After 18 years of service in the real estate industry, my friend Fred (his alias) agreed to sit down and share his thoughts about today’s business climate.

In fairness, he has been in a self-imposed sabbatical for the past six months and is now considering returning full-time as a Realtor. HOWEVER, rethinking experiences with recent clients has made him question whether or not he even wants to come back or try a new career.

What were your experiences?

I’m finding that today’s buyers and sellers are very high maintenance.  They lie. They don’t listen to professional advice.  The last listing I had, I had sold the house to the people 10 years ago. They were moving up north to their home state and nothing I did was right.  They wanted to orchestrate and micromanage everything.  Nothing the company or I did that was proven successful in the past was going to satisfy them.

I had to rewrite the remarks every day, change the pictures almost daily, they tried to dictate my hours and frequency of open houses (which don’t really work anymore anyway), they sent ugly emails to me, our staff, and my managing broker.  Finally I told them they needed to find a new agent, which they did.  I had it listed for maybe a month before I ran screaming from the building.  They listed it five months with another agent.  Currently it is still unsold and has been relisted for six days with yet another company. There are no photos online.

What else is going on with your real estate work?

I’ve had an offer to sit in a rural subdivision which has no model and no construction underway.  There are just bare lots with no possible closings before spring if we’re lucky.  I ran screaming from that building, too. 

In fairness, it’s just attitude on my part.  I’m not willing to deal with the headaches and the uncertainty in today’s market and with today’s high maintenance buyers and sellers.

You mention buyers - what’s going on with them?

I had people I worked with for well over a year. They kept trying to "steal" everything.  In the high dollar price range, they’d make ridiculous offers.  There was a foreclosure that they came in about $60,000 under.  When we finally did get an accepted contract, they nitpicked the house to death and kept threatening me and the sellers to not close. Demanding things above and beyond the terms of the contract.  We finally closed, but it was a nightmare.

The client’s attitude is kind of like going to the doctor and he diagnoses an inner ear infection, but they want a prescription for viagra because they know more than the doctor.

Do you feel you will stay in real estate?

Yes, I will.  But I’ll do it on my terms.  I’ll just be very choosy about who I’ll take on as a client. I’ve done too much good in 18 years.  I’m honest and I’m good at what I do.  I don’t need the grief.  We’re supposed to be professionals, so I won’t be treated poorly.  I simply don’t need it.

Overall Fred is thankful that he has the ability to choose his career, his clients, and make his own destiny.  My personal thoughts are that although real estate agents are often vilified, the vast majority are hard working, honest, and dedicated. That we have struggled in this economy alongside everyone else is often lost because it is assumed that in the boom times we were part of the problem.  In my heart, helping people achieve their dreams of home ownership is not borne of greed and dollar signs. Rather it is one of the most fulfilling professions one can have to find that perfect home for a young couple with a fenced backyard for their children. To find a one-level house for a client who will likely be confined to a wheelchair within the next year or two.  To meet the needs of a new college grad, someone moving from out-of-state, or helping someone through the terrible process of a foreclosure.

I am thankful that I have that ability to be there for people during these joyful and sad times.

Photo by Mezuni courtesy Flickr Creative Commons.

I have begun to seriously believe that people who load the stories on web sites devoted to the news never bother to read what anyone else has written. Or there is no web editor looking at the forest, instead the focus is on each tree.

Want to know what I’m talking about?  The stories alone are very clear, but the headlines contradict each other and they are sooooo negative.

You can’t see the small print, but the headlines say:

• Stocks decline on economy worries
• Consumer confidence unexpectedly rises
• U.S. economy took a tumble in the summer
• More Americans relying on food stamps

Three of the four headlines are negative news, but there is one bright spot.  I just think that for consumer confidence to increase, perhaps reporters should focus on successes just as much as problem stories.  For example, instead of focusing on more people relying on food stamps, how about how lucky we are to have that safety net of food stamps being available?

I know this isn’t directly real estate related, but real estate is most definitely impacted by the ongoing negative portrayal of *everything*.  So lighten up, news, will ya?  Let’s see if we can rethink our headlines:

• Great time to buy stocks
• Boost seen in consumer confidence
• U.S. economy exerts gymnastic move
• More Americans avoid going hungry because of food stamps

This is why I was a speech writer in a former life.  Perception is everything.

A Texas court has ruled that Realtors had better get the size of the house right or they’ll likely have to pay for their mistake.  According to the National Association of Realtors, simply quoting the square footage from the tax record won’t be enough,

A jury awarded the purchasers damages and held the real estate professionals liable for misrepresentation and fraud. The court of appeals in Austin upheld the decision, even though the couple had moved into the home 30 days prior to settlement and the information came from tax records filed with the local municipality.

Through my own MLS, we have the choice of stating the source of the square footage when we list a home: agent measured, tax record, owner provided, appraisal.  I will always use the figures provided by an appraiser, however I’ve also used the square footage stated in the tax record as well as measuring for myself.

How do you measure?  Do you just add up the square footage of the rooms?  No, that won’t work because you’ll miss closets, wall thickness, cubby holes, and more.  To measure, you calculate the EXTERIOR of the home for an official number.

Photo by karindalzial, courtesy Flickr Creative Commons.

Some of these photos I love, some … not so much.

This picture is fascinating to me because you can clearly see the house across the street reflected in the front window.  I think the home in the reflection is much prettier.

You’d think an owner/agent would know better than to try to sell his house like this.

And this… (put these in the "you’ve got to be kidding me category)…

I *love* this beautiful photo. This house just looks spectacular to me. What a difference a little staging and cleaning up can make!

I went to a garden party.  I love that this picture may eventually accomplish the same look as the second picture!

Wow!  Have a beautiful weekend!      

Nine times out of 10 - when a buyer is qualified - I find that lenders put them into more stringent FHA loans rather than Conventional.  Money saved through the interest rate is always always the factor, though conventional can sometimes be less strenuous to get.

Seeing the two good faith estimates side-by-side from a lender is the best way to understand why an FHA mortgage trumps Conventional.  The self-described FHA Expert Jeff Belonger over at ActiveRain clearly demonstrated the side-by-side using 5 percent down,

To compound this, so many said just because you had a conventional loan, you had the better loan. This was not always true when putting 3 percent down. In most cases, you were told this, because that particular lender was not FHA approved. Now?  Even with 10% down and credit scores less than 680, FHA loans in most cases, will be the best mortgage for you.

And he has a picture to prove it!

Jeff has a very informative site that I encourage you to visit!

Snuggled in the hills and trees, this modern marvel is listed at $689,000.

The idea of (again) bailing out automakers has germinated a little idea in my brain - an idea that is starting to grow on me.

Where’s my bailout?

I mean, the financial industry is being rescued.  People who are behind on their mortgages are being given a hand.  Farmers get help through subsidies.  How about me?  The Feds can pay my membership dues and Errors & Omissions insurance for starts.  I’d like to take some designation classes for free!  And maybe they could co-sponsor some advertising about the availability of FHA loans. 

That it’s been a challenging year to be a Realtor is an understatement. I’ve written here before that we’re seeing friends and colleagues drop like flies.  There are entire offices closing around us - big and little players in our local market.

Who’s helping us?

In all honesty, it would be helpful to have the dues waived for a year until the market improves.  But on the other hand, this market is cleansing because to survive we’ll have to be more informed, professional, and educated to make it through.  While the majority of people leaving the industry are good people, the ones who are truly focused on real estate will survive.

I’ve been meaning to read a gift someone recently gave me, The Power of Focus by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Les Hewitt.  The book is subtitled, "What the World’s Greatest Achievers Know About the Secret to Financial Freedom and Success."

Instead, it’s ironic that I find myself thumbing through reading highlights… perhaps they know me well in that my focus needs to improve!

But there is one quote in the book that I really like, "Every well-built house started with a definite plan in the form of blueprints." (by Napoleon Hill).  How true!  The main point is that for every single day you should plan ahead for what you need to do.  By having this blueprint in place (your to do list), you prioritize the most important tasks and will definitely not just have a sense of accomplishment, but may actually get something done!

Though I haven’t read the book yet, I do sit down every Monday morning and figure out what my plans are to generate business.  Am I spending too much time online?  Have I sent out any thank you cards or personal notes to anyone lately?  If I do send information, does it have value?  If I wasn’t a Realtor and I got something in the mail from an agent, what would I want it to be?

With focus, with having a blueprint to guide me, my week will be successful.

Photo by miss pupik courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

It’s Friday so I should be in a FANTASTIC Photo Friday mood.  Alas.  You get to see pictures from the MLS that do not inspire.  I mean it.  No inspiration on this photo at all.  No appeal …

This bathroom picture looks more like it’s promoting soap products than selling a home.

This photo tickles me.  It’s kind of bizarre in the first place, but the listing agent framed it around a black box.

And if that one wasn’t enough, the agent framed all of them including this picture of the wood floor.

This picture makes me groan because the signs in the yard are crooked, you can see a car in the bottom left side of the picture, and … the balloon.  It looks like a ghost orb.

Finally, I suppose nature calls in this MLS photo.  Deer tick and garden thieves are all herded together.

Hoping you have a great weekend!  See you Monday…