Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Pet Peeves

So I have some pet peeves. I know most everyone does. Here is a list of my top pet peeves. If you do these things, know that it gets on my nerves. I will probably not EVER tell you that you are getting on my nerves (because I know that I just need to get over it). Feel free to share your biggest pet peeves

1) Redundancy--It drives me nuts when people say something like "VIN number" or "PIN number" or "ACT Test" or "3 AM in the morning". VIN stands for vehicle identification number so VIN number is "vehicle identification number number". And "3 AM in the morning", oh really, as opposed to 3 AM in the afternoon?

2) Left lane loafers--seriously, if you are doing the speed limit or less, get out of the left lane. It is called the passing lane, not the lane to be passed in. I know a lot of people don't like this but it REALLY gets on my nerves. A close derivative of this is the two people riding next to each other on a two lane road where you can't pass on either side. See, I am not a speed demon (anymore) but at the same time, if I need to go, I want to GO.

3) Ignorance coupled with arrogance--I know a lot of stuff. I also DON'T know a lot of stuff. I will be the first one to tell you that I don't know some particular piece of information. Then I go look it up. One thing I am good at is finding information. There is nothing more annoying than someone who is misinformed (or sometimes just plain making some info up) and is arrogant when you correct him or her. Another version of this is someone who WILL NOT listen to reason, no matter what.

4) Media devotees--I strongly value the ability to think on your own. I do place some value on the media (in general) for disseminating current events. I don't put a lot of value in much of the opinion that is in the media. I definitely don't care what some goofball celebrity thinks about his or her pet cause. I also don't care to listen to the "national media" spout numbers about the "national housing market" and the "national economy". We live in states, counties and municipalities. There is no such thing as a national housing market. Every submarket and every submarket of the submarkets is different. Many people see these national numbers as gospel and it is so hard to get through to them that we, in the Nashville area (for the most part), have NOT been hit nearly as hard. There just plain isn't an over abundance of decent condition homes for 50cents on the dollar here! Some people just won't hear it.

5) Time wasters--I work in a service industry--period. I talk to people about their (typically) most valuable asset. I spend time with people. I get to know them. I put them in my life and put their lives into mine. All this is what makes my job awesome. That said, there are some people out there--and you know who you are--who have 0 intention of ever doing anything real estate related, whether it is referring me, listing with me, buying through me, anything but still find it ok to waste my work time. I had a guy one time that called me about every other day to make offers on my listings. His formula was to offer $20,000 per bedroom. This means that the 3 bedroom, all brick, on almost an acre, over 1400 s.f. home was only worth $60,000 to him. I am fairly polite and I humored him for a moment because I didn't want to be rude. Eventually I told him that it wasn't going to happen and had to hang up on him. He called me a few days later from a different number. This person was a time waster. I also encounter (only occasionally) this scenario--phone call,
"Hello this is Jonathan"
"Hi, we would like to see 0000 Elm Street"
"Ok, are you currently working with a real estate agent"
"Yes but they said they didn't have time to show it to us"
"Oookaaayy, well I guess I can show it to you (because I still want to sell it). I just need to let your agent know so they don't get angry"
"Well, they won't care because we can't buy for a while"
"Why is that"
"We just filed bankruptcy and the lender said there is nothing they can do"
"So why are you looking now"
"Well we just want to see the inside of the house"
This is either a time waster or they are thieves. Either way, it floors me that someone would actually think this was ok.

Would love to hear your opinions on my pet peeves. Would also love to read about your pet peeves.

Monday, June 6, 2011

June Blog

So, it is now June. WOW! We had a great vacation at the end of May to the House of Mouse. Jonas almost drowned, we all spent too much money and ate too much but a ton of memories were made and it was well worth it. For more info, read Cindy's blog.

I am organizing a community yard sale this weekend. I sent out a postcard to over 300 of my closest neighbors inviting them to host a yard sale and I would do the marketing. Not a single one responded. Oh well. I am doing it anyway and they can benefit from it. It should be a pretty good sale so come by if you can Friday and Saturday from 8 AM till about 4 PM.

I have decided to sell my motorcycle. I want the money (and remodelling on the house) more than I want my bike. I will probably buy a cheaper Japanese type bike. Its going to be fine. I keep telling myself that.

I have assumed the position of the college ministry leader at church. Its pretty cool so far. I am assembling a great team to help with that ministry. It is a fantastic group of college "kids." I love being around them. JP (the youth minister) is helping with a "transition" class right now where we are introducing the newly graduated high schoolers to the college class. We have been covering Romans 12 one verse at a time (started with verse 9). We relate it to college life. So far the conversations have been awesome. If you have not read these verses in a while (or ever) you should, right now. Stop reading my blog and go read Romans 12:9-21. Extremely powerful, relevant verses about how to live.

As for real estate, it is going very well. I have closed 6 deals so far and have 3 pending right now. We got my oldest listing under contract this weekend. I have also picked up several new listings in the past few weeks. I need to get some of them sold. Check out my website for a list of my listings. I would love to work with someone I know on these. All of my listings are pretty nice. None of them really need much TLC. I just listed a home over in The Foothills subdivision in Murfreesboro. It is awesome! One owner (built in 1989) and in pristine condition.

One more thing, in about 2 weeks my fireworks tent will open. I am excited about it. I hope to do better than last year. I know the calendar is in our favor. Tracey Rinehart will be my partner on this again. We work well together. I know last year I got busy with real estate at the same time. I am sure this will happen again. The good news is, however, I have more help this year on both real estate and on fireworks. Cindy is getting her license for real estate and my new friend "big sister" Ann Rupp is here from New Jersey. It's good to have people to lean on!