Some years back I attended a week long seminar in Philadelphia. The topic of the seminar was Customer Focus. I spent a week in a nice convention hotel and looked at various topics day to day on what it took to attract customers and how to hang on to them. I have to admit that it has been so long ago that I have a difficult time pulling up all the topics broached by the various presenters.
I do remember one particular thing from that seminar. Some entity had done a very in depth survey. It pulled data from thousands of people in hundreds of locations. The simple bottom line of the survey was to determine what it was that caused people to leave a business as a customer and not return. I remember the take away message quite clearly. More than 70% of people stopped doing business with the company because they did not feel that they were appreciated as a customer. All it took was an ascerbic response from an employee, a surly look or many countless other interactions that interpreted as, " I really don't give a dead rat's patoot if you shop here or not."
Case in point. I have occassion, often, to recommend a service provider to my clients in the realm of home inspection, appraisal, survey, repair, etc. I referred a client recently in one of those scenarios. This client is a scientist and besides being very busy, wants input quickly and efficiently. To arrange this service was important because we were on the clock within a defined window of time to get the service provided. The client tells me that they called the provider numerous times and got no answer. This was well after the start of a business day. Finally they were able to reach the office. The first words out of the person who answered the phone was something to the effect, " My goodness, you called my office so many times I thought one of my relatives had died." Then this person went on to say, " I was taking a break and away from the phone. You know you can order our service on line at our website." They were taking this break at 8:30 AM. Then to suggest to the client that they really did not need to bother them because they could opt in on the website is way over the top.
This service provider is top drawer. Their name has been the first name out of my mouth when I am called on to recommend a service of that nature. NO LONGER. There are 20-30 other people in our town who also provide this service. I will now go elsewhere. The owner of this business probably will never know why people are opting out of doing business with them. They would be amazed that it is the telephone manners of the people representing them out front. You can be the top dog for awhile but you better appreciate the people who made you top dog, the customer, or you will be behind in a hurry.
I remember a motivational speaker named Zig Zeigler, who used to speak on this subject. In his best Baptist preacher style he would make the point. How do you get to be the top in business? How do you get where you want to be in business? You get what you want by helping others get what they want. He is absolutely right.
I will offer another war story to illustrate my point. I made a 30 year career out of promoting pharmaceuticals. There was a company along the way that introduced a drug to the market that was truly a breakthrough. It totally reformed one arm of medicine that used to cause people to have to undergo a specific surgical intervention. This drug did it's job so well that it almost completely eliminated the need for the surgery. It was the first of the H2 antagonists that treated stomach ulcers. The people who owned this drug were very stingy with samples and would advise the prescribers that they could not provide them with a whole lot of samples. Along came a British pharm company that came to the American market with a very similar drug. In almost no time at all they had taken roughly half of the other company's billion dollar market and replaced the other company as the front runner in that therapy.
How did they do that? Thier drug was superior? No. Thier drug was less expensive. No. They hired another company to co-promote the therapy. They loaded up every prescriber with samples and programs to help them treat thier patients. They simply took the market by deed and actions that suggested to the prescribers that they appreciated and wanted their business very badly. The prescribers responded the same way we all do when we encounter a pleasant sales clerk, repair person, telephone service provider, etc.
Kindness and customer focus pay off every time. Lack of attention to it will cost you your livelihood.
That is why I try to communicate to my clients that Lee Vass Realty is Client Focused. My clients come first with me and I think they know that. When they feel otherwise, I hope they will tell me instead of just leaving.
Visit me on the web at http://elvass.com/
To my clients, former, current and future: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvREm7w4slk&feature=related
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Soldier on, soldier.
Amidst all of this week's madness with the financial markets and trying to determine which of the politicians is telling the biggest and most outlandish lies, I had a moment of pure sanity. I attended an event at the VFW post in Crawfordville on Wednesday evening. The event was to welcome home one SSG Stephen Simmons, who was recently discharged from the army after 4 tours of duty in Afghanistan.
I helped Sgt. Simmons purchase a home prior to his deployment on his last tour. He elected to purchase that home in Wakulla County. He then went to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, (and Al Quaida), watch numerous of his comrades get killed or wounded and, oh, by the way, won himself a Silver Star. He won the Silver Star for commanding a Machine Gun installation that had been abandoned and in so doing saved numerous members of his division's lives.
I have no idea what it must be like to put on the uniform of one of our military divisions and go off to war. I recently read an article written by Ben Stein entitled " Guts, Glory, Honor". It had to do with his addressing a group called the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. He describes this group as mostly occupying eternity as most CMH's are awarded posthumously. There are only 171 of these recipients alive today. He said " These are men who have faced fear on a scale most of us would find unbearable, and have faced it down and defeated it with their lives."
Quoting Stein further, " We all read day and night about the billionaire speculators who have mansions bigger than the White House by virtue of their adroit minipulation of pieces of paper. They are nothing. The society could run forever without any or all of them. We read all day and see on TV all day about the spoiled , bratty movie stars and drug addicted comedians who do not even know the word gratitude, and we are supposed to care about their miserable lives. Their lives are as insignificant as the life of a roach. But tell me the last time you read a story anywhere at all - in the newspapers, in magazines, on your computer - about men who offer up their lives for our country and our freedom under law. This is disgraceful, but it really cannot touch these men."
It is touching to know that there is a community nearby that holds our heroes in high regard. Sgt. Simmons was escorted from the Northern Wakulla County line to the VFW by a police escort with sirens blairing and blue lights flashing. Following them was a cavalcade of motorcyclists who called themselves " Patriot Riders ". They all motored up to the VFW. They all stood at attention as Sgt. Simmons stepped out of the passenger side of the Florida Highway Patrol car, driven by his proud, big brother Mike. As Sgt. Simmons made his way to the hall, people applauded his return. Many went to him and shook his hand, or hugged his neck and said simple thank yous. These were people that held this the place to be. Not in front of the TV for the opening game of the World Series, not glued to FOX or CNN wringing their hands over the erosion of their 401-k's. I was proud to be there with them.
Sometimes we are allowed the opportunity to transcend the silly little worlds that most of us live in and gaze into the eyes of someone representing something good, clean, really worthwhile and singularly purposeful. I thank Sgt. Simmons and his big brother, Mike, who served as well, for giving me that opportunity. It was wonderful to forget about the sticky wicket that the economy has become and focus on something representing country, freedom and patriotism.
Our economy will hold and repair. The housing market will correct and continue on its way. It will do so because we have a lot of smart people running this country of ours. They are able to function because of the willingness of the Sgt. Simmons of this world to stand in a desert far away from home and fight the forces of evil who would destroy the very core of the greatest country ever conceived. While those of us back here watch our reality TV shows, get fatter and some even burn our flag in protest, there are soldiers willing to lay it all on the line to assure us of those freedoms.
Thank you Sgt. Simmons for touching my life this week with a pure infusion of sanity and purpose as to what is really important.
Please visit me on the web at http://elvass.comv/
I helped Sgt. Simmons purchase a home prior to his deployment on his last tour. He elected to purchase that home in Wakulla County. He then went to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, (and Al Quaida), watch numerous of his comrades get killed or wounded and, oh, by the way, won himself a Silver Star. He won the Silver Star for commanding a Machine Gun installation that had been abandoned and in so doing saved numerous members of his division's lives.
I have no idea what it must be like to put on the uniform of one of our military divisions and go off to war. I recently read an article written by Ben Stein entitled " Guts, Glory, Honor". It had to do with his addressing a group called the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. He describes this group as mostly occupying eternity as most CMH's are awarded posthumously. There are only 171 of these recipients alive today. He said " These are men who have faced fear on a scale most of us would find unbearable, and have faced it down and defeated it with their lives."
Quoting Stein further, " We all read day and night about the billionaire speculators who have mansions bigger than the White House by virtue of their adroit minipulation of pieces of paper. They are nothing. The society could run forever without any or all of them. We read all day and see on TV all day about the spoiled , bratty movie stars and drug addicted comedians who do not even know the word gratitude, and we are supposed to care about their miserable lives. Their lives are as insignificant as the life of a roach. But tell me the last time you read a story anywhere at all - in the newspapers, in magazines, on your computer - about men who offer up their lives for our country and our freedom under law. This is disgraceful, but it really cannot touch these men."
It is touching to know that there is a community nearby that holds our heroes in high regard. Sgt. Simmons was escorted from the Northern Wakulla County line to the VFW by a police escort with sirens blairing and blue lights flashing. Following them was a cavalcade of motorcyclists who called themselves " Patriot Riders ". They all motored up to the VFW. They all stood at attention as Sgt. Simmons stepped out of the passenger side of the Florida Highway Patrol car, driven by his proud, big brother Mike. As Sgt. Simmons made his way to the hall, people applauded his return. Many went to him and shook his hand, or hugged his neck and said simple thank yous. These were people that held this the place to be. Not in front of the TV for the opening game of the World Series, not glued to FOX or CNN wringing their hands over the erosion of their 401-k's. I was proud to be there with them.
Sometimes we are allowed the opportunity to transcend the silly little worlds that most of us live in and gaze into the eyes of someone representing something good, clean, really worthwhile and singularly purposeful. I thank Sgt. Simmons and his big brother, Mike, who served as well, for giving me that opportunity. It was wonderful to forget about the sticky wicket that the economy has become and focus on something representing country, freedom and patriotism.
Our economy will hold and repair. The housing market will correct and continue on its way. It will do so because we have a lot of smart people running this country of ours. They are able to function because of the willingness of the Sgt. Simmons of this world to stand in a desert far away from home and fight the forces of evil who would destroy the very core of the greatest country ever conceived. While those of us back here watch our reality TV shows, get fatter and some even burn our flag in protest, there are soldiers willing to lay it all on the line to assure us of those freedoms.
Thank you Sgt. Simmons for touching my life this week with a pure infusion of sanity and purpose as to what is really important.
Please visit me on the web at http://elvass.comv/
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Trust is the Issue
I had an interesting experience this morning. My sweet little wife and I made an early morning jaunt to a place that rhymes with Stall-Cart. This place is a branding and advertising anomale to me. You ride by this place's parking lot 24 hours a day and you cannot count the people going in and out of it. Yet it is practically impossible to find two people who will say to you " I love shopping at this place.". You can find a plethora of people who will tell you, "I despise shopping at this place."
We made our purchases, $102.76 to be exact. I was using the Self Check out aisle, which is always an experience. We had 2 or 3 dozen items to scan and bag. As I was concluding my purchases an associate came up to me and said " Sir, I believe you forgot to scan this one item. Sure enough, she was correct. We scanned it and we were on our way out the door.
Some sort of alarm went off. The "greeter", who totally ignored us on the way in was now all over us demanding to see our receipt. We produced the receipt and I told her that I assured her that we were not thieves. My wife, the most timid creature on the planet, looked at me and said "Calm down!". Knowing me as she does she recognized that I was getting a bit put out. So to keep from causing an incident I bit my tongue.
The greeter in her best "sea hag" impression slammed her pen on her little podium that she stands behind and said in some sort of broken english " You are free to go !" , after pouring over our receipt. She seemed genuinely put out and disappointed that she had not found something that she could have us placed in the "Stall-Cart" brig until we could be summarily hung by a rope until we were dead.
I mused on the way out. Here were two examples, first of the clerk watching the self-checkout lane to make sure we scanned all of our items a minimum of once. ( Scan them twice and you really get a liberal education in getting them to give you a refund.). Then the sea hag doing her best to catch us leaving the store with something we had not paid for. Now I understand that pilfering is a billion dollar issue and merits close scrutiny. But good grief, is there not a little trust in order? Why on earth do I and millions of others patronize this place?
Trust is the issue. Is there not some old fashioned trust on the table any longer? I remember a merchant here in Tallahassee, Shaws Tennis Shop. My son was freezing to death on one of these cold, cold days in January, on a soccer field while at practice. I had run to this store to try and find him some sweats to wear. I could not find his size and as I explained to the owner my circumstance, he handed me a set of sweats and told me to go put them on him just to keep him warm and come by after practice and we would see that we got him fit. "PAY ME WHEN YOU COME BACK.", he said. I went out the door, suited up my son. The sweats were enormous on him. I went back and found him some that fit and paid the $75 for them. I walked out the door with all sorts of warm fuzzies towards this place. Why? Because the owner "trusted" me to come back and pay him. Amazing.
I lost a client this week because of the trust issue. He has his house on the market in the worst Real Estate market in over 50 years. He moved out of town and bought another home. He now has 2 mortgage payments. He called me a couple of weeks back and told me he now wants to rent the house. I explained to him that we were under contract for 6 months to sell the house. He signed a legally binding contract to that effect.
Having compassion for the fellow I told him that I would post up his house in our MLS for rental to see if we could get him a tenant. He then began to inquire as to when I was going to do that. I finally got around to it at half-time of a football game around 10:30 at night. It took an hour of my time to post it up. When you load property into the web-based software you have to satisfy certain required fields. One of the fields was an amount for a referral fee to be paid to the agent who brought us a tenant. I put a number in the blank space, knowing it was required. The fee is really my obligation, as a fee can only be paid Broker to Broker.
This client shot me back an irate e-mail about the fee. The e-mail was very offensive to me. Here I am trying to do him a favor and he obviously doesn't trust me. We had a nice discussion and determined that we would coexist a little better if he went his way and I went mine.
If you are going to employ the services of a Realtor, then get you one that you know and trust above all else. Once you accomplish that goal you can rest easy and move forward with the marketing of your home or the purchase of a home. If you cannot trust one another then you are wasting one another's precious time.
A very wise man, who called himself the Christ, many years ago said, "Trust one another. Ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another." What a world that must have been to live in. Free of " Sea Hags."
Visit me on the web at http://elvass.com
We made our purchases, $102.76 to be exact. I was using the Self Check out aisle, which is always an experience. We had 2 or 3 dozen items to scan and bag. As I was concluding my purchases an associate came up to me and said " Sir, I believe you forgot to scan this one item. Sure enough, she was correct. We scanned it and we were on our way out the door.
Some sort of alarm went off. The "greeter", who totally ignored us on the way in was now all over us demanding to see our receipt. We produced the receipt and I told her that I assured her that we were not thieves. My wife, the most timid creature on the planet, looked at me and said "Calm down!". Knowing me as she does she recognized that I was getting a bit put out. So to keep from causing an incident I bit my tongue.
The greeter in her best "sea hag" impression slammed her pen on her little podium that she stands behind and said in some sort of broken english " You are free to go !" , after pouring over our receipt. She seemed genuinely put out and disappointed that she had not found something that she could have us placed in the "Stall-Cart" brig until we could be summarily hung by a rope until we were dead.
I mused on the way out. Here were two examples, first of the clerk watching the self-checkout lane to make sure we scanned all of our items a minimum of once. ( Scan them twice and you really get a liberal education in getting them to give you a refund.). Then the sea hag doing her best to catch us leaving the store with something we had not paid for. Now I understand that pilfering is a billion dollar issue and merits close scrutiny. But good grief, is there not a little trust in order? Why on earth do I and millions of others patronize this place?
Trust is the issue. Is there not some old fashioned trust on the table any longer? I remember a merchant here in Tallahassee, Shaws Tennis Shop. My son was freezing to death on one of these cold, cold days in January, on a soccer field while at practice. I had run to this store to try and find him some sweats to wear. I could not find his size and as I explained to the owner my circumstance, he handed me a set of sweats and told me to go put them on him just to keep him warm and come by after practice and we would see that we got him fit. "PAY ME WHEN YOU COME BACK.", he said. I went out the door, suited up my son. The sweats were enormous on him. I went back and found him some that fit and paid the $75 for them. I walked out the door with all sorts of warm fuzzies towards this place. Why? Because the owner "trusted" me to come back and pay him. Amazing.
I lost a client this week because of the trust issue. He has his house on the market in the worst Real Estate market in over 50 years. He moved out of town and bought another home. He now has 2 mortgage payments. He called me a couple of weeks back and told me he now wants to rent the house. I explained to him that we were under contract for 6 months to sell the house. He signed a legally binding contract to that effect.
Having compassion for the fellow I told him that I would post up his house in our MLS for rental to see if we could get him a tenant. He then began to inquire as to when I was going to do that. I finally got around to it at half-time of a football game around 10:30 at night. It took an hour of my time to post it up. When you load property into the web-based software you have to satisfy certain required fields. One of the fields was an amount for a referral fee to be paid to the agent who brought us a tenant. I put a number in the blank space, knowing it was required. The fee is really my obligation, as a fee can only be paid Broker to Broker.
This client shot me back an irate e-mail about the fee. The e-mail was very offensive to me. Here I am trying to do him a favor and he obviously doesn't trust me. We had a nice discussion and determined that we would coexist a little better if he went his way and I went mine.
If you are going to employ the services of a Realtor, then get you one that you know and trust above all else. Once you accomplish that goal you can rest easy and move forward with the marketing of your home or the purchase of a home. If you cannot trust one another then you are wasting one another's precious time.
A very wise man, who called himself the Christ, many years ago said, "Trust one another. Ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another." What a world that must have been to live in. Free of " Sea Hags."
Visit me on the web at http://elvass.com
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Homeowners Associations, The Good; The Bad; The Ugly
I live in a community with a well established Home Owners Association (HOA). I also used to be the President of a Youth Baseball League (YBL). All of the antisocial interplay that I saw in the YBL often rears its head in the HOA. This one single truth is endemic to the process, " The danger belying a HOA, the same as a YBL, is in the by-laws that are adopted along with the general guidelines." The danger presents when members of the group digest the by-laws and then set out to enforce them.
I had more than one occassion when a family would choose to falsify their address so that they could play in our League. Once caught, the player was ineligible. Also the games that were won when the player was on the roster were immediatley declared forfeits. So many others were punished when a violator was detected. Who brought the charges? Usually an unoccupied parent with nothing better to do than to pour over the rosters and the League rules adopted and amended by the same League.
I recently had a pre-marketing sign stolen from a property that I was getting to list in my neighborhood. It merely announced that this property was soon to be on the market, a fairly innoccuous declaration. Someone deemed that either the wording or the placement of the sign was in violation of the HOA, Covenants and Restrictions (C&R). They pulled up the sign and took it to the HOA office and left it. This person risked life and limb in so doing. Suppose I was a less enlightened, knuckle-dragging practitioner and happened upon someone pulling up my sign. That is a rarity in this business in that 90% of all realtors are the less aggressive gender. The sign puller risked injury or threat of the same by putting their hands on my personal property. Is that really worth it?
To some it is. There is obviously some sort of endorphin rush associated with successfully flaunting the park rules of the YBL and/or the C&R of the HOA. The architectural design committee of the HOA must be consulted and stroked before you put that rose garden into play in your own front yard. To challenge them can cause penalty and fines. The HOA is a recognized political subdivision of the state. They can assess penalties and fines and if you do not pony up the dough, they can place an enforceable lien on your property.
The HOA is a friendly face when someone tries to put a helicopter landing pad next door to you, in their back yard. They are antisocial, lunatics when they bring action against you for failing to edge the curb in front of your home, which you do not own in the first place.
The classic chair person of the architectural and design committee is Ms. Agnes Skooch, retired state of Florida museum curator. She has no husband, hence no children nor grand children. Her only legacy is time and lots of it. She forms a little posse as her committee. They meet for coffee once a week and speak on the phone incessantly. A conversation goes like this:
"Agnes, this morning I drove by the Shamrock address. You know that family of West Virginia Pygmies that moved in a month ago? "
" Yes, Matilda, I know just who your speaking of."
" They must have taken a road trip over the week end because their autos are covered with the remains of Love Bugs. They have the vehicles backed into their driveway with windshields facing the street."
" Well, I don't know how they handle things like that back in their tar-paper covered shack community in Huntington, W. Va. but here they are in alarmingly flagrant violation of paragraph 12, subsection 4-a of our C&R."
" How shall we proceed?"
" Let's drive by at 2:00 AM and put a note on thier mailbox, telling them to wash their vehicles immediately."
" You do not want to visit them and engage them personally?"
" Oh my, no! One of my sisters from the DAR might see me and think I am calling on them socially. This way is much better."
"Oh yes, I see what you mean. What was I thinking? We will do it your way. Then if they do not comply we will bring charges against them at our meeting of the Board next Tuesday. Mr. Trotsky can then send them a notice on official HOA stationary and bring them into compliance."
HOA's are here to stay. The conflict is here to stay. They are a curse and a blessing. Make sure you read up on everything there is about them before you buy in a particular neighborhood. An attitude of " they are out to get me" is a safe place to be.
Please visit me on my website at http://elvass.com/
Sing'along: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEhe76sPPgE
I had more than one occassion when a family would choose to falsify their address so that they could play in our League. Once caught, the player was ineligible. Also the games that were won when the player was on the roster were immediatley declared forfeits. So many others were punished when a violator was detected. Who brought the charges? Usually an unoccupied parent with nothing better to do than to pour over the rosters and the League rules adopted and amended by the same League.
I recently had a pre-marketing sign stolen from a property that I was getting to list in my neighborhood. It merely announced that this property was soon to be on the market, a fairly innoccuous declaration. Someone deemed that either the wording or the placement of the sign was in violation of the HOA, Covenants and Restrictions (C&R). They pulled up the sign and took it to the HOA office and left it. This person risked life and limb in so doing. Suppose I was a less enlightened, knuckle-dragging practitioner and happened upon someone pulling up my sign. That is a rarity in this business in that 90% of all realtors are the less aggressive gender. The sign puller risked injury or threat of the same by putting their hands on my personal property. Is that really worth it?
To some it is. There is obviously some sort of endorphin rush associated with successfully flaunting the park rules of the YBL and/or the C&R of the HOA. The architectural design committee of the HOA must be consulted and stroked before you put that rose garden into play in your own front yard. To challenge them can cause penalty and fines. The HOA is a recognized political subdivision of the state. They can assess penalties and fines and if you do not pony up the dough, they can place an enforceable lien on your property.
The HOA is a friendly face when someone tries to put a helicopter landing pad next door to you, in their back yard. They are antisocial, lunatics when they bring action against you for failing to edge the curb in front of your home, which you do not own in the first place.
The classic chair person of the architectural and design committee is Ms. Agnes Skooch, retired state of Florida museum curator. She has no husband, hence no children nor grand children. Her only legacy is time and lots of it. She forms a little posse as her committee. They meet for coffee once a week and speak on the phone incessantly. A conversation goes like this:
"Agnes, this morning I drove by the Shamrock address. You know that family of West Virginia Pygmies that moved in a month ago? "
" Yes, Matilda, I know just who your speaking of."
" They must have taken a road trip over the week end because their autos are covered with the remains of Love Bugs. They have the vehicles backed into their driveway with windshields facing the street."
" Well, I don't know how they handle things like that back in their tar-paper covered shack community in Huntington, W. Va. but here they are in alarmingly flagrant violation of paragraph 12, subsection 4-a of our C&R."
" How shall we proceed?"
" Let's drive by at 2:00 AM and put a note on thier mailbox, telling them to wash their vehicles immediately."
" You do not want to visit them and engage them personally?"
" Oh my, no! One of my sisters from the DAR might see me and think I am calling on them socially. This way is much better."
"Oh yes, I see what you mean. What was I thinking? We will do it your way. Then if they do not comply we will bring charges against them at our meeting of the Board next Tuesday. Mr. Trotsky can then send them a notice on official HOA stationary and bring them into compliance."
HOA's are here to stay. The conflict is here to stay. They are a curse and a blessing. Make sure you read up on everything there is about them before you buy in a particular neighborhood. An attitude of " they are out to get me" is a safe place to be.
Please visit me on my website at http://elvass.com/
Sing'along: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEhe76sPPgE
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Predatory Purchasing
In the mid-seventies I was in Long Island, New York on business. It was a week long stay. While I was there an Eastern airlines jet went down. The death toll was nearly 100. I clearly recall that the news reports covered the fact that before authorities could secure the crash site, other human beings were approaching the scene and stealing jewelry, wallets, purses and other personal items off the corpses. That has always loomed very large in my mind as to just how low humankind can sink.
It hardly parallels in an analogy but I have been thinking about that experience here lately as I represent people as Sellers and Buyers in our current real estate market. The mindset in a large number of people is that many sellers are under extreme duress in selling thier homes. This market represents an opportunity to try and obtain an extraodinary purchase. In other words many buyers turn into predators trying to benefit at the crash site of the current real estate downturn.
There is little compassion displayed in many of the offers that I have had to handle within the last few months. The prime victim is the person who has not been able to make a payment for awhile on thier homes. They are heading into foreclosure or short sale. The Buyer armed with a sufficient line of credit or cash moves in for the kill. Never mind that the seller is down on thier luck, financially. The predatory purchaser wants to obtain that property at an extreme discount, hang the circumstances of the poor property owner.
Now, I know that we live in a free market economy. I am all in favor of getting a good deal on just about anything I go to purchase. However, I feel that common decency should drive us in the direction of offering a fair price for property. Low ball offers have always been a part of our business however the current market we are in seems to bring out the predator in some of the more unscrupulous. You see their signs on every street corner, " Will pay cash for houses, quickly."
Visit me on the web at http://elvass.com
It hardly parallels in an analogy but I have been thinking about that experience here lately as I represent people as Sellers and Buyers in our current real estate market. The mindset in a large number of people is that many sellers are under extreme duress in selling thier homes. This market represents an opportunity to try and obtain an extraodinary purchase. In other words many buyers turn into predators trying to benefit at the crash site of the current real estate downturn.
There is little compassion displayed in many of the offers that I have had to handle within the last few months. The prime victim is the person who has not been able to make a payment for awhile on thier homes. They are heading into foreclosure or short sale. The Buyer armed with a sufficient line of credit or cash moves in for the kill. Never mind that the seller is down on thier luck, financially. The predatory purchaser wants to obtain that property at an extreme discount, hang the circumstances of the poor property owner.
Now, I know that we live in a free market economy. I am all in favor of getting a good deal on just about anything I go to purchase. However, I feel that common decency should drive us in the direction of offering a fair price for property. Low ball offers have always been a part of our business however the current market we are in seems to bring out the predator in some of the more unscrupulous. You see their signs on every street corner, " Will pay cash for houses, quickly."
Visit me on the web at http://elvass.com
Monday, August 25, 2008
Short Sales, Are you sure?
There is a stanza from an old country ballad that goes like this:
" My Uncle Mort, he's sawed off and short,
He stands about 5 foot 2.
But he thinks he's giant,
When he gets him a pint,
Of that good Old Mountain Dew."
What I know about Short Sales is about as elusive as that euphoria that comes to Uncle Mort when he pops the cork on that jug of Mountain Dew. There are a lot of people who are chasing foreclosures and short sales in our current market. I suppose it is the nature of all of us to look for a good buy. After all our marching cry is ' Buy low and sell high.' not the other way around.
I remember 5-6 years ago when I actually showed my first foreclosed property. I was aghast. It was on the west side of town and looked decent from the outside, yet the inside was a fixer upper nightmare. The walls had been smashed in. Lighting fixtures had been removed. The drop in stove was gone and the wires formerly connecting it were still exposed. No danger involved because the electricity had been cut off many weeks earlier.
Very recently, I read an article concerning financial institutions, holding mortgages on homes heading to foreclosure, paying the motgagees a significant bonus NOT to trash the property. Now the implication here is that in normal cases the mortgagees do just that. Is it out of frustration, necessity or just down right orneriness? I suppose there is some market somewhere for drop-in ranges and light fixtures that will garner money for purchasing that Mountain Dew. I generally prefer the Diet variety, when I am into Dew slamming.
I listed a property some time back that ended up being financially impaired. That is a nice way of saying that the owner had not made a payment for a few months. It is really not according to Hoyle that a Seller should withhold that information. Yet here I was in the midst. The property had a first and second mortgage on it. I recieved an offer on the property that was not capable of paying off both mortgages. In other words one of the mortgage holders was going to have to accept a short sale.
After checking with the primary mortgage holder I was advised that they were not accepting one dime less than what was owed to them. Thier opinion was that the second lender had no business making a loan to their client. This was in the day of getting 20-30 offers for 110% loan to value loans in your mail box. I called the Wiley B. Coyote Company, the secondary lender. They must have known they were in a losing position because the person I ultimately reached agreed to bring our sale before some committee appointed to that task. I had numerous man hours invested in trying to get to the decision makers on this sale. Amidst my efforts the Wiley B. Coyote company sold the paper on this loan to the Alfred E. Neumann company and I had to start over. I finally got it done, however, and successfully closed the deal. I even got paid a little commission. Amounted to .35 per hour for my effort. On top of all that a few months later this client called me and told me the IRS was after her for taxes on the amount the mortgage company had let her slide on.
For my money, short sales, are a disappointing pursuit. More power to the agents in our community who seem to make their living in this arena. You are usually not going to save all that much money at the end of the process. You then have to ask yourself if you have invested in a property that is going to make you proud and will hold its head in the resale market.
The market in general has shifted in the favor of the Buyer. Dealing straight up with a Seller with your Realtor negotiating for you will yield many good buys. Why waste your time trying to chase a little better deal through a bank. They are rarely accessible when you call them, they never return your call and in due time there are a lot of banks that may not even be able to meet their own financial obligations. I am just not convinced that chasing short sales is worth the time and effort.
Visit me on the web at http://elvass.com/
Uncle Oswald sings it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFQ-5I6-pM4&feature=related
" My Uncle Mort, he's sawed off and short,
He stands about 5 foot 2.
But he thinks he's giant,
When he gets him a pint,
Of that good Old Mountain Dew."
What I know about Short Sales is about as elusive as that euphoria that comes to Uncle Mort when he pops the cork on that jug of Mountain Dew. There are a lot of people who are chasing foreclosures and short sales in our current market. I suppose it is the nature of all of us to look for a good buy. After all our marching cry is ' Buy low and sell high.' not the other way around.
I remember 5-6 years ago when I actually showed my first foreclosed property. I was aghast. It was on the west side of town and looked decent from the outside, yet the inside was a fixer upper nightmare. The walls had been smashed in. Lighting fixtures had been removed. The drop in stove was gone and the wires formerly connecting it were still exposed. No danger involved because the electricity had been cut off many weeks earlier.
Very recently, I read an article concerning financial institutions, holding mortgages on homes heading to foreclosure, paying the motgagees a significant bonus NOT to trash the property. Now the implication here is that in normal cases the mortgagees do just that. Is it out of frustration, necessity or just down right orneriness? I suppose there is some market somewhere for drop-in ranges and light fixtures that will garner money for purchasing that Mountain Dew. I generally prefer the Diet variety, when I am into Dew slamming.
I listed a property some time back that ended up being financially impaired. That is a nice way of saying that the owner had not made a payment for a few months. It is really not according to Hoyle that a Seller should withhold that information. Yet here I was in the midst. The property had a first and second mortgage on it. I recieved an offer on the property that was not capable of paying off both mortgages. In other words one of the mortgage holders was going to have to accept a short sale.
After checking with the primary mortgage holder I was advised that they were not accepting one dime less than what was owed to them. Thier opinion was that the second lender had no business making a loan to their client. This was in the day of getting 20-30 offers for 110% loan to value loans in your mail box. I called the Wiley B. Coyote Company, the secondary lender. They must have known they were in a losing position because the person I ultimately reached agreed to bring our sale before some committee appointed to that task. I had numerous man hours invested in trying to get to the decision makers on this sale. Amidst my efforts the Wiley B. Coyote company sold the paper on this loan to the Alfred E. Neumann company and I had to start over. I finally got it done, however, and successfully closed the deal. I even got paid a little commission. Amounted to .35 per hour for my effort. On top of all that a few months later this client called me and told me the IRS was after her for taxes on the amount the mortgage company had let her slide on.
For my money, short sales, are a disappointing pursuit. More power to the agents in our community who seem to make their living in this arena. You are usually not going to save all that much money at the end of the process. You then have to ask yourself if you have invested in a property that is going to make you proud and will hold its head in the resale market.
The market in general has shifted in the favor of the Buyer. Dealing straight up with a Seller with your Realtor negotiating for you will yield many good buys. Why waste your time trying to chase a little better deal through a bank. They are rarely accessible when you call them, they never return your call and in due time there are a lot of banks that may not even be able to meet their own financial obligations. I am just not convinced that chasing short sales is worth the time and effort.
Visit me on the web at http://elvass.com/
Uncle Oswald sings it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFQ-5I6-pM4&feature=related
Monday, August 18, 2008
Only the Lonely
When I am fortunate enough to list a client's home we always end up discussing the relative merits of Open Houses. Now, please understand that I have sat in more than one open house venue, fogging the windows with my breath, watching and waiting for attendees.
I generally tell my folks that there is a little sub-culture of people who go to open houses as a recreational activity. They get up on Sunday morning and get their cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate and pull out the real estate section of the newspaper and start deciding how they will spend their Sunday afternoon. They run in little packs and attend open houses with no more intention of buying a house than they have of floating to the Bahamas on a Kon Tiki style raft.
When I was a green and newly-licensed agent I was encouraged to hold open houses, by my Broker. Why? Because it was a great way to connect with potential Buyers. I never was successful in that effort. The approach went: "Are you working with an agent?" " Are you aware that it costs you nothing to work with one? The Seller pays our commission." The answer would mostly be, something to the effect, that they already had an agent and were just trying to help her out by looking on their own.
I recently recieved a blanket e-mail from a prominent Tallahassee firm that was soliciting agents from other firms to sit at their open houses. Any Buyer who you write a contract for, you keep the commission. Any Buyer you convince to work with you, you have sole rights to. I can see in my mind's eye the load up on that program at the listing appointment. " Mr. and Mrs. Home Owner, our firm holds open houses weekly. We outwork our competition. We will sell your house." Then they farm out this useless expenditure of time in holding the open house.
I have NEVER written a contract on a home sale from an open house. The effort to hold these things is a bygone tactic that may have worked at one time but is useless here in the 21st century. Why? Because anyone with any cyber-savy at all can look at all the houses they want to in any city in America from the comfort of their home. Realtor.com, YahooHomes.com. Mostly anyone licensed to practice real estate has a website. On my website you can get a direct IDX feed from the MLS of any city in Florida. Why would you need to galump around town looking at houses burning your $4.00 per gallon gasoline when you can do it on your laptop?
I recently listed the home of a friend. He is a little older than my 62 yoa and has bought and sold several homes. I asked him about his feelings toward Open Houses. It was pretty positive. I advised them, in my opinion, they were a waste of his time. The only people who will come will be your neighbors who want to see how you decorate your home. I paid the $60 to run the ad, I provided the $100 worth of signs to lead the folks in and............................the only people who came were the neighbors.
I advise folks if they will let me slide on the open houses I will discount my commission. If you let me slide on advertising in our local paper, I will discount my commission. That advertising is expensive as well as useless. That is another post on another day.
Here is hoping that I do not have to spend a lot more of my precious time sitting, all lonely, at an open house while my seller goes out to eat and to a movie to abet the process. There are better ways for me to spend my money and time in your behalf, that will drive far better results.
Visit me on my website at http://elvass.com/
Roy Orbisong : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFxbIYF6cmw
I generally tell my folks that there is a little sub-culture of people who go to open houses as a recreational activity. They get up on Sunday morning and get their cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate and pull out the real estate section of the newspaper and start deciding how they will spend their Sunday afternoon. They run in little packs and attend open houses with no more intention of buying a house than they have of floating to the Bahamas on a Kon Tiki style raft.
When I was a green and newly-licensed agent I was encouraged to hold open houses, by my Broker. Why? Because it was a great way to connect with potential Buyers. I never was successful in that effort. The approach went: "Are you working with an agent?" " Are you aware that it costs you nothing to work with one? The Seller pays our commission." The answer would mostly be, something to the effect, that they already had an agent and were just trying to help her out by looking on their own.
I recently recieved a blanket e-mail from a prominent Tallahassee firm that was soliciting agents from other firms to sit at their open houses. Any Buyer who you write a contract for, you keep the commission. Any Buyer you convince to work with you, you have sole rights to. I can see in my mind's eye the load up on that program at the listing appointment. " Mr. and Mrs. Home Owner, our firm holds open houses weekly. We outwork our competition. We will sell your house." Then they farm out this useless expenditure of time in holding the open house.
I have NEVER written a contract on a home sale from an open house. The effort to hold these things is a bygone tactic that may have worked at one time but is useless here in the 21st century. Why? Because anyone with any cyber-savy at all can look at all the houses they want to in any city in America from the comfort of their home. Realtor.com, YahooHomes.com. Mostly anyone licensed to practice real estate has a website. On my website you can get a direct IDX feed from the MLS of any city in Florida. Why would you need to galump around town looking at houses burning your $4.00 per gallon gasoline when you can do it on your laptop?
I recently listed the home of a friend. He is a little older than my 62 yoa and has bought and sold several homes. I asked him about his feelings toward Open Houses. It was pretty positive. I advised them, in my opinion, they were a waste of his time. The only people who will come will be your neighbors who want to see how you decorate your home. I paid the $60 to run the ad, I provided the $100 worth of signs to lead the folks in and............................the only people who came were the neighbors.
I advise folks if they will let me slide on the open houses I will discount my commission. If you let me slide on advertising in our local paper, I will discount my commission. That advertising is expensive as well as useless. That is another post on another day.
Here is hoping that I do not have to spend a lot more of my precious time sitting, all lonely, at an open house while my seller goes out to eat and to a movie to abet the process. There are better ways for me to spend my money and time in your behalf, that will drive far better results.
Visit me on my website at http://elvass.com/
Roy Orbisong : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFxbIYF6cmw
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