Perrysburg Blog

Sorry.

I have to announce this.

Stop looking at houses for sale the old way.  The historic way.

Old media – the old ways (the Homes Guide, the flyer, the classified ad, etc.) are no longer valid.

They don’t work.  They are not being used.  They have no value.

Think about how you buy things today.

If you are like me you often use your phone or iPad.   It’s easier.  It’s faster.  It’s even more energy efficient.

You want to shop efficiently and effectively today?  You are going to do it online.

Why?

More selection.   Greater choices.  Better price comparison.  The store hours?  24/7!  You can go months today if you have an Amazon.com account with quick pay and One Click without getting into your car and visiting a “brick and mortar” store.

Demand for houses is now fully digital.  No more advertising on paper needed.  And then think of the blow back effect.   You change how houses are sold and marketed – then there is no more need for the Homes Guide.  And the guy that makes the metal racks.  Or the driver who took them around every 14 days.  And the photographer who shot the photos, and the 1 hour photo store . . . . on and on it goes.  End result: Bye bye lots of retail stores.

In like manner – smart retail store leaders are re-purposing their own bricks and mortar.  Going online.   Going digital.  Getting smart.  (*note – Mills is NOT going out of business -just closing down when they can, because they can, and because the owner wants to!)

So there goes Mills Hardware.   An icon.  An institution.  A Perrysburg symbol.

And a FINE hardware store.

What else can you buy online?  Just about everything but bullets, booze, and gasoline.   And you probably don’t need to be buying those online anyway!

You can certainly buy houses online.   In fact . . . the vast, vast majority of my buyer customers and clients are online buyers.

Better selection, better hours, better efficiency – the New Marketing has trumped the Old Way.

A post that is only tangentially about Perrysburg real estate.   It’s about one of my mentors – Howard Brinton.

My friend Howard Brinton passed away this week.

You most likely never met him, heard about him, or know anything about him.

He was a real estate guy.  Sold.  Bought.  Taught. Been there – done that.  Knew how to list a house, price a house, hold a buyers hand, and get the deal done.  A real live sales guy.

And then he came up with this great idea – let’s have current, active, top producing sales professionals teach other sales people about what is working.

He called these meetings “StarPower” events.  (Before Howard – the normal real estate training was a guy who sold 20 years ago telling the room of Realtors what he did 20 years ago – and you should be able to see some small, tiny weaknesses with that model of education and training).

I went to them religiously.   Every year.  For over 20 years.  I missed one year – the year that I had brain surgery at the Cleveland Clinic – and missing that meeting hurt as much as the cutting.

Often they were not easy to get to – SFO, San Antonio, Denver.

And they were not inexpensive to attend – it was always an expensive ticket and resort type hotel.   (Although Howard had a deal with Marriott – “give me your nicest convention motel in the most off season city” to save money in the conference organizing part of the deal – so if you went to StarPower you got familiar with Scottsdale AZ in August and New Orleans in July, etc.)

But the LEARNING – it was unparalleled in real estate education.  And I know – for I have been to every major meeting and franchise convention at least once.   The cross connections of ideas and the incubation of new sales and marketing trends from other parts of America that made it to Toledo from StarPower was one part of what has helped me and my team to consistently sell more homes than any other Realtor in Toledo.

That moving truck we use?  Got that from Howard Brinton.   And it’s just one of a dozen tools and ideas that I use.

My nationwide network of real estate contacts and compatriots and friends was generally formed at StarPower.  He trained me.  He helped me.  He coached me.  He even endorsed me.

StarPower faded with Howards’ illness – and I have found other national and special mastermind type events to take it’s place.

I am off to one in New York in 2 weeks – so the learning and innovation curves are never ending in a changing and competitive sales business.

So farewell to Howard.  He was an “annual event best friend” who gave and gave and was a phone call away.

Rules for running a blog: 

1. Keep it fresh.

2. Keep the content focused like a laser on your interest.

3. NEVER use animated gifs or photos.

4. Keep it backed up.

How many of these rules should I violate today?

Where was www.PerrysburgBlog.com?

It looks like the old Perrysburg Blog was gone.

Crashed.

Lost forever.

Well it’s been fixed. Rebooted.  And now we are back in business.   With 6 weeks of content erased.  Sigh.

Thank you for your continuing time investment.

Sorry for the whole site being down and dark for 3 weeks.

Back to work with more exciting Perrysburg news and content coming up Monday!

I am very happy it’s back.  Here is one more rule to break:

MODENE TEAM 2012 BUYER AND SELLER BOOKS — SUMMER EDITION

I’m excited about the attention our 2012 Modene Team Summer Buyer &  Summer Seller Books have created.  If you haven’t already done so, click on any of the books below to get a copy today.  Each book was created to educate buyers and sellers about what’s going on with the current market trends, what today’s expectations are, and how to go about buying and selling in this economic climate!

If you’re thinking of selling or buying, you’ve gotta read these!

Just click to read or download.

4 new kittens.

Abandoned by their mother.

They are “wild” – never held by people.  But they are very smart and adorable.

Interested?  Have a barn that has mice? Call me and they are yours!

I used to think it was 0.  Zero.  0%.

But then . . . I learned that some depositors were PAYING money to “seek safety”.  Amazing.

What about home mortgage buyers?   How low can we expect rates to go?

It’s a valid question after 8 weeks of falling rates . . . . after a slight uptick have we finally hit bottom?

The three month trend looks boring but it is still great . . .

Reproduced with the permission of Mortgage-X.com

The answer is . . . we are at the bottom.   It’s an amazing money scenario:  Your cost of money is almost zero.  You get the mortgage interest tax deduction.  And you have to live somewhere – either you pay for a house, an apartment, or your a boarder – which has costs.

Have a loan?  Refinance if you can.

Getting a loan?  Get a fixed rate mortgage and enjoy this market.

So I am doing a couple of relocation appraisals . . . for Perrysburg homes.   For corporate relocation purposes.

Which means that I have to study the days on the market, absorption rate, and months supply of inventory for SFR homes in the 43551.

Are we overbuilt?  Demand increasing?  Is our little “bubble” over?

And I realized how small and trivial our market is compared to China.

I found this video on a blog that I read . . . and watched it.  It combined bike riding (my favorite hobby) with “free form tourism” – getting out into the country of a foreign land and meeting the people – which my wife and I practice when we are in Europe and which we find very enjoyable.

There is much to consider in this video.  About people.  Food.  Politics.  And more.

But I point it out for the real estate news . . . an on-site report of thousands – if not MILLIONS – of new build homes and apartments that are empty.  The Chinese property market is perhaps unprecedented in human history.   No one knows when the bubble will pop or what the result will be – but it should be interesting.

More here . . . the China Real Estate Boom.

And here . . . the China Bubble.

And pretty (frightening) pictures here . . . the Chinese Ghost Cities.

Strange day yesterday . . .

2 phone calls.

2 different out of town investors.

One coming to town.

One just left.

Both to visit their new, sure-fire, can’t lose real estate investments.

The one coming will be here on Saturday.  Driving in from over 1000 miles away.  And have closed on a house in Toledo that they have never seen, never been to, and have never even seen recent photos of.    It last sold for $70,000 many, many years ago.   They paid $15,000 cash for it at an auction.   Given the neighborhood and the amount of vandalism and property theft in 5 year sitting empty houses . . . I hope that they find it intact.

But they may find it “stripped, clipped, and ripped” and in need of $30,000 in repairs.

Which will mean that their investment is now worthless.

The other call?

This owner had just gotten home.

After driving to Toledo full of hope and expectation.   For she was the “winner” of 3 lots – also bought at auction – with no due diligence, inspection, or planning.

They are inner city lots – abandoned by their former owners for taxes.   Some enterprising entrepreneur bought it at the tax sale for $5.00.

That’s correct . . . $5.

This investor paid $2000 for 3 lots – so the Toledoan didn’t lose money.  He or she made a 400% rate of return.  And that’s slightly more than Huntington is paying today . . . .

The new investor?   I carefully and nicely explained to her the new reality:

-The lots were worth nothing.

-The lots are now worth nothing.

-Her $2000 is gone.

-Rather than lose more money in commissions or building costs or something crazy – just walk away.

That $2000 is a great lesson.    A wonderful lesson.   And if you have the right perspective it’s a far cheaper lesson than the $15,000 one the other investors are going to get this weekend when they pull into Toledo.

Do not buy real estate at auction on the internet in Toledo.

Not unless you want a very expensive lesson.

The one in which I tell you all the terrible ways that your loan/loan application/deal can implode?

Well it was true.

And it is accurate.

But it was not very, how can I put this?   It was not very “PROACTIVE”.

Helpful would be a better word.

So I want to be helpful.

And you can therefore download a free copy of my newest, latest, greatest Special Report right HERE. 

And it will proactively, and helpfully tell you what you can do to AVOID having your deal/loan/closing implode.

Because I always try to be helpful!