Archive for the 'The Realtor's Life' Category
10 Things The Moss Haedrich Team is Grateful For This Thanksgiving
November 21st, 2009 Categories: The Realtor's Life
We Have Plenty To Be Grateful For This Week, Including a Couple of Days Off. But That’s Just a Start. Read On.
By most measures, it’s been a tough year. Our economy took a nosedive, unemployment is up…well, you know all about it. Realtors aren’t immune, of course: our equity has taken a hit, too. Many have gotten out of the business and moved on to other work.
Praise be, we’ve been more fortunate than many so it’s time to say a word of thanks. Here are a few of the things we’re grateful for this Thanksgiving.
1. Our seller clients, who are quick to learn that we may not tell them what they want to hear but we’ll always tell ‘em what they need to hear, in order to get their home sold.
2. Our buyer clients, who know that we act like a bunch of Poodles around them, but fight like Pit Bulls when it comes to negotiating on their behalf.
3. Our families, who sometimes come up on the short end of the attention stick while we’re taking care of 1) and 2).
4. Our company, Keller Williams, for setting the bar high and creating a great company we’d never want to leave. They’re our second family.
5. For the agents we do business with who act like pros, return calls, don’t cop attitudes and act politely even if they’ve had a hard day, too.
6. For the technology that makes it easier to do our job…and that’s changed the real estate business like we never could have imagined. All the new gadgets, online tools and gizmos are great, but this will always be a people-first business.
7. For our industry colleagues – lenders, title companies, inspectors, lawyers and others – who understand that treating our clients with care, respect and professionalism is the best way to keep doing business with us.
8. For our coaches, mentors, trainers, accountability partners and others who always challenge us to be our best.
9. For our team mates - everyone on The Moss Haedrich Team - because we keep one another sane, supported and on track when we need it most.
10. For our past clients (our clients-for-life), friends, fans and colleagues who keep referring buyers and sellers to us because they know we’ll treat them well. That’s the greatest compliment you can give us.
Happy Thanksgiving from The Moss Haedrich Team.
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What Drives Annapolis Real Estate Sellers Crazy?
September 2nd, 2009 Categories: Sellers, The Realtor's Life
A Number of Things – But Here’s Ken’s Video Post About the ONE THING That Takes the Cake
They’ve actually done surveys to get the public’s opinion about how real estate agents measure up against other professionals. The results, I have to tell you, are not pretty if you’re one of us: in the public’s eye, we rank right up there with used car salesmen.
In our defense, being a Realtor is not an easy job. The hours and demands are many. Still, there’s no excuse for certain behaviors, as I mention here. Have a look, and let me know what you think.
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In Real Estate – As In Life – Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
July 17th, 2009 Categories: Buyers, Sellers, The Realtor's Life
But – Occasionally – It’s the Only Option When an Annapolis Home Seller and Agent Can’t See Eye to Eye
We parted ways with a seller client recently.
These things are never easy, though there was a time when it would have been much harder than it was: the longer you’re in this business, the more you realize you simply can’t help everyone.
Ours was much pretty much a straightforward case of an overpriced listing in a range that is VERY price sensitive. Miss the mark by a little bit and you won’t get showings. Or you’ll get them, but only from a clever agent who’s out to demonstrate the value of ANOTHER home to her buyer client (we do this all the time with our own buyers.)
Miss it by a lot, and the silence of the market will be deafening. Which is precisely what was happening.
It’s perplexing how, even with the market correction and the economy on unstable footing, homeowners will cling to the hope of a sales price that they “could have gotten” – or a neighbor did get – three years ago.
That Market No Longer Exists
Today’s market is buyer driven and ruthlessly value focused. The buyer pool is smaller, money is tighter and neither buyers - nor their agents – will so much glance at a home if it’s not priced to sell and in excellent condition. Make an offer on an overpriced home? Why bother, when you can make a better offer on one that’s priced to sell?
What sellers don’t often realize is that even if – by some strange fluke – a buyer WAS willing to pay more than market value for their home, no lender is going to finance it if the home does not appraise. And you can rest assured that it will not.
I wish it would have worked out with these sellers, I really do. But real estate agents are marketers and market experts, not miracle workers. We analyze market data for our clients, present and discuss their options and – ultimately – trust that the facts will guide our clients to do the right thing. For the most part, that’s the way it works out. Occasionally, it does not.
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An (Unscheduled) Garden Tour in Davidsonville
June 5th, 2008 Categories: The Realtor's Life
Sometimes, Previewing a Property Yields the Unexpected – Like a Private Tour of a Neighbor’s Stunning Garden
Getting lost is underrated. Hardly anybody gets lost anymore, thanks to Mapquest and GPS devices. But we managed to do so today, searching for a piece a property we were scheduled to preview. Our wrong turn landed us in a neighbor’s driveway, where we got talking to the owner who kindly offered us on a tour of her property.
The owner and her husband, she told us, have owned the property for nearly three decades and it looked as if they’d spent much of that time in the gardens. They were simply gorgeous – lush beds, stone pathways, a serene park-like feel. It was landscape as art. Have a peek.
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Sometimes, Being in Real Estate in Annapolis is a Real Drain. A Clogged Drain
May 14th, 2008 Categories: Buyers, Sellers, The Realtor's Life
When It Rains in Annapolis, It Pours. And When It Pours, The Moss Haedrich Team of Keller Williams Puts on our Slickers
The rains came to Annapolis this week, biblical rains. Like oil and water, any experienced Realtor will tell you that biblical rains and pending settlements don’t mix well. The combination puts us on high alert.
Which is how I find myself standing barefoot in 4″ of water on a client’s patio, coaxing a sluggish drain. It is 6:00AM and the client – soaking up the sun at her new Arizona condo – is blissfully unaware of my unscheduled visit, long since gone from here in both body and spirit.
They say that a lot of people think agents just drive around in fancy cars and collect big settlement checks. I wish those people could see me now, standing here in drenched jeans, my cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee tasting more and more diluted with every passing minute.
Doing What’s Required? Or Doing What Needs to be Done?
We – The Moss Haedrich Team – look great on paper. We have a sheet that describes our Platinum Listing Services in detail, several more that list the 186 transactional items we will take care of for you. But nowhere on any of it will you see ”Stand barefoot on patio in rain and clean clogged drain.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Is Your Real Estate Agent Trustworthy?
April 23rd, 2008 Categories: Buyers, Sellers, The Realtor's Life
In a 2006 Poll Published by Harris Interactive, Real Estate Agents Really Took It On the Chin. Maybe We Can All Learn a Little Something From the Results.
The poll’s intent was to measure the trustworthiness of various professions; real estate agents came in near the bottom, right up there with lawyers, auto mechanics and stockbrokers.
Unfair? To those of us in the industry who put our hearts, heads and soul into this business, and work diligently for our clients – sure, it seems unfair.
But unexpected? Not really. The fact of the matter is, not all agents are created equal. Some set the professional bar extremely low and when they trip over it they make the whole industry look bad.
Marc Davison, a blogger at www.1000wattblog.com had some interesting thoughts on the subject and those things that set trusted and untrustworthy agents apart.
“Are agents untrustworthy? Some are, some aren’t. But most paint themselves with the brush of mistrust by adhering to modes of marketing, branding and verbiage that fail to set them apart and distinguish one from the other.
Untrustworthy agents hear what their clients say. Trustworthy agents listen.
Untrustworthy agents make deals happen. Trusted agents help people buy and sell homes.
Untrustworthy agents work hard and make a case for it. Trusted agents work smart. They perform magic and do it quietly, with grace.
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Annapolis Area Homebuyers: Is Your Real Estate Agent Helping You Find the Shiny Pennies?
April 17th, 2008 Categories: Buyers, The Realtor's Life
We Try Not to Toot Our Own Horn Too Much – Nobody Likes a Braggart. But We Love It When Our Clients Do It For Us, When They Notice and Say Thanks for The Things We Do. Here’s One Such Story.
When we work with an Annapolis area homebuyer, the first step of the process is a meeting at our office that we call the “buyer consultation.”
It’s our opportunity to introduce ourselves, talk about how we work, and to listen. Listening is a big part of this business. My dad used to say that God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth so we’d listen twice as much as we talk, and that’s a good thing for a Realtor to remember.
One of the things we ask our buyers is to describe, in detail, their dream home – number of bedrooms, bathrooms and all the other obvious stuff. But also the stuff of their dreams. White picket fence? Window seats? Arched doorways? If it means something to you, we want to know. Makes it easier to find you the perfect home.
If a buyer is urgent – and needs to find a home in short order – there’s a good chance they won’t have enough time to preview all the possibilities themselves. Or, the
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The Realtor’s Life: Me and My Man Purse
March 11th, 2008 Categories: The Realtor's Life
Well, that’s it. This Realtor business has finally driven me over the edge.
It wasn’t the state of the market or another Annapolis area agent that finished me off, or even the long hours. It’s the sheer amount of stuff I have to lug around to conduct business. So I’m shopping for my first man purse.
I have no other choice: the stuff has simply gotten out of control.
There’s my cell phone, wallet, compact digital camera, and business card holder. I have magnetic swipe keys for my office and lockboxes, and a jumble of real keys for the many doors in a Realtor’s life.
There’s my small calendar and my reading glasses, so I can see it, and a little notepad so I can remind myself what I’m supposed to be doing. And a couple of pens. It’s gotten to the point where, if I carry it all on my person, I look like I’ve been shot with a semi-automatic bean bag gun. I need a man purse.
My Realtor-wife/partner, Bev, totally gets it: she’s got purses she puts into handbags that go into still bigger carrying bags and off she goes. So we spend Friday night, date night, shopping for a man purse at the Annapolis mall, where they’re outnumbered by woman purses 10,000 to 1. Read the rest of this entry »
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