In a previous blog I wrote looking for a referral agent and I posted exactly what I knew this referral agent would be getting into with this seller.  The comments I got were all so positive and thought I did a great job being up front about the situation.  I personally believe that being straightforward is always the best way.  Or as my friend Jennifer says "no sugar coat from Sybil". 

Well apparently not all our clients or potential clients as in this case feel that way about honesty. A couple weeks ago I received a call from a seller that was getting her house ready to go on the market.  This is a home she has had as a rental for 7 years.  She asked me to go over and preview the home and give her my opinion about the price range she wanted to list it for which I believe was around 173K.  She told me that it had 2 acres of land and that she was making improvements.  When I walked in I was overwhelmed with the cigarette smoke and pet smells.  She had done some painting, new carpet, and put new linoleum in the sun-room.  That linoleum (she installed obviously) was seamed and was a terrible job.  Couldn't go in the basement-mildew was to strong.

There was just no way that she was going to get anywhere close to her asking price with her continuing to do her own handy man fix up.  So I figured out what I thought would be good price and made a recommendation that she let the house go for a investor or someone wanting a fixer upper.  Unless she could afford to have all the work this house needed done by a professional then it would not bring anywhere near what she wanted.

Now mind you I am a very kind person (though I can get riled but rarely do with a client) and I delivered this message in the kindest way.  She thanked me and said she would consider what I said.  So, I contacted her a week later by email and I will share below some of the quotes on her email to me.  Then if you will, please let me know if you think I did something wrong.  I can't find it and I tried.  Sure made me start off with a bad day.

Thank you for talking with me and for going to see the house.  However, you were certainly right that your brand of brutal honesty was a bit to damaging to my pride.

I agree that a Realtor's job is to help the seller make improvements that will help sell the house and to gently show them what the true market value should be.

I understand that Realtors are frustrated with this slow market and certainly do not need another overpriced listing.  But I was left with the impression that you tend to take some of your frustration out on sellers who are your bread and butter.

I have decided to list with a Realtor who is always positive and upbeat.  She always seems to find the pluses in any property and makes a person feel good.  She did not originally want to take a listing so far away but agreed to once I told her how you hurt my feeling.

.I just closed a home last week for a first time home-buyer that was a personal referral to me from a previous client.  This couple was young with one small child and they started out telling me of some issues they had with credit etc.

After putting them in touch with a lender and the lender tells me everything should be fine just a couple little things, we proceeded to write a contract on a home we found on our 2nd trip out. 

Well I keep waiting, and waiting to get that phone call that let's me know we start our hurdle jumping.  IT NEVER CAME.  WHY?

Because this young couple, having gotten in some serious debt with 1)youth, 2) a preemie baby that required a lot of hospital care, had moved in with her parents and proceeded to pay off debts, save and scrimp on every part of their life that they could.

They weren't sure when they first contacted me if they had done enough to get themselves ready but the lender assured us they had.  As we walked away from that closing table I think they were still in as much shock as I.

Of course first time home-buyers are my favorite believe it or not.  While they are not always the easiest ones to work on I have to say they are so rewarding.  You walk away from a transaction with such a good feeling knowing that you helped them accomplish something they had been dreaming of for a while.  What better feeling could you ask for.

Ok guys I have a referral I need to give someone and of course I thought about my AR friends first!  I usually don't have to go through such a rigorous routine to give a referral but this one is kind of special.

This is the mother of my sister in law.  I've never met her mother.  I've been told that she is quite a bizarre person and may be a challenge for most. 

Here are the requirements!

1. Live or service the Sylva, NC area.  (Her requirement)

2. Be female and a very experienced agent and older than 40. (Her requirement)

3. Someone that doesn't give up easily and won't be put off by rudeness. (Sister in laws request)

4. Someone that won't hold it against me!  (Mine all mine!)

So if you think that you are up for a challenge, this lady does need to sell her home and move closer to her daughter.  You must know she thinks it is a mansion and I'm told it IS NOT!.  She does have land but I can't recall how much.  She may not even be really aware of the need to move but it is there.  So if I've not scared you off, please contact me and I will try to gather as much other information as you need.

 WARNING  WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING 

How great our AR members are especially my friend and fellow AR Jennifer Walker-Derby-Realtor Extraodinaire. She and I were having lunch and she was kind enough to agree to preview a potential new listing with me.  Always helps to have your friends opinions.  We hopped into my car only to have the switch just do the old click-click-click!  Yep dead battery.  Now thank goodness this happened Wed. because I have to show out of town buyers all day on Fri/Sat at a distance a good bit away from home and how embarrassing that could have been.

We need jumper cables. Well er none in either of our cars.  Just as well.  I'm not sure either of us would have known exactly what to do with them.  I shudder to think which car we might have burned up if we'd had them.

Jennifer's husband came right on over and got me started to I could make it to the auto parts for a new battery.  Not only did he stop what he was doing, drive about 5-6 miles, jumped the car but he had to push it out of the parking space to get to it.  Now, how's that for service?

Well I had never met Frank but I already had a great opinion of him just hearing about him from Jennifer.  Now I have to say I not only thought he was a great guy, he IS A GREAT GUY. 

A BIG THANK YOU TO FRANK - I hope I can do something for you one day.

My husband is turning 50 in August and nobody should pass that milestone without a party!  So we are having a party of 50-60 around my friends pool and hot-tub.  I need to offer some good finger food to soak up alcohol (don't want anyone to leave the party with to much of that.)

 The plan so far includes tons of boiled shrimp.  I have a couple people hired to handle the food but I must come up with the menu.  While I would like to do the cooking myself there is just no way I can do that and everything else as well.

So put those thinking caps on and help me come up with some good-stick to your ribs-finger food.  Oh, and not to messy.  I want to party not wash dishes.

Thank you!

Buyers can be so very frustrating.  No matter how much you want to help them they only hear what they want to hear and in the end -It's all your fault.

I have worked with these buyers for well over a month now and had them talk with a lender before I ever took them to see any properties.  The lender explained that she could get them a loan but there were two issues on his credit report that he would have to clear up to zero balance before it would be approved.  No Problem they said.  (Mind you they shared these details with me, not the lender.)

Didn't hear from the buyers for a couple weeks while they attempted to resolve these issues.  Great!  We're moving right along.  When they were ready to move on they called me to do the contract and when I asked about the issues they told me they had put them in dispute.  At my suggestion they talked to the lender who told them that no matter if they were in dispute that it must show a zero balance in order to complete the loan.  Again-no problem.  They would take care of it.  We wrote the contract.

The lender calls them this week to get proof the items were paid and they got very angry and said that they were in dispute and they could show those documents to the underwriter.  When she explained that she must have proof of a zero balance they got very angry at both the lender and myself.  So what can you do? 

Now they pretend that the lender told them she could work with the dispute thing.  I have worked with this lender for 14 years and I know better.  So what is it that buyers believe they can just wish away their problems?  I don't get it.  After all these years it still baffles me.   AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!  Don't they get it?  We are only trying to work with them to accomplish their goal!

I quit.  I have less patience than I thought and I can't do this anymore. 

 I found myself having my 11 year old nephew for a 3 week long visit.  That was fine.  He's a pretty good kid but needs to be entertained often.  I managed to sneak time in from work to take him swimming and to the movies and out to lunch. 

 Little did I know my new nephew was going to choose that time to make his appearance into this world leaving me in charge of my brother's 18 month old terror and the 11 year old.  Now don't get me wrong I love that little girl but she is quite the handful.  Especially a handful to someone who has never had children.  So just to add to the chaos I also had temporary custody of another siblings dog.  This dog does not like children or anyone he doesn't know, lives indoors (which sorry I'm not a fan of) and is a finicky eater.  Oh....he will bite!

Well I find myself (while Mom and Dad are dealing with an emergency C-Section) running in circles trying to keep the animal happy but away from the children, adjusting to the different diet requirements, DIAPER CHANGING-ugh! tons of dirty laundry and all the other chaos that goes with children.  All the while managing to squeeze in some work.  Of course you know that's just the time things started to get busy for me.

Sunday morning I decided to get them out of the house, give us all a break and go to the local McDonalds and pick up breakfast to take to Grandpa's house.  GOOD IDEA or so it seemed until some nice gentleman got out of his car to tell me my tire was going flat before his eyes.  He was kind enough to fill it with air for me and I ditched the idea of the McDonald's line with his suggestion to get somewhere FAST!  This is specifically the time the 18 mos. old decided that it was time for a tantrum.  Now I am really STRESSED.  We make it home with a screaming child and get the wonderful call that her Daddy is on his way to pick them both up.  Suddenly the energy to pull all their things together just came out of nowhere. 

No I didn't get any work done that day.  All I could do was walk around my home and LISTEN TO THE QUIET!

My hats off to you Mom's and Dad's- I'm just to old!  I QUIT!

Sometimes it's nice to take a long weekend day just to yourself, have a couple friends over and do a nice brunch without working to hard.  My favorite one is what I call my Breakfast Pizza. 

Can be made the night before and refrigerated. 

8 Eggs

1/2 small jar mushrooms

1/4 cup of pizza sauce (in a pinch use tomato sauce)

chopped pepperoni slices. use as many as you want.

Cooked sausage scrambled and cooled.

Salt and Pepper

Cheddar Cheese grated (buy the bagged stuff it's easier)

Mix all together and pour into a casserole dish.  Cook then or refrigerate overnight.  Bake at 400 degrees until golden on top.  Yummmm.

I usually just serve this with some fruit, jam, and croissants.  Makes a nice, easily put together meal.

Sometimes we just don't have the time to make a full meal and my husband loves BBQ.  This is easy and delicious.

 Pork roast of any size/cut.

Place in a crockpot on low.  Pour 1/2 of a bottle of barbeque sauce (any kind you like) over the top and cook on low all day. You can add a smidge of liquid smoke if you like.  In the eveing pour off all the liquid and then pour the other 1/2 of bottle of sauce over the top.

Use 2 forks to shred it and serve on buns.  Ummmm good.

Finally getting through my mail this weekend I came across a letter from the State about my annual Corporation status.  I glanced at it and tossed it into the pile to take to my CPA.  Thought nothing of it.

I later thought about it and decided to take a good look at it to see if it was something that I could do so that I don't keep lining my CPA's pockets unnecessarily.  Looked simple enough, just needed to verify the address, officers of the corporation etc. I just need to fill it out and mail my check for $125.  Ok, simple enough.

Add it to my TO DO LIST for the time I usually have set aside for those type of tasks.  Sitting at my desk a little later a thought popped into my head about this form I needed to submit.  First of all I have been incorporated for several years and yearly I pay my dues to the Secretary of State of $30 but I have never had this $125 charge before.  Thinking maybe this was a random thing they do to make sure you have all your documents and that you are in compliance I DID WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE TO IN THE BEGINNING.   I read it.

Official looking but buried way down later in the page and certainly not in large print was the statement that this product or service has not been approved or endorsed by any Government Agency.  It is a solicitation for the order of services. 

They've covered themselves. They are legitimately offering a service.  But it just made me wonder how much money these people make when someone as absent minded as myself write them a check.  Thank goodness I am so anal about checking things again and again.  That could have been a GOTCHA!