Take care of yourself in health,fiscal responsibility and spirit

It has been a hectic holiday season for me. Not for the usual reasons. My sister was diagnosed in October with invasive, aggressive breast cancer. This insdious disease had the audacity to enter my family! No, no family history, my sister is 44. Fourteen months ago she had a perfectly clean mammogram, two months ago she had a biopsy that revealed what they thought was 2 cm stage zero tumor. She had a lumectomy and they removed an 8cm tumor.. they did not get it all. Rather than have an additional lumpectomy and introduce more toxin(chemo and radiation) into her body she chose to have mastectomy last Friday. What a truly horrible operation, I have immense respect for anyone that has endured this. I got to be nurse to my little sister the RN last week and hopefully her results Monday will reveal not a thing left. PLEASE GET THOSE ANNUAL SCREENINGS, it may save your life.

What does all this have to do with Real Estate some of you are saying. Nothing and everything. This week off enabled me to recharge, my gracious clients let me take this time off to be with my sister, and it gave me time to get caught up and write my blog. It also gave me time to go through the 45 pages of Treasury dept rules for banks regarding short sales and ponder the effect this will have on the market in general.

To say the rules have changed in Real Estate would be like saying hurricanes make waves. These changes are Tsunami like! Bad things have always happened to good people, but we used to know a few folk that had hit hard enough times that they would lose their home. This market shift has already hit Orlando with service related/tourism related jobs. The really great Realtors are getting the education to deal with a whole different type of business model. One in three deals are not closing, due to the fiscla policies of banks that have already been bailed out or those that really aren't interested in keeping their client bases. Property values were already down 60% as of September, values have fallen an additional 10% since then. Ahome that sold new in 1996 for 72K currently has a contract offer at 79K and the last three sales in the neighborhood were 64K, 69K and 79K. The house that sold for 64K sold for 240K at the top of the market. Brevard county is holding onto its value, partly because of slower turnover value (not as busy of a market), partly because most bank owned properties do sell on the courthouse steps here.

We have a broader pool of investors that actually understand what they are getting on the steps, and there is not as much as is available. The last auction on the steps in Orlando I went to there were 66 properties, 7 investors to bid and only one person bid... me. I got a great 5 bed 3.5 bath for my investor that owed the bank 386K for $117,350. There are great deals to be had. My concern for the Brevard market is if the space industry folk have not saved enough, we will have a similar property meltdown as Orlando is experiencing. Suze Orman recommends an 8 month cushion in case of emergency, I will go further and say 14 months is more like it. If you are selling or thinking of selling make sure your agent has the Real Estate Marketing and the Financial education to get your home sold. If you are lucky enough to be buying a home in this incredible buyers market(I recommend everyone buy another with the tax credit out there until April) make sure your agent understands the available financing and how the taxes and hazard insurance will affect your payment. Do not use an agent from out of the area. Knowing an area and its drawbacks and benefits are key to helping you the buyer make a good buying decision.

Leading me to the Spirit of Real Estate. In Sales of any type you are titled as a producer. Produce or perish. I believe in higher education it is publish or perish. In my early days of Real Estate the Orlando Board required all new Realtors to take a 3 hours ethics class. I asked my broker why and she said it was required. She did remark with smirk as I exited her office "You've either got 'em or you don't" Which leads me to my trip back from my sisters. The customer service that I received from US Airways on my trip there and back had conveinced me to avoid flying them ever again if at all possible. As I opened the in-flight magazine the CEO writes the intro about this new book on the "How" that is the why of business. How we will succeed as a nation in the new economy of quicksilver change....we will exceed our customer and clients expectations. Exceed your health, friends, family, financial and your business expectations and your Spirits will exceed yourexpectations for the New Year. A very simple resolution. Happy Holidays and I would love to hear your feedback.