Tracey's Blog

Hello from Greensboro, North Carolina and our fair 44 degree cloudy day.  It just so happens to be a nice rainy day, which is perfect for picking up the signs from all the REO properties we sold this month!

I talk to people all the time that want to know how we move properties FAST, and I came up with some quick and easy answers to help you MOVE those REO assets that you have on your hands.

No two houses are ever alike, and neither is value.  Sometimes, we get assigned a listing and we are super excited about the prospect of making some money on commission.  We are just human, right.  Well, then we perform our BPO and the value comes in around $45,000.  We understand that the market is slower, the house has no floor in the living room, and the bathrooms are falling in.  Oh, and did I mention the roof caving in.  So we give our value, and sit and wait.  The asset manager calls and says, "WHERE did you find your values?!"  We say, "what????" (because we thought we were being generous at 45k).

It seems that the other two agents assigned to perform the BPO's on your house came in at $65,000 and $69,000.  Now you once again say, "WHAT????"  There are a million scenarios like this, where you have to think fast, act faster, and become CREATIVE to sell these listings.  So here is what I do, and I hope this helps!!!!

1. Actually GO INSIDE and put the MAXIMUM number of interior photos allowed.  I cannot count how many times you see 1 lonely photo (and the side mirror shows up mirroring the agent's hairy arm, conveniently telling you that the agent just slowed down and snapped that photo).  People like to see photos, and it will save gas and time for folks that would have weeded your house out by looking at the photos.  I have sold more houses this way, than any other method!

2. Put your house on Realtor.com!  It is the best $30 you will ever spend, and you get 25 photos, extra descriptions, and a ton of headline features, etc.  We pay for a year at a time, and we get a discounted rate for everything our office lists.  I pick up BUYER clients from this site MORE than anywhere else!

3. Use craigslist.  Make a weekly, monthly, daily list of foreclosure/REO properties that you send out.  Email it to your investors, and post it to craigslist as well.  We meet the BEST investor clients on Craigslist!  Bigger cities like Orlando may have a harder time with this one!

4. Use an automated showings service.  We use showings. com, which is Centralized Showings and it makes my life easier.  I figured it out about 6 months ago, and it broke down to 18 hours a month I was putting in setting showings.  With centralized showings, I pay $40-70 a month and save 18 hours.  No matter how you cut it, an extra 18 hours is like an actual DAY OFF (which I remember fondly).  My husband is happier too.  I cut my phone hours down from 6,000 minutes a month to maybe 3,000 now.  Hooray!!!

5. Use your FOOT SOLDIERS!  There are REALLY good Buyer's agents in town, waiting for a great deal to show their clients.  Get a list of these folks.  Email them.  Call them.  Text them.  Twitter and Facebook them, but let them know this house is out there.  They will be thrilled that you have a great deal for them.  I sell more homes by Networking than by MLS.

6. BE NICE!  It is hard to get 200 calls a day, and Realtors want you to hold their hand through the REO purchase process.  4-6 calls in one day from the same Buyer's agent is not uncommon, and we need to be patient and calm!!!  This is the hardest one!!!!  Believe me :)

Hope that helps you in some way!

360 Realty

Realtor, NC Broker, REO Specialist, Multi-Million Dollar Producer

www.360realtygreensboro.com

(336) 505-1080

http://www.islandreefjob.com/applicants/watch/s7hZYmX2bkA

Hi Everyone!

  I am sure you have all heard about the BEST JOB IN THE WORLD!!!  Well, if not...it is a 6 month contract in Queensland, Australia living on a private island in your own house and making $100,000 for all your "troubles".  Haha, yeah right!  Paradise AND you get paid for it!

  To apply, you have to upload a 60 second commercial for WHY you should be hired, and fill out a really easy application.

  SO I am asking for YOUR HELP!!!!

  Help my husband to get hired!  That means that I get to go with him.  AND during busy season, as it starts in July and goes through Christmas.

  Your video moves up faster if more people view it and RATE it as 5 stars! 

PLEASE click on his link and vote him 5 stars!  The MORE he gets, the higher up he goes and the closer I get to wearing a bikini!

I promise that if we get hired, I will blog regularly with tons of photos.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!

Help me get the word out, and pass this along to your friends!

Tracey G. Shrouder

360 Realty

www.360realtygreensboro.com

REO Specialist

Multi-Million Dollar Producer

    Hi Everyone!  It has been a little busy over the Holidays, but I am back to the blog grind. 

Today, we found....A SPACE SHIP!!!

So of course, I made my sister HOP on it first thing!

This is a new listing in Lexington, NC and we went to do the initial BPO and put a sign in the yard.  The house was a mess, and I found TWO separate piles of HAIR!  Yes, I said HAIR!  One pile looked like the variety from your head...and the other looks like something you NEVER want to find in your food.  If you still don't know what I mean, go watch the movie "waiting".

I have found poo, clothes, wooden legs, perfectly preserved rooms from 3 decades ago, but NEVER before have I had the priviledge of a SPACESHIP!

This was a first and I wanted to share it with all my friends.

Tracey G. Shrouder

360 REALTY

www.360realtygreensboro.com

Hooray for NC!!!

A few signs offer proof that North Carolina is in a stronger position than many other states.  Our foreclosure rate is less than a third of the national average.  Our average home prices have grown slightly, while nationally home prices have fallen 8 percent over the past year or so.  And for the seventh time in 8 years we were recognized by Site Selection Magazine as the state with the top business climate.

Tracey G. Shrouder

www.360realtygreensboro.com

Tracey G. Shrouder

www.360realtygreensboro.com

WE ARE HIRING!!!

BPO of the Week...

Okay, so this week I had a really "crappy" day literally.  I picked up a Sallie Mae property that had vagrants living there for at least 3 weeks with no power.  I met the locksmith and the Sheriff and what a wonderful smell we were greeted with.

I took photos, but did not want to offend anyone with a sensitive stomach by showing the photo here.  Let's just say...

3 weeks + toilet with no water = NAAAAAAAASTY!

I had to have 2 separate estimates of handymen that would ACTUALLY perform poo removals on a property.  So the next time you are having a crappy day, just think that it could be LITERAL!

Tracey Shrouder

360 Realty

www.360realtygreensboro.com

I have been tasked by my asset manager to go to a pre-listed property and do the BPO.  Cyprexx had not rekeyed yet, and were supposed to and this house was 45 minutes to an hour away from my office.  I REALLY did not want to drive back out...so hence the boost up...

Once I was boosted up, I could smell the horrible dead smell of something, "just not right" in that house.  I was hanging half in and half out and my sister (pictured here in the blue shirt) had to get behind me and push.  Once I was unclogged enough to shimmy through...here is the photo she took.  We are camera people, what can we say?

Technically one of the most flattering shots ever....NOT!!!!!!!!!!

So my day started with a BANG folks!  Inside this house it was abandoned, and it was if the guy walked out one day and left everything there.  The egg he cooked was still in the pan...and REEKED!  The clothes were hanging on his hangers, his bed and pillow were there.  He just disappeared and left EVERYTHING!  Even a set of drums and enough tools to start a home depot!

What a life we REO agents have!

Tracey Shrouder

360 Realty

www.360realtygreensboro.com

Okay, so I have slacked off on the BPO's of the week...but DO I have a doozy for you this week!  I actually felt real live fear this time and had to run for my life!

So here is how my day started...

   I worked my butt off on my 11 REO's that were all closing in a two week period, not to mention the multiple pre-listings and other BPO's on my plate.  Well, my assistant was busy and I had 1 hour before a showing (yes I still show houses to real live buyer clients too :) so I decided to go and hit up 4 homes with BPO photos. 

   I am using my Garmin, which incidentally I have named Charmin.  She is barking orders at me and I am doing my best to follow her stupid directions.  Finally, she drives me to a dead end and tells me to go straight.  I tell her, Charmin I know my car has special powers but this is ridiculous!!!".  She yells back "U-Turn. U-turn" as I try to turn around.  Finally after the two of us yelling at each other for who knows how long...she begrudgingly says (and it sounded a little more quiet than usual, like she was holding a grudge) "Recalculating".  Thank goodness.  I was on a street where graffiti was rampant and seeing as how my car is wrapped and can be seen from space...I stuck out just a bit.

   So I finally find my first house and head to the second one.  Here I am thinking that since the first one was so easy the other 3 will be too!  WRONG sister, this just ain't your day.  I head to the other house, which is a lovely (insert dripping sarcasm here) street called Julian, right off Martin Luther King.  I pass three prostitutes, a bum, and pull in front of the yard where a crack head is pacing in front of and scratching himself. He was a dead ringer for the crack head character Dave Chappel plays on TV.  He starts walking towards me, I guess looking to see if there is any copper piping hanging from my person...and I stroll QUICKLY towards the house, unlock the lockbox, and lock that door behind me.  I took my photos so quickly that 3/4ths of the pictures came out blurry.  I walked with a quickness, my friends. 

    I finish the photos, head to the door, and lock it behind me.  I was ready to ROLL, and started towards my car.  The neighbor on the other side yells at me, "did you lock that door?"  I have no idea who this woman is, so I speed up a bit and answer politely, "yes maam, all locked up tight".  Well, she heads towards the door and sees the lock and then starts RUNNING towards me.  At this same time, Crackhead Joe as I like to think of him decides that his copper is running away...or maybe the snakes were after hiim again, who knows.  Here I am in my bright blue 360 Mobile with a crazy lady coming at me one way, and crackhead Joe itching towards me (haha). 

   I am on my cell in the hopes that no more conversation will arise, and run towards my car.  This invigorates them both and they match my speed.  I finally throw myself into my car, banging my head and jamming my key in the lock so hard it jarred my arm.  I THROW the stick into drive with my left foot completely out the door.  I am so far out the door that I scrape the bottom of my heel on the ground as my car makes a horrendous sound pulling away.  I jam my right foot down and Charmin decides that this is the best moment to tell me "U turn" in her most screeching voice.  I drop my cell phone, Snap on my seat belt and get the hell out of dodge.

   The best part of the story is that the neighbor that was chasing me was just a concerned citizen, and crackhead joe had me so scared that I was running from a perfectly nice woman.  You ask yourself at this point in the story, "how did she find that out".  Well, it was about the time that the listing Realtor called me and asked me if I was in jail.  I said no, because I obviously was too busy running for my life for $50.  He said that the neighbor had called the cops and put out an APB on my vehicle.  As if I would try to break into a house in my wrapped Scion!!!  Fortunately it all worked out, but my day was shot.

So NO MATTER how bad your day is, remember that it CAN be worse :)

Tracey Shrouder

360 Realty

5 Signs that you are Using your Phone TOO MUCH...

1. You have "phonedenitis" (similar to tendonitis, it is where you are holding your phone too much and it manages to somehow get strained...I currently am suffering from this and it is WORSE than a paper cut). I now have to hold my phone in this uncomfortable claw like pose so that my finger does not ache.

2. You talk on your phone so often that you RUB off the color from your phone cover.  I actually have a bright blue cover that matched my company colors.  I used my phone lightly for a few months and it was fine.  I now talk on my phone so often that I have to ask my husband or folks in the office if I have "gone smurf" and have blue cover color on my ear and cheek. True story :)

3. You wake up in the morning and "answer" your alarm.  I set my phone to wake me up, and since I now have my phone glued to my ear...I woke up one morning and said, "Hello, 360 Realty" to my waterfall alarm.

4. You answer your business line so much that even when you know the person or are on a personal phone...you give your work greeting.  My grandma called me and I said. "360 Realty, this is Tracey". For a minute she thought she had the wrong number.

5. You talk on your phone so much that you actually send people you know to voicemail.  ONE more call is all you need, right?

Any of these sound like you guys?

Tracey G. Shrouder

www.360realtygreensboro.com

Okay everyone....here is my view on Supra Lockboxes/e-keys...

I HATE using them!

Here at 360 Realty, we do not use the Supra lockboxes on any of our homes, and have no plans to in the future. We however do show homes with e-keys and have the equipment to do so.

WHY you ask?

We feel that you limit the amount of people that will show and sell your home.  Here is a likely scenario...

I was showing 6 homes to my clients on a Saturday afternoon, and all were combo lockboxes.  I did not have my e-key with me, while showing...and we drove past a home that they fell in love with!  They walked around the home and said, "WOW, if we could see inside this home...we would most likely make an offer".  Unfortunately for me, the office was a mere 30 miles away!  We had to drive all the way back to the office, then back to the home.  The buyers were aggravated, my wallet was hurting from the gas prices, and they ended up NOT liking the home. 

Here is another scenario...

I was showing homes in a city next to mine.  The appointment desk told me that I needed an ekey.  I showed up at the home and my key would not work, and the box looked different.  It was blue and we used the grey box.  I called the office and they said that they used a different lockbox for that county, even though the MLS was the same!  So here I was with my flaccid ekey in hand and the buyer was pissed!  Not my favorite afternoon.

So can you see why I dislike using ekeys?  Anyone want to throw out another view?!

Tracey G. Shrouder

www.360realtygreensboro.com