Archive for the 'Odds and Ends' Category
Making offers and attending walk-thrus and home inspections
June 20th, 2008 Categories: Odds and Ends
It’s going to be a very busy Friday. I have two walk-thrus to attend, a home inspection, and a offer on a relocation property to negotiate. Relocation offers are very time consuming and the relocation companies do everything they can to strip away my buyer’s rights and protection that are provided in our standard North Carolina offer to purchase and contract. This is going to consume a good bit of mental bandwith. More on relocation offers and negotiations in another article.
One walk-thru is for my personal home. That’s right, the Realtor just purchased a new home. I think all Realtors should be required to do this every few years. I now have a fresh, very personal appreciation for what my clients go through when purchasing a new home.
One big surprise along the way was that we found high radon levels and had that remediated. It figures that with all the warnings I write about this subject that I would buy a house with high radon levels myself. Actually, this part of the process hasn’t been too bad. The local remediation company is great and they know exactly what they are doing. I’ll have to do an article with all the details of the process in the next few weeks.
And of course here we are a few days from closing and there is still more on the builder’s punch list that I would like for there to be. I’ll have to admit that part is fairly stressful. I’m seeing first hand the challenge that any builder faces with their sub contractors and getting them to correct what appear to be simple issues. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.
Hey… that’s okay though… we’re almost there and have a great builder who is on top of everything. And as I mentioned, it’s great experience for me as a Realtor to get this fresh peek at the process from the perspective of the home buyer.
Well, back to work for now. Have an awesome weekend!
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Why Do Realtors Have So Many Phone Numbers?
June 6th, 2008 Categories: Odds and Ends
Hello everyone. Sorry for the lack of articles this week! It has been such a busy week with new listings, closings, and some really great new buyer clients whom I’m helping find their next home. I know, it’s no excuse.
You want to know what really slows me down when things get busy? Having to dial way too many phone numbers to reach one of my fellow agents! As a member of a cooperative real estate community here in Raleigh, I pride myself in being helpful to other agents when they need to know something about one of my client’s homes listed for sale. And for the most part, my associates are very helpful when I need to know something about one of their listings. But I wish someone could explain to me why some of the other Realtors in the Raleigh market need so many phone numbers!!!
With the proliferation of mobile phones, and many agents doing what I have done, which is to simply use my mobile phone as my primary communication device, it is getting a little better. But there are still way too many hold outs from the old school who have 3 or more phone numbers listed on their business cards and websites. This confuses me. Just think what it must do for any potential client trying to reach them.
I recently had the need to contact a very successful agent in our market, so I Googled his name to find his website. Once I found his main page, I was presented with no less than FIVE PHONE NUMBERS! This is insane. I froze in my tracks for a few minutes. I started reading through all the numbers and trying to figure out which one to start with. Did he list them in the order of highest probability that I would actually get him on the phone? He even had a separate number for his voice mail!
After the initial fear of having to dial five phone numbers had abated a bit, I came to my senses and just dialed his mobile number. Of course he didn’t answer. I left a message and got a call back within a few hours. Nice guy. He was very helpful and got the answers to my client’s questions right away. How did such a seemingly successful, smart guy end up with such a confusing hodge podge of phone numbers?
I started to ask if I had messed up his system by leaving a message on his mobile number rather than dialing the one he had clearly marked on his website as voice mail. Does this guy have five different voice mailboxes? Does he check them all?
If you are one of my fellow Raleigh Realtors who reads my blog on a regular basis, and you have more than one phone number, do yourself a favor and get rid of the excess numbers. You only need one!
I have won business from clients precisely because I’m so easy to reach. There’s just one number. And I answer it if at all possible. Don’t make it too hard for someone to get you on the phone to discuss the possibility of buying or selling a home.
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The Salute To Our Troops in Downtown Raleigh - The Photo Edition
April 28th, 2008 Categories: Downtown, Odds and Ends
The Salute To Our Troops parade and celebration in Downtown Raleigh on Saturday was awesome. It was a humbling moment standing there and watching this huge tribute to the brave men and women who are willing to voluntarily put themselves in harms way, if need be, and make the ultimate sacrifice so that you and I can be safe and free.
We have lots of military bases here in North Carolina. Even so, it’s easy to forget that these guys and gals, our neighbors, stand ready to serve whenever called upon.
I do not know what words I might write here that would be sufficient to express the gratitude that I feel towards our armed forces. So, I’ll try quoting something that was said a long time ago.
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
Enjoy the photos… and yes, that is Senator Elizabeth Dole on the Harley.
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Salute Our Troops Parade and Celebration in Downtown Raleigh
April 26th, 2008 Categories: Downtown, Odds and Ends
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I’m headed to downtown Raleigh to enjoy the Salute The Troops parade and celebration this morning. There will be a military flyover at 10:00am followed by a parade that starts at Fayetteville Street and continues down Salisbury Street past the Capital building. After the parade there will be lots of military equipment and the like on display. There will even be several NASCAR teams there, displaying some race cars I presume?
This is a really cool event. In addition to all the fun and sights for civilians like me, There is a whole bunch of special stuff for active military and their families. Just for our military families, there are dozens of games and activities, a nice catered lunch, free access to Marbles Kids Museum, and free access to the opening night Carolina RailHawks (professional soccer) game.
I hope to see you there as we take a few moments to celebrate all that our military service men and women do to keep us free and safe. I’ll take my camera and post some photos later on.
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Back To Normal
April 25th, 2008 Categories: Odds and Ends
Last night I saw one of the most beautiful sights I have witnessed in a very long time. I logged on to this blog and saw that all of my content had been fully restored. That was a really big sigh of relief for me.
The more I thought about all the hours I had put in writing the four months of articles that have been missing for over a week, the more panic I experienced. The people that host my blog, The Real Estate Tomato, had been telling me all along not to worry, that it was all safe and sound. But I didn’t listen. I worried anyway.
I just want to say a public thank you to Jim, Molly (you know who you are!), and everyone at The Real Estate Tomato for doing such a wonderful job of recovering from the attack that a bunch of us bloggers suffered almost two weeks ago.
Now back to blogging and selling houses!
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Back From The Attack
April 22nd, 2008 Categories: Odds and Ends
If you’ve stopped by this blog in the past week, you have witnessed the aftermath of a vicious hacker attack. Raleigh Real Estate Talk and 19 other real estate blogs were the subject of a criminal attack, according to the people who host our sites.
As of right now I’m back up, although 4 months of articles are still missing. I’m told the missing months should be restored soon. It’s been a different kind of week to say the least.
To be honest, I’ve been able to keep myself pretty busy while my host has worked feverishly to put my blog back together again. I’ve had several new clients to serve and a couple of closings to schedule. That’s what it’s all about anyway. Helping people navigate through the sometimes perilous process of buying and selling homes.
I have had a few moments to reflect on why someone would want to do such a malicious and destructive thing to people whom he or she presumably did not even know. There is no answer to that question. But what they meant for harm has resulted in some good.
I’ve heard from quite a few people who enjoy reading what I write and who use the home search tools here on a regular basis. It has made me realize that this humble little blog serves more people that I thought, and that they depend on the information that is posted here.
I just want everyone to know that Raleigh Real Estate Talk is back and here to stay. By the way, there’s lots of new stuff coming soon. A new search home tool that you’re gonna love. You’ll also see the launch of a new way to organize information on a community by community basis. And I’m more committed now than ever before to writing something every day.
I missed everyone and It’s really good to be back!
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Garbage Disposals Are Allowed In Raleigh, Again
April 9th, 2008 Categories: Odds and Ends
The Raleigh City Counsel passed a resolution about a month ago to ban garbage disposals. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. They even went so far as to impose a $25,000 fine for anyone caught with an “illegal” garbage disposal. Well, fear not, it appears that the ban on garbage grinders will soon be repealed.
The reason given by the City Council for the ban was to reduce the number of sewer clogs and resulting overflows. It’s funny that they all acknowledge the number one cause of public sewer overflows is grease and cooking oils being poured into the system, but they went about implementing the garbage disposal ban without researching whether there was a link.
They seem to have come to the conclusion that if there were no garbage disposals, no one would pour grease down the drains. That doesn’t even make sense. If someone is irresponsible enough to pour grease down their drain, did they think it would stop if they took away all the garbage disposals?
Earlier this week, the president of InSinkErator, a leading manufacturer of garbage disposals, presented results of studies to the City Counsel that clearly showed no link exists between garbage disposals and sewer clogs exists. This is embarrassing. The City Council’s only evidence in favor of the ban was some grainy video of a camera inserted into Raleigh sewer pipes. Yuck! The video showed that some pipes were clogged. It just did nothing at all to indicate the cause.
The guy from InSinkErator has expert witnesses, professors of food science, and results from an exhaustive study os causes of sewer back ups. Would have loved to have been at the meeting. Matlock or Perry Mason would have been proud of the defense. The bottom line is that it looks like garbage disposals all across the city of Raleigh will get a reprieve. The City Council is expected to take up the issue again next week and a unanimous vote to overturn the ban is expected.
I’ve mentioned the ban to a couple of dozen home buyer clients in the past few weeks. Quite a few were from out of town and just kind of looked at me like they were waiting for the punch line to a bad joke. I’ll be very relieved not to have to tell anyone that they cannot have a garbage disposal when they buy a home in Raleigh.
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New Feature for 2008 | Monthly Items of Value
January 2nd, 2008 Categories: Odds and Ends
Hello everyone and welcome to 2008! Raleigh Real Estate Talk is ready for an exciting new year and I have many plans to provide even more information and new features on this site in 2008.
The first one is something called a Monthly Item of Value. Each month a professionally designed piece will be available for download that has something to do with buying, selling, or owning a home. This information will be relevant for home buyers and sellers in the Raleigh area as well as anywhere in the US.
The first piece is all about how to make and keep resolutions (known at any other time of year as goal setting) and how this can apply to buying or selling residential real estate. Stop back tomorrow morning and it should be posted by then.
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Seasons Greetings
December 25th, 2007 Categories: Odds and Ends
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Merry Christmas | Blessings of 2007
December 21st, 2007 Categories: Odds and Ends
As 2007 nears its end, I just wanted to take a moment and let everyone know how much I value your reading and commenting on my blog. And I sincerely appreciate your support of my business.
God has blessed me, both personally and professionally, in so many ways this year. And for that I am humbly grateful. In that spirit, I would like to pass along a few things I am personally thankful for this year, in the hope that it will encourage you to think about the blessings in your own life.
2007 has been an interesting year for my career in many ways. Over the past five years I have built a very robust relocation business. What a pleasure that has been. I have had the honor of helping dozens of wonderful families move their lives to our area.
During the past 6 months, that relocation business slowed down quite a bit as clients in struggling real estate markets across the country experienced extended delays in their plans while they waited for their homes to sell. I’m pleased to report that things have begun to improve for many families who found themselves in this situation. A number of clients were able to find buyers towards the end of the year and move forward with their plans to relocate to the greater Raleigh area. A true blessing for everyone involved!
If you’re still waiting for your home to sell somewhere around the country, hang in there. It will happen. Keep working with your Realtor to get ahead of the market and capture the most money possible. It can be done.
One blessing that I am particularly thankful for is the dramatic increase in referral business that took place just as my relocation business began to slow. The highest compliment I can ever be given is for someone to recommend me to a friend or family member. This surge in referrals came at the perfect time… just when I needed it most. Thank you to everyone who referred clients to me in 2007!
Another blessing has been the successful launch of RaleighRealEstateTalk.com. This new website, with a blog as its main focus, has allowed me to greatly expand my reach to people searching the Internet for homes. It also allows me to share information about the area and real estate buying and selling tips with all of my readers on a regular basis. A very special thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read what I write, comment on my articles, and especially those who have sought my help with their real estate transaction!
I sincerely hope that you too have enjoyed many blessings in 2007. God’s grace is all around us. I would appreciate it very much if you could take a few minutes and leave a comment below about how you have been blessed this year. My hope is that there will be positive comments left here from dozens of people sharing the good that has happened in their lives during 2007 and that it will be yet another blessing to all who read it.
Merry Christmas to everyone and I’ll be back here, writing again, right after the holidays. I look forward taking RaleighRealEstateTalk.com to even higher levels, and sharing even more about the Raleigh real estate market with all of you in 2008!
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