What the Media Economists are missing in my opinion.

I have listened to and read many reports on the current housing market across the United States, and the one thing that I see they’re missing is they are treating housing like a stock certificate.  I understand how mortgages are sold and the secondary market, which is in shambles.  The one thing that the media experts fail to see is the need for housing.

Food, Clothing and Shelter are humans’ basic needs.  Stock in companies while extremely important in helping to provide the three basic needs, do not quite measure up as a need.  Shelter, i.e. housing is one of those needs.  I read an article on MSN over a week ago about how bad the current rise in housing sales may actually be bad for the economy in the long run.  

I thought anything generating income was good for the economy.  Maybe I am being overly simplistic in my thinking, but I could swear that was one of the key things in my Econ classes.  The thing that caused me to have issue other than the doom and gloom tone of the entire article is that the housing bubble was directly compared to the dot com bubble of a few years ago.  

While I don’t disagree that housing and the dot com bubble were helped along by investors.  The fact is, even though we may not like it, we can survive without the internet.  It would suck as my teenager would put it, but none the less we could actually survive.  People seemed to have done it for thousands of years.  The thing that they had to have was housing of some sort.  We know this because dwellings and other ruins have been unearthed as the most direct evidence of the existence of ancient peoples.  

Their shelters in some instances, were pretty crude as compared to our current standard of living.  They did exist, however, and even here in my home state of Utah, we have many examples that built dwellings and existed here.  What we don’t know is if they had stock in any corporations, if they did, there is no proof, no writtings nor any left over residue showing that in fact, they did.

Unless books or some other writings survive, in a thousand years there won’t be any proof that we had things like stocks and bonds.  They may still have the current economic model that far in the future, I don’t know.  Whether they will have some sort of super computer can be debated somewhere and by someone else.  What I do know is that they will have shelter of some sort.  Whether any of our current housing structures will stand that test of time, is also debatable, but there will evidence of foundations and basements left.

What I have taken several paragraphs to get to is that housing is a tangible thing, it is a need, not a want.  Housing is something more than just an investment.  Whether you are buying your own home or property to use as a rental, someone will need to have a place to live.  Looking at the housing market solely as an investment is looking at just a portion of the market.

In Real Estate do we play to win, or do we play not to lose?  There is an important distinction between the two philosophies.  Whe we play to win we do all of the things that we need to do in order to win.  We practice our scripts, market ourselves, find new business, and take care of existing clients.  There are other things that we do to win.  In this blog win=succeed.  

When we play not to lose we pull back.  We slash all of our marketing costs and efforts and not just the ineffective ones.  We hold back and take on a wait and see attitude, we are not actively seeking new business.  We become much more conservative especially with our resources.  

This economy requires us to be conservative with our resources, and we should do just that, but cutting off all efforts is counter productive.  We need to do a better job tracking our expenses and find out what is working and what isn’t.  We then should focus on what is working, and eliminate what isn’t.  

Now is the time that we need more leads not fewer.  We need to be creative and figure out inexpensive ways to prospect effectively.  The days of clients just coming to us may be over for good.  That only means that it is time to go to the clients!  We need to find them, and not wait for them to find us.   

Many people, myself included, aren’t as excited to practice our scripts and make sure that they come out naturally.  We have gotten a little lazy at the basic tools and skills that we need to succeed.  Now more than ever it is time to get back to what works and add in some creativity to make it through.

Have a Great Week!

The Boston Red Sox just pulled off one of the most amazing comebacks in League Championship History.  Trailing 7-0 in the seventh inning of a game that if they lost meant the end of the season.  They rallied to score 8 unanswered runs to win the game and send the series back to Tampa Bay.  Whether the Red Sox win any more games or not isn't as important as the lesson that they taught all of us.  It isn't over until it is actually over, or never give up! 

This rally, by a team whether you like or not, in a sport whether you care about or not, is important to all of us.  This rings the cry that Winston Churchill worded so well in his final speech to Parliment, "Never give up, Never, Never, Give up!  Many of us fear what the pending economic times may hold for us, but unless we quit, we can overcome whatever they hold.  We will also emerge stronger, better able to face what ever it is that life throws at us, but we will never be able to say that if we give up.  I don't know how many pitches Kevin Youkalis fouled off being getting that hit in the ninth inning, I should have counted.  I do know that it was or seemed like several! 

It has been said many times and in many places that winners never quit and quitters never win.  This is true not only in sports, but in life as well.  My hope in pointing this out is that each of us will look inside of ourselves and find what it is that we need to keep going, to foul off pitches so to speak until we get one that we can hit.  Most importantly that we see that by not giving up we give ourselves a chance to succeed!  Have a Great Weekend!

I just wanted to write a short post to say that we're back and writing again.  I haven't posted anything on Reliberation in quite some time.  We are still in Real Estate, and like most other agents we're not having our best year, one thing that we have learned is that life goes on, and in the end you get out of it what you have put into it. 

This has been a crazy year and like many others, we have concerns about the direction of the industry and the future of Real Estate Sales.  I do believe that things will right themselves and that things will eventually turn around.  I do think that in 5 or 10 years everyone will look back and say; "I wish that I would have invested more in Real Estate in 2008."  Anyway it is good to be back, and I thank you for your patience in advance.  Have a Great Week!

With all of the bantering back and forth and media's ever present doom, gloom and talk of the pending depression, I wanted to write something that wasn't negative but rather uplifting.  I was looking on the internet for some motivational or uplifting thoughts when I came across this one from Gale Sayers, the former running back for the Chicago Bears. "I learned that if you want to make it bad enough, no matter how bad it is , you can make it."

I was too young to have remembered how great Gale Sayers was as a football player.  The University of Kansas star burst on the the scene in the NFL like a rocket and was done playing just as quickly.  He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and like most in my generation is known more for being portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in the TV movie Brian's Song.  It was about his teammate Brian Piccolo and their relationship as Brian was diagnosed and later died of cancer. 

I know that it is another Sports quote, but I thought that this was very appropriate for us in our business.  Regardless of conditions and economics, people will still need to have a place to live.  Others will have to have a place to invest their money.  There is business out there, it comes down to how bad to we want it. This process is just as valid in sports, real estate, or any other endevour in life!  Have a great week!

The other night, as I worked my other job as an emergency dispatcher we had a tragic accident here in the Cedar City area.  A young mother was tragically killed in a traffic accident.  Worse yet she is the sister-in-law to a Realtor that works in our office.  She was 35, just earned her degree and had just began a career as an elementary school teacher, she had 4 children.  The fact that I know her sister-in-law sort of brought it all home. 

I have been contemplating the reasons why some things happen, I still haven't come up with an answer.  What I do know is that sometimes bad things happen to very good people!  It isn't fair, but it is what it is.  How we respond is the important thing.  How we step in and help one another in the different trials of life, as well as how we deal with our own trials. 

The old well worn phrase of Carpe Diem, or seize the day, seemed to mean more.  I wondered have I left anything undone in my life.  Would my loved ones know how much I love each and every one of them?  Would they know how much I cared about their wants and needs?  Could I meet my maker with a clear and clean conscience?  It seems that we tend to get a little lazy with the things that really matter. 

Another aspect to this, and the one that I hope makes it appropriate for this forum, is would my colleagues say,  he did everything to be his best.  In a sports analogy would they say that I left it all on the field of play, or did I hold it back, worrying that it might not be good enough; that I wasn't smart, nor talented enough.  Would my colleagues be able to say, you know there may have been better Realtors, but nobody outworked him. 

More importantly would my colleagues say, he treated everyone fairly.  He was honest, and upfront with everyone.  He was a good Realtor to work with, because he did everything he could to make the deal work, in an honest way.  These are things that I think that everyone would like to have said about them as Realtors. 

But even more importantly, could they say, he was a good person that always did his best to do the right thing.  I guess that the point that I am trying to make is that each new day really is the first day of the rest of your life, what are you going to do with it?  I hope that I will make this thoughts and emotions that I have been feeling the past few days work to motivate me to live each aspect of my life better, more fully, and more honorably.   I would challenge each of you to find the motivation to do the same!!

Some Peoples Children.....................

Darcy had an interesting day today.  As a favor to a friend we listed a house in a city that we don't generally work in.  In fact, it is a different local board Realtors than ours.  We had it co-listed with a local agent for awhile, but the market kind of went down hill in this city.  (I am trying to be as vague as possible to not poison anyone's ideas or thought about an entire city based on one neighborhood's stupidity.) 

Long and short of it the listing expired, and the co-listing agent didn't want the co-list again.  He thought that the listing was way too high, which it was a little too high.  Against our better judgement we relisted it again, only as a favor.  The seller decided that they didn't need to sell so badly that they wanted to get their price.  If they had not been a personal friend, we would not have taken it in the first place.

Then as luck would have it, we got an offer from a minority buyer.  It was a solid offer not that far off of the list price.  It was an acceptable offer to the seller and we put it under contract.  That is where the fun begins.  This particular property has been a rental for 17 years.  One renter from about 3 years ago was a Caucasian drug addict.  He was so bad that he got into the attic and cut all of the electrical wiring in the house.  (This was the first that the owner, who is an absentee owner heard of the problem.)  The other family that followed were also Caucasian and the owner heard nothing about them from the Community Action Committee in the neighborhood.

The minority couple that is trying to buy the house was required to prove residency through ICE by the mortgage company, so they are legal residents.  The deal was supposed to close at the end of August but due to the backlog at ICE, they had to wait to close.  The buyers had already given notice at the apartment that they rented so they had no place to live.  The seller agreed to lease the house to them at the going rate per day until the deal closes and they moved in. 

Since then the Community Action Committee has called us the listing agents, the broker representing the buyer, and anyone else that will listen about how awful this family is.  The complain that there are cars from out of state there all the time and that they are loud and doing awful things.  Since the complaints began the buyers agent has cautioned them to keep their noise down etc.  She has also driven by the house anytime that she is out late and never noticed any out of state cars nor any noise.  In fact she has said that the house is usually dark and quiet like the tenants are asleep.  The seller had a family emergency which required her to pass through the area to attend to the family emergency.  She drove by the house around 3:00 am and said the same thing.

The complaints keep coming, now the Community Action Committee has gone to the compliance department of the local city to complain that a garage conversion into living space is out of compliance.  The head of the Committee when asked by Darcy if he remembered when the garage was converted into living space, said that to the best of his memory it was done in either 1970 or 1971 and that the house was bought and sold 3 times prior to the current seller buying it in 1990.  Yet, none of the neighbors thought that it was important enough to complain to the compliance department before today.  Darcy called the building department at the city and asked if they had a copy of the building permit, because the seller had never received a copy.  Darcy was told that they (the building department) had nothing on file prior to 1986 so as far as they were concerned it was compliant.

In further discussion with the head of the Committee, he admitted that the next door neighbor was sure that this family would lower the property value and the saleability of his FSBO house.  He was sure that was why his house isn't selling.  There were other neighbors that had unfounded reasons for the complaining as well.  The deal is set to close on the 15th, barring any last minute flurry from the neighbors. 

I feel ashamed of my race at times, and this is one of them.  For crying out loud it is almost 2008, can't we move on from this stupidity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!As for the FSBO, just using Realtor.com, I found that there are over 2500 sf houses for sale in this city.  He has next to no exposure, no MLS exposure, no marketing to speak of just the FSBO sign and some fliers.  It isn't really rocket science, why it isn't selling, but the excuse is amazing!!! (Amazingly Stupid)

The long and short of it the seller is checking with the Police Department to see if there are any complaints actually lodged against her renters.  Darcy called one of the local news channels to see if they wanted to do a report on racism in real estate by the people in the neighborhood, and the buyers agent is suggesting that the buyer look into calling the ACLU or another attorney to see if Fair Housing Laws or his Civil Rights have been violated with this harassment.  The news channel said that if there are no complaints filed, or if there was no basis for complaints if there were any filed, that they would love to do the story, and see if the Community Action Committee will talk to them.

Sorry sometimes some people's children are just so stupid that I have to vent rather than blow a gasket or something.

Tony

We were on vacation when the World Series ended and I wanted to do a follow up on an earlier blog about the World Series.  Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox.  They thoroughly dominated the World Series!  They did everything that they needed to do to win the World Series.  From the top to the bottom of the lineup, they hit.  Each of the pitchers pitched very well and they did all of the little (and big) things that they needed to do to win.

Much has been made about their experience, but only 1/3 of their team was on the last Red Sox team to win the World Series.  I will admit that it was the most important 1/3 of the team, all of the team leaders.  I was most impressed with how well their younger players performed under pressure.  Pedroia, Ellsbury and Papelbon all played like they had been under that type of pressure for years.  Their preparation was unbelievable, every few years a team will have one or two young players that play very well in the World Series, it seemed like all of the youngsters for the Red Sox played well.  Including those not mentioned in my blog by name.

Somewhere along the way, these youngsters learned how to play the right way.  They also seemed to learn that if you are prepared, you shall not fear.  I think that is what I learned to try to incorporate into Real Estate.  Prepare to succeed, and don’t fear failure, nor success.  You have already prepared for it, so don’t fear it.  Once again, congratulations to the Boston Red Sox as well as the Colorado Rockies.

The World Series starts tonight, and I am excited!  Although I am not a huge fan of either team, I am a huge fan of baseball.  This World Series is an interesting contrast, one high payroll team (Boston) vs an upstart young team (Colorado),   Colorado has a team payroll roughly 1/3 of Boston's, which really doesn't mean much, it is just an interesting contrast in management styles.  It was interesting that of the 4 teams than reached the two League Championship Series three of the teams had a payroll roughly equal to that of the 4th team by it's self. 

Where I am going with this, is that there are various ways to success.  You can pay a lot of money to have veteran players that execute the fundamentals of the game very well.  These players are generally more experienced, yet have not forgotten what it takes to make themselves very successful.  There are usually 1 or 2 younger guys that learn from veterans and take in that experience to excel.

The other model is the one that Colorado has used, young players that have been well coached in the fundamentals with a few veteran players that steady the ship so to speak.  They may or may not have been to the World Series previously, but do know how to win.  The good thing with each is that as long as everyone does what they're supposed to do, there is a good chance that the team will be successful.  That doesn't mean that they will win every time that they play, it just means that they will win most of the time. 

That is the beauty of Baseball, unlike Football, it takes a majority of wins in a series to advance, not just one.  One bad game, followed by 4 or 5 good games the better team should advance, in Football, it's one and done if you have an a bad day or if the other(lesser) team plays a great game against your good game, it's still over.  That doesn't insure that the better team will always win a series in baseball, but it does increase the odds.  There is the chance that one team could get hot and run off enough wins to win a series, but usually, with makes a team get hot is that they are doing everything the right way.  Their pitching, fielding and hitting is fundamentally sound, and everyone is doing the little things that it takes to win.   

I think that in Real Estate, it is similar, with your team, (even if it is a team of 1)if you do the fundamentals well all of the time, working to be better each day, you will succeed more often than not.  You will eventually get the listings and find the buyers to be successful.  It doesn't mean that you have to have the most money (payroll) to begin with, if you work hard at the fundamentals, asking the veterans (at the office or here for example) for direction, you can still be as successful.

Tony

Woke up this morning to a lead in my email.  Great, I thought.  Then I saw I had 9 junk emails because the prospect had signed up for a bunch of drip emails.  Then the prospect had the nerve to get mad at me because I required a sign up to have the listing attachment emailed.  I mean, is it that big of a deal to give a name and email if you are interested in having the listing attachment emailed?  Perhaps the prospect couldn't figure out that he didn't have to "opt-in" to the drip emails.  It was checked. 

Most of the time, my prospects just come and go as they please.  I have had one other do the same thing and he also had check to "opt-in" to the drip email on a return trip and then sent me a nasty email to remove him. 

Maybe I just woke up in a bad mood today and if getting frustrated with potential prospects having a negative response on a semi-regular basis.

Can't we all just feel the love . . .

Has anyone ever been to the marketing or purchased their system?  They are giving a presentation at our office (although I am sure it is at several others as well) this week.  Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Darcy & Tony

Does anyone out there have a Broker site?  I am an agent connected to a Broker site, but the office manager is not on board with all the products. She doesn't like that they have to enter all the listings.  It is hard to convince the agents to enter their own on their own sites, she also feels the site is boring, etc.....  Any suggestions to help her understand the system?  It does seem to be more geared toward agents rather than brokers. 

Thanks,

Darcy

www.cedarcityrealestate.biz