SarahGray Lamm ~ Chapel Hill / Carrboro / Durham Real Estate Blog ~ Agent Outlier

I have lots of young clients who accomplish awesome things. This young woman ranks really high on my list of courageous people. She works for Duke University as a scrub nurse and was invited to accompany a team of Duke doctors and nurses who went down to Haiti to assist the victims of the horrendous earthquake for 10 days. She didn't hesitate to say yes. Her family and friends supported her decision and her two young daughters have another reason to know their mom is a hero.

She isn't the one talking in this video, she is the one in the ladybug scrub cap and you will never recognize her on the street. But I know her and I'm really proud to say I do.

Back in August I had a featured post which was about a wonderful blog I had run across from a real person...a young woman by the name of Molly who blogged about her search for a new home in Charlotte, NC. It was a great read and many of you stopped by her blog and subscribed to hear the rest of her tale.

It was disappointing (but terribly understandable) that with everything going on in her life PLUS a home search, she wasn't posting minute by minute updates for us eavesdropping real estate agents, in her unique style, about every detail of her experience...would have LOVED to follow that!

Well, Molly did find a home! She eventually posted a short blog that indicated she had moved in.

Then the unthinkable happened. On December 29, 2009, her new home was broken into and her beloved beagle was injured in the process.

I'm sick for her. She is very, very angry and it has colored how she looks at things. Who could blame her? She posted her first blog article of the new year about the experience and she called it Horrible. It is horrible...and I wish we could make it better.

Maybe a little moral support is in order and a prayer or two that she regains some of the "new home bliss" that was robbed from her along with the television. Realtors can surely understand better than most how much she has been violated.

By now I'm sure you've heard that we will have a "Blue Moon" tonight, New Years Eve. How cool is that? We not only get a new year and a new decade but we get an extra moon...a blue moon...to boot!

We use the term Blue Moon more often nowadays than the names of the other  twelve moons. The Harvest Moon is probably the second best known. There's the Hunter Moon and the Gibbous Moon. Are you surprised to know that the Egg Moon is around Easter?

The moon won't really be blue. That only happens, well, once in a blue moon. To make the moon appear truly blue you need an atmospheric influence like, say, the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. But this "extra moon" is called a Blue Moon. Back when the calendar was aligned with the seasons and based on the phases of the moon (moon = month) folks planted and harvested crops based on the appearance of the Early, Mid or Late Moon in a season. Based on the calendar year, a Blue Moon (or a month with two moons) comes along about every 2.8 years more or less. That extra moon (or the third moon in a season with four if you prefer the seasonal way of doing things) was called a Blue Moon so as not to have to rename the Late Moon. That doesn't make them quite as rare as a truly blue moon but still...a Blue Moon on New Years Eve hasn't happened since 1990 and won't happen again until 2028.

So tonight we have an extra full moon, the second one of December 2009. Heaven knows we can certainly use a little something 'extra' to make 2009 memorable for more than loss, economic hardship, wars, crazy folks and ne'er-do-wells.

I'll take a beautiful full moon on the very last night of the year and hope it bodes well for us all. Here's hoping your blue moon turns to gold in 2010 - just like the song says!

Reference: Folklore of the "Blue Moon"

Fathers teach their children many things and in many ways. Sometimes they teach by example and sometimes by parable, but always fathers teach what they value…what matters most to them. My father taught me that home matters.

As a child everyone I was related to lived, with only rare exception, in the same town; the same five mile radius, actually. Those relatives who had ventured out of town were expected to come home at holidays. We did not go to them. It wasn’t even considered. Holidays at home mattered.

I grew up knowing the homes in town by the families who lived in them, most often having built them, and my family was no exception. Every family home had a pen and ink drawing of it hanging on the wall. Homes were the trademark of the family; the tangible evidence of belonging.

After my parents wed they moved in with my father’s mother until my father could build their marital home…next door. My folks moved into our new home when I was six months old and it is the home all three of us children were raised in until we left as adults. That home was planned down to the last tiny detail by my father, who oversaw its’ design and construction. Every room was planned around how his growing family would use it; a child’s bedroom near the master bedroom for the newest arrival, an upstairs bedroom large enough to serve as a playroom but with back stairs to the breakfast room, the better to call us to a meal in our pajamas. There was a library for study and games, a sunroom with the perfect place for a Christmas tree and a formal dining room large enough for dinners with extended family and guests.

Our home was filled with furnishings passed down from family through generations. Every piece had sentimental value and we children were taught the provenance of each. It mattered that we knew which great grandparent, which grandparent had owned each item, how they had procured it and where it had stood in their home.

I grew up watching my father care lovingly for our home. I knew what architectural features were his favorites and how they were constructed and maintained. I learned how to care for a home with the change of seasons and I watched him plant the garden and plan our future. Our home mattered because his family mattered.

When I bought my first home at the age of twenty-three, my parents immediately began to pass on family possessions to me in order to make my new house a home. I had just made my lifetime career choice. I was a newly minted real estate agent. What else would I have done? My father didn’t suggest I become a Realtor but what better choice of career is there for someone who was taught from birth how very important a home is to a family.

By my father’s loving words and patient example he handed me my family's history as well as my future. Home matters. I miss you Daddy, give Mother a big hug for me.

Are you the Ultimate Carolina Panthers Fan? Here's an opportunity you won't want to miss!

My company, Allen Tate Realtors, is offering a chance to win Four Lower Level Tickets to the Carolina vs. New Orleans football game on January 3, 2010! And not just tickets but the Ultimate Fan Package includes Field Passes, an autographed Panthers Jersey AND a 42" LG Plasma HDTV!

I would love to hear that one of my clients or real estate blog readers is the Ultimate Fan! You do need to be a resident of NC or SC so if you aren't but know someone who lives in one of our beautiful states, send them a link to my blog post! (Maybe you can get them to agree to take you to the game with them!) Or better yet maybe you'd like to buy some NC real estate...why miss these great opportunities! Good Luck!

You know that look on your doctor’s face when you say something like“I think I have a thyroid problem because I looked up my symptoms on WebMD and I figure I’ll be on meds now for the rest of my life. What do you think?”

Admit it, we’ve all gone running to the computer, logged on to WebMD and started selecting from the menu of questions designed to help determine what is wrong with us. You’ve ignored a symptom for too long. No time to be sick. So what are you to do when you decide enough is enough…you just have to make an appointment. Of course you’ll have to wait for weeks to get in and then wait for the test results to come in. Why not just head on over to WebMD and get yourself a quick diagnosis…you know help the process along, point the doc in the right direction, start getting a handle on your future.

If your doctor is as polite as mine, she will just smile (it might be a little tight…not sure) and just keep listening to your theories as she continues to listen to your heart, check your vitals and ask specific questions about when you first noticed this or that. She will not even roll her eyes as you suggest possible new medications you saw in a magazine ad or which a friend suggested (you know a friend with exactly the same disease.)

Being a gracious person she will not remind you that she has an advanced degree in medicine and that she has seen lots of folks with your complaint but that her experience and training have taught her to look at you as an individual and not as a bag of symptoms. She will not remind you that you are really good at what you do for a living and so is she; that you might be best served by letting her do what she does best…diagnosing your illness and deciding the treatment methodology. No, she will simply get on with it; quietly run her tests, ask her questions and explain to you the best course of action for your particular situation.

She is an experienced professional and will not be swayed by the opinion of a computer program, no matter how sophisticated, and available to everyone on the web. That’s why you trust her with your body and well; your life.

Then it hits you that, like your doctor, your professionalism and experience are the ‘value add’, the intangible asset, the lens through which your clients view you, and the reason they call on you for real help in your area of expertise. WebMD, like WebLawyer, WebAccountant or all those WebREALTOR sites are simply places for us all to go in the evening or on the weekend when we decide we just have to move forward on that nagging, back burner issue. Isn’t that what all this technology is for? No one has to wait anymore to ask a burning question.

The common denominator on all of these sites is that once you’ve reached the “conclusion” of your search, there is always a disclaimer, a recommendation to ‘seek the advise of a professional’, a reminder that the information provided is general and informational in nature and not intended for you to base important decisions on.

The lesson learned is that just because I can read for hours online about how others have handled their particular situation and what they suggest I consider doing in mine, doesn’t mean that the best answer for them is the best answer for me. I have a doctor whom I chose because she is experienced, skilled and thankfully, tactful. I trust her to work in my best interest regardless of how much website “help” I offer her.

I sold my doctor’s home for her and helped her when she bought her new one. Funny, she never once mentioned that she could have done it on her own if only she had had more time to surf the web. No, she simply trusted my professionalism and experience. I think I’ll stop diagnosing myself on WebMD. After all, I have an experienced professional M.D. who knows more about me and my health than I can possibly learn on the web.

For experienced and skillful assistance when buying or selling a home in Chapel Hill / Carrboro and Durham I offer you my professional services. I promise to tactfully and graciously answer all of your questions and look out only for your best interest.

I have a confession to make; I ‘get’ Facebook. I really do. I admit that when I first heard that I, as a real estate agent, should’ be on Facebook, I was seriously skeptical. But my business partner, whose job it is to market me and my listings, told me that I needed to give it a chance because if it was going to work I would just have to do it and figure out why after the fact. I trust her so I did it.

Here’s what I know now. I am not on Facebook because I am a real estate agent. I am a real estate agent who is on Facebook. First of all, I do not and have never ‘friended’ just anyone who asks. I have my profile page pretty restricted. You can’t read my wall posts or get info about me unless I let you in! Counterintuitive to real estate, you say? Not really. I’m not looking to meet new people on Facebook. I’m looking to stay connected to people I already know!

I signed up, put up a professional profile picture (who knew… if this would become a HUGE referral source I didn’t want to be looking like my cat or my baby self at 5 years old.) Then I started scrolling through the friend suggestions Facebook automatically makes based on my (selectively provided) personal information. The first folks I ‘friended’ were other agents in my company. (Still not seeing how this was going to be a great referral source.) But then some of my sorority sisters from UNC started popping up! Great! I’d find one or two and then scroll through their friends and find more folks I hadn’t thought about in years! Then my high school friends started appearing; the adult children of my friends, my neighbors, people I know in my community. This was getting addicting.

Guess what? Everyone I know has a life, career, family, children, grandchildren and interests they’ve developed since I saw them last. Go figure. Facebook is not a place to hang your shingle. It is a place to connect with and learn more about the people you know. When I run into people I haven’t seen in years now, the conversation is different. Instead of “Hey! How are you? How’s it going?” “Great. Good…nice to see you.” We‘re immediately talking about vacation pics just posted, new grandchildren, new ventures and shared sorrows. I know what you’re up to because you posted it and therefore I’m part of your life again.

You still don’t get how this works for your business? OK, don’t join Facebook. I promise it won’t work if you aren’t interested in your ‘friends’ and their lives. But let me share a few things:

• My oldest friends have kids who need places to live at UNC.
• My college friends occasionally look for investment property in Chapel Hill.
• The friends who find out I still have a family home at the beach want to know how the real estate market is at the coast.
• My real estate friends from my hometown have business they need to refer to the Triangle.
• My clients who became friends and have moved away meet people who are coming to the Raleigh Durham area.
• My young clients ‘friend’ me after closing and I can see how they are doing with new jobs, careers, marriages and children so I know when life is leading them toward a lifestyle change.
• I know which of my friends are in industries I need to connect with, whether for business or personal reasons, and we can network to help each other succeed.

Shall I stop now or do you need me to keep going? Still don’t want to Facebook? Then by all means, don’t. There are many things I will never do because I don’t enjoy them. I would stay on Facebook now even if I never received a real estate related call. If you’ve been avoiding Facebook because you don’t ‘get it’… jump in and give it a try. If it’s going to work you’ll figure out why after the fact.

It’s the newest marketing advice in real estate! And probably car sales and insurance sales and any other sales you can think of…’become their trusted advisor.’

Don’t get me wrong. It’s great advice and those who are giving it are correct. But some folks seem to skip over the first word in that advice…BECOME. I am not your ‘trusted advisor’ because I use that term to describe myself on my webpage. I am not your ‘trusted advisor’ because you typed that keyword into a search engine and I came up. I am not even your trusted advisor because I am trusted by others. Not yet...

Trusted advisors are parents, teachers, mentors and friends. People who really know us; who really care about our happiness and want us to succeed and make good decisions. Until such time as I should fall into one of the above categories, I am a salesperson; plain and simple. You are not confused.

How people choose or learn to trust others is as individual as we are. Some folks naturally trust others unless that trust is betrayed. Others naturally distrust everyone until they prove otherwise. Some simply withhold judgment and wait to decide based on a gut level feeling or a telling moment when they know they have a reason to believe. Some never trust anyone and there is nothing I can say or do to change that.

So why should you allow me to advise you? Why should you accept that I am working in your best interest? Why should you even consider that I could be worthy of your trust at any point? I have no idea. Seriously. That’s between you and your gut and you have to live with your decisions just like I live with mine.

What I can tell you is that you are welcome to bring someone you trust with you when we get together to decide if we should work together. They are always welcome to tag along and see the home that you can’t seem to get out of your mind so you can benefit from their trusted opinion. You are welcome to talk to my clients and ask them how they liked working with me. You are welcome to ask me how I would handle a hypothetical situation so you can determine if my knowledge and experience are something you would like to leverage in your own interest. In short you are welcome to do whatever it takes for you to reach whatever level of trust you determine is necessary in order to decide if you want to hire me to help you accomplish your goals. It’s really that simple.

My goal is simple as well. It is to advise you skillfully and knowledgably and offer you my hard earned wisdom so that when you have achieved your real estate goal and are basking in the happy glow of a mission accomplished, you will say, “Thanks, SarahGray, I appreciate everything you did for me and I will be happy to tell anyone considering hiring you that you have earned my trust!”

Sweeter words a salesperson never heard!

I've worked with more than a dozen "first timers' this year and not one of them brought up the $8000 Tax Credit as a reason that they are in the market! Not a single one!

This is not really surprising if you think about it. Just because we, as real estate professionals, see this as an opportunity, doesn't mean it is making the TOP THREE or even TOP TEN reasons these folks are buying. (Just because MY RSS feeds stream real estate related info 24/7 doesn't mean anyone else's do...)

The top reasons my first time buyers are buying:

1. They have a new job or a new life and want to live in a house!
2. They recognize that home prices and interest rates are lower than they have ever seen before.
3. They can look at homes in towns and neighborhoods that previously were not affordable for them.

The top reasons my non-first time buyers are buying:

1. They have a new job or a new life and need to move!
   
2. They recognize that home prices and interest rates are lower than they have ever seen before and they want to take advantage of that and move UP!
   
3. They can look at homes in towns and neighborhoods that previously were not affordable for them so they want to sell and move UP!

The ONLY thing new in these lists are #2 and #3. Period.

But I'll tell you what the Tax Credit does do!

It makes me look really good when I suggest, while they are basking in the glow of an accepted contract, that they might like to consider ammending their 2008 tax return in order to get some money back from the government! You'd think I had just put a cherry on top of their milkshake!

The recent debate over on Norma Toering’s post about whether or not a plasma tv attached to the wall is a fixture or not reminds me of a sale I had earlier this year. It all ended well and never degenerated into a “war” but it did bring up some issues that will very likely need clarification in our contracts sooner rather than later!

My seller and I had discussed at time of listing that his audio/video system, which was controlled from a special closet in the Family Room, would likely be a point of discussion or negotiation when the right buyer came along. Not only was the plasma TV mounted on the wall but there was other equipment involved and the complex system controlled entertainment in some of the Bedrooms as well as the Living Room and Kitchen. He was more than willing to consider leaving the system “with the right offer.”

Sure enough, when our best offer arrived, it included the system with a caveat that if the seller would not leave the system, he would repair the damage made by removing it. Fair enough. We asked the buyer’s agent which option the buyer preferred. He preferred keeping the system so we set about negotiating a price for the home that would allow the seller to feel alright about leaving the system in place. We got to a bottom line figure and I conveyed it to the buyer’s agent who called me to say she and her client were having a hard time understanding the figure as her buyer “could go buy a flat screen TV at Best Buy for a few hundred dollars.”

"Yes, he could." I replied, "But that isn’t where the value lies." If you have ever had a complex audio/video system installed in your home, you know that the last issue is how much the TV is worth. I explained that there is a lot of time and expertise involved in selecting compatible components, programming them to work together and then learning how to operate the system. (I addressed this awhile ago in another post.) The buyer’s agent said she was unaware of this and would convey it to her client.

When they came back to us, the contract now included complicated language requesting that the seller agree to repair or replace any defective audio/video equipment found by the “home inspector” at his expense. Okay….except I am not aware that there are any licensed home inspectors out there who would consent to “inspect” a complicated audio/video system much less how we would agree that he/she was “qualified” to do so!

I picked up the phone and called the buyer’s agent and just asked her to share with me what, exactly, the buyer was attempting to accomplish. She said he really wanted the system, especially now that he knew what could be involved in replacing the components, but wanted to be sure that the system really worked “as advertised”!

It was an easy thing to work out once we all understood each other’s point of view! The seller simply agreed to show the agent and the buyer how the system worked during the home inspection and then agreed to come back after the buyer moved in and spend a couple of hours teaching him how to use it!

The deal closed, everyone is happy! But I can absolutely see that as this new technology becomes prevalent in many more homes these issues will need to be addressed! I can foresee professional AV equipment installers, like the one I wrote about in my previous post, who will have a new opportunity for business as an “AV expert” who can provide an opinion about the value and functionality of a system. I’ve seen these systems run into the thousands, even tens of thousands, and there will need to be some accommodations made for “fixtures” with such high value!

As ever, dealing with the issue up front, during the listing appointment, and then asking for the motivation of the parties during negotiations and resolving them creatively, will get you farther down the road than anything else!