I don't blog much anymore because I view there are a lot of things I should be doing to further improve myself and my services as a realtor, but when you have something really worth writing about, it makes you want to take the time to put together your thoughts and share them with others.

Everyone has an opinion about the situation regarding Tiger Woods. When the news first broke he was in a car accident and was in serious condition, I was very concerned. Not that I wouldn't be for anyone else in a car accident, but you only hear about the famous getting in major car accidents. Then the details broke that it was outside of his house and the car was going less than thirty miles an hour. People began to get curious about not just what happened with Tiger Woods, but why it happened.

As of this moment, nobody has any real details about Tiger. All we've been told by Tiger is that he committed transgressions against his family and most of the speculation is that he cheated on his wife. If you look at Facebook or Twitter statuses, people have already accepted that is the case. What I find more interesting than the situation itself is to look at the reactions of the public.

There are those people who agree with Tiger and say the issue is a private matter. Then there are those that say it does matter what Tiger has done. I agree with both sides, because it truly isn't a black and white issue. What happens in someone's personal life is a private matter, but when you make most of your money off of endorsements, does that still protect you from scrutiny? Is it only about playing golf anymore? Endorsement money is made possible by having quality products that people believe in buying. Nike for example was already a successful company before they brought on Tiger to endorse their golf line. There is no doubt their golf merchandise sales increased because of Tiger Woods. If you don't support whatever Tiger Woods did, don't you deserve to know that before supporting him financially? Keep in mind, the cleats, clubs, or shirts are the same products Nike had pre-Tiger. EA Sports would still create a golf game to be released every year. Gatorade would have made a new flavor regardless.

People hold celebrities in such high regard because of how much money they make for what they do. You see their movies, you watch their sporting events, you listen to their cds. It is because of these things that they receive the most scrutiny. Its incredibly unfair how much some celebrities make compared to other professions, like the teachers that shape and prepare young minds, doctors who save lives, and the engineers who expand upon and improve the technology that makes the world work. Parents give scrutiny because their kids use celebrities as idols. I would have made my mom proud if I wanted to be a doctor and said that my idol was Dr. James Andrews, but she probably would have rolled her eyes had I explained to her that I knew him because he was a world renowned sports surgeon. Their private lives in most people's eyes are sacrificed because of the considered unfair advantages they have over the average joe or jane and their children. They may not ask for it, but it comes with the territory.

However, this still has nothing to do with Tiger Woods, the golfer. You will still respect his game and what he's done for the sport of golf, and that's how it should be. His life outside the golf world should never cause anyone to dislike Tiger Woods, the golfer. I feel this way because if I were being judged for something in my personal life, I wouldn't want it to affect my professional life as a realtor.

What's scary about today's job market is that personal life is gaining more focus. The news has already reported on employers using Facebook to help determine if they hire someone. A highly esteemed resume and face to face interview may not be enough to secure you a job. There are obviously some things in your personal life that should affect whether you get a job or not, but do the other things prove you aren't capable of doing the job? Does a picture taken of you at a bar, having a good time with friends or family at night, prove you aren't capable of doing a job during the day? If you're painted head to toe in red at an Ohio State football game in November say you're going to do that at work? Where do job hunters draw the line between personal behavior and professional behavior?

Don't get me wrong though. As a realtor in Central Ohio, I know I am not in short supply to sell anyone a home. I may believe that personal life and private life should be separate, but I also understand that personal life is important when it comes to your job. We have to relate with our clients and sometimes we accomplish that with outside interests. Some people may think we make too much money, which in comparison with Tiger Woods or any celebrity is laughable, but money is money. The less we have, the more important it becomes. For those that spend it, they want to make every penny count and for everyone that earns that money, they should do everything in their power to make that happen.

The term ‘bailout’ has become a staple in the American economy over the past few months. Everyone has heard about the $700 billion bailout of financial institutions and just as many heard about the bailing out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from back in October. Some people have been for or against it, and with just reasons. On one hand, we’re using more government spending that could be used better elsewhere to save something that was by all means failing. On the other hand, banking and housing are driving factors of the economy and you can argue that the money couldn’t be better used elsewhere. Regardless of what your opinion is, $700 billion is a lot of money for our government to be spending. It’s a lot more money than a school levy ever needs, and some areas struggle to pass those, so it’s really hard to imagine what $700 billion is needed for.

A lot of people look at financial institutions and immediately think loans, more notably mortgages. Its no secret that when it comes to mortgages, there are institutions that end up giving more money out than they should be to some customers, and we find ourselves in the situation we’re in today with borrowing standards being more restrictive on all fronts. Because of these restrictions, people aren’t making the big investment in home owning or putting their stake in a new home, despite a great buyer’s market.

I bet you’re asking yourself “Dave, where are you really going with all of this?”

The Housing Stimulus Plan from the National Association of Realtors was recently approved to be submitted to Congress. The plan is centered on getting apprehensive buyers to get into the market, helping lead to an end of free falling home prices. As I mentioned in a previous blog, Real Living has held two City Wide House Hops and while I don’t know the success rates of the open houses translating to transactions, I do know from my open houses that the incentives Real Living incorporated with Real Living Mortgage didn’t translate into business for me. Few people really didn’t react to the incentives, which told me that it was not enough to meet their needs. Something on a national level needed to be done.

The plan has four focal points:

1. Take the $7,500 first time homebuyer tax credit and make it available to everyone and eliminate repayment provisions.

2. Keep the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits at their 2008 levels.

3. Use money from the $700 billion bailout to lower mortgage interest rates to a max of 4.5% on a thirty-year mortgage on homes under $1 million for homebuyers.

4. Prevent banks from taking part in real estate brokerage and management.

There it is in a nutshell. This is what real estate is trying to do with the money from the bailout. There was an uneasy feeling from people when the $700 billion was granted by the government, and mainly because people didn’t exactly know what it was for other than a failing system. This however proves there is a plan in place to help revive a very important sector of our economy.

I like the plan to be perfectly honest. People are more adverse to spending money right now, so the $7,500 tax credit should be open to everyone. Everyone is going through the same economy and if real estate is going to nationally rebound, you can’t expect a tax credit and first time homebuyers to do all the heavy lifting. The biggest impact I see coming from this plan however is the interest rate buy-down plan. I have friends and clients tell me 6% interest rates are just too high, so you can see where this is my favorite part of the plan. Lets look at how big an impact this is going to be if it’s passed by Congress.

Take a $150,000 home with $10,000 down on a 30 year mortgage with 4.5% interest and $2000 in property taxes. The payment on that will be a little under $1000. Looking at today’s current rate of 5.75%, which is still low, your payment would be a little under $1100. You would be spending $1200 more a year over 30 years. I don’t think I need to multiply $1200 by 30 years for anyone to see what they would save over the entire length of the mortgage. Let’s just say instead of exact numbers you would easily save what could amount to two cars for your future kids to drive to school or up to two years of college education, depending on the school of their choice. Now imagine how much money you could save if the experts are right and supporters want the rates around 3%.

Hopefully this plan or one very similar to it gets passed through Congress. People need to not fear home owning or this economy if they have a steady job. With stricter lending standards, this plan looks like the kick in the butt fence sitters need. The only real flaw would be its lack of help for those who are in danger and already own a home, so that may be what holds the bill back from being passed.

I highly suggest reading the article about it over at RealtyTimes.com. http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20081203_buydown.htm

It’s the basis for most of my information, but it’s definitely got me intrigued to look more into it. It’s quite exciting to think of the chain reaction of events that get more people in the market of buying.

This is a blog I probably should have written before Thanksgiving, but once the holiday hit, I decided to take it easy and enjoy the time spent with family. The news tells us every day that there aren’t many things to be thankful for. Whether it’s the hot topic of the flailing economy or the usual local crime, there isn’t much to generally be happy about. Thanksgiving however gives us focus and perspective on what there is to be happy about, and call it a cliché, but I’m going to use this blog to say what I’m thankful for as a realtor.

I’m thankful for low interest rates in this economy.

The economy and real estate almost go completely hand in hand, but with today’s economy, housing hasn’t been as affected as people are being led to believe. Real estate over the past few years has been undergoing price correction and over this past year we’ve only begun to see it reflect in home sales. You may be led to believe that interest rates around 6% are bad, but it was only back in the 1980’s where rates were as high as 13%. Rates in the long term are looking to decrease to below 6%. The economy may be making people wary about buying homes, but the real estate market is doing its job to keep you in the game.

I’m thankful for becoming a realtor at the start of a less than viable housing market.

Realtors in times like this decide to either retire or get out of the game for other economically viable career paths. I graduated college and jumped right into real estate in spite of hearing all of this. People tell me this is a bad market to start up in and I tell them it’s a great market to start up in. If you’re new, you already have to build from the bottom up. This kind of market only drives you to do the things you need to do to succeed. Someone who’s been in the business when times are good may adhere to “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” and continue to do things the same as they always have and that may be where you as a new agent would snap up buyers. Personally, this market has taught me to always search for a better way to do business, even when times are good, cause when times are good, they still have the potential to be great.

I’m thankful for being a realtor in this technological time.

I can’t imagine what it was like being a realtor before the days of the internet and cell phones. The information super highway has made our profession so much easier when you really sit and think about it. The internet based MLS we use to find homes used to be a huge book we’d have to look up codes in and the only way we’d be able to be reached by clients would be by a phone hooked into a phone line. We wouldn’t be able to fax or e-mail anything to our office or to our clients. There was a time where Mapquest and GPS were only ideas on a piece of paper. Advertising was left to print and television. The internet is so important that it’s where people do most of their home searching now. I’m very thankful for the time I grew up in, where computers were being integrated into school curriculum and information was making a rapid transition from paper to digital.

And lastly, I’m thankful for the news…sort of.

The news is a catch-22 for realtors. Think about the ten second news commercials for the 6 o’clock and 10 o’clock news. You rarely see and hear the news anchors leadoff with a heartwarming story or good news for people. It’s generally about local violence or tragedy. Most recently the headlines were about Black Friday, which were either about the local worker in NY being trampled and subsequently killed or “Best Deals on Black Friday!” News items need to be captivating to sell papers and gain viewers, and lower mortgage rates or housing sales up over the last month aren’t going to make people tune in. Its good news that people feel they don’t need details about. If foreclosure rates increase without end in sight, people will tune in or read about that to get all the details. I know I generally read into news items like that so I know just how bad it is, but being a realtor, news items like that are very misleading. This market is great to buy into, but unless you talked to a realtor, you never would know that. That’s why I’m thankful for the news, because it inspires people to ask us, the experts, about what the market is really like. I just have to hope that it inspires more people to ask me questions than sit back and decide against buying or selling.

Well, now that I think about it, I have one more thing to be thankful for. I’m thankful for anyone who read this blog. It goes to show I spent my time well and at least it entertained and informed you for 3-5 minutes.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Christmas is right around the corner!

I’ve heard some good things about blogging when you’re a real estate agent. It helps your exposure, it showcases your knowledge, and it can allow prospective clients to get a feel for who you are as both a realtor and as a person. I’ve heard of the advantages of blogging for months, but never jumped on the bandwagon. As a realtor in his first year in the business, who was I to be blogging about the market or changes in real estate compared to other realtors who had been around for a much longer time period?

The answer to that came upon reading the introduction to “Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times,” by Gary Keller. Gary mentions how buyers are more reluctant, fearful, and with higher anxiety. He also mentions how people are getting out of the market.

I thought he was talking about the current market, seeing as the book is already copyrighted for 2009, but he was talking about the market in 1979. He followed that up with the following information; 22 years of age, new to the industry, new to his market. Now I’ve lived in Columbus for 8 years and had family here since shortly after my birth, but just by looking at me you know I don’t have the 30 years of experience other realtors have. You look at me and you see someone fresh out of college, and that’s exactly who I am. I’m in my early twenties, just like Gary, in the same kind of market. There was one question I asked myself after reading this introduction.

If Gary can write a book, why can’t I at least attempt a blog?

I’m not at all comparing myself to Gary Keller, who’s the chairman of the board at Keller Williams Realty International. I’m far from comparing myself with him and will likely never reach that level of success in real estate, but if you ever want to give yourself the chance to reach that point, you have to take chances.

Real Estate is all about taking chances. We take a chance when we financially commit ourselves to becoming realtors, whether it’s the money and time we spend on our education to acquire our license or the money and time we spend to keep it. Those are all common chances we take, but there are many others we take uniquely. Some of those may relate to marketing, prospecting, or personal branding.

For me, I took a chance wearing experience on my face and now I take a chance by imparting what I have in knowledge and experiences in blogs. In this market, buyers are more wary than ever and if we as realtors are going to be good at our job, we need to make their primary real estate news source be us. We know how good this market is for them. Rates are still favorable and there is still money out there in the mortgage industry. The news would simply report interest rates are higher (faintly mentioning compared to earlier this year) and lump mortgages in with other money lending programs having difficulty. We need to be an alternative news source!

I guess we’ll see whether or not blogging is for me, but a risk not taken is a reward you can’t claim. In other news, Real Living is hosting another Citywide House Hop this Sunday, November 9th. It’s a great opportunity for anyone who’s interested in buying sometime in the near future to get to see a ton of open houses and pick the minds of agents they may need to consider to serve them later. As someone that has two open houses on Sunday, I know I’ll be hoping for lots of traffic, so if you know anyone that may be interested in home owning or changing locations, tell them about the House Hop or click on the link below.

http://her.realliving.com/HouseHop.aspx

It really is a tremendous event that’s had a lot of hard work put into it, so take advantage of all the information that’s being given, not to mention the possible $10,000 in savings you can have if you close within the next ten days.

Hope to see you Sunday!