Fort Wayne Realtors Jared and Amanda Christiansen

Here we go, installment #4 of my series of "What I have Learned in my short time of being a Fort Wayne Realtor"

Installment 1 can be found HERE, installment 2 HERE, and installment 3 HERE. I hope that this installment can be just as entertaining as the first 3!

I HAVE LEARNED...

That even though listing your step brother's house brings a little more PRESSURE than a regular listing, being able to call his wife and say ACCEPTED OFFER and hear her scream on the other end is TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!

That I really enjoy getting new clients, finding the perfect house for them, and writing offers is FUN!!!! Inspections... eh... not so much. :)

That having four accepted offers in a week is FANTASTIC!! Dealing with four inspections the following week... see above. :)

That an inspection on a 100 year old farmhouse is going to have more PROBLEMS than an inspection on a 13 year old house.

That when you don't blog for a few weeks your search engine rankings decline.

That even though the agent on the other side of the deal has 30 years experience and your somewhat INTIMIDATED... stick to your guns and listen to your gut and you'll be JUST FINE!

That not only are we REALTORS, we are also marriage counselors, movers (don't ask), negotiators, and hopefully in the end FRIENDS to our clients.

That just because another agent ACTS oblivious... he's not.

That just because a buyer asks for 1,850 things to be repaired in a 100 year old house AFTER getting an accepted offer 3% below list price does not mean that you have to do all of them!!

That when you get a listing, more times than not you get a BUYER too!! BONUS!!!!

That if you WORK HARD, put it out there, keep stretching your comfort zone, DO THE RIGHT THINGS, and NEVER QUIT, then you will be successfull in this business and in life.

That when a client says to you "Jared, we are so excited that we finally got an accepted offer on a house and THANK YOU so much for your hard work... but then we realized that we wouldn't be able to look at houses with you anymore and we got kind of sad"... THAT FEELS GOOD.

That if you look at your clients as PAYCHECKS or DOLLAR SIGNS, then know it. I have never looked at a client like this but know MANY agents that have.

That it feels GREATTTTTT when one of your toughest clients (and of my favorite clients) says THANK YOU for all your hard work, your doing a great job... that it brought a tear to my eye. :)

That I LOVE what I do and am thankful to God everyday that I have found my calling. :)

There it is... installment #4. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your replies!

Fort Wayne Realtor Jared Christiansen

Fort Wayne Homes For Sale

RE/MAX Home Connection Fort Wayne and North East Indiana

THE CHRISTIANSEN TEAM

WE work, YOU win!

Again, we have been so busy that I have not taken the time to sit down and blog!!! I need to blog! My website needs me to blog so it can be found!! I need to be back on the front page of google…

Let’s recap the last few weeks:

Had an offer accepted for 3 buyers and 1 seller. YAY!! That’s great, but what comes next is the inspections. Try 4 in a week… NOT FUN!

The first inspection has been the most painful to date. The home is a 109 year old farmhouse that has been completely remodeled and is GORGEOUS! The bad news? A few major issues on the inspection. Can’t go into any detail but we are hoping the sellers will fix the probems.

The second inspection was on a 13 year old house and took 45 minutes. Piece of cake. Only 3 minor things came up. THANK YOU!!

The third inspection went well too, 33 year old house and only a few minor things came up there too. THANK YOU!!

The fourth one was on a house we have listed. 100 year old lake house that is HUGE! The inspection took 4 1/2 HOURS!!!!!!!! We are still waiting back to hear what they found. Should hear back by tomorrow at the latest.

Otherwise everything is normal for us… showing houses, meeting new clients, picking up a few new listings… FUN!

I never thought I could have so much fun being a Realtor here in Fort Wayne. Every day is different, there are many challenges to overcome and also so many great rewards to be had!

There is nothing better than being able to make that phone call to your client and say…

YOU GOT THE HOUSE!!!

I love it. Well, until next time (which should be before the end of the week)… Hope everybody has a great day out there and remember, if you are looking for a Realtor in Fort Wayne I know of a GREAT one! I am married to her.

Fort Wayne Realtor Jared Christiansen

Fort Wayne Homes For Sale

The Christiansen Team

WE work, YOU win!

I remember when I started in this business... WAY BACK in January of 2009... that I had a lot of the more experienced agents telling me that I needed to get out and hit the pavement, knock on doors and hand out business cards. They told me that I needed to

GET MY BUTT OUT THERE and FIND MY CLIENTS!!!

Since I had a lot of experience with promoting past websites and social networking, my response to them was

WHY NOT LET MY CLIENTS COME FIND ME???

Don't get me wrong, I knock on doors and hand out business cards left and right, but most of my clients have found me online, whether it was a google search, them finding my blog, finding me on Zillow, Twitter, Facebook, AR, Trulia, etc etc etc...

Which brings me to my question to you:

How many different ways to you communicate with your clients?

For me, here is how it breaks down:

Some of my clients prefer a phone call first

A few of them want to meet face to face almost every time

MOST of my clients text me first

HALF of my clients send me messages on Facebook, plus when I am in the office I have my chat on...

A lot of my clients prefer email

NONE of my clients prefer contact by smoke signals. :)

What is your most common form of communication with your clients?

Fort Wayne Realtor Jared Christiansen

Fort Wayne Homes For Sale

The Christiansen Team

WE work, YOU win!

One of the reasons I LOVE selling real estate in Fort Wayne is that every day is different, every day is an ADVENTURE!! Most days are good, some days are bad, once in a while the days are boring, and some days are... well... just

CRAZY!

After working until around 9 for the third day in a row I woke up this morning just feeling DRAINED! After 2 cups of coffee and a Diet Dr. Pepper I finally started to feel alive again. We had a second showing with some clients on a BEAUTIFULLY remodeled farm house and once I find out answers to a few of their questions we are going to write up an offer. YAY!!

After that showing we headed to my mom and step dad's house for a FAMILY COOKOUT!! My brother Ryan and his family are in town from St. George Utah so all of the 6 kids and their spouses were there, along with my dad and step mom so it was a FUN time! Plus Ryan makes some wicked good ribs... I could eat those every day!

We had 7 showings set up with a young couple that we have been working with for a few weeks. They both have an incredible sense of humor and are SO much fun to work with!! By the time we get done showing them houses our stomach's usually hurt from laughing so hard. "Chris" has made some pretty funny comments over the weeks...

(Walking into the back yard of a house today) Dude, these trees are awesome! I hate houses with lame trees.

Dude, these heated floors in the kicthen are SWEET!! I mean come on, they are HEATED FLOORS!!

(After a chipmunk runs under the house) Dude, I want this house, it comes with a chipmunk!

I could go on and on but I think you get the picture about Chris. His girlfriend is pretty cool too. She drives a souped up Cavalier with turbo, dual exhausts, and even has race car seatbelts. On our way to our last showing there we were, them in the Cavalier, us in the Solstice racing up Coldwater Road. How FUN is that? Racing your clients! I know, I need to grow up.

So here comes the best part of the day:

We pull up to the last house. Not much curb appeal. House had some ad ons and looked pretty janky to be honest. The showing instructions said "Front door is open. Please leave unlocked when you leave". I don't understand this one at all. The weird thing was that there were two bikes laying in the drive way. I just thought it was a couple of kids messing around... no big deal.

I WAS WRONG

I knocked on the door as I opened it and announced myself. I didn't see anybody. I yelled again. Nothing. Then Chris said

"HEY!!!! THERE ARE PEOPLE BACK THERE AND THEY ARE DOING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yup. There they both were, scrambling to put their clothes on. The woman comes out and says that they had called the name on the sign because they wanted to buy the house but nobody had called them back! She said she had money for a down payment and could get qualified easily but since nobody called her back she just stopped by the house every day hoping somebody would show up.

WELL SOMEBODY DID!! LOL!!!!!!!

I gave her a business card and told her to call me if she was serious. They left and we all had a good laugh!!!

I LOVE SELLING REAL ESTATE IN FORT WAYNE!!! Every day is different...

Fort Wayne Realtor Jared Christiansen

Fort Wayne Homes For Sale

RE/MAX Home Connection Fort Wayne and North East Indiana

Fort Wayne Realtors Jared and Amanda...

WE work, YOU win!!