Legs on Stairs, ok so this IS Real Estate!

"You pays your money and you rolls the dice and you takes your chances". That pretty much sums up what it's like in Real Estate. Hurry up and wait. I might just get a tattoo that says this, hmm maybe not.
Every level and facet of Real Estate has an element of wait. Wait to hear if you are confirmed for that showing. Wait to go to the showing. Wait outside for your clients. Wait while they tour the house. Wait to hear if they liked it or not. Wait to write up an Offer. Wait to get their signatures. Wait to present the Offer. Wait to hear if your Offer has been accepted or is being signed back. Wait to present the sign back. Wait Wait Wait. It's all worth it, believe me, my favourite part of my job has become that phone call to my Buyers telling them their Offer has been accepted or to my Sellers that their house is conditionally SOLD. It's the pure joy you hear on the other end that makes it all  worth while.

The Home Inspection.... dun dun dunnnn....
On the Buyer side this is a great opportunity to tour the home with your clients and the Home Inspector to see if there is anything significantly wrong with the property that we can negotiate a better price for the Buyers. It's always worth a try to ask for a reduction on the purchase price based on the findings of the Home Inspection. Lets just say we try and limit any nonsense in this area, it's not cool to ask for a reduction because the Home Inspector pointed out that the basement door doesn't close just right or that there is a crack in a tile in the bathroom tub. However, if there is something worth fighting for like the furnace doesn't work or the dishwasher is leaking water on the last cycle, these are worthy of an amendment.
On the Seller side I try and calm my Sellers down through the process. This is a re-sale home, there will be things that the Home Inspector finds. We can deal with anything that may crop up. Not to worry, not to worry. But every homeowner who is waiting for the answers to that burning question; "What did the Home Inspector find wrong with my house and are the Buyers going to walk away from this deal" is unnerving.

This is a FIRM DEAL. The words a Realtor LOVES and LIVES to hear! No kidding, I have only been in Real Estate a short time and I can tell you this is it! The perfect storm, all your hard work and efforts have paid off in spades! Hippeee! Do your paperwork, keep your Sellers and Buyers in the loop until the home stretch "Closing Day"....

Yup like the sign above says "Keep Calm". It's in the hands of the Lawyers God bless them. They tie it all up into a neat little thing called the balance sheet. Who owes what and how much do the Sellers get. I don't understand this process and maybe I should take a Reader's Digest course on what it all en-tales but for right now I'm just going to let the experts handle it!

Real Estate is a non-offensive organic drug that once you take to it you can't stop, won't stop, thinking about it day and night, night and day or every minute your awake. It's true what they say: "If you love what you do you won't work another day in your life"... that's me, a Realtor.

Madam E

Legs on Stairs, climbing the Real Estate Ladder

Up I go one rung at a time. In the beginning when I first got my real estate license I felt like a mouse in a maze, so many walls and turns, the ability to go forward and backward at the same time. Not being able to see whats coming around the corner but needing to go and look anyway. Now after time has passed and a routine is in place I know what to do and how to do it and when to do it and why I'm doing it, if that makes any sense... It's all about systems.

Systems are everything from data entry to calendar entry. My one little brain simply cannot remember everything. I know in the moment "I got this" but ..... a few minutes from now, I don't got this. I have developed several systems to make sure "I got this" is how my business runs. One system is lead tracking. If you don't do this you're in trouble. Trying to remember who I have spoken to, what property they own or are interested in and how soon they'd like to act is just not something I'm capably of doing without a system. The other important system I use is a virtual calendar on my Iphone. This calendar has an alarm set to remind me of every task on the calendar exactly one hour before I have to be or do something. It has saved me several times from losing track of time and missing an important something.

A very smart person running a real estate workshop once said "Don't be a secret Agent". This is so true, telling everyone from the lady cashing me out at the grocery store to making sure my Doctor knows I'm a Realtor is vitally important to growing my business. Nobody has a sign on the lawn of their home that says "I'm an auto mechanic" I work at Wendy's" or "I'm a Realtor". Can you imagine the networking that could go on if everyone DID have said sign on their front lawn? I might just try it and find out. Honesty, how much would it cost for my favourite graphic designer lady to make me up a 3'x4' sign that says "I'm a Realtor" and stick out there and see what happens. I like to advertise my business on Facebook, Twitter and other forms of passive social media. I have had some moderate success with this type of outreach, and I believe there's more out there for me I just want to make sure dollars are making sense. 

Keller Williams Complete Realty, Brokerage here in Hamilton is where I call home. What a fantastic group of people! Common goals and culture are what rise up from these folks. From our amazing Leadership Team to our top notch support staff, we've got it all and then some. I can't imagine working anywhere else! Shout outs to this Team and thank you for your never ending support, encouragement and your loyalty to our Brand. 

I can honestly say I am not looking for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. I'm not even sure I want one. Life for me is about the day to day, moment to moment amazing things that seem to happen to me! Pots of gold won't make me happy. Work and family make me happy. I'm going to keep working and learning and trying to do my very best for the people who grant me access into their worlds. For that I am truly blessed. 

Madam E

Legs on Stairs; two at a time!

Things have taken off, jumped into high gear, the plane is off the ground, the bullet is out of the gun, the gate is open for the horse and it's a fast track....

It's ok, I had time to plan, time to think. Time to understand this thing called Real Estate. If you have a fear of the unknown don't become a Realtor. Everyday there are an abundance of unknowns. Will I make any money this month, will anyone want to work with me, Where's my next listing going to come from, are there too many Realtors in my City? The list of uncertainties goes on and on. 

Don't let that voice inside your head ruin a good thing. Try to remember you chose this profession.You're your own boss. You call the shots. There is only Do or Do Not, there is no TRY, very true. 

Meeting new people in their home is very interesting and rewarding. I tour their home while they give me the ins and outs, ups and downs of living there. The stories are amazing! No two are EVER the same both the humans and the structures. To be on the inside is without a doubt an honour to be invited across the threshold. 

The paperwork has become a snap! Do it often enough and it's like riding a bike, week to week, you just know what you need to do. Take care and go slow, read everything and use a highlighter or little sticky notes that say sign here/initial here. Make is easy for your Sellers, heck people don't sell a property everyday therefore they're not abreast to all the documents required to complete the process. Coupled with age in some cases, this is a long process and one needs to have patience. 

Be happy for your Sellers! Ask questions about where their going to go next. Are they going to take a trip if there's any surplus funds from the sale of their home. Get them thinking about next steps and bring real joy into someone's life. Always come from contribution. Give and you shall receive no truer words have ever been spoken. Take a load to charity for them, have something fixed on their property for them, bring coffees when you install the lockbox, send a pizza on the day they move into their new place. Do and do and do it's the only way to lighten their load and really what does a pizza cost compared to how much it gives?

Follow up and follow through on what you say you're going to do. If you're going to call on Tuesdays to talk about the listing, call. You've been entrusted with their biggest investment asset don't let them down, nothing is more important to them and it should be the same for YOU. Fast forward to a year after the sale has been completed and you turn a corner in the grocery store and right in front of you are your sellers, don't you want them to be glad to see you? I do. 

Till next time, keep it real babe. 

Madam E.

Legs on stairs get tired...

Real Estate can be nerve wracking if you let it. I see why some Agents have chosen to be Buyer's Agent or a Listing Agent with a Team, it's a way of streamlining your workday.

However, I feel I can be more effective to my clients because of my personality to do both.
Listings are a game of numbers, what sold in the area plus the currently active listings play a role in determining the subject properties value, but it's not the only factor. Clients are craving education in this area, I like taking the time to really understand their viewpoint with their home and meshing the two together.

Buyers need a Buyer's Agent. Period. It's a dangerous game to simply not have an Agent working with you on a deal. Would you go to court and stand before a Judge and Jury without a Lawyer? Would you purchase a brand new car without speaking to the Sales staff even once? Yet I see it over and over where a Buyer works without representation. The key factor here for Buyers is that the Seller pays the Buyer Agent's commission from the sale of the house, so why wouldn't you have an Agent on your side of the table?

For Sale by Owner. Another baffling process to me. I don't fix my own teeth. I don't take my own car apart and repair it and I DON'T cut my own hair. And yet, folks will attempt to sell their own home, their biggest asset without a professional watching out for the pitfalls. 80% of 'For Sale by Owner' homes are under-priced. Where's the value in selling your home that you worked so hard to pay-down and letting it go for far less than it's worth simply because you didn't invest in a Listing Agent to pull relevant statistics together and analyze the market for you?

"Bidding wars"; "Hold all offers until this certain date and time". These are selling tactics, used to create a buzz around the home knowing full well that it's been priced below the current market's expectations for a property in that area, that standard type of home and it's features. Caution is advised regarding overpaying for a house because of a bidding war you chose to get involved in. You may get a nasty shock if you require the Bank to mortgage the property and it falls short on the appraisal value. The Bank under no uncertain terms will inform the Buyer that they have to come up with the shortfall and remember you're in a legally binding contract and probably as part of the 'war' ended up removing such clauses as Conditional upon Finance from your Offer. Oops. You're stuck my friend.

Home Staging prior to Listing the home for sale. This is HUGE!! Ask your listing Agent if they will assist you in staging the home or at the very least offer up some tips and tricks. Be prepared to part with a lot of your favourite knickknacks. I liken it to when you're walking around a furniture store looking at the furniture vignettes. The visual merchandisers have made it easy for you to envision this arrangement of a sofa, love seat, chair, end tables, coffee table and maybe lamps and a centerpiece on the coffee table fitting into your home or for that matter any home as you're not their only customer today, tomorrow, this week maybe even this year!! Staging works to sell furniture in groups and it works to sell the home. Your moving, get some boxes and decide what is going with you, what is going into a Garage Sale and what is going to Charity.

To renovate or not to renovate this is the question. Price everything out right down to the knobs for the kitchen cabinets or the grout for the tile in the bathroom to make sure you're not going overboard. If you do end up renovating go neutral in the choice of decor. This is not the time for loud busy patterns, red hot paint on the walls in the kitchen or leopard wallpaper in the bathroom. Clean and bright, even choose white you can never go wrong with a white kitchen or bathroom and a nice accent colour of a vase on the table or flowers in the bathroom on the vanity.

If you need assistance call someone and call them early in the planning stages. Don't close the barn doors after the horse is GONE......

Madam E

(all opinions are my own)

Legs on Stairs...

And so it begins..... Last exam is over... aaaaaahh. But wait --!! So begins the task of building a clientele. I like to think hmm; I know people, lots of people, so I started with them. Easing my way into their lives with a nice warm tastefully written 'welcome to my new world friends' letter, at least they're aware of my new endeavour.

 

Next came in-house designed by me business cards. (viewed top is front; bottom is back). Brokerage logo a must and various other details which are necessary on your standard business card. This is version one, I'm having a professional photographer do a photo shoot so the next cards will have my mug on them. I might take everything downtown to a company I like to deal with and have them lay it out, decisions decisions.

My golden house logo. Purchased on line to be used on EVERYTHING I put out to the masses. I strongly recommend to everyone reading this to go out and hunt down something you like, something that makes you smile and buy and use it. Think of the golden arches; McDonalds. The black check mark; Nike. Etc. I want to be known as the golden house, it will take a while but hey Rome wasn't built in a day and the last time I checked I have nothing but time.

Above is a Feature Sheet, I'm lucky enough to have been asked to do a few Open Houses for my fellow Agents who have listings. This is a great way to get your feet wet, to meet people, talk real estate and show off a house for sale. I design my own using the Microsoft Office Publisher program. These are handed out at the Open House as a take-away and a way to get a hold of me if there are any questions from the Open House and it would be nice to have someone who took a Feature Sheet put in an offer to buy said house, that's the goal of these sheets.

Cold calling. Choose an area of the City, map it out street by street use an auto dialer and start TALK'N. This is an art-form and it's not easy but it gets easier. I call it: 'area surveying'. Last week I surveyed an area of the City and picked up a listing client and a buying client so I can tell you it's worth the two hours that day that I cold called. Always come sincerely from contribution. Give information only and see what happens. Be extremely courteous and respectful. I never had anyone yell at me or hang up on me, if you do the above mentioned things and do it with care and persistence you will see results over time.

One cool thing that many Brokerages have is a private and closed Facebook Group. What a wealth of information these are! If you're going through to become a Realtor and thinking 'how will I find out this or that' not to worry, the Facebook group will support you and freely give you a ton of information; at least my Brokerage does, I can't speak for any others. If you're one of the few people I know who isn't on Facebook you'll need to get an account or resurrect a dead one for sure even if you tell yourself it will only be used and viewed for business purposes.

The world of Social Media. Again, not everyone embraces all that is to this world. Do you want people to find you and know your business? Do you want to use the internet avenues that are free for you to travel down? Can you afford to forgo Social Media and use old out of date advertising methods? I jumped on this bandwagon early on with my own Social Media circles. To-date I use Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogger and my free wix.com website. Some of my Social Media is a bit messed up in my own personal likes that are completely unrelated to Real Estate which I tell myself it's ok as it keeps me human and not a machine of information relating only to Real Estate and boring a portion of people who view me on Social Media. Next I'm going to tackle my own YouTube channel so stay tuned for that!

Well folks, that's where I'm at to date. I'll leave you with a line from a course I took;
"Do you know anyone who wants to BUY a home, SELL a home, or INVEST in Real Estate?", give me a call!!

Madam E

Legs on the Stairs!

Moving at the speed of light that's what never happens.

Waiting for something to happen is like the worst thing on earth. You go and check, then you go back and check what you just checked because possibly you have checked so many times you may have made a mistake while checking. Am I right?

It's like waiting and watching a speck of dust in the sunlight to land on a surface nearby. It floats down, then moves left, then right then goes back up a bit then down. You try and grab it but it moves out of your reach somehow. You look away and think to yourself; 'I have better things to do with my time', but really you don't because your waiting for that THING to happen that's not happening, ever.

Time seems to move slower, the day drags on and you go to bed early that night to get the day over with so the next day will start and maybe this is the day for that THING to happen. And oh, by the way that thing is being controlled by someone somewhere in an unknown location; if they would just hurry up and do the thing that will move your thing along.
Do they know or care that you're suffering in your bed at night, trying to fall asleep but it's way to earlier and your body is not tired but you want this day to be over.

There are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 4 weeks in the month, 12 months in a year and the average woman lives to be 73. All of this means nothing. Nothing at all if you don't do the things that make you the most happy, not the most money or the most famous, or the most popular, but the most happy. If buying things makes you happy then you need a lot of space and a fairly decent income to support your spending habits. If fishing makes you happy then you probably need a little less than the shopper, do you get where I'm going with this? Live you own life, make your own dreams come true, do the things that make you the most happy. Time waits for no one even when we're waiting for something to happen. Every person will always be "as old as their tongue and a little bit older than their teeth" (another mother quote for you),

Today I want to thank TIME for finally making something wonderful happen.

("your welcome")

Madam E

Legs on the Stairs

The Keyhole of Life...

Imagine if this was your view of the world. The whole world viewed through a vantage point the size of the keyhole. Think about the doors that actually have a keyhole, old doors in old houses, dated, forgotten, dusty and creepy. What you would miss. The opinions you would form from your narrowed view on life. And the endless hours you would waste going back to the hole time and time again to try and see more, craving more but alas, the keyhole can only reveal so much.

I can usually spot a 'keyholer' a mile away. Their view of the world is so narrow they have little to say that doesn't involve 'I or Me' in almost every sentence. They are starved for attention, lack tact and finesse and for some strange reason keyholers spend countless hours thinking about what others are doing, saying, having, and being. Keyholers live a shallow, boring and wishful life.

A dreamworld of their own making. The mind begins to take the narrow view from the hole of what others are doing and create new and one-sided fantasy from the images from the hole. Lets face it if you don't really know the untrained mind will make something up.

Are you a keyhole person? You say no, but are you sure? Have you ever taken for granted that you have all the facts when the reality is you couldn't possibly because you haven't gathered any?
Think about all the movie scenes over the decades that have depicted someone peeping through a keyhole and then taking what they've seen as the whole story and passing it off as fact. It happens in real life. Sadly it's probably happening right now.

Be a mountaineer. Mountaineers climb to some pretty high points and when they get there they turn in a 360 degree circle to see everything, they turn slowly and purposefully. Mountaineers are planners and doers. The trip, the gear, the timing, the endurance. Be in awe of the world around you, enjoy this life to the fullest. Strive to be and know the truth. Help those who are climbing up behind you to get there too. Then it will be just clean open air for you...

Seek out the words of  Earl Nightingale: "You become what you think about". Google him, YouTube him, he really understands. And when you encounter your next keyholer, and you will, remember this Blog, go back and re-listen to Earl, climb an invisible mountain in your mind if a real one is out of reach. Stay true to your beliefs; that it's better to be in the open air than stuck behind a door with a keyhole.

Madam E.

Legs on the Stairs

Here's a key...

It can and will open any door to your dream home. But, here's the catch, it will only work once. Be careful with your key..... it's very special and precious.

If this were true and this key really only worked in one door how would you choose. How to know? Here's my suggestion, make a plan. We've all heard this before, a plan, a plan, a plan.

Begin with the Who What Where & How. Who's going to live in the home, What things does the home have to have, Where is the best location for the home and How much can I spend on the home.

Who's going to live there-  # bedrooms, driveway size for x number of cars, and for how long are these people staying. If it's just you and a partner possibly a one bedroom with a den condo would suit you. If you have a tribe then it's the large single family home with basement bedrooms that could suffice.

What things does the house have to have- we entertain large groups we need a separate dining room. We are green thumbs, the Lot has to have room for a garden and border gardens. I can't do stairs so a bungalow with a main floor laundry area is a must.

Where is the best location- my son is attending University and it would be more cost effective if the property was on a bus route. I'm a commuter I want to be near the highway but not too close as to hear the noise. I don't think I could live in the inner city there's just too much going on all the time.

How much should I spend- this is probably the easiest and the hardest piece of the puzzle to wrap our heads around. If there are two of you contributing to the purchase price why not buy a home that the mortgage payments per month could be carried on just one salary. What if everyone did this? The financial squeamishness; the worries; the pressures would be less. Talk to your trusted banking specialist but DON'T be talked into something that at the time seems to make sense but really is overextending you.

I'm not a Realtor, (but Madam N is) I'm not a financial planner, I'm not a mortgage broker. I'm a realist. I tell my kids; "walk through life with your debt right in front of you". Pay your credit cards off, put a little bit of cash in your wallet, $40 bucks on payday, fill your gas tank full on payday as well.  Try and stay away from your debit card, after a while it gets easier.

Then when it's time to make a big decision like buying a home or a car your mind is already trained to watch for the signs of overextending itself.

"You can only sleep in one bed and use one bathroom at a time". "More closets means more room for junk". "I only need one hook to hang my hat". "The bigger the house the more there is to clean". These were all phrases my mother used to say, and again she was right in her quirky kind of way.

Make a plan...

Madam E

Legs on Staircase of Real Estate

Legs on Stairs.....

From the desk of Madam E...

Climbing the stairs of real estate is hard work. Just say'n.
Entertain these ideas; school, 1,000 of pages of real estate legal jargon, late night cramming because you work a real job during the day. Oh and don't forget the exams, 50 questions each, 3 hours to complete, and remember 1,000 of pages of data to absorb.
And the journey continues--- decide on a Brokerage, pay money, pay your dues to the Board of choice, pay your insurance. Man this all adds up!
But, no complaints! It's all worth it right? Well, actually I don't know... I'm on the journey, nothing to report yet.
Weeding through the Board website takes hours upon hours of neck aching, eye stinging, coffee drinking time.... Not complaining, just say'n.
Newbies that's what we are, me and my new friend, we'll call her Madam N.
Ya see, she's new too, but a little further along than me. We're learning together, each bringing our strengths to the table.
Designing and buying lawn signs, open house signs, business cards, company website designs. yada yada yada.
She's working the EAST and I'm gonna work the WEST so no fighting!!!
Sometimes you meet people and you just know you've met a new life friend, this is Madam N. She's a smart dresser/fitness fiend. Not me, I'm more the black jeans pretending to be dress pants when there not kinda chick.

Blogs will be when we feel like it, have the time and have something fun or interested to document. Otherwise stay tuned. The only thing I can promise you is it will be REAL no made up stuff to fill this Blog up.

Chao for now. Madam E.....