It is my personal opinion that steroids or some other sort of enhancer is being used by professional athletes.  Personal opinion aside I will give you all some inside facts.  I played minor league ball for Cincinnati and there were plenty of headline stories then as I am sure there are now. 

First off I never took steroids even though I was offered several times.  To this day I wonder if it could have helped?  But that is not me.  Being a health major in college taking human physiology and anatomy I know what drugs will do. 

Not only were there steroids in the minor leagues and college, there where a ton stimulants guys would take to get a high for a game.  Playing everyday will take its toll and guys will do anything to keep there energy level up.  I think the main reason young players turn to these drugs is poor diet. 

The only places to eat in the majority of these minor league towns after a game at 11pm is fast food.  Not what you want to be feeding your body after 7 or 8 hours of training.  Thats right we usually got to the ball park at 2 for a 7pm game.  We had fruit in the locker room before the games but nothing after.  Except maybe the occasional beer that was left over from the concession stand. 

Now everyone was not on steroids or took stimulants.  But they were there for the temptation.  Not out in the open but it was easy to find out who to go to.  The same holds true for every level of sports down to high school.  Big money is the problem.  The dream of making millions.

The problem lies with paying a 18 year old out of high school a million dollar signing bonus.  The millions they spend on signing flame throwing kids that have not proved themselves against pros would be better spent in the minor league salaries.  In rookie level our take home check twice a month was around $370.00.  How can you live off that? 

The money is prompting kids in high school to use steroids.  If you are a junior in high school and are throwing a fastball in the high 80's and maybe even low 90's more than likely the summer before your senior year you will be on some select team traveling to play in tournaments.  This offers a lot of exposure for young talent but also offers time away from parents where temptation lies.  All it takes is for someone to tell this young teenager about the millions some senior (who could throw in the upper 90's) just signed for.  And to tell the junior that this senior was just like him last summer until he took steroids.  That is a lottery ticket waiting to be cashed in. 

Where will it end?  My opinion is that it needs to end with the big signing bonuses.  Instead pay them a good annual salary or even spend the money on healthier post game foods.  And when a player gets caught taking steroids or performance enhancers they are out.  That is it, no three strikes just one.  There is plenty of young players waiting to make a name for themselves.  Give them a chance.  Keep the millions at the pro level and make them pay a price for cheating.

Sitting here sipping on a hot cup of coffee in the early morning hours, I think about my morning routine.  I have two young boys that are on a set schedule and love the consistency of it.  I too can relate, my mornings start between 0500 and 0530 everyday doing my research and reading.

This is where the coffee comes in handy.  Even after a long day the day before with a short night, there is nothing better than enjoying the morning with a nice hot cup of coffee.  I have found that being consistent with this schedule helps me to stay a step ahead throughout the day.  With so many things to know in our business besides the current transactions that we are working, I have found these mornings the best time to learn and stay on top of current real estate topics.

Now I know most people enjoy the warmth and comfort of their beds in the AM hours, but I can't help but enjoy the peace and quiet of the early morning hours.  With a cup of coffee.

  Has anyone ever taken their 15 hours of MCE one year and then the next their license is due to expire?  That is what is going on with me.  I have sent TREC an email twice now with no response.  I know that they are shorthanded down there. 

  Maybe this has to do with every agent being fingerprinted.  Not sure but if there is any insight that someone can give I would appreciate it.  My license does not expire until June, but if I need to take classes then I will have to start trying to schedule them.  Thanks.

 Whether you are an avid hunter, weekend rancher, or commercial farmer, one thing rings true to your heart, the rising cost of land.  We have been discussing this in my office for a while now.  It is getting tougher and tougher for the small time rancher, farmer or even hunter to afford the rising cost of land. 

 Take for instance your average price per acre right now in the brush country of south Texas being $2,000 per arce or more.  Then take just a small ranch or farm lets say 200 acres, and try and make a living or even some spare time money on this land.  You can't if you have to finance, and most people starting out have to finance. 

 Where does this lead us?  It leads us to more and more buyers paying cash to run their ranch or farm.  And who are these buyers with the cash?  Not your local young couple wanting to follow the family business of farming or ranching and getting started on their own.  It is the corporate business man looking for a place to escape or the retired baby boomer with their nest egg in cash, looking to relax on their little piece of heaven.

 More and more big ranches are being divided up into smaller ranchettes, much like a subdivision of ranches.  This is the business of tomorrow for the farming and ranching community.  Splitting up the family ranch to reap the benefits of the escalating land prices.  What happens when these ranches and farms are sold like this, they usually end up being turned into hunting property.  This I feel is not good for the future generations.  This can only mean less land for beef and crop production.  Which in turn means a higher price for food at your local market.

 This is not something that is going to occur overnight or even in the next 10 years but, I do feel at this rate it will have an impact on my children's future.  It will mean that recreational hunting will have become a higher priority than raising beef or farming crops for Americas dinner tables.  Wow. 

 In closing I must say that I would encourage those families who have Texas' most valued commodity to hold on to it and continue the time honored traditions of raising cattle and farming crops.  Or if you are a corporate man who recently purchased land, think about leasing back the grazing or farming rights to the local rancher or farmer and keep the land in business.

Have you ever come across a property with title issues?  Maybe some back taxes?  Well I wish it were that easy for a recent piece of property in my area.  There are several ranches that sold town lots for development in the early 1900's.  However these lots were never developed and most of the people who bought the lots stopped paying the taxes. 

What happened is the land never was divided and eventually the original seller passed the ranch land down to his heirs without a clear title.  The heirs own over 200 acres of land with over 100 people and families holding deeds to the city lots that were never developed.  The heirs to the 200 acres have been current on the taxes for the entire parcel which includes the city lots.

This is a clear cut case of adverse possession, but title companies won't touch it because of the 100 people who have deeds to the old city lots.  The title company tells him he must get the 100 people who have deeds to sign their lots over to him before they will close the property.  Sounds simple enough right?  His first phone call was to a local couple who owned one of the lots and found out that they had passed away and left the lot to their 12 children who were spread throughout the U.S.  What is the seller to do?  We have encouraged him to find a real estate lawyer and go through the process of adverse possession. 

Any other advice?

There is a old but improved way to market yourself these days, talking.  Yes that is right, good ole chit chat. 

I say that this is old because that is how everyone communicated before, cell phones, internet and the like.  You saw someone somewhere and would ask them about the weather or family or whatever. 

Having just moved from a large city (San Antonio) to a smaller one (Pleasanton), people in SA forgot how to converse.  And don't get me wrong SA is a friendly town but people just don't talk.  It doesn't have to be much, especially in Pleasanton, where people will chat about anything. 

Just waiting in line at the grocery store people will strike up a conversation with anyone willing.  I find this is the best time to market myself.  I will usually bring up something about real estate, whether it is the interest rates, land prices, or whatever.  The thing for me is that I always keep business cards handy and keep myself approachable. 

Living in a smaller town I will run into the same people more often. When I tell them about myself and real estate the next time I see them I will usually get asked about land we had listed in the paper or our website. 

What I have found that works is the face-time you get with people that really sticks in their memory.  I've been at a functions before with friends on my mail-out list and they won't remember the marketing material I sent them.  But find a stranger in the post office line chit chat about real estate and then see them again a month later in the grocery store and they will ask how is real estate going, or any new listings?

Word of mouth advertising is still the number one way to get your name out there, especially if you start the conversation. 

What does this saying make you think of?  Does it make you think of where you are and where you could be?  Does it make you think about what others have and you don't?  Why do we compare ourselves to others and what they have or who they are?  Is life one big race that we are in and we have to keep up with the other competitors? 

I have found that when I step out of my shoes and take a glance at my life from someone else's point of view then hey it looks pretty nice.  I think that is what makes the "Grass Appear Greener".  The thought that we don't have it.  When in reality we do have it, and so much more than what we think. 

I try to live my life being thankful for what I have.  I have always thought that anything in life is possible if you strive to get there.  But everything has a cost, even the "greener grass".  At what cost are you willing to sacrifice yourself for what you strive to get? 

I know a few people who have worked non-stop for 4 or 5 years and are now leading a life of luxury because of this sacrifice.  This in their eyes was worth the time and effort.  Time away from family, friends, and many time co-workers.  Now that they have all the free time in the world, who can they enjoy it with?  The 4 or 5 years of toiling in their work made them turn their back on the people that mattered most.  In their minds they were trying to work so that they could spend more time with the people they cared the most about, but what they really did was push those same individuals further away. 

What I am getting at is to make time for those you care most about.  Schedule them in your life like any other appointment.  If you are really working so hard for them and not yourself then take time out to enjoy them first and not your career.  If you don't then by the time you get to that "greener pasture" you may find that you are alone in it.

 I really enjoy talking with or meeting a person who gives it to you like it is, good or bad.  You just don't meet many straight forward people anymore.  Most of the people today may give you some version of the truth or what is happening, but most of the time they don't.  But why?  If someone is telling it like it is then why should someone else get upset?  I guess it is the age we live in.

My generation will probably be remembered for being the biggest bull-shooters there is.  This is not always bad but it tends to be in business.  Now if I am sitting down having a beer with a BS'er then great, but if I am two days from closing and with a BS'er that is telling me how great everything is, when meanwhile the bottom already fell out of the deal then bad, real bad. 

We are all taught, whether in school or at home, to not say this, or say this but not that, or don't talk like that in-front of, or only say this in-front of.  Where will it end?  This same attitude of trying to protect everyones feelings ends up hurting everyone in the long run.  If you only we could see that pain only makes us grow stronger.  This should include some verbal abuse as well.  If you were never told the truth about things until the truth revealed itself then you would be pretty cautious towards everyone and everything.  Always expecting something else than what is really there.  This is the world we are getting accustomed to.  Protecting the feelings of someone so as to avoid maybe an awkward second in life. 

I believe I would rather suffer those seconds in life when sometimes the truth hurts, than to live years of my life always wishing someone would have told me sooner.  Many mistakes in life can be blamed for this attribute.  I can look back on my life and see that all the times that the truth was not revealed right away there were mistakes that followed that could have been avoided. 

To conclude, I think that being straight forward and direct with everyone, whether the information you may be sharing is good or bad, is by far the best answer.  There may be a second you suffer upfront, but the rewards down the road are tremendous.  You will earn the respect of that person in the long run which is what counts in any business. 

Blogs to me are really good for many different reasons.  One, you can get off on a rant about whatever it is that is bugging you that day.  Two, you can relate a really important topic to everyone else.  Three, you can read about what others have went threw whether it be right or wrong.

Todays Rant.

The never-ending problems with Title Co. and Mortgage Co.  This is not a slam at everyone of them but just the ones in my area.  I keep finding the same old problems of time management or lack there of.  Is it me or does everyone have to continue to keep spurring them up to meet closing dates? 

Having worked in a big city (San Antonio) and now a smaller town (Pleasanton), I have come to appreciate both for very different reasons.  There is a great friendly atmosphere here in Pleasanton, but the same laid back country attitude I enjoy about everyone carry's over to the business world where time is money.  This always turns into having to push closing dates back by a week or more.  Frustrating to say the least.

Solving It.

Solving the slowness of the above mention topic.  How then do you get these company's to keep their promises and their dead lines?  I have alway been told this quote "You can attract more flies with honey, than with vinegar."  I guess giving friendly phone calls or even stopping in to visit them on occasion just to say "Howdy, how is everything going?" might be a good start.  I do have to call them but it is usually to say why are we not closing on time again?  We will see how the honey works.

Do any of you know a baseball player, the ones that do it for a living?  I know several, only because I played minor league baseball with them before I was released.  If you happen to know one, find out a little about them and their hobbies in the off-season.  Chances are that they might be a seasoned deer hunter, or a even an avid cattleman. 

With that in mind and with the vast amount of big ranches in South Texas being broke up into smaller more manageable ranches, for the individual to run, there is a need to get the two together.  It is only natural that baseball players enjoy hunting because it is during their off-season which is right now.  With land prices tripling over the last 10 years it makes them a good investment as well. 

Everything is bigger in Texas, which includes the large ranches that are coming onto the market a few thousand acres at a time.  It seems there is a never ending supply of land in South Texas which comes onto the market every week.  If you know of a ball player that might enjoy a piece of the brush country, send them my way.

ryan@southtexaslandteam.com