buying a home...

So, everything else that you do in life, you say to someone, or some organization, "You have x. I like x. Actually, I would like to buy x." And, in response, you hear (or read), "I am glad you like x. I am indeed selling x. I will sell you x if you pay me y." You say, "Sure, I will pay you y in exchange for x." Then, you give y and you get x. End of transaction. Yeehaw, yippee-ky-ay, go have a beer (read "iced tea" if you are under 21 :) ) and call it a day.

Not buying a house, though. Now, you say, "You have x. I like x. Actually, I would like to buy x." You hear, "I am glad you like x. I am indeed selling x. I will sell you x if you pay me y." You say, "Sure, I will pay you y in exchange for x." Then, about a dozen things need to occur involving a dozen other people who all need to be in agreement about you giving y for x after communicating via a mountain of faxes, an obscene number of e-mails, and hours of phone calls. And then, if all of the previous goes okay, just maybe, you will sit down at a hardwood table and proceed with exchanging y for x. The whole process is mind-numbing at times.

So, today, Sara and I sat for 5 hours in "our" house waiting on and meeting with two different guys to evaluate just how poorly the HVAC system was installed in "our" house, and how much it is going to cost the sellers and/or us to get it fixed and in what time frame. Fortunately, it looks like a resolution is at hand...

In other news, Sara and I step out of "our" house, get in our car (actually, ours, purchased entirely in a matter of a couple of hours), turn the key, and...hmmm...that's funny. One hour later, the AAA guy comes (roadside assistance was so fun with last week's flat tire, that I couldn't wait to have it again), uses his hand to remove some corrosion and battery acid that accumulated around one of the leads to the battery, and jumps the car so we can get it back to Greenbelt. This car is now outside in the parking lot of our apartment complex, and won't start again...so, guess what I'm doing tomorrow. Meanwhile, my other car is already in the shop as the A/C decided to die for summer, and it sounds terrible...so, hopefully, we can get Sara's car back on the road quickly.

The good news of all this is that I got two ratified contracts for two different buyers in the last two days...just in time to pay for car repairs. Argh.

Sleep for me.

Peace,
Greg

Memorial Day Weekend

Tried to upload a pic, but Blogspot isn't liking the type of picture file right now. :( But, it was fun. First time that my parents, my brother and his wife, my nephew, and Sara and I were all together for the last year and a half.

Anyway, I gotta go...Sara just locked herself out of the apartment.

Peace,
Greg

the "Friday" post

So, I'm gonna cheat and get Friday's post in before it's really Friday. Well, I guess it's "really" Friday, being that it's 1:50am, but you know what I mean. :)

Seriously, I don't think my body is ever going to recover from what I did to it in college. During those four years, I taught it that, no matter how sleep deprived it was, it needed to be optimally functional between the hours of midnight and 4am. That's when I could do work. That's when no one else was around, and everything got quiet. That's when nothing distracting was on television and there were no meetings interfering with a long block of time during one could just work.

Now, you get out into the real world, and it's like you're expected to completely change your times of optimum functionality. It's crap. I protest. :)

Anyway, for now, I just need to go with it. As I am still busily getting my business systems in place and learning shortcuts that improve my efficiency, without detracting from my efficacy (my wife, whom I affectionately call "Webster's", will be so proud...although, I have no doubt that she will find some obscure grammatical nuance that I improperly used in this sentence), I can only resist my body's natural tendencies so much. Once of twice a week, I turn to Sara and say, "Honey, I gotta stay up late tonight," and proceed to knock out in 3 hours between midnight and 3am what it would have taken me 8 hours to do had the sun been out. Gotta love being self-employed. :)

In other news, I am not happy with CVS for the way they set up innocent husbands trying to serve their wives, but I must deprive you of the whole story for fear of getting "the look" from the Princess. :)

Have a great memorial day weekend, everyone!!

Peace,
Greg

am I in Jersey yet?

Part of me has been sleeping all day.  One of those days where doing anything productive beyond talking to people has been hard to come by.  Fortunately, I was able to talk to a lot of good people.  I had a meeting with an investor who is looking to break into the different markets in northern Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City, and then picked up a new buyer client thanks to a referral from another agent.

 

Now, finally, all the other agents have left the office, which will help my focusing problem. J I am showing properties with a client tomorrow afternoon, and need to set up her showing appointments, and I also want to get some mailings together and shoot off some e-mails to a couple of my clients before I leave.

 

Hence, I’m gonna make this short.  I head for Jersey tomorrow night after I get a contract offer in with my client, where I’m gonna spend the weekend with my family…it’s gonna be great to spend some time with my brother, his wife, and my nephew, as I haven’t seen them in a long time.

 

I’ll post something at some point tomorrow before I leave…

 

Peace,
Greg

"pestering people" and an AC trip

Here's another image for Chappy, Israel's newest guest. :)

My first morning at the home office in a while. This is partially due a lot of meetings these past two weeks, but also due to the fact that my kitten managed to put a perfect little hole into the very center of my laptop's power cord. Now, I love my kitten...really...but sometimes... (I guess kittens are good preparation for when my kids completely destroy my house later in life.) So, anyway, new power cord and charger from Dell, and we're back in business.

I do have a meeting this afternoon and a continuing education seminar this evening, but most of my job today is to "pester" people. Not that I want to be annoying or forceful, or a "parent figure" for that matter. But, seriously, buyers and sellers will procrastinate as long as you let them, and it's often not in their best interest one bit. Real estate transactions involve many steps, some of which can be confusing, and others are tedious, and people have the natural tendency to put things off for days and weeks when they really need to act. In some ways, reminding people of their necessary next step and gently and consistently encouraging them to take it is part of my job. Don't get me wrong...this is different than hounding people, insisting that they buy or sell tomorrow, and blowing them off if they don't. Instead, I will remain in contact with all of these clients and help them however I can as they move along the process at a pace that is comfortable with them.

Therefore, let the e-mails and phone calls commence. :)

In other news, Sara and I booked a trip to Atlantic City for three days in mid-July, which should be a blast. Got a phone call in response to some entry form I filled out when I was up there with my office, and they offered me this trip for $120, plus we get $60 toward food. I'll just use $120 of my poker winnings from the last time I was up there to cover it. You see, finances are tight right now, but my poker bankroll is very separate from the family finances. Combined with my on-line bankrolls, my total poker money is about $1200 (6 months ago, my bankroll was about negative $200 and I had quit playing except for the $30 tourneys I hosted twice a month. Fortunately, out of pity, Sara let me play a little on her on-line account where she had around $80; I won $100, and then deposited this into another on-line site, where I turned that $100 into $400, and the rest is history). If I lose the $1200, no more poker for a long time. If I win more, I tithe on my winnings bi-monthly, and "invest" the rest as I see fit. So, 3-days in AC with my wife seems like a great investment to me. It turns out that her father is going to be in AC at the same time, which is an added bonus.

Good times.

Peace,
Greg

Busted tire

So, the A/C in my car decided that it was time to go meet its maker and be taken back to the shop. And, today, I'm driving to a continuing education class on contracts, and my tire busts. It was nasty, too...by the time I could get to the shoulder, there was a tear almost all the way around the center of the tire. I get out, call the wifey, and search the trunk just hoping that the car had the spare, the jack, and the wrench I needed. I barely have time to sing silent praises to CarMax (for including all of these things in my car two years ago when I bought it) and to get the jack in place when some guy pulls in behind me, gets out, and tells me that it is going to cost me $30 for him to help me.

I thought he was joking, but soon realized that he was serious (his shirt said "road emergency service), and then laughed inwardly at how his well-intentioned efforts to earn his money failed miserably. I ended up doing most of the work myself (in his fumblings in getting his own equipment out between my car and the van, he managed to get one of the four nuts off and managed to remove the jack from under the car), but he took AAA, so I didn't have to pay him a dime in the end.

In the end, I got to my seminar 40 minutes late and got my tire replaced afterwards.

Well, there's an office meeting in 3 hours, and I want to touch base with several of my clients in the meantime.

Peace,
Greg

Monday...

Sitting desk duty at the Glen Burnie office today.  When you first start in this business, you hear all the time about sitting desk duty and sitting open houses to get business.  It took me about 2 months before I realized that it would take me 10 years to build a business by just doing these things.  Still, I do it, cause I’m still new enough that it doesn’t make sense for me not to do it.  It gets me in the office and, in between the occasional phone calls that come in, I am busy doing e-mails and mailings, and making phone calls of my own.  I did get 3 leads today, but two of them are on land deals that I am referring out to other agents with more experience in land contracts.  The third one has a lot of promise.  It sounds like they have a “friend in the business,” a common phrase you hear as an agent, but their commitment to this friend sounds moderate at best.  They have a townhouse to sell in Piney Orchard, and want to buy a home in some of the newer parts of Seven Oaks (Piney Orchard and Seven Oaks are the two most well known subdivisions in Odenton).

 

Meanwhile, I spent a large portion of this weekend packing boxes in preparation to next month’s move.  Our buying this house seems absolutely definite, and all we need to find out now is how much the sellers are going to need to reduce our “closing cost help” to get returned vents installed for the air conditioning system.  Things are crazy tight right now, but we’ll manage.  No matter how well you do your first year of real estate, if you are doing it right, most of what is coming in should be going right back out in marketing, system development, and education opportunities.  Our cell phone bill coming back at $400 more than normal didn’t help either (as my business as picked up, my cell phone usage increased exponentially and I managed to completely blow through our accumulated rollover minutes, plus about 800 more minutes).  Fortunately, Sara got them to knock $100 off of that, and we upgraded our plan.

 

Besides packing this weekend, Sara and I went to see The DaVinci Code yesterday afternoon.  The movie is definitely not as good as the book, but both simultaneously entertain annoy me and entertain me.  Friggin Dan Brown…puts this book out there as if any of the ideas in it are new, and as if they have strong evidence to substantiate them.  I could preceed to go on a rant about the numerous things that The DaVinci Code misrepresents, but there are many who have done it better than me, and with more balance to their views, so I will let you go seek them out.  All I am going to say now is that the conspiracy theories behind the writing of Scripture and canonization of the New Testament simultaneously crack me up and disgust me.  Even at a liberal dating of the Gospels and the New Testament epistles, Dan Brown’s theories as to how Scripture is tainted falls in the face of the evidence.  And then to suggest that the Council of Nicea arbitrarily chose what to include in the Canon, as opposed to just making official what was already “decided” by what spoke for itself (on the basis of apostolic authority, among other things), is just silly.  That is like saying that a council of important people at one point got together and decided that Mozart and Bach and Beethoven were great composers…in truth, the test of time and the beauty of the music was what has raised the works of these men to the place of prestige that they hold today.

 

Okay, enough ranting. J

 

Peace,
Greg

 

P.S.  For more on The DaVinci Code, see www.probe.org.

new shredder in the office :)

It’s funny how adults are about new “toys”.  We got a new shredder in here, and everyone is falling all over themselves to be the first to use it.  And, of course, we got the broadcast e-mail reminding us that staples and paperclips can’t be shredded…I give it a week before someone tries anyway.

 

My meeting last night went really well.  Every chance I get to communicate what I bring to the table for my sellers, the more excited and passionate I get.  Jason has an open house this weekend and, based on those results, we will be talking on Sunday night about what he wants to do in regards to listing his home professionally.

 

Meanwhile, my clients this morning are very sweet people, but they are in a bit of a bind financially.  We went to look at some rentals together but, after we had looked at everything else out there, I found out that there is another housing opportunity that is off the market that I coached them would be in their best interests to take advantage of.  However, I hooked them up with a lender I work with who is linked with some top-notch credit remediation services that could get this family in a financial place to buy in as little as 6 months.  I will certainly keep in touch with them, as I really did enjoy my time with them this morning, even with not getting paid.  (I was at a training event earlier this week where a top producing agent said, “Don’t worry about the money; worry about providing top-notch service and looking out for peoples’ best interests.  If you do that, the money will come.”  I feel this really applies here.)

 

Well, I have a ton of things to do.  Among other things on my agenda, Sara and I found out that our house appraised for the sales price, and now we just need to negotiate over the results of the home inspection.  So, this is good news, and now I have to get a “home inspection repair addendum” together; I’ll keep you posted. J

 

Peace,
Greg

three meetings coming up

Tonight: I have a meeting with Jason, a “For Sale By Owner” in Pasadena.

Tomorrow morning: I have a meeting with Gary and Penny, renters who are also considering buying, but they need to move within 30 days, so it’s cutting it close.  We will be looking at rentals throughout northern Anne Arundel County.

Tomorrow afternoon: I have a meeting with Rich, who is considering buying, but we will be looking at rentals tomorrow in the Odenton area.

 

Late this afternoon, I am also meeting with Chini, my buyer that got blown off by the sellers earlier this week.  In the meantime, things with the purchase of my own home are not going as smoothly as planned.  It turns out that the seller’s made a couple of significant oversights in the rehabbing of the home.  The one that presents the most problems is the fact that they didn’t install return vents to the furnace for the A/C system, thus making the A/C useless for the 2^nd floor of the property.  The appraisal on the property is today, so any necessary negotiations will take place as soon as the appraisal report is in.

 

So, I’m busy, and it feels good to be busy in this business. J

 

I don’t really have much else to write today.  A couple of things I’d love to sermonize about, but it wouldn’t to anyone’s benefit, not even mine, so I’ll let them be.

 

Peace,

Greg

 

 

never blow off a qualified buyer

Talked to my client last night and, to no surprise, she really is questioning just how interested she is in the property now.  “It wasn’t meant to be.”  So, the sellers basically gave away $234,000 on the off-chance that they can get $240,000, without even asking if my client would be willing to give anymore.  No counter-offer…just blew her off.

 

Psychologically, human beings have a tendency to shut themselves off to anything that causes them stress.  Thus, my client can be ready to take on a $240,000 mortgage on one day, but be not even interested in that same property 3 days later.  Sellers foolishly don’t realize this, and think that they have more to gain by rejecting an offer and assuming the buyer who made the offer will still be interested in the property two weeks later if the seller doesn’t get anything better in the meantime.  Wrong answer.

 

I’m still a bit frustrated.  A bit for myself, and definitely a good bit for my client, as this house really seemed to be the best thing on the market for her.  It’ll work out though…

 

In other news, I had a “For Sale By Owner” call me last night in response to some letters I’ve been sending out, so that was pretty cool (the first four people that called did so to yell at me and 2 threatened to sue me J…”FSBO”s are definitely a unique group of people; this month, I’ve revamped the letters a bit and they seem to have been better received).  I’ll be meeting with him tomorrow night to discuss listing his home.  Besides that, I have a new buyer who is supposed to be stopping in this morning…but we’ll see about that.

 

Anyway, that’s about it.  Thanks for reading.

 

Peace,
Greg

keeping sane

So, here's one picture for you, Anthony (and everybody else). If you were at my wedding, it probably looks familiar... :)

My wife and I have taken to using Netflix to get to see all the great television shows that we never watched when they were actually on tv. Right now, we are watching the first season of "The West Wing". Well, last night we watched the episode when the President was stressed out about a hurricane, a hostage situation, and an ensuing strike of the nation's trucking industry, and the first lady had something like this to say: "Jed, you have a huge mind, and a big heart. But you can't fix the whole world...but it sure is fun to watch you try."

Sara looked at me and said these words to me, and they were pretty fitting. That offer I told you about yesterday...well...yeah...it was rejected. Why? Not sure. The house is still on the market, and the listing agent said that the sellers 1) loved my client, 2) appreciated the full price offer, and 3) would have the listing agent let me know if the listing changes. I was like, "You get a full-price offer from a pre-approved client that your sellers 'love', and you can't even give me a reason why the offer was rejected???!!!!" Nothing. We had asked for some seller contribution for closing costs, but asked for less that 3% of the transaction, and the rest of the terms were good...and nothing.

I was pissed. My client obviously upset. And my colleagues and office manager are as bewildered as me. I couldn't even sleep last night, drifting off around 2:30am, and waking up still somewhat angry around 6:00am. I was up, dressed, and off to the office at 7:30am to try to figure out what the next steps are.

Anyway, so that's that. We do have some recourse, but it includes rewriting an entire offer, and making it contingent on me presenting the offer personally, which is not customary for this market, and to which I'll likely face some opposition. The whole thing is just stupid. If my sellers ever get an offer for over 97% of asking price (what you have when subtract the requested closing help from the asking price) from a motivated, pre-approved buyer in a slowing down market, you better believe that offer will not be rejected outright. If you want to counter for the last 3%, fine. If you reject it, find another agent so that you can waste their time.

If that sounds harsh, I apologize. But, seriously, agents don't spend lots of money in marketing a house only to bring a ready, willing, and able buyer and have the sellers blow them off. That's crap. Argh.

I'll keep you posted.

Peace,
Greg

offer in on a house

So Saturday went well, but hardly went as planned. :) I was supposed to show properties to Rich in the morning and Aimee in the afternoon. Rich cancelled (we’re meeting up this upcoming Friday instead) and, despite me confirming things with Aimee, she just no-showed. However, on Friday night, Chini (pronounced Shin-ee, with the accent on the second syllable), called me to see if I could show properties with her on Saturday. So, I put her in Rich’s former “slot” and we went to see some houses that spanned the region were Howard, Baltimore, and Anne Arundel Counties all converge.

By day’s end, we put in an offer for a 3-bedroom rancher with a garage, and the listing agent will be reviewing the offer with the seller’s tonight and we should have a ratified contract by day’s end.

Besides that, I am do a ton of office stuff today, and I am beginning a new Long and Foster training program tonight to further enhance the services I can give my clients.

That’s about it. Hope everyone had a great weekend and a wonderful Mother’s Day.

Peace,
Greg

A settlement, a buyer, and 2-3off... :)

So, my goal to post every day didn’t start off so well, but I’ll get into the routine.  Basically, Wednesday was an office party bus trip to Atlantic City that you had to do a certain amount of production to go on, and I was glad to go.  Having played more poker in the last two years than most of you will ever know about, J I decided it was time that I take some of my winnings and play some 1-2 No-Limit Hold’em at a casino, especially since I have hardly played much at all since I started my real estate business.  A little luck and some solid play, and I was up over $400 in 4 hours, so I decided to call it a day and go grab a big, juicy burger. J (You can read about how I won $300 with 2-3off by clicking on the MD-Poker link on the right and going to the trip reports section…look for UAEgreg, my name on that site.)

 

Overall, it was fun to get to know some of my colleagues a bit better, and the guy to my left at the poker table was actually a sub-prime lender from DC, so that made for some good conversation.  Meanwhile, I had a settlement for a Baltimore City property yesterday afternoon, and I picked up a new client last night, so it was a busy day as well.

 

Right now, I am at the office, catching up on e-mail, preparing mailings, touching base with clients, and getting ready for tomorrow, during which I will be showing properties to two different clients.  I’ll get back to you on Monday with the results.

 

Peace,
Greg

the first post...

I almost called this blog "The Life of the Poker Player, Real Estate Selling, Jesus Follower," but I decided it may have been a little much. :) (In college, I got an article published that was called "The Wild Ride of a Fraternity Brother, Theatre Major, Evangelical Christian", and I find it really interesting to see how 4 years has changed so much.)

Anyway, I don't know what this blog will become, but I think it's going to be a few different things: 1, a chance for me to download all that I am learning in real estate, saving my wife from having to hear it all day in and day out; 2, an opportunity to serve my clients by keeping them aware of opportunities that are open to them; 3, a chance for me to have a little more of a web presence as I continue to build and grow my real estate business; and, 4, a forum where I can answer questions posed by my clients and anyone else who happens to stumble along.

So, no matter what happens over the next few days, weeks, and months, thanks for reading this, and I hope you become an active member of my journey toward becoming a great real estate agent in the state of Maryland. If my memory is right, there are around 47,000 Realtors in the state of Maryland, and 72% of them don't make it past the first year. I am dedicated to the training, the education, and the high level of service to my clients that will help me from being just another one to not make it in this industry! And, honestly, somehow and someway that I can't fully quantify, I think this blog will help.

Sincerely,
Greg