Gary Woltal's Blog

In interviewing buyers about their needs for a new home, I usually go through the normal list of questions. Needs of the family, area they may have interest in, commute to work, amenities, size home, what they can afford, etc. But what I discovered along the way is they want some place to build:

TIMELESS TREASURES.

I mean by that, a home where love can be fostered, and memories made. A place that is a refuge from the grind of the world. A place of solitude. A place for friendship. A place for relaxation and fun.

Timeless treasures allow you to look back on a place many years into the future and say that was a great place to live, to raise a family, to stay in that city or town.

You know you've found a timeless treasure when you dig out an old photo and hold it in your hand and just stare at it for awhile.

I hear timeless treasures in music from decades back. Why is that song still in your head? It hasn't gone out of style. It probably makes you think of another time or situation in your life when you first heard it. Think of some Beatles classics. Written in the 1960's but still great today.

Be alert if you are the buyer or the Realtor helping the buyer to help people create an environment that will provide many timeless treasures to them for years to come. What a satisfying quest will be completed when you accomplish that!

I drew my inspiration for this post from an article I read from another person that said yes it is true, that REALTORS can indeed drop their cell phones in the toilet. I brought this up to my wife and she continued to be more graphic about this image than I, so I ceased to discuss it further as she laughed walking away.

What I got out of that thought and that discussion was that:

REALTORS ARE PEOPLE TOO!

And darn fine ones I might add from my sampling of the population. First they are fairly passionate about their business and big risk takers. Those that work for straight commission and jump through all sorts of hoops for buyers, sellers and investors, before seeing a dime of income, in my opinion are A+ and darn near saints!!

The reason I bring this topic up is that Realtors are more than just people in the business of assisting others with buying and selling houses. Yes, houses or property is the PRODUCT.

REALTORS do provide a service of course.

BUT, once again, REALTORS ARE PEOPLE TOO!

They have families, sick dogs, elderly parents, whiney kids, relationship problems, cars that need some kind of mechanical repair, dentist appointments, bills to pay and yards to mow.

Lest any Realtor forget and you think you own them, a good one will set you straight right away with BOUNDARIES. No, they don't take all listings. Some don't work Sunday mornings because of church. They may not work Sunday at all. Friday is their day off. They won't drive 100 miles to put flyers in your box.

Their child's fever is a priority this Thursday night.

All that being said, you will find no more classier, serving, loving, passionate people about Real Estate than a group of dedicated REALTORS. They will go to extraordinary lengths to serve you.

Just remember they are people too, and thank them for the hard work they put in on your behalf!

In assisting buyers to find their "perfect" house it is amazing how it all comes together at one point. Step by step the house search narrows down to the right location, the right amenities, the correct floor plan, etc. There is a saying in golf that if you can see the shot you can make the shot. It is all about vision.

With the passing of chess great Bobby Fischer it made me think that some are good at "one" step thinking of their vision while others are more advanced with two step thinking of an outcome. Chess masters or genius levels can predict outcomes even three steps out. Wouldn't that be nice?

I think where any of us get in to trouble with our thinking is half step or "No" step thinking with a plan. As professionals we can guide our clients to see one step out in how their dreams can come true.

How about you? Do you find yourself in a mode of half step thinking, with ill advised plans or do you not think at all? A good cause-effect one step thinking in your life sets the stage for more advanced two step thinking where you know the outcome beyond the initial outcome. Many college students in planning their curriculum for the inevitable degree completion are definitely two step thinkers.

Practice the number of steps in your thinking and you too will get where you want to go and eventually say "Checkmate" with a big smile on your face!

With seemingly every day another technology gizmo appears on the market to make our life easier. Did you know Realtors can open those lockboxes on the doors of houses for sale with their cell phones? I think advanced tools are helpful but was life maybe simpler before they appeared on the scene?

I'm a big believer in more bells and whistles crammed into PCs, laptops, plasma TVs, and cell phones, but do you ever wonder if perhaps the inventors one day will go too far?

Here's a light look on the subject in what I call:

TECHNOLOGY GONE MAD.     Enjoy!!

In working with buyers of real estate you will see the light bulbs go off when they hit on the dream home. It is a "wow" home and it is in their price range and it seems all the amenities fit. Perhaps the long journey is over if they can get an offer accepted on this one.

I've seen this in life too, with what many in personal development fields call an "a-ha" moment. A little "gold nugget" revelation. An epiphany of sorts. Until that moment in time, maybe you didn't think of that one idea or realize you were talented in that area. Maybe your kindness was appreciated and that needed validation for all your hard work was finally acknowledged.

I've concluded to have more "a-ha" moments in your life, to collect more "gold nuggets" of truth and wisdom, you need to increase your networking among ALL kinds of people and also try to EXPERIENCE as much of life as possible. I bring this up because I think the overly shy and hermit types are concluding they know everything already and are missing that life is such a big classroom. Live life with gusto and collect yourself a big bag of gold nuggets.

Also, share your gold nuggets with others. For example from a recent class I took on Microsoft Word, even though I basically knew the software, I found a few more tricks now that make me the resident guru in that area when helping others.

If you have "a-ha's" or gold nuggets share them within this post or with others.

Yogi Berra, one of my all time favorite philosophers once said,

"WHEN YOU COME TO THE FORK IN THE ROAD, TAKE IT!"

When it comes to deciding on a home to buy or other decisions in your life go down this check list to feel comfortable with your choice.

* Value alignment

* Use of Time

* Energy required

* Money

* Opportunity Cost

I will run two scenarios to give you a feel for working with these items.

1) Say you have found that dream home. Is that 5 bdrm 4 bath home really that important to you for just you and your husband? I know it has the great pool in the backyard, but HELLO, you're not planning on having any kids so maybe this just is a purchase to impress the relatives. What about your time? The commute from this house to your job 1 hour and 15 minutes away may not be how you want to spend most of your day in traffic. Think about energy. Who is going to do the cleaning inside this castle? What about that acre lot of mowing the grass and all those trees that have to be trimmed constantly? When it comes to money, this house will approximately take 40% of your net income. There go the planned vacations. Finally, opportunity cost. By buying this house near an urban area doesn't let you "someday" expand a little and have that little barn you wanted with the horses on the pasture land. Is that a future, or could you get closer to that today? Did you really want to live in the polar north or was a coastal area more what you had in mind? Each decision precludes another decision that you now CAN'T have.

2) Say you are a business person. Say a REALTOR. Do you want to be one of those 24/7 types with a huge team or a work-at-home Mom that sells four houses a year plus Herbal remedies on the side. Nothing wrong either way. Just know what YOU want. Do you like to attend your kids soccer games on Friday afternoons or real estate for you is ALL the time? Guess who sets the boundaries? YOU. When do you re-charge your batteries for your work? Say you want to do Yoga/Pilates classes four times a week. Is that scheduled? Or do you do it when clients are not using up your energy? How much money do you want to earn? How much money MAX will you spend on marketing this year? By being a REALTOR you now probably cannot also be a Physical Therapist down at the local hospital, another passion of yours. Is this career long term and you're good with that, or should you head in another direction.

By carefully weighing these five criteria against all your "forks" in the road, when you come to one and TAKE IT, I guarantee it will be the right one.

And a bonus thought for you, when you get stuck wavering between two choices, ALWAYS let your GUT, not your head be the tiebreaker. May all your roads lead to journeys of peace and prosperity in your life!

It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

With all the doom and gloom in daily newspapers about faltering home prices and the pressures on Joe and Susie consumer to meet rising expenses of food, energy, and health care costs, what is needed is a breath of fresh air.

People need a sense of hope for tomorrow. Hope is not a static concept but can actually be practiced. It can be put into action to make things different.

I've come up with a handful of steps which I call

THE DYNAMICS OF HOPE.

1. Believe there is a solution. Most situations do have answers even if it is not obvious how to solve the puzzle or work your way through the maze. If expenses are too high what can you cut? If income has dropped, what techniques can you change to increase it? Should you change your investments or work a second job? One Realtor I know also works as an Appraiser.

2. Surround yourself with great people. No one needs negative Annies in their life. Who wants to look at frowny faces all day? Soar with the eagles and don't flop with the turkeys. Some of those winning ways may rub off on you. Network amonst co-workers, other business people, friends and family to gather their thoughts for making life better.

3. Don't forget to have fun each day. Turn off some of your mobile devices and decrease the noise level from the audio and video toys and just enjoy life despite your circumstances. Some days naturally will be better than others. But having fun is a great way to decrease stress.

4. Make things simple. Life does not have to be so darn complicated. Focus on the basics and don't take on more than you can handle. Use that powerful word "No" a lot more in times when you need to be more effective. Did you know in the Depression era a common toy for infants was a baby food jar with a penny in it? Families could not even afford rattles then. Very simple times.

5. Have perspective. Are your problems and your situation really far worse than any one else's in the world? Look around. Would you trade your lot in life for some others' problems? Probably not. What DO you have going for you? COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS. Know what is important to you. In most cases that part of your life is doing just fine.

With hope it is something that is available to all of us if we just work on it a little.

Now take that lighted candle and bring it's brightness over to someone else's life today!

I think I learned the lesson about Realtors and niches they served many, many years ago when I interviewed several of them to take my old house and try to list it for me. It was in need of quite a bit of maintenance of which I wasn't really in the mood to do but just wanted to sell "as is." It was then I learned that Realtors could "decline" your listing, thank you very much, and they moved on. I thought it was like the law or something that any old Realtor was supposed to represent you. No, I later learned, they were in business, and if they didn't want to deal with you, tough luck buddy.

Now on this side of the lens as a Realtor, I've learned that early on in real estate, agents need to try many things. Residential, luxury, foreclosures, perhaps commercial, first time home buyers, short sales, etc. to first off learn and also to get a feel for the business.

Even with buyers, you don't have to take them all. The "buyers are liars" types can run you ragged, never know what they want, burn up all your gasoline, and refuse to sign a buyers rep agreement. Who needs this kind of grief? And oh by the way, you are supposed to be guiding them, so why are you in month two of working with them, and they still have not talked with a lender?

What is the source of their funds and when they tell you it is an insurance settlement maybe you should put them on the backburner.

Speaking of niches some agents are great buyers agents and TERRIBLE listing agents. Some are the other way around or some are good at both.

Niches have to be found over time and often adapted to changing markets. You may have been the luxury home queen two years ago but now foreclosures are popping up on every block.

Whatever you do over time, find out what you are good at and enjoy and can profitably run a business at. It may be certain neighborhoods, an entire metro area with a team, retirement homes on waterfront, golf and resort property, farm and ranch, condos, homes for seniors, etc.

There are plenty of categories around. But YOU be the expert, and the world will find you. Be consistent and the dollars will flow your way.

Finding your niche is finding your success in the real estate world.

So often Realtors representing Sellers, listing agents, are asked at listing presentations, "what is it you are going to do to sell my house?" It is a much more appropriate question nowadays with inventory that has risen and longer days on the market.

The short answer might be something like,

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING.

What I mean by that, is depending on one's experience in Sales, Marketing, and Real Estate in that particular area, some things work, others don't.

There really is no ONE technique that will sell your house. If you listen to enough agents sometimes, they'll either convince you open houses are a complete waste of time for marketing your house or it needs to be a "component" of an effective marketing plan.

What about Internet exposure, virtual tours, various web sites, enhanced listings? Which are the right places to market online? Most likely several.

Times change, the reasons houses sell in a neighborhood over the months and years change with time. A great agent reads the changes and adjusts the marketing mix  based on "why" homes sold in that particular area over the last six to nine months. Adapt quickly to stay ahead of the curve by staying up to date on what's happening in your market so you know what to expect next. Talk with other agents that have sold houses in that neighborhood and understand the "secret to their success." Was it a foreclosure, was the seller flexible, was it just a great house, did they find buyers from out of town, was it sold through a re-location company?

A terrific agent has many arrows in their quiver and tries many of them to get the job done including negotating skills and creative financing ideas or new programs with their partnered lender.

By working on the recipe, and and making sure the homeowner has everything going for them will give the greatest chance of a "sweet" and happy ending resulting in a happy buyer and seller at the closing table.

For the month of December in our core city area, year over year sales were down 25%. Year to date sales were down 8%. In some of our suburb areas sales were down slightly higher for year to date and DOM went to 55 days up 8%.

House values teetered from flat to slightly declining which meant if you wanted to sell your house going into 2008, like many areas of the country, you have to price it realistically to gain some good activity with the showings.

With signs of recession swirling about, with higher food and energy prices, and an uncertain job market we all can get caught up with tension. I say we need to CHILL, and learn to Live One Day At A Time.

Most of you are aware that the One Day At A Time philosophy came from Alcoholics Anonymous. It is intended to remind you that you need to take a deep breath and live in the present and deal with the strains of life a little bit at a time. Trying to fix everything all at once causes too much worry and angst.

And for those of us who have ever been in situations where the screws really tighten down on you, you move from One Day At A Time living to One Minute At A Time. I've seen this with extreme financial pressure, issues of life and death with an illness or also with heavy relationship issues like going through a divorce or a family crisis. As the issues get resolved you move back to One Day At A Time.

Living in the present is such a healthy way to live. And problems need not be looked at as all bad either. They are just TIMES IN OUR LIVES. Also, they can be laughed at and with hindsight perspective you will see that you made your way through them as well. This too shall pass.

So live, love, laugh, and especially LEARN through your difficulties.

We are all in this giant classroom called LIFE together, so we may as well make the best of it!