Mike's Blog

Hello All,

With prices continuing to fall, and the mortgage industry all but drying up, we had better just spend our time listing homes that will pass inspections and appraisals. Our job as Realtors is continuing to evolve into total consulting position with a well rounded understanding of the entire home buying, financing, and marketing process. Contingincy offers make you feel good for a minute, but when the property, or the buyer cannot qualify, then we have done all our best efforts for nothing. I am on a record pace for deals that have fallen apart due to a myriad of reasons, but the final outcome is a disapointed seller(and buyer) and no money for me.

We do get paid well for the amount of time we actually spend on a transaction,that closes; we should align ourself with a professsional team around us to insure our deals have a chance to go thru before we just accept contracts.

If we take this same logic and back up a few steps, we see that we should take the same care in pricing and accepting a listing in this market. Our marketing budgets get stretched thin promoting properties that are out of reality but we have an obligation to fulfill our contractual obligations.

Better that we should leave the overpriced listings out there for the competion to go broke with, and spend our resources more efficiantly on the listings that are really sellable. We owe it to ourselves (and our spouses)to earn a living during this market. If we don't stand up for ourselves and do our job, then we will look less professional when our signs just sit on yards for a long time and just expire anyway.

Help encourage your fellow Realtors to regain our collective dignity and agree to leave the overpriced listing table and find the next motivated seller. Work expireds and FSBO's that are motivated, and I will see you in this Realtor only format a year from now. For those of you who feel its thier duty to just go along with whatever the seller wants to price it at, God Bless and I hope your part time job pays enough to pay the bills.

Lets all get more professional and stick to our guns. It will work out for the strong among us.

Mike Norvell Sr

Is there a real moral question about home owners doing "Strategic Default" foreclosures....what choices do they have. Why should the homeowners pay for 30 years to cover the sins of an industry that got bailed out...

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If there is a real poll taken, we would have to be careful of the questions and the persons being called.

When it is your house, or someone in your family, suddenly the whole situation is looked at differently.

If we take the investors and flippers out of the equation, then we are left with the actual homeowners who have unfortunately got caught up in one of the biggest scams in US history. The banks and insurers are getting bailed out, yet the homeowner who is stuck in a home that will never get back to even is supposed to just stay put.

In every neighborhood, there are homes being offered for 50% of what people are now paying mortgages on. In the big picture, supporting your family over the next 20 or so years is the real job of the homeowners. If making a move now that frees up cash to actually support their families, and may lead to having a home that can be sold at a profit in the future, then why not explore the move.

Like it or not...more and more families are making these decisions. There is a home in a nice neighborhood not far from here that sold 4 years ago for 286,000.  The home has been sitting empty now for a year, and now the BANK is offering the house for $ 48,000.00.  Why is the bank not being held accountable??? They are now agreeing to sell it for this price, is this the real value....What just happened to the rest of the homes in the neighborhood....

Why wouldn't a neighbor down the street just change their street address and lower their payment by 70%. If I were in that position, I would get a lawyer and do it immediately.

This is the decision structure facing homeowners in many areas across the country. They, in good faith, were sold a bill of goods, and now they are faced with financial distress when the ones that perpetuated the debacle are being bailed out, and leaving the homeowners twisting in the wind....

Just my opinion......

This will be quick....I am doing a marketing job now that puts me in the front door of over 20 business owners a day. One of my points of discussion is the current Health Bill.

My very unofficial poll is that

1. Those that have a employer paid plan are afraid that it will change...
2. The employers are hoping there will be completion to lower rates...
3. Seniors with Medicare are only concerned that it will impact them in any way.
4. Those without any health coverage at work are hoping there will be an affordable option...soon

Lets get on to another point.....Cobra....anyone who is in favor of the current system has never had to experience Cobra.

Cobra sucks. It should be illegal. Don't tell me that ANYONE actually voted for this travesty. Here is the basics...if you have coverage on your job, and for any reason you lose the job, you have the option of continuing the coverage at an immediate 300% (-+) increase...This is real. This is an outrage yet where is the discussion on this from the people who are fighting public option.

Finally, why do the lawmakers who have GOV ISSUED HEALTHCARE and the Seniors who have GOV ISSUED HEALTHCARE fight the rest of us getting a similar plan to have available to our families and employees.

Did you know that the only industry in America that has an exemption to the Anti-Trust Monopoly (Sherman Act) is the health insurance industry...........

Do you think they want any competion...go look it up.

Please don't bring up any crap about illegal aliens...blah blah blah...just look in the mirror...go to my Facebook page and see pics of MY FAMILY...I have 5 sons...they have families...only one of them has employer provided health insurance....

If other countries can do it...why cant we....

My wife is the office manager of a Law Firm...she takes a little pill every day for thyroid...non smoker, great health, no problems....but she does not qualify for individual plans from Blue Cross..at all. One of the workers that had to quit her firm had her premiums immediately escalate to over $1000.00 per month....why does she suddenly have a higher risk, after years of no problems...

Look around and see all those who are not at the town hall meetings screaming....we have jobs, we are having our checks deducted every week to pay for the healthcare of all those screamers........

Just my opinion........a level playing field for all that pay taxes as AMERICAN Citizens is all I ask

Good Morning..

I am looking at Active Rain for the first time in months. I, a former avid blogger here on Active Rain, have gotten dusty. I took a much needed break that has gained me a more diversified opinion. Real Estate is local, and I have been working, in different markets across our country. Finally, Fla, my home for all my life, is ripe for doing business again........

I look around and see a lot of new faces...and some old familiar ones..

Who are all these new people.. where were they when many of us were fighting to stay alive in a business that was in a steady decline. Were they there and just not on Active Rain...or were they lucky enought to just be getting started and missed the big fall....

I recently began calling on my "old List" of Realtor friends. Most of them now go to voice mail. That's what happens when you now have a job that does not  allow the phone to be answered at all times. (note: this was the subject of many Active Rain posts in the past!!)

As a Florida based Realtor of more than 20 years, I feel I recognise the cycles and this is the time to get back in. My background of working with investors and for my own portfolio gives me a different perspective. I have never really had the patience or political correctness to deal with families trying to buy houses:

1)That they could not afford

2) Were actually overpriced

3) And Most importantly, had little or no loyalty or consideration for my time or income.

Number three states in writing what many Realtors will not put out there...I could not be less concerned.. One of my mentors in the business only does Single Agency deals, and only works with buyers if they go under contract with him.

By the way, he did very well for over 30 years in the field...and was an active investor for good deals throughout his career, making him a bona fide millionaire many times over through his real estate holdings. He did a tremendous amount of partnering with investors with money to spend that valued his skill and knowledge. I guarantee these client/partners did not drop him or attempt to circumvent him over something as trivial as commissions.

I know the current standard way of buying a house with appraisers and banks is almost a no win...I also know that I have been involved in literally hundreds of owner financing deals...in fact most of my own deals have involved some form of owner participation. I believe its time for the old fashioned deal makers to get back in the game...most of us, however dusty, still remember how to make deals close without banks...We do however still have a strong allegiance to Lawyers......

The real value, in my opinion, of being a Realtor is the access to information. What we have to offer clients is extremely valuable, and should not be offered out to the public like candy at a home show booth. What I see is the public viewing us by the lowest common denominator.

Don't compare me and my years of investment experience to a new house wife, part time Realtor showing listings with their only concern to close a deal...any deal.  Don't compare what an experienced professional can offer with the eager beaver "Pop Tart" Realtor who will just take days and weeks of their time with those who are not qualified, and will have ZERO loyalty to that Realtor when they suddenly find a "great deal" from a FSBO.

No, I only want to work with cash investors who know what they want, and are willing to pay me to find it for them. In the last year, I have been involved in such a variety of REO Real Estate deals on a national scale, and most recently REO deals in the state of Fl. The knowledge and experience that I bring to the table now for a client is not available on books and tapes.If it was, I would have gladly paid for it rather than to have lived it....

For anyone who will follow me, I will begin to start blogging again, covering what is real and what is fantasy in the investment side of Real Estate.

I believe its time to get a shower........being dusty in the Rain leads to just being muddy....see you all later.