Jack Barry

Some interesting facts that we took in from this morning's meeting:

• 1 million visitors to the convention center annually
• 25% of the US population is within a 5 hour ride to Philadelphia
• 7 years ago 16% of the tourism visitors said they intented to return to the area, today that number is 38%!
• Not one convention has canceled this year; this is huge compared to national numbers.
• 2 recent groups meeting here had the highest attendence in their respective history; this reinforces the accessability of the region for visitors and new businesses.
• There is currently 2 billion dollars worth of business booked at the convention center and the expansion is not yet completed.
• To date Philadelphia has had 10K more visitors than last year.
  

This is not to say everything is rosy in Philadelphia yet we are holding strong in tourism/convention business. People are still coming here to spend money on hotels, muesums, history, restaurants and everything else that Philadelphia has to offer.

My clients thought the house was going to be sold at the courthouse. They thought the sheriff was a comin! They were months behind due to financial/medical issues. This week we were able to avert thatforeclosure for our clients via a short sale. The 1st mortgage lender had filed the foreclosure documents 5 days after we went under contract! We were able to negotiate a pretty hefty reduction to the 2nd mortgage (39k) and just a few thousand off the primary. We closed in record 47 days and the sellers are not going to get a default judgment for the unpaid balance. There are a lot of little details in these deals and it seems that we learn a new nuance every deal. Being courteous and efficient yet keeping a real tight reign on all the parties made this a smooth one!

I have been having some success after suggesting to my sellers that they offer seller financing in the form of mortgage point buy-down offers to the buyer(s). The reaction of the buyer's agent takes a little education, especially in talking points for their buyer. The best part of the conversation is that the buyer's agent realizes that I am serious about selling this property and will go to any ethical length to get the deal done. In this shifting market it is imperaitive that I am on the ball in every aspect of a transaction; even if it means picking up the slack in different parts of the deal. My job is to get the property sold! Whatever it takes, I cannot take my eye off of that goal. Obstacles are simply those frightening things that arise when I take my eye off the goal. private message of you would like details about the seller financing possibilities.

Here are two expamples of propereties that we offered it on:

http://www.postlets.com/res/2806861

http://www.postlets.com/res/2806654

Philadelphia, PA is our local market. We are not facing the doom and gloom most markets are....make no mistake it is challenging here, but its not hang up your license time yet. Not for me. I just got my license 16 months ago......I am learning how to build a business in what some old time Realtors are saying is the roughest market in a long long time. I have been doing things that I was afraid to do, door knocking, sending letters, calling people, yes cold calling prospective clients. Now when I say cold calling, I mean expireds or withdrawns, and FSBOs. They are not really COLD, I mean thay have already stuck their toe in the water saying they want to sell, they just need a great real estate professional like to me help them along. At Keller Williams, there is an agent in Canada, Sylvie Begin. She treats FSBO and expireds as if she was a doctor and they were heart patients in need of treatment...I know it sounds way crazy. But it really is simply a perspective......if you look at the client as needing help as opposed to just another deal, I guarantee that you will amass more business.

In order to help your clients you must know your market, "know your numbers" is the saying at KW. Every week I research and then compile the weekly numbers for the farm that I like to work in. The most important number to me is the absorption rate This number is the snapshot of my market; it tells me what my market is doing...how many properties are being absorbed by the market. A little more research will tell me how many expireds, what the average list and sold prices are..I NEED this information to help my clients. I can't tell you how many expired listings appointments I go on that the owner says "why didn't my old Realtor tell me this?" after I start talking about the numbers. I try not to tell my sellers how much the property is going to list for, I simply show the numbers and let them decide.