Joe Pryor.com Realtor Oklahoma Investment Properties

I used to be an avid tennis player before injuries and a serious illness stopped my play, but I still watch the big tournaments. Seeing Kim Clijsters come back from a two year layoff, having a child, playing two warm up tournaments, then winning one of the 4 biggest championships makes you wonder what she did to rebuild her game. Maybe Realtors should follow her lead. Maybe it would not be for two years, but are we taking the time to re-hone our skill set that this fast changing real estate environment requires? And do we have the courage to do it?

I have always been one who stresses education. I am currently signed up with Domus Consulting Group which now has Domus U that gives you 150 webinars a year divided into 3 skill levels. Often I see struggling Realtors who's lack of income cannot keep up with expenses. I ask them to come with me to a free meeting, or tell them that they can join me on a webinar about Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever, and the normal excuse is they are covered up. With what? The income is not there, so are you covered up with trying to do the same thing over and over with the same bad results. Do do know the definition of insanity don't you?

This brings me to a conclusion. Every once in a whil we need to stop, take a deep breath, and meditate on what changes we need to incorporate in our business. This is not to say that attending Inman News Real Estate Connect is the only answer. It could be that a week long yoga retreat is what you need to get your life centered and your career in balance. You just have to ask yourself what is needed.Ii spent 16 years owning retail stores before I became a Realtor. I know that feeling that if you don't work 7 days a week then you might miss something. The problem is that something might be your life, and the enjoyment of it.

Let me give you a personal example. I spent 3.5 months in Houston last year going through cancer treatment. Obviously I could not show homes, or make house calls back in Oklahoma. I was seriously focused and dedicated on following the protocol to get healthy again. Part of that was through surgeries and radiation. but also part of that was weekly acupuncture, yoga classes, and massage, to reduce stress and have the body promote healing too. The other thing that I did for therapy is pay attention to changing my work habits and my skills. On November 1st, 2008, I had about 1100 points on Active Rain. i got busy and now it is over 125,000 in less than a year. I got busy and learned what I needed to do here. I also took training with The Real Estate Tomato and Dakno about blogging, and today i am learning how to use Twitter. Yes I was somewhat forced into a sabbatical, but I also can tell you what a difference it makes.

If your business is not going well, or you have found that being in real estate is a drag, don't think that the answer is harder and work more hours. Don't compound the problem. Take some time off, ask yourself what the meaning of life is to you, and visualize the perfect business plan. No you won't ever be perfect, but fear and ignorance are killers spiritually and psychologically. Take some time off to learn. Your future is waiting.

Even in Metro Oklahoma City where the unemployment is the lowest of any metropolitan area over 1 million, we have short sales and foreclosures. According to our MLS it is around 4% of recored sales by Realtors, so compared to the hard hit areas this is nothing. However, we have had job loss like others, people getting 100% Plus loans, and high debt ratios. When you throw in the job loss, add a little medical problem, and stir in a divorce, you have a volatile brew that calls for action. My team does short sales, and there are very few Realtors in our area with expertise coupled with the desire to do at least three times the work required of a non-distressed property.

As Realtors we all know the myriad of problems that confromt a successful short sale, even when we have a proveable hardship. Companies like BOA/Countrywideand Chase/WaMu, a combination of bureaucracy and a national overload of properties makes the work even harder. It may take four months or more to close, and often with the second or third buyer as people get tired of waiting. We are also dealing chages in guidelines. FHA now requires that the owners go through counciling. Fannie Mae now is involved in the approval process adding another layer, and another delay.

What is missing out of this mess, is the problem you have with homeowners. Remember we are dealing with distressed people, not just distressed property. CDPE, the Distressed Property Institute that my team belongs to, and now has over 11,000 members nationwide, has a survey you take with the homeowner. Depending on the score, a Realtor can decide whether to take the listing or not. I have a current short sale listing pending where I didn't do the survey. In fact. rather than getting to deal with the owners I have to deal with a Mother who is the worst client I have had in 20 years. As my dear departed dad said years ago, "Son, that's a horse that can't be rode". The quote is better without the proper grammar. Let's also do a checklist of other problems we have dealt with that are a barrier to a successful sale.

Bankruptcy Attorneys. In law school very little, and i mean little, is spent on real estate. Contracts yes, real estate no. Many of these attorneys do not understand the difference between the credit hit of a bankruptcy versus a foreclosure. They just know that if you put everything into a chapter 7 if all gets washed. Except the 7 years of bad credit versus the 2 years of a short sale. Be sure to ask them whether they are considering bankruptcy before they sign the agreement.

Tell the Truth. There is a reluctance sometimes for people to come completely clean. They are often embarassed to let you know that the IRS is on them, and that a lien is there or eminent. Knowing ahead of time, we are able to get these liens released from the house once they know that there is no money to be had from a sale. Other liens csn be tricky but need attention, and we often find that your low cost bankruptcy attorneys miss them. You might want to insist on a new credit report being pulled up.

Divorce. This can get tense especially when it is in progress. There are times when a future ex-spouse can get very self destructive in wanting to punish the other, and they end up hurting themselves. Make sure that if the divorce is not finalized that a separation agreement is in place, and an agreement on decision making is in order.

Gratitude. Let's face it, many times these folks are dealing with depression, and the guilt of failure among other things. There are times when they can be down right hostile. I am dealing now with a person who I consider abusive and if wasn't a short sale I woulod fire them. But remember, if you do specialize in short sales, you specialize in saving someones future. However, it only works if they want to be saved.

For more information on short sales versus foreclosure, go to www.avoidforeclosureoklahoma.com.

I took my initial real estate class in Oklahoma City in September of 1989. It was something i always wanted to do, but this time it was for changing from a retail career to a real estate one. I had a great teacher which is fortunate to start off well. I do remeber the class getting angry with him though. he wanted to spend time talking about avoiding liability. Many protested saying you are supposed to teach us how to pass the real estate exam! He replied, I am going to teach you how to pass the test in the real estate world. Guess where he started?

Measuring the square footage of a home, and how to talk about it, and how to represent it. it is a lesson i never forgot, especially when he told stories of Realtors being sued becasue they told a client that a house was exactly a square foot size. When it turned out to be 300SF smaller, they ended up buying them a home. So an important phrase came into my everyday speech, MOL which stands for more or less. Ikay that is pretty basic. Do you have a point beside this?

Yes I reply. I was in our MLS today checking for listings in a certain area and a certain size. The home was listed by a Realtor as 1315SF agent measured. Red Flag No. 1. Then in the remarks the Realtor said he added the Florida room to the size, and in looking at the comparables he valued the size of the glass add on to the patio at $100 square foot for the 240SF add on meaning it was worth $24,000, or the same value as the brick exterior original part of the house. Red Flaf No. 2.

Red Flag No. 1. You are asking for trouble when you put in agent measured. It has been 17 years ago but I took appraisal courses and was certified. It is much harder now to become an appraiser, but I learned enough to help me as a Realtor even today. This was a realtor who didn't know how to measure. Where did he get the numbers? The plans? Folks, one of the hardest part of the classes was getting a measurement somewhat right. I say somewhat becasue it is not an exact science. Three appraisers may vary 10 to 20 square feet but it is close not exact. If a Realtor not qualified as an appraiser puts in what they think is the size, get ready for the cpmpalints and possible suits. It you are going to use a measurement, go with the courthouse records, ot if you know a real apprasial square footage use it. If the appraisal is relatively new I will use that even if it is smaller than the house. Remeber MOL. it is just that i would trust an apprasiers MOL more the the courthouse.

Red Flag No. 2. Pricing a home is where you separate the quality of a Realtor. Again, even with excellent statistics pricing is not an exact science, but like the appraisal it is important to get close. Starting with this premise let's evaluate the add on. I know that apprasial guidelines have change since my classes but sometthings remain the same. This was a galss like addom to the patio. it did not change the roofline, the construction was not the same as the main house, and no central heat and air was added. So essentially you have an improved patio. So when you are pricing the home, think like an appraiser. First, the appraiser will measure the orignal construction and give a value, so lets say that that is 1097 (MOL) and it is worth $100 per square foot. The given that the add on is 240SF what is it's value. Could be zero, could be $5000, but not $24,000. So let's be generous and say $5,000. Now you have a home priced at $114,700, not $137,700. If you add in the greater fool theory that someone will pay the higher price remember that this is 2009, not 2005, and the appraiser does not subscribe to the greater fool theory like a buyer. At that point, that buyer may have the most valuable $400 real estate lesson he can receive in how to price a house based on appraisable square feet. And the listing Realtor may find themselves in front of a Board hearing or the Real Estate Commission.

Take away. remember MOL, when in doubt call an appraser for advice, and never no never enter a listing into the MLS as agent measured. Thank you my first real estate teacher, Mr. Kraettli. 20 years later I remember you lessons.

I help people out in the greater Oklahoma City area to avoid foreclosure. A short sale is where the lender takes less than what is owed on the property due to a provable hardship, does not send a 1099 to the IRS for forgiveness of debt tax, and does not seek a deficiency judgement which in Oklahoma can be and is being done. We are also a judicial state which means that from the beginning of default whihc is missing the first payment, to sheriff sale where the property is legally transferred, that can easily be a year's period of time.

DISCLOSURE: No Realtor who does short sales should ever tell a homeowner to quit making payments. At the very least that is unethical. Unfortunately we live in a Topsy-Turvy financial world where a loan modification does not happen if you are current on payments. They don't even want to talk to you at the very moment when they should. The longer these processes take, the more loss everyone experiences, except one, and that can be the homeowner.

Let me explain. Many short sales we start working with come after the property owner geta notice of les pendens . In Oklahoma this comes after six months typically. So if the payment was $1500 per month, then $9,000 is technically pocketed by the owner. If it takes 6 more months then that windfall goes double. Get my point? The owner is living in the property, paying to keep the lights on, but in a bizarre twist, can be reducing their debt elsewhere by being able to hopefully pay off things like credit card debt that may be eating them alive on interest.

Second DISCLAIMER: I am not your pastor, preist or spiritual advisor. I am not hired to make moral judgements. I leave that up to a higher power. I am human like you. Yes I can say that if you sign a note you should pay it. But if you were out $30,000 for cancer treatment that insurance did not pay for, that is all you had in savings, and you lost your job, I think for me to have that rigid of a moral compass is inhuman. I have had people ask me if they should stop making payments and i will always say that is not my place but here are the consequences. I do advise people that it is and all or nothing decision. if you owe $5,000 in arrears and you want to pay half of it, then it is typical practice that they put it into a escrow account and nothing is credited to principle and interest, so you are giving them free money and you will still go to foreclosure.

I know this was n ot the governments intention to reward people who can't pay. It was also not the orignal intention of the owner to loss their job, suffer medical bills unpaid, or get a divorce. Again. my job is to keep you out of foreclosure. if I can sell the house for enough to not go into a short sale, that's the best. If I can't, and you also don't have money to bring to closing then let's do the short sale. We all make mistakes and sometimes events conspire against us. Hopefully the system can change to help some, but if you can't get employment, no government bailout will help except one. If you are in this position, make the best of it. I may get criticism for this post, but I am just stating the facts. This happens, and I don't see an immediate end in sight. I will make this bold prediction: The next wave is coming and it is a potential tsumani. Option Arms and interest only loans are readjusting in the next five years with payments going up 20% to 80%. Sadly, I am part of a growth industry, short sales

I have now upgraded to the iPhone GS, and it is better becasue of the battery life and spped, but not a quantum leap. What still keeps me firmly in the Apple camp are the applications. Another, and there are many, essential applications is Google mobile. It is differnet than Google earth. On this you hit the microphone icon and it ask you to talk into a phone. Say an address and the map comes up and you can ask for directions. Want to know where the doctor's office is becasue you forgot? Speak their name and it tells you. The obvious advantage here is not having to do the normal Google search while you are driving. You can speak and watch the road at the same time. The best part is that it is free. Google mobile, don't leave home without it.