For starters, the “Newest Listings” feature is up and running. Conforming to board regulations, I was limited to how I could use it, but I think it turned out well. It’s more in depth than the valleymls version, but it could still be better. For the time being, check it out at level10realty.com. I will have an “Email Listing Alert” set up within the next few days. Be sure to check that out too.

Address Update

I got an email from the board today regarding the upcoming membership meeting where I intended to push for addresses. In essence, the email asked that I wait to present this until April, instead of January 13th.  It comes down to one simple fact. To get this pushed through, I need all the help I can get. From the context of the email, it appeared that things could go much smoother and I could have more help by waiting. As much as I didn’t want to, I had to oblige. I truly feel that even though we have to wait a bit longer, we will stand a better chance of prevailing.

The first year of business for Level 10 Realty went surprisingly well. Honestly, I thought there would be more of a “breaking in” period of getting our name out there and becoming a household name. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re making better progress than I could have expected this soon.

We’ll be adding some more features to the site over the next week or so (look for a “new listings” page and a few other things), as well as making some updates. I’ll try to do a “year in review” post in the next few days, as well as a “resolutions” post about what I plan to accomplish with Level 10 in 2009.

Merry Chirstmas and Happy Holidays!

Unfortunately, it won’t be 100% accurate because I can’t use addresses or a home’s longitude and latitude to figure where the home is located. I’m having to use a complex system of average longitudes and latitudes for subdivisions, combined with the zip code and city long/lats to provide the info. Homes within a subdivision should turn out well, but once it gets into Metes and Bounds, I cant make any promises!

Below is a screenshot of what the new home page is going to resemble. It’s not set in stone yet, but keep an eye out soon.

I have a listing in Harvest. Within two weeks of putting the home on the market, we have an accepted offer with a VA loan, and close by December 1st, 2008. Simple enough, right?

During the course of the contract, we make a few changes, but one thing stays constant;  VA loan, and deed to be delivered on or before December 1st, 2008. The buyer (hereafter may be referred to as buyer #1.) chooses to close the Monday prior to Thanksgiving. Monday comes and goes with no closing. “Oh, we have one more thing to take care of, we’ll close Tuesday”, says the mortgage company. Tuesday comes and goes with no closing. The same thing was said for Wednesday, no closing.

Later in the day Wednesday, I find out that the buyer has an issue that is going to keep him from getting approved for his VA loan. As a last ditch attempt, the buyer moves their mortgage to another mortgage company. While we wait, December 1st passes us by. The sellers tell me to give a December 7th, 2008 deadline to the purchasers to close, or we put the home back on the market. I relay this to the mortgage officer.

The Friday before December 7th, the mortgage officer tells me that she cannot approve the purchaser for a VA loan. Our contracts are written to stipulate one main issue. If, for any reason at all, you are unable to get approved for a mortgage on a home, the contract is dead and you are not legally bound to purchase that home. The purchaser was unable to get approved for the type of mortgage written in the contract, and the expiration date on the contract had passed. DEAD CONTRACT.

December 7th, home goes back on the market. Four days later, we have another offer. After going back and forth a few times, we come to a verbal agreement that Friday night (We’ll refer to these guys as buyer #2.). Sellers are out of town and unable to sign the contract until Sunday.

SUNDAY

Sunday rolls around and I decide to give a call to buyer #1’s agent to get his buyer their earnest money back. Voicemail. After a bit, buyer #1’s agent calls back, “Why are you returning the earnest money? We’re closing tomorrow (Monday). The buyer is approved with an FHA loan now.” I’ve heard this before, a few times. Why should I believe it this time? So, I inform the sellers.

After informing my sellers,  they want to wait to sign buyer #2’s contract because of the possibility buyer #1 could close much sooner. You must be saying, “But, I thought buyer #2 had a verbal agreement with the sellers?” You would be right. Verbal agreements CAN be legally enforced.

The sellers have no responsibility to buyer #1. There is NO CONTRACT. It is DEAD. The sellers do have a legal responsibility to buyer #2. We decide to wait until Monday to see what happens.

MONDAY

First thing in the morning, I get a call from the mortgage officer. “I think we can close buyer #1 on Friday.” With the amount of trouble that we’ve had trying to close buyer #1, this quote does not sound too promising. Buyer #1 is waiting on a document that could go either way. If it comes back different than what they expect, DENIED. If it comes back like they expect, we still have to close, and ANYTHING can happen prior to closing.

THE QUANDRY

First, I’ll say this. I’ve never met or spoken with either buyer, only their agents. Both agents seem like great guys and want to do what’s best for their buyers. From speaking with the buyer’s agents, here are their situations:

Buyer #1: Local, has no contract with the sellers. Buyer can find another home with no trouble, and appears that there are no time constraints, but if things work out, could close very quickly.

Buyer #2: From out of state, has a verbal agreement with the sellers. Buyer #2 has a pre-approval letter and all financing inline. Buyer is not available to come back to town prior to closing, hence the massive need for a home quickly. If seller chooses buyer #1, buyer #2’s wife and two small children have absolutely nowhere to live when they return to town. Closing is set for the middle of January.

If seller chooses buyer #1, and buyer #1 does not close, seller has lost BOTH buyers, as has opened themselves up to a possible lawsuit from buyer #2.

If seller chooses buyer #2, buyer #1 doesn’t really have any recourse, and buyer #1 just finds another home. It seems like an easy answer, but it’s a lot tougher when you’re in the seller’s shoes.

THE ANSWER

After an ALL DAY, ALL WEEKEND event, the sellers chose to stay with their verbal agreement to buyer #2.

Somehow, though, I feel like this is TO BE CONTINUED…

Not all of them, just some. The expression “one bad apple ruins the bunch” should set roots in real estate. There are GREAT agents out there, but I’ll give you a rundown about the ones that piss me off (sorry for the language).

Real estate is my business. If I don’t sell homes, My wife and my child don’t eat. I don’t like it when people try to mess with my business. Certain Realtors are trying to mess with my business because they are too lazy to do the amount of work it takes to be successful without corrupting the integrity of a site designed to give you guys as much information as I can legally give you.

Realtors are on my site CONSTANTLY. Trust me, I know. That doesn’t bother me. I AM, though, becoming annoyed with the ones that stay on my site to look for ways to send a complaint to the board ( or now, as I’m hearing, to the state).

REALTORS, LISTEN: If you know nothing about the NALMLS or IDX rules for displaying data on a broker website, please, keep your mouth shut and quit making yourself look stupid. Try reading before complaining. Try common courtesy over back-stabbing.

Realtor jealousy is at an all time high in this area. This is a message to those Realtors that are probably reading this now.

YOU SUCK. Oh, you don’t think so? Let me count 5 ways you suck:

1. If you are unwilling to do what it takes to rank better in the search engines, don’t blame me, you are the one that sucks.

2. If you are unwilling to hire someone to help you rank better in search engines, don’t blame me, you are the one that sucks.

3. If you are unwilling to spend the time developing GOOD information for display to the public, don’t blame me, you are the one that sucks.

4. If you are unwilling to hire someone to design a decent website for you instead of the crap you have now, don’t blame me, you are the one that sucks.

5. If you refuse to hire someone, and are unwilling to learn the technology to do these things yourself, don’t blame me, you are the one that sucks.

I could go on all day about how some of you Realtors suck. The ones that do, I hope you read this. Hell, I hope you take it to the board and report me for telling you that you suck. Maybe, we’ll even get to have a hearing about how you suck so that I can tell you that “You Suck” to your face. Maybe you’ll even get famous by the whole fiasco and people will start wanting to do business with “The Realtor that Sucks.”

I can see it now. Develop the business plan! It’s a great idea! Who could forget “The Realtor that Sucks?” You could develop little name tags that say “It’s Great to Suck” or “HELLO My Name is: The Realtor that Sucks.”

You could make millions. You could write books! How about titles such as Sucking the Hard Way, Sucking for Dummies, How to Suck in the Current Real Estate Climate for Maximum Profit, Sucking at Foreclosures, and finally, just plain old Sucking at Real Estate, A guide to burning bridges, back stabbing, and pissing people off on the way to making millions.

There’s probably even a “Made for TV” movie in there somewhere, and just think, you were able to have all of this success, simply by sucking. You can thank me later. In the meantime, I’ll keep doing things the right way.

The story goes, apparently another Realtor was checking out my site, liked the idea, and called to see if it was within our regulations to do this. The board then checked my site and verified that this would not be legal under our current rules. As a natural consequence, I had to remove them.

I will continue the fight!