Fayetteville, NC Real Estate Blog

Well, it has happened.  My bluetooth has gone to the land of the "where did it go" gremlins.

Yesterday, following my same routine, I got into my car and laid my Jabra BT-150 bluetooth earpiece on the center console and proceeded to take my son to grandma's house for the day.  Upon arrival at the office, this day was a little more hectic than the past few so, it never got attached to my ear.

About mid-day, after having to hold that big Palm Treo to my ear for several calls I began to hunt for my beloved earpiece.  GONE! POOF!  VANISHED!

After much searching around the console, under the seats, in my pockets, on the ground, under everything on my desk and everywhere else I can think of...it is, alas gone....

Today I borrowed my wife's Motorola H700, with the little flip out thingy, and have been trying that.  While the weight and the design are good, the Palm Treo 650 and the Motorola don't seem to want to play nice together.  It is constantly activating my phone and has about killed the battery in just a few hours..which doesn't usually happen.  So that is out in the car...hope the gremlins don't get that one.

Anybody that owns a Treo 650 knows that the phone is a great tool but sometimes finding a bluetooth that works well with it can be a challenge.  I was using a Jabra BT-150 but they are getting really hard to find, even on Ebay.  On the upside though...I did stop at a local gas station and find a car charger for $9.99!  That's a $30 savings!  So now I have a little money for a new bluetooth, since I was so thrifty on the charger, and I am hunting.

So here I sit, no bluetooth and a sore arm from holding my phone, it's amazing how much we come to depend on the little things, searching the web for a replacement.

Ok, for all the TREO 650 users out there, tell me what you are using and what you know works....PLEASE!

The Fayetteville Observer is the local newspaper to the Fayetteville, NC area. 

I am sorry to say that it is not about Active Rain but at least they did do a small article about blogs. 

The blog that they discussed was Design Sponge.  I went and took a look at Design Sponge and it was quit an interesting blog.  No where near the quality of AR when it comes to real estate but it wasn't designed for that, this blog is about interior design type things and did have some interesting reading.

Another blog they wrote about was Apartment Therapy.  This site from what I understand receives a lot of traffic in the blog world.  The site has something for almost everyone with special sections for New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago.  The blog generally covers topics such as green design and nurseries.

At least the local newspaper is beginning to pick up on things like blogs.  Maybe one day they will see that huge real estate resource that Active Rain has become and do a story on it!

I have been reading with some interest the plan that President Bush plans to sign to help those who have audjustable rate mortgages that are becoming seemingly out of control.  I am sure there is an underlying agenda for this...like to save our economy...but I applaud him for this "heartfelt" effort.

Here are some of the interesting things about the plan...

Who qualifies?

People with sub-prime mortgages who live IN the residence covered by the mortgage.  The plan is designed to EXCLUDE investors who bought properties and hoped to financially gain from the surge in home prices of the past.  Borrowers MUST be current with payments!

What is the time frame?

The loans had to be made between Jan. 1, 2005 and July 31, 2007 AND the loans must have rates that are going to reset between Jan 1, 2008 and July 31, 2010.

What happens?

Under the freeze the rates will remain at the lower introductory rate for a period of 5 years.

Economic Impact?

This plan will limit the number of mortgages that are going into default and keep down the number of homes being dumped onto an already glutted market.  The plan will give homeowners a chance to refinance for better terms and the plan will allow many people to keep their current homes as long as action is taken during the freeze.

Ya know, it is strange.  In high school you couldn't get me to read a book to save my life...now it seems as though I thirst for knowledge.

I just recently finished reading the book by Dirk Zeller, "The Champion Real Estate Agent", which I highly recommend to anyone looking to grow their business to the next level. 

Made a trip by the local Books-a-Million yesterday.  Perused the usual real estate offerings to see if there was anything new that sparked a fancy.

I was just about to pick up the other book by Dirk Zeller entitled "The Championship Real Estate Team" when I saw a book that looked interesting.

My new book is entitled "Book Yourself Solid", now who wouldn't want to read a book with a title like this?  This book has had a solid 96 reviews on Amazon.com.

Here is a website for Book Yourself Solid if you are curious about the book.  You can go here and see a free chapter of the book.

So far it has been a good read.  I am just starting chapter two and I like this guy's style.  The neat thing is that he includes written exercises for you to complete which really make you look at yourself and your ideal clients.

I am planning on doing a book review as I go through the book so stay tuned!

If you don't buy and read books often I encourage you to start.  Is spending $25 on a book not a good idea if it results in just one more sale per year?

I got a rare opportunity yesterday.  The opportunity to spend the whole day with my son, just he and I.

Now I know that doesn't sound like much but he teaches me things everytime we do this.  Did I mention he is only just over 5 months old?

Yesterday, unfortunately, my wife had a dentist appointment that cut into our plans of attending the Fayetteville, NC Christmas parade.  So being the good father I am I decided that my son was not going to miss his first Christmas parade and that I would take him.

Now, I am not a "Mr. Mom" by any means and I will be the first to admit that I am still discovering the duties required to take care of my son when I am alone.  There is so much to be done, the diaper bag, the bottles, the stroller, the blankets, keeping up with the toys, etc., etc....I think you get the idea.

We arrived about an hour early before the parade started as I wanted to get a spot right near the road so that my son, who was thouroughly enjoying his stroller ,could have a chance to see all the things a prade has to offer.

Everyone around me kept talking about my son and how well mannered of a child he was.  In return, he would smile and giggle and basically make friends of all those who showed interest.

The lady I was standing next to was a huge blessing to this "daddy day" outing.  She helped to keep him entertained and even made sure I was aware that he was hungry when he began to figit.  Now being a man, ladies I admit, we are not always in tune with these things.  We think on a different level.  But she clued right in on the fact that it was time for "daddy" to make a bottle so that the fun of the parade could continue.

Now, you are probably asking by now what did this have to do with anything that I could have possibly learned yesterday.

Well, I learned that people are still just people.  We sometimes forget this in our business.  I will be the first to admit that sometimes I get a little wrapped up in the business and end up spending a huge part of a day behind a computer, thus loosing some valuable "people connect" time.  I learned that people love to connect with others and are not always turned off by what you do for a living.  I learned that people really do love to talk about themselves and given half a chance you can learn a lot about someone in a short time of just talking to them.

My son also taught me that all it takes is a smile and a friendly face and people relate to that.  Sometimes we, as salespeople (call it what you like but we are still salespeople) build a wall between ourselves and our customers.  We sometimes don't even think we are doing it.

And finally...my son taught me that there are new things to be discovered in this world everyday.  He had never been to a parade of any kind and while I am sure he really did not grasp what was going on he did have a glimmer in his eye that he was discovering something new and that the world is full of things that we have yet to discover.  What is around you that you have not discovered?  Think you know all there is or all that you need to know?  I would say without a doubt that you are wrong.  Open your eyes and LOOK at the world around you!

So I encourage you to pay attention to those around you.  To offer a smile and a friendly gesture.  To get out and have some "people time" and see what happens to your business.

Just a short time ago I read an blog post here on AR that mentioned a company called http://www.4info.net/.  The post was about a neat feature that they have that allows you to create html to post onto your website which creates a small text message generator so that clients can contact you directly.

I thought this was a novel idea!  So, I visited the site and signed up and began to make my text generator and place it on my site.

Once on the site I tested it.  I got the text message almost immediately!  This is amazing I thought.

About a week after I had placed this html on my site (www.mynewnchome.com) I used my Yahoo Sitebuilder to make some changes to my webpage.  I was trying to post a picture on the left side of the page.  As I would click the preview I noticed it was actually placing the picture Wayyyyy to the right side causing a user to actually have to scroll to see it...and we all know that scrolling on a website is a no-no as far as a consumer is concerned.

I contacted Yahoo, there must be something wrong with Sitebuilder I thought.  They emailed me back and said that my Sitebuilder had gotten corrupted and I needed to delete it and then re-download the program and everything would be fine.

After several attempts at this I was still having problems.

Next option, call Yahoo.  On Wednesday of this week I spent over a half hour on the phone with a nice gentleman named Charlie.  Charlie once again had me remove the program from my computer and remove Java and then re-install all of it.

He then opened the program on his computer and downloaded my site so that he could see what was going on.  Yep, you guessed it, still having the problem.

Charlie then began to do some reasearch throughout my site to see if he could determine what was causing this problem as they had never encountered it before.

Removing items one by one, Charlie was able to isolate the problem to the html that was created for the text generator program.  He removed it and everything went back to normal.  So the problem was solved, or so I thought.

I removed the html from the program on my computer and the program began to work fine.  So I visited http://www.4info.net/ again to regenerate the code and repaste it into my site.

A few minutes later...you guessed it, same problem back again.

So now it is just completely removed from my site.

Now, http://www.4info.net/ is a fine program.  It is very fast and they do what they say they will do.

The problem was me.  I did as most of us probably do and just checked the little box that says "I agree to the terms of service" and never took the time to read them.

So I went back today to try and figure out what was the problem and here is what I found:

Personal Use Only
The 4INFO Services are made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. You may not use the 4INFO Services to sell a product or service, or to increase traffic to your business for commercial reasons, such as advertising sales. You may not take the results from a 4INFO search and reformat and display them, or mirror the 4INFO home page or results pages on your Web site. If you want to make commercial use of the 4INFO Services, you must enter into an agreement with 4INFO to do so in advance. Please contact us for more information.

My only guess is that they track where their html is being used and if it is commercial they corrupt the code so that it will not function correctly, which is completely their right to do so.  After all it was spelled out plain as day in the terms of service, which I failed to read.

Now they do have a place where you can contact them for information on using it commercially which I am considering as the service was exceptional.

Remember, read the terms of service and never, ever just check the box.  We are in a business of guiding our clients through legal contracts and we would not want our customer to just sign without reading, so why do we do it?

Let's be serious for a moment.  Let's talk about what your reason for being in the real estate business is and how you communicate that to the public.

Let's talk about mission statements.

First of all, do you know what a mission statement is? 

A mission statement is a way of saying this is why I do what I do, why I do the things I do for you, what motivates me, and how my service is the best for you.  Or at least to me that is what a mission statement is.

Now, do you have one?

Do you have a well thought out statement about you and your business that you can translate to your customers?

If not, why not?

I saw this as one of the most important things that I had to do when I started in the business.  I now have it on my office wall and look at it anytime I am feeling discouraged, not to mention I love to see my clients read it.

Here is my mission statement for why and what I do.

"It is my mission to ensure that every real estate transaction I represent is treated with the up-most professionalism, to protect every client's interest in said transaction and to provide my clients with the highest level of service possible."

Now maybe you are saying that is what we all do.  Yes, but when I read that it re-enforces my drive to do what I do, why I do.

So, if you don't have a mission statement, I encourage you to spend sometime thinking about what drives you.  Even though some think it is the money that is to be made, I can tell you that as I become older I am realizing that there are things out there that are way more important than money.  There has to be a feeling deep in your soul that drives you to continue to do this business day after day.  It is there, trust me, digg deep and you will discover why you do the things in life that you do.

I read a post this morning that was very well written and made some good points. 

The blog was written by:

Suzanne Sands-Somerset, MA Real Estate
Somerset, MA

The blog post title was "Get off your blog!"

I have thinking about this subject a lot lately.  Maybe we should start a "blogger-anonymous" group.

You know, it is just way too easy to sit down at our computers and just waste a day away.  The world has become so computerized that we have almost made our world into a "hermit" type, meaning we can get on our computers and spend the day being in touch with the whole world around us but having no personal contact.  Losing that personal contact has caused this world we live in to become callous and cold to one another.

Now don't get me wrong.  I am not against computers in any way.  I think the advances of technology over the past few years has just been amazing.  We are now able to do things at the click of a mouse that never would have been possible before the advent of the computer world we live in.

Over the past few days I have written some blogs on the things that it seems like no one ever does anymore and what doing those things could do to your business.  Things like sending thank you cards, etc.  Getting out there and having the personal touch, so to speak. 

There is no better time of year than right now to get out there and deliver your "personal touch".  Around the Christmas holidays people are generally more receptive towards others and not so quick to judge the intentions of your actions.  After all haven't you noticed that more people greet each other and do nice things for each other around this time of year?

Becoming a "hermit agent" (hey I think I just coined a new phrase!) can really have drastic results on your business.  You simply must get out there and, as we say in the south, get 'amongst 'em.  Sitting in the office and waiting for the phone to ring or waiting for that Internet lead that is usually six months out before they are ready simply is not going to get you to where you want to be in your career.  PERIOD.

In my office we have many newer agents.  I have been slated with the task of teaching our Keller Williams Camp 4:4:3 class, Open houses and FSBO's, and not only has then been a great experience for both I and my students it has showed me that the newer agents have yet to "hermitize" themselves and are still at the point in their career where they have not learned that they cannot do something.  It is amazing, one of the agents that I taught is out there knocking on FSBO door's everyday this week.  I know agents that are way more seasoned than her who have NEVER done this.  Do you think there will be some success from this?  YOU BET!  Why?  It's the personal touch that I am talking about, getting out there and getting 'amongst 'em.

So  I encourage you to take some time today and get out there and meet a few people, shake a few hands and maybe even better your business.  So I am saying, get out there and go buy your Santa hat (See my other blog) and as Suzanne Sands said..."GET OFF YOUR BLOG!"

Well, ok, just for a little while....

I was just in our local MLS system and looking at the homes on the market for today.  What I saw amazed me.  I don't know why...it has been like this for a few months now.

In today's stats there were 69 homes that had a price drop.  One of those homes had a drop of almost $40,000!  Yes you read that right.

What is this kind of information saying about my local market?  Buyers are being picky?  No, I think it is agents that are not pricing the homes correctly.  This is causing our local paper to have a media buzz with the market situation around here.

Why is it so hard for a listing agent, old or new, to look a seller in the eye and explain to them the FACTS that they need to hear?

I am sure it is fear of loss of the listing.  But honestly the fear of having to approach the seller later and tell them that it is time to drop the price is a bigger fear in my eyes.  It means I have let them down, not done what I plainly told them I could when I got them to trust me with quite possibly the biggest investment of their lives and their families future.

I urge you to take a look at what you do in your business practice.  To learn to read the market correctly and last of all to be honest with your sellers...and quit making the market worse than it has to be.  I can promise you if you build your business on honesty and integrity that it will grow faster and go farther than if you "buy" listings by overpricing them.

The Air Force Reserve's 53rd Aerial Port Squadron has joined the 440th Airlift Wing at Pope Air Force Base. The "red hats" had been the only Air Force Reserve units on base until the arrival of the 440th Airlift Wing from Milwaukee under the 2005 BRAC law.

Amidst all the changes concering Pope Air Force Base it is nice to know that we still will have some Air Force personel in the area.  This area benefits from both our US Army members and our Air Force personel.

Welcome to the "Redhats" we hope you enjoy your stay!