Steven Pahl - Real Estate Consultant Tampa, FL 813-319-6423

When you listed the home, why couldn't you tell the truth?

A simple question that needs a simple answer. Ken walked into your office because it was located right outside the entrance to his development, he wanted to sell his Villa. He was ready, willing and able and would have listed his home at any price you recommended. It's paid for, not a short sale and would have been so, so easy of a sale if you had simply priced it correctly You let him down, you made statements and showed him information about yourself that were gross exaggerations or out right BS (I've seen the brochure you gave him). You used statistics that were grossly flawed in your CMA (I've seen it) and set a price that was nearly 20% above market value at the time. Why? Ken trusted you and just wanted to sell his villa!

I met Ken a week ago today, he is a new resident at the retirement community where my mother resides here in Tampa. We met at brunch last Sunday while I was there with my mother and some of her friends, a ritual I will continue every Sunday for as long as time allows. Ken had recently moved in and through conversations with other residents learned that I was a Realtor. He approached our table, gave a brief explanation and asked if we could talk. The dining room was empty long before we finished. Ken is 83 and alone!

Ken stated that the listing on his Villa was about to expire and he was unsure how to proceed; there was more, much more, and I mainly listened. I explained that since he was still under contract there was little that I could do at that moment, but if he would bring his listing paperwork back next week (today) i would go over it with him and give him my thoughts. Ken gave me the address of the Villa and seemed happier as we parted than when we met!

Later in the week, a simple MLS search for Ken's address and the subdivision told me much of what I needed to know!

Ken and I saw each other again today and he was much happier than at our first meeting. His listing Expired on Friday, September 30th, two days ago. I told him that was great news, but I already knew that as of this morning and, oh....about 30 seconds before I started typing this blog at 11 PM it was still showing Active. Seems the "ex" agent wants to get one last weekend in before they complete their legal, ethical, and moral duty!

When you listed the home, why couldn't you tell the truth? A question I have asked before; but, I have one more!

Since you must have realized that the listing was about to expire, why didn't you contact him and why couldn't you return his calls last week? You let him down, something I will not do!

More to come.......

What if "we the people" foreclosed on the White House. Yes, "we the people"; the first three words of the American constitution, doesn't say a word about "we the politicians".

I know I shouldn't be political with my postings, but it just (no, wait, it really is) seems that government is completely out of touch with the American people and that most politicians think their jobs are not to serve, but to continually be running for reelection. They are so into themselves that they make most overly arrogant actors, musicians, and athletes seem like mere amateurs.

To a degree, this goes for many local, city, county, state, and Federal elected officials who at their "upper (uppity)" level seem to think that "we the people" are stupid sheep who need to be led and will believe any pile of stuff they wish to feed us.

A perfect example is the recent "debt ceiling fiasco" that nearly caused our government to shut down in early August and again in the past few days. The best response/solution I am aware of came to me in an anonymous email stating the following:

"If the sewer in your home backed up to the point that it reached the ceiling, would your get rid of the S--t or

would you raise the ceiling."

Simple, to the point and thought provoking. But can our politicians see this.............Nooooooooooo!

BUT, this is just a simple rant by one person and was brought about by a recent hospital stay by my mother and a really good satire video by a good friend of mine, Rande Friedman, a fellow Real Estate Consultant at Keller Williams Tampa Properties here in Tampa, Florida.

The video can be seen here: The White House Foreclosed

The rant about my mothers hospital stay will be in a future post, after I see the final billing to her Medicare and TriCare for Life medical plans which will include an hysterical amount of charges based on her initial complaint of abdominal pains. She's fine, but we now have a complete scan, test, and biopsy of nearly every part of her body, few of which should have been neccessary based on the original complaint which apparently Pepto Bismal would have corrected.

Recently a new ice cream shop opened in Ocala, FL, the new proprietors operating in a space previously occupied by another ice cream vendor. While setting up their shop they came across a costume left by the previous occupants. I'll let you be the judge......

Their initial customer traffic was consistent with their expectations, but after a few weeks the traffic began to lag and through the "grapevine" they heard that people were offended by the costume their employee was wearing while standing on the street corner to attract traffic. Apparently people were mistaking the "ice cream cone" costume with the white sheets commonly associated with the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) of yester year.

I dunno....but the waffle cone bottom and the pink, blue, yellow and green "sparkles" on the white soft serve top should have been a giveaway to what was being represented. But, some or (many) people in the Ocala, FL apparently have no imagination and would prefer to stay in a previous era than to move into the 21st century and accept life as it today.

So sad........

When Marketing Fails is because two incidents in recent days made me think about how marketing can actually have a very negative effect and the "marketer" may never know or realize why.

In my market area we have a service available called Listingbook, it is a service that allows Rel Estate Agents to give customers/clients the ability to "Search like a Realtor", through a search portal to individuals who wish to provide their contact information. I am not sure if Listingbook is available nationwide or in specific markets only. Listingbook has a free service for Realtors and they also, like many other Real Estate oriented companies have a paid upgraded version. I personally do not use the paid version, as I can provide the same ability through an MLS search portal to individuals who contact me. Listingbook does have its good points and I am not writing to criticize, just to point out a big booboo with their marketing.

Yesterday I received an email from them, one of several I receive each week and which are automatically sent to a specific folder in my email files. I can read them at my leisure and they do not fill up my in box. This particular email was soliciting me to upgrade my account to their "paid" version to allow me the opportunity to market my recent listing, It stated and I quote:

"Congratulation on your new listing! I want to personally notify you of a special offer Listingbook has for Agents with newly listed properties. For a one-time fee of....XXXXX....this property, "address deleted" ...can become a Featured Listing until it sells! You know that the more exposure your listing has, the more buyers will view it, and the more likely it will sell."

Great line, except....the address of the property was for a home I was the Buyer Agent for just over three years ago and is not a "new" listing, it is not listed and will not be listed unless I am the listing agent. I am still in contact with the owners and although they are slightly upside down on the property at the moment, they have no desire to list their home for sell at the present time.

So why the email and how did Listingbook select this particular property to solicit me...Dunno, just a case of "When Marketing Fails.

The second case of "When Marketing Fails" arrived in my mailbox today. A post card from "not to be named" mortgage company, offering to assist in refinancing my home with today's lower interest rates. Good timing, bad case of "When Marketing Fails".

The post card was addressed to " Heinrich and Kathleen Meyer", who have been divorced since 1993 when Kathleen Meyer retained the house in the divorce and Heinrich moved on to unknown locals. This mortgage company actually bought a mailing list that contains names of individuals that are at least 18 years old. Surprisingly, Kathleen still lives at our address (and is my better half, Thank you Heinrich)and retained her same name because of her professional presence as a licensed Veterinarian in three states and is incorporated within several entities. But, my name isn't Heinrich and this is a case of "When Marketing Fails.

Both Listingbook and the "not to be named" mortgage company will never know of these "faux pas" because I will never contact them to point out their errors. How many contacts are you making daily in your marketing that are going to dead end situations of "When Marketing Fails"?

The Tampa Bay area doesn't have much of an identity outside of being a winter destination for a bunch of snowbirds (folks who live in the north during the summer months and have second homes here for the winter) and our beaches which are a fairly good draw most of the year.

We try to be "big time" with our sports teams, the Buccaneers in football, the Lightening in Hockey and then there are the Rays. The little supported, lowest budget team in Major League Baseball. Sometimes I think MLB would prefer that we just go away, but we keep hanging in with the big boys, New York and Boston.

Tonight we beat New York and combined with the loss by Boston, we are tied for the "wild card" playoff position with Boston. So much for big salary teams, our bunch of literal "no names" are proving that desire, effort and youth is just as important and maybe more so than talent.

As they say, "Timing beats talent every day".