Bea Lueck

How could they? We've worked together for over a year! I sold them an awesome house for 20% under appraisal. I found their parents perfect houses. They've either bought or are under contract for several investment properties. I even put one house under a sale contract in less than a month for full price. Do you know what they did???

They went to bat for ME with an online auction company!! I found a perfect investment property for them. The downside was I found it with three hours left to the auction. Instructions required me to register as the buyers agent no less than 24 hours before the auction ending. I missed the registration cutoff.

I could have kept quiet. No one knew about the auction except me. But the house was perfect for what the client wanted: price, condition, location. But if I told my client...no commission for me.

I immediately emailed him the information, then called him. "Here is how you register. I'm sorry, I can't do it for you but you can do it. Let me know if you need help." Low and behold, he was the high bidder! I am genuinely happy for them. It is a good investment opportunity as a rental, a good addition to the other properties.

When the auction company contacted him, he told them to contact me - that I told him about the sale but couldn't register because of the cutoff. He only knew about the property because of my efforts and to assign me to the file. And to all of our surprise - they did! The auction contacted me for my information and will include me on the transaction.

Now don't get all excited - this is one of those 1% commission companies. But still...my client remembered he has an agent that takes care of him. And he took care of me!

Thank you Mr Client. I appreciate it.

And you deserve what you get! This is a VENT. This is a RANT. This is FURY, ANGER, FRUSTRATION and more. And this is deep, deep sadness. You might even cry with me. And I warn you, I might say a swear word or three. Leave now or be forewarned. And be glad I didn't include pictures.

Dear Former Homeowner:

HOW DARE YOU? Yes, I'm yelling at you, you worthless piece of crap. You are lower than low and deserve what you are going to get - and I'm going to help. And don't give me a sob story about how you lost your home to trustee sale yesterday. I hope what you did prior to yesterday gets you some jail-time . There is no excuse. NONE. They trusted you to take care of them and you intentionally killed them by leaving them behind.

I get you are angry about losing your home. I can see that from the damage you did in moving out. But I can't see how you can leave your pets behind, locked in a cage without food or water. Did you expect to come back? Did you expect someone from the bank was going to take care of them? Or the Realtor®? Or the new owner when it sold at trustee sale? How would you like to be locked in a cage, slowing dying an agonizing death of thirst and starvation? And don't give me crap that it's only a couple of birds. They are living, sentient beings - capable of feeling pain. And you left them behind along with the rest of your useless junk.

You had options. You could have taken them with you. You could have taken them to animal control or the humane society. You could even have put them on Craigslist for free. Did you do any of this? No. You left them behind with the rest of the trash.

I tried. I found out about them late last night. But by the time the new owner of the house had the locks drilled this morning, they were dead. I doubt if I got to them yesterday I could have done anything to save them. More than likely, they were far to ill to have survived. But I would have tried. Now all I can do is to make sure you are punished for your actions. Yes, I reported you to the authorities. Your name is all over the trustee sale notices left on the door.. Your name is part of the public records at the recorders office - they will find you. And you will be punished. I only wish I could have done more. I wish I could have saved them. They deserved better than you.

Now I have to live with the image of their death. I know several Realtors® that have found animals, living and dead - abandoned in the building they called home. One of my dogs was left in the backyard of a foreclosed home. She managed to claw her way over a six foot block fence into the neighbors yard. They couldn't keep her but they are least made the effort to find her a new home.

Karma is a BITCH and it will catch up to you. And I'll do my part to make sure it happens.

Sincerely

Someone with a conscience and a heart

One Dollar... four quarters... one hundred pennies. What can one dollar buy? By itself, not much - a newspaper, a small burger or a bottle of water. It takes lots of dollars to buy the bigger things in life like a car or a house. It's the same when you make a donation. Your single dollar doesn't do much by itself, but when you combine it with other dollars - you can accomplish your goal. Isn't the power of compounding dollars amazing?

Meet Miss Reiley - I'm one of Reiley's Best Friends. She is the cutest 4-year old. She also has multiple life-challenging disorders. Ready for a mouthful?? Reiley has Short-chain acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) dehydrogenase deficiency known by the acronym SCAD. She is also a carrier for Mitochondrial complexes II and III. Your bodies mitochondria are the energy power plants in your body. (Think gasoline for your car) Without adequate energy stores available, your systems fail. Her parents and her many doctors believe there is more going on within Miss Reiley than they've attached a name. Since before her first birthday, Reiley has been 100% dependent on a g-tube inserted in her stomach to receive nutrition. Her daily tube intake includes a veritable pharmacy of drugs. She has had numerous surgeries and procedures done to first diagnosis and then attempt to treat her symptoms - most without success. And through it all, her smile and personality light up the room!

Mitochondrial disease takes many forms including Diabetes, Parkinson's disease and is suspected in Autism. It may be mild or it can be fatal. In every case, it impacts the patient and their family in so many ways - physical, emotional and financial.

I am asking 1,000 of my fellow Realtors® to donate $1 to The 1st Annual Energy for Life Walkathon. Click on this link to go to my donation page: Donate The Walkathon takes place December 19th at Kiwanis Park in Tempe Arizona. The money raised will go to funding research through the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. There is no cure. There is no treatment for all the Mito disorders. There is only hope: hope that one day children like Reiley are not given a death sentence at birth.

To learn more about Mitochondrial Disease, go to The United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation It's only a dollar today...what can your dollar accomplish tomorrow?

PS: Reiley's daddy is a C21 agent. Here's a link the local newspaper did on Reiley and the walk.

Are auctions the new way to sell languishing lender owned inventory? You see the ads on television for Auction.com, advertising paying pennies on the dollar for real estate. In the next week, there are four auctions with three separate auction companies holding sales in our area. Most are Fannie Mae properties, but not all. Pulling the MLS listing on them shows they've been listed anywhere from 90 days to almost a year without offers.

An auction can be a daunting proposition for both buyers and their agents. First - the big shocker for the agent...the commission. Two of these companies (www.auction.com and www.williamsauction.com) compensate a licensed agent 1% of the transaction or $400 - whichever is greater. WOO HOO - call an armored vehicle to take me to the bank! The third one - www.hudsonandmarshall.com , gives an agent 2 or 2.5% depending on the property. Each has very exact rules regarding registering your client to get paid. If you don't do it correctly - kiss that big commission good bye! When they say register 24 hours prior to the auction, they don't mean the day before. They mean a MINIMUM of 24 hours and counting. You also must accompany your client to the auction and check in with your client. (Rules are slightly different for the on-line auctions, so read the rules!) The good news - the auction house does all the paperwork.

Each auction house is different and reading the entire terms and conditions for each property your client is interested in bidding on is a must. A buyer's premium is typical - the amount however varies. Williams Auction uses either $3000 or 5% whichever is greater while Hudson and Marshall charges a straight 5%. This is added to the highest bid. All require earnest funds (cashiers check or cash) to be paid immediately after the auction. All sales are as-is, where is. And the big kicker...NO INSPECTION PERIOD after the sale. As in, you better check things carefully during the open houses before the auction (and allow $$ for repairs after the sale) because there is no cancelling the purchase after the auction without losing your earnest funds as liquidated damages.

The contracts I've seen call for close of escrow within 30 days and carry a per diem fee for delays. There is no financing contingency either so you better have your money lined up prior to bidding or you will lose your earnest funds! If you are financing - make sure there are no issues with the property that could kill your financing. Getting an FHA or VA appraisal scheduled and closed within the 30 days may be difficult. Go through the property and look carefully for items the appraiser would require fixed as a condition. Remember, as-is/where is - there will be NO REPAIRS. It might be better to pass on a property if you aren't sure.

One positive with buying a property at auction rather than trustee sale - you get a marketable title with title insurance. All liens, HOA fees/assessments and back taxes are paid at escrow. When you buy a trustee sale - you buy it with whatever baggage is on the title report.

My advise for anyone considering buying a property at auction - DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Read all the terms and conditions, read the sample contracts. Go to the open house and do the best inspection you can considering the constraints. And pay attention to this comment: DON'T get caught up in the excitement of the auction. Set your top dollar price and don't go over. Don't think "it's only $1000" because then it's 2...3...4,000 more than you should have spent. And agents - have your comps ready!

Buyers can get a bargain buying at auction - but there are risks and you need to do your homework first!

The "Great Rock" (as in Rock Earle) sent me an email earlier that included the Swanepoel Social Media 10 Day Action Plan ( Google it and Stefan Swanepoel) 16 pages of heavy reading on how social media is here to stay and you either learn how to use it as part of your business plan or face losing a significant part of your potential client base. It's one of those white papers that make you think.

It's a lazy Sunday afternoon...so I responded with my satirical version of

The Cure: the Next 10 Days

Day 11: Go solo on everything you've implemented on days 1-10. The results are going to start rolling in any moment now...

Day 12 and Day 13: Spent 10 hours a day on social media. You blog, tweet, look up friends from elementary school decades ago on Facebook. You have 1000 friends, can you handle the anticipated volume of business? Sit back and wait for results - the avalanche is about to start any moment now..

Day 14: Waiting for results, getting impatient...need results NOW! You've had this FANTASTIC website for a week now...does it work? To check it out, you create a fantasy person to spy on yourself. It took you hours to come up with an alternative name and life history. Your alters life is definitely more exciting than your own.

Day 15: Today you decide you need to work harder at Social Media. You decide to spend 20 hours a day to working the Internet. After all, according to experts all it takes is inputting comments, likes, tweets and connections on the various social media websites and the business is going to come rolling in faster than you can handle it.

Day 16: Go to store to get Red Bull - if you are going to spend 20 hours a day in front of your computer, you need to stay awake. You talk to the clerk at Quiktrip, get their contact info and rush home to friend them. It's all about friends...you have to have more friends. You start going through the white pages to see if you can find them online. You are now up to 2000 friends, and a 1000 followers on Twitter.

Day 16: Massive power failure effects west coast. OMG, they are predicting this to last at least a day. A DAY??? NO COMPUTER for 24 hours - how are you to survive?? How is your business model going to survive?

Day 17: Whew. Your computer is back - can you resurrect your missed connections? WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FRIEND LIST? IT'S GONE, deleted. You contact tech support. "We're so sorry. Several accounts were inadvertently deleted. You will need to start again. Have a nice day" You hang up and stand in the corner, staring at your computer screen until dark.

Day 19: You wake up, sleeping on the floor. You think to yourself "What happened to day 18? What did I do?" On a positive note - there is no blood on any of the sharp objects and the news is not reporting any suspicious incidents in your area. It's a brand new day. The sun is shining. You take a walk and smell the flowers. And with the new day...a new business plan - start a support group for those addicted to social media sites. Charge admission. In the back room, supply limited computer time to your junkie followers - label it "therapy". Make billions as the next best thing to Dr. Phil.

Day 20: Oprah calls and wants you to be an adviser on her show! You have achieved cult following. To get your message to the masses, you need to set up a website...

We (mostly Rock) have been working for the past several months at positioning Rox Real Estate to be ready for the next phase of growth in our market area. Websites (both overt and stealth), Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn - it's all there, both personal and professional.

We're ready for that next step. Only - now what do we do? Seriously - how do you move from concept to practical application in one fell swoop? We're a veritable alphabet of knowledge: IDX, SEO, and ftml are part of our everyday vocabulary. The one thing we need to keep focused on - we're in this to sell real estate not design websites. Stay tuned for the continuing saga...