Do these words make you cringe? Do you just want to leave before they go any further? The best way to tell a racist is when they say “I’m not a racist but……”.

Meeting with potential customers on a regular basis it doesn’t surprise me when I hear this but it does surprise me how often I hear it and who’s saying it. As Realtors we cannot go there! We must nip this conversation in the bud before it goes any further. There is a little law called the Fair Housing Act that we must abide by. How do we do this? How do we continue to work with this person? Do we just ignore it and move forward? Do we lay the law down?

I must admit that this always places me in an awkward position. I usually move forward at the speed of light then ignore it but I can never seem to forget it. It changes my relationship with that person. My dream is that someday we will learn to appreciate people for who they are not despise them for the color of their skin. I live in the great State of Florida and one of the best things about Florida is that it’s very multicultural. I wish all people would see it that way.

Home Inspections. Don't like them at all. Received an "Inspection Report" today stating the AC is five years older than the house! Never had that one before. The house is only six years old and was built by a big time national builder. The AC works great but now the buyer wants a letter from the builder stating that this is the unit that was put in the house when it was built six years ago. Now obviously trying to get this documentation from the builder, who has probably built 10,000 houses since this one, is impossible.

In my State, Florida, the only requirement to become a "professional home inspector" is a stack of business cards and an occupational license. Scary when you consider these guys can make or break a deal.

So I was wondering does your State have an agency to regulate Home Inspectors?

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Copyright © 2010 REGrow, LLC | All Rights Reserved

In my market Poinciana, Fl I have been listing and selling homes for 12 years. When I first started out here there were 6,000 people and only one local Real Estate Company. I didn’t consider myself a company back then since I worked out of my house and was a one man show. Still am. Over the years I have been able to establish myself as the top listing agent in this community. By this I mean I have the highest number of sold listings (single family homes) in any given year. During the last 4 to 5 years Poinciana has exploded to over 65,000 people and still growing. There are now hundreds of Realtors from all over Central Florida listing and selling houses out here. As of this morning there are 1,434 houses on the market in the MLS. And still I am at the top. By the way if you check up on me in the MLS don’t look under actives look under pendings and solds. That’s where you will find me. I have found that one of the reasons for my success is a rock solid knowledge of the market in my area and a very strong listing presentation.

What makes for a strong listing presentation? Well what I have learned is the best presentation is when the Sellers are doing all the talking. Ask the right questions, sit back and listen. Sellers don’t care about Power Point Presentations, 25 Marketing Strategies for a Successful Sale, Broker Open’s, how many designations you have, how large your company is or a myriad of other things we say to potential Sellers to show how good we are. Remember it’s all about them not about us. The Sellers I meet with on a whole want to talk. They want to show you their house and tell you their reasons for selling. They want to blow off steam from the bad experiences they have had with past Realtors. They want someone that will listen to them and respond accordingly. No scripts, no ABC sales techniques and no print out of all your awards.

What they want is an honest and forthright opinion of what their house is worth and what it will take to sell it. And most importantly they must know that you genuinely care about them and their needs. And believe me this can not be faked. It must be a sincere caring. Bottom line people want to work with people they like and trust. So next time make your listing presentation a listening presentation.

Received an offer for one of my listings yesterday. At least I think it was an offer. It came in on a standard Far/Bar purchase contract. The only problem, with what I was able to read, is half of the information was either missing or incorrect. Unless of course the Buyer meant to ask for a 21 day closing and include a 30 day financing contingency. Now I admit I'm not very good at math but it looks like this Buyer has up to 9 days after closing to get final loan approval. Since the address is wrong on the contract he will probably need this extra time to locate the house he just bought.

Fortunately for this Realtor I will take the time to write up a new contract and hopefully we will be able to negotiate a deal. After all my Sellers just want to sell and the Buyer just wants to buy.

As Realtors it is very important that we are able to write legible and binding contracts for our Sellers and Buyers. There is no excuse for not being able to do this. We our actually bound by Article 9 of our NAR Code of Ethics to ensure that all contracts and addendums are properly completed, signed and dated by all parties. Take this seriously as our customers and clients are relying on us to protect their interest. I can't remember where I heard it but someone told me once "to write every contract as if I had to defend it in front of a Judge." Would your contracts pass this test?

Time. Mine is valuable. Is yours? One thing that agents struggle with is being in control of their time. How often have you popped out to show property at the last minute? Or had to cancel a personal event because one of your customer/clients needed to see you? What about the Buyer who can only look at properties every other Saturday from 4-7 pm? Do you work with them?  I don’t.

Here’s a fact. There are NO real estate emergencies.

Here’s another fact. You will NEVER be caught up. There will always be another call to make. Another website to update.

If  you want to have lasting success in this business and avoid burn out you MUST get control of your time. Work by appointment only.

Don’t let others dictate your schedule. Don’t do same day appointments. Just let them go. It will save you a lot of aggravation in the long run. If people don’t respect your time they will never respect the relationship. That’s a fact.

Let folks know at first contact how you work and when you work. People will appreciate knowing these things up front. If your schedule doesn’t fit with theirs then just let them go. We can’t work with everybody.

Once you set boundaries with your time a funny thing will happen…..you’ll start attracting people that will work within your time frames. And because of this you will be less stressed and you will become better at what you do.

Do you believe that? Well even if you don’t it’s still true. You just need to trust me on this one. Can you do that?

Do you need a new Broker?

Want to find out more? www.TTRealtyNet.com

Copyright © 2010 http://www.brokerbryant.com/ | All Rights Reserved

Tried to find my Sellers an out of State Realtor this week to help them find a house in the town they were relocating to. Researched several Realtors’ web sites to find one experienced with what my Seller was looking for and that seemed to have a lot of experience working with relocation Buyers. Found a great one. Over 10 years in business. Husband wife team. Top Realtors in their area. Great Web site, web log and pod cast. All the new tools to get the job done. Sent them a detailed E-mail explaining my Sellers needs and time frame for purchasing. My Sellers were pre-approved and going to the State in a week to purchase. Then being the good Realtor that I am I called the “contact me direct” phone number and left a detailed phone message as well.

Well now 7 days later no return call, no return E-mail. It seems you can have all the tools and put forth the appearance of being the best in your area and still not have the most important quality a Realtor can have-Responding quickly to ALL inquiries. Timely communication is the number one way to make money in Real Estate. Answer the phone. If you can’t answer it. Return the call in 15 minutes or less even if it’s to tell the person you don’t have time to talk but will call them back in 1 hour. Then call them back in 1 hour not 1 hour and 15 minutes. My cell phone has made me 100’s of thousands of dollars. Set your E-mail on auto response if you are not able to check it every 30 minutes. Better yet have it forwarded to your cell phone or PDA. Never leave a call or E-mail to the following day. Take care of today’s business today. You will have enough to take care of tomorrow. Answer the phone!!

Negotiated a deal on one of my listings yesterday. The Buyer is purchasing using 100% financing with Seller paying closing costs. My market is affordable housing with the majority of homes priced from $190s to $250s and it seems like most of the Buyers lately have been purchasing with no money down. Now don’t get me wrong I am in favor of home ownership for everyone but I fear a lot of the Buyers are going to have financial difficulties in the near future. With high insurance costs, property taxes and mortgage payments I am seeing payments of close to $2,000 per month for a starter home. That’s a pretty big nut to crack every month in my area where most families are regular working class people and don’t have any reserve funds if they should encounter a financial setback.

Also, a good number of these purchases are being made with ARMs with the Buyers basing their ability to pay on future raises at work or a part time job that they may or may not be getting. In my opinion Mortgage Brokers and Realtors are being overly aggressive in selling these folks on the advantages of home ownership without really taking the time to counsel the Buyers on the true costs involved. And since they don’t have to come up with any money at closing they are sitting ducks for Mortgage Brokers who are charging them sometimes outrageous fees for doing these types of loans.

So my challenge to Realtors who are dealing with first time Home buyers with a little or no money down is to really take the time to explain the pros and cons of purchasing a home. If the Buyers are fully informed and are wanting to move forward then help them to negotiate fees or guide them to the myriad of programs available that can help them with financial assistance. Placing a Buyer in a home he can’t afford can damage them for years. It can cause bankruptcies, divorces and even illnesses. So let’s “Protect the public” it’s what Realtors are supposed to do.

Hi folks. As most of us in this business I seem to have a lot more frustrating days than I used to. Real Estate is hard. My personal business is about 80% short sales and REOs (foreclosures). Frustrating.

I work in a very low end market and have to do lot’s of transactions every month in order to make a good living and pay the business bills. But that’s ok. So many folks have it much worse than I.

Yet, they have more strength than I could ever imagine. A perfect example is…..

.……Artist Leon Botha, one of the world’s longest surviving Progeria sufferers, and photographer Gordon Clark embark on a collaborative and artistic adventure, exploring the questions of destiny and immortality to bring us this powerful photo series Who Am I? Transgressions.

“By words one transmits thoughts to another, by means of art, one transmits feelings.” Leo Tolstoy

Took a listing a couple of weeks ago. Seller is an out of area Investor who had bought a new home to flip for a profit. Fortunately he bought right and this can be achieved. Contacted me off an expired listing mailing. He had been on the market for about 9 months with no offers. I pulled up his details in the MLS and it looked like the house was priced right at $205,000. So I told him I would go out and have a look to see why it hadn’t sold.

When I pulled up to the property I was shocked! The lawn was a good 4 feet long and full of weeds, the Real Estate sign was laying on the ground with the post still standing albeit a little crooked. I used the current Realtor's lock box and tried to place the key in the front door after several attempts I was finally able to jiggle it to get it in. Opened the door and I was overwhelmed with dead cock roaches, spiders, crickets and other critters I was not able to identify. And the smell!!! Well let's not go there but we know how Realtors treat toilets sometimes. The vinyl flooring was covered in scruff marks from all the Realtors and Buyers who had obviously been looking at the property. This was evidenced by the stack of 40 to 50 business cards displayed all over the kitchen counter. This new never before lived in home was totally disgusting. Of course the marketing remarks in the MLS said “brand new home in excellent condition ready for new owner”.

Well I gave the Owner a quick call and told him the condition and said I would list the property and that I was going to arrange a professional cleaning crew and lawn service ASAP. I will pay the bill and he can reimburse me at closing. It cost a total of $275.00 to have his property spit shined, carpets cleaned and set up on monthly lawn service. I had his house back on the market within 48 hours looking like a brand new house and “Range Priced” from $195,000 to $215,000 with a 4% Co-broke. Needless to say Realtors and Buyers are now knocking the doors down to see this house and we have already had offers. Unfortunately they were not from “truly” qualified Buyers but that will have to be another post.

Again it’s another case of a Realtor taking a listing and then just abandoning it. The Seller was completely agreeable to whatever needed to be done to get his house sold but was never advised by his Realtor or heard from him for that matter. As professional Realtors we must provide honest straight forward advice to our customers and clients. To do anything less is unethical. So be proactive. Clean it up and sell it!