Larry_iPhone_Dec_09

I will no longer be blogging on this site.  You can find my daily blog on http://www.truthandservice.com.  On this site you will be able to subscribe to the posts. Thank you so much for your continuing interest and comments.  I can also be found at http://www.activerain.com/larrylawfer.

Living in a state of joyful anticipation may or may not dictate the actions of your day.  What it does do is help you arrive at your circumstances in a better and more active frame of mind.  Combine the two circumstances and you can truly have a better day. At this point I can’t tell you what will have happened in my day by the time I make it back home, and yet I can tell you that I am ready for good to happen and that feeling will propel me to do good.  I am a “glass half full” guy anyway but I don’t always have the song in my heart, there are days I just don’t hear it.  This becomes obvious to me on the days I do hear the singing.

The life of a Realtor® can get complicated very quickly in a day. There are myriads of issues that can go right or wrong. There is really no end to the tasks, no end to the details.  It is easy to miss one little thing and derail a transaction, a relationship, a presentation, or a closing.  That fear can be overwhelming and/or numbing.  Living with the anticipation that things can and will go right opens your mind and subconscious to doing the things that are right.  I am thinking I may not be able to control the circumstance that will come at me today, but I will arrive at these events knowing I have the song in my heart and the potential for getting the job done today and every day if I open my mind, heart and ears to what is going on and live with the expectation of another day of accomplishment.  Bring it on.

Agencies are like teams and teams have rules and guidelines.  Keller Williams, Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and in this area Ebby Halliday are the players, my own EXIT Realty is a bit player looking to be the next comer.  On the corporate level they are doing everything to grow and this is commendable.  On the local level not so much, but again this is a circumstance thrust on me and does not dictate what my results will be.  It is not about them, it is about my own actions.  I have poured in a great deal these past seven months, but I am measured on sales and closings.  The time is at hand to get to the real work.

Right now I have two listings and that is not enough.  I want 50.  Through some turmoil I was able to hold on to a strong and viable relationship with an agent who can deliver REO’s.  One of my listings is an REO.  Sadly through others actions I was unable to get at least 10 more of them in these first seven months, but now we are here and my rating with the banks is at the highest level.  I have a 5-month run to develop myself in this critical and growing area of the business. I am responsible for the timeliness of the activities and that is a key measure.

In the meantime I am learning everything I can about real estate investing.  I have connected with some of the best people in this in the country and it will open my world in a way that will make a difference not only in my life, but also in my family’s life and the communities I serve.  As an individual you can alter your circumstances to work for you, if you are not doing that on a regular basis you are allowing external circumstance to dictate to you.  Get some where in your mind where you get a chance each and every day to get up to the plate and make a difference

We who took the course over Friday and Saturday this weekend past were shown the 5 myths and secrets to successful real estate investing.

Covering lots of ground.

We were giving hands on and simple formula’s to follow when locating, inspecting, and rehabbing properties.  Marketing your property was discussed, as were the many ways to finance your deals.  Private money, hard money lenders, personal investments, traditional mortgages and owner financing were explained.  Bill also shared with us the ways around the SAFE Act.  Saying that there are ways around the act imply some false or deceptive practice and this is not the case.  Bill’s lawyers spent days going through the law to find ways in which an investor can provide seller financing for more than the 5 homes in a running years worth of time as the law is constituted right now.  This in itself was worth the price of admission, if in fact there had been a price for admission.  Getting all this hands on experience in a two-day period of time is priceless.  Putting it into action over the next several weeks will be the proof.

Bill, Hugh O’Donnell, and Kris Barnett all made themselves available throughout the two days to answer any specific questions you might have.  I have always been a big believer in sharing information and Bill lives this belief of mine There are no secrets, but there are systems and methods that can make you more successful.  Bill showed us his exact system for building wealth now.  His point is following this system exactly and you will achieve the goals, deviate and you will have issues.  The next free seminar like this won’t be until October, I suggest that any investor, real estate professional get to that event and learn.  By then I expect to be on my road through the riches towards the wealth.  The program is not without challenges and pitfalls, so it does take a person who is willing to challenge him or her on a daily basis, but should you wake up everyday with the right mindset and put in place the correct procedures there is no doubt you can achieve as he predicts.

You can photograph your aura, but more importantly the people around you can feel what you are feeling.  This is your aura. So again, I ask, what are you thinking about? Here is a scenario…you are an agent, not making enough money and wanting to make more, what are the best things to think about?  What should you be focusing on in your daily life?  Is it really practical to be thinking of the end of the month’s bills?  What will these kinds of thoughts get you during you day?  What positive actions can you take if you come to the office worried and sure you will have a problem?  Yup, you are right you will get those problems.  Is the alternative true, if you think pie in the sky thoughts, if you sit and write a hundred times, “I will make $250,000.00 in gross profits before the end of this year” every day will you get it?  Well let’s think about that for a moment.

First off, whether you get that exact amount or not is not the point.  What you get right away is a feeling of success and that feeling is what guides your actions. It is your actions that determine your results.  Saying that again, what you think about all the time sends you feelings, your feelings control your actions, your actions control your results.  This is simple logic folks if you think positive thoughts you feel good, if you feel good you can take good actions, good actions determine your ultimate success.  So worry is never going to get you what you want.  It is not practical at all.  So stop it now.

Maybe you are still a disbeliever and that is ok.  You made some goals and they didn’t pan out as you would like so you stopped.  The minute you stop you have failed.  If you don’t stop then you are still in the game so remake your goals, chant them, write them down, tell your friends, post it on Facebook, tweet it, let the goals live in your feelings every day and you will attain them. This is the hard work, trying to feel good about yourself so that you can take good actions.  It is your actions that determine your results. Repeat that after me, what you think about sets up feelings inside you, those feelings guide your actions, your actions determine your results.  That simple.

Is your office one where you can share ideas and get new ideas?  Does your broker check in with you on a daily basis just to find out what you are doing and lend a helpful tip?  Can you depend on informational support from colleagues, or are you going it alone?  Do you even know the right questions to ask when you are stuck?  Do you attend meetings and participate, or are you there for the food and swag?

What have you done, or are going to do this week to grow and learn?  How will you then deliver that new information across your platforms?  In this vein, how is it that you communicate with your clients, prospects and colleagues?  Do you have a plan?  The year is in the second half, how did you do in the first?  What adjustments are you making?  What are you doing more of that worked for you in the first half?  What single adjustment could you make that would propel you further along your desired path?  Do you even have goals?  Do you look at them on a regular basis?  Can you recite them if someone came up to you and asked?

There is no end to the questions in this business.  It changes daily because we work with so many people in so many differing circumstances.  The truth is we all have all we need to be millionaires we just need to be willing to put the work in.  By this I don’t mean work to the exclusion of all else, but there are times in your career when extra time focusing on skills and abilities will yield better results.  Are you willing and able to put in the time, to put in the work that gets you what you dream?  Are you dreaming of this in color?  How is your plan delivering for you right now?

To thrive in this market Bill suggests that you have three ideas going in which are the right location, right price range and the right exit strategy.  He shared a story with us of how it was close to Christmas one year and he decided to buy his wife a new car.  Without the cash to buy the car in his hands and no intention of buying the car on credit he turned to his skills as a realtor and went out and bought and flipped some properties to get the cash.  It was at dinner with his wife a couple of weeks after that that he realized his exit strategy cost him over a hundred thousand in profits.  Because he needed to move the properties based on the strategy to pull just enough cash out to purchase a car, he left way more on the table.  Had he thought the situation through he could have bought the car in another manner made the extra hundred thousand and paid the car off.  Oh, to live with this problem.

I love going to meetings and our area always has a range of great ones to attend each week.  I like Robin and Greg and the way they run their meetings.  Lots of great information about investing is shared and discussed.  The investors are willing to open up on their deals and talk about what is working and what isn’t.  They also give gifts away.  I won one of the two books that were given away.  I have already begun reading and am excited to have Bill so close for a follow up conversation.  Now is the time to get on board with building wealth, which is greater than just building income.

The Interest rates are at a record low.  Housing prices are low and occasionally teetering on lower.  Foreclosures have not gone away and won’t for the next couple of cycles.  There seems to be no clear indication of anything, or said a different way, there seems to be a case that can be made for any wild interpretation of the trends.  Locally here in Texas and even closer in North Texas and the DFW area things are not as bad as they have been in other parts of the country.  So what, I say, when you are feeling the pinch and having difficulty keeping your house or getting that house you are feeling the pinch. Pain is local and by that I mean, if you feel it is real and it doesn’t matter if it is better here statistically than in other areas, it is still pain.  So too for the Realtors® scrambling around to get the next lead, deal or closing.  Pain and success are measured on an individual and case-by-case basis.  Here is what the trends in our area have to say about last month.  As always I think the great people at Republic Title for their compilation of these statistics.

Looking at the first chart I can see that the Tax Credit did have a positive effect on the sales in the last quarter of the year.  The good news is that it hasn’t dropped below 2009 levels this year and trending downward. The status quo can be looked at as a plus.  No one can predict the future we can just look at all the various statistics and come to our own conclusions.  My feeling is that with low interest rates and growing number of houses on the market and a trending lower on prices that it still is a great time to buy a home.  I wonder if the more desirable neighborhoods, those with the better schools are the ones that are up.  We would have to come down from the 500000 foot view to make sense of neighborhood trends.

What is interesting to me about the second graph is that the majority of sales were outside the normal price range of 150,000 to 250,000.  In June the majority of sales were at the higher end scale.  To me it was a time when people ready to make the move took the month after the crush of the tax credit to take advantage of the low rates and the dropping prices.  The prices in the upper range have been the most hurt in our local real estate market through the downturn.  It is nice to see that all the sectors are getting their day in the sun of better numbers and more sales.    Look at how consistently low the numbers are in the price ranges as it slides up from the bottom. There is some activity everywhere and that is also a good thing.  In almost every sector there was a growth in sales over the year before.  This has translated to an overall growth for June over last year of 9%, I see that as a good thing.  There is still a slightly high inventory of homes and that will likely grow, but it isn’t too bad.  Prices should remain stable, or slightly dip, but this is always a case by case scenerio and no statistic gives you a specifically accurate picture of your personal situation. That is why you find a good professional to work with and have that discussion.

To get to a closing on either side of the table there are milestones to be cheered.  Having a good supply of leads is worthy of some good feelings, but it is not news.  Signing a buyer’s rep agreement or exclusive listing agreement is an indication of trust and mutual goals, but it is not news.  Showing 70 houses is certainly not great news, but if it goes to closing on one of them that is news.  Having an Open House and very few people show up shouldn’t be news, but having one with 100 people show up in this economy would be news, wouldn’t it?  I am just saying that we as agents and the companies we work within need to broaden our view on what news is.

I am an EXIT agent and proud of it.  I know that when I recruit another agent to work along side me that they will be getting access to some of the best marketing materials and training in the industry.  To EXIT the only thing that is news is closings, that is a policy.  The fact that I have been featured twice in a week’s period of time on Active Rain’s national real estate forum is not news and yet I can report more referrals, a listing that got considerable more marketing activity and will result in a better sale because of these blogs. I wonder why that isn’t news?  To me news is something we can use.  Success stories are news even if they don’t include a dollar sign.  By limiting news to closings you limit the agent from sharing successes that lead to the success we all want—which is closed deals.  In a market that has fewer closings than a closing is a big deal, but by opening up our thinking to include steps along the way that are working then aren’t we being what we profess to be, an empathic agency that shares?  I think so.  I do agree that the closings are what we are measured on and it is the only measure in the end that we all can agree upon.  I do not think a featured blog is so important to be shouted from the roof tops, but I do think that if we shared and celebrated more of the steps along the way it would give our fellow agents other ways to feel good about what they are doing and every one knows that feeling good about what you are doing each and every day propels you to the final and ultimate goal of a closing.  I am just saying.

Building your client list, gathering a larger sphere of influence, getting known and read by your peers, clients and prospects are all wins. Those who do it well and are rewarded for there efforts is news.  The rest will come; the numbers will be there it is just one more step towards the closing.