Mama Liz's Blog: October 2008

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008

Halloween is just around the corner --- our office is having our annual Halloweenie Roast at noon.

Price of admission is to wear a costume and donate to the Breast Cancer Research.  We are not asking for any set amount --- just whatever the agent feels they can contribute.

This is loads of fun for the whole office.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings in costumes and donations.

Until Later -----

Liz Loadholt

Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008

I wanted to bring to your attention that the SC Association of Realtors' approved Subject to Financing Contract does not include a statement "all fixtures (any thing that is attached to the house) will remain with the house"  , i. e., mirrors that are attached, curtain rods, etc.

Those who have in in real estate for a long time are being caught off guard by this. 

Does anyone know where I can find a definition that may include this if it wan not written specifically in the contract?

I just know that these items should stay, but I have a situation in which the seller says they are going to take everything like this (mirrors, curtain & drapery rods, etc) out of the house.

Thanks for any help.

Liz Loadholt

AgentOwned Realty

In SC, a contract is supposed to have all signatures and if there are any changes, each change must be initialled by all parties and the initials dated.  This is SC license law.  Well, I have just had a situation where the contract missed buyer's initials on 2 important changes (to the buyer) in the contract and it is being argued by the seller's attorney that it is a ratified contract.  Also, none of the initials were dated as is required.

The fight is still going on --- buyer does not want to close and argues that he does not have a ratified contract - seller argues that the contract is ratifed.

More to come.

Liz Loadholt

AgentOwned Realty

This blog presented by AgentOwned Realty for the Charleston, Sumter, Manning and Santee, SC markets ---- visit http://agentownedrealty.com

As October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Johnnie Dodds is having a "Denim & Pink" Day
-- each person will wear jeans (or denim of any kind) with a pink shirt or at least something pink -- In order to dress this way, you will make a contribution to Breast Cancer Research --- $1, $5, $10, $20, etc --- whatever you feel you can do. I would like to ask the other offices to do the same. Johnnie Dodds has chosen Wed., Oct. 22, 2008 for its Denim & Pink Day.


Did you hear about the Pink Ribbon Tour 2008? I had read about it in the paper -- These firefighters pulled a breast cancer awareness ribbon statue on a trailer headed across the country touring --- the trailer was pulled by a pink firetruck. Mike Terry of the Johnnie Doddds office was a sponsor in the Charleston area. As a matter of fact, Mike Terry wrote an article for the Full Throttle magazine about it. Thanks, Mike.

Here is a quote from Dave Grabill who organized the "Guardians of the Ribbon" tour: "I believe that we are only limited if we choose not to see the beauty of life and what it means to be here on this planet. It is a short time; we need to touch as many lives as possible, so that when it is over, we will have touched lives of people that we have never met."

What a great quote ---------

Until later ----

Liz Loadholt

This blog is brought to you by The AgentOwned Realty Co. serving Charleston, Sumter, Manning and Santee, SC  http://AgentOwnedRealty.com

AgentOwned Realty proudly recognizes Fridays at our "Red, White & Blue Day" to show our appreciation and support of the US troops.

These are the patriots from Johnnie Dodds and Isle of Palms offices today: in photo from left bottom row: Delores Johnson, 2nd row: Linda Vincent, Kim Beall, Kathleen Emry, Kimberly Bessinger, Susie Schumm, Becky Hayward 3rd row: Jenny Welch 4th row: Chris Borders (you may think he does not have all 3 colors on, but look at his blue socks), Clara Hahn, Peggy Reese, Billie Jo Van Dusen (notice her great scarf), Liz Loadholt, Heidi Hildreth (and Tristan), Mary Nielson, 5th row: Stan Huff, Elaine Buckholtz, Ed Ball, Susan Bryant 6th row: Bill Knight, Ken Kurtz and Greaton Sellers Then we had the following come in after the photo in their patriotic colors: Bobby Crouch, June Kemmerlin

Sumter Office: Sylvia McCabe, Kim Peasley-Parket, Shirley Fields , Holly Racer and Kathy Farley all proudly wearing Red,White & Blue

Manning Office: Belinda Jordan, Lola Bradshaw and Ashley Ardis

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008

One of my agents wrote me this email today in answer to what was she doing to suceed in the real estate business.

"I always told my brother that finding the perfect job would not fall from the sky and wiggle in his lap.  Real estate is pretty much the same way.  I had been sitting on an obvious opportunity and did not even realize it.  My husband and I started doing estate sales a few years ago.  We would get referrals from family, friends but most were coming from other Realtors.  So we combined the service and call it "Total Estate Sales".  A one stop shop for family members who need to liquidate a loved ones estate, or divorce or even downsizing, we can do it all.  I was finding that by the time we got to the sale the house already had a Realtor.  So we now are beginning to market them together....one stop shop.  We have a 3rd party licensed appraiser for certain antiques that we are not as familiar with making a complete service.  I will soon be marketing other Realtors that already have estates where the contents have not been liquidated.  By marketing to other agents it is an opportunity to find buyers when we hold the estate sale.  It is a free open house for the listing agent while I look for buyers.  The moral of the story is you have to be creative and find business in new ways.  The same old, same old is what everyone else is doing looking for business.  Either find a new niche or look a little deeper at what opportunities are already sitting under your nose and be creative.  Because we all know that new business does not fall from the sky."

Liz Loadholt

AgentOwned Realty

Personal story for you ladies and men:


I feel that I would like to share with you the details of my cancer scare----so that it may help or save you or one of your loved ones. Although mammograms are very important - critical- they don't always find the "c" --- I had a suspicious spot on a mammogram which led to a needle biopsy which lead to a lumpectomy --


The result of the lumpectomy was that there was something suspicious on the very edge of what was taken out, so the surgeon wanted to go back and get a larger piece.


My Husband, Boyd & I did not have to think very long before we told the surgeon that we wanted the whole breast taken --- we didn't want to fool around and wish later that we had done this.


After the mastectomy, the results came back --- the area that was "suspicious" was benign, but there was another spot that was the "fast growing cancer" --- this was an area that would not have been found had we not done the mastectomy. Scary, isn't it?


In a follow up visit to the surgeon after the mastectomy, he said that I need to have mammograms every 4-6 months to carefully watch the other breast. Again, it did not take Boyd & me long to tell the surgeon --- "Let's get rid of the other one, too" --- 4 months after the first mastectomy, I had the 2nd one. They removed lymph nodes also. There was no other cancer found --- thank goodness!


I'm here to tell you that without the decision to have the mastectomy, I would probably be a very sick person today even if alive because the lumpectomy would not have found the "fast growing cancer".

The moral of this story: please, if you or one of your loved ones has breast cancer, have them think seriously about the mastectomy. It could save their life. It saved mine.


If you are a young person, don't feel that you are free ---- more and more young women are being diagnosed with cancer all the time. Please have those mammograms regularly and if cancer is found, think mastectomy.

Hope this message will save at least one life.

Liz Loadholt

AgentOwned Realty

http://AgentOwnedRealty.com

 The best way to succeed at a high level in this market is for you to keep in action ... out on the streets ... talking to people ... doing something ... at least some of the time. You don't have to be 100% efficient and effective every minute of every day, but you have to do something every day that keeps your mind and body working towards a sale/closing.

I asked my agents the question today:

So, what are you doing right now to keep your mind and body working towards a sale/closing?

Here is an answer that I received from Kim Peasley-Parker out of our Sumter AgentOwned Realty office:

• "A few suggestions- Keep yourself educated and up to date on the market in your area.  Be prepared to speak to anyone about how your market is different than the national real estate market.  Also spend 30 minutes a day reading about real estate marketing or any other aspect to keep yourself educated. 

• Use the slow time to work on your web presence-  When you are in the thick of buying and selling, this doesn't happen like it should.  But changes to your webpage should be as often as possible to increase web page search engine ranking.  Use the knowledge you have worked on to blog about your local market.  You will get calls believe me!

• Show up once in a while-  Just being in the office you can exchange ideas and get some motivation.  It is way easier to forget about your business when you are not around it hearing about real estate. 

• Use the slow time to set up systems- Systems that help you in the busy times.  Ok the old engineering nerd coming out, I have my own procedure on how to name files after I scan documents in a transaction.  This helps me to remain consistent and not have to try and rely on memory.  This can also be done for marketing and other business related activities. "

Millard Smith of the AgentOwned Realty Johnnie Dodds office writes:

 "For the last several weeks I have been talking to past clients and customers about taking advantage of the good buys that are currently out there. In my entire time in real estate I have never seen such a great time to invest in property. Knowing up front that you are going to have to hold it for 2 or 3 years but after all your alternative is to put money in the stock market and I have never ever heard of a property being worth zero. Putting partners together is what I think is the answer for today's market. (who knows)"

These are 2 agents who are doing what it takes to stay involved.

Liz Loadholt

In my office, we have an educational session (which we call Focus Groups) once a week instead of "rah,rah sales meetings".  At a recent session, the speaker was talking to us about what we should tell our buyers regarding "mold" and "radon". 

In the Charleston,SC area, we have never really had to worry about having radon tests before. However, now with the new EPA concerns about granite counter tops putting out radon in the home, it is suggested that buyers have a radon test prior to purchasing.

The Charleston area has a lot of mold as you might expect because of our wet climate and flood areas. The speaker told us about a real estate agent who hired him to conduct a mold test on a listing that he had.  The test showed rather severe mold ---- the agent decided that he did not want to see the test results after the inspector verbally told him of the mold issues.

A another real estate agent brought an offer on the property --the listing agent did not disclose that there may be "mold issues".  I suppose in his mind, since he never received the written report, he didn't "know" about the issue.  A first time home buyer purchased this home without the knowledge of the issues.

When the inspector saw that the home was sold, he checked into it and discovered who the agent was that had brought the buyer.  Since the listing agent had never paid for the report or picked it up, the inspector told the buyer's agent about the report.

Would you believe that the buyer's agent told the inspector that he did not want to know about this -- that he had a ratified contract?  Well, that is what happened.

This is the kind of stuff that gives us Realtors a bad name!!!! Thank goodness neither of these agents were in my office --- I could not tolerate this type of behavior.

Liz Loadholt

Friday, Oct. 3, 2008

AgentOwned Realty shows their support of our troops by wearing Red, White & Blue on Fridays ----

American Troops, we appreciate you - that you are willing to give your life so that we can have our freedom and peace of mind.

Thank you.

Liz Loadholt