Fun for the Holidays

It seemed innocent enough. Seven Friends opening a board game called Diplomacy. We took the game seriously, seeking to win at all costs. The only way to win the game is to adapt, engage, betray (only at the right time),ally and do what ever it takes to conquere the world.

We know we are not really like these alter egos we have created; Perry the loud and two faced, Steven the manipulator, Arron the innocent, Ben the trusted (for the next 10 turns), Ethan the slow to trust, Sean the ultimate betrayer (who by the way won the game), and Alex the betrayed. As of today, Alex still hasn't recovered from the depth of Sean's betrayal.

This was the fifth annual get together of this group. For a very sick, deep reason, we want to continue this tradition. Todd taught Perry and Sean how to do it online. Since everyone is spread out from Kansas City, Nashville, Colorado, and Louisville, we want to play online during the year.

Mayor Abramson speaks on Forclosures

I was listening to Market watch on NPR public radio as I am wont to do on a Tuesday night right before my bible study starts and lo and behold I find our illustrious mayor Abramson who is out of town on a mayor conference speaking about how this year, in 2007, with a population of 700,000 we have 3500 recorded bank foreclosures up from 2000 last year. Of course, this looks like nothing short of opportunity for my customers and me. The banks 30 year fixed rate today is 6.20% ! Now is the time to purchase property. When we buy our cloths at the mall we purchase when the price is down or when things are on sale. We should do the same with our real estate purchases. We will be kicking ourselves in 2 years we are back in a sellers market when our homes are worth a premium and we wished we had an extra house to sell.

By the way, here is our latest listing.

Interest Loans are at a great level

Hey gang! Check out these numbers! I was going thru my tenant property list and found one 2nd mortgage at 9.25%. With market rates at these levels we can't afford not to refinance some of those adjustable rates that got away from us. Lynn and I will be talking to a couple of mortgage brokers and bankers in the next couple of weeks to discuss strategies about how to help our clients navigate around some of these mortgage issues that might rise up. Also we want to see some of the most resent products mortgage brokers have to offer. If you have questions don't hesitate to call us.

The Keller Williams Office is Profitable

Here it is. This Keller Williams Office is a year and a half old. We have been profit sharing for several months now. We just found out we are one of the top 7 most producing offices in Louisville Kentucky by the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors. I got so excited about the news I blew off some steam by riding around on Janis' scooter cooler.
Oh my but it was a wonderful day.

I've been toying with this as some kind of a logo for the web. I don't like the way it looks, so we're not going to use it. The house is good. The logo is good, they just don't don't fit together.

There was a lunch this week. Several people from Keller Williams were there. We filled up three and a half tables at the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors Annual luncheon. We were a bit loud and proud. The reason for all the excitement was the fact that our company, Keller Williams Louisville Kentucky is one of the top 7 most productive offices in Louisville Kentucky. The amazing thing is we are only a year and a half old.


This is our latest listing

Opportunity Knocks

The housing market has really been in an upheaval over the last year. The press is going on and on about a housing crisis. There language is very dramatic, as I imagine it must be to sell papers. They use words like crisis, upheaval and crash. They talk about housing bubbles bursting and price declining and panic in the streets. It's enough for me to consider being nervous if it weren't for the facts.

The truth of it is there are three times the inventory of listings in Louisville compared to what most of us have been used to in the past. We can see that by all the for sale signs in our neighborhood. It seems like they are everywhere and sit on the market forever. It is as you may have heard. It's a buyers market.

With three times the inventory, a home buyer can get downright spoiled with all the choices they have out there. Since the inventory sits, they take their time putting an offer on a property. They can. There was a day gone by when we needed to get that offer in or we would lose the house. Not so much today. To compound the problem, they also have a house to sell. So they get excited, put an offer on a house only to lose it because they can't perform. Ouch.

Most Realtors and homeowners are hurt and feel victimized by the current market and don't know what to do about it.

My wife Lynn and I understand what kind of market this is and we love it. As the saying goes, "for every cloud there is a silver lining." For every obstacle, there is an opportunity. This market is no exception. Let's look at the numbers again.

Even though there is three times the inventory than we are used to more than a year ago, the amount of homes that sold this year are higher than last year. So, even though the inventory is enormous, there are plenty of homes selling. In fact, there are more. Looking at the inventory, the best third is selling. The best third are created typically by excellent real estate agents.

Our team has adopted a strategy to get a listing ready for the market to get the most amount of money for the seller in the least amount of time. We average eight home sales a month and are actually selling faster and getting more money for our customers this year than we did last year.

We adopt a strategy for selling the clients house based on the current market. Lynn is a listing expert. One reason Lynn is an expert in residential home sales is because she is specialist in pricing the home. Armed with data and over 12 years of high volumed experience she prices the home and stages the home for sale with resources to present the home to the market in it's most favorable light.

We hire a professional photographer, writers and stagers to get the home ready for the market. Then we market the property to every conceivable arena where a buyer can be found. Most buyers are online so our homes are on over 200 sites that allow listings to appear. We have three full time buyer real estate agents on our team committed to finding a buyer for our clients home. We take the fiduciary relationship we have with our clients to sell their home very seriously and will do everything we can to sell their home quickly for the most amount of money.

Once an offer comes to the table. Lynn negotiates the offer. We won't recommend accepting contingency contracts. Why would we accept a contract contingent upon the sale of a buyers house selling? Extraneous circumstances aside, a contingency contract essentially takes the sellers house off the market or out of the hands of a legitimate buyer to get every one's hopes up only to crash when the buyer can't perform on the contract because their house can't sell. There are plenty of contracts that are acceptable to our sellers besides contingencies that we are more than willing to work with. We will even suggest a contract that will work best for the buyers so they get a win win deal.

Even in a buyers market plenty of homes are being sold. It may mean you need to work harder. It may mean you have to choose your real estate agent more carefully. You may be asking them tougher questions and ultimately hiring an agent with more experience. But the market does not dictate our level of success. All it does is dictates our strategies. If, on our way to work, we find it's raining, we don't go home and quit and play the victim. We grab our umbrellas, even if we still get a little wet. Our listings sell much faster than the average listing in Louisville. Our goal is nothing less than getting the most amount of money in the least amount of time for our clients.

Call us today 502 371-1173 for a no obligation conversation to find out what your home is worth. For more information about homes in the Louisville market visit www.athomeinlouisville.com

Oh my what a laugh

This is how I feel everytime I hear what a bad real estate market this is. I've coalessed my thoughts as I've decompressed from Mega camp and will release it in our newspaper, "At Home In Louisville." The one comming up is the September edition. I'll also make sure and get it on the blog.- Perry

What an amazing couple of days

We are in Mega camp in Austin with Keller Williams and learned about blogging. What an amazing technology. So this is the first post ever. So I'm marking this as an historic occasion.