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Wondering where I’ve been?

I’ve been absent for a few days… I know that this post is dated 5/20, but I am actually writing it on 5/22. I’m going to get caught up. 9010 Brixham Ct.

I have still been writing… and writing a LOT. I’ve been building a different type of website for a property. And for my readers here, I’m going to give a sneak peek.

9010 Brixham Ct., Suwanee, GA 30024

The site will officially launch on 5/23, and even today I am still building it. It is the centerpiece of the marketing effort for this home. I’m pulling out all of the stops to make this house sell. It is an amazing property, and I have a history with it.

I’ll be writing more about the house and the marketing in the next few updates. I look forward to your comments…

Facing foreclosure, or worried about it?

You aren’t going to find many real estate agents that are going to say this…

You may need to talk with an agent that specializes in helping people through short sales!

And it isn’t me.

That’s right.  It isn’t me.  I don’t specialize in foreclosure mitigation or short sales.  It seems to be the “hottest” new specialty around.  Every single day I get invites for webinars, seminars and classes on “How to be a Short Sale Expert”.  And it’s making me crazy.

The reason it is making me crazy is that NOBODY is going to be a “short sale expert” just because they took a class.  These are incredibly complex transactions.  Not only is the “normal” complexity of a sale involved, but there is an added layer from dealing with the bank(s).  And that is where the problems start.

In a short sale situation, the seller is in a perilous financial situation.  They could not just lose the home, but they could be sued for deficiency judgement, face bankruptcy and lose all semblance of good credit for years.  And, bad advice could make it worse… much worse.

I know a few people that DO specialize in short sale situations.  They were handling short sales and helping sellers that were facing foreclosure before it was cool.  I’d be happy to provide a referral.  I’ve seen the end-game for not doing something.  It breaks my heart to walk into a foreclosed home and see the kids rooms and know that these kids were torn from their lives.

Here is the bottom line: If you are in trouble… or heading down the path for trouble… there are steps that CAN be taken to minimize the damage.  But, instead of watching another episode of The Office, you need to get started in taking care of the situation.  Seriously, you know if you are having trouble making your payments.  And you know it before the Sheriff shows up.  It is too late to fix it then.

BTW, I know that there are websites and “Gurus” that advise people to stop making payments and let the foreclosure process work out.  They tell people that they can save up money during the several months it takes for the bank to foreclose.  But, what these “Gurus” don’t tell people is that they WILL face bankruptcy, and likely face a deficiency judgement.  A Deficiency Judgement means that YOU might be on the hook for the difference between what your loan is and what the bank sells the house for.  So, the “Guru” may fail mention that you might end up owing tens of thousands of dollars, and not just to the bank.  Walking away can result in Imputed Income… and that means that you might end up on the hook to the IRS, too.  If the situation is handled appropriately, there are protections from Imputed Income and many banks will waive deficiency judgement.

But, you need to act.

Guy Weekend… Video Sunday

My wife is at the beach with the kids… So it is a Guy Weekend here at the Lane house.

  • Welding in the garage… I’m going to get some things done with the Jeepster…
  • Some “Guy Movies” … like a Jackie Chan flick.
  • Working. That is after all, why I didn’t go.

So, here is a little bit of Jackie Chan…

Of course, 300 is another great movie that I could watch (if I had it around here… but these are hilarious…


I hope you had a little fun…
And get out in the garage and melt some steel.

A couple of gas myths

I keep seeing so much about the high cost of gas, gas tax schemes and who is to blame.  Well, I need to toss my nickel into the fray and clear up a few things…

Let’s take the last one first, Who’s to blame? If you listen to many in front of the media’s cameras, it seems that since the oil companies are making record profits, it must be them.  Or, since George Bush and Dick Cheney used to be in the oil business, it must be them.  And there is always China…17-Caribou_no_impact

But, here is the problem.  We don’t have enough domestic supply.  We could.  But we don’t.  There are a couple of things of note that we don’t hear often enough.  A certain portion of ANWR (the 10-02 area) was set aside by legislation as an area to explore for oil… and that area is about the size of Hartsfield Airport… in an area the size of Georgia.  Or about the size of a football sitting on the on the sideline of a football field.
Creative Commons License photo credit: Erika Hall

The economically recoverable oil could replace the bulk of middle eastern oil we import for about four decades.

If we add to that the oil that we know of on the continental shelf, in the Florida Staights (that Cuba and Venezuela are getting ready to drill for… sideways under our territorial waters), the Gulf Coast of Florida and the oil off the CA coast, we could cut of most if not all unfriendly oil, provide hundreds of thousands of high paying jobs and move towards energy independence.

But Democrats in Congress, at the behest of groups like the Sierra Club block the votes on the issue.

IMG_4103Schemes to drop the gas tax sound nice, but they won’t really help.  Oddly, I have to side with Obama on this one.  McCain’s plan wouldn’t actually address anything.  Clinton’s plan is downright stupid.  She wants to “pay” for the tax holiday by levying a special tax on the oil companies.  Since the gas tax is actually more than the profit per gallon, the oil companies would have to raise the price to offset Hillary’s special tax…  Sounds nice, but it is stupid.
Creative Commons License photo credit: qqqnl

We have a serious energy issue in this country.  Corn isn’t the answer.  Slogans from special interest groups aren’t the answer.  Wind and solar sound nice, but cost WAY more than coal and nuclear power.  Oil isn’t going away, and it’s high time we start going after our own.

Into the mailbag, Part IX

I wrote a “Member’s Only” post pointed at real estate professionals on ActiveRain that was mostly a rant about one of the many emails I received in regards to email marketing.  In essence, this email said that as a real estate agent, I should be pulling back on my marketing because the market is tough…  WHT?!?

I should pull back on marketing property because it is tougher?

That seems to me to be the exact opposite of what I should do in order to make MY client’s home competitive in the market.  It seems to me that I should be making sure that the homes I have listed are effectively marketed to consumers…

So, here is the exact question:

Lane – how do you determine the marketing budget for a particular property?  Do you use a percentage of listing or the expected commission?

Here was my first answer:

That is a very tough question.  I think it has to kind of be “on the fly.”  I certainly base it on the price of the house and the size of the potential commission, but it also has to include wiggle room for the uniqueness of the property, and the properties needs.  I would say that the actual potential of completing the sale would come in, but if I don’t think it will sell, I won’t take it, so that isn’t a consideration for me.

The bottom line is that I want to budget enough to get the job done right.  For a $1m listing, I need to plan a different marketing strategy than for a $200k home.  The level of the materials plays into this as well…

Was that enough of a non-answer?

The respondent’s reply was:

Lane – too much of a non-answer 😉  I’m just curious what you would allocate for a $200,000 listing.  $1,500 would be a big marketing budget for a property of that price.

I can’t give a specific dollar amount, because situations are so different from property to property, but there are a few things that I can give as (breakable) rules.  To start with, I would love to be able to market a $200k house the same way I market a $1m home, but it is pretty dangerous.  We are in a market where less that 25% of homes that are listed are likely to sell…  I have a MUCH better percentage than that, but we still have to make business decisions in order to survive.  However, there are some things that can be done to stretch the marketing budget.

  • Single Property Blogs
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Cool Virtual Tours
  • Loads of Pictures

For the most part, these are not expensive solutions.  And, the level of production value for a $200k home is different than for a $1m home.  So, we can add some of the higher end touches to the entry level homes like:

  • Video Tours
  • Virtual Interactive Floor Plans
  • Targeted Mailings

For a high end listing, there can be a few thousand dollars invested in these things.  For an entry level listing, we would have to pull back and spend a smaller percentage… but if we have a few listings in the same subdivision, perhaps we can group them together for the mailings and other marketing.  Keeping in mind that each home is only needing ONE buyer, there may be a competition between the listings, but buyers aren’t all looking for the same home.

Bottom Line:

I can’t give a hard and fast rule, but I am VERY willing to say that even a $200k home needs a few hundred dollars in marketing, not just the $20 email blast (that is spam, BTW).  Also, utilizing economies of scale, an agent can be more competitive than someone even spending more money (like a FSBO spending all of the money they are saving on commission on marketing).

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