To my '99 Escort - R.I.P.

No, the tow truck that picked me up wasn't nearly as friendly as Tow-Mater. After several months of thinking, "Wow...that sounds bad...I hope this car makes it one more year," the car finally decided that yesterday should be the day that it retires. Called triple A, but it took friggin 2 and a half hours for the tow truck to arrive, despite them telling me 45 minutes at first. Sara had come out with the car and was picked up by one of her friends, while I took her car and scrambled to get a couple of things done before hitting up the pre-settlement inspection I needed to go to before a settlement that happened yesterday. Ah, settlements: simultaneously enjoying and celebratory, yet a little boring for me. As a rule of thumb, if I am working at settlement, somebody screwed up something and now I am fixing my own oversights or those of others. Oversights at this point with the high quality of professionals that I recommend to my clients are never big, but they can happen, especially at this time of year when the battle for time between securing new business and servicing and taking care of old business can be pretty intense.

Anyway, yesterday's settlement was of the boring variety...yes, a good thing. And it was still filled with the "warm and fuzzies" that are supposed to occur at settlement...another good thing.

Well, it's 7:15pm on a Friday...I'm gonna get out of the office.

Peace,
Greg

2 DOM

So, my latest listing hit the market on Monday night (check out http://www.homevisit.com/tour/vtour.asp?id=25673 for the virtual tour). This has been over two months in the works, with my seller working hard to get the property market ready. On my end, I brought in the stager, the photography, prepared the flyers, set up the property's blog (see www.4105GraniteAve.blogspot.com), inputed the listing into the multiple listing service and a dozen other websites (eg. Craig's List, Backpage, Point2Homes, HomesDatabase, etc.), got the yard sign up, created and installed the sign riders, set up a call capture line, etc. Well, again it hits the market Monday. Tuesday night, the seller is finishing up a couple of things and an agent knocks on the door...they want to write an offer which I should get today. 3 showings get scheduled for Wednesday, one of the agents calling me afterwards saying they want to write an offer which I should get tomorrow. And, another random buyer contacts me from the web marketing, and I'm meeting with her tomorrow. Long story short, this property is priced right, it shows great, and it should be under contract by Friday. A little anti-climatic for all the work I put into my listings, but a good thing no matter how you look at it.

So, now I'm just in my office waiting for some offers to come in, working my other listings, and corresponding with my buyers. I'm gonna get back to that.

Peace,
Greg

The League of Maryland Homeowners

Here’s something interesting for those of you who are concerned about rising housing costs but who feel powerless to do anything about it. The Maryland Association of Realtors has sponsored an initiative called the League of Maryland Homeowners (LMH). LMH is a political action/public awareness campaign that is especially interested in making sure that rising housing costs don’t make the dream of home ownership impossible to achieve for the average family. You can learn more at www.LeagueOfMarylandHomeowners.com, and I highly recommend subscribing to their newsletter.

Well, I've got to finish prepping for a 4pm with a new buyer client.

Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Greg

Severna Park Rookie of the Year

So, last week I found out that I had my picture in the paper as Severna Park's Rookie of the Year. It's funny how, no matter how competent and accomplished you are, a stupid title like this goes farther in earning a potential client's trust than most anything else could. :) But, it does feel good to be recognized as the best (at least, most accomplished) of those who share my time in the business at one of the more prestigious Long and Foster offices in the state. At the same time, it kind of makes me a bit sad to wonder how the heck all the other rookies get by and survive!

In the past week, I've received two buyer referrals from previous clients, and have had two other people contact me sharing that they are looking to sell their current homes and buy a new home in Maryland, and that would like to interview me for the job. I spent yesterday prepping for one of those "interviews", telling my wife that she needed to consider it like my version of a test weekend. :) Of course, my primary lending partner, the one who sets up the call capture lines that I use on my listings, and which is a major example of the value I bring to the table when I do my "listing presentations", is away at Disney World with the family. I can't be mad at him, of course...just figures... :)

Meanwhile, tomorrow is the O's game-client appreciation event that I have organized. I started this week with 7 tickets left out of the 65 I ordered, found myself having 72 people coming at one point, and now have 70 people coming. It should be a really great time. Here's a cute story that illustrates why these events are so important, but also shows one aspect of what prepping for an event like this is like: one guy, a really, really nice guy from my church, is coming with his wife. He calls me yesterday just to make sure that I knew that he wasn't planning on buying or selling a home anytime in the near future.

Me: Don't worry about that! And, honestly, if you do, and you have another Realtor that you would rather use, that's fine. Seriously, I run these events so people can come out and have a good time. I had some extra tickets when I offered them to you because I thought you'd enjoy them!

Him: Yes, my wife and I definitely will enjoy them...I just want to make sure that you knew that we are happy where we are, and you should use these tickets for someone else that might become a client or something if you need...

Me: Again, don't worry about that. It'll be great to have you at the game.

Him: Well, you know, if I know anybody that's buying or selling in the near future, I'll certainly refer them to you.

Me: That'd be great, Jim...thanks.

Exactly. :) Building marketshare in this business is not rocket science. Of course, you need to be good at relationships, and you need to be good at getting results to survive...right now, I'm surviving (in fact, I'm thriving relative to those who have only been in the industry as long as I have). And, with the good results I've had to date, more and more people are giving me the chance to show them just what I can do for them, and that's a great thing.

Peace,
Greg