Humboldt County Real Estate Blog

Most of the time it is really hard for us to tell our clients the totally honest truth about their home. You walk into a listing appointment and they are gushing about their purple walls and hot pink carpet. In the mean time, you are walking behind them trying not to gag! Different strokes for different folks!  You are then trying not to ask them if they are color blind and/or if they just balled up a piece of cloth, dipped it in paint and hurled it at the walls!

The remedy? Thought you would never ask!

Tell them the truth! WOW! What a concept! I made the fatal mistake of just agreeing w8th their choices during a walk thru prior to the actual listing presentation that I lost the listing to a competitor.  If I would have just said, "you know, you have some amazing talent for color matching and staging, you are so unique, there isn't anyone else I know who would be able to replicate what you have done here!" I would then guide them in the best ways to appeal to a larger audience and create that "wow' factor.

Since losing the one and only listing I have ever competed for, I have learned my lesson to be as honest and up front as possible. I have followed many agents where they have told the sellers to keep everything where it is, don't de-clutter and don't bother wiping down the walls because nobody will notice anyway.

By the time I walk out of that house, they have about two sheets of things to do before we have our first open house. If you are consistent in this practice, your listings will sell faster, and get the highest amounts.

look at the homes that have sold in the last couple of months. What was it about them that have stood out among all of the choices the buyers now have. Even in this market, it is possible to get a home sold within the first 60 days. I've done it. You can do it too. No matter what your market is like.

For the past few weeks I have been assisting a bank with getting a foreclosure in Arcata ready to go on the

market. I had served notices to tenants to vacate because of the foreclosure and re-keyed all the locks after their

departure. With it now vacant it became the target for a scam.

For several days an individual was breaking in and trying to secure the house for himself. He changed the

deadbolt on the front door so I couldn't enter. He screwed all the doors shut so I couldn't get in and went out a

window. Each time he did this, I was able to undo what he had done. I was thinking that someone was pulling a

prank on me. I did alert the police and the neighbors and they knew to watch for suspicious activity.

On Saturday evening around 6:00 pm, Feb 23rd, I received a call from the neighbors that someone was moving

into the house. They knew that the previous tenants had been evicted because of the foreclosure and no one

should be moving back in. I immediately went to the house and found no one there but did see belongings in the

house. The front door knob and deadbolt that I had installed had been changed to a different set and I could not

get in the front door. I also found a laminated "legal" notice taped to the inside of the front window and the back

sliding door. The notice purported to be a Humboldt County Tax Collector/US Treasury/IRS home seizure for

supposed criminal activity.

I immediately called the police to report a trespassing because I quickly determined that the "notice" was a

fake. When the police officer arrived, he wasn't willing to arrest anyone because he was not convinced that a

crime had been committed. He saw furniture in the house and unless I could demonstrate that I was actually in

possession of the house, the "tenant" had a right to the house. It would not be criminal case because of a trespass

but a civil case because of the tenant occupancy. He had no jurisdiction in a civil case. If it were a civil case, I

would have to go through the courts for an eviction.

I explained to the officer that the home was a foreclosure and I was preparing it for sale. He wanted to see a

foreclosure deed. (I was sent one by a very kind friend who secured a copy for me late on a Saturday night) I

pointed out to him that the notice was a fake because

1. it was posted on the inside of the house (legal notices are posted to the outside, on the door)

2. posted on a Saturday, (not during normal business hours)

3. seizures require due process

4. locks were changed immediately. (locks are not changed and people allowed to move with a posting,

(due process requires time)

5. the document was faxed to the local Kinko's and had no return fax number (any faxed document

has to have a return fax number, especially from a governmental agency)

6. the document was signed by the perpetrator (a guy named Jeffrey Lee Abel) rather than an official

from the seizing agency

7. there was no specific agency named, (just a nebulas grouping of agencies)

8. and not all the locks were changed over. (I gained entrance through a side door, (there are other

reasons, also)).

Fortunately, for me the officer was a former real estate agent and he sided with me. I had gotten the license

number of the people who were moving their belongings in and when the police office found them they were told

to call me and get their belongings out of the house immediately. They did, but it took a few days and only after I

changed the front locks back to my set of keys so they could not get back in. I now have possession again and

monitor it regularly.

The young couple that was moving in had made contact with the scammer and were told they could rent a

house in Arcata. He had been planning it for several days and had been setting it up. Sometime on late Friday

night, he picked the locks and changed out the hardware. (I had been thwarting his previous attempts to gain

possession). He met the unsuspecting couple on Saturday, collected $950 in rent and $1500 in deposit in a

money order, and gave them the keys. They were an innocent party but they had been scammed and he can't be

found.

He may not entertain doing this to a vacant listing, figuring that it is being watched but if any of your listings

are vacant, you might look for signs that someone is trying to take over the possession of the home. There is a

scammer in our midst!

personal note: Be very very careful! If these people knew what they were doing, California Law unfortunatley could have allowed them to stay in the house and it would have taken a court ordered eviction to get them out!

Wait! Hold on....did you hear that?  Was that the phone? Holy ring ring batman!

It seems to me since last week, many of us are starting to get the most awesome phone calls of new clients wanting to get pre-qualified to buy a house and sellers calling to get their house listed!

I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming!

 Where did these people come from? How did they hear about me? It's really simple. It's something I have been telling people to do for a long time since the up swing. Are you ready? Here it is....

Call your past clients!!

wow! What a concept! NAR did a stucy not too long ago that said 76% of the people who have used a Realtor, don't even remember their names! they haven't heard or spoken to them since they closed on the house!

I know this isn't the secret you were hoping for. It is so simple, why don't more people do it? I believe most Realtors who have been in the business for only the last few years have never learned to follow up.

It's never too late. Start calling them now! Starting from the first person you sold a house to on down to the most recent. I would even start calling the people you didn't represent who purchased one of your listings. It is perfectly legal and there is a very high chance their Realtor hasn't heard from them either. i should clarify, check witn your local board to see what they say about it.

If you don't want to talk to them, put together a newsletter and send it EVERY month. i noticed since I started sending out my newsletters, my phone started ringing again! Either way, it's your call!

How do you know if you are signed up with too many sites? How in the world can you possibly remember the passwords to all of them? Some sites require "characters or symbols' in addition to minimum of 6-12 chharacters. Kind of overwhelming isn't it?

If you're looking for an answer, I am so very sorry, I don't have one,.

But, the question does remain,"how many is too many?"\

Ever since the new buzz wird has been uttered (Web 2.0) a couple fo years ago, I have been inundated with free offers to sign up and use their service to be ahead of the marketing game. I get excited when I receive a legitimate lead, buyer and seller, and talk about it to all of my co-workers, and then "poof" no more leads.

I then sign up for one of those pay as you go lead generating sites. I pay 39.95 for ,yer leads and then 69.95 for seller leads. I call the clients withing 10 minutes of them entering their information and they get mad at me because they feel the site is deceptive and is phishing for their information. I then get yelled at because they think I am the culprit!

I am now signed up for flyers, free leads (but pay a referral fee), facebook, youtube, google video,Realtor.co, (has always been a waste of time for me), and about 11 other sites.

Is it too much and am I spinning my wheels trying to keep up or should they be paying off for me soon?