Wendy English\’s Blog

  Communication is key to successful real estate sales.   Having a network of trusted professionals to call on over the course of a transaction is equally important.   Often Linkedin is referred to as an “online resume” but it can be taken several steps further and can be your  way to connect to  those trusted professionals.   Starting   out in the business call on those you trust to introduce you to the best.   Introductions can be made on Linkedin, you can read the profile of that professional and also any recommendations on thier profile.   Cool!

  The real estate business is a difficult one and one of  our roles in the process is to take as much of the stress out of it for our clients as we can.    This is easily done if the right  mortgage  professionals, attorneys and contractors are working with our clients.    Often a client will tell thier agent “I have my own guy (mortgage, attorney, painter, plumber) and that’s  OK, HOWEVER, what if the guy they tailgate with turns out to be the most inept plumber to hold a wrench or even worse the most inept attorney to just barely pass the bar?   It could cause problems for you, your client and anyone else involved in the transaction.   Who wants that?   Be confident in your recommendations to your clients and let them know that things will go as smoothly as they possibly can (there will still be glitches and hurdles but with the right people on the job they will be able to be overcome).   Give your clients fair warning – if they use  the guy next door  you have no control over how smooth or bumpy things might get along the way.  

 As a real estate agent are you using Linkedin?   Is your profile as up to date as it can be?   Do you have reccomendations?   Taking some time to polish up your Linkin profile is a worthwile project that does not take long at all.   Put the most professional you out there you can!

 Last but not least, you can update your twitter account from Linkedin.  

 Wishing you continued success, @wendyenglish

Welcome 2011.   It amazes me how easy it is to stay up to the moment with what is happening in the world as a twitter user.   With 140 characters and often links to articles,  blogs and  web pages the world is at your fingertips via your laptop, PC, blackberry, droid and even your television.

For real estate agents whose clients  are plugged in to such technology it is critical to stay on top of what is happening in the market as reported by the media.  

It is simple to sign up and you don’t even need to tweet yourself if it’s not your thing.  Get easy, free, and instant updates. Get access to the information that interests you most.

I follow the most reputable media outlets, interesting bloggers, my favorite authors,  people I actually know,  reality tv stars and even a Mom Who Saves.   Unlike email twitter is a moving time-line.   If you don’t login in a few days there is no in-box full of messages, only  the most current tweets.   I was on vacation last spring and learned that the Country Club in my town had burned down (big news in a town of 6,000!).    There were photos, commentary and had I not been on twitter I would have missed the biggest news of the year.  

Twitter for real estate agents … I highly reccomend it.

Wishing you continued success in 2011, @wendyenglish

Tweet, tweet.

I have 2 things to share and they are mostly unrelated but I did not want to let the inspiration pass …

 1. The State Of The Real Estate Market – I will pass along some things I learned at the recent Century 21 Leadership Conference  and my thoughts on the local market later on in this post.

2.  Blind man learns to cross the street –   It is a beautiful fall day in New England.   The fall colors are out  and as I was driving down one of the prettier country roads in Medway I came upon a blind man at a cross walk.   He carried a cane, looked like he was 40 something years old and he had a woman with him who seemed to be teaching him how to cross.   I was stopped as was the other traffic and I could see the man hesitate as he started to step off the curb.   I could tell he was afraid and I immediately was seized with the thought – what if I had been on my cell phone?   What if one of theother drivers was texting?   This man will not always have his teacher with him.   He is learning to independently take a walk and what a wonderful accomplishment that will be. Texting, emailing, etc. while driving are illegal in Massachusetts and the thought of what could happen if a driver were distracted by thier phone when they come upon this man makes me shudder.  

 And now on to The State Of The Real Estate Market … I recently returned from the Century 21 Leadership Conference that was held at the Hotel Del Coronado outside of San Diego on Coronado island.   There was a panel of experts including an economist from the National Association of Realtors.   He described for us what he predicts the cycle of the real estate to be in the next several years.   The market trend and recovery trend was described as a “saw toothed recovery” with the “saw toothed” up a little, down a little pattern continuing through 2013.   If you think of the teeth of a saw and trend lines on a graph what he tells us is that prices and number of sales will continue about as they are today for the next couple of years.  

I viewed this as good news.   I had visions of a steep decline in prices and in the number of sales in my mind and it looks like we have, in fact, reached the bottom of the market.   Coupled with the remarkably low mortgage interest rates affordability is at an all time low.   Owning a home is now more affordable than renting in most of the major real estate markets including Boston.

For Real Estate Agents there has never been a time when it was more important to be educated and pro-active in your chosen field.   We cannot just sit back and wait for things to happen and as advisers to homeowners we need to have relationships with attorneys and mortgage lenders that we can trust to give good advice to our clients.   Knowing the market is critical.  

I hope any buyers and sellers reading this have a trusted real estate advisor that you can go to when you have a question about real estate.   If you don’t, I’d like to apply for that job.

Real Estate Agents – how about you?   Do you have a trusted adviser that you can go to when you have a question about a transaction you are working on?   How about when your business is waning and you need some direction for breathing life into it?   Are you looking for ways to improve your service, your time management skills or your listing presentation?   Who helps you with that?   Is that person readily available to assist you?   If you don’t have someone like that for your business I’d like to apply for that job.   With 13 years in real estate under my belt and 5 of those years spent as a sales manager and business coach I do what I do because I love  working with  agents who  find success in real estate.

We still have a way to go for the real estate market to be recovered enough to be called a healthy market but it feels good to have a look down the road and know what is to come.   Follow me on twitter @wendyenglish for real time updates on the market in and around MA and more specifically the Metrowest, greater Rt. 495 area.

Running, climbing, jumping, swimming, dating, succeeding. There’s so much to do on TV.   Even buy or sell real estate.Case in point – “House Hunters” on HGTV.   Millions upon millions of viewers tune in and see the current home of the buyers and hear more about why they are moving, where they want to move and what they would like to have in their new abode.   Next they are off and running with a real estate agent showing them 3 potential properties.   We watch as they ooh and aah over what they like and perhaps make funny faces or comments about the ones they don’t like.   We meet thier children, thier pets, thier friends and sometimes their parents along the way.   The show ends with the buyer happily getting settled in the new place.   Interesting?   It must be, the show has been on for years!   This is what real estate agents do with buyers day in, day out.

Many of today’s reality t.v. stars either have been or are currently real estate agents.   Stacie Scott Turner of “The Real Housewives Of D.C.” is a high end real estate agent, has a Harvard MBA and is in search of her birth mother.   The network that puts out these shows does exhaustive research to find out what reality personalities will draw viewers in and they must think that this real estate agents life would be of interest to viewers.   On “The Real Housewives Of Orange County” has 3 cast members that have either been in real estate sales or still sell real estate – Jeanna Keough, Tamra Barney and Gretchen Rossi.   They are quite the case of characters.

So, do you have an interest in selling real estate?   Are you a ‘character’ that people love to be around?   Are you wondering what is next for your career?   Go to my website – www.therealestatelife.com and take a quiz to see if you are suited to be a ‘Real’ Real Estate Agent in your zip code.

Wishing you success,

Wendy

The news seems gloomy when it comes to the real estate market however I am cautious of running out and yelling that the sky is falling.   Data can be compiled in any number of ways to illustrate the point that is being made.   The truth of it is that the summer months form real estate have been quieter than the busy spring we had in 2010.   As a follow up to that, the summer months typically are a bit less active and vibrant in real estate when compared to the spring and fall markets.

 So is it all gloom and doom?   Not from my perspective.   There are some trends that are directly related to the slow economy and Realtor Magazine reported in its most recent issue the “Practical In In Demand”.    Architects are seeing home trends that favor smaller spaces with flexible floor plans.   Sounds smart to me!   Less to maintain, heat, pay taxes on … less is the new more.   I think we will look back on 2010 as a whole and find that it’s a great year overall.   So enjoy these last few moments of quiet before the fall comes rushing in.

Wishing  continued success for one and all!

Yes!   The deadline for a buyer to close and still get thier homebuyer tax credit of up to $8,000 was extended until September 30th 2010.   I know in my office that extension helped some buyers who are in the process of buying properties that are short sales  and  foreclosures.   This recent article from CNBC includes details – http://www.cnbc.com/id/38063323  

An interesting point of view was recently posted on the Century 21 Commonwealth websites company blog, check it out at -http://www.commonmoves.com/blog/

So what is in store for buyers, sellers and real estate professionals in the coming months?   The summer of 2009′s market was brisk with many buyers taking advantage of  the low  prices, low mortgage interest rates and the  many choices when it came to housing.   The summer of 2010 may be a different story in that there just are not enough homes on the market to choose from.   Are we suffering from a shortage of  housing inventory?   We may well be.    

As I write this the temperatures in Medfield, MA are spiking up over 100 degrees on the thermometer.     Will it be a hot summer for real estate sales?   Only time will tell.

We are down to the wire and for buyers to close on their new home and receive the tax credit.   Many transactions are being rushed through the short sale process to try and close befor the June 30th deadline.   Meanwhile, the Senate has voted to extend the deadline for closing.   The House of Representatives would need to vote in this extension for closing and the pressure would be off on many of these scrambling, distressed homeowners.

Stay tuned for what happens next …

That’s what I learned at a recent training event- Tom Ferry’s Business By Design.

I also learned – when your performance is measured, your performance improves.   It makes sense.   When kids first start playing sports everyone wins.   When the score starts being tracked the players intensity goes up.   The same holds true in real estate.  

Who is measuring your performance?   Do you need a real estate coach?

Follow me on twitter @wendyenglish

Friend me on facebook: wendyphillipsenglish

Get information on careers at my company at: www.MovingMedfield.com

and yes you can even network with me on linkedin – WendyEnglish (even though it’s just so 2008!)

That statement is heard more and more often around my office these days.   An offer is accepted, a listing is secured and to the agents, homeowner and homebuyer  Life  Is Good!

I have been describing the market as “thawing”.   There had been a freeze in activity in 2008 and 2009  and the “thaw” as I have been calling it seemed to have started  in the  summer of 2009 and has continued into the spring real estate market of 2010.  Buyers are more confident.   They see the affordable home prices, low mortgage interest rates and they are feeling comfortable making a purchase.

There is a trend toward “Green” homes and I recently had the pleasure of listing a home that has a Geothermal heating system.   At substantial cost the homeowners put in the system and have  reaped the benefits of it for the past 3 years.   The new owners of the home will now carry on and  have  the continued benefit of this state of the art system.   Oil prices fluctuate and to heat a large home with oil can be expensive.

Below is a description of the system and some benefits   as described by the owner of the home –  

Geothermal systems utilize the constant temperature of the earth™s crust to heat and cool the home.   This is a œclosed loop system in which two 400-foot bore holes provide approximately 50 degree Fahrenheit geofluid to geothermal heat pumps in the basement and attic.   In the winter, the heat pumps extract heat from the geofluid and combine it with the warm house air in a heat exchanger.   The geofluid is then re-circulated back to the loop field to be warmed again by the earth.   In the summer, warm house air is cooled by putting that heat into the geofluid which is then re-circulated to the loop field to be cooled by the earth.

The benefits of geothermal heating and cooling include:

1. No reliance on a single fuel type
2. Although electricity is used to power the geothermal system, total cost is considerably less than oil
3. Electricity prices are highly regulated and change infrequently which significantly reduces pricing volatility
4. New energy generation from renewable sources that come online are typically fed to the grid giving you access to that power from the power company (eg. wind, solar, and nuclear)
5. You are helping reduce carbon emissions
6. Geothermal heating and cooling is a proven technology that has been around for decades
7. There is little maintenance aside from periodically changing air filters “ no annual cleaning
8. Unlike typical central air conditioners, geothermal equipment is kept within the house envelope which helps extend its life

The Home-buyer Tax Credits are getting set to expire in 22 days, 9 hours and 38 minutes as I write this post.   That brings the question – what will happen to the real estate market when that happens?   My best answer is that only time will tell.   The news on the real estate front continues to be positive.   As far as I can tell and what is being reported in the news  is that consumer confidence is up.   Would you like a real life example of that?   Just stop by the American Girl store at the Natick Collection here in MA  on any day at any time of day.   It is packed with consumers shelling out $100+ for a doll and $15 and up for doll clothing and accessories.   That’s more than many Marshall’s and TJ Maxx bargain shoppers spend on thier own clothes!

In many communites, including the ones where I do business,   the inventory of homes is down and there seem to be more buyers than there are homes in desirable areas that are in good condition.   The nice properties are selling quickly and there have even been multiple offer situations.  

What will the new program that includes  incentives for  lenders to expedite  short sales mean to our market?   There are certainly many homeowners who are losing sleep at night wondering what to do about the roof over thier heads that is now worth less than they owe on the mortgage.   If it brings more homes to the market it will certainly  give buyers more to choose from, will fuel our market and could help get distressed homeowners out from under the source of thier sleepless nights.

All in all the positives seem to now be outweighing the negatives in the real estate marker and my prediction for the rest of the year is that we will  see first time buyers continuing to  take advantage  of the  great prices that  are out there and that buyers  upgrading thier home or community will continue to  do that so they also can take advantage of the  ”sale” we are currently running on real estate.   When is the best time to buy?   When  the item you are looking  for is on sale!