Monday, September 29, 2014

Absorption Rates

Hello all,

"Absorption Rates"

To continue the conversation of a changing inventory market using absorption rates to help explain the state of the market can be a useful tool with your sellers. To calculate absorption rates in an area you need to go back 12 months and get the total closed sales, you then divide that number by 12 to get the closed sales per month. Next find the number of active listings and divide that by the number of sales per month to find the number of months worth of inventory there is in that area. Here are two examples:

Area = 20874 Zip Code (Macro) Number of closed sales past 12 months = 768. 768 divided by 12 = 64 which is the closed sales per month. Number of active listings in 20874 is 254, 254 divided by 64 = 3.9 which is the number of months the market would take to absorb all of the properties if nothing else came on the market. 

Area= Churchill Town Sector which is a subdivision in 20874 (Micro) Number of closed sales past 12 months = 131. 131 divided by 12 = 11 which is the closed sales per month. Number of active listings = 47, 47 divided by 11 = 4.2 months worth of inventory.

Where this becomes useful with your sellers is the dialogue you can create with it. "You see Mr. & Mrs. Seller with the data we just went through in Churchill Town Sector there will be 11 sales in the next 30 days, to be one of those properties to sell we need to be in the top 11 based on condition and price". So if you have a listing that is overpriced or not in the best condition you can show them what they need to do and where they need to be to sell based on the competition. If you need further help with this on a particular property don't hesitate to ask.

Enjoy the coffee,
Joe  


Monday Morning Coffee
INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
 
"A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.... Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.... The divinity that shapes our ends is in ourselves. It is our very self.... All that a man achieves is the direct result of his own thoughts.... A man can only rise, conquer and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak and abject and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts." 
 
~ James Allen, "As A Man Thinketh"
 
ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE!
 
It's so simple . . . the advice given in the above quote . . . and so true. Each of us has the power to elevate the value and quality of our life, simply by "lifting up" our thoughts, by placing our hands firmly on the wheel of positive thinking. Earl Nightingale gave an example in one of his taped programs. He said imagine that you are the operator of a huge piece of earth-moving equipment. You are perched in a small cab, hands on the wheel, and have the ability to move vast amounts of earth. Would you take your hands off the wheel and let it run itself into a ditch?
 
Your mind, and hence your thoughts, mirror that steering wheel. Through positive thoughts, you guide your life in a direction that produces positive actions, resulting in positive re-actions from others. Refusing to keep your hands on the wheel will quickly deliver you into life's ditches.
 
Life today is complex. It brings with it many opportunities for negative thinking. They range from the personal early morning "Hurry up, we're going to be late!" to the mid-day business crisis of "The deal isn't going to close!" Another quote goes like this: "Think you can, think you can't, either way you're right!" Again, it's your choice, isn't it?
 
The next time you feel frustration and doubt creeping into your vocabulary, think of a time when you felt really good about a similar situation . . . then replace the negative thought with a positive statement. As another wise individual once said, "Our lives are what our thoughts make of it."

Monday, September 22, 2014

Inventory

Hello all,

"Inventory"

In this business it is very important to follow the micro trends to see if they become macro issues. Inventory has been on the rise and it is now becoming enough of an issue that we may need to adjust our approach to some things. Click on the link below for a complete market update, inventory is up for the last eleven months and we are 30% higher then we were at this time last year. This is not the end of the world and in the long run probably healthy. However it will affect how we handle our sellers, days on market, pace of showings... In the next couple of Mondays I will be revisiting some of the strategies we used back in 2007'ish when inventory was through the roof.
 

Enjoy the coffee,
Joe


Monday Morning Coffee
INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
 
"In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace - and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock."  
 
~ From the movie "The Third Man" (1949) 
 
THE CUCKOO BIRD OF HAPPINESS! 
 
This passage makes you ponder where our inspiration and our motivation come from. How many great movements came out of times of peace? Not to knock happiness, but complacency tends to breed laziness, unless we keep ourselves aware of the issues that might truly affect us. 
 
We're all familiar with the concept of the "starving artist" - rationalized for ages now by saying one must suffer for one's art. Of course, this isn't necessarily true. Plenty of beautiful art and literature has been produced by "happy" people. But isn't it interesting that the most controversial, thought-provoking, and powerful works do in fact come out of suffering and a desire to educate others about suffering, cruelty, and wrong-doing? 
 
It seems that people really get motivated by what angers them - when we're happy and complacent, we tend not to get involved in troubling issues. Apathy often arises when we feel that we simply have no say in the result, when we feel disempowered or our vote doesn't really count. But very often our apathy is the result of the fact that overall, we feel pretty good about our situation and feel that we don't necessarily need to get involved - we're happy with the way things are, so let them be and let other people worry about the issues that affect them. 
 
It's our problems - and how we handle them - that help us to grow as individuals. Those challenges in our lives force us to find solutions, solutions that sometimes mean changing ourselves in some way, or changing how we interact with others. Too much "smooth sailing" can leave you asleep at the rudder! Try to see your problems and challenges as opportunities to produce something great or effect a change for the better. 
 
If you're fortunate enough to say, "I am truly happy with all things as they are in my life," then don't become complacent. Find yourself a cause that you believe in and become involved in its promotion. Your life and the lives of those around you will become better for it!

Monday, September 15, 2014

DLLR

Hello all,

"DLLR"

I touched on this at the sales meeting on Friday. The DLLR has come out with a new regulation that Real Estate Agents must provide access to the license information of anyone they refer to the public. It falls into the "it is what it is" category and that is all I will say in writing. To help you with this the office has come up with a cheat sheet for all of our affiliates. See the link below. 



This will be in the Wednesday Memo the next couple of weeks, we will put it in Wolfconnect and keep it updated for you. I suggest that you keep this in a place you can find and also come up with something for anyone else you refer, contractors...

Enjoy the coffee,
Joe 

Monday Morning Coffee
INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
 
"To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor." 
 
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
 
STUCK IN PORT?
 
Imagine the Pearl Harbor attack of 1941 going unanswered . . . Many of our ships found at anchor by attacking planes went down, never to leave the harbor again. Imagine the economy floundering with interest rates at 12%, and learning that the head of "the fed" has taken a six-month, non-working vacation to Tahiti. Imagine how you would have felt on September 12, 2001 if our president had appeared on TV to tell us how sorry he was about the attacks without announcing action to protect us in the future.
 
We expect our nation's leaders to act in times of crisis, don't we? But - what do we expect of ourselves when a family crisis arises, our sales flounder, or we notice the numbers on our scale beginning to creep upward to uncomfortable levels? Do we set sail, or lie at anchor hoping "someone" will do "something?"
 
Babe Ruth sailed against the wind more often than with it. He is remembered for his home runs - 714 of them - yet he struck out 1,330 times in his career. Best of all, he set sail and got out of the harbor (took his bat to the plate) 8,399 times. Had he stayed safely in the dugout, he could have avoided all those strikeouts.
 
So - what about you? Having difficulty setting sail lately? Perhaps it's time to give your engine a little maintenance, or take out a needle and thread to repair torn sails. You may also want to pull out your map to redefine the direction you'll be taking in coming months.
 
If you've been spending too much time at the "Captain's Table" and not enough time on the bridge with the wheel in your hand, perhaps some planning now will send you full speed ahead out of the harbor and with some exotic port of call in sight. Bon Voyage!

Monday, September 8, 2014

Store Your Nuts

Hello all,

"Store Your Nuts"

I consider myself an optimistic person with a conservative nature. The optimist in me says we are going to get another good waive of business and we will finish the year strong. Activity is picking back up and when that happens contracts follow. The conservative side of me notes that things have been slow for the past four weeks. More than likely the truth will be somewhere in the middle. However when we can't predict the fall and winter is right behind I suggest we get a little cautious with our cash flow and "Store Your Nuts".   

Enjoy the coffee,
Joe
       

    Monday Morning Coffee
INSPIRATION FOR TODAY:
 
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." 
 
~ Dante
 
STAND UP AND BE COUNTED!
 
Think there's any "moral crisis" going on in our country right now? What about in our city? Our schools? Our neighborhood? Where did it come from, and why are we facing these challenges?
 
We are a country - city - neighborhood - blessed with peace and prosperity. Our daily choices range from which SUV we will drive, to where we will dine next, to how we will redecorate our home this year. Our concerns include our child's upcoming soccer match, whether or not to refinance the house, making "Salesperson of the Year," and taking more time for golf or tennis.
 
With all the choices complemented by our affluence, we have also become compliant, accepting, and politically correct. We strive to please everyone, avoid "rocking the boat," and prefer the status quo. It's so much easier that way, isn't it?
 
In doing so, however, we may also abdicate responsibility for teaching our children the value of principle-centered living. What principles should we be teaching - and practicing? Why not adopt and teach the value of courage, diligence, faithfulness, generosity, cleanliness, honesty, encouragement, frugality, humility, industry, justice, moderation, order, resolution, silence, honesty, sincerity, temperance, and tranquility?
 
Imagine how the world around us would change if we taught and participated in more of these time-honored values. Remember that our country IS our cities, our neighborhoods, and our homes. What begins at the grass roots level - literally in our own backyards - can be spread throughout the world. Abandon neutrality and you can change the world!