rmasse10's Blog: All Categories

I guess I am one of the only one who actually blogs about the great things that happen to me...my trials and tribulations sort a speak.  Well, had another fantastic day today.  Let me tell you how it went (I figured this would be good for a laugh for everyone).

The day started out fine, went into the office to help other agents with their tech questions for the day.  I had a full schedule set up for the day and my wife had clients that she was out with showing Tampa Real Estate to.  Anyway, all is fine until the phone rings in the middle of one of my meetings.  My wife is on the phone saying that there is a problem with the battery.  New Battery, so don't think so, probably something else.  But I have this feeling that something worse is coming (that is…

I am now absolutely convinced that the major issue with Tampa Foreclosures, Short Sales and the like are the Banks.  This just happened to me this morning which caused a domino effect of other events that I will not go into in this Rant. 

I have a listing that is a Villa in a really nice development.  The owners are nice people and through no fault of their own, they needed to sell the property.  This is not the property that they live in.  Villas in this development are very tough to sell and we instructed them of the such at the time, in turn, they have given us many referrals for other business so it has been a good relationship so far.  Last week we went by the property to check on it and noticed a FedEx document that was opened left at the door.  We…

This is probably something that has never been done before, or at least not done that often, but I wanted to write a blog about my buddies blog, fellow agent where I work that just got going in Blogging and writes about Autism.  He doesn't blog about about real estate although he has links on the side of his blog page regarding real estate, but he wants to educate others on Autism and be aware of a project that is underway in Riverview Florida that he is a big part of.

His name is Steve Bristol and he has a big heart, especially when it comes to Autism and helping other deal with this disorder.  His child has Autism and he deals with this disorder daily.  If you happen to be in a chartable mood and are looking for someplace to make a contribution, please…

Kind of a strange title but I think that you get the idea as to what this is about.  I am blogging about blogging.  What a concept.  In either event, I decided to write about why we write, or blog I should say.  Many individuals blog because they have something to say, some just want to rant and rave about some topic, while others do it for reasons of being social or because they are attempting to embrace the whole Social Networking concept.  Whatever the reason is that someone blogs is not really important, what is important is the fact that they do blog and the fact that there is alot of great information out there written in blogs that are much easier to communicate to a large audience.

Blogs are a fascinating forum where someone can write some…

I remember speaking with my father that was a broker in MA back in the day and he use to get those huge books from the MLS board with all the listings in it, that were outdated the second they got the book.  He use to love that book...I don't know why as it seemed like a huge waste of paper to me but what do I know, right...wrong.  I come from a unique line of Realtors that actually have some knowledge of technology.  Having a degree or 2 in Engineering, a few patents to my name I think would qualify me uniquely as someone that has knowledge of technology.  In either event, enough about me, lets get back to Real Estate and Technology.  I knew it was a matter of time that Real Estate as well as any industry would eventually clash with technology, it was…

We are all aware of the market as we know it today.  Foreclosures, especially Tampa Foreclosures, are running amuck, with no current end in site!  The investor frenzie of a couple of  years ago has left its mark everywhere.  Investors have these vacant homes now on the market for rent and for sale.  Taking whatever they can, some of them lucky enough to find a renter to put in their property to cut down on the out of pocket expenses.  Herein lies the problem...  The rent they are receiving is not covering their expenses, and who knows if they have more than one property in the same boat.  The rental company is receiving the rent for their investor clients and everyone seems to be happy; do you see where this is going yet? 

These investors are accepting…

There has been a lot of hype lately about Foreclosures, Bank Owned Property, and Short Sales, although Short Sales seems to be a term just used in the South East of the Country.  Anyway, I think buyers are confused about the types of deals available.  Most buyers, and even some agents, that we have come into contact with, think that they can negotiate the closing dates and every other stipulation of the contract.  What needs to be understood is that the Bank or Lender is the final say in this transaction and they really don't care what you write in the contract.  Even though the buyer may make a decent offer, don't expect the lender to react as fast as you demand.  Giving them 24 hours to respond is the same as saying that you are not interested in the…

Ok, I have a problem that I have to get off my back.  Here is the story.  There is an agent in my office who is new to real estate, lets call her Sally.  Sally has a mentor, lets call him Steve.  Steve, for his troubles, gets 14% of Sally's first 4 transactions.  Steve's whole purpose in life as a mentor, is to help Sally setup her business and learn how to do real estate.  Ok, so far so good.  Here is where the problems start and finish.  Sally asks Steve to help her with her website.  Steve is now busy.  Steve says he will call her tomorrow.  No call.  Sally asks again, same deal, no call from Steve.  Now Sally is basically begging Steve for help and is in turn getting angry herself.  Finally, Steve admits that he does not want to help her because if he…