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.

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!

Upcoming Events

This summer is already starting to get busy!! We are going on vacation this Friday through Wednesday. This will be little man's first trip to Disney World. We have not told him where we are going. We just keep telling him we are going to Lowes. He hates Lowes. It's going to be awesome because we are going with my mom and dad, my little brother and his wife and Jonas' little cousin. They just love each other and will have a BLAST in the house of mouse.

I am also working on organizing a community yard sale in my new neighborhood. Cards were mailed out yesterday or today to about 300 homes here around me. If 1/4 of them participate, it will be huge! If I get a great level of participation, it will probably be a yearly event. I am pretty excited about the possibilities here! If anyone wants to sell some stuff, I will be happy to let you use my yard. The sale will be June 10 and 11.

We have some kind of critter in our attic. Jim the pest guy is coming to check it out today. I think it is probably just a mouse but it moves very slowly. Kinda weird.

Finally, I have completely torn down the fence around my back yard, pulled up the posts and am going to spread some dirt around to level it out. I have a tree guy coming on Saturday and should get a new fence mid next week. That is really exciting as it will make the wife feel a little more secure. Also, it's weird but the yard feels smaller with the fence gone.

Professional Courtesy Part 2

So the last time I vented about providing feedback. This time I am venting about something that is a little more obvious of a courtesy. Here in the last couple of weeks I have had 4 "no shows" for showings that were scheduled. The other realtor took the time to schedule the appointment and then just plain didn't show up, didn't call to cancel, nothing. This strikes me as pretty rude. All of my listings are occupied which means that the owners (sellers), potentially, had to clean up, get the family out and find somewhere to go for an hour. Some of them are at work when the showing is scheduled so they use their lunch break to come home and make sure the home is clean. Then the realtor does not show or call. A couple of the no shows even provided feedback (miraculously since they didn't see the house!). I understand if an emergency comes up while on the road. On one of the showings, the feedback said "we did not show because we had an offer accepted the day before". Are you kidding? You knew a day in advance that you weren't going to show up? That's just plain rude.

I am not perfect, but I am professional. I view showings as appointments. I don't know what each seller's situation is but I know that sometimes its a big deal to get ready for a showing. You wouldn't just not show up for a doctor's visit or some other appointment. Why would you do that to someone that prepared their home for you to visit.

Thanks for reading my vent.

Ok, so I am not always reliable...

I haven't written a blog in a while. I have a ton of excuses but none of them are really good. I need to do it. It is somewhat therapeutic. Real estate is going well. I have had 5 closings already this year. I have another one at the end of this month and a possible one in early May (pray for that one). I have 7 listings right now which may not sound like a lot, but believe me, it is for a single person with no assistant!! We are expecting our second (and last) child, the house remodel is going well--kitchen almost done. Jonas is so freakin smart it is scary. College ministry is changing form a little and apparently, I am the guy that is sort of leading that. I am excited and reluctant at the same time. I know that might sound weird but I bet some of you can relate. I am reluctant to have anything else that takes up my time (even though I am already fairly involved) but excited because I can impact some really cool kids even more than I already was.

As for the nugget of wisdom, I don't have much to impart today. I will drone a little about time. Here lately, I have complained about not having much time. The funny thing is, the days have not changed away from a 24 hour period. I still have the same amount of time. I just don't always choose to maximize it. I am starting to see that a lot of my "lack of time" is because I don't prioritize for myself. I let others dictate my time. Now, in this industry, this is sometimes necessary. I have to be flexible and allow for people to take my time. I also can control HOW MUCH they control. 99% of people are understanding if I don't answer the phone at 8 PM because I am giving my son a bath. If they aren't understanding, I probably need to question how important it is to maintain that relationship! I was always one of those, yeah right, easier said than done when it came to this philosophy. I am now starting to see the absolute importance of it. Some folks take it to extremes. I just need to acknowledge it.

It's Been a Long Time Since Last I Wrote (sang in tune to Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll)

I just realized that the last time I blogged it was still 2010. Since then I have sold 4 houses, closed three of them and have several clients getting close to their perfect home. Its been a good start to the year in real estate!! Also, we got our kitchen functional. We are almost done but still lack the backsplash and some new paint. It looks awesome!!

On a completely different note, I have a great story for you. Last Tuesday I was out with some clients discussing new construction in Woodmont. The meeting went a little later than I expected.

Around 8 PM Cindy calls and says, "are you ever coming home?"

I tell her it may be a few more minutes and she is obviously frustrated with me. I finish up what I am doing and call her back (it was around 8:20). She says that she has prepared a special dinner for me.

So I get home and she sets a bowl of raw carrots on the table. I start munching (I love raw carrots). Then she sets a rack of ribs on the table (from Chili's). I think to myself, man, what a great meal. What have I done to deserve this!!!!

Then she sits down and says, "Ok, what is the theme?"
I say, "uhhhhh, foods I love?"
She says, "nope, try again."
"Uhhhhh, finger foods?" (I am so dumb)
She says, "BABY back ribs and BABY carrots."
I say, "WHOA, REALLY!!!"
She says, "yep."

I have the coolest wife and Jonas is going to be a big brother.

Random Year End Wrap Up

So, this is going to be quite an eclectic, scatter brained blog. I have so much to tell and so many cool things going on! I also have a rant building up that I just can't avoid!!!


Plarn--so today I met the mom of the person renting our other house. She was quite a unique lady!! She introduced me to a wonderful product she calls Plarn. Basically, she takes plastic bags (like grocery store bags) and cuts them into strips. She then weaves things out of them. She gave me a little mat of the stuff that she says is great for scrubbing pots and pans. she then showed me a picture of a KING SIZE bedspread she made out of the Plarn. She also had a purse made out of it and two huge laundry bags. I told her she needed to set up an ebay store and she said that she only gives it away. It was so cool. She had a little beret that she made for her granddaughter. She uses different colored bags to make patterns and everything. I was very impressed.

New House--Well, we moved. We are in the house and are in the middle of making several fairly lengthy renovations. First up is the kitchen--we are totally re-doing it. Cabinets, flooring, appliances, countertops, the works. Its pretty exciting but stressful at the same time. One of our first big "oh NOs" happened yesterday morning when Cindy woke up to find no water in the house. We assumed something froze so I spent the next few hours trying to figure out what froze. Finally Dad came over and discovered the water line running into the house was only about an inch under dirt right where it comes in. Totally unacceptable!! I foamed in the hole and covered it with about a foot or more of straw until I can get more dirt on it.

Gutter Helmets--here is a tip for you homeowners--don't get gutter helmets. I don't know all the brand names and such but basically I am talking about the little caps that are placed over the top of the gutters in order to keep leaves out of the gutter. The screens are a little better, but not much. The house we just bought has these caps on them. In a light rain they work great. In a heavy downpour, the rain just washes right over them. This has caused the dirt around our house to settle and wash away and almost all of the foundation is exposed. This also allows water to settle against the blocks (and slowly creep into the basement--not good!).

Success--2010 was a very good year for me business-wise. I started selling real estate in September of 2009. I sold one house in 2009. I sold 15 in 2010. I more than replaced my teaching salary in my very first year. Additionally, I had fun doing it! I got to help people with a very daunting task and I got to know some really awesome people in a way that would definitely not happen if I was still teaching. It was not all perfect, there were some downs. But the ups FAR outweighed the downs. Funny how God does that isn't it. He took what appeared to be a very bad thing (the first time I got fired, ever in my entire life) and gave me the drive and path to make a career for myself.
Bigfoot--so Santa got Jonas one of the coolest toys ever made. You probably saw it at Target in the little plastic box. It is Bigfoot. Bigfoot does flips, throws tantrums, sleeps, excercises, plays ball, cuts the cheese, and all manner of other stuff. So far, my dad and Derek Hickerson have enjoyed it more than Jonas. In fact, Jonas is actually scared of the thing. He will not touch it if it is turned on.

Taxes--Ok, my last random point. The smartest thing the US government ever did was to have employers take income tax directly from employee checks. This process almost completely detaches emotion from the taxpayer. In fact, most Americans are so detached that they are HAPPY when they get a return. In other words, because the system is so complicated, you were not able to calculate exactly what you owe and thus you paid too much to the government (AKA lent them money interest free) and the government is going to give it back to you and you will be grateful for it. I am learning a valuable lesson in my new adventures of self-employment. You really don't know how painful it is to pay income taxes until you are self employed. I had a cashiers check made today for my quarterly filing. I actually felt physical pain because of it. I understand that I have to pay my share and that I benefit from living here. I am ok with paying a reasonable tax. I am NOT ok with so much of the frivolous and wasteful spending of the money that I (very painfully) sent in. I never felt this strongly about it when the money was never in my possession to begin with. Now that I see my bank balance decrease by 4 figures (and I know it is much higher for some) once a quarter, I can actually feel the pain. Very strange indeed. Very much an eye opener!!