Owasso, OK

Had an offer come in on a property I had listed. It was an okay offer, but below my seller's bottom line. In talking with the other Realtor, I learned that she had arrived at the offer price by doing her comps like she always does them.

Her formula was simple...comp the neighborhood and then go 1/2 mile out.

The only problem with this formula is that, in this location it doesn't work. That's because the house is located in a rural area. The neighborhood is one street. There was only 1 house that came close to be comparable and even it wasn't a true comp. Within 1/2 mile, the agent found nothing else to work with.

Here in our part of the world, we have learned that you have to look for your comps within the entire school district, within the entire county or both. Sometimes you end up pulling comparable properties from 10 miles away. This is okay because our area easily covers twice that distance for our rural homes. In all fairness, we also have city neighborhoods where you pull comps from just within that neighborhood or from within like neighborhoods.

What the agent had been doing was using her comp formula for houses in Tulsa. In that setting you have nicely laid out neighborhoods with lots of comparables close by.

So I visited with her and discussed how we do comps "up here." She admitted that she doesn't work this area and that she wouldn't have thought to do a broader, bigger area.

Did my education of her make her go back and redo the comps and change the offer? Nope. The buyers offer was what they thought the property was worth and they stayed with the original offer. However, we were able to negotiate the offer and put together an acceptable contract to both parties.

I think there are a couple of important points here...

1)I could have turned into the education "jerk." You know this person. He or she knows more than you do about the given situation and they lecture you on the proper procedure and what you did wrong. They can go on and on and on making you feel about an inch tall. Bosses do this. Supervisors do this. Lot's of people do this. Some Realtors excel in it. I don't know about you, but these kind's of people drive me crazy!

For me, that's a violation of the golden rule. I refuse to treat others that way. All this really does is to inflate someone's own inflated ego. Instead, I try to help others see my point of view. They may not always agree, but we typically part being friends. And why wouldn't we? We're working together for a good, successful outcome. And further, we have usually had a healthy, constructive discussion instead of a difficult one.

2)You've got to know how to work different areas of your own town sometimes. Real Estate is not a static, cookie cutter process that you apply from area to area. There can be different criteria for finding value for different towns, cities and states. Knowing these things is important. Learning them sometimes happens in the midst of the deal. Learning them and being able to apply them and still represent your client is something your Real Estate professional has been trained to do for your benefit.

3)Negotiating offers and submitting offers requires more skill and negotiation today than it did back in 2007. That's because of the economy. There are buyers who think they can rape the seller in making their offer. But many sellers have rightfully declared, "I'm NOT giving away my house. I want a fair offer!" Even buyers who make decent offers are making lower offers than they would have made before the economy and market changed. That's because we are still in a buyer's market. Sellers do not control the market pricing nearly as much as they did when the buying frenzy was in high gear.

This is why making a decent offer and negotiating it to contract can be tricky. Your real estate professional has first hand knowledge of this process because this is what we do everyday.

Is it a good time to buy a house. Absolutely!

But be careful...you don't want to make a mistake and have your offer returned to you with the word REJECTED written on it in big ugly letters!

I mentioned the other day that I had finally closed a deal where I had had to literally argue and fight over a Dishwasher and pier that had been removed from under a house in order to run AC duct work.

I think I'm in enough recovery from this nightmare (just paid the counselor my final payment!) in order to tell you the story now.

Let's begin with the dishwasher since that's the most ridiculous item. Well, I think it is anyway. We'll see...

When the listing was entered into the MLS by our office, a mistake was made and the listing showed that the house had a dishwasher. Honest mistake. I should have caught it. I didn't.

The house had incredible traffic and showings. No one ever mentioned the missing dishwasher. Then we got our offer. We negotiated, got into contract and moved forward through inspections.

Just prior to closing the other agent contacted me to say that the buyers wanted the dishwasher that was supposed to be in the house. Huh? What dishwasher?

The backstory here is that these folks had been in the house several times. They SAW that there was no dishwasher. So did the agent. Further, I was there at the inspection. We all stood in the kitchen and listened to the inspector talk about the kitchen and what was there and what wasn't there...including no dishwasher. They knew there was no dishwasher.

So the agent sent his request (demand) over saying we owed them a dishwasher. And what did he send us to prove it? The MLS listing page. Yep, it said there was a dishwasher. But it also say's clearly at the bottom of the page, "All information deemed to be accurate but not guaranteed."

HELLLOOO!

He also send a copy of the contract page that had the dishwasher listed on the appliances that the buyers had listed in the kitchen. Yep, they had listed a dishwasher.

But what's that? The paragraph addressing appliances in the home say's, "The following items, IF EXISTING ON THE PROPERTY, shall remain with property..."

If existing. If existing. If existing. Hmmm. I think I know what that means.

This request brought us to an impasse. In real estate, when you hit an impasse, you go to your broker. You do this to figure out the correct and proper way to handle disagreements. So I went to my broker. He went to his and we all had a nicely heated argument over the speakerphone.

We won. And we should have.

Now the pier.

This was an older house. It was built on a crawl space with spaced piers underneath. When central heat and air was installed 15 years ago, one of the piers had been removed to make room for the duct work. That was 15 years ago and the house hadn't settled or fallen down as a result.

The inspector noted correctly that the pier had been removed and should be watched so that the house didn't move and settle. The pier could be replaced, but it would cost at least $650.00. That was over the repair cap, so everyone agreed to not worry about the pier. The buyers sent us the list of repairs, we came to agreement, but had not signed the form and sent it back yet.

Good thing!

Right around the dishwasher fiasco, we got a request (demand) to replace the pier on top of all the other repairs because it was a part of the AC system and the seller had agreed to repair the AC ducts.

WHAT? Are you kidding me? A pier is a part of the AC system? Seriously?

I'm sorry, but that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. And it only took a phone call to the inspector to put a stop to that nonsense!

Good Lord! Talk about wanting to pull your hair out!!!

Like I said earlier, we finally got this thing closed. In all fairness, the other agent was working hard for his clients as was I for mine. However, my seller had put a new roof on this house (tore off 2 layers and wood shake shingles AND put down new decking and a whole new roof). She also put in new AC ductwork when she discovered that the ducts had rusted out. Not to mention brand new carpet throughout and beautiful new paint. I really felt like we were being bullied through this process.

And that's no fun.

This deal got me to thinking about the world of real estate.

- Is it any wonder why we end up with so many lawsuits these days???
- Imagine what that seller would have been put through without having Realtor representation! Yikes!

For the record, not all Realtors are as pushy as the one I dealt with in this situation. Most often the person on the other side of the deal is great to work with. That's because we want things to work out good for both the buyer and the seller. We understand that working together and cooperating gets everyone much further down the line. And cooperation also solves problems lots better than what I call the "legal counsel" approach used on us in this case. I swear it felt like Johnny Cochran was up against us in the whole deal!

The moral of this story is, of course, pay attention to the details.

The other moral is...well I'm sure there are more. I'm just too worn out again from telling the story to think of them!

Have a Great Day in the world of real estate!

Bill Bartmann says a powerful loan presentation will get lenders to want to invest in a business by loaning them money

Tulsa, OK - Bill Bartmann has already explained to his students how to create a winning business plan which is an important part of a loan proposal. Bill Bartmann's lecture series continues as he explains to his students the powerful message they are conveying in a loan proposal document. Bill Bartmann explained "The loan proposal that you present to a lender should be very simple; yet informative. This document should contain all the answers to the questions that are commonly asked by a loan officer. Remember, though it may not always appear so, lenders want to make business loans; this is how they make money."

Bill Bartmann went over the 12 sections that a loan proposal should contain, beginning with the Executive Summary. "This is a brief overview of your business and highlights of what is in the rest of the document; this is where the loan officer will decide if he is interested in reading the rest. Be sure to say a lot while using few words to gain his interest."

Bill Bartmann continued the lecture by explaining each section of the loan proposal and how it shows an entrepreneur is serious and educated; he knows what his is doing, and he shows that he understands the business loan from the lender's point of view.

Bill Bartmann surprised the students when he said, "Lenders generally have two fears; one is that you will fail; therefore, being unable to pay them. The second fear that they have is that you will succeed! Yes, they fear that you might be too successful and that you will not be prepared for an increased volume of business. If you cannot meet the demand and deliver; if you do not have enough well trained employees to fill orders, customers will be disappointed and your reputation will suffer and your business could ultimately fail."

Bill Bartmann gave the students a few minutes to grasp this information, then he explained how the last two sections of the loan proposal, the employee handbook and the employee training manual shows that they are prepared to hire new help as the business grows.

Bill Bartmann ended the lecture as he said, "A well prepared loan proposal will give lenders the impression that you are well prepared to go into business and to be successful. You should present yourself as an intelligent, experienced business person with the necessary qualities and attributes to operate and grow your business.

Bill Bartmann has borrowed $3.1 Million dollars in 120 transactions from 180 lenders to fund businesses. He has never used any of his own money for business. Read Bill Bartmann's complete article about how to create a loan proposal at http://billbartmannhowtowritealoanproposal.blogspot.com/

It's Friday morning here in our part of the world. Our routine for Friday mornings was moving along nicely - the wife getting ready for work, the senior getting ready for highschool. Me at work on my laptop. The dogs asleep at my feet. It's all good for the moment.

Then the senior leaves for school. Five minutes later I see him walking back up to the house through our front yard. "Uh-Oh, that's not good," I think. Seems he's gotten about three houses down the road and his car quit shifting. Bummer.

So then we go into scramble mode.

Call the insurance company 1-800-pick-me-up number (not a real number, don't call it, please). My wife gets the lady on the phone who is having some kind of PMS bad morning. So the lady starts yappin at my wife over this deal, which means the phone gets passed to me.

TIME OUT - I am choleric and a salesperson to boot. This lady doesn't stand a chance with me.

Okay, so after listening to her for long enough to find out that she is more interested in arguing than problem solving, I tell her to take a hike and hang up. What this lady doesn't know is that my insurance agent is my neighbor. And he's a great guy. He's a problem solver. And further, he's a Rainer!

So I call up John, tell him what happened and he tells me he will take care of it. Cool! We hang up and less than 5 minutes later he calls me back. The tow truck is on the way and I'll be getting a call pretty quickly. Awesome! Way to go John!

So the call comes from the tow truck guy. I tell him how to find the broken down Jeep. Then he tells me he is picking up my Acura, not a Jeep. Oops. That isn't right! So I call John back. He apologizes, say's he'll find out what happened and handle it. We hang up. He calls whoever he calls. Then he calls me back. It was a simple error. It has been fixed. Excellent!

Hold tight. I gotta run down the road to help the wrecker guy.....................................

Okay, I'm back. Here's the pics.

This is how far he got down the road. I live up just up the road, about three houses.

Here we are getting loaded up...

Getting ready to ride up onto the bed!

Okay, so here's a couple of pointers...

1)Things will go wrong. It happens. We are all human and we make mistakes. When you work in a company, the probability of mistakes goes way up because there are more people involved in the system who are less connected to the real person with the issue. In short, the further away someone is from the person who has the need or problem, the less likely they are to feel the urgency of the situation. For the lady who answers the call in New Mexico (when I am in Oklahoma), it's just another part of her day. For me, it is an issue that needs to be handled right now!

2)When things go wrong, you have the opportunity to be the hero! John did this for me. I know John, so when he said he was going to make the phone call, I knew the problem would be taken care of. And it was. And when there was a second blip, he didn't get frustrated at me for calling him back. Instead, he handled that too in a very professional manner. Am I dedicated to John even though the company messed this up. Absolutely! He's got my business.

3)Never miss a chance to help someone else grow their business! The wrecker guy got to the car super fast and I told him how cool that was. He said he had just started the company in the area so he was able to provide quick service (translation...I don't have so much business yet, so I can move quickly). Ah-ha! So I told him to come visit my networking group. He could pass out his cards and introduce his business to other professionals. And in that way, he will begin establishing contacts and building his small business. And guess what happened? We got into a conversation about buying houses and that led to a contact he's going to send my way. HOW COOL IS THAT????

Lesson to remember: When you help others, it comes back to you.

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm worn out. What a way to start a Friday. But when you're a parent and a small business owner, this is how it goes some days.

And I wouldn't trade it for anything!

How do you really know if being in business is right for you? How can you be sure that people will be willing to pay for your product or services?

Tulsa, OK - Bill Bartmann continues his lecture series by asking his students if they are right for business ownership and if business ownership is right for them. Bill Bartmann said, "There are many things to consider if you are thinking of going into business for yourself."

There are several basic questions that people considering entrepreneurship need to ask themselves. Bill Bartmann wrote the following questions on the board:

Is there a need for your product; is there a customer base?

Are consumers ready for you; do they share your passion?

Do you have enough money?

Are you ready to assume some risk?

Are you confident in yourself and your idea?

Have you done the research?

The students were instructed to answer the questions, thoughtfully. After allowing some time for them to consider the questions and their answers, Bill Bartmann said, "Think about how much money you will need to have saved and how much you will need to borrow. Will you borrow from friends or family? Will you go into a partnership? Or, will you attempt to obtain business lines of credit?"

Bill Bartmann also advised his students to seek the support of those around them. "Remember, as you succeed, others will succeed with you; if your business fails, you will take people down with you. It is important that everyone involved or affected by your business be considered," Bartmann explained.

This part of the lecture series was concluded as Bill Bartmann made his final comments, "Do lots of research; educate yourself; find out more about what you don't know. You will learn that there are a lot of things that you are not even aware that you don't know. There will be things you haven't thought of to learn about. What you don't know that you don't know can be most crucial to your success in starting a new business."

Bill Bartmann is the creator of the Billionaire Business Systems is an online course that takes entrepreneurs through building successful businesses, from getting started to expanding a business, even in tough economic times. Visit http://www.billionaireu.com to sign up for the course.