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

My favorite part of my real estate career has always involved teaching my clients what I know about real estate. So I suppose it isn't much of a stretch to figure I would also love teaching new agents how to be the best at their new career. There are some who might figure that now, the strangest time we have seen in real estate in quite some years, might not be the best time for a new agent to begin a career in our industry. I beg to differ.

As my mentor told me when I began my career in 1980 and prime rate hit a high of 21%, “you don't know what it was like to sell real estate before this so how can it get in your way now?”

Granted, the entry level materials are a little more expensive. I had my newly minted brokers license along with a pad of paper, a nice pen and an HP calculator. Today a new agent needs a license, a computer and software plus at least six months of living expense tucked away.

But the most important thing I had was my mentor. He was also my broker-in-charge. He set me on the right path from day one and I have never looked back. I sold houses with 16, 17, 19 or 21% interest rates because I didn't know that was impossible. He is still a dear and trusted friend.

Today I am the mentor. I am thrilled to be part of the start of a new agent's career. There is absolutely nothing in the buying and selling process I will not include them in with my client's permission. I know that many real estate agents are generally loathe to share their “secrets of success” but I prefer to think of it as adding future value to our industry. I have always shared techniques, skills and experiences with colleagues, inside my company and out, and I can't say I have ever been put at a disadvantage or lost a client because of it. If you are a great agent there is plenty of business to go around.

I'm training a new agent these days and I know that I will continue to take opportunities to do so for a long time. The fun of doing it may even extend my “retirement”, when that day comes, because I really only do this for a living for one reason...I love it and I want to help others love it too.

There is one little selfish reason though. At the end of an eight hour day last week, when my first time home buyers, my new agent and I were debriefing after a long day of looking at homes, the new agent was ready to take her leave of us. She turned to the buyers and thanked them for allowing her to be included. Then she said “You have a great agent!” They beamed and said “We know.” After 30 plus years in this ever changing, always interesting industry; I know how to take a compliment.

I have a very special group of clients who show up in Chapel Hill every May. I've worked with them for many years now and I cannot tell you how much I enjoy them. Living in a university town has lots of perks but for me one of the best one is the opportunity to work with the young medical residents coming to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill every year to begin their specialized studies in obstetrics and gynecology.

Every spring is a blur for me as I work non-stop for several weeks getting the incoming residents into homes appropriate for their new lives. Many have spouses or soon-to-be spouses who come with them and quite a few of them will begin families during the four years they are here so, in addition to being affordable and reasonably close to the hospitals, they need all the things in a home that a growing family requires. They have a very small window between "matching" (the process by which they are notified that they have been accepted into the program at UNC) and starting their residency. In a matter of weeks they must find a home, close on it, move to North Carolina, set up housekeeping and take a much needed break between med school and the non-stop intensity of residency. I also make it a point to educate them on how to care for the home in order to make sure they can sell it as quickly as they had to buy it.

At the same time I am diligently working to get the homes of the outgoing class on the market so they can go on to their next phase of life and career. My four year commitment to them includes being their point of contact for anything they need done on their home (their schedules do not permit interviewing and waiting around for contractors and repair folks) and culminates in making sure they have the smoothest possible sale at a time when they are once again going through major life changes.

It is exciting to be part of this time in their lives. I have enjoyed their friendship and meeting many of their proud parents; folks my age who are just so grateful to know that someone is available to assist their child with a transition that is difficult at best, even when it isn't taking place hundreds or thousands of miles away from home. It is also a time of very mixed emotion for me as I know that my only contact with many of the outgoing class will be via Facebook, birth announcements and holiday cards.

So this year I sent out an e-vite to one and all and invited them to bring their families and come on over to my house for an afternoon bar-b-que. What a blast we had! I fully intended to take pictures and brag to you all about what wonderful people they are, how beautiful their children are and what great successes they will be in their careers.

But something happened as they all came through my front door. They were just so happy to be together (let's just say down time is at a premium for them) and so inspiring to talk to and so RELAXED that I simply wanted to soak up the moment and not spend it recording it on film for others. What good is served by documenting that they made time to come hang out with their Realtor, that they enjoyed each others' company, that they may have had an adult beverage on a hot day? Some things are not for public consumption.

There are many of their generation who choose to share their lives in very public ways via all manner of social media. These young folks have chosen to share their lives in a way that truly serves their communities and I, for one, want to allow them whatever privacy they can possibly maintain. For me that means not even asking them if I can post pictures of them...I simply chose not to even take them!

My email this morning contained a truly disheartening message...the Executive Director of my local Board of Realtors has found it necessary to convey the following:

It has come to the Association's attention that sellers are being asked to sign post-dated contracts to April 30 so buyers can take advantage of the Homebuyer Tax Credit.

This is an illegal practice and constitutes fraud.

The North Carolina Real Estate Commission will be posting information about this issue through Facebook and Twitter later today.

I am appalled. This would never have occurred to me...never. I am not naive and have been practicing North Carolina real estate for over 30 years. Which part of “our reputation and integrity is everything” are some folks missing here?

Now, I am quite sure this is not just something a North Carolina agent cooked up and sadly, I am sure, now that I think about it, that there were plenty of folks across the country who probably counted on doing this all along. Shame on them.

I have spent the first 4 months of this year working as hard as I have ever worked to ensure that those buyers who wanted to take advantage of the Homebuyer Tax Credit got every opportunity to do so, up to and including referring them to another agent in order to get the job done for them. I'm tired. To find out that I have colleagues (and I use that term loosely) who would suggest or consider engaging in fraud in order to accomplish what I have accomplished, just makes me mad.

How humiliating that Facebook and Twitter will now be used by the NC Real Estate Commission to get the word out to “the world” that some real estate practitioners have no integrity and would even consider compromising their clients and jeopardize their transactions.

Once they have slammed the door of your jail cell don't call me for sympathy. I'm fresh out.

I was going to begin a new marketing strategy this week because it has always seemed so successful for other Realtors.

Then I saw this article by Sam Cone in today's Onion called I Wasn't Going To Buy This House Until I Saw The Realtor's Headshot On The Sign. I think he might be joking but I wanted your opinion. Should I go with my new strategy?

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.