Sorry I've neglected this blog so long.  With my lack of attention here, you'd think I was busy just raking in the dough...well, not quite.  I've been busy all right...lots of people looking, no one ready to commit.  This is confusing to me since our Sonoma home prices have been dropping like stones, houses have been coming off the MLS because they are going into foreclosure (nevertheless, reducing inventory) and interest rates still low. 

Now if someone could please tell Alan Greenspan to be quiet because it is no longer his job to comment on the future housing market - that's now someone else's job! 

It is the spector of future price drops that seem to be in our way. I'm not in the financing part of our market so I'll just make the next comment based on my own personal experience: Buyer to lender:  "What if I could purchase this place for just $25K less? Maybe I should wait."  Experienced lender: "Well, let's just look at what difference that would make in your monthly payment.  OK, looks like it would be about $33.19/month less - is it worth waiting to buy?"

I wish someone could do that for the buyers who are deciding that waiting is better now to watch these same houses drop $25,000. - maybe they'd act!

Recently, a fellow realtor and I took our Sonoma Real Estate show "on the road" and decided to participate in a Silicon Valley Real Estate EXPO.  It was a one day conference and the first of its kind in that area.  Silicon Valley, remember, is the home of the Google and Yahoo children - you know the ones with money to burn!  Silicon Valley, the home of the high tech industry, is almost 2 hours from Sonoma, barring any of the normally horrible traffic down that way.  Our traffic around Sonoma is nothing compared to their concrete jungle.  We met  some investors there and we were asked to speak to their club soon.  It made us feel that at least we were doing something positive! 

I'm interested in any ideas others have about your own "good ideas" to get your real estate story out.  Have you done something unusual you are willing to share with us?  Is anyone doing anything to take advantage of the currency exchange rate to attract buyers from out of our country? 

It's a great time to be in California Wine Country - they are smashing the grapes now, having plucked them from the vines.  You know what comes next!

Come visit Sonoma!  Buy a house!

Long ago when I was young(er) and  (more) foolish and was then, as I have always been, hopeful and optimistic about just almost everything, I remember stopping into a real estate office in a town in the south Bay known for very expensive homes.  I saw a brochure about a house in the window that I liked (of course there was no price on it) and I strode confidently into the office.  I did not know then that agents had "floor time" or, in fact, anything about real estate organizations and how they work.  I only knew that I had seen something that I liked, and hoped I could afford, and went in to learn more.  I also remember that the company name was one I knew and thought well of...but not after this visit.

Now, granted, I couldn't afford the home I had chosen and I was not sophisticated about real estate things I perhaps should have known.  I needed to be educated but when I think of where my earning potential went from that day, I was a great prospect!  Instead, I was looked down upon, not to mention talked down to - barely talked to at all, as I recall.

Since that day, I've bought 11 homes - 10 in the Bay Area totaling over $10 mil. (that may seem big to you, but it's Calif. after all)  The only home I didn't sell for a nice profit, regardless of how long I owned it, was the one in MA.

All the above is just to say that, I too, have been a "potential client" standing in a real estate company somewhere wondering what I could afford.

That knowledge to this day informs and guides the way I treat people who come into our office.  Often our walk-ins are visitors from other states and towns.  They are always shocked (the out of CA people) by our prices for what you get.  A part of my role as the person on floor duty is to educate.  If they are still laughing about the prices after a few minutes, I know they'll not be moving to this area.  (Frankly, I don't know how people from other areas ever get to move to CA unless they are independently wealthy of their company is helping.)

So here is my question...with all the empathy and understand of how things are expressed in my previous 4 paragraphs - and I am REALLY a nice person, a well-educated real estate professional and someone who is willing to provide service beyond what might be normally available...Right!  So the question: Why, after several great phone conversations, or face to face conversations in which everyone is seeming to "get along" and feel comfortable with one another discussing needs and wants and abilities, do the potential clients just disappear? 

By "disappear" I mean that they (suddenly) just don't reply to new emails, don't reply to phone voice messages, etc.  What happens?  I don't get it.  They can't not like me yet, we've not even met!  I have, in the meantime, made appointments for the homes they want to see on the day they want to see them, googled them, created packages of local information, put gas in my car and discussed their upcoming visit with my Brokers.  But they don't show...and don't call and don't reply.  I think it's rude.  Unless someone is violently ill -  or dead - and even then, just leave a message!

Many in this industry tell me the answer to all this is "NEXT!"  Sure, that is possible for me to just move on to the next client, but I sure don't get it.  The other thing that "other" realtors say is that "buyers are liars" and you just have to get used to it.  I don't think I can work in an industry where that is really the norm.  I just don't believe it, I've met too many great potential clients.  It does, however, leave me with the previous question...WHY?

Any ideas about this?  I always want to do my part better, so I'm really open to anything I'm doing wrong, but how can such a non-pressure, non-offensive, kind person like me have such seemingly strange experiences with potentially wonderful buyers?

Signed:  Puzzled

I simply cannot keep up with all the fun things that are going on in my life here in Sonoma. If you lived here, I'm sure it would be the same for you!  (I know a great Realtor who can sell you a house!)

I'm dying to tell you about last weekend's fund-raiser, even as it passes quickly into obsolescence.  I'm going to try hard to get that done because it was so fun and we raised $1.2 mil for local non-profits - in three days!  There are two things about this group of events you simply wouldn't believe - the amazing raffle items (one lot included a Prius) and what huge amounts of money participants were willing to part with to buy them!  The generosity of the attendees was as great as the pourings of wine!  Hmmm...maybe those two are related!  I know a lot of you are interested in non-profit work and giving back to the community, because you told me, so I'll get on it right away!

Today about 35 of the real estate agents here in Sonoma accepted the generous offer of Chris Oscar of the Sonoma Index Tribune newspaper and boarded the bus he had arranged to take us about 20 miles north to Santa Rosa.  On the way, we watched The Secret on screens in the bus - felt like we were in an airplane! Once there, we attended a truly amazing 3 1/2 hours session with Matthew Ferry.  He is the son of Mike Ferry whom I don't know, but many of the people attending knew from the past.  Matthew was very uplifting and positive in his remarks which were given in a practical and informative way.

His topic today and the main points below concerned how to Market-proof your business. (and boy! were we all thirsty for an affirming positive approach to that!) 

1.  Clarity - what are you committed to?  You have to be all in, or you're dead in this business in this market!

2.  Feeling good is the highest goal - how do you set your life up so success is natural?

3.  Stop trying to make the sale and start making a difference.  He calls this part the "contribution game" and I certainly agree with every word he said. Stop trying to convince everyone of how fabulous you are and give them something that helps them be successful.

4.  Start connecting deeply with everyone you come into contact with - become opportunity conscious.

5.  Stop protecting yourself and dig in, start honoring where others are coming from.

From Matthew Ferry. (www.matthewferry.com)  Yea!

Then we took the bus back to Sonoma and enjoyed a delightful lunch, also furnished by Chris and the newspaper.  It was great to sit with agents from other companies and learn about them and their backgrounds - especially with our new sense of enlightenment.  Great day!

If you read this far here's a question - When you have your weekly tour meetings, do all the agents from each company sit together in little defined bunches, or do you all spread out with one another regardless of where each of you works.

I keep getting the message "wrong format".  I hate this, when I have such wonderful pictures! 

I've been blogging to you about the grape harvest.  the other day, smack in the middle of a vast vineyard, it occurred to me that many of you have no idea how many acres are involved in the grape planting.  I hope to share some photographs with you that show FAT grapes as well as hillsides completely covered with the vines.

For those of you, like me, who have zucchini plants in your veggie garden, or multiple tomato plants, the vines are like that - hyper-productive!  Anyway, enjoy!  This is one of the many, many reasons we live here - or visit here!

 I'll try again, but for now, you just have to imagine acres and acres - for as far as you can see - grape vines, laden with bunches of big fat grapes!

Hello again,

I'm about 3/4 of the way through my GRI.  I'd love to hear some practical reasons from other GRI folks about how they have used the GRI designation to benefit their business.  I love the classes, and always feel pumped up and enthusiastic after I leave, but want to consider the practical implications of this course of study.  How do you talk with clients about your investment in this program?

Maggie

Just one more thing for tonight before I fall out asleep!

Today our team heard a presentation about "Paying down points" from our local Countrywide VP.  He is a highly respected member of the financial community here (not to mention all he does for non-profits) and his presentation was about two things: #1 the great benefits of counseling your seller to buy down points for the buyer instead of lowering the asking price and #2 assisting your buyers in having a financial back-up plan to help them (and you) close the deal - just in case the first arrangement doesn't work.  And here, they often don't work!

Are any of you doing this now?  Would you advise your clients to do either of these?  If you have a favorite lender for your clients, do you have a 2nd favorite?

Today someone asked me:  "when you move into a new town, how do you figure out all the important things to know?"  I said, "like what"?  She said, "exactly!  what are the most important things to know?"  After an appropriate pause, I said "to me there are two things - a haircutter you can trust and a dentist who won't hurt you but can still take care of your teeth" 

It did occur to me that people in different stages of life, might want to know different things - like how to find a babysitter you can trust?  Where is a great bar to meet people?  When I moved to Mass., my mother's most important questions was "how near are you to the hospital?"  Of course, she was in her 80's and in a small town and I was 40ish and in Boston.

What questions do you think are the most important to someone new to a community?  Do you have a special way, or setting, in which you propose answers to these questions?

I'm dying to share all the information about this last weekend's fabulously huge benefit weekend for our non-profits, but tonight, this question is more important than my reporting on something I love.

I'm actually really good at customer follow-up.  I write grammatically correct and interesting emails (and yes, I do spell check them!).  I ask for the potential clients' goals and heartfelt desires.  I handle early objections and explain how Realtors work and how the commissions are really structured.  I listen.  I send hand-written and addressed thank you notes on wine-country correct Crane notes.  I google the potential clients.  If they are in CA, I check tax records to see what they really own.  I research the "property history" on each listing I send.

So...why do some interesting, active, qualified, exciting potential clients just wander off?

I'm so curious about what any of you do to hang onto people long enough to really help them.

And if you are a consumer/potential buyer/perfect customer reading this...what can we do better to retain your loyalty?

How local do you have to be?

I have had several experiences as a Realtor in the last 6 months where I am one of two agents trying to help buyers frind a home.  It seems to have more to do with where the buyer wants to find a home, and their indecision about that (usually related to what they can afford, or think they can afford) than wanting to have two agents.  In all cases, there has been no deception, which I really appreciate --- the buyers have been really upfront, both with their needs and where else they are looking concurrent to our search. 

It is important, I think, to have a "local" agent.  How local is my question.  I have decided that the best way to serve my clients' needs is to sell in the areas that I really know, and where I have made serious efforts to educated myself, and refer in other areas that I know less well, even if they are just 25 miles 'up the road'. I want to be able to offer advice with confidence about the schools, the flavor of the neighborhood, city government, what fun things happen there and on and on.

Do any of you have thoughts or suggestions about this topic?  How do you handle clients' requests that you represent them in your area if you know there is another agent somewhere else? (I'm not talking about Denver vs. St. Louis, I mean one town vs. a near by middle sized city).

Would love to collect some comments about how any of you use virtual (or non-virtual) assistants.  I think I could use one, but don't understand the scope of their work.  for instance, do they generally work in the actual office you occupy?  Do the brokers in your office have to agree?  Is there insurance involved?  What is a typical hourly rate? (in Calif. would be most useful).  Are there any great stories about how VA's are utilized in a powerful way?

M