All posts by Bettina Settles

My clients appreciate my compassion, empathetic nature when dealing with them and their transaction but more than willing to educate in a simple way to make a complex transaction understood. Being accessible and cooperative when it comes to dealing with clients and cooperative agents has earned me high praises from both. They have learned that I am dedicated, honest, and knowledgeable and can become very persuasive when it comes when working a transaction for my clients.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, Team work

Are you staying true to yourself and your goals?

July 1, 2013 Bettina Settles 2 Comments

Something Richard Branson said in one of his postings about the Entrepreneurs’ he admires stood out to me and gave me a quick aha moment ” It’s never a bad idea to have a role model or to seek advice from someone you respect — just don’t let it stop you from being yourself. Originality is key.”

You can always looks for others for Ideas and inspiration. Don’t let past failures take you off course and make certain you stay true to yourself and your personal vision on where you would like to go.

Don’t try to become someone else.

One example I can think of is a Billiard/Pool Player I know. For many years this good player who could easily be a great player has been trying to copy the playing style of a great Billiard/Pool Player for many years. This pool player practiced for years the style of this other player and he never saw the success and result he was hoping for. Only as he came back to himself and found his true self playing style again he always had and practiced and refined it he started to see the success he had been hoping for.

Who do you admire and look up too?

Watch them, follow them, read what they have to say but don’t try to become them.

buying, commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Demand of rental units are still at an all-time high

June 28, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

I had a blog coming over my desk that reminded me about a phone call I had this week alone with several housing authority agents who are working with section 8 and low income housing clients.

Most of the housing agents are scrambling to find enough affordable housing for families who need them and anytime there is an available unit they have more than enough applicants to fill them within less than a few days. During the conversation I mentioned that investors I was working with are looking to make homes available to the low income sector and asking them what and where their greatest need is. Most of them did not even let me not even finish my question. Each and every one of them told me they can fill housing with 1 bedroom as easily as homes with 4 or more bedrooms within a few days.

The other wall the housing authority runs into is the availability of fund for the families who need them. Many areas now have a lottery for the money the families need and the families need to count on the luck of the draw to receive money to help them. Now with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHA) pledging to decrease the flow of money into multifamily housing by 10 percent this year, it will put a huge damper on the multifamily housing market in a very short period of time.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Things a seller does to turn off buyers

June 27, 2013 Bettina Settles 1 Comment

I hear it over and over again “I have tons of interested people looking at my home” and when you ask if they had an offer the answer is most of the time “no”.

Sure we are currently having a sellers’ market but that does not mean that every house will sell as soon it becomes available. There are many reasons why or why not a home will sell quickly or sit for a while longer and many sellers will find out sooner or later that selling a home is not all fun and game, especially when you have to deal with a buyer.

Price

Every seller would like to get as much out of their home as possible and some will price their home based on feeling and not true value for the area. Experience has thought me when a home is priced to high from the beginning it usually will for less than a similar sized home.

Value

Some sellers have refinanced their home in the past and that is what they are using to set their price they would like to sell the home for. This is not a good idea. Call an appraiser or the Real Estate Broker to get a current up-to-date evaluation.

Stage Ready

When a house is not “stage ready” you might not see an offer no matter how good the price is of the home. When a home show poor maintenance, is stuffed full with stuff and unorganized you truly will turn off buyers and later end up needing to lower your price or pull the home off the market.

Car sales mentality

Many sellers might hold and open house and trying to sell the home during the open house. Open houses are not a good time to “force” a buyer to sign at the bottom line. Open house is there to showcase and to have your home shine.

Remember the time you bought your home. You fell in love with the home and not the deal.

Be prepared that you have “lookie looks” coming in and most of the time they are only interested in what the neighbor’s home looks like from the inside.

Know the rules and laws

When you finally sit down with a buyer make sure that you know the rules, your rights and responsibilities from the inside and out. Some of the transaction can get complex and confusing at times and when you overlook even a small detail it could cost.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Lack of willingness to learn, might cost you

June 26, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Just ran across a blog post from Mark Graban called No Time for Improvement? Bah! Make Time for Improvement! That reminded me of an interview I did just recently with a REALTOR that I wanted to hire for REO’s and Short sales referrals in her home state.

As a real estate professional I am always looking for other professionals in other parts of the country to make connections with to be able send personal referrals too.

I always ask anyone who I plan to work with about continues education, and self-improvement.

This conversation stuck out and I never will forget this one for sure. It was with a new REALTOR. She had, at the time, her license less than 12 months and during the conversation she point blank told me that she does not have to learn anything else within her profession and everything she needed to know about real estate was thought to her in real estate school and she did pass her real estate license.

We all need to make time for continue education, and self-improvement and we need to make time and see that it is as important as making money. We never should stop or not be willing to learn for self-improvement or for business.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, Team work, tips

Are you holding back your own and your company grows?

June 25, 2013 Bettina Settles 1 Comment

All of us who are employed or entrepreneurs want to be successful in what we are doing and sometimes we are our worst enemy.

Contemplating where I want to go and what I want to do when I grow up I ran across an active on the Small Business Center w/ Fox Business “10 Ways You Hold Yourself Back” by Steve Tobak. The column originally appeared on Inc.com that made me think.

Looking at his thoughts he put together what could hold me back I found several the items mentioned that he might be right on.

Living online was one of them and no, I don’t live online. I don’t have time to be online 24/7 even so it appears that way. I laugh at the FB or other game “virtual money” you can buy at every grocery store checkout lane.

Another one was looking for the golden goose or silver bullet. I personal call this putting all eggs in one basket to pigeon whole you and not looking outside of the box. It might be good for a while but it does not prepare you for changes in the business. The same goes for making yourself into a personal brand unless you are a self-help guru you are what you sell and you should focus on your clients and customers and not yourself.

Are you reaching far enough into the future and have set a big enough goal for you or your company and have you put your goal in writing with a step by step plan? Are you focusing on one step at the time, jump all in, and get it done? When you are not you are not reaching your goals and for sure not an entrepreneur.

A servant leader has is down. They will ask others how they can help them. They don’t not run the 60 second elevator speech at them and ask them for business. The servant leader is looking and giving inspiration and positive reinforcement in others and is not in the market and hunt of Twitter followers.

Still the “old fashion” F2F networking strategy is the way to build long term and lasting relationships. When you have tons of online connections the key is to connect with them on a personal level. When some of the random online connections are not willing to connect on a personal level they might have to go.

One of the biggest driving forces of a successful person is that they have a goal or want stuff. Maybe like a new house on a secluded island or a 1000 acre farm in Montana. This will keep them on task and focused.

Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, Team work, tips

Central Indiana May 2013 housing stats

June 24, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Spring 2013 ended up on a high note for Central Indiana’s Real Estate market. In May 2013 vs. May 2012 1362 more homes were sold and the median and average sale prices of those homes are also up.

Today’s Indiana Real Estate Markets Report gives us the following statistics for May 2013 vs. May2012:

• Number of closed home sales increased 21 percent to 7,840,

• Median sale price of those homes increased 4.5 percent to $127,500,

• Average sale price increased 4.2 percent to $150,543,

• Percent or original list price received increased 1.2 percent to 92.8 percent,

• Number of pending home sales increased 18.9 percent to 7,625, and

• Number of new listings increased 11 percent to 12,556.

Overall:

• We saw an increase of closed home sales year-over-year for 23 consecutive months,

• Median sale price of homes has increased for 18 consecutive months,

• Average sale price has increased for 17 consecutive months,

• Sellers received a greater share of their original list price for the 15th consecutive month, and

• Number of pending home sales has increased for 20 consecutive months.

Indiana is not different than many other states in this Country. We all still very concerned about the low housing inventory. With raising home prices we should see an increase in the amount of homes available for sale. There is still the concern of the amount of bank owned homes that will be release into the market and the raising interest rate.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work, tips

Being a Servant Leader

June 24, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Being a servant leader is not a new concept it has been around and goes back to 33 A.D.(thank you Linda Fitzgerald, for correcting me) The phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in “The Servant as Leader”, an essay that he first published in 1970.

Organizations as well as individuals can be servant-leaders. When you are a servant-leader you focus mainly on the growth and well-being of others and the communities to which they belong too. Traditional leaders generally involve the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top”.

As a servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as to their best abilities.

For Butler University, Robert K. Greenleaf put the Ten Principles of Servant Leadership together.

Some of the qualities a servant leader holds are:

Listening to others and values diverse opinions
Regularly seeks out opinions of others
Has Empathy for others and willing to help others with life issues not only work
Commitment to the Growth of People into leadership rolls
Build’s a community of trust
Encourages others
Has selfless qualities

Compare to principals of a traditional leader whose principals are guided by the accumulation of power and money servant leader is guided by the need and opinions of others and the community the servant leader serves.

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work

The responsibility of Leadership

June 24, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Calling yourself a Leader comes with a barrow of responsibilities. Many of us leaders are going to be tapped to run for many external positions for non-for-profits and other leadership type of organizations.

I ran across a post from 2009 on the STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS website called “Leadership Is Responsibility, Not Power” Even so it was written in 2009 is still holds true.

Many Leaders still think their role to be position of power. The time that a leader ruled with an iron fist is over and a leader needs to be more someone of trust, who can strategize, show a clear goal and willing to take criticism.

A leader also should be looked at as a responsible, and need to be accountable for their actions or their teams action they are leading.

No matter if the Team is now their work team, volunteer team, board team….

Especially when a leader takes a position on a board or volunteers for a function they need to specially responsible and make sure all the T’s are crossed and I’s are dotted.

When you think you are ready to take a leadership position outside of your work make sure that you truly have the time and the energy to perform for the external leadership position. Missing the beat could not only reflect badly on you personally it also could reflect badly on your work and you might put others in a negative position, and you might be asked to step down from the external leadership position or not asked to run a second therm.

buying, Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, tips

Top 10 Foreclosure States in May 2013

June 21, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Real Estate is selling much better than in recent years and the interest is starting to go up but still on the low end.

Still there are states that have homeowners who are going through foreclosure. Let’s keep the kidding aside; there always will be homes and homeowners who might look down the foreclosure barrel.

The current top 10 states where there are still an abundance of foreclosures are:

Florida
Nevada
Ohio
Maryland
South Carolina
Illinois
Georgia
Delaware
Arizona
Wisconsin

The first thing I notice is the California is missing on the top ten lists and that is great news.

This does not mean that there a no great deals to be found in any of the other states. I just had within my neighborhood several homes come up through the Bank listing avenue that were great deals for owner occupant and investors alike and my state is not in the top 10 list.

You just need to get with your Real Estate Professional and run your personal numbers to find out if the deal you are looking at is the deal for you.

Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, Team work, tips

To Photoshop or not to Photoshop a listing picture

June 20, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Thanks to a prominent TV Show and another REALOTR® touching up pictures with Photoshop, and getting caught, we again have the discussion about if or if not to touch up pictures to make a house look much better online.

A Colum published by MSN Real Estate that was written by bankrate.com called Not-so-real estate: Is it ethical to alter photos? had several good example of when and when not to touch up.

Quote from article:

Randy Cohen, who wrote “The Ethicist” column for The New York Times Magazine, calls it unambiguously unethical and deliberately deceitful. “You might photograph the backyard from a particular angle to emphasize the view of the waterfall, and no one would quibble. But if you deliberately remove a bush to get that view, you’re definitely crossing the line.”

The REALTOR® codes of ethics under Article 1 states:

When representing a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, or other client as an agent, REALTORS® pledge themselves to protect and promote the interests of their client. This obligation to the client is primary, but it does not relieve REALTORS® of their obligation to treat all parties honestly. When serving a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant or other party in a nonagency capacity, REALTORS® remain obligated to treat all parties honestly.

Here now comes the argument. Is touching up a listing picture with Photoshop a possible violation of the code of ethics by possible not treating all parties, aka the buyer who looked at the house because the REALTORS® decided to Photoshop the picture?

When you asked the REALTORS® from NM he might tell you not to do it.

He touched up a sellers house to present it in a better light on the internet, received a sight unseen offer with the earnest money check from an out of state buyer. As that buyer was finally able to look at the home in person an immediate complaint was filed against the NM REALTORS® and he almost lost his license.

Here are my thoughts and I am not an attorney:

When you have to Photoshop out a toy you overlooked in the yard as you took the picture you would be fine. Removing power lines, trees, bushes or straighten out a wall, would in my eyes go too far. The code of Ethics clearly states that the REALTORS® is to treat all parties honestly and photo shopping real from real estate is not treating all parties honestly and many listing services now have the rule that they do not allow picture that were photo shopped.