Larry's Blog

Why is that helicopter hovering around my new listing?

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:58:37 -0500

I just listed this house in Jacksonville, Arkansas. When I went outside to take pictures, I saw this helicopter hovering around a couple blocks away. It was pretty low and thought it was the police looking or chasing a criminal. I then saw a cable attached to the bottom of the helicopter. There is a small lake in that direction and thought it might be a fire helicopter getting water for a forest fire or something. The helicopter never left and the sellers and I were curious but didn't know who it was or what is was doing.

I finished up my listing apointment and was driving out of the neighborhood. At the edge of this subdivision, there is a power line right of way. There were several workers near the street so I stopped and decided to take a few pictures.

This helicopter had a long cable hooked to a device that looked like a 20-30 foot hedge trimmer. The helicopter was going up and down trimming these larger tree branches so they would not get into the power lines. It was a pretty powerful site. This machine was working like there were a bunch of people out there with chainsaws. Below are the pictures, they are pretty impressive. I have never seen anything like this before.

My name is Larry DeGroat and I am a Realtor at Realty Professionals, Inc. in Searcy, Arkansas 72143 and I sell new homes, existing homes, commercial property, farms and land as well as manage and own rental properties. If you are looking for real estate for an investment or a home, I will be glad to assist you! You can call my personal cell number at 501-278-7659 or e-mail me at Larry@Searcy4Sale.com. Visit my website at http://www.searcy4sale.com if you are looking for Searcy homes for sale or other areas.

928 Skyline Drive, Searcy, Arkasnas 72143

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:20:11 -0500

New listing in Searcy, Arkansas. When searching for Searcy homes for sale you don't usually get one with this much land in the middle of town. This home has been remodeled and looks like new inside.

Take a look at http://www.928Skyline.com or

look at the video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm9EI3Tv10U

Texting and driving no longer allowed in Arkansas!

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:25:38 -0500

Starting this Saturday, August 1, 2009 it will be against the law to be texting and driving at the same time in the state of Arkansas. You will need to pull over if you wish to respond to someones text message, and we should. There have been test done that state texting and driving is as bad as drinking and driving.

There is additional consideration when it comes to cell phones and driving. If you are under the age of 18, you CAN NOT use a cell phone at all while driving, period. If you are between the ages of 18-21 you can use a cell phone but it must be by a hands free device only.

Need a new car? Cash for Clunkers!

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:58:05 -0500

WOW! Cash For Clunkers Program

Government helping Auto Industry. Get up to a $4,500 voucher from Uncle Sam to purchase a new vehicle. There are different amounts you can receive and it will be based on the improvement you get in gas mileage from your existing vehicle and the new vehicle.

For more information and details go to:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/congress-passes-cash-for-clunkers-bill-offers-4500-stimulus-vouchers-to-car-owners

What is happening on AR?

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:15:47 -0500

Today, I was checking to see some of the AR members that I commented on and wanted to go back and check to see further discussions after my comments. One of the lines said

Well, this is the first time I received a contact like this and I clicked on it to see what it was about. ( I was hoping it was a lead that I hear many other members get, but it wasn't) This is what it said

Well, I am flattered that someone is interested in me! lol If this person actually read my profile, they would have realized that the first line of my profile said I was married and have three children.

AR Guru's, is there any way of blocking such trash? WOW! You can't get away from junk mail anymore, even in the virtual world.

Mineral Rights? Some lender just do not understand.

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:09:22 -0500

First of all, I am located in Searcy, Arkansas and we have been experiencing a great deal of interest in the Fayetteville Shale, drilling for natural gas. Our county is one of the primary areas of exploration and that has created a great deal of interest in the owners that are selling their property to retain (keep) their mineral rights when they sell their surface rights. In Arkansas, mineral rights are superior to surface rights. Meaning, the surface owners can NOT restrict the mineral owners from gathering any and all minerals from the property. There are state laws that mineral owners do have to adhere to though.

With all that being said. I have a listing under contract and the seller is retaining the mineral rights. I get a call from the selling agent this morning that states that the lender the buyer is using will not allow the minerals to be retained on a FHA loan. I told her that I have experienced another lender in town that wanted to put restrictions on the seller in the Warranty Deed that could not be kept by the seller. I noticed that the Warranty Deed was pretty long and read it before the Sellers signed it at closing (this is another reason why you as an agent needs to attend the closings with your clients). As you guessed, I did not allow the Seller to sign it unless they consulted with an attorney. The Warranty Deed had restriction on it not allowing a pipeline, drilling activity or even access to the subject property. The subject property already had a Mineral Lease on it and there were royalties being paid to the seller as well. There is/was NO WAY the seller could agree to the terms the lender injected into the Warranty Deed. I had a long discussion with the lender and they removed it. Later it came to my attention, it was the local bank putting that restrictions on the Warranty Deed, not the secondary lender that was buying the loan.

Lenders need to understand that there are many properties that are sold today and many years ago that DOES NOT have any mineral ownership. That if the seller does own the minerals, they may have already entered into a lease with a gas company and they cannot restrict their activity. Then you also have to take into account that you as the land owner may not have wanted drilling activity in your section and the State Gas And Oil Commission Integrates your Section and you are forced into a mineral lease. Lenders, if you do not want to lose business, please understand these things. As I told that selling agent this morning, there are many, many properties that have FHA loans on them that there is NO mineral ownership. Please stop trying to re-negotiate the deal. The buyer is willing to accept the property without the mineral rights and if the appraiser doesn't acknowledge that the property is effected by it, then let it be. As a matter of fact on this particular transaction, 1/2 of the minerals were retained about 60 years ago so they are not even on the table.

I know this is different to the normal transactions. But, when you are dealing with something different, learn about it so you can make an educated decision. I, as an agent, wasn't dealing with these things until about 3-4 years ago either. I have had to seek education and many many meetings on this. I know when I started in the real estate business we had this come up in title work where the minerals were retained by a previous owner and I told them that mineral rights are superior to the surface rights and what my understanding was on it. Most of the time, that wasn't an issue but I did have a 40 acre sale fall through because the buyer understood the risk and didn't want any part of it. Anyway, I have figured out there is no boring day in real estate and you have to always be learning.

Tax Credit Increase, Again?

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:04:27 -0500

While on Twitter this morning, I ran across a Tweet about the Senate submitting another request to almost double the tax credit and make it available to ALL home buyers. Here is an article from Bloomberg.com http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aI3l8W6tflrg

Do you think this will make a difference in your area?

Advertising? Marketing? What do you do?

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:44:38 -0500

I am kind of wondering what needs to be done in this market. I have read many blogs and understand that you need to keep doing it all, newspaper, real estate guides/booklets, radio, billboards and yes, cannot forget the internet.

I basically use the internet for the majority of my marketing. I feel you need good search engine placement and I think I am doing pretty good in that area and I do get leads from it. I have my own main website (http://www.Searcy4Sale.com) and several others that I link back to each other.

I am also doing individual property websites like http://www.8KingCircle.com and all of these link back to my main website. I like doing these individual property sites because I can showcase many photos and get a lot more information out there. Also, it is easier to do an ad in the paper and give a brief description and then add the web address. This will save on word count. I even had a customer that uses the house as a rental and he sent rental prospects to the site to look at before he spent his time showing it. That seller loves it and so do my other clients.

A am still doing the normal newspaper and real estate guide advertising but on a reduced size. As long as they are out there, I feel you need to have some kind of presence. I have read and attended conferences that said eliminate half of your print advertising expense and put in the internet marketing. I have done that but feel you still need to be there, even if it a small part.

I used to do newsletters and was big on post cards. I stopped that a few years ago and wonder if that was a mistake. With this type of marketing, it takes consistancy in order for this to pay off.

I would like to know what are you doing in this market to keep new business going. I am in rural Arkansas about 50 miles North of Little Rock and have about 20,000 population in my town and about 50,000 in the county I operate. I know there are some things that I would need to do different if I was in a larger area but would like to know what you are doing if you are in a similar market size. We have over 100 agents after the same business and you have to be different but effective.

Also, are you using social networking and how are you using it. I joined facebook several months ago and the agents I have seen on there mostly brag about what they are doing and I had to hit "hide" on some of them. My wall was filling up with that they were telling about and got tired of that. I started out doing that also and some may have hit "hide " on me also. Now I have come to the conclusion, everyone does not want to hear that I had a closing today, I had 15 showing with the prospect etc.. Yes, you may say that you want everyone to see that you are working but if they hit the "hide" button, then they won't see you at all unless they actually decide to look at your wall. I want to use it as a vehicle of giving helpful ideas and suggestions that I have had experiences with. Let them come to the conclusion that I am a professional instead of me telling them that I am. That's my thoughts on that, what are yours?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and ideas!

Mountain View, Arkansas - Takes you back in time!

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:21:50 -0500

Saturday, May 30, 2009 I had to show some property early and then presented an offer and was done by 11 am. My wife and I decided to drive up to Mountain View, Arkansas for the afternoon. Mountain View has a lot of interesting things going on. They have the old court house square and in the yard, entertainers start playing their instruments and people gather around. It is fun to bring your lawn chair and sit under the shade tree listening and watching. This picture was taken with my phone camera and is not that good of a quality but the little boy was a ham and stole the show and I wanted to get his picture. Someone in the crowd came up to put some money in the pot and asked the boy if he took a shower last night (I don't know if it was staged or he just knew the boy) and the boy responded "why, were you missing one" I just thought that was so funny. The boy is about 8 years old and thought that was a pretty good and quick response. If you don't like to listen to bluegrass music, there are little shops around the square. We ate at a diner there and walked around and ate some ice cream and watched some of the performers. It was a good day!

Do you brake when you see a police car?

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:06:45 -0500

It seems that I will hit my brake when I see a police car even if I am not doing anything wrong, it seems like a normal thing to do. Well, this morning I was driving to a listing of mine in Heber Springs on Greer Ferry Lake in Heber Springs, Arkansas. (http://www.8KingCircle.com) I was entering into the city of Heber Springs and I seen the police car parked on the side of the road. I automatically hit my brake even though I just left from a stop sign, its a habit. When getting closer to the police car, I could see someone in the drive seat. Well, I thought he was sitting there to see if anyone was running the stop sign. Oh was I wrong, there was a dummy/mannequin in the driver seat. No real person. I just kind of laughed to myself and thought, it worked and drove on. So, if you are fortunate to visit the vactioning town of Heber Springs and you see a police car, you better obey the laws because the next time, there could be a real person in there. Have a great day!

Home Inspections - Do you take them seriously?

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:56:46 -0500

I recently closed on a transaction where my clients was purchasing a house and hired a home inspector. The home inspector wrote up the following in his report:

We wrote an Inspection & Repair report requesting this to be repaired as directed.

There are two issues that I have on how all of this went down. First, after all of the excitement of the last two days before closing, I visited with the home inspector about how this was worded. I think it is good for the Home Inspector to report his findings only. I feel when they make recommendations as specific as this one was, they hold themselves to being a heat and air professional. In talking with this inspector, which is a great guy and a good inspector, he stated that they are suppose to give a solution when they make a note of the problem. I think that is fine but the above statement said this is a maintenance issue and should have left that off and stated that there was water in the safety, overflow pan and recommend a licensed heat and air technician to investigate for further problems, period.

Secondly, when we gave this report to the Listing Agent and the Sellers, they hired a handyman to take care of this and the rest of the items on the list. I do understand how someone could take the list of these items and think they were pretty generic and easily repaired by a handyman. The handyman did as the report read above. He cleaned out the line and thought everything was good. When I brought the buyers through for our walk-thru before closing, we noticed water was still in the pan. I knew that it should not be there. That is the last safety measure before a major problem. I contacted the Listing Agent and discussed this with him and met with him later that day. We all thought the line was not cleaned out therefor the water still in there. The Listing agent had the handyman to clean the lines again and he was adamant that it was fixed. I then contacted the Licensed Heat & Air professional that I use and he told me that the whole coil would need to be replaced, it cannot be repaired. I thought, that is just great, we have already used the Repair Limit and it was the day before closing (at least it wasn't after closing, whew!). The seller did agree to make the necessaryrepairs and we moved on. I made a recommendation to the Listing Agent that when making repairs to a house that is not his own and especially one that is sold or under contract, he should hire a licensed professional when it comes to heat and air systems, plumbing and electrical. I have learned that it removes a lot of liability off of my shoulders and places it on the professionals. EVERY AGENT SHOULD DO THIS, even the home owner should do it as well.

Well, the problem was MAJOR, not a maintenance issue. The slab coil was rusted through and was leaking in the safety, overflow pan, as you can see the pan above is rusted badly and the compressor outside was all clogged up. When removing the old coil to replace it, the coil was packed with krud (see pictures)

There is no way any air could flow through this. This is the slab coil. I guess you know by now, I got a heat and air professional involved. When he went to fix this, he searched for the problem that caused this and found that when the house was built, the return air was not sealed and this unit has taken a bunch of abuse for the past ten years. He did fix this and repaired everything that needed to be fixed at a cost of about $1,000.

Again, the thing Agents, Seller and Buyers need to take away from this is that they NEED to hire a professional when making repairs to a house they are selling or buying. The home inspector did state that a Qualified Person should repair the problem. If a licensed heat and air professional had made the recommended repair (cleaning the lines), he/she would have or should have found the real problem.

Again agents, take the load of liability off of your shoulders and put it on theirs! We closed, and everyone is happy (after a very stressful two days). Happy Selling! :)

Greers Ferry Lake Front Property

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:17:09 -0500

JUST LISTED! 8 Kings Circle, Heber Springs, Arkansas 72543 - WOW! LAKE FRONT home with lots of room. Over 3,300 square feet! The main house has 2,632 square feet with three bedrooms, 2 full baths, formal living room, breakfast room, custom kitchen, den with fireplace and a great room with vaulted ceilings and a full wet bar. There is also an attached 693 square feet apartment with a full kitchen, living room with vaulted ceilings, a breakfast room with a bay window and the bedroom has vaulted ceilings and a walk-in closet and a full bath. This is sitting on a tree covered lake front lot. There is a three car garage on the main house and a single car carport for the apartment. Eden Isle marina is across the bay from this home. This excellent lakefront home awaits you! Check it out at http://www.8KingCircle.com

$8,000 Tax Credit being used for FHA down payment - bridge loan

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:36:08 -0500

About 10:30 this morning HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said the department is seeking a way to make the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit available to borrowers to use on down payment and closing costs, instead of waiting for their tax refunds. HUD wants permission for HUD-approved lenders and nonprofits to issue bridge loans to make the $8,000 available to borrowers at closing. "I expect details within just a few days," he said.

NAR has been working on this and ran into problems with the IRS because the tax refund is not to go to someone other than the Tax Payer.

Again, this was released today and as Secretary Donovan stated, he expects details in the next few days.

I thought I was safe in my Z71 Tahoe!

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:51:54 -0500

I thought I was safe in my Z71 Tahoe. It is big and roomy for many customers or family and friends. I don't like that it only gets about 15 miles to the gallon but I like the room when I have people riding with me. Also, I do feel more safe in it than a small to midsize car.

I was driving down Moore Street (a city street) today and meet up with this vehicle. Those tires were nearly as big as my vehicle and he could drive right over the top of me. I hope you enjoy the pics.

Took my girls to the Memphis Zoo on Spring Break!

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:00:42 -0500

The weather hasn't been to good as far as planning a trip to the Zoo and Wednesday showed to be the best day based on the what the weather man said. Actually, mostly everyday this week would have worked because it did all the raining in the evening.

Wednesday morning was her. I packed up my three girls, Jana (wife), Brooke and Bailey and drove to Memphis. The weather was great and we had a great time. Here are some pictures.

Arkansas Realtors Association's New Building

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:46:54 -0500

I attended a Digital Signature training session at the new ARA building on Friday, March, 20, 2009.

If anyone has gone to the ARA building in the past will be totally impressed with this new building. For one, it is all one level and looks very professional. About one third of the building is set up for a training facility. There is one large room with three over head projectors each having their own screen. The large room could be divided into three smaller rooms with it's own projector. I walked through the rest of the building and is very nice.

The location is not far from the previous location but it was most definitely easier to get to from I-430. I have attached a couple photos I grabbed with my treo. If you haven't seen it yet, stop by and take a tour.

Digital Signature

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:05:48 -0500

The Arkansas Realtors Association has provided its member with the ability to use digital signatures with our real estate contracts. The Realtor offices purchase the forms software for $25 per agent and the broker is charged $200. This is an annual cost. At this training, one of the speakers mentioned that Texas charges each agent $90 per year just for the forms. If the agent wants digital signature capability, they pay an additional $25 per month. I give the Arkansas Realtors Association kudo's for doing this for us and keeping the costs down.

A digital signature is secure. In short, when creating a contract, the agent prepares the contract online and then assigns pin codes (passwords) along with the person signature they are requesting e-mail address. Each person signing will have to sign in under their log in (e-mail address) and pin code (password). This will identify that the person did sign and accept the contract. This information is stored on the site along with the date, time and ip address of the computer the person was on. The contract will have all of this on the signature line when the contract is printed out. This is a shortened version of a two hour training class.

Digital signatures are great if you are dealing with an out-of-town client. The client does not have to print it, sign it, then scan it to send it back to you. It is all done online. This form of signature is widely accepted and is gaining more acceptance every day.

102 Jackson Cove, Searcy, Arkansas

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:13:33 -0500

South end of Searcy is this three bedroom, two bath home with laminate and ceramic tile floors throughout. There is a two car garage and a small fenced area in the backyard. See more information on the link below or go to http://www.102JacksonCove.com.

Have you done a complete transaction online?

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:04:14 -0500

I was talking to my friend Dick Betts the other day and we got talking about technology. Dick is a National Real Estate Speaker and has a wealth of knowledge. You can go to his website at www.DickBetts.com and see what all he teaches.

While talking the other night, I told him that I did a complete transaction online. That's correct, a COMPLETE real estate transaction online. It started with an e-mail several months earlier requesting some information about land sales in my market place. I e-mailed the seller back and forth many times. I didn't hear back from them for several months and then I received an e-mail stating that they wanted me to sell it for them. We agreed on a price and I scanned the listing agreement, property disclosure forms and e-mailed them everything. They printed it out, signed them and faxed them back to me, since they didn't have a scanner.

I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap Scanner and I love it. It is about the size of a small loaf of bread and it sits right next to my monitor on my desk. This scanner will scan 15 pages per minute, both sides and in full color. WOW! beat that! The cost of this scanner is about $350-400 and I purchased mine at newegg.com for $350 and received a $50 mail in rebate. So shop around. This is a piece of hardware I don't know how to do without.

Continue with my story. I sent out a letter to about 25 property owners around the subject property. Several of them showed interest but I was contacted by an adjacent land owner that lived out of town. He was very interested in it. We negotiated back and forth and finally was able to agree on a sale price without any mineral rights. The buyer was buying the property in his trust and I had to direct everything for signing to the trust officer at the bank. I drafted a final contract and sent it to the trust officer and they signed, scanned it and e-mailed it back to me. I then forwarded the attachment to the seller and they printed it, signed it and faxed it back to me and I in turned scanned it and e-mailed it to the buyer for a complete file. This also makes for a great paper trail.

The seller was an out of town seller also. At closing, the documents were sent overnight to the seller. The closing company received the documents and schedule the Trust Officer for the closing. I NEVER met the SELLER or the BUYER in person. I usually attend all of my closings and I did get to meet the trust officer at closing.

Technology is here to stay. Get use to it and it can help you do things like this. Have a great teckie day! HA! HA!

Unexpected Guest During A Home Inspection!

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:06:51 -0500

My good friend Barbara Duncan is a Realtor in my board. She always talks about me on her blog so I am going to do the same for her. She has had this foreclosure property for sale for some time now. If she had posted the pictures that I have here on her listing, the outdoors person would probably have jumped at this and would have been sold quickly. Seriously though. This is a good home and the inspection went fine. While there with the buyer and the home inspector, up walks this deer. He was real tame and looks like it is a neighbors pet because he had a hunter orange collar on. He had little nubbs for horns and was extremely friendly. He allowed us to pet him and just hung around with us. It was pretty cool. The buyer has two boys and they love the outdoor. They will like having this deer around. Here are some pics.

Had to get my friend, Barbara Duncan, real estate sign in the picture.

My name is Larry DeGroat and I am a Realtor in Searcy, Arkansas and I sell new homes, existing homes, commercial property, farms and land as well as manage and own rental properties. If you are looking for real estate for an investment or a home, I will be glad to assist you! You can call my personal cell number at 501-278-7659 or e-mail me at Larry@Searcy4Sale.com. Visit my website at http://www.searcy4sale.com if you are looking for Searcy homes for sale or other areas.

How many ZEROS are in a BILLION?

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:35:09 -0600

I was reading a local magazine called Searcy Living and they had an article in there that made me think about how to comprehend how big a BILLION is. With all of the talk on the news about the government giving X number of Billions to this company and that company, they make it sound like pocket change because they use the word Billion loosely. Let's take a look how hard it is to comprehend how much a Billion is.

A BILLION seconds ago, it was 1979.

A BILLION minutes ago it was the year 106.

A BILLION hours ago, our ancestors were living in the stone age. (if you believe in this)

A BILLION dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes at the rate the government is spending it.

That is still hard to comprehend but to think that a billion seconds ago, it was 1979. That is 32 years ago and that is alot of seconds. Think about, a billion seconds from now is the year 2041. WOW! Just a thought?!

SURPRISE!!! Happy 70th Birthday, MOM!

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:09:02 -0600

I was talking with my family about a week or so ago about making a trip to New York to visit my mother. We considered going on Spring Break but there were some issues about going at that time so it didn't look like that would work. On Thursday morning February 26, I thought that I would just go ahead and make a road trip by myself. I felt that this needs to be a special time for my mother and visit her, not that I am all that special (ha ha). February 28 was my moms 70th birthday and I wanted to take her out to dinner for her birthday.

I finished up what I had to do at the office and went home and loaded up the car and left from Arkansas at 2pm Thursday, February 26th. I went through (this is a stock photo, most of them are the ones I took while driving, yes, I know that is dangerous but if I didn't then you wouldn't be able to read about my trip.) Tennessee. I feel this was the longest part of the trip. I had to drive from one end to the other and was 500 miles. It seemed like you are not going anywhere because you are still in Tennessee. I then entered (this is a stock photo, because it was nighttime and I couldn't stop, too much traffic) Virginia. This was also a long part because it was nearly 400 miles through Virginia. I took this picture of water coming out of the mountains and freezing and thought it looked cool. Then it seemed like I was making a good time because after driving nearly 400 miles I ended up in West Virginia. This was a short trip though. If you look at the map of West Virgina, it seems like it spreads out all over. I only had to drive about 35 mile through West Virginia and then quickly came up on Maryland. Sorry I didn't get a whole picture but when you are driving 70 miles per hour and there is a lot of traffic, it is hard to point and shoot. Maryland was also a short lived trip. I only had to drove about 15 miles through it. Then came Pennsylvania. It seemed like I was really going fast up to now, because in less than an hour, I went from Virginia, through West Virginia, through Maryland and now Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was a long trip and I never knew that there were alot of cattle farms here. I love the old barns and huge farm houses. I was going to take pictures of them but didn't know which ones because there were so many nice ones. I would see a nice place and it had a lot of pasture and in the background you could see the tall mountains, really nice. There were a lot of great photo ops but didn't get any. I then ended up at the New York state line. I couldn't get the road sign picture but just as you enter New York on I-81 the welcome center was there so I took that picture. My mother lives in Binghamton and was only about 20 miles further.

I stopped to get a city map so I could surprise her. She had NO clue that I was traveling up there. I finally find the building she lives in and planning on what to do to surprise her. She moved into this place about two years ago and I have never been there so I didn't know what to expect. I entered this little foyer area where you have to buzz the apartment number in order to get into the building. This is a great security measure but I was there to surprise her. There was an older lady pacing the foyer inside of the locked doors and she kept an eye on me as she paced back and forth. I was hoping she would open the door but she didn't know who I was. I thought I better do something or she will call the police, you know, this is a big city Dorothy, not Arkansas. I went ahead and buzzed her apartment, no answer. I then called her on my cell phone and it rang and rang then voice mail. WOW! What do you do now? You drive 1,200 miles and she isn't home?! In her building, they have events like playing games and bingo etc.. There was a guy being dropped off by a taxi and I asked him if they were playing bingo today and told him my story. He was kind of gruff with me and said no it's poker day not bingo and he didn't know my mother. So, I still had no way in. Just as he opened the door to get into the building my cell phone rang. It was my mother, she just couldn't get to the phone in time to answer. I told her hi and asked her to push the buzzer to open the door so I could come up. She was yelling of surprise. Anyway, I surprised her as well as you could when you have security measures like this. It was all good. I got to see the rest of my family that live there and had a good time. I even went to play bingo with my mother Saturday on her Birthday. While there, my son sent me a text with a picture that it was snowing in Jonesboro. This looked liked Jonesboro was getting alot of snow. My sister was sitting next to me and showed me a picture when they get snow in New York. This was taken out of her windshield . Well, I don't want any of that I told her. I checked the weather and this snow was basically taking the route that I traveled getting there. I decided that I would go a different route back and that I would stop in Pittsburgh and see some friends. I spent Sunday morning with my mom and had breakfast. I left New York about 10:30 am. I entered Pennsylvania and was going to drive from the east side to the west side and down to Pittsburgh. About four hours into driving, I see the scene . My adrenalin got pumping. I thought someone wrecked above off the side of the mountain. When I got up there, there was a cabin down below and they probably just started a fire. Oh, my mind was racing and thought the worst. The smoke was really thick and crossed the road. I'm glad it wasn't a wreck. I get to Pittsburgh and had dinner and spent about four hours with my friends. I left their house about 8:30 pm and continued on. I went through West Virginia again. Remember I said it was spread out. It was pretty short lived though. I then entered Ohio. (This is a stock photo also) I was going to stop for the night around Columbus. Then I thought about the morning traffic. I have never been to Cincinnati but I thought the traffic would be congested around 8am so I continued on. I am really glad I did. After arriving there about 1 am, Cincinnati is huge. Here is a tunnel I had to drive through .

After going through Cincinnati you immediately arrive in Kentucky. I didn't realize Kentucky was coming that fast and was in traffic so I couldn't get the best shot of the sign, but you can make it out that it is Kentucky. I finally stopped about 50 miles before Louisville for some much needed sleep and shower. I got back on the road about 9 am and traveled through Indiana and then Illinois. I'm surprised they don't have Home of President Obama on the sign yet (ha ha). After driving several hours I was approaching this bridge and finally felt like I was getting closer to home when I seen this sign . I drove several more hours then seen this sign . I have been waiting for this one but I still had about 3 1/2 hours to go.

This was a long but short weekend. I left at 2:00 pm on Thursday and drove 2,544 miles through Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and back to Arkansas (12 different states), spent nearly two days with my mom then arrived back in Searcy at 5:30 pm Monday, March 2, 2009. That's 4 days and 3 1/2 hours! WOW! What a trip! I hope you enjoyed my travel and hopefully you're not as tired as I am!

The next generation and how they communicate.

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:11:16 -0600

I have been doing some research on technology and how to get your message out there. One of the areas I was looking into was the high school to college age. These are our future customers/clients and possibly competition in the business. I have read in many resources that if you do not get into today's technology, you will be left behind and might as well close your doors. I have heard and read that 85-87% of all people looking for houses start on the internet. WOW! that is alot. The rest of the group probably already has an agent.

I have seen more and more prospect contact me through e-mail and Yahoo IM that I have on the front page of my website. As a matter of fact, I had three closings last year that I didn't meet the buyer until the day of closing. All of our communication was completed through e-mail. I utilize my desktop scanner that scans 15 pages per minute, full color, both sides, to scan all documents into a pdf file where it can be sent over e-mail and we can talk about it over the phone or by e-mail. I have even created a webpage on one of the properties I was showing them with about 70 pictures so they could see what they were looking at. I did a land transaction last year that I never meet the buyer or seller. The buyer used a Trust Officer from his bank that came to the closing and I meet her but I was able to provide all documents and a clear detail about the property and it worked great.

The younger generation says they block pop-ups, using web browsers to block advertisements and don't watch tv and if they do watch a tv program, they tivo (or equivalent) it and skip the commercials when they do watch it. OK, if this is true, how do we market to them?

They love text messaging also. I just received my cell bill and my son that is a Senior in college had 9,114, my daughter that is a Freshman in college had 14,785 text messages and my youngest daughter that is a Junior in high school had 3,969 text messages. This is the way they like to communicate, even with mom and dad. My wife had 911 texts and I had a whopping 410 text messages. Look who is behind.

I am on our technology committee for our Board of Realtors and we commented that we like text messages. Sometimes we can't pick up the phone when it rings but we can send a text message. It is great to communicate with other agents on follow ups, scheduling a showing etc... You can quickly send a text "How was the showing" and they can quickly respond "It is one of their favorites" you don't have to say Hi!, hows the weather, the grandkids etc.. Texting allows you to get to the point and be done. Don't be afraid of texting! One BIG thing to keep in mind though, don't add emotion to the message. It is easy to make something out of something that is not there. ALSO, NEVER USE ALL CAPS IN TEXTING, IT IS EQUIVALENT TO YELLING.

Please give some of your ideas on how you are expanding your marketing to catch this younger generation.

FREE Corvette with purchase of home!

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:27:36 -0600

WOW! How would you like to get a FREE Covette when you buy your next home? I was watching the news on Channel 4 in Little Rock, Arkansas (NBC affiliate) this weekend and this video attached below was part of it.

News: Buy Home; Get a Free Corvette

Now, I know some are thinking about RESPA but this is a pretty cool idea!

UPDATE: I understand that you will have to deduct the value of the car to come up with the value of the house for the appraiser and certain types of loans and I am not condoning lying on your mortgage application. My intent was to show what some home sellers will consider doing to get the house to sell. This is a tough market and I thought they were being creative. If you view the video, this is not a BRAND NEW corvette and I am not the listing agent. I would hope that the listing agent already counseled the seller about pricing the house to sell.

Obama housing stimulus, is it really going to work?

Larry DeGroat, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, GRI in Searcy (Realty Professionals, Inc.) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:54:08 -0600

Do you really think his proposal or I guess I should say law, will really work? What about the people that have lived responsibly? They live within their means, they make their mortgage payments, they are investing for their retirement, they are even paying their taxes. The only thing I have seen out of these stimulus packages is they will get a $400 tax credit for a person filing single and a $800 tax credit for filing jointly.

Now they (the administration) have been trying to get the message out that if they can stop the foreclosures on your street that the value of your home will not decline. The way I see it, this whole mess has already effected the real estate industry and believe for the most part the worst is already here.

Yes, it's not all the current administration fault for being in this situation but it is their fault for telling the responsible Americans that we have to pay the bill for the ones that didn't act responsible. If our tax dollars are going to benefit anyone, it should benefit EVERYONE!

I am truly sorry for the ones that are losing their homes due to foreclosures. I wish they never got into that situation. If we used responsible loan practices of earlier days, we wouldn't have these issues to deal with. I also really find it hard that they claim they didn't know this was going to happen. I think what they are really saying is, I had no clue the market was going to go down along with my interest rate going up and I now I can't sell my house and make the profit I was relying on. That is speculating and now I as many other responsible Americans have to pay for their speculations and that is not right or fair. What happened to what my mom taught me, you are responsible for your actions?

Now, the current administration wants to put all the blame on President Bush for these loan practices but it has been reported that President Clinton implemented the loan practices of FannieMae and FreddieMac, not President Bush. Yes, President Bush probably should have done something sooner but he does not deserve all the blame that the current administration is blaming him for.

Do you have any suggestions on how this needs to play out? If you could bend President Obama's ear, what do you want him to know or suggest on how to deal with this. Is there a way out to help ALL Americans.