|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Among several deals happening this week, I had dumped in my lap a new foreclosure listing. Now, I always like to have more listings, and I have cultivated listings from "REO"s, industry slang for "real-estate-owned" by lenders. And the time was that they were great deals when you got them as listings and they sold fast. Just generally needed some cleanup, maybe a lot of cleanup, but they were priced so that other homeowners or investors could get a good deal. These days, as a function of being in the Austin market, even lenders are beefing up their prices because they read the articles about Austin, too. We have a bulls-eye painted on us as one of the only markets still doing well in the country. Even HUD foreclosures are priced at market value, and if they are discounted at all it is the exact amount for the paint and carpet they need. So, no great deals at the beginning of the listing period. I keep working them because eventually they keep reducing and reducing the price until they meet the market and they sell. But they can be a pain in the meantime, with utility bills, sometimes lawn care, etc, even after I have negotiated to have the paint and carpet and other major repairs.
The one this week is from a company that first sends me a notice to ascertain if the property is vacant or occupied. If it is occupied, they authorize me to negotiate a settlement with the previous (now foreclosed-upon) owner to leave amicably and turn over the keys, leaving the premises in broom-clean condition. This is always a sticky situation for me. These folks have had something bad happen-- job loss, spouse abandonment, illness, etc. There are usually kids involved. I am not a social worker, so I feel inept at providing real assistance. But I have to say that by the time it gets this far, they are normally less affected by their situation than I am. They are fairly matter of fact. They may be losing their home, but they still have the cable tv on. I work with them to get them moving, both emotionally and physically. They seem stuck. Once we get the ball rolling and they know that I am there to facilitate their move, they are always quite happy to get boxes, start packing, and work with me to find a place to rent.
The one this week met me at the door with a baby on her hip, one of her odd jobs is taking care of kids in the neighborhood. She has also been to massage therapy school, and is between her classwork which she passed, and the state license exam, which costs money to take. She has 4 kids, and her husband abandoned her and left her with everything to take care of, including his debts from before they were married. (Her kids are from a previous marriage.) IF ONLY she had called a realtor for help earlier, we could possibly have set up a short sale, and found an investor who would have taken over the house and kept her in as a tenant. As it is, I had to tell her that it was time to get a J-O-B, that part-time work would not cut it, and that she needed to get those teenagers to work and contributing to the household as well. I told her that I had to talk to her like a Mom for a bit, and if it offended her she needed to let me know, but that someone needed to tell her the truth. The universe sent me, maybe because everyone else was busy right then, but I was the best she had.
She was so grateful it broke my heart. She said that the universe had been sending her women to help her through all of this, I was one of a string of them, and that she couldn't wait to get on her feet to pay it forward. Today she told me that she has an interview at Walmart on Monday and another realtor has possibly located her a house she can move to this weekend. I am happy that she and her little family will have a roof over their heads, any roof, not homeless. It's all too easy to get into that situation, and just brushing up against it every now and then reminds me of how tenuous this "success" is...
|
|
|
|
Posted by Reba Saxon at
| | | |
|
I remember sitting in a women's group when I was going to have to come up with an intro, and it suddenly occurred to me that my very name stood for Real Estate Buyer Advocate. I've been in the biz for a while now, and I have gone through the lecturing by longtime Realtors about how "You've got to list to last," and that "Buyer leads will take care of themselves if you have the signs out there for listings" (true, that one), and all of the old axioms of the industry about the paramount importance of listings to a successful real estate career. I tried to make myself focus on finding sellers instead of buyers. In my experience, though, the reverse has been true. You will get listings when you have people who need your help buying their next home.
A long time ago, after a lifetime of sales, marketing, and publishing, I had taken time off to raise my kids. I just couldn't see the point in working to pay for child care so that someone else would get to teach them how to tie their shoes, what colors are, how to read, and lay down in the afternoon for naps. When they were old enough for school and it was time to go back to work, I wanted to find a more giving profession. I considered nursing and teaching, and ultimately did become a teacher, but while I was thinking about nursing I went to the local hospital in Santa Fe where we lived, and interviewed all of the nurses I could find in the middle of the night, from the bottom floor to the top. What I found out was that they were universally unhappy, except for labor and delivery nurses and intensive care nurses. The rest were all unhappy because they had been removed from their giving profession, removed from bedside care of patients, and were managing unskilled nurses' aides who were doing the actual work they had become nurses to do. They were being sent to courses on "litigation-proof report writing", management classes, and other non-medical pursuits.
But the labor and delivery nurses and intensive care nurses couldn't be replaced by aides. They were the last bastion of bedside nursing, and they still loved their jobs. Those two types of nursing really impressed me, far beyond when I bailed on nursing during my very first biology class. (Everyone else had been in a high school biology class within the past 2 years and I had been out of school for, oh, 20.) I became a high school teacher and loved it, I'm sure I will start a rant on education reform in this very blog and you can check that category if it's been created. After 4 years as a teacher, I left that profession (again, I will explain that in the education category some night soon) and became a realtor. I often use those two types of nursing as a metaphor to explain the seller-buyer dichotomy perfectly. With sellers I am the intensive care nurse when they say "What! Where do you want to cut now! I'm in pain!" I get them what they need, help them to move through what is often a difficult time, and smooth the way for them. But with buyers I am the labor and delivery nurse because everyone is excited, we're getting a new baby (house), it's a happy time. Either way, I'm happy, because I am working with people to solve problems, my favorite pastime whether they like it or not, so it's good that I found something to do that I can get paid for it.
|
|
|
|
Posted by Reba Saxon at
| | | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
