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.
organizing, planning

Instructions are here to be ignoredā€¦..are they?

Leave a comment

Well another work day rolled in and made itself at home in the office.

Catching up with emails and calls from the weekend are the first things on the list, wellā€¦ā€¦ after a cup of coffee. Reading the emails gives me great ideas for blog topicsā€¦ā€¦.

I personally sometimes look at instructions and just throw my hands up in the airā€¦..to longā€¦.too complicatedā€¦.too much informationā€¦.

For me personally I love to use my step by step check lists.

Sometimes you are dealing with clients who have specific guidelines and instructions that have to be followed to the ā€œTā€ and yes they are changing constantly. Then you have clients who have not a clue what they are looking for and the check list can be a great conversation starting point.

Having my personal check list will help me personally, because most of what is needed is already on the list, maybe not in the right order but it is hereā€¦.

ā€¦..but first things firstā€¦ā€¦

I have made the habit to read each client instructions in FULL every time I receive a new work order work from them. No matter how long I have worked for them. When I have a question I will ask it right at the beginning and not after I have started a job.

I then use my check list and highlight only what is needed for this specific work order. I double and triple check it against the written order that was given to me.

This will ensure that I do not work on something that is not needed or wanted and I donā€™t waste my time with extra stuff by running around like a chick with her head cut off.

ā€¦andā€¦.. off I go to accomplish the task. Many times the work order can be accomplished by working the order only once.

Does some of this sound familiar?

Most of this comes from the 80/20 rule the Pareto’s PrincipleĀ Ā that you can use for planning your day, week, month, year, or business growth.

Ā Yaro Starak has written a great blog in 2006 about the 80/20 rule and there is great info on other websitesā€¦.bottom line isā€¦..

ā€œHe who fails to plan, plans to failā€ Ā Proverb quotes

commitment, Inspiration

Go with the change or you are being left behindā€¦

Leave a comment

ā€¦.that is THE thought came to mind as soon as I read a blog from Krista Franks about the Real Estate Professionals feeling the burn of the recession.

Sure Real Estate Professionals are not immune from the downturn of the market; most of them have been on the forefront of the wave and many have not survived the trend and had to find either another part time or full time job to keep up with their cost of living.

The once who looked beyond the box they had themselves in during the good and great times of real estate and adjusted quickly to the change had it a bit easier than the few who did not see the tide coming and where swept off with the tide of change.

Real estate as usually was no longer the way to do business, real east of change was what you needed to adjust too and that is what the consumers wanted from the field.

The once who did not adjust lost a huge portion of the market that is todayā€™s norm and the once who adjusted early took overā€¦.bottom line is when you do not adjust to the changing market and educate yourself, you will be left standing at the vacated empty dock with the ship sailing without you to newer groundā€¦ or like in ā€œWho moved my Cheeseā€Ā Ā Ā Ā from Spencer Johnson you will arrive at Cheese Station C to find no cheese left.

Ā Soā€¦who are youā€¦.??? Sniff and Scurry or Hem and Haw.

Short sale

FHA and short sales

Leave a comment

In my day to day business I am taking with many Real Estate Professionals throughout the Country. Due to what I am doing the subject Short Sale is never far from the discussion.

Most of the time the agents are just frustrated with short sales!

Sitting at the other end of the table I can see why many short sales take forever to close, especially when the short sale involves a FHA loan.

Many times when a property is listed the homeowner NEVER received a written short sale approval from their servicer.Ā  Servicer will not look at any offer we bring them when it involves a short sale with an FHA loan unless the OWNER has asked AND received IN WRITING the Short Sale approval PRIOR to listing the property.

When owners fills out the needed paperwork to request for a loan modification and or short sale I have noticed that some of the paperwork is either not filled out, filled out incorrectly, not dated, not signed or information is just plain missing without an explanation.

Ā ā€¦soā€¦when you are asked to list a possible short sale that involves a FHA loan make sure all the Tā€™s are crossed and all the Iā€™s are dotted before you have the owner sign your listing agreement.

commitment, Communication, Team work

Communicationā€¦.here is the ugly side or the lack of itā€¦.

Leave a comment

Sitting at my desk on a cold Winter Friday morning, looking at my referrals that were given to individual Professionals that were not acted on and wondering how some of them are still in business in today s market.

I have now called all of these professionals three times this week to find out why personal referrals are not being acted on and I am still waiting for a phone call or email back from any of them.

Where has the courtesy gone? Is it a lost art to answer phone calls and emails in a timely manner? By timely manner I mean within 24 to 48 hours. Just a simple message or email indicating you have received the voice message and you will get back with me.

Every day I run across full email and voice mail boxes and wonder how much business individual professionals are losing due to the lack of follow up and follow through. I also listen on a daily bases to voice messages that where from a week or a month ago. I just had one the other day that was from the 2nd and as I called the person it was the 27th. When I run across a full email and voice mail box, most of the time, I removed this individual from my contact list.

Ā Ranted enough! Here are some Ideas to make certain you are not losing out on business: (I use some of them myself)

  • Hire a virtual assistant.
  • Delegate and ask for help
  • Set time everyday to return calls and emails
  • Set the auto responder when you are not available for a longer period of time. Just change the message later.
  • Make a work schedule. Will it be perfect? No. Use it as a guide
  • Make a daily to-do list. Will you be able to complete it all that day? Maybe yes, maybe noā€¦none of us are perfect.

Ā Plan you day and work the plan. Donā€™t forget time for family, devotion, friends and fun.

Ā I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.Ā  ~John D. Rockefeller,Ā Jr.

commitment, Team work

TEAMWORKā€¦a lost art?

Leave a comment

I am sitting here working away and wondering where the true meaning of TEAMWORK has gone. Most of the phone calls and emails first line is ā€œWhat is in it for me?ā€.

Not, what is needed, how can I help, where do you need me or sure, what do I need to do!

There never was an ā€™iā€™ in Team and Success is not a Solos Act!

So pondering sitting by the desk wondering where this mind set came from, and not finding the answer, because my mind never has worked that way. Even kids from an early age learns how to use Team Work to get to a common goal

I could not have been able to say it better than

Andrew Carnegie:
Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.
Or
Vincent Lombardi: The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.

I like the one of the lines in Linda S Fitzgerald blog on “It takesā€¦ā€¦. a village to raise a child!”
Quote: Help each other be accountable to those goals and overcome the unique challenges that impede each woman’s move in the direction of their desired outcomes.

Yes, it takes a village to raise a child to become a mature, self-disciplined adult. And it takes a TEAM of women who know that a sense of COMMUNITY is the way to insure each woman’s arrival at her desired destination.

Let us not wait any longer to come together for our mutual benefit. Let us not let another day go by without seeking others who share a common purpose.

Uncategorized

Getting to the goal is a Team Sport

Leave a comment

With the Super Bowl being in town, I am looking with ahhh on what the Super Bowl planning committee has pulled off. This shows as a reminder what all had to be accomplished to first get the Super Bowl here and to have as of a smooth of an event as possible.

It took an entire team to accomplish this tremendous task and it took an entire team to see it through to the end and it will take an entire team to clean up at the end.

All of them came together, hashed out a plan, put the plan in writing and worked the plan and if needed adjusted the plan.

What can we learn from this huge event?Ā 

  • Set a goal; no matter how small or large.
  • Reach out to others for advice and help to get you to the goal
  • Put an action plan into place for the goal
  • Put the action plan in writing
  • adjust if needed
  • Execute the plan and
  • Adjust if needed

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.Ā  ~Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

buying

Buyers: how to get the deal done……

Leave a comment

Going through email and ran across a blog that caught my attention. The topic was about buyers on how they will and can ruin their own real estate deals.

Reading through the blog I remembered some of my buyer clients that almost did just thatā€¦

Even before most buyers are contacting an agent to help them to facilitated the buy of a home they try to educate them via the internet but sometimes forget the basic first step to get startedā€¦.mortgage pre-qualification.

Not knowing what they can afford at the beginning and them looking at homes online that are overpriced for their price range will not lead to their desired result. With so many homes now listed as short sale and REOā€™s (bank owned) a pre- approval is a must to be able to submit an offer and to be able to compete with cash buyers or investors.

With the market as it is today some want to buy a castle for the price of a shack and try to lowball an already lower than market value home, just to have their offer either not countered or not accepted or when they find what they are looking for and do not make an offer because they think they can get a better deal with the next house and house hunting now turns into a marathon and not a sprint.

Eventually they are under the gun, having to move and just buy anything, just to be buying something and many times this might lead to a never ending money pit of repairs and updates.

ā€¦.then there are the once who expect an undervalued home to have absolutely no issues and it to be in move in condition. They are surprised that the carpet is not clean, not their color choice, that some of the appliances are missing and maybe some drywall has to be repaired, or maybe that the roof needs replacing within less than a year.

ā€¦so how to avoid all of the heartaches:

ā€¢ Letā€™s get pre-approved! Know what you can truly afford and what you might have to bring to the table at the time of closing. Please do not confuse this with pre-qualification.
ā€¢ Make a list of what you are looking for in a house. What is most important and what can you live without when it comes down to it.
ā€¢ What commute are you willing to have? Are you wanting to move to a rural area or are you a city dweller?
ā€¢ Are you willing to do some repairs? And how much? Or do you want a move-in home.

These are all decisions that should be made even before you start looking for your home and the hunt will go a lot faster and smotherā€¦.

commitment, Communication

Good people have great intentions

Leave a comment

How many times do you catch yourself not being able to follow through with commitments you have made?

Every day during my work I see that good people have great intentions but they never follow thought with their commitment.

Just again today I talked with someone on the West Coast that had been hired over 10 days ago to accomplish a very simple task that only takes a few days to accomplish and today I find out the task has not even been started. I guess this person had great intentions but their actions speak louder.

When you cannot follow thought with a commitment you have made, what do you do? Just ignore it? Do you ask for help? Do you communicate your issue?

First; do not ignore it communicate immediately. We all normally know when we have over booked ourselves right from the beginning. Communicate the plight right from the beginning donā€™t wait until the last minute. It looks better to communicate it right away than waiting until the last minute.

Second; offer a solution. You made the commitment, so be now part of the solution and not the potential problem.

Now look at the total situation:

What do I need to do to be able to follow through with commitments I have made?
Do I need to hire more people?
Do I need to cut down on the work I am doing?
Do I need to ask for help?

Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold – but so does a hard-boiled egg. ~Author Unknown

Inspiration

How to get beyond the fog in your head

Leave a comment

Staring at a blank piece of paper after having another unsuccessful recruiting call completed this morning and taunting with the feeling that the negativity form yesterday has spilled over into today I run across this article written by FC Expert Blogger Kaihan Krippendorff called ā€œWhere To Find Inspiration When The World Tells You To Give Upā€Ā 

Reading what he has written about the struggle a 40 year old company had to find their mojo helps me understand that I am not the only one at times struggle with the lack of energy and enthusiasm.

Now where do I find my inspiration from to push through rough times?

Do I read more books?
Do I just take a quick break and take a short walk?
Do I set a small goal and reward myself when I reach this goal?

Then I remembered my own favorite saying: ā€œYou can lead them to the water but you cannot make them drink. When you force them to drink they may drown.ā€

Or

ā€œTo reach the top you have to take one small step at the timeā€

Picking up myself by my own boot straps and reminding myself that Rome was not build in one day and to look at what is in front of me right now and not what is down the road or returning to the past I push on the next phone calls.

This is a new call a new opportunity to recruit and was a thought I had a chance to put on paper.