Gary Woltal's Blog

Usually market area statistics make my eyes glaze over. I know this north Texas and Dallas market like the back of my hand and we seem to be always backwards from the east and west coast housing stories. Now, while many areas of the east and west coast are having plummeting prices, here in Big D we are seeing in general slow price appreciation. We have seen a little longer to sell a home but nothing drastic.

If there's one takeaway for those who have never been to our neck of the woods it is AFFORDABILITY. You can take that Boston or California or Seattle money and plunk it down here and live like a king in a castle. Your money just goes a lot further. The hot summers can be beat with the air conditioner and a nice pool. There is much sunshine too. Our employment situation has stabilized since 2003 and the outlook for home appreciation is modest (yet rising) through 2011.

The table below indicates many of the suburban areas around Dallas and also shows that real estate is local within local with varying days on market and a range of average sales prices. Believe me for the square footage you get, these prices are a steal. Dallas also has much new home construction. It's all that land you know. Big D, a real value in North Texas! And oh by the way, we have lots of friendly people here too.

Activity Report Collin, Dallas, and Denton Counties October 2007 YTD Single Family Residences

Someone once inquired to a group of business students, "What is the purpose of a business?" Many answers were given. Growing customers, producing a quality product, satisfying a need in the market. The right answer was, "to make money." If you've been in business over five years this will keep you in business the next five. Otherwise you are running a charity.

Then I got to thinking in real estate, beyond the purpose of a business, what business are we in? For example, taking photographs is not to show images, it's to freeze memories. The trains we ride on are not in the railroad business but rather the transportation business.

So what business are we in with regard to real estate? Some might say buying, selling, investing in homes. How about serving customers. Fulfilling dreams. Getting Granny a nice retirement cottage. Getting the empty nesters that cabin on the lake with the dock. How about helping people, like first time home buyers to get a larger place for their newborn.

I would be interested in what others have to say about what business we are in. I'm sure no one answer is entirely right. With the responsibility of what is most people's largest financial transaction in a Realtor's hands, shouldn't we know?

My take on it is that we are in the business of impacting people's lives and setting the stage for their future. Our professionalism and kindness on their behalf will resonate with them for many years to come.

What are your thoughts?

The public interacts with Realtors on a daily basis. Typically it's on site at a property that is listed or touring around looking at houses, condos, land, or commercial real estate. Occasionally they travel to the real estate office and see the reception area and maybe a conference room. Not too often do they enter deep into the office. What they don't see further back is what I call the agent "Shrine." These are typically signs, banners, nameplates, etc. on agent doors or glass windows as a testament to Team Jones, The Smith Team, the Three Forks Rivers Group, Suzy Star, etc. I know this is mainly about branding but it really is about honoring who? Them, of course. How silly sometimes.

I've heard in life if you try to please other people all the time you will be miserable. Well I have a corollary to that one and that is, "If you really want to be unhappy, compare yourself to others." There's nothing wrong with a little competition in Sales but as one veteran agent told me, in real estate, we're all prima donnas. Not entirely true but they are out there.

The point of this is especially for newer agents establishing themselves, recognize your own special gifts that you are already endowed with. Don't be intimidated by "the BIG Mike" team. You may have beautiful gifts of caring, listening, and communicating that will carry you far in this business. I've heard some of the best wisdom from newer agents that tell me I just have to do it MY WAY. One must tune into their own gifts. Be YOU!

So whether it be the real estate world or another part of life listen to that small voice inside that has all the answers and soon you will be blossoming into what you were meant to me. The world will get to see everything that is uniquely you.

With your typical homeowner only moving to the next place to live every five to seven years a little review is in order for staying safe during the period of time the house is on the market. With today's days on market being longer than in earlier times, safety during the period from the listing to the move out date definitely needs to be top of mind. As a home seller keep in mind these items to stay safe:

• Put away or in storage any valuables you may have in the house
• Store prescription medications in other areas of the house other than the medicine cabinet to prevent theft
• Survey the flooring and remove any lightweight, loose rugs that someone may fall or slip on when they walk the house
• If you have pets, especially dogs that may bite or snap at people you may want to move them away temporarily to a family member or have them in an enclosure in the backyard when you are away
• do not leave lighted candles in the house when you depart even if they are there to set a mood or atmosphere
• ABOVE ALL, DO NOT allow any potential buyer into your house by themselves without being accompanied by a REALTOR. This is dangerous! You are not selling your house For Sale By Owner and they need to be represented by an agent.

Many more safety tips can be found on Realtor web sites or searching the web on this topic. But it does point out one of the inherent disadvantges of For Sale By Owner and that is SAFETY. Be a smart seller, use common sense, and be safe. And, oh by the way, use a REALTOR!

In life as you get older sooner or later you figure this one out. In addition to death and taxes there is another thing that is a constant. What might that be you say? The answer is "change."  You see it all the time. Businesses come and go. Neighborhoods grow, stabilize, decline, and come back with resurgence.

A little prevention goes a long way. To make things a little easier for you today think of change as a gentle breeze or a Mack Truck. Advice for today, "Don't get hit by the Mack Truck."

What I mean by that is handling change as a small breeze might involve wearing a hat or shielding your face. Stepping out in the street with a Mack Truck bearing down on you at 50 mph and you are splat like a bug. I've noticed change can hit a tipping point very quickly sometimes and one day you're balanced, the next day things are completely haywire. I'm not talking about things out of your control like illness, accidents, or tragedies. I'm talking every day life.

In real estate for example, why some buyers don't use a buyer rep or an inspector as "preventative" measure to avoid the Mack Truck collision is beyond me. It's insurance on your "future." Why not align yourself with a lender who knows what your needs are and finds you the best mortgage product out there? A good realtor can tell you trends about a neighborhood, how the schools are performing, zoning changes that may put a WalMart in your backyard, etc.

I don't know about you but I can handle a little breeze. Let someone else take on the Mack Truck!

There's an old golf adage that says, "If you can't see the shot, you can't hit the shot."It's all about visualization. Whether it applies to golf, or home buying, or home selling, to remodeling a home, or to building a real estate business, you have to BEGIN with the ENDPOINT in mind. A professional in each area can be a resource to you to get to where you want to go.

.

When I built some new construction years ago, I surveyed the market with the assistance of a REALTOR. I took the best of the various builders and built a hybrid house with the amenities from many homes I previewed. I at first didn't know where I was headed. But eventually the picture became clear and I knew what the end result was. I achieved clarity. Visualize and achieve the goal.

 Be a Tiger Woods when it comes to your real estate dreams! Hit Your Shot!!!

I thought that for those buying a house, selling a house, or for that matter a REALTOR running their business, you enter the process without all the answers.You have to FIGURE IT OUT. As a fan of Sudoku, I think of it as solving a puzzle. For the buyer, which is the right house? For the seller, how will I ever unload this place? For a REALTOR, it could be how do I best serve my clients and run a profitable business while maintaining balance in my life?

Much like a jigsaw puzzle it is a matter of putting the pieces together. There are answers. The pieces can be put together to make the solution. As REALTORs one of our key traits is problem solver. Luckily for buyers and sellers if they work with REALTORs they have at their disposal a tremendous resource. REALTORs know the process of what it takes to get it done.

 They have alliances with lenders, handymen, marketing companies, stagers, inspectors, title companies, and other realtors not to mention their education and experience.

Put the pieces together. Get together with a PUZZLE MASTER.

I don't know about you with your work but with advancing technology and today's communication and computing devices supposedly helping us to get more out of our day, it "seems" like we have less time rather than more time than ever. How can we squeeze more time out of our day to get the things we want done accomplished?

The fact is we all have the same 24 hours in the day. Chalk up 6 to 8 hours of sleep and you're down to 16 to 18 hours for what you might want to call "your life." So what are you going to do with the seconds of your precious life today? They say how you live your days is how you live your life.

A less is more strategy is in order. You are not the same person you were five years ago, or ten years ago. Some people don't immediately recognize this, but examine your life, your circumstances, your friends, your surroundings, and your interests, and you have grown into something a tad different. Less is more means re-evaluate what you WANT to do, and WHERE you want to go. In the REALTOR community, many professionals can seem harried at times with the 192 steps to getting a house from listing presentation, to agreement, to contract, to close, to handing the keys over to the new buyer. If any one occupation we can pick on to illustrate this, it would be REALTORs. With less is more, one must realize you can't do it all. A few thoughts on LESS IS MORE:

• Prioritize. Make a short list of what you want to do today. Work, Play, Family, Self-development, Fitness
• Say No. Say No again. Say No A LOT!! This is so powerful you will not believe it.
• Substitute. Get rid of more TV or all TV. Write a blog. Read. Work on your database. Get on the phone.
• Get parallel time. Answer email while listening to music. Vacuum the floor while listening to something on your headphones or clean the kitchen countertops with a Bluetooth headset phone conversation going on.
• Delegate, delegate, delegate. Have someone else mow your yard, shovel the snow, paint the house.

By you NOT doing it all yourself you will recover gaps of time where you had no chance of completing that task anyways before next year's Christmas! LESS IS MORE. Now if I can just find an outsourcing service to help me clean off my desk. I know they have Clutter Buster companies, but now I have to find the time to look that up! I'll do that by turning off the evening news. That wasn't such a positive part of my day anyway.

REALTORs are often asked by buyers if they buy this house, "Will it be a good investment?" I often hear the answer snapped back that you can never go wrong with real estate and that it is a good investment and much better than renting. When did some real estate agents become financial planners and have crystal balls?

If you looked at housing as an investment recently you might come up with a chart like this. It shows what a $250,000 house from five years ago averages today in various markets.

• Atlanta               $307,225
• Boston               $339,950
• Chicago              $362,450
• Dallas                 $296,925
• Denver                $283,450
• Detroit                 $261,100
• Las Vegas            $484,325
• Los Angeles          $540,050
• Miami                  $563,300
• New York              $421,275
• Phoenix               $483,575
• St. Louis              $334,250
• San Francisco       $302,100
• Seattle                $416,975
• Washington D.C.  $476,375

                               Source: Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight

It points out that real estate is "local" and appreciation or depreciation of prices is all over the map (literally), depends on local economic conditions, condition of property, and length of time that you live in the home.

So we must not be fortune tellers but tell buyers about trends from the past and that there are no guarantees about future results. Look at the investors in Florida and Las Vegas with homes and condos. Looked pretty promising a year or two back. Now the values have plummeted. For now, it wasn't a very good investment.

With the price of gasoline climbing to or surpassing the $3.00 per gallon mark, the days of more of the virtual real estate agent are approaching. What I mean by that is the face to face time with agents will now be more focused than ever before not only to enhance productivity on everyone's part, but to minimize cost. Virtual workers are already seen throughout corporate America with some several day a week telecommuters or remote workers working from home.

There is no doubt real estate agents have to get out and meet people in their industry, meet clients face-to-face and show houses. But technology is getting better and better all the time. After some initial face to face meetings REALTORs can do much leg work from home, broker offices or their car via land lines or cell phone, fax, email, and over the web in the form of web previews or videos. Websites themselves with virtual tours, photos, and videos are already saving the buyers a ton of time before they contact an agent.

Another area making agents more productive when virtual is unifying all their communication to one device through a management menu. These tools are already out there. Email, voice mail, fax, browser, photo libraries, contracts, conatct manager, etc. can all reside on one device and all your phone numbers can be pushed to one phone number.

It's not that REALTORs can't take the time to have a meeting at a Starbucks with a client, or take that title company educational class across town at their office. They may just have to work smarter with today's economic condtions of a tighter housing market and rising energy costs. Clients will understand and the agents that use technology that is at hand in a smart way will be better able to take control of their bottom line.