The Neighborhood

Tips to Sell Your House

Today's video series is about the Psychology of Your Buyer.

Check it out:

It's all about marketing your house.  So rule #1 is think like a buyer, not like a seller.

It's all about selling to the 5 senses, and invoking the sights, sounds, and smells of your home.

Make sure your house smells good, sounds good, and looks great.  Make sure the TV is on, and put the channel on ESPN, for the male buyer. In the kitchen, leave a fresh bouquet of flowers on the counter for the female buyer.

This may sound simple, but buyers are just humans.  You need to appeal to their senses, and when you do, they'll feel good about being in your home, and they will see it as their home. 

Check out the video!

Real Estate Nation

This is what we like to see.  A UHaul parked in front of one of our homes moving someone out, and moving another one in.  This estate was sold in the gorgeous private community of Tour 18. 

Welcome Harrison!

On a recent trip to London, I had the chance to check out the property and see that there are deals to be had everywhere.  If you're buying in the UK, home prices are lower than ever, just as they are in the United States. Now more than ever I have the global buyers checking out the homes on the web before they relocate, and the real estate market has become a lot more global.

What does this mean? It means that strong Realtors who want to thrive in 2009 and beyond will have to shift their focus from the "small town" approach, to the "big world" approach.

The world has changed, and so have families, systems, and companies. Remember when families had Sunday dinner together, decades ago? Remember when it was all about the Grandparents and visiting with cousins and siblings? Today it is harder to have those regular Sunday dinners because families are fragmented.  They are all over the place, and siblings are spread halfway across the world.  It's not uncommon for Grandparents to see their kids a few times a year, rather than a few times a week.Our world has become much more global.

Today we advertise on multiple global portals on the net.  It's the way to promote houses.  And luckily the entire world is interested in real estate.  There are shows about it, segments on HGTV about it and websites and blogs about it. One entertaining website chronicles the real estate of various celebrities in a humorous way.

http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2008/01/jeanna-keough-selling-off-shanes-condo.html

People always ask me - Is real estate still a good investment?  My wife and I have bought investment property and will continue to.  So in short, depending on where you buy, of course it is! Just follow Warren Buffet's Philosophy to buy low...and sell high.

Family

In Seth Godin's Blog, he mentions a great idea.  If you've never read any of his books, Tribes is about building your network or "tribe" in life.
I like how the idea applies to your family, friends, and loved ones.  How your closest network and team can support one another and help us build our lives in a wonderful way. Kind of like the Italians do, with generations respecting the elders and some older generation of families living, working, and cooking together.

In Seth's current blog, he talks about selling houses.  A topic near and dear to my heart.

We got another contract on a Tour 18 home this week, and it has been a looooong process of renovation and preparation for sale on this particular house. This was an unloved house that we have loved a lot, in order to get it ready for it's new owner.  Here's what Godin writes:

"If you want to sell a new house, why not offer prospective buyers help in selling their old houses? Send your idle crews to their house to paint it or do other important cosmetic fixes. Fill the old house you use in your models ect.  (If you're a builder)

Take it a step further.  If your home building service is totally slack, why not get to work upgrading and selling older homes, or even foreclosed ones?"

There's a lot of wisdome in that. Selling a house is about finding seven different soloutions for a home buyer.  I never look at it just as one thing - getting them into one of my listings.  It's about helping them through the sale of the old house, helping them navigate financing, getting my hands dirty in the garden, yard, or garage if I need to.

Sometimes it is about connecting people together, or being a positive word in someone's life.  In all of it, there's a planm and it's never about money.  A house is a home, a new neighbor and all of the things that life brings.

A Home for Goldie?

So my wife Tammy and I do what we can to help the homeless, because it is strong on her heart.  Although I'm in the business of selling houses, there are a lot of people who have no houses at all, and I know we are in a position to help them.

The homeless population in Dallas is huge, and each and every Sunday morning my wife goes down with Ron Veit, the counselor at Argyle Intermediate School, and a handful of other good friends and serves about 300 homeless people at a Sunday morning gathering called SOUL ministries. During the morning a hot meal is served, and Tammy enjoys talking to the people there and helping deliver whatever word it is that might lead to a small change in their lives.

During the week she hosts a writers' workshop for those who are writing through their emotional challenges or working on books.  We buy writing journals for them during the week and when I sell a house we set aside money for the homeless ministry.  All that's good.  But...lately she's been taking things a bit too far.

One Sunday she came home from the parking lot downtown with a little golden puppy.

"What's that?" I asked.
"It's a dog," she said.  "We're babysitting.  My friend has to go to work and he can't with the dog! They sleep under a bridge together."

Sure.... I thought.  That kind of story is how we ended up with our first dog.  Well, a  week went by and then Goldie went home.  (Yay!) But then another week went by , and Goldie is back.  She's taken up her own space in the backyard, and seems to have become friends with our black lab, Nicky.

Goldie is a great dog. Quiet, wonderful, doesn't bark.
Would be a great pet for anyone.

Have I sold you on her yet? If your in the market to rescue a homeless dog...... Email me today! I will send you a picture of her....

Even a Blind Squirrel Finds a Nut Once in Awhile

As the economists and pundits say, no one is buying houses. So the saying above might seem to be applicable to the house closing we had this week. (Sold it in only 5 months!)

 

Instead of thinking of myself as a blind squirrel, I'd prefer to look at statistics. I've sold the most homes in the hood we live in for 7 years in a row because I work hard.

Not because I'm any smarter, perhaps, but because I work to show the homes day, night, weekends, and market them in countries across the globe.

 

I'd also prefer to think that it's not as bad as we are hearing and the housing market is about to pick up. In the plus one million $ housing market, houses are moving. Finally. There are challenges, of course, but this is a level of housing that will always be a bit stronger than others, in good times and bad. Some homes will take months to sell and some years. There are specific trends people are in search of these days, and the best job I can do is to educate the buyers why they should buy one of my homes. I work tirelessly at this, and also work at educating my partners - the high end Realtors in our area, who sell homes in Southlake, Plano, and other parts of the Dallas area.

 

Check it out.

Deconstructing and Reconstructing - It's a brand new year

In 2008, this lovely home in the photos needed life.  It had been through a lot.  I walked the corridors of this expansive estate, describing the vision that I had for infusing life into it with an investor.

He bought the place and the journey to find the hear and soul of the home, and bring it back to life began!  What does every great home need?  Love, a great current makeover, and the energy and feel of a life well lived.  This is what a home is, after all.

A house is a lot more than just brick and mortar and beams and drywall.  Your house and mine, is something more personal.  It's where we laugh and cry, where we build dreams, raise kids, and experience the peaks and valleys of life. 4604 Tour 18 Drive needed a makeover and we set about the task of building it up room by room.  Changing the walls, the kitchen cabinets, and the flooring.  Even though it was a newer home like most of the other in this neighborhood, the home needed a new eye.  A new lover who could see its inner beauty and showcase it.  There were multiple floorings, which made it seem choppy and well, just kind of incomplete.

The new buyer got the house for a great price - (he'll make over $300K on this investment when it sells, better than any market investment property right now!) and he committed to investing nice wood floors and simplifying what appeals to the eye.  He gave it fresh walls, neutral paint, and a stunning backyard with a new arbor. It's a gorgeous home with a hear now.  And the renovation that took several months is now complete. Consulting an investor on how to bring the house up to the standards of this great neighborhood is my specialty.

As I placed the sin in the ground on a crisp day and pushed it into the dirt, I looked up the hill at the magnificent house.  I'll find it a buyer, just the right one.  Across the street, and down the street, there are other gorgeous homes, awaiting the high end buyers we will search out in 2009.  We'll place ads in high end magazines, online and on international portals.  It's a new year, and time for New optimism.  Real Estate is still one of the best investments in the world.

Happy New Year!

As the New Year rushes in, my luxury homeowners ask, where will buyers come from?

I specialize in high-end luxury homes, and with that comes a big responsibility to always think of creative ways to sell them. If there's one thing I have learned throughout these past seven years, it's that there's a huge difference between selling an estate and selling

a normal home. Our buyers are unique, because we catch them in their own homes, overseas or in the states, by selling homes through international websites. This is something very few real estate agents do.

 One example of this is a couple who saw our listing on an international website, and flew in from China and bought the house, furniture and all! He said that the numbers on the website of the price of the home, in China, were lucky, because it involved the numbers 3 and 9, considered numbers of strength  and blessing and good fortune.

 I began my real estate career working at a country real estate office in Argyle, called the Real Estate Station. Although the owner was a wonderful friend of mine, and she taught me the ropes, I quickly grew away from the country office and into a large National office,

Keller Williams. There is a major difference in the way you sell and market country ranches and homes, and the way you sell luxury properties. I specialize in homes in the 800K-$5 million range, and the buyer base is different.

 At my old real estate office, not one agent showed my listings in the high end neighborhood where I lived. That's because of the country location, and the surrounding homes their agents were focusing on.

 In this ever changing real estate market, finding high end buyers is key. One way we do it is to target International buyers, and to target athletes and executives at higher levels. We use the internet to farm for buyers and work closely with other real estate agents who sell high end homes in Plano, Southlake, and even Dallas. Where will our buyers come from in 2009?

 When the market turns, we will tap into our buyer database and bring them back. Like every cyclical time throughout the course of history, things will improve, as conditions rise and fall.

 Blessings for the New Year! Check out some of our home listings today..

http://www.obeo.com/Public/Search/AgentSearchResults.aspx?agent=70359

Mrs. O'Leary

Life is a journey and in each decade we seem to reinvent ourselves. That’s the great thing about what you do, and who you are. As my wife would say - why do people identify so much with what they do - versus who they are inside? Our jobs define us. But in the end all that matters is who we are.

 

Nothing else matters.

 

I may have to give her literary credit for that one, as it's from her latest book. But it's true. I'm a real estate professional by trade right now, but before that I was VP of Sales for a major technology company. Before that, a teacher. Before that, a student, and so on.

It's all a process of learning and growing. But who we are, is far more important than the careers that we perform. 

 

I remember those days as a teacher with gladness, because in those days I was reading to kids, and coaching kids. Children are so easy to communicate with, because everything is real. It's a major blessing to be surrounded by them every day. They teach us so much, and challenge us in different ways. Teachers have the power and influence in their positions, to change the life of a child.

We are supporting a dinner delivery program to local teachers to make their lives a little bit easier. Educators give so much time and energy to their kids. For many children a teacher will be a pivotal influencer in their life. I remember visiting my hometown and stopping to see Mrs. O'leary, my 4th grade teacher. She was about 80 when I stopped by her small house, surprising her. But she remembered  me after all those years. And I remembered her. 

 

Thank a teacher today! 

Real Estate 101

Texas is still one of the hottest markets in the nation, and the home varies remain high.  Real estate experts who are working hard, are selling homes.  This is the hottest year I've had, ever/  Summer showings have been a little slow but even that is optimistic because people are traveling, spending money, and spending a lot of quality time with their families.  This is the reason for the summer slowdown.  In fall, we expect a high amount of traffic through the luxury home communities, and plan on some super innovative marketing.  We're using You Tube, and the internet to move homes.  Reaching out globally is working!

Lantana, a great place to live!

Lantana is one of the coolest places on earth. We've been selling homes all over the metroplex and particularly Flower Mound, and Lantana is one of those little gems you find once in awhile - an idyllic city within a city. I can see why Flower Mound was rated one of the best places to live in the nation by Money Magazine. Driving past horse farms, and sleepy country roads, you have to wonder if this is a little slice of heaven. It's a place where most people would want to come to escape, and I cant believe we're lucky enough (blessed) to actually live here. Heres a picture of our latest house for sale right across from a beautiful park, and a pool. We'll lease it to a family or sell it. One of the best features surrounding this neighborhood are miles of natural hiking and biking trails that extend back into the woods. For triathletes, kids, or trail runners like my wife, it's the best.