The market craziness continues, and it’s getting worse. We need more listings! (via April snapshot)
Working as a foreclosures listing agent made for a steady business, but it wasn’t for me. I needed the relationships with clients.
(via Why I left REO)
Are you comfortable with your negotiation skills? It’s one of the main reasons to hire a real estate broker, and I’m working on becoming the best negotiator I can be.
(via I’ve earned my pin)
The way we find a home and sell real estate has certainly changed since I first got my license. We just keep renewing and regrowing and adapting to the world around us.
(via Renew and regrow)
The real estate market conditions for south metro Denver are still crazy. Inventory up slightly, but sales WAAAAY up. We’ve got a really strong sellers’ market going on.
(via March snapshot)
I had an epiphany today … and I’m going to have to add some pages to my website to flesh out my theory of selling real estate. It all comes down to what the seller wants: physical work or emotional work. In the end, the total time spent is going to be about the same.
(via I had an epiphany today)
I’ve been paying more attention than usual to the real estate market condition and statistics. In a nutshell, our current market is just crazy.
We failed today. We didn’t get the deal done. Instead, the sellers now have a foreclosure on their records, which will severely hinder their ability to purchase another home for a long time to come. The potential buyers must continue to pay rent and enrich someone else, rather than creating benefit for themselves. Meanwhile, a house sits empty, with no one to care for it, and no one to call it home.
Read all about it at We failed today.
Real estate can be such a challenge! Looking at the post log, and the editorial calendar, I can see that blogging has not been my top priority. There just aren’t enough hours in the day for a real estate broker to get everything done, and truthfully, blogging has never been my toppriority. No, things like taking care of my clients and my transactions has always been a higher priority — and they always will be.
Real estate is not that much different than any business, I suppose, when you get down to the nitty-gritty of it. In order to make a living, a normal, ordinary real estate broker has to have clients to assist through the process of of buying and selling real estate. In order to have clients, we need a way to getclients, and that’s what marketing is all about. You know this. The goal is to always have a steady stream of potential clients becoming current clients on their to closing the deals on their real estate purchases.
Sometimes, though, the steady stream of potential clients becomes a veritable flood. When that happens, because there are not enough hours in the day, the time available must be allocated to clients and known potential clients. Attempting to find unknown potential clients simply falls off the to-do list.
Then, as nearly always happens, the flood suddenly abates and the flow of potential clients dries up. Just like that, time becomes available to spend searching for more clients. Attempting to even out the stream, and avoid both drought and flood is one of the great challenges of a real estate broker. It helps that so much can be automated, and I’ve done even more of that lately to make it easier to connect.
If you’ve been paying close attention to the evolution of this website — and I’m sure you have, because, c’mon, it’s that important— you can see that I’ve added links to both my professional and personal social media accounts throughout the site. The professional links are at the bottom of the page, and the personal links are located in the left sidebar on the pages that have such an animal. Feel free to connect with me on any of them.
One of the professional links I’ve added is to an account at Tungle.meso you can schedule your own appointments with me. You can check out my calendar, and see what works for you. If time is open, it’s clearly marked “Available” and you can schedule an appointment with me by using the link. I’m hopeful this will make life a bit easier for everyone. Be sure to let me know what you think.
By the way, in case you haven’t stumbled upon it, I’ve added a “newspaper” to the site — the Randall Brennan Daily. It is a compilation of news and information from all over. Right now, it is general in nature, but I’m thinking of tightening it up to be more focused on real estate. You can find it under the For youlink on the main menu. Again, let me know what you think.
Now, as for me, I need to get back to work. I’ve got a few more things to try out, including a better way to stay of top of the blog. Stay tuned!
(via Well, goodness.)
This post on home inspections is addressed more toward sellers than buyers. Buyers are usually the ones who order home inspections after a property has gone under contract, but that’s not the only time that home inspections are useful in real estate transaction. Sellers, too, can use home inspections before the home is even listed.
When you’ve been living in a place for a while, you become immune to the little quirks about the place. Things like doors that don’t latch easily, faucets that drip slightly, and dishwashers that only run between the hours of 2 and 3 a.m. (and only if you’ve used that special detergent) become just part of the deal. You don’t notice them anymore, because you’ve learned how to deal with them. You’ve made a decision, consciously or not, that those little things are not worth bothering with. Chances are, you literally don’t even notice them after a while.
The thing is, others do notice. People who don’t come to your house very often will notice. People who are thinking about buying your house will definitely notice, and they’ll actually pay someone to find those little annoyances. Once found, those little annoyances could become big grievances that could derail a contract to sell your house.
Buyers will look at those “little things” that home inspections reveal, and wonder what giant problems lie within. They’ll think those “little things” are just an indication that this house was not properly maintained. They’ll adjust their offering price, if they make an offer at all. The longer the property sits unsold, the more stigmatized it becomes, and the harder to sell it becomes. Trying to convince buyers that those little things really aren’t that bad will backfire nearly every time.
The solution, of course, is to fix all those “little things” before anyone has a chance to find them. Like I said, though, chances are you don’t even notice them anymore. As you live your life, you just automatically, unconsciously, accommodate them.
So how are you going get your house “up to snuff” if you aren’t really aware of what’s wrong with it?
You could try to force yourself to become more aware of the issues. Make a list, and start repairing.
But what about the things that go beyond what you’ve simply learned to ignore? The things you really and truly don’t know are issues? How will you know to fix those?
The easiest solution is to use the same technique that buyers use: home inspections. Hire a home inspection company to objectively go through your house, testing and identifying the issues that you might or might not be aware of. Do this before the house goes on the market. Get all those things fixed, and buyers won’t have problems to find. When there aren’t issues, buyers will be more at ease and more likely to offer a greater price for your home. Negotiations on the property will be smoother and less stressful.
Is there a cost involved? Of course there is. You’re going to have to spend a few hundred dollars, and take the time to have an inspection. If anything is found, you’ll need to pay time and/or money to have it corrected. On the other hand, you’re buying a smoother transaction, without the aggravation of “low ball” or “no ball” offers from buyers. When the buyers have their own inspection done, it will come through clean because all the issues have been handled. The cost of the pre-listing home inspections will be minor, indeed.
By the way, there is absolutely nothing that says that home inspections can only be completed during a real estate transaction. Home inspections can be really useful to a homeowner as a periodic check that everything is operating correctly. The few hundred dollars you might spend every few years on home inspections could save you literally thousands — or even the complete loss of your home — by identifying problems before they become catastrophes.
(via Home inspections)
