Tere Rottink

My 15 year old daughter Valerie is learning how to drive. We live in the Great Bridge/Hickory area of Chesapeake. We have been driving around the neighborhoods for at least a month now, and I felt brave enough in our way to Girl Scouts to have her drive. I told her to go on to Centerville Turnpike. AAAgghhhh!!! What was I thinking? Will my heart recover, and how did I ever learn how to drive.

Last February we had an especially cold day and my car and I ended up in the ditch. I was going 10 or 15 miles an hour, but there was ice in the road and the ditch was calling. Gratefully all my accidents have been minor, but this one really change the way I look at the roads. Just a couple of days ago, it froze two days, and I stayed home. I am too scared to drive in the ice... even the rain makes me nervous now.

Back to teaching my daughter how drive. I tried not to scream, as I have seen on TV, when parents start screaming kids get even more scared. Centerville has ditches that are right next to the road, and as a new driver Valerie feels that while driving in a two way street she has to go as close to the right as possible. Since, I am sitting in the copilots chair, I can actually feel the edge or the road and how close she is to going in to the ditch. I could actually feel the bumpy part. I went back to that section of the road, ( to take pictures) and realized that this specific part of road is actually pretty short. It reminded me of the time, I jumped of an airplane, but that is another story.

So, when you come to Chesapeake make sure your teen has been driving for a while. Me? I will stick to teaching her inside the neighborhoods. My husband can do the scary stuff.

Great Bridge. Great schools... and deep ditches. (Valeries oil painting.)

I have just translated this joke. It appears to have come from out of the country, but I thought it was funny and appropiate for the times.

It was Winter and the indians in a remote reservation asked their new chief, if the coming Winter was going to be cold or mild.

Since this chief had been raised in a modern society, he never learned the old secrets or how to look at the sky, and couldnl't tell wether it was going to happen with the weather.

Just to make sure that his tribe was prepared, he told his members that it was going to be very cold, to go out and collect wood to be prepared.

As the chief was also a practical leader, he had an idea: he called the Nacional Weather Service and asked:

•- Is this coming Winter goin to be very cold?

•- Yes, it appears this coming winter will be very cold.

The chief went back to his people and told them to go out and gather more wood, as it was going to be pretty cold, and they needed to be prepared. A week later the chief called the National weather service again:

•- Is it going to be a cold winter?

•- Yes, very cold.

The chief returned to his people and told everyone to go out and gather more wood, as it was going to be a cold winter. Two weeks later, once again he called the National Weather Service:

•- Are you absolutely sure that this coming Winter is going to be very cold?

•- Absolutely. This is going to be one of the coldest winters that we have known in our lifetimes.

•- But how can you be so sure?

•- Because those Indians have been gathering wood like crazy.

So I ask my self:

•- Is this going to be a long and hard recession?

•- OF COURSE!!!

•- How do you know?

Because those Americans have been selling their stocks and houses like they went crazy ????????

For the past few weeks, I have been receiving phone calls from distraught homeowners.....

It goes like this " Hi Tere, do you have a minute? (they feel they are imposing) I respond, sure what is going on. ( I haven't heard from these friends, colleagues, church members or plain acquaintances for ever. It is usually me making the Hello calls.)

Well, I just "received my home owners tax notice", "Look at my property values on Zillow", "got the appraisal back ,as I am trying to refinance".......

"my house is dropping in price; can you verify that this is true?"

I am happy to do a CMA, and every time I am hoping that this will be the one very stable neighborhood where houses come up for sale very seldom, or people have been there for so long that they own their houses in full.

Unfortunately, none of these friends are in these situation. (Are there any?) I have checked from $100,000 to $800,000 and the news are the same for all of us. I say " I am sorry to tell you that I have to agree with what you have been told" Most of the sales on these neighborhoods have been foreclosures or short sales. In many cases the houses are in mint condition, I have personally visited many with my buyers, and because it is the bank or the homeowner selling in distress prices are 20 to 40% of the value of the property a year ago.

The phone call a couple of nights ago was especially hard, as I sold this family this house in October 2006. In all cases I try to explain to them that it is not jus them, we are all in the same boat. I, also bought a home in October of 2006, and the news for me aren't any better.

A few of these phone calls go to what I really want to talk about next. I tell them that the best, easiest thing to do is to stay put and bear the storm with everybody else. What most of them are thinking is that they want to sell before prices go any lower; well, " do you have money to bring to the table at closing to pay the difference of what it is owed to the bank?"

"No"

Well, then selling is the worst thing that you can do.

Because now their house is worth less than when they bought it, refinancing is not an option. I have been calling lenders to see if there is a loop hole somewhere, but we all know that although the banks took in $800 billion, the money is no where to be found.

Here are a few suggestions that I have gathered and come up with.

•- Accept the fact that your house is worth less than when you bought it. Believe it or not, it does make it easier for me.

•- Sit tight and continue to make your payments.

•- Add on to your home, if you are in need of more space.

•- If you are being relocated, rent it.

I have called other agents, and several lenders and here are some of their suggestions:

•- Sell it and come up with the difference at the closing table.

•- Do a short sale and get rid of the house.

•- Let it go in to foreclosure.

•- Stay put, do nothing.

Do I think any of these makes sense? Only the last suggestion.

All homeowners in this situation must take the following in to consideration.

- Buying at the top of the market and selling at the bottom is the worst thing that you can do with any investment. Yes, your home is an investment. (In my humble opinion)

- A short sale or a foreclosure will appear on your credit. If, by any chance you are laid off and need to go look for a job in the near future, the company you are applying to get a job at will be doing a credit check.

- If you have a job where you need security clearance (something very common in my local area) you will be fired or demoted. I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I know that your career will be terribly affected.

- From now on, you will be paying higher interest rates on any new loans: cars, credit cards, trips etc...

Finally, feel free to call me and ask me to do a CMA ( Comparable market analysis), I will be so happy to find out that you just won the lottery, and the price in your home has not dropped...

PS: Agents, if you have any better responses to these phone calls, I would love to hear them.

Both my kids have I-Pods. My daughter Valerie is in her second one and she is the expert. My son got his first one for Christmas. (Although at the end He wanted to get the dog and cats Nintendo games. This is two days before Christmas. Too late, Santa was done with his shopping.)

For the couple of years that my daughter has had her I-pod, I truly don't know what she listens too, except for "My chemical Romance" and some soundtracks from movies she likes. But, this past year she started to ask for Korean music. Korean music? where in the world did she get hooked on this. She even signed up for a pen pal website, has some pen pals from Korea and other Asian countries, and to finish it all she is teaching her self to write and understand Korean.

Mind you I am Colombian, from South America where we speak Spanish and love Cumbia, Salsa, Vallenato, and other local music. I have some of it, and listen to it sometimes in my car. This coming school year, the plan is that she will be going to Colombia for the school year. She will live with my best friend from college, who has the coolest family. As Colombian as you can get. I lived with them for a few months in my youth.

Back to my birthday I-Pod... since I don't know how to use it, I plug it in to my computer and follow the steps that it prompts me. It took about an hour to load, as I said yes to pictures. The only music in the system is what my daughter has uploaded in the past two years.

So this morning, I decide that since I feel a little on the low side, I will listen to what I ended up with in my I-pod, clean it up, and put some good music in. ( my music ) and as I listen, I cant believe that this Korean music is so ....beautiful and regular. It reminds me of the music that I listened to when I lived in Colombia and all I wanted was to go see the world. I listened back then to American music. This music for the new millenium, of course has now some rap, and tones of Latin music, plus other world music that I am not sure where it comes from. Some of the lirics are in English.

This is such a big world; over 6 billion people and we are so much the same. We all want to have love, families, a roof over our heads, good entertainment....

Does this relate to real estate? Sure, we are all looking for the same. Love, health and money, or as the saying goes in Colombia " Salud, dinero y amor"

In real estate 101 for new agents one of the most important things they teach is to contact your sphere of influence (That is friends, relatives and coworkers) and let them know that now you are a real estate agent. I know a few agents with great connections where this has worked for, but know many more where their friends and relatives have chosen to list their house or use another agent as their buyer representative.

In fact it happened to me. A close friend from church, who I thought I had lots in common with and was one of my better friends chose another agent to list her house. In the mean time, her mother; someone that I very much respect asked me to show her some houses. We went out one day to look at houses and initially things went well but in the end they hired another agent to sell their home and buy a new one. I was hurt, but I had a feeling that this might happen as she has a personality that has to be in control over everything. I gave her a few pointers on what to do about her house, she didn't do any of it; the home for sale was empty for several months last I heard of it. Nothing that I told her was right, and I was wrong over everything. I could explain the facts of why I recommended everything that I said, but that is not the point. The point is that she at least gave me the opportunity to show her some homes; our personalities clashed... end of story.

Back to her daughter. I asked my friend why she never gave me the opportunity to show her what I could do for her, she responded, well this guy specializes in the neighborhood, so I chose him. Unfortunately, I was so hurt that the friendship never recovered. She knew I needed the money.

I have heard stories like this from many new agents and my advice is don't worry about it, as you will find people who as perfect strangers will see the value in you and help you get started in your career.

To me it was friends; to another agent, it was her own sister... ouch!!

So here is the moral of this story:

Unless you have been in sales in the past, start with a company with a strong training system. You will learn many other ways to find clients. If you are lucky enough, to have a solid sphere of influence be thankful to each one of your friends and relatives that put their trust in you. And to the ones who ignore you, eventually, they will realize that you are good at what you do.

I am very grateful to all of my friends (I have no relatives nearby) who now trust, appreciate and follow my advice regarding real estate. So, thank you Forrest, Kellie, Sandra, Steve, Victoria and Scott for putting your trust in me, and help me support my family even though, I am your friend

Karma is so strong that things take care of themselves.

FYI: Before becoming a real estate agent, I was a full time investor for over three years. I bought and sold over 50 houses in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Portsmouth and Newport News.