Q: When should I refinance?

A: If your current rate is
about 1% higher than the rates you hear advertised, chances are pretty good you
should look into it.

Q: When does it make sense
to refinance?

A: That can vary depending on
your situation. You should always consider how long it will take to recover the
closing costs in relation to how long you will be living in that home. Example
- if you lower your interest rate and save $100 per month, but the closing
costs are $3,000, it would take you 30 months to break even on the closing
costs. If you want to sell that home in 2-3 years, you shouldn’t refinance.
However, if you can keep your closing costs under a $1,000 and still save that
$100 per month, it would probably make sense to refinance even if you will be
moving in a few years.

Q: How can some lenders
offer loan with no closing costs?

A: The truth is – we all can.
The costs of refinancing can be covered by the lender if you are willing to
take a higher rate than what is otherwise available. That might make sometimes,
but not always.

Q: Can I refinance even
though I am upside down in my house?

A: Maybe. There are programs
offered through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that will allow you to refinance over
100% of your home’s value. There are limitations, so you have to check with a
lender to find out if your loan qualifies.

Q: What’s a streamline
refinance?

A: This is a program offed
through FHA and allows you to refinance an existing FHA loan with no appraisal
and limited income and credit verification. You generally have to decrease your
interest rate by 1 full percentage point to meet the requirements of the
program. FHA has restructured their fees for this program in the last year and
made this program a little less attractive, but it still can be an advantage in
the right situation.

Q: Will my payment double if
I go from a 30 year loan to a 15 year loan?

A: No. In fact, with a lower
rate you may be able to cut years off your loan by increasing your payment just
a few hundred dollars. There is also a 20 year loan available. If you drop your
rate 1% and go to a 20 year loan, your payment will most likely increase by
less than $100.

Bottom Line: Refinancing
can a great financial move or it can be a mistake and a waste of money. A
trusted mortgage advisor can walk you through the numbers and help you decide
if it is right for your situation.

A multitude of homeowners are in a less than desirable equity position,
otherwise known as “upside down”, “underwater”,
“negative equity”, etc. This presents a little problem in the concept
of selling a home and transferring the equity to become a “move up”
buyer. People feel stuck in their current home, but with a little creativity
and determination, you can absolutely make the move and get on with your life
and be better financially for it.

There are many reason why the need to move arises – up-sizing, downsizing,
new neighborhood, reduce the commute, increase in income, whatever. But the
main reason why right now would be a great time to move to another home is
this: you’ll get rich! OK, that might be a little exaggerated, but increasing
your net worth is almost a sure thing. I’ll explain.

The next home you buy will most likely be a long term home. You’ll be there
a while, maybe even through retirement. You can buy that home with a
ridiculously low fixed interest rate and never refinance again. There is the
ever-present debate about whether you should have a mortgage for tax purposes
and let money work elsewhere, presumably earning a higher interest rate than
you mortgage is costing you. Or pay off the mortgage. There is a slough of
evidence supporting both sides of this debate, but in the end, it is a personal
decision to live debt free or leveraged. Sorry for the tangent – I better end
it right here and save it for another blog entry. Back to keeping your current
home and buying another one….

Simply put: Prices are down, rates are down, the rental market is very
strong. Even if you can’t refinance your current home to drop the payment
becuase you don’t have the necessary equity, chances are pretty good you can
rent it out to cover the payment. Or at least get close. There are plenty of
people who are selling on a short sale or just foreclosing that are good people
who would make good tenants, but can’t qualify to buy another home for 3-4
years at least. They need homes to rent. Vacancy rates are at their lowest in
years right now. Great news for landlords.

With the house rented and that payment covered, you can buy another home at
what appears to be the bottom of the market – if we are not there it is close,
especially in Utah. You can ride the appreciation trends up in the new house
you buy and, of course, your current home’s equity will also increase. Now you
have leveraged yourself for double the appreciation in the coming years. A
sound strategy used by millionaires since the beginning of real estate
ownership.

The two hurdles for homeowners wanting to employ this strategy are:

1. Money for the down payment.
2. Qualifying for both house payments.

The money for the down can be zero if you buy in a more rural area
qualifying for the USDA Rural Housing loan as mentioned in my previous blog.
Other options would require the minimum down payment of 3.5% for FHA loans and
5% down for Conventional loans. That money can be gifted, borrowed from your
401k, pulled out of equity in cars and other assets. If you use other sources,
that money may have to be “seasoned” in your bank account for a few
months.

Qualifying can be a little tougher to get around. The
guidelines on this have changed recently for reasons too lengthy to explain
here. The bottomline is this: if you don’t have 25%-30% equity in your current
home or “departure residence”, even if the rents collected cover the
payment, we still have to count the payment against you in your “debt
ratio”. The new house payment and the old house payment and all other
payments have to fall in the range of 45% to 50% of you total monthly income.
That can be calculated in a few minutes over the phone with a qualified
mortgage professional.

Here are the newest HUD and Bank Foreclosures in Salt Lake County!

$400,000 to $1,500,000

Salt Lake City – Draper – South Jordan Utah

Searching for a great buy? Try looking at HUD Foreclosures & Bank Owned Homes

801-567-0946

MLS #1134002
$444,900
This Salt Lake City Bungalow/Cottage was built in 1940 with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The home has 3300 square feet on a 0.22 lot.
Click here for more info.

MLS #1133409
$530,000
This Salt Lake City Tri/Multi-Level was built in 2013 with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The home has 5334 square feet on a 0.22 lot.
Click here for more info.

MLS #1134098
$620,000
This South Jordan 2-Story was built in 2006 with 7 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. The home has 6369 square feet on a 0.33 lot.
Click here for more info.

You can search for other Salt Lake Foreclosures and HUD homes no matter who the listing agent is.

Published Thursday, December 13, 2012 6:01 AM by Group1 Real Estate

Use a local agent

How many times have you heard us say, use a local Realtor when buying or selling a Tooele home. Well were going to say it again.  At least Chris is. Via last weeks post!

Chris and Berna are the owners of the Group1 Real Estate office in Tooele and they continually suggesting that you should use a local Realtor when you are buying or selling a Tooele home. They have a lot of Real Estate experience to offer home buyers and home owners wanting to list their houses or condominiums. Most of it right there in Tooele Utah. I would bet that if there is a home that has been listed on the MLS in Tooele City, Erda, Stansbury Park, Lake Point, Stockton or Grantsville Utah, in the last 15 years,  Berna has been in it, knows the history, and has an informed  opinion about value and potential problems.

Isn’t that why you use a local Realtor when you buy or sell a Tooele home?

Last week Chris posted again about the buying or selling your home in Tooele,and why it pats to use a local REALTOR.

Here is what he thinks about the subject of local representation.

Buying  Tooele Homes use a Local Agent When Buying Tooele Homes use a Local Agent. Or if you are selling your home in Tooele, Stansbury Park, Erda, Lakepoint, or Grantsville Utah get local help. Why do you need to hire a Local Tooele Realtor?  Where do I start? I was just going over an article I had written last year for the Transcript Bulletin on the advantages to listing your home with a local Realtor,  and it occurred to me that I need to have the same conversation with my home buyers. ( and home sellers) I wrote. while talking to a potential client last week out in Stansbury Park, I was asked a very good question. With 80% of buyers these days searching for their new home on the internet, how important is an actual agent?  Well, to me the answer is an obvious VERY IMPORTANT! The INTERNET has both simplified and complicated the house searching process. On the one hand, it’s now easy to see all of the properties that would fit you from the comfort of your own home. On the other hand, if you search the MLS for 3 bed 2 bath homes in Tooele County right now, you’ll find 59 homes that match that criteria. The selections of 3 Bedroom ramblers in Stansbury Park or 2 Story w/ acreage in Grantsville UT would find someone driving all over the area. In a market where great homes, or more specifically GREAT BUYS are selling fast, you need help managing your time. You need someone that knows the area, knows what is likely to be available soon, and knows where the greatest chance is that you can find what you are looking for. That almost always is a knowledgeable, Experienced, local Real Estate Agent. A Tooele REALTOR. Looking at so many overpriced homes is a waste of time,  you’ll find that your dream home, priced right by a very motivated seller may be just around the corner, but it may be gone before you have a chance to go see it if you are not buying Tooele homes using a local agent. We have been helping a client the last couple of weeks who likes to drive around and look at the homes for sale based on signs. She’s probably found a dozen homes for sale in Stansbury Park that she liked the looks of. Most of them have already gone under contract by the time she was ready to make an offer.  On the other hand, when she called us and told us what her needs in a new house were, Berna knew about one that would be perfect for her, and she now has it under contract. A local agent will know his market much better than most buyers. You might then ask, ‘Well, why not just call the agent on the sign?’ In fact, you can. But, here is one of my major pet peeves. If you do that, and they show it to you and you fall in love with it, who will represent you in the purchase? The listing agent will. But, he will actually be representing both parties. Not the ideal situation for either of you, although it can be a great deal for the agent! You are entitled to have someone who is absolutely on your side in the deal, someone looking out for ONLY your interests. You may buy as many as 4 or 5 homes in your life. Your agent will probably have done it hundreds of times in his career. So why not have an experienced pro in your corner. Especially (here’s the best part) when it costs you nothing! It’s true!  Most of the time, it’s the seller that pays those commissions, not you! I can’t think of a good reason not to use a Realtor to help you find your home, can you? By the way, that 80% number I talked about earlier only tells half the story. Of that 80%, 86% of them still use their own Realtor! If you would like to see whats available, give me a call @ 435-840-5029, or stop by my website, click on Tooele Homes and check out the inventory available in Stansbury Park, Tooele Grantsville or any where else in Tooele County you have an Interest. When you call, I will surely tell you, you may not want to use us, but when Buying Tooele Homes use a Local Agent.

Subscribe to RSS Feed Blog Archive 2012-01-11 13:35:50 Are we seeing actual signs of a recovery in Tooele 2012-01-09 12:19:31 The early bird wins the awards… 2012-01-08 08:47:09 Buying  Tooele Homes use a Local Agent 2012-01-08 05:39:15 Tooele Real Estate Then and Now 2012-01-07 10:47:19 New Tool To Buy A Home In Tooele

If you are in the market as either a home buyer or seller call Berna @ 435-940-5029 she will be more than happy to give you other reasons to use a local REALTOR when buying or selling a Tooele home.

According to the recent Realtors® Confidence Index, the percentage of homes listed across the U.S, and on the market for six months or more has increased to 29 percent—up from recent experience but still somewhat lower than earlier this year.

• In comparison, a total of 71 percent of homes currently for sale have been on the market less than six months, and 34 percent have been on the market for 2 months or less.

In Salt Lake County though, that number is considerably less. Of the 4,597  homes listed for sale in Salt Lake County, only 784 have been on the market more than 6 months. That means that those home buyers and investors that think that you get the best buy on a house that has been listed a very long time, are overlooking over 80 percent of the available homes on the MLS. That’s right, only 17% of the available houses & condos listed for sale in Salt Lake have been on the market 6 months or more. Only Six per cent of all the listed houses & condos in S.L. have been there a year or more.

These home buyers may have missed some pretty nice deals.

Wonder where most of these problem homes are? Want to know where to start looking?  They are all over the Valley. Two hundred forty are in Downtown Salt Lake City. West Jordan has the next highest number of homes on the market longer than 6 months with 83, followed by Sandy at 65  South Jordan at 49 and West Valley City with 46. Generally,  these are the areas that you would expect. No surprises here. The surprises are in Bluffdale & Midvale UT. Bluffdale because so few homes have been listed for over 6 months (5) and Midvale UT, because in such a small market so many houses take a long time to sell (45).

Foreclosures and foreclosed homes in Salt Lake don’t show up usually has having been on the market for a long time.

Foreclosures usually don’t show up as having been listed a long time, and the good ones don’t last long once they are listed. You can be sure to see all of the Salt Lake Foreclosed homes on our website.

To search for houses and condos that have been listed a long time, you can click on short sales in SLC, or just log in to the city you are interested and check homes by DOM, selecting the number of days back you are interested in.

Or you can give us a call @ 801-567-0946 and ask is about Salt Lake Homes on The Market 6 Months or More.

West Jordan Community Development Director, Tom Burdett further stated that “land values around light rail lines traditionally go up along their corridors”. “That happens primarily because of access to TRAX, you can easily access light rail and create a more walkable environment for that Real Estate around it”.

Ms. Kingsley defines the Mid-Jordan line as running parallel to the Bingham Branch Railroad for 10.6 miles, beginning @ the 6400 South TRAX station in Murray, west through Midvale to 5600 West, south of Welby Junction in West Jordan. The line will then turn south and will end in the South Jordan, Daybreak community.

The article further states that if all goes as planned, construction will begin early next year, and will take around three years to complete.

For more information about Real Estate opportunities along the Mid-Jordan corridor, give me a call @ 801-567-0946. For Real Estate Information and home buying/selling resources in the Salt Lake Valley, visit my website @ Salt Lake Homes

Four years later, the tracks are laid, stations are built, & hundreds of people a day ride TRAX to work from homes and condominiums along that path. Folks have bought houses and Condos in Daybreak in South Jordan, Vista Montana in West Jordan, The Rooftops in Midvale and Condos inFireclay in Murray UT, in many cases for the very reasons we mentioned right here, back then. We didn’t sell them all, but we like to think we had an influence with this one post.

Were not done.

If you are looking to buy a home in the SL Valley, consider locating close to TRAX. To find  listings that put you near all the advantages of light rail, in Downtown Salt Lake, West Jordan, Murray, Midvale, and South Jordan, use the map search @ search SLC by map.

If you see anything you like, give us a call @ 801-567-0946. We can help you & TRAX connect with Salt Lake City from the South Valley

After reading Chris’s post on selling “Real Estate in Tooele is Knowing your neighbors”, I realized that the many hours that he and Berna spend in community service has a payoff. It’s about more than just being good citizens, it’s about being good agents, knowing the territory & knowing your neighbors and their neighborhoods

Here is some of  what he had to say.

First of all, prospecting is in the eye of the beholder. Is it only defined
as knocking on doors, or making 100 “cold calls”? Could it also be defined as
joining a civic or church organization full of the movers and shakers in your
area, and building relationships with the people that know all the people? I’ve
always struggled with the 80/20 here, because it seems to me that if you really
do that, you are wasting the most efficient, cost effective book of business you
have. Referrals from past clients. Because, if you are devoting all that time to
generating new business, you aren’t devoting enough time to your clients,
meaning you won’t be getting that referral business. You over-promised and
under-delivered, so why should they come back to you?

There are a high percentage of listings in Tooele County listed by out of
area agents. I haven’t worked all the figures yet, but it appears to be upward
of 70%. Banks have a tendency to list with the “big city” agents, and don’t seem
to recognize the mountain range separating us from Salt Lake. But even if I take
those out, I’m going to find that more than half of the “regular” listings are
still by out of area agents. I actually showed a commercial property last
weekend listed by an agent in Moab, some 300 miles away! I won’t even talk about
the agent that thought she could give good service when she took it. I’m more
concerned with why the clients would go there. What are we failing to do as
“local” Realtors?

So, what do we have to do to set ourselves apart from the other 10,000 agents
in the State. How does the 80/20 rule apply here? Do we act like agents that
think that once the listing is signed and the sign planted we’re done? Do we
turn down showings because they involve an 80-90 mile round trip? What type of
service defines what we do? Is there room for civic service under the name of
prospecting?

I think there is. In this small town, there aren’t many people that don’t
know us. They don’t always know what we do for a living. Some of us know us as
leaders in a County political Party. Some recognize Berna as the Vice-Chair of
the Chamber of
Commerce, or as the one that organizes the Chamber Easter Egg Hunt for 3500
kids each year. Maybe it’s from sitting on Planning and Zoning in Tooele City. Maybe
it’s our service in our Church (Great applesauce, by the way!) Maybe it’s the
pumpkin bread that B bakes for our clients each Christmas. There are others, but
I will tell you this. Each of these things has brought us  paying clients,

clients we’ll keep for life, at a relatively low cost.

What I’m getting at is that there are many ways to build your business, to
set yourself apart from the average. Is it cold calling every day to get that
new customer? It’s obviously worked for a lot of people over the years. It
doesn’t work for us. We easily interact with 100 people every week, people that
get a positive feel for how we do our business. That has been an investment of
over a decade, so no quick payoff. However, the marketing budget seems to keep
shrinking, while the client list seems to grow. Figure out a way for your
farming area see you in a positive way, keep the quality of your work at it’s
best, and you will win in this tough economy. In the meantime, I’m staging the
Chamber
Santa Parade Saturday, and I can’t find my Santa hat…

Now you know why I think Chris or Berna are the perfect couple for selling Real Estate in Tooele. If your looking for a home or condo in a rural area just a short drive from Salt Lake City, then check out all the listings in Tooele City, Stansbury Park, or Grantsville Utah and then give them a call. 435-840-5029.

Chris is spot on when he suggests that “Selling Real Estate in Tooele is Knowing Your Neighbors”!

Tooele UT still has a lot to offer, or, “It’s easier to make lemonade when you have quality lemons”….

I was a “newbie” in Tooele County back in the early ’90s, when the death
sentence was pronounced. Tooele County was losing it’s largest and most important employer. With the closure of the Tooele Army Depot, Tooele was
“dead”. The loss of the jobs meant that there was no real reason for anyone to
stay here, much less move in.

I’ve been reminded of the bad old days quite a bit over the last several
years, as the chemical weapons stockpile gets close to being eliminated, thanks
to the hard work of all the good folks that have worked at “south area” for
EG&G, the US Army, and others. A recent article in the Salt Lake Tribune
touched a bit on this latest death sentence. However, to paraphrase Mark Twain,
the reports of the death of Tooele County are greatly exaggerated!

Yes, like back in the ’90s, the loss of one of our largest employers is a
tough one to take, especially in these hard economic times. However, as was
touched on in the article, Tooele City, Grantsville and Stansbury Park in Tooele County are
working hard to mitigate the damage done. Tooele City especially has been very
aggressive in their economic development program. All these entities have been
busily telling the world that there’s a reason that residential  growth in this
County actually exploded in the late ’90s. Many of these reasons are the same
ones that will attract commercial growth to Tooele, along with some good paying
jobs to replace those we’re in the midst of losing.

So, what makes Tooele so attractive to commercial and industrial companies?
Proximity to a major economic and transportation hub? Got it, 30 minutes to Salt
Lake City, with it’s major airport and lots of rails, some of which come right
through our back yard. A major trucking artery with I-80. There’s a reason
Wal-Mart set up a major distribution center in Grantsville a few years ago!

How about property at a reasonable price? Again, our prices are much lower
than most along the Wasatch Front, which is one reason we get so many folks
moving out here. Large tracts of land abound, all close to what passes as
“major” population centers out here. A willingness to allow responsible
growth.

How about a workforce? that’s an easy one. With better than half our folks
commuting to the big city, there are plenty of folks that will be willing to
stay local, even if the commute is a short one. In addition, the local
commitment to a well educated workforce is evident when you consider the new
“education corridor” that started with the new Community learning Center, the
ever expanding presence of Utah State University, and the addition of the new
Tooele Applied Technology College building slated to break ground this
spring.

Finally, the commitment of the Cities and County to economic development
means they are working hard to get in front of the folks that matter, wherever
they are. They are working closely with the Governor’s Office of Economic
Development to get our message out to the world. Tooele City has a gem for an
Economic Development Director in Randy Sant, and the County has Nicole Cline,
the official mentioned in the article. We have plenty of folks singing from the
same sheet of music.

So, are we watching the demise of a whole County? I think not. All signs
point to this simply being another stage in the continued growth of a vibrant,
dynamic County, with all of the potential in the world. As Ms. Cline mentioned
in the article, “we’re making lemonade”. Sure helps when you have some great
lemons! Or for some plain talk, Tooele UT still has a lot to offer.

Buying a short sale or a pre-foreclosed home is not for the faint of heart. Working with home sellers that are about to lose what was once their biggest asset, and the family anchor is no picnic. Trying to get a lender to accept less than what they are owed is adversarial to begin with, and when you need to deal with 2 banks, as is often the case, each day starts with problems.

But those problems are for another post.

Lets deal with where we can find short sales if we have the stamina to get a great deal on a Salt Lake City pre-foreclosure.

With all the talk of the sub prime mortgage problems, bailouts and a declining Real Estate market in general, I thought it might be helpful to see just where those homes were located and which areas of the Salt Lake Valley were more likely to turn up the best “deal” for a home buyer, or Real Estate Investor.
Here is a current list of the number of pre foreclosed homes (short sales) in Salt Lake City,  by city, listed on the MLS

West Jordan:
Homes For Sale 504
Short sales 237
Percentage 47%
W. Jordan Houses Sold in last 30 days 93

South Jordan:
Homes for Sale 366
Short Sale Homes 88
Percentage 24%
South Jordan Houses and Condos Sold in last 30 days 65

Sandy:
Homes for sale 500
Problem homes 131
Percentage 26%
Sandy UT Homes Sold in last 30 days 103

Murray UT:
Homes for sale 204
Problem Homes
Percentage 24%
Homes & Condos Sold Murray in last 30 days 30

Riverton:
Homes for sale 191
Problem homes (short Sales) 75
Percentage 39%
Houses Sold in Riverton last 30 days 37

Herriman Utah:
Homes for sale 218
Short Sales 72
Percentage 33%
Sold in Riverton last 30 days 25 Houses

Salt Lake City:
Homes for sale 1663
Short Sales 339
Percentage 20%
Salt Lake City Homes & Condominiums Sold Last 30 day sales 271

West Valley City:
Homes for sale 449
W.V.Short Sales 214
Percentage 48%
House Sales last 30 days 92

So…… based on these numbers supplied by the Wasatch Front Regional Listing Service, (MLS), the answer to where are the short sales in Salt Lake City is West Jordan, Riverton and West Valley City. At least those have the highest percentage of short sales among the listing inventory.

For a complete list of all the Salt Lake City and surrounding area homes for sale check out my website and select either Salt Lake Homes, for EVERYTHING listed no matter who the listing agent is, or  just short sales and distressed houses. There is no registration needed, and since we update daily you should come back often.

We would love to show you some of these homes, or discuss a strategy for you to take advantage of a real “buyers market”. You can call at 801-567-0946.

Give us a call if you want more information about Short Sales in Salt Lake City Utah.

To hear them tell it, the objective was to learn the latest and best ways to help clients list, buy and sell  Tooele Homes.

After reading Chris’s blog about the adventure ( he and Berna are the owners of that Group1 office in Tooele) I’m not so sure.

I know that when they left, Berna had signed up for every class she could find to help her understand how to better help you buy and sell short sales and foreclosed homes in Tooele County. Chris as usual had his boat loaded with land use seminars and Commercial Real Estate classes.

It sounded good but I’m going to let you read his blog and decide if they got their moneys worth.

This is what he wrote when he got back.

A week at Disneyland-NAR Convention 2011
As has become a habit I can’t break over the last decade, Berna and I spent the last week in Anaheim at the National Association of Realtors Conference and Expo. Obviously, this is not a priority for most Realtors in this economy, as this was by far the thinnest attendance of any conference. We are generally the only Tooele County Realtors that attend. There are good things and bad things about the attendance, as it was easy to move from room to room without the huge crowds of the past, and the venue itself at the Anaheim Convention Center was conducive to getting wherever you needed to be with no muss or fuss.
Low attendance can also be a problem, especially if you’ve been to a few of these. There are only so many “new” technology classes you can attend each year, and low registration means less offerings. There are also only so many “motivational” speakers you can bring in with a fresh way to say “buck up, soldier” each year, and the quality of those offerings has suffered over the last few years.
Luckily (or not!) I get to spend many hours attending governance meetings, which are always informational to me. I learned alot about spying on my agents Facebook pages in the Risk Reduction forum and committee. I learned that four the fourth straight year, the Land Use & Environment Committee is heavy on environment and light on land use, and that having me on the Housing Opportunity Committee may have not been the smartest decision they ever made.
But, for all of the negative news that’s out there, and the negative comments above, there were some amazing positives as well. There always are. I watched two Realtors receive “Distinguished Service Awards” for decades of service to the industry. I saw an individual that has contributed over 100K to RPAC in his lifetime. I saw all of the “Realtor of the Year” recipients (taking me back to when I was fortunate enough to be so honored a few years ago). I saw standing room only in every committee meeting I attended, full of Realtors doing their best to make this industry, and by extension the Country better. I saw thousands of my fellow Realtors working hard to find a way to stay in this amazing industry, and an Association doing its best to help.
I’ve been an outspoken critic of the NAR over the years for various things. I can’t stand listening to another presentation about how cool Realtor.com is, even though they are using my own dues dollars to complete with me. I hate how they contribute RPAC to everyone in Congress whether they meet my definition of “Realtor friendly” or not. And, until you’ve sat on a Board of Directors with 700 members, you don’t really know the definition of unwieldy!
So, why do I always come home from these things so inspired? Because, I always pick up some little tidbit, or product, or idea that will make my job better, or easier, or more efficient. Something that makes me better able to serve or protect or retain my clients. It’s a week I spend with the love of my life Berna, who also is my business partner, where there aren’t kids, or Chamber of Commerce stuff or family drama. There’s just us spending time together with ten thousand or fifteen thousand or thirty thousand of our closest friends. Nascar Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip calls it “Co-opetition”, the act of thousands of type A, competitive Realtors working together for common goals. It’s inspiring!
Having it a corndog’s throw away from Disneyland seems appropriate. I saw Bank of America executives insisting they were working hard to streamline the shortsale process, while sitting inside their huge, gaudy, tasteless quarter acre “booth” at the Expo (Fantasy Land). I sat through classes extolling the limitless opportunity by getting into commercial real estate (Adventureland). I saw debate over building to standards that would make a home produce more energy than it uses (Tomorrowland). Finally, I saw lots of crime scene tape blocking off a whole floor at the hotel next store (California Adventures!).
So, as I get back to work with all the new stuff I brought home, full of vision and energy, I can’t help thinking about whether I’ll make the trip next year. Sure is inconvenient and expensive to take the time away. Wait, it’s in Orlando! Don’t they have another Disney thing back there somewhere? Hmmmmm