Idaho Real Estate >> ID Real Estate Specialist

Meet two people with hearts as BIG AS TEXAS.  Judy from my office and Bob from another office made their sellers very, very happy and did what very few Realtors even think of doing. I hope this warms your heart liked it warmed mine.

I asked Judy from my office how things were going and she said she was doing well and just had one of her "Career Listings" sell.  In our office we call homes that have been listed for a long, long time career listings, LOL.   She went on to tell me this home was vacant and had a lot of showings over the last several months with no offers.

Judy decided to take the bulls by the horn and spent $600 of her own money to rent furniture to "Stage" this home.   Low and behold if she didn't receive an offer the seller accepted within 3 days after staging it!  My hat is off to Judy for being so proactive.  Instead of complaining about the market she did something about it.

It turned out Judy's seller was worse off than what Judy had thought.  By selling her sellers home she saved them from a pretty big financial disaster. The sellers were on the verge of receiving a notice of default.  Judy didn't know this at the time, she just wanted to get the home sold.

I heard of another great story a little over a year ago when another Realtor that is not part of our office did something pretty remarkable.   Turns out Bob had a floor call and went to list an elder lady's home.  This lady had a lot of "Stuff" to put it mildly.  The home sat on the market for over 5 months with just a few showings but nothing serious.  Bob finally decided to help this lady that lived on social security.  Bob rented a storage unit and got a lot of his sellers ‘stuff" into the storage unit and had a friend of his stage the home with what furniture and belongings were left in the home.  After doing this Bob received an acceptable offer on his client's home within 2 weeks.  Bob figured the cost to rent the storage shed for the time needed and the time to move the "stuff" was a total of $350 out of pocket expense.  His client's family placed his client in a retirement center and what items were not sold that were in the storage shed were taken to "Good Will" by Bob after he requested permission from his client.

Judy and Bob have my respect for stepping up to the plate and have a heart as big as Texas for doing what they did for their sellers.  I have to say I have never done anything as great for my sellers as these two did.  But I guarantee you when the opportunity arises I hope I can be a good enough human being to step up to the plate.

I think Judy and Bob will get a few referrals.

Markets will come and markets will go.  One thing is guaranteed is that "this too shall pass" and a different real estate market will emerge and possibly by the end of the year but no one knows for sure.  Every shift or change in the real estate market creates different opportunities.  The key is to identify what those opportunities are and capitalize on them. 

The recent stock market correction is just that...a correction.  It was way oversold for no rational reason. This correction has simply brought it back to where it needs to be.  The foreclosure fallout just caused the stock market to correct.  It would have corrected eventually, I just needed reason.  

There are opportunities developing in this market right now.

Get past negative news.  There has been a lot of news lately about the sub-prime fallout and the affect on the national economy.  I recently wrote that the sub-prime collapse is a good thing.  Buyers are now being forced to qualify for their mortgage loan by coming up with a 3, 5 or 10% down payment.

1) Buyers that cannot qualify to purchase a home will become renters and that is good for landlords.  Certain areas with a large amount of foreclosures will see stronger rental markets. 

2) Speaking of landlords.  Some great opportunities are and will be coming up with the foreclosure market the way it is.  You may have to bid on a dozen or more properties before you buy a "Good" foreclosure but if you are patient, the rewards will be there. Save your hard earned commissions and be prepared to purchase some bargain real estate. Some will wait fearing the bottom has not hit.  I don't know where fear benefited too many real estate investors. Wait and the opportunity may be lost.

3) The high number of foreclosures will not have the impact on the economy that the media would like us to believe.  Keep in mind these outstanding loans that are in foreclosure are insured and beneficiaries on those deeds of trust will receive a large part of their money back on defaulted loans through the mortgage insurance.

4) Be creative.  I guarantee you that open minded and creative Realtors will reap much larger benefits than their competition by counseling with sellers about alternative ways to sell their home.  Educate yourself about what can and cannot be done with your seller's equity.  Can the seller carry a 2^nd mortgage or can an all-inclusive deed of trust be used to make the sellers home easier to sell?  If you can, you may not only be a hero to your seller but it will help your year-end numbers.

5) Financed commissions are overlooked and it surprises me.  Would it hurt you to have $300, $500, or more per month coming in on each transaction every month? By carrying your commission with payments that include the same interest rate the seller is receiving from payments on his/her equity you are making a good return on your money.  Many Realtors in the 80's were receiving up to $3,000/month in carried commissions which at the time included 10-14% interest.  In this market 6-8% interest on seller carried financing is possible which is the same rate you would earn on any commission you carry.

Look at your own market and analyze what is happening.  Look for opportunities in whatever form they may come.

Is money really a friend of yours?  We read a lot about it.  We have to earn it, spend it, save it, learn to manage it, pay taxes with it, and the list goes on and on.  Reminds me of the theme song for The Apprentice; Money, Money, Money.  We all yearn for it and work hard for it.

Yes I realize money is a big part of our lives and a necessity.  We can't live without it and many of us can't live with it very well. 

Many things have taken place in my life that make me realize that money is simply a part of life.  It does not control me nor is it a god to me.  I had a couple of reminders lately that reinforced what money is and what it is not.  I also had two virtues reinforced.

Patience- I was driving to Walmart the other day and being the impatient type A person I am I drive into the parking lot and was frustrated because there was not a parking space close to the door. My blood pressure was also rising because I had to wait for so many people coming in and out of the front door.  I finally had to park a good 50-60 yards from the front door (Imagine that!).  Just as soon as I pulled into my parking spot a van with handicap license plates plates pulled up.  I decided to just sit there and watch them.  I looked at my watch when the driver pulled into the parking lot.  A large man got out and open the van side door.  Eventually he got his wife that was on oxygen into a wheel chair and down to the paved lot.  It literally took this man and his wife 12 minutes just from the time they parked to the time it took them to make it to the front door of Walmart! 

I sat there embarrassed and I asked God to forgive me for my impatience and intolerance with people when I didn't even have an appointment that day!  I wonder how much money that couple would give for that lady to have her health back.  We seem to take our health for granted until we loose it.

Love - I was waiting for my mom recently at the ER we took her to last week.  In the waiting room of the hospital I read an article that mentioned a commercial I have yet to see but would love to see.  The writer said that the commercial started with a little girl cutting the hair off of all her dolls and putting the hair into a large container.  The next scene shows the little girl giving the hair to a cancer patient at a hospital.  The writer said she started to cry when she saw that commercial.  I can only imagine.  What could many of us learn from that little girl?

I needed both the of those reminders.  When I get impatient I take a big breath and remember that man and his wife.  When I feel a little greed, I remember that little girl.

The reason some Realtos flourish in changing markets is that they change with it.  They discover a need that needs to be filled or they discover a new way of marketing themselves or their listings.  No one will deny that our market has changed. Successful Realtors will change with it.  This is a story of one of the greatest salesman I have ever heard of that found a need and filled it. 

I have written posts before and mentioned national real estate trainer Howard Brinton.  Howard has had some awesome interviews in the past but there is a few that stand out in my mind.  One story I heard back in the mid 90's stuck with me for many reasons and I have never forgotten the impact it had on my life.

Howard interviewed Ron Campbell of Albuquerque, New Mexico http://www.sherlockhomesnm.com/ .  Ron was raised by a father that was a car salesman and Ron learned at an early age how to sell and boy did he.  He put himself through college by selling RV's like travel trailers and Motor Homes.  He continued selling RV's after college and branched out big time with something like 5 stores.  Tough times hit in the mid 80's and the oil business going in the toilet left Albuquerque in economic turmoil.  Ron's RV business went south due to no fault of his own and filed a 20+ million dollar bankruptcy.

All Ron knew is that he could sell and had to make some money fast.  He obtained his real estate license and started selling homes.  He always had a creative financing mind on him and decided to use it in real estate.  He asked a local Realtor if he could advertise one of his listings where the seller was offering seller financing.  The listing agent agreed and Ron ran an ad similar to this.

4 bdrm, 2 bath home

1400 square ft.

$5,000 dn.

$450/month

Call now

His phone ran off the hook and he had multiple offers in a market where few homes were selling. He sold that home the first day the ad came out.

Ron decided he had something here.  He decided to start educating sellers on the value of seller financing and he did a great job of it.  He mentions during his interview with Howard that at one time buyers were lined up in double lines outside his office at a chance to buy a home as if they were auditioning for a movie! Some days people were lined up for a block!  The way it worked he would have his buyer's agents show homes during the week and on Saturday's offers were written which Ron wrote himself.  I don't remember the numbers but I remember that in one of the toughest years in the late 80's Ron sold over 300 homes in a single year.

I used Ron's idea for awhile and it worked.  The last few years interest rates have been so low that seller financing was rare at best.  Well I got to thinking about Ron the other day and asked a widow seller of mine if she would consider owner financing on her free & clear home.  After weighing all the pluses and minuses she enthusiastically agreed.

I ran the ad:

Home with shop

½ acre lot

3 bdrm, 2 bath

Over 2,600 sq ft.

$25,000 down

$1,064/month, P&I

Call now

This isn't the whole ad in its entirety because I had the HUD Logo and APR information in the actual ad but you get the general idea.

This home had been on the market for nearly 2 months with only 2 showings.  I had 15 calls on my ad and 5 offers in the first 48 hours the ad ran!

Needless to say, my seller is thrilled and has thanked me for coming up with this creative idea.  My seller is happy, buyer is happy and I am happy to have helped my seller and a good buyer.

Many buyers just don't want to deal with banks.  There are also self employed people that are a great credit risk but are penalized by mortgage lenders which I have never understood.  These buyers are excellent candidates for seller financing.

Even if there is debt on a home there are ways to structure seller financing with Wrap-around contracts, all inclusive deeds of trusts and owner carried 2^nd deeds of trust.

Talk to your sellers and at least give them the information to think about. Have them talk to their accountant and or attorney.  In my case my seller was a recent widow and money was not an issue for her.  All she wanted was a steady income with a good rate of interest which is better than she would earn in a CD or money market fund.

Markets change and when they do successful Realtors change with it.  No one will argue that our current real estate market HAS CHANGED.  There is a market developing in seller financing that will work for some sellers. Those Realtors that educate themselves and tap into this market will make a lot more sales this year.

Ron created a team calle The Campbell Team and has closed over 3800 transactions worth in excess of $543 million of residential real estate since 1990. Ron Campbell, is the only New Mexico real estate professional to be ranked in REALTOR Magazine's Top 100 for the last three years.

Ron Campbell is a SuperStar because he "Changed with a Changing Market".  He saw a need and created a product the public embraced.

Broker Agent News ran an article early in 2006 that was really interesting and had to do with text messaging.  It basically said to look at the young future buyers in grade school, middle school, high school and college.  The form of communication they are using is text messaging and growing leaps and bounds.  The cell companies are spending millions of dollars marketing not only cell phones but text messaging as well to our youth.

The article went on to say the young buyers will not be asking us if we text message, they will simply see us as dinosaurs if we do not.  The article compares it to where email was just a few years ago.  In this day and age any Realtor without email is considered not serious about his/her business. 

The article mentioned the benefit of text messaging is:

1) Most people that are business people in and out of meetings would much rather receive a text message while in a meeting rather than a cell call as well as those in the meeting with them.

2) We can take photos of new listings with our cell phone, convert them to slide shows (the article explained how to do this), and text message them to a new buyer.  You can do this while on office tour and text the photos to your buyer while on your way to the next home on tour!

3) Most cell phones with good text message capabilities keep a record of several text messages between senders for many weeks.

Before reading this article I had already started using text messaging but not extensively.  I now own a Palm 700p and the text messaging is so easy it can be as addicting as Active Rain!

I now text message to a lot of people including Realtors, title company officers, mortgage lenders and yes, buyers and sellers.

I believe there is a place for text messaging and still a place for he good old fashioned phone call or better yet a visit!

What about you?  Do you text message? Do you see it in your future?

I had a recent experience that many of us can relate to.  I had a buyer calls me regarding one of my listings and after giving her all the information she asked if I could show her the listing that afternoon and relatively soon. I responded by saying I could not show her the home that afternoon but I could the following day.

I asked if she had a Realtor she was working with and she responded by saying no. I made arrangements to show her the property the following morning which meant I had to leave my home at 7:00 a.m. to make it to the property during early morning rush hour by 8:30 a.m.

I met both the wife and the husband and the showing lasted about 45 minutes. I answered a lot of questions for them as this was a unique property.  They said they were very interested and I gave them a lot of information.  I also agreed to email them some information on the property regarding zoning issues which I did within the hour. 

I phoned them late that morning and they told me they were sure they would write an offer and call me soon.  Within an hour after last talking to them I get a call from another Realtor and he says he is faxing over an offer on the listing my buyers wanted.  I immediately called my buyers and left them a message to call me as soon as possible.

When I received the offer from the other Realtor the buyers names were the buyers I had met that morning! I called the selling agent and explained I had showed those buyers the property that a.m.  He said they didn't tell him that and that he had shown them the property late morning.  I swallowed my anger and thought about calling the buyers and asking what in the ____ just went on here?  I didn't call them and bit my tongue.

My broker and I are very good personal friends and he is always talking about "Taking the High Road" in every situation.  Well, I decided to take the High Road in this situation.  I waited for the sale to close and then I sent the buyers a $100 gift certificate to Home Depot with a note thanking them for buying my listing and that I wished them well. I never brought up what they did to me.

I also sent the buyers agent a $80 gift certificate to Outback Steak House.

A week after closing I get this call from the buyers with a big apology.  They said they did a bad thing by allowing the other agent to write the offer and they felt bad about using me the way they did.  Within 30 minutes after the buyers called me the selling agent called me and admitted to me that he honed in on the buyers and had never showed the property. He said he called them out of the blue because he had once sold them some property.  He said he talked them into writing the offer with him.  He apologized for lying to me and said he felt horrible and wanted to know what a class act I was. He felt bad that he and the buyers had treated me the way they did and inspite of it I treated them both so well.

I responded by saying I had a choice.  "I could have been angry at you and the buyers but what would it have accomplished?".  I went on to tell him that "Honor, Integrity and our Word" is all we have and it is so important to look at ourselves at the end of the day and know we have done the right thing.  He thanked me once again for helping him and his buyers to realize the importance of honesty and integrity.

I thank my Broker for always encouraging me to "Take The High Road".  We cannot change the world but we can change one person at time with little acts of kindness.

Were the buyers and their agent Children of a Lessor God?  No, not at all. They were just a little miss-guided.

Last night on the world news it was announced that 17 year old Mary Masterman from Oklahoma "Yup Sooners" won a scholarship valued at $100,000 for her invention of a "Spectograph".  Yes folks I didn't know what a spectograph was either until I saw the news program.

A spectrographs measures wave lengths, that are used in research such as astronomy and medicine and in industry. For example, they can be used as a sensing device to look for explosives or drugs or to help determine how old an art work is through its pigments.

Mary is being rewarded for her incredible talent and creativity and is an amazing young lady that is destined to do great things in life.

 Mary Masterman

Earlier in the week Active Rain member Julie Ferenzi wrote the blog "Can you help a newbie out?...FSBO"  In that blog Mary was asking for advice on marketing to FSBO's.  Jule on the other hand is the one that helped veterans like myself!  Just look at the comments that were made Can you help a newbie out? FSBO...  I already used the site Julie referenced in her post and you should have heard the WOW! come out of the mouth of my client when he opened the email I sent him from this site. The applications of the site Julie mentioned is more than I would have imagined and I know it will grow my business.  Thank You Julie!

 Julie Ferenzi

Where would you and I be if Bill Gates and his original group of friends had never created Microsoft?  There is a good chance you and I would not be posting blogs right now on Active Rain if Bill and his group had settled for flipping burgers at Burger King.  Many people told Bill and is friends that they should get a "real job".

 The original Microsoft group

Are we taking listings the same way because that is the way we learned in real estate class?  Are we working with buyers because that is the way our Broker told us it was done?  Are we marketing ourselves and our clients real estate a certain way because we were told that is the way it is done in this decade?

Lets open our creative mindslike Mary, Julie and the original Microsoft team.  If someone tells you that your are crazy for a new idea just smile at them and say "Thank you".  Many successful people fell flat on their face a few times before they tasted success. 

You never know when your NEW IDEA will change the way real estate is viewed and sold.  Look at the way the creators of Active Rain changed the way you and I communicate.

Dare to be different dare to Dream!

When member Julie Ferenzi wrote her blog "I must be crazy...I declined my first listing!!!"  I applauded her.  As a new Realtor Julie is "Wise Beyond her Years"  It inspired me to write this post using the lyrics of the famous Kenny Rogers song "The Gambler" because we are all "Gambling" if we don't know when to "Fold Em" or walk away.

Buyers can be draining if we allow them to be.  Knowing when to purse them and work hard for them makes a huge difference in our bottom dollar at the end of the year.  I recently wrote a post about a friend of mine that had her home listed for sale.  This particular buyer looked at her home 3 times in 2 days and then made an appointment to write the offer.  The buyers cancelled one hour before writing the offer saying that their dad talked them out of buying the home. Those buyers have gone through 3 Realtors now and still have not purchased a home.  Do you have buyers that are indecisive and either allow outside influences like this buyer or simply run you ragged and never make up their mind? When I first started my real estate career I thought I had to be able to work with every buyer I met.  Boy was I wrong!

Sellers are another story.  Have you ever had a seller that was"High Maintenance"??? I know you are all holding up your hands!!!  Some of these sellers would never be happy even if we showcased their home on the front page of every real estate publication every week!  If you sense you are going to have one of these HIGH MAINTENANCE sellers, walking away may be the best thing you can good.

Your Office is important and no office will never make or break a Realtor.  But if the environment in your office does not promote a positive and friendly atmosphere can you really come to the office each day feeling encouraged and productive?  Listen to your gut and know if you are part of the problem and need to change your attitude or if the environment you are in is the problem.

It is really easy when we are new to the business of real estate to pursue every buyer and seller with a vengeance.  Sometimes this is fine but on many occasion pursing a high maintenance buyer or seller may leave you working for minimum wage at the end of the year.  Sometimes we continue working with a Buyer or Seller because the competitive fires come out in us and we adopt the attitude of "Selling them a home no matter what!" because it becomes a challenge.  Will this challenge pay off?

Real estate classes are great but I don't know of too many real estate classes that teach a Realtor anything about working with people and the different personalities we all encounter.  This is when our instincts kick in and allow us to decide what feels good and what doesn't. Knowing when to walk away from a dead-end relationship gives us more time to concentrate our efforts on relationships that are fruitful.

Whatever it is in life you are dealing with, whether in business or in your personal life,  it is important to know "When to Hold Em, and Know When to Fold Em!

REMEMBER - If you make the right call  "There will be time enough for counting ALL YOUR MONEY when the dealings done! "

Marketed By: George Tallabas - Boise Idaho Real Estate Agent - Associate Broker 
with RE/MAX Advantage, Canyon Counties #1 Brokerage in sales and listings
specializing in Boise Idaho Real Estate and Southwest Idaho Real Estate.

The value of a Mentor cannot be overstated.  More valuable than the mentoring is the friendship that lasts a lifetime.

The year I entered real estate in 1980 I joined a company that over extended themselves financially.  Within a year they were broke.  I didn't know it then but that would be the turning point of my life.

You see this put me into a position of having to decide what real estate office to join or go back to farming.  I decided at the urging of a friend to join another real estate company and little did I know how this would change my life.

My new Broker, Bob was a quite man that didn't say a lot but when he spoke people listened to him because everything he said had meaning and great thought behind it.

In those years all closing were done in our office by Bob because this way he had total control over the closing and any problems that would arise.  He would order the title commitment from a title company and do the closing in house.  He would use his favorite instrument, the HP12C in all his closings.  Whenever legal issues arose he would go see his favorite real estate attorney who eventually became a judge. He would take me to several of those meetings.

Bob took me under his wing and liked me for some reason. He had me sit in many closings and taught me how to use the HP12C which he loved.

I had a personal trauma in February of 1987.  I was scheduled to take my Brokers exam the last week in February of that year but was also leaving the country to both deal with my personal trauma and to be an interpreter during the Iran /Contra war by interviewing Nicaraguan refugees on the Honduran Border.

Because my mind was not clear I just knew I would not pass the Brokers test the last week of February and would just need to take the test again.  Well folks I passed the test with a whopping 97 score.  You see a big part of the test at that time was to do 3 closings on paper.  Because of Bob's training I breezed through the toughest part of the test.  He deserves the credit for me passing that test.

I would go on to learn the HP12c inside and out after several sessions with Bob and teach several others to use it.  I still use the HP12 C today and am on my 5^thone (I wear them out!).  I use it not only for payment information.  I also was taught by Bob how to calculate amortizations on personal loans which paid off on odd dates. I use that function a lot.  People today marvel at how quickly and efficiently I run the HP12C just like I marveled at Bob. 

Bob would go on to try to teach me to swim at his private pool but I failed miserably at that because I am a sinker!  We would end up making investments together and he eventually sold the real estate business to me and a partner.  He financed it and used his HP12C to calculate all the financial issues.

What meant more to me than anything was the friendship. We would have lunch together many times.  We would meet at his house and discuss politics, government, business issues and much more.  We laughed so hard it would make my gut hurt. I also shed some tears when talking to Bob and he gave me some of the best advice I was ever given.  I told him all my problems and he listened better than anyone.

Bob passed away last year.  I went to go say goodbye to a mentor but more than that a "Friend" that changed my life forever.  I am eternally grateful and often wonder where I would be today if Bob had not taken me under his wing.

If you need a mentor please seek one out, embrace them for what they can mean in your life.   If you can be a mentor to someone else please open your mind and heart to them and be more than a teacher.  Be their "Friend".

I started thinking about how knowledge can change people and how knowledge can make a difference in the world.  Knowledge can make a difference in the world.  "Seek first to understand then to be understood" is one of the Habits of Highly Successful People.  Understanding is knowledge.  When we pickup a book and are captivated by it's contents that information becomes knowledge.  Knowledge changes us and improves our communications skills and the level at which we communicate and interact with others. It is wonderful so see a child as he/she matures and grows gaining knowledge along the way.

Knowledge instills confidence and develops great skills. Every great accomplishment started with a small seed and was fertilized with knowledge.  Having knowledge  means you are aware of your surroundings, you remember and understand things you learn and you take this knowledge to accomplish great things and to encourage others.

People benefit from gaining knowledge and applying that knowledge to grow as a person and grow skillfully.  When we are hungry for knowledge and crave it with a passion there is very little one cannot accomplish.  This hunger for knowledge is behind every great leader and anyone that has accomplished great things either on a small scale or large scale.

I applaud the members of Active Rain that have been so unselfish in sharing their knowledge with all other members of this awesome organization.

We can use the awesome posts we read for simple entertainment or bookmark them and never implement the power of this new information.  Or, we can use this information to take our careers to a new level of professionalism that non Active Rain members will never experience and surely never thought existed.

There isn't a day that goes by that there isn't a new post on Active Rain that I bookmark and or copy and paste into a word document to implement a new idea that will help grow my business.  The information is so vast and covers so many areas of our business.  I have become obsessed with this powerful tool

The decision is ours to take this incredible wealth of information and build our businesses into incredible machines that allow us to be the best we can be so that we can better serve those that place their trust in us.

Active Rain is knowledge.  Let's use it to fuel our real estate careers and our desire to be the best real estate professionals we can be.