I have received a lot of emails regarding my hometown, so as they say back home I thought I would "lay down some knowledge, Flintstyle!"
The market in Michigan is brutal, practicing real estate and making a living in Flint is not for the weak, do the math: in Genesee County MI (Flint and suburbs) 260 homes sold last month, average sales price less than $80,000! 35% of all the homes sold were Foreclosures, of those probably 80% had no plumbing! Flint has pioneered all kinds of great things like the stealing of plumbing & mortgage fraud, both things that have been a great asset to the local real estate market!
You learn a lot about real estate in that market, example: It is best to show $5,700 foreclosures right after a snow storm, that way you can check for tracks around the home before you go inside! You also learn that basement floors are not shiny, they are covered with ice! Or worse they have turned into indoor pools.
Flint is so ahead of the rest of you, it hurts, short sales; they are soooo 2002! Foreclosures, shoot many agents have never seen a market with out them. Lease options, shoot we practically invented them after GM started leaving in 1981! We are the pioneers, so I will catch you up on things you will be hearing soon in a market near you! So stand back and let me drop some knowledge:
Consumable Note: Translation, "is that mortgage assumable, my credit is really messed up after my drug bust and subsequent foreclosure."
Official as a whistle: "Yes the counter offer has been accepted"
"Thats the price I need": translation "I took out a second for those four wheelers back there and they ain't stayin!"
Can I get Disiblies: "my union steward told me that I can purchase insurance to pay of my home in case my bogus disability case actually goes through!"
Locked Down: "the home has a lien on it from a bail bondsman that you didn't find out about until the day before closing"
Creepin Cribs: Showing foreclosures during Day Light Savings Time
Heavy with the steel: a homeless guy with a grocery cart full of copper piping
Grip: That thick roll of cash after a big closing
Elevate yo game: Getting a second job at the wash, because you are not selling many cribs
Open House: a quiet place to go on sunday and sleep, a very lonely place (I.E " Man, I was lookin' to elevate my game, but the Walmart ain't hirin', it is like an open house in there!")
FAAR OUT: My favorite, an award given by the local association of Realtors for doing something as heroic as paying your dues or nominating yourself for a FAAR OUT award. This is what boards do to show value to really broke members!
But seriously Flint is great place. A lot of great people and a challenging environment. It was very very good to me and my family & I still have a lot invested here. Our theory when we started our company in Flint was, if we can make it in Flint we can make it anywhere! It is true. The funny part is the rest of the world sees it differently, they see it as you must be an idiot to be from Flint. There is some truth to that, it sucks you in and won't let you leave, it preys on the strong and lets them think they can change it. A lot of us have tried, we hang together and work really hard, the problem Flint doesn't want to be saved.
My favorite Flint story is from about eight years ago, they city government had "lost" like $100,000,000 (they said lost like "It was in my drawer last night when I left...") in the middle of this our esteemed Mayor was looking for ways to save the city. Like all dying towns of the time this meant a casino or minor league baseball team ( I read today, casinos are back on the table!). He commissioned an urban planner from NYC to do a feasibility study, to the tune of $395,000, on a new baseball stadium in downtown Flint. The stadium would be placed in the center of town on a parking lot surrounded by UofM Flint and a couple of 13 story buildings. The study came back that the stadium was a bad idea, there would be no parking!
As absurd as this is, it gets worse! The local newspaper, The Flint Journal, attacks the mayor. Not for being so stupid as to think covering the towns only parking lot wouldn't create a parking problem, but because they didn't hire a local company to do the study!
Shoot, I would have done it for $125,000. The conversation would have went like this:
Me: "you want to do what?"
Mayor: "build the new Flint Sitdown Strikers baseball stadium right over there on the parking lot, with a statue of the Buick turbo V-6 right over there"
Me: "Where would all the fans park?"
Mayor: "Good Point"
Me: "that will be $125,000".
SERIOUSLY.
I could go on forever with good Flint stories: Autoworld, Water Street Pavilion....it is just good ole fashion fun. I love being home, it is awesome. I have a lot of respect for the 10% of all agents that make a living selling "Cribs" here, it is not easy. Watch out if they come to your town, they may talk funny, but they know how to sell real estate!
