Posted on July 1, 2007 @ 11:47 am - Written by BawldGuy
Today you’ll be inspired by Rocky, learn how to go from pushing to running, make use of dating tips when preparing for that first client meeting, and find out what’s up with the DOW. All in all, a fairly eclectic group.
Brian Brady at America’s Most Opinionated Mortgage Broker wrote It’s About How Hard You Get Hit And Keep Moving Forward, which gives us a huge dose of heart by none other than Rocky Balboa. You’ll have to forgive Brian, as he’s a Philly boy himself, having grown up there. In my way of thinking Brian brings us universal truth with this one. Brian’s mostly heart himself.
Seth Godin tells us when to stop pushing and start running in Pushing And Running. I saw this principle in use (without knowing what I was seeing of course) with my Dad’s company. He ran with it, posting some astounding numbers for several years. As usual with Seth, this is simple, to the poinnt, and a MUST READ.
Austin Realtor’s Wife gives us How Not To Screw Up… which converts the 10 dating disasters to what Realtors should avoid when meeting clients for the first time. I can tell you from personal experience how I was a ’serial victim’ of #1 when I was dating online before I found my lovely bride. When you can’t identify someone by their picture, and the choice is only between them and one person standing next to them……… 
Max Whitmore gives us his view of what he expects to become a ’super boom’ for the next 3-4 years. Remember, Max’s charts have called every market move since the ’60’s. His recent piece, Dow In Dangerous Territory? is more evidence of his understanding of the big picture. I think you’ll like Max because he goes out of his way to avoid the double-talk and obfuscation most economists use when speaking or writing. He’s one of us. An absolute MUST READ.
“…and remember. The daily Bawldys have approximately 1/365th the value of our annual awards”
Posted on June 20, 2007 @ 10:49 pm - Written by BawldGuy
As a lifetime baseball guy, I realize having my pitcher fill in for my shortstop is a recipe for chaos. I know this because in baseball, someone playing out of position will be found out — and usually sooner rather than later. You can put an infielder in right field, where a ball hasn’t been hit all day. Invariably the ball will find him, and his lack of experience and expertise will cost his team. It can even transform what looks like a sure win into a loss. Mediocre players are kept on the bench for a reason. There are players with expert skills ahead of them.
The same principle applies to investment real estate.
It’s so easy to talk about our team here, and our team there. In fact, before the middle of 2003, when I decided the end was near for San Diego income property, establishing a team in another state wasn’t on the menu. Now? We’re just now in the earliest stage of our third new region. The first task is to establish the local players on our team. As usual, our team’s local agent is the first team member, as without them, we won’t even try to do business in a new region. Local knowledge can’t be faked, and it’s a fool who tries.
Also the norm is the local agent recommending a title company, which is the one he uses — of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be? In Phoenix we were 1 fer two with escrows. Our second choice turned out to be superb. We even assisted, indirectly, in getting her headhunted to the company with whom we preferred she work. She got a raise out of it too.
So I ask the guy in the proposed new region, (name being withheld by my request, along with the area) what escrow he likes. He says, “We don’t use escrows here.” Come again? Yup, seems they just let the agents take care of the contract, get things taken care of in a timely manner, and then close the dang thing. Seriously? He swears he isn’t pulling my leg. I gotta get out more.
One Stop Shops
In all my years, I’ve yet to see a one stop in real estate that did a all-star job in all areas. They say they offer real estate brokerage, mortgage brokerage, property management, and transaction coordination. And they do — just not in an excellent fashion. Even if they’re pretty good at everything, it’s not excellent. And when you’re handling other folks’ money, pretty good just doesn’t cut it.
In the one stop shops, there inevitably is a mixing of responsibilities. Everybody helps everybody else. I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t work that way. I want my lender to have their head in that part of the business all day every day. Same way in spades with professional property managers. They usually don’t have enough time in the day as it is, without having to assist the agent with an open house for Heaven’s sake.
This approach skews the job descriptions. As that happens, you end up with a bunch of happy talking, Kumbaya-singing champions of barely acceptable results. We insist on amazing results — or we make changes.
Merely acceptable results, over time, will bury you as surely as it’ll be over 70˚in Phoenix at noon on July 4th.
Captain Obvious says this is what we want to avoid. Duh
What we create is a modified one stop shop. Instead of having everyone under one roof, every team member is a stand-alone company specializing in one thing, and one thing only. They know their field inside and out. When they say something, we can rely on it, and forget about it. I can’t even begin to tell you how valuable that’s proven to be over time. There’s no confusion or blurring of responsibilities whatsoever. Brown and Brown oversees everything. They all report to us.
And the results are indeed, amazing.
Here’s our Idaho Team
We have one company that coordinates all of our transactions. When Becky calls one of our team lenders, escrow, or property manager, they know she’s speaking for me or Josh. She’s not only the best we’ve found in Idaho, she’s the best I’ve seen since the position of transaction coordinator came into being sometime in the early 90’s. She’s that good. Our clients love her.
Possibly the most critical long term teammate is the professional property manager — at least that’s what our clients will tell you. When you’ve invested not only outa town, but in another state altogether, they want to have very warm feelings about their property’s manager. Patty does that for us. Whenever I’m asked to describe her, I tell clients she’s death on misbehaving tenants, and has a BS detector second to none. She flat takes care of business with a no-nonsense approach that would be appreciated by any investor. One of my favorite phone calls is the 90 day check-up. I ask how things are going, and want to know their candid opinion of the job Patty’s doing for them. Almost every time they begin the ‘praise Patty’ chorus. Music to my ears.
Gerald Dalton and Antoinette Roth are my Boise agents. Josh is now a believer in letting the cream rise to the top. Both Gerald and Antoinette are consummate pros. They go about their business in different ways, and with very different styles. The results are predictably the same though. I may have forgotten one, but I can’t remember a transaction we’ve begun in Boise that hasn’t closed — and they’ve been the agents for all of them.
I’ll leave the lenders, our inspector, and the folks at the title/escrow company for later. But you get the point.
Instead of a one-stop shop under one roof, we’ve created a modified one-stop shop under our umbrella.
Better service — Better product — BETTER RESULTS.
Our pitchers pitch, and our shortstops play shortstop.
And we win.
Posted on April 30, 2007 @ 10:41 pm - Written by BawldGuy
What do experienced, winning pitchers have in common with their counterparts in real estate investment brokerage?
They’re always thinking.
I recall a game in which Fernando Valenzuela was pitching back in the ’80’s. Now this guy had superb control of many pitches. He was without a doubt one of the brilliant tacticians on the mound. In this particular game he was ahead by a run in the eighth inning with two outs and a man on third. So what’s the big deal? Just get the third out and back to the dugout, right? Not so fast.
Here’s how he played it. In eight straight pitches he walked (not intentional walks) the next two hitters. The pitches were ‘just’ off the plate, not real hittable pitches. The announcers in the booth were wondering why Tommy Lasorda didn’t come out for a visit after the second walk — which loaded the bases. Remember, this was a one run game in the eighth inning. It appeared Fernando had lost all control. If he walked the next batter the game would be tied.
He popped the next guy up to the infield on his second pitch. His control had miraculously returned. The Dodgers won the game by one run.
The only guy not on the field who had guessed what was going on in that tense eighth inning was the all time great play-by-play guy, Vin Scully. Fernando was Vin’s choice for the post game interview. His first question, after congratulating him for the win was, “So, Fernando, what was your thinking when you were in that tight spot in the eighth inning?”
His answer showed how it was he who had ‘controlled’ that inning the whole time.
The two guys he walked had been hitting the ball hard against him all year. So he purposely threw pitches that would either become outs if hit, or called balls. The hitter immediately following those two, had a lifetime batting average against Fernando of under .150. Fernando knew he could get that guy out easily, and almost predictably. He also thought throwing strikes to the guys he walked made no sense — he only needed one more out.
He was thinking three batters ahead of everyone else in the ballpark — Brilliant.
A real estate investment broker finds a fourplex he thinks is a very good deal. As a matter of fact he thinks the property is under priced by $15-30K. When he makes the full price offer for his client, the seller counters at a price much higher than what was listed. The buyer is not only mystified, but more than a tad miffed. “What’s the deal here? We’re the only guys offering, right?” The broker counsels patience.
The market data is analyzed once more just to remind the broker of his initial opinion. He discovers he was not only right the first time, but now has another property very near by, and exactly like the subject property, that has entered escrow for $14K more than even the new counteroffer price. He’s now convinced this property is worth at least $20K more than even the higher counteroffer. He tells his client to stay cool and get this property into escrow — even at the counteroffer price.
Oh, forgot to mention one last thing. The buyer listened to his broker’s advice and indeed signed the counter as written, putting the units under contract and into escrow. This is when the buyer began rubbing his hands together in anticipation of the repair request he’d be signing. He’d show this guy. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, his broker found out there were three very solid counteroffers received in the late afternoon of the day they went under contract. All of them were for more than the contracted price.
The broker advised his client to look at the inspection report he’d ordered — and eat it. Let the time run out without even submitting one tiny request. Why? Because the broker knew the seller’s agent was by this time, trying to explain to his client why they’d received four offers and were in escrow on the lowest price. (Wouldn’t you have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation?) The buyer’s broker, putting himself in the other guy’s shoes, decided he wouldn’t give the sellers any possible way to create an exit from their deal. By not asking for any repairs he was signaling to the sellers this deal was going to close.
The deal closes two weeks later. The broker learns the backup offer in first position was for exactly $20K more than the price his client paid. His client was amazed. He’s made $20K just by closing as agreed. Cool. Repairs? Less than $1k.
Just like Fernando, the broker was thinking three batters ahead of everyone else. He knew what he was doing — a distinct advantage over the listing broker — and of course, his sellers. And like Fernando, his actions appeared to be counter productive to the casual observer. Yet, he was in control the whole time - just like Fernando.
The only real difference between the broker and Fernando? Vin Scully wasn’t doing his Hall of Fame play-by-play of the broker’s every move.
What a pity.