even more difficult, trying to articulate a passion, look at what matters to you, even things that may not translate into an easily described trade or field.
For instance, how I came to be a real estate agent. I do not have the “My Father was a broker for 25 years and here I am continuing the legacy”, or “I was in corporate America with an MBA and after an unexpected layoff, found real estate to be the perfect fit for my skills”. Instead, for me, it started with a book. Yes, this is a bit cheesy, but it was Rich Dad, Poor Dad that of all things inspired me to examine what matter to me. Security and a sense of belonging.
I grew up as a renter. My mother was a single working parent whose luck in relationships kept us on the move. I can say that while growing up, I had moved approximately 15 times and attended 13 different schools. You could say we were bit of the gypsies. Every place we lived was either someone else’s or was ours with a lease and hand-me-down furniture. I think I was about 16 years old before I had my first real bed and dresser. Up to that point, laundry baskets and crates were my place for clothes. I can remember several times having to pack up our belongings in the middle of the night in the ever-so-quaint hefty bags and hope we didn’t leave too much behind.
Homeownership was not in my vocabulary. I can recall be envious of my friends who had what was to me, beautiful rooms and a knowledge that tomorrow, their address would still be the same. I was very much on the outside looking in. What I think was the saddest part of it all is, that I did not emerge into adulthood with a drive to own. I clearly felt that homeownership was for the privileged. I succumbed to the notion that I was and will always be a renter-class kinda girl.
After I turned thirty, attending college (something else that I believed was too good for me) and recently married, I picked up the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book and started to read. From it, I learned something very valuable about myself. I craved financial independence. I was so terrified that I would end up like my mother did, living by the seat of her pants, small child(ren) in tow, and never having a place to call her own. This was a very real fear of mine that I had not, up until that moment, put my finger on it.
The book talked about using real estate to accomplish this task. It was from this book, that I started to believe, why not me? But of course, running out a buying an investment property was not in my immediate future by any means. Instead, I had decided to educate myself on the process. If I was going to eventually own rental property and have my cash flow, I needed to feel confident in the procedure. Hence, during my holiday break from school, I enrolled in a real estate sales class. Did I have ambitions to become a sales agent? No. In fact, there is much about sales I absolutely hate. I did however need to feel in control. And for me, what better way to learn the tricks of the trade then from the inside?
It was shortly after I earned my license and in my head, mapping out my plan of attack, I discovered something else. Helping others achieve that very goal that I felt was so out of reach for me, homeownership. I worked almost exclusively with first time homebuyers in the early part of my career and discovered a wondrous change in me. I was empowering myself by empowering others. Single men, women and even young couples challenging and embracing their futures by taking financial control. This wasn’t accomplished by some fantastical dream of becoming the next Donald Trump, but by very real steps that will forever change them. I learned about as much from my clients as they have probably learned from me. I envision extensions of this to include better opportunities for women just like my mother, single parents and working hard to survive. Homeownership shouldn’t be out of their reach for them or their children, and yes, I eventually purchased my own humble abode and watch my children thrive in the security of knowing they will always have a place to call their own.
So what is the moral of my story? Real estate never started out as a passion for me, but instead a profession out of a need. It became one that granted me fulfillment and appreciation beyond my expectations. Real meaning in your life and joy in your work doesn’t always come about in conventional ways. Never be afraid to explore the what-ifs or to waiver off the paved road. There is a saying, “Sometimes on the way to a dream we get lost and find a better one”.
Momma Said There Would Be Days Like This
Posted at 12:41 PM, May. 7, 2007
No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth, it just seems like it. Ever have one of those days that everything just seems like a scene out of a movie? I had one of those recently. In fact, it was the stuff that sitcoms are made of.
It was a few weeks ago when in my dedication and commitment to my buyer clients that I would take them out to view several properties despite my closing delivery date. In case this isn't clear thus far, I was 9 months pregnant. Given the fact that this was my second pregnancy, I of course, arrogantly asserted that I was in control. This time, it would be different. Foolish, foolish girl!
So as my clients travel in from out of state, we begin our journey looking at one of 15 properties we were slated to view for the day. After all, they were in only for that one day! By the 11th, trouble reared its ugly head. The humerous part of it, I did not know any better. In fact, I had enough of a warning sign to say, "Will you excuse me as I make a phone call?" and allowed a listing agent to lead my clients around to another unit in the building as I stole away to a bathroom. Needless to say, I still had that question mark sign over my head. "This can't really be it, can it?".
Convinced that the "sign" was false, I resumed my place with my clients and headed off to property number 12. When I finally dropped my clients off 2 hours later, there were definite more pronouced signs that the end was near! With a smile and a good cheer, I bid my clients adu and dialed my OBGYN on speed dial. His response, "your in labor and need to go to the hospital". My reply? "No, it can't be, it isn't happening like you said it would".
Well now I am driving myself to the hospital a bit perplexed since I was surely expecting my contractions to make a formidable annoucement. I was expecting to be 12 minutes apart to start and have no doubt that I was in labor. Instead I am 2-4 minutes apart without warning (apparently after my water broke I was receiving contractions but just too busy to notice!). To make the pot more interesting, after I arrive and checked myself in, cancel my next two, very full days with other clients, I receive a call from the ones I just left saying they want to put an offer in on a property we saw earlier. "Let me get right back to you", I said.
I call my managing broker, and God Bless him, he was not prepared for this phone conversation; and tell him, "Chuck, I need you to meet with my clients tomorrow morning before they leave and structure an offer for me, I'm in labor!". "WHAT?!", was his response. I replied, "No time to talk about it now, here is what you need to do...."
After about 16 hours later, my beautiful new daughter is born and my clients have the home of their dreams. Not bad for a day's work.
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