Steve Wagner

We all know the saying "Money makes the world go ‘round" and it's a pretty accurate statement. Those who don't have enough want more and those that have enough want more. I'll even take it a step further and say that those that say "Money isn't important" are lying. Of course it's important. Money may not mean a person is happy but it sure is important to have.

In real estate, money is important because it takes money to buy and sell property. To be even more specific-it's not just money that's important, access to money is even more important. For most of us that don't have suitcases full of cash sitting around, we must deal with the beloved banks in order to get that access.

If you haven't had the joy of working with a bank in order to secure home financing, I think its pretty accurate to say about them, "They can be your best friend or worst enemy". (I know, I know...best friend? I'm being kind here.) To end up with the financing you need with as few challenges possible, the goal is to have them be your best friend.

I am not a financial guru and therefore any financial advice that may be attributed to me is not worth a penny. However, I will say this-get your financial situation with the bank figured out before you start your home search. Talk to a financial institution that deals with home mortgages and go through the pre-approval process. You will find out from there where you stand and what needs to be done on your part to be in the position to get the financing you need. If you have questions about anything financially related in the home purchasing process-talk to a qualified financial expert. Don't rely on your REALTOR®, friends, neighbors or the local "know it all"...talk to someone that does it for a living.

"Money makes the world go ‘round"-it's a true statement. It's also true that in order to get the proper financing you need, it is extremely important to start thinking about it before you go and dive into the home purchasing process. Do it. Get pre-approved, set yourself up for success and then find the house of your dreams. Don't keep waiting to find that suitcase of cash that you think is buried in your back yard because it's not there. The IRS took that a long time ago.

Looking at fifty different houses over a period of weeks and months to find the house you is such a waste of your time. Yes? Or yes? If you have to look at fifty houses (or forty or thirty) and you haven't found the one you want to buy, doesn't mean that "your house" isn't out there. It means that you don't know what "your house" looks or feels like.

Yes, I'm saying that if you have looked at fifty houses and you are starting to get frustrated, what you are dealing with is a "you problem". Not a "housing market problem" or "REALTOR® problem"-it's on you, baby.

So how does this problem get fixed? Great question...and I have the answer.

Attach some emotion to your search!!!

I'm going to let you in on a little secret that most people choose to not understand. People-you, me and everyone else-purchase things based more on emotion then anything else (including logic or price). I'm not going to get into the whole psychology of how humans think but to sum it up quickly, if we haven't attached any kind of emotion to what we are looking at, we are never going to pull the trigger and purchase it.

Here is how you start. Make a list of the things that you would love to have I your new home. (Don't you dare have a two item list that consists of 1. Nice 2. Cheap). If you have a spouse or significant other that is on the decision making process, have them do it also but separate from yours.

Then make a list of the things you would love not to have in your new home. After you have the lists completed as much as you can, compare the "love to have" lists and the "love not to have" and rank each item from most important to least important.

You should already know your price range because of your pre-approval--if a REALTOR® showed you fifty houses and you aren't pre-approved, ask him if he wants to buy the bridge that you are selling because you are dealing with a sucker--so you have a general starting point price wise. Add your top three "love to have" items to your price range along with your top three "love not to have" items and you are halfway home.

Ask your REALTOR® to develop a new list of homes that are out there right now that fit your criteria. Take some time, look it over and figure out what is appealing to you. You will start seeing a trend in the ones that catch your eye---because you have consciously attached some real emotion to the process.

From here, I think you got it figured out.

Remember this: We love to purchase things because of the emotion we attach to them. We will not buy anything of significance because of pure logic and price. The more preparation we do, the less time we waste. The less time we waste, the less stressful the experience is and the faster we get to where we want to be.

I wish you the best!

There was a time that staying in touch with all of your friends, colleagues, associates and business contacts were virtually impossible. It would simply take too much time to connect on a consistent enough basis to hold onto all of those relationships. The days of that being a problem are over.

This really isn't breaking news to anyone but here in 2011 the technology that is available to us solves that old "I don't have enough time to connect with you" problem. The two major players in the social media landscape, Facebook and Twitter, provide more then enough muscle to carry that burden for us.

Half of the battle of maintaining relationships and communicating is about speaking the language of the times. Whether we like it or not, the language that is being used today has a firm root in technology and is seen sprouting in social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. They have replaced the "water cooler" as the place to get the inside scoop on whatever we want to know. You want an answer to that question you have? Post it on Facebook, you'll have ten in minutes. Want opinions on the latest whatever? BAM...you have twenty. Want to reconnect with someone you haven't seen in years? One minute, one message and WHAM consider it done.

To be clear-I am not trying to imply that we replace old fashioned communications and relationships completely with the use of social media. Nothing can replace authentic one on one interaction, however, if we use it only as one form of our communications, we will be helping ourselves dramatically.

The world we live in is a rapidly changing place and if we aren't adapting to it and improving our relationships and our ability to connect with others, we are falling behind. There is no "holding steady" anymore. Is it different then before? Yes!!! Different isn't always a bad thing though. Used wisely, today's technology can take us to places we used to only dream about. That's what we really want, isn't it?