Archive for June, 2008
Is it Like Buttah? - How Agents Set the Tone for Smooth Closings
June 26th, 2008 categories: Real Estate Industry
I’ve been involved in sales that have gone smoothly (like buttah) and others that were the real estate equivalent of Rocky Road ice cream. Without exception, it was an agent(s) who made it difficult- either through poor interpersonal skills, lack of experience, inability to explain things to the clients or a serious. And once or twice, I made the sale harder myself (now I’ve seen the light, though).
Sure, clients can be difficult and circumstances can be tough, but good agents who keep their cool can work through just about anything.
Lately I’ve been thinking about how real estate agents interact with each other and how our relationships with each other affect our clients.
I started thinking about this after I had an “incident” with another agent over the phone where the agent banned me from seeing any of his listings. Seriously. And here’s what I did to deserve this: I called his office to let him know that his office hadn’t called to confirm an appointment to show one of his listings until the actual appointment time, leaving me no choice but to miss the appointment. I thought he’d like to know.
Although I explained to him that it wasn’t a big deal - I just wanted him to know - he got really mad and told me I should have my phone repaired and claimed I had called him a liar. Since the only call that had been recorded “incorrectly” was his, I told him that I didn’t think my phone was broken.
Ultimately, the listing agent got so mad that he told me to “never, ever show one of (his) listings ever again.”
How did this serve our clients? Not well, of course. The listing agent, whose job it is to get other agents INSIDE his listings, risked offending me so badly that I would never bring clients to see his listings and that doesn’t benefit his clients.
My clients may have been represented by an agent who was easily offended and not up to the challenge of dealing with an emotionally disturbed individual.
In either case, our clients may have suffered. For what?
Ultimately, I took my clients to see the house but they were not interested. Had they been interested, I’m sure the sale would have been one that would go down in the record books for “worst-all-time-experience,” not only for me but mostly for our clients.
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My Favorite Five Things About Living in Connecticut - #5
June 24th, 2008 categories: Central Connecticut News & Information
Sometimes I focus on the negative. So, for this series I wanted to tell you all about the things I love most about Connecticut and why I’ve lived here for 34 years. Stay tuned for the entire series but here’s #5.
#5 Location, Location, Location
It’s no secret that real estate value is all in the location. So it shouldn’t shock you to know that one of my favorite things about living in Connecticut is our location.
You’ll hear people from Connecticut say that we’re “two hours from New York and Boston,” and that’s the truth. By car or rail, you can reach either of these cities easily. Each city has something different to offer and you’ll never get bored discovering either one.
But we aren’t only close to New York and Boston; we’re also close to beaches (real ones like those in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Long Island), the Berkshires and skiing in northern New England to name a few. I’ll also mention a few other places you can easily reach while living in Connecticut: Northampton, Mass and Newport, RI.
And there are many places worth visiting within the borders of Connecticut - my favorites include Mystic, the Litchfield Hills, the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, one of many state parks such as Talcott Mountain, the town of Chester, Goodspeed Opera House…
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Short Sales Are Anything But Short
June 20th, 2008 categories: Home Buyers
One of my clients asked me the best question yesterday:
“Why are they (short sales) called short sales when it takes forever to buy them? They’re anything but short.”
I explained that the term “short sale” referred not to length of time it takes to buy the home, but to the fact that the seller owes a bank more money than they can hope to sell it for. Therefore, the seller is “short” what they owe the bank and the bank must approve the sale.
A short sale takes longer than a regular sale between two parties because there are actually three parties involved: the buyer; the seller; and the bank. The seller must agree to an offer but so must the bank and this is what takes a longer time - adding anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months to the transaction time.
And, the transaction can be drawn out even longer if the seller isn’t working with a short sale specialist, isn’t responsive to the bank or the bank doesn’t approve the offer and the buyer wants to negotiate.
For more on short sales:
Short Sale - What Home Buyers Should Know
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Low-cost Pet Microchipping Event in West Hartford - June 26th, 2008
June 19th, 2008 categories: Pets & People
Our Companions Domestic Animal Sanctuary and Planet Bark in West Hartford are hosting a special low-cost microchipping event on June 26th. Normally about $45, microchipping at this event will cost only $25.
For more details, click here.
Why should you microchip? If your pets are anything like mine, they escape every now and again.
There was the one time I chased my dog Willy through West Hartford Center waving a piece of turkey and calling to him in my happiest voice.
And Obie escapes his pet fence so regularly the neighbors have me on speed dial. “Hi. I just spotted your dog in my yard. Come and get him.”
The experience that has stayed with me the most involved the dog I had as a young girl,Eric, a German Shepherd. Eric was a wanderer - he liked to escape his fenced in area and roam the neighborhood. One day, he didn’t come back.
While he was gone, I prayed every night for his return and my Dad drove around for weeks. My mother called every dog pound in the area but no one claimed to have seen him. We thought he was gone forever.
Several months after his disappearance, my father drove by a house he had driven by hundreds of times before. This time, however, there was a German Shepherd out front. My father decided to pull over and called Eric’s name. The dog perked his ears up and started to wag his tail. And if you know German Shepherds at all, you know they’re not likely to do this with a stranger.
It turns out that Eric was picked up by an animal control officer in a neighboring town who sold my dog to his friend. This friend had Eric for months, always keeping him in the back yard. That day, the day my dad happened to drive by, the friend was packing up to move to Maine. For some reason, he decided to put the dog out front on his last day in Connecticut.
My father took Eric home that day and we made sure he never escaped again. He slept on my little twin bed with me every night for the rest of his life and I am so thankful he was returned.
I firmly believe that it was divine intervention that made my father drive by that house, that day and that made the man tie Eric to the tree in his front yard.
Eric was essentially stolen so microchipping probably wouldn’t have helped return him. But if you have pets and want to help ensure they are returned to you, think about microchipping.
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Connecticut is Tops In Gas Prices and Electric Rates But Not in Schools?
June 16th, 2008 categories: Central Connecticut News & Information
Here is a look at some surprising statistics about life in Connecticut and how we compare to other states. Just how do we stack up?
Gas Prices - #3, behind Alaska and California
Electricity Rates - #2, behind Hawaii and almost double the national average
Cigarette Tax - #4
State and Local Tax Burden - #8 but jumps to #1 when federal taxes are added
Connecticut does have the highest per capita income at $54,117 in 2007.
The numbers on education surprised me the most. I was under the impression that Connecticut had some of the best schools in the nation…
Academic achievement - according to the America Legislative Exchange Council’s annual 2007 Report Card on American Education, Connecticut ranked #18 among the 50 states.
Expenditures per pupil - Connecticut did however rank 4th in and 6th in average teacher salary.
A few of our public high schools do appear in Newsweek’s annual list of the top high schools. Out of 1300 public high schools, Farmington High School ranked #162, Weston #232, Conard High in West Hartford #420 and Staples in Westport #423.
And just for fun, the towns of Cheshire, Torrington and Greenwich were ranked among the top 100 communities that support music education by the NAMM Foundation.
We are the 11th healthiest state. And according to Child Magazine, we rank #8 among the ten best states to have a baby.
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