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Articles from BlueRoof Blog

Where are all the Singles- 2007? 2007-08-14 17:13:18   Money magazine has it’s new list out with Best Places to live and such (the Best Places is a compilation of smaller cities). The top Utah city on the list was Cottonwood Heights at #100. I live in Cottonwood Heights and I think it should be much higher, but it’s not my list… They also claim that you’ll find the most singles in State College, PA, Durnam, NH, and Amherst Center, MA (all college towns of course). But they might all be fatty’s as the skinniest people live in Marin (north of SF), Blaine(Idaho), La Plata (Idaho), Teton (Wyoming), Garfield (Colorado), and the last two counties I lived in San Francisco (CA) and Boulder (CO)counties. Counties with the fastest growth over the last 6 six years has three northern Utah counties at the top with Tooele county (next to Salt Lake to the West) at the top spot with 112.5% growth (!), followed by Summit and Wasatch counties (next to Salt Lake to the East) at #4 and #6 respectively. I have a feeling ...

There’s No Room at the Top for Wimps 2007-08-08 17:57:04   We’re all prone to having our moments of weakness, where things aren’t going our way or everything seems to be falling on us at the same time. Especially in a sales industry like real estate, with the financial ups and downs and the pressures that come with it, it can be draining emotionally. Sometimes I need to retreat and spend time with family just to keep my sanity. Sometimes the pressure turns to anxiety and it’s tough to stay focused on the road ahead. But I know that’s precisely what I need to do to make things right and take care of my responsibilities. This is one of the traits that I believe seperates those at the top of their game from the rest- the ability to focus under pressure. We’re all busy and we all have pressure, but it’s what we do with that pressure that makes the difference. Do you fold under the pressure or do you focus? Most people fold. They crumble and become less useful in every area of their lives. Most people have th ...

How Real Estate Licensing Should Be 2007-07-29 00:40:07   I’ve made no secret of my opinion that current real estate licensing is a catastrophy and that it is ruining the industry and hurting the public. I’ve written about fixing it before, but here’s my solution to the problem (and it doesn’t call for eliminating all requirements and making things worse.) The purpose of requiring a license to do something usually begins with the noble idea of protection. Protecting people from being hurt from others doing a job they are unable to do well (or something like that). There is also some accountability that comes from licensing. It requires a license to cut and color hair (for profit), give a massage (for profit) or represnt people in court (for profit). Without these licenses the public would even more full of people with screwed up hair, having their back messed up during a massage and losing the lawsuits against those who did it to them. Licensing can be a good thing. If my roof needs to be replaced I want a licens ...

Real Estate Licensing Makes a Mockery of the Industry 2007-07-27 16:06:32   Would you like a life of luxury? Driving around in your new BMW looking at expensive homes and having all the free time and money you could ever want? Just get a real estate license and you’ll be living the high-life making way too much for doing way too little. That’s the promise and dream of many who get into the real estate industry. And that’s what many are told by attending “career nights” that are held all over the country by brokers wanting to hire new agents and schools that want the tuitions. And the state’s don’t mind because they make tens of thousands of dollars every month from real estate licensing fees.  The barrier to entry is so low that most people jump into real estate thiking they’ll just give it a try, and why not- it only takes a month of schooling and a few hundred bucks to get the license. They don’t know the whole truth about a career in the business, and it’s so easy to get in that they figu ...

Shakadoo Goes Blue 2007-07-24 00:45:30 Thanks to the girls over at Shakadoo for the invitation to guest-blog this last week. ...

Blog Tour Rolls Into SLC Tonight 2007-07-23 15:00:17 The Sellsius Blog Tour is a 24-City tour of the country by Rudy and Joe at Sellsius Blog. They’ve got an RV, a lot of free time, and some large livers- and they’re rolling into the valley July 23rd. There will be an industry party at the Cottonwood Oyster Bar, Tonight at 6pm where you can meet some of the local real estate bloggers, real estate people, or just have a drink and socialize. The tour kicks off the Big Apple and ends at the Bloggers Connect event in San Francisco. Here’s the route. As you can see- these guys love the coasts, pandering to the largest crowds possible, and completely despise the south (they told me so themselves). It would have been much simpler for them to straight-shot from Denver to AZ and then up the coast, but they zig-zagged over to SLC just to see the LDS temple (Rudy is Mormon) and to get a shake from Iceberg (Joe judges ice cream for a national competition sponsored by Ben and Jerry’s). Don’t tell, but while in town ...

Why 90% of Realtors Fail 2007-07-23 11:48:39   My first day in the business I attended a Mike Ferry seminar that my brokerage had organized. I took a lot of notes (which I still have). Mike was up on stage telling stories about the 90/10 rule and about agents failing and how he believed successful agents became the top in their field (mostly it involved cold-calling). The next day (my first day actually working) his theory was confirmed when I went into the office and my broker showed me a desk with a phone and a Coles Directory (basically a telephone book listing names and numbers by street instead of by last name). He told me I’d be sharing the desk with about two or three other new agents and he showed me how to use the directory and where the copy room and break rooms were and that was basically my initial training. Later I would attend a two week training course the office had, but at the beginning it was all about that phone. So I got on the phone and began making calls. The calls went something like this… Hi ...

Would you be Willing to Swap Homes? 2007-07-15 22:20:06 New website DomuSwap was created to assist would-be home sellers in swapping their homes, instead of selling them. The website says; DomuSwap opens up an exciting new option for buying and selling real estate; by exclusively listing homes from sellers who will consider an exchange of property. But home exchanging has always been a very small market. One reason (which the new website hopes to change) is the challenge of finding two sellers that have homes they both would want to exchange with each other. Another challenge is having the capital to pay the difference in home values with the exchange. For instance, if I want to exchange my home with someone and my home is worth $100,000 and theirs is worth $90,000 I would expect them to pay me the extra $10,000 to make up the difference. This could be handled in cash, a note, or possibly with an equity agreement of some sort. But what about the mortgage carriers? There are situations where an exchange makes sense (land deals, unusual prop ...

Your first home should be a good investment 2007-07-13 11:42:48 Actually, all of the real estate you buy should be a good investment, but first time home buyers often overlook the investment for the emotional pull of upgrades, proximity to friends and decor. A home is a personal thing for sure, but the reality is- buying a home is not like finding that one true soulmate you will spend your forever with. Rather, there are many houses in any given area that one could buy and be very happy living in. A house is a shell of wood, brick and windows- it’s the people that make it a home. It’s the memories and the drive home after a long day of work. It’s calling it “my place” and spending time and money and energy fixing the faucet and mowing the yard or putting your favorite colors on the wall. It’s waking up there and creating your own space. When buying home for the first time it is especially important to get a good investment because chances are, you won’t be staying more than a few years and you’ll w ...

Salt Lake City Real Estate Market is Healthy, Balanced 2007-07-06 16:26:20   Real estate markets go in cycles. They appreciate, slow down, equalize, and then appreciate again. Investing in real estate is not just about location, it’s about timing as well. There are good investments in any real estate market, but when you buy while the market is appreciating, you’ll ride a bigger wave than if the market is slow. The Salt lake City real estate market doesn’t seem to follow national trends. The closest historical gauge of the future of our market seems to be looking at California’s market and plan on the opposite. In the early 1990’s, as California’s market crashed Salt Lake soared. During the tech boom, and until around 2005 California’s markets boomed and we were slow. Since 2005 as California has gone soft- we have been very strong. This seems to be the natural order of things… Anytime the market appreciates as we have been doing- there becomes a growing speculation about where the market is headed and when ...

Blog Tour Rolls Into SLC July 23 2007-06-29 10:52:17 The Sellsius Blog Tour is a 24-City tour of the country by Rudy and Joe at Sellsius Blog. They’ve got an RV, a lot of free time, and some large livers- and they’re rolling into the valley July 23rd. There will be an industry party at the Cottonwood Oyster Bar, July 23rd at 6pm where you can meet some of the local real estate bloggers, real estate people, or just have a drink and socialize. The tour kicks off the Big Apple and ends at the Bloggers Connect event in San Francisco. Here’s the route. As you can see- these guys love the coasts, pandering to the largest crowds possible, and completely despise the south (they told me so themselves). It would have been much simpler for them to straight-shot from Denver to AZ and then up the coast, but they zig-zagged over to SLC just to see the LDS temple (Rudy is Mormon) and to get a shake from Iceberg (Joe judges ice cream for a national competition sponsored by Ben and Jerry’s). Don’t tell, but while in tow ...

Driving in Utah 2007-06-23 15:10:56 Ever since the Vatican released it’s list of ten commandments for driving, there has been discussion around the issue. KSL.com also has a discussion going about Utah drivers and their opinions about it. I’m going to take this opportunity to publish my own list of ten commandments for driving, specifically directed toward Utah drivers. When I was a teenager I wrote music with friends and we even recorded a bunch. Mostly it was sappy love songs or extremely hard thrashing metal with distorted guitars, drumming as hard and fast as we could play, and screaming over the top. This was good music to us, mostly because we addressed the most pressing issues of the world in our songs. One of the songs I wrote was called, “Get the F@#% out of the Passing Lane”. This was a moving song. (pun intented). It was mostly aimed at minivans because I’ve long been curious about how minivan owners seem to drive by a different set of rules than the rest of us, but it applies ...

Should Buyers and Sellers Meet During the Transaction? 2007-06-19 17:35:29 Most top agents have had experiences with buyers and sellers who have met and things were promised and not delivered or misunderstandings took place. It happens all the time. And sometimes this can lead to problems during the transaction and at closing. In fact, many times it does. But there can be benefits to having the clients meet and talk. Yesterday my wife met with some buyer-clients for their home inspection and afterward the sellers and the buyers sat and talked. They poured wine and just talked for about an hour. It wasn’t planned and there was no negotiating done but it gave them a chance to get to know each other. There are some issues being negotiated right now and my wife says the opportunity to have the clients meet really went a long way by allowing everyone to see each other as people and not simply opposing sides of a deal. I wonder if there would be a benefit to having a scheduled time during every transaction where the clients could meet for an hour or have luc ...

Mortgage Interest Rates Climbing 2007-06-16 19:32:00   Anyone in the buying process right now probably already knows this, but if you’re just beginning to look- you might want to have a talk with your mortgage broker, because rates have been moving upward. The average fixed 30-year interest rate is currently at 6.74%. ...

Inman Connect 2007-06-15 12:16:02   Last year I launched my own company, BlueRoof Real Estate (and BlueRoof.com) right before InMan Connect in San Francisco. The president of my company, Mike Shehan, and I went to Inman Connect to meet people, learn, and to get our name out in the industry. We had some fun experiences and met some great people. It allowed us build relationships in a way we could not have done otherwise- for example we were able to meet and speak with Mike Arrington of TechCrunch, Pete Flint of Trulia, Glenn Kelman of Redfin, and Rich Barton of Zillow all within a couple of days (we also met some pretty crazy Canadian guys who we went out partying with, but that’s another story). This year it will be pretty cool to be going back, and this time I’ll be speaking on a panel about blogging, along with Jim Duncan of Real Central VA  and Matt Goyer of Redfin. I encourage everyone in the real estate industry to attend, sit in on some sessions, and meet some fun people. It’s a gre ...