Realtors are People Too!

Realtors are people too.  We have feelings.  We laugh and cry,    

just like everyone else. We hurt and we bleed.  And we get angry too.  Usually because we’ve been hurt.  

It’s January 2016, and I’m now entering my ninth year as a Real Estate Agent.  I’ve managed to earn a decent income, and still have time to do some of the things I really love to do.  Not that I don’t love real estate.  But I’m like a lot of people:  I’d really love it if I didn’t have to work at all!  If I could just write songs, perform in theatre, film, and television as an actress, and travel the world without worrying about money, I’d be really happy.  Not that I’m not happy now.  I am.  I’m grateful for the success I’ve had with my job as a Realtor.  And I’m grateful for all of the loyal clients I’ve had, and the repeat business!  

But not all people are loyal, and sometimes I get hurt.  Some people lie and those people hurt me too (Usually the ones who aren’t loyal are also the ones who lie).  And some people are just plain mean, and they hurt me too.  Because I’m not just a “sales person” out for a commission, I have feelings!  

I’ve read all kinds of posts on-line about how people aren’t happy with their Realtor, or how their Realtor cheated them, or how their Realtor lied to them.  However, I rarely see anything about how potential buyers and sellers lie (sometimes by omission) to the real estate agent who is working faithfully on their behalf.

Case in point:  I had a tenant in one of my rental homes, we’ll call her Dee.  When Dee became my tenant two years ago, she said she would be buying a home in the future, and I said I would love to be her Realtor.  Dee said, “great.”   So, when Dee approached me last summer about the possibility of buying my rental property, I wasn’t surprised.  At the time, my rental property needed a new central heat/air unit as well as some other repairs, but Dee encouraged me to hold off, because she said she would want to buy my property “as is.”  In July, Dee made me a low-ball offer on my Inglewood rental property, and I said, "I don’t think I’m willing to sell that low; but how about if I take you and your husband out to show you a few houses?  Maybe you’ll find another home that you’ll like better?”  I ran comps for Dee to show her home values in East Nashville and I spent an afternoon taking Dee and her husband around to look at five homes in their desired neighborhood.  They fell in love with the first home I showed them.  However, they said that they would not be ready to buy for a few months.  I said, “great, just let me know when you want to start looking again.”  Dee said, “we’ll keep you posted.”  I said, “In the meantime, I’ll replace the heat/air unit on the rental property.”  I thought the rapport was great, and due to several e-mails and conversations, I thought that Dee and her husband would be buying their next home with me as their Buyer’s Agent.  

Because I don’t like to be a pushy salesperson, I waited a couple of months to address the subject again.  I actually ran into Dee in a coffee shop in early October and she told me that they were “just about ready to start looking, and they’d let me know in a couple of weeks!”  I said, “great!”

Less than two weeks later, I get an e-mail from Dee.  It says:  “Man, things move fast around here!  We went out to look at houses once, put in one offer and had it accepted, so this is our official notice that we will be ending our lease.....”

I was shocked and hurt to learn that I was obviously not their Buyer’s Agent.  Even more shocked and hurt to learn that the  home they bought in October (when they went out “to look at houses once”) was the very first home I had shown them in July!  (I found this out by searching the tax record after closing, since Dee only gave me a P.O. box as a forwarding address to get her rental security deposit back).

As a “sales person,” I’m well aware that I won’t make every sale.  I’m also aware that some buyers don’t realize that when Realtors spend time doing searches for homes on your behalf and then spend time showing you homes, they actually don’t make a dime until you close on the purchase of your home.  However, some buyers do know that they are leading you on and they lie to save face, or they lie by not communicating honestly.  As a Realtor, I pride myself on having integrity and dealing honestly with every person I come in contact with.  And, as a person, I expect honesty in return.

The Seven-Year Itch

Most people buy a home, in part, because they’re looking to “put down roots”.  But the truth is, the average American moves every 7 years.

Smart buyers never say “forever”. In fact, if you think you’ll live somewhere forever and you’re under 45 years old, think again.



The reason you don’t want to over-estimate how long you’re likely to live somewhere is because doing so will affect:

What kind of home to buy;
How much you should invest in your home once you do;
Which kind of mortgages you should consider.

So here’s 5 questions to ask yourself when you are trying to predict your own future, to help you think realistically about how long you’re likely to stay put – or not.

1. Is my family complete?
Why: Because if you aren’t finished growing your family (or aren’t sure one way or the other), you probably aren’t done moving, either. Between having enough space, jockeying for the best school districts, or even switching jobs to afford all the little monsters, you probably haven’t yet optimized your living situation to account for how kids (or spouses) will change your needs over time.

2. Do you get bored easily?Why: Your personality is actually the biggest predictor of how often you will move. Think about how restless or adventurous you tend to be. People who love to travel or try new things tend to also be more open to packing it all in and starting over. So ask yourself, as a general rule, does the idea of living in the same neighborhood (regardless of how nice it is) fills you with comfort or with dread? If it’s the latter, you’re more prone to be lured away for any variety of reasons.

3. When was the last recession?
Why: So, if we assume the last ten years were something of an (unfortunate) anomaly for homebuyers, in general a big(ish) recession happens every 10 years or so. But here’s the kicker: a suddenly shrinking or growing economy often has the same effect. At the end of a recession, when things are on the upswing, homebuyers’ new-found stability and wealth often prompts a move. And the reverse is true, too, as a recession begins. Either way, big economic change leads to lots of moving.

4. Does your company have offices everywhere?
Why: If you work for the kind of company with offices all over the country – or even the world – and you happen to love working there, it’s not unreasonable that they’ll ask you to switch locations at some point. And if you are in “career growing mode”, which is usually between 30 – 45 years old, that’s even more likely to happen.

5. Do you expect to earn a lot more in the future?
Why: There are certain careers, like doctors, who start out earning relatively little but enter a phase of massive salary acceleration about ten years in or so. Many people find themselves in their late 30s or early 40s with three or four times the salary they had a few years earlier. If you are lucky enough to have that kind of a career, you’re also more likely to want to upgrade.

A re-post from Doorsteps.com

Selling vs. Telling the Truth

Saturday morning I got a call from a real estate agent who is affiliated with a nationally franchised real estate firm with offices here in middle Tennessee.  My caller I.D. identified the firm.  Since I don't give out my personal phone number to other Realtors unless I'm working on a deal with them, I assumed that the Realtor was trying to reach me regarding either one of my listings or one of his listings that I'd recently shown.  


When I answered the phone with my friendly and professional greeting, "Good morning, this is Holly," the other Realtor said, "Good morning ma'am, this is Joe Blow with I-Shall-Remain-Nameless Realty, and we recently sold your neighbor's home at 907 Clayton Avenue, and I'm wondering if you, or anyone you know might be interested in selling your home?"  


I paused.  Obviously this other Realtor didn't realize he had reached a fellow agent at home while she was sipping her Saturday morning coffee.  I said, "Well, I'm a real estate agent myself, but thank you for calling."  The other agent, clearly caught off guard, chuckled and said, "Oh!  Well, best of luck with your business!"


After I hung up, I got to thinking:  Neither that agent's name, nor the name of his firm, matched the yard sign of the real estate company who had listed my neighbor's home.  So I decided to look up the "closed sales" on Realtracs (our local Realtor's website) to see if he had acted as a buyer's agent in the sale.  When I discovered that this agent's name did not appear anywhere as either the listing or buyer's agent on Realtracs, I was surprised and disgusted.  This agent, who had cold-called me on a Saturday morning, was canvassing my neighborhood to generate business by telling an outright lie!


Before I got my real estate license, I was a real estate investor, home-renovator, and landlord.  I resisted getting my license to sell real estate, because of the stigma that I associated with Realtors-I perceived the real estate sales profession to be riddled with con-artists; admittedly, my assessment was generalized, mostly off-base, and in spite of it, I ultimately became a real estate agent myself.  I've since learned that "professions" are made up of people-mostly good, and a few bad-but now here was a fellow real estate agent, claiming to have sold my neighbor's home, lying and setting a bad example and proving to me that my old perceptions were not that far off the mark from what others may perceive as well.  I did a Google search and discovered 2,630,000 hits by typing in "Real Estate Agents who Lie," and while I was at it, found this interesting article:  "The Top Three Lies Told by Real Estate Agents"


Every so often, I wonder if I'd sell more homes if I resorted to the strategies and trickery sometimes used by others in my profession, but honestly, I value telling the truth more than making a sale.

How Do You Know When You've Found It?

With so many homes on the market here in Nashville, Tennessee, many first-time buyers search for their "dream home" for months, even years, before finally deciding upon a home they can envision themselves living in long term. 

Here are a few signs that a particular home you’re viewing just might be “It”--And that it might be time to make an offer!

1. If you walk through a home and instantly feel possessive and leave wondering how quickly you can get your offer in, and how much you’d offer to beat someone else out, or anything else you can do to make sure no one other than you gets the home, this one just might be “It.”

2. If you find yourself liking a home with traits that you would normally find undesirable, yet you like the place so much that you instinctively compile a mental list of reasons why those traits don’t seem to matter, you just might have found “It.”

3. If you happen to find yourself falling in love with a home’s glass-block shower wall, while ignoring the dirty tub, or drooling over the the built-in cookbook stand on the kitchen countertop (even though the countertop is laminate), that’s a sign that you’re falling head over heels with a home that might just be “It.”

4. And if you find your yourself picturing your own kids and sofa in the living room, your table and chairs and favorite wall hangings in the dining room, and having your morning coffee on the deck--it’s entirely possible that the home you’re in could be “It."

When you find your "It,” continuing the house hunt you've been obsessing over for months starts to seem silly, like a waste of energy you could be using to move into your new home.  So, if you notice that you have lost interest in seeing other homes, after any of the above situations have applied, it's time to make an offer, because you have probably found "It!"

1805 Lischey Avenue in East Nashville, TN

A Sweet Renovated Starter Home

Are You Really Ready to Buy?

The housing market in Nashville, Tennessee is great for buyers right now.  Interest rates are extremely low, there are many houses on the market to choose from, and the cost of renting has increased! But just because the market’s good doesn’t mean it’s the right time for everyone to buy. So what are the big questions you should answer to determine if you’re ready to buy? Here are five of them:

1. Do I have enough money for a down payment?
And how much, exactly, is “enough?” Today’s minimum down payment requirements range from 3.5 percent on an FHA loan to 10 or even 20 percent for conventional loans. That means coming up with anywhere from $7,000 to $40,000 on a typical $200,000 house. And keep in mind there are also closing costs, which can run as high as 3-4% of your total purchase price.

2. Can I handle the not-so-glamorous aspects of homeownership?
As a home owner, you are basically your own landlord. So if your toilet won't stop running, or a pipe freezes and bursts in the middle of the night, you can't call a property manager to take care of the problem. If the idea of having a maintenance crisis is overwhelming to you, you might want to reconsider homeownership-or at the very least, buy a condo or townhome in great condition or a completely renovated home with new mechanicals: ie, plumbing, electrical, roof, HVAC; and make sure you get a home warranty! When you go from renter to owner, you'll need to account for the cost of appliances and maintaining the property’s roof, windows, landscaping, plumbing, and changing the air filters in your central heat and air unit.

3. How long do I intend to stay in the house?
If you think you might move out of the area next year, then you really shouldn’t be thinking about buying a home (unless of course, you intend to use the home as a rental property/investment after you move). You should plan to stay in the home at least 5-7 years-even longer, if you’re buying a home in a foreclosure hot spot or an area with a sluggish job market. This will give you some time to build up equity and make up for the costs of buying, selling and moving.

4. Are my job and finances stable?
Is there really such a thing as 100 percent job security in today’s economy? Probably not. But the best plan is to be confident that your finances can handle a temporary loss of income and still make your mortgage payments, before you buy. One way to do this is to have enough money in the bank to cover 4-6 months’ worth of living expenses, calculating them to include your mortgage payment - before you decide that you're ready to buy. That way, even if you lose your job with no warning at all, you’ll at least have a reasonable window of time to find a new one without digging yourself into a hole - or worse, losing your home altogether.

5. What are my real reasons for buying?
Buying a home is a long-term commitment that will have massive impacts on your lifestyle, your family and your finances. In other words, don’t do it unless you’re really sure you want and are ready for the lifestyle change. Some worthy reasons renters give for their decision to buy include some or all of the following:

**You want to build equity instead of paying a landlord. Fact is, if you get a fixed rate mortgage and make the payments for the full term of the loan, you'll eventually pay it off. That's not possible when you're renting.
**You want a place to call your own, where you can paint the walls any color you want, where you can have dogs without paying fees for the privilege, or where you can plant a garden.
**You want the tax advantages of homeownership.
**You want a stable place you and your family can live for as long as you'd like.

Ask your own questions about why you want to buy, and be honest with your answers.  It’s usually just a matter of strategically timing your purchase when your savings, your career and your lifestyle are in alignment with the implications of ownership.  Consider working closely with a real estate broker and a mortgage professional to get an action plan in place and start working your plan!

The 1, 2, 3's of Your First Home Purchase

If one of your New Year's resolutions is to buy your very own home, there couldn't be a better time than the present!  30 year mortgages dropped last week to a record 3.89%, according to a recent article in Yahoo Finance.   


When you get ready to start looking, here are three things to keep in mind:

1)  Get Preapproved

Before you do anything, get yourself pre-approved for a mortgage.  If you know you can get a mortgage, you won't set yourself up for disappointment if you find your dream home and then can't purchase it.  Be sure to get your lender to give you a mortgage pre-approval letter in writing.  This will give you a solid price range to begin your search with, and will let your realtor and potential seller know that you're a serious buyer and not just browsing! 

2)  Develop your Wish List

 What do you absolutely need in your new home, ie. 3 bedrooms, more than one bath, granite countertops, move-in ready, a fenced yard, or a garage?  What are some of the items on your wish list that you can do without?--Most homes aren't a perfect match, and you need to be open to the idea that you might not get every single item on your wish list.  If you don't go through the looking process in a slightly detached manner and you fall in love with every home you see, you are likely to over-pay for your home.  By using your Wish-List, you can hone in on the home you can't live without!

3)  Gather your Team

Buying a home is a complicated process with many people involved.  Having the right people on your side can make a big difference.  An experienced, knowledgeable and reliable Buyer's agent can put you in touch with lenders, home inspectors, contractors, and movers so that you have a team of advocates working for you immediately.