THE FINAL REAL ESTATE ACE BLOG POST

Below is the text of my final e-mail to my real estate database, just sent out on November 8th. I guess it felt important to "close the loop" on this blog as well, even if only for a couple of random web surfers that stumble across this website in the months to come. Every story has an ending and this one is no different.

As always, thanks for reading.

Peace,
Greg

CHANGING COMPANIES WAS ONE THING, BUT THIS IS A LITTLE MORE SERIOUS…

This communication from me to you has been a long time coming. Let me cut to the chase: on August 1st, I moved out of Maryland and my real estate license was placed on referral status soon after that. Currently, I am living/working in New Jersey (near Atlantic City) until the fall of 2009 when I will start law school. Related to this, my wife, Sara, and I have separated. Some of you receiving this e-mail knew all of this information already, and thanks again to those of you who contacted me to see if I was okay after not hearing from me for awhile; to others of you, this might be a big shock. I am not going to wax all philosophical about these changes here, but I will tell you that my move to New Jersey has been a good one. I am feeling good, I am active in a church here that I have very quickly come to love, and I am looking forward to the new challenges ahead of me. As a Realtor, you have allowed me to be a part of your life these past few years to some degree or another, and I am very thankful for that. Unfortunately, the changing real estate and lending markets made it financially and psychologically difficult for me to continue to see the level of business growth that I had experienced in my first two years in the business. I had never planned to be a Realtor "forever" and, as I had always left my mind open to the possibility of further education, now seemed like the best time for me to "exit."

PEOPLE TO TAKE CARE OF YOU

As I leave, I want you to know that you should still feel free to contact me with any real estate questions/needs that you have as time goes on. I will be unlikely to be able to help you directly, but my connections with top quality professionals in Maryland will remain. For instance, The Day Home Team continues to be one of the best and most productive real estate teams in the state of Maryland, and Jay Day has already successfully assisted several of my clients in the purchase/sale of real estate. Meanwhile, my primary lending partner, Chris Sipe, and I have been discussing for a while how he might be able to provide you with good information, reminding you that you do have somebody you can trust on your side. For starters, Chris and I decided that he would pick up where I left off with the subscriptions to YOU! Magazine that you were getting from me. Chris was actually the one that introduced me to YOU! Magazine (he has been sharing it with his clients for over four years now), so it seemed natural that he continue to provide this service to you as a continuation of the service that I had provided. As was the case when I was the one “in charge” of sending out this monthly magazine to you, you will be free to share it with someone you care about, and are also free to unsubscribe at any time. Beyond that, if you haven’t had the privilege of working with Chris yet, he included a brief introduction below (so definitely get to that part of the e-mail).

FINAL “HOUSEKEEPING”

Lastly, for anyone who wanted to see the pictures from the last Your Real Estate Ace event, please follow this link: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=o8a0hne.73y6u3ai&Uy=-95o9y0&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1. To contact me directly, my cell phone will remain the same (301-503-1093), or you can e-mail me at gregory.weyer@gmail.com. And, of course, give me a shout out if you are ever going to be up near Atlantic City - I'd enjoy the opportunity to catch up with you.

ONE FINAL THANKS…

Thanks for being a part of my life during my time as a Realtor. May God’s blessings be evident in your life, and if our paths do not cross again, at least we can look forward to that city of golden praise. <><

Sincerely,
Greg

A “HELLO” FROM CHRIS

“Hi, my name is Chris Sipe and you more than likely have seen me on a lot of Greg's marketing, worked with me in the past, or met me at one of his great client events. I had the good fortune of meeting Greg at a 3-day Realtor training event I sponsored his first year in the business and we quickly recognized the value we could bring to each other and our clients. As a result, I had the great pleasure of working with Greg for nearly his entire real estate career as his lender of choice. Greg quickly amassed the knowledge necessary to be highly competent as a Realtor, but it was how much he truly cared about his clients that made the biggest difference and impression in my mind. Although I am very disappointed we will no longer have a professional relationship, I look forward to remaining very close friends. Still, even though Greg is no longer an active Realtor, he wants to make sure the people that he cares about have someone they can trust in the real estate/lending industries. As such, Greg and I made it possible for me pick up where he left off. As it is, Greg and I shared the same philosophy in regards to relationships with our clients and the current economic environment makes quality and trustworthy sources of information priceless. Opportunities and potential pitfalls are going to continue to be abundant, and I have been keeping my clients well positioned and protected for years. I have had the great pleasure of working with over 1,000 clients, many of whom have been repeat clients several times, in my 6 years as a mortgage consultant. Because I look at every client as a relationship for a career, I am very careful to ensure things happen as they should, and this has served my clients and my business very well. I look forward to helping you and those you care about at some point in the future. Take care and please call if you need anything.”

You can contact Chris at csipe@masondixon.com , or on his cell at 301-789-3268.

Oh no...not that roll! :)

A Yahtzee adventure:

So this post has nothing to do with real estate or really anything relevant, but it is a story that I felt compelled to put in writing somewhere. :) For some background, you should know that my family always kept a deck of cards (not for poker…that came later for me :) ) and a few game boxes close by, so I grew up playing all sorts of family games. As you can imagine, over the years some degree of healthy (well, okay, occasionally it was unhealthy :) ) competition built up. By the time I was an adolescent, I grew to greatly dislike Yahtzee!, as my mom would win 9 times out of ten. "So lucky!" was an exclamation that would frequently exit my mouth, as she would consistently get Yahtzee!s and straights right when she needed them most.

Well, back in December, I got a bit of revenge when, after she had taken the lead to match my two Yahtzee!s in one game, I got a Yahtzee! on my last turn to win the game. So, it was with a degree of glee that I reminded her of that game when we brought out the Yahtzee! box last night, as Sara and I are up here visiting with my parents for Mother's Day. As the game progressed, my mother went back to her winning ways, matching my early Yahtzee! with a Yahtzee! of her own and taking the lead. I still had a good chance of winning, as I all I needed was three 5s in one turn and a large straight (5 dice numbers in sequential order) in another, and I could afford a couple of bad turns as well. Unfortunately, I had three terrible turns in a row and my mother filled her own large straight, taking a dominant lead in the game.

So, it got down to me in the final turn of the game and the ONLY way I could win was by rolling a Yahtzee! 5s. "Come on Yahtzee! 5s!" I rolled the dice and got a 5-4-3-3-1. I put the one 5 aside and said, "It's not over...come on 4 more 5s!" I rolled the dice and got a 5-5-5-4. Oh no! :) My mom started laughing and said, "No way..." I was dancing around the kitchen a little and prolonging the suspense, mostly as a way to playfully torment my mother. Finally, I shook the last die in my hand for a while before rolling it. It knocked around for a while before landing with 5 dots showing on the top! "Yahtzee! 5s!" I put my hands over my head in hard-earned triumph, and every one started laughing...well, my mom sort of laughed. :) Ah, family games...they're all about skill. :)

Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Greg

what time is it? :)

"Does a Realtor need to be awake at 3:30am?"

A poker buddy IM'd me that out of nowhere last night when he noticed that my screenname had not "faded" like they do when someone is away from their computer for a while. I wrote back the customary "LOL," we chatted for 3-4 lines more and then I went back to business.

I don't know what it is...I've always gotten more done late at night...without the surprise phone calls, the unexpected new lead, or the (sometimes unwelcome) wrinkle that needs to be ironed out (as much as possible, at least).

These last two weeks I have found myself up later than normal...writing e-mails and set up property searches for clients while, on a larger level, thinking through this year and still transitioning my business model to my new situation as a buyer specialist. Unfortunately, while you can't avoid the occasional "very difficult situation" in this business, one transaction went south on me right at the beginning of the buying season, so that took up some time. I really can't talk more about this particular situation, but I will repeat sentiments that I have shared earlier: you really do learn a lot about who people really are in this job and, too often, it can be somewhat depressing. Fortunately, my wife has been very understanding of my weird hours (who needs mornings when all of my meetings are in the evening? :) ), while also doing her best to remind me of all of my past/present clients that really do make me love my job (working hard for people that appreciate your efforts is extremely energizing in any profession).

Well, I have a meeting with my team leader tomorrow at noon in Frederick, so time to actually catch some sleep.

Peace,
Greg

A good vacation and some bracket-mania while things heat up :)

So, right now I am writing this from South Carolina, as it is Sara's Spring Break. This vacation has been really great and restful so far, and we are only 90 minutes from my brother and his family, so that has been nice. Of course, the last two days, Sara has been joking that she "drove to South Carolina to watch college basketball," but she's a good sport. :) Speaking of which, here's a link to our (read "my") bracket:
http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/405824
After going 3 for 3, I had dreams of going 63 for 63 and winning the 5 mill...now, I am just hoping that Villanova can pull off the upset today to keep my Sweet 16 intact. :)

Well, below are the two paragraphs from my last Service For Life newsletter cover letter. The market is really starting to heat up for the Spring, so that's welcome. Of course, it feels like every time I go away is the time that I get phone calls of people wanting to meet and ready to move on a house, but I guess I can't really complain about that...business is good, even when the timing could be better. :)

Okay...Davidson is mounting a comeback, so I gotta go check that out. :)

Peace,
Greg

Some really good news for the market!! So, to help with the real estate slump that is occurring in most of the nation, FHA, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae all increased their loan limits for the rest of 2008. This is great news for Maryland, where the “slump” has been more of a “stabilizing”. The FHA loan increase is probably the best news, as it is an awesome, low interest product that only requires 2.25% as a down payment for those that qualify. One of the figures that I heard was that the increase to the FHA loan product alone was going to bring an additional 500,000 buyers into the market this year across the nation! For more information specific to these loan limit increases in Maryland, visit the following: https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicost1.cfm.

On the personal front, I am settling in well to my new company and enjoying the benefits that come with working on a good team. I am preparing this mailing in South Carolina, as Sara and I are spending her Spring Break down near my brother (and, oh yeah, my brother and his wife recently had a second son, so I am an uncle again J). With the grind of medical school, this will likely be the last time Sara and I get away together until Thanksgiving, so it will be a good time to recharge and get refreshed for the busy springs and summers that lay in front of us.

And, of course, the new personal logo :)

Company Switch Official - Hello Day Home Team!

Below is a letter explaining where I went and why; for more info, visit http://www.dayhometeam.com/! :) -

Jay Day –And– The Day Home Team is excited to announce that Gregory Weyer has recently joined the Day Home Team. Gregory has been a Realtor in the state of Maryland for 2+ years and has been very successful in that time. During that same amount of time, the Day Home Team has expanded by bringing in agents that will provide the best service to its clients. For several months, a mutual friend continually encouraged both Jay and Greg to meet and, when they finally, Jay saw that Greg possessed the values that would make him a perfect fit the Day Home Team. A few phone calls, e-mails, meetings, and weeks later, Greg’s transition to the team is now official, and both sides are excited about their future together.

Areas Covered:
While other real estate teams have dozen of agents (usually varying in quality), the Day Home Team consists of only a handful of highly competent agents. As a result, despite a relatively small number of agents, the Jay Day –And– The Day Home Team provides a high level of service to both buyers and sellers throughout the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. More specifically, since 2005, the Day Home Team has represented hundreds of buyers and sellers in real estate transactions spanning the following counties: Adams (PA), Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Baltimore, Carroll, Franklin (PA), Frederick, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and York (PA).

Background:
The Day Home Team was established in 2005 by Jay Day and has quickly grown to become a top team in the real estate industry. The real estate agents on the team bring a ton of experience to the table on all aspects of the real estate industry (some of the agents on the team have previous experience in the mortgage and title industries, increasing the team’s ability assist all of its clients). The Day Home Team is one of the only teams to have a graphic artist on staff, ensuring high quality and quick turnover on all of the brochures, flyers, and marketing materials that it needs to produce to be successful in the industry. Furthermore, the Day Home Team also has built a strong network of professionals ready to assist its clients, including real estate attorneys, title companies, mortgage professionals, licensed home/termite/radon inspectors, insurance providers, licensed home stagers, contractors, tax advisors, and financial planners.
Jay Day himself is a firm believer in using educational tools to better assist the team’s clients. In only 3 years, Jay has earned his CRS (Certified Residential Specialist) designation which is only earned by 4% of all Realtors in the United States. He has also earned his ABR (Accredited Buyer Representative) designation, which is the benchmark of excellence in buyer representation, and, to stay ahead of the curve in the industry, Jay earned his ASP (Accredited Staging Professional – Real Estate) designation.
In 2007, the Day Home Team grew, both in market share and in skill as a real estate team, to the point that the team SOLD ONE OF ITS LISTINGS EVERY 4 DAYS (despite it being of the most difficult seller markets in recent history)!! Correspondingly, the team was invited to join the only Real Estate Advocacy Group in the United States and the team earned recognition as the only ReExperts for Frederick and Carroll Counties. Topping all of this off, the success, professionalism, and competency of the Day Home Team caught the eye of Pulte Homes, one of the top builders in the country, and now Jay Day –And– The Day Home Team is the exclusive preferred real estate team for Pulte Homes in Carroll, Frederick, Howard, and Prince George’s counties.
Now, Jay continues to attend real estate conferences around the United States with the nations top Realtors, always with the goal of gaining more expertise in the theory and practice of real estate in order to give the clients of the Day Home Team an exceptional experience in the buying and selling of their homes.

Dear Personal/Business Contact of Greg,

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all of Greg’s past clients, future clients, family, and friends to the family of the Day Home Team. As stated above, Greg will make an exceptional fit into my team, and I am thrilled that we will be able to work together in serving the clients of the Day Home Team.

Now you will also have the opportunity to EXPERIENCE THE DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES!

Thanks,
Jay Day

Eli's Going to Disney Land, Baby!!

A lot going on in my business, so stay tuned for some "full disclosure" in future posts. For now, here's my latest e-mail to my database!
Thanks, Greg

Probably the most important information in this e-mail is in regards to new developments in the Maryland Homestead Tax Credit so, if you are short on time, skip the small point and go straight to that… Otherwise, I must start this e-mail by saying…

ELI’S GOING TO DISNEY LAND, BABY!!

So I guess I am sending this a little late to gloat about how close I was in predicting the victory of the Giants over the (ahem) previously-unbeaten Pats. :) My 20-17 prediction was good enough for me to win my own Starbuck’s gift cards but, since that is just silly, I’ll be sending a couple off to the second-place finisher, Andrea Smith, who amazingly predicted that the Giants would win 13-10. So, congrats, Andrea! Now, I’m going to go order my David Tyree jersey… :)

NEW E-MAIL!!

As I have said in previous e-mails, please change my e-mail address in your rolodex, Outlook Contacts, Palm pilot, cell phone, address book, or whatever primal-to-high tech form of filing that you use to this: gregory.weyer@realestateace.net. I do not use the Long and Foster account any longer…

HOME INTERIORS

If you are a Home Interiors fiend, I have a good link for you: Jamie Backstrom is a client of mine and she just went high-tech and set up her own website filled with the stuff from the Home Interiors catalogues. The link is http://www.homeinteriors.com/JBACKSTROM; if you have any further questions about purchasing some Home Interiors merchandise, feel free to contact Jamie at 443-867-0836.

MARYLAND HOMESTEAD TAX CREDIT

Until now, the Homestead Tax Credit was something that was automatically applied to homeowners in Maryland. However, because too many property owners were wrongfully getting the credit on more than just their primary residence, homeowners must now apply for the credit every year. I compiled some information below to help you make sure that you are not missing out on big savings on your property taxes, so be sure to read it over; if you have any specific questions and/or would like me to e-mail you a .pdf version of the Homestead Tax Credit application, just let me know.

Well, that’s it! Thanks, Greg; please let me know if you know anyone that is planning to buy or sell a home in 2008 that could use the services of a caring and competent professional on their side!

Peace,

Greg

HOMESTEAD TAX CREDIT INFO:

Property owners who use the property as their principal residence will receive an assessment notice containing a Homestead Tax Credit Application for the first time this year beginning January 1, 2008. This one-time application must be submitted in order to insure that the credit is granted only on eligible properties and not on properties that are rented or used as vacation homes. The applications can be filed on-line at https://sdathtc.resiusa.org/homestead/ or by mailing the paper form in the postage paid envelope included in the assessment notice. Homeowners not reassessed until 2009 or 2010 can wait until then to submit a Homestead Tax Credit application.

TWO COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON THE HOMESTEAD TAX CREDIT APPLICATION

1. What is this new law that requires homeowners to apply for the Homestead Tax Credit? Why is it needed?

Legislation enacted by the 2007 session of the General Assembly will require homeowners to submit a one-time application in order to continue their eligibility for the homestead tax credit. The homestead credit limits the amount of assessment increase on which a homeowner will pay property taxes in that tax year on the one property actually used as the owner’s principal residence. The reason why the application process was needed is because some property owners were improperly receiving the credit on vacation homes and rental properties. County and municipal governments were losing tax revenues needed to provide important services to their residents. The only way to verify residency of the homeowner is to require an application and have the filer provide his or her Social Security number.

2. Why should I want to submit the homestead application?

Because of assessment increases and because of the low assessment caps adopted by the county governments, most homeowners in the State have been receiving substantial homestead credits each year on their property tax bills. Anne Arundel County has been limiting taxable assessment increases to 2%. The homestead caps in Baltimore City and Baltimore County have been limiting the taxable assessment increases to 4%. Prince George’s County government has been limiting assessment increases to 4%. If a homeowner is later made ineligible for the credit for failure to submit an application, he or she may receive a substantial increase in the property tax bill without the credit.

Time's Flying

This year has gotten off to a real good start with a settlement next week, a contract written last week, a listing that should be going under contract with a couple of days, and a contract that is supposed to be written tomorrow. On top of that, leads are just coming from several angles, so it's good to see the dedication of the last two years paying off. :)

I'd write more, but I'm pretty tired. Below is an e-mail that I sent off to contact database earlier today, including a link to pictures from the client appreciation event that I organized for earlier this month. Enjoy!

Thanks,
Greg

Dear ___,

I looked at the calendar today and it all of a sudden dawned on me that an entire month of ’08 is already gone…craziness. I really don’t have much to say in this e-mail, but I did want to pass on this two things:

BOWLING 2008:

A special thanks to everyone that came out to the event, and especially to Franz Yanagawa for taking lots of awesome pictures. While my bowling skills didn’t improve too much, it was great to be able to catch up with a lot of different people, and to even make a couple of new friends. Whether or not you went, you can see the pictures at the following link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=o8a0hne.4h46av22&x=0&h=1&y=-yc1o48


SUPER BOWL PREDICTIONS?? – WIN STARBUCKS GIFT CARDS!

So, since week four, I told everyone that would listen that the Colts were going to repeat as Super Bowl champions and I became more and more adamant about this until…well…yes (nice “catch” at the goal line, Keith…argh). So, now the Colts are out, but my childhood team managed to make it to the Super Bowl (I wish everyone had three chances to execute on the most important moment of their careers, don’t you?). At this point, I’m going to go with my heart and not with my brain and predict the upset of the century, with the G-men winning 20-17. If anyone else wants to make a prediction, I’ll send the person who gets closest some gift cards to Starbucks. :)


Well, as usual, let me know if I can be of any help whatsoever to someone you know in 2008!

Peace,
Greg