Shirley's San Antonio Real Estate Blog: July 2009

I have been reading some posts here about values of homes "underwater" in areas of the country and negative home equity. Do you know

A Child's Toy Teaches Us About Real Estate?

So much of life is about cycles. Things do go down, but they return up also. The durations of the cycles vary.

The seasonal changes we live through with weather are our most obvious example.

Take a look at the steel ball pendulum. Drop the ball on one side and it propels the ball on the other side, with it coming back and applying force all the way through the system to the other end to pop the first ball out again. A very natural thing to observe. Whether it be birth to death to birth again, or Republican to Democrat this year, believe in cycles.

Nothing stays the same at a given point in time, but don't be surprised if you wait awhile you will have one of those I've been here before moments. Don't sweat the small stuff. It is all small stuff.

Hogwarts for REALTORS®: Practical Lessons from Harry Potter and Gang

Those wacky Hogwarts kids study the strangest things, don't they?But I'm here to tell you that every class has a practical lesson for every REALTOR®. Here, explained in full detail, are the courses descriptions of Hogwarts for REALTORS®.

Astronomy - There's nothing strange about this one. Know the stars, know your future. Er, where your clients are coming from in the future. And the best way to work with each of them to meet their needs. As well as precisely where the house of their dreams - in their price range, in proximity to their jobs and schools, and just far enough away from the in-laws - is located.

Charms - It saddens me to even have to explain this one. If you intend to be successful in the real estate business, you've gotta have charm by the bucket-loads. But authentic charm - none of that cheesy, smarmy, say-whatever-it-takes-to-make-the-sale fake charm. Oh, wait. It's charmS, not charm. My mistake. In that case, the successful REALTORS® are the ones who know how to make their own luck. They don't wait for the right circumstance, right clients, right climate, right market. They're active and ready at all times. As you well know, this method works like a charm.

Defense Against the Dark Arts- Yes, even the happiest, most productive REALTOR® is going to have down days. Defending Against the Dark Arts means that you know how to get through the funk quickly, so you can get refocused and productive again. You don't wallow. You don't throw a pity party. You don't fall into victim thinking or behavior. You simply shake yourself off and chart that broom full speed ahead.

Herbology- In Herbology, students learn to care for and utilize plants, and learn about their magical properties. The most important lesson in this course is how to sow the seeds for a fruitful garden (networking), and nurture those plants as they grow (maintaining client relationships). If you take the time to plant good networking seeds and nurture them with regular phone calls, e-mails, and face-to-face get-togethers, you will have a strong garden wtih the magickiest of ALL properties: lifelong clients!

Care of Magical Creatures- Very closely related to Herbology, the Care of Magical Creatures is the next step in the client process. Now that you've got them, what are you going to do to keep them? Newsletters are a pretty basic tool, but still effective, but alone they are not enough. You also need to use snail mail - whether that's a postcard, hand-written note, or some sort of lumpy mail (more than just paper). Every once in a while, pick up the phone, just to say hello! Not a sales call, just a check-in call. And, of course, make a point to see them in person at least once every few months.

Muggle Studies - This class is essential for the successful REALTOR®,because it's where you learn how to relate to all those essential non-REALTOR® types you will be working with on a regular basis. Lenders. Title agents. Appraisers. Inspectors. Don't forget - just because they're not REALTORS® like you doesn't make them unimportant to the process. The better your relationships with these key players, the smoother your transactions will be.

No matter how long you've been in the business, it never hurts any of us - myself included -
to revisit these courses for a brush-up, every now and again.

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PS: Do you live in the Phoenix, Arizona area? Are you thinking about making a change in real estate companies?  Give me a call at 602-595-8900 or e-mail me at anna.banana@cox.net. Let's talk about your best lessons from Hogwarts for REALTORS - and how I can help you grow your business. JDI

AnnaBananaRealty.com

Every once in a while I like to do a post on who I am besides Tami Vroma, Grand Rapids Real Estate Specialist.

Today I was driving back from doing a walk through on house that is due to close next week (thank you God!).  A song came on the radio that put a lump in my throat and I felt the tears start to well up.  It wasn't the usual song that would bring a women to tears but it reminded me that I have been through worse than this real estate market.  Only God knows what the next year will bring but nothing will compare to that period in my life 5 years ago when I begged my husband to put me in our local mental institution.

My son was completely out of control.  I did not understand what was going on because the same rules were in place for him as they were for my daughter.  My son would rage.  He was destructive.  He was ten years old and our family was going under. 

At the same time my husband was not working regularly, I was starting a new real estate career, our tenant had done $6000 damage to one side of our duplex and the other side was not rented.  To say I was a little stressed would be an understatement.

I was feeling extreme despair.  Though my son was out of control most of the time, he had a golden retriever that was always by his side, no matter how cruel my son was to him.  He would get put in the corner and the dog would go and lay by him.  Honestly, it seemed the dog was the only one that could stand him when he was raging.  The dog was extremely emotional also- when we left we would have to tie him up in the basement or he would potty on the floor.

My breaking point came on a super-bowl Sunday.  We had went after church to work on putting the duplex back together and then we were going to head to a super bowl party.  This day would be the worst day of my life--everything went into slow motion as my son came up the stairs saying Tanner was dead.  He had run himself in a million circles and had hung himself and my ten year old son had found his dog.

I remember sliding to the floor begging my husband to put me in Pine Rest.  I couldn't take anymore- I was at my breaking point.  My husband picked me up off the floor with tears streaming down his face.  "You can not go to Pine Rest and leave me with him because I don't know what I would do to him."  Him being our son-our life was so far out of control.

Shortly after the dog died, my son got in trouble at school yet again.  He was raging and I had to get him up a flight of stairs to his room.  On the way up he was kicking me, biting me, pulling my hair, scratching me and punching me.  We fell several times as foul words, that we don't use in our home, streamed from his mouth.  Our regular routine was to get him up to his room and sit on him where we would wait until the rage would come to an end. 

This time was different. I had small children here and did not want them hearing the F-bomb so I put my hand over his mouth.  He bit me and would not let go.  I had to slap his face in order to get him to let go.  This was our life.  It sucked.

The next day he went to school and told them I beat him because he had a bruise on his face.  I was horrified that I had done that until I realized that the bruise was on the wrong side of his face for me to have done it but the machine was set in motion and I was investigated by protective services.  It was a scary experience but protective services knew that something was off.  As I stood there terrified they were going to take my daughter away, the case worker hugged me and offered to help.

I learned that day that God has a plan for everything.  Had my son not turned me in to protective services, we never would have been offered help by protective services and we never would have found out he was bi-polar.  So we started our journey of finding the right meds.  Once we found the right meds, life got much better.  Still more than most can handle but way, way better than the past few years had been.

But life was about to offer us another punch in the gut.  We noticed a large hump on my sons back so we took him to the doctor.  You can always tell when something is serious by the look on your doctors face and by the fact that he won't tell you anything and you get into a specialist within days.

We took him to the specialist and I was in shock as they described how my son's spine was curved to the point that it could compromise his life.  I was stunned as they described how he would need to have a titanium rod put in his back and how they would fuse his spine.  As if this kid didn't have enough going on we were put on yet another roller coaster.  To make matters worse, everything he loved would be gone.  No more motor cycle, no more snow boarding, no more skate boarding.  The spine will have no flex.  Great one more thing to make a very angry kid even more angry.

So we went down that road and my son had the surgery.  At one point we almost lost him because the morphine had suppressed his system.  I am pretty sure that night took 10 years off my life span.  It was at that time the song by Rodney Atkins came out.  I would just sing it and keep moving in the hospital and on the days after where my son had to use a walker to walk.   It was my montra.  I would sing it with tears running down my face . . .but I kept moving. . . .and tried not to show I was scared and kept hiding from the devil by repeating Romans 5:3-5 over and over again.  I was building some major character here!

We made it through those times and today my son is one of the lights of my life.  He was the number 1 JV runner on his cross country team last year and he is an incredible kid to be around.  He is still a teenager but where I used to wish for just 5% of happy times with him, now I have 100% times of happiness.  Even when he is angry he is joy because I am so darn proud of how well he handles his anger now.  He is a different kid with an incredible smile and we have a new life.

One more thing--I have the most incredible friends one could ever have.  It was my freinds who came and helped my husband bury the dog and it was my friends that kept my husband and I going.  Friends are the most incredible thing in the world and I have THE MOST incredilble!

So while I don't know what the next year may bring and things are really tight here . . . .it isn't anything compared to where we have been!! 

Enjoy the video and sing it to yourself when you aren't sure if you can put one foot in front of the other--God is there.