As the market crashes and burns the divorce rate is going through the roof!

I`ve never seen it so bad in my entire life! I`m 50 years old, i`ve seen Families Come Apart  couples separate or divorce at an alarming rate. They`re fighting over money issues! Let`s be honest when "times are good" we love and laugh, we enjoy life and what it offers. many of us have raised  our families never really knowing or understanding the "good times" would one day end. We were on a euphoric high for 20 years, enjoying our lavish lifestyles.

In some ways it`s like the "last days of the Roman Empire!

Suddenly, were all faced with the reality the good times may never be the same and the problems of finance are taken it`s toll on everyone.

Here are 3 "Real Life Stories" of the how Real Estate Crisis is destroying the entire core of our nation!

 Case #1: Yesterday, I took my daughter to Denny`s. Our waiter who was only 18 years old started talking to us about his parents. His family is losing their home to foreclosure, Dad moved in with his Mother, unable to work any longer,while Mom can`t pay the bills. He`s a caught in between. Too be this young and experience what he`s going through is heart breaking.     

Case #2:Stock Broker and Trophy Wife: 2 months ago am at a listing appointment where the husband once was on the "top of the world" great home, a Mercedes and a BMW! The kids were at a fancy New York State Summer camp, and the Stock Brokerage files for Bankruptcy!

Good Bye great world hello reality. Husband seems to be explaining to Trophy Wife that we need to "Scale Back" and regroup, wife wants Nothing to do with this utter nonsense, after 18 years of a fantasy Life, she doesn`t want to to end, so it`s much easier to file for Divorce.

In front of me she tell~s how  Hubby is is a "LOSER", nice huh? The guy worked his *** off for this Princess....The Prince becomes a frog and she wants to bail...

Case#3: After working together for a piece of "The American Pie" i received a call from a former client asking me to "Sell" their home. Apparently, the home is upside and rather than attempt to keep it, the husband blames the wife, she blames him and in a flash moves out of the house with the kids and moves in with her new boyfriend.

Hubby is left in shock, unable to grasp the situation. Can`t say I blame him!

The media would never really report how much this is affecting our nation. It`s painful to say the least seeing this each and everyday.

In years to come I`m sure they`ll release the numbers of divorce rates throughout our country, am positive it`s staggering!

I miss the "GOOD TIMES!"   

 I began watching "Million Dollar Listing" this season.  

I learned that many viewers are between the ages of 21-30 years old. They love watching this show! Guess what? Many have approached me in recent weeks on "How to become a Million Dollar Listing Agent".

Although, my business model is geared towards the "Meat and Potatoes" of Real Estate, I am a great instructor of "Teaching New Agents" the "Black, White and Gray" of the business. 

Two years ago I found recruiting experienced agents can be counterproductive.Many Realtors have had their license for years,but never truly learned how to "Sell" Real Estate. Many want to over complicate the business. They don`t want to understand our business is a "people person business' it`s that simple.

You don`t have to be a Rocket Scientist to be a great Realtor.

Eventually, they move on to their umpteenth office and dream of one day becoming a Top Producer.For the most part it never quite happens.

I decided to look for young people with no "Real Estate Experience" offering our system of training.My motto is " If you have the heart and ambition, I`ll make you a Top Producer in less that six months."

We have 18 Realtors who are licensed with our office.The average age of our Realtors is between 24-35.

They came to our office with "NO EXPERIENCE" and followed our system which has worked for over 15 years.

Majority do extremely well in a bad market because they learned the "Tricks of the Trade."

There is a new generation of young people out there who have little or no direction. They have no goals, don`t know which way to go, and are still living at home, dreaming of moving out of the house.

I have found they are very eager to learn a profession and will work extremely hard if someone shows them the way!

Once you teach them the business they become terrific Realtors. They also have tons of friends who are approaching the age of purchasing a home for the very first time.

It takes a lot of work to motivate these people in the beginning but, now I use the Bravo TV show as proof positive it can happen to them.

I now tell potential recruits "If Chad, Josh and Madison can do it, so can you."

Reality and Perception... It`s that simple...  

Everybody,loves a cash offer, right? Buyer`s who make reasonable offers on a Foreclosure,who wish to close in less than 30 days should be acknowledged, or at least you`d hope.

FRANIE MAE better do something quick in order to curtail what many lenders are still doing. Pure and simple NEGLIGENCE is still rampant with the lenders who continue to "Cry Wolf"that they`ve been burnt by the public! It`s not true! Pure Fiction.... 

Many of these lenders can stop the bleeding in the Short Sale and Foreclosure market if they actually had a system in place for offers which arrive daily on their desks!

It`s inexcusable when a lender receives and offer on August 29Th for a home, only to close the file on Sept. 3rd, claiming they never received our offer,even after it`s proven to them ,they acknowledged the emails which were sent to them!

Hard to grasp when an offer arrives, you don`t "POST IT" somewhere so the folks who work these files can match the paper work to their files!

Without any system in place the lenders are surlily making it difficult for themselves to start "ACCEPTING OFFERS IN A TIMELY MANNER", with almost two years of experiencing the Foreclosure and Short Sale" glitch, it`s hard to believe the lenders haven`t yet learned to streamline this process.

What the Government needs to do prior to loaning these lenders additional monies is to investigate how these lenders receive offers from the general public!

They should insist on having a moratorium and have a huge "Clearance Sale" on properties which have remained on the books for 9 months or more!

It`s hard to estimate how many homes would be sold had the lenders had a system in place where the entire procedure would actually take 30 days or less to complete. Frannie Mae should demand some sort of accountability before moving forward and demand that these lenders "Get Serious" when accepting an offer.

Back to our buyer.After 4 hours of bickering back and forth the lenders finally admit they goofed,but since they`ve closed the file already they would need an additional 45 days to close.

Is it any wonder the buyers are "Walking Away" from these "Properties" in droves?

I hope by 2009 many of the procedures we`re seeing today are abolished.Otherwise no matter what Uncle Sam does won`t really matter....

Years ago I would have never imagined using a Text message to contact our clients. Today, it` seems I live on the text 24/7.

Guess what? I also accomplish more by doing so! In today`s E-Society so many clients prefer to use Text messaging rather than the  telephone.

Emails and text seem to a new form of communicating between people as well.

In our office I`m watching another Realtor text her boyfriend all day long, they never seem to communicate over the telephone,yet,they seem to have a great relationship! It seems like everything else in life people feel more comfortable communicating this way,than ever before!

I own a Blackberry and i must admit I`m addicted.

Some call it "Crackberry" which it is. I live on this PDA.

I spent the entire month of August at the beach. I only had my Blackberry to communicate, no laptop, no computer, NADA!

It was my opinion, i could use the Blackberry to send new leads to our agents, send faxes and attachments from poolside, while tanning!

The funny part about doing business this way, is the majority of the clients seem to respond better via text and remain loyal. It`s a great way gain a clients confidence.

Now that the summer is officially over, the Blackberry and I are back diligently at work, 

I`m well rested and have discovered a new wave of attracting clients!

Popular Blackberry Download Links:

I find myself posting links over and over to help people track down what they are looking for. So hopefully this will help everyone out. I'll add to it as I think of more, feel free to add your own as well.

AIM For Blackberry: http://www.blackberry.com/aim
Audacity MP3 Editor: Audacity: Windows
Bank Of America App: (OTA) http://mobilebanking.bankofamerica.c...eBanking42.jad
BB Countdown Timer: (OTA) http://northcubed.com/installers/com...ntimer_app.jad
BBGeeks Games: (OTA) 170+ Free Games for your BlackBerry | BB Geeks
Blackberry Alerts: BlackBerry Alerts
Blackberry Maps: BlackBerry - PDA GPS - BlackBerry Maps at BlackBerry.com
Blackberry Messenger: www.blackberry.com/messenger/
Blackberry Mobile Site [RIM]: http://mobile.blackberry.com/
BBscreenshooter: oppitronic.[net|de]
BB Smart Email Viewer: BBSmart
BB Tracker: Blackberry GPS Tracker - Home
Blackberry Wiki: http://m.jonathanhfisher.co.uk/
Blackberry Video Converter: Seabyrd Technologies - Blackberry Video Converter
BB Weather (OTA): BlackBerryTools OTA
Blackberry Web Shortcuts Download: http://northcubed.com/products/black...thshortcut.zip
BB Web Shortcuts Help Forum: Blackberry Web Shortcuts
Beyond 411: Beyond411 Mobile Search
CB Desktop Launcher: CrackBerry.com Desktop Launcher
Crackberry.com User & Abuser FREE Theme: Free BlackBerry Themes | CrackBerry.com
Empower BES: Empower Your BlackBerry
Empower Email Viewer: Empower BlackBerry
ESPN Mobile (OTA): ESPN Mobile Properties
Facebook App: Facebook for BlackBerry
Fox Mobile (OTA): http://m.foxbusiness.com/index.php?page=blackberry
Gmail App: Gmail Mobile
Google Maps: Google Maps
Google Sync (OTA): Google Sync
Google Talk: http://www.blackberry.com/GoogleTalk/
IM+: IM+ All-in-One Mobile Messenger
Infospace FindIt! (OTA): InfoSpace Find It! for BlackBerry
JiveTalk: BeeJive :: JiveTalk mobile messenger
JL Commander: JL_Cmder Javaloader Utility
Livesearch (Beta - OTA): Untitled Page
MiniMoni: MiniMoni - Traffic monitor for BlackBerry
MLB Mobile (OTA): MLB.com for BlackBerry
MSN Messenger (OTA)) http://www.blackberry.com/livemessenger
Nutsie: nuTsie.com : Free Your iTunes nuTsie.com
Opera Mini 3: http://mini.opera.com/?rel=3
Opera Mini 4: http://mini.opera.com/
PacMan (OTA): BlackBerry
PIXresizer (Image Resizer): Image resizing, do it with PIXresizer
Plazmic: Plazmic
Ramble IM (OTA): Ramble Wireless Instant Messaging
ShoZu (OTA): http://www.shozu.com/d/bbcurve/shozu.jad
Soft Reset: geek and proud - BlackBerry Software
TellMe: Tellme | Say it. Get It.
TV Guide Mobile (OTA): http://www.handmark.com/downloads/23...00/TVGuide.jad
TwitterBerry (OTA): TwitterBerry for BlackBerry
VibandRing: VibAndRing - Personal Productivity BlackBerry Software - Crackberry Store
Viigo - Crackberry.com Edition: CrackBerry and Viigo
Videos4Blackberry (3g formatted videos): videos4blackberry.info
WeatherEye (OTA): http://weyebb.pelmorex.com/BlackBerry/
Worldmate Live: https://www.worldmatelive.com/li-web/index.jsf
XM Mobile: XM Radio Mobile on BlackBerry®
Yahoo! Go: Y! Go Download
Yahoo! Messenger (OTA): http://www.blackberry.com/YahooDownload __________________
      

The last time I checked we as agents are supposed to list homes in the realm of reality so our clients can sell their property.

Our responsibilities to our clients are to insure by placing a home on the MLS it`s priced similar to the competition as well as the last closed sales in the area.A home that`s trashed should be properly priced.Such is the case of an offer we just sent to an agent who is "Out of the Area" and is listing a home she hasn`t seen!

Most home owners in Cooper City,Florida keep their homes very well manicured. The pride of ownership in this area has kept home prices above average even in a diminishing market.

Yet, every now and than we see homes that need a complete "Overhaul", it`s usually placed on the MLS as a Handyman`s special.

In the case of this home it will require a minimum of $50,000 to repair.

The home is listed for $260,000, closed sales indicate when a home is presentable sales range between $200-$210K.

The agent refuses to believe the COMPS we sent over, has no clue about the area and sounds as if her hacking cough needs to be treated by a Doctor.

Scary,but very true!

We sent an "All Cash" offer of $160K with a closing date of 10 days. A smart Realtor would express to the client the amount of repairs  needed to be completed before the home is habitable.

Yet, this particular Realtor as the nerve to tell me "We`re not a serious buyer!" Go figure the mentality!

A cash buyer is the most serious buyer there is! A home that`s overpriced on the market isn`t our fault, nor is it our responsibility to reward the seller!

Quite frankly, an agent who doesn`t to their Due Diligence, shouldn't`t be telling someone about the "offer" what they need to do is either price it properly or move on!

We told the agent to leave our offer on the table indicating we don`t see this home selling now or in the very near future!

It`s hard enough to be selling a home in a downward market, even harder when there are Realtors roaming around who are totally clueless to the market and the reality that a "Cash Buyer is like having a FULL HOUSE".......