rmasse10's Blog: Realtor

I haven't had any of these happen to me lately but I have had my fair share and have heard around the office of other agents suffering from Rude Clients, Clients that expect agents to take them on a Taxi Ride around town just so they can write off their trip for taxes, babysit, you get the picture.  I think with the Tampa Real Estate Market the way it is being a buyers market, some buyers seem to feel that they can make everyone run around like mice in a cage and we Realtors will just do it.  Guess what, that will only last so long with un-seasoned agents, and won't fly at all with seasoned agents.

Like I said, I have had my share, and I give everyone that I deal with (since I am no longer a buyers agent it doesn't matter but every now and then I will…

Now that the Tampa Real Estate market is busting at the seams with homes of all styles and price ranges and because of this we have a problem.  With so many choices, comes that feeling of being overwhelmed and lack of ability to make a decision.  By the time you make a decision, odds are the property is going to be gone.  Here is some advice if you are in the market to buying a home:

1. Figure out what you are willing to spend and then increase that by $20,000.  The reason for that is it is a buyers market and you will most likely be able to get a better house for a good deal.  Negotiate down.

2. Know exactly what you want.  Don’t waste time looking at homes that don’t meet your needs.  Put your needs on paper and stick to them.

3. Speak with a…

OK, so I think the banks are starting to figure out that they stand to make more money (or should I say loose less) by processing short sale offers instead of making it to the foreclosure process.  Working in the Tampa Real Estate Market, which is improving, the Tampa Foreclosures market is moving quicker in terms of offers, but not closing.  Lets take a look at a few examples.

Example 1. My wife takes out some first time home buyers and they are interested in this one property.  The price is listed at $125,000 and they put in an offer of $97,000.  The bank, after  4 weeks says no way.  Ok, so the clients move on and are still looking and then we see that the property went thru foreclosure and is now bank owned.  The property is now listed at…

People often ask me what I think about the Tampa Real Estate market and what I think the future of Real Estate is going to be.  It's easy for me to come up with some sophisticated Real Estate scenario, Virtual Homes, Virtual Open Houses, Virtual Brokers Open, Virtual this, Virtual that.  Virtual Tours will be replaced by Video Tours, will be replaced by 3-D Tours.  I believe that Real Estate is moving into a new era of combining sophisticated computer software, and Real Estate Sales.  Maybe the Realtor of the Future will need to be a Software Salesman, or maybe a Webmaster Guru.  Whatever the future holds, I believe that Technology and Real Estate are coming to a collision point.  It's easy for me to say this because I have an engineering mind and would…

The title may have thrown you a little bit as Mirror Matching and NLP techniques are something that really "Good" Realtors tend to initiate with clients.  Mirror Matching is when you attempt to match the style and attitude of the person that you are communicating with, hence the name, and I won't go into NLP as it is a little more complicated to explain.  But this is where the problem is. 

What I have been seeing from many Realtors in the Tampa Real Estate Market, and especially in the Tampa Foreclosures arena, these agents that are assisting the banks in selling their homes (ie bank owned or soon to be), these Agents are taking on the attitude of the bank.  They have become rude, take multiple offers and don't put the properties pending when the first…

I often think about what I would do if I had a spare minute again to breath, reflect on where I came from and where I am going.  I am a Realtor selling property in the Tampa Real Estate Market and am heavily involved in the Tampa Foreclosures Market as well.  My wife is typically working somewhere around 30-40 leads at any one time, I am growing my team, have added another team member and looking to grow it another 5 people minimum.  I manage at least 4 blogs per week, several websites, go on Listing presentations, meet with developers about marketing their product, and manage my commercial projects.  In addition, I am the Technology Director of my company for some 600 agents, teach between 3-5 hours per week and hold office time for 5 hours a week to help…

Interesting article just published in one of the magazines I get from being a member of the Florida Association of Realtors.  The data was put together by the National Association of Realtors for the Florida Association of Realtors (say that 10 times fast).  Anyway, I am a huge advocate of Social Networking which most of you already know.  I Blog, Vlog, have accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, etc and most of that works for me automatically with some maintenance on a weekly basis.  Being in the Tampa Real Estate Market, which seems to be fairly competitive, it takes these added tools to stay on top of my game.

Anyway, NAR created a profile of 2007 buyers in the Florida Market and found that 38% of buyers found their home thru the use of Social…

You hear this all the time in the news now, Foreclosures, Short Sales, REO, Repossessed, Bank Owned, etc...what the heck is the difference between all of these.  Well let me try to separate this all out for you.  If you are looking for these properties, look no further, check us out at Tampa Bank Owned for FREE access to all residential and commercial properties available for sale.

1. Tampa Foreclosures - This is a home that has or is going through the foreclosure process, in other words, the lender is trying to get the property back due to lack of payment per the mortgage agreement.

2. Tampa Short Sale - This is where the bank has authorized the current owner of the property to sell the property for less than what is owed the bank.

3. Tampa Repossessed…