February :: SoundBiteBlog.com 2007 :: SoundBiteBlog.com

This is the third installment in an on-going series of posts dedicated to helping 1^st Time Home Buyers successfully achieve their purchasing goals. We have been identifying and discussing, in chronological order, key events in the home buying process. In the last post, we began to identify the Top Ten Traits of a Great Real Estate Agent. We had discussed the first 5 traits: Advocate; Knowledgeable; Ethical; Accessible; and Communicator. Here then, are the remaining 5 traits:

Top Ten Traits of a Great Real Estate Agent, Part 2

Highly Recommended: They say that you’re only as good as your last transaction. As you interview prospective agents, ask them to provide you with recent testimonials from past clients, including the client’s contact phone numbers or e-mail address. Great agents will always have lots of great clients who say great things about them!

Empathetic: A great agent is genuinely sensitive to your needs. They are patient and understanding. They recognize the emotions, fears, and anxieties that usually accompany a first-time home purchase. Their constant and confident assurances provide a much-needed anchor throughout the entire transaction.

Willing to educate: As a professional real estate agent, you can never share too much information. This is especially true with 1st Time Home Buyers. The first time you meet with your chosen agent; have them walk you through the entire home-buying transaction, step-by-step. This will help to ensure that there are no surprises along the way and you can anticipate the various events as they occur.

Tech Savvy: Great agents stay current with emerging technologies, and willingly adapt them to better improve their business and services. Does your prospective agent have a dedicated website? Is the information it contains up-to-date and relevant to your process? Does it provide you with the necessary tools to easily search for area listings?

Continuing Education: A great agent has never “arrived,” but is committed to constantly learning new things. They are consistently engaged in on-going education and training opportunities. Many top agents have earned numerous designations such as ABR (Accredited Buyers Representative), or GRI (Graduate of Realtors Institute), or CRS (Certified Residential Specialist). These designations often indicate further study, more experience, and greater degrees of knowledge.

So there’s your Top Ten Traits of a Great Real Estate Agent.

Selecting a Great Real Estate Agent is an importatnt step in successfully achieving your home buying goals. With the ever-growing amount of information that is available today on the Internet, you can learn a lot about potential agent candidates before ever meeting them face-to-face. Most real estate agents have their own website, and some regularly publish their own blogs, allowing for greater transparency regarding their work ethics, practices, and personality.

Next time, we’ll discuss in greater detail your first meeting with your real estate agent and all the things you will need to accomplish prior to actually looking for your 1st home. The more you prepare ahead of time, the greater your chances of successfully achieving your 1st Time Home Buying Adventure!

For the next installment, go to Exchanging Your Vows

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Tags: indianola wa real estate, Kitsap County WA real estate, selecting your real estate agent, top agents, top ten traits of a great agent

I learned this technique for building a credit report 15 years ago when I was doing Credit Repair from a company in Florida that no longer exists. I have used it countless times. It works, it costs very little and has a marvelous impact on a credit report.This is not a tool for an immediate improvement to a credit file. This takes 6 to 12 months to have it’s full benefit. This technique is for clients who are determined to improve their situation and willing to work at it.

Cash Collateral Loans

They go by several names but, the details are simple. Rather than using the title to a car or a mobile home or real estate to secure this type of loan, the borrower uses cash. This may seem out-of-reach to a client with credit issues but it usually is not. Consider this; the borrower simply need to have access to some money for about 2 hours to make it work.

Step 1 — Find a local lender who allows these kind of loans. Just pick up the yellow pages and call the loan department of local banks and credit unions. I have found a lender to do these loans in each town where I tried. I always had better luck with small local banks and credit unions.

Step 2 — Borrow some money from somewhere. Maybe a family member, maybe an employer, just remember you only need it for about 2 hours and it will be paid back in full. Make the amount a substantial amount, but any amount will do. Try for $1500 or higher. You want as large a loan as possible to go on the books. For this example, lets use $2500.

Step 3 — Take your $2500 to the lender you found in step 1 and apply for a Cash Collateral Loan. The lender will take your $2500 and open a savings account to deposit the money into. This account will be locked. You will not be able to withdraw the money from it. At the same time the lender will issue you a new loan for $2500. The collateral for the new loan will be the cash you just deposited. With most lenders you can request that the payments be automatically deducted from the savings account. In some cases you will need to “prime” the account with one full payment. In other cases you will need to deposit the amount of interest that will be charged on the loan. In every case that I have seen, you will be paid interest on the savings account. Choose a term of 12 or 18 months.

Step 4 — Leave the bank with the $2500 proceeds from your new loan and pay back whoever you borrowed it from.

Step 5 — Go on about your life and let this little credit engine work it’s magic on your credit report. At the end of 12 months (for example) the loan will be paid off and the savings account will be empty. Your credit report will have an account showing a new loan with a perfect payment history.

The Details

You will have to fill out a short credit application, what is typically called a “5 Liner” (Name, Address, SSN, Birthdate and Employer). Your credit report will not be pulled (there is no need for this, you are paying the loan in full up front). Your income will not be verified (again, there is no need, all the payments are sitting in savings). The interest you earn on the savings account will offset the interest you pay on the loan. The interest rates you will pay on this type of loan is very reasonable. After all, it is a very safe loan for the bank. You should expect to pay between 7% and 8% on the loan and earn 2% to 3% on the savings account. Your effective interest rate will be around 5% to 6%. That is a great rate for someone with credit needing improvement!

Make sure to account for the interest the loan will cost you. This is not a free loan. It is very cheap. This technique is very effective. It is not an overnight fix, it takes a little time. When you consider that it takes some time to mess up a credit report, it makes sense that it will take a little more time to get it back on track. This also works well for business that are trying to establish credit in a company name.

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When was the last time you ate pizza ‘in?’ With the growing popularity of home delivery and ‘take-n-bake style,’ most establishments have resorted to simply having a quick ‘turn-a-round’ operation and don’t cater to ‘dine-in’ customers.

Growing up in Northern California, I can remember several pizza joints in our town. My first legitimate job was working at a family-owned pizza parlour (I don’t count my brief stint being the clean-up guy at Baskin-Robbins). They were great places to hang-out, always filled with loud, rowdy laughter and crowded with families; high school kids after the game; the local softball team; or bowling leagues after a tournament. Several of them offered fundraising events for local schools. They were the place to be seen on a Friday night.

So it was a real find when I happened upon The Pizza Factory over on Bainbridge Island. Although it’s a franchise operation, it is family-owned and very much feels that way. Owners Todd & Debra Gaboriault, along with their kids Broc and Mallory, and the rest of the crew, make your dining experience memorable on all fronts.

You won’t find anything frozen or pre-packaged here. They make their own dough, use only the freshest vegetables, the choicest meats (including one of my favorites, linguica!), real 100% mozzarella cheese, and their own special blend of sauce. Each pizza is custom made to order.

In addition to the wide variety of pizzas (including gourmet, specialty, chicken & seafood selections), they also offer an excellent salad bar, delicious pastas and calzone, hearty deli sandwiches, and a very popular ’All-You-Can-Eat’ lunch buffet that includes pizza, pasta, salad, and soft drink for only $ 9.20!

While you can still order for take-out or home delivery, you’ll want to bring the whole tribe or team down to The Pizza Factory. With March Madness right around the corner, this would be the perfect spot to pork out on a few slices, share a pitcher, and watch your favorite team (Kansas Jayhawks) play in the NCAA Tournament!

“We Toss ‘em, They’re Awesome!”

Click on these thumbnails for a full-size View

The Pizza Factory, 323 High School Road NE, Bainbridge Island (206) 842-8929

Another highly recommended Bite of Business on the Kitsap Peninsula

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Posted in Bainbridge Island Real Estate, Bites of Washington, Business Bites, Kitsap County Bites | 6 Comments »

This is the second installment in an on-going series of posts dedicated to helping 1^st Time Home Buyers successfully achieve their purchasing goals. We have been identifying and discussing, in chronological order, key events in the home buying process. In the last post, we talked about Mortgage Lenders and Loan Pre-Approval.

Today’s topic is Top Ten Traits of a Great Real Estate Agent - Part One

One of the most satisfying aspects of my career in real estate is helping people achieve success in their home buying adventure. This is especially true with 1^st Time Home Buyers.

However, before we begin, let me first stress the importance of having a real estate agent to represent you, particularly if you are a 1^st Time Buyer. As we will discuss further, you owe it to yourself to have someone who is dedicated solely to representing your best interests. With that said, the following is a list of traits to look for when choosing your agent:

Top Ten Traits of a Good Real Estate Agent:

Advocate: You will hear a lot about real estate agency law. Professional agents take representation very seriously. The process is not about us, or our commissions, it is all about You, the Buyer. We exist solely to represent your best interests, period! Listing Agents are under contract with the Sellers. They represent the Sellers. A Buyer’s Agent owes their fiduciary or statutory duties and obligations to you and you alone. When you meet with a prospective agent, ask them to explain agency law. Ask them whom they would represent in the purchase transaction. A great agent is passionate about working for their Buyer’s best interests.

Knowledgeable: A great agent is a knowledgeable agent. They understand local, state, and Federal laws concerning real estate. They are proficient with purchase & sale contracts, and can explain all the various forms and addendums to you. They know the local market they serve intimately. And, if for some reason, they don’t have the information you need, they know where to get it quickly.

Ethical: Licensed real estate professionals are held to a very high standard, The NAR Code of Ethics. While there may be a few exceptions, most agents genuinely strive to maintain these ethical practices in their daily business. They don’t just talk about being ethical, it’s who and what they are.

Accessible: Great agents will make themselves easily accessible and available to their clients. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they have no life and you can call them 24/7 with your questions. But it does mean that they will make you feel as though you’re their only client! If they aren’t available to take your call, they’ll actually return your messages promptly and on the same day! Great agents also make good use of new technologies to provide greater accessibility for their clients.

Communicator: A great agent constantly communicates relevant information to their clients. This is especially critical for 1st Time Buyers. They can never have too much information. Your agent should provide you with good information and often.

Well, that completes Part One. Look for the remaining 5 Traits of a Great Real Estate Agent in my next post, coming soon! And then you’ll be better equipped to successfully achieve “the Next Adventure in Life!”

For the next installment, go to Top 10 Traits of a Great Agent Part 2

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Tags: belfair wa real estate, chico wa real estate, Kitsap County WA real estate, selecting your agent, top agents, top ten traits of a great agent

A Position of Trust

I walked the 900 block of N. Belnord Avenue last summer.  It was my first and only time there.  Located in the abandoned core of Baltimore City, it’s both ghetto and waste land.  Most readers wouldn’t stand where I stood that morning.  I’m no longer afraid; I’ve been to hell and back.  I went to visit one of the foreclosed properties that led to my incarceration in a federal prison.  Most properties on the block have windows and doors covered by boards.  There’s graffiti on walls and artistic memorials honoring dead gang-members.  The place was a community once; a place where families thrived.  Now it’s a market-place for drug dealers.

The 900 block of N. Belnord Avenue is a place far removed from a life I once knew.  I was the owner of a title company, Liberty Title, with a house in the suburbs; another at a ski resort; another on the Chesapeake Bay.  I first learned of the investigation, my investigation, some time during the month of January, 2000.   There was an interview with an FBI agent on my car’s radio while I drove home from work.  The justice department was investigating reports of abuses in Baltimore’s real estate markets.  I didn’t know it then, but I had become the target of a major criminal probe involving federal prosecutors, a grand jury, HUD police, postal inspectors, a secret service agent, FBI agents and others.  What happened?

I once was the friend of a real estate broker who had a number of offices in and around Baltimore.  His name is unimportant; I’ll refer to him as Bill.   I did a great deal of business with Bill and many of the agents in his offices.  Bill had contrived a scheme that involved buying properties in the name of straw parties.  The straw parties were women who were paid to assume false identities and sign loan documents at closings.  Bill had enlisted the assistance of several mortgage brokers, and their processors, to fabricate credit, employment and banking histories for borrowers who didn’t exist.  Bill owned the properties that were purchased by the straw parties.  Some were bought and sold by Bill on the same day, most were not. All were sold at inflated prices substantiated by a single appraiser.  The properties were used by Bill as rental units; regular payments were made for awhile; eventually every loan was defaulted and every property foreclosed.   The company I owned did the closings.

The media recklessly portrayed property flipping as the reason for my criminal charges.  My attorney strongly advised against publicly disputing the claims.  I was, in fact, indicted for abusing the position of trust that accompanies a professional license.   The investigation revealed a number of serious problems with the business practices and the corporate culture at Liberty Title.  Most notably:

• I had abused my notary privileges.  On a number of occasions, I allowed Bill to take lender packages for signatures.  Though he was a notary; I affixed my own notary seal to the documents.  The notary practices at Liberty were sloppy overall in regards to requiring proper identification and maintaining a notary log.
• I allowed Bill, and other sellers, to pay buyers closing costs without obtaining the lender’s consent.  I did this by writing 2 checks to the seller who would sign the appropriate check and return it to me for deposit. 

These were my crimes; I will regret them for the rest of my life.

Following a presentation that I recently gave to a group of attorneys, I was approached by a member of the audience and told sarcastically: You’re no Frank Abagnale!  That’s the point!  There’s nothing exciting or glorious about my story.  Movie rights aren’t being negotiated.  My greatest sin was cowardice, not greed.  Real estate fraud is accomplished in secrecy through a series of minor actions that sometimes seem justifiable, yet always veiled by deceit.   An occasional breach of judgment gave way to a pattern of disturbing behavior on my part.   My complacency became anticipated and expected.  My actions created an environment that did nothing to deter wrong doing.  Even though I knew that it was the right thing to do; the only thing to do; I failed to confront this man and use the word “No” only because he was an important and predictable source of business.  

Lessons learned:

• Keep your private life private:  Relationship business is not about creating friendships.  A professional needs to appropriately distinguish between personal time and career activities.  The two are not the same.  By making your life an “open book”, you increase the odds that your personal qualities and vulnerabilities will be studied by those who are ruthless and pathetic.  Bill was aware of my two greatest weaknesses: Children with learning disabilities and father-son relationships.  He took advantage of both and manipulated a friendship.
• Chose your clients selectively:  In his book, “The Brand You 50”, Tom Peters said it better than I can.  He wrote:  “So choose – and reject – clients with the utmost care.  Yes, you do have the power to choose … and to reject … That is … professionally … I am those whom I serve … That is, I am professionally defined by those with whom I do business … Yes … defined …It’s as obvious as the end of your nose … when we’re talking about who your 14 year old son hangs out with.  And it should be equally obvious when it comes to your client list … I could go on … and on … I’m who I do hang with.  And who I don’t hang with.  (And I fervently believe that bigness achieved by acquiring dreary clients is a losing proposition of the first order.)”
• Say yes when the answer is yes; say no when the answer is no:  Patterns of improper behavior originate from singular, sometime innocent, acts.  In the context of a real estate transaction your actions are proper or improper.  Dispel any notion of a gray area between the polarities of right and wrong.  Your decisions as a real estate professional have lasting and serious consequences.

Take the time to anticipate the effects of your professional decisions.  There’s much more at stake than dollars and cents; it’s critical that you integrate moral and ethical principals into your decision making model.  You are unable to say that you didn’t understand, you can’t recall, you didn’t know.  The burden of accountability bears the weight of serious obligation and consequence.  Real estate fraud is not “victim-less” as so many would like to believe.  It’s easier not to think about it. 

I walked the 900 block of N. Belford Avenue knowing that I had contributed to the hopelessness and desperation of the place.  It hurt!  It hurt a lot!

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