Joe Pryor.com Realtor Oklahoma Investment Properties

Part of my daily habit is commenting on post at Active Rain. I started blogging and commenting regularly a year ago while I was in cancer treatment in Houston. As I was commenting on post today I felt more emotion in not only my responses, but in how the post affected me. As I went from pricing historic homes to did I make a ndiffernece in people's lives today, to shedding materialism to live a simpler life, I was moved my the people who wrote them. They cared enough about sharing "secrets" with others they never met, they were telling family stories, and some were talking about epiphanies that changed their lives. Not one was a ego oriented look at me post like some I read. Or was it me that was different. So I made a decision. That time in Houston was awful, but my connection to the outside normally functioning world was my comments on Active Rain post, and the remarks back about what I said. In this year I only remember one unkind response. Considering that I have commented over 2300 times in less than a year, I think that is a great percentage.

So what about the decision? Since I love commenting soemtimes even more than posting, I am going to go back to November 2008 and start reading all of them. I want to see where I started and how I ended up today feeling very emotional. I will do a post after I finish, and hopefully have some conclusions to share. One comment I would like to give to the 2309 post I commented on is this. Last year I was fighting for my life, and it was a fight it looks like I will win. I go back to Houston in December to have all my scans done which will tell the tale, and I am confident. What I want you to know is what you meant to me. You have busy lives, and you may not think about the impact you are having just by sharing your thoughts here. This goes for all the post I read without commenting too. You connected me with your wonderful, and sometimes awful world. You gave me responses of hope, sometimes disagreed with my conclusions, but always treated me with respect. You can't ask for more than that from a community. Just don't ever think that even with a rant you are not making difference in someone's life. One of the reasons I am still here is because of my connection to you and your responses. If you want to know how I feel about you and how countless others feel about you click this link to Lou Gehrig's farewell to baseball speech. I couldn't have said it better.

A new book just came out called "Celebrating Failure" by Ralph Heath. I had some recent experiences in short sales that went bad, and my first thought was to say I know better, then to ask myself how I could have been so stupid. I failed again, but now my thoughts are different about it. First I reminded myself about taking Socialogy in college back in the 60's, and remembering what a self fulfilling prohecy was. We see it all the time when people get on a jag or rant to show how bad things are. They look for what can prove to them that failing is okay without going deeper inside. You see it in real estate offices, when Realtors try to top each other to see who had the worst client or the worst closing. After one is finished the other says I got one worse. We can find this everyday. So I want to contrast failure with FAILURE.

FAILURE comes when we want to stop trying to make something work. Failure is when we try and it doesn't work, but the main point is we took the risk.

FAILURE is when we don't get immediate results and we quit what we are doing and say I told you so. Failure is when something new is not working, but you have the patience to say, let's give it another month.

FAILURE is when you don't even try because it is new and it requires that you stop and get some training. Failure is getting the training, and willing to make mistakes as you go along.

FAILURE is stopping the process because someone gets mad or ciriticizes you. Failure is continuing to make mistakes even though people are mad at you or criticize you.

We are not going to succeed without risk, and taking risk is probably going to involve failure. Let me make some suggestion about how to trun failure around.

Did I plan properly? Ideas are great, but action requires a schedule. Did you set a definite time aside, and did you have the support to get it done.

Did I judge myself too harshly? I am not a big fan of judgement and self criticism. it tends to freeze the moment in time, and does not allow for flexible thinking. You may find that a little tweak will change results.

Did I give it enough time? We all hear that patience is a virtue, and timing is everything. Yes they are cliches but that diesn't mean that they aren't true.

Am I committed? Sometimes people try something because someone tells them to do it, or they hear it from a trainer. Ask yourself the question, do I really believe in this?

Finally celebrate your failure. Find something noble in your struggle. Don't give up on the dream if you think it can still work. Ask yourself what can be done differently. Find people to brainstorm with, and don't make any rules. Sometimes the most ridiculous ideas are the ones that when they are brought down to earth are the ones that work. Don't be afraid to be thought of as ridiculous. The ones that laugh at you may be the ones with the most fear of change.

One last warning about celebrating failure. There is a danger. You may have to learn how to live with success.

First let me say that this is not a rant, nor is it going to be a condemation of the big bad corporate entities in real estate called franchises. Everybody has to be someplace, and that someplace has to give you a comfort level, and a sense of being in the right place. For me, that all changed at Inman News in January 2008. There I met Jim Cronin of the Real Estate Tomato and started training in blogging. I listened to Jay Thompson, Kris Berg, Teresa Boardman, and others talking about how they took individual control of their business. Then I spent September through November in Houston getting medical treatment for cancer, and I continued my online education, and starting blogging on Active Rain in November. 130,000 plus points later in eleven months, here I am. It was a great ride with a great organization. It just didn't meet my requirements any more. So let me go down the list in no particular order of my decision making process.

Number One. Broadband internet connections empower the individual. We can now do business in real time, so the world wants there information now, and an individual can move quickly, but large organizations move slowly. Even if it is a mistake, I can quickly take a chance, and just as quickly stop it.

Number Two. Web 2.0 applications let an individual look big but act small. Everyone wants us to act like they are our only clients. First I can with online presence find the clients. I don't need a big organization feeding me. Second, my team can work quickly to have a direct connection. If I am on five times on page one of a search on Google, I look really big. If I act quickly to a response, I am small and personal. For a potential client, that's big.

Number Three. I want to control where the money is spent. Yes, contributing to a national ad compaign creates branding, but it isn't my branding. Recently I decided to do a $150 per month Google pay per click program for certain search terms. Within thirty days I average 40 email captures per week at an average cost of 80 cents per email. If it didn;t work to my satisfaction it is easy to change. It works.

Number Four. Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Active Rain, custom web sites, Diverse Solutions IDX, Altos Research, etc. Tools for the times. For me it is fun and proactive. Too often we criticize our franchises, and our brokers for not creating more opportunities. I don't want to be that way so working towrads this goal, creating a more defined database with action plans, creating the marketing, this was mother's milk. I know that people here on Active Rain are in franchises and creating there own business, and I am not trying to say you are wrong. What I am saying is that I am doing what is right for me and my team.

Number Five. Great support. It starts with Cherie Young of www.cherieyoung.com, who does custom sites, interactive maps, and SEO. Besides the Tomato I give kudos to Patrick Kitano and Kevin Boer of www.domusconsultinggroup.com. They can take you to the next level of social media, and at an incredible value price. This kind of help is invaluable, and help you build the courage to make a change.

RE/MAX did a lot for me. They have always stressed education, getting designations, and networking. I would not have been able to be in this place without this help. So to RE/MAX, my great brokers Victoria and Ruth, the many firends i still have at the old office, thank you, I love you, but I will not miss you because I have not really left, I have just changed locations. We are at 500 W. 15th Suite 300 Edmond, Oklahoma 73013, and the office numner is 405-216-0020. Everything else is the same.

Ernie Banks, the eternal sunshine of sports loved the game of baseball. His full quote was "It's a beautiful day for a ball game, let's play two!" he was not as quotable as Yogi Berra but his inspiration was and is contagious. He played the game with pure joy and gratitude and I loved to watch him. He was interviewed on NPR today about Obama's Nobel Prize award, but more about that later. The interview came at an opportune time for me. This time last year I was in cancer treatment. It has been a long hard road back but this week was particularly good. For the first time I felt like I had my mind back. Once again I looked at real estate as pure joy and love. So in honor of Mr. Banks, I would like to put his quotes in real estate terms.

Let's play two. Ernie Banks could have come to the majors a bitter man. He was segrated in the Negro Leagues until baseball was finally integrated. Instead, he focused on the game he loved. The result, everbody loved him. You couldn't help it. In real estate if we take that same joy, and regardless of why we got into the business, this exuburance will catch on with our clients. They may be grumpy some times or negative, but if you play the game of real estate like Ernie, you keep smiling and tell them it will be all right. treat other Realtors the same way by helping not judging. We will leave this business a better place, and hopefully like Ernie Banks we will leave much loved.

I really care, but not too much. Let's face it Ernie's Cubs were bad. Jimmy Dykes said "Without him, the Cubs would finish in Albuquerque". When asked today about what it was like to play his whole career with a perennial loser, he said this quote. Sure it hurt to lose, but there was always the next game. We have many times in real estate where we are disappointed, and deals don't work out and yes it hurts, but like Ernie hopefully not too much. Sometimes failure is the only way that we get to see our true character. Ernie banks as a team player experienced more failure that we could ever have, but he never let it stop his drive for excellence.

I haven't really done anything. When asked about his honors like being elected to the baseball Hall of Fame and many more honors where he was feted, he made this remark. Excussse me! Until Cal Ripken, his 512 career home runns and 277 as a shortstop was the record for that position. What he meant was unlike President Obama all he did was play baseball. he didn't cure cancer or contribute to world peace. On World peace I beg to differ Mr. Banks. Your selfless attitude, your joy of the game, and your humbleness at the privilege of doing exactly what you wanted to do in life contributes to world peace. The ego is a great enemy often times. I don't care how successful we have been, how many deals we have closed, we didn't creat the Salk Vaccine for polio. let's be like Ernie and keep ourselves in perspective.

Finally, let me say that for commission, this has been one of my worst years in real estate, but I am okay. I am still breathing, and I have finally come back to waking up in the morning with an attitude that says, what are we going to learn and accomplish today. It has been very difficult for me, and I know that those of you out there who have gone through severe medical issues share my experience. But today I want to thank Mr. Banks for being 79 years old, loving every minute of life, and never believing that anyone he meets is a stranger. Ernie, i will wake up in the morning, thinking about real estate, and saying, "Let's play two".

Distressed homeowners in Metro Oklahoma City are coming in increasing numbers. Although our city is faring better than most, unemployment has risen from 3.& to 6.1% in one year. I was in the mall today, and I noticed that two stores have closed very recently. Both Bacrach's and American eagle Outfitters have been here a long time, but are now gone. If we take this, medical problems, and divorce, people are having problems paying there bills. I remeber the bad old days of the 1980's when Oklahoma was devasted economically, and i can remeber the daily calls in my retail business for when the payments would be made. I have empathy for what these folks are going through, and declaring bankruptcy is not uncommon.

Let's first talk about the difference between bankruptcy and foreclosure. If you want to qualify for an FHA loan at a later time, you can be considered two years after bankruptcy. Foreclosure makes that three years or more. Foreclosures also have what is typically around a 450 point credit hit. If you were at 640 which you need for FHA think about how long that is going to take you after foreclosure. Foreclosure also stays with you for 7 years. I am not recommending you to avoid bankruptcy even if you are being harassed, but I am telling you to pursue a short sale regardless.

What a Chapter 7 liquidation does to the foreclosure process is to stop it in place. It does not prevent it from happening it just delays it. One advantage to doing this is that the bankruptcy can eliminate the possibility of a mortgage company coming after you for a deficiency judgement and of also sending a 1099 to the IRS for taxable forgiveness of debt. So from a personal standpoint, you get rid of all your personal debts excepting taxes, but once the process is done and finalized, the foreclosure starts up again.

So why still do a short sale since you have no personal liability? That is simple, foreclosure is still worse for your future credit. It is not just that your credit rating is hit harder, When you eventually go for a home loan think about what the lender sees if you have a foreclosure showing on the report. If you do the short sale route, it goes away within two years from the report. Yes they see a bankruptcy, but that is an easier explanation. Losing your job, having unpayable medical bills are understandable in making the decision to clean your slate. Remember that by doing a short sale you are saving the mortgage company money, since a foreclosure is more expensive in time and money. We can help you with your distressed home. Email me at joe@joepryor.com, or for more answers you can go to our web site for short sales, www.avoidforeclosureoklahoma.com.