rmasse10's Blog: Ranting

It has been a rather interesting few past days in the Tampa Real Estate Market.  We have brought alot of clients through homes and I have begun to see a pattern.  I do not actually take the clients out, my wife handles alot of those where as I take on the commercial clients (I needed to say that or she would kill me), but what I have noticed is that everyone wants "A Deal".  Not just any deal, but a deal where the bank is involved.  For some reason, and maybe because the media has made this whole thing out to be something it is not, these clients want only Pre-Foreclosures, Bank Owned, Short Sales, and the like.  Not because it is necessarily a good deal, but because it is perceived that it is a good deal.

Here is what I mean, for example, I show (I mean…

I tried an experiment today.  My best friend in the world just came back from Russia where he has been for the past 10 months.  He has been there playing hockey (he happens to be a pro hockey player, use to play in the NHL but left to play in Russia for a few years).  Anyway, he is younger than I am and looks up to me to help him out where he needs help.  So, he asked me to take a ride today to Home Depot.  I reluctantly said yes and left my phone and laptop at home.  We went to Home Depot and bought a bunch of stuff, took like 2 hours or so.

After about 1 hour, I started to get withdrawal symptoms.  Now mind you, in my home where I conduct most of my business, I have computers in every room, my phone always by my side and am constantly connected somehow…

Ok, I am a Realtor so you are probably thinking "What the heck is this guy talking about".  Let me tell you, that Title is the Truth and I will explain why.  I am a listing agent so I list property.  My wife is a Buyers Agent so she helps buyers, and so on.  Well, my side is not a problem.  An agent calls me up, wants to see one of my listings, I make the arrangements if needed and your good to go.  As a Buyers Agent, especially in the Tampa Real Estate Market, at least that is my market, a Real Estate Agent takes the Buyer to see the properties, if the Buyer likes it enough, they make an offer.  Ok, great, an offer.  If I get an offer, I process it right away like a hot potato, quick in, quick out, faster it gets through the process, the faster is gets to…

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…

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…