Bob Haywood, www.BobHaywood.com

Ever call up a real estate agent to find out information about a property only to get their voice mail and then never to hear from them again?

Of course you have. We all have!

Even we real estate people sometimes have problems getting hold of each other. We'll call to get feedback on a property that they showed. We leave a message when they don't answer their phone and then never hear from them again. Some of us who are persistent will even call back several times, never getting through to a real live person. It's like the agent vanished from the face of the earth.

Well, fear not! Today, I'm going to reveal to you the secret you must know in order to get a real estate person to call you back. Are you ready?

Here it is...Never, ever tell them why you are calling.

If you are calling to find out about a house or for some other reason, just leave a message with your name and number and ask the agent to call you back. Don't tell them you want to know about the property. Don't tell them you drove by and thought the house was cute and how much is it. Don't tell them anything about why you are calling.

Unless the agent is a "short timer" in real estate, you should get a call back, usually pretty quickly.

I use this technique whenever I need to get feedback on a home I have listed. I just started trying it out because I couldn't ever get agents to call me back when I left them messages asking for feedback. Now I just ask them to call me, give them my name and number and hang up. Almost every time, the phone will ring pretty quickly.

Want to know why this works?

Because real estate agents are paranoid by nature. If someone calls us up and we don't know exactly why, our brain goes into automatic question mode. We start thinking thoughts like,

"Could be a buyer! I'd better call them up and fast!"
"Might be something important. I wonder what's up? I'd better find out"
"Who is that? What do they want? Maybe it's someone NOT working with another agent! Oh yeah!"

See, what happens is you tweak our client filter. Withholding information causes us to want to return the call. When you give us all the information up front, we automatically put you into our mental file system. If your call isn't all that important (translation: you aren't a hot buyer or seller who wants to write a contract right now)...then you have to get in line and wait. And sometimes what happens is we forget to call you back.

Blame it on busyness. Blame it on disorganization. Blame it on being too high on ourselves. Blame it one whatever you want. I call it being human. The nature of our business is that we are firemen (and women). We go around usually putting out fires everyday or taking care of the latest crisis or whatever may pop up. I don't think most of us don't care about your call. I just think we often are on overload.

So there you go. You might try this with your insurance agent or other service provider too. Unfortunately, I don't think it will work with doctors, lawyers or the government.

Oh well.

Welcome to 10721 North 146th East Avenue in Owasso, Oklahoma!

LAKE VALLEY

MLS #930105

Owasso, Oklahoma is the jewel of the greater Tulsa suburbs!  Owasso offers a small town atmosphere with excellent schools, new neighborhoods and lots of shopping. 

One of Owasso's newest neighborhoods is Lake Valley.  This subdivision was begun several years ago and is located at the corner of 145th East Avenue and 106th Street North.  The developer of Lake Valley is Owasso Land Trust.  The two primary builders within the neighborhood are Simmons Homes and Capital Homes.

Lake Valley offers more amenities than almost any other neighborhood in Owasso.  Check out everything you get when you live in Lake Valley:

Neighborhood Swimming Pool
Neighborhood Club House (can be booked for parties)
Frisbee Golf course
Basketball Court
Paved Walking Trails
Fishing ponds
Playground area

All of these are included as a part of owning your home and are maintained through your home owners association dues.  Lake Valley enjoys a very strong home owners presence which was designed and implemented to protect your home's value.  One note of interest is that each of the Lake Valley developments have their own covenants.

For more information about the Lake Valley covenants, be sure to visit the Lake Valley home owners association site at www.lakevalleyowassohoa.com.

For further information about the neighborhood, check out my blog, Welcome Home to Lake Valley in Owasso, OK.

Now that you know about the neighborhood, let's take a look at this beautiful home at 10721 North 146th East Avenue.

You've seen the front of the house, so let's zoom in a bit closer where you can see the beautiful flower bed that is located just off the covered porch and front door.  You can see from the chairs that this is a great place to sit and relax.

Upon entering the home, you'll walk into the spacious living room.  Notice the vaulted ceiling and arched doorways and pass throughs that lead to the kitchen, hallway and bedrooms.  The living room is beautiful and warm.

There's nothing like a large kitchen with lots of cabinets and counter space!  The kitchen in this home offers upgraded cabinets, a stainless sink and matching black appliances that enhance this space.

And check this out!  Your dining area is located right in the kitchen.  This makes it easy at meal time not only for serving, but for clean up as well.  And because the kitchen has ceramic tile, you'll never have nasty carpet under the dining table to replace or clean.  The two doors in the picture are the backdoor to the home and the kitchen pantry.

Now, let's take a look at the master bedroom.  You'll love the high vaulted ceiling, double windows, double closets and warm master bathroom. 

This view of the master bedroom shows the second window and bathroom entrance.  You can see that there is plenty of space in the bedroom.

The master bathroom has a window for natural sunlight and offers a shower and tub combination.  The room is warm and inviting.

Here's a look at the other three bedrooms in the home.  This is bedroom number two (counting the master bedroom as bedroom number one).

Here's the third bedroom, which is currently used as an office.

And here's the fourth bedroom which makes a great nursery!

You'll love how big the hall bathroom is also!

Now that you've seen the inside of the house, let's check out the backyard!  You can see that the home offers a patio area for entertaining and a full privacy fence...something you don't get when you build a new home!

This view of the backyard shows the privacy fence continuing all the way around the yard.  The homes behind this one do not have a view into the yard or the house.

Now, let's take our pictures, add some peppy music and take a home and neighborhood tour. Click on the start button or on the video to view the home tour.

Here is a map of Owasso so that you can easily find the Lake Valley neighborhood.  You can see that it is just up the street from Northeast elementary and not very far from Owasso High school and our WalMart.

If you would like further information about this beautiful home or if you would like to schedule a time to view the property, please contact Bob Haywood via texting or by calling 918-272-7272.  Our email contact is Bob@BobHaywood.com.

This property, located in Lake Valley in Owasso, Oklahoma is marketed and blogged exclusively by Bob Haywood and McGraw Realtors.  All pictures are copyright protected and may not be used without permission from Bob Haywood.  To market your next home with the most internet exposure, be sure to contact Bob Haywood, "Your Real Estate Results Expert!" 

BURNING BUSH!

The sun popped out for a brief while this afternoon and when I saw it I ran outside to capture this picture. This shrub is called a burning bush. It is supposed to turn red in the fall, but this is the first year in the last several that it has looked this good. It will get firey red and then all the leaves will drop to the ground when the show is over.

I thought you might enjoy seeing the colors of fall here in the great plains of Oklahoma!

This old chair is sitting the backyard of a country house that a buyer of mine is purchasing in Claremore, Oklahoma. I thought it would make a great picture!

For the most complete information on the Owasso and Greater Tulsa Oklahoma housing market, be sure to check out www.BobHaywood.com

The information, content and pictures in this blog are the property of Bob Haywood. You must obtain written permission from Bob Haywood if you would like to use any of this content. Opinions expressed are those of Bob Haywood and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of other brokers, associates or home owners. Blogs may be used in their entirety using the reblog feature within Active Rain.

When you're thinking of a great place to live, think Owasso, Oklahoma! Owasso means end of the trail!

You remember Dylan Klebold don't you? How about Tuesday, April 20, 1999? That was the date when he and his friend Eric went on the rampage at their Denver area high school and killed and wounded several students and then themselves.

I remember that tragedy. I was working with high school students at the time. Trying to help them process that event was...well let's just say...difficult.

In an act of courage, Dylan's mom finally breaks her silence to talk about what happened that day and how she and her husband have tried to cope with what their son did. I found the article interesting and yet not answering all of my questions. But can all the questions ever really be answered?

Regardless of how you feel about what happened, remember that there is much blame to go around. My question is if there is enough sympathy and understanding to accept the parents and to allow them the opportunity to grieve not only for their son, but for what he did.

I encourage you to read the article and to remember this...people make bad decisions at times. I think Dylan and Eric made terrible decisions based on an incredible amount of personal pain they were dealing with that they had no idea how to handle. And we must remember this also. We could have been those parents.

Here's the link to the article. Susan Klebold breaks her silence.

In regards to real estate, here's something to consider. How would someone ever sell the family home after such an event? Is it even sellable? I don't know if they ever sold it or if they still live there or if it was torn down (I don't think it was).

If they do live in their home, you can be sure that they either have the greatest neighbors on the planet...or their lives have been pretty tough.