I saved a young couple from foreclosure, last week.  What a great feeling!  We started planning about 9 months to a year ago.  They had assets that we had to retitle, wait for them to mature and then we put our plan into motion.  Durng this time they spoke to several attorneys to be sure of their position.

They were a victim of a builder situation.  The property was an eight unit townhouse complex.  The builder still owned 4 units which were going into foreclosure - the other units were short sales.  Water was a frequent intrusion in the early days.  Most units had mold that had to be remediated at the owners expense.  No builder warrenty!  Early this year, the officers of the homeowners association resigned, there was no money to operate, the electric & water to the common area was turned off.  The insurance expired.  What a mess!  Because of this sitation and the market, values dropped 50 to 75% .  The four owners were simply a victim of circumstances.

We found an investor for all 8 units; however, the builder would not cooperate;  because he wanted to do a Deed in Lieu.  What a surprise!  He continues to cause pain to the purchasers in his complex. The investor proceeded to attempt to purchase the 4.  We closed the first one last week.  My sellers were thrilled!  They thanked both Realtors for doing such a great job.  Lots of stress; but the end result was fabulous.

What a great feeling!  A real natural "high".   Thank you for asking me to help you.

On Wednesday, I went to the Assisting Living Facility where my mother-in -law has been since April.  While visiting with the staff and inquiring about my mother in law, the owner ask if I did commercial or residential real estate. Turns out they are looking for another facility.; but I don't do commercial or business brokerage.  But  what an opportunity for a referral.

After qualifying their needs, etc we agreed that I would get baack to them.  Today, we had a very short meeting and have agreed to move forward in their search.

Who would have thought!  Proof, one again, that you always have to be ready to seize the opportunity.

My first short sale was approved today!  It's one of three in the same townhouse complex.  Can't wait to see if the other two are approved.

During the process of getting my sellers to get their information together in a timely manner and working with the short sale negotator, I thought I would NEVER do another short sale.  Of course, you know, first time  always takes longer, is frustating and you get aggrevated because there is a never ending list of things that are needed.  You think it will never end so you can get to the negotating process. 
Mostly all of the frustration & aggravation caused by my inexperience with short sales.

But, we made it and it was all worth it.  My sellers are estatic, which is the most rewarding thing for me.  The rush is on to find them a place to live.  The delicate execution of finding, committing - yet, careful to bring the closing of the short sale & the new living quarters together simultaniouly without any undue expense & stress to my sellers.

I'm working with a realtor that knows her client!  My  first experience with her was when she met me to show the luxury apartment.  She told her buyer to arrive at 9:45.  She knew they'd be late.  We coudn't get into the unit until  10.  They were right on time 10 AM, but actually late, .since they were supposed to be there at 9:45.

She knew they'd offer low (the unit was on the market just  24 hours) so she told them it was full price only, 'as is' and they could take it or leave it.   I'm loving this girl.

Buyer didn't complete the association application timely, so she told him I had a  cash back up offer  & if he missed any dates in the contract, he would be out of contract and that cash buyer would be "in like Flynn" and there's nothing anyone could do.  All true, but "You Go Girl".

She knew her buyer would be late, low ball the offer, & neglect everything and blame her if we didn't make the closing happen.  The buyer had already asked me to get his decorator into the unit and when we couldn't coordinate a time, he wanted the key "because after all, he owned that apartment".  Sorry, bud, you don't own it until you take title.  Security wouldn't loet him in even if he had a key.

IT'S ALL ABOUT KNOWING YOUR CLIENT!

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR CLIENT?

What causes a listing to sell??  Is it the right buyer?   Is it  timing? 

I've had a little one bedroom condo listed for probably 18 months.  Haven't had 5 showing in that time.  Then suddenly, yesterday a buyer shows up, spend all of 2 minutes at the unit and immediately sends in a full price  cash offer!

My seller was shocked - he had to be home when the unit was shown  (gated community - no calls to cell phones to open the gate).  So now,  I have the wonderful experience of working with this divorced couple (with a lot of anger) to try to get this closed.  How much fun will this be?

In my corner of the world, real estate is booming ( I'm holding my breath that it will last for a while).  The last 3 weeks have been crazy.  6 sales, 3 contracts still being negotiated, numerous new listings & 4 new buyers.  I'm working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day and still can't keep up.  I called in a temp assistant yesterday, who worked for 5 hours.  It felt soooo good - I was finally caught up with paperwork!

Then today came --- and by the end of the day, I was almost in tears because I was behind again.  Just keeping up with the phone calls, emails, negotating, new addendums, etc,  I never even touched the list of things on my TO DO list.

How do you keep up??  Even the temp said I had good systems in place, I simply had too much "stuff" that needed to be done.  I  can't  keep up!

I've thought about a virtual assistant; but that won't help with the faxing, completing forms, submitting sales to the office & that sort of thing.

I'm not complaining,  it's a nice problem to have; but I have to find a solution to weather the storm. 

With mortgages difficult to obtain, we all would love to have a buyer ,in this market with lots of cash and no problem getting financing.  When I received a call from a couple who were referred to me by a previous client and he said he was putting 40% down on a house priced just over $400k----do the math.  It's $170,000 down.  Appraisal concerns are out the window , mortgage approval is done ---oh, did I mention they both had credit scores over 800!  What a buyer. Wow, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

After a couple of times out, they made an offer on a home that had been on the market just a few days.

Guess what -  4 offers on that property and the seller is in no hurry to respond.  Seller decides he needs an appraisal on the property and won't respond to any offer until the appraisal has been completed and given to him.  After we all wait for a week - seller counters.......   to all four offers.  His asking price $449K ,appraisal came in at $450K.  So he counters at $445k to all buyers.  The owner will choose the one buyer he prefers out of all those that accept his $445K. 

My buyer was not willing to pay his price so he countered.  Sellers' Realtor ask us to remove  our appraisal contingency and my buyer would float to the top.  Buyers attorney said " No Way".  Seller took another offer where the buyer had to have inspection, appraisal & mortgage approval over my buyer's offer, who only had to have the inspection.  The  chosen buyer did not have to remove the appraisal contingency!

I don't get it!  Doesn't a quality buyer have value any more?  I always recommend to my sellers to choose a quality buyer because there is less risk of not getting to the closing table.  Needless to say, I was very disappointed.  Now my great buyer will have to find a rental until another home that meets their specification, comes on the market.

Did I mention, my buyer was only $15K below the selected  buyer.  In this day & age, that not a lot of money!

WHAT'S AN AGENT TO DO???

Buyers are coming back, but inventory is soooo limited.  If the buyer is not a canidate for a foreclosure or short sale; there's not much to show.  Our market is a forelosure/ short sale market,.  Sellers don't want to compete with those foreclosure prices, so they're holding off.

Last week-end my phone began to ring and when the sun rose on Monday, I had  4 new buyers.  One was looking for a foreclosure.  Another couple had sold their home in just 8 days, so we had not had time to explore the market.  Now their home is sold and there are just a handful of home on the market  that met their criteria.

A young  couple wants to buy a second home about a 2 hour drive from their current home so they can be closer to their work.

The fourth one is a first time buyer wanting to take advantage of the FIRST TIME  BUYER'S  TAX CREDIT.  As you know, we have to find THE house, get financing & close by November 30 for them to get the credit.

I'm certainly  NOT complaining; but it'd be nice if I had more inventory.  I always  go  directly to the MLS system and show every listing, regardless of whose listing it may be.

SO, PLEASE, SELLERS.  WE NEED YOU. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN SELLING YOUR HOME, CALL ME!

954-850-3920, erealtor2000@yahoo.com, www.parklandlifestyles.com

Who woulda thought - in this market!

Recently, I was doing my official duty (oportunity time) when I received a strange call, asking me to list a house; but it wasn't his - it was his daughter's.  After several questions and being sure the daughter would be at the appointment and able to sign, I prepared for the appointment.  Upon arriving at the house, Mom and Dad met me at the door and explained the reason for the sale and that the daughter had health problems that prevented her from making decisions and that there was a very recent death (just 4 days prior to the appointment) of the daughter's ex husband.

They also informed me that they were "interviewing" realtors and would not make a decision until all of the Realtors had been interviewed.  Two days later, I received a call to come list the house.  When questioning them why they chose me, I was somewhat surprised by their response...... "I was organized and presented the information in an easy to understand format" and had left them a three ring binder that they could flip thru after I left. 

Much to my surprise 4 days later, I had 6 offers.  They came from the sign, the internet and of course MLS.  When I met with the owners, I didn't want them to think that I had priced the home too low, so I began discussing the marketing I had done is such a short time.  They were sooooo impressed they couldn't stop thanking me.

The very first thing I did was take advantage of an opportunity --- my office was having a social the very afternoon I took the listing.  I discussed the home with the agents that might possibly have buyers for that location and price range.  I placed the home in MLS and entered the number of pictures that my MLS allows.  Did the virtual tour and published it.  Enchanced the listing on Realtor.com and then set about other areas of marketing.  I prepared a virtual "just listed" card and sent it to my entire data base of about 500 people and to my office manage to distribute it to all associated in my office, which was about another 200 people.  Of course, the sign was also install while all of this other marketing was going on.

I didn't even have an opportunity to sell this house myself -  6 offers came from other Realtors.  The offer that was accepted by my seller came from the very first agent that I told about the listing.  I turned out to great for my company as we had both sides of the sale, our mortgage company did the mortgage and our title company closed it.  Talk about a slam dunk!

For this to happen in a Florida market where our market is a short sale and foreclosure market is unheard of.  This was an old fashion sale with lots of equity.  What a pleasure.  I was so thankful!

Some 15 years ago, My partner and I sold our mom and pop real estate business and  ventured into the world of corporate owned real estate offices. Since that time,  I've had a very satisfying & rewarding career in sales and haven't looked back a single time about changing ranks.  Real estate is my passion and I love what I do.

Because I was accustomed to being at the office, I continued to "go to the office" daily, even though it wasn't necessary.  I felt I had to continue those good work ethics.  I even felt that I couldn't mix work & play.  When I worked, I WORKED!  When I played, I PLAYED!  It worked very well for me.  Good solid work ethics.  Even when I didn't have a lot to do at the office.

Now 15 years later, I'm back to not having a lot to do because of the slow market.  BUT I STILL GO TO THE OFFICE EVERY DAY.  Why, you ask?  It all about work ethics, phone calls, mailings, emails & marketing the listings I have. If I didn't have a structured work day, I fear what would happen to my listing marketing plan, my past customers, my potential future business.  Just because I have fewer customers, doesn't mean I have nothing to do.

I look around my office at agents I haven't seen in months.  When questioning them about their whereabouts, they reply - no business- I'm slow.  There's nothing to do. So why should I come to the office?  DUH!  How will they have business in 3 or 6 months if they're not working now???  They're not doing anything to get business now or in the future. I just don't understand.

I believe an agent must have a structured plan and work that plan as long as they are in the business - even during slow times.  What do you think?