The Long and Winding Road

Wilmington, Ohio, Clinton County, a unique little place. It sits in the center of the triangle which is Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, right off of I-71.

Wilmington is the county seat, and is centrally located within in the county. Other towns in the county are Blanchester - south west of Wimington, New Vienna - south east of Wilmington, Sabina - north east of Wilmington, Port William to the north and Lynchburg to the south.

Several state and US highways converge at the city center but which came first, the city or the highways I don't know.

Wilmington was founded by Quakers around 1807 so we are soon to celebrate our bi-centennial. Quakers also founded Wilmington College, a small private college.

Clinton County is also the home of Southern State Community College which is a great place to get your associates degree then transfer to a four year. Southen State also has a satellite in Hillsboro.

Clinton County, although still considered an agricultural county, has many industries, not least of these is the DHL hub. (Bright yellow bananas with wings soar to the sky day and night.)

Clinton County also has many industries. Huhtamki Plastics in New Vienna; New Sabina Industries in Sabina; Ferno Washington, AStar and Airborne Express are based in the Industrial Airpark, also home to DHL; Kautex, and several others.

The airport that houses all of the airfreight delivery services used to be a US Airforce Base which is the main reason that Wilmington started growing in the fifties and sixties (that good ol' Cold War era.)

It closed and lay dormant for awhile until a small puddle jumping airline needed a place to set up a business flying cancelled checks around Ohio. This little concern saved Wilmington from drying up and blowing away. From this little business grew Airborne Express and from that DHL came up from Cincinnati to move their hub to Wilmington, again saving Wilmington because ABX was sliding down the charts.

Wilmington and the surrounding areas have many name brand restaurants, fast food places, a Wal-Mart (of course) and lots of small privately owned businesses.

Lake Cowan State Park is one of Clinton County's main recreational draws with people coming from Cincinnati and other surrounding areas to camp, boat and swim. Caesar's Creek Lake is also close by and is another nice state park.

Also, Majestic Springs is a nice privately owned golf course. Then there is the YMCA, Curves and a new locally owned and operated fitness club.

Wilmington,Ohio is the place you oughta be so load up your truck and move to our Counteee!!

With a Little Help From My Friends

If you are a fortunate realtor, you gain more than money during your career. You gain friends.

I have been blessed with (for the most part) very good clients. I get to know them fairly well during the few months that we work together. That is why, in some ways, a closing can be a bit of a let down. You know that that family with those cute kids are going to be on their way and not look back. Or that young gal who is striking out on her own will not give you a backward glance.

That is why most of my closings have ended with a hug. I initiate it and my people reciprocate because they appreciate the fact that we have worked together as a team and that I have taken a genuine interest in their family and their needs.

That first hug came quite spontaneously. I really don't know from whence it came. So because of that, I knew at that moment that I truly cared for my people and that I would always carry that with me. Sometimes a handshake is more appropriate, but it is still very much heart felt.

The above pictured book was a gift from that young gal that was striking out on her own. She was seeking to buy her first home; an endeavor that she knew she could do on her own without the aid of a husband or boyfriend. She was a very strong, very centered young woman working in the local publishing company, Orange Frazer Press, which her mother had started years ago. This was the first gift I had ever received from a client. (As a realtor, we are the ones that give gifts to the client.) We have even talked on the phone on occasion. As a result of this gift, we are now giving them as closing gifts.

Another friend that I have picked up along the way is the fellow that buys dumps to fix up and rent. Over the last couple years we have learned that we have a lot in common such as attending Ohio University and having a background in art. He is now renovating my bathroom.

I have also struck up an aquaintance with another renovator that bought a dump from me and will have me list it to sell when it is finished. (I just drove by there and it looks great!) His siding company is working on my front porch.

You might think that all of this is just simple networking but I see it as more than that. I see my clients as people, not dollar signs. Okay, I am not so altruistic as to say, "I don't care about making money, I just love to sell houses." But we all should be aware of how we affect other's lives and how fortunate we are when other's lives affect ours.

Yellow Submarine

Keeping motivated in a slow market is difficult to say the least. Any realtor knows that the housing market is a bit like the stock market. It has its ups and downs but for the most part it is a good investment.

One of my big bug-a-boos when it comes to news about the stock market is when it takes a plummet, you hear that so-in-so lost a million dollars last week. Well, so-in-so did not lose anything. You can only lose something if you actually are in possesion of it. Stock, unlike houses, is a paper commodity. On paper, your stock is worth a lot but unless you sell high all you have is a piece of paper.

Houses, on the other hand are real. I guess that's why they call it real estate. A house is the biggest investment that the majority of Americans make. (Don't let the pundits tell you that the majority of Americans own stock. Poppy cock! Whatever stock they own is probably tied up in a 401K in which they may or may not ever get fully vested. Fully vested means that after a period of time, the money that their employer has "matched" actually becomes theirs. In the mean time it belongs to their employer.)

With that said, your home is your biggest investment. So when the housing market drops it hurts. It hurts you, it hurts the bank, it hurts inspectors, it hurts any company that has anything to do with real estate and that is a lot. Therefore, keeping your home is very important as I have written about in a previous posting.

I am not a big listing realtor. It used to bother me but these days it is a blessing. It is hard to explain to your client why their home is not selling. Even if you go through the blah blah of the housing market it doesn't do them any good; their house still hasn't sold.

I have 1 1/2 listings right now. One is all mine; the "half" is a co-listing - the home is listed by both myself and another realtor in the office. (Co-listing is a strange critter. Why co-list when it means you have to split your commission with someone else? It works both ways. The seller gets 2 for the price of one which hopefully means better service and communication. The agents benefit because one may be able to actually get more listings but the other may have more time to service them. In my case of the "half" listing, I had made the initial contact, did the comparative market analysis, made the presentation, and discussed with the homeowner all the things that needed to be done to make the home look its best. Then the owner called a co-worker to list the home. My good co-worker was gracious enough to include me; for that I am very grateful.)

In short (okay, when I start writing, keeping it short is a struggle), motivation is key. Many aspects hang on many factors. Helping your clients through a difficult market is part of the job but the other part of the job is helping to keep the other agents in your office motivated, too. When I first got started in real estate I would get really discouraged; it is hard to make your presence known. But I had people behind me saying, "Hang in there! You can do it!" And I did.

So right now, I am helping to put together a motivational program. Nothing so cheesy as those dips you see on TV. This will be fun as it is built around a luau theme. (Okay, cheesy is a relative concept). Why help your potential rivals? Because when the tide rises, all the boats rise with it. And when the tide falls, all the boats fall, too. We all live in a........

Live and Let Die

Fridays can get a little crazy at Bennett Realty. Not that there is a lot going on, especially in this dead market, but we tend to loosen up a bit and even the broker starts getting a little giddy. I hear him on the phone with a prospect and his cackle can be heard down the halls.

One of the many hats that I wear around hear is that of the official virtual tour taker. Virtual tours are fun little things that we put on our website and on the MLS so people can see what a house looks like without actually going to look at it. Some brokerages have balked at this idea, but at Bennett Realty we like our technology. The argument against virtual tours is, by not having physical contact with a human being, one cannot sell a home. Sell as in "Hey, wanna buy this house?"

However, if you are reading this, you know that technology is here, get used to it. Once you get over that hurdle you begin to treat the internet and all of its treasures as just another tool to help you do business, like a telephone or advertising.

So what about these virtual tours? For me personally, it gives me the chance to see just about every home we have on the market, the better for me to answer questions from potential clients. For other realtors it saves time, gas and shoe leather because you are not toting people around to look at houses that they won't like. For the potential client it saves time and shoe leather because they are not being toted around to look at houses they won't like. Hummmmm...sounds like it works both ways.

Virtual tours are just an overlapping series of pictures that software puts together to give the illusion that you are walking through a house.

So in this dead market, when all you can hear is the cackle of co-workers down the halls of the office, don't let this unusual time give you the illusion that nothing is happening. Be comforted knowing that, after we are all long gone, we may not really be gone, but only lurking in a dark hallway waiting to scare some lame realtor's client. BOO!!

Fixing a Hole

The real estate world can be a cold and lonely place. Okay, not so lonely, but our fellow realtors can be cold.

Unfortunately, my latest deal with Dumpster has ended up there, in the dumpster. Our back-up offer was tossed away like so much waste paper. I found out by accident that the first offer had closed already. I hate having to tell people bad news. I try to mitigate it with something a little positive, in this case with the hopes of looking at something else to invest in. Hopefully, (there's another word you'll be seeing often), I can find something else in the "crappy" category for my client. It's becoming more of a fixer-upper world out there and competition for pieces of crap is getting tough.

Speaking of which, the glut of fixer-uppers and foreclosures out there are bringing the sharks in, circling like blood sniffing flesh-eaters.

How do you keep from being devoured and plug the hole that is your sinking ship?

The mortgage industry is being persuaded (by a rather large stick) to throw a life preserver to homeowners that are going down for the last time. Part of that big stick is made up by the mortgage industry themselves because they do not and I repeat do not want to foreclose on a home. The other part of that big stick is the National Association of Realtors. Realtors have a lot of sway in their states through lobbyists (okay, that can be a dirty word) and by the fact that there is a realtor on every corner; we are a prolific lot.

Realtors are also taught, advised and asked to take a working interest in their communities for the betterment of us all. Some do it better than others (obviously), but the good ones not only want to see you get into a good home but they want to see you keep it. (Really!)

Even in better market times, the bank will work with you when you get behind on payments. The worst thing you can do is nothing. The more you ignore the threatening letters, the madder the bank will get.

Another thing to remember is that the bank does NOT want your house. Believe it or not, that is the last thing they want. In order to foreclose on your house, they have to pay lawyers to do a lot of research and draw up a lot of papers. They have to pay someone to go to the foreclosed upon house and weatherize it, winter or summer, so pipes don't burst or a leak doesn't develope. They have to pay someone to cut the grass. They have to pay a real estate agent to sell the house. At every turn, it takes money out of the banks pocket to own a house.

For that reason, it is in the bank's best interest to help to keep you in your home.

The first thing to do when you get behind is call the mortgage company or bank. If at all possible, talk to your old loan officer. They are nice people (most of them are anyway) and very knowledgeable about how banks work and what services they offer. If you can't talk to that person, ask for someone that has information on how to help you get back on a payment schedule.

At this time, there are several programs available through banks that are designed to either help you set up a payment schedule to get back on track or, in some cases if you qualify, actually funds on hand to pay your shortfall.

Hard times can fall on anyone at anytime. Most households in this country are one paycheck away from disaster and once you get behind on your bills, it is hard to get caught up. But you would be surprised at how many companies, from the utility company to your credit card company to your mortgage company, are willing to help if you just call at the first sign of trouble.

So, grab hold of that life preserver, put an arm through the hole and hold on. There may be a hole in the ship but it doesn't mean you have to go down.

She's Leaving Home

There should be no problems. Sounds like a line from "Westworld", remember the 70's sci fi movie where the promo said "Where nothing can go wrong"?

Well if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. In our little scenario where Mr and Mrs Jones wants to buy a house, there was really nothing wrong with each response they received - "no problems". But the cumulative effect can be devastating.

First of all, the bank is willing to make a sub-prime loan. Sub-prime means that it doesn't meet the minimum requirements set so that a loan may be federally insured. In theory, there is nothing wrong with that. But what is happening now is the high default rate because the whole economy is slowing and people's living expenses are going up or they are losing their jobs so they can't make their mortgage payment because the bank had to charge a huge interest rate in order to insure that they make some money incase someone defaults so the bank forecloses but they have lent more than what the home is worth because the price is inflated due to the added closing costs and the previously hot market so the bank can't sell the house and get their money back so the bank loses money so they tighten their lending practices so the little guy can no longer get a loan and the big guy is trying to get out from under their big balloon payment which is a large sum of money due all at once but no one is buying a McMansion because they cost too much to heat because fuel prices have gone up and the baby boomers are downsizing because they are empty nesters and want smaller homes so the big houses are sitting so the people that are trying to sell them are having to take a loss because of the glut on the market of large homes and the new mid-priced homes are sitting because of all the new subdivisions that popped up due to farmers not being able to make a living so they sell off road frontage or whole farms and investors sucked them up because the land was so cheap then they have to make a profit so they sell lots to builders and the builders build until there are too many new houses so the builders stop building and their construction crews get laid off and everyone is selling and no one is buying so there is a glut on the market so a buyer has an advantage because if one person won't come down on their price someone else will so prices start to drop what with the law of supply and demand and with all the empty foreclosed homes on the market seasoned investors and first time investors are looking for a bargain to fix up to sell or rent then everyone thinks that houses are out there for the taking and they don't want to pay anything close to what a home is worth but people still have to sell so they end up owing more than what they can sell the house for which results in negative equity also known as being upside down so the seller actually has to bring money to closing which amounts to almost paying someone to take your house and with fewer sales the title companies don't have closings so they end up closing their doors and the mortgage broker has no mortgages to broker so he goes out of business and realtors can't sell houses because of the afforementioned conditions and you wonder why the housing bubble burst?

But now the banks are getting real and have started putting programs together to help people stay in their homes because it is expensive to foreclose..........

HELP! is really on the way, I promise.

Because

Whose idea was it to call August "the dog days of summer." Obviously this dog is doing quite well, thank you.

The transaction that I am putting together for Dumpster, which involves the commercial property, has taken a leap forward. It appears as though the buyer who had a back up offer and got first offer when we couldn't obtain financing in time may also be having problems with financing because it hasn't closed yet. I had advised my people to continue pursuing their financing and by Jove they got it. So we may yet be able to bump the usurper off the top of the heap, darn him (or her)! Sometimes it is a dog eat dog world (there's that "dog" comparison again) and the one with the milk bone shorts gets the short end of the stick. (I can't seem to get away from all these cliches so I think I'll move on........)

So, the firey dragon of foreclosure is breathing down your neck. How did you get here and how can you get out? Well, if the bank is after you I would place odds that you bought your home sometime within the last 4-5 years. Money was cheap, plentiful and easy to get. And even though previously I stated that the housing "boom" was not the same as inflation, it bears a keen resemblance. Lots of flowing money causes prices to go up.

Here's an example: Because you want to buy a home, you go to the bank of your choosing. While you are sitting there, they pull your credit. Because you had an illness a couple years back and hadn't adequate insurance, you have some outstanding bills. Also, during that illness, because you got behind on your credit card payments, you incurred several late fees. Mr. Banker, "I see you have some credit issues, but if you write down the reasons for me I will submit them with your application. There should be no problems."

"Great!" you say. "Where do I sign!"

"Well, there is something else......."

"You mean I can't get a loan?" you ask.

"Oh, but of course," answers Mr. Banker. "But we have to charge you 8.5% interest instead of the regular 5.85% and the seller will have to give you some money towards closing costs, but I'm sure there should be no problems."

And because you and your wife and baby so desperately need to get out of that tiny apartment, you sign on the dotted line.

So, you walk into the neighborhood real estate office.

"Hello, may I help you?"

"Hello. We would like to buy a new home."

With dollar signs shining in Ms Realtor's eyes, she says, "Please have a seat. Now, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, are you pre-approved for a loan?"

"Why yes!" you both answer in unison, beaming. "Here is our letter right here!"

Ms Realtor glances over it. Everything looks in order but the seller will have to put some money towards closing costs. Mr and Mrs Jones obviously don't have any savings account. And because Ms Realtor needs to pay her own bills, she smiles and says, "There should be no problems. Let's get started!"

And the big day arrives! Mr. and Mrs. Jones close on their new home. They paid $150,000 for it but because the seller had to pay some of the closing costs that would normally be the responsibility of the buyer, they had to add $5000 to the purchase price now making it $155,000. And the high interest rate makes the payment, $1200, a stretch.

Stay tuned.......