I am not one that follows politics much, but for the life of me, I am unable to figure out why our elected officials cannot put aside the "Party" and get some actual work done.  All we seem to hear today is that "the government is going to shut down", "they are decimating medicare", "social security is going to be cut".  I know that our country is having a lot of problems, there isn't one person who has not felt it to some degree, but instead of playing the blame game, lets do something to fix it.  I am curious, am I the only person who feels that we need to clean house in congress and replace the whole lot of them with people that have common sense.

Whenever I run out of money, that means that I am unable to purchase anything.  When our federal government runs out of money, they either figure out how to increase taxes or they fire up the printing presses.  I have created a budget to help me with my spending, and I have to say that it works as long as I follow what I put to paper.  The math is quite simple, income minus expense equals money remaining, if there is a negative at the end, I figure what I can cut from the expenses.  It seems to me that the legislators we have in the federal government think the only solution to the budget is to increase income and not worry about expenses.  In my humble opinion, there is a lot that can be cut from the national budget and that is what the legislators need to be doing instead of playing the games that they seem to so much love.  It all comes down to priorities.

I am hoping that all the american people will take time in the upcoming election period and make changes to get the country back upon sound footing.  We have many rights in this country as well as responsibilities; one of those responsibilties is to vote for those who represent us.  We are less than a month away for the primaries, lets get out there and make our voices heard.

Thanks for letting me rant...

Gary Nelson, A Voter

I have seen many agents who switch company's on a consistantly regular basis, one I know has made 5 different company's her home in the last two years.  I sometimes sit back and think that maybe the grass is greener on the other side, but then realize that whenever someone changes companies, it costs that agent to do that change.

My questions to my fellow real estate professionals is Have you ever changed companies and was that change a good thing or bad thing for your business?  I would appreciate any comments as I am curious how this would affect the agent.

Gary Nelson, Associate Broker

Harford County Maryland

Mary and I have a niche in working with homeowners that need to sell their home as a short sale, and there have been many times that we have been questioned on what to look for in a real estate agent that can successfully complete a short sale. Harford County has its share of homes that have to be sold in a short sale just like many places throughout the country and our team has performed this service many times over. I believe that it is important to know for the homeowner considering selling their home short that not every real estate professional has the training, experience, or abilities to be a short sale agent and it really is important for the agent to acknowledge this fact.

We started working on these types of transactions about 4 years ago when a previous client called us when they had problems in paying their mortgage due to a job loss.  We went to their defense and worked out a solution where the bank allowed us to sell the home for less than what the clients owed.  This had been done occasionally back then and I have heard from agents who have done them every so often for many years so that tells me that this has been around for quite some time.  At the time, we had no training or experience in these types of sales but were able to get the job done.  We then found others having the same difficulties and then we learned of a training program that dealt with how to do short sales called Certified Distressed Property Experts (CDPE).  Once we took this course, we created a process that allows us to get the transactions done with the least amount of problems and in the shortest amount of time.

So, the most important questions that I think a homeowner will need to ask at a minimum to a real estate professional they consider hiring to list their home for a short sale are the following:

1.    Are you trained to work with short sales as a listing agent?  There are many training programs out there and if an agent is going to work on short sales, they should get the proper training to make sure they have the skill to get it done correctly.  There are many good agents that have been trained in this process and there is no reason why a homeowner cannot find a good agent that is trained.  A website I recommend is www.CDPE.com which is in my opinion one of the better training agencies for short sale training.

2.   How many short sales have you been involved with?  I would want to know that the person I am hiring has some experience in performing short sales.  I would consider an agent who is teamed up with a short sale specialist who has experience, after all; agents have to get experience.  We help several agents in our office whenever they need help.

3.   What is your success rate in the short sales you were involved with as a listing agent?  At one time, 1 out of 4 short sales successfully completed was a good number and was the average success rate for many agents.  Today, I would want an agent who has a good record in successful transactions as the listing agent.  Obviously, an agent just starting in short sales may not have a record, if they are being assisted by another agent who is experienced, what is that agent’s success rate.

These most likely are obvious questions but I hope that this short article helps someone who may be considering a short sale.

 Gary Nelson, CDPE, GRI, e-Pro

Harford County, MD. 410-459-6920, Long and Foster Real Estate

Recently, I had the opportunity to take CRS 200 which is the class for Business Planning and Marketing.  This class is one of the core classes that allows the agent to work toward the designation as a Certified Residential Specialist (CRS).  I have been in the real estate business for nearly 10 years, and often heard other agents talk about how great the CRS classes were, so decided to finally take one.  I have to say that Robert Morris did an excellent job at keeping our attention for two days and I learned some great information.  I can now attest to the fact that this was one of the better classes I have ever taken and also made the decision to continue on with getting the CRS designation.

This is the time of the year that I always start my business plan for the next year and when this class was brought to my attention, I thought it would be a good class to take to see if I could learn a better process.  I had taken several business planning classes over the years and felt that at worst, I would pick up at least one thing that would be beneficial in doing the business plan for 2012.  All I can say is "WOW".  Robert, thank you for an extremely wonderful class.

We started out on day one with learning what a business is, the characteristics of a successful business, and working on a mission statement and vision statement of which I had been working on mine for a couple of years now.  When we finished the first day, I came home and worked for a couple of more hours and finally completed a mission statement that I was happy with.  The class was interactive which made learning the material that much more fun.  We then proceeded to do a situation analysis that showed me some great numbers that every agent should know not only about my groups production, but about the market in our area.  I was blown away at how I can use these same numbers and the way that they could be mingled in with my marketing items.  The stages of business growth was very enlightening as to where my team was at today and where I want to take them.  At the end of this chapter, I had a good idea of how to find out where my business was at today as compared with other businesses and markets.

Day two was where we got into the meat of creating a business plan and forecasting what we needed to do to make our financial goals for 2012. We discussed the three types of budgets we would need to complete, how to predict income, what we were going to need to do to make the income for the budget, and all types of tips to make a successful business.  Something that I really came out of the class with today was that a business doesn't only need to pay the bills, it needs to make a PROFIT!  Day two continued with marketing and what was needed to bring about some good marketing techniques to make the money needed to make a profit.

I would highly recommend anyone who wants to get some quality education what will help your business to take a CRS class, they are most definately worth the money and you will take away real knowledge that will help you succeed in business.

Gary Nelson, GRI, e-Pro, CDPE, CIAS

Harford County, Maryland 410-459-6920

This morning, I decided to get up early and take a walk, something that I don't believe I have ever done.  Lately, I have been doing a lot of things that are what we can consider "out of the norm" for me. I guess the thing that changed my prospective on life is in March, I had a wake up call by way of a heart attack that called out for me to change my habits. It has been a most difficult trip thus far but I think the results will be most favorable. My mindset has to be on continuing the good habits that I have started and not get back into the rut of making bad decisions.

The first habit I changed was I started the process of ending my smoking of cigarettes. I started out using the patch which is something that I had used successfully before and it worked. I guess that what works sometimes isn't guaranteed to work all the time as the patch was a bust. It did help reduce the amount I smoked a day but did not help me with the cravings. My second plan of action was using a drug called Chantix. I had heard some good things about this drug and it did live up to it's reputation. After the first week where I was allowed to smoke, I stopped smoking and did not have any cravings what so ever and have been smoke free for 116 days and have no desire to return to smoking.

Whenever most people quit smoking, there are tons of positive things that happen to that person such as easier to breath, able to walk more without losing their breath, a sense of smell returns but there is one negative thing that can and usually does happen when you quit smoking and that is weight gain.  Within a matter of weeks, I gained nearly 20 pounds and picked up an inch or two in the waist line. This is something that I was afraid of and of course it happened to me, so I decided that something needed to be done. I had noticed an associate in my office who had lost around 40 pounds in two months and I questioned him on what he was doing that was allowing this weight loss. He introduced me to Herbalife and the process of learning to eat healthy.

I have tried the shake process before when attempting weight loss and the one thing I found was that like most healthy things, those shakes might have been good for you but they sure did not taste very good. When my associate introduced me to another shake, I did not have very high expectations but the trial was free so I made the plunge. My first shake was a banana chochlate and it was great. After listening to the herbalife lady tell us about the product, I immediately signed up for the Ultimate plan and things have improved ever since.

The ultimate pland was a shake meal plan with protein, and 5 vitamins three times a day. You drink a meal shake for two meals a day and then eat a healthy meal with good nutritional foods. During the first week, I lost 6 pounds so you can imagine my delight. I also noticed that the vitamin regiment also gave me more energy and I started walking4-5 times a week at 30-60 minutes a go. This is not something I planned, but was something I just felt like doing and I have been feeling better each and every day. I have also watched the kind of food that I eat, I am not successful 100% of the time, but I am striving for good food 90% of the time.

I know this is not real estate related but I just wanted to let the world know of my new found knowledge and maybe inspire someone else to start down the path of a healthy life.

Gary Nelson, Harford County MD, 410-459-6920

This will be a year that I will be so happy to finally see come to an end.  Nope, it has nothing to do with real estate or the market; it has to do with something that has happened in my own personal life.  In March, I was admitted to the hospital for chest pains and this started several months of very stressful ups and downs in my life.  Many real estate professionals have spouses or other family members who have medical insurance coverage, but both my spouse and I are both full time real estate agents in Harford County Maryland and of course thought that we did not need health insurance.  After a four day stay, I was released and when all the bills started piling in, we were $38,000 in debt with medical bills.

The first thing I did was started investigating health plans that would be affordable and we were fortunate enough to get one where we were able to afford the monthly premiums.  The deductible was considered a high deductible premium, but I quickly took care of my share of the premium and Mary soon followed suit.  About this time, Mary had gone out and somehow tore some ligaments that were going to require some costly physical therapy and a surgery.  This is where I found out the value of health insurance.

I know that there are many real estate professionals out there playing the Russian Roulette with not having a health insurance plan, take it from a team that knows, it is a necessary evil, don’t count on the government to pay your way.

Four and a Half months to go to 2012!

Hello Everyone,

I can remember signing up for Active Rain many years ago, and at first; I came here a lot of times to read the posts and see what others are doing. Then, the real estate market hit a bump in the road and I had to spend tons of time working in the "business" just to make ends meet and get everything done.  The one thing that I am proud to say is that Mary and I are still full time real estate professionals and have taken what was just the two of us and added others to our team.  We now have two buyer’s agents and one listing coordinator.

When the market went in the same direction that geese do every fall, we continued trying to work along as we always did, regular resales with helping buyers and sellers to buy homes.  The problem we ran into was that many buyers had left the market and taken a hiatus and sellers were losing value on their homes faster than the speed of light.  Pretty soon, we saw that working in real estate was not going to be business as usual, but that we will need to change in order to survive.  By this time, I have seen many of our friends leave the business for greener pastures that had a regular paycheck and this did not particularly look enticing to us.

About this time, we had a client come to us who had a life changing event that had to sell their home and unfortunately, their home wasn’t worth what they paid for it.  We call this “upside down” in homeowner speak and it is not a good place to be.  This was our introduction to what was to become a household phrase called “Short Sale”.  After muddling our way through this transaction, Mary and I felt that there had to be a better way to do this process and heard about a class called Certified Distressed Property Expert otherwise known as CDPE.  Mary took this class first and it gave her the knowledge to work with short sales and get them done in a very fast time frame compared to how long it took other agents.  Later, I also took the course so that we can both have the knowledge and understand the process to help clients who are in trouble.

Today, our team works somewhat like a well oiled machine, I work with the listings and work on marketing, Mary facilitates the short sale between the home seller and the lender, we have two buyer agents that work with buyers in helping them find their dream homes, and finally a listing coordinator that helps with marketing and servicing the listings.  Can things be better, most certainly but we will continue to improve our team so that our clients will get the best possible service in the Harford County Maryland area.

And remember, if you or someone you know is looking for an agent in this market area, we are always available for your referrals.

It is a great life!

Gary and Mary Nelson, REALTOR, CDPE, CIAS

Harford County Maryland Real Estate Professionals

Buyer Expectations

It is amazing of how the market has changed from a sellers market to now a buyers market and the expectations of seller and especially buyers.  Just 2-3 years ago, a person selling their home was able to demand the list price, and in many cases; a price above the list. There was then a change to where buyers were very hard to find and sellers had to come to the realization that they will be lucky to get the list price for their home.  Recent statistics show that the seller now should expect only about 91% of the list price for their home. (MRIS market report)

Buyers now expect that the seller should take less than the list price and also to get closing help on top of the reduction.  I recently had a buyer that made an offer 24% less than list plus wanting an additional 5000.00 of seller help.  This was against my recommendation but as their agent, I diligently tried to negotiate this price.  After this offer was rejected, and suprisingly the sellers did counter, it died a terrible death.  When asked, the buyers told me that they came up with that price from a segment on CNN.

Folks, CNN are not real estate professionals, and their reporting is a nationwide view of the real estate market.  Ask any real estate agent and they will tell you that the local conditions are what matters and that your real estate professional is the person that you should be listening too.

Bottom line is that sellers are willing to help with closing in most cases, but they will not just give their property away.  Discuss your offer with your agent, give a reasonable offer based on supportable facts from a market stand point, and chances are that every one will have a win-win situation.

Good luck on that next offer.

Gary and Mary Nelson, REALTOR®

Harford County, Maryland