NUTIE

My children used to watch a movie when they were small with some sort of an acronym that went something like ROUS. It was a very popular movie cartoon that featured "Rodents Of Unusual Size". That is about all I remember of it. Those children are all in thier 30's now and their Dad is soon to turn 63.

I am now making a living as a real estate broker. I just entered into my 7th year and have had a modicum of success. At one time Tallahassee had a real estate agent population of somewhere around 2500 agents. If you do the math, that makes one agent for every 20 households in Tallahassee. That number has dwindled down to less than 1000 with our new economy.

I remember another acronym that someone once quoted to me. It was NUTIE. I don't know if you pronounce that with a long or short U . It stands for Never Underestimate The Importance of Experience.

The years since I was in my 30's have flown by as any sextogenerian will tell you. I remember when I turned 50 yoa a reality set in on me. I was not young anymore. I also came to realize that when you turn 50, in the workplace you almost become invisible. People don't include you in dinner plans, outings, team meetings, etc. You don't get the notice you once did nor the acclaim. The J is suddenly gone from your jump shot. You don't have the moves on the dance floor you used to have. What happened to me? I got promoted to management after 20 years of being a sales rep.

I remember one thing that I said during my interview. I referenced a book I had read called Iacocca. It was a biography written about Lee Iacocca the mastermind of the Chrysler resurgence. I quoted him on the subject of age. He said that there was one anomaly that existed in the auto business that really bothered him. When he was at Ford the UAW had negotiated a package that allowed you to retire after 25 years of service almost at full pay and benefits. So he said what would happen is that you would start someone 25-30 yoa and after they had become journeymen in their service they suddenly got up and walked out the door. There was all this experience evaporating at Ford. The person would retire and get a part time job and play golf, travel, landscape their yard, etc. It was nice for the person, but it was foregoing a valuable resource for Ford.

Just as an employee had seen it all and knew the business inside and out, they walked away. He said that was a drain on their capital that was always worrisome to him.

I believe that is applicable in all trades and professions. It is the old gray-beards that are the valuable resource in the worker pool in any organization. They have seen it all. They have faced good times and challenging times. They do not react from the endocrine system. They react from the bedrock of experience.

In this relatively new business I am in I see a lot of sorority girls and fraternity boys turned realtor. They look good on billboards, websites and business cards. They are invited to all the parties and the team meetings because they are are just so darned good looking.

My advice to you, and I believe Iacocca would tell you the same, is get the experience to walk by your side. Choose an agent that has some battle scars in place. Retain the executive who has a broad base of experience in the business world. Someone who has had to make decisions that really counted heavily. Your best friend may be one of those sorority girls or fraternity boys turned real estate agent. In the most important purchase you will ever make go with the professional that has been to war and has the experience. You will be glad you did.

NUTIE. Never Underestimate The Importance of Experience.

Visit me on the web, if you please @ http://elvass.com

Mortgage Interest, A Great Investment

I have several acquaintances who are financial advisers. Most of them have been very successful. They are really earning their fees right about now, in this quagmire of an economy we find ourselves in.

One consistent place that advisers have always counseled their clients to invest is in a home. Mortgage interest is a hedge against taxes as the interest is tax deductible. That has been the case ever since I have been aware. If you have a new mortgage and your Principal and Interest monthly payment is $1000.00 then you have approximately $12,000 to claim as a deduction when taxes roll around. What are the taxes on $12,000? We have a graduated income tax system so if we determine that you are in a 20% tax bracket, that does not mean that you are actually going to pay 20% of your income in taxes. Let's say that you pay more like 12% of your income in taxes.

So we see that having a home will save you 12% of the $12,000 that you paid out on your mortgage loan. All the payment is pretty much interest until you get into the last 15 years of the payback period. So how much cash does that home save you? 12% of $12,000 is $1,440. That is your total cash saving. Divide that by 12 months and you are adding a tidy additional $120 to your monthly cash flow, just by owning a home. Throw in the property taxes, which are also deductible and you add more to the cash flow. Let's say you pay $2,000 in property taxes. At your 12% tax rate that amounts to an additional $240 you save. Divide that by 12 and you add an additional $20 per month to your cash flow. So now we are up to $140 in monthly cash to your bottom line.

If you are putting out $1,000.00 rent per month you are not eligible for any savings at all. Makes you wonder why so many people rent, doesn't it. I suppose that a lot of folks just don't know how easy it is to purchase. That is what we Realtors do. We advise people on that front.

Now let's do one more little exercise. Let's say that you owe $100,000 on your home via a mortgage. You have your home financed for 30 years at a fixed rate of 6%. Using one of the calculators on my website we can posture an exciting scenario.

Let's say that you have an additional $125 extra per month coming in and you would like to invest it in something. You already own your home so you are thinking about investing in something else. What is that something else going to be? Is it going to be the stock market? Not a bad idea because there are a lot of great deals out there currently. How about gold? Some people think that is a solid place to look right now.

I read in the USA Today that people were buying Treasury bonds at 0% interest. Why would people do that? Because they trust that to be a place to put their money that would be safe. Do we have all that much confidence in wherever we have our money currently? 401k's have become fodder for late night comedians.

Here is something to consider. According to the calculations that I just made on one of the calculators on my website, you ought to consider investing that money in paying down your mortgage. If you were to pay an extra $125 a month on that $100,000 mortgage do you know that it would knock 10 years off of the length of your mortgage? It would save you somewhere around $42,800 in interest. Where could you put your money to get that sort of return?

If you pay that extra $125 per month and you save $42,800 it would mean that you are getting return on your money at the rate of 142%. Do the math. $42,800 divided by 20 years is $2140 per year. Compare that to the $1500 per year you are paying extra on your mortgage. My calculator tell me that is 42.7%. Sure beats treasury bonds at 0%, doesn't it?

Something to think about. If you are paying rent, please call me and let's get you into a home. Man, you would not believe the deals there are on homes in the Tallahassee area. Let's get started.

Visit me on the web at http://elvass.com/

An Amazing Athlete

Yesterday morning I observed an amazing athlete. He possessed all the attributes that go into the composition of a good athlete, balance, agility, upper body strength, endurance, speed, quickness and a mindset to be above average. No, I was not watching ESPN nor any other sports venue.

I was watching a young fellow running alongside of a big green and white truck that said Waste Management on the side of it. He was working my neighborhood, here in Killearn Estates. He would run from location to location, keeping up with the truck. He would sprint to a trash receptacle and dodge between cars as he pulled it to the rear of the truck. He would then lift that obtuse object above his head and shake the contents out of it and then return it to the spot he had retrieved it from. Occassionally he would leap onto a foothold on the truck and take a brief ride. The truck meandered along the route that I was walking with Maggie the Wonder-Bassett. I was overtly impressed with what I saw.

I could not help but reflect on this sight and contrast it to the morning news. Alex Rodriguez, A-Rod ( now A-roid) the New York Yankees mega-star, was implicated in the utilization of performance enhancing drugs to get an edge in the sport in which he already was a star. This news, coupled with the strike MLB baseball went on a few years ago, has just about cooled my interest in this league, forever. These prima donnas make millions of dollars playing a game that most of us would gladly play for free. Then the revelation comes that they cheat to maintain pace. The bottom line is a heart breaking take away message that bad people cheat.

My waste management guy, I am sure, uses some performance enhancing tools as well. They are most likely: a mortgage payment, a wife and children dependent on him, an employer who pays him and just the endorphins that arise from wanting to do his job well. A-Roid would do well to spend a few hours following this man. Perhaps he could learn a little about what it takes to be a true champion. At least he could look at an example of what it means to have character.

Not all champions are found between the lines of a field of competition. Most of them do not have agents standing at the ready to sell them like a bottle of ripple. They are working class people who go to work everyday and put in the required amount of time to earn their pay. They are the backbone of this great nation of ours. We see them all around us. All we have to do is stop and pay a little bit of attention and they will teach us what life is all about.

Visit me on the web: http://elvass.com/

The Little Man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lj6PMv68Ho

It's Okay to be Little Bitty

As I address this let me start by stating that I worked for “LARGE“ for thirty years. I was employed by the DuPont company which has been a Fortune 500 company for many years. I worked in various assignments over my career with DuPont, many of them at an Executive level. I was there long enough to make the determination that large does not always equate to better.

Many functions in large corporations, going back ten years or more, began to be out-sourced to smaller firms. Examples are Human Resources, relocation, fleet management, printing, and so forth. Why this move to out-sourcing? Simple: Smaller firms could deliver much more efficiently. Most large corporations get hand cuffed by their own policy manuals. Smaller firms can assess, analyze and correct a function much quicker than a large corporation can do it for themselves.
To apply a nautical analogy: Which takes longer to turn around, the USS Norway or a canoe? The answer, of course is a canoe.

All the foregoing holds true in the real estate world. When you decide who is going to help you buy or sell, or both, who is it going to be? One of the large corporate real estate firms or a smaller, local firm? Essentially , the only difference you will see is the presence of national advertising. Do you really believe that when you see that hot air balloon on CBS that it makes a difference in the buying or selling process as it relates to you back in Tallahassee? Of course, it doesn't.The smaller firm utilizes the same tools to market or buy as the larger firm, the multiple listing service (MLS), local newspaper, signage, flyers, open houses, realtor net-working, so forth. One thing the larger corporations consistently do, that smaller firms do not usually, is charge you a transaction fee. That is a fee, usually between 300 and 500 dollars that you pay just to do business with them. Whether you successfully buy or sell, you will owe that fee. We do not and never will charge you a fee to do business with Lee Vass Realty.

Smaller firms operate locally. They are specialists in the local market. National companies are spread out over the whole nation spot-lighting the country coast to coast. If you were to go deer hunting, do you want a shotgun in your hand or a rifle? Most likely you want a rifle. The smaller firm is the rifled approach. Small firms are the local market specialists.

When you choose a realtor to represent you the over riding consideration is to choose one that you know and trust. The small firm does not give up one iota to the larger firm. In fact the smaller firm is usually not tied to a lot of policy manual dictates. The smaller firm can tailor a marketing strategy to your circumstances from the get-go.

Most larger firms have a large number of agents reporting to a Broker. The Broker dictates policy and is often hard, if not impossible, for you to access. Why not work directly with the Broker? In most smaller firms you do just that.

At Lee Vass Realty you work directly with the Broker/Owner. We operate under the same State of Florida, DBPR licensure as any other agency. We are members of the Tallahassee Board of Realtors, Florida Association of Realtors and The National Association of Realtors. We carry errors and omissions insurance. We are plugged into MLS. We live in the local market. We can best represent you locally.

I hope that I have convinced you that you give up, very little, if anything at all by foregoing the use of a large firm in favor of using a small real estate agency. Call me to get going on buying or selling in the local market.

Please visit me on the web at http://elvass.com/

Alan Jackson sings it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFBc__RCDp0&feature=PlayList&p=D62428261D4B3C02&index=0&playnext=1

On Being a Realtor

I am posting tonight in response to a query this morning from a lady who asked me just what it was that a Realtor does. I have given the matter some thought and it is a very reflective question. I have concluded that a Realtor is a generalist who coordinates, counsels, directs and aids compliance to the rules and regs surrounding a real estate transaction. I represented DuPont for 30 years, mostly as a sales representative. What I did then and what I do now are as different as night and day.

Practicing Real Estate is loosely connected to sales skills. Rarely do you take a person into a home and pitch them on features, advantages and benefits of a particular house in an effort to get them to make a decision to buy. If you are lucky enough to attract a buyer there is a process whereby you lead them to a choice. You conduct the buyer's interview to establish their wants and needs. Then you search the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) to match up their wants with particular houses that seemingly fill that need. You then schedule some showing time and take them to see the property. Once in the property the house must "sing" to the buyer, on its own. The property must convince the buyer. Rarely is it necessary for the Realtor to "sell" the property.

In selling a listing the Realtor is a counselor and advisor. The Realtor advises the seller how to stage the house for it to demonstrate its strong features to a prospective buyer. If the seller is unwilling to clean, paint, plant, de-clutter, etc. no amount of selling skills on the part of the Realtor matters.

A Realtor is a licensed professional. He must take hundreds of hours of instruction and then pass numerous tests, many quite difficult, to become licensed and stay licensed. The process is expensive and time consuming. He must be a member of a local association that will coordinate the cooperation of all agents in a geographic area in maintaining the MLS, continuing education and other matters. He is licensed by the Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC) which operates under the Department of Business & Professional Regulation. FREC sets forth all rules and regs that surround the practice within the state. FREC maintains a probable cause element that polices and disciplines those who would play fast and loose with their license.

A Realtor is somewhat of a traffic cop in that in the midst of a transaction he must be able to direct all the matters that will consummate in the successful transfer of Title. A Realtor must stand ready to recommend Title companies, Home inspectors, Termite inspectors, surveyors, Insurance providers, repair people, structural engineers, mold experts, attorneys, Home warranties, etc. The Realtor must be prepared to react quickly and competently when snags arise within the transaction. Most transactions are subject to exact schedules. The Realtor must assure that all parties adhere to timelines.

A Realtor is somewhat of a paralegal. Special emphasis on contract law. All aspects of the transaction are strongly tied to the sales contract, a legally binding instrument. He must be knowledgeable in how to complete this 7 page document plus all disclosure forms. He needs to know how and when to amend the contract via addendae.

Probably, above all, a Realtor must be a negotiatior. The more pronounced an agent's negotiating skills the more valuable he is to the party he represents. Agreement must be reached, most importantly, on sales price. Additionally there are concessions that can be asked for and granted relating to closing costs, repairs, warranties, closing dates, etc. When a fight erupts you want the most eloquent, smartest and coolest advocate you can find by your side.

A good Realtor is a good communicator both verbally and written. He should keep careful records as to what has been agreed upon in a deal and all correspondence between all parties. A good agent is patient, kind, thoughtful, available and consistent. To a practicing Realtor no one is more important than his client, outside of his family. He will lay it all on the line for his client.

I operate as a sole proprietor. I must have a Leon County Business license, a City of Tallahassee business license and of course, a State of Florida real estate license. I am a Broker which requires one to have a year of being an agent under a broker and then class time and passage of a tough, tough exam. I have to adhere to continuing education requirements. I must carry error and ommissions insurance. You do not want a Realtor who does not carry that insurance. You also do not want a Realtor who does not maintain a very pronounced presence on the internet. Most buyers go online to search property first before they ever contact a Realtor. I am a member of the Tallahassee Board of Realtors, Florida Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.

Overall, I would say that the practice of real estate is quite satisfying. One has complete flexibility of time. The bottom line is that Realtors really help people to accomplish the dream of home ownership. A good Realtor keeps his finger on the pulse of current trends in the business and the development of new avenues. A good Realtor's success is tied to the numbers of people he has competently and effectively helped to achieve the purchase of a home or the sale of their home.

Visit me on my website at : http://elvass.com

Losing weight

I will now post on a subject that I am an expert on. LOSING WEIGHT. I have lost 1000 pounds over the course of my lifetime. Unfortunately, I have gained back 1050. I am a 62 yoa white man with hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia. Statistically, I am a ticking time bomb. I have had a couple of cardiac scares, one resulting in a heart cath. You would think that all that would motivate me to lose weight. NEGATORY. In fact I recently put on another 5 pounds over the holidays just to assure that I remain in as miserable a state of health as is possible.

The thing that I am not expert in is FINDING THE MOTIVATION. You see I have a chromosomal deficiency that causes me to be unable to lose weight. Let's just call it the fat gene. Yes I could choose to live a normal life and not go to Brickyard Pizzeria and buy that 16" beauty with the extra cheese, pepperoni, italian sausage and eat most of it myself. However, you see, I am compelled in that direction. Something deep in my dna drives me to overindulgence. In the midbrain of the normal human being there is a delicate balance of GABA, dopamine and endorphins. All stay at acceptable levels when they are ingesting food. I have a deviated mid-brain. Ah Hah, you say, " I knew that guy was not normal."

When I put the first bit of food substance in my mouth my mid-brain fires endorphins across my synapses. That is called the pleasure phenomenon. I experience a "high" just as real as the one that Corky the Cocaine addict does when he snorts his first line of cocaine. I am compelled to continue to shove pie in my pie hole in a piteable attempt to keep the endorphin level where it provides the euphoria I seek. It is not my fault that I have to sit with my pants unzipped and open at night as I sit in my recliner in order to breathe properly. I am a poor victim of a food addiction.

As Cheech and Chong, the great philosophers of my youth once said in one of their ballads, " I need help, ladies and gentlemens. I need someone to set a pick for me at the free throw line of life." ( Basketball Jones, circa 1972 ). I have been through 12 step programs. Notably Weight Watchers where I have lost a huge portion of my 1000 pounds. I have read the books. Been on the fad diets, grapefruit, sugar busters, etc. etc. The list drones on and on.

I used to be a smoker. After I moved to Tallahassee in 1972 I was well on my way to quitting. Then my Father flew into Tallahassee and we undertook a trip to Springfield, Ohio together. We were going to visit my Uncle Fred who was dying of lung cancer. My Dad was a prolific smoker, about 2 packs a day of Kools. I fell into temptation and bought myself a pack of Winstons and made like a chimney for a couple of days. I really looked cool with that cig hanging out of my pie hole. Sort of like the Marlboro man.

My Dad and I got up after our first night in the motel and made our way to the hospital. Now the last memory I had of my Uncle Fred was of a large 220 pound man with the vitality of a salesman. Here in front of me is my Uncle. He weighs about 90 pounds. They have already performed the thoracotomy and he is getting along with one lung. Here he sits on the side of his hospital bed, chain smoking unfiltered Camels. Joe Camel he did not remind me of. More like a prisoner of war. He is so hopelessly addicted to those cigarettes that he cannot take a breath without one in his mouth. My Dad and I left the hospital, I took the pack of Winstons out of my pocket and dropped them into a waste receptacle. My Uncle was dead two weeks later at 52 years of age. He left a widow and three children. He left an indelible image in my brain. I have not touched a cigarette in 35 plus years since the moment I threw away that pack of Winstons. Anytime I was tempted I conjured up the image of him in that hospital, sucking on those Camels. My slight addiction was forever more solved. I was MOTIVATED.

From whence cometh motivation? It is as elusive as the prize on American Idol. We have occasions of resolve. We last a few days and in my case, I walk into our home and smell the fragrance of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. My wife will then stumble over my pulsating form sitting in the corner with hot cookies on my breath and cold milk all dribbled down the front of my size 3x Lipscomb Lions Tee shirt.

Motivation is there. It lurks somewhere deep inside of us. It just needs an Uncle Fred to connect the dots for us. One of the great motivational speakers of all time was Zig Zeiglar. Zig would do this bit about the fact that we were all victims of "Stinkin Thinkin".

Well for me, my next stop is Nutrisystem. That is the well advertised program where you go on this prepared and carefully measured, portion control program. My motivation? Chris Berman, the Boomer, on ESPN. I saw a picture of this guy last summer in a Golf magazine. He was in a golf shirt and his stomach protruded out providing a landing pad for a Chinook helicopter. Now I see him on the Nutrisystem ads and he has lost 40 pounds. If the Boomer can do it then so can I .

We will see how it goes. This program is not cheap. You are buying breakfast bricks at the rate of $10 per. I figure if I have skin in the game it might just MOTIVATE me. The thought of having a heart attack that will cost me and my insurance provider $100,000 plus ain't getting it done. We shall see.

Visit me on the web http://elvass.com/

Chech and Chong, set me a pick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtWu5iI6ZeA&feature=related

Christmas spirit headed off by Black Friday

I was appalled by the news that came out of New York on the occassion of Black Friday 2008. Black Friday, as you know is the most prolific shopping day of the year. It is the prime indicator of how retail sales are heading for the year. It is the occassion when the balance sheet takes on a blackish ( bullish ) hue as opposed to a reddish ( bearish ) hue. The headlines and downbeat of all the newscasts and editions was " Will Black Friday save us?" I have always been of the belief that the only thing that is going to save any of us is our faith in the Lord Jesus, whose birth we supposedly hold this Holiday for in the first place.

As you know a WalMart crowd in NYC trampled to death an employee as they charged the gates upon the opening of the store on Black Friday. It is reported that once recognizing the man was down and injured the crowd politely stepped around him in their rush to grab the deals. What a living characterization of what the practice of the Christmas Season has become.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said this in his classic I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. He said "And in despair I bowed my head. There is no peace on earth I said. For hate is strong and mocks the song, of peace on earth good will to men." He penned that somewhere around 1850.

Here we are 158 years later pretty much in the same boat. India threatens Pakistan. Iran calls Israel the Great Satan. The United States is more divided than ever within our own borders. Our greed and stampeding the door of human kindness has cost us our souls. Bail outs abound. Political divide roars in our ears. Here in the Realtor world greed has driven the American dream of home ownership out of existence. Every other commercial you see on TV is for treatment of depression.

Longfellow continues: " Then peeled the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead nor does He sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth good will to men." He was certainly an optimistic fellow was he not? Since he wrote those words we have had two World Wars, The Korean war, the Vietnam War and now the war on terror. I hope he is right.

I remain optimistic that the right shall prevail. We may not like the format in which it is delivered, but I am confident that right shall prevail. It has to, otherwise what are we bothering to struggle for?

I had a conversation with my son recently. He is a Deputy Sheriff. He says this time of the year is the busiest in his work place. Especially calls for domestic violence seem to ramp up appreciably. I asked him what he thought the reason was. He said it is because the Holidays bring people together to celebrate the season. Those families that are dysfunctional hope to come together and be different people around the dinner table. However, as everyone dips into their 6th round of wine, beer, spirits, the divide that exists between them all the other days of the year becomes pronounced. That is when the fighting begins. Out come the sharp verbal flairs. Then out come the fisticuffs, the knives and, yes, the firearms.

I remember when my son had first become a Deputy my wife and I wanted to see him on Christmas Eve as he worked. I made some of my world famous vegetable soup and we drove south about 25 miles to meet him and share soup with him. He was not able to meet with us as he had to go to a domestic violence call and arrest a lady for stabbing her Father.

That brings me back to NYC and the Black Friday incident. Where have our values gone? Where has common decency flown to? The news just gets worse and worse.

I notice that my neighborhood is lagging far behind in the adornment of Christmas lights this season. Many houses that have previously gleamed with lights of the season are dark. It could be the recession-like depression that we are in. Or perhaps it is just the culmination of a nation that has fought hard to preserve our old fashioned way of life and has failed. We are face to face with what really drives America. What is it? Greed and selfishness ,greed and selfishness and more greed and selfishness. I am struggling hard this year to find some Christmas spirit. Hope you are doing better at it than I am.

Visit me on the web at http://elvass.com