For the past two years I have been searching for the perfect contact management program only to find that what's available on the market is either too expensive, had too many strings attached, or was too high maintenance.
My husband wrote an Aviation Maintenance Management Database, called AMDS, for the US military. They are still using it to this day, and I figured what's good enough for the military must be good enough for me.
This is how "My Best Buddy" came to life! My Best Buddy is a very simple, down to earth database that keeps track of all my contacts, listings and transactions, reminds me of important deadlines and shows me how much money I have coming in.
I have been test driving My Best Buddy for a few weeks and we have improved features and added new ones as well.
We are asking you to test drive My Best Buddy and give us your feedback. We have 50 FREE copies to give away. Your copy is yours to keep forever and you will also receive FREE updates and upgrades in exchange for your input.
Simply tell us what you think, what you would like to see added, what should be changed, what should be improved. We have a survey for you after you have used My Best Buddy for a few weeks. We welcome any comments and constructive critique.
It's already November, how could the last 10 months slip by so fast? It is true, times flies when you are busy and time has been lightening fast for us and, according to the lastest numbers for Highlands County, this holds true for many of our fellow Realtors.
93 sales in October, that's 30 more than in September, which wasn't a bad month either. Surprisingly, despite the increase in sales, there is a noticable decrease in distress sales. At the same time, the average sale price for all of Highlands County dropped by $7,000 and the average time it took to sell a home was only 135 days, compared to 148 in September.
We believe non-distress sellers have begun to realize that it only makes sense to put their property on the market if they are able to compete with the distress sales, which can be had at unbelievably low prices.
We can't wait to see what the end of the year numbers have to say!!!!!
Last week we were contacted by an absentee owner lookingfor a realtor in our area with a buyer for their bank approved short sale. The property is a beautiful townhouse located in one of Sebring's most prestigeous communities,The Sebring Country Club.
Upon speaking with the owners, residing in the Ft. Lauderdale area, we learned that they had hired a Ft. Lauderdale agent to list, market and sell the property. Also involved was a Ft. Lauderdale paralegal to negotiate the sale with the lender. The Ft. Lauderdale agent had found a buyer for the town house. There is no doubt in my mind that both the agent and the paralegal are highly regarded professionals even though the bank didn't approve the offer and the buyer ended up walking and purchasing townhouse. Sometimes things just don't work out, right?
We work with a local paralegal and closing agent to negotiate all our short sales and so far 100% of our short sale transactions have closed successfully.
Here's why using local professionals is always your best bet:
1. A local agent knows his local market. He or she will be able to defend the listing price with carefully selected comparables.
2. A local agent knows local buyers. He or she will be able to substitute a local buyer with another local buyer.
3. A local agent knows his fellow local agents. If he or she can't find a substitute local buyer, he or she will know which fellow agent has a local substitute buyer.
4. A local agent will likely have a trustworthy working relationship established with a local paralegal.
5. A local paralegal will have access to the local MLS to pull comps, listing history and whatever information the lender might require in order to approve a sale.
6. A local paralegal and closing agent will be able to close the transaction in the county where the property is located.
Legally, we are licensed to sell real estate in the State of Florida. This literally means we can list and sell property in Miami even though we are located in Sebring, about 2 hours northwest of Miami. Practically, is this a good idea? Probably not! We have no knowledge of the Miami real estate market. We are not familiar with local customs, we are not familiar with the local agents and other real estate related professionals. We also do not have the time and financial resourses to travel back and forth to Miami to service the listing.
We live in Highlands County. We know our market, we know our fellow agents and we know how to list and sell real estate in our area.
If you own property in Highlands County, consult local professionals!
Is your loan a Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae and why you need to know this:
Many homeowners who are able to pay their mortgage on time feel they are stuck in their home forever because they are not able to sell it for market value nor are they able to refinance and take advantage of today's low interest rates because their home is worth less today than what they paid for it initially.
The Making Home Affordable Program gives eligible homeowners with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac the opportunity to refinance into more affordable monthly payments.
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide "Loan Look Up Tools" on their websites for homeowners to check if their loan is owned or guaranteed by either of the companies:
This questioncomes up quite often when working with buyers, especially if they are from out of town or from out of state. Now before we go any further, let me say this:
Every state has their own rules and regulations regarding buyer agents and listing agents. Every region within every state might have its own customs regarding many things pertaining real estate.
This is how it works in Highlands County, Florida:
Generally, buyers do not pay their buyer agent! The buyer agent gets a percentage of the commission the listing agent earns from the seller.
Let's say you are from up north and are looking to buy a retirement home in Highlands County Florida. You call us up and we discuss your wants and needs. After we have identified several properties that are of interest to you, we go out and take a look at them. As I have said in an earlier post, we are not limited to our own listings or office listings. We will show you any home for sale through any agent and any office. Now, once we have found your dream home and have written up an offer that was accepted by the seller, we move towards the closing table. You will not have to pay us a dime! Our services are completely FREE to you, the buyer! The listing agent offers a split of their commission to acooperating broker once they enter their listing into the MLS. This is how the buyer agent gets paid. It will show up on the top portion of page 1 on the final closing statement and it will be paid out of the seller's proceeds.
Now it makes even more sense to call us to help you find that dreamhome in Highlands County - it doesn't cost you dime to work with a pro!
We are often puzzled by how little the general public appears to know about how the real estate business works. Many buyers seems to believe that any particular agent will only show them his or her own listings or at best; all office listings. It also appears that many sellers believe that their listing agent should be the one to sell their home, not a cooperating agent.
We do not know how other agents work but here's what we do:
Example: A younger couple calls us to help them find a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 car garage home for under $150,000 in Sun'n'Lake of Sebring. Yes, our own listings come to mind first. That's because we know them better than any other listing within our office and within our MLS. If we do have a listing that matches the buyer's criteria and we believe could be of interest, it goes on the mental list. Next are our office listings. We know these listings from caravans and from talking to the agents in our office. Again, if there are office listings that matches buyer criteria, the go on the mental list as well. Thirdly, we check the entire MLS. Our search reveals 30 listings that match the buyer's initial criteria. We invite the buyer's to meet us at our office so we can go over some more details and try to narrow down the search a bit more. After we have weeded out homes that are not of interest to the buyer, we grab our list of finalists and start making phone calls to arrange for showing appointments. If our own listings or office listings are among the finalists, that's great. If not, then it doesn't make a difference either. Why? Because it doesn't matter to the buyer whether their next home was listed by ERA or Remax or ABC Realty. Therefore, it doesn't matter to us! Yep, it's that simple!
A few months ago we worked with a young couplethat made an offer on one of our listings. Because it was a short sale and because their living arrangements were really just temporary, they decided to abandon their offer and find a "regular" home for sale that could close faster. Honestly, we felt early on that those buyers weren't likely to wait through the short sale process and we knew they needed a quicker solution. They were surprised when we didn't mind showing them other homes. They were surprised that we showed them all the homes their previous agent for whatever reason refused to show them.
Just yesterday, we received a call from a buyer who had an offer in with another agent on one of our short sales. Because they couldn't match the bank's counter offer, they decided to let it go and find another home. Because we are in the business of selling homes, we gave the buyer's agent a list of similar homes we had listed within the same neigbhorhood. The buyer didn't know about any of these listings until they called us up yesterday. We will show them ANY listing that meets their criteria and it won't matter to us which sign is in the front yard. It's not about us, it's about the client. Always!
Most of our closings are mail-outs and we hardly get to see the closing table. Yesterday, I had the honor of taking some very dear clients to the closing table and hand them the key to their new home. Priceless!
It had been a very eventful transaction from the time we first met with Paul & Judi. They made an offer on one of our listings, a short sale in a very active and well kept adult community in the heart of Sebring. They loved the home and they were very familiar with the neighbors. In fact, the neighbor across the street from our listing called Judi on the phone the second my husband Darrin put our sign in the frontyard. Goes to show that sign in the front yard IS important!
Paul and Judi were in the process of selling their previous home and the offer we wrote was not only contingent upon financing but also on the sale of their home. We submitted to the lender an addendum of removal of "sale of home contingency" after their home sold. Soon thereafter, our clients grew impatient with the short sale process. They had moved in with Paul's lovely Mom and not knowing whether or not the sale would be approved and how long it would take made them antsy.
We started looking at other homes, priced within their range and without the short sale waiting time. Why do they call it s-h-o-r-t sale anyway? This is a rhetoric question! After we had looked at a number of homes, Paul and Judi zeroed in on a lovely 2 bedroom home in a nice neighborhood. The privacy fenced yard was perfect for their two little dogs and what do you know...the screened lanai had a doggy door, perfectly sized for the bubbly pooches. We wrote an offer after getting a release from contract on the previous home.
The initial offer was countered by the sellers and after some soul searching, our clients accepted the seller's counter offer. Paul and Judi were happy and so were we! The home appraised for purchase price, homeinspection only revealed some minor issues, no termites found - ready to close!
After the first offer was rejected by the seller, the second offer came in considerably higher but the home didn't appraise for that much. Seller agreed to reduce the purchase price to the appraisal amount and to pay 6% in seller's concessions (which really hurt!).
The inspection day revealed that the A/C is not functioning and the loan cannot close unless we have an A/C in working condition at full capacity. The buyer agent had an A/C specialist look at it to give an estimate of repairs: we need a completely new unit! $3,000! That's $3,000 the seller didn't have. We couldn't reduce the purchase price, which both parties would have agreed to do, because the loan wouldn't close unless there's a working A/C. Now what?
Not only am I married to Mr. Right, I'm also married to Mr. Fix-It, both the same person, which happens to be my partner in crime as well! Friday night, hubby and I went out there to take a look at the A/C. Our own blew out just a few months ago and he was able to fix it with a few new parts. After some thinking, my husband decided that if the thermostat panel doesn't work, the A/C can't work either and maybe all we need is a new thermostat panel. $15 at Home Depot. No, Mr. Right/Mr. Fix-It is not an A/C repair man!
Saturday morning he installed the new thermostat panel and voila! The A/C is working and at full capacity!
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
For the past two years I have been searching for the perfect contact management program only to find that what's available on the market is either too expensive, had too many strings attached, or was too high maintenance.
Most of our closings are mail-outs and we hardly get to see the closing table. Yesterday, I had the honor of taking some very dear clients to the closing table and hand them the key to their new home. Priceless!
... fix an old air conditioner and save the deal!
;)
;)
