Inspiring Excellence

Where is the market heading?

More evidence of a new normal in real estate in middle Tennessee is coming out as we look at the post government intervention days.  As the chart below shows, we saw a significant drop in sales over the past 2 months (lowest level in over 10 years), but it was all due the expiration of the tax credit.  Watch for numbers similar to the fall of 2008 and 2009 within a couple of months.

Lastly, please don't buy in to the lies that nothing is selling.  Middle Tennessee has sold 20,000+ homes and condos in the past 12 months.  Serious sellers in most all price points are moving homes.

our present thoughts...

...determine our future. ~ Lou Tice of the Pacific Institute

So that means that our present situation is determined by our thoughts and choices that we made in the past.  One of the most freeing places that I find myself is when I take responsibility for my present situation.  I can look nowhere for blame as to being right here, right now.  If I'm serious about not being in a "good" place right now, my best choice is to change my thoughts.

On multiple fronts these days I hear what people don't like (and often I hear it from myself, too).  The more that I choose to focus on what I don't want, the more likely that it will stick around.

So this week I choose to think wisely and to avoid people and places where unwise thought abound.

Self-Limiting Beliefs

Take a moment to assess all of the things around you that promote your being “average.” These are the things that keep you powerless to go beyond a “limit” you arbitrarily set for yourself.  ~ Stuart Emery

How are you "limiting" yourself right now.  What are you choosing to allow to be mediocre about your life, your career, your ministry/mission?

What if someone gave you permission to change who you are, what you have, or what you do?  That "someone" is you and you have either given yourself permission to stay the same or to change.  God gifted you with the ability to choose between staying like you are or becoming who you are supposed to be...what will you choose?

Turtles, Godin, and Time Away

My family and I spent last week on Bald Head Island, NC.  The trip included:

• Civil War History
• Maritime Forest Exploration
• Loggerhead Turtle hatchings
• lots of family time on the beach
• Linchpin by Seth Godin
• Uno with the kids
• Paddleboards
• and much more

If you want to see more about the turtle hatchings, check out one of these two videos:

-3 minute edited version brought to you by Bud and LeAnn here.

-entire 15 minutes from boil to ocean from Bud's phone here.

 I'll write about more this week.  Lots of thoughts on being "indispensible" in real estate and what that means for agents and companies from Godin's book.

Light Bending

Give your son a new camera, a flashlight or two, time to dream, and then sit back and marvel in his creativity...see more on his blog here.(look for the heart and broken heart pics)  

Kudos to @Homes

The future of real estate looks bright....

Proud to announce that one of my coaching clients is up for an Innovator Awards at this year's Inman Connect in San Francisco going on this week.  Best of luck to Elizabeth Golden (aka Beth Cooper) and her new company @Homes.  

807 Days

or so since the last post.  Lots has changed and lots is still the same, but....

It's time for a re-engagement with writing out loud for me.  The writing pushes me to create.  The creating is why we all are here.  Life is too short to continue to the mundane of punching a clock in the bureaucratic nightmare of mediocre repetition.  I am an artist (and so are you).  This is one of my many canvases.

Seth Godin in talking about Tom Peters as an artist in his free e-book Insubordinate (get your copy here):

"The art of connection, the art of being human, the art of making a difference. Artists do things

that have never been done before. They dig deep to create passion. They connect by changing

things for the better."

I'm glad to be back...hope you are too.  Here's to a creative day!

The Gathering Begins...

(9th in a series on listing excellence)

We've agreed (the seller and the agent) that we would like to work together to market the home.  Now, we have to set the price.

As the agent, I want to get as much general information as I can about pricing and then begin to "drill down" with more specific data.  Here's all the general info that I like to collect:

• tax information for the specific home
• multiple listing service info for the specific home (any past sales and/or listing data)
• an idea from the seller of what they are thinking (most all sellers have an idea of what their home is worth based on similar sales in the neighborhood, new tax appraisal, etc)
• improvements the seller has made since purchase

Once again, this is all general information that I want to collect.  None of this will give us the actual price, but it will help us begin to get on the same page.  For the specific information, I'll do a separate post for each item...

Pricing Excellence

(8th in a series on listing excellence)

7 other posts on being a great listing agent and we haven't even talked about price other than to suggest that it has to wait to the very end.  We (sellers and agents) have to get to the point that we have agreed that we are "right" for each other before we settle on price.

Either party may choose to walk away if we can't work this last thing out, but I think we will work fine 99% of the time.  What do you think about these three thoughts:

• Sellers are bright enough to price their home correctly given the right data.  It is the agent's job to provide this data and help explain it (I'll start building a plan for providing excellent data next).
• If the seller chooses not to price the home correctly, than the agent may have failed early in the process (see the 3rd post in this series, Listen to Me) by not listening well.
• Or, the seller is not as motivated as we think and the agent may need to share the name of another agent that doesn't mind advertising a property that isn't going to sell (or may sell later for below market).

Next, building a plan to help the seller set the price.

Happy 65th!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure you were allowed to do this in public in 1942, but it was great to see yesterday.  My maternal grandparents celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary with the family yesterday.

The story goes something like this:  The met in Southern California and had known each other for a couple of days before boarding a train toward New York for Office Training School.  The train stopped in Reno, they departed, found a justice of the peace, and were married within a week of knowing each other.

Here's to many more great days together Grandma and Grandpa!!