Jim's Blog

Glad to be a part

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:57:45 -0500

I look forward to being a part of this group! Here is my Blog address: www.jimsjournal.net

Check out homes in the Denver Metro area...

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:30:55 -0600

Do you like looking at homes? Here is a list of our Homes For Sale at Urban Companies. Plus you can run your own searches on our website...Click here:

Click Here for Our Listing Inventory at Urban Companies!!

Here is a new listing I just listed.

A taste of my Mondays Good News Wisdom Market update...go to JimsJournal.net to see weekly

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:25:51 -0600

Monday after Thanksgiving...Organizing and setting up a work station for our new Client Care Coordinator!

7th Secret To Real Estate Profit...7th in a series of 7! Find all at www.jimsjournal.net

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 07:03:42 -0600

This audio is a review of all 7 secrets plus a focus on the 7th secret! A MUST LISTEN!

Climb up the ladder...

7) Dedicate yourself to your vocational calling in life to sustain your biggest investment.

Owning a home is a motivator to always have passion to better yourself in your chosen vocation in life. At least it does for me. Without your regular income you will not be able to sustain your home and properly invest and maintain your biggest investment. I have had many people throughout the years say to me “Jim, we work so hard for our home, but we are ok with that because we know it is our biggest and best investment.” Yes, this is true, owning a home gives us our drive and energy to wake up in the morning and say: “I own this thing and I am happy to go to work today to pay for it.” Someday by staying in tune with this article you can wake up in the morning and say: “I own this home and with NO Mortgage!” I hope that this is valuable advice and I wish you good fortune in reaching your goals.

6 Secret to Real Estate Profit in a series of 7! check them all out at www.jimsjournal.net

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:37:39 -0600

6th in a series of 7

6) Have patience.

Real estate is not an overnight investment. If you think about it, as far as residential, owning a home is really very personal. Many people do not even look at their home as an investment. Although we know it is, and many times it is our most valuable asset. It sometimes just takes time for you to see the return. It will happen, real estate has cycles and you just need to be patient till you hit the next up swing in the market.

Joe Stumpf Interview with Jim Urban...30/60/90 day home pricing strategy! Listen you will be glad you did

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:45:45 -0500

Simply click on http://www.jimsjournal.net/ to go listen to the interview. This is a sneak peak of part of his December Results in Action CD.

Joe is a national spokesman and founder for By Referral Only. He coaches and leads over 5000 Realtors and lenders nationwide on how to build your business based on referrals. I consider him best in the business. Even with all my experience, I have learned and continue to learn cutting edge processes and systems that allow me to serve my clients with the best tools and to be able to diologue and communicate with them at my best version of myself. To learn more about his company go to http://www.mybyreferralonly.com/

State of the Market in Colorado Video...and a bonus Magic Trick!

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 11:14:38 -0500

Labor Day Weekend fun...Check out all the information on my personal Blog at www.JimsJournal.net

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 22:12:49 -0500

A couple of pictures of our trip to BYU

This weekend as we were dropping our daughter Kendra off at BYU I took a couple of pictures. Kendra, Becky, and Katie. Kendra's new roomates! I sat on a Harley at Magleby's. We had fun!

New post correction....The Best Way To show a guided tour of a home...

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 08:19:38 -0500

Go to www.jimsjournal.net and view the Doyle Benton House Video guided home walking tour!

The New and Best way to show a Guided Home video tour

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:00:51 -0500

Just link to this and see for your self: www.JimsJournal.net and click on the Doyle Benton House video! Give me your feedback!

The Secret To Real Estate Profit

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:46:28 -0500

Here are 7 essential and critical steps to
Insure proper equity gain in your home

Written by Jim A. Urban

I couldn't think of anything more appropriate to write about this month due to the good and bad of today's market and how people have handled their biggest investment, their home. This message is for homeowners to be, new homeowners, and long time homeowners. I want everyone to take special notes or at least mental notes of what I feel is the most important real estate article I have ever written. With many people loosing their homes, and many people miss handling their equity I felt this could be some really good advice. So here are the 7 essential steps:

1) Invest in a neighborhood that will hold or go up in value.

I have helped several people in the last few years that wished they had not invested in the neighborhood they did. The best cure or suggestion I can give is talk to several people you know and trust with experience in the town or part of town you are buying in. Ask them honestly where they believe is the best part of town and a good neighborhood to buy and invest in. Then after careful selection of a real estate consultant, make sure and ask him or her where they believe their best resale options are in your price range. As a veteran real estate consultant myself I rarely get asked this question. So I love to offer my suggestions to where they should or could buy that would assure them a good investment. Most people are happy to listen to my suggestions.

2) Pay at or below market value.

Once you find your home make sure and again ask your real estate consultant to determine the value buy researching the comparable sales in the area you are buying in. Even if you think you know, it is a good idea to run the comparable sales in the area. You may be surprised on what you may discover! Many times the buyer I was working with thought a price they were offering was a fair, but in reality the recent comparable homes around them were sold for less.

3) Maintain your home.

This one means to maintain your home on a regular basis, and with a reasonable amount of updating. I have seen too often homeowners go too extreme in one direction or the other. I've seen some homes where no maintenance was performed and it hurt the sale with all the fix up items it required and then some homes where homeowners over improved their homes so much that they lost money when it came time to sell. The question to ask yourself is "would you pay extra for that feature if you were going to buy back your home?" Also, keeping your home maintained is like keeping everything running smoothly on your car. You must change the oil, change the spark plugs on a regular basis. With a home you must repair or replace that furnace, replace old shingles, and fix that leaky faucet just to name a few. Find a happy median and you will see the biggest return on your investment.

4) Start your mortgage or refinance your mortgage that pays off in a shorter term than your traditional 30 year mortgage. Be careful how you refinance!

There are some really good mortgages out there right now that are certainly not the traditional. Traditional these days is meaning stay away from adjustable rate, interest only, and mortgages that really never help you pay down your mortgage and where your payments continue to rise in many cases. Right now there is a fantastic mortgage that is called the "accelerator mortgage." It pays your mortgage off in many instances in less than half of your normal 30 year mortgage with the same reasonable payments. I have a lender that you could talk to about this. Other ways to gain equity that has been used predominately in the last 20 years have been the 15 year mortgage. I have a friend that each time he refinanced he decreased the term of his loan. What he did is start with a 30 year mortgage, and when the rates dropped he refinanced to a 20 year mortgage, and when the rates dropped again he refinanced to a 15 year mortgage, and then finally the last refinance he did was a 10 year term. Each time he refinanced his payment stayed close to what it was before, but he kept decreasing his the term of his loan. My personal all time best investment was a home I personally bought in 1992, and after one year of ownership I refinanced on a 15 year mortgage. It was similar in that my payment actually only went up by $100. per month, because the rates dropped and at this point today in less than a year from now my loan will be paid off completely! Plus the home has nearly tripled in value. How often do you see this in the stock market? Lastly, be careful with mortgage companies that offer you no cost refinances by financing the costs into your mortgage.

5) Beware of the second mortgages and how they can come back to bite you.

I am not saying you should never take out a second mortgage. I am saying that if you do take out a second mortgage make sure the money is used for investment purposes only. Don't finance your home for anything that doesn't bring back more to you than you took out. I took out a second mortgage to buy another property which in turn has almost made me double what I initially borrowed. Too many people take out a second mortgage for the new boat, car, or vacation. These particular items, in my opinion, need to be saved for on the side before you dip into your equity.

6) Have patience.

Real estate is not an overnight investment. If you think about it, as far as residential, owning a home is really very personal. Many people don't even look at their home as an investment. Although we know it is, and many times it is our most valuable asset. It sometimes just takes time for you to see the return. It will happen, real estate has cycles and you just need to be patient till you hit the next up swing in the market.

7) Dedicate yourself to your vocational calling in life to sustain your biggest investment.

Owning a home is a motivator to always have passion to better yourself in your chosen vocation in life. At least it does for me. Without your regular income you will not be able to sustain your home and properly invest and maintain your biggest investment. I have had many people throughout the years say to me "Jim, we work so hard for our home, but we are ok with that because we know it is our biggest and best investment." Yes, this is true, owning a home gives us our drive and energy to wake up in the morning and say "I own this thing." Someday by staying in tune with this article you can wake up in the morning and say "I own this home and with NO Mortgage!" I vision seeing a thank you card to me thanking me for my suggestions I made to help inspire you to accomplish this wonderful goal!

Business card Stickers

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 12:30:46 -0500

I Love Referrals VS By Referral Only

Realtor Stickers On Business Cards

Good information if your in real estate or not!

I have been really studying what those little stickers on Realtor business cards really mean. The most common one you see is "I Love Referrals." I got to thinking about this. Of course we love referrals. How many would be bold enough to put a sticker on their card that says "By Referral Only?" I made a commitment 7 years ago to work "By Referral Only" and I have never regretted a minute of it. What does this mean for you? What real estate consultant would you choose if you had to go just by the sticker on their card? The one that loves referrals or the one that is by referral only? Which one is most likely to work harder for you to earn your trust and your referrals? For me a real commitment to the by referral only sticker means you must work hard with everyone you work with because if you don't work hard you won't get anymore referrals and your business will die! By loving referrals you are just stating a fact that you love referrals. What are you going to do to earn those referrals? A thought process that I thought you would be interested in hearing and contemplating about. The next time you get a business card from a real estate consultant, remember this little thought process I published for you.

How to present yourself as a real estate consultant regarding commission

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 09:03:42 -0500

why Commission is not your main focus when choosing your consultant to list your home

Oh my...I'm curious. Have you ever regretted making a decision?...

Because if you decide to work with an agent who is willing to cut his own paycheck, you may regret that decision...pause...

Let me explain...

Experience shows that if an agent is weak at negotiating his own paycheck, can you imagine how weak he will be at negotiating the sales price of your home?

I'm not saying that you should only work with a strong negotiator, because you already know that. I would like to suggest that your consultant demonstrates how well he will negotiate for you by first protecting his own paycheck.

Experience shows working with an agent who will cut his commission is one of those "regrettable decisions."

Sooner or later the sweetness of the cut commission is forgotten, but the bitter taste of poor negotiating for your sales price is regretted forever.

I wanted you to see the benefits of what a strong negotiator is all about. I don't want you to be regretting a decision forever...Jim

I thought Strategic Forum was great too!

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Sun, 27 May 2007 11:06:19 -0500

Check out my blog at www.JimsJournal.net I just posted a video about the event.

My recent visit to Florida at a Strategic Forum conference

Jim Urban (Home Referral Team at Urban Companies) — Sun, 27 May 2007 11:00:04 -0500