Let the Sun Shine In

When I came to the Westsound area of Puget Sound six years ago, I had NO trouble adjusting to winters.  When I herded onto the ferry on foot at some early hour in the dark and in the rain, I was smiling. Inside I was celebrating because I didn't have to shovel my driveway or scrape an inch of ice off my windshield.  I had finally left Midwestern winters behind me. Let it rain, I said.

I realize now that if we waited for it to stop raining, we'd never get anything done 8 months out of the year.

I've come to appreciate the many words for "rain" in the meteorologist's repertoire.  I laughed the first time I actually heard the "weatherman" predicts SPRINKLES. Once being a student of the weather because we never knew how the weather would change, I've pretty much come to realize it doesn't change much here. Except the sun might shine and the rain might stop once in awhile.

I've looked forward to May and June because that's when the clouds seem to part and the sun shines through. Mt. Rainier becomes visible, the Olympics shine in their majesty, the water of Liberty Bay and everywhere around here just becomes so blue, it's all breathtaking.  It's one of those kinds of days I remember made me fall in love with this area years ago.

I remember that day. I walked on the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. Everything was out including the seals going by on a logging boat of some kind.  And the sky was so very blue.

This year, Father's Day was a day like that.  We drove through the mountains to Leavenworth for the day. The sky was so blue I actually caught myself stopping and just looking upward.  The green trees and the blue, blue sky.  I actually think I caught a few rays of sunshine and it felt good.  We sat on the steps in the town and I felt like a dog lazing on the sunny spot in the living room. It felt good to be in the light and to be warm.

Then Monday, the sun was shining again! I was shocked and excited.

We've waited so long for this for spring has been late this year.  Maybe the weather has finally turned the corner to spring, I thought.  I drove out along the Hood Canal on Seabeck Highway and had to pull over and look around awhile.  When I arrived at my appointment, my client was out in her yard looking up.
"What do you see?" I asked.

She replied, "I just can't believe how blue the sky is!"

Well, maybe because the sky has been gray so long, we forgot!

I dont' know why the sun took so long to get here and why it's being so shy about staying. Maybe it's the pollution in China drifting our way. Maybe it's the reverse effect of the "pineapple express" (an actual weather phenomenon) or maybe its La Nina or El Nino which I can never keep straight.  Maybe it's because Mercury is in retrograde.

Today, the clouds came back.

I'm not a subscriber to the global warming theory and won't be. When I was in high school years ago, "they" told us we were headed for an Ice Age. It's hard to sift through the political meaning of it all and I'm not on anybody's side.  I do believe God is a lot bigger than Al Gore though.

With all that, I only have two questions:

And how will it affect the price of real estate?

So, do I need a jacket. or not? 

 

Copyright 2008 Tall Cedar Publishing

 

 

KIds, College, Poets and The Comfort of Home

 

We help people buy houses. More importantly, we help people make homes.

My son came home from college this weekend. While we were making pizzas and having a beer in the kitchen we talked about his classes and his student teaching.  He said one of his new favorite authors is Maya Angelou.  Ms. Angelou rose to notoriety during the Clinton administration and I took more notice when she began having conversations with Oprah.   I can see why my son enjoys her writing as it is earthy and real, like Midwesterners, with whom he identifies mostly.  She writes about matters of the heart.  

I was reminded of the gist of a favorite quote of hers from a colleague recently.  It turns out it was from Maya Angelou, too. She said, " I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  The realtor that quoted me that comes to real estate from the ‘caring professions.'  Isn't that interesting that she still is in a ‘caring profession'?

Our customers don't call us back years later because we were the smartest guy in the room, they call us back because of how we made them feel. As long as we make them feel like the most important people in the room, we are doing well.

Another Angelou quote makes me smile: "I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back."  Boy, isn't that the truth!  Great thought to share with kids about resiliency.

For us in the real estate profession, a caring profession, this quote is something to remember:

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as  we are and not be questioned." - Maya Angelou

We live in an era when a lot of people have come to think their home value doubles every year or two. Of course, they're relearning that concept. A home is a home.  It's not an investment.

It's a permanent place for a family, whatever its makeup, to live and pass the days. It's a place for laughter and tears, cooking and cleaning and a place from which kids grow and leave.  But it's good when they still want to come home. THAT you can't measure in a CMA or in the tax-assessed value. 

I was watching an ABC News interview of a Yale professor who is an expert in real estate economics. I was interested in these numbers. If you bought a house in 1908, you probably would get your money back around 1946.  If you bought in 1953 (post-war era), you would get your money back by 1978.  Of course, the value of it went up and down and up and down during those years but most people stayed in one home.  It was, well, home.

I have been working with a buying couple lately. Their kids are all raised with kids of their own. They've been married 37 years and have been renting for a number of years after some tough times.  I am so tickled that I found them a house and it has a view and they can afford it. For them it means stability, a permanent place. It'll be "Grandma and Grandpa's House". Their ache is relieved. I can see it in their faces.

I hope I always remember that it's not just about the house. It's always about a home.

 

Copyright 2008 Tall Cedar Publishing

Crazy Little Thing Called Real Estate

 

The soul of a writer lives within me. So far, it's not anything that will pay the bills but maybe someday it will be.  So I write and I blog.  Not often enough, but I blog.

The soul of a sales person also lives within me and she has actually done pretty well in her life.  She made me a successful advertising agent in the the third largest US market for many years.  She did mention to me the other day when I was lugging around A-boards after an open house that I might have picked a different time to start a career in real estate.

Admittedly, real estate has not paid too many bills lately.

Sure, I could have gotten my license and jumped in a few years ago when it was possible you'd have closed transactions before the ink on your license was dry.  I am dealing with a lot of those "more experienced" agents and I'm finding many with less than desirable customer service skills.  I mean, waiting two days for a return call is completely ridiculous.  We live in an era when four hours gets a customer's toe tapping with impatience. 

My inner salesperson hopes a lot of agents who aren't focused on customers will naturally fall away from the business. 

My first year is nearly complete. I've filed my first tax return as a real estate agent and I'm planning my next year. It's hard to project and plan but I think most business owners are having those same problems so I'm in good company. 

Be different, keep expenses low and keep smiling is my plan for this year.

 It's a wild and crazy business and I've met a lot of loveable, crazy agents.  I love having a glass of wine with associates and talk about CMAs, PSAs and Closing dates.   I love hearing about other people's successes and their relationships with clients over the years.

I love salespeople who understand that the heart of sales is service. 

Those are the ones whom I will choose to mentor me and encourage me in this crazy business.  At the end of each day, even those many days in a row when I feel like I'm working for free, my daily inventory should always include helping someone else whether it's a buyer, seller or another agent.  Being of service to others is always a good way to spend your time.

Then I feel like another crazy day in real estate was worth it.

Copyright 2008 Tall Cedar Publishing

Open House Don't Work

I've been in this business now since June, not exactly an oldtimer in real estate. I have a lot of experience, just not in real estate. I'm not sure my clients know the difference. I've been doing open houses now since I started. I've heard repeatedly that open houses don't work, they're a waste of time. I just keep nodding my head and going out once a week and putting up my A-boards. Mind you, I have not had a listing of my own since October but I have continued to do open houses. I'm picky about where I do them and for whom but I do them. Last fall when I had my first listing, I did a lot of open houses. Never mind I'd gotten a contingent offer the first week it was on the market. I kept working it for my client's sake and if I benefited, so be it. They were okay with that too. I met one couple with whom I struck up a relationship. I did some CMA work for them and they decided at that time not to put their home on the market. They had no fire in their belly, so to speak. I sent them a Halloween card since I remembered she really liked Halloween. I sent them a Christmas card. I sent them a newsletter in January. Two weeks ago, I received a call from them. They had gone to an open house and found a house they liked and wanted me to work with them on buying it. Can you believe it?? It works! Marketing works. We just signed around an offer on house for them. Their house goes on the MLS tomorrow. So I believe open houses make a difference. Having your picture on your business card? Now that's a different story. Next blog: Who needs the picture: you or your customers? Copyright 2008 Tall Cedar Publishing

Where's the Love?

I don't know if there's every a 'good' time to cold start a real estate practice.  I look forward to better times. I host Open Houses, I send out letters, I call people I know well and people I barely know.  I am one lucky person who actually gets the occasional floor call at my office and I'm working those leads.  I've been so busy not making any money, I haven't taken time to write.

I watch the other agents who have been around awhile and see some of their posturea sink lower and lower and their complaint levels rise higher and higher.  It's hard to work without getting a paycheck. I have come to enjoy immediate gratification with that paycheck every two weeks and additional commissions at the end of the month. Then I became a Realtor. 

Every once in awhile I get a little slap happy between silly questions from customers or hours of research to find just the right house for someone who has completely changed their mind by the time you meet with them.  It's all good, its' all part and parcel but ya gotta wonder sometimes, WHERE'S THE LOVE??

Yikes, does anybody care what we do? Don't they know the hours we put in and the education we continue taking and the phoning we do just to stay on top of things?  WHERE'S THE LOVE??

My husband wonders where I am on Saturday and Sunday afternoons now.  I actually am missing parts of Seahawks games to go sit in an empty house and hope someone stops by to talk to me.  I miss my halftime treats at home! WHERE'S THE LOVE??

It's the end of the year so we start getting out dues notices for next year.  Didn't I just pay these? How about if you wait and bill me when the "market picks up"? No? Okay but WHERE'S THE LOVE?

I love this business though and I've only been in it six months.  You can't let yourself get down or discouraged. No matter what, we have to be encouraged and encourage others, including our customers

I am not complaining. I am blessed with a lot of love around me. I have some good connections with some agents and brokers in my office. These are people with whom I'd like to do business. These are people whom I trust in their ways and wisdom and appreciate their advice.  THERE'S THE LOVE. People passing on what someone spent time to share with them when they got started.

Meeting new people is a pasttime for me. I love meeting people and learning about them, finding out what makes them tick, finding out what they love.  Some people are hard to love!

Steven Covey is famous for a lot of sayings but one of my favorites is "Love is a verb."

It isn't just an overpowering passionate feeling or an overwhelming feeling of gratefulness.  Sometimes it's just an act of the will, an expression to show someone else some love.  It's pretty simple actually.  You do something so someone else feels loved or encouraged.

Maybe you start your wife's car and warm it up for her on a cold morning while she gathers her briefcase and coffee for work.  Maybe you add that little sticky note in your son or daughter's lunch box just to make them smile and feel loved while they are at school away from you.  My husband travels a lot and once in awhile I like to surprise him with little sticky notes inside his planner, his briefcase, pockets in his suits, places he can find "me" while he's 2000 miles away from home.  THERE'S THE LOVE.

In our business, it's nice to hear thank yous. It's nice to be appreciated. And you know what? We are.

Everyday I see and hear of gestures of kindness from clients who want to do something nice for their agent. They do value us.

I finally got my first 'official' one today.  This client was my first listing and my first transaction.  I've written about them here before today. Today they sent back a survey our mother company sends out. It's always good to ask for feedback. 

They said there was nothing I could have done to improve and they said they loved me!

It doesn't get much better than that.

 

Copyright 2007 Tall Cedar Publishing

 

Presentation Makes a Difference

Presentation Makes A Difference

Now that the other shoe is beginning to drop in the mortgage ‘meltdown', we have to remain hopeful for our customers.  I learned today from a panel of lenders that this situation with all the ARMS resetting will culminate in March of 2008.  So we have a way to go and the press will have many, many opportunities to keep pressing the negative.

 One of the best ways we can be of service to our ‘database' and our current client list is to offer them perspective in the form of education.  Be the source of reliable information. Be an expert on which they come to rely.  I've only been in the business two months but twenty five years of marketing taught me how to research quickly and learn what I need to be able to present.

What I want to be able to present to my clients is CONFIDENCE.

What I want them to gain is an educated point of view so they can read the market through a filter other than the ones CNN creates for a fearful populous.

What I want to be able to present to lenders is CAPABILITY.

What I want a lender to know is that I understand their product and will work with them in helping our mutual customer through a process as seamlessly as possible. 

What I want to be able to present to my fellow REALTORs is CAMARADERIE.

We might have different goals and different ways of managing our processes, but if I know you're more committed to the customer's outcome than your own, then we're on the same page.  It should be the customer's outcome that we commit to, not a direct deposit into our account.  I believe the old adage that if you do the right thing, the right thing will come back to you.  

What I want to be able to present to my family is FLEXIBILITY.

My real estate practice is getting busier and we sure could work a lot of unproductive hours but my schedule allows me to spend time with in a way I can't be working for someone else.  I love being self-employed.  With all its risks, there are no greater rewards. To have the time to contribute to others as individuals and in my community is one of those great rewards.

What I want to be able to present to my community is AVAILABILITY.

In my hometown in Indiana near the shore of Lake Michigan, there is a slide on a playground my advertising agency helped to build. It wasn't so much the money we gave to make it possible, it was the time and energy we spent with 200 other community volunteers that made it so much more worthwhile.

Present yourself well and good things will follow.

 

Copyright 2007 Tall Cedar Publishing

Life is good even without performance enhancers

 

If a baseball player or champion bicyclist takes steroids or some type of performance-enhancing drugs, he/she may accomplish great things and go to heights never imagined.  A batter could break the unbreakable record set by Hank Aaron decades ago.  A bicyclist could win tour after tour and make the Tour de France a household word.  If the performance enhancers are taken away, over time their performance might not be as astounding and records would stand.  Or if a record was broken, some bystanders might ask, "Well if there were performance enhancers involved, did he REALLY break the record? Does it count?"

I kind of think that's what we're looking at in real estate. 

So ‘the real estate market' has gone through an amazing period of time where people can actually buy houses with no money, just their good looks, and then sell the house a year later and make $100k.  Everyone has a different take on why ‘the market' is doing what it's doing.  I do believe a lot of it has to do with taking away performance enhancers.   Performance enhancers such as ‘no document' loans, no money down, stated income, interest only, are for a select few who can really afford those types of things but they became common place and too easy to get.  I hope real estate remembered to send a big thank you to the financing industry for the boost.   Take those away and things become REAL, real quick. 

Maybe that's why it's called REAL estate.  It's for real and you can only toy with the numbers in so many ways before it pushes back.  "Under all is the land."

Sure, I'm new to this business but I am no spring chicken.  If you made hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years , I hope you saved some of that money and I hope a lot of those buyers are referring their friends and associates to you now. It's back to basics now.

I was in the advertising business in the late 70s ( I told you I was no spring chicken!)  I worked for a metro newspaper and at that time 80% of the households subscribed to a newspaper and depended on it for most of their regional and local news. Walter Cronkite and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley kept us informed of national and world affairs.  Life was good.   Phones rang off the hook.

Business was so good, our salespeople could practically golf all day or shop all day, come back to the office and return messages which simply ad space reservations.  Advertising was practically begging to be in the newspaper.  Life was good. 

Then the early 80s came with high interest rates, huge ground inventories and layoffs.  Life, all of a sudden, was not so good for some. Revenues fell. Major advertisers cut back and changed strategies. 

The performance enhancers for the newspaper industry were taken away. All the things that made it fun were gone for the moment it seemed.

Over night it seemed the business changed.   That's when I learned sales. In a changed environment.  The rules were being rewritten.   When the going gets tough, customers are even more important.  Within two years, the region where I lived and worked lost 25,000 steel industry jobs. Ouch!  I was really good at 'going out of business' ads. It was a skill I was anxious to be rid of and with a few years, I had to develop new skills to get new business and write good ad copy for a growing market.

I was blessed by that time. I learned good basics.  A lot of people left the ad business because they had become let themselves become dinosaurs in a few years. They did not adapt.

So now I begin another business in a time of change.  I hope I can enjoy the same kind of success in real estate that I enjoyed in advertising.  Life is good.  It might be different but it is good.

When I see that housing prices are up and up, I wonder what makes that so.  Is it because only people who can really afford to buy a home are buying and able to qualify for conventional financing? 

The performance enhancers are gone. 

Being in marketing most of my adult life, I'm always interested in what the numbers really mean.

But the most important meaning is what it means to your customers in their local neighborhood in the local market.   Make yourself even more valuable as the interpreter of change for clients and prospects.

We might be in for some more adjustments in the market.  We can adjust and adapt.  It just won't be the same but life is good.

 Copyright 2007 Tall Cedar Publishing

Kitchens, Kids and What's Important to Our Customers

I have been known to notice small details about a person which gives me better understanding.  Those insights into others can make me more compassionate and understanding providing one of my character flaws isn't rearing it's ugly head.

Being in sales challenges me to keep my character flaws in check and to be kind and understanding. All those little one-liners often prove to be true, not the least of which is, "you get more with honey than vinegar."  Those one-liners are often homespun from grandmas and aunts working in kitchen in eras gone by but still hold true today.  A kitchen is often the ‘hub' of the home, the operational area of the woman who keeps things humming around the homestead.  It still is true in homes today, in different ways.

Groceries are sorted and prepared in the kitchen.  Breakfast cereals and milk is poured in the kitchen.  Family meals are prepared in the kitchen. Company seems to congregate in the kitchen.  Holiday meals especially make the kitchen more a part of the family's fabric.  The family calendars often hang in the kitchen.   Telephones are in the kitchen.  Fingers get cleaned, band-aids applied and kissed in the kitchen.  Moms watch the kids in the backyard from the kitchen window.   Parents have their morning coffee in the quiet of the early morning in the kitchen.  In many homes, it is the nerve center of the family's existence. 

Last weekend I held an open house for a great couple who listed their home with me, of all people.   It's such a privilege to be a part of this process in their life.  We were one of the fortunate teams as we received an offer in the first week the listing was on the market.  Without going into all the details, I was moved that the most important thing to the woman was keeping the curtains in the kids' room and those in the kitchen.  She thought she could replace them but she just really likes these.  I think it's because it's a part of this house.  It's a part of a house she fell in love and has nurtured and cared for it for the past four years alongside her husband. 

Of all the things we could want, of all that could be important, to her it is the curtains.

As I walked around their home, I noticed something that tugged at my sentimental heartstrings.  Something that I once moved away from and left behind in a house.  It's often part of a growing family. A measurement of growth, a marker of personal history for the children in the home.

It was the door way markings of height by date. 

"Linda02/05"  (not her real name)

The marking was followed upward by a series of other names and dates for three children.  They are children of a Navy Chief who was blessed to have seen all three of his children born, not a claim a lot of service personnel can make.  They are also children of a loving and sturdy wife who has moved a number of times and reared children and clearly taken care of their homes.

They thought they would stay in this house and they treated it as such. They cared for it. They improved it. They loved it.

Now the Navy has changed their call to duty. So they will find another home on the opposite shore of this great country and begin the markings again on another kitchen doorway because children keep growing,  parents keep loving and those who serve, keep serving.

Being in this business is a privilege.  I hope to never forget that and why I pledge to always "See Real Estate Through Your Eyes."  Seeing through my customers eyes will always give me more understanding than trying to get my needs met or meet my personal goals.

kjlange

Copyright 2007 Tall Cedar Publishing 

 

Put Me In, Coach! I'm Ready To Play!

August, 2007

Wow, what a summer!  

     Nights with countless stars and sunny days now numbered too few as August comes to a close and a new season begins.
     I've spent the summer meeting new people, digging my heels into the business of real estate and reaching out.  It's great to be part of a team as successful and respected as Windermere.  I admired this company before I came on board and now I know more reasons why.  It's like running out onto the field that first
time with expectations to win because your team is so well-trained and seasoned.    

     When I first walked onto the Field of Real Estate, the first thing I noticed was the roar of the crowd.  What some are hearing the crowd say is that the real estate market is in crisis.  I've been asked why I decided to engage in a real estate practice in "this market."  I came from two previous careers, one in banking and one in advertising.
     I remember 18% interest rates and overflowing inventories in the early 1980s.  I started a business during the credit adjustments of the 90's. From Chicago I saw the ‘dot com' bubble burst. It's like watching game films of a brutal defeat and yet we pick ourselves up and move on.
     For the last few years, ‘the market' has been wild.  Creative financing, which I call the ‘steroids' of the credit market, is gone for the most part. Did we really win or not?   Was it the ‘steroids' or good personal financial decisions?  Hopefully, that 3/1 ARM that looked three years ago isn't looking like a bad
trade for your team now.
     To get back in or stay in the game now, you might need someone to read the playbook for you and to interpret some of the changes that have taken place.
     You may need a coaching staff to which you can add me, your Realtor.  So it's back to basics.  Just as a football team goes to two-a-day practices to improve their game and adjust to tough opponents, real estate professionals are doing the same. We practice and perfect our skills.  Now is the season, time to test skills, readjust strategy and be ready for the next game.
     My team, the KJ Lange team, is healthy and ready to perform.   I'm more than an ‘agent', I'm a Realtor. This means you can hold me to a higher standard and I expect you to do just that.  I have a lender who guarantees closing time, title and escrow people who are at the top of their game and my MVPs are my friends and acquaintances who know my heart, trust my mind and refer their business to me.  You're one of my MVPs. Together we will make it through this season.
     Sports can teach us many life lessons that apply no matter what ‘the market' is doing, no matter what the weather is like and no matter who your adversary is.
     Keep your playbook handy, get good coaching, be a good team member, shake off the losses and move on to the next game, the next opportunity for success and above all, be thankful.

     Here in Silverdale, Washington, we have the best of all worlds.  Property values are remaining stable and buyers have plenty of time to decide on offers.  Whether you want to just get away from traffic and buy a couple horses and live in the country OR ifyou want to live 'in the country' but close enough to get to the city for dinner, we have it right here in Kitsap County.  Silverdale, Poulsbo, Bremerton, Seabeck, Bainbridge Island, Kingston, Port Orchard and Gig Harbor are awesome places to live. 

     From here, we're an hour by car or 35 minutes by ferry to a Seahawks game or Husky Stadium. To see the Cougs you'll have to drive a little further but so does all of Western Washington!

     What a great place to live whether you like football or not!

kjlange

Copyright 2007 Tall Cedar Publishing