Living In Cedar City

Archive for the ‘Real Estate’ Category

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

I came across a quote that I thought was a good one for today's environment.  We were in a training where we talked about social media and how trust is becoming one of the most important things that we can establish about ourselves.  This quote addresses this:

"The reality of life is that your perceptions -- right or wrong -- influence everything else you do. When you get a proper perspective of your perceptions, you may be surprised how many other things fall into place." Roger Birkman

This is so true!  I really am finding that is so much the case in my own life.  If we perceive that we are trustworthy, and act accordingly, our clients and prospects will be more likely to share that perception.  I really believe that if you believe you can do something, and are willing to work accordingly, you can do it.

World War I Memorial, Veteran's Memorial Park Cedar City

This week is going to be a busy one!  Besides trying to list and sell houses, we have a RE/Max sponsored training tomorrow in Salt Lake with Tom Ferry.  This should be a great training!  And we couldn't get this training for any less money, besides driving time it is only $10 per person.  That is tomorrow, then on Wednesday we're off to NAR in Anaheim!  Are any other 'Rainers going?  Is there going to be a meet up? 

I certainly hope so, that would be a lot of fun meeting in person all of my Active Rain friends! Anyway, I have to dash off for a Doctor's Appointment, so I will close down for now!  Have a great week!

Continuing with my desire to honor Veterans from our Wars this week.  I am honoring Vietnam Veterans today!

I came across this quote and thought that as we plan our week out may be a good thing to keep in mind.  Here is the quote:

" Failure is success if we learn from it." ~ Malcolm Forbes

This is a great thing to remember!  Even when we think that we have failed, as long as we learn from it, we are working towards our success.  If we keep that in mind we can plan for success instead of planning not to fail.  Have a great week!

World War II Veteran's Memorial Veteran's Memorial Park Cedar City

 

 

I know, it's Friday, why do we need motivation on Friday?  Well, it is a day and an opportunity to do something productive.  Whether we are working or looking forward to spending time with our loved ones, it is still a day to do something.  Today's quote comes from one of the remarkable business people of the 20th Century.  Here is the quote:

" Failure is the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." ~ Henry Ford

 

What a great definition!  No one is successful in all of their endeavors every time they attempt something.  Everyone fails at something one time or another, the really successful just do the process more often and more efficiently than the less successful people do.  This advice applies to every aspect of our lives and not just business.

 

I came across this quote and really liked the thought behind the quote.  It is the reason that we keep quotes and put them into things like blogs.  Our motivation is something that can use constant refreshing.  Anyway here is the quote:

"Motivation is like food for the brain. You cannot get enough in one sitting. It needs continual and regular top up's." Peter Davies

Motivation is one of the easiest things for me to lose, so I really do need to do what I can to stay motivated.

I hope that you sty motivated and make it a great day!