Your Real Estate Ace's Blog

THE FINAL REAL ESTATE ACE BLOG POST

2008-11-10T15:24:00.002-05:00

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! :)

2008-05-11T10:39:00.002-05:00

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? :)

2008-04-23T03:57:00.002-05:00

"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 :)

2008-03-21T12:47:00.003-05:00

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 :)

2008-02-19T12:23:00.000-05:00

Company Switch Official - Hello Day Home Team!

2008-02-19T12:19:00.004-05:00

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!!

2008-02-12T16:57:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-30T00:24:00.000-05:00

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

Reflections on 2007

2007-12-28T00:36:00.000-05:00

It just hit Dec. 28th...crazy. I cannot think of a year in my life that was so torn between "good" and "bad." Relationships filled with growth, but also very strained. Business growing very successful, but throwing a couple of "curveballs" at me that left me needing to take a large step back for a whole month. Poker (my main hobby) leading me to the largest losses to date (into four figures several times), but ending the year with a huge upswing that left me up a great deal by year's end. A spiritual journey that seems to be going in the right direction, even as I still feel lost in a "dark night of the soul." The future looking so promising and obvious, but somehow filled with more and more huge question marks.

When I was in college, I used to meditate on "Be still and know that I am God; I will be glorified among all the nations" (and the last part of this verse is really the point of the first!!), and that would be enough for me. One day, I hope that this verse will speak to me in a parallel (not "same") way.

In 5 years, I am not sure what I will think about when I look back on 2007. I have been pushed near to what I consider my breaking point in several ways this year, and I'm still around to be reflective about it...I guess that's got to be a good thing. When I was in college, I used to sing to the Lord, "Prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and tried; with thanksgiving, I'll be a living sanctuary for You." Part of me as a hunch that this year was part of an answer to this prayer of my heart; after all, God's got a funny way of answering our prayers in a way that we really don't like...even when it's the exactly the way that our prayers need to be answered.

In the end, to everyone reading this, I hope you had a great Christmas, and I wish you a wonderful celebration of the New Year. All the best in '08!

Peace,Greg

P.S. Here's an excerpt from my latest correspondance with my business contact database: In my last Service For Life newsletter (which was just placed in the mail a handful of days ago), I included the following personal update, and I wanted to share it with those who don’t get my hard copy newsletter (and, of course, if you do not currently get snail mail from me on a monthly basis and you wanted a free subscription to my Service For Life newsletter, just e-mail me your mailing address and I can make sure that you won’t miss a single issue in 2008). If you get my Service For Life, you can stop reading now. :)

Here’s what’s new in the world of Your Real Estate Ace: I apologize for not sending out a Service For Life last month. I had such a strong February-October that November offered me a chance to “downshift” a little and to reprioritize my life for a few weeks, focusing a great deal on both marriage and R&R. Real estate-wise, I serviced my listings to the best of my abilities and narrowed my focus to a handful of buyers, but I left the less urgent matters related to my business to the side for a few weeks. In the end, it was actually a great time of soul-searching and goal setting for my life, both as a Realtor but, more importantly, as a person striving to understand how to live as a Christian man in this crazy world. During this time, certain situations have caused me to take stock of my (usually blatant) shortcomings and failures, while others have caused me to be more thankful for my strengths and successes. In the end, I am very thankful for this Christmas season to remind me that 2,000 years ago a Man entered the world offering forgiveness and giving new Life…and to be worshipped in all the world. When I was 22-years-old, I thought I understood this; now, having just turned 28, I am not sure that I ever really did (or that I ever truly will). Either way, I am glad that it happened because, at the very least, it is all the evidence I need to know that God has chosen to engage His creation and the people in it in a relationship that is as real as it is mysterious…and that can’t be a bad thing. :)

November=Real Estate Ace Health Month

2007-12-07T15:03:00.000-05:00

After a stressful October, I entered November with very little to do...and that was just fine by me. I worked in November, but I cut my workload in half, doing the bare minimum to keep in contact with my contact database and only pursuing the more promising of business leads (I didn't "not pursue" the rest of the leads, but I definitely kick back on my level of aggressive follow up). Besides that, I serviced my listings to the best of my ability.

So, instead of working 80-100 hours a week, I worked 20-40, depending on the week. My wife and I had some much needed "together time" (some greatly enjoyable, some immensely difficult, but all of it good), and I also upped my poker playing for the month, learning some (very profitable) lessons that were 3 years in the making.

Besides that, today is my 28th birthday. :) Sara and I are going to the Hack and Slash Christmas Special tonight (see www.hackandslash.com) with two other couples, so that will be fun.

Have a great weekend!

Peace,
Greg

P.S. To add an element of "real estate-ness" to this post, here's an e-mail just sent out to my database:

After some lengthy conversations with my primary lending partner team (Chris Sipe and Darren Chamblee of America East Mortgage; see www.aemtgllc.com), I decided that this information was important enough to send along to all of my friends and business contacts.

There is a lot of change that has happened (is happening) in the lending industry that is redefining the homebuying process from what it has been the last couple of years. Anyone that has worked with me knows that I do not get "deals" done by instilling fear or false urgency in my clients; even if I wanted to (which I don't!), this is just bad business practice in a referral-based business like mine. At the same time, if you (or someone you know!!) is considering buying in the next 12-18 months, there are some serious reasons to consider doing so much sooner, rather than later. Even if you are not considering buying or selling in the near future, I would recommend that you read the rest of this e-mail just to get a handle on what is going on in the real estate market, which affects us all in one way or the other.

So, please read the below and pass it on to whomever you think could potentially benefit from it! Besides that, I wish you a wonderful advent/Christmas season, and I hope to see you at the bowling event on January 8th!

Merry Christmas, Greg

P.S. You will note in this e-mail how much I encourage everyone to work with Chris and Darren. My clients always have the option to use the mortgage professional(s) that they feel most comfortable with; Chris and Darren have just earned the right to my full endorsement of their business by offering my clients creative, ethical, and beneficial financing solutions coupled with exceptional service. They have gone the extra mile again and again for our mutual clients, and I am blessed to have them on my team!

The Lowest Mortgage Rates in 26 Months!!!

Thanksgiving has come and gone, but the recent decline in mortgage rates is still leaving us a lot for which to be thankful. We are seeing the lowest fixed mortgage rates in the past 26 months, and this has presented us with the chance to help our clients restructure their current mortgage financing to reduce their monthly payment, consolidate debt, or use equity to fund home improvement projects or impending college tuition. My lending partners, Darren and Chris, have had clients qualify for 5.875%* with no points on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage, and in some cases, they were able to pay the closing costs.** You need to find out if you could benefit from this unexpected drop in rates.
However, here's why you should act now according to Darren and Chris:
Monday saw the lowest 30-year fixed interest rate in over two years. However, each time this interest rate reached previous low points, both last year and earlier this year, it began increasing and didn't stop, climbing over 0.50% in the months that followed!
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tightened guidelines, announcing new Loan-Level Price Adjustments. In the first quarter of 2008, most borrowers who have good credit, but have FICO scores below 680, will now be forced either to pay more points at closing or incur a higher interest rate.
The amount that a borrower could be forced to pay, even if they've never been late on a payment, could be as much as 2.00% in points or an interest rate that's 1.00% higher than the going rate. On a $250,000 home loan, a borrower could have to pay up to $5,000 in order to receive normal market rates! Borrowers choosing the higher interest rate, under the worse case scenario, would stand to lose over $7,500 in just the first three years of the loan. If you have been waiting for the perfect time to buy or refinance, don’t wait any longer to find out what options are available. This is a huge change and will affect a lot of people. Make sure you are not one of them.
Darren and Chris conduct Annual Mortgage Reviews with all of their clients that choose to benefit from this free service. Part of that is a preliminary credit review which will allow you to assess your credit situation and avoid a costly decrease in your credit score. Please don’t hesitate to call them directly at 240-629-3756 for a FREE Annual Mortgage Review to determine what they can do to help you improve your financial situation before these great rates disappear.

Random Thoughts...

2007-11-01T01:20:00.001-05:00

AC, BABY!!

Okay...that doesn't quite have the same ring as "VEGAS, BABY!!" but I'm still excited. After working my tail off since mid-February, things have slowed down enough that I am heading up to Atlantic City for a week. Now, it won't be all pleasure, as I do have about 15-20 hours of work that I am planning to do while I am there (I mean, I'm going to have to take some time away from the poker table, right? :) ), but I am excited. It's also cool that I am going to be able to bring a few clients and friends up there with me. Basically, I just did an exchange through my timeshare and different people are going to come up for 1-2 days at a time. We are staying at the FantaSea resort that is part of Atlantic Palace (right on the strip in the picture above; the picture of the roulette table is just attached and, trust me, I gave up trying to win money at roulette long ago :) ) and I'm looking forward to some long sessions of cards.

BRAC LINK

A colleague sent me the following link last week, and I thought it was worth posting here, as the BRAC is (and will continue to be) a major influencing factor on my job for the next few years:
http://www.co.anne-arundel.md.us/BRAC/index.cfm

MY COMPETITION

So, here's a story from the busy season...

A friend refers a friend of his to me because she wants to buy a house. We meet up for the first time in late June/early July. It turns out that she had been working with another Realtor and he was decidedly not helpful. However, she had signed an exclusive right to represent contract with him, and that contract said that she needed to give him 30 days notice before their contract was cancelled. I told her, "Look...ask him for a release, and you'll likely get it; otherwise, we can just wait to look at homes in mid-August (when the contract expired)." She says she'll just wait, but changes her mind the next week and says she would like to go out sooner. So, she contacts the other Realtor, who I'll call "Fred." Now, Fred says, "Sure...I'll get you a written release." Ten minutes later, he calls her back and asks her to ask me to call him. She calls me, and I say, "I guarantee you that Fred wants a referral fee, which is just stupid; I won't give him one." My client agrees that a referral fee would be ridiculous and inappropriate, but can't figure out how he would try to even say he had earned one. So, anyway, I call Fred and explain to him who I am...

So, let me pause to say that I was prepared for Fred to stammer a little and awkwardly ask me for a referral fee. I would have heard him out as to why he felt he deserved one and then politely said that I felt the situation didn't call for a referral fee and would have declined his request. Instead of a stammering agent, instead Fred snapped at me, "Okay...this is how we are going to roll..."

Suffice it to say, "patient-Greg" was replaced by a different Greg and I cut Fred off before the second "l" in roll fully got off Fred's tongue. "Fred, I'm telling you now that you aren't getting a dime from me for my client's transaction." "Well, you must care more for yourself than your client...making her wait and everything." "Fred, a referral fee is uncalled for in this situation, and my client has the right to find another Realtor who will give away thier money if she thinks I am being unprofessional." 5 minutes later, Fred gave up trying to guilt me out of money that he had no rightful claim to, most of which he tried to establish himself as this big professional (which is a joke, because I looked up his stats, and he had done like 3 transactions in the past 2 years).

So, anyway, I fill my client in on the results of my conversation with Fred, and advise her to contact Fred's office manager. She does, and that gets her nowhere. I advise her to contact the regional manager for the brokerage. She does; within 5 minutes, she got a written release from Fred's office manager. Yep...some of my colleagues are real smart.

WEDNESDAY'S 6.5 HOUR SETTLEMENT!!

A story for another day! Suffice it to say, it was crazy. :)

Have a great weekend, and remember to turn back the clocks on Saturday night-Sunday morning!

Peace,
Greg

Carjacking Update

2007-10-05T14:58:00.000-05:00

So, here's the small amount of good news from yesterday: I realized that my golf clubs actually weren't in the car, as my wife and I had taken them out when we went to go buy her a new bike a couple of weeks ago. So, considering that was the most financially valuable thing in the car besides the car itself, that was good news.

Now, the big news from today is that the car was found. It was spotted last night and a police chase ensued in the Dundalk area. This chase ended with the car T-boning another car at an intersection, so it is most likely the case that our car is toasted. As far as how long it will take for us to get our stuff back...not sure. I'm sure we'll end up settling with the insurance company for the car itself in a matter of days.

I'll let you know if anything "report-worthy" is found out as all the loose ends of this whole thing are tied up.

Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Greg

Wifey Gets Car-Jacked

2007-10-03T23:17:00.000-05:00

For real. So, my first day in like 4 months that I don't need the car and only the 2nd day in that same period of time that my wife really could benefit from having a car, so she takes the car to school (remember, my car died about 4 months back and we had been planning for a while now to go buy me a new one next week). At around 1:15pm, I get a call from her hysterical-she had been car-jacked.

Now, this sucks, and it's not funny...but there are some funny elements. My wife, having two men armed with a 4-5" knife threatening her to go away, stands there and, in hysterics, begs them for her...school notes (she has a test on Monday; seriously, I think the wonders of medicine is not so much the amazing nature of the cures that have been developed, but the things that the process of becoming a doctor will do to people. :) ). Somehow, this begging works and one of the criminals has a moment of...well...I'm not really sure...and he reaches into the back seat of the car, grabs my wife's bag (which she had put in the car before the robbery started), opens the door, and tosses the bag on the ground before the other guy gets in and they drive away. So, not only did my wife save the school notes that she was mortified to lose - in the process, she managed to hold onto her laptop computer, her wallet, and her cell phone. She also somehow ended up with the GPS system that she was holding in her hand during the majority of the actual interaction with the criminals (read a few posts back to remind yourself how much I love my GPS...).

In a turn of good fortune, a police car drove by very soon after and the rest of the day was a blur of taking stock of what was in the car, having the locks replaced on our house (her entire keychain was taken), talking to insurance agents, and figuring out where we were going to get wheels for the immediate future (thanks, Jason and Rachel!).

Fortunately for me, I had grabbed my buyer presentation book out of the car yesterday (I seriously could never explain to you how huge that is for me and how much time it would have taken to re-create that book). Unfortunately, I did have two pre-listing presentations stolen, but I have a third copy that I can use to recreate new copies. I also had some sign riders (which I can re-buy) and my golf clubs (which I needed new ones anyway) in the car but, again, my wife came home safe (and with the same number of holes in her body that she left home with) and she had miraculously managed to keep her bag (if she doesn't get that bag back, it is very likely that we would be adding a 5th year onto this stage of her medical training).

So, it's been an interesting day.

On a good note, I learned yesterday that I finished my first month back at my original office as top producer for the month, so that was a nice "second start" there. :)

Well, I have more e-mails to write and it's getting late.

Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Greg

Market Update and OFFICE CHANGE (again :) )

2007-09-23T22:53:00.001-05:00

Instead of writing something new here, I'm gonna take advantage and use something that is already written...thanks for stopping in!

Peace,
Greg

FROM THE COVER LETTER TO MY SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER:

Here's what’s happening to your home’s value these days... As I’ve been indicating these last couple of months, we are in a plateau of a market in Maryland these days (and I’m sure your friends in many other states would truly LOVE to be able to say the same thing!). The statistics for the Baltimore area (including ALL 6 counties surrounding and including Baltimore City) for August 2007 came in with the average sold price down just 0.03% from that of August 2006. Still, the average days on market is up 44.83% (58 last year to 84 this year) and the overall sales volume is down 17.13% ($1.1+ billion last year to $925+ million this year). At the most basic level, all of this means that 2580 homes went from ACTIVE to CONTRACT in the 6 counties, and only 485 of those contracts had a “sale of home” and/or a “seller to find home of choice” contingency on them. In short, while some areas have prices going down, other areas have prices going up, and most areas have prices holding steady…again, with everything going on with lending and the national real estate market, this is GREAT news!

On the personal front, I do have one announcement: after some careful considerations and some negotiations, I have officially rejoined my first office, LNF Ft. Meade/Odenton. If you remember, I went to LNF Severna Park because it offered me a bit more support and a mentoring relationship with one of the best in the industry. At Severna Park, I developed my skills and expertise as a top-notch real estate professional, and my business has grown in leaps and bounds as a result. However, my mentor left the company three months ago and with him went the primary reason for me to stay at Severna Park. In comparison, the Ft. Meade/Odenton office is offering me better terms, it is closer to the majority of my real estate transactions (which will help me serve my clients and coordinate my business activities more efficiently), and it is right in the heart of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), which will have the single greatest positive impact on the real estate market in Maryland between now and 2011. So, that is why the address on this envelope is different from the one on last month’s envelope. :) One of the great things about being with Long and Foster is that, no matter what my “home office” is, I can use any office that is best suited for every situation (I have met with clients in 17 different Long and Fosters this year!). So, really, from your standpoint, it truly makes little practical difference what office I call “home”! :)

You wrote a contract at what time??

2007-09-05T23:45:00.000-05:00

What do you do when a client works night-shift and wants to buy a property that you just found out there is another offer on and you need to get a better offer in by first-thing the next morning, but you already committed to a poker game that you still kind of want to play in (it's the only time you're going to play in 10 days, too!)?

"Hey, man...Why don't I just stop by during your night shift?"

"Um...that'll work. What time?"

"I don't know...probably like 2am."

"Sure...I'll see you there."

Yep. So, at 2am last Tuesday, I showed up at my client's place of work with a contract offer in hand for him to review and sign. 90 minutes later, we figured out how to use the coolest fax machine ever (this machine is somewhat involved, smarter-than-the-average-person, state-of-the-art copier, printer, fax machine that must have cost his company upwards of $20K from the looks of it) to get the offer over to the listing agent by around 4am.

So, assuming the home inspection and termite inspection confirm that this is a wise purchase for my client, that transaction will settle in a couple of weeks, and I have another good story to tell clients while I drive them around to different homes and there are lulls in conversation. :) I actually met up with this same clients about 1:30am yesterday to round out the paperwork that changed a bit in the negotiation stages.

Well, it's almost 1am, and I'm still at the office. Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Greg

Jesus, Sara, and the GPS

2007-08-28T00:10:00.000-05:00

So, since last Sunday, I think I've told at least one person a day how much my life has been changed for the better. My favorite line in this discussion is usually, "Seriously, there's Jesus, my wife, and the GPS, and the 3 are getting closer every day!"

Finding a convenient restaurant to meet a client at? No prob. Need to rearrange a showing tour in a county I'm not that familiar with? Easy. Talking on the phone with the lender while having a serious conversation with clients about their options in one of the more important decisions of their lives, even while driving to several locations spanning several towns? Massively simplified. I've probably saved a large tree, half an ink cartridge, and at least an hour a day (partially due to the fun-filled "Detour" button when coming up on traffic) thanks to my new favorite possession. How I survived as a Realtor for a year and a half before getting myself a GPS, I have no idea. (Well, I guess I do have some idea...but it was a lot less fun.)

The sad part is that I tried to go a little over the top in the last two paragraphs for the sake of humor, and there is nothing funny in those paragraphs because it bearly exaggerated how much I love my new toy. I seriously have not felt this much like a little kid about something in a very long time. :)

As far as everything else goes, I'm rounding out my first "million in a month," which is cool. Some of my colleagues have really impressed me lately; others have made me scratch my head and just wonder how they exist in this business (fortunately, this feeling was more common for me last year than this year). One of my clients from last year was robbed and another is having some serious HVAC issues, so that is worrisome and I'm trying to help both of them as I can. Sara is back to the studying-grind, which is...well...what it is. This week is a little bit insane, as I've planned my days to pack 7 days of work into 4 as Sara and I are heading to Las Vegas with my parents this upcoming weekend.

So, on that note, I am off to get a couple of things done and then get some sleep.

Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Greg

My next letter...

2007-08-15T01:40:00.000-05:00

So, I never heard back from our buyer friend. I actually tried to send him a brief third e-mail wrapping everything up, but his e-mail address bounced it back to me (was I put on some sort of block list??).

In the three weeks since I've posted, I've worked very hard, my wife got home from her overseas excursion (malaria research in Malawi), I did manage to log one 35-consecutive hour session of poker (sick, I know, but it was lots and lots of fun :) ), my house got reorganized (thanks, honey), and Sara and I did manage to see a few good friends that we hadn't seen in a while. Business is better than ever, with over a million in real estate transactions logged since the last time I posted, and with a good chance of doubling my business to date for this year in the next 3 months alone; definitely no complaints here.

Well, it's late, and I think I may have exhausted my creative capabilities to write any more.

Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Greg

P.S. Below is the letter that I am sending out to my "sphere of influence" (my database of clients, past clients, friends, family, and misc. business contacts) by the weekend; if you get my Service for Life newsletter, you can just read it then, but I thought others might be interested in what I wrote (some of which is an echo of items written above, but most of which is new), so here it is:

*I should point out at the top of the letter that I don't really address this letter to "Sphere of Influence Dude," as I mail merge all my letters to the person's first name. While I don't buy into what I call a "hyper-professional" image, and while I think it entirely okay to refer to my entire database as "Sphere of Influence Dude" for a post like this, it would probably be a bad idea to address everyone in my database as such. :)

Dear Sphere of Influence Dude,*

What’s happening in the world of real estate: Well, I’ve officially sold more real estate already this year than I did all of last year (when I was Rookie of the Year for one of the premier real estate offices in the state), and I could easily double what I’ve done so far this year in the upcoming few months with what I’ve got scheduled. To be able to exist in the intersection of doing what I enjoy, doing what I am good at, and doing what I am successful at is something that I am beginning to appreciate more and more and, as I have said often, I couldn’t have gotten to this place without the continuing and growing trust and support shown to me by so many people. Thanks! From a market standpoint, we are in that time of year in which families that want to sell quickly before the school year gets here are agreeing to give buyers large amounts of seller help in exchange for shorter settlement periods and modified home inspections (no nit-picky stuff allowed :)). Coinciding with this, there has been a wave of price reductions. As I’ve said before though, the Maryland market is extremely strong at the core and we are still really in more of a “normal market” as opposed to a “bad market”; every market goes through cycles, and the projection for the future of the Maryland market over the next 5 years includes healthy appreciation rates based on the simple dynamic of supply and demand.

On the personal front, Sara and I managed to readjust to living with each other again rather quickly, and I can honestly say that she didn’t come home a day too soon; my life was getting a little too out of balance without her influence. :) Since she’s been home, we’ve had some great opportunities to reconnect with some friends before she started classes again. At the end of this month, we are going to be joining my parents out in Las Vegas for a few days, so I’m definitely looking forward to that, especially since I’ve never been. :)

Finally, I want you to know, Sphere of Influence Dude, that you may call me for any reason. And please let me know if a friend, family member, co-worker, or neighbor needs a caring, competent real estate professional to help in buying or selling.

I truly appreciate your friendship and referrals. Enjoy your included issue of my Service for Life Consumer Newsletter!

Sincerely Yours,
Greg

Lack of Benefit - 2nd E-mail

2007-07-24T13:02:00.000-05:00

So, the Prospective Buyer from the last post responded that he still didn't think he'd be interested in having an agent represent him. Ultimately, by doing this, he is putting himself in a place in which an unknown, trained, professional agent is going to be working against him in contract negotiation. Since this choice makes so little sense to me, and since I'm always one for a challenge, I wrote the below e-mail, expanding my views. So, enjoy!

Peace,
Greg

Hey, Prospective Buyer,

Thanks for your honesty and for the quick reply to my e-mail from this morning. You obviously have a remarkable attention to detail, and I can appreciate that (I tell all of my clients that they will find me a little OCD about some things, but that this actually makes me a better agent for them).

Anyway, Prospective Buyer, you are kind of an anomaly to me, which is probably the biggest reason that I am replying here (I am intrigued by what I don’t understand :) ). Since I became a Realtor, I’ve met many people that felt strongly that a buyer’s agent added little to zero value in a real estate transaction. However, only a handful of these people that I’ve seen have actually acted on this belief in avoiding the services of a buyers’ agent when starting the process of buying a house. Out of these, the others accented to working with a Realtor (me) once they spoke with an agent (me) that actually proved competent and even the slightest bit valuable (again, me). In your case, you seem as convinced as one could possibly be that working with an agent would be nothing but a waste of your time and (indirectly through purchase price) money, to the point that I want to read what you’ve read and hear what you’ve heard to make sure that I understand things correctly! So, seriously, if you don’t mind, pass on whatever you’ve got if it’s readily “pass-on-able.” :)

Still, while I am always open to correction, I do understand things a certain way from my experience and training as a real estate professional, and I wanted to take this opportunity to flesh out the strongest case for using a Realtor when buying a home that I could from the most practical level. Hopefully, you will be intrigued enough to follow along, but I understand if this exercise is more for me than it is for you. :)

BEST CASE SCENARIO FOR NOT HAVING A BUYER’S AGENT:

So, Prospective Buyer, say you met with me at 306 South Mount St., and you decided that you had to have it. Unlike most agents, I would not try to double-end this deal, and would instead attempt to call up a colleague of mine so that you could be represented (I don’t ever want to deal with the potential liability issues of being the only agent in a transaction when I am representing the seller; the extra money isn’t worth it in my mind). You, being you, would have likely stopped me from calling my colleague. At that point, I would have had you sign a document stating that you are fully aware that I work for the seller and against you and I would have given you the 30-40 pages of MAR contract paperwork to fill out without any guidance from me. The seller would be happy that they were saving 3% on the transaction (I wouldn’t want any of it…again, unlike most agents), but who knows how your contract would come out (by representing the seller, I am prohibited by law from giving you any “magisterial” advice). But, let’s assume you fill the contract out appropriately and with your best interests fully protected, and the sellers ratify it, who’s to say that they’d be willing to drop the whole $7,500 off the sales price? (For instance, maybe they’d prefer you’d be represented for the sake of making sure the transaction is on the up-and-up and that everything is done appropriately and, as a result, will only drop the sales price $6,000.) Also, you are going to have to give the deposit directly to the broker of the seller, as opposed to your own broker…how’s that going to feel?

Well, let’s say the sellers were feeling generous and you are fine with giving me the deposit check. Great!, but now what do you do? As a good buyer’s agent, two-thirds to three-quarters of my job happens post-ratified contract (anyone can find a house; only a good agent can appropriately direct a transaction). Are you expecting me, as the seller’s agent to help you every step of the way from here on out? Who’s going to network with the lender, the appraiser, the title agent, the termite inspector, the home inspector, and the seller? Any names I give you are going to be referral partners of mine…is this going to be okay with you? Well, let’s assume all this works itself out…so, what have you saved? You saved $7,500 (maybe…read on), which is roughly $50-$75 on a monthly payment, depending on your credit and your loan program. A good buyer’s agent could have helped you save that same $7,500 on the sales price (if not more) but, this way, you had to spend all the extra time, money, and effort representing yourself. (Even if the agent couldn’t save you the full $7,500, I feel like I could easily argue that this expenditure of time, money, and effort is as costly, if not more costly, as the $50-$75 on the monthly payment.)

So, best case scenario: YOU SAVE $nothing at all (if not costing yourself money) - $75/month in owning your home, and have earned $nothing at all (if not costing yourself money) to $7,500 for when you sell the home.

WORST CASE SCENARIO:

Man, I don’t know where to start…

-Not working with contracts on a daily basis, where will you be at in terms of seller’s help and whatnot? Don’t you run the risk of costing yourself the money you might save on the sale’s price in other areas like seller’s help?

-Do you have the pre-approval letter from your bank appropriately written to put you in a strong negotiating position?

-What happens if there is a competing offer (and don’t think this doesn’t happen all the time in this market in the under $300K range, because good homes have multiple offers more often than you would think…I’ve helped half of my buyers get their homes in competing situations this year)? Are you going to be able to make the terms attractive enough to win you that home? Do you know how to appropriately use an escalation clause?

-With a large number of foreclosures on the market, it is somewhat likely that you may stumble across a foreclosure that you want to buy. Well, most (if not all) foreclosures have AS IS sale contingencies. Are you going to be able to craft modified property inspection contingencies for the termite and home inspection that will enable you to have the inspections you need to have while still having the ability to break the contract should you find something wrong – AND get your deposit back?

-What about when the listing agent and seller are very slow in responding to an offer on a property? Every time you call to follow up you look more and more “desperate” and lose any negotiating edge you might have had, while a good agent can call 3-4 times a day and do nothing but strengthen the seller’s urgency to respond to your offer.

So, worst case scenario: you cost yourself hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars, lots of time, and the best home on the market for you (and I belief that this is far from being “over-dramatic,” because I can go there if you want).

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS: :)

Perspective Buyer, I could have gone on with the worst case scenario stuff, but I think (hope) I’ve proved my point. If nothing else, I hope you can see that there might be a ton of value in having a buyers’ agent, even if you still feel that having a buyer’s agent is not for you. I am the first to say that today’s buyers’ agents are not as vital as they were before in knowing the market, because the internet has given buyers the power to study and learn the market for themselves. Still, I would argue that the way a good agent helps their clients get through the growing mountains of paperwork and bs in this industry, as well as the way that a good agent ensures that the clients’ best interests are always looked after from the very beginning to the very end of a transaction, makes a good buyers’ agent more indispensable now that every before.

So, that’s where I’m coming from. I’ll e-mail you next week if I don’t hear from you first to see if you have any sort of thoughts in response (and, seriously, any links to some solid counter points that I should read through to potentially grow a more balanced viewpoint), and then I promise to leave you alone if I don’t hear from you after that. I am just an agent that is passionate about my job and takes it very seriously, and I feel like I can do more for you as you buy your home than you give any buyers’ agent credit.

Have a great night, Perspective Buyer, and hopefully I’ll hear from you before I send that one last e-mail next week.

Peace,
Greg

The Lack of Benefit to Being Unrepresented

2007-07-11T22:57:00.000-05:00

I never even heard of the Renaissance Festival until I got married. Then, the first Renaissance Festival that I went to included lots of me looking at my wife (Sara is a complete Renn Fest junkie) and saying, “What the heck have you gotten me into?” Then I learned that my wife was not alone in her peculiar love for this somewhat strange event. Fortunately, over the years, I have grown to appreciate the extravaganza known as the Renaissance Festival. Still, when I sent out an e-mail to my business contacts asking for people to vote whether they wanted me to host an event at the Renaissance Festival, at a bowling alley, or at a miniature golf course, I never expected the later to only account for 3 votes total, while the former just destroyed the vote! So, September 8th at the Renaissance Festival with 75 clients, friends, and business contacts it is. :)

Meanwhile, I guess I milked that last post for as long as I could, although I really wish there was a simple way to have that post remain always visible on this blog, because I think it defines the core of how I think about this industry. Related to that is some thoughts I have about agency related to buyers who have this strange inclination to prefer to be unrepresented in a transaction. Don't get me wrong...I understand the reasoning that most of these type of buyers go through, but the beginning points of the reasoning seems odd to me. Anyway, check out this e-mail that I wrote to a potential client yesterday:

Potential Client,

It was a pleasure speaking with on Saturday, and I hope I was somewhat helpful at the very least.

As I said on the phone, I don’t believe that the average buyer (no matter how experienced in any aspect of buying a home) has any advantage in working without an agent, as the average listing agent will just pocket more in commissions and now that buyer is unrepresented. A good buyer’s agent provides a high degree of consumer protection while also saving their clients time, money, and stress – period. Furthermore, a good buyer’s agent also helps you get a better grasp in regards to all of your options in the way of areas and price ranges.

I work very hard for my clients and, despite only two years in the industry, have built up to the point that I have picked up 17 new buyer clients in the last two months alone, spanning the entire metro Baltimore area (most of them in the same exact price range that you are in). I am also one of the few agents that is willing to invest time, money, and energy into trying to find homes for sale that no one else knows about (I send out letters to homeowners in specific areas that my clients are interested in trying to find people that are preparing to sell their homes, but who haven’t yet listed them)...

Well, that’s about it for now, Potential Client. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll drop you a line next week. In the meantime, if there are any questions that...you have that I can be at all helpful in answering, don’t hesitate to e-mail me or call me at any time.

Thanks, Potential Client.

Peace,
Greg

I don't know...sometimes I think I should start a business selling packs of e-mail templates for Realtors that can be used in different situations. :)

Well, thanks for reading.

Peace,
Greg

"Expect More"

2007-06-27T17:37:00.001-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about the fact that maybe my slogan should have been "Expect More", instead of "Your Real Estate Ace." A little more canned, but a little less cheesy, perhaps. But it definitely communicates something that I feel important to communicate.

In all the research into the industry that I've done, I've learned that many people have serious complaints about their agents. And, you know what, very few of these people complain about how much money a good Realtor makes, as much as they complain about lack of competency and lack of service.

People will pay for value...which is why they'll pay for Heinz ketchup over the generic brand, and why they will pay $45 for a good haircut as opposed to $10 for Aunt Jance to do it with her broken scissors. But if you hear a lot of these discount brokers talk, they act as if agents are out there just robbing the consumers blind, offering little in return.

Meanwhile, the more people complained about bad service, the more they started to expect bad service. Over time, more and more people stopped paying more expecting great service (and being disappointed) and started paying less expecting bad service (and getting what they paid for). The problem is with real estate, paying less for bad service often will mean paying more in other ways.

A good Realtor puts more money in your pocket, reduces your stress level, directs a transaction competently and thoroughly, and follows through on their promises. In simplistic terms, a good Realtor gets you from Point A to Point B in your life in a wonderful way. Now, when it comes from getting to Point A to Point B on a daily basis, driving around in a beater may mean your monthly car payment is low, but it will also likely mean that your car's efficiency is terrible and the risk for repetitive maintenance is high; instead, driving around in a nice Benz or a Beamer may cost you more per month on the payment, but the luxury and peace of mind it brings is usually worth it if you can afford it (and you can realistically expect to save on maintenance and other associated costs). Real estate is similar (now, for all you people out there that like to poke holes in metaphors - and I am one of you people - please just see the point I am trying to make in this paragraph for what it is worth :) ).

When asked about discount brokers, one of my real estate trainers says, "They serve an important place in the industry by serving people that can't afford to pay for premium service." I'd add, "But the good thing is that premium service serves to pay for itself for those that can afford it." I work harder with more tools and more follow through...therefore paying for myself in the process - period.

So, that's my rambling thoughts about discount brokers, and how it pays (literally and figuratively) to use a full-service broker that lives up to that moniker. Seriously, getting back to where this rambling began, I think the majority of the public needs to learn how to "expect more" from their Realtors...and then do their homework in finding themselves a Realtor that's not going to disappoint.

Peace,
Greg

having my character questioned...

2007-06-20T17:46:00.000-05:00

So, I just went through a situation that I think shows very well some of the parts of this career and this industry that the average person does not think about too much. Being an agent in an ultra-competitive real estate industry while trying to earn listings while also negotiating your salary in commission percentage is a very difficult task, one that can often result in tensions with acquaintances and friends who are interviewing other agents for the same job. Most of what is below is an e-mail correspondance between a potential seller-client and me, and I hope that my last e-mail is especially informational to whoever is reading this as they think about the role of an agent and why to hire one agent over another...

So, what happened? Well, a couple of weeks ago, an acquaintance of mine from church invited me over his house to interview for the job of listing his home. I thought the meeting went pretty well; usually at these meetings, the sellers I speak with are pretty impressed by the comprehensive nature of my marketing plan and I put myself in the driver's seat to get the listing.

At this listing appointment, I found out that this acquaintance from church and his wife were also interviewing a local agent who had sold a property down the road just the month prior. My appointment with them was on a Wednesday; they were meeting with the other agent, who works as a team with her husband, the very next day on that Thursday. Now in competing situations, I make it a point to try to educate the consumer on what factors are most important in comparing one agent to another, and I definitely did so on this occasion. At the end of the meeting I told the sellers that I would follow up the next day with an e-mail, and then follow up again on the following Monday, but the sellers said they would be ready to make a decision as soon as they were finished with their meeting the next night.

So, Thursday came and went. Now, normally, if you don't hear pretty early that you have the job in a situation like this, you likely have already lost the job, or you are definitely not in a favorable situation. In light of this, I wrote another e-mail on late Friday afternoon. Here is pretty much the entirety of that e-mail with all specific details taken out:

Dear SELLER,

I know I said I would wait until Monday to contact you again but in my experience, if I don’t hear the day after the last scheduled agent interview, that’s usually “bad news” from where I sit. If I am wrong here, great; it will be my pleasure to work with and for you in the upcoming weeks and month! If not, I would like to clarify that I think this is not only “bad news” for me, but for my potential clients as well. If I didn’t think I was the best guy for the job, I wouldn’t be much of a Realtor. Correspondingly, if right now you are leaning toward (or have tentatively agreed to) use another Realtor, let me know what it would take for me to earn your business.

SELLER, this e-mail is not out of desperation, but out of a passion for the job that I hope you saw on Wednesday; I genuinely like what I do and I don’t like missing out on opportunities like this one! The other agent that you interviewed last night may have sold another home in that subdivision in just one weekend at $xK earlier last month, but that home had x bedrooms and was...in immaculate shape from the pictures... How will THE OTHER AGENT do with a home that requires a little more finesse when the only other competition is $xK less and has been on the market for x weeks?

I guess what I am saying is, if you are leaning toward the other agent, do so because you think THE OTHER AGENT has a more comprehensive marketing plan, while being careful about assuming that your home will sell quickly simply because where it is. Indeed, this might be the case, but it might not! In my opinion, with your desired timeline, counting too much on a quick sale without having a comprehensive marketing gameplan in place is a risk that I would strongly recommend against taking.

If nothing else, SELLERS, if you have decided to list with the other agent and that decision is final, please give me feedback on why I didn’t earn the right to your business. I am consistently working to improve my marketing plan and how I communicate the many benefits of it to my potential clients, and your feedback in exchange for the time and energy that I put into preparing the materials for our meeting on Wednesday would be greatly appreciated.

So, I look forward to hearing from you no matter what within the next 2-4 days or sooner and, in the meantime, have a great weekend.

Sincerely,
Greg

The reply I got two days later shocked me:

Greg,

When I was first trained in hiring, which is how I treat this situation, I learned some key points to look for. Later, I heard someone summarize these same points as the three C's -- competence, character, and chemistry.

As for competence, I have no reason to question you. Character, until I received this note to which I reply (more on that later), I hadn't had reason to question.
But chemistry wasn't there and you seem to put little value on chemistry.

This note of yours confirmed the decision not to select you, as it makes me wonder about your character. You seem to question the competence of another agent. Anyone who must build themselves up by tearing another down, or implying as much, leaves me uncertain about the character issue. And it does smack of desperation. There are also the implied questions of our ability to judge between two agents.

Greg, worry about your competency, not that of other agents, and work on the personal relationships, and realize not everyone who is selling a house perfectly matches you as a part of a team...

SELLER

In reply to this, I sent a brief e-mail apologizing to the seller for obviously offending him in some way, making it clear that I knew that I didn't get the job, and then asking him if he would be willing to call me, as e-mail seemed an impersonal way of responding to the issues he brought up. When I didn't hear anything in reply, I wrote the following e-mail last night, at around 2am when I had finished up everything that I needed to do in the office:

Hey, SELLER,

When I didn't hear from you after requesting a phone call, I planned to let everything just drop. However, as the days have passed, something doesn't feel right about not responding a little more thoughtfully to your e-mail to me. I honestly feel like you did the Biblical thing in your e-mail: you had "something against your brother" and you informed him of it. Now, knowing that you have "something against me", I feel it unwise and unBiblical not to go to you in return.

It is not my intention to go through your e-mail point-by-point, as I feel that doing so would be ill-advised and make this e-mail seem to be more of a "defense" as opposed to something more heartfelt and sincere. I really do apologize to both Hope and you for any way that you might have been offended by anything that was communicated to you by me. The e-mail I wrote that seemed to cause the most offense was written when I felt (apparently correctly) that I had nothing to lose from a business standpoint in making one last attempt to earn your business. As a second-year whom, although very accomplished considering my short time in the business, still must make the most of every opportunity that comes my way, letting any piece of potential business go without making sure that I truly tried everything I could to earn that business is unwise. Of course, in writing the e-mail, I didn't want to lose your respect, as I obviously have if you are now forced to question my character, and I regret that development. There are people who would have seen that e-mail as revealing a level of dedication and "fire" that they want in their Realtor; I apologize for not taking my audience more into consideration in this instance.

I also apologize for unintentionally implying that you are incompetent to make your own choice of Realtor; I think the next couple of paragraphs will really help you see the real estate industry as I see it. In this business, 10% of the agents do 80% of the business, and the other 90% of agents really aren't very good agents (or they are still young in the business and establishing themselves). I understand that, to you, me saying something like this is "tearing down" the other agents, and I really don't know how to respond to this impression that you got of me as someone who "must build themselves up by tearing another down". In all honesty, I don't think that comments like this are vindictive or self-serving at their core, as much as they are really describing the nature of this industry.

As I compete for business, I try to make it a point not to "bad talk" my competition (and I apologize if I really did fall short on this point), but I often will raise questions that must be asked in evaluating competency. Even so, I aim to leave the door open for another agent having a superior marketing plan and a superior ability to get the job done, and to indicate in some manner that these are good reasons to use one agent over another (in contrast to the issues of commission splits or promised sales prices which are often very poor reasons to use one agent over another; in my opinion, anyone that lets these latter issues be their "guide" often really doesn't understand how a real estate transaction really works and/or what the role of the agent is in a real estate transaction).

Let me put all of this another way: I live in a very competitive industry that is very confusing to the average consumer and I admit that I don't think that average consumer is very good at making proper decisions in who to use as an agent. And, SELLER, this belief of mine even applies to clients who have used me! I have clients whom have chosen me because they know me from poker games, or I happened to answer the phone when they called my office, or they got a letter from me in the mail, etc....I even have one client who chose to work with me because she read on my website that I have two cats. How are these good reasons to choose the person that is going to be a fundamental part of the buying or selling of the most valuable physical asset in your life? In truth, as I see it, these reasons aren't very good, especially when all it takes is a credit card and the ability to pass a test that one can take an unlimited number of times to be a Realtor. In all seriousness, while most of the Realtors in Maryland are very nice, well-intentioned people, most of them are also not very good at their jobs, which is why 60% of the agents in Maryland handled 4 transactions or less last year.

What this means for me is that, when I go out and interview for a job, I am usually competing against agents that don't do one-third as much for their clients as I do and, in my mind, this is why I feel free to say some of the things I do about how to truly evaluate agents. In this case, I competed against an agent-team that is clearly in the top 10% (I have looked up the Catons' statistics and the results that they have gotten in their career and they are quite an impressive team) and I am truly glad for you that you have the ability to be represented by such a good agent-team.

Maybe the paragraphs above do nothing but give evidence to the main complaint that you seem to have against me: when the rubber meets the road, I place far less value on chemistry than I do on competency (even my extensive client-appreciation program and relational marketing systems are all built around me establishing myself as a competent agent that can be counted on to get a job done). Perhaps ironically, I believe that the relationships I build with my clients are often very meaningful, to the point that my primary lending partner, who has been in the business for 6 years, has told his boss, "Greg becomes better friends with his clients than any agent I have ever worked with!" Of course, these relationships normally happen over the course of a transaction, after I have established myself in my clients' minds as an ethical, hardworking, and trustworthy professional. If I focused too much on showing you this professional part of myself in our meeting, and not enough time showing you that I also wanted to be your friend, I apologize for that, too. You can rest assured that words that you have shared with me in your last e-mail will certainly cause me to question the place of "chemistry" in my business model in the months to follow and I am grateful to you for this, even if I ultimately decide not to make many changes.

I guess that's really all that should/could be said at this time. As you can tell by the time, I have been very busy lately, the major reason that this e-mail has been delayed until now. I do hope that you feel able/willing to respond when you get a chance, but I will not hold it against you if you don't...

Thanks again, SELLER...

Sincerely,
Greg

If you got through all of that, I trust that you found it interesting to some degree. Thanks for reading, and I'll post again soon.

Peace,
Greg

Cool Little Listing Thingy :)

2007-06-15T07:07:00.001-05:00

So, check out the "mini-listing" of a listing of mine. I'm starting to mess around with different options as I get as much web exposure for my listings as possible. It's pretty cool how many tools are out there, and now it's just a matter of me learning how to take advantage of them all for the sake of selling my listings for my clients.

Well, I've been up for a couple of hours working already, and I've got lots more to do before a 12 o'clock meeting down in College Park.

Peace,
Greg

Heavy Lifting

2007-06-14T00:40:00.000-05:00

"This is the heavy lifting time of the business." -Dean Cottrill

LOL...I feel like Jerry Maguire having a flashback to his mentor. Dean, gone a whole 7 days at this point, is already this mythic sage whose past words are what I draw on. :)

For real, Dean used to always say some form of the above, and he has a good point. For a comparative metaphor, I'll say that a plane uses 80% of his fuel on take-off (this is true). Starting a business in a highly competitive market is similar. The mistakes are costly, the learning curve is steep, the margin for error is small, and the building of marketshare is expensive and time-consuming. I joke with my clients when I first meet them while telling them the story of how I got in the business: "And I did my research and found out that 84% of agents don't make it past their first 18 months in the business, and I said, 'Sure, sign me up!!' (Insert hardy chuckle, and turn page.) But, seriously..."

So, here I am...at the office at almost 2am, 30 minutes from home and needing to be in northern Baltimore at 10am, and I took some time to eternalize this moment for anyone who might happen to stumble along this blog at some point. :) What am I doing here at almost 2am? Well, the "heavy lifting" of being a second-year agent. I'm in that funny place where the 40+ hours of marketing and self-promotion that I needed to do to survive and establish myself in the business is meeting up with the 40+ hours of client care and meetings that happen when you are successful in the business, and I'm having to figure out how to do everything I do better, yet quicker, all at once. Tonight, I was actively directing 3 transaction, thinking about 6 others, writing e-mails to a wide array of leads, clients, and friends, planning my next client appreciation event, preparing and printing off almost 1,000 letters to be mailed out over the next two weeks, etc. I laugh when people talk about how over-paid Realtors are...the average one who believes that just has no idea.

'But how come discount brokers and redfin can do it for cheaper??' Well, they don't do what I do...simple. In some situations, discount service will get by and, when it does, it can put a little extra money in some peoples' pockets; however, when it doesn't, discount service is (more often than not) terrible costly (there are studies done by a wide variety of organizations to back this up with hard figures; contact me if you are interested in more information here). 'But homes are 3 times more expensive now than they were 20 years ago; why should you get the same percentage commission?' Yeah, and gas is more expensive, printing, Realtor dues, marketing tools, photography, internet marketing, showing services, client gifts, lead generation...blah, blah, blah. The price of homes going up does not mean that the salaries of Realtors should exist in a vacuum, because nothing else does; or, should we only be competent and professional enough to handle the sale of a several-hundred thousand dollar home with no hope of ever being able to afford one for ourselves?

Oh, man, it's too late for a normal no-holds-barred "Greg-rant". One day, maybe I will re-approach the topic of discount brokers and why I feel so strongly about being a full-service broker (short answer: I pay for my own salary and give my clients more all at the same time!), but not today (or, should I say tonight...um...early this morning...whatever time it is :) ).

Now, I go home and snuggle up next to my wife and sleep for a little.

Peace,
Greg

Good ole' AACAR Convention

2007-06-07T22:00:00.000-05:00

Ah...Realtor conventions. Before I start, I must say that there are many Realtors out there that I have great respect for and I have friendships with a couple dozen Realtors that I highly value. Still, being trapped at a conference with hundreds of Realtors has never been an experience that I've enjoyed. Maybe it's not the Realtors themselves, as much as the whole environment. Okay, imagine this: stand in a room with hundreds of people who have has their very goal to have a 10-second to 5 minute interaction with you that is so memorable that you are going to remember them the next day when you might need to give them a call. Forget the fact that I have a lender who treats my clients and myself like gold, a home inspector who is very good and very professional, and a title agent that takes care of business and who is well-liked by my clients...I'm going to use you, Mr. Convention-Attender, because you gave me a notepad, a stress ball with your logo on it, and a blinky pen and allowed me to spin your "wheel" that gave me a chance to win a 3-day vacation but instead I got a coupon that I can give to my clients to save money on your services. Right. (I apologize for the run-on, but the desired effect of that sentence would have been lost otherwise :) ).

So, that's breaks at the AACAR convention, and the breaks serve as the over-riding structure that brings continuity to the different continuing education classes that you take. I actually missed my first class ("Fair Housing"), because I ended up having some work to take care of before I left the house; unfortunately, that was the only CE req. that I have left to fill before the end of the year, and the rest of the classes I took were really optional. :( The first class I attended was called "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Realtors," but it should have been called, "Come Watch This Guy Creatively Sell You on All of His Technology Products While Hoping You Don't Realize What He Is Doing." The next two classes were at least interesting. The one was on the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) that is going to have a drastically positive effect on the real estate market in Anne Arundel and the surrounding counties for years to come (22,000 jobs are being created at Ft. Meade, which will in turn bring even more jobs to the area; there are major concerns about this whole process, especially in regards to school capacities, but people are working hard to ensure that the BRAC happens as smoothly as possible). The last class was on selling water-front properties which was somewhat useless, even if it was informative; the woman was like, "Here are all the things you need to worry about," but then gave no practical advice on how to "worry" effectively in gathering information, etc.

All in all, I had some good times re-connecting with some of my old colleagues from Odenton. As expected, they are busting my chops about coming back to Odenton, now that I lost my office manager. Several times yesterday, agents in my old office that I wasn't especially friendly with (not that I didn't like them, but that we just never really built a friendship) would come over and say, "So, I hear Dean left?," with some smug grin. Seriously, they might as well say what they really want to say: "Don't you feel like an idiot for leaving when Dean left?? HA!" Yeah, yeah. For my part, instead of saying, "Look, dummy, I learned more from Dean in 6 months in his office than you suckers will learn in 6 years where you are!," I just smiled and nodded and said, "Yeah...I've got some decisions to make." And, of course, I do...in a few months, as reacting too quickly would be a mistake.

Anyway, I'm going to cut myself off here, although it's surprisingly tough. Sara is in Florida for the weekend, so maybe I'm bored tonight. But even beyond that, I've started to have several trains of thought that are recycling through my brain as I go throughout my day that I feel would make some good material for this blog. So, you'll have some good things to look forward to in the next couple of weeks, likely starting with either a rant about "Redfin," or a story of how a potential seller-client totally shocked me by calling my character into question over an e-mail I wrote. Goodie, goodie.

Well, thanks for reading.

Peace,
Greg

important business change

2007-06-02T14:42:00.000-05:00

You probably remember me saying how I switched from the Odenton office to the Severna Park office of Long and Foster a few months back. The reason behind that switch was that I had been looking for an office that was going to help me go the next level in my real estate career. The success I was experiencing at the Odenton office was great, but I didn't feel like I was in a place that was going to be most helpful in building upon that. So, I left the office where I was Top Producer of June 2006, and found myself in a new office that I wouldn't be Top Producer of for a very long time (due to the level of production that my new colleagues have). :)

The biggest factor that drew me to the Severna Park office was the office manager, a guy named Dean Cottrill. Dean was the 2006 Anne Arundel County Realtor of the Year and he is a tremendous motivator and mentor to the agents in the office that take advantage of the value he brings to the table as a top-notch office manager. I have had weekly coaching sessions with Dean since I moved to the Severna Park office, and I cannot tell you how much these sessions have helped me provide better service for my clients, thus growing my business through more referrals and other means. Well, after a long process of decision-making, Dean announced yesterday that he is leaving Long and Foster to assume a regional manager job with another brokerage company. I think this is a great opportunity for Dean, and I wish him the best; at the same time, admittedly a little selfishly, I have had to ask myself the question what (if anything) this means for me.

For now, I still believe that the Severna Park office is a great place for me to be. Even without Dean, it provides me with 4 very good support personal (for the most part, the Odenton office only had one), and I am surrounded by some of the best colleagues I could ask for. Still, there is going to be a gap in regards to continued coaching; a gap that I am going to want filled. Any long term decisions will depend a lot on who is brought in a couple of months from now to replace Dean; in the short-term, we do have an interim office manager that I can turn to if a situation arises that I need some extra counsel.

So, that's what's new with me from the professional side of everything. Personally, I have my wife "back" for a little while she is in between her first-year of medical school and her month-long trip to Malawi to do malaria research, so that's been nice. The spring-summer market has meant playing a little less poker for a while, but I am having some fun there. All in all, things are going well.

Peace,
Greg

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

2007-05-25T17:09:00.000-05:00

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

2007-05-16T14:41:00.000-05:00

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

2007-05-14T12:58:00.000-05:00

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

2007-05-03T11:22:00.000-05:00

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

a business update

2007-04-17T17:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I sent this update to my "sphere of influence" via e-mail...it seemed worthy of republishing here... :)

Business has kept me active but, within the past 2 months, 4 of my clients have experienced some re-direction in their lives (mostly first-time homebuyers now leaving to move out-of-state), meaning that 1.5 million of business that I was working on has now gone another direction. Ultimately, this is fine, because I genuinely care more about helping my clients determine and act on what is in their best interests than I care about my bottom line. In truth, a “swing” like this is normal for the industry, and the fact that in a 2-month period I was working on such a large volume in potential transactions (not even counting my executed transactions) is an impressive testament to the market-share that I have earned over the past 2 years, which, in turn, is a testament to God’s grace and to the high quality of service and professionalism that I bring to my career. All this is to say once again that I have the highest gratitude towards everyone who has (and who continues to) spread the word about me to their loved ones, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, and please don’t forget about me the next time someone you know simply mentions that they are about to begin the process of buying and/or selling a home in Maryland!

Thanks,
Greg

some Easter thoughts

2007-04-03T14:17:00.000-05:00

(As a former campus pastor, once or twice a year I will usually write a couple of thoughts about what I am thinking about in relation to the more celebrated parts of the Christian calendar. I am not naïve enough to think that my views are shared across the board by those who might come across this blog. However, I share these not to offend or alienate, but because these views comprise who I am as a person and, correspondingly, influence who I am as a friend and as a Realtor. I also share because I believe that, no matter what your personal views are at this time, the thoughts below can add value to your life.)

I have been thinking a lot these last couple of days about the trip my dad and I took to England the summer between my junior and senior years of college. We went to Wycliffe Hall, an Anglican Seminary that is part of Oxford University, for two weeks of classes with some of the forefront Christian thinkers/writers of our time. Among them was Eugene Peterson, author of the recent paraphrase of the Bible known as The Message.

In one of Peterson’s talks he highlighted how Easter is the center of the Christian faith, shifting the emphasis from the crucifixion to the resurrection. His point was that the Christian faith is really that of learning how to “practice resurrection” one step at a time. “Practice resurrection.” Ironically, this seemed to make more sense to me as a soon-to-be senior in college than it does to me now, a fact that is somewhat humbling and somewhat puzzling. “How do I practice resurrection in my life these days?” is kind of the latest question I am pondering. “What does practicing resurrection even mean in my life?”

Jesus’ dying makes sense; everybody dies. His resurrection changes everything. (Honestly, as the apostle Paul indicates in the Bible, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, Christians are to be pitied above all men, because their faith would then be meaningless and their hope would be futile.) Correspondingly, me living the life I live, having the problems I have, struggling with the things I struggle with makes sense; they are common experiences shared by many in one form or the other. Yet, still, God calls me to realize that, yes, Jesus’ resurrection really does change everything. And not only am I supposed to just realize this, but this calls me to act on it. And not only am I supposed to act on this, but I am supposed to realize that I am powerless to act on it by myself, and I am supposed to act on with the help, guidance, and power of Jesus Himself.

So, I guess this Easter season is one where I am challenged to think about how I can (not “should”; the Christian life is that of opportunity, not of burden) practice resurrection more in my life. How can I practice resurrection more in how I treat my wife? How can I practice resurrection more as a Realtor? How can I practice resurrection more in how I spend my time? How can I practice resurrection more in how I serve those around me? How can I practice resurrection more in simply how I appreciate life and God’s living presence that permeates it? And, through it all, how can I not only try to practice resurrection but, more importantly, allow Jesus to practice resurrection in and through my life by His power? I guess I’ll just take it one step at a time, eh?… :)

So, that’s that. Seriously, have a wonderful weekend, and may you be able to practice resurrection in your own life in the weeks, months, and years to come.

Peace,
Greg

don't forget your Supra key

2007-03-28T16:34:00.000-05:00

So, I was away last week with my wife, and we had a great time. We had a couple of those things called long conversations that married people have from time to time...not necessarily the smoothest parts of the week away (:) ), but certainly among the most necessary. In the end, it was just a relaxing time, even as I worked several hours a day (yea for e-mail and cell phone).

When I got back on Saturday, I felt like I put my cell phone to my ear and didn't put it down until this morning. Real estate investor clients looking to go round 2, a new investor client exploring an option in College Park, a classmate of my wife's and her husband looking to maybe buy in Baltimore, etc...

Monday, I had a meeting with a new client in Canton, and then I headed straight up to Harford County to tour 12 properties. I meet my clients at LNF (Long and Foster for those that might be scratching their heads) White Marsh, and we drive the next twenty minutes to the first showing at a house in Bel Air. As I get out of the car, that horrible feeling came. You know the horrible feeling that I am talking about. When you get to class and remember that you forgot your paper that you worked on all night back at your dorm room. When you leave the store and remember that you went in with a child and now have come out alone. When you pull up for you date and you suddenly aren't sure if you remembered to brush your teeth. Anyway...

Well, I realized that sitting in it's cradle next to my computer was my Supra key. Funny thing about Supra keys...they don't work from 30 miles away. (If you are wondering what a Supra key is, you probably haven't purchased a house in the last 2 years. Basically, it is a little key pad that is used in conjunction with key-boxes placed on or near the front doors of houses that makes it more "convenient" for agents to show properties. Instead of needed 12 combos like I used to or having to go pick up 12 keys from listing agents or having to set up 12 precisely timed appointments, I can set up generally-timed appointments and take my 1 Supra key to get into 12 houses as we go. Of course, the "convenience" is lost when you forget this nifty little contraption when you leave your house.) The frustrating thing about the Supra key is that it is sort of like a baby, in that it needs to be in its cradle every night to "update," otherwise it is rendered useless without "manually" updating during the day, which can be a long, involved process annoying enough to make you want to pluck out your eye lashes while you do it. So, the auto-update in the cradle is the way to go. However, when you've got a lot on your mind (like, say when you just got back from vacation and are trying to simultaneously serve the needs of a half dozen clients/potential clients and need to remember you directions, buyer presentation, listings, cell phone, planner, pens, etc., before you walk out the door), grabbing the Supra key out of the cradle can be easy to forget.

Okay...enough rambling. Yes, I forgot the stupid key. Fortunately, God was kind enough to have the owner of this first showing be home, so my clients got to see this house, while I frantically tried to figure out how the heck they were going to see the next 11 homes. There are so many parts to this story, but here's the reader's digest version, which leaves out at least a dozen phone calls. I went to the local LNF office near this first showing, and they would not allow me to borrow their key. Now, I knew that lending your key out was frowned upon, but it turns out that it actually can get you a $500 fine!! I was like, "Oh...that's wonderful. I understand why you will not lend me your key." So, I called my office manager, as I drove my clients to the next part of our tour (we did have one appt. set up and one "combo" property that we could see, as I figured out how to get a key for the other 9). Dean pretty much told me that I was pretty out of luck, especially as the local Realtor board had really cracked down on this, fining a Long and Foster agent in Harford County just the week before.

In the midst of all of this, I had been calling my wife, whose cell phone conveniently doesn't work when she's at the "pods" (the study area of her school). Seeing my other options as bleak, I called a friend named Erik and was like, "Erik, get on IM, IM my wife, and tell her to call me...NOW!" This, Erik did, and my wife calls. Fortunately, since she is at the beginning of her new section at school, and far from a test (well, as far as you can get in med. school), so the prospect of me making a month and a half of expenses with one deal was enough to get her to take her bike home, get my Supra key, and drive up to meet us in Harford County.

An hour of good, but unproductive, agent-client time later, Sara shows up. Of course, by this point it is 4pm, and all the homes that were to be "vacant" when I showed them now had the sellers back home from work and school, so I ended up actually only needed the key for one showing. Figures.

In the end, my clients found a great home, a contract has been submitted, and it all worked out. But, seriously, don't forget the Supra key...it's a bad idea. :)

Peace,
Greg

killin some time

2007-03-13T16:12:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm sitting in the Odenton office waiting for some minutes to pass before I go to a poker game tonight. Yes...my bankroll was robbed. Fortunately, I have friends who trust my play enough to spot me and I turned $150 into over $700 in a few hours the other day, so I now have a bit of play money again. :) Tonight is another low limit game that should afford me the opportunity to kick back with some good people and enjoy myself.

As far as business, it's been a busy-good, busy-bad few days. From a run-away client (can't really explain more out of respect for agency law), to an offer rejected in a competing situation (most likely because of a listing agent who wasn't comfortable with VA financing), to another client who is no longer sure if they are buying in Maryland, to a minor point of contention that threatens to derail a transaction of mine...well, as Realtor trainer Darryl Davis says, "Real estate can be frustrating from time to time." :) So, that's the busy-bad.

The busy-good is a half dozen new buyer leads, 3 new seller leads, and a business system that has become more automatic than ever when it comes to contact relationship cultivation and follow-up.

I looked at my sent items box (which I need to clear out periodically before I get the angry "your mailbox exceeds...blah...blah...blah" e-mail from Long and Foster), and I sent out well over 1,000 e-mails last month. Sick. As for my cell phone minute usage...well, Sara and I can be glad that we have enough rollover minutes from a slow winter to carry us through (yea, Cingular).

Alright, I actually thought of a couple of things I need to do, so my "killing time" has turned into "racing time" (a little bit). Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Greg

Orioles game: May 4th

2007-03-06T13:21:00.000-05:00

So, with the help of 3 sponsors, I got 65 tickets to an Orioles game that I am inviting all my clients, business contacts, and friends to. Should be a great time, and I expect to have to get a few more tickets with where the current response is at.

In between now and then, it's just the craziness of the Spring market. I had one client go AWOL on her co-buyer and me this past weekend, which is making for an interesting (albeit, not unworkable) situation. I'm working with my sellers to get their listings ready for the market ("No, lavender ceilings won't help your home sell for top dollar..."), hopefully by the end of this month. And I'm helping a couple of my clients find a couple of rentals, while they take the next year as preparation to buy next year at this time.

This is on top of trying to stay on top of the dozen or so strong leads for this season, and a few more that are a bit less-than-strong. It's always a delicate balance between making sure that you are as busy as you can be, but not too busy that your quality of service starts to take a hit. Correspondingly, I need to give my potential clients enough space to take as much time as they need to make the decisions that are right for them, but also try to communicate to them that, in some way, it is in their best interests to make a decision sooner rather than later to ensure that I can commit to them 100%.

Well, with the lack of anything I feel like ranting about, coupled with a couple very long e-mails I have written today and a fair amount of hunger, now seems like as good an ending point as any.

Peace,
Greg

Your Real Estate Ace

2007-02-20T11:28:00.000-05:00

So, after an exciting vote, Your Real Estate Ace is now my official slogan, and my logo has been update accordingly. :) Seriously, I sent out an e-mail to my contact database, and got nearly a 20% response ratio, which is pretty phenomenal for the business. "A Realtor You Can Bet Your House On" came in second, but also received the most negative comments (a lot of people didn't like the connection between "betting" and the most important asset of their lives). A distant third with 7 votes was "The Ace Up Your Sleeve In Real Estate," but that also got some negative votes.

Meanwhile, as promised, a discussion of taekwondo... Ah, taekwondo. Things you should learn to do when you are a kid for $1,000. Nothing like some old, smiling Asian black belt telling you to rotate your hips, tilt your head back, rotate your front foot to the left, and keep your leg straight all at the same time... Right. Walking and chewing gum at the same time is an occasional challenge for me. It all gets even better when my wife, a brown belt, does exactly those things with relative ease. :) In all seriousness, taekwondo's been a fun addition to life. Relationally, it's allowed Sara and me to get some very valuable time together and improved our marriage and, overall, it's gotten some more balance back into my life, as, aside from playing soccer goalie once a week, I wasn't getting enough exercise.

Well, guess that's really it for this post. Business continues to pick up as we continue to near Spring. Sara has Spring break in 3 weeks. My poker bankroll was robbed when someone broke into our house but, all in all, if that's the worst thing that's happened to me in a while, I guess I'm running pretty good in life (and, honestly, I've told the story too many times to tell it again). :)

Thanks for reading!

Peace,
Greg

flipping burgers averted

2007-02-05T15:06:00.001-05:00

Man, when people told me that this business was feast or famine, I just pushed the comments away. I was a rookie doing 2-3 transactions/month and it was coming pretty easy. My referral base was growing, my ability to retain potential business was improving, and my market share was giving me the first taste of a steady stream of leads. Then, as my blogging indicated, late fall/early winter hit and, despite some very promising signs for this year, my wife and I were forced to use some time last week in looking at the writing on the wall...we were destined to be very broke before I was due to get paid again.

So, it's one of those things about God that I used to relish in, but now admittedly just find kind of irritating...He'll let you hang out there until you start looking "up" again. I used to sing along with a song that said, "if I'm going away, break my legs so I stay near to You." I guess God is answering this prayer a couple of years later...pretty much despite myself. Deep-down, I am glad I got to know the famine-side of this business a little bit more. Years from now, I will look back on the last 4 days I just had and have a testimony of how God made sure that this business ("my" business) was built on His terms, so that only He can get the credit. Yes, I did everything I was supposed to do to grow my business, but why did that not mean anything until I looked up to God and said, "HELP!!"? Exactly.

"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you." - Paul Silly me remembering the former, but forgetting the latter. What happened in the last 4 days that leaves me writing this entry as I am? Well, Friday morning I get an e-mail about a buyer lead, a referral from a past client. Friday afternoon, I get an e-mail from a buyer, a woman who is paying a good amount of rent and who wants to buy this summer. Sunday, I get a call from the husband of one of Sara's classmates, with whom I am writing a contract to purchase a condo this evening. Sunday evening, I get an e-mail from another woman who wants to buy a house with her boyfriend. There are more little things here and there with other clients and leads, but this is the "big four" that seems to me to enough for me to say right now.

Okay...I'd love to wax on more about this topic and whatnot, but the bathroom is calling, and then I have 3 hours to do 5 hours of stuff before heading off to taekwondo with my wife (yeah, taekwondo is material for a future post...).

Peace,
Greg

2007 picking up...

2007-01-16T11:12:00.000-05:00

So, the winter slump seems to finally be lifting. I got two leads on listings in the last couple of days, which is nice. Meanwhile, I'm biting the bullet and getting back into the FSBO game this week. Basically, this means calling people who are trying to sell their house on their own and offering my services. I hit up FSBOs hard for two months around the time I first got into this business. At that point, I learned a few things:

1) Most other Realtors are incompetent, especially when it comes to prospecting FSBOs.
2) Most FSBOs are very nice people...all of whom are well-intentioned, but most of whom will end up costing themselves time and money when all is said and done. The rest of the FSBOs are just jerks.
3) I wanted to build my business by long-term relationship marketing, as FSBO prospecting was not nearly as enjoyable.

So, despite more success than most Realtors who try the FSBO market, I got busy with buyers and ditched it all. But, as things go, relationship marketing takes a lot of time to build up to that point where it can sustain a business year-round, and financial considerations are making it necessary to start prospecting FSBOs again.

The hard thing about being a Realtor talking to a FSBO is that it is one of those odd situations that is almost void of trust right off the bat. To start there, and then have to get to a place where there is enough trust to create a true win-win situation is very hard. FSBOs don't like Realtors; if they did, they wouldn't be a FSBOs. Plus, once a FSBO starts trying to sell a home, they are hounded by more Realtors than you could imagine, most of whom are, as I indicate above, incompetent and some of whom are just downright rude and arrogant. Then someone like me comes in and has to not only break down the walls that are built up between the FSBO and me, but then I need to somehow convey the fundamental premises of the entire real estate industry to the FSBO in a way that makes him and/or her see why it makes sense for them to sell their house through a Realtor. After that, then I have to show them why it makes for them to sell there house through me, and I have to do this last part while standing firm on my commission. ("No, Mr. FSBO, I am not a discount broker. I will not drop my commission.") All of this is supposed to take place in 1-3 hours. Right.

Well, if nothing else, prospecting FSBOs produces stories, so I'm sure I'll have plenty more to write on here over the next couple of weeks and months. In the meantime, take care!

Peace,
Greg

the holidays!

2006-12-18T19:09:00.000-05:00

So, I head North tomorrow morning to begin my Christmas-New Year's journeys. First stop is Atlantic City (of course). Accompanying me on the trip this time will be Chris, the lender I've mentioned before. He's not really a player, but have a feeling that he'll do okay. We're taking his car and he'll leave either late tomorrow or early on Wednesday. I'll feed my poker appetite until the wee hours of Thursday, and then head to the AC bus terminal to catch a bus to Manahawkin. My grandparents will pick me up there on the way to my parents. At my parents' house already is my brother and his wife and kid, and my aunt and uncle and cousin are coming later, so it should be an okay time...although filled with the normal tensions that come with family (my brother has done some questionable things of late that have left me a bit angry/hurt, so we'll see how that plays out). Anyway, from the 24th-27th, Sara and I will pretty much have my parents to ourselves, until we leave to come back home, regroup, and then jump on a plane to Texas, revisiting Sara's dad and family. After who-knows-what happens there, we come back home on the 3rd of January, so Sara can get back to medical school, and I can get back to real estate (Spring market coming around, thank God), plus poker.

Well, that's really it...too much to do before I leave early tomorrow to really wax philosophical about anything. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Peace,
Greg

Thanksgiving trip with the in-laws

2006-11-30T13:48:00.000-05:00

So, I'm back from a little vacation, which was nice. My father-in-law treated my wife and I to a 7-day cruise in the Western Caribbean, during which we visited Belize, Honduras, and two spots in Mexico. Honestly, I like cruises more for their day at seas more than for their ports (feel too much like part of a herd of cattle with two many time constraints on the port days), so it doesn't matter to me where I am going. But now, I'm back, trying to get my head back into business planning and sphere of influence cultivating, activities that are much easier to do in the slower part of the real estate calender anyway.

The logo in the previous post was pretty well received by the few I bounced it off of, but definitely changed a bit. The wifey vehemently disliked the handwritten aspect of the words in the card, so I changed that up and managed to get an actual font in there. Then, my new office manager wanted me to switch the card to the ace of hearts because he felt it might soften up the logo a little bit in a good way, but that's just not able to happen based on the way the file is, so I colored the spade in a light green, which seems to serve the same purpose. The thing I'm really not sure about is the slogan, so I've made creating a new slogan a competition for my sphere of influence, the winner of whom will get December "Client of the Month" honors and the movie tickets that go with them. :)

Let me think...good stories... Really the only major thing that's happened lately is a huge $1,500 pot in a poker game on the cruise ship that didn't go my way, but I can't even send you the link to the on-line forum that discussed this hand at length because MD-Poker is down for a few days because the building that housed the server (I have no idea what this means) was sold, and now MD-Poker needs to find a new place to call home (somehow a complicated computer matter that must involve more than having an electrical outlet and a cable line). On the home front, Sara is busy studying biochemistry and we're filling our nights with old episodes of "House, M.D." and "The West Wing"...that, and watching our undersized, 1-year old cat do stupid things like attack his electronic water filter/dish (yes, our cats have an eletronic water thing...don't yours? :) ). (On a side night, the stupid cat got so into attacking his water thing when we are on vacation that he pulled the power tree that it was plugged into off the wall, meaning that both the water thing and the automatic feeder didn't work for the majority of our trip, and our cats were plenty pissed at us due to hunger by the time we got home. :( ).

Well, I've got to shower, run to the post office, hit up the office for a few hours in getting my next mailing ready and out the door, get back home for 20 or so phone calls, and then rest a little for my 11pm soccer game (because 11pm soccer games are the most reasonable kind of games to play, of course).

Peace,

Greg

Logo?

2006-11-16T16:23:00.000-05:00

Click on the white screen to the right and tell me what you think? :)

Anyway, I will be away from tomorrow (Friday afternoon) until November 26th. My father-in-law is treating Sara and me to a week-long cruise with that side of the family. I must admit that I’m not exactly sure where we are going, but I think it’s somewhere in the western Caribbean…I mean, honestly, if someone else is going to take you on a cruise, you really don’t stop to ask the ports of call before you say, “Yes.” :) All I know is that there is a poker table on board (yes, it’s sad, but I actually called the cruise line to ask them this last week :) ).

Well, that’s it! I wish you a great week of family, food, and friends, in whatever order brings you the most happiness. :)

God bless,
Greg

an energizing week

2006-11-16T00:55:00.000-05:00

So, my new office manager has been a very helpful business partner thus far, and I am more and more glad about making the office switch that I made. One of the things that he has encouraged me to do is to call all of my contacts (I have a list of 288 names, most of whom have received my monthly newsletter and/or infrequent e-newsletter updates over the past year), and to make sure that I am a) not being an unwelcome nuisance in my correspondence with them and b) to ask if they have a "family Realtor." I am roughly a quarter into getting through the list and it's been a very good experience thus far. My past experiences with "calling rounds" have been through fundraising when I was a campus pastor, and those were tough calls. These calls have been far more rewarding relationally, as I really am not asking anyone for anything except for them to think of me when they or their friends are buying/selling real estate. It's been fun to catch up with people I haven't seen in forever, and going in alphabetical order through the list means that I am talking to family one minute, a former training client the next, a poker player after that, and then an acquaintance from church. :)

Meanwhile, Long and Foster just rolled out the Silver Team, a designation for those who have done between 1-3 million of production in a year. On Monday, I spent the entire day at a Silver Team seminar that really helped me take a hard look at my business plan, something I have not done in a while. The phone calls I've made lately, plus some of the talks I heard that day have gotten me brainstorming about ways to better reach out to my "sphere of influence." These are people that I like (many of whom I have worked with on some level, socially or professional), and I want to find more ways to show them that I really do care about them, where they are in life, and how I might be able to better help them get where they are going. I'm looking to roll out at least 3 events next year, plus build on the contact systems that I already have set up. Don't get me wrong...my business will never get to a point where I am not doing things to market to people I don't know, but studies have shown that such marketing is 17 times less efficient financially and, worst than that, in my opinion, it is about 100 times less personally rewarding as you are doing it.

Okay...I'm in a blabbing mood, so I'm going to cut myself off. :)

Peace,
Greg

the dullness of winter :(

2006-11-08T13:42:00.000-05:00

So, my string of 12 transactions in 6 months (not to mention 4 rental transactions) was bound to stop at some point (after all, I am still a rookie), and the last month and a half has been slow. I've had more leads in the past two months than the previous months put together, but most of them need some substantial credit help or are in another situation that is going to delay their purchase of a home.

The weird thing about sales is that activity produces more activity most of the time. However, when activity produces nothing for some reason, it gets so hard to get "activity" going again. Think about it this way: a snowball is rolling down hill and picking up more snow along the way. It gets to be a good-sized snowball, but the hill levels off to a plateau, which is now several yards away from the next drop in elevation. Before the snowball was so small that wind could have started it going...now, it is larger and needs more force (eg. like maybe a monkey carrying the snowball the necessary yards :) ) to get going again.

On one level, it's like, "Sweet, I'm a larger snowball." However, it is the addition of more snow that is going to allow me to survive in this industry...

To complicate matters, psychological, when you are in the "downswing," it gets that much harded to be motivated to work. Honestly, this last month, all I've wanted to do is play poker in AC, which I've managed to curb this week until I get my act together again with business.

So, helping my "long-term clients" get to a place in which they can achieve their goals of buying a home is where I currently am, and reminding myself of why I love this profession as much as I can. If I just keep showing people that I am available and that I actually care about helping them, eventually I'll get "rolling" again. :)

Peace,
Greg

office change official

2006-10-28T15:07:00.000-05:00

It’s not a huge deal, but I am switching my affiliation within Long and Foster from the Ft. Meade/Odenton office to down the road at the Severna Park office. The Severna Park office is a larger office with a much higher level of production. Related to this, the amount of support that I will get as an agent is greatly enhanced (eg. weekly coaching with the office manager, 4 office administrators instead of 1, etc.), translating into the ability to deliver a higher level of customer service and professionalism as I work for my clients. So, no, I likely won’t be “Agent of the Month” again for a long time (there are some very “large” agents here), but this switch should make you more comfortable than before in referring your friends and acquaintances to me for their real estate needs. In the meantime, the areas that I service (Baltimore City and the surrounding counties, and beyond that on a case-by-case basis) will remain the same.

Besides that, my car is in need of some extensive mechanical repairs, as it seriously might die at any minute (clutch has a problem that is not cost-wise to repair based on the value of the car), and poker has returned to a prominent place in my life (been a very good month).

As always, thanks for reading!

Peace,
Greg

leads, leads, leads

2006-10-13T17:12:00.000-05:00

It's funny...it's been three weeks since I've written a contract and a small part of me is started to sweat. :) 60% of the agents on MRIS last year did 4 transactions or less and I'm sweating about not writing a contract in 3 weeks, despite having written 12 ratified contracts in the past 6 months. Silly. Although, the beginning of fall lag will take some time getting used to...

Meanwhile, I have found myself inundated with more leads than ever. I'd say I am actively engaged with 12 potential buyers, although I'm too lazy to actually count at this precise moment (it's 10-15)...and these are just the clients that are looking to buy in the next month or two. I have another dozen or so that will be buying throughout next year, so I've managed to set myself up pretty well (thank Jesus). Of course, not every lead works out, but I have a high percentage of turn over relative to the industry, so I have a reason to be hopeful. Seriously, just be genuine about showing people that you are capable and that you care (probably not in that order even), and things work themselves out.

Anyway, poker game tonight and a few e-mails to write before I leave the office. It's been too long since I've posted, I know, but I find myself more dealing the minutia of transactions now with less time to wax philosophical about the industry in which I am in. Still, I'll try to pick up the frequency again. :)

Peace!
Greg

MAR convention

2006-09-24T13:00:00.000-05:00

So, after my first deal fell through with termites up to the roof and second one hit really sketchy ice when the financing commitment turned out to be based on the lender making some false assumptions. That one may still work out, but it looks doubtful. It is a harsh reality of this business that you can bust your butt doing your job exactly like you are supposed to but not get paid for it.

Meanwhile, I was at the MAR convention last week. It was in Ocean City, where it is every year. Overall, it was a good 3+ days of continuing education, networking, getting to know my colleagues a bit more, and running into some of the other Realtors that I’ve come in contact with over the past 8 months. On the one hand, I am very glad I went…however, on the other, it definitely left me scrambling at the end of the week to get back on top of business (even though I managed to stay quite on top of everything by cell phone, the lack of readily accessible internet was really problematic in a couple of instances).

Well, if anyone wants to know more about the MAR and/or the convention, check out www.mdrealtor.org. Don’t forget that one of the primary purposes of the MAR (as a sub-branch of the National Association of Realtors) is to “protect the public,” so you can actually find a surprising amount of consumer information and resources on that website.

For now, I am going to unwind with a bit of online poker. I'll try to post again before the week is out.

Peace,
Greg

"Are you sure?"

2006-09-14T22:25:00.000-05:00

So, it's been a tough week.

Things you don't want to hear on a home inspection: "In 14 years as a home inspector, I've never seen termite damage up this hight." Excellent.

Well, that was one thing.

The other real bad thing (on top of some more minor nuisances) was this:

So, Tuesday night I am sitting desk duty, which I use more as a tool to get in the office and do paperwork and such more than as a mode of growing my business. As normal, no real good leads come about, but a guy does walk in just before 6pm. The dude is huge, standing around 6'7" or so (yes, I am 6'5", but 6'7" looks huge even to me because I never look up to anyone).

The guy introduces himself and he wants a print out of listings under 250K in the area. I tell him to sit down in one of the conference rooms. At that point, he says, "Well, let me get my girlfiend." Okay.

So, the girlfriend, and they sit down in the conference room, as she is on the phone with an agent that I believe they called off a sign. She gets off the phone and I start asking some questions. Actually, she is the buyer by herself and she is looking up to the 300K range. Okay.

I open up my buyer conversation book (yes, I have a "buyer conversation book"...it's incredibly exciting I can assure you :) ). I get through the introduction about me and the part about Long and Foster. Then, almost simultaneously, the two customers start laughing.

The guys says, "Well, actually, both my brother and my mother are Long and Foster agents, so they'd probably be pissed if we didn't use them. We really just want a list of listings."

What the...? Letting the obvious questions subside, I say, "Well, in that case, you can call them and they can access that info from any computer with an internet connection."

The customers are somehow surprised by this information and go to leave. I let them for a second, but then, not able to help myself, say, "Well, trust me, I understand family pressures. But, not for nothing, you came in here for a reason. Are your relatives full-time or part-time agents? How experienced are they? How's their service? Honestly, you might want to listen to the rest of my spiel just to be sure that you really want to go with your family here."

They think for a bit, and say, "Well, okay."

Then, I spend the next 30 minutes going through everything I normally go through. At the end I say to the girl, "Well, that's that. That is why I have been successful in this business, even as a rookie. Again, I understand family pressures and you need to do what you need to do if you have to go with your boyfriend's mother or brother, but, honestly, the arrogant part of me wants to say, 'I'm better'."

The girl decides that she will make a decision on which agent to use by Friday, and so I ask if it would be okay for me to follow up with her on Friday. She says, "Sure," and gives me her cell phone number and e-mail.

They leave, I pack up my stuff at the office, and get to my car to get to a meeting in Baltimore that I am already late for (I called my clients ahead of time to work it out). As I am putting my key in the ignition, my phone rings...a number I don't recognize, which is unusual, because I store every number in my phone (I mean, EVERY number).

"Hello...this is Greg."

"Hi, Greg. It's (the girl). I want to work with you."

"Wow...are you sure? I know how family can be."

"Yes...you'll do a great job for me."

"Okay."

With me late to a meeting in Baltimore and her running to Virginia that night, we decide to meet the next day to sign the papers and get everything started with the lender. Sweet. I'm excited, glad to see someone so blown away by my presentation (honestly, it's a good presentation, and it's for real; I don't mess around as an agent and I have a very good system to get my buyers exactly what they want), and feeling much better about the "over-ambitious termites" that were encountered that morning.

That night, I e-mail the girl the following:

(the girl),

No, I don't make a daily habit of sending off e-mails at 1am, however I did want to touch base with you before our meeting tomorrow, thanking you for giving me the chance to work for you over the next couple of months (and beyond). Your quick phone call was a pleasant surprise that ended up really putting a really bright spot in a rather hard day.

So, I will see you at 1pm tomorrow. Thanks again, (the girl).

Peace,
Greg

I go to sleep shortly after writing the e-mail, just to get a call at 7am the next morning...it's a different number that I don't recognize...

"Hello...?"

"Oh...um...Greg...it's (the boy)."

"Yeah."

"I just want to let you know that we've decided to go with my brother, so you don't waste your time going to the office today."

"Well, you gotta do what you gotta do."

"Yeah."

I hang up, steam for the next 30-minutes, eventually fall back to sleep, only to wake up feeling unrested and crappy.

Mid that day, I wrote the following e-mail:

(the girl),

I must say that I was surprised when you called me last night, and I was extra surprised by the phone call I received from (the boy) this morning. In the midst of everything else I have been doing, I have been pondering all day whether or not to write you this e-mail, but I guess I feel I have nothing to lose and you might have a lot to gain.

I don't know (the boy)'s brother, but the very fact that you called me last night gives me evidence that you have some reservations about hiring him as your buyer's agent. This doesn't mean that you don't like him as a person...however, a client really ought to have full trust in their agent. I assume that you consider this the most important purchase of your life, and you want to make sure that it is handled by someone that is readily accessible and who can provide you with top notch service while getting you exactly what you want/need. (the boy)'s brother might have your best interests at heart, but his ability to deliver for you is honestly more important than his intentions to do so.

Maybe (the boy)'s brother is a great agent who has a good track record. I don't know...but, if you haven't found this out yet, you need to.

How many transactions has he done of late?

How accessible is he (ie. will you be able to call him at 7:00am and have him actually answer the phone if that's when you need him)?

What is his track record in securing closing costs for his buyers?

How does he show you properties?

Will he be able to get you to settle in the timeframe that is best for you?

How does he deal with listing agents in negotiations and in nursing a transaction to closing?

Who are the referral partners that he works with, and how reliable are they?

He is able to write a strong, complete contract that will get accepted in a competing situation?

He is able to make sure that you are protected in the contract should something go wrong with it?

If you don't like the service you are getting, how will you feel firing your boyfriend's brother?

All of these things are important.

(the girl), you heard my speil yesterday. I have been on the buyer's side of 11 transactions since April, and half of these transactions were from clients that I obtained by referrals from previous clients. I am not saying that I am the absolute best agent out there, but my track record has shown that I am one of the better agents out there and I stand by my work 100%.

In short, I would ask you to reconsider and make sure that you are doing what is best for you. If (the boy)'s brother is worth his weight as an agent, he should be able to answer all of the above questions in a manner that is acceptable to you and he should respect your decision if you decide that another agent (whether it is me or someone else) is better able to serve you.

Sincerely,
Greg

Yes...quite the week. $4,000 that was never mine to begin with is handed to me and then ripped away. Trust me, I would have busted my butt for the girl to earn every bit of that $4,000, and she's just going to give it to her boyfriend's family who I guarantee will "get" it more than he will "earn" it. She hasn't even e-mailed me back. Don't get me wrong...I firmly believe that few people intentionally act out to completely screw people over, but "innocent" incidents of intentions turned into misleadings are wrong. When your word means so little that you will break it just to keep a little bit more peace in your life, you really have to evaluate yourself a little deeper. Of course, that's just my opinion...

Peace,
Greg

the stupidity of the 6 1/2" envelope

2006-09-13T01:16:00.000-05:00

So, I send out this newsletter every month in two batches. The first batch is people that I know, business leads, former clients, friends, and a few random acquaintances from here, there, and everywhere (in marketing speak, this is my "sphere of influence"). I send this out the middle of every month.

The second batch I send to renters in the 5 counties around and including Baltimore City who are spending $1500+/month on rent.

Well, the newsletter comes in an 8 1/2" by 11" format that is folded in half. The first 4 months I sent it out, I used 6" by 9" envelopes from staples, and it was great...the sucker is under an ounce, so it only cost the $.39/piece to mail. This I send out the 1st of the month following when I sent out the newsletter to my "sphere of influence".

So, this month, I know I am running short on envelopes and instead of waiting 'til last minute to buy new envelopes (like I normally do), I decide to run out and get some when I am down visiting my mom the last Monday of August. We go to Office Depot and I couldn't find the envelopes I needed forever and then I see boxes of 6 1/2" by 9 1/2" envelopes. I think, "Sweet...they'll be even easier to stuff," and I buy two boxes of 1000 envelopes. Get home a couple of days later, stuff my mailings for Sept. 1st, and get them in the mail on the 5th (Labor Day weekend messed me up a little here).

Overall, I'd day that I send out about 275 mailings with the "new" envelopes. I go into the office on the 6th and 3 are returned to me saying that they need $.13 more postage. I am like, "What the heck...?" I really can't figure it out. I go in the next day, I have 35 more that were returned. Crap. One of them has a helpful sticker that says, "Items of mail wider than 6 1/8" require $.42 postage." Are you friggin kidding me. So, honestly, why the crap does Office Depot not have 6" by 9" envelopes in stock, but has this ridiculously sized envelope that just serves to bend you offer when you try to mail things in it!!

I wait a couple of days and look for more being returned to me. I only get one more, so I figure that some of the receiving post offices must have just allowed the mailings to get through. Okay. Believing this to be the case, I drop by the Severn post office with the 40-somewhat mailings that I needed to add postage on to re-mail. For kicks, I ask the guy what most likely happened to the other 235 that I didn't get back.

"Oh...well, the receivers will get a notice that they owe postage and have to go to the post office to pay it." "Are you friggin kidding me? That's not good." "That's not good, is it?" "..." Right...man, USPS can make you want to go crazy...hmmmm...

So, basically, I sent out a marketing piece that has really turned out to be a $.13 bill for hundreds of people. Great...good business. For those of you who can't understand the tragedy and/or the drama of this situation, you are probably the better for it.

Meanwhile, I am busting my butt with my clients. I did have my first transaction to fall apart today, but he is an investor that will buy something else, and I picked up a new client (wow, that's a story for another time, too :) ) by day's end, so I'm not stressing.

Lots of love and all that,
Peace,
Greg

continuing my run

2006-09-06T23:30:00.000-05:00

So, I ended August with a 4th ratified contract for the month (I was Rookie of the Month again, a title I like and detest at the same time), and I just got my first ratified contract of September. More importantly, the never-ending $70,000 transaction that was supposed to settle on August 15th finally settled today...thank the Lord. Seriously, my hourly wage for the transaction has to be about $20/hour, which is pitiful for a Realtor (think about it, with the number of hours of work that a Realtor doesn't get paid for, you want to be above $100/hour for "transaction hours" no matter how small the deal). I could say more, but I don't know who actually reads this thing, so I'm going to have to stifle some opinions. Don't get me wrong...I am not sore towards anyone involved, but there were just some things that happened that really shouldn't have happened that made this transaction more difficult to navigate than was reasonable in my opinion.

Well, hmmm. I watched Million Dollar Listing for the first time last night, and that left a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Why? Well, 1, Realtors getting paid for one transaction what I haven't gotten paid for the 11 I've done/am doing in the last 5 months. But, 2, Realtors that come off caring more about putting transactions together than they do on really caring about their client's best interests. I think "2" is probably more a result of Bravo's editing, but it definitely perpetuates some of the negative Realtor stereotypes that are out there. I go back to one of my central axioms in this business: if you care about money in this business, you will get money, but likely not as much as you could get otherwise; if you care about working in the best interests of your clients, the money will come exponentially. I have seen this work for me already, as 4 of my last 5 transactions were referrals and/or repeat business. If you really care about people, they can tell, and they will help grow your business by telling others about you.

Anyway, it's late. I'm gone.

Peace,
Greg

visiting the rents

2006-08-23T18:17:00.000-05:00

So, my mom had surgery a couple of weeks back, and I finally got a chance to get up here (New Jersey) to visit her for a couple of days. I need to be back on Friday for a mandatory full-day rental transaction certification training class, so it will be a short trip, but it's enough.

Back in Maryland, I'm in this weird place where I have 4 transactions moving toward settlement with more than one of them on somewhat shaky ground. Such an odd profession: you can bust your butt earning your paycheck, and then not get it in the end even if you were successful in your job. But, it's the nature of the beast. Honestly, in my opinion, the unlimited earning potential makes up for that.

I was talking to a friend of mine from college about things. Trying to help a buyer continue to buy a house even when problems arise (and they always, always arise on some level) can be a rather precarious place. On one level, I need to help my client keep the issues in perspective and stay with what they are committed to do. On the other, I need to actually listen and empathize with their concerns. On top of all that, the fact that I don't get paid if settlement doesn't happen looms over both of us as the elephant in the room.

After the many hours of seminars I've been to, I have come to be in agreement with those speakers that encourage the Realtor not to "take sides" as much as possible. I need to represent the buyer. As part of that, I need to constantly remind them what their major goals are, even if some of the minor ones are not going to be met in the process. I also need to be very clear what their options are and the possible outcomes of taking the different paths they can take. And, after that, I need to just let the chips fall where they may. As any parent has learned with a child, the stronger I appear to be forcing something to happen, the more resistance I am likely to meet. I tell my clients a lot that I can't (and won't) be any more committed to them buying/selling a house at any moment than they are. It's not healthy for me and it's problematic for the transaction.

Not really sure what all of this amounts to...just thoughts skipping along my brain right now.

Thanks for reading.

Peace,
Greg

2006-08-14T14:52:00.000-05:00

I got an e-mail from a woman who was looking to become a Realtor with her boyfriend and she wanted some basic advise...here was my reply:

To answer the gist of your questions, I would just say that you need to know that real estate is not a get rich quick profession. I had experience in networking as a campus pastor (I raised my own budget) and sales and client-work as a personal trainer, and these experiences have proven invaluable in helping me get a jump start on most other new agents. Plus, I invested about $2,000 in education and seminars after getting my license to really help me learn the business. Overall, when you add licensing costs, the extra educational expenses, and marketing, I probably spent about $6K before I made a dime.

This might be something that one of you want to jump into, having the cushion of the other’s salary until you both can be in the business, but I don’t know your situation. The standard is that you want 6 months salary saved up before you switch…I didn’t have that, but my parents loaned me some money and I had my wife’s salary to support us until she just quick last week.

Where are you? If you wanted to meet at some point in person, I’d be open to that.

I hope this answered most of your questions, but don’t hesitate to ask me some more specific ones if I missed anything.

Peace,
Greg

In other news, two sales last Monday (one that still has some wrinkles to be ironed out before the contract is fully ratified), and a couple of more in line over the next couple of weeks. I am getting my newsletter together today, so I need to run.

-Greg

2 sales, 2 new clients, and the first day of school :)

2006-08-10T13:49:00.000-05:00

So, Sara is at her first day of medical school today, which is kind of fun. :) Yesterday was our 3rd anniversary, and we were able to celebrate both with a few of her new classmates (and one other husband tagging along for the medical school ride) last night.

Meanwhile, I had two ratified contracts on Monday, and two new clients over the past 3 days, so I am busier than ever...plus a meeting at 6pm tonight that I have a couple of hours of prep work to do beforehand. Hence, because of that (and because no new rants are pressing on my mind), I'm gonna have to run.

Peace,

Greg

faxing...faxing...faxing...

2006-08-03T18:59:00.000-05:00

So, fax machines can be one of the most annoying parts of being a Realtor. I am waiting like an hour for 66-pages to magically appear in another place so I can get my little confirmation, which assures me that this hunk of machinery didn't decide to screw up from page 20 on just to let me know that it took itself 40+ more pages of "processing" and "memory in use" to figure out that it didn't do it's job right. Ah, technology.

So, having 66-pages to send is both a blessing (yeah, potential to get money) and a curse (boo, sitting at the office at 8pm waiting for a stupid fax to go through). It's all a potential major frustration because the contract may not be accepted, so you just spent an entire day carefully crafting 66-pages of what is ultimately only good for the recycle bin.

Anyway, I think we are on page 40 by now, so we are almost there...

Peace,
Greg

yo yo yo

2006-07-27T14:42:00.000-05:00

So, I should probably stop pointing out my posting irregularity as of late. It is what it is, and it will change. :)

However, not sure what to write about the last week. One of the two clients that submitted offers on the same property has had their offer accepted (and the other one still trusts me, which is good), and we are moving forward to an August 15th settlement.

Meanwhile, gotten a couple of more buyers/buyer leads. One guy is real cool...looking to buy in Russett in Laurel. Unfortunately, he co-signed a loan for his sister, which is killing his credit, but he will still be able to buy where he wants. He contacted me off of some rental marketing that I do.

The other is a couple from church whose parents I talked to back in the day. I am meeting with them at my place tonight.

Well, Chris (the lender dude I work with) is coming over in 30 minutes so we can go over the small pile of leads from the past 5 months and discuss follow-up, so I should probably get ready.

Peace,
Greg

back in the thick of it...

2006-07-18T15:54:00.000-05:00

So, my trip away was great (for a complete report from a poker standpoint, click on the MD-Poker link on the side and look for Trip Reports), but not worth mentioning too much here.

Business-wise, things have been a little crazy. I get home to find a For Sale sign 4 doors down from me. I look up the price, and it looks like a solid investment opportunity in my neighborhood. With that, I call my three investors that are looking in the area on Sunday.

Yesterday, I show the property to investor #1, and they put in an offer. While we are finishing up, investor #2 arrives at my house. They sit on the couch while I finish up, and then we look at other properties in the area.

Investor #3 comes by today, and we look at the same property, plus another property on my block (a HUD home). He wants to put in an offer on the HUD home, as the owner-occupant priority period ended (basically, for most HUD homes, no one can submit an offer on a property except an owner-occupant for the first 10 days). However, we get to my place, the HUD home received several bids yesterday, and a "winner" has been awarded already. So, now, investor #3 wants to put in an offer on the other home.

So, I have two clients that both submit offers in on the same property...very weird situation. For my second client, it was hard because I couldn't tell him anything about the first offer. For my first client, they just need to trust that I didn't tell the second client anything. Neither of them fully listened to my advice, and both offers are good in their own way, so it's going to be interesting to see what happens...

Meanwhile, I met with a new buyer client today, so that was fun.

Okay...time to go.

Peace,
Greg

going away

2006-07-12T17:09:00.000-05:00

So, the wifey and I have two trips away planned. First, three days in AC starting tomorrow. This way we get some quality time in before she gets sucked into the black hole that is med school.

Anyway, learned the hard way about HUD properties today...would be too tedious to go into here. Besides that, the sellers of our home hired a roofer to fix our roof, so that was finally done this morning. Now onto addressing the damage that is already done to the ceiling of our kitchen.

Well, lots to get done before heading out tomorrow morning!

Have a great weekend!

Peace,
Greg

moving in...moving in...moving in... :)

2006-07-12T00:50:00.000-05:00

Man, it's harder to move into a house than an apartment, especially when your roof is leaking all the way down to your kitchen. :) So, the dining room was set up tonight, which is huge. The kitchen's been set up. The basement was organized a couple of days ago. Got all the appliances up and running (the dryer vent installation was a long process). Painted our address on our garbage cans. Set up move of the living room. However, despite some work done, my office, Sara's study, and the master bedroom are still badly in need of some "move in magic."

Professionally, fighting off the lack of motivation that comes from a disorganized office, and I'm in a little bit of a drought, but things are happening. Home inspection for my 7/20 settlement today, and new leads are trickling in a little at a time, many of them buyers for the future. The nice thing about this is that it should be setting up a windfall for Sara and me down the road...however, it can be a little stressful for right now.

Oh, I never told you. So, my picture is up in my office three times: June 2006 Top Producer of the Month; June 2006 Sales Agent of the Month; and June 2006 Rookie of the Month. It's pretty cool and a sign of how hard I worked to have the success that I had for the three months prior to this one. At the same time, I was really surprised to see how unproductive my colleagues were. I had a very good conversation with two of the top producers from our sister office (Ft. Meade and BWI are two offices that share the same office meetings and office manager) about how unimpressive most of the "competition" is. I hope that doesn't sound overtly arrogant...it's really just a statement on the real estate industry.

Anyway, time to sleep...meeting with new clients in the morning!

Peace,
Greg

Today...

2006-07-07T15:19:00.000-05:00

So, after catching up on e-mail until I posted late last night (um...this morning), I went to bed. I catch 5 hours of sleep and wake up at 9am to a couple of e-mails that I need to reply to.

I take a shower and get out the door by 10:10am, with my untied tie hanging around my neck. I get to Laurel for a 10:30am pre-settlement inspection. My buyer shows up just about on time (by my standards :)) with her mother, fresh in from California. The pre-settlement inspection went off without a hitch, and the sellers were seriously the sweetest people ever, which was great.

So, we left the property around 11am, and now we needed to get word from the title company with what the buyer had to bring the table (4th of July week was screwing everybody up...the condo association hadn't gotten documents to the lender, etc...). So, I call the title company and leave a message for the processor. At this point, the buyer had planned to go to a bank near the property, not one near the settlement, so a quick call to my beautiful "assistant" (a.k.a. "wifey") gets me a new location for the bank near the title office.

In the 30 minutes to the the bank, I make a few phonecalls, only to find out that another of my buyers (settlement date: July 20th) is way behind in getting things together in time for settlement (again, July 4th...argh), so I'm dealing with that, while my buyer and I perform a comedy routine in finding a bank because the numbers on Ritchie Highway stop and restart right where we were, and she, driving separately from me with a GPS in her car, forgot we had to go to the bank all together. Right.

So, we get to the office and the two previous settlements started late, so now we need to wait to get started. So, the 12:30pm settlement starts closer to 1pm. I get out of there at 2:20pm and (again with the help of my "assistant") get over to my Ft. Meade office around 2:40pm for a 2:30pm appt. Yikes.

Fortunately, my clients for this appt. were late, so we got out to see the one property they wanted to see, a rental in Severn. It's perfect for them, but their credit is real shaky, so who knows how that is going to work out. But, they are in touch with the property management company, so keeping fingers crossed. I really want to help this people, and it's frustrating that I have so few options for thier situation. :(

Anyway, so that wraps up around 3:45pm, and I get over to the BWI office for 4:00pm, pretty much figuring that my appt. wasn't going to show up (it was a potential new client that I set an appt. with on Monday, and she's been ducking my calls ever since), but I needed to drop off copies of the HUD-1 to the office assistant anyway, so it was worth a 10-minute trip.

Since then I've been catching up on e-mails and phone numbers and what not.

Alright...off to home...a couple of things to do at the home office and then calling it a week. :)

Peace,
Greg

P.S. Oh, and I found out today that somehow I am my office's "Top Producer of the Month," "Top Sales Agent of the Month," and "Rookie of the Month" for the month of June, so that's cool...

apologies to the faithful 2 :)

2006-07-07T03:05:00.000-05:00

Moving has destroyed my ability to remember to post on this thing daily without a problem. :)

Well, that and two settlements in a week and 4th of July stuff and seeing friends in the area now that we live here and rain coming through the bathroom roof and other stuff needing attention around the house and and and... Overall, things are good. I definitely have to be careful, because I have reverted to college hours more than I have ever in this last couple of years.

Speaking of which, that's a good rant for today... College hours. Man, 4 years of college prepared me to succeed as a Realtor...despite my mom's occasional, "So, why did we pay for that college education?", the Hamilton education I received prepared me to be a communicator and a thinker in an industry that is overrun with agents that don't do either or both of those things well. Okay...that's another rant for another time.

But, as I was getting at, college, while useful, also manages to train your body to be at its most productive between the hours of 11pm and 4am (which is just about what time it is now). Crazy. So, at your formative years of adulthood, you are trained to perform in ways that is never again going to be entirely satisfactory or ideal for the rest of your life. Blah.

So, I guess that's just a mini-rant. One day, I will grow up enough to learn how to surpass all the many distractions that exist during the day so I am not posting something like this at an ungodly hour such as this. :) But, seriously, when it gets late, and it's quiet inside and out, and nothing good's on tv, and no new e-mails are coming in, and the number of players on the poker sites has significantly decreased, and the cats are not being persistent in their quest to be pet, and there's no meals to prepare, etc...now, I can work effectively, efficiently, and attentively.

I'll get back to a more normal schedule over the upcoming weeks...

Peace,
Greg

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!

2006-07-04T12:15:00.000-05:00

Things to do, people to see...wifey's to make happy by doing the former of those two things... :)

Have a great day everyone!

Peace,
Greg

keeping busy

2006-07-03T14:59:00.000-05:00

So, here's a pic of the house, complete with the welcoming graffiti on the side. :)

Alright, two settlements this week and stuff going on.

Peace,
Greg

the letdown

2006-06-29T23:55:00.000-05:00

You know when you are working really hard toward something, and you are all excited about it and intensely focused on it. And then, it happens...and... Right. Definitely in a weird funk right now. Just a "what now" moment, you know? It'll pass...especially with business going the way it is. Two settlements next week, the ratified contract from last weekend is closing in three weeks, and another contract offer should be "out the door" in a couple of days. Meanwhile, meeting with a new client tomorrow, and have two more client-prospects that I am corresponding with.

Anyway, my rant about "professionalism" needs to happen. So, in an industry where 5% of the agents do 90% of the business, and 10% of the agents do 80% of the business, it friggin amazes me how many Realtors are hung up on this whole professional image bs. It ain't like it works for these people. I have become increasingly confused over the past few months that clients can care less about what most Realtors think is important. People want an agent that they like as a person, and that they can trust. What I'm wearing, what I'm driving, etc...bah. So, when I walk into the office to consult with a client wearing a cap, t-shirt, and jeans, who cares? Does he like me? Does he think he can trust me? If so, as long as I'm not wearing a pink tutu or a gorilla suit, I think I'll be okay.

Don't get me wrong...I understand dress code, and I understand professionalism to some extent. I'm not saying that going around dressed like a slob is okay, as long as you have a "nice personality." That's bogus. Show the clients that you have some self-respect. But, seriously, professionalism at the cost of being human, in my opinion, is actually bad business; it can be a wall that actually hinders your client-agent relationship.

Okay...that's my rant. Here's my e-mail to my office manager from Monday, as I think it will illustrate well what I am talking about:

I am sure somebody is going to complain to you about my lack of anything close to dress code today. I just want to assure you that I do take the code seriously, whether or not I agree with everything about it. Having moved this weekend, my clothes were (and are) still in boxes, and I was still extremely busy handling a number of issues related to the move. The client I met with was a referral from the ratified contract that I just got this past weekend, and he would like to follow the lead of his friends and get an investment property for himself. Based on his schedule, the rapport we had on the phone, and the "strike-while-the-iron-is-hot" factor, it seemed unwise to reschedule on him. I met with him and apologized for my dress and explained the situation and he was just happy that I was able to meet with him...and we are going out with full intention to buy a property on Wednesday.

Anyway, just wanted you to hear it straight from me, whether you heard it from somebody else or not. I know several of the other agents were complaining about it to other agents...seriously, I wish people would just ask me about it directly, but such is life, I guess.

It's late...time for bed.

Peace,
Greg

8-unit property...

2006-06-28T23:57:00.000-05:00

I spent this morning with one of my investor clients at an 8-unit property right in the heart of the historical district in "Pigtown", otherwise known as north Washington Village in Baltimore. Place needs a ton of work, but shapes up to be an incredibly sound investment if you can make the finances work on the front end. So, we'll see.

Beyond that, I never did get to posting my rant about "professionalism" yesterday, and it certainly is not happening at 1am tonight as I write this. Thus, I will leave you waiting breathlessly one more day... :)

Peace,
Greg

P.S. I love the house. Unpacking slowly but surely, and dealing with the leaks mentioned in the last post, but it feels good to be here!

greetings from Lake Weyer

2006-06-27T00:51:00.000-05:00

So, how cliche is this. First time homebuyers move into a house. Area gets horrendous rainfall of the likes not since in decades. Basement floods. Argh. Even better...first time homebuyers move into a house. Area gets horrendous rainfall of the likes not since in decades. Drip, drip, drip, drip... Right.

So, moving weekend was a bit more eventful than hoped for. I misjudged the size truck that we would need, far underestimating the sheer magnitude of 5 appliances and how much they can eat of usable truck space. :) So, that's meant a couple extra trips back to our apartment. And, then, it rained and rained and rained. Fortunately, our basement issue looks like something that we can manage. And the dripping from the ceiling is only from the vent in our bathroom; the lack of water spots on the ceiling suggest nothing more than a problem with the cover of the vent, so that should be easily addressed by someone with a huge ladder.

My dad is down helping that move, so that's been awesome. Overall, it's just great to be owning. No more screaming matches with maintenance trying to get them to fix the A/C after months...just hire someone to get it done. More responsibility is an easy price to pay for a sense of control over your living environment.

In regards to my business, one of the client couples I took out last week landed a ratified contract on Saturday, which has been awesome...and, then, I met with a friend of theirs who is looking to follow their lead today. My meeting with him today went well, and I can almost guarantee that it will be the inspiration of a long rant tomorrow about the stupidity of dress codes and "professional image."

But, for now, sleep is already taking control as I type.

'Night.

Peace,
Greg

settlement!!

2006-06-23T22:33:00.000-05:00

So, it's all done. I am now a homeowner. :)

But, I'm too busy to blog, as I'm packing like crazy!!

Catch ya' next week.

Peace,
Greg

missed yesterday

2006-06-22T10:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I took yesterday off from blogging, but I'm back. These last two days have been a little crazy, and the next two promise to be more so. Went all around South-Southwest Baltimore on Tuesday night, and my clients found a place that they like, and now we are just working out the financing before getting an offer in (should be doing that this afternoon).

Yesterday was the tiring day. Went to the new place, only to find green graffiti all over the side wall of the property. Blah. Actually, Sara and I both kind of individually expected this to happen, but not so soon. Meanwhile, we go to go in the property, only to remember that my Supra key doesn't work until 9am, and it was 7:45am when we got there. Doh.

So, I go off to hunt down some breakfast from Safeway. We spend a little time meeting our neighbor across the street (Marvin) and his two-month-old puppy (Diamond) and wait. Like every 5 minutes somebody would drive or walk by and say, "You buy that?" We'd be like, "Yeah." And then they would respond in one of two ways. The locals would say, "This is a rough neighborhood." And we'd be like, "Yeah, but it's getting a lot better, right?" And they'd smile and say "Yeah," or say nothing.

The other response was from the investors and contractors working in the area. They would just look at us, and look at the house, and look at us, and say, "Nice place." Very weird.

Besides that, two people came by to buy some drugs off of us (doh!), but we kindly informed them that they had come to the wrong place.

Finally, at 9am we get in. Sara gets to sealing the grout and cleaning the blinds, while I take care of some business before starting to help with the blinds. Our HVAC guy shows up and that work finally starts (I guess better late than never, right?), and the Comcast people show up. So, our house is crowded.

At around 11:30am, Billy and Joanna show up for our lunch plans. Billy was one of my roommates in Jerusalem 6 years ago, and we've managed to keep in touch over time. He got married 8 months before me and just completed seminary with his wife. The two of them are going to be church planters/pastor trainers in Uganda this upcoming Fall (and for the next 4 years). Billy is one of those people that makes a difference for the good in your life EVERY time that you talk to him...time with him is a blessing.

So, anyway, Sara shows them the house, when Bob, Sara's boss' husband and a friend of ours who has helped us out a lot through this homebuying process, shows up to help us evaluate whether we need a split box spring or not (the jury is still out on that one). Finally, around 12:30pm, we break away from the house, accomplishing very little, but learning a whole lot more about our house and neighborhood in the process.

We go to lunch on the inner harbor, which was a nice, leisurely 3 hours of okay food and good company, and then go back to the house to see how the HVAC is coming along...umm...still not much to see at that point. While I'm on the phone on a business call, Sara gets into a long conversation with some local kids trying to tell her how bad the neighborhood is, which was cute and disturbing all at once. I have a feeling that our place might become a popular thoroughfare of kids wanting cookies and just an adult that cares, but we'll see. :)

So, yes, we are not moving into utopia, but we knew that. What we saw yesterday simultaneously excites me by the change that is going on there, worries me by how much still needs to happen, scares me by the level of crime that is in the alley right by our house, and energizes me at the potential for ministering to the people there, especially the kids. But we'll see. In some way, I can't shake the feeling that God has led us to this property for more than the obvious reasons that we needed housing and it's a good investment. The interesting thing to see is how much we will be "tested" by the neighborhood. Being a young, married white couple in that area could make us a target...but it might not. Time will tell...

Anyway, so Bob's coming over to help me patch some holes in my apartment so they don't charge us like $50 a hole from our deposit, and then I have to get to the office to prepare an offer with my clients from Tuesday.

Settlement is tomorrow...hallelujah.

Peace,
Greg

For those interested, here's a link to a site about Washington Village, which Mount Clare is often considered an extension of...unfortunately, Mount Clare (otherwise known as "Pratt-Monroe") doesn't have its own site yet. :)

I'd laugh, but it hurts

2006-06-20T14:05:00.000-05:00

Man, so I failed to mention the end of Sunday evening. Sara drives home and, after 30 minutes in the car, I could barely move from the car to the apartment. So, I get inside, Sara shoves two Aleve down my throat and I'm all good.

Yesterday, I'm a bit sore...nothing crazy.

Today...holy cow. It's like I got hit by a bulldozer!! My ribs hurt when I laugh, my neck hurts when I turn, my back..., my hips..., my shoulders...ridiculous. I'm 26...I guess that's a lot farther away from 22 (the last time I was dumb enough to spend several hours hurling my body into the ground :) ) than I thought it was.

So, yes, I'm sore.

As for the job, again, taking it light. I am showing properties in Baltimore again tonight to a new client couple and I expect to have a contract submitted by day's end, so that's good. But, as for marketing and phone calls to FSBOs (For Sale By Owners) and all the other stuff I did the last two months, I'm gonna pick up again with all that after the move. So, instead of pulling the 60 hours/week I was, I am doing more like 40 for a little while. Actually, I think a 2 months of full steam ahead/1 month of a moderate pace may be a good pattern to get into so I don't burn out...but we'll see.

Speaking of the move, I spoke with the HVAC guy doing the work on our property last night, and he hadn't started yet. Right. Just smile and breath...and smile some more.

Peace,
Greg

back in the net

2006-06-19T10:13:00.000-05:00

So, I told you last week that I got myself hooked up for an adult soccer league for the Fall. One day, I was like, "Well, I haven't played soccer goalie in over three years (actually, I thought it was only two, but my wife pointed out otherwise last night :) ), why not join a soccer team? Duh..." Anyway, so I get in a little bit over my head for starters, and then I get an e-mail from the team's organizer about a 6-6 indoor co-ed soccer league that is running on Sunday nights, and they could use a keeper. Um...okay.

So, I go for a hunt through the closets for all my goalie stuff, realizing that I have no cleats and no shin guards. Then, I go to this game last night, and Sara comes along for kicks. When we get there, I meet Pat (the organizer) and a couple more of the players. I then put my gloves on, only to realize that they have pretty much rotted. Right. We go to the "kiddie field" for some warmups, and I start diving within the first few kicks. Surprisingly, diving was the first thing that came back to me. I couldn't catch the ball for a while, and I definitely was struggling with breakaways, but I was diving well.

What surprised me wasn't that my goalie skills were terrible, but my cardio vascular fitness was just awful. After 15 minutes of warmup, I was spent. I took 5 minutes to catch my breath, and then got another 5 minutes of warmup before I had to stop again. What a great former personal trainer I am...this was going to be fun...

So, the game starts. The other team really had us outmatched talent-wise. They had a few players that we ripping shots from about mid-field with surprising accuracy (remember, we were indoor, so mid-field is only about 30 yards). In the first 5 minutes, I made some pretty sweet diving saves and, in my head, I was like, "Heck, yeah...I'm gonna get like 20 shut outs in a row!" Then, the other foot dropped.

First, the other team seemed to realize that I was too in control of the net for them to score on me from far off. Second, I got tired. And, third, my team started get severely out hustled and outplayed. We had a 1-0 lead, but then it was quickly 2-1, on shots I couldn't do anything about. We had a sweet goal to make it 2-2, but it was all down hill after that. With two minutes left in the first half (24 minute halfs), the other team had a sweet cross that I couldn't cover in time. Then, with 30 seconds left, a guy ripped a shot right at me that I thought was going low, but it knuckled high...so, while I was going down, it was going up, and it was 4-2 just like that.

In the second half, I made a couple of nice saves, but the other team scored 5 (all of them shots taken with 5 yards of the goal), and we scored none. I learned that I really needed to relearn how to come out and dive at the ball on one-on-one situations...cause last night I was more just falling, than anything. So, things to work on. Beyond that, I learned how out of shape I am, so I am hoping the next few weeks will improve on that.

In other news, my AC trip last week was an unfortunate mix of unlucky hands, not hitting draws, and a few costly mistakes on my part. So, last time I was there, I won $411 in cash games, and this time I lost $445 (and a couple of great reads prevented me from losing another $200). I also played a couple of $50 tourneys to no avail, but I had fun with the guys I was with and the other players I met.

As far as real estate goes, I made this week real light with our move on Friday coming up. I will be in Baltimore tomorrow night with a client-couple, but that's about it...the rest is office stuff, and making sure my three upcoming settlements over the next two week go off without a hitch.

So, that's that. Happy Monday, everyone!

Peace,
Greg

8 days...

2006-06-15T14:59:00.000-05:00

So, the HVAC for our place just got a hold of the seller to make the repairs. Um...right. 8 days. So, he's leaving himself 4 to do a big job, and the sellers will need for to do the finishing touches (drywall, etc.). Seriously, out of all the transactions that I've done, this has to be the one with the most issues, and the fact that I am more emotional involved with this one than all the others doesn't help. Again, 8 days.

In other news, I am heading up to AC this evening with some friends (hence, the picture of the Showboat Casino up top). I'll take in some $1-$2 NL action and we're playing in the $50 tourney at the Showboat tomorrow morning. My bankroll has ballooned these past four months to just under $1500, so I'm take $550 with me, an amount that I am comfortable losing if the cards turn on me. I'm actually due for a couple of horrendous bad beats, as I've been running pretty hot, although that's not to say that everything's gone my way lately (two nights ago I was playing some $20 sit-n-gos on-line and I got knocked out of two of them when my K-K lost to A-Q, and both time the A-Q boated up...pretty sick). Still, nothing horrendously bad has happened. Overall, I'm excited about the trip. It's really a going away trip for Rusty, as he's moving to Cincy in a couple of weeks.

Well, let me go try to actually be productive in the next 90 minutes before I head off. I'll be back late tomorrow night, so you won't hear from me until Monday, most likely. This weekend, I'm scheduled to take a renter around to properties in Odenton, but nothing else is really going on...besides, of course, packing.

8 days... LOL. Phone ringing...

Peace,
Greg

9 days is a long time

2006-06-14T17:49:00.000-05:00

My own settlement 9 days away. As surprising as it may be considering how often I have bounced around since college, transition is something I don’t deal with all that well. As I indicated in the last couple of posts, staying on task and staying alert and “happy” (“happy” is in quotes here because it’s the best word I can think of…I really mean some weird mix of peaceful, joyous, calm, motivated, etc., but “happy” will have to do) can be a challenge for me in times like this…not sure why.

Still, I am excited…which is the weird thing. My client that had a offer rejected on a property on Saturday and who was going to go find a different one today ended up having second thoughts for lots of reasons…he would have been rushing, which isn’t a good idea when you are throwing around lots of cash. J So, that was disappointing, but not crushing, and I don’t blame him…we’ll keep in touch. Still, after having two contracts ratified in one week, part of me is very uncomfortable that I have not had one in the last two…which is extremely silly. To expect to keep up a pace like that your first year in the business is like a 12-year-old in Little League expecting to get a hit every time up to bat (to no surprise, I was like that J ). I have two serious buyers that I will be showing properties to over the next two weeks, a couple solid leads on sellers that seem to be pleased with what they have heard of my marketing program, and a dozen more leads that I am currently helping in the early stages of their processes. So, things are far from bleak. I just need to move so I can get back into a good rhythm of marketing and business-building.

In other news, I just verbally committed to a soccer league in the fall, which should be a blast. I was a keeper in high school and throughout intramurals in college, and I am very excited to get back at it. I warned the contact that I will be pretty rusty coming out of the gate, but he seemed okay with that…they are pretty desperate for a keeper. My first practice with the team is June 25^th. J

Alright…time to go home.

Peace,
Greg

chaos in my apartment

2006-06-13T14:35:00.000-05:00

You know how when the place that you live is in chaos, it's hard to really get things done. It's like trying to study for finals week when your dorm room is a wreck and your roommate is smoking up (no, of course not...my roommate never smoked up...).

Anyway, so staying on task is a challenge right now, but I'm getting done what I need to somehow. :) Just can't wait for this move to be over.

Well, I just had a 30-minute conversation with a seller that's put me a little behind in preparing for my 5:30pm meeting with new buyer clients of mine, so I'm off.

Peace,
Greg

finding a rhythm

2006-06-12T22:01:00.000-05:00

So, for some reason, I felt like posting this crazy old picture of me from that a member of the church I grew up in posted on-line when I was valedictorian. LOL. My wife loves to make this picture appear in odd places, so I figured I'd jump the gun on her this time, cause I know it was just a matter of time before she put it in a comment. :)

Okay, just had to break to get my kitten's butt out of my face (again, neediest cat ever), and now for a quick rundown of the last three days.

So, my client that I "struck out" with last Thursday calls me Saturday morning. When he called, my wife and I were 30-minutes into the movie Cars at an appreciation event that our lender was throwing for his clients (he rented out an entire theatre for a 9:30am showing). Pretty sure I knew what was coming, I called as soon as the movie let out and, sure enough, he found some properties in a different part of Baltimore that he was interested in seeing that afternoon (before he was going out of town on Sunday before he goes overseas soon). Normally, I'd say, "When can we meet up this week?" However, this time, with my client's tight timeframe, it made sense to go, and I end up trekking my poor wife all the way from Frederick (where the movie was) to Baltimore for 4 hours of real estate stuff. In the end, we got a good offer in on a property, but it wasn't designed for a competitive situation and it turns out that another offer was in that won out. Eh...now that we have an idea of exactly what the client wants, we are going to give it one more try on Wednesday of this week...

Saturday night was poker and Sunday was a mix of time with Sara and packing. Today was getting caught up even more around my home office before a home inspection and a guy stopped by about health insurance, since we are losing Sara's company's benefits at the end of July.

Anyway, Sara's asleep, so I need to buckle down and polish some things off before I can follow suit.

Peace,
Greg

Blogger down last night

2006-06-09T12:40:00.000-05:00

So, Blogger was down late last night, so I couldn't post...sorry for all of my two loyal fans (up two from last month, so that's a start :) ).

Well, yesterday, I struck out for the first time when working with a buyer. But I guess 8 in a row was a pretty good streak. I showed my client, a military guy who is going overseas and was looking for an investment/second home of sorts, about 12 properties, and there was really nothing in the price range he wanted with the potential he wanted, and our timeline was too short to be able to really work with him anymore. So, that's that. A little frustrating, but a good guy, and I feel like I provided him with good service. He may not have bought anything now, but who knows what the future holds for our client-agent relationship, so I don't at all see it as a waste of time from a business standpoint (I mean, seriously, 12 properties for one client who doesn't buy is hardly anything compared to a lot of agents do), and it definitely wasn't a waste of time from a personal standpoint as he is a really nice, interesting guy.

Anyway, let me get some things done, and then off to the wifey's company picnic (missed it the last two years, and my marriage is riding on me being there this year :)).

Have a great weekend,
Greg

the AACAR ho-down & watching what I write :)

2006-06-07T18:08:00.000-05:00

More and more lately I have found myself starting to write one thing, and then checking myself and writing something else. The need to maintain client confidentiality in the transactions I am in the middle of, making sure I don’t offend my co-workers, and being careful not to undermine any piece of anyone’s business (including my own J) means that it is somewhat impossible for me to write these posts without a pretty firm filter. I apologize for that.

Anyway, today was the annual Anne Arundel County Association of Realtors convention, and it was more bizarre than I could ever have imagined. 6 hours of continuing education classes which ranged from unimpressive and impractical to entertaining and immediately useful was scattered around several hours of eating, Realtor small talk (which is nothing like any small talk you’ve ever been a part of J), and vendors pushing their products by offering tons of free giveaways, utilizing the attractiveness of their younger female staff, and a wide variety of other gimmicks.

Basically, imagine what would happen if, in a relatively confined space, you put a thousand Realtors together with a hundred title and settlement lawyers and staff, a hundred lenders and staff, a few dozen home inspectors and contractors, and a random handful of marketing gimmick “experts”. I mean, seriously, can you get more type-A personalities in one room?! Throw in free alcohol for the last 90 minutes, and you have a close approximation of my day. Yes…exactly.J

Still, as I said above, several parts of what I learned will be immediately useful in my business, so that’s good. Wow…it’s 7pm already. I’ve got more to do, but I can do it at my home office, so I’m out of here.

Peace,
Greg

P.S. Back to Baltimore tomorrow…

post now while I have the chance...

2006-06-06T10:06:00.000-05:00

Meeting this morning. Home inspection at noon. Showing properties in Baltimore again late this evening. So, a good day. I also finally got my car back yesterday, which makes life a good bit easier.

So, real quick: my pet peeve with the Century 21 commercial. Realtor and client in client’s new house. Paraphrase of client: “You are the greatest Realtor ever. We must have seen 27 houses.” Paraphrase of agent: “Actually, it was 41.” Cue cheesy music and “Century 21” hits the screen, as if they are the greatest because their Realtors show 41 houses. Gag.

Seriously, there are agents that show you 41 houses. There are agents that will show you 121. If you want that out of an agent, call someone else…actually, I’ll help you if you want me to. J

Again, I fear I am being a little too harsh here, but please hear what I am saying. If you think that I feel this way because I am lazy and don’t work my butt off for my clients, you would be dead wrong. Here’s what I wrote to a client a couple of weeks back:

“In my experience and with the training I've received, I've learned that there are two ways to buy properties:

One, we could spend several days going to look at dozens of properties with no clear idea of what our objectives are. We will likely buy one or more in the long run, but I suggest that this is not an efficient use of time or energy for either of us. Also, when you do this, you risk not getting the properties you eventually decide that you want because of the nature of how quick the…market moves.

Two, we do a lot of research by looking at the listings on line (this was why I originally suggested waiting until June 5th to go see anything). We pick out our best options “on paper," and go to see these options with full intention of making an offer on one or two of them the day we do this "tour". The most properties I have ever shown a buyer before they put in an offer is twelve (and this all in one day), and that is because I work hard with the buyer to narrow down their options with them before we ever set foot in a single one.

Now, I understand if you might want to spend a couple of hours or so driving through the areas that we are talking about one day, and then go back to do the tour I am suggesting another day...that would work for me. However, I would really recommend against just going out to see some properties on several different days before we put in an offer on anything. If this is really what you want from a Realtor, I would be more than happy to find a Realtor for you who has a different way of going about things than I do.

Again, I do want to reiterate that I have no intention of rushing you at all. We will go out to tour properties and buy whenever you are ready...I just want us to do the majority of our homework before we hit the road, and not after. If there is a list of questions that you would like me to ask about certain properties to help narrow down our search, I would be more than happy to call all the listing agents of these properties and do this research with you.

I really think that I can be a big asset to you, and I hope you understand that, while my method of helping clients buy properties does serve to protect our time, I also feel that it provides you with top-level service. There are many drawbacks to seeing dozens of properties over the course of a few weeks that I would be more than happy to discuss with you further.

Peace,
Greg”

There…so I’ve said my peace. Now, I hope you all feel just as ill over that stupid commercial as I do. J And, if you don’t, imagine driving around in a car on a several hot days looking at house after house when you can’t even remember the house that you saw three houses ago. In my opinion, every house that you see after 5, makes it exponentially harder to have clarity in the home buying process…hence, why I don’t think I’ll ever show more than 12 to the same client.

But, again, that’s just me…it’s worked extremely well so far, and my clients love it, so I’ll stick with it until I see a need to change it.

Peace,
Greg

people are "funny"

2006-06-05T15:33:00.000-05:00

Funny, strange. Funny, haha. Funny, odd. Funny, fickle. Just funny. People are "funny".

In all of my professions since college, I have had to do "marketing" of some sort that relied heavily on the people I already knew. As a short-term overseas pastor and a campus pastor, I raised my own support primarily through friends, family, and acquaintances from all stages of my life. As a personal trainer, my clients were great friends of mine, but also my lifeblood. Now, real estate is kind of a mix of the two, relying on people who know you to refer you clients, while becoming great friends with the people who pay your salary.

And through it all, I can't even count the number of surprises. Those who you think will totally "get it" complain about everything you do and want you to "take me off your list". Those who you barely know love hearing from you and respond to everything you e-mail/mail them with best wishes and uncanny support. I send out e-mails to a list of around 150 e-mail addresses of friends and acquaintances on a roughly bi-weekly basis, and I get 5 encouraging responses, two complaints about what I wrote (one was about the fact that I mail merge my e-mails even though it's not exactly a "personal e-mail", and the other was about my auto-reply that is sent whenever you e-mail me), and one "take me off" demand. (Honestly, I'd rather the last of those three than the second.)

Whatever...again, people are funny. I'd write more about the "auto-reply" scenario I find myself in (and I've also been meaning to write about my major pet peeve with the latest Century 21 commercial), but my car is ready to be picked up from the shop and I need to get to two stores before the night is out...just material for next time, I guess. :)

Peace,
Greg

another day in Baltimore :)

2006-06-02T14:39:00.000-05:00

Seriously, I have learned more about Baltimore properties in the last 3 months than I ever wanted to know. J This morning, Karl, a budding investor I know, and I drove around the different areas, just looking for some properties that he could rehab and turn over throughout the next three months. We started in Federal Hill, went down into Morrell Park, explored Washington Village, and then wandered through Mount Clare, Southwest, Carrollton Ridge, Mill Hill, Western, Bon Secour, Franklin Square, Poppleton, Lexington Terrace, and Union Square…believe it or not, these are all within 2 miles of each other. J

So, in the end, it was actually quite informative and interesting, for me just as much as it was for my client. Back at the office, we ran some “market updates” using the multiple listing service, and there are some distinct possibilities that Karl is going to spend the weekend mulling over with a business partner of his.

Meanwhile, Sara and I are going to spend this evening with friends picking out appliances.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Peace,
Greg

sleepy

2006-06-01T16:05:00.000-05:00

This heat is knocking me out…that, and the stress (good and bad) of two ratified contracts, car troubles on both the cars, getting closer and closer to my own settlement, and having no A/C in the ridiculous excuse of an apartment complex that Sara and I can’t wait to move out of.

Meanwhile, our crazy, 6-month old kitten hasn’t recovered from the three days that Sara and I were away. Now, our cats have an automatic-cleaning litterbox, an automatic-filtering water dish, and an automatic feeder, so they were taken care of by the wonders of technology crossed with pet pampering. Still, our kitten has this ridiculous need to be pet 18 hours a day, especially when it comes to Sara. Over the last two nights, this ball of furr that I simultaneously am delighted with, frustrated by, and fascinated over has woken me up at least ten times in his attempts to get the comatose, sleeping beauty next to me to pet him. And, anyone who knows me, knows how hard I sleep, so the kitten is doing a lot to wake me up. J I keep telling Sara that we need to lock Sambuca (that’s his name, although Sara insists that his full name is Sambuca Tequila, but we usually just call him Buca) out of the bedroom at night because he’s a lunatic, and she says, “Awwww, but I feel bad. And, besides, he lets us sleep through the night and just starts waking me up at 4am.” Right…”through the night” and “4am” aren’t mutually exclusive. My bad. :/ Sara is not the overly compassionate type…except when it comes to our furrballs…

Anyway, so the long and the short of my rant is that I’m feeling slightly worn down…can’t believe it’s Thursday already. I’m showing an investor around Baltimore City tomorrow, so let me get prepared for that.

Peace,
Greg

buying a home...

2006-05-31T23:20:00.000-05:00

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

2006-05-30T18:09:00.000-05:00

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

2006-05-26T00:52:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-05-25T17:55:00.000-05:00

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

2006-05-24T07:56:00.000-05:00

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

2006-05-23T13:55:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-05-22T16:02:00.000-05:00

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 :)

2006-05-19T12:44:00.000-05:00

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

2006-05-18T11:33:00.000-05:00

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

2006-05-17T09:28:00.000-05:00

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

2006-05-16T15:05:00.000-05:00

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

2006-05-15T12:10:00.000-05:00

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... :)

2006-05-12T11:22:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-05-09T12:57:00.000-05:00

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