Living In Cedar City

Archive for the ‘Real Estate’ Category

This past Ground Hog Day as have all other ground hog days in my lifetime was special.  You see I have a Dear Aunt whose birthday just happens to be February 2nd.  She was as much a Grandmother to me as she was an Aunt, I am sure that many of us have an Aunt or someone like my Aunt Golda.  Aunt Golda passed away a few years ago, but the reality is for the most part, we lost her many years ago.  She was a victim of Alzheimer’s.  That is a horrible and insidious disease!!!!  As I reflected on my Aunt Golda as we passed her birthday last week, something has been tugging at the corners of my mind.

I will be honest, it has taken the better part of the week to figure out what it was that began tugging as just a fleeting thought that I may have been missing something, then grow into the what have I forgotten near panic.  Tonight, I realized what it was.  We as Realtors, spend so much time trying to be perfect.  We want the perfect listing presentation, the perfect open house, perfect system to generate and convert leads.  We promise to give 110% or more.

In my case, I have been racking my brain what I can do differently to generate business.  We moved offices this past October.  It has been a great move.  We love being RE/MAX agents!  One of the drawbacks is that one of the other agents market and prospect much the same way that we have been doing.  This is making it much more difficult to differentiate ourselves from anyone else in the office.

Consequently, I have been trying to come up with new strategies and really different things to do, which is difficult.  I would like to think that I am already doing everything that I can do to earn business.  I know that you need to continue improving, adapting and changing, this is a business where change happens and often very quickly.

The point that I am getting to is that I have put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with the perfect system, along with streamlining our existing systems perfectly.  I have had a headache for weeks; exercise and ibuprofen have done almost no good in cutting the headache.

Then, from somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, I heard my Dear Aunt Golda’s voice.  It was saying “Do your best!  If you have done your best;  that is all that you can do.”  Too often, I put too much pressure on myself.  I am not naïve enough to believe that you cannot improve upon what is currently your best effort.

Through continually giving your best effort, combined with a thirst for knowledge and listening to a mentor or a coach you will grow.  Your capacity to accomplish the things in your career will increase, which makes your best effort better than it was the day before.  The opposite is also true, when you aren’t giving your best effort, your ability wanes and your best effort will not be what it once was.  You begin to “phone in” your efforts, your work habits deteriorate and you can get really lazy.

So the moral of this post is, Do your best, it really is all that you can do at any given time.  There is no 110%, there is 100%, the extra 10% or more will come from constantly giving 100%.  By doing that, and constantly improving yourself, that 100% will grow exponentially!

I have spent some time talking about the wonderful small cities in the Cedar City Real Estate Market and what a joy it is to be able to work in those cities.  I haven’t spent the time writing about the heart of the Cedar City Real Estate Market, Cedar City.  Cedar City boasts a population near 28,000, that doesn’t account for the students at Southern Utah University.

Cedar City is 250 miles south of Salt Lake City on Interstate 15.  For those coming from the south, it is 185 miles north of Las Vegas.  Cedar City, as I mentioned, is home to Southern Utah University.  It is also home of the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Summer Games, and a host of other festivals.  It is the Gateway to Utah’s National Parks.

Like many parts of the country, we were hit pretty hard when the real estate bubble burst, but it seems like we are climbing out of the hole.  We have an abundance of Mountain Views and pretty scenery.  We do enjoy a relaxed lifestyle, but are blessed with many cultural events to go along with the natural beauty that we enjoy!

The Real Estate Market in Cedar City currently is showing 158 homes listed in the Multiple Listing Service.  In the past 12 months there have been 360 homes sell in Cedar City, according to the Multiple Listing Service.  Darcy and I would like to invite you to come and check us out, whether you spend the night or a lifetime it is a great place to visit!

Last week I read an article on MSN.Com about 7 signs that it is time to dump your agent.  It was a good article, and I actually agreed with many of the points that were made, but my focus is rather than getting to that point, I wanted to talk about 7 things to consider when looking for a Real Estate Agent.

Is the agent licensed?  This seems like a no-brainer, but seriously, there are people out looking to scam unsuspecting people.  Here in our State, it is against the law to sell Real Estate on behalf of someone other than yourself without a license, unless you are an Attorney or they have been granted power of Attorney over a specific property.  The agent should provide you with a copy of their license.  Their license (at least by law in Utah), should be kept in a file at the brokerage where they work.  In Utah, they should also have a business card sized copy that they should carry with them.

Huge red flags should go up if an agent refuses to show you a copy of their license when you ask about it.  Some states, like California, require that an agent include their state license number on all of their advertising. This may or may not satisfy your question about their license.  If you are in Utah and have questions, you can look up whether someone is licensed on the Division of Real Estate web site.

The Agent doesn’t give you their full attention.  This is just plain good customer service, you as a potentially new client should be that agent’s priority for the time they are meeting with you, especially if it is a scheduled appointment.  If you are working with an Agent who employs several assistants, I believe that agent should be at the first scheduled meeting along with the assistant that you will be working with.  I just believe that as an agent, clients are the lifeblood of any business and if you’re scheduling an appointment with that agent, they should make time to meet with you.

I find it extremely rude during a scheduled appointment if someone answers their cell phone in non emergency situations.  The same goes when someone is returning texts.  If they glance at their phone and continue talking, I have no problem with that.  Part of getting the agents full attention, is the agent getting to know your needs.  Are they asking what you’re looking for?  Are they making sure that you have been pre-qualified?  Does the agent know whether you have to sell your home to buy a new home?  If you’re selling, are you leaving town?  Do they go into detail about what you need and want in a new home?  Does the agent know what part of the city that you wish to live in, what school district you are desirous to live in?

These are basic questions that your prospective agent should know the answer to.  I believe that the agent should also find out how you like to communicate.  There are so many people that love just a text when a new listing comes in, or an update on their listing, they don’t want the phone call, just a quick message.

What Type of Experience does the Agent have?  I capitalized type because this is one of my pet peeves.  There are agents (not for much longer), who are stuck in 1985.  They have a multitude of experience, but don’t know how to market homes on the internet.  One good hint is if the agent keeps referring to putting your new listing in the “listing book”, or referring to that book to find a listing for you.

Things move way too quickly to hire an agent who isn’t minimally competent with the computer and internet!  Many agents will hire an assistant who is very computer savvy and that is fine with me.  These agents at least know that they need to hire someone to take care of a client’s needs when they can’t do it themselves.

Your Agent treats you like you are buying a used car.  By this I mean that they are applying pressure from the moment that you are first introduced to sign up with them.  By sign up I mean they want you to sign a Buyer Broker Agreement or Listing Agreement.  These are contracts that say you will pay them for their services.  Don’t get me wrong, these are important contracts and need to be signed, but I believe that they should be signed only after you have established a rapport and want to hire the agent based on the meeting, not just for shaking the agent’s hand.

I believe my job, should you hire me to represent you, is that of educator and counselor.  Yes, I have to fill out a lot of paperwork, but what I mean is; it is up to me to do the research on a property so that you, as the client, can make the proper decision about the property.  Yes, I am going to want to have the paperwork signed before I research homes for you to buy.  I am going to do as much research as I can prior to listing your home; this is how I prove my value to you as the client.

In Real Estate, time is of the essence, but you will know when an agent is being pushy, and when they are making sure that deadlines are being met!  The agent may prod you and let you know that a property is exactly what you’re looking for; this really is part of their job to counsel and educate you.  A good agent will also let you know that a property may not last long on the market because of the price and condition; again, a good agent can do so without being pushy.

Real Estate, like many other businesses, is a relationship business.  A good agent has established a rapport so that you as the client know that they are representing you and your efforts to buy or sell real estate.

Who does the Agent represent?  This is a two part question, really does the agent have your best interests present always, or are they already cashing the commission check?  The other part of this is; does your agent keep your information confidential?  It is unethical for an agent to disclose any information about you that damages your bargaining position.  They can’ disclose ANYTHING that damages your bargaining position.  Yes it is that important!  The agent is your representative!

Does the Agent Fully Disclose the Fees that they are going to charge you?  By this I mean that there are no surprises coming.  Many people have no idea how much it costs an agent to market a property that they list, I have read reports indicating that it is as much as $1500.  That seems high to me, but it does cost Realtors to market property.  Some agents charge part of that up front, that is okay as long as they have everything in writing and you agree to that.

If you were to hire me, or us, as Darcy and I are a team, our business model is such that those marketing fees come out of our commission.  We look at it as a cost of doing business and prefer not to charge the client for marketing costs.

Another thing to know is whether the agent is charging and fees besides the agreed upon commission?  This all has to be in writing and should be done from the outset of the listing agreement.

Is the Agent ethical?  This is why the meeting is so important, if the agent wants you to do something that is unethical, illegal or if they lie to you.  Fire them on the spot!!  There are just too many great agents in the World to be stuck with someone who isn’t willing to be honest.  That is all that I am going to say about this subject!

Yesterday was Darcy and my anniversary, so I didn’t spend much time working.  Today it is back to work, I am a day behind it feels like, but we had a great time, so it was well worth playing catch up today.  I wanted to work this quote into a blog post for awhile now, it is from the Greek philosopher Aristotle:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”

This is so very true, when we achieve excellence it comes from doing the right things daily over and over again.  I am reminded of another quote that I have been liked for a long time. It comes from Voltaire:

“Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.”

I agree whole heartedly with this quote as well, and let’s be honest, it is impossible to attain excellence in any way without a lot of hard work!  I also believe that if you’re working, you may as well be working towards achieving excellence! 

I hope that everyone has a great week! 

 

 

This is a thought assuming that you are taking a break for Thanksgiving.  I admit it, I will be on Active Rain tomorrow, but I won’t be doing any other Real Estate stuff.  This is really for those who aren’t taking any sort of break tomorrow.  It comes from the great musical mind of Irving Berlin, here’s the quote:

"Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it."

To me, he is saying that there are times to take some time to not be so serious.  I love Real Estate, but it is a good thing to step back and relax once in awhile.  Spend some time watching Football, or just being with family.

I would add that as big of a tradition as the Thanksgiving meal is, don’t sweat it.  This is a Holiday that was meant to be enjoyed, not stressed out over!  I would also say that it is a good time to take some time to reflect on what you are thankful for.  Make it a great day!

I am thankful for beautiful Sunsets

 

I don’t often do the contests here at Active Rain, yesterday Darcy read me the blog post on Active Rain.   I have much to be thankful for, I was born into a home with good parents who loved, supported and encouraged me to learn and work to be the best that I can be.  I am not sure that there is a definition of the idyllic childhood, I think that it’s definition can change from person to person.

I was blessed to have an older brother, Tom, and two sisters, Jacki and Lori who are still some of my best friends.  In Tom, I had the older brother to look up to, he set the bar fairly high in his way. There were no widows who mowed their lawns, shoveled their snow or any other obvious thing when Tom was growing up. 

Jacki was the rebel in the family, yet she has always been the one with a heart of gold.  No stray animal ever walked past Jacki, she would scoop it up and it became hers.  Her constant prodding had me walking at the ripe old age of 8 months. 

Jacki was a natural and gifted athlete until a horrific car accident robbed her of her wonderful natural co ordination.  She also has the strongest will that I have ever seen.  My parents were told that the car accident that she was injured in would cause her to never walk again without crutches of some sort.  She walked two weeks after being released from the hospital. 

Lori was the youngest, and is honestly one of the most dependable people anyone would ever meet.  She is the type of person that once she realizes that she can do something, she just does it.  She is also without guile, that isn’t something that would be easy for most children, especially with the siblings that she grew up with.

We are orphans now, my father passed away ironically 24 years ago today.  My mother passed away 8 years ago.  I recognize well that this life can be a fleeting thing, and I am grateful for those who have passed through my life.  As important as my parents and siblings were in molding the person that I am, the thing that I am most grateful for is the love of my life, Darcy.

My life as idyllic as it was prior to meeting Darcy, is so richly improved since I met her.  I was lucky, I met Darcy after I had the chance to grow up, I was around a month shy of my 34^th birthday when we met.  It seems like yesterday!  Every good thing that I have had or done in the last 14 years includes Darcy!  Before I met Darcy, I understood how it was possible to be in a room full of friends and still feel alone!  I haven’t felt alone since I met her.

I may never have enough command of the English Language to properly express how grateful I am for Darcy!  I know that I can’t even come close at this point in my life, she is the most important person that I know!   It amazes me the talents and joy that she has brought into my life.  She must really be a Saint, she puts up with me! 

"This post is a submission to the DocuSign/ActiveRain Thankful Contest. It's possible I will win a prize for writing this post. You could win a prize too by going to the Contest Announcement and sharing your own story"

My Favorite Place on Earth

 

I have done a couple of thoughts blogs in a row.  I came across this thought yesterday, and as yesterday was a Monday and we have been out of town so much recently, I didn’t get the time that I needed to write this post.

I don’t know about you, but I get emails that often have great quotes in them.  This is something that I find helpful to me.  Here is the quote:

"Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well."~ John W. Gardner

How true is this!  I attended part of a class taught by Brian Buffini at NAR Anaheim, and one of the themes of his class was that the real problem brought on in the “boom” was that it allowed agents to be very successful at the expense of the fundamentals; things like prospecting, lead generation, negotiation and in short, running a real estate career like a business were those that he mentioned.

Those who have survived are beginning to realize that “magic pill” or the new “shiny” program to get them out of this economic downturn is a return to the basics.  That combined with the use of technology to streamline their businesses.  (That should be a whole other blog topic.)

I am a firm believer in that if you take extra care to do the little things extraordinarily well; that the major things will also be taken care of.  This will be what leads to the excellence that Mr. Gardner is talking about. That excellence will in turn lead to the success that we all seek!

 

If Walmart were having a 40 to 60% off Sale the line in Cedar City would stretch at least to Enoch!  For those who aren’t familiar with Cedar City that is approximately 7 or 8 miles.  I will be honest, comparing the Real Estate Market to a store really isn’t a good comparison, I would say a better comparison is comparing it to buying a car.  The reason that I say that is because a car purchase like a home purchase often involves a loan of some sort.  Many markets across the country are seeing prices at least 40% off their market high, I would dare say that at many price points, the market in Cedar City is there as well.

How would you like to own a Lexus for the price of a Toyota, an Acura for the price of a Honda or a Cadillac for the price of a Chevrolet?  That is what we’re talking about, prices reduced by levels many will never see again in their lifetimes.  How about owning a Rolls Royce for what you would pay for a Mercedes?  These are the price reductions we’re talking about.  Home prices combined with historically low interest rates make this the best time we may ever see to buy a home.

It isn’t just me who is saying that it is a great time to buy a home, Donald Trump, America’s favorite boss is saying it, so are the Wall Street Journal and Business Weekly and many other publication.  Many of you are saying that prices haven’t bottomed out, that may be true, but consider a couple of things.  If interest rates rise just 1%, the home price would have to drop nearly 9% for you to stay at the same payment before the interest went up.  A couple of other things to consider, rent prices are rising at nearly 6% across the country.

Another factor is that we only have so much land that we can build on.  We just aren’t making more land, so there isn’t an unending supply of Real Estate, even in severely depressed Real Estate Markets.  This year, our new housing starts across the United States will be around 500,000.  One of the lowest in decades, but in the next 4 or 5 years with population increases it is projected that the U. S. will need 16,000,000 new housing units just to keep up with increases in population.  What do you think that will do to home values?

Too many people talk about a home as an investment.  I am not saying that it isn’t an investment, but in only talking about it as an investment isn’t doing it justice.  It is a basic human need, everyone needs shelter, and the for the vast majority of people, the dream of home ownership is still a great motivating factor in life.  It is true, the net worth of a home owner versus a renter is vastly greater.

Now is the time to buy, not in the Spring, but now!  I know that it is not much fun to move in the Winter.  We know, 2 of our last 3 moves (over 10 years) have taken place in either January, or in the middle of a huge Spring snowstorm.  The truth is that you can’t afford to wait, if interest rates climb just a little, it will make a home much less affordable for you.  This is no secret, Investors are already buying homes in droves, so prices will eventually begin to climb across the board and in some price points we are already seeing that very thing.  Mark Twain once said something like “When your life is nearly over you will regret more the things that you DIDN’T Do than the things that you did do.” 

Now is one of those times!  It is something that if you are in a position to do so, you need to look into buying a home!  To get you started, contact either Darcy or myself, we would love to earn your trust and help you live your dreams with a home for you and your family!  We can guide you on the path to achieving the American Dream!

I know that you are all probably getting tired of me writing about NAR, but I am going to write another blog about it.  One of the great things about being here is that you get to meet Giants of the industry and sit in on classes taught by the best in the business!  One of the absolute highlights so far is that Darcy and I got to meet Margaret Kelly the CEO of RE/Max International!  What a great opportunity!

Darcy, Margaret Kelly and Me

Another of the highlights that I have enjoyed from the classes was sitting on on a class taught by Brian Buffini.  What charisma, and enthusiasm!  I also loved one of the tech panels with Chris Smith, Jay Thompson, Nobu Hata, Todd Carpenter and Bill Lublin.  They were also great!! 

I am going to try to put some more of the classes and lessons learned into other posts!

The C Team has arrived, to Oceanside, where we are staying for the NAR Convention in Anaheim.  Oceanside is one of our favorite areas to visit.  The weather is so beautiful here, and the Ocean, it's beauty is hard to put into words!  We are looking forward to NAR tomorrow, it is the first time that we have been to NAR, so it will be a new experience for us.  We really are looking forward to the classes, we have always believed that the more you know, the better prepared you are. What we're excited for is to have the opportunity to meet up with some of the friends that we have made online in places like here and other social media.  We are also excited to attend classes with respected Realtors, Trainers and other people in the industry.  Anyway, if you see us, we look like our picture, so please come up and introduce yourself.  We changed brokerages a couple of weeks ago, and don't have our RE/Max name tags yet, so it is us, Darcy and I, please don't be shy, it is us!

Korean War Memorial, Veteran's Memorial Park Cedar City