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.
Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, tips

Are you ready for today’s buyer’s wish list?

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Green HouseToday’s buyers are well informed and doing their homework before they even starts looking at any homes.

Your home needs to stand out from the crowed not only in “person” but also online.

Three major factors today’s buyer is looking for are the Price, Condition and Location of the home. As a seller you cannot influence the location of the home. You have a lot of influence over the Condition and the Price.

When it comes to location buyers are closely paying attention to the neighborhood the home is located at. They are deciding on the look and feel of the neighborhood. Is the areas well taken care off or do you see overgrown and “unkempt” yards. The other deciding factor is becoming more and more the availability and the ease of public transportation.

When it comes to price buyers crave the rock bottom pricing of the fixer uppers but would like to have the convenience of a ready-to-move-in home. Buyers also take more and more into consideration the cost of owning a home including taxes, cost of utilities and size. The larger the home the more you might need to spend on utilities. Many buyers have opted for a smaller home, that is maybe a more environmentally friendly home and might cost a bit more to buy. LEEDS certified home sales have outpaced in many areas the sale of “normal” homes.

When you have a floor plan that is broken down into formal room this, and formal room that, you might consider a small renovation if feasible. Today’s buyers are all for open floor plan and open connectivity. They no longer like to hide in the kitchen in the backroom when they have guest in the front room or outside on the deck.

More and more buyers are looking for a home that has two Master Suites due to some families combining households for the elderly parent or adult children moving in or just come to visit.

commitment, Communication, organizing, planning, tips

Tame the inbox clutter beast

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inboxCommunication and how we interact on a daily bases has changed. Mostly gone are the days we send lengthy letters or communications vial mail. We are in a society of connected individuals and our inboxes are paying the price.

Sometimes it seems impossible to look, and read every email that comes into our inbox and being able to tackle the overwhelming inbox daemon we are facing.

While I was tackling my inbox daemons I came across a blog John Battelle, Founder, Chair, CEO, Federated Media Publishing posted called “The Secret to “Cracking” The Inbox “.

I have found creating inbox rules for certain messages will keep my inbox clean.  For instance any article that comes in that is maybe just a great article to read and can be read at a later time/date goes into one file and a meeting request into another and will be responded to in the evening before I close out my inbox.

Unwanted emails, SPAM or Junk Mail go into another folder and are going to be blocked at the end of the week.

Emails without a subject line are automatically deleted and no one even gets to see them.

Every night make the point to clean out the inbox. It might take an hour the first time you do it. After a while it should be faster because you have created your personal inbox rules for your email.

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

Don’t be afraid to network

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We all do it !!!  Networking!

Some of us better than others and some of us don’t realize we are doing it every day.

Just having lunch with friends or family is a form of networking. You are getting the word out about what you do and who you are looking for. It always comes up during casual conversation.

Watching the kids at a sporting event is a form of networking. You usually make connections on a personal level with the other individuals who are at the event. Going shopping can be easily an event for networking.

Some of us are connected through social media and that is also a form of networking.

OK…now what we do with all of our connections we have accumulated?

When you speak with active networkers they will most likely throw the Givers Gain tagline at you. It is much more than that and I found a good example in an article I have read on the website “Addicted 2 Success” called “13 ways to unlock the hidden power of your Network to increase your net worth”

  • Assess the barriers that are holding you back
  • Define your core passions and purpose with the Funnel Test
  • Create a mind-set of positive productivity
  • Develop a Give Give Get attitude…..yes givers gain is also part of the mix …..
  • Commit to shaking it up. Get out of your daily routine.
  • Accelerate your connections with technology
  • Cultivate relationships that support your purpose. Keep your core circle of networkers close and your secondary cycle close on hand.
  • Visit power pockets to accelerate networking
  • Hone your connecting skills and learn from hub players
  • Create content, products, or services to share your purpose
  • Develop partnerships to extend your reach
  • Learn to make successful asks.
  • Decide what brings you happiness and success: head, heart, or wallet?

 

Networking is a team sport and Jack Welsh put it best:

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. —Jack Welch

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

What type of Boss are you?

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newspaperHaving been on both sides of the fence during my work career I recently stopped and contemplated about what type of boss I am.

Reading a lot of articles from different sources I came across an article that was posted in the Fox Small Business Center called “10 things great bosses do” and used their list to see where I am standing.

The 10 trades they listed were:

  • Holding yourself accountable
  • Don’t be full of surprises
  • Be prepared to fix things
  • Know and have a feel for your business
  • Get the job done
  • Manage effectively in every direction.
  • Be able to make quick and informed decisions, even when they are not popular
  • Be effective not productive and stay flexible.
  • Live for your job by being engaged, empowered, driven, and self-motivated
  • Make sure you keep your sense of humor, have humility, empathy and learn about your own limitations and fallibility.

 

Looking at this list I can see I still have room for improvement on the other hand I can personally see how far I have come.

 

In matter to grow a business we have to be willing to grow ourselves.

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

Who has your back while you are out?

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SoHands touching a globemetimes there comes a time where you will be out of your office for an extended period of time. Is it maybe for business, pleasure, family or health related reasons.  This goes for anyone who is employed or self-employed alike. Sometime we all just need to take a break.

During the time you are absent especially when you are employed you know that your employer will make sure that your position is covered and when something arises during your absent that it is going to be covered and it will be taken care off.

How about the individuals who are self-employed? You do need a break and you do need to take time off, even when it is for a few days.

Who has your back while you are out?

 

Here are several Ideas and tips to make sure you can take a few days off and hopefully relax for a few days.

 

  • Inform your customers that you will be away and give them a contact person in your absence.
  • Give the contact person full authorization to pull any needed information in a possibility that one of the clients does need anything while you are out.
  • For potential call in’s make sure you have that contact personal name and number available on your voice mail or to the answering service you might using.
  • When you self-employed and you are part of an office like with real estate. Make sure the office knows who to contact while you are out.

Keep in mind, even when you are self-employed you need to have a team around to support you !

 TEAM

T- Together

E- Everyone

A- Achieves

M- More

Inspiration, organizing, planning, tips

Your house needs to be the seductresses to attract buyers

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Many homeowners who are planning on selling a home are focusing on all the fixed and repairs they have to do on the inside and forgetting to keep up with the look and repairs on the outside.

No matter how great your home looks on the inside, when you do not have the inviting seductive outside, a potential buyer might not step foot in your home or might not make an offer due to the lack of appeal on the outside.

You can hire a landscaping company to help you, but you truly don’t have to.

Personal I have found that when after leaving town for a while and coming back was the time for a new set of eyes to look at a home. Did you like what you see or did you have the sinking feeling looking at your home after being gone for a while? Did you fall again in love with your great looking home or did you have the blah feeling because your home looked just like all the others on the block.

The greatest indicator that your home needs a bit more curb appeal is when you give directions to friends and family member based on a balloon tied to the mailbox or having to put a sign in the yard for them to be able to find you.

Some of the fixes can be as simple as adding different landscaping to a yard or changing the paint of the front door and either loosing or updating the current shutters.

Here are some examples:

           house 2 before       house 2 after                          house 1before      house 1 after

Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing

Have your home outshine the things you cannot control

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Now for some time the current market has been due to lower interest rate and lack of availability of listed homes a sellers’ market. Still not every seller will see an offer or even multiple offers on their home even so their home shows on a consistence bases and has a lot of traffic of potential buyers.

There could be many reasons why some homes are off the market within 48 hours after there are listed and other still have not seen an offer even after 2 months or longer within the same zip code, area or even neighborhood.

Homeowner’s who are planning on selling their home quickly needs to look at their own house with a critical eye of a potential buyer. You can control many things on why a house might not see an offer right away and there others you have no control over.

 

Take control over what you can control before listing your home. Have your home outshine the things you cannot control.

buying, commitment, education, planning, Team work, tips

Which is better? Mortgage Pre-Approval or Pre-Qualification letter?

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office_desk

 

This is a question I am constantly asked by buyer and sellers alike and when it comes the time to make an offer on a home I always suggested to my buyers to have a pre-approval letter ready and not a pre-qualification letter before we even start looking at a home.

 

There are some key differences between a pre-approval and a pre-qualification.

Pre-qualification is most of the time done over the phone or online by answering simple questions about the income and credit rating of the potential borrower. Many times the lender will not ask for any qualifying documentations of income and spending.

The pre-qualification is a determination on whether the prospective loan applicant would likely qualify for credit under a lender’s programs and standards, or a determination on the amount of credit the prospective applicant would likely qualify for.

Usually a lender will give a determination of pre-qualification usually with in less than 48 hours

On the other hand the pre-approval can take a little longer and it is more complete.

Lender will ask at the time of application for the last 2 years income tax returns, bank statements, W2’s, etc. You also will be asked about employment and you will have to agree to have a credit report ran. Pending on your personal income, willingness and ability to have a down payment and past credit history it could take up to 4 weeks for you to receive an answer. When approved the lender is willing to give borrower a mortgage commitment letter because the loan has already been submitted to underwriting and they are only waiting for you to find your dream home.

Difference between Pre-Approval and Pre-Qualification:

Pre-approval

Conditional approval given within 48 hours (average)

Borrower needs to issue following items after an offer on a home is accepted:

•             W2’s
•             2 Years Tax return
•             Bank Statement
•             Employment verification
•             Pay stubs
•             Additional documentation if needed maybe due to name change, self-employment etc.

Home possible needs to pass following inspections:

•             Home inspection
•             Acceptable title insurance binder
•             Certification of clear termite inspections
•             Other inspection based on area

Pre-qualification

Conditional approval given within 4 weeks (average)

Borrower needs to issue following items after an offer on a home is accepted:

•             No change in the applicant’s financial condition or creditworthiness prior to closing.

Home possible needs to pass following inspections:

•             Home inspection
•             Acceptable title insurance binder
•             Certification of clear termite inspections
•             Other inspection based on area or lender

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

Growing personal and in your business needs a plan

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We all have heard the saying “when it is not written down it is not going to happen” or the other “ make a plan, write down the plan and execute the plan” but how many of us are sometimes shooting from the “hip” and shoot at an unidentified target and miss.

Some of the plan for any company should also be company grows through personal and income. All of this should have a plan that is clear and well laid out with a certain goal in mind.

For instance a home based business could have the goal of moving into an office space within 5 years.

Here is the goal and now you need to put the action steps into place to achieve the goal.  You might have to identify coaches, mentors, or advisors you need to consult to achieve your goal. Make sure everything is written down and easy accessible to yourself for a frequent check on how you are doing.

You might have a partner who checks on you to find out if you are still on track or if you have strayed from your path.

Part of the goal should be also the internal grows of your internal sales force and I found that the article by Chris Simone titled 5 tips to building an inside sales force gave great Ideas as a recruiter or business owner on how to tackle the sales force growth.

I always said that any grows is a team sport and there is no “I” in Team and have written about this in a blog post called “TEAMWORK…a lost art?”