Home-Buyers . . . and Realtors

Tonight, it's personal . . . in hopes of fostering better Buyer - Realtor relations.

Invested an entire day searching for a Manitowoc County WI home neighboring county or state land priced between $0-$120K to help a home-buyer who phoned into our office this morning. It's not an easy search because there's no pre-set box to check for "neighboring public land" -- requires serious research and various maps.

Having already asked 3 other Realtors for help and not being provided with homes matching her search criteria, this home-buyer was understandably frustrated . . . and pleased when I promised to perform the search and get back to her latter in the day with results.

Genuinely excited to send the good news and eager to hear her reply, "Found one! 3 Bedrooms, 2 Acres, Adjoining County Land" was the subject line of the outbound email to home-buyer at 5:21 p.m. that contained information on the home, the neighboring land, ect.

"The email account that you tried to reach does not exist." Is the reply that came back . . . subject line, "failure notice" . . . sender, MAILER-DAEMON@...

Seriously disappointed . . . huge request . . . a bogus email . . . an entire day wasted.

Another costly lesson learned (trust . . . but validate - check validity of email before doing the work).

Please note, Home-Buyers: Do not be afraid of meeting with a Realtor for a "buyer consultation" before heading out to search for homes together. A sit-down to discuss your goals and how the Realtor can help you achieve them helps establish a relationship of professionalism and trust.  It's the best way to begin your home search.    

America's State of Foreclosure

Foreclosure news for the vast majority of us throughout the United States is looking up -- JANUARY, 2013, marked a SIX YEAR LOW in foreclosure starts. Yee-HA! 3 Housing Markets in particular are still struggling, however.

 We all know about the ups and downs in California and Florida; few are aware the state holding unto that #3 spot in the "Nation's TOP Foreclosure States List" is in the midwest.

 It's saddens me to see Wisconsin's neighbor -- the state where I was born, raised, and have family -- in the nation's TOP 3 Foreclosure States. 

Click on this link to learn the good, the bad, and the ugly (mostly good -- if you're not in the top 3) regarding foreclosure in America today: http://www.realtytrac.com/content/foreclosure-market-report/january-2013-us-foreclosure-market-report-7596