True, I'm working on things that will bring more business in and that takes time, but the fact remains that I'm on pace to do many fewer transactions this year than I have in years past. Part of it might be that I'm spending more time fighting with underwriters on the transactions that I do have, but even that doesn't account for the fact that my office is a pit!
I need to clean it up. Looking up at my "deal board" I should have all the time in the world, but I don't. As mentioned above, some of that time has been spent redoing my web site and blogging here on AR, but that doesn't equal the time I spent working on transactions in the past. Am I just a slob?
Well, yeah, I am a slob...it's in my nature, but when I was busier I still managed to keep my office cleaner than it is now. Is there some mathematical formula that I'm not aware of that results in less business, but a dirtier office? Maybe it's easier to get distracted? I don't know?
Hmmm, I guess that I have a choice here. I could wax poetic about the in's and out's of keeping a clean office or I could cut this blog short and break out the pail and mop....or I could go shooting with my son who is visiting from college......
R.B. "Bob" Mitchell
ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.
P.S. I'll post the pics from the gun range tomorrow! ;0)
Until a couple of years ago, my largest loan to date was a direct referral from the second smallest loan that I had ever done. The small loan was an older guy who was buying a small home to live in after his wife had passed away. He wanted to be close to his kids and his kids lived in a lesser expensive part of town. After his down payment, he only needed $24,000 to complete his purchase.
The funny thing about that loan was that it was a referral from another loan officer in my office that had a "minimum" loan amount that he would do. His reasoning was that these smaller loans cost him money because they usually ended up taking more time than they were worth.
I at the time was pretty new to the business and was happy to get a deal...even if it was a hand me down. So, when the other loan office tossed me the bone, I ran after it. The transaction went very smoothly and while I didn't make a bunch of money on it, it was a deal and I was happy.
A couple of months later I got a call from a guy who told me that his brother had used me to finance his home purchase and he wanted to know if I would be able to help him. He only wanted to put 5% down on a $720,000 purchase. While I know that a $684,000 loan doesn't impress a lot of you California loan officers, but here in ole St. Lou back in the mid 80's it was a big deal!
After setting the appointment I asked the guy who his brother was and sure enough, it was the guy who I had done the $24,000 loan for!
I learned an important lesson that day. Every client is worth while. Even if it turns out that you can't do the deal for them right them or if there isn't a lot of money to be made on the transaction, you never know who that person will be able to refer to you or how long they will stick with you!
What made me think of this topic was the fact that I just closed on a relatively small purchase where the borrower is a laborer and the wife a receptionist. While neither of them makes a ton of money, they didn't have a bunch of debt service, they had a sizable amount for a down payment and excellent credit. No, I didn't make a ton of money on the deal, but hey, it was enough to bother cashing the check, if you know what I mean?
Will this young couple refer me a great big deal? I don't know. Maybe they will and maybe they won't. Maybe their referral might be the deadbeat brother in law, but whoever it is, you can bet that I'll take as good of care of them as I possibly can. Not because of the if come that they might be able to refer me to one of those big fish, but rather because it's the right thing to do!
R.B. "Bob" Mitchell
ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.
Bob Mitchell is president of ValueList Real Estate Services, St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. If you would like to find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program, please feel free to visit our web site at valuelistre.com
As many of us in the business, I have a "favorite" service provider with just about all of the various services that are ancillary to the real estate world. I have "My" guy who does my home inspections and "my" appraiser, etc. When it comes to title services, I have Stephanie Forsythe with Commonwealth/Land America Title here in St. Louis.
Stephanie has been my title lady for a number of years now. When Capital Title crashed and burned, she moved across the parking lot to Commonwealth and I followed her. Over the years I don't know that I could have asked for a better closer. Between her and her processor, Jennel Anders they have always taken very good care of my clients and I.
The reason that I'm writing this post about Stephanie today is that last week I cheated on her. I closed a deal at another title company that is located here in St. Louis. While Stephanie and I have always had an open relationship when I was closing a deal on the road...ie out of the St. Louis market, I have always been very loyal to her while I was here in St. Louis.
Well, that changed when I wrote a contract on a home that had been foreclosed upon. The REO company insisted that I close at their title company and to offer an incentive, they offered to pay for my client's title policy. I was weak! I took them up on their offer and now that the deal is closed, I am truly sorry that I wasn't faithful!
True, my client saved a few hundred dollars, but the service that we received was terrible! Whereas Stephanie answers her phone almost every single time that I call her and returns calls promptly if she is in a closing or otherwise unavailable, this lady didn't seem to understand the concept that when I called her that it was because I needed something.
On this particular transaction we were set for a long closing and had plenty of time to get things done. I'm the kind of loan officer and real estate agent that prefers to get things done now as opposed to letting them sit. In my experience, the longer a file sits there unattended the greater the chance that something will go wrong with it! This being the case, I wanted my title work back so that I could submit a complete loan packet (I HATE piece mealing a file!). I knew that we still had 4 weeks until closing, but that wasn't the point. They had the file for over 2 weeks at this point and everything else was in the file, ready to go!
You would have thought that I was asking for the world! After fighting with this title company's closer for over a week, they finally got my title policy back to me (a total of three weeks!).
Long story short, the rest of the file went this way too. Including getting the HUD one pulled together. My investor had the docs to them 4 days in advance. All I wanted was to have the HUD one together for my client (a first time home buyer and nervous nelly) a day or two before the closing. As it turned out, she didn't pick up the file until the day of closing and my client still didn't have their final numbers until less than an hour before closing!
To make matters worse, the closer didn't fax the closing conditions to my investor until the next morning, delaying the disbursement and technically putting us out of contract. I honestly feel that if I hadn't gone back over to the title company and camped out in their lobby that it wouldn't have disbursed that day either! It was obvious that the closer didn't care!
So, Stephanie...baby doll....sweetheart...love of my life....will you take me back? Pretty please! I promise never to stray again! PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE!
R.B. "Bob" Mitchell
ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.
Bob Mitchell is president of ValueList Real Estate Services, St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. If you would like to find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program, please feel free to visit our web site at valuelistre.com
If you haven't stumbled across Kevin Bungert and his blog yet, please take a moment to check him out. He's
been writing a series of posts on his coaching and life philosophies that I have throughly enjoyed. He really seems to have a grasp on what it takes to not only be a successful real estate person, but a successful person, period!
The other day he wrote a post called, "The Most Important Thing In Life Is Your Health" which makes a compelling argument that no matter what your other gifts are, that taking care of your body is the single most important thing that you can do in order to be happy and successful. Having recently suffered a health setback in the form of an unexpected injury (I torn my right rotator cuff), I've been doing a lot of thinking on the subject of both health and being happy.
I wish that I had a better story to tell about how I torn that rotator cuff, but I don't. I didn't get into a bar fight or crash my motorcycle, I simply raised my arm and it torn. This injury was the last in a series of insults that my body has been throwing at me. Such as, after having a life time of excellent eye sight, all of a sudden I needed glasses. Then I fell sober out of a bar. No good reason, I was just a klutz and fell and broke my right leg. Then as I was healing from that, I got a stone bruise in my left foot.
When my foot didn't get better, I went to see my doctor and he told me that I had plantar fasciitis which is basically a stone bruise that doesn't go away. If you've ever had it, it sucks! When I asked my doctor why I got it, he told me that it's just one of those things that happen when you get older. The fact that I'm bigger and I've ran quite a bit, probably didn't help things out much.
Then I torn that damn rotator cuff for no apparent reason. It just popped! To say that I started feeling old was an understatement! Here I was, after years of working out, going blind, getting clumsy, hurting for no apparent reason and hurting myself by doing almost nothing! I fell into a kind of funk over it all.
I guess that maybe it was the start of a mid-life crises of some sorts. My business was having trouble, the market sucked, my kids didn't need me as much and it had become readily apparent that I was getting older. Being as I couldn't afford to go out and buy myself a Vette, I decided to meditate my way out of this funk.
I thought back to some of the things that I have read over the years including a story that I had read somewhere. I guess that it's kind of a fable, but it helped me to put things in perspective and it illustrates why, as I pointed out in my comments on Kevin's posting, I think that being responsible for your own happiness is really the single most important thing in your life.
The Monk And The Tigers
One day a monk was walking along a path when he noticed that he wasn't alone. In the woods near him he saw a large tiger that was following him. He became fearful and attempted to run away from the tiger.
As he ran down the path as fast as he could, he didn't see that the path turned and he tumbled over the edge of a cliff. As he slid down the slide of the cliff he was able to grab hold of a small tree that was growing out of the side of the cliff. Soon, the tree started to pull away from the cliff under his body weight.
This is when he noticed the second tiger waiting for him at the bottom of the cliff. If he fell, it would be to a certain death.
He thought about attempting to climb back up the cliff, when he saw that the first tiger was looking down on him from above. There would be no escape by climbing up.
At that particular moment he noticed a large, ripe strawberry that was also growing out of the side of the cliff. He looked up at the first tiger, then down at the second one. He then saw that it would only be another few seconds before the tree that he was holding onto was going to succumb to his body weight.
In those seconds he thought of what the Buddha had taught him. Knowing that there was to be no escape, he reached out and ate the strawberry. He savored it for as long as he could, then he let go. Falling to a certain death.
The monk died with a smile on his face.
The moral of the story is that he took responsibility for his own happiness. Even when faced with certain death, he made what he could out of the situation and enjoyed the sweetness of that strawberry while he could.
I personally am not that enlightened. I might have eaten the strawberry...probably would have.....but then I would have done my best to kick some tiger ass. Maybe it's the American in me, but I would have gone down fighting!
But that doesn't change the moral of the story......No matter what your situation is. If you're business isn't going as well as you would have hoped or maybe you're like me and your body seems to be falling apart, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because happiness isn't something that comes from the outside. It's something that comes from inside of you and if you're taken personal responsibility for your happiness, no matter what the world throws at you, then at least when it comes your time, like the monk in the story, you'll die with a smile upon your face.
R.B. "Bob" Mitchell
ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.
P.S. I don't know the origins of the story of the monk and the tigers, if anybody does know, could you please let me know.
Bob Mitchell is president of ValueList Real Estate Services, St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. If you would like to find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program, please feel free to visit our web site at valuelistre.com
I recently listed a two family at 3514 Connecticut that is a great property! As it is, it is a working 2 family
with a 1400 sq. ft 2 bedroom lower unit and a 1400 square foot 3 bedroom upper unit. The lower unit, which needs some sprucing up (paint and some updating) is rented to long term tenants and the upper unit is vacant.
With both units rented, this building can generate over $1500 a month in rents or it would be a great home for somebody who wanted to owner-occupy one of the units and rent the other.
To me though, the highest and best use of the property would be as a large single family home. If you look at comparable properties that have sold in this neighborhood, 2800 square feet homes are bringing up toward $240,000! My guesstimate would be that it would take about $40,000 to rehab and convert this property. At $159,900 that leaves almost $40,000 in sweat equity! Somebody handy could do it for a lot less!
If you're not familiar with the Grand South Grand area, it is one of the most unique neighborhoods in St. Louis. Featuring a wide variety of restaurants and shops and a close proximity to Tower Grove Park, Grand South Grand is very simply a cool place to hang out in and even a cooler place to live!
2800 square feet of space, great neighborhood, tons of woodwork and charm and the possibility of somebody else helping to make your house payment! What's not to love about this property?
For additional information about 3514 Connecticut, please feel free to visit our web site valuelistre.com or click on the link. If you would like to schedule a showing of the property, please feel free to call me
R.B. "Bob" Mitchell
ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.
Bob Mitchell is president of ValueList Real Estate Services, St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. If you would like to find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program, please feel free to visit our web site at valuelistre.com
ValueList, St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. Our "flat-fee" listing can save you thousands on your real estate commissions. Wide range of mortgage products!
Thanks for visiting our profile here on Activerain. I'm Bob Mitchell, president & founder of ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc., St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company and I'd like to tell you a bit more about us.
ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc., was born at Cardwell's Bar in Clayton Missouri in 1994. At the time I was Vice-President of Clayton Mortgage Associates. Bill Beezley, who is president of Clayton Mortgage Associates, and I had stopped in for an after work cocktail. While there we met a mutual acquaintance who broached the subject of what would happen to a certain large St. Louis real estate company if somebody were to form a discount real estate company? His belief was that the larger company would implode into itself & be forced out of business.
At this point, our conversation was simply bar talk, but a seed of inspiration was planted in my mind. It was one of those moments where a light bulb went on. While the guy at the bar was not serious about forming such a company, the idea, with some modifications, was exploding in my head. That night I went home and couldn't sleep. All night long I was doing math on my bedroom ceiling. It seemed to me that if you took the vindictive nature out of the guy's idea & replaced it with a more positive approach to selling St. Louis real estate that it should be able to work!
In order to better explain why this idea had such appeal to me, allow me to provide some additional background. At Clayton Mortgage it was my responsibility whenever a transaction ran into difficulty to figure out what was wrong & to fix it. In that position I came to realize that more often than not, the root of most of the problems that these transactions were having laid at the foot of one of the real estate agents involved in the transaction. It dawned on me that real estate is the only 'profession' where you can go to school for three weeks, take a test and then call yourself a 'professional'. In other words, if you're too ill-tempered, ill-mannered & irresponsible to hold down a job anywhere else, you can always gravitate towards real estate. That's not to say that there aren't good St. Louis real estate agents out there who do a fine job, but the field definitely has too many people who simply don't know what they are doing.
Two other things that I noticed were: That after I fixed whatever problem the transaction had & the deal closed these same agents were collecting pretty good-sized commission checks. Secondly that the size of these checks wasn't commensurate with the amount of work that went into the transaction. Why was the commission for selling a $200,000 home twice what the commission for selling a $100,000 home was? Selling the $200,000.00 home usually wasn't any harder than selling the $100,000 home. As a matter of fact, it usually required less work.
So, these were some of the thoughts that were running through my head that night. Why was real estate sales structured the way that it was? Why did that certain large St. Louis real estate company have so many agents & so many offices? What were the economics of St. Louis real estate sales? What were the current cost structures of St. Louis real estate sales? Where were the inefficiencies? Where could St. Louis real estate sales be improved?
My conclusions, which I came to after several months of investigation, were that, not only could St. Louis real estate sales be done better but that they could be done at much less expense to the home-seller. With these conclusions in mind I decided to form ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.
ValueList incorporated in November of 1995 & opened our doors shortly thereafter. ValueList is built around the concept of the flat-fee listing arrangement. The Flat-fee listing differs from a conventional listing where the home seller pays the real estate company a percentage commission (generally in the 6 ' 7 percent range). In the ValueList flat-fee listing the home seller only pays ValueList a flat-fee for the listing side of the real estate sales commission. If another agency sells the home, then the home seller pays that agency what would normally be the 'selling side' of the commission (generally around 2.7 - 3%).
Comparing the ValueList Flat-fee commission structure to a conventional Saint Louis real estate percentage commission structure, ValueList generally comes out to be around 35 to 55 percent less expensive.
Now in the event where the real estate company both lists & sells the property (an event that happens relatively infrequently) a conventional company would still charge the agreed to percentage. That is, even if the conventional real estate company doesn't have to split the commission with a cooperating agency, they still charge the home seller the full 6 to 7 percent. With the ValueList Flat-fee commission structure, ValueList only charges the flat-fee for the listing side of the transaction and a 'sales commission' equal to the listing fee. In this scenario ValueList is an even better deal!
One of the biggest questions that we receive at this point is, 'How can you guys be so much less expensive than your competition?' The answer to that question is related to the economics of the Saint Louis real estate market. First of all, historically the key to Saint Louis real estate sales has been the key to the home. Literally! It used to be that in order to sell a home a Saint Louis real estate agency had to be close enough to the home where an agent from another company could stop by the office and pick up the key in order to show the home to their client. That fact led to the development of the neighborhood real estate office. As time went on many successful real estate companies opened or purchased real estate offices in individual areas leading to some companies having as many as 39 real estate offices to service the St. Louis market. Quite frankly, with the advent of the computer, fax machines and computerized lock boxes, the idea of having all of these expensively decorated offices with managers earning hundred's of thousands of dollars a year is antiquated. Somebody has to pay for all of that overhead and guess what? That somebody is the home seller! 
By keeping our overhead low we don't have to charge as much as other Saint Louis real estate companies. The other economic advantage that ValueList has is that we combine real estate services. In essence, ValueList utilizes the flat-fee listing arrangement as a 'loss-leader'. Very similar to when you go to a grocery store and they have eggs on sale. You know that they aren't making a whole bunch on the eggs, but the store is banking on the fact that while you are in the store to buy the eggs, that you will also pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk! Well, with ValueList it's a similar concept. If you are selling a home, chances are that you will also be buying a home. ValueList will be glad to work with you in finding it.
When you find it, will you need a mortgage?
You will?
Have I mentioned that ValueList is also a full service VA approved mortgage lender? By combining real estate services, ValueList doesn't have to charge as much as our competition.
Now the next question that people often ask is, 'Alright, you're less expensive, but are you as good?'
This is an excellent question and the answer is, "No. We're better!'
This is true for several reasons. First, by combining real estate services it gives us more control of the transaction. We don't have to 'hand the ball off' to any other company. When we work with a buyer we control all aspects of the transaction. ValueList originates and processes the loan application for the buyer.
Secondly, having the background and ability to do mortgages gives us a level of technical competence superior to that of most, if not all, conventional Saint Louis real estate agents. Think of it this way, if you liken a real estate agent to being a general practitioner and a mortgage banker to being a heart surgeon, the heart surgeon could remove your ingrown toenail, but would you feel comfortable with a general practitioner performing open-heart surgery on you?
In the event where ValueList has a home listed and another agency sells it and uses a different lender, ValueList has the technical competence to hold that lender's feet to the fire. If they balk or hesitate for any reason, ValueList has the ability to ask the hard questions with the inside knowledge of how the mortgage banking business works. In many cases, if the lender still balks or hesitates, ValueList has the ability to take the loan process over and close the transaction. Very few other real estate agencies, no matter how big, can make this claim!
So, back to the story, since 1995 ValueList has grown to be the largest company of our kind in the St. Louis market. This is easy to say because we are the only company of our kind in the St. Louis market! While there are a couple of other discount real estate companies out there, none of them are 'full-service' companies. Most of the other discount real estate companies are based on a 'help you to sell' sort of model. That is, you show your own property (which puts you at a distinct disadvantage in selling your home), you field your own telephone calls and set your own appointments and in the event that you do sell your home, you are basically on your own in taking care of the details and getting the transaction to the closing table
ValueList is a full-service company. We do everything that a conventional St. Louis real estate company does including placing your home on the multiple listing service, placing and maintaining the yard sign, ValueList fields all telephone inquiries regarding your property, ValueList sets all appointments, helps you to negotiate all offers and once we have an accepted contract, ValueList takes care of all of the details required to get your transaction to closing! In short, ValueList IS a full service company! Also, the ValueList 'flat-fee' is a commission. It is paid at closing, there is nothing paid up front! If ValueList doesn't produce, ValueList doesn't get paid!
So this pretty much brings us up to date on the ValueList story. Thank you for taking the time to read it! If you have any questions or if any of the dedicated, ValueList real estate professionals can be of service in any manner, please do not hesitate to call us or to drop us a line. We very much look forward to serving all of your real estate and mortgage needs
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St. Louis real estate is what ValueList Real Estate Services does. Since 1995, ValueList Real Estate services has been serving the St. Louis real estate market with the very best in discount real estate and mortgage services.
ValueList is the only full-service/discount real estate and mortgage company serving the St. Louis real estate market. By only charging a flat-fee for the listing side of the real estate commission, ValueList Real Estate Services can save the home seller thousands of dollars on their real estate commissions. At the same time, ValueList is a full-service Realtor!
ValueList also serves the St. Louis real estate market by providing a wide range of mortgage products from first time buyer programs to credit rebuilder programs. If you're looking for a mortgage company in St. Louis, ValueList will give you an honest, straightforward quote and will also provide the very best in mortgage services in the St. Louis real estate market!
If you're looking to buy a home in St. Louis or to relocate to St. Louis, ValueList also offers full-service buyer's agency. Our web site, www.valueliste.com offers a wealth of tools and articles on all aspects of buying, selling or financing a home in the St. Louis real estate market. Feel free to visit it or to give us a call!
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Bob Mitchell and ValueList did an excellent job of finding me a home, financing it and eventually selling it. I liked him so much that I've been dating him for almost two years!
Kathy Lee
St. Louis
I liked ValueList so much that I referred Bob to my sister.....they've been going out ever since!
Brenda Lee
High Ridge, Missouri
Yeah, the above are true, but they go to show you how much stock you should put into reading testimonials on a webpage! Apparently there were movie reviewers in Utah who thought that "Open Water" was a great flick too.
Bob Mitchell
St. Louis
Other Blogs and Commentaries By R. B. "Bob" Mitchell
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