Patti Siebold

The stimulus bill made a few incredible changes to the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, including the fact that it no longer has to be paid back on purchases from 01/01/2009-12/01/2009. The picture below shows an easy to understand breakdown of the new changes. If people never thought they could get a place of their own, they just have to sit down with a realtor and lender and give it a shot. With house prices dropping so low, historically low rates, and all the tax credits, they probably CAN afford to get into their own home. Even if someone you know is in a lease that shouldn't stop them. In today's market many sellers will pay the buyer's remaining lease months as a condition of the home purchase. Spread the word and excitement to all of your non home owning friends and family. Opportunity isn't just knocking on the door, it's knocking it down.

If you're excited about moving ahead on a home purchase in today's awesome buyer's market and would like to view homes go to www.easyhomemapper.com now.

If you've been looking for a new home or investment property, you've probably already experienced the sour taste of getting to the best house... just after someone else did. With everything you've been hearing on the news and in your social circles this must have left you a little confused about the market.

If the market is really so terrible, than why do the best deals seem to always be sold by the time you find them? Shouldn't you be able to roam through the market and pick the best deals up whenever you get to them? If everyone is using the same websites to hunt for property than why do others seem to get their first? What do you have to do if you want to beat the investors and experienced buyers to the best properties?

In today's market investors are scouring the housing inventory for the best deals possible. This is like a buffet of investment opportunity and many of them are taking advantage of it. Sure there are lots of properties on the market but it's still common to have multiple offers on the best deals.

If you want the best deals you have to get their first. With heavy competition from investors you need an advantage. That's where we can help. We've been working for approximately one year, programming software that will give our clients the edge in finding the best deals listed on the market and finding them fast.

With our software we can literally sort through thousands of properties on the market, by price per square foot, and we can do it in seconds. Price per square foot tells you how much home you're getting for the money you're spending. This is a key value indicator and one of the most commonly used criteria for top investors.

Rather than spending hours of time crunching numbers to determine which properties are the best values, you can do it in seconds with our software. This is a HUGE advantage because you can quickly pull up the day's top 10 hot values and get out previewing them long before other investors have even finished crunching their numbers.

Here's some more great news, our software sorts REO, Short Sale, and Retail Property. This means that you are seeing the best of the best. Why limit yourself to an REO List when you can sort all of the listed property and find the best of the best? Want even better news? We import the new properties every weekday, so you get a fresh list with the best properties, and you get them fast!

This software gives you the opportunity to buy the type of bargain that you only hear about on the news. If you would like to see a quick video on how this software works you can watch it at http://www.yourreteam.org/custompages_reports.php?key=b231383 This program is the real deal, no gimmicks, and no bait and switch. This is a serious tool for buyers and investors that are tired of settling for second place. The opportunity of this historical buyer's market won't last forever... don't take the risk of buying a second place property. Watch this video before you go any further in your property search, it will save you thousands of dollars and it's free.

While there is no fee for the use of our software, access is exclusively limited to our clients. That's because we want to protect the integrity of the most incredible bargain finding tool in Clark County and because we want to make sure that our clients are the ones that get their first.

Take a few minutes to watch this video, it may very well be the greatest investment decision you will ever make, then give us a call and be first in line at the best deals listed on the market.

By Team Leader Andy Elliott

Now that the market has been flooded, housing prices have dropped, and banks have tightened their financing why should anyone want to buy a home? That's a great question and one that has some surprising answers that we can get to by first asking a surprising question.

Why was everyone lined up to buy homes in a seller's market? Just before the market began to correct itself in 2006 we had about a 3 year window in which housing prices were skyrocketing at an alarming pace. With low interest rates helping to create additional buyers there was a very high demand on the limited number of homes that were on the market and sellers had all the leverage they could ever want.

I remember attending two different lottery ball events at New Tradition subdivisions. The concept was that everyone who was visiting the subdivision would get assigned a lottery ball. The builder representative would then draw out lottery balls and the lucky winners had the opportunity to purchase a standard issue home with limited upgrades at a full retail price. You may have even heard about the builders who actually had buyers camping out to get first dibs on the lot they wanted to build their home on. This was a crazy environment and buyers were out in full force and excited to lay claim to their very own piece of the American Dream. It was a great time to buy.... or was it?

If you actually look a little closer the answer to that question just may shock you. Supply was low, prices were up, sellers had all the leverage, buyers were outbidding each other and paying over full price, and many sellers were unwilling to make repairs or concessions. Does that really sound like a great time to buy?

Contrast that with today's true buyer's market. Supply is up, prices are down, buyers have all the leverage, sellers are competing to slash their prices, and home owners are offering all types of concessions and repairs. Which environment sounds like a better place to shop if you're the buyer?

Yes, it sounds silly to think that the public mass really operates in a "sheeple" herd mentality but history proves this to be true. The herd mentality is one of the biggest reasons why very few people ever reach a higher level of success. Making it to a higher level of success often means thinking and acting at a higher than average level.

Warren Buffet says it best when he explains his philosophy for buying stocks "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful." This is a simple philosophy and it is very soundly based on the laws of supply and demand. When others are fearful they are frozen from taking action and capitalizing on opportunity. When a large number of people refuse to take action on a present opportunity the cost of that opportunity falls. The result is that an even greater opportunity is made available at a lower cost to the few who are willing to take action to capitalize on it.

Over the next few years there will be many fearful conversations about real estate and the economy over a hot cup of coffee at the local McDonalds. There will be many people who are frozen in fear by legitimate setbacks that they have faced in these economic times and there will be those few future wealth builders who rise above it all and take action to lay hold of the opportunity of today's unprecedented investor's market. Who do you know that will break away from the masses and seize the day? Will you be one of them?

If you have the desire but are forced to say that there is no way you could get the finances to invest, let me ask you this... If you could get the finances how would you do it? If you could think outside the box, how could you take advantage of the market to improve your future?

Success is the reward of the few who have the courage to break away and do something great when everyone else is captive to fear. Now is the time to step out while the crowds are in hiding because when you see the buyers lining up for lottery balls and sleeping bags rolling out at the model home it's a sure sign that the opportunity has already passed by.

Have questions give me a call at 360-256-5526.

Posted by Team Leader Andy Elliott

You know what you want but has anybody ever asked you to share it with them? Here's your chance to be heard...

1. What is the most important thing that you want from your Realtor?
2. Why do you use a Realtor as opposed to just going it alone?
3. What do you believe is a fair commission to pay to get your home sold in today's market?
4. What is the number one area you believe that Realtors on average need to improve?
5. How would you prefer to be helped by a Realtor who is helping you buy a home? ...who is helping you sell a home?

This blog is all yours! Now is your chance to be heard. We are looking to meet our clients needs at a higher and higher level and the best way to do that is to hear directly from people like you. This is a win-win opportunity that will help improve the industry and may help improve the service you receive from your agent too.

Thank you for your contribution!

Andy

This blog is Posted by Team Leader Andy Elliott

Multi-tasking is not focus. I saw this statement on the big board in Gary Keller's office when we went to Texas a couple years ago. Gary is the co-founder of Keller Williams so when someone who has achieved such high success puts something on their board it's worth some attention. In fact I've found that this one concept will completely change your business if you apply it.

If you want to start an ant on fire with a magnifying glass could you do it if you chased all the ants or would you have to pick one? You're right you'd have to pick one and this is the power of focus.

Multi-tasking is a phrase invented for computers because the miracle of computers is that they can multi-task.

Here's an original dictionary definition of multi-tasking found in the merriam webster dictionary:

Definition:
Main Entry: mul·ti·task·ing Pronunciation: \-ˌtas-kiŋ\ Function: noun Usage: often attributive Date: 1966 1 : the concurrent performance of several jobs by a computer

Mutli-tasking as a human endeavor means that we limit our effectiveness in both tasks. To truly be great at something you have to focus on it with everything you have. I would say that in a season of bailouts, bank foreclosures, short sales, economic instability, and some unfounded fears the need to focus has dramatically increased.

Please click on the comment link below and share your comments on the following two questions:

1. What steps have you taken to increase your focus?
2. What are you focusing on?

Thank you for sharing, we can make a difference and help other realtors learn how to make this a great market!