I was speaking with a Realtor friend a few days ago.  One of his comments took me by surprise.  He said that he had lost two sales since the "melt down".  The people were qualified and pre-approved and were in the process of buying, but were worried about what the market is going to do.  It is my opinion that if you are a potential buyer with a secure job, have decent credit with the appropriate down payment, it doesn't make sense not to buy your new home at this time. This is a great buyer's market!  House values have come in line so now buyers can get a good value for their dollar(s).  Historically, times like this are when investors make money.  They invest when the markets are down and wait for them to rise. 

It is my opinion that now is one of the best times to buy a home in my lifetime.  I know, there is a lot of doom and gloom on the news.  Don't believe what you hear.  If you are in the market to purchase a new home, have a secure job, have good credit and meet the criteria for a home mortgage; there is no reason not to buy.  If I have a loan that I am meeting the contractual requirents for that loan and the institution that holds the paper on the loan goes out of business, I won't lose my home unless I cease to meet the requirements of the mortgage. 

I heard a couple of mortgage professionals on the radio the other day.  Their assertion was that there was plenty of money to loan for mortgages, but people were not even calling or coming in to see what was available to them.

My best advice is:  Do not beleive what you hear on the news.  Check with a few reputable mortgage professionals.  Do your own research to find out what is available to you.  At least you will know where you stand in today's market and you will know if now is your time to buy.  Happy hunting and good luck!

The other day I had a client who came to town from another state to look at several homes that were of interest to her.  She said that she would need to take another car because we needed a total capacity for six persons.  I replied that I had seating for six in my truck.  So we agreed to take my truck.

I found that since they hadn't seen each other for quite a while, they seemed more interested in catching up on family and friendly news and not so much in the homes that we were touring.  I found it difficult to hold my client's attention for very long.   I think that we needed to travel with far fewer people so that my client and I can have more direct communication.  

My client will be back in about two weeks to view more homes.  I would like to know from the experts:  How many is too many to take on tour?  And if more than one or two people, how to hold their attention?

Have you ever called someone, especially a government agency, or another big business to talk to someone about an important issue only to find yourself sentenced to voice mail jail. It seems that your sentence varies with the amount of patience you have.  If I can't zero out to a live person, I usually give up and hang up the phone after hearing the same message time and time again.  That message is either "I'm sorry,I don't understand your selection." or something equally as frustrating.  Normally, I have a lot of patience, but not when it comes to voice mail systems that I consider improperly set up.  

In my past life,  I installed telephone and voice mail systems as well as data networks.  My forte is voice communication systems.  I can make a telephone system do everything that the manufacturer intended and sometimes, more.  Therefore, whenever I come up against a system that I can not navigate quickly and easily, I have a short fuse.  

If you choose to use a conventional telephone system with on-premise voice mail set up as an auto-attendant in your real estate business, keep it as easy for the calling party to use as possible.  Minimize the use of menus and keep the list of choices on each menu to five or less.  I am going to get in trouble for this one, but my preference is not to give a choice of language.  In my area, this is not a problem, but 30 miles away, the system would have to contain choices for at least five other languages.  Every choice you give slows the operation.  If you must have a menu for choice or language, departments, company directory, dial-by-name directory, followed by who knows what, always give the calling party the option to dial zero to reach a live person or to leave a message in the general delivery mail box.

Advertising on hold for your business is also a great idea for any business.  The phone systems of today are so quiet that when the calling party is placed on hold for a period of time and there is nothing to listen to, they sometimes think that they have been forgotten about and hang up.  Maybe to call a competitor.  Advertising on hold helps the time pass and can educate your potential clients about your company.  

The equipment that I use can notify me on my cell phone when I have a message, or transfer the caller to my cell phone when I am out in the field.  Also, with an upgrade, it can convert voice to text and send the message to my cell phone, PDA or whatever digital device I am using for text messages.  It can also convert the voice message to a WAVE file that I can listen to wherever I have email access.  

Another nice thing about voice mail systems is that most provide a means of recording a live conversation with the push of a button.  This can be very important when you need to recall the details of an important conversation.  Keep in mind that a few states, Washington, Oregon and I think, Maryland require that the person you are recording has to be informed that the conversation is being recorded.  This can be accomplished with a periodic beep on the line, a message saying that this call may be recorded or just letting the other party know that the conversation is being being recorded when you start the recording.  Check local regulations regarding this.    

Remember, short, sweet and easy to use keeps callers happy and easier to please.   

I received an email last evening from Margaret Rome.  She was commenting on the fact that I had made 333 comments on the blogs of others, while not having a single posting of my own.  She invited me to call her if I needed any help.  Surprise!  I actually placed a call and spoke to the nicest lady one would ever hope to meet.

Margaret was wondering if I was afraid to write my first blog or if I was going for some kind of record for the most points ever awarded without ever posting.  Well, thanks to her, I'll never be included in the Guinness Book of Records because, believe it or not, here is my first post.  

We also discussed what to write about.  Much to my surprise this wasn't the planned topic.  I was going to talk about something techie, but that will just  have to wait.

It is easy to write about the blogs of others, but the initial blog for me was the hardest thing to get around to - kind of like being the armchair quarterback.  Well, now I'm in the game.  Being a rookie at this, I welcome any support and advice.  

Margaret also suggested that I include pictures with my post.  To my surprise, I found that to be the most difficult at for this particular topic as I have never used clip art and the digital pictures that I do have are not at all related to the topic.  For those of you who like pictures - here ya go.  yeah, I know that this picture has absolutely nothing to do with the topic.  I just thought that you might enjoy it.